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The Beatitudes ◼ BLESSED DISCIPLES: The Beatitudes ◼ PART ONE hat does the Lord require of us? This is a vital question for W discipleship. To examine my own spiritual life, I conduct a reality check with a measure of regularity by asking myself that same question. Am I truly taking Jesus at His word? Am I genuinely surrendering myself totally to the Holy Spirit so that Jesus’ way is truly and authentically the desire of my heart? As I continue to age, many very well-meaning people try to make me feel better about it and say things like, “Steven, you have to appreciate the fact that you’ve had so many opportunities to gain wisdom and experience which you can share with other people, particularly younger people, perhaps even with your younger colleagues.” I do not know that I have more wisdom or more experience than my younger colleagues, but I can certainly say that I have had more opportunity than they to repent. That is a good thing because living a life of repentance is a part of growth; it is like the refiner’s fire. In fact, it is the first step in becoming a disciple of Jesus. A few weeks ago, I offered a message based on the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. This was exactly what Jesus came preaching. He said, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Then He went to Peter and said, “Follow me…” (Mark 1:17). These are the three steps of discipleship: (1) We repent, which is not a one-time thing, but something we do regularly; (2) We believe in the gospel of grace; and (3) We follow our Master wherever He leads, not just physically, but spiritually and mentally as well. This is one of the things the Apostle Paul was after in that won- derful passage in Romans 8:28-29. I fear that sometimes people only read verse 28 without going on to 29, thus not getting Paul’s point. This is what he wrote: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. I love that Paul begins with “And we know.” He does not say, “Wouldn’t it be great” or “don’t you wish” or “we hope that.” No, he said we know this as a matter of fact. Then he said that “for those who love God all things,” not just a few anointed good or spectacu- lar things, but all things—the good, the bad, and the ugly, all the ex- periences of our life, everything that we encounter, all things—work together for good. That begs the question, what is the good? That is why we must read verse 29. What is the good for those who are called according to His pur- pose as opposed to our own? If we are called to what He foreknew, what He was working out for our lives before we were born, we know that God intended for us to be born. He already knew us. We are not accidents; He intended to give us life. He also predestined the plan for our lives and that plan all along was for us to be con- formed to the image of His Son. God can use all the experiences of our lives—the good and the bad and the ugly—to help us become more like Christ, which is the goal of discipleship. The goal of all Christians is that our lives genuinely reflect the Master whom we claim to serve and to follow. Repentance is a big part of that. What does the Lord require of us? I suggest that everyone ultimately trusts in something. Even the most dedicated atheist ultimately trusts in something, whether they trust in themselves, the government, the economy, medicine, or their bank account. All peo- ple ultimately have something in which they put their trust and 2 those are the things that shape who they are. In this fallen world, there are forces all around vying for our attention, vying to impact our lives and to shape who we are. Why is it that big companies spend $20-$30 million for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl? Because they know they have the biggest audience, and they know that if they expose us to a 30-second commercial, we might change our minds and our behavior. Imagine the impact of watching TV for six hours a day. All kinds of things—like the opinions of our friends, the media, magazines, celebrities, politicians—are constantly trying to impact us to change our thinking and ultimately to change our actions. What we must recognize is that if our relationship with God is our number one pri- ority, He will impact every part of our life. Let us stop and think for a moment how Jesus begins the Ser- mon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount answers the question, “What does a disciple of Jesus look like?” He describes in this ser- mon what it is to be a disciple of His, the way a disciple thinks, the way a disciple acts and how a disciple responds to the world in which he or she lives. He starts with what are known as the Beati- tudes, a series of blessings. What is meant by blessing here is not that He is blessing you with something in terms of a single blessing, but rather if you are in a blessed state; that is, if what He is saying describes you, then you are in a blessed state. These Beatitudes set up the whole sermon; they are the foundation for everything else He is going to say in the sermon. I am absolutely amazed at how faithfully Matthew is able to capture the logic that runs through the entire Sermon on the Mount. I encourage everyone here to read the whole Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6 and 7). Read it this time with an ear for the logic that runs through the whole sermon. He starts with one statement, and then the next thing He says is built upon what He previously stated, and on through the whole sermon. I fear that sometimes people quote the Sermon on the Mount by taking verses out of chapter 6, for example, and try to interpret them forgetting everything said up to 3 that point. You miss the richness of God’s truth and the sermon as a whole if you do not follow the logic that runs all the way through the Beatitudes. What the Sermon on the Mount does, beginning with the Beati- tudes, is shift our worldview from a “worldly way” of seeing reality to “Jesus’ way” of seeing reality—the way we view God, the way we view the world, relationships, how we make sense out of suffering, beauty and ugliness, sin. It only makes sense if we follow Jesus’ logic through His sermon. The principle is that who we are determines how we think, which impacts what we do. Do not think of the Sermon on the Mount as a series of “do’s and don’ts”; rather, it compels us to look inward and ask, “Who are we in Him?” He gets us even deeper into the law than does Moses. What is amazing is that there are so many things that seem counter- intuitive because they are not consistent with the thinking and the worldview of fallen humanity. It is, however, the thinking and worldview of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Look at the very first Beatitude. Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Since when is it ever a blessing to be poor in anything? Right from the start He jars us! “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” This phrase, “poor in spirit,” is perhaps more literally translated as, “Blessed are those who know their need of God.” Now friends, if we do not get this principle, the rest of the Sermon on the Mount will make no sense whatsoever. It is all based on this first statement. We are in a blessed state when we recognize our need for Almighty God. If we do not see that something is missing in our lives that only God can fill; if we live life as if we were self-sufficient and self-reliant; if we were to consider ourselves sovereign over our lives, then Jesus’ way would likely not characterize the way in which we live. There was nothing wrong with our parents having taught us to be responsible and to fend for ourselves when we were young. But 4 ultimately, we must recognize that we were never in control of our lives! None of the blessings we received were originally generated from us! In fact, we are totally dependent on Almighty God. If we do not recognize our need of Him, we will go down other roads. When we recognize that our relationship with God impacts everything else in our lives, we are better able to establish life’s priorities. There are four major priorities in life, not the only priorities, but the major ones. In prioritizing, I am not saying that others are not important, but let us follow what the Bible describes. The four priorities to which I am referring are God, marriage, children, and work/causes/ other interests.
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