One of the things to look for as you read the Bible is repeated words or ideas, they help us spot themes. As we read Matthew 5:1-12 what is the repetition? "Blessed..."

It’s a word that has different meanings. It can mean someone is especially talented, take George Best for example it’s the title of his autobiography. Or it can mean someone is very fortunate, or wealthy. Alternatively we use it when someone sneezes, bless you. Or it is an expression that people use when something is cute, ‘ah bless’.

But "Blessed" is a biblical word and it therefore has a bible meaning. Sometimes it’s translated as happy, but that’s inadequate, it doesn’t quite get to what it really means. It does lead to happiness but it means more than just that, it means to be approved of or to be favoured. So God blesses the seventh day as he rests from creation - he doesn’t make the seventh day happy but he approves of it, it is especially favoured as he rests from his work of creation. Blessed means to be approved of.

We all long for approval; be it the approval of parents, friends, work colleagues, boss, children or whoever. Our desire for approval is positively what drives children to obey their parents, but negatively it is what drives the fashion industry, the cosmetic surgery industry, the gadget industry. We long for the approval of those we love and respect or whose opinion we value, and we fear losing it.

The beatitudes identify the marks of those whom God approves of, they show us the characteristics of those who God favours, who enter the kingdom of heaven and therefore have eternal life.

1. The coming of the King
We can’t just jump straight into the Sermon on the Mount without first of all getting the context of what has happened, we need to review the first 4 chapters so that we understand fully what Jesus is teaching. Otherwise the danger is we’ll miss key emphasises and themes.

It’s a bit like Star Wars. As children we only had episodes 4-6 and in them Darth Vadar was the arch baddie, we knew something had gone on before episode 4 but the details were sketchy. But when you watch episodes 1-3 and then watch 4-6 again you have a different take on Darth Vadar. You understand how he came to be like he was, you understand the tragedy, the conflicting loyalties, the influences and stresses that led him to become who he was. In short you watch the film and relate to his character differently.

Far more importantly the danger is that we do the same with Matthew’s gospel if we just dive into the beatitudes, we need to get the context.

Matthew writes his gospel for a number of reasons but here are three of them: he writes so that Jewish Christians are secure in their discipleship of Jesus despite the hostility of their fellow Jews, so that they can answer Jewish objections by pointing them to Christ as the fulfiller of God’s promises, and so that God’s people know how to live counter culturally.

If you were writing a book how would you begin? Some begin Once upon a time, with a cliffhanger, or at the end and show you the sequence of events leading up to it, others with a mystery and then unravel it.

You wouldn’t start with a genealogy would you? But Matthew does and the question is why? Because it reveals that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham, a Jew one of the chosen people of God, and he is in the line of David, he is in the line of God’s promised forever king(2 Sam 7:16).

As Matthew records Jesus birth you notice another theme - prophecy fulfilled. Jesus is born of a virgin(1:22), in Bethlehem(2:6), flees to Egypt(2:15) in a time of crisis(2:18) and returns to live in Nazareth(2:23). Jesus isn’t only in the line of Abraham and David but in him the words of God’s through his prophets are fulfilled.

Then (ch3) John the Baptist, the one sent to tell people God’s kingdom is about to come recognises who Jesus is and at his baptism God the Father and God the Spirit recognise God the Son. And then Jesus, God’s Son in whom he is well pleased, goes into the desert just as Israel did, but unlike Israel his concern is to do the Father’s will, he resists temptation proving that he is the true Son of God, he is the Messiah. And then in (ch4) he begins his ministry by declaring "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come."

Jesus is God’s promised long awaited king and in him God’s kingdom draws alongside. It is not a spatial or geographic kingdom but it is dynamic and active, it’s wherever his people will accept his kingship and live under his rule.

Matthew 1-4 show us that Jesus is the Messiah, in the line of Adam, Abraham, and David, God’s Son speaking God’s word and in him the kingdom of God draws near! (4:25)We see "Large crowds... followed him." It looks like the kingdom is growing but Matthew sees a distinction, he sees two groups. 5:1 "Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. What are the two groups? Who does Jesus teach?

There are the curious crowd drawn by miracles and the chatter about Jesus, and the disciples, those committed to following him. Jesus sees the crowd but teaches his disciples.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches his people what it means to follow him, the marks of discipleship, characteristics of citizens of the kingdom. It is not a universal kingdom, you cannot come anyway you like, it is not an easy kingdom to join and it is radically counter cultural.

2. A Kingdom of Dependents
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
As Jesus teaches he isn’t plucking these ideas out of thin air, they are drawn out of the Old Testament, it’s easily seen with his teaching on divorce and murder where he takes a law and extends it raising the bar. So it isn’t don’t commit adultery but don’t think lustful thoughts, it isn’t don’t murder but don’t be angry.

But even the Beatitudes have Old Testament roots, Jesus teaching is based on what God has already revealed to Israel. Everything the Old Testament pointed forward to, every expectation and hope, every longing it stirred is fulfilled in Jesus.

Turn to Isaiah 66:2 "These are the ones I look on with favour: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word." What are the marks of the person who God favours? Humble and contrite or ‘spiritually poor and crippled’.

Psalm 34:6 "This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles." How does the Psalmist describe himself? He comes recognising his poverty - not in wealth but in terms of his inability to save himself, God is his only hope.

Isaiah 61:1 "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor...to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour."

We see that the servant of the Lord will come and proclaim God’s favour to the poor among others. Jesus takes those words on his lips as he begins his ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth, and says that "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

He comes to bring his kingdom and it is good news for the poor. The term poor in the Old Testament didn’t just signify material poverty but someone who had no refuge apart from God, it has spiritual overtones and came to be identified with humble dependence on God.

We live in a world of entrance requirements, you apply for a job you have to have certain basic requirements, you apply for a university certain grades are required, and so on. But the Kingdom of God is counter cultural because the entrance requirement is unique; it’s recognising that there is nothing you can bring, that you are spiritually bankrupt, but that you come to God reliant on him for salvation.

Jesus, God’s long promised king, comes and in him a radical new kingdom draws alongside, it is a kingdom of reversals, it is counter cultural, it is a kingdom to which you gain entry by recognising your inability to save yourself and by putting your trust in him to save you. Entrance is not based on intelligence, race, knowledge, wealth, religious practices but is reserved for those who crawl to Christ. Those who have nothing but are given everything, who experience God’s rule tasted now but to be fully enjoyed later.

Do you see the basic requirement to enter the kingdom of God, to know the security of sin forgiven, a relationship with God experienced now and fully realised in eternity? It is recognising there is nothing we can offer God but that we come broken and reliant on Jesus Christ, its also the way you continue living in the kingdom.

Practically I just want us to note one thing this doesn’t mean and two things it does mean.

It doesn’t mean the poor in spirit hate themselves, we live in an age when self harm and self hatred is endemic. This is not saying the disciple continually puts themselves down. It’s not that we think less of ourselves but less about ourselves.

Positively it means no one is too bad for salvation or too good to need salvation. There is no entrance requirement, you don’t have to wait to know more about the Bible or understand this or that. The hymn writer writes 'nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling.' It liberates us as we share the gospel with people around us.

Secondly it means that pride has no place in the kingdom of God. Some people pride themselves on keeping the beatitudes, they treat it like a model of the way to live to make yourself right with God. But this first beatitude rules that out - kingdom citizens don’t earn entrance they are given it by grace through faith in Jesus. It is that which earths us and it is the great leveller - I am only ever an undeserving sinner saved by God’s grace.

The church is not a place of hierarchy, it is not a place where people look down their nose at others. But it is a collection of sinners who are approved of by God and therefore know comfort and happiness because they are saved by grace.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Lighthouse