EPISODE 210 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 5 Part 3 " Catharsis"

Well, we are on episode 210. Well, welcome to Share the Word podcast as we continue to break down the Beatitudes in chapter 5. In this episode, Pastor Paul focuses on the verse regarding the pure of heart. What does it mean, and how do we cultivate a pure heart? Keep listening to find that out and more. Paul.

Matthew chapter 5, part 3. Catharsis. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew chapter 5, verse 8. People have become increasingly concerned about purity during my lifetime, and rightfully so. Almost daily, I see articles about contaminants in our food and drinks.

Almost every other week, we get an alert about lettuce or beef or broccoli or something is being recalled for dangerous levels of some harmful bacteria. The current head of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services is on a crusade over the potential dangers in what have been common medications and vaccines. In the courts, lawsuits have been waged and won because people have been poisoned or gotten cancer from exposure to everything from baby powder to weed killer. Hey, I don't even drink the water where I live because of the levels of heavy metals and nitrates in it from decades of industrial farming in my area. Almost everyone is concerned, and rightfully so, about what we breathe, what we eat, what we're exposed to, even what medical types tell us to inject into our bodies.

But there's one area of purity that not enough people are concerned about, and that is unfortunately the one Jesus was most concerned about when he said, Blessed are the pure in heart. To be sure we understand the sixth beatitude, we need to understand the meaning of its key words. In Hebrew psychology, the heart is the very center of person. In the Bible, heart is used as a term for the totality of our inner self, our emotions, our will, our thoughts, our intellect. When Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, he was saying, Blessed are those who are pure at the very center of their being. Is it possible for something to be appearing pure, so far as we can see, so far as we can sense, but in fact be very contaminated?

Of course, we know that's possible. In the same way, it's possible for a person to seem pretty pure, pretty righteous, but unbeknownst to others, inside be something very, very different. Jesus once said to a group of religious leaders and teachers gathered around him, dressed in spotless white robes, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You're a bunch of hypocrites. You're like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. How could he say such a thing?

Well, he was God, and he knew their hearts. It's a little scary, isn't it? We can fool most of the people most of the time, but the Bible says nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must answer. Hebrews chapter 4. We can present to people what we want them to see, but God knows who we really are, and he sees right into our hearts.

What is he looking for there? He's looking for purity. The person will be blessed in the place of God's favor who is pure in heart, Jesus said. This word pure here is the Greek word katharos. We get our terms catharsis and cathartic from it, which have to do with the process of purging ourselves of negative or repressed emotions. So that's pretty related because Jesus was talking about a catharsis of the heart, cleansing away the contaminants inside us, a spiritual catharsis, we could say, in pursuit of purity of heart.

There are two ways we have to look at this which are talked about in the New Testament. Let's label them, just to be clear. Let's call one positional and the other practical. Positional purity and practical purity. Jesus ran directly into conflict with the religious teachers of his day over the question of purity. The religion which dominated his culture at the time was, ostensibly, all about purity.

They called it cleanness and uncleanness, and they had scads of rules and laws about it. Cleanness meant to them pure in God's eyes. They had so many rules, in fact, that the average person on the street felt overwhelmed by them. They had rules for what animals a person could touch, what foods a person could eat, what fabrics a person could put on their clothing. You could not associate with other races of people without afterward ceremonially washing yourself. You had to refrain from sex at certain times and refrain from anything remotely resembling work on certain days.

Most of the rules about spiritual cleanness were rooted in the Old Testament law of Moses, although they added more and carried them much further. Their clashes with Jesus and his disciples were often because he objected to their emphasis on external rules to the neglect of the weightier issues of men's hearts. That's the zinger about there being whitewashed tombs. Listen, being pure in heart must never be confused with conformity to rules. Driving this point home later in this chapter, Jesus taught that not only was the act of adultery a grave sin, but also, if a man lusts after a woman not his wife, he's committed adultery with her in his heart already. Stealing is wrong, of course, he'd say, but if you covet something that's not yours, you've become a thief in your heart already.

If you hate someone, you've already murdered them in your heart. Sounds like hyperbole, but what he was stressing is that God is concerned about purity of heart, not just external conformity to laws and rules. The standard is not that you have to be better than the openly immoral, the loudly profane, the obviously crooked. No, he said, you have to be pure in heart. One of the big reasons the religious leaders of Israel had it out for Jesus was precisely because he taught that their highly developed and cherished religion built on rules and ceremonies could not make anyone's heart pure, make anyone righteous before God. I remember years ago seeing a Christian bumper sticker on cars that said, Jesus is the answer.

I don't know who was supplying those, but they were popping up everywhere in my town, and they were very popular with Christians for a while. Then, shortly afterwards, I noticed another one, a response bumper sticker, you could say, started it popping up, and it said, What is the question? Many people in our very secular society do not even get the question Jesus is the answer to. But people in Jesus' society, a thoroughly religious society, did understand the question. And they felt overwhelmed and incapable of keeping the rules the religious leaders told them were the answer to being pure and acceptable to God. Then Jesus came along and seemed to raise the bar even higher by teaching that even if you could live by all the Pharisees' rules and be outwardly, anyway, perfectly righteous, that was still not enough because God is looking for the pure in heart.

The question was, and still is, knowing what I know about myself, how in the world could I ever be acceptable to God? A pure heart? Man, if that's the standard, I am doomed. Nicodemus, who we thought about way back in chapter 3 of Gospel of John, was a Pharisee, a Jewish religious leader. He was an exception, though, among his kind. He was pretty convinced Jesus was really a messenger from God.

When he sought him out that night, he was looking for the answer to this dilemma. He knew, even he, a meticulous lawkeeper, a very religious man, was in trouble if what Jesus was teaching was true. It's funny because when you read that account in John chapter 3, Jesus didn't even wait for Nicodemus to pose his question. He already knew what Nicodemus wanted an answer to. How can I be really sure I'm acceptable to God, who knows me inside and out, who I cannot fool, who sees my heart? How can I be sure?

What's your answer, Jesus? The answer to that is you have to be born again, Jesus told him. There really is no way you can purify your own heart. A spiritual transformation has to take place, not something that happens from the outside in, but a transformation of your heart through God's power. We are like a person whose physical heart is so diseased that the only hope is a heart transplant, a new heart, a different heart. Just doing some new exercises or cutting junk food out of our diet is not going to do it.

In the same way, Jesus told Nicodemus he needed a spiritual heart transplant because at his core, he was diseased by sin like the rest of us. If we think our hearts can become pure in God's eyes by doing our best to keep the rules or by participating in religious ceremonies, we're making the same tragic mistake the Pharisees made. No one will ever be pure under the holy gaze of God to whom we must answer if we could. Jesus did not need to come out of heaven if we could. He did not need to die for us if we could. He came to rescue us because we cannot save ourselves.

He came to, here's a big word, expiate our sin, to completely cleanse it away. That was the entire purpose of his atonement on the cross. He literally took the guilt of our sins on himself, suffered the penalty they deserve under the judgment of God so that they could be completely done away with. We can only have our hearts made new by being born again, as Jesus told Nicodemus, by a regenerative work of God's Holy Spirit inside of us. When we come to God in faith, asking him to apply what Jesus did on the cross to our account, that's believing into Jesus, believing into him as our Savior. If you sincerely come to God in repentance and faith, asking for forgiveness and a new heart based on what Jesus did for you, God will answer that prayer.

That simple but profound act of faith triggers a spiritual catharsis within us and changes forever the way God looks at us. Because I have come back to Him the way He has made possible through faith in Christ, God sees me now as righteous, spiritually a new person. He sees my heart as pure, not because I'll never sin again, but because He will forever after that decision see me as in Christ. He sees me now with Jesus' righteousness applied to me. That, that is what I am calling positional purity. And if that is a decision you have made in sincere faith, that is your position before God now, too.

But let's turn now for a few minutes to the question of practical purity. Once I've received Jesus as my Savior, turned my life toward following Him, I've been born again, as you say, what now? Many times, and in many ways, the New Testament answers the question. For example, 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 1 says, Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of the reverence for God. Since God has given me a new heart because I've received Christ, I belong to Him, I need to strive to live up to that positional purity. I need to become really pure so far as I can.

That's what the Apostle Paul was urging his readers to do, to actually shoot for now actual practical purity. To do anything less is to demonstrate repentance was not real. We would be like a pig that has been washed, just returning to wallow in the mud, or like a dog returning to its vomit. Sorry for those analogies, but those are actually the ones made by the Apostle Peter. A person who has been born again and experienced God's saving grace in their lives is going to have a changed attitude toward sin because they've been given a new heart by God. They are going to want to live up to the way God has graciously decided to see them.

To pursue becoming, in fact, not just outwardly, but in their heart as well, a person God has exalted to the position of being His son or daughter. Does that make sense? Let me give you some quick suggestions about practical purity. First, there certainly will continue to be a battle in your mind and with your flesh, that is your old nature. So you need to make a decision daily. What decision?

The one the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. He pictures it as laying all of your life on an altar before God, presenting all of yourself to Him as a, his words, living sacrifice. James adds, We can't be double-minded about this either. Being double-minded, having a divided heart, is the very opposite of being pure in heart. You have to decide your singular goal now is to please God. Life gets simpler when you clarify your goals.

In fact, begin each day with that decision. Today, Lord, is my highest goal to please You. I'm once again laying my life on the altar because I belong to You now. I want to please You now in everything I do, everything I say today. Empower me through Your Holy Spirit to do this. That exercise, that daily prayer, will heighten your spiritual consciousness.

It's a reminder that God sees not only everything I do and say, but even everything I think about. The question, What would Jesus do? becomes the guiding principle of my life. So begin with this life-altering decision. I don't want to double-minded. My highest goal is to live a life pleasing to God now.

I want to actually strive to be pure in heart. Next, realize this: you won't do it perfectly. If, when you fall short, keep short accounts with God. If you goof up, face up to it, own up to it, and seek to make it right. The Bible says, If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's 1 John chapter 1, verse 9.

Every time we own up to our sin and repent, God will cleanse us. Jesus is actually our advocate in heaven right now, pleading our cause. He's there saying to the Father, Yes, he fouled up again, but he belongs to us, and my blood has already paid for his sin. Isn't it great to know that Jesus is on our side? We will fall down. We don't wallow in the mud, though.

We get up, and Christ will wash us clean. If we do not keep short accounts with God, then we begin to develop a hardened heart, a defiled conscience. That's when we begin to feel ugly inside and lose the joy of what it means to be a child of God. So keep short accounts with God. Third, realize that each of us has strongholds. By that I mean areas of sin that have a particular stronghold on us, where we are more susceptible to falling back into wrong patterns.

Romans chapter 13, verse 14 says we should put on the Lord Jesus Christ and not make provision for our flesh, that is, our old sin nature, to fulfill its desires. We should not make it easy for ourselves to sin, to fall back. You know the areas that you're most prone to to fall back. I know mine. Don't make it easy for yourself to do that. Make it as hard as you can.

Set up barriers, boundaries for yourself. Sometimes when we're tempted to do wrong, if we've set up some barriers, we lessen the likelihood that we will take Satan's bait. The delay gives us time to think, gives us time to pray, time to think about the consequences, maybe time to talk to somebody else. And every time we beat a temptation, we gain a little more of an upper hand in the battle for spiritual purity. Sin loses a little more of its grip on us, but it's a process. Fourth, in conjunction with that, if you're humble enough and wise enough, you will let a couple other people you trust know your struggles.

This is hard to do, but it's extremely helpful. If we try and struggle with the hard stuff alone, we will probably fail. When we try and keep our weaknesses in the dark and pretend we have it all together, we are setting ourselves up for failure. The Bible says we need to walk in the light. It says we need to confess our faults to one another, and it says two are better than one because when one of them falls, he has a friend to pick him up. I'm talking here about accountability to someone.

There needs to be one or two close Christian friends in our lives who understand our struggles and with whom we are transparent. Do you have people in your life like that? If not, you're ignoring a great asset in becoming who you could be. My last suggestion, and do not minimize this one, is to memorize and meditate on passages of Scripture that speak directly to your struggles. Engrafting the Word of God into our minds is a powerful way to change our thinking. It renews our minds.

It exposes the lies because the Word of God is the truth. We need to tell ourselves the truth, and over and over and over again until it begins to control the way we see things, the way we think, and the way we respond to things. Remember Psalm 119, which says, Thy word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. As we saw just a couple chapters ago, even when Jesus was tempted repeatedly, he responded with the truth of Scripture. It's a powerful weapon we have to beat back the enemy, so be sure to take advantage of it. No matter what you struggle with, there are truths and promises in God's Word that address your issues.

Find them. Get help to find them if you need it. In fact, these days you can use the Googler. Try asking, I'm struggling with anger, or I'm struggling with jealousy, or lust, or whatever it is. What are the best Bible verses that address this problem? Try that.

I did. It works. You'll be surprised what it comes up with. Then, when you see all these passages that address exactly the problem you're concerned about, learn them and meditate on them, and call them out when temptations arise, just as Jesus did. It is written. These are my suggestions to achieve more practical purity.

Make a firm decision that a pure heart before God is your goal. If you mess up, keep short accounts with God. Don't let your conscience get defiled. Set up barriers in your life that make it hard, not easy, to fall back in the areas you are weak. Utilize accountability. Don't struggle with strongholds alone.

And finally, take full advantage of the power in God's Word by memorizing, meditating on, and using passages that speak directly to your struggles. Remember, purity of heart is not just conformity to rules. Pretending to be clean and right on the outside when we know we are not inside is not faking out God. It's a prescription for misery, actually, if you're a Christian. Our goal should be to make the outside and the inside match as far as possible, to a little more every day perfectly become what God has already declared us to be in Christ, that is, pure, righteous, and holy. When Jesus says, Only the pure in heart will see God, that certainly means only those who have had their hearts cleansed through faith in Him and are in right position with God because of Jesus' righteousness having been applied to them.

Only these people will see God in heaven one day. But let me suggest that it may mean more than that. It may mean that only those who are striving to become pure in heart practically, to walk as Jesus walked, will see the reality of God in their lives now, will see God at work in their lives now. So if you have been made pure in God's eyes through faith in Christ, make your heavenly Father happy by actually striving to be pure each day. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This is Paul for Share the Word.

Thanks, Paul. I love the help tips or suggestions Pastor Paul makes about practical purity. If you missed them, I strongly suggest you go back to around the 13-minute mark and listen to them again. No, don't just listen. Write them down and incorporate them into your life. And here's my challenge: go through and figure out what you're struggling with—anger, anxiety, pride, lust, whatever it is—pinpoint it and look up five verses that speak to that specific issue and memorize them.

Let me get you started. If anxiety is an issue for you, Philippians 4, verse 6 and 7 says, Do not be anxious about anything, but pray and present your requests to God. 1 Peter 5, verse 7 says, Cast all your anxieties on Him. There are so many more that you can draw from. The more verses you have memorized, the better equipped you'll be for that spiritual battle. Don't fill your heart with the nonsense of this world.

Rather, fill your heart with the Word of God. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.