#44 Lu. 6:17-26 THE BEATITUDES ACCORDING TO LUKE

Introduction:

    In our text today Jesus begins what is commonly called "The Sermon On
The Mount."  Out text does not give the whole sermon.  It only gives the
beatitudes.  Even at that, it is an abbreviated form of the beatitudes.
Matthew records eight beatitudes whereas Luke record only four.
    The word, beatitude means "A blessing" or "A pronouncement of a
blessing."
    In our previous text Jesus was in a mountain where He had prayed all
night.  Then on the following morning He sent and called the disciples to
come to Him there in the mountain.  It was there in the mountain that He
chose and ordained the twelve.  Our text takes up at this point.

I.  A problem reconciling the records of Matthew and Luke

    V. 17-18, "And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the
company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea
and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear
him, and to be healed of their diseases; And they that were vexed with
unclean spirits: and they were healed."
    Matthew says that Jesus was on the mountain and that He was seated with
His disciples seated around Him when He began His "Sermon On The Mount."
Luke says that He came down from the mountain to a plain.  It is obvious
that there is a problem here in understanding just what did take place.  The
skeptics like to point to this problem as an evidence that the Bible could
not be inspired of God.  They say there is a contradiction here.
    Actually there is no contradiction.  There is merely what appears at
first glance to be a contradiction.  What happened is that up on the peak of
the mountain when only His disciples were with Him He was seated and taught
certain things to them.  Then, when a much larger crowd of people came from
all over the land, He and the disciples came down to a lower level on the
mountain.  This level area on the side of the mountain was large enough to
accommodate the larger crowd of people which came to Him.
    According to Matthew, when He started His sermon He was seated and only
His disciples were with Him.  According to Luke, He came down the mountain
at least a ways to the level place and was standing while large numbers of
unsaved people came to Him from all parts of the land.  There is no
contradiction.  Matthew was right in what he said and Luke was also right in
what He said.  It was just that neither of these writers told the whole
story.  Put the two accounts together and you have what Paul Harvey would
call "The Rest of The Story."
    We might notice also that the disciples, who had gone to the higher
point of the mountain, were there because they had been summonsed to meet
Jesus there.  The multitude, which comes to Jesus in our text today, were
not summonsed, but they came out of two motives.  Many of them came because
they wanted to hear Jesus speak.  Many of them came because they wanted to
be healed.  So on the higher level only Jesus and His disciples were present
when He first started His sermon.  He started out teaching only His
disciples.  Then a whole multitude of people came, most of whom were
unsaved.   Jesus came down and taught at the lower level.

II.  Jesus ministering to the multitude

    You will note in the latter part of verse 18 that Luke said, "...and
they were healed."  There was more than just the preaching of a sermon which
took place here on this occasion.  Jesus healed all of the sick folk who
came to Him.  He cast the demon spirits out of those who were demon
possessed and healed their afflictions which the demons had caused.
    In verse 19 Luke gives us an insight into what took place when the
healing was done.  Perhaps He reached out and touched some and made them
whole.  But most of the people were too impatient to wait for Him to get
around to touching them.  The most of them pressed in through the crowd
until they could get near enough to reach out and touch Him.  V. 19, "And
the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him,
and healed them all."  Whenever some afflicted person would reach out and
touch Him that person would be healed.  Eventually all of the sick and
afflicted in the whole multitude were healed.

III.  The beatitudes as recorded by Luke

    After Jesus had finished healing the afflicted who came, He then resumed
His Sermon On The Mount.  It appeared that He must have started all over
again because He again pronounced the beatitudes on His disciples.  Well, at
least He gave some of the beatitudes over again.  We cannot be sure.  Luke
only recorded four of the beatitudes.
    V. 20, "And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be
ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God."  By looking directly at His
disciples, this was an indication to all present that He was talking
directly to His disciples at this point.
    Luke records His words simply as, "Blessed be ye poor..."  Matthew
records Him as saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."  Therefore even
here in Luke it is to be understood that Jesus was speaking from that point
of view.  He was saying, "Blessed be ye poor in spirit."  He was not talking
primarily about their finances.  At least, primarily the money was not what
He was talking about.
    There does seem to be some indication here of the kind of people who
responded favorably to the gospel and trusted in Jesus Christ as their
Savior.  It was the poorer classes of people primarily who made up the
disciples.  There were not many rich folk among the disciples of our Lord.
    But while His words did refer somewhat to their financial condition,
still the primary meaning of the statement is that those who were His
disciples were poor in spirit.  That was the way Matthew recorded it.  He
said, Blessed are the poor in spirit."  They had seen themselves as standing
destitute before God in their sins before God.  From the spiritual point of
view, they saw themselves as paupers.  They saw themselves as being unworthy
before God.  They saw themselves as being undeserving of God's salvation.
They saw themselves as unworthy of going to heaven.  They were unable to
present anything to God whereby they could claim to be accepted by Him.  We
have no righteousness of our own.  All of our righteousness is as filthy
rags in His sight.  This was in sharp contrast to the scribes and Pharisees
who were lifted up in pride and in self-righteousness.
    They viewed themselves as unworthy as indeed they were unworthy.  All
mankind is unworthy.  We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
    Nevertheless, in spite of their unworthiness, Jesus said, "Blessed be ye
poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.  It is true that you are not worthy
of heaven, but that is where you are going.  Your's is the kingdom of God."
    The second of the beatitudes as recorded by Luke is found in verse 21.
V. 21, "Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled..."  Again
there is an indication that these people were actually poor materially.  At
least most of them were poor.  For that reason there were times when they
did not have sufficient to earth and they went hungry.  At the least, they
did not have the fine food that others had.
    Yet again the primary meaning pertains to the spiritual.  They were not
just physically hungry.  They had experienced a spiritual hunger.  Matthew
puts it that they hungered and thirsted after righteousness.  This was a
result of their feelings of unrighteousness.  Because they had seen
themselves as being unworthy of God's salvation and had repented of their
sin, they had come now to hunger and thirst after righteousness.  It is
because of this that Jesus says that they shall be filled.  Their hunger for
righteousness has already been filled by the righteousness of Jesus Christ
imputed to them.  They are made righteous through Christ.
    Now they hunger for righteous conduct in their lives.  They hunger to
live righteously.  The end result is that they will be filled in heaven.
They will be in heaven with God where all is righteousness.  There in heaven
not only their hunger for righteousness will be filled but every other
desire will be filled.  In that wonderful place their every heart's desire
will be satisfied.  They will lack for nothing.  There will always be a
bountiful supply.
    Also in verse 21 we find the third of the beatitudes which Luke
recorded.  (V.  21), ...Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh."
The disciples of the Lord, in this life, would indeed have much weeping.  A
goodly part of their weeping would be due to the persecution which would
come upon them as mentioned in verse 22.  Part is due to our frailties and
part is due to the world of turmoil about us.
    Nevertheless, the time would come when their weeping would be over and
they will laugh.  There will come a time for rejoicing.  There is a great
deal of rejoicing now in the Lord even in this world of tears.  But there
will come a time when there will be nothing but rejoicing.  All the
suffering---all the tears will be a thing of the past.  There will never be
anything but joy and rejoicing ever again.
    The fourth and final beatitude which Luke records is found in verse 22.
Now frankly, this does not sound like a beatitude to me.  It doesn't sound
like a blessing to me--at least not at first.  It does not sound like
something that anybody would want to have happen to them.  Just listen to
this.  V.  22, "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall
separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your
name as evil, for the Son of man's sake."
    The fact is that if one is a Christian, if one is living for Jesus, if
he stands for the truth of God as set forth in the Bible, then he is not
going to be very popular with the world.  The world does not believe in
Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world.
The world wants to believe in a Jesus who has set a good example for us to
follow and who will then allow us to earn our own salvation by our own good
works.  The world will believe in a Jesus like that, but the world will not
believe in the real Jesus Christ.  Neither will the world accept on friendly
terms anybody who does believe in Him.
    Particularly, the world does not believe the things which Jesus teaches.
That is what offended the Pharisees and that is what offends the world
today.  When Christians preach and teach the same things that Jesus taught
then the world is greatly offended.  They rise up in indignation.  They
reach out and strike out against the people of God.  They persecute the
people of God in all the severity that the law allows and sometimes more
than the law allows.  They persecuted Jesus.  They persecuted His apostles.
They persecuted all of His disciples.  They still persecute those who really
stand for Jesus.
    That does not really come as a surprise to us.  What is surprising is
what Jesus has said about it.  V. 23, "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for
joy..."  Jesus tells us not to weep because we are persecuted.  Rather,
Jesus said that we are to rejoice.  We are not to mumble and grumble and
moan and groan and grunt and complain.  Were not to say, "Woe is me!  Poor
ole me!  Nobody in this world has it a bad as I do!  Why if it weren't for
bad luck I'd have no luck at all."  You know that song; don't you?  That is
a natural human reaction to persecution and suffering.  Jesus said, "Stop
that whining! Stop your moaning and groaning! Start shouting! Start jumping
up and down for joy.  Be glad that you have the privilege of suffering of
suffering for Him."
    The reason for such an astounding command from the Lord is found in the
latter part of verse 23, "...for, behold, your reward is great in heaven."
You are not to rejoice just because you are persecuted.  You are to rejoice
because you are going to have such great reward in heaven.  Every time that
you are unjustly persecuted for Jesus' sake, that puts a great big reward
for you in the bank of heaven.  Now Jesus is not talking about any of this
penney-ante stuff.  Jesus is talking about big time stuff.  Jesus is talking
about something fabulous.  Jesus is talking about rewards so fabulous that
it makes million dollar bank accounts and private planes and private yachts
look like peanuts.  Believe me.  This is beyond our wildest dreams.  If you
could earn this kind of riches in this life, you would work your fingers to
the bone trying to get it.  You will probably never get such wealth in this
life, but it is very possible for you to have it in the next life.  What do
you have to do to get it?  You just love the Lord and live for Him and you
will earn great treasures by being persecuted for Jesus' sake.
     (V. 23), "...for in the like manner did their fathers unto the
prophets."  Just as the unsaved world persecuted the Old Testament prophets
in their day, even so the unsaved world will persecute Christians today.
Just because Jesus loves you don't expect the world to love you.  It won't.
    Now beginning in verse 24 and continuing through verse 26 Luke records
the counterpart to the blessings pronounced upon the saved.  Here Jesus
pronounces a woe on the unsaved for each of the blessings which He
pronounced on the saved.

IV.  The woes pronounced on the unsaved

    V. 24, "But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your
consolation."  Let me again emphasize that Jesus is talking about the
unsaved.  That is, He is talking about the unsaved who are rich.  Jesus is
here speaking in general terms, of course.  Jesus in not trying to say that
no rich man is saved.  But He is saying that the saved, generally, are among
the poor folk.  At least, they were poor when they got saved.  The Bible
records a few rich men who turned to Jesus and got saved.  Nicodemus is one
New Testament example.  Joseph of Aramathea is another.  But it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get
saved.  But most of the saved were poor folk and, likewise, most of the rich
were unsaved.  So Jesus is talking to the unsaved rich.
    What does He say to them?  Jesus says to the unsaved who are rich, "Your
riches is your consolation.  That is all your are going get.  The riches,
which are only temporary, are all that you are going to get.  In the
hereafter, which is what really counts, you are going to have nothing
worthwhile.  You won't have your riches.  Neither will you have anything to
console you then."  In Luke sixteen when the rich man died and went to hell
his riches were no consolation whatsoever to him in hell.  He had left them
all behind.  They could not do him one whit of good in hell.  "Your riches
are all you have got, you won't have them long, and they won't do you any
good where you are going."
    The second woe is pronounced in verse 25.  This woe is in contrast to
the blessing which Jesus pronounced on those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness.  V. 25, "Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger...."
Again the idea is---the unsaved full.  The unsaved concentrate on the
temporal or temporary things of this world such as money and that which
fills the belly.  They make sure that their bellies are full, but they do
not make sure that their soul is saved.  The time will come for them when
they will hunger.  In the fires of hell they will have no need for physical
food any more and so I assume that Jesus is here talking about spiritual
food.  After it is too late they will hunger and thirst after righteousness.
After it is too late for them to ever get saved, they will want to get
saved.  They would give all their wealth, if they still had it, to have
another chance to trust Jesus Christ and be saved.  They will hunger for
salvation, but they will never have it.
    In the latter part of verse 25 the third woe is pronounced.  (V. 25),
"...Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep."  How do the
unsaved laugh?  They laugh in ridicule at the Christian who is dedicated to
Jesus Christ.  They laugh in pleasure as they frolic and have their fling in
the sinful ways of this world.  They laugh and they laugh and they laugh.
But they do not get the last laugh.  The time will come for them to weep and
mourn.  The time will come when, as the Scripture says, they weep and gnash
their teeth.  The problem is that there will never come an end to their
weeping.
    The fourth and final woe is recorded in verse 26.  V. 26, "Woe unto you,
when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false
prophets."  Again, the context of this verse shows that it speaks of the
unsaved.  All of the other woes do and so does this one.  This verse is
sometimes used today to sound a warning to the saved that they should not
compromise with the world.  I suppose that this is a legitimate secondary
application of this Scripture, but that is not the primary application of
the verse.
    But the primary application of this verse is to sound a warning to the
false religious of the world whom the world applauds.  If one speaks the
truth of God he will not be applauded by the world.  Rather he will be
persecuted by the world.  The world applauds false religious leaders and not
those who preach the truth of Christ.  Leaders of the false religions have
far more followers than do leaders of true Christianity.  It has always been
that way.  It will always continue to be that way until Jesus comes back
again.  If a religious leader is highly acclaimed by the unsaved world, then
you can mark it down, he is not of God.  If you are that kind of leader then
you are in trouble.  If you are following that kind of leader then you are
likewise in trouble.  The false prophets in Old Testament days were highly
acclaimed by the masses of unsaved people in Israel.  The scribes and
Pharisees in Jesus' day were highly acclaimed in the land of Israel.  The
religious leaders who are so highly acclaimed by the world today are leading
men right down the road to the fires of hell.
    I would caution you right here.  This does not mean that men of truth
and righteousness will not be popular among the Christians.  That is not the
point being made by the Lord.  But if a man is highly popular by the great
masses of unsaved people and if he continues to hold that popularity, you
would do well not to follow that man.
    Listen!  Jesus has laid it out plain and simple.  If you want the
blessings of God then repent of your sin, hunger and thirst after
righteousness, get saved by the grace of God and follow Jesus.  The
blessings you will get in this life and the rewards you will have in the
next life will make you forever glad that you did.  Your joy and rejoicing
will never end.
    On the other hand, if you fail to trust in Jesus and get saved, then it
makes no difference what good things you have in life, you will be the
loser.  The good things you have in this life such as money, pleasure and
the praises of men are all temporary.  They will last no longer than your
last breath.  When you breath your last breath, you will be in torments from
that time forth.

Conclusion:

    Listen!  It would be foolish for you to leave this service today still
on the road to hell.  Listen, you know that I am telling you the truth!  It
would be foolish for you to walk out that door and go down the road to the
everlasting fires of hell.  What kind of person are you anyway?  Would you
be so foolish to go to hell where you do not want to go when the Lord Jesus
Christ is trying right now to get you to be save?  Jesus is trying right now
to get you to look to Him and confess that you need to be saved and to ask
Him to save you.  What I am asking you to do is to wise up.  I am asking you
go get smart.  I am asking you to look out for your own well being.  I am
asking you to look beyond your nose and take a look at all eternity.  Do you
want that to be in the fires of hell or do you want it to be in heaven?
What I am asking you to do is to turn to Jesus Christ and--from the depths
of your heart--trust Him to save your soul.  I am asking you to do that
while we sing an invitation song.
    Would our musicians come forward at this time?  Would you who are
Christians pray for the unsaved persons who are here today?  If there is
some Christian here who needs to walk this aisle today and move your
membership to this church, will you come right now?
    Saved or unsaved, if you know that you should come, don't delay.  Step
right out on the first verse of this hymn.  Come now.