Purity, Peace-making and Persecution
Matthew 5:8-12
In the previous three sermons in this series, we have seen the foundation of the type of Christian faith which will withstand the storms of this life and which will ensure that we survive judgment day before God’s throne. We have seen that spiritual poverty automatically causes us to trust God for everything and that it leads to holy mourning……..a sadness about our own sin and about the sin and injustice we see in the world around us. Last week we saw how meekness balances our God-given emotions like fear, hatred, anger and helps us direct them in a redeemed way. When these emotions, together with pride, are redeemed, there is an emptiness in us which Jesus says we can fill with the desire to be holy, to be righteous, which will have the immediate effect of changing us into a people who show mercy. Now Jesus goes on, and He says, “Blessed are the pure in heart.”
Purity of heart is ignored by many people. Many believe that we must just abstain from outward impurity, ……just don’t do those things which God has forbidden. When we believe this, we do not strike at the heart of the matter and we don’t confront inward corruption and inward impurity. Jesus teaches on another occasion that it is from the heart that all evil springs. So, friends, it is in the heart that it must be dealt with.
Let me use an example from a little further on in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5, from verse 21, Jesus says, Mat 5:21 "You have heard that people were told in the past, 'Do not commit murder;’"
Now the teachers of Jesus’ day [and our day as well perhaps], taught that that means do not physically kill someone…the outward act of murder. But Jesus says: “But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother 'You good-for-nothing!' you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.”
Now the teachers of Jesus’ day [and our day as well perhaps], taught that that means do not physically kill someone…the outward act of murder. But Jesus says: “But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother 'You good-for-nothing!' you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.”
Jesus is saying that it is the inward emotion that leads to the outward act that needs to be confronted and dealt with. Which is why He has already dealt with meekness, which you may remember from last week, balances our emotions.
God looks inside. God requires truth in the inward parts. Why? Because he knows that it is only when there is purity within that there can ever be real purity on the outside.
This must beg the question, “How do I become pure in heart? Is it possible for a Spirit-filled, born-again Christian to become pure in heart?” Friends, Jesus would not have said, “I’m going to bless people who are pure in heart, if it were not possible to be pure in heart. That would be playing games with us and such a God would be a devil.
This must beg the question, “How do I become pure in heart? Is it possible for a Spirit-filled, born-again Christian to become pure in heart?” Friends, Jesus would not have said, “I’m going to bless people who are pure in heart, if it were not possible to be pure in heart. That would be playing games with us and such a God would be a devil.
How does one become pure in heart? Can I offer you four suggestions on how to become pure in heart?
1. Desire it, long for it, be hungry and thirsty for purity
2.Identify the impurity within you. God will help you to do this and if you are serious about it, if the desire comes from the very depths of your being and not just from your head, God will help you identify the impurities within. It would seem that most outward sin can be placed back to one of these seven inner sins: pride, anger, envy, laziness, lust, gluttony and greed.
3.When you have identified a spirit of pride, or of anger or of envy within you, drive it out, with prayer, with fasting if necessary
4.Confide in someone you trust, a godly person, and ask them to help you. In early Methodism the class meeting, or what many today call covenant discipleship groups fulfilled this purpose.
These four steps (and they are not always all necessary) will purify the heart. Do you believe that? Do you have faith, not in yourself, but in God’s power to do this work in you?
Notice the blessing that comes from being pure in heart – you will see God. You will have a deep sense of God shining his countenance upon you. That is how Scripture describes this – you will see God. You will see him in the sunrise and the sunset. When you look at the sea and creation you will see God. You will look at the baby you hold and you will see the God who formed him or her. You will see God in your trials and your tribulations. In the midst of disease or tsunami, the pure in heart will see God working in all things that this world throws at them. You won’t just believe that God is in these things, you will see God in these things.
Notice the blessing that comes from being pure in heart – you will see God. You will have a deep sense of God shining his countenance upon you. That is how Scripture describes this – you will see God. You will see him in the sunrise and the sunset. When you look at the sea and creation you will see God. You will look at the baby you hold and you will see the God who formed him or her. You will see God in your trials and your tribulations. In the midst of disease or tsunami, the pure in heart will see God working in all things that this world throws at them. You won’t just believe that God is in these things, you will see God in these things.
Friends, this is a tremendous blessing and it leads as you can imagine, and I know as many of you have experienced, it leads to a wonderful peace, a peace which passes all understanding and a peace which because you have it, makes you a peacemaker, the next beatitude.
“Blessed are the peacemakers.” One of Jesus’ names is the Prince of Peace. His kingdom, which is a people, is a kingdom, a people, of peace. This is the kingdom which Jesus says is near. So near it’s just a step of faith to enter into it. Do you want to enter the kingdom of God?
If you don’t like rain, don’t go to England. The weather will not change just because you don’t like it. The kingdom of God will not change for you or for me just because we don’t like it or just because we might disagree with the way it works. But the invitation is still there. Entrance is simple and it is the same for everyone – rich or poor, healthy or sick, in Africa or in North America. It is by faith, for the poor in spirit who cannot help but mourn and for those who are meek. The poverty of spirit which leads to salvation is one which hungers and thirsts for righteousness, and because it does, it then overflows with mercy, with purity, and with peace.
Jesus says, “This is the Way, walk in it.”
The world says these beatitudes are crazy attitudes. Well, that’s their problem, isn’t it? No, it’s our problem and it should make us mourn for them, shouldn’t it?
It’s our problem in another sense as well. Jesus warns us what we can expect if we live in obedience to him and walk in the way which he has just described. He says expect to be persecuted, expect to be insulted, expect to be slandered, mocked, even killed.
Jesus says, “This is the Way, walk in it.”
The world says these beatitudes are crazy attitudes. Well, that’s their problem, isn’t it? No, it’s our problem and it should make us mourn for them, shouldn’t it?
It’s our problem in another sense as well. Jesus warns us what we can expect if we live in obedience to him and walk in the way which he has just described. He says expect to be persecuted, expect to be insulted, expect to be slandered, mocked, even killed.
In fact, this is such a big part of life in this kingdom here on earth, that while Jesus takes about 90 words, and of course I am talking about the English translation now, to describe 7 beatitudes, he takes 70 words to describe this last one beatitude: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness."
The good news is that persecution, suffering, mocking, cannot take away all the blessings that he has just described.
We are blessed regardless of what is going on around us. It’s a wonderful kingdom, isn’t it? Are you in it and enjoying these blessings?
The good news is that persecution, suffering, mocking, cannot take away all the blessings that he has just described.
We are blessed regardless of what is going on around us. It’s a wonderful kingdom, isn’t it? Are you in it and enjoying these blessings?
Amen
