Scripture Matthew 5:1, 2, 8
Matt 5:1-2, 8
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside
and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matt
23:25-26 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full
of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup
and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Augustine, one of the great Christian theologians who
ever lived, died not long after the fall of the Roman Empire in 410 AD. He was
once challenged by a pagan, who held up an idol to him and sarcastically said, “Here is my god. Where is yours?” To which Augustine replied, “I cannot show you my God, not because He doesn’t exist,
but because you have no eyes to see Him.”
We are back to a personal BeAttitude.
What does it mean to see God?
Does seeing God mean the same things as John Denver seeing George Burns or Jim Carey seeing Morgan Freeman? Or perhaps Val Kilmer as the voice of Moses in the animated “Prince of Egypt” seeing God in a burning bush also voiced by Val Kilmer? Or perhaps like the disciples seeing Jesus in the flesh?
Does seeing God mean seeing Him in creation? Like seeing the potter in the ceramic masterpiece, do we see God in His creation? Outside we are surrounded by the intricacies and fascinating systematic creation that was created by our God. He is in the mountains, the beaches, jungles, ocean depths, prairies, farmland, desserts, and valleys. To see His creation is to see a piece of Him. Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
Or…does seeing God for the pure in heart mean something
else? Does it mean seeing God with
spiritual eyes without the need for seeing Him physically? This seems to be
what Jesus is getting at. It stands to
reason as even when he says Happy is the person with a pure heart – he obviously
does not mean a pure perfect beating bodily organ that is pumping blood
throughout the body. In both cases “Pure in Heart” and “You will See God” have
to do with something far greater than our temporary finite existence and has
prompted us into the spiritual realm.
1 Corinthians 2:9-16 LIV BIBLE
That is what is meant by the Scriptures which say that no
mere man has ever seen, heard, or even imagined what wonderful things God has
ready for those who love the Lord. But we know about these things because God
has sent his Spirit to tell us, and his Spirit searches out and shows us all of
God's deepest secrets. No one can really know what anyone else is thinking or
what he is really like except that person himself. And no one can know God's
thoughts except God's own Spirit. And God has actually given us his Spirit (not
the world's spirit) to tell us about the wonderful free gifts of grace and
blessing that God has given us. In telling you about these gifts we have even
used the very words given to us by the Holy Spirit, not words that we as men
might choose. So we use the Holy Spirit's words to explain the Holy Spirit's
facts.
But the man who isn't a Christian can't understand and can't accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can't take it in. But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can't understand him at all. How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord's thoughts, or to discuss them with him, or to move the hands of God by prayer. But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.
Seeing God, then, is a gift for those who are ‘in Christ’ and have Christ ‘in them’. Equally true, the pure in heart can only be so through the grace and power of Jesus Christ. The unspiritual person cannot be pure in heart.
What does it mean to have a pure
heart? Again – it has nothing to do with our physical organ. It is what is described in Psalm 51 (I
memorized it at U-Illinois) 51:10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit in me.”
It is a spiritual thing -it is something beyond our existential reality
– it is truly a matter of the core of who we are!
This 6th BeAttitude continues an OT theme in which a pure heart describes a person whose single-minded loyalty to God affects EVERY area of Life! Don’t blame God for ineffective areas of your life that are not completely submitted to the will of God. It is not God’s fault you are selfish with your heart. However, for those who have set their heart on God and not simple religious ritualism and who respond to Jesus’ message of the gospel of the kingdom, they are invited to enter into fellowship with him in which they will experience the unthinkable – they will see God.
Pure in Heart?
The heart is the only self-moving organ in the body, and
strong emotions cause the heartbeat to race. When the heart stops beating, a
person is dead. Because the Hebrews were a concrete people who used physical
things to express abstract concepts, the heart was the metaphor of the mind and
all mental and emotional and willful activity.
LEB = most
often is used figuratively to refer to the "control center" of our
being. Think of an Air Traffic Controller and how dysfunctional, even
destructive it is when the controllers fail to function as they should.
NT Heart = kardia
Just as a healthy human heart is at the center of the
body and absolutely essential for physical life and health, so too a healthy
spiritual heart (intellect, emotion, will) is at the center of one's inner
being (soul) and is vital for a healthy soul, serving as the
"fountain" of all moral attitudes and actions. Our spiritual heart
controls our actions and our actions determine our habits, which
in turn determine our character. When God measures the ''worth'' of a person's
life He puts the measuring tape around his heart, not around his head. Be a man
after God's Own heart (Acts 13:22) We must continually "post a guard" at the
doorway of our heart, so that every avenue for sin's entry is blocked.
Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
John MacArthur - The “heart” commonly refers to our ability to reason (Pr 3:3; 6:21;7:3), but also includes the emotions (Pr 15:15, 30), the will (Pr 11:20; 14:14), the whole inner being (Pr 3:5). The heart is the depository of all wisdom and the source of whatever affects speech (Pr 4:24), sight (Pr 4:25), and conduct.
So, how do we attain a pure heart? By right thinking? By
right emotions? By right actions?
Turning
an impure heart into a pure heart would involve things like changing ugliness
in a heart into beauty; dejection into cheerfulness; hypocrisy into sincerity;
jealousy into understanding; drunkenness into sobriety, enmity into
friendliness; vanity into modesty; conceit into meekness; discourtesy into
courtesy; pride into humility; hatred into love, etc…
It would be making our hearts free from the trash of the world. But not only getting rid of the bad, but replacing it with the good.
That is the problem isn’t it? We can not do enough to
give ourselves a pure heart – we will fail time and again. Former Nixon presidential
aide Jeb Magruder, commenting on the Watergate scandal, said, “We had conned ourselves into thinking we weren’t doing
anything really wrong, and by the time we were doing things that were illegal,
we had lost control. We had gone from poor ethical behavior into illegal
activities without even realizing it.” The
pure heart comes only when we receive the grace and mercy of Jesus and it stays
pure only by his strength in us. Phil 4:13 I can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength. Jeb
learned that and is a preacher today.
Therefore, a pure heart is obtained and sustained only
with an ongoing, active relationship with the son of God. The moment we turn
away (like Peter did when he was walking on water and turned away form Jesus he
began to sink), and so will our heart and therefore our ability to see God.
What
does it mean to see God? In nature? In people? In relationships? In emotions?
Seeing God means exactly what it says – seeing God – not a physical
manifestation, but again, a spiritual one. If you have not seen God lately, it
is time to go see your cardiologist for a heart checkup. Some may need rehab,
others a stint, others a multiple bypass or even more invasive open heart
surgery.
Mary saw and didn’t recognize, Disciples on the road to Emmaus saw and did not recognize, thousands saw Jesus and did not recognize who he was, Thomas said I will not believe unless I can see him. At his birth, wize men saw he was a king, shepherds saw he was a savior, at 12 teachers of the law saw he had wisdom, as an adult, many saw he had the healing miracle working power of God.
Do
this exercise. Close your eyes. Try to see God. What do you see? Most of what
you see is determined by how you view God as a judgmental dictator or a loving
caring Father or something in between. Keep your eyes closed. I don’t mean try
to see a physical image of God – see a spiritual one. Allow your heart to
become forgiven and holy and pure. Allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse you
thoroughly. Then, with physical eyes closed, begin to see God with your
spiritual eyes. See the love and holiness of God. Allow that spiritual imagine
to linger.
Ezek 11:19-20
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
ILLUSTRATION
A boy
asked his father, “Dad, what is the size of
God? How big is He?”
The
Father looked up at the sky and saw a little plane In the far distance and
asked his son, “What is the Size of the
plane in the sky?”
The
boy replied, “It is really small. I can
hardly see it in the sky."
Then,
the father said, “Son, let’s go on a trip to
the airport. I want to show you something.”
The
boy jumped in his father’s truck and off they went to the airport.
As
they approached the plane, the father asked his son: “Now, Son, how big is this plane?” The boy looked at the airplane and said, “Wow, Dad, that plane is huge! It’s a lot bigger than that
plane in the sky, isn’t it!”
Then the father put his arm around his son and said, “Son, God’ size is like this plane. It is the same one you saw in the sky from a distance and it looked so small. God’s size depends on how close or how fare you are to him. The closer you are……the bigger God looks!”
Ps 24:3-4
Who
may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart…
Remember, more important than
seeing God is that God always sees you!
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