WEEKLY INTRODUCTION: The theme for the Beatitudes is the same as Jesus’ message throughout His ministry, namely: “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” and the King wants to reign in your heart and rule over our lives now. It is a spiritual kingdom in which we enter through the gate of REPENTANCE and walk its streets by FAITH. Each Beatitude identifies the quality of one who has entered the Kingdom, followed by a promise to those who possess this quality. Once we enter the Kingdom, or we might say, once the Kingdom enters us, we receive all its blessings.
The Sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8).
The Bible describes the heart as the center of our personality, and it includes the combined attributes of our thoughts, emotions, and our wills. A quick survey of Scripture gives us a clue as to the condition of the heart apart from Christ, and it’s pretty revealing. Let’s take a look:
- It is Foolish and Darkened (Rom. 1:21)
- It is Lying and Deceitful (Jer. 17:9)
- It is Diseased (Jer. 17:9)
- It is Impossible to Understand (Jer. 17:9)
- It is Bitter and Resentful (Prov. 14:10)
- It is Jealous (Jas. 3:14)
- It is Selfish (Jas. 3:14)
- It is the Seat of idolatry (Ezek. 14:4-8)
- It is Stubborn and Unrepentant (Rom. 2:5)
- It is Rebellious (Jer. 5:18-25)
Now, with this background information, do you think that it is ever good to tell a non-Christian whose heart has not yet been changed by Christ to just “Follow your heart” when they ask you for guidance? Of course not! On the contrary, we should tell them to:
Seek the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).
In addition, we need to realize that out of the heart comes all forms of abusive speech (Matt 12:34) and evil conduct (Matt 15:19).
At the same time, we need to know that heart is the focal point of God’s attention, just as God told Samuel when he went to look for Israel’s next king in the family of Jesse, he was told “…not to look at the outward appearance, but to look at the heart (1 Samuel 16:17). Furthermore, it is the Lord who “searches the heart and examines the mind” (Jer. 17:10). And this is why the Apostle Paul told the Jerusalem Council that God “knows the heart” (Acts 15:8-9) when he informed the Council that God had accepted the “genuine repentance” of the Gentiles and that they should be included in God’s family of the redeemed.
Furthermore, God prophesied through the Old Testament Prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah that one day:
“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19-20; see also Jer. 31:31-33).
But that’s not all that Ezekiel prophesied as he spoke the words of God:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:25-26).
What Jeremiah and Ezekiel were predicting was the coming of the New Covenant, and this is the Covenant in which we now live. Check out what Paul writes to the young pastor Timothy about the true purpose of his command to tell certain people in the congregation not to teach false doctrines or to be devoted to myths and endless genealogies:
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Tim 1:5).
And Jesus’ promise is that those with a pure heart that has been cleansed by Christ, will “see” God. The Greek word horao can be use in an “optical” sense (with our eyes), or a “perceptual” sense (with our hearts and minds). Regardless, we can think of “seeing” God with the “eyes of our understanding” as a present reality, and one day, we will “see God face to face” as a future hope.
I love a portion of this Psalm written (and sung) by King David who asks two questions:
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart and who does not trust in idols or swear by false gods (Psalm 24:3-4).
In his prayer of confession following his affair with Bathsheba, King David realized that:
The sacrifices that God accepts are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, God will never reject (Ps. 51:17).
God can cleanse the heart and heal the broken spirit. If your heart needs cleansing, let me remind you of what the Apostle John wrote in his first letter to the churches:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
If you need to do it, then why not do it now? The results of the Lord’s cleansing are amazing, as those with a pure heart will sense the presence of God in their lives today, and experience all His blessings in this life and in the next!
Hope to see you next week.
