Thursday, May 27, 2010

Sermon on the mount -salt and light

There are epic movies and classic stories where the hero has the mantle of a great task placed upon him. In one form or another, the words “You’re the only one who can do this,” come through and the hero or heroine takes up the task, whether it is like Jack in 24, or Frodo in the epic Lord of the Rings, or some other character. We imagine how we would do –would we take up the task, would we be chosen, would we feel the swell of pride and the challenge if we hear the words, “You are the only one who can do this.” Like Joshua in the Bible, would we take up the challenge and lead the people, or would we shirk away? Would we try to pass it off or be deprecate ourselves and say someone else should? Like Moses in the Old Testament would we come up with excuses why we couldn’t or shouldn’t take up the task?

Jesus has started speaking to those who would follow Him. In the early chapters of Matthew we find an intense path to God –the sermon on the mount and Jesus starts off with the beatitudes. Earlier this month we looked at this path that Jesus lays out, this path to a deeper relationship with God. Blessed are you when you follow this path –oh the blessedness of, oh the joy of growing closer to God, of walking down that path!

And then it is almost as if Jesus takes a pause. There is an unasked, an unstated question, “have you started down this path? Have you seen your separateness from God, Your lost-ness, and accepted blessing, the guidance and the path towards God? If you have, then… and now Jess begins to teach some of the nuts and bolts of the journey.

We cannot take what Jesus teaches in the rest of the SOTM out of isolation from these first dozen verses. Jesus now speaks to those who have seen their lost-ness, who mourn over their sin, who submit to the leadership of Jesus, who long for spiritual growth and righteousness, who want mercy and show mercy, keep themselves and seek to live in purity and wholeness though Christ and who become peacemakers –bringers of others into connection with God. Jesus speaks to them –Jesus speaks to us with an intensity and purpose.

Verse 13 of Matthew 5, “You are…” verse 14, “You are…” Can you feel the challenge? Can you feel that mantle being placed on your shoulders? Although he does not say, “You’re the only one who can do this,” he has placed the task before us. Will we take up the task, or walk away. The journey towards God is not easy –Jesus never said it would be. You will be persecuted! But great is the reward! The question I want you to answer in your life today is, will I take up the task? Maybe you have answered it already, maybe you have set it aside for a while. What is the task?

Read Matthew 5:13-16.

Now that you have started the journey, started in the path towards God, Jesus says, You are salt –you are light. It is not a question of whether you want to be salt or light but how you are as salt and light. When you see your lostness and sin and accept the gift of life offered through Jesus Christ, when you begin that journey towards God you become salt and light.

I think this is one of the things many Christians, or followers of Jesus, fail to see –that they are salt and light. When we become a Christian –a follower of Jesus Christ He through His Spirit comes into us and begins to infuse in us those qualities and attributes that are himself –he begins to work in us to make us more like Himself. This is given the nice word sanctification.

Pau the apostle, writes that we have moved from death to life. John the Disciples says we move from darkness to light. Jesus says, You are salt –you are light. Why? Because I am in you and leading you on that journey towards God.

The task is given, the mantle is placed. Will you be salt that is effective or salt that is cast aside? Will you be light that shines or is covered and hidden?

Salt and light are two of the most highly regarded aspects of life in the Ancient world. Inscribed in many Roman writings is the saying "there is nothing more useful than sun and salt". Kind of like "Coke is it" or Dodge Trucks are Ram tough." It was a saying of the day which reflected the importance of each of these to the people of Jesus day.

We know the importance of each –salt is very needed for our very survival. Salt is a key component of our electro-chemical make up. It is needed for cells to communicate and for them to function. We know what a low electrolyte count can do to our system as our body gets way out of whack. Also we know the importance of sunshine for life but also for providing us with vitamin D –an essential part of what is needed to make our immune system work right and also for our bones to be strong and healthy.

We know the importance of each in the broader scale as well where salt is used as a preservative (food), for taste, even for heat and cold (ice cream, heating). Sunlight is essential really for all life on earth –photosynthesis just is one key part. And just as in our time, those Jesus spoke too knew the importance of each – the common yet essential. And he used these two elements to talk about our influence –our impact in the world.

Influence is something we looked at a few months ago. And recently several of us went to conference where we heard this again –leadership is influence –pure and simple. We are all people of influence. We influence our children –they influence us. Our work world, our schools, our churches, our friends. We can have major or minor influences in people’s lives.

This last week I experienced two different moments of influence. First, it was on my way to my parents place after being picked up at the airport. As we were driving along the highway we saw a truck that had a Chicago Blackhawks flag stuck on the back. Remember this was when Vancouver was still playing them. There were people honking, giving this guy the finger, even veering close and cutting him off. Influence. My niece, who was driving, even got into it by honking and my mother booed –my mother! This guy was having a rather major influence on the attitude and driving patterns of many people –just by flying a Blackhawks flag in Canuck territory.

Influence. One simple act –waving a flag having major influence in others lives.

Salt and light are aspects of influence. Jesus gives us the purpose of being an influence –our goal, in verse 16. Read it carefully. “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Read it again.

Tie this with salt –let your saltiness be savory among men, that they may taste your good life and praise your Father in heaven.

Our purpose in being salt and light is to ultimately bring glory to God. That is the purpose for which Jesus came –I have come to do (read John 17:1-5). Over and over Jesus brings this up –that His purpose was to do the work of the father, to bring people to the father, to bring glory to the Father.

Other writers bring this up in the NT as well. Paul in I Corinthians 10:31 sys, whatever you do (eat or drink) do it all for the glory of God. Our purpose, our objective is like that of Jesus –to bring glory to the Father. Salt and light have a purpose –to bring glory to the Father.

You are salt –you are light –your purpose is to bring glory to the father! Plain and simple. And Harsh! Listen carefully to the words of Jesus here –remember, he is making a declarative statement –You are! (read verses again)
Listen to them in another version –more from the Greek text –(Read from page).

Jesus spoke often in black and white –not shades of grey. We like to interpret things in shades of grey. The speed limit is 90 km/hr but I can go 10-15 over that! It was just a little white lie –we even call a lie white!

Jesus did not say here that we are to become salt and light, that we can think about it and decide. He did not even give us the option of being salt-lite or having a dimmer switch. We are salt -we are light! This is your task. Back to the beginning of the message –the mantle is placed upon you. It is something you must do –will you accept? Will the salt and light? Or well, look at the alternative –cast aside?

I would like to end in bringing it in context with the previous verses. As with all of the sermon on the mount, I think we need to see them in context of the path of discipleship that is given in the beatitudes. Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers. I think that this is in large part speaking of evangelism –bringing the good news to others, helping them to gain peace with God. Being salt and light is an important part of that –influencing others towards God –that is part of our journey to be peacemakers. But as we seek to be peace makers there will be opposition. People often do not like to hear that they are lost –that they are poor in spirit, and they react negatively towards this. Persecution, insult, false sayings, evil things. Unpleasant. And so because of this we may pull back from being peace makers –telling people about the good news.

Notice that it is right after this that Jesus makes the imperative statements you are! You are salt you are light, you are to influence others towards the father –this is you calling, you task, the mantle is placed on you. Do not hide this, do not be ineffective. Salt which is not salty is cast aside –light which is hidden is useless. You’re the ones who can do this. Will you take up the task? Will your saltiness and light be seen amoung men and bring glory to the Father? Will you influence people towards God that He may receive the glory?

Pray

Examine life and seriously ask –is my life as a follower of Jesus, being salt and light? Am I influencing people towards the Father that he will receive glory. Or am I like tasteless salt, a light hidden. Is it time for me to lift up the basket and let my life shine? Am I a peacemeaker between God and man?

Lord Jesus, let me be salt, let me be light that others may see my good works that honor you and then give you the glory!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Beatitudes continued, third part

Journeys –we are all on them. Whether they be journeys of parenthood, growing up, retirement, relational, social or emotional. Many of us will soon be making physical journeys in our summer vacations, holidays and breaks.

In these journeys we often have a destination in mind –a picture of the end of the road. We see ourselves on the beach, out on the lake, holding hands at a sunset. We picture ourselves out of the cycle of grief or in a place of healing –we have that ideal that goal that we are striving for. It is that picture, that goal that gives us hope.

The path to our destination on this journey may not always be easy. Anyone who pictured the journey of parenthood as being an idyllic walk through the park with no problems has not yet experienced the 2 AM feedings, the colic, the terrible twos, teenage trauma or the angst of not having you child arrive home on time.

Whatever our path in life, whatever the journey, we know, we hope, the end will be worth it all. That is what keeps us going.

I believe that God ahs placed in everyone of us a longing to reach a goal –to arrive at a certain destination. And that place is called heaven. There is within us a longing –for some it is very deep, for others is may be a mere nudge (More on that later) to reach to the eternal and find a path or way towards that goal –heaven.

Mankind strives to find his way –to make some sense of the journey and find the right path. But inevitably he ends up wandering. Through the ages God has sent a few people along encourage us on the right path, some who have come along to say, “Hey this is the right way –this is the way to God and to heaven.” We don’t always want to hear about it because the path sometimes sounds hard.

Once when I was doing some orienteering (making your way through the bush), our instructor told us that we could find our way to the end in one of two ways –We had 4 hours and the first way was pretty easy but very long and easy to get lost because we would have to do it without a compass. But if we kept these simple instructions we could do it provided we didn’t stop, didn’t make a wrong turn and didn’t go too slowly. He said he could do it in 3.5 hours and he knew the way! The other way would take us just over two hours but was really tough. It was easy to get lost and there were many obstacles in the way but we would have a map and compass and he would be along with us not to exactly tell us what to do but guaranteed we would. We would get wet, climb up and down, go through tough thick bush and have to cross the Cameron river –both branches. We all wanted to reach the goal. We all have the longing because we wanted to pass. Many of us of us decided to take the hard but guaranteed arrival -a few decided they could make it fine on their own following the directions.

God wants us to arrive in heaven –in fact that is one of the greatest desires he has. But he doesn’t force us. He gives us the option, but he makes it clear the path may not be easy. And he sent us a guide –in fact he came himself and he asked us to call him Jesus.

And so Jesus gives us some directions on how to make the journey to heave –to God. We started looking at this talk Jesus gives that is found in Matthew 5 –we call it the sermon on the mount –and in particular the first part of this, which is called the Beatitudes, is a pretty clear outline for us on how to get to heaven. Read this passage again from Matthew 5:1-10.

And so, here we stand –this desire to get to heaven –to connect with God and the first thing is we are given an option. In fact it is an option that is given throughout the journey -the option to trust Jesus. And it is found in the very name of the one –Jesus. We read in Matthew 1:21 “She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.”

And that is where we began this series on the sermon on the mount –with the realization that we are sinner –that we are apart from God and separate from our goal –our journeys end –heaven. The first three of these beatitudes –the pour in spirit –those who realize their lostness –their sinfulness, those who mourn –who hurt over their lostness and the lostness of others. Those who are meek –they see they cannot make it on their own but submit themselves to the direction of another –to the leading of Jesus.
For most of us here that is probably where we are already –we have come to that point of meekness. But it is also I believe the point of greatest struggle for most of us as well. And it starts early for us doesn’t it? The stubborn child who plants their feet and shouts “NO”, the defiant teen who knows so much more than her parents, the student who is much wiser than the teacher, the driver who sees speed limits for everyone else, the employee who is so much smarter than their boss –we are a somewhat independent people and don’t take well to have someone tell us what to do –to be meek –to place ourselves under someone else’s direction. It is really a matter of trust. Do you trust Jesus, the guide, to tell you the truth and to lead you the right way? Do you submit to His guidance?

As we read through some of the later teachings of Jesus –his directions, even in this sermon on the mount, we chafe, we balk, we hesitate. We don’t like being told what to do –this doesn’t apply to me, Jesus really didn’t mean that –I’ll do it later. That is why many have a problem with Christianity –they see it as a bunch of rules and regulations. Bottom line –if you ant to see the kingdom, if you ant to reach the destination –blessed are the meek.

Each of these beatitudes builds on the others and so we come to the fourth beatitude, to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Here Jesus brings starvation and thirst to describe righteousness. Righteousness is absolute goodness. It is the desire to be good, right and without wrong. As we see in the first three beatitudes, Jesus says that when we see ourselves as absolutely destitute spiritually we then inherit heaven. In that destitution we also need to want to be made right, we need to have that desire to be good. We want to do what it takes to make it to our destination.

As we hunger and thirst, it is not just for a taste, for a crumb, but it is a starving and thirsting for the whole thing. For being wholly righteous before God. Many people, Christians, seek forgiveness, seek to be good, or better. But Jesus says we are to starve after and thirst after being absolutely righteous. Then we are filled. This filling comes from Jesus Christ himself as we come under His salvation and cleansing power, as we hunger and thirst for Him in our lives, as we seek Him first. We place our trust in the guide and want to be like Him. But we still see our own shortcomings –and that is what makes us hunger and thirst –and so when we fail, falter or fall, we long for restoration and renewal. Seeing our own shortcomings, our own failures leads us to repentance again, but it also leads us to the next beatitude

Blessed are the merciful
Righteousness and mercy walk hand in hand. Only when we desire and seek for being good within ourselves do we begin to have the compassion to understand and forgive the shortcomings of others.

Each one of these beatitudes thus far has built upon what has come earlier.
Seeing our spiritual destituteness
Crying our in mourning for our sin
Placing ourselves under Gods control
Hungering and thirsting to live right

Now we can have compassion and mercy on others. This teaching on mercy is found through out scripture and is one of the key thoughts.
James 2:13 -For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy
Matt 18:35 and the parable of the unforgiving debtor
Matt 6:12,14,15 -the Lords Prayer

When we realize that we are spiritually destitute, when we cry our for forgiveness, we seek to be better and good, then we also should be forgiving and merciful for we have found forgiveness and mercy. Mercy is not just feeling sorry for another, but is literally experiencing things together with the other person. Mercy is kindness beyond what can be expected or deserved. Mercy is seeking to help another out of their condition. Mercy comes because we have been there. As Christians we must never forget that we once were lost but now are found. We must never forget that we still have the need for forgiveness because we stumble. Blessed are the merciful when they have received mercy and show mercy.

Often Christians will look down their nose at someone who has fallen under temptation, or reject someone who is struggling with a sin. Have we not become Pharisaic and utter the words,
"Thank God I am not a sinner or a heathen or a... like that man."

In a sense this is s cyclical process. We have received mercy from God (Eph 2:4-10) and in this receiving mercy we are to show mercy. As we show mercy we receive mercy when we may fail. Jesus touches on this in regards to forgiveness as well in the Lord’s prayer –forgive us a we forgive others.” Ultimately we will experience the fullness of Gods mercy in heaven when we are cleansed absolutely and finally from all our wrongs/sins.

To be meek is to acknowledge that I am a sinner. To be merciful is to have compassion on others for they are sinners (John Stott).

Blessed are the pure in heart.
God is an awesome, wonderful, majestic and glorious being. We read in the scripture that no one may look upon God and live. God is so holy that he cannot and will not allow anything even slightly sinful into his presence. The earlier beatitudes clearly show us that unless we see ourselves as being absolutely spiritually destitute and mourning over our sins we will not be blessed. This builds on those by preparing us for entering into the presence of God.

Forgiveness carries with it the idea of cleansing, washing away (I John 1:9). Through God's mercy our sins are forgiven and cleansed from us. We are made "White as snow". Pureness has the idea of absolute unadulterated 100% perfection.

It is only the pure, unadulterated, 100% perfect that will see God. Taken by its self, this beatitude would be very depressing. But we have the other beatitudes that have built us up to this place.
-see we are spiritually destitute
-mourn over our sin
-meekly place ourselves under God's control
-hunger and thirst for goodness
-show mercy

All of these have brought us to a place where we are now no longer looking to ourselves, or to others for our help or strength or motivation, but to God. "Where does my help come from, My help comes from the Lord (Psalm 121:1-2).

Our focus and our attention, our motivation is now GOD. We see that we cannot do it on our own, we cry out to Him, place ourselves under His control, thirst for righteousness, give mercy as we have been given mercy and seek Him. The whole process has been one of purifying our hearts before God!!

True and absolute purity comes when we fully give ourselves over to Christ (blessed are the meek) and are washed completely in His forgiveness and love. I John 1:7

Blessed are the Peace Makers
Peace is a very precious commodity. We strive for peace, desire peace, even try to enforce peace such as in Bosnia, North Ireland, Angola and other places. But peace here is more than just the absence of war or trouble. The peace that Jesus is talking about is the seeking of the absolute best for the other, the enjoyment of all that is good.

A peacemaker is one who strives to give the best and seek the best good for the other person. The ultimate peace that we should seek is the peace that comes between man and God. Again, we look at the earlier beatitudes to understand the full impact of this beatitude.

Because we have come to peace with God, through seeing ourselves as destitute, as needing forgiveness, in placing ourselves in His care, in hungering for what is right, in showing mercy and gaining purity before God, we then seek to share this with others. This is the beatitude that most of us falter at today. Oh, we would like to have others get on the path to heaven but we hesitate or even become silent in this area –largely because of the next beatitude –persuction.

This beatitude is an evangelistic beatitude! Sharing the path we have been on, having compassion for others who are still lost, seeking to bring peace between them and God truly is a peacemaker. In this we will be called the sons of God. Literally, the Greek reads "doing the work of God as His own." When we seek to share this peace with others and help them to gain peace with God, we become peacemakers and are called the Sons of God.

And it is in this context that we come to the last beatitude, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
As we seek to be peacemakers there will be some who will not like it. Why, many people do not like to hear that they are spiritually destitute, or that they need to submit their lives to God completely. Persecution happens because people will fight against the voice of one who says they are lost and going to an eternity in Hell.

As you progress through the beatitudes and come to the place of an authentic, vital life in Christ that is sharing this with others, they will not like it and fight against it. You will be insulted, persecuted, accused falsely just as the prophets of old who brought the message of God to a perishing people. As we live lives of those called out, who are seeking to be merciful, to live in purity, to share the good news, we will contrast with those around us and they may not like it.

This is a mark of true discipleship, living as the master lived and doing his work, the work of peacemaking, bringing others to Him. In doing this we may be persecuted, rejected and insulted. But note that Jesus says that theirs IS THE KINGDOM. As with the first beatitude we are brought into the present reality and a present promise. There is also the promise of a rewarding heaven.
Jesus stands on the mountain and says “Here is how to receive and attain the kingdom of God. This is the journey to take to your hearts desire. I will show you the way. It will not be easy. But I guarantee you will make it –you will be blessed- you will receive the ultimate hearts fulfillment. This is the journey. Will you take it?”

The rest of the sermon fills out this basic template. He moves into teaching us how we can make the journey and who to overcome the stumbling points on the way. Blessed are you who take this path –for yours is the kingdom of God –and I will go with you, even to the ends of the earth!”

Monday, May 3, 2010

Beatitudes continued, second part

God loves you. I know you may hear it a lot, but I want you to hear it again this morning –God loves you! I know, I preach on it often. But can we hear it enough? I know I can’t. So, let’s stop for a moment and grasp the significance of that simple statement. Let’s not muddy it with a lot of “ifs ands or buts,” let’s just let that simple fact sink in for a moment –God loves you.
The incredible, indescribable, unimaginable, creator of the universe who knows every mountain, every star, who calls the seasons into being, who formed the earth with a word and with his own breath, breathed life into us. This God, this awesome, uncontainable God wants us to hear one simple, profound, deep, moving truth –He loves us.
In spite of our failures, our rebellion, our pride our selfishness, our sin, our darkness, our fallen-ness, our shortcomings, our rejection of him, our not listening, our stubbornness God loves us. He is the everlasting God, the immortal, invisible, God only wise who has this unending capacity to love us!
Yes, I know it up here –I understand it in an intellectual way, but I still have a hard time grasping it and even accepting it. I have been married to Jodi for almost 29 years. And there are still times I look at her and wonder why she loves me. Oh, I have it up here, in my head –I hear her say the words, but still in the core of my being I wonder why –how!
Why, because I know me! Plain and simple, I know me. I know my short comings, my failures, my thoughts. I know my past, my wayward thinking, my heart. I know me! And wonder how she could love me.
I look at this incredible God, who made everything out of nothing –imagine in just 6 days by simple spoken words all came into being! I have enough difficulty making a simple bird feeder with complete instructions, all supplies included and still after only, what 8 years I have opened the box! Yet this God, this incredible, God has an unfailing love for me! And I wonder why-how!
Why, because I know me! Plain and simple, I know me. I know my short comings, my failures, my thoughts. I know my past, my wayward thinking, my heart. I know me! And I wonder how he could love me. And the added dimension to my relationship with God is –He knows me too! Oh, I can hide some stuff from Jodi, I can mask some things and keep some things from her –but not from God. And still, in spite of that, in spite of me knowing me and Him knowing me He loves me! Although we are looking at the Sermon on the mount this morning, I would like for us to read a pray that I pray for us today –for me today.
Let us stand and read together from Ephesians 3.
God in this incredible love, wants us to know about it –to know Him. But we are separated from him. Jesus says it this way, I have come to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus earlier gave several parables about lostness- the lost coin, the lost sheep, even the lost son. We are lost-separate from God. And yet the message comes to us –I love you. In a whisper in the wind, in the bold shaking of life, the message rings through to us –God loves us.
In the face of this highest, deepest, longest, widest love, I see my own unworthiness. Who am I, that He should love me? Like the prodigal son one who was lost, comes and stands before his father and admits –I am unworthy! This is something that Jesus describes in Matthew 5:3 as poor in spirit. To see myself as, to admit that I am, unworthy. We looked at this last week in some detail, but let me reminds us that this is the beginning, the foundation of understanding the rest of the beatitudes, the whole of the sermon on the mount, even why Jesus came and died on the cross.
Simple fact is, as unpalatable as it may be, we are not worthy of God’s love. There is nothing we can do, say, inherit, that makes us worthy. Unless and until we come to that –that we are spiritually destitute, lost and apart from God, that we are poor in spirit, we cannot begin the journey towards the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. And yet, AND YET, He does –he loves me! And because he loves me he has given me –given us the path to not only know that love, but to grow in it and experience it in a profound, deep and lasting way. A path, a way, to get closer to Him, to make our way to Him.
Blessed are the poor in spirit –blessed are those who are spiritually destitute and know they are –for theirs is the kingdom of God. It is at this point, this realization that we are spiritually separate from God, lost and apart from him, that we begin to experience the reality of and the power of these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”
Jesus continues to point the road forward, to encourage us in the journey to discovering the power of God’s love and the strength of His presence. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Often I have heard this used in funerals and to comfort those who have lost a friend or loved one. Although God does comfort us and is with us in those times, this verse is speaking to something quite different.
It is taken together with the first beatitude. Here the word used for mourn is more of a broken –heartedness over our lostness, our sin -like remorse and is tied with repentance. What Jesus is saying here is that when we see that we are totally destitute, we also see the condition that brought us to that destitution -SIN. It is sin that separates us from God, sin that causes our lostness, sin that is the stuff of our unworthiness. In seeing that SIN we are remorseful, we are mourning over our sinful condition.
Sin is ugly, it is detested by God and should be detested by the Christian. Paul again reflects this in his writings, and in his own life when he says, "I do what I should not do and I do not do what I should. O what a wretched man am I." David in Psalm 51 cries before the Lord in anguish over the sin in His life and seeks forgiveness. These men mourn because they see that sin is death and death is separation from God and they mourn.
There is also the idea of mourning for the sins you see around you. Looking at the pain that sin causes in the world and in the lives of people. Seeing the pain and the anguish of those who suffer under evil. Having a brokenness and mourning for the people who are lost in darkness and sin. Crying out and weeping as Jesus did when he looked at Jerusalem and cried "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem (Mat. 23:37,ff).
But in this sorrow we can be comforted and will be comforted, because in this we also find forgiveness for our sins. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and all who bring their sins to him, seek forgiveness find comfort. What a great thing this love –what a great thing this forgiveness! Reminded of this in the Restore seminar held at Lakeside this past weekend. In forgiveness we experience the grace of God, the mercy of God, the strength of God, the empowerment of God, the sanctifying work of God –we experience comfort in knowing that in spite of our sin, we are forgiven! What great comfort we have in forgiveness –that our sins are not held against us, that they are taken because of Jesus and cast away –as far as the east from the west. Blessed, oh Blessed are they that cry over their sin, for they shall find forgiveness and be comforted.
When we recognize our lostness, our separation from God and cry out to God –“I am sorry –forgive me” we shall be comforted. And this is an important part of our journey towards God. We may be able to see our separation from God but not have a regret over it. I know many people who know they are far from God, separate from him –they know they are lost, BUT they don’t mind –for now. For whatever reason they have not seen the horror of their sin, the condition of their soul. They think there is time, that God would –in the balance of tings, let them into his kingdom.
I had one man tell me, “Yeah, I know I am separated from God. That’s okay, I’ll make my way there somehow.” Let the words of Jesus sink in, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one gets to the father but by me.” And in that we need to some to the pace of seeing our sin and the ugliness of it, and sorrow over it because it is what Jesus took, why Jesus died, what Jesus did, what separated Him from the Father.
Blessed are those who mourn –for they shall be comforted –blessed are those who sorrow over their sin, for they shall find forgiveness. The prodigal son saw his lostness, came back in sorrow and was welcomed with open arms –blessed is he!
Blessed are the meek...The third beatitude that we will look at this morning is perhaps the most misunderstood of all. Many have interpreted it as being weak, milquetoast, or cowardly. But that is far from the meaning. Again we must take this in context with the previous two verses. The first beatitude says blessed are they that are spiritually destitute, the second, blessed are they that are broken over their sin. The third brings out the idea of being under God's control.
The picture here is one of a horse that is bridled and under the control of the master. When we see ourselves as spiritually destitute, as regretful of our sins, we place ourselves completely under God's control. By placing of ourselves completely under God's control we open ourselves up to His love His wisdom, His strength, and power. God, give us His Spirit, who is our guide. We need to put our trust in him, to submit, to be meek.
Another way of understanding the word is the idea of humility. This is the proper attitude towards oneself and to God. Humility is not the same as humble. Humble is a respect of others as being better than oneself, not self seeking. A humble man can be rich or poor, intelligent or average, yet he looks to the needs of others.
Humility is when a person knows their own limits, their own ignorance and weaknesses, and their own need. I need help, I need to have your help to guide me towards you, to be on track. There are a couple of shows that Jodi and I like to watch. One I don’t vouch for the language or arrogance, but it is Chef Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmare’s and another that I do recommend to any and everyone –especially new or young married’s, Till Debt do us part with Gail Vaz-Oxly. In both shows both Ramsey and Vaz-Oxly insist that the people follow their instructions –“do whatever I say”–if they don’t they are headed for disaster. Jesus calls u to “do whatever he says –to submit –to be humble –to be meek! We have the power to do it, we just need the guidance to do it right! Meekness, coupled with lostness and sorrow puts us in the master’s hand to guide us closer to God.
One writer states that without humility there can be no true religion, for all true religion begins with the realization of our own weakness and of our own need for God. (William Barclay)
Blessed is the man who has the humility to know his own ignorance, weakness and need in God.
Although these and the rest of the beatitudes are somewhat progressive –they each build off the others, they are also continual. We must continually see ourselves as spiritual paupers before God –only in this will he fill us. We must continually feel the guilt of sin, because we continually sin and fall short –only in this will we find forgiveness and restoration. We must continually humble ourselves before God and place ourselves under His control –only in this will we find strength and power to live the life He has planned and to live it in excellence.

If we do not, we end up like the Pharisees, one of the main groups he addressed –the ones he talks about later in this sermon in chapter 6 (read vss 1-2, 5, 16).
Oh beloved, let our eyes see, our ear hear and our hearts receive what God calls to us.
Hear today the voice of God who says, I love you and want you to experience my kingdom. Hear His voice –blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they who mourn, blessed are the meek.
Each of the three beatitudes that we have looked at today are a realistic examination of ourselves before God.
-the poor in spirit is the realization of one’s own spiritual poverty (I am Lost)
-those who mourn are they that see their sin and cry out to God (I am sorry)
-those who are meek see that they are in deep need of God and His power (I am Yours)
All three speak to us today. They do not describe three different people, but the same person. They describe you and I. When we see ourselves as poor in spirit, as mourning over our sins, as meek then we will be blessed. And that greatest blessing is Jesus Christ in whom we have heaven, comfort, and joy.