The Beautitudes: Suffering
Matthew 5:1-12,
These 12 verses really define or give identity to we who are Christians, and that's important to understand our identity in Christ. This past Sunday, our brother Alex Lanes dealt with this section in the morning, and then again in the evening. In the morning, he gave what you could call a broad overview, focused on those nine Beatitudes several times, and then he did give a Four ‘P’ description, one is ‘Pointing’ towards Christ. Christ wonderfully and perfectly models these nine Beatitudes.
And the very last Beatitude certainly helps us understand what the Christian life will be somewhat characterized by, and that's persecution. The Christian life will be shaped by hardship, trial and a unique suffering of persecution. And remember what Paul said to Timothy, “The godly shall suffer persecution.” And Jesus told His disciples on that one occasion, “The world will hate you because it's hated Me.” And you could go almost anywhere across the globe and you will find Christians suffering verbal and also at times, physical persecution. And we are witnessing over the last five or so years, an increase or a more overt attack upon the Christian church in America. And for the Christian, again, life has always been characterized by persecution, or the hatred of the world. And nothing offends the world more than the exclusive gospel of Jesus Christ, a Christ-only gospel.
There is something else we see in this Sermon on the Mount that makes the Christian life difficult, and that's the reality of sin. Not just out there, it's also in our own hearts.
And our brother again, Sunday night, he opened up that second Beatitude, “Blessed are they that mourn, they shall be comforted." And Jesus is assuming is He not, that Christians will be grieving over their sin. And that word, mourn, is a very intense word. It's really a word that's used for a funeral kind of mourning, an intense, heart-rending emotion. And if we are Christians, nothing should cause us more grief, more emotional pain and agony than our own sin. Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, “Oh wretched man that I am;” or like Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 6, “Woe is me, I am undone.” And again, Jesus, here in the Sermon on the Mount, doesn't want us to ignore sin or sweep it under the carpet, so to speak, because He goes back to that very subject again in that prayer of prayers, the Lord's Prayer, telling us to regularly seek forgiveness.
But coming back again to the question, why is the Christian life so difficult? Why will it never be easy? Sin will always be sin. We'll always struggle with it until the day we die. The world will always be the world, a Christ-hating world. Not only our own sin, right, but we mourn over the sin we see in others. Maybe our family members, our children, maybe men at work, or the world at large. In the words of the psalmist, (I do think Alex quoted that text,) “Rivers of water run down my eyes because they do not keep your law.”
But there's a third big problem, or evil, that constantly makes life difficult, and prayer as well, difficult for the child of God and that's the devil. Jesus references him in that prayer of prayers again, “Deliver us from evil,” or you could translate it “from the evil one.” And remember what Jesus says about the devil in John's gospel, “He's a murderer, but he's also a liar.” And the very first attack, think of the very first attack upon our parents, really was an attempt to discredit God, or put God under a dark lens of lying, “Has God said?”
The devil loves us to question God's goodness. He loves us to question God's love, His kindness, His gentleness, His sovereignty, His omniscience, His omnipotence. And if we do, and we're always tempted, begin to question God and doubt who He is; if we begin to think that God can't handle our problems, that He can't change our circumstances or change men's hearts, or is somehow limited; and there's lots of people who believe that God is limited, less than sovereign; then that will make us more timid, more fearful, more anxious and less bold at the throne of grace. Why is the Christian life so hard? Why is praying to God so hard? Prayer is one of the hardest disciplines in the Christian life for all of us because there's opposition: the world, sin and the devil.
But here's the great comfort, there's forgiveness with God. There's the comfort, right? Those who mourn will be comforted, those who are persecuted, they can rejoice. Great is He that is in me than he that is in the world. And if we understand what Christ accomplished by His death and resurrection, then we have nothing to fear. And the great hope we have is not only in this life, this comfort in this life, but in the future life. When Christ comes back again He will take us into a perfect heaven and a perfect earth. No more tears, no more pain, no more grief. The Christian life is not an easy life, but it is the most blessed life and the best is yet to come.
Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He had 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.”
These 12 verses really define or give identity to we who are Christians, and that's important to understand our identity in Christ. This past Sunday, our brother Alex Lanes dealt with this section in the morning, and then again in the evening. In the morning, he gave what you could call a broad overview, focused on those nine Beatitudes several times, and then he did give a Four ‘P’ description, one is ‘Pointing’ towards Christ. Christ wonderfully and perfectly models these nine Beatitudes.
And the very last Beatitude certainly helps us understand what the Christian life will be somewhat characterized by, and that's persecution. The Christian life will be shaped by hardship, trial and a unique suffering of persecution. And remember what Paul said to Timothy, “The godly shall suffer persecution.” And Jesus told His disciples on that one occasion, “The world will hate you because it's hated Me.” And you could go almost anywhere across the globe and you will find Christians suffering verbal and also at times, physical persecution. And we are witnessing over the last five or so years, an increase or a more overt attack upon the Christian church in America. And for the Christian, again, life has always been characterized by persecution, or the hatred of the world. And nothing offends the world more than the exclusive gospel of Jesus Christ, a Christ-only gospel.
There is something else we see in this Sermon on the Mount that makes the Christian life difficult, and that's the reality of sin. Not just out there, it's also in our own hearts.
And our brother again, Sunday night, he opened up that second Beatitude, “Blessed are they that mourn, they shall be comforted." And Jesus is assuming is He not, that Christians will be grieving over their sin. And that word, mourn, is a very intense word. It's really a word that's used for a funeral kind of mourning, an intense, heart-rending emotion. And if we are Christians, nothing should cause us more grief, more emotional pain and agony than our own sin. Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, “Oh wretched man that I am;” or like Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 6, “Woe is me, I am undone.” And again, Jesus, here in the Sermon on the Mount, doesn't want us to ignore sin or sweep it under the carpet, so to speak, because He goes back to that very subject again in that prayer of prayers, the Lord's Prayer, telling us to regularly seek forgiveness.
But coming back again to the question, why is the Christian life so difficult? Why will it never be easy? Sin will always be sin. We'll always struggle with it until the day we die. The world will always be the world, a Christ-hating world. Not only our own sin, right, but we mourn over the sin we see in others. Maybe our family members, our children, maybe men at work, or the world at large. In the words of the psalmist, (I do think Alex quoted that text,) “Rivers of water run down my eyes because they do not keep your law.”
But there's a third big problem, or evil, that constantly makes life difficult, and prayer as well, difficult for the child of God and that's the devil. Jesus references him in that prayer of prayers again, “Deliver us from evil,” or you could translate it “from the evil one.” And remember what Jesus says about the devil in John's gospel, “He's a murderer, but he's also a liar.” And the very first attack, think of the very first attack upon our parents, really was an attempt to discredit God, or put God under a dark lens of lying, “Has God said?”
The devil loves us to question God's goodness. He loves us to question God's love, His kindness, His gentleness, His sovereignty, His omniscience, His omnipotence. And if we do, and we're always tempted, begin to question God and doubt who He is; if we begin to think that God can't handle our problems, that He can't change our circumstances or change men's hearts, or is somehow limited; and there's lots of people who believe that God is limited, less than sovereign; then that will make us more timid, more fearful, more anxious and less bold at the throne of grace. Why is the Christian life so hard? Why is praying to God so hard? Prayer is one of the hardest disciplines in the Christian life for all of us because there's opposition: the world, sin and the devil.
But here's the great comfort, there's forgiveness with God. There's the comfort, right? Those who mourn will be comforted, those who are persecuted, they can rejoice. Great is He that is in me than he that is in the world. And if we understand what Christ accomplished by His death and resurrection, then we have nothing to fear. And the great hope we have is not only in this life, this comfort in this life, but in the future life. When Christ comes back again He will take us into a perfect heaven and a perfect earth. No more tears, no more pain, no more grief. The Christian life is not an easy life, but it is the most blessed life and the best is yet to come.
Posted in Pastor Devotional