Matthew 5:7–12Scripture
So we continue in the biatitudes this morning. We're looking at verse 7 through 11. So I mean honestly probably each of these biatitudes we could stay on a little while. It is interesting because I've learned you can turn there 5 7-11. But while you turn there, I've learned that it's very difficult to communicate with people because oftentimes you're having a conversation, but you're you're talking on two different wavelengths.
And part of this comes from the fact that we all interpret specific words differently. If I were to talk about If I were to sit down today and talk about love with people from different ages and demographics, they would enter the conversation with an understanding of love that might be different than my understanding of love.
And I've often found that although that people come to church, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have a biblical understanding or definition of love. That oftentimes we don't necessarily have a biblical definition of a word.
And so we are influenced by the music we listen to, by the shows we watch, by the people we engage, by the company we keep.
The reality is all of that has an influencing effect on the way that we see and understand life and communicate then with one another.
So then when we open up the Bible and then we begin to read about certain words like mercy and purity and love and peace.
All of us then have a specific understanding of what that means.
Introduction
The question then for each of us is it what God meant? When Jesus spoke these words, what was he saying?
And it is the duty of every Bible scholar then to have a understanding of what Jesus was saying, not what you think that word means.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:13
Amen. But how was he applying it? What was he really trying to say to us?
Because when we say the word peace, that is one of the most divisive words in the English language, right?
It's divisive because many of us have an understanding of peace that's not necessarily a biblical understanding of peace.
So then how can you become a peacemaker if you hadn't even settled the idea of what godly peace is?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:43
You're trying to make something the wrong way. And so then we run into a problem. Verse seven says, "Blessed are the merciful."
There's a word that probably has many meanings in the house today. For they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God pure of heart. That means a lot of things to a lot of different people in here today. One person on the side of the room will be like, "This is a person who does everything perfectly."
On another side of the room, they're like, "This is a people who intend well but don't do well." Somebody might be saying, "Well, we're only pure because of what Jesus did. He doesn't want us to be pure because how can a man be pure, so I'm going to live however I want. He's already made me pure in Christ."
Are you with me today? And so we have a problem then immediately in the house because there is not multiple ways to interpret this text. There's only one way you can interpret it and it's the way that Jesus intended it. Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.
There's a peacemaking. So we got to be okay with all everybody all the time and everybody's got to be happy all the time. Nobody can be mad at us at any time. Matter of fact, if somebody disagrees with me, I will acquies because I don't want to make them unhappy.
The church has done this today. We've just we've just laid down and allowed sin to walk right into the house.
Matter of fact, we've become the pathway for sin to enter in the name of peace.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:49
Are you with me? In the name of peace and unity with the world. See how problematic it can become when you don't have an understanding of what Jesus meant, but you throw your interpretation on something without understanding what he means by a word.
It's a problem. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Here it gets weird. This lets me know these verse 11 and 12 let me know that I might not have a good understanding of what verse 7 through 10 mean because it goes off on some weird kind of thing here.
Okay? Because if I do all of these things, this is what comes in my life. Blessed are you when others revile you, persecute you, utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. You do seven, eight, nine, and 10, well, people will revile you, persecute you, and utter evil against you.
That's guaranteed, okay? And that's a blessing. Rejoice and be glad for that, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now, this would have meant a lot to the listener in the day because you are in good company to be put in the company of prophets that have come before you.
That's a big deal. And there's a crowd of witnesses that are cheering you on today that as a believer in Christ, you are in good company with them as well. And this should encourage us. This should really encourage us. So today I want to just kind of go down through each of these.
Point 1The mercy that moves
And the first thing is this. We learn about the mercy that moves. Mercy moves. I like that. M&M's, right? Mercy moves. It doesn't just feel, it moves. Mercy is not some like passive emotion. It's not some like sentimental sigh.
Mercy is compassion that moves towards the wounded.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:19
Okay. It is important that the church respond this way. Not out of duty, not out of obligation, but out of a heart that's been t changed by God.
We don't just need to merely sit back and see what's happening in the world and not move into action. God has changed our heart in such a way that he has made it merciful that when we see things and people that are wounded and hurting, we move towards them. We don't merely just shed a tear for them, but we move towards them.
We, in other words, become the hands and the feet of Christ. We move into action. When Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful,"
He was not describing those who simply feel sorry for the broken. He was describing those who enter into their pain.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:12
When was the last time you were moved this way? Mercyy's not afraid to get messy. It's not held back by fear of being misunderstood.
Mercy goes where others will not go because it remembers where Christ went for us.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:43
Yes. Amen. Mercy stoops. Mercy kneels. Mercy serves. It is the Samaritan on the side of the road. When everyone else walks by, mercy stops and kneels and comforts the wounded.
It is the Savior on his knees washing the feet of men who would soon abandon him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:16
That's what mercy does. It loves the unlovable. It loves those who will one day or have already forsaken you. It stoops for those who are lodging knives in your back. That's what mercy does. It does the unthinkable. Mercy moves us.
You cannot understand mercy until you first stood guilty and been forgiven of much.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:50
The more you have been forgiven and the more you understand of what you've been forgiven of, the more you're moved with compassion for other people.
Mercy is born in those who know what it means to have received mercy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:09
When you've seen the cross, when you've heard the nails that should have been yours, when you've tasted forgiveness you could never earn, something in your heart shifts.
The heart becomes tender when it was once hard. The soul begins to begin to be generous. The one who has received mercy becomes incapable of withholding it for their neighbor.
To withhold mercy is to forget Calvary. To extend mercy is to remember it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:54
Mercy is not weakness. It is strength under the rule of love. It does not ignore sin.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:04
It absorbs the cost of it. Mercy always pays something. Pays in time. Pays in time. It's going to cost you some time. It pays in patience. It's going to cost you some patience to be merciful. It's going to cost you pride. But to those who show mercy, Jesus says, they shall obtain mercy. Track with me here.
The river that flows out of you is the same river that keeps you alive.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:47
You're not extending something that has not first been extended to you. Okay, that's that. The mercy that moves. When was the last time you've been moved by mercy?
Point 2The purity that sees
Number two, the purity that sees. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. I love this. What does the word pure mean? Here's what I found. It's the word from which we get our English word catharsis. Now, I love this, which literally means purifying. Whether it be physical or emotional a catharsis.
And the word does not have to do so much with cleanliness. Although it's inferred, it has to do more with unity. Now, this is important especially as we move towards peacemaking or quite literally singleness of heart and mind.
It literally means blessed is that which is unmixed. Blessed is the pure of heart or blessed if you want to do an actual interpretation. Blessed is that which is unmixed. For example, grain would have chaff in it and it would not be pure. Or a metal would have alloy in it and then it would not be pure. Milk when it's diluted with water is not pure.
It's mixed with something. So he says that blessed are those who are unmixed, who are single of heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. What he's talking about is blessed are those who have integrity, that do not have divided hearts, that do not have double hearts, singleness of heart.
Now later on in Matthew chapter 6 the Bible speaks to us and says you cannot serve two masters. Why? Because you must be single of heart.
Cannot live with one foot in the kingdom and the other foot in shadows.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:30
To be pure in heart is to be undistracted by lesser loves.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:37
It is to be free from the exhausting tugof-war of divided allegiance.
But here's the problem. You cannot, I repeat, you cannot purify yourself. The prophet said, "Our heart is deceitful above all things in Isaiah and desperately wicked." That's your heart.
You cannot unwicked a heart with a wicked heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:12
And no matter how hard you try, wicked can't cast out wicked. It don't work that way.
Our problem is not dirty hands, but diseased heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:24
That's what the Bible is saying. What hope is there for a man whose corruption lies deeper than his conscience can reach?
But there is hope because the one who commands purity also provides it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:41
He heals the heart by saving your soul. The Bible says, "Heal me, oh Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me and I shall be saved." Only God can heal your heart. How does he heal it? By saving it from its wicked ways.
He does not polish your old heart. The Bible says he gives you a new one.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:14
He does not decorate the tomb. He raises the dead.
The pure in heart are not self-made saints. They are spiritmade creations.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:24
And here is the promise. They shall see God. That's the promise. You can take it to the bank. The world cannot see him. The impure heart can't perceive him. Actually, sin fogs the lens, causes people to not be able to see him in life, in their home, in their cars, at the workplace, wherever they go, they cannot see God.
But those whose heart have been changed can see him everywhere. Can you remember the day where he changed your heart? And can you remember how often that changed what you see? Now sidewalks aren't sidewalks and trees aren't trees and things aren't things and people aren't just mere people. And you're not floating through a clouded life, but now he's changed everything.
And the way you see life, you see him in everything.
Changed not just your heart but by changing your heart he changed your vision. Suddenly life itself becomes a sanctuary.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:33
The one with a pure heart sees God in the sunrise and in the Scriptures and in sorrow and in stillness. The pure heart lives aware of his presence.
Purity is not cold morality.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:55
It's burning devotion. It is the soul that wants nothing more than to see the face of God and will not rest until it does. Is there mixture in your heart? The Bible says he gives you a pure one solely devoted to him with a burning desire to chase him above all things.
Even those things you once loved in the world now are but mixtures tainting what he's made you. Is that your reality? That's a believer's reality.
Point 3The peace that costs
The peace that costs. That sounds like an oxymoron today, doesn't it?
Because we've taken peace and say it won't cost you anything. But biblical peace cost you everything.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:47
Here's a question. Why do you think it is today on social media, in government, in nations, around dinner tables, war is waging?
Why is it that we can't even go to Thanksgiving without getting into some political debate about who's right and wrong? What is going on? Can we ever just have a dinner without everybody getting prickly about everybody else's opinion?
What is going on? I would say no, we can't. The reality is and the reason for that is we are at war within ourselves. That's what James says. James chapter 4 verse4, there is a war on the inside that wars within our members. Here's what James 4:1 says. Let me read it to you. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you and wars?
Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?
That's at the forefront of the problems we have with our brother.
People are not at peace today. That's why they can't be at peace with anyone else.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:24
We are miserable. I mean just think for a moment of how much in this world we self-medicate to make oursel happy.
I'm not against sports but there's a problem with sports when sports become the thing that help you medicate yourself to make you happy.
Are you with me today? I'm not against social media. I think that it can be an avenue by which we can proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. Ain't nobody listening, but you can do it. And I don't have a problem with it.
But the problem then becomes when social media is used as a tactic to soothe your soul when Christ should do that.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:19
Right. Amen. We are at war. We are miserable in oursel. We are seeking to feel better in and out of every day. And we will reach out and grab a hold of anything that soothes us for a moment. But the reality is we know it to be true that those things don't last. It is a soothing that waines.
There's a soothing that's temperamental and it creates misery in our hearts and people are not at peace and that's why we can't be at peace with anyone else.
We live in a world that's uptight. Can I get an amen? Just go on social media and have anybody do anything or say anything. It's hilarious. I just started posting I just kind of started posting pictures of my dogs and food. People have less of a problem with that. If I say anything about the Lord, that's trigger inducing for people.
If I have an opinion about anything regarding the government, the morality in it, I'll get doxed.
My house will be bombed. Are you with me? It's crazy today. People are miserable. Turmoil is rampant. Why the war on the outside? And why the war on the outside? And why the war on the inside? Because there's a third war raging. We are at war with God. James 4:4 says, "You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is immity with God?"
Oh man. If you're So, in other words, if you're at friend with worldly things, you're at emnity with God.
If you're at peace with worldly things, you're at enmity with God. So, how are we supposed to be peacemaker, Sean? So, you're making it very difficult for me because you want me to be a peacemaker, but I can't be at peace with God and at peace with the world.
Is that what you're saying? No, that's what James is saying. So, clearly we see some dispensation between what Jesus is saying and what James is saying, right?
Jesus actually says, "I didn't come to bring peace." I came to bring a sword to the world. So how is it that Jesus the very one who didn't come to bring peace but is a peacemaker? Because he wouldn't call us to be something that he was not that was not a part of his nature and character. So he's calling us to be a peacemaker but he didn't come to bring peace to the world.
How do we reconcile this? And should it inform what we understand this to be?
I should just move on. Let you figure it out. But we're at war. James 4:4, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. I'm I'm just thinking of all the churches that have bowed to sinful things that the Bible speaks clearly about.
Those churches and those people are at immity with God. They have chosen their first love and it is the world and it is sin. Like it, don't like it, I really don't care. That's the truth. It's a problem today. We have a problem in our churches. We do not strive for righteousness and holiness. We cower to the world and it is our first love.
That's a problem. The world means warfare. We are at war with one another because we are at war on the inside. And why are we at war on the inside? Because we are at war with God. Isaiah 57:21 says, "There is no peace, says God, for the wicked." Until, in other words,
Until you are right with God or reconciled with God, you will be a troublemaker and never have the ability to be a peacemaker.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:06
Now, let me say this. Let me say what peace is not. Peace is not appeasement. See, because when some of you translate this, that's how you translate it. We appease the world so that they'll be happy and everybody will smile and get along.
But peace is not appeasement. Appeasement never brings peace.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:40
There is something wrong something desperately wrong with the person who can get along with everyone.
You don't you just can't do it. Just can't I mean can are you with me today? You just can't get along with everyone. You can try. And the Bible says, "If it be possible, as much as it depends on you, live peacefully with all men."
Which means it's not always possible.
Jesus did not get along with everyone. It's why they killed him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:21
It's why they killed all the apostles except for John. They tried. They tried. They tried a lot. Jesus did not get along with everyone. Yet, he was a peacemaker. What do you mean by peacemaker, Sean? Because it didn't seem very peaceful when they were nailing him to the cross.
That didn't seem peaceful. How's that making peace? What was Jesus doing? What was his purpose? What is peacemaking? In peacemaking is reconciling people who are at enmity with God. God is at war with man because of sin. And Jesus came to make peace. How did he do that?
He reconciled men to a God who was coming to kill them.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:12
He made peace through reconciliation. Amen. So when you as a believer have been changed, have been made pure of heart, when you are merciful, when he changes your heart and saves you, when you begin to preach truth or speak truth to the world and people are reconciled to God by the truth, you communicate truth. When you do that, you're a peacemaker.
Did you know that you could you can proclaim the gospel and out of a hundred people, 99 of them want to come kill you because of the truth you spoke, but one person's reconciled to God in the crowd.
Did you know that's making peace? Even though 99 are trying to string you up, you made peace because you preached a truth that reconciled men who were at war with God.
And guess what it does naturally when that person becomes reconciled to God? When you're reconciled to God, you become reconciled to them. Why is it that we think peacemaking is reconciling oursel to sin? I think we have a different understanding of peacemaking than this Bible is talking about. Jesus did not get along with everyone and everyone did not get along with Jesus.
Can I even say this? Peace is not the absence of war. Okay, let me prove it for you. There is no strife in a cemeter strife in a cemetery. But incidentally, that doesn't mean there's peace there. Peace is not appeasement. Peace is not trucemaking. Peace is not even merely the absence of war. I would propose that sometimes it requires it.
What is peace then? Peace is a right relationship. Listen carefully.
Peace is a right relationship with God. That leads to a right relationship with self and guides us in a right relationship with others.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:41
That's what peace is.
Peace is a result of the fruit of righteousness. There is no peace without purity.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:57
Point 4The persecution that proves
All right, moving on. The persecution that proves blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Seems almost contradictory, doesn't it? How can persecution be blessing? Yet, this is the strange arithmetic of the kingdom.
The world calls the persecuted cursed, but heaven calls them blessed.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:27
The biatitudes rise like steps up a mountain. And at the peak stands this one.
Mercy, purity, peace. All of it leads to this. When you live by these kingdom values, the world will turn against you.
Your family will turn against you if they're not believers in Christ. Your friends who don't know God will turn against you. It is hard to be friends with the world and friends with God.
Everybody wants the world to be their homeboy and God to be their homeboy. Mercy exposes cruelty. Purity exposes corruption. Peace exposes division.
And the world does not like its reflection in the mirror of holiness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:33
Jesus was mercy incarnate, purity embodied, peace personified, and the world crucified him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:41
Do not be surprised when it does that to you and be very surprised when it doesn't.
And that should be cause for pause at what kind of life you're living. Are you with me today? That should be cause for Paul's. We don't create moments in the church, enough moments in the church for people to reflect and consider whether they're saved.
But we shouldn't. We'd rather just say, "Well, they professed it, so it must be true." But first John says, "Be careful because a lot of people say they're Christians and they're not."
They're not. So what is this, Sean? Well, this is exciting because we get to celebrate what God makes us. And it's concerning because for many of us, we don't see any of these things demonstrated in our life, but we professed Jesus for years.
Sean, make me happy. Don't make me contemplate. You should contemplate that. You should consider why. Why are all of these biatitudes absent? And why is it that the world is comfortable with me? You should ask why, man. It's quiet. It's quiet. It's really quiet. Stop stressing me out. It's quiet. The persecuted are blessed because their suffering draws them closer to Christ.
They learn to find their joy in his approval rather than man's applause.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:55
They find their joy in him. They learn to treasure eternal reward over temporary comfort. And they find in the fire that Christ himself is enough. When everything else burns around them.
Persecution does not remove blessing. Persecution reveals blessing. The presence of pain does not mean the absence of God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:21
It often means you have followed him closely enough to share in his sufferings.
Mercy without purity becomes compromise. Purity without mercy becomes pride. Peace without both becomes surrender to sin.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:43
These are not separate virtues. They built on one another. They are strands of a tapestry woven by the spirit into the heart of the redeemed. And Christ is the pattern and we are the threads. He is mercy that stooped down, washed our feet.
He is purity that never wavered in devotion to his father. He is peace that bore the cross to reconcile us to God. He is the persecuted who turned suffering into salvation. So when he says blessed are the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, the persecuted,
He's not describing four kinds of people here.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:38
He is describing one kind of disciple. One who looks like him.
The blessed life is not an easy life. It is the narrow road that leads home.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:04
So walk in mercy. Guard your heart. Make peace. Stand firm.
And when the world mocks your devotion, remember this. Heaven has already applauded it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:26
Blessed are you, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
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