The first four beatitudes describe our response to God. God shows us we have no righteousness apart from what He gives us. We briefly grieve that we ever thought we did. We begin to trust God with our life because we realize how He has loved us … we become meek or gentle in the world. This knowledge produces a deep and abiding hunger and thirst to know Him more. The fifth beatitude is a turning point. Until now Jesus is describing the things that go on in the hearts and minds of His blessed, loved and redeemed children. And then…suddenly….there is that turning point where God begins to transform His Children into the image of Christ. He uses our life and its circumstances to accomplish that.
Being hungry implies that you need food and being thirsty suggests your need for water. The blessed or the happy are not satisfied with their level of righteousness before God or mankind, but are hungry to actually possess righteousness. How can you be happy (blessed by God) if you know you are not righteous? A starving man has exactly one ambition … To find food. The same is true of someone without water. But most humans are perfectly content with their level of righteousness and morality. Most feel superior to those around them and why on earth would they hunger and thirst for something they feel no need for?
When Jesus started The Sermon on the Mount with the word “blessed” He meant “happy.” Webster says that happiness is a state of well-being and contentment. A happy person takes pleasure in their life and its circumstances and is deeply satisfied by it. You may be surprised to know that many believers do not even believe that Christians are supposed to be happy in this life. “Happiness and joy are for the next life. Misery, pain, discontent and despair are for this one,” they say. But… “do you know what God says about happiness? Are Christians supposed to be happy in this life or are we just supposed to be happy about our coming eternal life and just bear up silently while here on earth?
Coming or going! Giving or receiving! Left or right! Up or down! Peace or war! Comfort or pain! All these are contrasts familiar to most of humanity. Once a year we set aside a weekend…this weekend… to consider the greatest contrast in creation … Life and death. In our human minds “life and death” would be the correct order because we are alive and heading toward death. Humans consider life our default condition and death its nemesis. BUT… from God’s prospective it is “death or life” because men are born dead to God and in need of spiritual resurrection life.
Evil is on the march in our world. It is intense and it is shaking its fist in the face of The One True God. But…The veil is pull back for you. God is waiting for you to repent and come into the family of God and find rest. Yes…we are living in troubling times! Yes…there is spiritual darkness everywhere we look! And Yes…we are like clay pots compared to the perfect porcelain vessel of our Lord Jesus Christ, But…. You can come to Him. He will receive you! His light can and will shine into your dark heart and illuminate this dark evil world.
The date is Sunday March 29th, 33 AD. Jesus has just arrived in Bethany, a small village outside of Jerusalem. This is the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. He is on His way to Passover. It will be his last one. Hearing that Jesus was in town and eating with a man who was certifiably dead and raised again to life .... a local crowd began to gather to see Lazarus who had been four days in the tomb and decay had already begun. Everyone wanted a look at such an extraordinary man. This event took place on Sunday. On the next day Monday March 30th 33 AD. Jesus left Bethany and began the short descent to the City of Jerusalem. He was on His way to enter the city, as commanded, to celebrate the Passover.
When any person suffers the loss of everything they cherish there is grief and mourning. A job! A dream! An aspiration! A loved one! Wealth or possessions! All things men hope for in this world. Observe a man who has just lost His wealth, home, loved ones or any other possession through circumstances over which he has no control. Does he now mourn? Of course! We can all understand this metaphor. But Jesus calls such a man blessed or happy. Even more puzzling ... Jesus says that only the man who mourns the loss of the things he trusted in for salvation will be comforted.
Jesus the ultimate preacher is proclaiming (heralding) The Gospel of The Kingdom. Gospel, in this instance, means “Good News” that the King of God’s Kingdom is standing in their midst. John proclaimed the King would come! Jesus proclaimed that the King was here! People came from all over Israel and even outside Israel to be healed, and to see the miracles. In so doing they also heard The King proclaim the Kingdom’s arrival. This is precisely the context of Christ’s inaugural sermon. He has revealed Himself! He has called His disciples! He has gathered thousands to the shores of the Sea of Galilee with His miracles and healings! It is time to teach them what the Kingdom of God actually is.
The spiritual condition of humanity is very much on the heart and mind of God. As the world descends into total spiritual darkness it is easy to imagine that God is mainly thinking about Judgment, but we would be wrong. Judgment of sin is inevitable because God is perfectly just and His ways are perfectly righteous and they bring supreme good to men. His love for mankind compels Him to destroys all evil and His perfect justice obliges Him to right every wrong in His creation. “Closure” the world calls it today! But ... Out Triune God is still desires men to know come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. As this passage unfolds a year has passed since Jesus was baptized and tempted by Satan. To escape the hatred of Herod and fulfill His preaching ministry, Jesus returns to where he was raised in Galilee. Matthew tells us that… From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17
“In 4:12-17, Matthew picks up the story of that first year where the Apostle John leaves off, giving three features of Jesus’ early ministry that show God’s perfect work through His Son. It was the right time; it was in the right place; and it was the right proclamation.” John MacArthur