February 1, 2014

Beleaguered Believers Are Blessed!

4th Sunday after Epiphany, 2/2/14
Matthew 5:1-12


Beleaguered Believers Are Blessed!
I. When their focus is on their spiritual lives.
II. When they serve their neighbor instead of themselves.
III. When they suffer for their Savior’s sake.


We deal with them more often than we probably realize. They’re the apparent contradictions in our lives. In fact, we have familiar statements that help us express what we’re dealing with. I’m sure all of us have heard and used the phrase, “Every dark cloud has a silver lining.” In fact, we even use that as a word of encouragement. Someone we love is going through a terrible time in their lives and we try to help them see that something positive, something good can come out of it. And often it does.

In fact, we even plan to make it so. Perhaps your driver’s license indicates that you are an organ and tissue donor. If tragedy strikes you, God forbid, you’ve made arrangements for others to benefit from it. The best and the worst are the results of the same event.

We have that very thing before us this morning in what is likely the most famous sermon our Lord ever preached. In pithy statement after pithy statement our Lord states that his people—his believers—are actually blessed when what are normally unwanted events and actions occur. In fact, our world can’t understand those events and reactions as being positive in any way.

But that’s always the way it is between our world which wants nothing to do with Jesus and his believers. And as people who live each day in this world, these statements are at times difficult for us to understand and appropriate. So, as familiar as these words are, let’s listen to them and study them once again. The key to understanding them and realizing them in our lives is our faith in Jesus. In Christ, these statements make perfect sense. As contradictory as it sounds beleaguered believers are blessed. Let’s see how and when as our Lord shares his word with us this morning.

Part I.

It’s too easy to neglect your health. We ignore the advice to have our blood pressure checked regularly. And unless you’re tested, how do you know whether or not your good and bad cholesterol levels are acceptable? But for some, ignorance is bliss. But the results can be hazardous.

The same is true of your spiritual life. Just live for the moment. Go for the gusto. Take no thought for the life beyond this one. It’s easy to do. We see people doing it all around us. But the results will be hazardous.

That’s why Jesus says we are blessed when we address our spiritual lives. That’s the focus of the first four Beatitudes. Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” There’s a bit of contradiction in those words. He speaks about us being poor, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting and yet being blessed. Those are situations we normally avoid. In fact, we take steps in our lives to prevent them from happening. So what does Jesus mean with these words?

We’re blessed when we’re poor in spirit. Like the old hymn verse states, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” We have nothing to offer our God to buy or earn forgiveness for a single sin. There’s nothing we can do to make our God love us and forgive us. We’re unworthy sinners. We can only cling to God’s grace and mercy in Jesus. And when we do that, we’re blessed, eternally blessed.

We’re also blessed when we mourn. Jesus isn’t speaking here about mourning the death of a loved one. He’s speaking about mourning over our sins and the effects of sin in our lives and in our world. How different that is from our world which glamorizes and celebrates sin!

And in one of the most famous Beatitudes, Jesus tells us we are blessed when we’re meek. It’s not all about us. We don’t have to insist that we always get what should be coming to us. It’s not always about our rights and our position in life. As God’s people, we can let go of that and be blessed by him as we inherit the kingdom of God.

Finally, Jesus tells us we’re blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. The greatest need for any sinner is to be right with the holy God. Our greatest problem is that we can’t attain it. Nothing I do can make me right with God. But I don’t have to because Jesus did. By faith in him he gives us the holiness that God demands. He gives us the righteousness we desperately need. Seeking that righteousness is focusing on your spiritual life.

Beleaguered believers are blessed when they focus on their spiritual lives.

It’s easier for us to forget about our sins than to confess them. It feeds our sinful nature to spend as much time as possible pushing ourselves and our own agendas forward. What God calls sin is advertised as fun and beneficial. That’s why it takes words like these to remind us to address our pitiful spiritual condition and to seek the remedy that Jesus won for us. If you don’t recognize your sins, you can’t recognize your Savior. How blessed we are, then, when we take the difficult steps to admit, confess and turn from our sins to our Savior! When we spiritually weep and mourn over them we receive the assurance that Jesus paid for them all by his holy life and his innocent death. Indeed, beleaguered believers are blessed!

Part II.

It doesn’t take long to discover what people think about themselves. When conversation quickly becomes one-sided, you know. It’s all about them.

In Christianity, it’s all about others. The perfect example of serving others is Jesus. He never spent a moment of his life here putting himself first. It was always about us.

In the next section of the Beatitudes, Jesus calls on his believers to do the same. From the world’s perspective, it sounds like we’re just going to bring trouble on ourselves for doing so. In reality, however, when we serve others the blessings come back to us. Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” In the eyes of the world, following these words of Jesus means getting pushed around and stepped on.

But beleaguered believers are actually blessed by them. Our motivation to show mercy to others is the mercy our God has shown us. He doesn’t give us the hell we deserve. Instead he is gracious and gives us the eternal life Jesus won for us.

Next Jesus says we’re blessed when we’re pure in heart. You know how difficult it is to deal with half-truths and outright lies. It’s so frustrating! How refreshing it is when we speak the truth from hearts that love God and love our neighbor! And when we do, God blesses us and our efforts.

Finally, Jesus calls on us to be peacemakers. Sin is the root cause of divisions between people. The solution is the forgiveness which Jesus won for us. You and I know the peace that forgiveness brings. Jesus calls on us to extend that peace to others.

Again, in the eyes of the world following these words of Jesus is only setting us up for more trouble. But actually the opposite is true. Beleaguered believers are blessed when they serve their neighbor instead of themselves.

Time and again you hear volunteers saying that they received the benefit when they served others. And it’s true. It’s even more so when that service flows from a heart that beats with love for Jesus. Jesus promises it! What we do to serve others does not in any way earn us a spot in heaven. However, what we do for others shows that we love and appreciate what our Savior has done to serve us, undeserving though we are. Jesus calls those acts of service our fruits of faith in him. We do them simply because we love Jesus and love others. That means we might miss out on all sorts of advantages in this life, but so what! We have life in heaven. Beleaguered believers are blessed!

Part III.

You might say that Jesus has saved the best and the worst for last. It’s another one of those apparent contradictions. We rightly pray for our God to guard and protect us so that we can live our Christian lives in peace and safety. And yet, Jesus states that even when we are persecuted, we are blessed. How can that be?

Because Jesus also states in his word that blessings come to us when we suffer for him. He told us to expect suffering for his sake. If the world persecuted him, you can count on it persecuting us. So what blessings result? First, our faith is refined. Is your connection to Jesus worth suffering for? Indeed it is and we realize that when the heat of suffering is on. It draws us closer to our Lord Jesus. In fact, it draws others to him as well. It’s another way that beleaguered believers are blessed.

Jesus ends the beatitudes with these powerful words, “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” Beleaguered believers do receive blessings, the greatest of blessings—eternal life with our God. When Jesus calls this our reward, he’s not praising us for earning it. This is a reward of his grace, for what he has done for us. When we hold onto the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, then the riches of the kingdom of God belong to us. That’s true no matter how tough our Christian lives can be. Beleaguered believers are blessed! How true that is in Christ! Amen.