Who Goes to Heaven?

INTRODUCTION:

I want to begin this morning by acknowledging a fact that we all know. And that is that each one of us in this room have heard a lot of sermons, a lot of sermons. Most of us probably in this room have heard hundreds. And I think there's probably many in this room, I know I fall in this camp, who have heard thousands of sermons.

And so I ask myself with you, why am I listening to another sermon? And I think listening to sermons is a great thing. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing at all, but if I got to hear myself talk, then I got to motivate myself to listen to what it is I have to say. And the thing that motivates me this morning is this particular sermon isn't necessarily from me. This is a sermon that comes from Jesus.

This comes from his Sermon on the Mount, which is right at the beginning of Matthew chapter 5. And so it's not really me, although I know you're all going, aha, you can't fool us, pastor. It's still your sermon. It's not Jesus' sermon, but I want to tell you, any pastor who's up here trying to speak is just trying to get out of the way of whoever's speaking from this text. In this case, it's always all from Jesus, but this is a message that comes from a sermon that he spoke. And when I listen with those ears, I listen a little differently. And some things about this sermon are interesting that make me want to listen even more because this is the first sermon from the New Testament.

So, if you start in Matthew chapter one and you work your way through, the Sermon on the Mount is the first full sermon you'll ever get. The Son of God appeared on planet earth and what we have recorded through the Holy Spirit in scripture is the Sermon on the Mount. And I say, not only is Jesus speaking this sermon, but this is the first sermon. That should have some significance, shouldn't it?

Not only is this a sermon from Jesus in his first sermon, but we're just looking this morning at the first sentence of the first sermon. Now think of that. The first words that anybody ever says, including me, are important. It kind of introduces what you're about to say. It kind of sets the tone for what's going to be said. So the first sermon and the first words to me have a kind of significance to them. What is it that Jesus decided to say in the first sentence of the first sermon recorded in the New Testament? I'm interested by that. I hope you are too. But one last thing. Jesus answers probably the most important question that will ever exist—that is, who goes to heaven?

And that's really interesting that Jesus himself in his first sermon and his first sentence goes right after that question. So, I'm excited to look at that with you. I'm excited to hear Jesus answer. And that is what our text is for today. It's from Matthew chapter five, verse three. You can see that up on the screen. It's only one verse and I thought, I'm not going to have him saying for one verse, but one verse is still one verse. It's got power, it's got authority, and actually the truths that we're about to hear just pervade all of scripture.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

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