Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Truth for the Journey from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Please join us today as Pastor Jeffrey Campbell leads us in an in depth study of the Sermon on the Mount. Today's scripture is from Matthew, chapter five.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: If you have your Bibles, go to the Book of Matthew, Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five. We're going to do a little series on the Sermon on the Mount. It will take us through three chapters in the Book of Matthew. But we open the pages of scripture on this series as Jesus is opening up his ministry, beginning his ministry. He is establishing kingdom rules, right? He is establishing what his kingdom will be like and what the people of his kingdom will be like. And that's how you, that's how we should read this book. As he speaks about the kind of people that will inherit the kingdom of heaven, right? How many of you have ever thought about the kingdom of heaven? We've thought about that before, right? But we think about what that's going to be like. But many times we fail to think of what we are like, what kind of people we are before we get there.
And so that is the goal through this study, is that the kind of people that will inherit the kingdom of heaven is spelled out for us here in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the book of Matthew. It is Jesus longest sermon. It is his most popular and it covers 111 verses. Out of those 111 verses, how many of you have a red letter Bible? Anybody using a red letter Bible? The one I'm using tonight is red letter.
107 of those verses will be red letters. That means Jesus said it. So the first two in chapter five and the last two in chapter seven, everything in between, Jesus. These are Jesus words. And so as we look at this sermon and the challenges of it and the character challenges of the kingdom, tonight we just realize Jesus has come and, and he wants his people to be a reflection of who he is.
That's the challenge.
I'm Matthew, chapter five. I'm gonna start in verse number one here in just a second.
But as I give this, as I finish this overview, the announcement of God's kingdom, the challenge is to live it out. And I wanted to hit the fast forward button just for a second. Chapter seven, verse number 24. Look there real quick. Chapter seven, verse number 24 dot here's what he says. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them.
So there's the challenge of the whole three chapters. You hear it and Then you carry them out in your life. And you are a reflection of the character of our God. And so any good sermon. You know what the mark of a good sermon is? It's not that it's a good preacher.
A successful sermon is one that is heard and one that is lived out every day of your life. And so if you come through the line and say, good sermon, I'll say, thank you.
But a good sermon is one that I see the people of God living out outside of these doors. And so that's the challenge, to hear it and to do it. So we're gonna begin tonight at the end of chapter number four. End of chapter number four, verses 23 through 25. I'm going to read those real quick and just kind of give a summary of where we're headed to that. Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases, torments, and those which were possessed with devils, those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy. And he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond Jordan. So we begin by looking at these verses. And there's really three things that I want you to see before we jump into the Sermon on the Mount. The first one is this. Jesus, teaching and preaching, is in full force.
He has stepped out.
His ministry is underway. And verse number 23 shows us that as he is teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing in all manner, so he is in full force ministry.
What a challenge for you and I to be in ministry. Full force, right?
For three years of his life, he gave his life to what his father's business was. And so ministry was in full force. What a challenge for you and I. Ministry needs to be in full force in our life. The second thing I want you to see is the fame that is beginning to spread. And in verse number 23, you see as he. Excuse me, 24, his fame went throughout all Syria. They brought him to sick people, the diseased people, the lunatics, right? If a lunatic showed up tonight, what would we do?
Some of us would be a little worried, right? We'd call the security team and say, come help us out, right? But those are the people that Jesus ministered to, the people that needed him. So I want you to understand the fame is spreading. Fame is spreading. The word is spreading. It's getting out, it's going out. That this Jesus is something. He has a message, he has a ministry. He is healing people. If you need Jesus, you. You better come see him.
That's still the message, right?
If you need Jesus, you better come get him.
The fame is spready. And the third thing I want you to see is the multitudes that followed in verse number 26, or excuse me, 25 great multitudes of people from Galilee. And all of these people are beginning to come and to follow Jesus.
So Jesus is being pressed and pressured on all sides by people of different cities and backgrounds coming to him, crying out to him, crowding around him. And with that, we open chapter number five. Ministry is busy. It is full force. The fame is spreading and people are beginning to follow. And what is Jesus? Answer, I gotta take a break. I gotta get away from these people, right?
And so with that, let's look at verses one through three of chapter five.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him.
And he opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
As I titled this message tonight, the Blessed Part one, we're going to get through four of eight Beatitudes.
But as we think about point number one, here's point number one tonight.
The poor in spirit have riches.
The poor in spirit have riches.
Matthew 5 opens up by Jesus seeing all of these people.
Now remember, they have heard what is going on. They have heard his teaching, they have seen him healing.
And all of these people began to come and see what Jesus is about, what this man is teaching and what he is about. And so as he has seen what is before him, what is his answer? His answer, oftentimes when the crowds came, was first to retreat.
Why did Jesus retreat? Why did Jesus go to mountains Through. Throughout Scripture, he went there to pray.
And so here's what I want to make us all understand. It's okay to retreat from ministry if you're seeking God's direction, God's will for your life.
If you're praying, retreating for any other reason isn't right.
But here's what Jesus does. He goes to the mountaintop, he and he begins to pray. There is a sister passage to this Luke, chapter number six. We're not going to go there. But just for your information, Luke, chapter six, verses 17 through 49. That's Luke's sister passage. His perspective on this as well.
But Jesus goes up to the mountain, he prays. And here's what I want you to see. As Jesus is descending back down the mountain, the first ones to get to him are his disciples, okay? And that's where he sits down, and that's where he begins to teach.
And there's a lot of discussion here. Who is present? Who is present when Jesus delivers this powerful sermon? How many of y' all know that preachers want a good crowd when they have a good sermon?
But can I tell you something? I don't know which sermons are good and which one's not. I don't know which ones God's gonna use the most.
And here's usually the way it happens. The ones I think are good are bombshells. They flop. And the ones I think that they're gonna flop, those are the ones that God uses.
But every preacher likes a good crowd, right?
The best preacher in the world, Jesus, starts out with his disciples.
I believe this is Geoffrey. I believe those are the closest people to him. But it's not limited to the 12.
This sermon starts out with the disciples that know Jesus.
But I also believe that the crowds infiltrate as the sermon goes on.
I also believe that this is not word for word Jesus sermon. I believe it is a summation of what Jesus preached. I believe the sermon was much longer.
If you read the Sermon on the Mount, if you read three chapters, you. You take your time and read through it. It's 10 minutes.
I believe Jesus preached longer than 10 minutes.
And so I believe this is Matthew's summation of what Jesus had to say.
So Jesus has retreated to the Mount. He prays, he descends. He is joined by those disciples, those that know him.
And I see as the this sermon begins, he starts with, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Beatitudes are the blessings.
Here's what I want you to get your mind wrapped around.
A Beatitude or the blessedness when we hear that word. Some of your translations, if you use something other than King James Version, may say happy. But this is more than a happiness that. That the world offers.
It is a deep seated spiritual conviction. It is a character trait that we must have if we are people of God.
So the blessings or the attitudes or the character traits, these are those which follow Jesus and they're similar to the fruits of the Spirit.
And so the people of God, the Holy Spirit living in you, should produce these character traits. Now, look, I want you to know that these are not a test. You can't Say, I want that one and that one and that one.
This is a collective list that we should bear as Christians.
And so that's the challenge with each of us tonight.
There are eight of them, and the first one is this blessed.
That word speaking to an inner satisfaction, not a rejoicing over an outward situation.
And if you read Luke's account here, I'm trying to get there. But if you read Luke's account, he uses the word blessed as well, but he also uses the word woe.
Everybody knows what woe is, right? Cursed.
So Luke's gospel has the word blessed and woe, they're opposites. So when you think of a blessed or the poor in spirit, it is a happiness, it is a joy that is rooted in the Lord and that can only come from him.
So the poor in spirit, what does that mean? Blessed are the poor in spirit. What does the poor in spirit mean? It doesn't mean poor materially.
Okay, I want to say this.
It's not saying that if you have things that you're a bad person.
It's not calling us here to. To be people of nothing.
So some people read this and say, okay, I have more than some. I'm not poor.
This does not apply. It's not talking about poor, immaterial things.
And it's also not talking about poor spirited people.
Anybody met anybody? Have you ever met somebody poor spirited?
I see a couple head shakes. Okay, you know, don't take this personal. I call them down in the dump people, the negative Nancy's, you know, those people, the people that always pull you down.
That's a poor spirited person. And I'm gonna be honest with you, I can't be around those people.
I don't want to be around those people because they pull me down.
And there are people like that in the church.
But here's what it means. The poor in spirit means those people that realize without God they have nothing and they are nothing.
That's what the poor in spirit means. Without God, I am nothing.
So when we understand that our spirit should be one of humility, not that we can take care of ourselves, but knowing that we must have God or we have nothing.
That's the attitude of the poor in spirit and those people.
Verse number three says this. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Those are the kind of people that get to heaven, the ones that say, it's not about me, I can't do it on my own, I've got to have Jesus.
Those are the people that get to heaven.
And that's amazing that Jesus starts out this powerful sermon with his disciples. With the crowds beginning to filter in. If you want to get to heaven, you've got to depend on me.
And so the poor spirited people will have riches.
What's the greatest thing that you can have tonight?
Man, we have many blessings.
I have many blessings.
The greatest thing that you can have tonight is Jesus.
And tonight, if you don't have Jesus, you need him.
You need him in your life.
And so tonight, are you that kind of person that as we think about the inheritance that awaits you, think about a place called heaven. But you realize there is no way I can get there on my own. I've got to have Jesus in order to get there.
That's the poor in spirit person.
I need Jesus.
Look at verse number four.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The second point tonight is this. Those that mourn will be comforted.
When's the last time you mourn?
I'm looking around this room tonight and here's what I want you. There's some people in this room that are mourning.
I know that.
When we think of the word mourning, what do we associate it with? You have lost someone, and so that gives us a spirit to mourn.
I believe those who mourn this verse promises this, that you can find comfort in Jesus.
If you mourn, you will be comforted.
But I also think it has a deeper meaning than just mourning over the loss of someone.
I think it also carries the meaning that you mourn over your sin.
When you fail God, it hurts you.
It's a spirit of mourning that should take place when we sin against God as people of God. When we sin, we. We should mourn because we have hurt our heavenly Father.
And in that there is comfort when we come to Jesus with that spirit of mourning and with that sin.
Do you remember the words from Ecclesiastes chapter number three, verse number four that says this? There is a time to weep and. And a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
You remember those words, right?
And we understand as these times come, there are those that find themselves in a time of weeping and mourning.
There can be an inner satisfaction knowing this, that Jesus is by your side, no matter what.
This mourning or this blessedness of those that mourn is an attitude of brokenness in the world.
In a world that celebrates sin, the Christian should mourn. When we hurt the heart of God.
The only comfort or the only blessing is Jesus.
The only person that can Fix, that is Jesus.
When you feel broken by the world or broken in sin, Jesus is who you run to.
That is what this verse says.
Look with me real quick. Second Corinthians, chapter number one, Second Corinthians, chapter number one, verses three and four.
Second Corinthians one, starting with verse three.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, but by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
I'm going to bring the Clifford translation to you, right?
As believers, you have experienced God's comfort in such a way that when those that are hurting around you, you should be able to comfort them with the same comfort that you have gotten from God.
The world says comfortable or comfort involves money or a nice house, or when things are all in order, when the family's getting along right?
Those bring us great comfort.
But here's what Jesus says.
Blessed are those that mourn, that are sorrowful, not only in loss, but for their sin. Because when they come to God, they will be comforted.
Tonight, if there is something in your spirit that you're looking for comfort for, maybe you are mourning, maybe you're agitated, maybe you have sleepless nights. Here's what the pastor has to tell you. Bring it to the Lord. Bring it to Jesus.
There's where you will find comfort.
Look at verse number five.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
What does the meek person do? The meek person thinks less of themselves and more of others and of God.
And this goes against the world that we live in today.
We live in a social media world.
We desire people to like and to share and to follow and to gain a status where we are an influencer.
But we should be influenced by this, by our God.
Look, you go preach my sermon.
When we think about proving ourself, we live in a world that looks out for self.
And you've got to prove yourself. And when you prove yourself, you climb the corporate ladder and everybody's out for themselves. And they'll take everybody down so long they get that spot.
That's the world we live in. I fought that battle for 16 years.
Everybody wants to make you look bad.
But this word means to be brought under, to submit.
Two people in your Bible, Moses and Jesus was, are examples of people who were meek.
And both had to be brought under God's leading in their life. Both had to submit to God's leading. Moses had to do that and Jesus had to do that.
And that's why they are examples of meek people in the Bible. Meekness is not a weakness, but it is power under control.
Anybody ever broke or tried to tame a wild animal horse?
Nobody in here. God bless you.
God bless you.
When I was 15 years old, we bought a horse.
Guess who got to be the first one to ride this horse?
Me.
So we saddled him up and bratted him up. And I grew up around horses, but this horse was very energetic.
And so he gets away from my parents who were leading and off I go.
No woe, no pulling back, no nothing would stop this horse.
And so this horse took off up through the field, gone under tree branches, trying to take me out. I'm hugging this horse's neck at one point. I'm down hugging. And I just stayed on until he got tired of running.
Thankfully he didn't buck or anything. I have broken a wrist due to a horse throwing me though.
But that's the terminology here, power under control.
When you take a beast such as a horse and you can put a harness on him and you can put some reins on him and you can put thousands of pounds behind him and he can. And when he is trained, he can pull that horsepower and go.
That's the word used here, power under control.
Remember that meekness is a fruit of the Spirit.
So here's what I believe this verse is saying is this. You just can't go out today and say, I'm gonna work on my meekness.
I'm gonna become meeker today. I'm gonna harness my power and I'm gonna become a workhorse for Jesus.
No, because it is a fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to do it.
God has to do this work.
And God has to harness all of you and point it in the direction for him.
And that's how you become meek.
It's not something that you can muster up on your own. It's the work of the Lord in your life.
Just as someone has to break a horse and train it and work with it, the Holy Spirit must break our pride field, self seeking, self serving heart.
Because that's what we're born with.
God's got to break that.
The horse is powerful, under control, and with the Spirit's leading and by his power, he can use those whom he changes and use them for his glory.
The promise associated with those that are meek is one day they will inherit the earth.
And that doesn't mean that you're going to inherit this whole thing that we know of today as the Earth, that one day when he comes back and sets up his earthly reign, you will reign with God Almighty.
You will be there.
You will inherit the earth one day. What a promise.
But that promise can only be attained when God harnesses us and points us in his direction and we submit to his leading.
That's the challenge here.
Blessed are those.
And verse number five are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Last verse, verse number six.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Our appetites are desires to be fed.
When you sit down at a meal, do you sit down just to get a little taste of what's there, or do you sit down to eat, to be filled?
All right, don't y' all smirking. I see it.
I think we all. We all sit down and we want to be filled, right?
There have been times that I've eaten off the appetizer menu, right?
But I've got to eat a couple of those to even come close to being full, right?
But as I connect this thought, we don't stop with just an appetizer if we're still hungry and our desire is to be full.
Many Christians are picky eaters.
Do you have a picky eater that you know? I got one in my family.
It's not a bad thing.
And I'm going to be honest with you, if it's something green, other than a green bean or an asparagus or salad, it probably ain't going down to get me full either. Okay? I don't like anything green.
Just take it.
Take it. Just take it.
I will eat it. But I'm somewhat picky, too.
When we think about Christians being picky eaters, they pick and choose what they desire.
They take this book and they'll find a verse and they're like, man, that's a good verse.
But they don't want all of it.
And I'm not trying to be picky here, but we'll pick what Sundays we want to worship and what Sundays we don't need to worship.
We'll pick apart everything else of God, and we're just picky people sometimes they choose what they desire, what they're good with.
But they're never full, they're never filled.
Here's what I believe. I believe all human beings are hungry and thirsty for something.
There is something that drives you.
If success drives you, if success is your appetite, then you will exhaust all measures until you are successful.
If status is Something that is your appetite and keeping up with the Joneses, then it doesn't matter if you have to endure debt or devotion to material things, you will do whatever it takes to feed that appetite for the people that we're talking about here, the law adhering to that law, adhering to rules that could never fill them.
And so what Jesus is doing as he lays down his law and his rules is he's saying this. My people will hunger and thirst for right, living righteousness before God. Right standing before God tonight.
Would you say that you hunger for that like you should?
The right standing before God? Do you hunger for that like you should?
Or do you stop tasting and seeing that the Lord is good after a little bit and say, oh, that's good enough.
But I'm not full.
I still need something.
So tonight, can we pray for appetites that desire more of God?
Because verse number six says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled tonight. If you're sitting in this room and you feel empty, maybe you have been snacking on the wrong things, on the things of the world.
Just like I tell my youngest, you filled up on junk tonight. If you're filled with junk, you're still gonna hunger, you're still gonna thirst.
But the promise here is if you are thirsting for the things of God, for right standing in God's eyes, then you will. Will be full.
Can I say this?
I believe churches across America are filled with Christians that are empty.
But here's the answer.
Desire the things of God.
Pray for an appetite for Jesus, for godly things.
But we must be empty of self and filled with the desire to please our Lord.
And so tonight, as we end this first opening sermon of this series, here's my question tonight. Is there a need for God?
The poor in spirit, they realize they need God, nothing else.
Is there a need the mourning over sin? Is there mourning that is happening because you are not where you need to be with the Lord?
That should cause a Christian, a godly person, to mourn tonight.
Are you broken?
Are you broken as the third one, that we should be broken by the things that need to be of God and will. We hunger and thirst for the Lord, for the things of God.
There's our challenge.
If we do these things, then we have an inward joy that the world does not understand because they're looking to all these other things tonight. If you're missing it, I think I know the answer.
It's Jesus.
Jesus is that answer.
So as a church and as Christians, can we pray tonight for our spiritual appetites?
That we would crave more of the godly things and lay off the worldly things, the things that aren't filling us.
Let's pray together.
Father. God. Lord, thank you for the blessing of this night and the blessing of your word. God. And I pray, Lord, in this moment of reflection, Lord, tonight, Lord, that you will lead people of God to desire more of you.
Lord, tonight, as we think about being part of those that are blessed, that are happy, that have an inner spirit of joy that the world doesn't understand, God, that comes when we desire more of you.
And so tonight, as we look at ourselves, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you will give us that spiritual appetite that desires you.
And Lord, I pray that you will fill places in our hearts and our minds with your spirit.
God, let us lean on you tonight. Lord. I pray as a church, as individuals, as families, God, that we will desire to be more like you and God through that, Lord, then we can be an example of what godly people look like. Lord, everybody in this room desires a place called heaven. But Lord, tonight, if there's someone here that knows they need you.
And Lord has never sought you in that personal relationship, God, I pray that your holy Spirit will work in that life.
God. Thank you, Lord. Tonight, here's my prayer. Make us hungry for you and make our spirit poor. That we need you more and more each and every day. God, we love you and we thank you for meeting us here tonight. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: You've been listening to Truth for the Journey from Clifford Baptist Church. You're always welcome to visit Clifford Baptist Church for Sunday School at 9:45 worship at 11:00am and Wednesday evening worship at 7:00pm Join us again for Truth for the Journey.
