The Beatitudes - Introduction and ‘Blessed are the poor…’ | Psalm 1; Isaiah 61:1-6; Romans 3:22b-26; Matthew 5:1-12 | Page 1/3

Introduction:

There is a story that when Lord Irwin, the British governor of India, asked Gandhi what he thought would solve the problems between England and India Gandhi picked up a Bible, opened it to the fifth chapter of Matthew (The Sermon on the Mount) and said: "When your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world."

“When your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world.”

The Beatitudes are some of the most widely quoted words in scripture. These beautiful words of Jesus convince many of us that he is indeed who he said he was - the Son of God.

They remind us of what God is like - and I think most of us respond in worship: If this is the heart of God, then this God is worthy of my devotion.

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So over the next four weeks I want to do something a little different to my usual by way of preaching. I want to look at Matthew’s gospel - specifically the Beatitudes - which are an introduction to the famous and challenging, Sermon on the Mount.

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If you’ve got one of those Bibles where the words of Christ are in red, you’ll be able to see quite clearly how Matthew’s gospel is divided broadly into sections, sections in which Christ teaches, and sections in which he acts.

Jesus’ actions emphasize the fact that his gospel is not just spiritual - it is also practical.

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Constitution of the Kingdom of God

Matthew’s gospel probably functioned as a teaching document which prepared early Christians for baptism, the act of admitting new citizens to this Kingdom.

The Sermon on the Mount, particularly The Beatitudes frame the teaching of Jesus contained in this gospel, setting out the fundamental norms and values of the Kingdom of God. Maybe you could call it the

‘Constitution of the Kingdom of God’.

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Gandhi was critical of the British, a so called Christian Nation because of the way they treated the poor in India. He was also critical of South Africans, another so-called Christian nation because of their policies of Apartheid.

(With shame I say that when Gandhi tried to visit a Methodist Church in Durban, he was turned away on account of the colour of his skin.)

Gandhi challenged people who went to church every Sunday and claimed to be a part of the Kingdom of God with their own scriptures, asking why - if you believe that this Jesus is the Son of God and his words carry the authority of God himself do we so called ‘Christian Nations’ not live into these words?

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We’ve come up with a couple of excuses.

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Our inadequate idea of what it means to be ‘saved’

One of these excuses is the old bumper sticker: “I’m not perfect, I’m just forgiven.”

Part of our problem has been the inadequate idea that we’re ‘saved by faith alone’ and that salvation is simply a spiritual thing that means that our sins are forgiven and Jesus loves us. This is partly true, but it is not the faith which Jesus taught… Jesus lived out his teaching - not by praying and being holy, but by being active, actively working for the Kingdom of God. In Matthew’s gospel his teaching is matched with action.

Just before he sat down to teach the Sermon on the Mount the scripture tells us he was going through Galilee, teaching, and proclaiming, and curing… He was the Word made real - and his message was about real and practical change in the world.

From Christ we know that Christianity is a lot more than just believing something difficult to believe and going to heaven on a cloud.

James challenges us about our faith when he says in James 2:17:

“So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

Belief must always result in action.

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A couple of weeks ago I spoke about Genesis Chapter 1. I spoke about creation and about how it is intrinsically good - there’s a refrain throughout the creation narrative: “And God saw that it was good.”

As the crown of all creation God creates people in his own good and perfect image, both male and female (Just in case you thought God was all male).

People (like you and me) are created with the potential to reflect the ‘glory of God’. Jesus gets it right - Hebrews 1:3 tells us about Jesus: “He is the reflection of God’s glory…” Jesus shows us what people are capable of.

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Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23 that in spite of this potential with which all people are created: “…all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

Or in another way of saying it - “All have sinned and lack the splendor of God.”

We have cracked the image with which we were created with our decision to sin.

But, Paul tells us the good news in verse 24 that we are made right because of the gift of Christ.

Our cracks are not just covered over - they are repaired because of what Christ has done on the cross.

Salvation is not just some sort of spiritual thing where we accept Jesus as our Lord and then we wait till we die and go to heaven. In Salvation we are actually transformed by God into the people we were created to be. We begin to take God’s values into our lives, and live in them ourselves.

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Poor in Spirit

And so we’re ready to come to the first of the beatitudes of the Kingdom of God:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus first (short sermon) recorded in Luke is straight from Isaiah 61 -

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”

In Isaiah 61 the prophet speaks of a day on which a rescuer will come to the people of Israel. The nation is in trouble, the people are oppressed and in exile; the prophet says that one day God really will come through for them.

In the Beatitudes of Matthew’s gospel Jesus tells us that this prophecy is fulfilled he begins doing exactly what he said he would do in Luke - he brings good news to the poor:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus announces the gospel telling the poor and broken of the world that he is here for them, and the Kingdom which he proclaims is finally theirs.

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Can we who are relatively rich and powerful be a part of this Kingdom that is for the poor?

For the Hebrews and for Matthew the word for poor does not just denote physical poverty - it also speaks of a kind of spiritual poverty.

Are we poor, broken and oppressed by the world we live in… are we willing to admit it. Are we willing to acknowledge that all of us, all of our wealth, all of our goodness belong to God?

Then we too can count ourselves among the poor and be blessed.

But as soon as we are blessed, we have to become a blessing to others… straight after the beatitudes Jesus quickly tells these poor and downtrodden that they are light to the world and salt of the earth.

Once we are blessed we have to bless.

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And so begins a cycle of redemption… Jesus raises the poor up, he dies and rises again - the Spirit is given to the disciples and then through all the generations up to us now and we continue as the raised up poor to raise up the poor. We die and go on to glory and the poor that we raised up raise each other up.

And slowly… inch by inch, person by person the world is restored because of what God has done.

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When we begin to live the teaching of Christ as a church, then I truly believe we will begin to see the Kingdom of God in this place.

Amen.