Living in the Kingdom
Matt. 5:1–5 – Living in the Kingdom: Series on the Sermon on the Mount – Daniel J. Baker – June 29, 2025

Introduction

“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading Matt. 5:1–12. “Thanks be to God.”

This Friday is the 4^th of July, the annual reminder of the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4^th, 1776. Some excerpts. The signers.

Some of its controversies.

The role of government is “securing these rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and the King of Brittain is doing the opposite and destroying these rights.

When that happens, a people has the right to “alter or abolish” their government and create a new government that shall “to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

It was a statement saying that we are no longer under the king and his kingdom. We are forming a new government because the king and his kingdom no longer provide “Safety and Happiness” in the way a government is supposed to provide this. They list 29 fairly serious grievances “to prove this.”

This sermon is the first one in our new series, Living in the Kingdom. Study on the most famous Sermon ever preached, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5–7.

We need to get oriented toward this Sermon before we look at its details.

So, first we want to see it in the context of the book of Matthew.

• Matthew was a tax collector, a Jew who collected taxes from his Jewish brothers. The tax was not a Roman tax, but the taxation was approved by the Roman government (R.T. France). Matthew would have been seen by others as supporting Roman oppression of Israel.
• But this is the one Jesus called. Jesus said, “Follow me,” and Matthew did (Matt 9:9).
• Other Jews would be greatly offended by Matthew’s presence among Jesus’s disciples.
• You get a sense of this when you read that phrase, “tax collectors and sinners,” in the Gospels. Why was Jesus so scandalous? Because he ate meals with “tax collectors and sinners” (Matt 9:11). Why did the Pharisees reject Jesus’ ministry? Because he was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matt 11:19).
• But Matthew the tax collector would become one of the Twelve (Matt 10:3).
• Matthew the tax collector would go on to write this Gospel.
• There is no early manuscript of this Gospel that does not have his name attached to it. In the early church there is unanimous testimony that Matthew wrote this Gospel.
• At first it was assumed to be the first Gospel with Mark writing a shorter version of Matthew. Mark was disrespected for centuries because of that idea. Opinion has changed on that. It is now believed that Mark was the earliest with Matthew building his Gospel around Mark, his own eyewitness testimony, and other sources available to him.

A distinctive of Matthew’s gospel is the way he organizes his material around five big blocks of teaching (Matt 5–7; 10; 13; 18; 24–25).

• After each of these blocks of teaching is a verse that starts with, “After Jesus finished these sayings...” (Matt. 7:28–29; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1–2; 26:1)
• These blocks of teaching are a big part of what Matthew has added to Mark’s gospel.
• Another addition is a birth narrative.
• And lastly a record of resurrection appearances and the Great Commission at the end.
• It is easy to see why Matthew would want these elements added to his Gospel!

To hear Jesus’s Sermon rightly, we need to hear it as a word from the King about living in his kingdom.

• This Sermon follows the opening chapters, which establish Jesus as “the Christ,” and Jesus as the promised Davidic king.
• The Old Testament was anticipating a King of all kings to come, the Messianic King. Jesus is that King!
• That’s why he began his ministry as he did:

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17)

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. (Matt 4:23)

But there’s one last thing to say about listening to Jesus’s sermon. We also want to hear in it a message about living life with “our Father in heaven” (Matt 6:8).

• 17 times God is referred to as “Father” in this Sermon—always it’s Jesus saying, “your Father” (Matt 5:16, 45; 6:1, 4, 6, 8, 15, 18; 7:11) or “your heavenly Father” (Matt 5:48; 6:14, 26, 32) or even “our Father in heaven” (Matt 6:8). At the very end he speaks of “My Father” (Matt 7:21).
• This is astounding. It is more occurrences than in the entire Old Testament.
• It speaks to the radical new relationship that we have as Christians.

Jesus’s sermon doesn’t tell us about how to become a child of God. But it teaches volumes on what it means to live as a child of God.

This morning we will look at the first 3 Beatitudes, what it means to be (1) Poor in Spirit, (2) One Who Mourns, and (3) Meek.

Prayer

I. Poor in Spirit

We start this morning with three of Jesus’s Beatitudes. A Beatitude is a way of speaking about the “blessed” person. Jesus isn’t the only one to use Beatitudes to teach, but his are the most famous. We see them in the Old Testament, too.

“Blessed” is from the Greek makarios. Same word as the Greek OT in Psalm 1:1–2:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
² but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night. (Ps 1:1–2)

“Blessed” (makarios) is not an easy word to translate.

• It has a subjective, felt, aspect: “Happy!”
• But it’s more than a simple “happiness.”
• There’s also a objective, God-centered, aspect: “God is pleased with you! You are blessed of God”
• But with an awareness of the joy and fullness that go along with God’s pleasure.
• One author uses the word “flourishing” to define it: “Flourishing are the poor in spirit because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”[1]
• Similar to passages in John’s gospel that speak of “abundant life” and “fullness of joy” (John 10:10; 15:11).
• It speaks to a fullness of life and fullness of joy in Christ that is true even if suffering and hardships are involved.

Our opening 3 Beatitudes should catch us off guard. Remember the bigger picture here.

• Centuries of silence from any prophetic revelation.
• Now the Son of God has come.
• Already there are miracles and angels that have surrounded his birth and ministry.
• And now he begins to speak, the new Moses, not just God’s Prophet but God’s Son!
• Israel is living in domination by the Roman Empire, a shadow of its glory days under David and Solomon.
• What will God’s Son say to his remnant people?
• What will God speak directly after so many centuries of silence?

Read Matthew 5:3.

It’s a message about “the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3).

Who are the victors who will get to be citizens of “the kingdom of heaven”?

• They aren’t David’s “mighty men.”
• They aren’t the trained scribes.
• They aren’t those who have a perfect bloodline traced all the way back to father Abraham.

Those who get to experience the blessing of living under God’s rule are “the poor in spirit.”

To be “poor in spirit” means to be aware of your “spiritual bankruptcy” (D.A. Carson, EBC).

It means to feel like David in Psalm 34:6:

This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles. (Ps 34:6)

It means to be those who get to receive God’s good news. Jesus read this Scripture at the beginning of his ministry in Luke 4:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. (Isa 61:1)

Application:

“Poor in spirit” does not mean “low self-esteem.”

• “Low self-esteem” is often based on very superficial and often untrue things.
• “I’m stupid, and I can’t do anything right” is the very ‘precise’ way that “low self-esteem” talks in.
• “Poor in spirit” is a deeper assessment that knows, “My need for God is absolute. Apart from him I can do nothing. Apart from him I am nothing.”
• But being “poor in spirit” is to be aware that what I have in Christ is EVERYTHING!
• Mine is the kingdom of heaven! That is endless treasure beyond anything I could ask for or imagine!

II. One Who Mourns

In the second Beatitude our poverty of spirit overflows into our emotions. We’re not just aware of being “poor in spirit” but we feel it. Read Matt. 5:4.

Those who “mourn” here certainly includes sorrow for the loss of someone you love (bereavement) as when Abraham mourned for Sarah and the women wept at the death of Jesus (Gen 23:2; Mark 16:10).

But it’s also a sorrow for sin—my sin individually. But also sorrow at the sins of others, especially God’s people (1 Sam 16:1; Neh 1:4; 1 Cor 5:2; 2 Cor 12:21; James 4:9).

As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Neh 1:4)

My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law. (Ps 119:136)

But the promise is that those who feel the weight of the sin of God’s people and the sinfulness of humanity living in rebellion against the Lord, these mourners will know true joy.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt 5:4).

This is promised in Isaiah 61, the prophecy about Jesus as the Messiah:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me...³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. (Isa 61:1, 3)

“Those who mourn in Zion” receive “the oil of gladness instead of mourning.” Amen!

Application

This verse reminds us that denial isn’t the way to happiness. At times we deny a tragedy in our lives. Or we deny some sin we’ve committed.

We deny these things thinking it will make us happier. But there’s no comfort in denial.

Jesus promises “comfort” for those who accept and feel the heartache and bring it to him. We go to him and receive forgiveness. We find grace.

III. Meek

Our third Beatitude this morning is a promise for “the meek.” Read Matt. 5:5.

The promise is enormous: “They shall inherit the earth.” But once again it isn’t the rich and powerful and celebrities of the world who receive the promise. It’s the person aware of their “spiritual bankruptcy,” aware of their lowliness. It’s “the meek.”

But once again there’s a great reversal. In the world “the meek” get runover and stepped on and neglected. In this world, sometimes you have to stand up for yourself to get noticed and get what you deserve. To get ahead in the world.

But in this Beatitude, the opposite is true. What is the result of being “meek”? You “inherit the earth”!

Jesus here is quoting almost verbatim a verse from King David’s Psalm 37:

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. (Ps 37:11)

In the Greek OT this verse is extremely close to Matthew 5:5.

All of Psalm 37 reverberates with this idea:

Those blessed by the LORD shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. (Ps 37:22)

The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. (Ps 37:29)

Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off. (Ps 37:34)

In the Old Testament, inheriting the land was a preeminent blessing. Remember, the land was promised to Abraham. And then that promise was restated to Moses and the Israelites. David and Israel were in the land because of God’s promises to Abraham.

To be told that your behavior would result in “inheriting the land” would mean the highest of earthly blessings.

For us the promise is even bigger. To “inherit the earth” means that you’ll be those who will live forever with God in the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:1–4).

You might not have a square inch to your name now. But one day you’ll be reigning with God in the kingdom to come. All the land will be yours, because all the land will be God’s, and you’ll belong to him and be a co-ruler with Christ.

But the condition is “meekness.” What does that mean? It’s certainly not “weakness.” Jesus was “meek” (Matt 11:29), but he certainly wasn’t weak!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones defines it well:

Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others....The man who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the sermon on the Mount[2]

It's not a self-centered low view of yourself, but “a true view of oneself.” It’s an honest and true sense that God’s favor and man’s favor are things you don’t deserve.

John Stott reflects on this further. Sometimes God having a low view of us we can take. But our pride can’t quite take people having a low view of us!

He writes,

I myself am quite happy to recite the General Confession in church and call myself a ‘miserable sinner.’ It causes me no great problem. I can take it in my stride. But let somebody else come up to me after church and call me a miserable sinner, and I want to punch him on the nose! In other words, I am not prepared to allow other people to think or speak of me what I have just acknowledged before God that I am. There is a basic hypocrisy here; there always is when meekness is absent.
John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount[3]

Conclusion

Our forefathers rejected the Brittish king and his kingdom to secure “Safety and Happiness” for themselves. Fallen and imperfect human kings can provoke that kind of rebellion.

But the Sermon on the Mount calls us to embrace and bow before the true King and his kingdom to find “Safety and Happiness.” And more: “Blessedness”! “Flourishing”! “Abundant life”! “Fullness of joy!”

Human kings and governments will fail us: Christ’s government never will!

A couple things as we close.

The Beatitudes are not separate, individual behaviors we put on. They describe a person who has been transformed by the Spirit of God. A person who has been renewed.

Later in the Sermon Jesus will talk about fruit trees and tell us:

So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. (Matt 7:17)

The Beatitudes are describing that “good fruit” which comes from a “healthy tree.”

If being “poor in spirit” is completely foreign to you, maybe that’s where you need to start, with faith and repentance. Become a “healthy tree” by letting God give you new life. Turn to Christ the true King. Bow before him in your heart. Surrender your life to him.

But if we’re Christians and the Beatitudes still feel foreign, maybe it’s a sign we’re a “healthy tree” that also has some sickness, we have some diseased limbs.

We need to invite the Lord to do some pruning and cutting away of some dead or diseased limbs.

Matthew Bingham writes about this in his book, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation (Crossway, 2025). He has a chapter on “Self-examination” and the way it was practiced by saints in the past.

He says that a routine of “self-examination” that includes considering honestly our sins and failures but also meditates on God’s forgiveness in Christ is a way to put sin to death.

Three benefits it holds:

First, as we acquire greater self-knowledge, we will be better equipped to guard against temptation.... ‘Be killing sin or it will be killing you’ (John Owen).... Second, regular self-examination helps us spot creeping sins early before they develop into much more serious problems.... ‘The ship that leaketh is more easily emptied at the beginning than afterwards’ (George Swinnock).... The third way that self-examination helps us in our struggle against indwelling sin is by leading us to confession, repentance, and a renewed sense of gospel assurance.... ‘What shall we do to get assurance? Keep a good conscience’ (Richard Sibbes).
Matthew Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God[4]

One way to go about this is to spend time in the Beatitudes. Look at them once a week, pray through them, consider where you fall short, confess your sin, receive Christ’s forgiveness.

Prayer and Closing Song (“Ancient of Days”)

[1] Jonathan Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2017), xv.

[2] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Eerdmans, 1976), 57, 58.

[3] John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 53.

[4] Mattthew Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation (Crossway, 2025), 206, 207, 209, 210.