We've been going through Luke for a while now, and now we're gonna get to probably the most famous sermon ever preached. The Sermon on the Mount or for Luke, it's the Sermon on the Plateau. Let me read Luke chapter 6 beginning in verse 17. And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
Joel Brooks:And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and he healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
Joel Brooks:Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. For so their fathers did to the prophets. Father, I ask that you would honor the very reading of your word, that you would come and you would speak through me, that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But lord, let your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:Pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Almost everybody is familiar with this sermon. This, I mean whether you're a Christian or not, you've heard parts of this. I actually it's what everybody thinks of, and it's intimidating.
Joel Brooks:And it's what everybody thinks of, and it's intimidating. It's convicting. It's mysterious and all those things. So in over 10 years of a preaching ministry, I've never once preached through the beatitudes. You know, in my home group that meets on Wednesday nights, we discuss the sermon from Sunday and it's always a little awkward because, I mean, the pastor's there.
Joel Brooks:And so somebody says, you know, what do you think of the sermon? And you're like, you know nobody's being honest. But, you know, I'm hoping and expecting those things like, man, it was life changing. You know, it was wow, never heard anything like that. Or, you know, I'm quitting my job, moving to Uganda because of that message.
Joel Brooks:You you know, as a pastor, you want to hear that, but but sometimes, not often, but sometimes somebody from the group will say, What what was the sermon on? What was the text? Somebody will mention it. Luke 5. Oh, yeah.
Joel Brooks:That that sounds vaguely familiar. Yeah. Okay. You know, and I just kind of shrivel down and but nobody for 2000 years has forgotten this sermon. You go back and you go through all of the church fathers and almost every single one of them comment on this.
Joel Brooks:There's there's 2000 years of discussion from this sermon. It was so radical, so countercultural, it stuck. And Jesus here, he turns the world's values completely upside down. We need to understand this sermon in context. It's Jesus' first sermon to his disciples.
Joel Brooks:He went up to the mountain to pray. He prayed all night. And then after he prayed, he picked 12 people, 12 apostles. Now he had a lot more disciples than this. You know, we find out later.
Joel Brooks:He even sends out 70 of his disciples. He's got a lot of disciples, but he narrows it down to these 12 will have a special relationship with me. And so he picks them, and then he he comes down, and then he heals everyone from their diseases. People just wanna touch him to feel the power come from him, and then he asked people to sit down and he addresses. I'm sure the the 12 are there, then all the disciples, then you have people from Tyre and Sidon on the outskirts there, and he addresses them.
Joel Brooks:And I'm sure the atmosphere is absolutely electric because here Jesus is starting the revolution they've been waiting for. It looks like he's finally organizing it. He's gathered all of his disciples. He's come down from the mountain. He's appointed the officers.
Joel Brooks:So it's about time to get things going. And in Jesus, he does start a revolution, but it's through community. That's what this sermon is about. What does the community that Jesus bring look like? What does it look like?
Joel Brooks:He explains the values of the kingdom of God. He explains exactly what they are to think, what they are to believe now that they are his disciples, and it turns everything upside down. I think a good way to understand what's going on here is if you go back into Exodus, when when Moses went up to the mountain, he received the law of God, and he came down to the people and he gave it to them. Now these people were already saved. They were already redeemed.
Joel Brooks:And he gave them this law to form a new community. So this is gonna set you apart from all the other nations. This is gonna form your identity right here. And Jesus is doing the same thing. He goes up on the mountain, and then He comes down and in a sense gives this law.
Joel Brooks:This is the new law of the kingdom. It's not for salvation. He doesn't even prescribe anything first in these beatitudes. He just tells things the way they are. This is reality.
Joel Brooks:This is what it looks like to be part of this new community in which you have been saved into. Just as the law was given not to save, but to show the people God's heart, it's the same here. God is showing you his heart, The things he values. You've got to understand this sermon and and the rest of the sermon on the mount in the context of community. If you notice, in the blessings and the woes that we just read, Jesus is describing things.
Joel Brooks:He's not prescribing things, he's describing. He's not giving you a list of here's what you need to do. You need to become poor. You need to become hungry. You you know, you need to make sure people insult.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say that. He's simply describing the things that God now values. What God says is blessed, which is completely different than what the world sees as blessed. You know, next time you're at Walmart, I dare any of you to do this, you know, and you're at the checkout line. And usually when I go, the cashier says, when I leave, have a blessed day.
Joel Brooks:I don't know if if you get that or not. I'm sure you get it somewhere. Have a blessed day. I dare any of you to stop next time and go, really? Have a blessed day.
Joel Brooks:So are you saying that you want me to be poor? That you want me to be hungry? Is that what you're saying that you want, you know, me when I go to the car for people to revile me and persecute me? Is that really what you're asking? And they'll look at you absolutely, you know, insane.
Joel Brooks:I I mean, personally, I would want a woeful day. I would rather them say, have a woeful day. You know, be rich, be prosperous, may people speak well of you. Those are what we consider blessings. And Jesus says, no, these are woes.
Joel Brooks:So next time I'm at Walmart and they say, have a blessed day, you say, you have a woeful day. You know, and see if they get it. They're just gonna stare at you blankly. But I know that in my life, when I look at these lists, I know what I want. I know what I consider a blessing.
Joel Brooks:Jesus's words still cut me, and they have for 2000 years. This is radical. I mean this is seriously radical. Look what Jesus values poverty, hunger, mourning, persecution. Try to go to Barnes and Noble's and find a book about a success story, in which that's what the person finally achieves in their life.
Joel Brooks:You know, the story about some well respected man or woman who lost it all and now people hate him and now he's so poor and he weeps all the time. Success story. Blessed. You're not gonna find it. It's radical.
Joel Brooks:Look at the very first beatitude. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. And now the word blessed, it means to have a deep satisfaction. A deep satisfaction and and you know you have favor with God. So you have favor with God and you have a deep satisfaction.
Joel Brooks:So Jesus is saying those who are poor are deeply satisfied. Those who are poor have favor with God. And in the gospel of Matthew, he adds, blessed are the poor in spirit instead of just Luke's blessed are the poor. I believe they're actually talking about the same thing here. There's a lot of that's been written about the differences between those two.
Joel Brooks:But Luke is not saying salvation is on, you know, some economic sliding scale. He's not saying that. You know, the the richer you are, the the less saved you are, and the poor you are, the more saved. He's not saying that. You're gonna see throughout the book of Luke that poor people come to know Jesus, rich people come to know Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Luke is not saying that if you're physically poor, God loves you more. What he's talking about here is spiritual poverty. Remember, he's addressing his disciples here. These are his disciples. He's not talking to everyone.
Joel Brooks:Now a lot of these disciples were physically poor, and what you would call spiritually poor. They're physically poor because a lot of them gave up everything to follow Jesus. He's saying, blessed are you. And in Luke, he kind of wedge the 2 together, because often it is the physically poor who are the spiritually poor because they just understand things better, they're they're more likely to depend on mercy, they're more likely to see that they're powerless, They're more likely to understand the gospel. When he says poor, I I think you should understand that is that is somebody who is spiritually bankrupt, who sees themselves as spiritually or or morally bankrupt.
Joel Brooks:To be poor is to recognize you have nothing to offer, that when you look at yourself, you realize there is nothing good in you. That you're poor. The tax collector who went and he beat his chest and he said, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. He is poor in spirit. He has nothing to offer, and when Jesus sees a person like that, he says, you know what?
Joel Brooks:That's the kind of person that's blessed. That's the person God values. I kind of think of it as the, you know, the upside down of Oprah Winfrey. You know, everything kind of Oprah Winfrey teaches or the people she has on her show, you gotta you gotta kind of flip that upside down. You know, being blessed does not come by thinking a lot of yourself.
Joel Brooks:Get the self esteem. You can become a better person. You've got a lot to offer. Jesus says, no. Those people aren't blessed.
Joel Brooks:People are blessed to realize they have nothing to offer God. In verse 22, Jesus says what he doesn't value. 24. He said he doesn't value riches. Now the rich are those who are spiritually confident.
Joel Brooks:Those who think highly of themselves. Those who think themselves righteous or morally superior to others. And often it is the physically rich, because they're used to getting their own way. They're used to, you know, I'm a self made man. They're used to that.
Joel Brooks:So often the 2 go together. But Jesus says, woe to you. Woe to you who think you're righteous? Woe to you who think you can work your way into heaven? Woe to you who think just because you helped the poor, God owes you heaven.
Joel Brooks:Woe to you who give to charities, and you give so just so you think God will be pleased with you. Woe to you. You've got nothing to offer. Jesus says that the rich have received their consolation, which means that the rich have already gotten their payment in full. They've gotten their payment in full.
Joel Brooks:What Jesus is saying is if you set your heart and you make the values, your values, the values of this world, that's what you're seeking. You know what? You're gonna get it. You're gonna get what you strive for, but that's all you're going to get. Riches is your goal and you're gonna seek it hard and you know what?
Joel Brooks:You're probably gonna get rich, but that's all you're gonna get. You know, if you set your heart to, give money to the poor, give it to all these charities so you could get this feel good feeling or or so that people will recognize you. You know what? You'll get that, but it's all you're gonna get. Jesus blesses the poor.
Joel Brooks:Next Jesus says, blessed blessed are you who are hungry, for you shall be satisfied. Once again, there's this physical and spiritual element to this. For often the real hungry becomes spiritually hunger hungry because they cry out to God, help me. Help me. Matthew, the gospel of Matthew adds hunger and thirst for righteousness, which is the point.
Joel Brooks:Just like Psalm 42, as a deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for thee. It's this longing. Those who long for the Lord are satisfied or blessed. And so we live in this Christian life that is both, it should be both, where you're full and you're hungry. It's both.
Joel Brooks:You want to be filled with God's spirit, but you always want more of His spirit. You want to know God, but you always want to know Him more. And all you have to do is read through Paul's letters, and there's times where he says, I know good. I know God. I know whom I have believed in.
Joel Brooks:I know Him. And then to the Philippians, he'll say, to know Him. I want to know Him. He both wants to know God, and he knows God. He's satisfied yet he's still hungry.
Joel Brooks:God calls his people blessed, but then he says, woe to the person who's satisfied. Woe to the person who has stuffed themselves with the things of this world, who stuffs themselves with entertainment, who who stuffs themselves with worldly pleasures, and they're just feeding and they're feeding and they've lost all Verse 21 says, blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Verse 25 says, woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. I've thought about this one probably more than any of the others this week. Jesus says that there's weeping in his kingdom.
Joel Brooks:There is real grief, and there's real mourning. It's present tense though, when he says blessed are you in the midst of this. And then when you're hungry or when you're poor, when you're not enjoying comforts that other people are enjoying, there can be grief. There can be sorrow. And he says that's real.
Joel Brooks:Says, but in the midst of all of this, there's this deep satisfaction. Now I wanna be crystal clear that you you don't seek grief. And I want you to go out here and think I need to seek opportunities to weep. You know, I need to, you know, to hit myself or, you know, do put myself weep the way the world But you don't see grief, you don't weep the way the world weeps. When you see it, you see that God is blessing you.
Joel Brooks:He is blessing you. God values weeping. And so you don't run from it. You trust God through it. You know, in thinking through really all these beatitudes, but I'll just use weeping.
Joel Brooks:You've been given an incredible gift in this life, which I think is part of the blessing. When you get to heaven, you will worship God of course, but you will worship him in wealth. You'll worship him in full comfort and satisfaction. You will worship him with every tear dried and gone, and there will be no persecution, there'll be no exclusion because you'll be included into the family of God. You'll worship him in this perfect environment.
Joel Brooks:But now you have this gift. It's the only time that you will ever be able to worship God It's the only time you will ever have to worship God in the midst of poverty, or hunger, or persecution. You'll never have that again. And so when when those times come, when sorrows come, you don't shun it. You see, this is a gift that I will not have for the rest of eternity.
Joel Brooks:The gift to worship God in the midst of grief and sorrow. How precious that is. That's why God says, blessed are you when you're weeping. This is a gift. It's a gift that won't last for long.
Joel Brooks:And when Jesus says, woe to those who laugh now, He's not saying God doesn't want you to laugh. You know, if you all laugh, God's against you, you know, and you're all to be depressed and gloomy Christians. Robert Louis Stevenson is one of my favorite authors, and I was reading in his diary. He said, I went to church today, and I'm not depressed. And he wrote, surprise.
Joel Brooks:He was just so used to going to church and leaving so depressed. Being around other Christians, and that's not what Jesus is saying here. The laughter here, through the rest of scripture is used as a mocking. It's a mocking. Daryl Bach has probably the best commentary on Luke, and he says that you should see this laughter.
Joel Brooks:You should translate it gloating. Gloating. It's the laughter of people who think they've won. This is the mocking laughter that people give when they think they're so much better. They're glad they didn't waste the time on what you've done.
Joel Brooks:They're successful and they mock you. Jesus says, woe to you who think you're so successful that you can gloat over others. Look at the final beatitude in verse 22. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, and when they revile you, and spurn your name as evil on account of the son of man. Now, I've known a lot of Christians who really love to cling to this verse.
Joel Brooks:They're the Christians who, you know, they wear the Christian t shirt. They go into the workplace. They start pointing out all the sins of their coworkers, start calling them evil, you know, Sabbath breakers, you know, you're in an adulterous relationship, you know, all this. And and the people, you know, at the workplace go, you're such a jerk. And they're like, persecuted for the Lord.
Joel Brooks:That's what's happening right here. And I'm like, no, you're actually just a jerk. That's what it is. You are a jerk. You're a pompous, righteous, self righteous jerk.
Joel Brooks:And and and don't think that that's what Jesus is talking about. That you can go out to the street with a bullhorn and yell at people and think, oh man, I get persecuted. You say, persecuted for for my namesake, for the for the son of man. That's what you're to be persecuted for. Not for being a jerk.
Joel Brooks:That's not being blessed, but you will be reviled, reviled if you really hold to the values of the son of man. I was listening to a sports talk radio this past week on the way to some meeting, and it's the SEC media days. And, Mark Richt, coach for the University of Georgia, best school there is. He he was being interviewed, and Mark Richt, he's a Christian. And the person interviewing him was actually a couple of guys interviewing, they said, you know, you know, people just kinda think you're perfect.
Joel Brooks:You know, do you sin? And he goes, yeah. Because I've got a lot of deep sins. So you're not struggle with pride terribly, you know with lust, you know, and and they picked up on that, and and then you said, actually, I I have a group of guys who asked me a question. Every every single week, they ask me questions and they they they say, you know, have you lusted after a woman?
Joel Brooks:Every week I get asked that question, and he's talking to the interviewers about this and they kinda nod and they're uncomfortable and then they leave. And when they when they left, and they they even acknowledged we're uncomfortable because he looked us in the eye, and he said these things. But they leave and then they totally mocked him. It's unbelievable. They just mocked and they mocked.
Joel Brooks:They said, I mean, if that's sin, who can keep that sin? That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. Nobody holds to this. And one guy goes, you know, I mean if I see a good looking woman, I'm gonna look twice.
Joel Brooks:There's nothing wrong with that, and they mocked. That's what Jesus is talking about. Mark Rick, he didn't say one negative word. He didn't get one stone and throw it at him. But simply because of what he believed in his character, these people felt condemned.
Joel Brooks:Simply by being around them, they felt judged. And so they their only option was either to repent or to mock, and they mocked. It's the same as if you're single, and you know, you believe that, no, you're at sex is for marriage and so you wait. Well, the friends that you have who don't believe that, their options are either, well, I need to change, or I could just kind of make fun of you for what you believe. But that just that you hold to that condemns them, and they revile you, even when you don't say a negative word.
Joel Brooks:You know, the values of Jesus are so contrary to the world's values. Just know if you hold them, you will be persecuted. Martin Luther said that was a mark of the church, persecution. The St Augsburg confession or the Augsburg confession. It defines church as the community of those who are persecuted and those who are martyred for the gospel.
Joel Brooks:That's what the church is. Paul just says, if you desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, you will be persecuted. But after this, Jesus gives the only command that's in the beatitudes. He says, when this happens, rejoice. That's a command.
Joel Brooks:Rejoice in that day. Leap for joy. Celebrate. But woe to you people who who when everybody speaks so well of you. I'm just going to read these beatitudes again.
Joel Brooks:Ask God to show you where you land. I tell you, I cannot tell you how many times I've read through them. Where where when I look at my life, I think, where do I land? And it's been painful. Now probably nobody here is on either extreme.
Joel Brooks:There's probably a lot of that are kind of on the fence, but are you a blessed person? Are you one whom Jesus would say, what was you? Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. And I say the woes afterwards, but woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
Joel Brooks:Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the son of man. Woe to you when all people speak well of you.
Joel Brooks:For so their fathers did to the false prophets. Pray with me. Lord, I pray that you would show us where we are on that. You're the king. You brought in a new administration.
Joel Brooks:With every new administration, there's new things that are valued and there's new things that are discarded. This is what you value. Poverty, hunger, being persecuted, mourning. What you see is pitiable or woeful or riches, comfort, mocking laughter, and people speaking well of us. Lord, I pray that we would value what you value.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.