Checklist for Lasting Joy, Part 1

At the beginning of his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presented a brief sequence of blessings.

They're commonly referred to as the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus said, and blessed are those who mourn. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll guides us through these eloquent declarations from Jesus and helps us understand their implications.

for our times. Those who faithfully cling to these promises will reap rich rewards. Referring to the Beatitudes, Chuck titled today's message, Checklist for Lasting Joy. And we'll begin by reading from Matthew chapter 5. The hand found in the Bible, the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, it appears more often than any other command. Fear not.

Isn't that interesting? The one who has made us and understands us reassures us because he knows us so well we have nothing to fear. Fear not. His presence is here. His power is available.

His word is in our own language in whatever size print you may desire to purchase. And here we have it all, but night comes and fears arise, doctor's appointments with those, results from the tests, news from a late night call, and on and on. So easy to be caught up in life's fears.

Fear not. It's part of the reason that we believe so strongly in the teaching of the scriptures, because the truth sets us free. The more you know of truth, the freer you will be. The less you know, the more in bondage. Others will want to keep you there under their thumb or your fears will grip you and never want you to be released from your imagination, which can run wild. But the truth equips you with information that you can then assimilate and live out. And trust me on this, you can know what true freedom on this earth is all about.

Freedom from others' opinions, freedom from pleasing people, freedom, back again, from our own fears. We're looking at the Beatitudes today found in the fifth chapter of the first book of the New Testament, the book of Matthew. Jesus is delivering his very first recorded sermon. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. As anyone will tell you who preaches, one of the important features of a good sermon is the opening line that is to get the attention of the listener.

One of my mentors used to say, you need to break the ho-hum in the heart or the mind of the listener with an opening line that you've thought through. And Jesus does that as nine times in a row, he uses the very same term. When it's repeated once or twice in the scriptures, it's important, but my, nine times.

We need to know what this word means and we'll learn today. What you find, Matthew 5 verses 1 through 12, I'll be reading from the New American Standard Version of the Bible. 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, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 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 there before you. May God cause the print from this section of the page of the Bible to kind of come off into living terms that we can understand them and then as the days pass, begin to apply them. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message titled Checklist for Lasting Joy. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Sound familiar? Straight out of the Declaration of Independence, these are called our inalienable rights, the right to life, the right to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Interesting, isn't it? Not happiness, but the pursuit of it. As citizens of these United States, these inalienable rights are ours to claim. We live here, we have life here.

We live in these United States as citizens, we enjoy the liberty of this great land. But happiness? We're free to pursue it. Can you honestly say in your pursuit that you have found it? By that I mean a lasting happiness, a sense of contentment, an abiding bliss.

Being truly satisfied that you have peace within your inner life, regardless of your circumstances. Do you have any idea how few people can honestly answer that yes? Now admittedly we all pursue it, or at least we certainly should, but to some who have become cynical, it's too good to be true. Well I will answer that by saying if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, it can become a reality.

If you do not, it never will. Plain and simple, this is directly linked to the life he has promised. Remember he called it life abundant? In me you will have life, not only life, but life abundant. You will have peace, a deep serenity, and you will not find it in any other source.

These great promises are found in the scriptures, and I think the secret as it would unfold is wrapped in these beatitudes that appear in Matthew chapter 5. And I realize when I work my way through them, and I've been on them for hours this past week, and even a little before then, and the longer I spend in them the more I smile, thinking how different this is from anything the world can offer. In fact, so different, you live like this, you're weird. They think of you as, you know, your elevator doesn't quite go all the way up. Shades are still a little drawn.

You're in a dream world, if you think you can get along, well look at the list. Poor in spirit, mourning, gentle, they're thinking wimp. Those who hunger and thirst for what? For money? That's the way they would tell you. But for righteousness, being merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, persecuted.

That's your lifestyle, and you're telling me this is a goal to shoot for? Well actually I'm not, Jesus is. I'm simply a messenger to tell you what he said and the things his followers wrote. He's come upon a mountain, his disciples have followed him along with others in the crowd, and they've sat on a little plateau probably north of the Sea of Galilee. If you travel to Israel you will certainly go to the Mount of Beatitudes, and there you'll sit and you'll feel the breezes as they blow and the beautiful spring flowers as they bloom, and you'll remember what it must have been like, or you'll think of what it must have been like to have sat there where he sat.

And he opens his mouth, verse 2, and begins to teach them. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. What does that mean? If a word appears two or three times in the scriptures it's worth searching out, but nine times in a row, verses 3 through 11, each of the verses beginning with that term, what does that mean? A number of synonyms have been offered. Fortunate, contented, blissful, at peace, privileged, serene, self-contained, unaffected by one's surroundings.

The best definition I came across is a brief one, and I offer it. An inward contentment unaffected by outer circumstances. Once again, an inner peace, an inner contentment that is unaffected by anything else. Think of the Beatitudes as inner attitudes that prevail over all external situations. It's good to remember the Beatitudes are pronouncements, they're not probabilities. They're not commands, they're celebrations. Get this, the verb is or to be doesn't appear.

Be this, do that. This is more like Psalm 1 that begins, Oh, how blessed is the one who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, or stands in the way of sinners, or sits in the seat of the scornful. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in that law does he meditate day and night. Oh, the blessing's many times over.

There's no verb there. So this is that. Oh, the lasting peace among the poor in spirit, among the mourners, among the gentle, and on and on.

Eight of them. This is a new way of life based on a new way of thinking that Christ enables. And may I add this? When these things are modeled in our lives, the world cannot believe it. It will be drawn to us like a magnet. I don't think because the church is like the world, it becomes of interest to the people of the world. I think when the church is different from the world, suddenly the curiosity is aroused. You see, that's why I think the theme of this Sermon on the Mount is chapter 6, verse 8.

Do not be like them. Do not be different. God loves difference. And when we live a life that's different, we live a life that Christ lived. And he was so different, they drove him to the cross. Think about it. The most perfect individual who ever lived, lived the most unusual life among people, was so despised and treated with such hostility, he wound up with his hands and feet nailed to a cross. Why? Because the world doesn't have much of a place for difference.

Until you tap into it and taste it, it doesn't really begin to make sense. Now, you need to be ready for a little shock here. The truths that we're going to uncover will never appear in the media. You won't read of them in the Wall Street Journal. You won't hear of them in 60 Minutes. You won't see them promoted at the CEO at your company unless he's a believer and living his life according to scripture. You will not see them promoted in policy handbooks.

You will not hear about them in the courtroom. These are really different. I want that to land on you with full force. Otherwise, you'll look at it like a whirling.

You'll think, who needs this? You live like that, people walk all over. Wait, wait, wait a minute. Did they walk all over Jesus? Was he a wimp?

Think. I don't know that of all the people I've studied, I've ever come across anyone stronger than he. Strong in constitution, strong in convictions, committed to the truth and purity, and yet standing against a hostile crowd who never did to his last day understand him. See, it was his difference that caused his disciples to want to follow him.

They lived around all the other stuff all their lives, and that wasn't giving any peace. As long as he comes to change the world and tell them he can make them fishers of men and women, and they think, I want that. That's for me. So are these beatitudes for now or for later? They're for both. Don't relegate them to the kingdom age and leave them there as if all of it will wait for us in the millennial kingdom. They'll be there for us, but they're here for us now.

These can be applied now, and I hope to do that as best I can. These are the things that stunned the world and make them insatiably curious, which is part of the role they're to fill. I like the way one man writes, The ways of the God of Scripture appear topsy-turvy to men and women of this world. For God exalts the humble and abases the proud.

He calls the first last and the last first. He ascribes greatness to the servant. He declares the meek to be his heirs. The culture of the world and the counterculture of Christ are at loggerheads with each other. So the Lord says, I congratulate you for having the courage to live my life, and I'll give you all the enablement you need to do it.

So what does that include? All right, let's work through them. Let's give a kind of a brief examination to each one of the eight Beatitudes. Number one, poor in spirit, verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Let's apply it as I did earlier, or let's render it as I did earlier. O the lasting joy, O the lasting peace, of one who realizes his or her own helplessness. That's poor in spirit. O the lasting joy of the one who understands the absence of spiritual merit and the essential need of dependence on the Lord.

That's poor in spirit. O the joy, lasting joy, of one who lives her life without pride or arrogance, who comes before the Lord empty-handed. Like the old hymn, nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace, foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. That's a dependent soul.

The hope of the poor in spirit, read it for yourself at the end of verse three. You truly enter into kingdom living. Even though you're on this earth, you experience the blessing of living like a kingdom person.

You give up your own kingdom to live in the realm of his kingdom. It is no longer about you, and you're not insulted by that. You're relieved.

You see, the poor in spirit has no place for the narcissist, and we are filled with narcissism. Every situation is all about me. Every ad campaign ultimately winds up with you, you. It's for you. You're going to enjoy it. This is for you. You can purchase this. You can drive this. This is for you.

All the way through. And here he says, no, blessed are the poor in spirit who come with no expectation, willing to depend on the Lord. Now, it doesn't mean you walk around and say, oh, shucks, all day. I like the way Martin Lloyd-Jones writes of this.

This does not mean that we are to become what I can best describe as imitators of Uriah Heep. Many again have mistaken being poor in spirit for that. I remember once having to go to preach at a certain town. When I arrived on the Saturday evening, a man met me at the station and immediately asked for my bag. Indeed, he almost took it from my hand, my force.

Then he talked to me like this. I'm a deacon in the church where you're preaching tomorrow. And then he added, you know, I'm a mere nobody. A very unimportant man, really. I do not count. I am not a great man in the church.

I'm just one of those men who carry the bags for the minister. I was anxious that I should know what a, he was anxious that I should know what a humble man he was. How poor in spirit he wanted to come across. Yet, by his anxiety to make it known, he was denying the very thing he was trying to establish. Uriah Heep, the man who thus, as it were, glories in his poverty of spirit and thereby proves he is really not humble. It is an affection of something which he obviously does not feel. This is a danger which confronts many people, though not as much today as it once did.

There once was a time when it was the curse of the church and affected men's very appearance and even their gait. You heard about the guy that wrote the book How I Became the Most Humble Man in the World with 12 life-sized pictures. That's what I'm talking about. It's not that. It's not, oh, I'm nothing. Oh, I'm worthless. Oh, I'm just a servant.

We had a young man who lived with us for a while years ago who used to say that a lot. And he was the least servant you would want to be around. We suggested he do this. He said, really, I think a better way to do it is that. Well, I thought servants did this.

No, I think this is a better way. But I want to be a servant. I just want to serve you.

I just want to be there to help. Stop it. That's nonsense. When you are poor in spirit, you live your life dependent on the Lord and you don't call attention to that. When you're humble, you are not self-effacing.

You simply set aside yourself or others and you do so as a habit of life. And the result, you will know a kingdom living like few people. Second, blessed are those who mourn.

You think the first one was tough. How about this one? Blessed are those who mourn. Oh, the lasting joy of those who mourn. This is the strongest word in the Greek language for a passionate lament. It's the sorrow of a broken heart, the ache of a soul, the mental anguish. The mourning over the wrongs of our world grieved, grieved over one's own carnality. It certainly would include mourning over those we have lost, but it's deeper than that. It's caring very deeply about our continuation in the same sins. We're just getting started in these blessings from Jesus. Chuck Swindoll refers to the Beatitudes as a checklist for lasting joy. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org.

We understand that 2020 and 2021 have ushered in a season of mourning for many people as we lament the direction our world is going. To help you navigate these unsettling times, we'd like to recommend a book Chuck has written. It's called Perfect Trust. This devotional has been our featured resource for a number of weeks, and I'll encourage you to request a copy today while it's fresh on your mind. To cultivate a stronger, more trusting relationship with Jesus, we highly recommend this book. To purchase a copy of Perfect Trust, go to insight.org slash offer. In addition, Chuck has written a brand-new commentary that complements our year-long study in Matthew.

In fact, it comes in two hardbound volumes. It's called Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew. These two books include verse-by-verse insight from Chuck, along with charts, maps, photos, key terms, and articles as well. The complete commentary is a must-have for pastors and teachers and anyone who wants to know more about the Gospel of Matthew. So to purchase Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew or Chuck's popular book Perfect Trust, visit us online or call us.

If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. These daily programs are made possible because people like you give generous gifts. And through your support, people all over our country and even around the world are learning to place their trust in God. For example, I was encouraged to read a recent note from a listener in Indiana who said, I first found insight for living while sitting in jail. Chuck helped me realize I need God in my life, and now I'm 40 months clean from all drugs. Well, to give a donation today, call us if you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org. I'm Dave Spiker. Chuck Swindoll offers more wisdom from the Checklist for Lasting Joy, Tuesday on Insight for Living. .