Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Beatitudes, Part 39 of 50

TEXT: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).

IDEA: Seeing God now is only a foretaste of seeing God in His future kingdom.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that we not only live for the “now,” but also in the “not yet.”

The sixth beatitude announces, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”
What do you think Jesus means when He says, “they shall see God.”

I. The writers of the Bible make it a point to say that God is invisible to men and women.

The psalmists aspired to see God’s face:

“This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek Your face” (Psalm 24:6).
“As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

Other  writers of Scripture say that this is impossible:

“No one has seen God at any time” (John 1:18a).
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
“ . . . He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power, Amen” (1 Timothy 6:15-16).

“Seeing God’s face” is reserved for the New Jerusalem:

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4).

II. Seeing God’s face is reserved for the future, but in some sense it is still true now.

Those who have experienced God’s mercy not only exhibit mercy to others but also purity of motives. We again see the cycle. The closer we get to God, the more we see ourselves, and the more we see ourselves, the more we sense our need of Him. We never stop being needy people. Isaiah had a vision of God and he saw his sin; Paul, after years of ministry, called himself the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

“Seeing God” is perceiving, understanding, and sensing His reality. The impure have no desire to see God , but one day those who are part of Christ’s kingdom are blessed because one day they will “see God.”