Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: Christ

  • The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 5

    The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 5

    Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

    Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

    Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

     

    The Lord has torn you down to build you up. He pierces your calloused heart to breathe His love into your life. He shocks your soul to repentance that you might not wither to the ashes of hell. He calls out to His sheep: You with ears to hear, hear.

    I am neither Prophet nor preacher – qualified not for either office or its responsibilities. I am only a voice from the pew, a sinner like you – first and mostly convicted by the same scripture by which I cut to your hearts of stone as fellow fallen believers, dependant on Christ as our Lord.

    Therefore, by disagreeing with some you have heard preached – with some you have heard taught, even by most respected men of God (though all are fallible), I yield for your benefit to the teaching on the Beatitudes by another: Matthew Henry (1662-1714).

    Matthew Henry – Commentary excerpt on Matthew 5 – The Beatitudes.

     

    None will find happiness in this world of the next who do not seek it from Christ by the rule of his word.

    vs. 3-12           Our Savior here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian.

    1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The Kingdom of grace is of such: the kingdom of glory is for them.
    2. Those that mourn are happy. That godly sorrow which worketh true repentance, watchfulness, a humble mind, and continual dependence for acceptance on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, with constant seeking the Holy Spirit, to cleanse away the remaining evil, seems here to be intended. Heaven is the joy of our Lord: a mountain of joy, to which our way is through a vale of tears. Such mourners shall be comforted by their God.
    3. The meek are happy. The meek are those who quietly submit to God; who can bear insult; are silent, or return a soft answer; who in their patience, keep possession of their own souls, when they can scarcely keep possession of anything else. These meek ones are happy, even in this world. Meekness promotes wealth, comfort, and safety, even in this world.
    4. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are happy. Righteousness is here put for all spiritual blessings. These are purchased for us by the righteousness of Christ, confirmed by the faithfulness of God..
    5. The merciful are happy. We must not only bear our own afflictions patiently, but we must do all we can to help those who are in misery. We must have compassion on the souls of others, and help them; pity those who are in sin, and seek to snatch them as brands out of the burning.
    6. The pure in heart are happy: for they shall see God. Here holiness and happiness are fully described and put together. The heart must be purified by faith, and kept for God…
    7. The peace-makers are happy. They love, and desire and delight in peace; and study to be quiet. They keep the peace that it be not broken, and recover it when it is broken. If the peace-makers are blessed, woe to the peace-breakers!
    8. Those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are happy. This saying is peculiar to Christianity; and it is more largely insisted upon than any of the rest…Blessed Jesus! how different are thy maxims from those of men of this world! … With these enjoyments and hopes, we may cheerfully welcome low or painful circumstances.

    Here is proper teaching and conviction of the words of Jesus from the Beatitudes. And of verses 13-16, Henry teaches:

    Ye are the salt of the earth. Mankind, lying in ignorance and wickedness, were as a vast heap, ready to putrify; but Christ sent forth his disciples, by their lives and doctrines to season it with knowledge and grace. If they are not such as they should be, they are as salt that has lost its savor.

    And in conclusion (though not nearly complete application of Matthew 5), of verses 17-20:

    Let none suppose that Christ allows his people to trifle with any commands of God’s holy law. No sinner partakes of Christ’s justifying righteousness, till he repents of his evil deeds. The mercy revealed in the gospel leads the believer to still deeper self-abhorrence.

    A call to follow

     

    • Do I speak too severely to the church?
    • Are my words too harsh for a brother?
    • Do Henry’s teachings point too severely toward our great wickedness?
    • Is Jesus’ call to you for perfection in the Law and in your heart too much to bear?

    Indeed we must take up our cross and follow him.

    Matthew 7:28 – 8:1

    And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

    When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

    Will you?

  • The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 4

    The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 4

    Questions for and from the multitude for ‘followers’ of Jesus (you… and your ‘church’):

    • Are you of the house of the King?
    • Are you a child of the Living God?

    OR are you just one of the multitude who does not have ears to hear and a heart to bow down?

    • Why does the church that has fed the poor not have eyes to see the poor in spirit?
    • Why does the church that mourns at the funeral not have ears to hear the loud wailing of the losses of her members?
    • Why are they not so meek as to stand low in the sandals of our suffering?
    • Why do we not savor those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, and quench their spirit for but one failing like our own?
    • Why are we not merciful, as we have received mercy?
    • Why do we revile and persecute and speak evil again our own, members of the body of Christ Jesus?

    Is the church without salt because we have trodden Christ under foot?

    Have Christians embraced darkness, because the Light of forgiveness exposes too much Truth of imperfection?

    Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. – Matthew 5:48

    By the grace of Christ Jesus, we have much more to be done in the refinement of the Word.

    To be continued…

  • The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 3

    The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 3

    MERRY CHRISTMAS.

    Merry Christmas.

    Such a joyful greeting from a Christian to another.

    Returning our thoughts to the multitudes hearing Jesus’ teaching:

    Matthew 5

    King James Version (KJV)

    Verse 13

    • You are the salt of the earth.

    Salt is plentiful and worthless, except that it makes our food to last and seasons its flavor to make our food more palatable.

    • But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?  It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under the foot of men.

    I am trodden under the foot of man. But of what worth am I to this man (who calls himself the Son of Man)? What does he mean that I am the salt of the earth?

    • Ye are the light of the world.
    • A city set on an hill cannot be hid.
    • Neither do men light a candle, and but it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house.

    What can all this mean? What does it mean to meet God on a hill overlooking the city?

    Dearly beloved believer and seeker of the Lord God,

    I leave this to your own conviction of the Spirit. Yet I challenge the context of your hearing the blessings or beatitudes of Jesus once more in considering His calling. Jesus speaks to the multitudes. The believing church sits in the crowd as a light on a hill or a candle lifted on a candlestick to light the whole house.

    Many will hear the Word and wander off back into the darkness and destruction and death. Many will not see the Lord on the hill again until the call of the trumpet to Judgment, of which Jesus further warns the multitudes (immediately after these verses) of the fulfillment of the Law and Scripture in Him.

    To the multitudes, our Lord further speaks of repentance for the sin we have done. He calls us to righteousness exceeding the appearance of the most respected representatives of God’s Law.

    He tells us how to exceed the righteousness of rules by the intention of our heart and the thoughtfulness of our actions. Jesus forbids divorce. Jesus forbids anger without cause. He commands reconciliation between brothers (now he speaks to the church), before thinking that our offering to God is acceptable.

    Jesus tells the crowd and the church how by our actions Christians are to demonstrate God’s light to the house and to the world. He proceeds to tell us how we, as God’s house and God’s city, and God’s people must do more than the Law, to go the second mile.

    Further, He concludes:

    Matthew 5:44

    • Love your enemy.

    • Bless them that curse you.

    • Do good to them that hate you.

    • Pray for them that despitefully use you.

    • And (pray for them that) persecute you.

    Is this the church you signed up for?  Is this the light on the hill you are among men?

    It’s difficult, if not impossible, isn’t it?

    Jesus then says (in verse 45) that we have to do it to be children of the Father.

    Then he says essentially (in verse 46): If you love only those who love you, even the politicians do that. Ouch!

    Then our Lord calls on us to do something that we cannot do:

    Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

    How?

    Repent! Be obedient children of adoption by our Father in Heaven, who did send Christ Jesus to the Cross as perfect redemption for our sins.

    ‘Go; and sin no more,’ as our Lord has called upon us to do. (John 5:14; John 8:11)

    Jesus’ teachings of ‘Blessed are you…” or ‘Happy are you…’ give us, perhaps, a little different than usual perspective on the reason for God to send His only Son to a manger in Bethlehem.

    Have you ever thought of the Nativity of Bethlehem with the baby in a manger to be the beginning of His destination of His place for you on the Cross?

    Do you think of the Cross when you wish someone (perhaps an unbeliever), “Merry Christmas?”

    Do others see Christ’s Light in the salt of your joyful greeting?

    To be continued…