How are the Beatitudes to be taken in the Sermon on the Mount? Are the words of Jesus meant to teach us how to become a Christian or are they a description of how Christians are to live?

June 16, 2009

Makarios Living – Get a New Heart

“God willing, we will take back our rights.” That from Mir Hossein Mousavi in Iran as the official state media says incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won reelection 2 to 1. You wouldn’t know it from the line of 100,000 demonstrating Iranians stretching for miles across downtown Tehran.
In a bid to ease post election days of street protests and violence in the capitol and across the country, Iran’s supreme religious leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the powerful Guardian Counsel to carefully probe allegations of fraud. The incumbent president however, is cut from the same cloth as the all powerful religious leader and so any investigation may be questionable to say the least. Meantime, those who know say Iran continues to build nuclear weaponry which the reelected president Ahmadinejad says he is willing to use, especially against Israel.
I’m Charles Morris and this is Haven Today telling the great story that’s all about Jesus on a program called “Makarios Living – Get a New Heart”, makarios, the Greek word that we translate “Blessing” in English. Several hundred miles west of Tehran in the hills rising up from the north shore of the Sea of Galilee it was Jesus who said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.” Yesterday on this program we had back Hollywood actor Bruce Marchiano who portrayed Jesus in “The Gospel of Matthew”. Here at Haven Today we have the shortened theatrical edition using the NIV translation. May I suggest you watch the trailer there at haventoday.org? We have this newly released “Jesus the Christ” on a special 2 DVD set that’s just our way of saying thank you for helping us tell the great story that’s all about Jesus. Go online at haventoday.org or call us at 1-800-654-2836 for the 2 DVD set called “Jesus the Christ”. The late Rich Mullens opens our program with words taken from the Beatitudes.

Song: My One Thing
Performed by: Rich Mullens
(excerpt from “Jesus the Christ”, The Beatitudes in Matthew 5)

From the newly released “Jesus the Christ” special 2 DVD set, Hollywood actor Bruce Marchiano portrayed Jesus with the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 and before that, the late Rich Mullens from his “Never Picture Perfect” album - I like that – and a song called “My One Thing” here on a Haven Today that we’re calling “Makarios Living – Get a New Heart”. I’m particularly drawn, in light of that election the end of last weekend in Iran to Matthew 5:9. One of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” With each Beatitude that Jesus issues another nail is driven into a coffin. Inside the coffin lies the corpse of a false understanding of salvation. The false understanding says that a person can be saved without being changed or that a person can inherit eternal life even if your attitudes and actions are like the attitudes and actions of unbelievers. Here is the cry of the Beatitudes, and I’m thankful to John Piper who said this in a sermon he preached probably 20 years ago, the cry of the Beatitudes is this: Get a new heart. One after the other the Beatitudes tell us that the blessings of eternity will be given only to those who’ve become new in Christ. “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” If we don’t obtain mercy, we receive judgment. If we don’t see God we are not in Heaven. If we aren’t called the children of God we are outside the family of God. In other words, these are all descriptions of final salvation and it is promised only to the merciful, only to the pure in heart, only to the peacemakers. Therefore, the Beatitudes are like long spikes holding down the lid of the coffin on false teaching which says if you just believe in Jesus you will go to heaven whether or not you were merciful or pure in heart or a peacemaker. As a matter of fact, from the beginning to the end, the Sermon on the Mount cries out, ‘Get yourself a new heart! Become a new person!’ The river of judgment is at the door. You recall the words of Matthew 5:20, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” And at the very end of the sermon in Matthew 7 the Lord calls out over the crowds, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand and the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell. And great was the fall of it.” In other words, a life of disobedience to the Beatitudes and to the Sermon on the Mount will not stand in the judgment no matter what we believe.
So first, the Beatitudes are not optional. We live in a culture that has made the Christian faith into a smorgasbord. You know what a smorgasbord is. Even if you don’t know that it’s Swedish. It literally means, “Butter, goose, table”. It’s a feast where there is a large selection of different kinds of foods like a buffet or a salad bar. We as consumers love our variety and worship at the altar of choice and selection. And we take that very same mentality to church, our worship experience, even our faith. These Beatitudes that we have heard are not optional for the Christian. We don’t get to pick the ones that we like and ignore the rest anymore than my children were allowed to pick what time they were allowed to go to bedtime at night. Some nights they didn’t want to brush their teeth and because I’m such a good father I would say, “That’s fine.” And I’d let them go to bed without brushing their teeth – No! They had to brush their teeth every night and I’m sure no one listening to me share that story right now thinks I’m a brutal tyrant for making them do it. Of course not, if they didn’t brush their teeth their teeth would rot, their teeth would fall out, they may not have liked it but “Father Knows Best”. Your Heavenly Father knows best as well and when he calls you to be merciful or to be a peacemaker you may not always like it but nonetheless you’re called to do it because Father knows best. The instructions in God’s word are not a menu that you get to browse through and pick and choose what you like and don’t like. Rather it’s more like a recipe in which all ingredients must be included if the desired result is to be attained. These Beatitudes are not optional and out of all of them I personally find this one the most challenging of all.
Second, we are called to be peacemakers like our Father in Heaven. I think most boys want to take after their father. When my boys were growing up they wanted to do the things I did. They wanted to go with me. They wanted to help me with whatever I was doing. They wanted to hold their mother’s hand like I did. We should want to be like our Heavenly Father. We should want to be a chip off the old block. You have to remember, prior to industrialization in the last 200 years, the vast majority of sons followed in their fathers’ footsteps. If your dad was a farmer you learned from him and learned to farm and became a farmer. If he was a baker you learned from him how to bake. Your Father in Heaven is the ultimate Peacemaker. As his child you should be one as well. Mankind broke out in rebellion against its king and master but God in his love sought to reconcile with mankind and became a man to suffer the punishment that we all deserved. Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” The Bible says in Colossian 1:20 that “Christ is reconciling to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Jesus Christ declared amnesty for all who will lay down their arms of independence and come to God by faith. Jesus came to bring about peace and wholeness between you and God. He died so you might live. Peace is made between us and God when we come to him in faith, right, when you come to God poor in spirit, mourning over your sin, meek and powerless, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, when you come to him in faith trusting him, receiving him. John 1:12 and 13,
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The evidence of sonship, the evidence of having God as your Father is being a peacemaker. You want to become a child of God, a son of God, a daughter of God? You have to believe God, to trust God, the Holy Spirit who comes and gives you a new heart, and you start acting like a son or daughter of God that you are. You become merciful. You strive for a pure, undivided heart. You become a peacemaker. If you have never received Christ you cannot live for Christ. You have no hope of living out the Beatitudes. In Christ you can find the forgiveness you need, you can find the power you need to live a life that’s blessed. You may consider yourself a Christian because you believe that Jesus walked on this earth, was crucified and rose again but unless you receive him, unless you embrace the fact that he died for you, that it was your sins that were punished on the cross, until you repent of your sin and ask God to be your Father and give you a new heart you are not a child of God. Get a new heart! Today you can know you belong to God and you are his child if you will come to the Prince of Peace, if you will come to Jesus and trust him with your life then you will have the peace, the peace of Christ that passes understanding. I would invite you to find out more about what it means to know God. Just go to our website, haventoday.org and read the article on the right side of our homepage, the article titled, “How Can I Know God?”
Third, what does it mean to be a peacemaker? This idea here of peace is not simply the absence of war. It’s an idea of wholeness, “Shalom.” In fact one commentator translated this passage, “Blessed are the ‘whole’ makers.” The peace that Christ is talking about is not simply that the fighting might stop but rather that there would be reconciliation. When you get into an argument with a loved one, your father, your mother, you child, your wife, your friend, you don’t just want the argument to stop do you? You want the relationship to be restored. You want reconciliation. So for you and me what does it mean to be a peacemaker? Well, first let me tell you what it’s not. Being a peacemaker does not mean making peace at any cost. Being a peacemaker does not mean that you just roll over. The very next verse tells us that blessed are those that are persecuted for righteousness sake. If peacemaking meant that you just acquiesced to whatever people wanted from you to do, you would never be persecuted for righteousness sake, so righteousness or living right before God trumps being at peace with men and women. Romans 12:18,
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone.
Notice it does not just say live at peace with everyone. It says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone.” The inference is clear. There will be times when peace is impossible. There will be times when you as a Christian might need to take a stand for biblical truth that will not create peace but cause division. We live in a religiously pluralistic society. A day and a world that says “All roads lead to heaven” so when we enter the words of Jesus who said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Those words may be upsetting to some people. People are there in the world today who say, “How arrogant are those Christians to think Jesus is the only way.” And you try to tell that person that they can come to Christ, that he died for them. but instead of wanting to focus on the gracious offer of salvation they would rather attack your religious snobbery as they call it. There is conflict between you and that person. For the sake of peace do you say, “Well, I suppose your way might get you to heaven as well.”? If you do you’re calling Jesus a liar. You’re in essence saying Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about when he said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” The words of Jesus are hard words, words that can bring about division and conflict. We hear them in Matthew 10:34 and 35 and 36 and 37 and 8 and 9,
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
So being a peacemaker doesn’t mean making peace at all costs. You do not sacrifice truth or righteousness or your allegiance to Jesus on the altar of peace but there are some things that you might need to sacrifice on the altar of peace. You might need to sacrifice your pride on the altar of peace. You might need to sacrifice your feelings on the altar of peace. You might need to sacrifice your vengeance on the altar of peace. Peacemakers long for peace, they work for wholeness and reconciliation. They look for opportunities to make peace and broker peace even if it means the parties involved might get upset at them. Peacemakers think the risk is worth it. Jesus gave us two examples in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5,
You have heard it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I tell you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
So it seems here that Christ is saying the peacemaker prays for their enemies. There are others of us that have a broken relationship and it might not even be your fault, or at least not mostly your fault. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 5:23 and 24,
if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Notice it doesn’t say you have something against your brother. Try to reconcile. Don’t sacrifice truth or righteousness or your allegiance to Jesus but confess whatever part your sin had to play in the situation and try to reconcile. I would invite you this very day to go to our website, go to haventoday.org, read that article on the right hand side, “How can I Know God?” “Makarios Living – Get a New Heart”

Song: Blessed Are
Performed by: Haven

The music of Haven here on this Haven Today and “Blessed Are” here on a program called “Makarios Living – Get a New Heart”. Thanks for joining me. And I want to give a special thanks again to John Piper and also my colleague in ministry Robert Jacobson for helping out today on this program as we talk about the Beatitudes and we got to hear the Beatitudes from the new release, a special 2 DVD set, “Jesus the Christ”. If you haven’t seen the trailer of “Jesus the Christ” it’s there on our homepage, haventoday.org and you can also get your copy of this special 2 DVD set as our thank you for your financial support of this listener based ministry, h.a.v.e.n.t.o.d.a.y, haventoday.org. Or give us a call for “Jesus the Christ” at 1-800-654-2836. Let us know the station you’re listening to. That number one more time is 1-800-654-2836. And by the way, we’ve spent the last few weeks talking about Christians you should know and we still have plenty of copies of the brand new book by Warren Weirsbe, the speaker on the “Back to the Bible” broadcasts, pastor for many years of the famous Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, his brand new book “50 People Every Christian Should Know”, we have that as our thank you for the support of the ministry.
Now, I’m Charles Morris and I want to invite you to come back with me tomorrow. We’ll be looking at the Beatitudes and we’ll be doing that in light of the great story. It’s all about Jesus here on Haven Today.