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THE INDISPENSABLE MIRROR Chapter 1 Introduction The Beatitudes portray a life directed towards saintliness or holiness. They speak to both our minds and our hearts. The text of St. Matthew runs as follows (Matthew 5: 3 – 10) Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 3) Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land. (Verse 4) Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Verse 5) Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. (Verse 6) Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Verse 7) Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. (Verse 8) Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. (Verse 9) Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 10) Christ begins his sermon with blessings, for he came into the world to bless us (Acts 3: 26), as the great High Priest of our profession; as the blessed Melchizedec; as He in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, Gen. 12:3. He came not only to purchase blessings for us, but to pour out and pronounce blessings on us; and here he does it as one having authority, as one that can command the blessing, even life for evermore, and that is the blessing here again and again promised to the good; his pronouncing them happy makes them so; for those whom he blesses, are blessed indeed. The Old Testament ended with a curse (Mal. 4: 6), the gospel begins with a blessing; for hereunto are we called, that we should inherit the blessing. (Culled from Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721), ttp://www.ccel.org/h/henry/mhc2/MHC40005.HTM) The Beatitudes are paradoxes in other ways as well. Wherever we find ourselves in this spiritual journey, we cannot help but notice the apparent contradictions bound up in Our Lord's puzzling promises: the poor are rich; those who mourn are blessed; the meek will be powerful; the hungry shall be filled; the persecuted are blessed. How contrary this is to the messages of the world in which live. They urge you to pretend to be rich or powerful. They want you to play along when they assure you that you're loved without limit or qualifications when you really are not. For example, the bank offers constant reassurance that you have a friend there, someone who will personally cater to your every need. But try testing how far that relationship will actually go without sufficient collateral to back it up! Multiple roadblocks quickly rise up to hinder your quest for financial help. The smiling faces on TV seem sincerely solicitous as to whether or not you're able to clean the greasy pots, or polish your kitchen floor to a brilliant shine, or banish all the germs from your bathroom. Don't be fooled. Remember that advertising agencies hire actors and actresses to sell that particular pot scrubber or floor wax or antibacterial cleanser. Oblivious to your personal needs, these players regard you as merely a pawn in the world of marketing, a faceless consumer who holds the money. Your "friendly neighbourhood insurance agents assure you they have your best interests at heart. Their proffered love and care look so sincere--until you submit a claim and find out what the fine print excludes. You discover that the bottom line may override the best intentions of an insurance agent if the company is to remain in business. The messages of the Beatitudes are just the opposite of all this make-believe happiness. They are not pretence or empty promises. These few words powerfully open up to us what it really means to live as a Christian, just as the dawning sun pours into an unobstructed window facing east. We all want to be happy. Being happy is doing what is right. It isn't always easy to do the right thing. It takes courage and bravery. What is the right thing to do? How do we know? We know because Jesus told us the right things to do. He told us how to have the greatest joy ever. He told us in the Beatitudes. Beatitude is a big word that means "supreme happiness". Jesus gave us eight Beatitudes. Follow these Beatitudes and you will be doing the right thing all the time and you will make Jesus very happy. The Beatitudes (from Latin, beatitudo, happiness) is the name given to a well-known, definitive and central, portion of the Sermon on the Mount of the Gospel of Matthew. Each of the blessed individuals are generally not considered blessed according to worldly standards, but with a heavenly perspective, they truly are blessed. The word traditionally translated into English as "blessed" or "happy" is a more literal translation into contemporary English would be "possessing an inward contentedness and joy that is not affected by the physical circumstances." Each of the Beatitudes presents a situation in which the person described would not be described by the world as "blessed," yet Jesus declares that they truly are blessed, and they are blessed with a blessing that outlasts any type of blessing this world has to offer. (Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatitudes; From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.) Matthew's gospel is the first gospel within the New Testament record. Matthew as we all know - Levi before he was converted - he was a collector of tolls, he was a publican, he went around collecting taxes. But when the Lord Jesus Christ came to Matthew and when he had an encounter with the living Son of God in flesh, we read that that man Matthew became a collector of souls. He followed Christ, he became a fisher of men and we have, in such detail within this Gospel, how Matthew followed, how the disciples followed, and the life recorded of the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 1, if you look at it, of Matthew's gospel we find there His birth - the birth of that blessed Saviour, the One who would be called Jesus, because He would save His people from their sin. Chapter 1, His nativity; chapter 2 we find His dignity, because we read there how the wise men came from the east and they brought those rich jewels and frankincense and gold and myrrh and they placed it at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they worshipped His majesty and His dignity because of who He was. In chapter 3 we read about His baptism, that He is declared there by God the Father and He says of His Son, 'This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased'. And there we see that the Holy Spirit of God descends and anoints the Lord Jesus Christ for the ministry that He would have as He healed the sick, as He made blind eyes to see, as He delivered the captives - even He needed an anointing from God the Holy Spirit to bring Him that power. Then in chapter 4 we find His temptation, where there the very devil himself, eyeball to eyeball, tries to divert the Son of God from His eternal purpose of going to the cross, of dying for a sinful world and of redeeming a people for Himself. And then in chapter 5, we have His teaching, His preaching. His nativity in chapter 1, His dignity in chapter 2, Matthew outlines His baptism in chapter 3, His temptation in chapter 4 and as He sets out upon His earthly ministry here, we have in chapters 5, 6 and 7 His preaching. The Sermon on the Mount consists really of three sections. The first section we find in chapter 5 and verses 2 to 16, there the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to us of the citizens of the Kingdom of God. He speaks specifically of their character and their blessedness in the eyes of God. Then secondly in chapter 5 verse 17, to chapter 7 verse 12, He outlines for us not the citizens of the Kingdom, but the righteousness of the Kingdom. In other words the standards of life that are required, that are demanded by the King, of His subjects within the Kingdom. You'll remember reading those words, where the Lord Jesus Christ exhorts His followers and His disciples to love God and nothing else, to serve God alone with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. Then He tells them how to serve and the righteousness required, man-ward within the Kingdom - that they are to love their neighbour as themselves. And in order to sum all of that up, He gives them the golden rule which even other religions and cults today have adopted - pure truth that you cannot dilute, that cannot be misunderstood - listen to these awesome words: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. What an awesome sermon this is, what an awesome message this is from the very courts of God to men, through God incarnate - the Lord Jesus Christ. I personally see the Beatitudes as: 1. A plan of salvation, that in order to get to Heaven you must follow these guidelines, you must obey these rules of the Lord Jesus. 2. A charter for the world peace and I implore nations of the world, homes, groups and societies to heed it and then there will be world peace and tranquillity. But what about this message to us today? I want to speak to you about two things in this section. In introduction to this great sermon and our exposition of it, I want us to think first of all of the preacher, and then secondly of His preaching. The Master and His message, the Preacher and His preaching, the Teacher and His teaching, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the One who stood before them, and the message that He delivered. Thomas Watson, the puritan, says this, 'He, the Lord Jesus Christ, has a title that has been given to other preachers of our day and our century and our world, but He alone is the Prince of Preachers. He alone is the best of expositors'. It says in Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 and 2, if you'll look at it, that He went up. Thomas Watson says, 'The One in whom there was a combination of virtues, a constellation of beauties, the One in whose lips there was not only sweet as honeycomb, but His very words did drop as honeycomb. His words were an oracle, His works were a miracle, His life was a pattern, His death was a sacrifice, and it was He, that blessed Man, who went up into this mountain and sat down and spoke unto His disciples'. This great Man, this great Preacher, the Son of God, God the Son, God incarnate, He was the greatest of all preachers and teachers and He was enabled and qualified to teach in the way He did. There are three things quickly that I want us to meditate and ponder upon when we look at the Preacher. The first thing is this: when He preached He made sense; the second thing is: when He preached He had power; and the third thing is: when He preached He was successful. Let's look at the first for a moment: when He preached He made sense. In John chapter 3 and verse 34 we read this, that this Preacher, sent as a missionary from the very realms of glory and Heaven, He came into this world and John says that this Man, as a Preacher of the word of God, He had the Spirit without measure. Think of that! My brethren, I dare to say that there has never been a preacher that has walked this soil that has ever had the Spirit without measure as our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He was a Preacher that made sense! The great interpreter of the word of God, He is the only commentary that we can have on it. The Holy Spirit Himself who inspired the word of God, Jesus Christ had a monopoly of Him. How He could teach the word of God! Do you remember the words of that woman at the well? That woman of Samaria, what did she say to her friend? She said, after listening to the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ: 'Come see a Man which told me all things that I ever did'. (John 4:29). The word of God is a mirror isn't it? Why do we need a mirror? We need a mirror to see our likeness. And it's not a mirror that sharps us up or makes us look better than we are - although we may like that at times - but the best mirror that we can have is the mirror that gives us a true likeness of ourselves. My brethren when the Lord Jesus Christ preached He made sense. He didn't beat around the bush, He didn't use woolly (vague or unclear) words. He told it as it was, He preached the word of God in pureness, and He was the One we - and as I write this book, I can hardly even know some of you that will read it - but He was the Preacher that knew the very hearts of the ones He spoke to. Can you conceive that? And just as He knew, as He was in the carpentry shop of His father, which tool He needed for which job He did there - the same as He stood and preached the word of God, He knew which truth that was needed for every single heart that was there. My brethren, when He preached, He made sense. But secondly: when He preached He had power. Matthew, the Gospel recorder says in chapter 7 and verse 29: 'He spoke with authority'. The Bible says that as He spoke, He made naked the very conscience of every man and woman, boy and girl before Him - because He preached in power. He uncovered the secrets of men's hearts - things that no one could have known. So much so, that when He uncovered the very sins of that woman at the well of Sychar, about how many husbands she had had - and that the one who was with her at that moment was not her husband - she looked into His eyes and she said: 'I perceive that Thou art a prophet'. Oh, what power the Saviour had! My brethren, with laser eyes the Saviour Himself - no matter who you are, saint or sinner today - He can see into your very breast, He can see into your inner thoughts, your conscience, your motives, your actions, your deeds, the things that are done in quiet places, He knows it all because He preached with power. And when He pierced sinners' consciences with the two-edged sword of His tongue, that Man, that blessed Man, men said of Him: 'Never, never ever in all of history, in all of time, never ever shall there be a man that spoke like this Man'. A man that made sense and a man who had power. But thirdly: when He preached - oh, how different He is than some today - when He preached He had success. This Man was wise to the winning of souls! He knew the art of converting souls, of every class, of every distinction, from every background and conceivable sin. John 10:42 said: 'Many believed in Him'. We read in John 12:42 that even among the chief rulers many believed in Him. Psalm 45 and verse 2 says prophetically of that blessed Person: 'Grace poured from His lips'. My brethren the Lord Jesus Christ had the power, He had ability, He had the success to pour that grace into the very hearts of men and women who stood before Him. He had the key of their soul, their conscience, their mind, their will. He had the key of it that, when He put it into their heart's door, He could open and enter at His will and no man at His appeal dare not surrender. What a preacher He was. Can you not see it? That He sat as One who had sense, as One who had power, One who had spiritual success with men and with God - He sat in authority. And He spoke these wonderful words. Do you see His pulpit? Where was His pulpit? Was it in a fancy church? No. Was it in a cathedral? Was it at a Bible conference? Where was it? It says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 1 and 2 that 'He went up to a mountain' - the mountain was His pulpit! Why? Because a mountain was convenient for the people. And do you see His passion? I think this is beautiful. It says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 1 that seeing the multitudes, seeing the multitudes - He looked upon them and many thronged to hear Him because they knew that what He was saying was worthwhile, and the Christ that came from heaven to save souls, He could not, He would not leave them without giving them a message of hope, a message of the gospel. The One who had compassion on the weak, the broken, the bruised bodies, much more had compassion upon dead souls. My brethren, as we look at this passage and as we enter this exposition of God's word, I want you not to see the sermon before you see the awesome preacher - the Man who preached this message. And so I want us to look secondly in this book at His preaching. The preacher and His preaching. It is often said in a humorous way: 'Practice what you preach'. Isn't that right? But I think it's better turned around the other way, 'Preach what you practice'. Look at this sermon, look at the Beatitudes of the Lord Jesus Christ and if you look at it closely enough, and if you look in parallel at the blessed life of the holy Son of God, you will see that this sermon itself is an unconscious self-portrayal of the life of the Son of God. Here is a Man who, when He is exhorting others, He does not become disqualified, He does not become a vagabond. He is not like when Paul describes those who stand and give truth and walk away and they forget that truth, and they commit the sins themselves that they are warning against. But this very sermon from the lips of the blessed Son of God was a disclosure of the heart of the missionary Son. And when He describes His ideal, He describes Himself. Do you know what this is all about? It can be summed up in one word. All of these many words of the Beatitudes, even the many words of the Sermon on the Mount, summed up in one word: Christlikeness. Look at these words, 'Blessed are they, blessed are they, blessed are they', and as you look at every single one of them, do you ask yourself: 'Well, do I have that in my life? Is that an intricate part of my daily walk of every hour of my day?' - because brethren today, if you're walking in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is like dynamite in your breast, it must be! It must be! The key verse to understanding the Beatitudes, I believe, is found in Matthew chapter 5 verse 20. The Lord Jesus Christ, remember, is addressing within the backdrop and the background and the context of the Scribes and the Pharisees. And He says within verse 20: 'For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case', in no way, 'enter into the kingdom of heaven'. What did He mean? Well simply this: the Lord Jesus Christ in His ministry had entered into a situation where the religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees [and] Scribes, were basing their approach to God, were basing their acceptance with a holy righteous God, Jehovah, upon their external righteousness. Have you got that? External righteousness. So much so, that they had plenty several rules and regulations added to the word of God by which they could come closer to God Himself. What does the Lord Jesus say? He says this: 'Unless your righteousness, my disciples, unless your goodness, your good works, exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and the Scribes you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven'. What's He saying? Simply this, that unless your righteousness is internal you have no hope of heaven. It's not externality, it's not like the Pharisees: how long your beard is; how long the gown you wear is; the colour of it; what you do on the Sabbath day; whether you trail a chair across the ground and it constitutes ploughing; whether you lift wood; whether you speak; whether you do other things that were prohibited on the Sabbath day and certain parts of it. It is nothing to do with externalities the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, but He is saying it is something deep within your soul - it is something internal. You know, they always accused Him of destroying the law: 'He's not saying what the law said'. That's why in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, if you look at it, He says: 'Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fill up'. 'I am not come to take the law away, but the law is lacking, the law is not the finish. I have come to finish it, to fill up that glass, to be the purpose of the law. I, myself as I stand before you, Jesus Christ the Son of God, am the fulfilment of it'. Our meditations upon the Beatitudes would not be complete unless they turned our thoughts to the person of our blessed Lord. The Beatitudes describe the character and conduct of a Christian, and as Christian character is nothing more or less than being experimentally conformed to the image of God's Son we must turn to Him for the perfect pattern. Evang. Oseh John Bamidele
Foreword Looking good is one business that women take very serious. It is amazing when you consider the number of hours women spend in this act of looking good which makes them feel good as they often say. One of the many instruments used for this act is a MIRROR. A mirror as we know is a flat piece of glass which reflects light, so that when you look at it you can see yourself reflected in it. We all use this object very often, there is hardly a day a normal human person does not use this object. Some even carry it with them in their bags, drivers use them to help them see the other vehicle and we have them in different shapes in our bathrooms. The frequency with which we use this object called the mirror goes to show its importance and how almost indispensable it is. Just as we need this mirror to help us see how good and smart we are, so also do we need it in the spiritual realm. Our Lord and great teacher offers us in one of His teachings this great and indispensable gift. In the Sermon on the Mount He gives us what Bro. John Oseh refers to as the INDISPENSABLE MIRROR. Here our Saviour gives the character of eight blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. On each of them a present blessing is pronounced; Blessed are they; and to each a future blessing is promised. The teaching is often referred to as ‘The Sermon on the Mount,’ because he did the teaching from a mountain. The great teacher of souls was so poor that he couldn’t afford a better pulpit like the scribes or our modern day preachers. He preached His sermon upon a mountain because the law was given on the mountain, and this was also a solemn promulgation of the law in the New Testament. The duties prescribed in this sermon are to be conscientiously performed by all those that will enter into that kingdom of heaven. No wonder then the church sets before us this teaching as the Gospel reading on the Solemnity of All Saints. Bro. Oseh in his book have brought the hidden ingredients of this great teaching. In espousing this, he made the teaching so simple by his presentation and very attractive too. He presents it to us as the faith mirror a Christian cannot do without, which must be used on a daily basis if we must be on track. I recommend this book therefore to all Christians searching for the truth and to all who have the desire for inner knowledge of self. I am sure that many will indeed be Blessed by the reading of this book. Very Rev. Fr. Peter D. Ebidero
About the Book The Beatitudes portray a life directed towards saintliness or holiness. They speak to both our minds and our hearts. We all want to be happy. Being happy is doing what is right. It isn't always easy to do the right thing. It takes courage and bravery. What is the right thing to do? How do we know? We know because Jesus told us the right things to do. He told us how to have the greatest joy ever. He told us in the Beatitudes. The Sermon on the Mount contains some of the best known sayings of Jesus. The problem is our familiarity with the Beatitudes may hinder us from comprehending the full weight of Jesus’ revolutionary teaching. Beatitude is a big word that means "supreme happiness". Jesus gave us eight Beatitudes. Follow these Beatitudes and you will be doing the right thing all the time and you will make Jesus very happy. |