Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God

Preached at Clevedon Baptist Church, 11/11/07


1. Introduction

Our verse this evening comes from the Sermon on the Mount. When studying the bible, it is important to always look at the context of any verse. The principle is to first try and let the text find its meaning from the surrounding passage. The Sermon on the Mount contains some of the clearest and challenging teaching of Jesus. It was first preached nearly two thousand years ago. But it’s still as relevant today as it ever was. In many ways, the progress of Human beings has been enormous since then. We have developed our medicines, our sciences and our technologies, but have we as people really changed? Have our desires, our hopes, our fears, and our weaknesses really changed, inside? Inside, our inward lives are the same as the first humans. We are still sinners, we are people who don’t naturally go God’s way, we are people who follow too much the desires of our own hearts, and this is often at the expense of others. The words of the Lord Jesus are still relevant today because they describe the way we should live. They describe the one and true way, the way that leads to life eternal. Here, in the Sermon on the Mount we are very close to the heart-beat of God. If I may paraphrase and condense the sermon into a few key ideas, they are; just forgive people, go on just put others first, be loving not hating, love your enemies, give to everyone who asks, pray humbly, don’t worry about the future, trust God. It contains the heart, the very core of how Christians should be.

Let me ask you, no let me challenge you, do you live as people who know the meaning and purpose of life? Do you feel that you know the beauty of God’s plan for your life? Honestly now, I need no yes and Amen, just in the quite of your heart, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of God, and response in honesty and truth. Let us all place ourselves in the hands of a loving God. Open up the pages of Matthew’s gospel, pray and read, listen to what the Lord Jesus is saying to us. I pray that the Lord will reveal to us something of His will this evening. Holy Spirit we welcome you this evening.



2. God wants to Bless

In our series we have been looking at the first section of the Lord’s message, the Beatitudes. The early church fathers first came up with the title “Beatitudes”. It’s a Latin term meaning literally a state of bliss or happiness. So the Beatitudes are about Christian Happiness. When we read the Blessed’s of this passage, what do we see? Bless, blessings and blessed are religious words, they are words some people may never use. As believers we may use them but I’m not sure that we understand them. The problem with religious words is this; unless we experience them through God’s Holy Spirit working in our hearts, we will not have a deep understanding of them. For this is true of every spiritual truth, your natural understanding will not help you; things spiritual must be spiritually grasped. Listen to what scripture says,

Jn 14:26 [NKJV]
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

And

Jn 16:13 [NKJV]
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;

And again
1 Jn 2:27 [NKJV]
27But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

To abide in God we must be taught by God, we must listen to His voice. It is a supernatural thing. When the apostle John says God will reveal to us “all truth and all things” what is he saying? Well, I believe that they are spiritual insights, spiritually understood truths, an ability to see things from God’s perspective. Now can there be anything more valuable to us than this? Without the Spirit of God’s help, we cannot see and understand the things that really matter. By nature we are spiritually blind and our understanding is aligned to the world’s understanding. Now, you may say to me “I’m a believer, I already know this; you are not telling me something I don’t know” and you’re correct. If you are a believer, you have been born again by the Spirit of God, you’ve had your eyes restored to some extent and you have started to see and understand the things of God. But I would say to you this, being born again, miraculous as it was, is just the beginning. God has plans to work on you further, He is the potter, you are the clay, and God has a purpose for your life, to transform you into the image of God, to change you into the likeness of His Son.

I believe in Preaching and teaching, but Preaching, on its own, can achieve nothing without the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the listeners. But I hear you say doesn’t the book of Romans say “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” [Rom 10:17] and this is true. But in the very next verses the Apostle Paul goes on to show that the people of Israel have heard, yet have not believed. So hearing and understanding are two different things. In fact, knowing in your head is different from understanding in your spirit. For only God can teach you spiritual things. Let us all call out to God in our hearts. Let me pray again, Holy Spirit we welcome you this evening.

Let’s get back to the blessings of the Beatitudes. The blessings of God are primarily spiritual in nature. For example, what a blessing it is to know His mercy and to feel His comforting arms about us. Do we see and understand that God has a heart of compassion for us? God longs to bless his children, like a loving heavenly father that He is. God wants us to be truly happy. This may seem shocking to some. At times in our lives we can lose our way, we may have problems with our family, we may have struggles with our relationships, we may have stress at work, we may have worries about money, and worries about our health. At these times in our lives, events conspire to make us doubt that God loves us. But you know, He does love us. These events can cause us to doubt God Himself, but when we seem to loose faith, God is faithful, He never gives up on us; and God wants us to receive blessing upon blessing. For He who began a good work in us will carry it through to completion. For we have a God who loves us, a God who is all-powerful, a God who is able and willing to give us much more blessing than we can think of or even imagine. [Ep 3:20]. And we know He will ultimately work every situation to a good end. [Rom 8:28]. I believe this.

3. Pure in Heart

This takes us to the next part of the Matt. 5:8, blessed are the pure in heart. I should quickly say that I take “heart” to mean our inner life, our spiritual part, the centre of our being. This takes us to the word “pure”. Now, let me ask you a question, have you ever wondered why the Lord Jesus gave the Pharisees and teachers of the law such a hard time? You should read it for yourself in Matt 23:13-36. Also let me ask you another question, have you ever wondered why so much time in the Gospels is devoted to describing Jesus laying into the Pharisees with rebukes so strong that it would make milk curdle? What are the important lessons we need to learn? Remember, the Pharisees were highly religious people, zealous, very careful to always do what was expected of them. They prayed regularly, they fasted regularly, they study the scriptures regularly, the tithed regularly, and they always went to the temple on the Sabbath. They would have been well respected by many. Have they any similarity with Christians today? From the world’s perspective they were Jesus’ kind of people. But God sees things that the world cannot see or understand. God see things as they truly are.

Mt 23:25-26 [NKJV]
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

The Pharisees that Jesus was talking to in Math 23 were the worst kind of religious people you could meet. They were dishonest, corrupt, and selfish on the inside, in their hearts. For them, their faith was a means to an end. It was a means to obtain status, prestige and wealth. The Greek word for cleanse used in this passage is katharos. It finds it way into the name Catherine. The Greek word used for pure, in Math 5:8, also comes from katharos.

Jesus, is saying, happiness and blessing from God flow from the inside out. They start from a change inside. Blessings flows from cleansing the inside of the cup first. This cleansing process is described in the first four beatitudes. These blessings start by acknowledging that we are not the way we ought to be, they start by acknowledging that we are sinners, blessed are those who recognise they are spiritually poor. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from every kind of wrong [1 Jn 1:9]. If we acknowledge this, if we understand how sin has the power to damage our lives and the lives of others this will cause us to be sad. Was it not because of our sin that Jesus died on the cross? Blessed are they that are sad over their sins, for God will comfort them. Blessed are they that are humble because they recognise the way they really are, inside. And blessed are they who hunger and thirst for more of God, more of his anointing, more of his righteousness. This set of four verses describes the inner process of Sanctification. This is the process by which we become more like Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. For our part we must have faith in God, and show obedience to His word. In this earthly life of ours, these four verses are a cycle we must repeat again and again, and this is cleansing; this is being made pure.

The next set of four beatitudes talk about the outward workings of Sanctification, Blessed are those who love putting others first, who are merciful and kind and loving. Blessed are those who are peacemakers, for we have a ministry of reconciliation [2 Cor 5:8]. We are all called to try and reconcile people with each other and with God. In his church, God longs for unity, His Holy Spirit is present in power where the people are one; and division grieves God’s Holy Spirit. Blessed are those who continue to stand for what they believe in, even in the face of persecution. and our verse this evening, which for me is the summary verse of the beatitudes, Blessed are those who have cleansed hearts for they shall see God, face to face.

4. Seeking the Face of God

Blessed are the pure in heart “for they shall see God”. This is the ultimate blessing of anyone who loves the Lord. I am reminded of many passages in the Old Testament; of Jacob, of David and of Isaiah, but the one I want to mention tonight is where Moses is talking to God; in Exodus 33. The Lord tells Moses “I will personally go with you, and I will give you rest - everything will be fine for you.” But Moses is not satisfied with this most wonderful promise; He wants to see the glorious presence of God. What a man of God Moses was. When blessed he was hungry to receive an even greater blessing from God; and you know God gave him a greater blessing. God allows Moses to see some of His glorious presence. Listen

Ex 33:19-23
19 The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. 20 But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” 21 The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. 22 As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.”

Moses asked to see the glory, the power, the holiness of God. This is the ultimate blessing, to see the face of God and to abide in His holy presence. But who can do this and live, for we are sinners, we are like the grass in the field that is here today and gone tomorrow, we are but the dust of the earth; and God is eternal. We are small, weak, fallible human beings. We cannot comprehend how great and mighty God is. For God is Spirit; and we must understand Him in spirit and in truth. As human beings we can only see God in part, as St Paul put it [1 Cor 13:12]. But in the face of Jesus, God has shown Himself to human-kind in a new way. Now, at this present time, we are people who are on a journey, and this journey leads to the heart of God. God our Father is calling us home, the Lord Jesus is our Guide and the Holy Spirit is our Counsellor and helper for the journey.

God has revealed himself to us, in the Lord Jesus, and He will continue to reveal Himself to us, if we seek His face. Our God is a God who will bless us, if we are honest with ourselves and others, if we allow God to cleanse our hearts through trusting in the Lord Jesus, through repentance and obedience to the word. The promise of the beatitudes is that we shall one day see God face to face; we shall know God fully even as we are fully known. We shall stand in His presence in worship and thanksgiving, with all our tears wiped away and all sufferings healed, and we shall join the hosts of angels and saints and declare “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty; heaven and earth are full of your glory". As we dwell in the blessings of God, so we shall understand what it is to worship Him eternally.