BROADCASTS.com

Published: Jan. 5, 2023, 8 a.m.

Welcome to Day 2104 of  Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom Sermon on the Mount 2 – The Christian Character – The Beatitudes – Daily Wisdom Sermon on the Mount – A Christian’s Character: The Beatitudes Matthew 5:3-12 Everybody who has ever heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and knows anything at all of his teachings, is probably familiar with the beatitudes with which the Sermon on the Mount begins. Their simplicity of words and clarity of thought has attracted each new generation of Christians, and many others. The more we explore their implications, the more it remains unexplored. Their wealth is inexhaustible. We cannot plumb their depths. I will read each verse today as we go through the Beatitudes, so if you want to keep your Bibles open, we will be starting in Matthew 5:3. Let us consider the beatitudes in detail. The first four beatitudes describe the Christian’s relation to God, and the last four the Christian’s relations and duties to their fellow humans.

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (verse 3).

The Old Testament supplies the necessary background against which to interpret this beatitude. At first, to be “poor” meant to be in literal, material need. But gradually, because the needy had no refuge but God, “poverty” came to have spiritual overtones and be identified with humble dependence on God.  Thus, to be “poor in spirit” means acknowledging our spiritual poverty, indeed our spiritual bankruptcy, before God. For we are sinners, under God's holy wrath, deserving nothing but God's judgment. We have nothing to offer, nothing to plead, nothing with which to buy the favor of heaven. To the poor, in spirit, the kingdom of God is given. God’s rule, which brings salvation, is a gift as absolutely free as it is utterly undeserved. It has to be received with the dependent humility of a little child. At the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contradicted all human judgments and all nationalistic expectations of the kingdom of God. The kingdom is given to the poor, not the rich; the feeble, not the mighty; to little children humble enough to accept it, not to soldiers who boast that they can obtain it by their skill. In Jesus’s ministry on earth, it was not the Pharisees who entered the kingdom. They thought they were rich, so rich in merit that they thanked God for their attainments. The Zealots did not dream of establishing the kingdom by blood and sword. The publicans, prostitutes, and the rejects of human society, who knew they were so poor, could offer nothing and achieve nothing. They could only cry to God for mercy, and he heard their cry. Still today, the indispensable condition of receiving the kingdom of God is to acknowledge our spiritual poverty.

1. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (verse 4).

One might almost translate this second beatitude, “Happy are the unhappy,” to draw attention to the startling paradox it contains. What kind of sorrow can bring the joy of Christ’s blessing to those who feel it? The comfort is offered not primarily for those who mourn the loss of a loved one but also for those who mourn the loss of their innocence, righteousness, and self-respect. It is not the sorrow of grief to which Christ refers, but the sorrow of repentance. Mourning and comfort are the second stages of spiritual blessing. It...