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The Beatitudes: Promises Received & Experienced in Christ

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Last week, Jesus kicked off his ministry in Matthew 4, and in Matthew 5 we find his most famous teaching: the Sermon on the Mount. We’ll be checking out the promises of blessing that Jesus gives in the first section of that sermon.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And 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.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
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 others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
-Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes, maybe the most famous of all of Jesus’ teachings, are eight incredible promises. Anyone who reads this text longs for these to be true in his life. Yet, simultaneously, we get the gut-wrenching feeling that we don’t measure up to most, if not all, of these. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not pure in heart, more often than not I’m not hungering for righteousness, and humility and meekness are often hard to come by. I’m certainly not the poster child for these things, and I’d venture to guess that neither are you.

Even the one that is a bit more passive—those who mourn shall be comforted—I have a hard time believing at times. I’ve mourned a good bit in my lifetime, but sometimes comfort is hard to come by.

So what’s the deal with these promises?

First, these promises are fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is perfectly humble, meek, pure, and merciful. He embodies each of these promises and has fully experienced their fulfillment through his death, resurrection, and ascension. He did what we couldn’t do so that we might experience these blessings that he longs to give us. He has inherited the kingdom of heaven and the entire earth. He now reigns over all. He alone can see God because of his own holiness, and it’s truly an amazing grace that he invites us to experience these things through faith in Him.

Thus the second point: we experience these promises through Jesus.

One day we will be perfect and complete in Christ, and it’s at that moment that we will finally experience the fullness of these promises. But we can experience the fruit of these promises now as we grow in Christlikeness.

These promises are ours now and forever. The question is: will we cultivate these characteristics of Christ in our lives or will we avoid these things that the world often scoffs at?

So how do we cultivate Christlikeness?

We look at Christ over and over and over again. We do this through reading His Word to see who He is, hearing His Word preached, taking the Lord’s Supper, and living in close community with the Church and recognizing Christ in one another. Each of these shapes us little by little into the image of Christ. We need them all.

May the promises in the Beatitudes spur us on to pursue Christlikeness in this way.

Jesus’ Ministry & Our Call to Follow

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After preparing for ministry through his baptism and time in the desert being tempted, Jesus begins his ministry.

In Matthew 4:12-25, He prioritizes three things in his ministry that should be present in ours and we learn what it looks like to follow him in that.

1. Jesus preached the Gospel (12-17)

Jesus verbally proclaimed the good news of the Gospel. That’s not all He did, but it was an essential part of His ministry from the very beginning. He didn’t simply expect people to view His life and be transformed. Certainly, if anyone had a life that exhibited what true love was, it was Jesus. But He knew that showing others true love required the powerful, life transforming words of the Gospel. We should learn from Jesus’ example that our lives must include sharing the message of the Gospel, for even the one with the perfect life still proclaimed a clear message to be received.

2. Jesus made disciples (18-22)

Jesus intentionally poured into others that they might follow in His way. Though He had a ministry that engaged the crowds, had a wide, inclusive audience, and certainly made a significant impact, Jesus focused his time and attention on a few select relationships that he might reproduce himself in their lives. Are we satisfied with a scatter shot approach that may or may not have a significant impact on particular individual lives, or are we intentionally making disciples of specific people? Let’s follow Jesus’ example that we might not allow our lives and ministries end with us.

3. Jesus cared for the sick and oppressed (23-25)

While Jesus knew words were required, he also exhibited that true holistic ministry involved tangible acts of love that manifest the love and grace of the Gospel message. They cannot be divorced from one another. We should be careful to minister the Gospel in both Word and Deed rather than swinging to either extreme of Word only or Deed only (Let’s be real, we’ve all been on one end of that pendulum or the other at some point in our lives.).

**Following Him Involved Immediate & Drastic Priority Change**

The reaction of the disciples in this passage always hits home for me. Their immediate response to follow Jesus humbles me as I recognize the slowness of my heart to heed Jesus’ call on me. Jesus is calling every single one of us in specific ways to follow him, to emulate his ministry, to show and share His love and message with others, and to multiply disciples. Are we responding immediately? Are we realigning our priorities with His that we see in the passage above? Or are we holding onto our current, comfortable, and safe status quo?

Jesus wants to use each one of us in significant ways. The question is: will we follow Him?

Resisting God’s Leading

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When God saves us, we’re given an incredible stewardship. We are to carry the single greatest message of hope for all the world to the nations. God has mobilized his people to do this very thing throughout human history. One huge example of that from the Old Testament is Jonah.

The only problem is that Jonah resisted God’s mission for him with everything he had. As we read Jonah this week, I began thinking about all the obstacles that get in the way of us sharing the Gospel. Most of the time, we think of obstacles as external things, but I find that the primary obstacles to evangelism are internal. While many exist, I suggest four primary obstacles below with the first two coming from Jonah’s story, and the last two from personal experience.

Obstacles to sharing our faith:

1. A Perceived Offense (and/or Elitism)– Jonah has no desire to share a message of hope with the people of Nineveh. They have been an antagonist to the people of Israel for some time at this point, and he wants nothing to do with them. How many of us allow grudges against particular people or whole people groups from faithfully sharing the Gospel? Maybe we don’t intentionally avoid them, but are we allowing our pride to keep us from humbly sharing the Gospel?

2. A Compassion Shortage – Often, the root of the above obstacle is a lack of compassion. We likely don’t even realize it or would never put it in those terms. The Gospel is the message of hope for humanity. Apart from a saving faith in Jesus, no one will experience eternal life. If we have been given this tremendous gift to steward, and we don’t, I think we have to ask: do we really have compassion for the lost? Or are we like Jonah, self-centered and self-consumed?

3. A Desire for Man’s Approval – Nothing in Jonah gives us an indication that this was a struggle, but I know that I often shrink back from sharing the Gospel due to fear of offending others or a concern of what they might think of me. Certainly, offending others is a possibility when the Gospel is shared… Jesus said it would happen. But the risk is worth the reward. Consider the fact that the payoff of someone hearing and receiving the Gospel is an eternity with Jesus (an infinite good), then the risk of momentary offense or a loss of esteem seems incredibly small—infinitesimal—in the end.

4. A Lack of Confidence – Finally, we often lack confidence. I know I do. Will I have the right words? Will I get asked a question I can’t answer? What if I say something wrong? These questions will paralyze us. The core problem, though, is less confidence in ourselves, and actually is a lack of confidence in God. Certainly, we should get equipped and seek preparation, but God promises to give boldness and words to respond when asked to defend our faith. So the question is: Do we trust that our God is big enough to work through even our weak attempts to share the Gospel?

In the end, we will always be tempted to avoid evangelism, but may we be a people that push those obstacles to the side and share our faith for the good of humanity and the glory of God.

The Gospel & Helplessness

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The story of Ruth is an incredible story of God’s grace and redemptive love in his care for the helpless. Ruth and her mother-in-law have just lost their entire hope of survival: their husband’s provision. In the ancient world, that was practically an automatic sentence to poverty. And to top it all off, Ruth was heading back to Israel as a Moabite, a people who were long time enemies of God’s chosen nation. She was completely helpless apart from the grace of God.

But God, like so many instances throughout all of Scripture, had a beautiful providential plan to provide for Ruth and her mother-in-law. Through Boaz, a distant relative of Ruth’s mother-in-law, God would care for these ladies, and even more remarkable, use Ruth has a link in the family lineage of Jesus!

Boaz could have sat back and allowed others to do their duty. But instead, he saw the helplessness of Ruth and went to work, showing grace and compassion in abundance. Reflecting on this story, we can learn a great deal about how God wants us to view and respond to helplessness.

In NYC, the helpless or the oppressed are all around us. Whether one considers the rampant human trafficking or the overwhelming homelessness in our city, one can’t help but see need all around. So how should we respond?

When we see the helpless, we should be reminded of our helplessness apart from Christ. This should lead us to two things: Gratitude for Grace and Grace for Others

Gratitude for Grace – We should be rejoice that God looked upon us with compassion, sent Jesus to die for us, and made a way for us to experience freedom and life in Him. We should be led to praise our Savior who helped us when we were utterly helpless.

Grace toward Others – Then, with the same compassion of Jesus, we should be moved to action that we might show the same uninhibited grace that Jesus showed us to the helpless we encounter in our city. And just as God the Father planned how he would meet our needs, we should strategically plan to meet the needs of those around us as well.

May we be a people who see the helpless around us and are moved to radical acts of gracious compassion for the fame of Jesus.

God’s Presence in Mission

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The final stage in the Old Testament storyline is the return from exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. In Haggai, we zero in on God’s call to rebuild the temple.

Clearly, we recognize that God is not bound to some physical structure. So why does he want his people to rebuild a building for him to dwell in?

In the Old Testament, the temple was the special dwelling place of God. Certainly, his omnipresence is affirmed, that is, he is present everywhere. But the temple was to be the place that nations looked at and could see the glory of God dwelling in a special way. It was the pinnacle of God’s witness to the watching world. At the start of Haggai, the temple is destroyed, thus God’s primary witness to his glory is in shambles. So he calls his people to rebuild it for his glory.

But why does that matter to us?

What’s incredible is that we as the church are called the temple of God (see 2 Corinthians 6:16-18). Now, we are the special dwelling place of God—not confined to one place, but spread throughout the earth for the glory of God.

We are called to build the church—God’s temple in our day—for his glory. When Jesus calls us to make disciples, we aren’t simply to evangelize the lost but to teach them to follow God’s commands: essentially, build the church. Paul, the greatest missionary that ever lived, didn’t simply reach the lost, but he led people to live as local churches. And he returned later to strengthen them. Paul built the church, and we’re called to follow his example.

But that is an overwhelming thought. Every church, new or old, struggles with sin and temptation: our flesh. Satan wages war against God’s people, and the world is constantly pressuring us to conform. What hope is there for building the church?

The promise God gives the Israelites through Haggai is the same promise he gives to us to prepare us for the task ahead:

Twice in the short book of Haggai, God declares: “I am with you!” Jesus encourages us with the same thing in the Great Commission.

May we rest in his presence and trust in his authority to live out our mission: to build the church for his fame.

Living as Exiles

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After many cycles of disobedient kings in Israel, God sent judgment, and the people of Israel became exiles under the rule of the Babylonian empire. God would eventually rescue his people once again, but until then, he called his people to live for his glory where they were. According to 1 Peter 2:11-12, as God’s people, we are now exiles, too. So we can learn a great deal from Israel during this time. But what does it mean for the church to be exiles, and what are its implications?

As exiles we are called to a…

1. Pilgrimage – As God’s people, this world is not our home. We are journeying through this life to a time when brokenness will be no more, and we will dwell with God forever. Our hope is not in what this world has to offer. So as exiles, we must keep our sights set upon our future dwelling place with God, and we do that by living for things that last beyond this life. We shouldn’t become consumed with material things, accomplishments, or fame, but instead, we focus upon bringing glory to God and sharing the hope of the Gospel with others.

2. Stewardship – As God’s exile people, we must be careful not to allow our focus upon our future home cause us to disregard the stewardship we have been given while we live in this world. We must not simply bide our time in this world as we wait for the next, but just as God called the Israelites to work for the good of Babylon while they were exiled (Jeremiah 29:7), we are called to work for the good of our cities.

Stewarding the resources we have been given for the good of our cities through building, sharing, serving, and engaging culture is part of what we’ve been made to do. As image bearers of God, we are called to create and have been sent to make culture as a reflection of our creative God. And not only will our stewardship for our cities’ good be for God’s glory, but it will also be for our good according to Jeremiah 29:7.

May we be a people that strike the balance of being on a pilgrimage and bearing a stewardship for the fame of Jesus in our city.

***To wrestle with this some more, I’d encourage you to spend some time reading and meditating upon the life of Daniel as well as Jeremiah 29:1-14.

The Creep of Idolatry

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Continuing through the story of Scripture after Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel splits into two. The next several hundred years are generally consumed with faithlessness and idolatry in various forms often stemming directly from the leadership of the kings. While we may not bow down to physical idols, we can learn a great deal about how our hearts tend toward them through a few passages in 1 Kings.

In general, idolatry doesn’t overwhelm us in one fell swoop. Instead, we fall to the creep of idolatry in our lives. Little by little, idols vie for more of our hearts’ loyalty. It’s like a bad smell that creeps in over time in your apartment. You may never even recognize it until someone comes over and its full power knocks them over. Idols creep in over time and we need God’s Word and His people expose them in our lives.

Three kings—Jeroboam, Asa, and Ahab—give us some insight into how idols may be hiding in our lives.

1. Rationalized Idolatry (1 Kings 12:25-33)

Having just become king over the newly formed split kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam is feeling the intense pressures of leadership. He had actually been called by God to lead this newly formed kingdom, so the weight of responsibility he felt was probably crushing at times. In order to lead the people of this new kingdom well, he believed they needed a place to worship God that was disconnected from the kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem. So he built places of worship and setup golden calves… big mistake. But how did it come to that point?

Jeroboam had rationalized that his calling to lead from God required this action or he would fail at what he was called to do.

How often do we find ourselves rationalizing sin, specifically idolatry, due to our “calling”?

2. Oblivious Idolatry (1 Kings 15:9-15)

Sometimes we become so caught up in the way things have always been in our culture or in our churches that we are completely unaware of the idolatry that is going on around us or we are actually joining in ourselves. This seems to be what happened to Asa. When he came to power, tons of reforms needed to happen, and overall, Asa did a great job leading the people back to the Lord. Yet, some of the high places remained (these were places of worship out of line with God’s intention). Since Scripture says that Asa followed God faithfully, the high places don’t seem to be an area of intentional sin but rather blindness.

Asa was oblivious to this vestige of idolatry continuing in his country because it had become so commonplace.

What idols or sins have become to commonplace that you are oblivious to their existence?

3. Ambivalent Idolatry (1 Kings 18:21)

Finally, in one of the most famous encounters between a king and a prophet—Elijah and the prophets of Baal—Elijah calls out the ambivalence of King Ahab and the people of Israel. They were “limping between two different opinions.” They tried to serve both God and Baal. The problem is, as Jesus points out in the Gospels, we can’t serve two masters. Going back and forth is not an option.

What idol in your life causes you to waver from following God?

The creep of idolatry is real and subversive. Will you recognize it in your own life and fight back against it for the sake of wholehearted commitment to Jesus?

The Attitude, Source, and Security of the Wise

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While Solomon is famous for building the temple, he is probably more famous for his wisdom. Everyone would recognize some of his writings in Proverbs like “iron sharpens iron.” Though not a narrative like much of what we’ve been looking at this year, Proverbs makes up a significant portion of the Old Testament wisdom literature. So as we walk through the Old Testament, we need to stop and consider the primary message of this book.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” – Proverbs 1:7

“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6

“For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.” – Proverbs 2:10-11

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

From this small sampling of Proverbs, we find three characteristics of the wise: their attitude, source, and security.

The Attitude –
The wise will fear the Lord. This isn’t a fear like we get from a horror movie, but rather a humble reverential awe and respect that we get when we view the power of a natural wonder like Niagara Falls. The wise will feel insignificant when looking upon the Lord. They will respect his power by not leaning on their own understanding but trusting in his direction.

Just as one follows the signs that the parks department puts up at Niagara Falls in order to avoid likely death from the falls, the wise listen to the words of the Lord trusting that He knows best even when we don’t understand. It’s tempting to question God’s Word when we don’t understand the reasoning for a specific command, but Solomon is encouraging us to trust in the Lord’s Word even while we are still seeking to understand the reasoning behind it.

The Source –
As is obvious from the previous section, the Lord is our primary source for wisdom. And Proverbs 2:1-11 makes clear that we have access to this wisdom through God’s Word in Scripture. So the wise seek to drink deeply from the well of wisdom that is God’s Word on a daily basis.

The Security –
Wisdom can help with a ton of aspects of life, but the promise God gives to the wise in this passage is that the wisdom that comes from him will guard our souls and deliver us from evil. The pinnacle of wisdom is found in the Gospel: we are messed up creatures with no hope while leaning on our own works or understanding, but through trusting God, we can find life. What a great hope! We have ultimate life and security through the person of wisdom: Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 24, 30).

May we be a people of true wisdom, not the fading “wisdom” of the world.

Five People We Might Recognize in the Mirror

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Several years ago, I found myself frustrated by the story of Barabbas, the murderer who is given the freedom Jesus deserved. Certainly, I knew the cross is the path Jesus had to take to provide salvation, but the clear and total injustice of that moment left me stunned.

This year, reading through the Gospels, I found myself stunned again. How could so many people miss the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, and even those who did get it—Peter, for instance—blew it big time…

It’s at the height of my frustration that God brought the stinging blow to my pride: “You are each and every one of these apart from me.”

I’ve been Pilate— the man who believes he’s free from guilt. Confident in my own self-righteousness.

I’ve been the crowd—the people whose works put Jesus on the cross. In rebellion to what is clearly just and good, I enjoyed my own path, and it’s for my sin that he died on that tree.

I’ve been Judas and Peter—the men who walked closely with Jesus for so many years, yet in moments of great pressure and temptation, I falter in my faithfulness.

But praise God…

I am Barabbas—the man who deserves the highest punishment of all, but by the purposeful and gracious sacrifice of Jesus, I’m a man he came to save.

Just like everyone of the people in this story, we deserve condemnation. But the glorious truth of Easter is that Jesus came to take that condemnation on the cross, that we might live by the same power that raised him from the dead.

Yes, it’s offensive to recognize in ourselves the people who put Jesus on the cross. But it’s acceptance of that offense that leads us to enjoy the life Jesus came to give.

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.
-John 3:17-18

The Law and the Paradox of Grace

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After God reveals himself to Moses, He seeks to free Israel from their slavery and suffering by sending plague after plague upon Egypt until Pharaoh lets the them go. Moses leads the people into the wilderness on the way to the promise land, and they come to Mt. Sinai where a huge part of the Biblical storyline takes place: the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Most people have heard of the ten commandments, and many can probably name quite a few of them. But what implications do they have for us today? Aren’t they a bit simplistic? Do they have any relevance for us today?

Certainly, they are a summary of the law of God, and they don’t answer every moral dilemma we may face. However, there is much we gain by looking to the law of God both in the ten commandments and the rest of Scripture.

First, the law of God reveals his holiness and what he values. We learn that God values his relationship with us: we’re called to only worship him. Then, we learn he values human life: we’re told not to kill. Ultimately, the law shows us his goodness.

Second, the law shows us what it looks like to live holy lives and honor God.

But then it also reveals our sinfulness and our need for mercy and grace. None of us live up to this standard, and looking to the law will only bring pain and shame (that is, unless we are unwilling to see how far short we fall). The law of God shows us our need for what Jesus did on the cross, and that’s why Paul says it’s good in Romans 7.

We need to feel the pain of our sin or we will never fully appreciate the grace Jesus offers us on the cross. This is the paradox of grace that Rudolph Bultmann describes here: “This paradox of the revelation, that in order to bring grace, it must also give offense, and so can turn to judgment. In order to be grace it must uncover sin; he who resists this binds himself to his sin, and so through the revelation, sin for the first time becomes definitive.”

When we see our sinfulness in light of the law, we can truly come to see how great God’s grace is toward us.

May we look to the law that we might rejoice in grace!