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Jesus Wants to Give Us Heavenly Happiness (Part 3)
Matthew 5:8-12
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - March 6, 2013
*Tonight we will take another look at the happiness the Lord wants all of us to have, remembering that the word "blessed" here in the Sermon on the Mount means "happy."
God wants us to be happy.
But He wants to give us true happiness, His heavenly happiness.
*We're not talking about the kind of happiness that evaporates as soon as someone cuts us off in traffic.
It's not the kind of happiness that disappears when you stub your toe.
*God wants to give us the kind of happiness that can well up inside of us on the worst day of our lives.
God wants to give us true happiness!
And Jesus teaches us how to have it.
1.
First tonight, the Lord teaches us that true happiness comes from having a pure heart.
*As Jesus said in vs. 8, "Blessed (or happy) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
But what does it mean to have a pure heart?
*Alan Balatbat tells us that in Scripture our heart refers to our mind, will and emotions.
Our heart determines our behavior, so Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to: "Keep (or guard) your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life."
*We need a pure heart, and Alan pointed out that "the Greek word translated 'pure' is 'katharos.'
If that sounds like the word 'catharsis,' it should, because that's where we get our word 'catharsis.'
It simply means 'to make pure by cleansing.'
And it is used in counseling to refer to a cleansing of the mind or emotions."
So a pure heart is a heart that has been cleansed.
(1)
*But a "pure" heart also means an undivided heart.
William Barclay explained that the word "'pure' was often used for the corn which had been sifted and cleansed of all chaff."
When Jesus spoke about "the pure in heart," He was talking about a clean heart with undivided devotion to Him. (2)
*How are we going to get a heart like that?
-- We will never get it on our own.
Only Jesus Christ can give us a heart like that.
So Church, in Revelation 1:5, Jesus Christ is "the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth" who "loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood."
*Jesus Christ died on the cross to take all of the punishment for all of our sins.
And when we trust in Him, we are forgiven, pardoned, cleansed and made new.
As the Apostle John said in 1 John 1:7, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."
*Jesus gives us a brand-new, pure heart when we receive Him as Lord and Savior, and wonderful things begin to happen.
We start out as little baby Christians, so there is a lot of growing-up to do.
But Jesus says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Alan Balatbat points out that: "The purer our hearts become, the more we will see of God in this life."
(1)
*Can you see Jesus? -- I'm not talking about seeing with your physical eyes, but with the spiritual eyes of faith.
Hebrews 2:9 says this to believers: "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone."
*Can you see Jesus?
During the Christmas season of 1879, a newspaper reporter in Boston saw three little girls standing in front of a store-window full of toys.
One of the girls was blind.
Coming closer, reporter heard the other girls trying to describe the toys to their blind friend.
He had never thought about how hard it would be to explain what something looks like to someone who has never been able to see, so he wrote a story about it for the local paper.
*Two weeks later this same reporter went to a service led by the great preacher, D.L. Moody.
The reporter went hoping to hear something wrong in the sermon, so he could report it in the newspaper.
But he was shocked to hear Mr. Moody use his own story of the three girls to illustrate a spiritual truth.
*Moody said: "Just as the blind girl could not visualize the toys, so an unsaved person cannot see Christ in all His Glory.
But God opens the eyes of anyone who acknowledges his sin and accepts the Savior in humble faith."
(3)
*God used Moody's words to touch that reporter's heart, and he joyfully turned his life over to Jesus.
Then he could really see.
And I love that story, because we can clearly see the Hand of God at work there.
*The Hand of the Lord put the reporter in front of the store at just the right time to see the girls.
The Hand of God allowed him to write the story, led the editor to put it in the paper, and made sure that Mr. Moody read it.
The Hand of the Lord let that skeptical reporter hear Moody's sermon on the very night the preacher had been inspired to use the story as an illustration.
In these ways and countless more, we can see the Hand of God at work in our world, if we have the eyes of faith.
*Jesus said, "Blessed (or happy) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
He teaches us that true happiness comes from having a pure heart.
2. But true happiness also comes from being a peacemaker for the Lord.
*As Jesus said in vs. 9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
*Please know that this verse is not a condemnation of armies or war.
There are evil, corrupt governments all over the world, but God established government to protect the innocent.
The Apostle Paul explained this truth to us in Romans 13:1-4.
There Paul said:
1.
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
3.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.
Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?
Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
4. For he is God's minister to you for good.
But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
*God surely does not condemn being a law enforcement officer or a soldier.
In fact, several times the Bible asks Christians to be good soldiers for the Lord.
For example, in 2 Timothy 2:3, Paul said: "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
And in Revelation 19:14, we see "the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean," following Jesus Christ into battle "on white horses."
*Jesus is not preaching against armies in Matthew 5.
So what does the Lord mean when He says: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."?
What kind of people are these peacemakers?
Three key words help us understand: abundance, appeasement and action.
[1] First abundance: Peacemakers are people who bring an abundance of good into our world.
*William Barclay helped us understand this truth when he explained that the Hebrew idea of peace never meant "only the absence of trouble.
In Hebrew peace always means everything that makes for a man's highest good.
In the Bible, "peace" not only means freedom from all trouble; it means the enjoyment of all good."
And peacemakers are the people who help bring this abundance of good.
(4)
[2] The next key word is appeasement.
But we must understand that the Lord's peacemakers are not appeasers.
*Barclay said: "The peace which the Bible calls 'blessed' does not come from the evasion of issues.
It comes from facing them, dealing with them, and conquering them.
What this beatitude demands is not passively accepting things because we are afraid to do anything about them.
No, -- peacemaking here calls for actively facing things, and making peace, even when the way to peace is through struggle."
(4)
*God's peacemakers are not into appeasement.
[3] That's why the third key word for peacemakers is action.
*Peacemakers are action-takers.
Peacemakers are people who take action to follow the Lord.
And they follow the Lord, because Jesus is the greatest peacemaker of all!
*We know this is true, because Jesus can give us peace with God!
As Paul tells Christians in Romans 5:1: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
*Christians: Jesus can also give us peace with one another!
That's why Ephesians 2:13&14 says:
13.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ.
14.
For He Himself is our PEACE, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us,"
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