Blessed Are the Pure in Heart (Matthew 5:8)
Here’s Sunday’s message in our walk through the book of Matthew. You can download the audio and video here. Also, be sure to subscribe to our podcast here.
Several years back, British documentary filmmaker Ruth Whippman began a new life in the United States. Her husband took a job in Silicon Valley, and she followed him here. And as she explained in an essay she wrote for Vox, one of the most surprising differences she noticed - one that stood in stark contrast to her grumpy, cynical homeland - was that Americans, she argues, are obsessed with happiness. Everywhere she goes, she writes, she suffers through one of two kinds of conversations. Either the “agonizing kind,” where people lament their lack of happiness. Or the “evangelical kind,” where folks try to sell her their path toward it. Whippman explains: she doesn’t miss the negativity back across the pond. That’s for sure. But she also can’t really sit through more ramblings about mindfulness or empowerment. And as she looks around and surveys what she sees, she’s convinced that our obsession isn’t bearing fruit.
The research bears this out. A February CNN.com article entitled “American Happiness Hits Record Lows” cites a recent Gallup poll finding that only 38% of Americans claim that they’re satisfied. The General Social Survey produced by the University of Chicago had found stable levels of happiness by Americans going back to the 1970s - that is, until 2016 hit. Then the number of those who indicated they were “very happy” took a precipitous fall, while those saying they were “not too happy” jumped way up.
Whippman argues that our fixation on happiness may explain its elusiveness. She writes, “The happiness-seeking culture is clearly supposed to be part of the solution, but perhaps it is actually part of the problem. Perhaps America’s precocious levels of anxiety are happening not just in spite of the great national happiness rat race, but also in part because of it.”
A common struggle today is seasonal affective disorder. The short days last longer than you can handle. The cold temperatures leave you with a frozen heart. And you long for the days of spring, when you can feel the warmth and see the sun again. Maybe that’s our real problem here in America, church. We can’t see God. We don’t know Him as we should. And it’s no wonder we feel this way. As A.W. Tozer once wrote, "Trying to be happy without a sense of God's presence is like trying to have a bright day without the sun."
The Life of the Blessed
Today, we continue our series through the book of Matthew. We find ourselves in what’s called the “Sermon on the Mount,” chapters 5 through 7 of this book, as well as in this list that have been called the “Beatitudes” here in chapter 5, verses 3 through 12. They’re not a list we check off - either to make God happy - or to find that happiness ourselves. Rather, they’re a picture of those who know God, of those who are “blessed.” We’re in our sixth this morning, out of eight. And, as I’ve been saying, they’re not just thrown together.
I love the way Martyn Lloyd-Jones lays it out. He says to picture these verses as a mountain. In the first three, we make ourselves low, we realize our need, and the Lord carries us up that mountain. We realize we’re “poor in Spirit,” we “mourn,” we make ourselves “meek.” And there at the peak, God meets our need. He satisfies our “hunger and thirst.” Going down the mountain, we see the results of being filled. We find ourselves “merciful.” We desire our hearts to be “pure.” We become “peacemakers” with those around us.
Lloyd-Jones even takes it further. He says the three Beatitudes going down the hill correspond to those going up. Those who know they’re “poor in Spirit” can’t not be merciful with others. Those who “mourn” their sins pursue being “pure in heart.” And those who are “meek” also become ”peacemakers.” And the result, he says, from all of this, is that we end up misunderstood and persecuted. Like our Lord. We see that in verses 10-12. But despite even that, Jesus says we’ll be blessed.
As we show these signs and see their rewards, there will be joy in them, for sure. We’ll experience that happiness we so much long for. Here, that comes in seeing God. And in having hearts that are pure. That is the life of the person that’s “blessed.”
Seeing God
Well, let’s jump in and see both of those things. First, the blessed will see God. Second, the blessed are pure in heart.
The blessed will see God. Now our pursuit of happiness generally is limited to what our eyes can see. Right? Possessions, positions, experiences, relationships. That’s what the world tells us. But Jesus says here that what we really want can be found through a different kind of sight. Deep down, we each want to “see God.”
This is what we were made for. Take creation. Back in the beginning of the Bible, back in Eden - in that garden - man and woman communed fully with God. We saw Him face to face. We were in perfect community with Him - and with each other. It was only our sin - when we listened to that serpent - that drove us from His presence.
But let’s fast forward to the new creation - when Jesus returns and makes everything right. This is our hope. That’s we’ll see God again. Listen to this passage at the end of our Bible, in Revelation.
Rev. 22:3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Rev. 22:4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Rev. 22:5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
If you know from the Old Testament, the prophet Moses couldn’t see the Lord’s face and live. But when we’re made new, we’ll stare into His gaze. We can look at Him fully. We can look at Him forever. As 1 Corinthians 13 puts it, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.This is what we were made for.”
But let’s talk more about when this will come about. Yes, on that day, as we’ve seen. When Jesus, as He says, is “seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). On that day. And on every successive day, if we’re believers, we’ll see God. That’s our prize, church.
But we can also see Him now - through the eyes of faith. We can experience His presence. We can commune with God. As we’ve seen with all of these Beatitudes, there is an already/not yet tension. One day, we’ll see Him fully. But today, we seek to see Him little by little - not by sight, by faith. We call out to God, asking Him to help us see. We go and see Him as He’s revealed Himself in His word. We look for Him in what He’s created. Our eyes are open to see Him working around us.
Think about it. The world tells us spirituality is cool. But talking about the God of Scripture - that’s another matter. Choose your path. Pursue your happiness. But it’s this God, the God of the Bible, who we are meant to see. And He’s the only place where joy can be found.
A few years ago, our family had the opportunity to go to the Grand Canyon. My wife had wanted to go there her entire life. It was something she wanted to do with her late mom, something that never materialized. And I remember her standing there, looking out over the edge, with tears in her eyes. Such glory. But what we’ll see some day will be beyond compare. What joy there will be!
My cousin lives in Huntington Beach, California. It’s beautiful, known as Surf City, U.S.A. Maybe the best beach around. She and her family love going to the shore, and they can go there every day, and see the glory. But of course, they don’t. And neither do we. When it comes to seeing Jesus by faith. But we miss out on joy. This is ours now, Karis. We can see Him.
But, whether we’re talking about the Grand Canyon or on the beach, we’ll often miss the glory looking at our phones. And don’t our devices - and especially social media - keep us from seeing the Lord? Satan, more than anything, wants us not to see God. And that’s what we were made for. To see Him.
Our Problem
But there are deeper problems - why we can’t see Him - than just distraction. Two things that make it hard for us - finite, fallen humans. The Bible says He’s invisible, first of all. 1 Timothy 1:17 praises the “King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, to be honor and glory forever and ever.” Over in chapter 6 of the same book, in verse 16, Paul calls the the One “who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.” The Lord is invisible.
But here’s a second problem. He’s holy. That means He’s separated from us. He’s majestic. And it means He’s separated from sin. He’s pure. And as Hebrews 12:14 puts it, we are to “strive for peace” and “for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” We’re also not holy like Him. And that’s a problem.
Pure of Heart
That leads to our second point. Second, the blessed are pure in heart. We’ve talked about the prize. Seeing Him. This is our race - pursuing this purity that leads to a vision of God.
Back to the way I started, what’s the main advice we give people today in how to find happiness? Don’t we tell people, “Follow their heart?” But according to the Bible, this is the opposite of what we should say.
Jeremiah the prophet puts it this way, in chapter 17, verse 9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” We assume that we know our hearts well. And that our hearts are basically good. But no. Because of our sin, they lead us astray.
But what do we even mean when we talk about our “heart?” We’re not talking about the cardiac muscle somewhere here in our chest. And we’re not just talking about our feelings - as opposed to our thinking. No, when Scripture talks about the “heart,” it’s referring to the center of our personality, of who we are deep down. And it includes our minds, our hearts, and our wills. And all of our Bibles, and this verse right here, assume that our hearts simply aren’t pure. So following your heart will lead you into a ditch.
Now if Jesus is calling us to purity of heart, we have to understand what that means. And we also have to understand what needs to change. Scholars have gone back and forth about what Jesus means here. Is he talking about moral purity, cleanliness from sin, on the inside, as opposed to on the outside? Or is he talking more about our focus? Of us having a single-mindedness toward God? Jesus goes off on the Pharisees in this sermon for focusing on externals. But he also warns us to seek first His kingdom. And tells us we can’t serve Jesus along with anything else.
Now I lean to the latter. That Jesus is talking about our devotion, our loyalty, our sincerity. As philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once put it, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” But as D.A. Carson has explained it, this is a false dichotomy anyhow. They both go together. If we’re focused solely on Jesus, our hearts will end up pure. And, of course, the converse is also true. Jesus puts it this way, later in this sermon, in Matthew 6:22.
Matt. 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,
Matt. 6:23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
We know this, right? Spend much time looking at unclean things - like pornography, for example, and your heart won’t be clean at all. And for the record, scrolling Amazon all the time isn’t going to leave us much better. But why do we gravitate toward those things? Because, apart from God’s work in our lives, there are a couple of realities we have to reckon with. Our hearts are dark. The truth and beauty and goodness of God aren’t there as they should. And that’s because our hearts are divided. We’ve put other things there instead of our Lord.
Think about it this way. You’re on the beach, and of course, you’re looking at your phone. You can hold up a seashell and take a photo, and you can make it look like the sun isn’t even there. But then you drop your phone, and get sand on your lens, and every photo then looks like trash. That’s what our hearts naturally do. Other things eclipse His glory in our hearts. And then our hearts distort the glory in things around us. Our hearts are divided. They’re distracted. Therefore, they’re also dark. They’re dirty.
And that’s the problem as much as anything with social media. Right? We end up desiring things other than God. We long for that vacation, that gadget, that new outfit, that new guitar - who me? - whatever it is. Our hearts are divided. And they end up more and more dark.
We’re called to be “pure in heart.” And that’s best summed up in two words that sound alike. They’re homophones. Wholly and holy. We’re to be wholly for God. W-H-O-L-L-Y. We’re to live out the first commandment. We’re to have no other gods before Him. We’re to turn from our idolatry and worship Him alone. To have hearts that are devoted.
Now of course, this is saying that we shouldn’t replace the God of the Bible with Buddha or some other figure. But it’s saying even more than that. Nothing should replace the supremacy of God in our hearts. But the reality is that we’ve all give ourselves to idols. And we have to turn from that.
But we’re also to be holy for God. H-O-L-Y. That means having hearts that are different. Where we love what He loves and hate what He hates. Where our hearts spill over in love. And others see it in our lives.
We’re to turn from what He calls sin - in our hearts. And live for Him. To be different from those around us. Devoted to the one true God and seeing that transform our inner lives. Wholly. And holy. Again, it means focusing on Jesus and seeking to see Him by faith. But it also means turning from things that dishonor Him.
And that’s what those who truly know Jesus will do. Isn’t that what 1 John 3 tells us?
1John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
1John 3:3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
If Jesus has changed you, and you truly do want to see Him, you’ll get after purity. Turning from idols of the heart. Running from sinful desires.
Jesus no doubt draws from Psalm 24 as He lays out this Beatitude.
Psa. 24:3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
Psa. 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
Psa. 24:5 He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Psa. 24:6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
If we want to see the Lord - our prize, the promise for the blessed, we must seek purity of heart. That is the race for the blessed. And there we’ll find what we want.
Back to thinking about happiness again. The world says this: that holiness is opposed to happiness. Right? Don’t be a prude or a super-religious type. Do what makes you happy. All religion does is take away fun. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. As we pursue hearts that are pure, as we see God, there we’ll find the happiness we long for.
Now you may bristle, “Kevin, happiness? Really? I thought that we were supposed to look for something better than that. Like joy?” Now I’ve made that distinction. I’ve taught it many times from here. But so often I think it leaves us thinking that if we’re not miserable, we’re surely not following Jesus much of all.
But, yes, I do think joy is a much better term. Happiness is so often tied to happenings - to circumstances. But joy communicates something so much deeper. I like the way Paul Tripp puts it: “Joy is an inner peace and rest, based on what you know to be true, resulting in a life of thankfulness and expectancy.”
What does it mean if we’re #blessed today? Our circumstances are good. Right? The beach photo. The awesome foodie. The selfie with your bestie. The cute outfit. The new ride. That’s the blessed life. That’s the happy life. At least that’s what people say. But those things won’t last.
And most of our lives aren’t like that. We just put forth our best image on Instagram. Joy means that when there are clouds, we can still see the sun. Even if we’re having a day that we wouldn’t put on Facebook, we don’t fall apart. Because we have something deeper. We can see God in it all. And we can keep going.
My favorite author has put it this way:
“Joy, the way the Bible describes it, carries us along like a current. It churns beneath the surface of our circumstances, compelling body and soul to keep going. Joy points us to something—and someone—of worth in the midst of decaying bodies, deferred dreams, and dismaying sin. Joy might be complicated, but it’s so good.” (Aarik Danielsen)
Our Solution
Happiness, joy, is ours, as we pursue hearts that are pure and through that, see the Lord. But earlier, I said there was a problem. A couple of them, actually. God is invisible. And God is holy. But there is a solution. And a glorious one.
Jesus is the “image of the invisible God,” as Colossians 1:15 puts it. Hebrews 1:3 calls Him the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.” In John chapter 1, God tells us His Son “became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory.” He goes on to say, in verse 18, that in Jesus, God has made Himself known.
When Philip asks Jesus in the gospel of John to give the disciples what Moses never got - he says, “Lord, show us the Father,” Jesus says right back, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Here and now, we can see God little by little, in the face of Jesus. And one day, we’ll be with Him and gaze at Him with wonder - forever.
But what about the holiness problem? Jesus is the only one without sin, with truly a heart that’s pure. 1 Peter 2:22 puts it this way, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” When He was persecuted, verse 23 says, He didn’t fight back. And He leaves us a pattern there to follow, as we’ll see. But verse 24 is huge. “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” What’s this mean? Jesus died as a substitute for us. He paid the penalty we deserved - so we could come into God’s presence again, so we could see Him. That’s the amazing solution. So we could have pure hearts and could then see God.
This is who the Son is. It’s what He’s done. But we also need the Spirit - who is holy - to apply it to our hearts. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says Satan has blinded us to the glory of Jesus. But verse 6 says, if we’re Christians, God has set us free. We can see again. Now we can live wholly for Him and holy before Him again.
How to See God
But obviously, we’re still battling idolatry and impurity every day. And we struggle to see God by faith. I want to talk a few minutes about how we go about pursuing hearts that are pure.
First, stay and trust. I mean, don’t try to leave the world. Don’t, as Young MC once rapped, “become a monk and leave the situation.” That doesn’t work. Remain and rest in the Holy Spirit whose passion is to make us holy.
Second, pray and strive. Call out to God. Ask Him to make you holy. Ask Him to give you faith. But also strive. We can’t just sit there. This has to be an active thing. We have to fight temptation. We have to get in God’s word. Holiness is a struggle.
Third, focus and enjoy. Unplug. Learn the practices of Sabbath and solitude. Turn off your phone. Grab a journal and yes, a nice fountain pen. Find a comfy hammock, if that’s what it takes. If we want to see, we have to be able to listen. We need some silence. And that’s hard to come by in today’s world.
Fourth, repent and fight. If you fall, and you will, get up and try again. If you can’t see God, keep asking, keep listening. Until that day when we see Him face to face, there will be many ups and downs. But God is faithful. He will do it. He just asks us to keep trusting, to keep fighting.
We have this promise, as 2 Corinthians 13:8 puts it, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The more pure our hearts become, the more we’ll see Him. But the more we see Him, the more our hearts will become pure. He’ll change us, as we gaze at Him. So let’s gaze on Him, Karis. Shall we?
Oh, What A Happy Day
Now when we introduced the Beatitudes, now many weeks ago, we talked about that word “blessed” that kicks off each one. What does it mean to be blessed? To experience the fullness of God’s favor. But some people have translated that word as “happy.” Now I like “blessed” better. I don’t think “happy” - especially in today’s world - communicates quite enough. But it’s not a terrible reading of this text. And we have to understand.
To be blessed does mean more than happy, but it shouldn’t mean less than that. As we begin to live out these beautiful characteristics we see here, the glorious consequences will also be ours. And we’ll be more and more happy. Yes, more and more joy will be ours. But it comes as we seek Him first. And do what He asks.
Tim Keller explains it this way:
“Here is the irony: the less you’re concerned about your happiness and the more you’re concerned about him, the happier you get. This is not a trick. You can’t say, ‘Oh, great. I have it. I come to God, and I say this and this and this.’ You cannot bandy with the omnipotent and omniscient Lord of the universe. ‘Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.’ Happiness is a byproduct.” (Tim Keller)
We’re heading into wedding season, and I have at least a couple on the calendar. I’ll never forget the day Amy flung open those doors and walked down that aisle. And then I tried to say my lines right after that through tears. So much glory. So much joy in that moment.
Now, as I do weddings, I also tend to fight back tears. Part of it is that I have relationships with the bride and the groom. I love them. But part of it is that I so easily get caught up in the joy. But nothing will compare to that day when Jesus comes looking for His bride. What a happy day that will be! We’ll be like Him. We’ll see Him!
Now that day, when we’ll see Christ face to face, that’s been called, for a long time, the Beatific Vision. Sound familiar? Beatific? Beatitude? Seeing Jesus. It’s the “blessed vision.” Or “the sight that makes happy.” David Mathis describes that day in this way:
“As creatures who seek happiness, this is the great Happiness to come, the moment when we, at last, stand face to face before our God to perceive him visually and immediately and more.” (David Mathis)
And the wild thing is that we won’t just see Jesus. We’ll in some way see the unmediated presence of God. We’ll gaze with our souls on what Moses saw only in part, on what Paul saw only in brief. And it’ll be so awesome. Hear Edwards:
"The pleasure of seeing God is so great and so strong that it takes the full possession of the heart; it fills it brimful, so that there shall be no room for any sorrow, no room in any corner for anything of an adverse nature from joy. There is no darkness can bear such powerful light." (Jonathan Edwards)
Through God’s grace - and His grace alone - we can have pure hearts. And we can see God. Now and forever. Jesus says this is the blessed life. A life that leads to deep, abiding joy.
Those who struggle to steady their gaze upon God experience the fullness of His favor, because His glory will flood and fill their hearts forever. Let’s pray.