The Happiness Series: Part 1
The Happiness Series: Part 1
by Pastor Kent Munsey
February 21, 2021
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. He said: “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 earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:1-12 (NKJV)
In Matthew 5, we see the first recorded sermon that Jesus gave, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ first word in this sermon is “blessed.” The Greek word for blessed means happy. There wasn’t much happiness in the Old Testament because their happiness was built around their ability to fulfill the law (Malachi 4:4). Every year the Israelites would bring their offering of atonement to the Lord. Many times the Lord would reject the people’s offering and not give them a blessing. The people were constantly falling short, in a state of rejection and misery. But Jesus comes to bridge the gap.
Around the time of the Sermon on the Mount, there were four groups of followers of God.
The Essenes believed that by separating themselves from society they would stay pure. The Zealots were motivated by a desire for political change and challenging the power structure. The Pharisees loved tradition and wanted to go back to the way things were. The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife but believed that happiness in this life was the main goal.
Instead of affirming one of these groups, Jesus is saying that if we want to be happy in this life, then we have to be poor in spirit in order to inherit the kingdom of heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is the king’s domain, God’s righteousness. The way that we establish God’s power and promises in our life is to be poor in spirit.
The word Jesus uses for poor means the “begging poor,” the blind, maimed cripple who is so ashamed because they believed that sin and sickness were intertwined. Jesus is not saying that when we are poor and sick that we are blessed; he is talking about the spiritual condition of being poor. When we recognize our spiritual poverty, it’s in that moment that we can truly be happy because then we recognize our need for the king’s domain to expand into our life. We need God’s power, authority, and provision, and when we recognize that then we can truly be happy.
In Luke 18:11-14, Jesus addresses this condition by saying that if we want to be happy then we need to embrace our spiritual poverty because when we do then we enter the king’s domain. The reason God’s people were so unhappy in the Old Testament is that they could not obtain even a measure of righteousness. The Jewish people created the Talmud, a book of laws to help them interpret what they could do and couldn’t do, based on the Torah. In Christianity we still create systems of righteousness that make us feel good about ourselves. We often take pride in the things that we don’t do as Christians.
When we start to attribute to ourselves a measure of righteousness, we develop a sense of self-righteousness. If we’re not careful, that self-righteousness will create a sense of self-sufficiency. Any amount of self-sufficiency or self-righteousness produces pride in our life, and pride was the original sin. The Bible says that our righteousness is like filthy rags to God. Even when we create these systems in our life that make us feel good, it doesn’t change the fact that no one is righteous. If we’re not careful, we will start to believe the lie that our righteousness is sufficient. The ultimate deception is to believe we need nothing when we need everything or to believe that we have everything when we have nothing.
To be spiritually poor means that we’re simply aware of our spiritual condition--that without God we are nothing and can do nothing without God, but with God, all things are possible. We settle far too often for systems and structures of righteousness that are shallow and failing because it gives us a level of self-confidence. God is not looking for self-confidence but total and complete dependency on him. If we want to be truly blessed, truly happy, then we have to know what it is to come to the end of ourselves--that apart from Christ, we will never experience true happiness, understand what it means to live a life of meaning and significance.
Knowing that we all will face death one day, we can nevertheless experience true joy when we come to the end of ourselves and call out to Jesus and give him full power and authority in our lives; then we can experience what it is to be truly happy because God is happy. In order to maintain our awareness of our spiritual condition, we must get into God’s presence every day. There is power in getting into his presence. When we are weak, he is strong, and when we are poor, we are rich, and with that comes a joy and happiness that is not of this world.
Reflection/Discussion Questions:
1. When was the last time that you relied on your own righteousness rather than God’s? What happened?
2. Have you reached the point of coming to the end of yourself and realizing your need for the love and the power of God? What was that like?
3. What does it feel like to rely completely on God?
4. How can you be intentional this week about getting into God’s presence and becoming more aware of your spiritual poverty?