Rev. Troy Lynn Pritt February 6, 2011 Page 1

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1 Rev. Troy Lynn Pritt February 6, 2011 Page 1 The Sermon on the Mount Part 1 - BEATITUDES Matthew 5:1-12 What is the nature of true happiness? How can we find happiness in this life of sin, violence, corruption, disease, pain, and poverty? If I would ask you What would it take for you to be truly happy? or When in your life have you been truly happy? or What would you answer to someone who tells you that they have never been happy? There are some people who define happiness in terms of indulging in pleasure. Other people would define happiness in terms of being left alone by others, being free from annoyances. Still others would describe a life of ease and indulgence in some idyllic location. Are those who lead an easy, prosperous life truly happy? These are the ones who are in the news going in and out of rehab centers. They casually divorce and remarry. Is it because they are happy? Those who have the most in life are usually the ones who are forever discontented, forever grasping for more, angry every time they hear of someone who has something that they don t have and can t have. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3 NKJV) Matthew records this sermon by Jesus which we call the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon begins with the Beatitudes. The name Beatitudes comes from the Latin for blessed. There are eight statements by Jesus that begin Blessed are The word can just as well be translated Happy are In this sermon Jesus is teaching His followers how to be truly happy in this world of sin and woe.

2 Rev. Troy Lynn Pritt February 6, 2011 Page 2 1.) And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:1-4 NKJV) Jesus does not mean those who are really prosperous and comfortable must think they are poor in order to be happy. Nor does He mean that the poor should deny the reality of being pressed down by distress and want. He means our happiness is beyond the world and above the affections of the flesh. With inward humility we should submit ourselves to God s will. The first sin of man was to yield to the temptation You shall be like God. We can either give thanks to God in every condition, whether prosperity or poverty, health or sickness, success or failure OR we can curse God, think of who all is to blame for our failures, and puff ourselves up with pride when we see success. The reward for humbly submitting to God in poverty for these short years upon earth will be to receive the kingdom of heaven for ever. What could be more opposite than to mourn and to be happy? The worldly view is that calamities, tragedies, and death make people unhappy. Jesus teaches that mourners are not unhappy. Their mourning prepares them to receive everlasting joy and furnishes them with the incentive to seek comfort from God alone. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:3-5 NKJV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NKJV)

3 Rev. Troy Lynn Pritt February 6, 2011 Page 3 2.) Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. (Matthew 5:5-7 NKJV) In these three beatitudes Jesus teaches that happiness can come from how we relate to others one-on-one. We should cultivate a spirit of meekness and gentleness rather than being easily provoked by injuries, rather than being ready to take offense. We should endure anything rather than copy the actions of wicked men. Jesus taught, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. (Matthew 5:38-39 NKJV) How does a person live who hungers and thirsts after righteousness? A person who hungers and thirsts after wealth sees every person he meets as a customer or investor or someone who can in some way help them in their pursuit of wealth. A person who hungers and thirsts for fame, tries to fix themselves in the memory of everyone they meet. A person who hungers and thirsts after political power treats everyone they meet as a potential vote for them. A person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness sees everyone they meet as someone who needs to be told the good news of Jesus Christ and become a part of His kingdom. The merciful are those who not only endure their own portion of afflictions in this life but who share in the afflictions of others. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27 NKJV) What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17 NKJV)

4 Rev. Troy Lynn Pritt February 6, 2011 Page 4 3.) Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:8-12 NKJV) Most people would understand pure in heart to mean someone whose heart was not soiled by sexual fantasies or other impure thoughts. That would be a very narrow definition that leaves out many other facets of life. A pure heart is one that is not tossed and turned by contradictory values and goals. As Jesus said, You cannot serve two masters. James says Purify your hearts, you double minded. No person can be truly happy who is torn between two opinions and other people cannot trust someone who is sometime on one side and other times on the other. Peacemaking involves trying to make peace between two other people who are quarreling or attacking each other before others. It also involves trying to make peace between nations. A Christian cannot be on the side of those who urge our country to go to war against another nation. If our nation is attacked Christians should rise up to defend it. They should not support our country being the attacker. John Calvin writes this about being persecuted: We cannot be Christ s soldiers on any other condition, than to have the greater part of the world rising in hostility against us, and pursuing us even to death. The state of the matter is this. Satan, the prince of the world, will never cease to fill his followers with rage, to carry on hostilities against the members of Christ. It is, no doubt, monstrous and unnatural, that men, who study a righteous life should be attacked and tormented in a way which they do not deserve Yet, in consequence of the unbridled wickedness of the world, it too frequently happens, that good men, through a zeal of righteousness, arouse against them the resentments of the ungodly. Above all, it is, as we may say, the ordinary lot of Christians to be hatedby the majority of men: for the flesh cannot endure the doctrine of the Gospel; none can endure to have their vices reproved.

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