The Beatitudes / Matthew 5:1-12
The Backdrop of the Kingdom
We are continuing in our series through Matthew, and what we’re trying to do with the book—since it’s 28 chapters—is find little mini-series. This last week, our team did a great job of putting behind us the early life of Christ, and now we enter into the Sermon on the Mount.
To understand chapter 5 and the Sermon on the Mount, there is a bit of backstory that helps us understand what is going on behind the scenes. When you look at the land of the Bible, we are talking about some of the most hotly contested property on the planet, and it always has been. The nation of Israel had been occupied by foreign forces for centuries, going all the way back to the Babylonians. After the Babylonians came the Persians. After the Persians came the Greeks. A young leader by the name of Alexander the Great took over the known world and laid siege to Jerusalem.
As he was laying siege to the city, the high priest went out, had a conversation with young Alexander, showed him the Scriptures, and showed him the prophecy in Daniel where Daniel predicts the fall of the Medo-Persian Empire to the Greek Empire. Because of that, Alexander spared the city. But the Greeks took over and began to reign. Like most people with immense talent, it went to his head. In 324 BC, Alexander claimed himself to be God, and the very next year, he died. Having no heir, he left his kingdom to four generals.
Two of them had major influence on our text. One was Ptolemy, who reigned in Egypt. The Greek forces in Egypt had control over the land of the Bible until about 198 BC, when the Seleucid Greek forces in Syria took over. When the Seleucids came in, they instituted a policy of severe intolerance toward the Jewish people. They tried to Hellenize the land—forcing them to speak Greek and worship Greek gods, which was a non-starter for the Jewish people. Eventually, a Greek general commanded a Jewish priest to sacrifice a pig on the Temple Mount, which would desecrate the temple. The priest refused, killed the general, grabbed his sons, ran into the wilderness, and started a revolt led by the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans.
It was an incredible battle. Even though the people of God were heavily outnumbered by the Greeks, they miraculously won. They cleansed the temple, purified the sanctuary, and lit candles in honor of the rededication—a victory they celebrate to this day in the Festival of Lights called Hanukkah. They purged the temple from Greek influence.
That historical victory inspired the popular notion that the Messiah would be a military and political ruler. The people thought, “The Bible says we’re going to have a Messiah, so He must be like the Maccabees. He will deliver us from political oppression.” This mindset caused massive discord. By the time of Jesus, four primary religious groups were trying to establish authority:
- The Pharisees: Old-school religious legalists and textual purists who focused on looking back at the law.
- The Sadducees: Politically savvy religious elite and liberals of the day who rejected the supernatural and focused on positioning themselves in places of power for the future.
- The Essenes: Religious ascetics who withdrew from culture, lived out in the desert, and focused entirely on physical separation from the world.
- The Zealots: Religious fanatics—as close to ancient terrorists as you can get—driven by zeal for God and focused on violent opposition to Rome.
That is the backdrop of the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming something very significant: the gospel of the kingdom.
Matthew 4:23 (NASB)
Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
What is the kingdom? You’ve seen it multiple times already in Matthew’s gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The kingdom is about the rule and reign of God on this earth. Even in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom of God was offered initially to the Jewish people. You will see that throughout Matthew chapters 1 through 12. In chapter 13, a shift occurs as the gospel goes to the Gentiles. The kingdom was rejected by Israel, but the King will return one day and establish His throne forever.
Setting the Stage on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is not a self-help guide to the blessed life. Do not misread it as saying, “If you do these things, then you will earn God’s blessing.” It is penitential in nature. When you read it, your reaction ought to be, Who could ever do that? That is way above my spiritual pay grade. If you read the Sermon on the Mount and feel your own inability, you understand it. The entire point is to expose what is happening on the inside.
Look at the audience present. We are told people came from Syria, the Galilee (rural Jews), the Decapolis (pagan Romans), Jerusalem (urban Jews and religious elite), Judea, and beyond the Jordan. Jesus had gone viral, drawing massive crowds.
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountainside, sat down, and His disciples came to Him.
Matthew 5:1-2 (NASB)
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and [began] to teach them, saying,
At the end of the sermon, Matthew tells us that when Jesus finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because He taught with authority and not like their scribes.
Matthew 7:28-29 (NASB)
When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as [one] having authority, and not as their scribes.
Jesus was speaking directly to His disciples, but the crowds—including Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots—were listening within earshot. It is like when you try to have a conversation with your spouse while knowing your kids are listening in the next room.
The message of the kingdom was difficult for the religious elite. They wanted a military deliverer, but Jesus began talking about the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the gentle, the merciful, and the peacemakers. Jesus wasn’t merely delivering people from Roman oppression; He was after their hearts. As He later tells the religious leaders, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Starting in Matthew 5:3, we have the Beatitudes. The word “blessed” carries the idea of a deep joy that comes through participation in the divine kingdom. It means being right with God. It doesn’t outline a checklist to earn salvation; rather, it exposes our total inability to live up to God’s standard in our own strength and points us to where true blessing is found.
The Heart of the Kingdom: Matthew 5:3-12
Spiritual Bankruptcy
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3 (NASB)
’Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is not marked by spiritual arrogance; it is marked by a recognition of spiritual poverty. To be “poor in spirit” means to shrink back, to cower, to cover your face in shame as a beggar with nothing to offer. Blessed is the person who understands that the best they have to bring before God is moral bankruptcy.
This was an immediate shot across the bow to the religious leaders who pranced around in public, fast twice a week, tithed from their herb gardens, and demanded the chief seats in the synagogues to prove how spiritual they were. Jesus went straight for the heart.
God looks to the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at His word.
Isaiah 66:2 (NASB)
‘For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,’ declares the LORD. ’But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, God will not despise.
Psalms 51:17 (NASB)
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Jesus illustrated this clearly in Luke 18 with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” Meanwhile, the tax collector stood at a distance, would not even look up to heaven, but beat his chest and cried, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said that tax collector went home justified rather than the Pharisee.
Luke 18:9-14 (NASB)
And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: ’Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ’The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ’God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ ’But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ ‘I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.’
Mourning over Sin
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4 (NASB)
’Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
This sounds paradoxical: happy are the sad. But this is not casual sadness; it is deep, heartfelt grief over spiritual bankruptcy and personal sin. Divine comfort is given to those who mourn over their spiritual need.
Robert Browning Hamilton wrote:
I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chatted all the way, But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow And ne’er a word said she; But oh, the things I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me!
When we mourn over our sin, we discover the redemptive grace of God, who turns our mourning into dancing and girds us with gladness.
Psalms 30:11-12 (NASB)
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, That [my] soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Gentleness and True Inheritance
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5 (NASB)
’Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
The Zealots in the crowd must have thought Jesus was out of His mind. To them, the land could only be won through military force and violence. Yet Jesus says the gentle and meek inherit the earth. The Zealots never learned this lesson; their violent revolts led to catastrophe in AD 70 when Rome destroyed the temple, and again in AD 136 under Emperor Hadrian.
The land was already unconditionally promised by God to His people in His covenant promises. Inheriting the land requires trusting in God’s sovereignty rather than taking matters into our own violent hands.
Those who wait for the Lord and the humble will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
Psalms 37:9-11 (NASB)
For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be [there]. But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
Hungering for Righteousness
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6 (NASB)
’Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
In our culture, hunger means our stomach is rumbling so we order food on an app, or thirst means swinging through the drive-thru. In the ancient world, food insecurity and drought were life-and-death realities. To hunger and thirst meant your very survival was at stake.
Jesus says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness as if their life depends on it. Righteousness is not a list of ethical rules; it is a right relationship with God. Satisfaction comes only from Him. Trying to find satisfaction outside of God is what Jeremiah described as forsaking the fountain of living waters to dig broken cisterns that hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:13 (NASB)
’For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.
Mercy, Purity, and Peace
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Matthew 5:7 (NASB)
’Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Those who have been forgiven much love much. The religious elites were quick to condemn others—like the woman caught in adultery—because they failed to see their own need for mercy. Those who live in the kingdom extend the same mercy they have received from God.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8 (NASB)
’Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Jewish tradition was obsessed with external cleanliness. The Mishnah contained hundreds of pages on ritual washing. Jesus condemned this, calling them whitewashed tombs—clean on the outside, but full of dead men’s bones inside. God requires clean hands and a pure heart, purified not by external rituals, but by the grace of God through Christ.
Psalms 24:3-4 (NASB)
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9 (NASB)
’Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
In a fallen world fractured by sin since Genesis 3, sons and daughters of the King are called to bring His shalom—His true peace and restoration—into their neighborhoods and cities.
Persecution for the King
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10 (NASB)
’Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was preparing His disciples for reality. They would suffer, be brought before rulers, and be martyred for His name. Living as citizens of God’s kingdom makes us outcasts in this present world.
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great.
Matthew 5:11-12 (NASB)
’Blessed are you when [people] insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. ’Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Who Can Enter the Kingdom?
As Jesus concluded this opening section, a silence must have fallen over the crowd. This was not the political rallying cry they expected. He demanded absolute spiritual poverty, brokenness over sin, meekness, an insatiable hunger for righteousness, radical mercy, internal purity, peacemaking, and willingness to suffer.
They must have looked at each other and asked, “Who on earth can live like that?”
The answer is: nobody.
That is the whole point. Jesus gave the Beatitudes to expose our total inability to live a kingdom life in our own strength. Later in the chapter, Jesus says:
Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:20 (NASB)
’For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses [that] of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
If the most religiously disciplined people of the day fell short, then everyone falls short. We are bankrupt. We cannot be moral enough, kind enough, or religious enough to earn our way into the kingdom of God.
The message has not changed. The gospel is not: Perform these good works and God will accept you. The gospel is that we bring nothing to the table. We are dead in our sins, and we need a Savior.
This is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:11-13 (NASB)
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Are you ready to admit your poverty of spirit? Are you willing to mourn over your sin, humble yourself before God, and hunger for a righteousness that only Christ provides? Have you trusted in Christ alone for your salvation?
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
The day is coming when the King will return. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord—some in worship, and some in judgment. Today, we have the opportunity to embrace His kingdom by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Prayer
Father, we thank You for the kingdom of God, that by Your grace we are invited to eat the crumbs from the Master’s table. We thank You that through faith in Christ, we have been grafted into Your promises. We worship You because You alone are worthy. Jesus, You are the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through You. We give You all our praise. In Jesus’ name, Amen.