Transcript - Scripture Unpacked

Presentation 14
Presentation 14
Introduction
St. Valentine’s day captures the imagination of
many. Large red hearts on cards keep popping up
all over the place. Young children appear able to
manufacture them as quickly as their recipients can
read them. Of course it is fairly easy to make or send
a card. And a great deal of pleasure can be derived
from hiding behind its anonymity as young people
ask, ‘Will they guess that I find them attractive?’
God does not need to guess how committed our
hearts are to him. He does not have to wait until
we send him a card. Our heart is our card and
God regularly reads it to see what we have to say.
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
This sixth beatitude draws us into what is most
basic to the gospel - the condition of a
person’s heart before God. It distinguishes the
great difference that exists between being
religious and being a Christian. Religion is
concerned with externals, but Christianity is
concerned with the condition of the heart.
In Jesus’ day, this issue lay behind a great deal
of the controversy that raged between Jesus
and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were
obsessed with what was outward and
ceremonial.
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
In Matt. 23v25-28 we read:
"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 selfindulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then
the outside also will be clean.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed
tombs, which look beautiful on the outside
but on the inside are full of dead men's bones
and everything unclean. In the same way, on
the outside you appear to people as righteous
but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy
and wickedness.”
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
According to orthodox Jewish practice a man
could entertain thoughts of arrogance, pride,
bitterness, hatred and lust in his heart and yet
consider himself pure if outwardly his religious
practice was beyond reproach. Jesus’ response to
such individuals was that they were living in cloud
cuckoo land, for God’s concern is with a man’s
heart and not with externals and that was a truth
which should not have been foreign to them.
In Ps. 24v3-4 we read;
“Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may
stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands
and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to
an idol or swear by what is false”.
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
When Jesus spoke of the heart he did not mean the sophisticated
pump responsible for circulating blood around our bodies. In
Scripture the heart refers to the seat of our personality, the
core of our being, and is made up of mind, will and emotion.
In drawing attention to the heart of man Jesus zooms in
on his most basic problem. Jesus says elsewhere;
“What comes out of a man is what makes him
'unclean'. For from within, out of men's hearts,
come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
All these evils come from inside and make
a man 'unclean'.” Mk. 7v20-23
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
Man’s most basic problem is that his mind, his
will and his emotions are all contaminated.
Man’s mind is clouded by sin and although he
may be able to grasp concepts such as the
theory of relativity, he is unable to think clearly
about God.
His will is stubbornly rebellious and he
adamantly refuses to submit to rightful
authority.
And his emotions are so self-orientated that
even when he professes love he is often
engaged in no more than self-indulgence.
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
Against such a background Jesus says, ‘Blessed
are the pure in heart’. The word ‘pure’ here
carries two meanings. The first idea is that
which has been ‘cleansed of defilement’.
The picture of the metal worker comes to mind
as he heats gold or silver ore in a great vat or
crucible causing the dross and impurities to rise
to the surface in order that they might be
removed. A pure heart is therefore a heart
which has been purged of its impurities of the
deceit and the wickedness which is part and
parcel of its nature.
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
Secondly, the word ‘pure’ carries the idea of
‘singleness’ lit. ‘to be without folds’, - lots of things
can be hidden behind folds. And so Jesus is
describing a sincere man, a transparent man. Not a
Jeckle and Hyde individual capable of living two
quite different and separate lives. It is possible fold
a tissue of lies around one’s life and play so many
different parts that we end up uncertain of our
identity. Purity of heart speaks of a transparency of
commitment cf. Ps. 24v 4-6. The impure heart is
not simply unclean and in need of cleansing, it is
undecided and in need of commitment. It reflects
the ‘double minded’ man of Jas. 1v8 who is
‘unstable in all his ways’.
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What Does Pure In Heart Mean?
The Danish theologian and philosopher Soren
Kierkegaard captured Jesus’ meaning in the title of
one of his books, ‘Purity of heart is to will one thing’.
So that to be pure in heart is to be transparently and
uncompromisingly dedicated to Christ.
A woman once asked her minister, “What do you
mean by complete consecration?" He answered by
handing her a blank piece of paper saying, "It means
signing this as it is, and turning it over to God to fill in
the details".
Commitment has to do with the pursuit of God
Himself. It is being drawn and pulled. It is becoming
what we were designed to be, what we truly are, and
doing what we were designed and meant to do.
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How Is A Pure Heart Acquired?
This leads on to the all important question,
‘How is a pure heart acquired?’ The question
has produced all sort of do-it-yourself clean up
programmes. The Hindu bathes in the river
Ganges in pursuit of purity, the Buddhist
strives for purity to gain a better reincarnation,
the Muslim keeps the feast of Ramadan and all
in pursuit of a pure heart.
In 1947 the new Muslim state of Pakistan, was
founded. Pakistan means, ‘land of the pure’. Its
founders hoped that given the right
environmental, social and religious conditions
they could produce a pure-hearted people.
The land has failed to live up to its name.
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How Is A Pure Heart Acquired?
From the C4th till the middle ages some,
within both the monastic movement and
other parts of the Christian church, pursued
inward purity of heart by the outward
flagellation of their bodies. They foolishly
and mistakenly thought that by lashing their
bodies with whips they could drive out
inward defilement.
These are just some of the ways in which
men from a variety of faith backgrounds
have pursued purity of heart but none of
them ever accomplished their objective by
these means.
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How Is A Pure Heart Acquired?
How does scripture answer the question, ‘How can I possess a pure
heart?’ It begins by stating that only God can create it:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean;
I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your
idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a
heart of flesh” Ezek. 36v25-26.
A clean heart is not something I can produce but only
something which God can create. God’s cleansing involves
a thorough housecleaning job on our minds and wills and
emotions. Not surprisingly a view of our inner defilement
can cause us to cry out with the Psalmist,
“Create in me a clean/pure heart” Ps.51v10.
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How Is A Pure Heart Acquired?
Many Christians grimace as they become increasingly
conscious of sin within. They say, ‘I cannot be a Christian
for I do not possess a pure heart.’ But Jesus does not
equate a pure heart with a sinless life. Evidence of a pure
heart is not sinlessness but a heart that has cast out the
love of sin. The pure in heart hates and abhors the things
which previously it had given house room to. It longs to
keep itself free from defilement.
Therefore it must confess and distance itself from sin as
soon as it becomes aware of it. It says with the Psalmist;
“Search me O God and know my heart, Try me and know
my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me”
Ps.139v23-24
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How Is A Pure Heart Acquired?
The aim of the pure in heart is holiness of life. It seeks to have the daily dust
of sin mentioned by Jesus in Jn. 13v10 washed from of its feet. The pure in
heart will also welcome the assistance of the piercing light of God’s Word
which is able to expose every trace of deception and duplicity within. It will
allow the Word of God to wash over its thinking, its will and emotions. It will
delight to meditate upon its truth and have those patterns of behaviour
which God requires revealed and reinforced.
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How Is A Pure Heart Acquired?
Being pure in heart also means letting nothing stand in
the way of your vision of Christ. We say, ‘He is a great
Saviour and Lord,’ and so he is but great things can be
completely obscured by little things, if a little thing is
brought close enough to our eyes. It is important for us
to realise that what matters is not how important a
thing is in itself but how closely we fix our gaze upon it.
“The disciple of Christ learns to be intolerant of
anything that might stand between his soul and
complete devotion to the Lord Jesus. He is ruthless
without being offensive, firm without being
discourteous. But he has one passion and one alone.
Everything else must be brought into captivity”.
WILLIAM McDONALD
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How Is A Pure Heart Acquired?
The pure in heart purify themselves by maintaining a healthy
expectation of Jesus’ return: “How great is the love the
Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children
of God! And that is what we are!… Dear friends, now we are
children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made
known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this
hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” 1Jn. 3v1-3
John says, fix your eyes on Jesus do not allow your gaze to
be distracted. This world has nothing to compare with him.
If we hold the world and its contents too near we no longer
see Christ and his glory clearly. When we allow the value of
this world grow out of all proportion, we compromise,
stumble and fall.
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Seeing God
Jesus teaches that the happiness associated with a
pure heart is seeing God. You may ask, ‘If God is
invisible, how can we see him?’ It is spiritual
perception that Jesus has in mind here. Cf. Heb.
11v27. “Moses.... by faith persevered because he
saw him who is invisible”. It is by faith that the
Christian perceives God.
First, God is seen as he responds to the Christian’s
prayer. As a result of person’s conversion the priorities
of their lives are turned upside down. Things they
once considered boring like prayer now become vitally
important as they begin to see God at work behind
the scenes arranging their personal histories.
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Seeing God
Secondly, the Christian begins to see God in
his creation as he has never before. This is
what the hymn writer had in mind when he
wrote:
Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green,
Something lives in every hue,
Christless eyes have never seen.
This new awareness of the creative power of
God is seen as he looks at the lives of other
Christians many of whom are ragged round
the edges, but nevertheless, he is able to
discern the grace of God at work in their lives.
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Seeing God
Like all of the other beatitudes the promise
associated with this one has both a present and
a future dimension associated with its
fulfilment. During the course of his life down
here the Christian is constantly aware that his
perception of God is limited and marred.
The apostle Paul describes this limitation quite
graphically in 1Cor. 13 as ‘looking at a poor
reflection in a mirror’. But all the time we are
being prepared for an audience the King of
Kings and then in glory we shall have such an
overwhelming awareness of God that the Bible
describes this as seeing God ‘face to face’.
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Conclusion
Are we possessors of this purity of heart? We are thinking both of the heart that
is cleansed from sin and committed to Christ. How large does Jesus loom on the
horizon of our daily lives? Jesus provides us with a simple test of the strength of
our Christian lives. How clearly do we see God in his glory? Do we see him as
clearly as we used to? Or has he become obscure and distant? Has the world
loomed larger than it ought before our eyes?
Have we maintained the sharpness of our
vision of him by a wholehearted
commitment to him? Valentine cards
are sometimes sent to trick or mislead
the unsuspecting recipient. God is not
misled. We cannot pull the wool
over his eyes. He reads our hearts!
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