Christian Counter-Culture: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (John Stott) Part 2

This quick overview of the Beatitudes is brilliant. I really like how clearly Stott lays out what each one means and how he explains Jesus' point.

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

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5.3-12 (NRSV)

Notes from my HarperCollins Study Bible

• Blessed = happy or fortunate.
• 
  
• Poor/broken in spirit.
• 
  
• Mourn: Isaiah 61.2-3 comfort.
• Meek = humble, powerless.
• Earth = land.
• Righteousness = behaviour that meets the standards of scripture.
• Mercy, not sacrifice - echoes Hosea 6.6, which emphasizes integrity, love, and relationship with God over sacrifice.
• Heart = mind.
• Peacemakers = no escalation of conflict.
• Final Beatitude is unusual due to its length.

A Christian's character: the beatitudes.

The people described.

• Each beatitude is not a separate group of people; as a whole, they describe who Christians ought to be.
• Christians aren't separated into sects in scripture; all of scripture applies to all of us.

The qualities commended.

• Poverty is not a desirable state. Jesus had compassion for the poor and he fed the hungry, and he told his disciples to do the same.
• These are all spiritual states, not physical ones. Jesus looked after physical needs but he was far more concerned with the spiritual.

The blessings promised.

• We Become through obeying God's moral laws.
• Happiness is subjective; Jesus is being objective here.
• The qualities are our responsibilities and the blessings are the privileges of being citizens of God's Kingdom.
• Both present and future blessings.
• The Kingdom of God is a present reality, which we know from the rest of Jesus' teaching.

That certain hope again!

• We cannot please God by ourselves; we need Christ.
• Once we have Christ, we know how we should live to please God.
• The law sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us back to the law to be sanctified. (p.36)
• The Sermon's law is about the forgiveness of Christ. We cannot follow it on our own!
• It's not for non-Christians.
• "Lived faith", not "Christian morality".

The early church's message has two aspects: the Gospel (God's grace) and the Commandment (people's response). (pp. 37-38)

• Doctrine, then practical application.

The poor in spirit.

• Spiritual poverty.
• We are sinners and deserve nothing but judgment.

This is the Prayer of Humble Access, why it is so beautiful!

• Salvation is undeserved and we need to accept it "with the dependent humility of a little child." (p.40)

When we become self-satisfied and superficial, it's a case of the Emperor's New Clothes. This is what the world sees when it looks at the Church today: hypocrisy and self-delusion. "Christians are no different from the rest of us," people think, "and they're often hateful besides."

I think it's important to remember that all of this is about Christians. Non-Christians are not held to the same standards. Rather, Christians are supposed to look to themselves and stop being petty assholes, and show the world what it's like to live under God's rule. The world doesn't have to conform to Christian standards, and it would be foolish to expect such. Christians are held to a higher standard and are also subject to human laws and regulations. I think this is where both the "progressive" church and the conservative church fall down. On the one hand, we have a church that welcomes sinners, but the message stops there and people are not encouraged to change. On the other hand, we have a church that is Pharisaical in nature and which expects society to conform to Christ, "All you sinners need to be like us, " they cry. "We are better than you and we won't get to know you or meet your needs at all until you're just like us!" is what society hears. And why are people surprised that Christianity is the one religion it's fine to discount and disparage? Either we have no standards or we're elitist. Wake up!

Those who mourn.

• Loss of innocence, righteousness, self-respect: not bereavement, but repentance.
• Second stage = contrition. (First was confession.)
• Too few of as weep Christian tears: over the world, over other Christians, and over ourselves.

Our manifold sins and wickedness.

• When we overemphasize grace, we can sometimes underemphasize sin. We do not have enough sorrow for our sin.
• Only God's forgiveness can comfort this sorrow.

Only in the final state of glory will Christ's comfort be complete. (p. 42)

The meek.

• Praiis = gentle, humble, considerate, courteous, self-controlled.
• Meekness here is a humble and gentle attitude to others, and it requires us to be willing to hear others' opinions of us. RSD could never!
• It's way easier to confess to God than to be confronted with our sin by someone else.
• We may be deprived and disenfranchised by men, but we have everything if we have Christ!

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

• Our supreme ambition should be spiritual, not material.
• The pursuit of possessions is not a Christian attitude.
• Legal, moral, and social aspects.
• Legal righteousness = justification (a right relationship with God).
• Moral righteousness = character and conduct pleasing to God. This is about heart, mind and motive, not about behaviour. Again, intent matters.
• Social righteousness = "social justice" (seeking liberation from oppression, promoting civil rights, justice in legal matters, integrity in business, and honour at home and with family).
• This hunger and thirst can only be quenched if we continuously eat and drink. The Becoming is not something we will complete on earth; don't decide you're done because you surely aren't. (Gotta keep baking.)
• Progression in the Beatitudes thus far:
1. Acknowledge sin.
2. Repent of and mourn that sin.
3. Be humble and gentle with others
4. Pursue righteousness.

• The rest are more about how we are with other people.

The merciful.

• Mercy = compassion for those in need. It deals with the result of sin, while grace deals with sin itself.
• Mercy is for everyone.
• We don't earn mercy or forgiveness from God by showing mercy to others or by forgiving others; rather, we cannot claim repentance if we are not showing these things to others. It's that "outward sign of an inward grace" thing.

The pure in heart.

• This could be about your inward being, but there are other possibilities.
• Sincerity and transparency, a life lived in the open.

The peacemakers.

• Openness and sincerity are essential to all true reconciliation. (p.50)
• We are called to be peaceful. Don't go looking for conflict. (The family strife He talks about later is a natural result of some coming to faith and others not.)

God is the author of peace and reconciliation. (p.50).

• Peacemakers are sons of God because they are striving for that which He has done.
• Peace ≠ appeasement. Peace has a cost, but we ought not to sacrifice purity to get it. Doctrine matters. Behaviour matters.
• Part of the gospel is the cost of discipleship. It includes a demand for repentance.
• Making the gospel palatable is fraud.

Those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

• Peace isn't always possible.
• Don't retaliate against those who persecute you. Don't sulk, don't wallow, don't be stoic. Rejoice and be glad; great rewards await you! Persecution is a sign of authenticity. Especially, though, we are suffering on Jesus' account--because we are loyal to Him and to His standards of truth and righteousness.
• We are to expect opposition.

"Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passiva, suffering because we have to suffer. That is why Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true Church, and one of the memoranda drawn up in preparation for the Augsburg Confession similarly defines the Church as the community of those "who are persecuted and martyred for the gospel's sake" ... Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer. In fact, it is a joy and a token of his grace." (Bonhoeffer).

The World	The Christian
rich  "happiness"  strong & brash  full  keep out of others' business  success at all costs  security, popularity	knows their sin  mourns sin  meek & gentle  hungry  "meddler" (mercy, peace)  no compromise of integrity  persecuted

"Anybody who enters into fellowship with Jesus must undergo a transvaluation of values. (Thielicke) (p. 55)

• We are to refuse to follow the world's standards. See the broken world and mourn over it.

God exalts the humble and abases the proud, calls the first last and the last first, ascribes greatness to the servant, sends the rich away empty-handed and declares the week to be his heirs. (p.56)

• Jesus congratulates people the world pities and calls the reviled blessed.

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I was reading through the comments from way back in the day when I was writing here so often, and it was really interesting to see what people responded to.

Even then, I was primarily writing to the church, to my fellow believers. I hope others see the through-line, because it is definitely coming clearer.

I think, also, that the impact reading this book had on my investigation of love in the previous series of posts is pretty glaring. I still don't know if I was clear enough there, but we'll see.

I hope your day is great.

Peace & Blessings.