Matthew 10:24-25 “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!”

You know who is who in the illustration, don’t you? We are the student or servant, and Jesus is the teacher or master. And that is the way it will always be. In many cases, a good student can rise to become the equal of his former teachers. In some cases, he may even rise above them. On a few occasions I have taught classes in which men who were once my teachers were now my students.

That will never happen with Jesus. He loves us. He is supremely interested in us. But he will never ask us to educate him. He is not interested in receiving our advice. Until the end of the world, and throughout all eternity, we will be his children, always students, always servants. We may rise, and mature, and grow in our faith, but we will never be Jesus’ master or teacher.

“Of course,” we may think. “I don’t expect to put myself above Jesus. I would never try to make myself his master or teacher.” But don’t our prayers sometimes suggest we do? “Here is what you are doing wrong in my life, Jesus. Here is the problem with the way you are running the world. And here is what you can do to fix it.” Then what have we made ourselves? We have presumed to put ourselves above him. We make ourselves his master or teacher. He is pleased when we go to him for help. He wants us to tell him how we feel, to ask him for what is good and right. But he isn’t going to sit for a lecture. We sin when we take that tone with him.

If we remember our place, then we won’t expect to receive different treatment than he received. And by “different” we mean better. “If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!” They called Jesus a devil for preaching the gospel of grace and forgiveness. They said that the mercy he showed to the sick and the hurting came from Satan himself. Why should the gospel sound better to people when it comes from our mouths instead? Are we better preachers than he was?

Why should love and kindness look better when it comes from our hands than when it came from his hand? Do we do more for people than he did? I am tempted to complain when people make fun of me. Even worse, they say I am evil for talking and living like a student and servant of Jesus. It makes me afraid to open my mouth anymore. That’s exactly what they want. They want to shut us up.

On the day Jesus spoke these words, maybe the Twelve had similar fears. But a few years later they had learned to see this in a different way. In Acts chapter 5, after spending a night in jail and being whipped for preaching the gospel, “…the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

No need to fear, you see. When we are abused and mistreated like Jesus was, that is a good sign. We are becoming like our master and teacher. Not only has he saved us, forgiven all our sins, rescued us from hell, secured our place in heaven, and done it all for free. His gospel is showing itself in our lives by changing us. He has made us bold to speak. We know our message is on track, we must be doing something right, when we are being treated like Jesus was.

Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Bullying” has become a fashionable target for social activists. Jesus would be against it, too. But he wants his people to be prepared for it.

In these words he has a particular kind of bullying in mind, the kind that comes because we want to live a Christian life and believe Christian beliefs. In order to make sure we understand the connection to our faith, he explains further, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” He isn’t saying we need to go looking for this kind of treatment. He isn’t suggesting we should make a campaign to stop it. He is saying that we can expect it, and that we are blessed in spite of it, if we are seeking to follow him.

Why blessed? Two reasons– one: “…because great is your reward in heaven.” How people treat you here doesn’t change how God will treat you there. The same good gifts are waiting for us just the same. There is no use changing our faith to stop the persecution when heaven is waiting with Christian faith, and lost without it.

Two, this kind of treatment puts us in good company: “…for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” People criticizing our beliefs, mocking our lifestyle, even calling them evil is a pretty good sign that we are on the right track. Abel, Noah, Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Jesus, and his disciples all got the same kind of treatment. It is an honor and blessing to share their faith and its consequences for Jesus’ sake. Today it may be persecution. Tomorrow it will be heaven.

Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

Once we were at war with God. We were his enemies. We had no interest in making peace with him. We were content to live and fight on the other side.

Then God himself came and made peace. He reconciled us to himself. He repaired the relationship. He sacrificed his own Son to do so. That is the best thing that has ever happened to you and me.

Spiritually, it makes sense that people who have experienced such peace would look at the relationships they have with the people around them, or the relationships of other people in general, and want to make peace. They see the value. They have experienced the relief. They know the blessing.

And this shows that they are becoming like their Father, from whom they learned this concern. The Lord once described King David as “a man after my own heart.” Jesus’ declaration of blessing here is similar. I know of no higher compliment than to be called “sons of God.”

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

The pure in heart haven’t achieved absolute holiness in their lives. They haven’t stopped sinning altogether. The Bible is clear that that doesn’t happen this side of heaven.

Their sins have been washed away in the cleansing waters of their baptisms, however, waters powered by Jesus’ death and resurrection to pay for their sins. The pure in heart have been converted, they have come to faith, and in that faith there is a new innocence, a new simplicity, a new honesty that acknowledges our sin and keeps going back to God for forgiveness.

These people, Jesus says, are blessed to see God. You realize that this blessing is something of an acquired taste. “Well whoopty-doo,” far too many people would say. “It’s not like that’s what I’ve been dying to see.”

Many years ago my family found a box with letters my grandmother had received from a man she almost married years before she married my grandfather. It was World War I, and the man was fighting somewhere in France. The letters were filled with the longing of two hearts desperate to see each other but forced to be apart. Do you feel the same longing to see this man, or my grandmother for that matter? Of course not. You’re not in love with them.

Only those with hearts purified by God’s grace consider it a blessing to see God, because only they want to see God. You can’t believe that you were a sinner, destined for hell and an eternity of misery away from God, with no way of changing your situation; and that then purely out of his grace God sacrificed the only Son he had to save you from your sins, make you his own child by faith, and give you heaven as a free gift; you can’t come to believe that and not at the same time come to love the One who showed you such love. As the sainted Dr. Becker used to say, “To know him is to love him” is more true of our Savior than anyone who ever lived.

And those who love Jesus know that it is a blessing when he promises, “They will see God.”

Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

The blessed have compassion, empathy. They have known spiritual pain and poverty. They have received God’s blessed solutions. And so, their hearts are full of mercy for others.

It is such a feature of being blessed that Jesus will see it as the primary way to describe them on Judgment Day: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father,” he will say, “take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” Why? “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”

Being so merciful can be expensive. It can mean sacrifice. It means parting with your time, your energy, and your money.

But it is connected to a blessing. “They will be shown mercy.” God still sees your misery. It pains him. When Jesus saw Mary and Martha’s grief after their brother Lazarus died, it even moved him to tears and he intervened with a miracle.

God’s mercy doesn’t always lead to a miracle. But the Father above who loves you still intends to relieve your pain before it becomes too much. He may change your circumstances here. He may change your address to a heavenly one, where “there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” Either way, your misery prompts his mercy and ends in his blessing.

Matthew 5:5-6 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

The blessed are kind and gentle people. They lack the kind of aggressiveness and self-promotion so many successful people seem to have. “Well, this can’t be right,” we might think. “Meek people are going to inherit the earth? Doesn’t everything in our experience say just the opposite?”

It’s true that the meek and gentle may have less than the rough and aggressive. They may be more likely to get run over or taken advantage of.

But step back a moment, and look at some of the world’s ambitious power-brokers and gazillionaires. I won’t name names, but how much do they really enjoy their gigantic piece of the pie? How much of their lives aren’t consumed by scandals, lawsuits, squabbles, personal attacks, public shame, and a thirst for more that never seems truly content? You read the covers of the tabloids in the checkout line.

The meek may have only their daily bread, just enough to live on. But they live in the contentment that God has provided all they need, and the confidence that God will continue to provide. They have inherited the earth, because they can enjoy what they have right now. Contentment is blessing.

Even in their contentment, those God blesses may hunger and thirst: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” These people want to do what is right. They try to live a righteous life. They want it more than anything.

But they have come to realize that we lack a righteousness of our own. So God gives them a better righteousness. He declares them not guilty for Jesus’ sake. He gives them credit for Jesus’ righteous life. He fills them with a righteousness more perfect and more powerful than anything they could have attempted on their own. The more they hunger and thirst for righteousness, the more God fills them. The more God fills them with righteousness, they more they hunger and thirst for it. Ever hungry, ever filled—It is a blessing to be both.

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Life is tough for the blessed. They often lack earthly reasons for joy, the things that make you happy. They lose their loved ones to death, their livelihood to unemployment, their families to unfaithfulness and divorce, their property and homes to natural disasters, their children to bad influences, their dignity to bad choices.

And it all grieves them. It makes them want to cry. They aren’t unique in what they suffer. These are all burdens common to man.

What makes the blessed different is that they understand the root cause behind their suffering. It’s sin. And it makes them mourn. They mourn not just the effects of sin, the misery it causes, though they mourn that, too. They are truly sorry that they have offended God and harmed their neighbors. Their tears are a mixture of pain and repentance.

“They shall be comforted.” Do you remember poor Lazarus from the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus? When the two men receive their eternal rewards, and the rich man complains, Abraham explains, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted…” (Luke 16:25). In Revelation, John describes the people who have left behind the troubles of this world this way: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17).

But not all the comforts have to wait. God loves you today. His forgiveness is a like a warm, soft blanket of his grace laid over your life with all its bumps and bruises, shortcomings and failures. He seeks you, accepts you, embraces you, and claims you as his own even now. This is what it looks like to be blessed. On the outside our lives give us plenty of reasons to cry. On the inside we are cradled in God’s grace.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“To be blessed,” Jesus says, “is to be poor.”

Jesus does not bless the poor in cash or wealth, though that often goes together with what he means. He blesses the poor in spirit. You won’t catch them bragging about their prayer life, how many people they have converted, how much they have given up to serve God, or how much they have grown and matured in their walk of faith. Whether they can quote Isaiah 64:6, or even know the passage exists, they agree with the prophet: “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Not much of value there.

Imagine a homeless, jobless person millions of dollars in debt. If he dumpster-dived for aluminum cans and had 10 lifetimes to do it, maybe he could scrape enough together to change his situation. But he doesn’t even collect recyclables. All he has gathered together are scraps of cloth, and grimy, smelly ones at that–soiled by ripe, wet garbage, further spoiled by dust and dirt. Would he present those to his creditors at the bank, or send them in to satisfy the Visa bill? Would he show off his pile of rotting rags to impress you with his wealth? Would you?

Now, convert his soiled and spoiled collection to a life of thoughts, attitudes, and activities soiled and spoiled by selfish motivations, false pride, deceitful cover-ups, and self-indulgent lusts, and you have a picture of the poor in spirit Jesus calls blessed here.

How can Jesus call such people blessed? It’s not because their hearts and lives are such a mess. In that they are just like everybody else. No, it is because they are in touch with reality. They don’t mistake their filthy rags for gold bullion. They have come to grips with their true situation and stopped pretending it is better than it is. Once they admit their spiritual poverty, they stop trying to impress God with their garbage. They come to him with their hands empty. Before God, they know that they are only there to receive.

And God does not disappoint. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” With Jesus they go from penniless beggars to shareholders in Paradise. They own their own piece of heaven, literally. God does not hold their spiritual poverty against them and wait for them to pay. He forgives it, and he pays for it with the blood of Jesus, and he replaces it with his own eternal home of endless pleasures. All of a sudden it is as if these spiritually bankrupt street people have won the billion-dollar Power-ball!

This is what it looks like to be blessed. Such people lack any great spiritual valuables of their own, but God has given them the deed to heavenly real estate. Maybe it’s just a promise now, God’s word on the matter. But he never, ever reneges on a promise, and possession is as certain for the poor in spirit on earth as it is for the saints in glory in heaven.

Luke 13:6-9 “Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

The man in the parable was looking for fruit on his tree. That is a picture of the Lord coming to us and looking for fruits in our lives– the product of repentance and faith. Where there is true repentance and faith, a life of love naturally follows. That is the true measure of repentance–the love that flows from faith. It’s how we respond to God’s grace to us.

But it is easy for us to confuse fruits of repentance with something else. When you see a decorated Christmas tree, you are not confused about the source of the ornaments hanging on the tree. I have seen little children try to eat a Christmas ornament before, but we understand that those ornaments are not the fruit of a pine tree.  They may make the tree look better, especially Charlie Brown’s little tree in the Peanuts Christmas Special. The proper fruit of a pine tree, however, is a pinecone, not a shiny ball.

Somehow Christians find it hard to see that the fruit of repentance must be…the fruit of repentance! Repentance involves three parts: First, we feel sorrow for our sins and confess them to God. Second, we trust in God’s grace and receive his forgiveness (that’s the part many people forget). Third, we produce the fruits: a life of love. Any change of behavior or loving actions that don’t follow sorrow for sin and faith in the gospel aren’t the real thing. They are like hanging ornaments on the tree. You can change people’s behavior by making them feel guilty, appealing to their pride, or promising them all kinds of treats. Psychologists understand the principles of behavioral modification. But none of these are the product of true repentance, because they don’t come from our response to God’s grace.

In order to produce real thing, God himself works hard at inspiring our response. “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” There are three things we can note about the Lord’s efforts here. First, he is patient. The man in the parable had been coming around to this tree for three years. He didn’t chop it down right away. In the same way, the Lord keeps extending our lives. He gives us and others time.  He genuinely loves us and wants to see his work come to fruition in us.

Second, he is persistent. He keeps coming back. Jesus gives the impression that the man in the parable kept coming to the tree and looking again and again. It was more than an annual visit. So our Lord pursues us. As poet Frances Thompson once described him, our Lord is “the hound of heaven.” As a hound chases a rabbit, relentless, steady, the Lord keeps after us though we try to run from him or hide in our sin.

Third, he is proactive. “Sir, leave it alone for one more year and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.” The gardener didn’t mess around with the externals. He addressed the roots. Our Lord does the same. He acts first. He gives freely to nurture life in us. He meets us in his word with the message of the cross. He meets us in his supper, where Jesus’ own body and blood nourish our souls with forgiveness. As a God of grace, our Lord does not wait for us to respond to him. He takes the initiative. He produces the repentance he seeks in us, and fruits of love grow from the faith he has cultivated in our souls.

There is a reason the Lord is digging around in your life, making you uncomfortable, yet always leaving you with reminders of his forgiving grace. He is looking for something. Let the gospel do its work, and give him the fruit he seeks.