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Presentation 21 Presentation 21 Introduction We have discovered that Jesus did not conform to the status quo. By his behaviour he constantly challenged the establishment . By breaking with the conventions of his day, he shocked the religious sensibilities of the Pharisees. However, we find that his radical teaching further challenged dearly held belief systems. In the verses addressed to his disciples, Jesus publishes God's blueprint for blessing. To those who submit themselves to his rule, Jesus says, "here is how to discover true happiness". I doubt if the disciples could have imagined what was coming next for what Jesus has to say would surely have turned normal expectations for happiness on its head. Presentation 21 Introduction You see the world in which we live says, ‘Happy are the rich’ but Jesus says , ‘Blessed are the poor.’ The world says, ‘Happy are those who are fully satisfied’. Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the hungry.’ The world says, ’Happy is the man who can laugh in the face of the seriousness of life’. Jesus says , ‘Blessed are those who weep.’ The world says, ‘Happy is the man who has gained universal popularity’. Jesus says , ‘Blessed are you when men hate you’. How are we to understand the teaching of Jesus which contradicts the popular values of the world in which we live? Let’s now examine Jesus prescription for happiness in detail. Presentation 21 The Poor And The Rich First, "Blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God" v20 which should be contrast ed with v24 "Woe to you who are rich for you have already received your comfort." Jesus does not mean that all poor people are blessed. Jesus is not saying that if we manage to achieve material misery down here we will be guaranteed eternal bliss in heaven. He is not encouraging his followers to take a vow of poverty. He is not claiming that material poverty is a virtue. If he were then that would mean that it would be unchristian to attempt to alleviate the condition of the poor and destitute. We could smile and wave to those in the third world and say, “You are truly blessed". Poverty is not intrinsically a blessing. It can make a man bitter, harsh and thoroughly self preoccupied. Presentation 21 The Poor And The Rich What then is the kind of poverty which Jesus is commending? The O.T. provides us with a helpful instruction; "This poor man cried, the Lord heard him and saved him out of his troubles“, Ps 34.6. The poor man mentioned here was a man who was aware that he could not save himself from the trouble surrounding him and he therefore looked to God to save him. This idea is explicit in Matt 5.3; "Blessed are the poor in spirit". Jesus is speaking of those who are aware of their spiritual poverty. Here is the person who has become aware that his spiritual cupboard is empty. He knows that he is incapable of being a spiritually selfsufficient man. And it is because of that that he sees his need of God's mercy, grace and forgiveness. Presentation 21 The Poor And The Rich In contrast, the world cries , ‘Blessed is the man who is rich in self-reliance.’ It hems us in to thinking on a purely material level and encourages us to make earthly wealth our sole ambition, and our consuming passion. “Owning things is an obsession in our culture. If we own it we feel we can control it; and if we can control it we feel that it will give us more pleasure. The idea is an illusion.” R. FOSTER The man who has made wealth his goal may well enjoy it and derive comfort from it for a season. But says Jesus that comfort is transitory it belongs to this fleeting life only. Presentation 21 The Poor And The Rich More specifically, these words have something to say to those who consider themselves spiritually rich and have never seen themselves as spiritual bankrupt. The self-reliant man believes he has placed sufficient deposits in the bank of heaven to save himself. He does not depend upon God but upon his own effort. In the story of the Pharisee and the publican, the Pharisee reviews his life and applauds himself. He has never said with the hym-writer: ‘Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to the cross I cling, Naked come to thee for dress, Helpless look to thee for grace, Foul I to the fountain fly, Wash me saviour or I die.’ The man who considers himself spiritually rich excludes himself from the presence of the king for “he has already received his comfort" Presentation 21 The Hungry And The Well Fed Secondly, we read in v21 "Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied." This contrasts with v25 "Woe to you who are well fed now for you will go hungry". Who are the hungry Jesus is speaking of here? Does he mean physical hunger? If so then all that Christians need do by way of response to starving in the third world is to send them little telegrams telling them how blessed they are. Instead of serving breakfasts to the down and outs in our towns and cities we could supply them with little pin badges which read, "I am hungry therefore I am happy". How ridiculous! What then did Jesus mean? Presentation 21 The Hungry And The Well Fed Surely it is to a man’s spiritual appetite that Jesus is referring? Look at Matt 5v6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness". The Bible has much to say to those people who have spiritual appetites cf. Ps .107v9 "God satisfies him who is thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Or, think of what we read when we studied Mary's magnificat in Matt.1.53 "He has filled the hungry with good things but the rich he has sent empty away”. In these cases hunger describes an intensity of desire. Presentation 21 The Hungry And The Well Fed Picture the pleading expressions and outstretched hands of famine victims . They communicate the painful gnawing in the pit of their stomach, their craving for satisfying food simply refuses to go away. Now, says Jesus , transfer that intensity of desire into your spiritual appetite and longing for God. Don't stop until you are satisfied. Spiritual hunger ensures we engage in a determined search. It displays a yearning for mercy ,forgiveness and for peace of mind and heart. It refuses to be fobbed off with worldly remedies which fail to satisfy. It was this hunger that caused Pilgrim in Bunyan's Pilgrim’s Progress to leave the City of Destruction in pursuit of a solution to his spiritual condition. Presentation 21 The Hungry And The Well Fed What of the person who does not have this kind of hunger? Well he's like a starving man in a land of famine who instead of searching for food employs all of his energy reading the stock market prices in the Financial Times or in flicking through a travel brochure of Caribbean cruises. He believes that all his most basic needs are met while in reality he is dying by degrees. If you think no one could be so stupid then think of the man who has allowed his appetite for God to be replaced by the material trivia of this world. But the day will come when he begins to appreciate the foolishness of suppressing such an appetite but for some that discovery will be made too late! Presentation 21 The Hungry And The Well Fed Jesus made precisely this point in the story he told of the rich man and Lazarus. After both died, the rich man longed for his torment to be alleviated and asked that Lazarus, who was in heaven with Abraham, be sent with some cool water to comfort him in his distress. What was he told? "Son remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides this between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.“ Luke 16v25 Presentation 21 The Weepers And The Jokers Thirdly we read in v22, "Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh" and this in contrast with v25 "Woe to you who laugh now for you will mourn and weep". Jesus is not saying that the more ‘greetin-faced’ we are down here the happier we will be in his heavenly kingdom. What then is the weeping that is referred to here? It has its source in the tragedy of sin. First, this includes a weeping over one’s own sin as we become aware that our behaviour has offended the One who has made us the object of his love. Let me quote from the records of the Cambuslang Revival after a visit from George Whitefield: Presentation 21 The Weepers And The Jokers “I found a good many persons in the deepest exercise of soul crying out most bitterly for their lost and miserable state by reason of sin; of their unbelief in despising Christ and the offers of his gospel; of the hardness of their hearts... I heard them express great sorrow for these things and seemingly in the most serious manner, and this not so much from the fear of punishment as from a sense of dishonour done to God”. Presentation 21 The Weepers And The Jokers There's a second way in which the follower of Jesus will weep and it concerns the ungodly deeds of others. He will be grieved to see God dishonoured, to hear his name blasphemed, to see his cause suffer setbacks. This is strikingly expressed in Ps. 119v36 "Streams of water run down my eyes because they do not observe thy law." Both instances of godly sorrow spoken of by Jesus here has the effect of turning believers’ souls to God. God in turn comforts them with the news of his forgiving love. Presentation 21 The Weepers And The Jokers In contrast, the world advises people to laugh off evil, not to take one’s own sin and the sin of others too seriously. We are not encouraged to spend time dwelling upon our spiritual condition. But the person who attempts to laugh at evil be it his own or that of others will one day be forced to face up to its’ seriousness. In time his laughter will evaporate and he will begin to drown in the tears of his own self pity. Presentation 21 The Despised And The Popular Finally, we read in v22, "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man“. Now contrast that with v26, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets." Is it not a strange thing for Jesus to say that as a result of being hated and despised we will be happy? But notice the all-important qualification when you are hated BECAUSE OF THE SON OF MAN. Rejected BECAUSE OF THE SON OF MAN. Insulted BECAUSE OF THE SON OF MAN. Presentation 21 The Despised And The Popular The suffering in view is something brought upon the Christian because of his love for Jesus and his faithfulness to Jesus and his commitment to Jesus. The world may recognise sincerity and be secretly impressed by it, but Christian sincerity it will not tolerate. It will persecute it because Christian sincerity is a devastating thing for a bad conscience. Of course we need to ensure that we are persecuted for the right reason and not because of our obnoxious personality or callous stupidity. Presentation 21 The Despised And The Popular What of the professing Christian who is never hated, despised or insulted? Ah, says Jesus, danger bells should ring if everyone speaks well of you. Why? Oh because we are clearly the kind of person who bends with the wind. We never take a stand. We have no salting influence upon society. We will not speak the truth in case we lose our popularity with others. The false prophets in the O.T. were like that. They called good evil and evil good. We are told that they spoke ‘peace, peace when there was no peace’, Jer.6v14. They would not tell their hearers anything that might upset them because it was more important to them to be popular with men than popular with God. Presentation 21 Conclusion Do you see the balance in the teaching of Jesus? With one hand he holds out the way to obtain the fullness of blessing, while with the other he warns against siding with the philosophy of the age and its values. Can we take encouragement from the fact that when we take our stand with Jesus despite the ridicule of the world that will undoubtedly be showered upon us, we are entering into the reality of God's blessing? Presentation 21