James Meehan - The Surprising Secret Formula to a Blessed Life
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So what does it actually mean to be blessed, though? That's like a pretty important question. And I think if we were to ask like 100 people in your school, we would get a whole lot of answers that sound something like, "Blessed are those who are rich because they can buy whatever they want". Or maybe even like, "Blessed are the people who have power because they can get whatever they want". Or, "Blessed are the famous because everybody knows their name". Or maybe some might even say, "Blessed are those who have been handed everything because they never had to work for or worry about anything. Blessed are those people who have money, power, fame, and influence".
And isn't it interesting that those are the very things that so many of us spend our lives chasing? Because those are the very things that many of us think will make our life better when we have them. But what I think is so interesting is that when you look to Jesus, the most influential person who ever lived, the most famous name that exists under heaven, the person who had all of the riches of heaven at his disposal and the power to literally speak the universe into being, what he described as the blessed life is very different than what most of us are chasing after.
So that's what we're gonna talk about in this week's message. We're gonna look at the first four sentences of Jesus' most famous sermon. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. And in this sermon he begins by laying out a list of blessings. Blessed are these people, and then he tells us why. Now before we get into that, I wanna kind of just like give you the main idea before we actually dig into it. The main idea if you are taking notes is this, that the kingdom of God is built on a bedrock of blessing. The kingdom of God is built on a bedrock of blessing.
Now if you play "Minecraft", you know that bedrock is the layer of rock at the very bottom. It is the strongest layer that you cannot break through. It is the layer that holds everything else up. If you do not play "Minecraft", then I just want you to imagine that concrete slab that goes under a building or a house. It is the foundation that the rest of the house is built on.
And the reason why this is important for us to understand is because what Jesus wants us to know right off the bat is that the kingdom of God, the kingdom that he came to establish is built on a foundation of blessing. That the very base layer, the foundation that holds everything else up is grace. It is the good news, that before you or I do anything, we are loved by God.
This is how Jesus begins his most famous sermon. If we go to Matthew chapter five, starting in verse one, we read, "Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them". And then what comes after this is what Jesus began to teach them. He begins to tell them what life is like when God is in charge.
Verse three, he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn 'cause they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, because they will inherit the earth. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled".
Okay, so what does the word blessed even mean? Because that does not sound like blessed. Well that word blessed, it means favored, it means privileged, it means lucky. It means those who are winning at life. That is what the word blessed actually means. And according to Jesus, the people who are favored are spiritually poor. The people who are privileged are the ones who mourn. The people who are winning at life are the meek, the powerless. And those who really have it made are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That means they want it but do not have it.
Now if you're wondering, how in the world does that work? And is this the kind of thing that we're just supposed to nod our heads in agreement because we're in church and Jesus said it, even though it doesn't seem to make any sense at all? Lemme clarify, I think it is good and it is right that you trust what Jesus says because he says it. But if you also have questions and you have doubts about whether or not what he said makes sense, you are so welcome here. We believe that this is a place that you can bring your questions and wrestle with them honestly, because we believe that God is big enough to handle your questions.
And that when you wrestle with those questions alongside wise people, you'll actually find good and wise answers to those questions, questions that help you grow in your faith and discover more and more of what it looks like to follow Jesus. And so what we're gonna do is ask the question, how in the world could it be true that people who are poor in spirit, people who mourn, people who hunger and thirst for things to be made right, people who are meek could actually be blessed? We're gonna start with the first one.
The first one that we read says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". So poor in spirit, that means spiritually poor. That means they are far from God and they have nothing to offer spiritually. They are desperate. But theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How do we understand this? One of the things I think is so cool about when you read the Bible is that so much of what Jesus says is understood when you look at what he does. So literally like right before this speech begins in Matthew chapter four, we see Jesus bless the poor in spirit by inviting them into the kingdom of heaven.
So rewind one chapter, Matthew chapter four, comes right before Matthew chapter five. In verse 17, this is the first time we see Jesus talk about the kingdom of heaven. And here's what he says. "From that time on, Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, turn your life around for the kingdom of heaven has come near.'" There it is, that's important. And then the very next thing, "As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake," why? Because they were fishermen.
Now this is an important detail. So in Jesus' day, every Jewish boy and girl went to Hebrew school. And if you were smart enough, you would move on to the next phase of Hebrew school. If you were not, then you got cut and you went back home to continue on the family business. So the fact that they were fishermen tells us that they did not have what it takes to make the cut. They were, in many people's eyes, spiritually poor. But then Jesus does something that they would not have expected. He says, "Come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people. And at once these brothers left their nets and they followed him".
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are these two brothers, spiritually poor fishermen, because they got a front row seat to everything that Jesus was going to do. They got early access on the kingdom of heaven. That is why they are blessed, not because they were spiritually elite pastors, preachers and priests, but because they were poor in spirit and their dependence upon God drew Jesus' attention to them.
And so Jesus invited them to come and follow him. And there are some of you who you would, if you're being honest, recognize that you are poor in spirit, that all this church stuff is a little bit new to you or maybe even overwhelming to you. What I need you to hear and understand is that the blessing of God is available to you. If you will simply trust in Jesus and say yes to his invitation, then you'll discover the truth that blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The second one that we look at, the next verse, we read that, "Blessed are those who mourn because they will be comforted". Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Now this one became very real for me this summer because on June 15th my dad passed away after an eight month battle with cancer. And that was unquestionably like the hardest and most painful thing that my family and I have ever had to walk through. And we mourned because we loved him and because we miss him.
But like, walking through that, even though it was like the hardest thing ever, all of the ways that God showed his kindness to us around his passing and the days following, like made those words more true than I can ever describe to you. Because like, it was the kind of thing where it felt like everything was falling apart. But over and over again, God made his love for us known. He made it felt. And so what we felt was blessed even as we were mourning, because the kindness of God was right there to meet us.
And maybe there are some of you right now who you are hurting and you are grieving over a loss that you have experienced, over something painful that should not have happened, but it did happen. I think what Jesus would want you to know is that if you bring your pain to him, he will bring comfort to you. In the same way that these blessings are a description of the stuff that Jesus does, they're also a reminder that the promises of God are personal for us.
Back in the Old Testament, the Psalmist, Psalm 34, he says that, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He saves those whose spirits are crushed". When you are brokenhearted, God comes close. When you are mourning, Jesus offers comfort. That's why these blessings are good news, because Jesus wants to come close to you, to show you that even in your lowest moment you are never alone. Because blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
And then the next one that we read is, "Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth". Now that word meek, it describes the kind of person who is humble, but because of how much they have been humiliated by the hardships of life. It's not like they're humble because they have this really, really spiritual air about them. It is humble because they have been humbled. And just like we can go one chapter before these blessings to see what it is that Jesus wants us to understand, if we go right after this sermon, right after Jesus finishes speaking, we see a man who is meek become blessed.
Matthew chapter eight, after Jesus finishes this sermon, "When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him, and then a man with leprosy," now leprosy was this horrific skin disease that was contagious, and it left you like in immense physical pain. And also it made you relationally isolated because nobody else wanted to catch the disease. So you were in pain, you were suffering, and you were doing it all alone. But to add on humiliation, if anybody got too close to you, you had to warn them that you had this disease by shouting out, "Unclean, unclean"!
Like can you imagine spending your entire life so afraid that somebody would come close? Because if they do, you have to shout out the thing that is wrong with you. Talk about somebody who has been humbled by the humiliation of life. But here's what's so beautiful is that this man humbly kneels before Jesus and boldly says, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean". And so Jesus reaches out his hand and he touches the man. He says, "I am willing. Be clean"!
And immediately this man was cleansed, he was healed of his disease. This man experienced the blessing of God up close and personal. This man who had been cut off relationally, who had been suffering physically, met the kindness of God in human form when Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. Because blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are the powerless because they have a place in God's family. God's kingdom is built on a bedrock of blessing.
And if you are taking notes, I want you to write this down, that in the kingdom of God, the least are most, the last are first, and the lost are found. The least are most, the last are first and the lost are found. Why is this important? Because the way God's kingdom works looks upside down compared to the way our world works. But that is because we have gotten things so backwards. In the kingdom of God, the people who have been pushed aside, the people who have been cast out are brought to the center. And even though they seem like they're the least, the last, and the lost, in the eyes of God, more than anything, they are loved.
In the eyes of God, more than anything, you are loved, because the kingdom of God is built on a bedrock of blessing. And the blessing that Jesus came to bring is for you. It's for everybody who has been pushed to the side, who feels overlooked and forgotten. 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 land.
And the last one we're gonna look at is that, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled". Anora, when she was in middle school, would have described her life as anything but blessed. As a matter of fact, she would've said that she was very depressed, that she struggled with all sorts of mental health challenges. And it was whenever she got into the eighth grade that her family moved from New York to Tennessee. And as soon as she got to Tennessee, Mickey showed up. And Mickey was relentless about inviting her to Switch.
Eventually, the relentlessness of Mickey wore Anora down so much that she finally said, "Yes, I'll come to Switch with you". And maybe there are some of you that are here right now listening to this message. And you are only here because that friend has invited you so many times that you got tired of saying no. And I need you to know that that might be the choice that changes everything for you. Because that was the choice that changed everything for Anora.
Now to be clear, it didn't change all at once. Like when she started showing up to Switch, she did not come to grow closer to God. She was really skeptical about whether or not God was actually real, let alone that this God would actually have love for her because of just how weighty her mental health struggles were. There would be night after night where Anora would lie awake and cry out, "God, why are you doing this to me"? And night after night, she felt like her cries went unanswered. Things eventually got so bad that Anora attempted to harm herself so badly that she wouldn't recover from it.
But right after that, she felt this voice speaking to her, saying, "Pull through, don't give up. Your story isn't over". And by the grace of God, Anora's story was not over. That very next Wednesday she showed up to Switch, but this was different. She showed up seeking after the one that she believed saved her. And that night, when the good news of Jesus was presented, Anora felt like it was for her. And so she responded by surrendering her life to Jesus. And what she would tell you is that in that moment, she felt the presence of God. But even more than that, it started this movement in her life towards things actually starting to change for the better.
She got surrounded by good friends. She found family in the family of God. Her faith started to grow. And as her life began to change, she knew she needed to tell people about it. So she decided to go public with her faith through baptism, letting the world know that Jesus had changed her life. And Anora would tell you that it was that moment when she got baptized that her world went from black and white to actually being in color because of how different things were.
Now, what's really special is even more recently, Anora, someone who for years hungered and thirsted for righteousness, signed up to be a student ambassador with an organization called Stay Here, an organization that is dedicated to seeing suicide end in your generation. Because Anora had found freedom from so much of her wrestling, she had experienced the hope of Jesus firsthand.
Now she wants to help other people overcome the same struggles that once held her down, because she has been filled by the love and grace of Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn because 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 by who? By Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Every single one of these blessings comes when we step into a relationship with him.
This is why it matters that in the greatest sermon he ever preached, the first thing Jesus tells us is that his kingdom is built on a bedrock of blessing, where the least are most, where the last are first, and where the lost are found. Because what Jesus came to do is, in some ways, to flip the world upside down, but in many ways to set the world back to the way it was always meant to be.
And there are some of you like Anora who have been hungering and thirsting for righteousness. And today is the day that that hunger is filled by the grace of Jesus. And there will be some of you who, like Anora, because you have found the thing that you are searching for, will choose to be a light to help others find the very same thing. So with all that being said, like what now? What do you do? How do you apply this to your life?
Two steps. Step number one, believe in Jesus to receive God's blessing. Believe in Jesus to receive God's blessing. And then step number two is to become someone who blesses others. Become someone who blesses others. Once you have received the blessing from God, you are now called to be a blessing to others. And that, that's what we're gonna start talking about next week in part two of our series, the Blessed Life. For now, though, I'm gonna pray for you.
So Lord Jesus, we thank you for how much you love us, for the fact that you came to announce blessing to those who are hurting, that you came to invite close those who feel far. So let us feel, let us believe, let us trust that your love is for us. And help us to surrender everything to you because you are good and your love is bigger and better than anything we can imagine. It's in your name we pray, amen.