I guess there has always been some confusion about the Christian faith. In the second century Christians were accused of being cannibals and atheists. We have been accused of being imperialists, scum, and wackos, etc.

I really don’t care what the world thinks of us as long as we understand who we are. I am afraid that sometimes we don’t know. Too many Christians are trying to look like the world, act like the world, be like the world in as many ways as possible. In fact, if you look at the average Christian and the average non-Christian, you usually can’t see any difference. We are just as sinful and just as materialistic and just as compromised as anyone else. This is a shame because it is our differences that bear witness to Christ, not our similarities with the world.

The Bible says that when we come to faith in Christ a whole series of changes take place. Our sins are washed away. We are made children of God. We take on eternal life, that is, we now have a future to look forward to. What I have described is the beginning and the ultimate goal of our faith. But what about the in between time? What does our faith mean for us now? It means a different way of living. Christians are called to live holy lives in the midst of an unholy world. In the process of living, God shapes us into the kinds of people we need to be. We call this process discipleship. We are called to be disciples of Jesus.

Our text is the beginning of one the most famous passages in all the Bible. It is the Sermon on the Mount! Jesus had gone about calling disciples unto himself. The kingdom of Heaven is near and those who enter, enter as a disciple.

The kingdom of God brings about the great reversal of the soul. Greatness is measured in terms of service. Status is found among the lowly. Blessedness comes from being less and not more. Jesus tells us the secret to being blessed. This is also the secret of how are to live our lives as Christians.

 We need to understand what Jesus means by Blessed. Sometimes it means happy. But it is not an illusive, slippery kind of happiness. Our word "happiness" does not translate it very well. It really means to be approved. It means to be approved by God. Happiness as we know can come in the form of a fine meal and end in a stomach ache. It can be a new toy that loses it charm at the end of the day. Happiness is something that is sought, but it is never quite in our grasp.

Jesus offers us approval before God. Don’t you think that is what our souls really hunger for? I suspect that those who are blessed, who are approved, are profoundly happy.

The beatitudes begin and end with those who receive the kingdom of God and thus are blessed or approved by God. The blessed are not the mighty and the proud. They are not among the socially hip and the cool. Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge that we are spiritually bankrupt. It is an open confession of our unworthiness before God.

Perhaps we sense it when we try to fill the void with things. But, these things are not the solution to our spiritual poverty. Our preoccupation with things and sensuality and pleasures are attempts to cover up our bankrupt souls.

When we enter the kingdom of heaven, we become aware of how poor in spirit we really are. Our awareness becomes an act of confession of our need for God and how powerless we are without him. This is not self hatred. It is the death of pride and selfishness.

Does it not follow that when we realize our poverty before God that we mourn? Is it not a sorrowful occasion to realize how short of the glory of God we fall? When we enter the kingdom of God, the scales are removed from our eyes and we are no longer blind. We see our sinfulness and we mourn. But the great thing is, those who mourn will be comforted. You cannot comfort a sorrowful man until he knows he is full of sorrow. The minute that we realize our sinfulness, God begins to comfort us. He heals of us of our iniquities. His healing brings real change in our lives.

The first change is that we become meek. Meekness does not mean someone who is weak and shy. It is not someone who is timid and unsure. Meekness means to be under control. It is one whose sensual and materialistic desires are under control. A meek person desires to advance the cause of others instead of his own. See the great reversal here? It is the complete opposite of crass materialism. It is the meek, says Jesus, who will inherit the earth, not the selfish and the greedy.

I see a progression here. The blessed ones know their spiritual poverty, they mourn it, they become meek. Then they hunger and thirst, not after things, but after righteousness! What a change. Those who enter the kingdom become hungry for God! And they are satisfied!

And so it goes, we become merciful. We become pure in heart because as we seek the things of God. God bends and shapes our character until, we become peacemakers. And notice, peacemakers are called the sons of God because they exhibit so much of the character of God.

When we become Christ like, we become detestable to the world. You stop caring for every new gadget. Your eye stop roaming. You heart’s desire is no longer to be the top dog. You cease lusting after the newest and the best of everything. You will become so different from the rest of the world that they will start to make fun of you and even persecute you. It is then you realize just how bankrupt the world is. If they will make fun of you because you don’t wear the right brand of jeans or don’t drink with them, then you see just how empty and shallow they are. They may seek to harm you. No telling what the lost world might do if they see that you are a true follower of Jesus Christ. But when they do, you know that you have arrived because for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

I think it interesting that Jesus told his disciples this early. We are so ingrained with the world’s way of thinking that it takes a long time to learn differently. Jesus taught them early but it was years later before we recognize them as kingdom people. But, they did come to understand and they changed the world. We have the benefit of their testimony. We should not take so long. We who have started the journey with Christ should be changing our world as well.

The way of sinful, fallen humanity will leave us empty, hollow, and spiritually dead. With all the noise and the chatter we don’t know just how dead. But when the Master calls our name and we turn our heads in his direction, we see our utter failure and we know that until we turn to Christ we will never find the blessing we crave. But what is saddest of all is the one who is in the kingdom but can’t keep his or her eyes off the world. They are the ones who complain the most. Until you acknowledge your spiritual poverty, until you mourn how much your life violates God’s law, you cannot know what it means to be a disciple.

Being a disciple is our vocation. It is our lifelong pursuit. There is nothing more important than being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It will affect our family, our relationships, our church, everything.

Jesus came to each of his disciples and said, "come follow me." He still does that. If you are a Christian, Jesus was passing by one day and issued you the same invitation. It is a long journey from the Cross to the Glory of Heaven. But we are promised that God will lead us all the way. Our job is to be poor in spirit, to morn our sinfulness, to be meek and to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart and to be peacemakers. And when men persecute us, let us be found faithful.

Jesus still walks by and calls out disciples. Today, he walks among us. Is he calling you?