SERMON OUTLINE

Blessed Matthew 5.1-12

Beatitudes

-What Bible teachers call the Blessed verses in Matthew 5

-Beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 to 7

-Key verse to Sermon is Matthew 5.20. A revolutionary statement to Pharisees and Scribes and common people.

-Who can possibly enter the kingdom of heaven?

-Not self-effort or self-righteousness that pleases God but a new spiritual nature. It is not external behavior that pleases God but the attitude of the heart. Be attitudes.

-8 statements all beginning with the word Blessed.

Blessed

-More than happy which comes from “hap” meaning “chance”. Not connected to chance or circumstances.

-Connected to trust in God and to the favor and approval of God. Those who are Blessed know present personal fellowship with God, may enjoy the earthly gifts of God, by the Holy Spirit experience the peace and wellbeing and joy of God, and look forward with hope to the final promise of the inheritance of God, because they have put their trust in the Grace of God and live by God’s righteousness in Christ and not by their own righteousness. The Blessed are those who trust in God through their Savior Jesus Christ and know the fellowship and favor of God on their lives. Blessed is the enjoyment of our relationship with God and the experience and hope of His promises to us.

-God desires to bless. The blessed are not always obvious to others.

Outline

V3, Foundation. Basic Heart attitude that motivates all

V4-6, Three heart responses. Heart attentiveness

V7-9, Three outward responses. Heart in action

V10-12, The world’s response. Heart antagonism

First four are character. Last four are conduct.

Conclusion

At the Lord’s Table we see both our poverty of spirit and God’s rich provision in Jesus Christ.

SERMON NOTES

Beatitudes (1)    Introduction        Matthew 5.1-12 [Keep Bibles Open]

-This morning I want to give you a brief introduction to the Beatitudes and next week examine verse 3 with you.

–Beatitudes is the name that Bible teachers have given to the “Blessed” verses found in verses 3 to 12 of Matthew chapter 5. These verses are part of a longer teaching given by Jesus which extends to the end of chapter 7. This longer teaching is often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon we find Jesus introducing to both Jews and Gentiles, believers and unbelievers, the fundamental truths of the kingdom of God He came to proclaim.

-The key verse for understanding the whole Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew 5.20. This is a revolutionary statement that would have shaken both the religious establishment and the common people when Jesus spoke it. “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven”. No-one in the land of Israel was more righteous in their behavior than the Pharisees and Scribes. They kept the Law perfectly. They were faultless in their purity and separation from all that was unclean. They had a zeal for God that even the apostle Paul commended. Yet in this statement Jesus is saying that their righteousness was not enough for them to enter the kingdom of heaven. That was a stunning statement. All who heard this statement would rightly ask, “Who then can enter the kingdom of heaven? If the Pharisees cannot enter the kingdom of heaven than no one can enter”.

-In this sermon Jesus makes it very clear that it is not self-effort or self-righteousness that pleases God but a new spiritual nature. God gives to those who repent from their sin, new life in the Holy Spirit. It is not external behavior that pleases God but the attitude of the heart. That is why these statements in verses 3 to 12 are called the BE attitudes. What we are in the attitude of our heart before God is way more important to God than what we do for God.

-The Beatitudes are 8 statements, all of which begin with the word “Blessed”. I include verses 11 and 12 as part of the Blessed statement made in verse 10 about the persecuted because it expands on verse 10.

–Blessed is often paraphrased as “happy” but Blessed means far more than happy. Happy comes from the word “hap” which means “chance”. Happy is too much connected to chance and circumstances to properly describe Blessed. Blessed goes deeper into the soul and spirit than happy can ever go. Most people today seek to be happy when only Blessed truly satisfies.

-To understand the meaning of the word Blessed we need to connect it to trust in God, and to the approval and favor of God. Those who are Blessed know present and personal fellowship with God. They may enjoy the earthly gifts of God, but they certainly experience, by the Holy Spirit, the peace, and wellbeing, and contentment, and joy of God. They look forward with hope to the final promise of the inheritance of God, because they have put their trust in the Grace of God and live by God’s righteousness in Christ, and not by their own righteousness. The Blessed are those who trust in God through their Savior Jesus Christ and know the fellowship, and approval, and favor of God, on their lives. Blessed is the enjoyment of our relationship with God, and the experience and hope of His promises to us.

-God desires to Bless His people. The promise given by God to Abraham was, “All nations will be blessed through you”. (Galatians 3.8) Peter says, “To this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing”. (1 Peter 3.9) God’s people will be Blessed as they live the Christian life as described in the Beatitudes.

-Even though God’s people may know they are Blessed they may not appear to others to be Blessed. The world we live in understands Blessed in terms of material riches, success, beauty, glamour, popularity, fame and power. Jesus counts blessed in terms of poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaking and persecution. Those who are truly Blessed are those who recognize their sinful life and their need of a Savior and have found a Savior in Jesus Christ. Those who are truly Blessed are those who humbly cry out to God for forgiveness and hunger for truth, and serve God in love. The world persecutes such Blessed people. Weymouth writes, “People who are blessed may outwardly be much pitied, but from the higher and therefore truer standpoint they are to be envied, congratulated and imitated”.

-These 8 Beatitudes can be divided into four parts.

1) Blessed are the poor in spirit is the foundation for all the beatitudes that follow. Here we find the basic heart attitude that motivates the rest of the Blessed behavior that follows it. Verse 3

2) Next come three heart responses – mourning, meekness and hunger for righteousness. Are these three heart responses evident in your life this morning? This I have called heart attentiveness. Verses 4 to 6

3) Next come three outward responses from the renewed heart – mercy, purity, and peacemaking. I have called these three heart in action. Verses 7- 9

4) Finally we have the world’s response to the attitude, attentiveness, and action of the Christian – persecution. This I have called heart antagonism. Verses 10 to 12

-You will notice that verses 3 and 10, the first and last verses of our outline, have the same promise attached – theirs is the kingdom of God. The basic inner heart attitude of the Christian for God will eventually be expressed in seeking God and in outward behavior. That godly behavior will convict the world of its sin and antagonize the world to respond in persecution. Those who recognize that they are poor in spirit and come to Jesus for filling will inherit the kingdom of God and will also be persecuted. Paul said that, “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”. (2 Timothy 3.12)

-There is a logical order of progression in these Beatitudes. The first four Beatitudes are about character, and the last four are about conduct. The first four are about the heart and then comes the behavior. God if first concerned about our heart, about our character, before He is concerned about our conduct and our behavior and our Christian service. Always remember that. The Scribes and Pharisees did not have the heart component. They were trusting in their behavior for righteousness before God and that was not enough to satisfy the righteousness of God.

-The pattern given in the Beatitudes is for all Christians. The Christian life is about a spiritually renewed heart that lives in union with the Life of God, which is expressed in godly living, and recognized by a godless world. The Christian life is not about performing religious duties, a standard of ethics, ritual outward behavior, or natural temperament. We need spiritual life on a daily basis, not self-righteous behavior.

-The Table of the Lord that is before us this morning points to our spiritual poverty and our need for salvation in Jesus Christ. This Table also points to the great riches of the Grace of God in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

-This morning as we gather around the Lord’s Table let us confess our sins, confess our need of Christ, and confess our need of God’s Spirit. Then let us receive what God had freely given to us in Christ. Let us be Blessed by trusting in God, and renewing our fellowship with Him, and by living in the hope of His promises to us in Christ.