Conclusion to The Beatitudes

As we bring the Beatitudes to a close this morning; we should start with remembering where we are. Spending months on just a few verses can make us lose sight of the big picture, and everything God is communicating to us through His Word.

So far in The Gospel According to Matthew we have seen the God of the Universe take on human flesh as He was born of the Virgin Mary. He was hunted down as an infant by a tyrannical Government, given gifts from foreign dignitaries (The Three Wise Men), and was anointed by The Holy Spirit as He was lowered beneath the waves by John The Baptizer. Immediately after His baptism, He was led by The Spirit that had just anointed Him, not into a palace or castle, but to confront his adversary, the devil. Through 40 days of fasting, Jesus was tempted to rely on Himself, place an ultimatum on His Father, and to fall into idolatry. And every single time He resisted temptation, He proved His commitment to nothing but the glory of His Father.

Leaving the wilderness temptations, He gives voice to His first command with “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17).  He calls His disciples to Himself, then sets about preaching, teaching and healing, attracting multitudes of people to Him. 

And that is where we land with the beginning of Matthew 5. The incarnate King of the Cosmos, fully God and fully man, sitting atop a hillside with a mixed multitude there before Him, opens His mouth and begins The Sermon on the Mount. Thousands of years before the Incarnation; God met Moses on Mt. Sinai, and the people were afraid to approach it; and now the living Word goes up a different mount, explaining those words first given to Moses.

Beginning this Sermon, Jesus provides a “jump-start”, jolting awake the minds of the multitude with The Beatitudes. As if to prepare their thoughts for everything He would soon say, He gives us these eight short, but incredibly dense and powerful sayings, paving the way for the rest of the teaching. He speaks of being poor in spirit…to humans inclined to boasting; mourning over sin towards those who want to celebrate it; and He speaks of the meek inheriting the Earth to a population in love with violent imperialism. Were that not enough, He continues to build by saying that being hungry for righteousness is how one is filled; the merciful receive mercy; the pure in heart are those who will see God; and concludes His intro with calling the persecuted peacemakers the sons of God who have the Kingdom of Heaven. With that, let us stand together for the reading of God’s word.

Read → Matthew 5:12 & Opening Prayer

Point #1: The Beatitudes are not “Instructions for being saved”

When the natural, unredeemed mind first comes across these eight Beatitudes, there will always be a natural tendency that arises; and before I go any further than this, I must say that at a certain point in our life, this applied to all of us here this morning. We, like every unbeliever to every draw breath, before our hearts of stone were exchanged for ones of flesh, all of us, fell to this same tendency. This habit. This reflex.

Because all of us have been made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26); and because He made us with both an innate sense of right and wrong (Rom.2:15), and an understanding of eternity (Ecc. 3:11); every human has a deep longing within their soul for something more, for God.

We see the stars above as they testify of the glory of God (Ps. 19:1); we see the soil below, knowing that it came from somewhere; and because of how God made us, we know that it came from some-one. Every human whose cognitive faculties can function enough to perceive reality, seeing both star and soil, is without excuse (Rom. 1:20).

However, we must now consider the truth of those who have no excuse, specifically, the truth of their nature. From the onset, He made us with the ability to carry out our desires, and prior to The Fall, those desires were nothing short of wanting to know Him, see Him, and love and worship Him. Plainly stated; God created humanity not because He was lonely or “needed someone to love”, no. He created humanity to glorify Himself (Is. 43:7; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 10:31).

The Fall, however, twisted, broke, and distorted our innate desires to the point that now, from Genesis 3 until today, the natural unredeemed man wants nothing but their own glory. When Isaiah 53:6 says → “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way…” it means precisely this. We want to be the ones with the final say over everything related to goodness, happiness, morality, and legality. In fact, The Fall has impacted us to such a degree, that nothing was unaffected by it, including our desires. By nature we love what God hates, and hate what God loves. By nature, our hearts are broken, and it is from our broken hearts where “...evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” come from.  “All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (Mark 7:21-23)

And lest we forget, this was the case for all of you. All of us have sought out, and acted upon, “...the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Eph. 2:3). From the very moment of conception, everyone (unless He intervenes), is a dead in their sins (Eph.2:1) God-hating enemy (Col. 1:21), living out their want to be God (Gen. 3:5). Now…to take all of that and place it inside of the context of Matthew 5:1-12. 

Ignoring everything that God has said about life in general and in specific, the natural man has the eternity within his heart pricked by the words of God in Matthew 5:1-12, knows they are true and hates that he knows it, so he carries out his deepest desire to be God…by turning The Beatitudes into a checklist for, at the least; happiness. And at the most; salvation.

We see this everyday, all over the world, and all through time. People chase their feelings, doing any and everything they can to forge a life of happiness, thinking it is the ultimate goal of life. If you're not happy; all of our enemies tell us (including ourselves!); then you need to make a change until you are. Does your job make you happy? No? Then find a different one. Does your spouse make you happy? No? Then find a different one. Will having children interfere with your life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? Then abort them before they are born, or abandon them after. What about your hobbies, your government? Your gender, your body? Trade out anything to find something better, because you and your happiness are all that matters.

We place ourselves at the center of our life, and rearrange everything about it until the gears in our dead hearts connect with one another, and happiness begins to be produced. Plainly speaking; because happiness can be tinkered with and God can’t; people swap-out a relationship with Him for all of their own desires, because themselves is who they truly worship.

And once the unredeemed has reached a state of equilibrium in their life, when they are as happy as they want to be; when they are as blessed as they want to be; (ignoring the fact that “just a little more” is the mantra of the dead heart); they bring their happy and blessed life, that they themselves built, mind you, to the pages of Scripture; see a list of characteristics; the nerve of eternity they were created with is pricked; and they react to the long written down words with anger. Because God made them to know Him they cant erase this desire completely, so they push it down to the depths of their dead hearts, smoothing it over with their own self-made religion. And because smoothing over the truth of your own damnation with false words would do nothing but continue to remind them of Hell; they undertake the most effective way to suppress it…by using true words.

And what better words to use to distract yourself from the Hell you have earned, than The Beatitudes. They are somewhat culturally acceptable, superficially attainable, and they even came from Jesus Himself. This is the reflex we opened with. The habit of using what God has long said, by assuming that The Beatitudes are a ladder to heaven.

“See God! I didn't need you! Look at me being poor in spirit! Check. When I see the way that those people treat these people…it makes me hunger for righteousness. Check. Meekness? Of course I am meek…just, you know, ignore the giant PRIDE flag. Oh, also, I know that I am a peacemaker with a pure heart, because no one is ever upset with me.”

We use God’s words to tell Him that He’s wrong; that we really do deserve Heaven; and nothing can convince us otherwise. “What do you mean “Hell”? I did all the things in The Beatitudes!” We scream as we are cast into that place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Do you know why the natural heart is called a heart of stone? (Ez. 36) Because nothing can get through to it. No amount of good deeds or Church attendance can ever break a heart of stone. No matter the acts of mercy someone performs, they weren't merciful enough; and no matter how many times someone is merciful towards you, it wasn't caustic enough to erode away the stone layers of your heart. Human-born efforts at peacemaking aren't thorough enough; and the only time a stone heart mourns, is when it can’t get its own way.

The Beatitudes are not instructions for how to be saved from your sins.

Point #2: A description of the Saved

As we have said several Sundays over the past few Months, The Beatitudes are an ethical code to live by, of course. But at their root, they are far more.

Yes, everyone everywhere should be poor in spirit, never lifting themselves up over anyone, or insisting they have any amount of spiritual good that leads to salvation.

Yes, everyone should mourn over their sin and be meek, of course. 

Everyone should hunger and thirst for righteousness, carry out acts of mercy, and be persecuted because of the peace they made out of their pure hearts. Yes. 

But what Jesus is doing here, speaking to the lost and the found - remember, is giving ethical norms that He approves of, while simultaneously giving us a description of a Christian. With divine words, Christ touches both the surface and the depths, with every sentence. 

To show the truth of this with only the first of The Beatitudes; only the Christian can be truly poor in spirit, because admitting your lack of spiritual wealth, admitting your guilt, is a prerequisite of actually being a Christian. Like Paul before us, every Christian has said “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Rom. 7:18)

And if you think that you actually do have something good living within you and the ability to carry it out… the only options to explain this verse are; It's wrong, or; “That was just Paul, but me? I really do have some good in me and the ability to carry out. I'm far holier than The Apostle.”

This truth, that The Beatitudes are a description of the Christian, has faded into the background of the modern Church for two reasons. The first reason is because humans have a natural tendency to lift themselves up over other people. And even though we are good Christians who would never intentionally do such a thing, we still fall prey to this mentality. We say: “You see that person over there? They are a higher class of Christian, but me? I’m just a nobody. A pew warmer.” We see this in the heretical teachings of the Catholics who “canonize” certain humans, labeling them as “Saints”. Or when someone assumes that Pastors and Preachers are some super Christians, not prone to wander, who have never known the spiritual struggles of everyone else.

There is no special class of Christian, children of Clyde-Savannah, because the blood that was shed on Calvary bought both of you. 

The second reason why we don't see this truth very often, is because our name has been co-opted by people who want the fruit of salvation, the blessings, and the social credit (though the social credit has taken a hit lately), while living however they want. People will say they are a Christian while boasting of the sin they refuse to mourn over. They attend Church while hungering for social-justice, ignoring the justice of God; and the only reason they try to make peace is because they think it can earn them bonus points with God.  

Quick ‘Time-Out’

Without going too far back into the three Sermons on Persecution we shared together; this truth I just mentioned becomes clear when persecutions arise. When living in accordance with Scripture becomes a literal life or death situation…the ‘Christians-in-name-only’ show their hand, reveal their stone hearts, and bow to their persecutors. 

‘Time-In’

One of the details we only briefly touched upon the past few months, is that The Beatitudes all feed into, and imply the others. They can’t be divided up based on culture or time; and they can't be selected from like different items at a buffet. Each of them is necessary for all of them.

What I mean is this;

When Christ describes someone who is pure of heart; in the 6th Beatitude; that person, by necessity, cannot have a prideful and haughty spirit (1st). 

The person that Jesus describes as a Peacemaker (7th), can only go about making true and lasting peace if they have been filled with the righteousness of God (4th).

Someone who is meek (3rd), forgiving instead of retaliating, will always encounter situations that bring about a hunger and thirst for righteousness (4th).

The person who mourns over the damage that sin has caused to their soul (2nd), does so because their heart has been purified (6th).

And those who go about making the peace of God (7th), will be persecuted because of their efforts (8th).

Because they all imply one another, those of us within whom The Holy Spirit lives; those of us who, here and now, inside of time, God sees as righteous; all of The Beatitudes describe you. Not just a few. Not every-other. Not those that are acceptable to the World, or those that are acceptable to our ‘old self’. Because of how tightly they are braided together, each one being an aspect we can use to describe the perfect man Jesus Christ…it's all or none. 

Now, there might be an opportunity here to disagree with this, of course. We can hear the preacher say that it's “all or none” when it comes to The Beatitudes, examine our life…not see some of them, and then think some uncomfortable thoughts. “But Pastor, I’m not very meek”; or “I’m not merciful, so not only are you wrong about that, but I know Christians who are meek and merciful and peacemakers and persecuted…so you're also wrong about there not being a higher class of Christian.”

We can discuss this further during our Q&A after Service together; I hope you can all stay for it; but for right now, that line of thinking I just described is exactly what Paul is talking about in Phil. 2:12 when he says to → “...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” If you don’t think that The Beatitudes can be used to describe you…what are you going to do about it?

Before moving on to our final point this morning; we can come to some less hard to wrestle with conclusions about The Beatitudes being “all or none”.

That is, there will inevitably be some of them that “rise to the surface” of our personalities more than others. God has made fighters and pacifists; loud people and quiet people; and each of us has characteristics that either overlap with others, or can hardly be seen in others. But…there is more to you than your personality, fellow Christians. You are more than the personality quirks and interests, and hobbies that set you apart from others. At root, foundationally, you are a child of God, made in His image, and chosen before the world’s foundation (Eph. 1:4). You are someone bound to those in the Pews beside you, not by personality, interests, blood, or soil, but by the precious red of Jesus Christ. He is the only One who is perfectly poor in spirit, mournful, and meek. He is the only One who perfectly hungered and thirsted for righteousness, while being perfectly merciful and perfectly pure of heart. The Son of God and Son of Man, Jesus Christ; Lord of lords and King of kings, is the only One who made perfect peace, and He did so by the blood that was shed while being persecuted.

You are free to be who God made you to be, with all of the personality and character that God created you with, exercising all of it for your good and His glory, finding the only limits within the pages of Scripture, because “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” And when you do go to Scripture to figure out who you are, you will be looking “...as in a mirror (at) the glory of the Lord,” and when you read those golden words, you will see that you “...are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2nd Cor. 3:17-18.

So when you set about your self-examination, looking to see if you can identify The Beatitudes in your life and character, trust not only that God has made you, but trust that those “...whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…” Rom. 8:29

“But my sin! It is so dark! So evil! I have no strength in me to bring about meekness, and I’m afraid of persecution. I have tried to make peace, but failed; and yes I hunger and thirst for righteousness, but my acts of mercy never seem to do anything.”

Oh you tired Saint; you worn down by all three of your enemies; look not at anything this side of the clouds, but Him who made them. And “be (ing) confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil. 1:6

Point #3 - Our sanctification

As we bring our Sermon, as well as our study of The Beatitudes to a close this morning, we can understand that our reaction to reading The Beatitudes, and hearing that they are a description of the child of God, will reveal the kind of person that we are. 

Like every word of Scripture, cutting between soul and spirit while it reveals the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12-13), we can learn something about ourselves through the actual words, yes…but we also learn something about ourselves by our reaction to the words. 

How do you react when you hear God tell you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you? (Matt. 5:44) Do you twist His words to mean something different, and thereby give yourself an excuse to hate them? Or do you say: “I don’t know if I do God…and I don’t know if I can. Please help me to be more like your Son.”

How do you react when you read that God is sovereign over life and death (Job 1:21); or when The Bible teaches that wicked people prosper (Jer. 12:1)? How do you react when you see the saints triumphant cheering as God crushes the wicked in eternal Hell, knowing that you will be one of them who cheers? (Rev. 19:1-3)

Our reaction to Scripture teaches us about ourselves, just as much as the words themselves.

Does our reaction teach us that we doubt the truth of The Bible? Or does it teach us that we live in a state of constant dependency upon God? That, left to our own devices, we will hate our enemies instead of love them; or be boastful and arrogant instead of humble.

What did your reaction to The Beatitudes teach you about yourself? Did you see yourself lacking in meekness, wrestle with Scripture, and then prayed for God to make you more meek? I know I did. What about the other Beatitudes? Did reading these perfect words of God wake you up to the fact that you can show mercy without approving of someone’s sin?

Has the Word pricked your conscience to the point

that you don't know what to do?

Good.

Not knowing what to do, or, knowing what to do but not trusting yourself enough to do it…is the best starting point for someone who has already been saved…because it is proof that you are saved.

Only a living heart, one of flesh and blood, wants to be more like Jesus Christ. He who God has saved from the threat of consuming but never destroying fire, is he who cries out “God! I see a boastful spirit in myself, help me to be poor in spirit because I don't know how. I haven't been meek, thousands of times, please forgive me, and thank you for never quitting me. I want to be a peacemaker in my family, my job, my town, my nation. I haven't mourned over the sins I should have, and I have held back mercy from people based on my own sinful thoughts. Help me God. I don't want to be persecuted, but nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.”

Do you want to be more like Christ? To have the people in your life see characteristics in you…that are perfectly present in Him? Do you want to be blessed, brothers and sisters?

Then ask.

He chose you, specifically, before you were even born, to be someone who Jesus Christ died for, and will never stop transforming you more and more into the image of His Son. In fact, as Eph. 2:10 says → “...we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” 

Did you read that? The events of your life, of your future…pre-existed you. And God custom built you to go through them. He will never stop, and will only ever slow down when slow is what you need.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? [33] Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

Romans 8:31-34

If God delivered up His Son for us all, how can we then expect Him to not create The Beatitudes in our character? It's all on Him, yes, but He uses our choices to do it. So, make a choice, today, while the sun still shines and your lungs still draw breath, to do what you can to be more like Christ, asking Him to produce the results, and trusting that He will. And lest we grow discouraged, look again at that last verse. The Son of God who was delivered up for us…is praying for us. The God of the Universe died for you, and is now praying for you, children of God. Ask of Him, and He will answer.

Rev. Jacob Marchitell

January 18th 2026