HOW TO BE HAPPY
John Stevenson
I
was in the bookstore the other day and I noticed a title. It has become increasingly popular as a
title. Perhaps you’ve seen it. It was called, “The Idiot’s Guide to...”
There
is something about that title that appeals to me. Some of you would say, “Well, that fits your
intellectual makeup. And perhaps it
does. Or perhaps imbedded in that title
is a promise of simplicity. No
frills. Just give me what I need to know
in a way in which I can understand it.”
The
Bible contains that kind of simplicity.
And it tells us how to live our lives for the best possible
results. In this chapter I would like to
explore the question of how to be happy.
After all, Jesus talked about that.
And He made it the opening section of His most famous sermon ever
preached. Let’s look at it.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be
comforted.
“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the
earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive
mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called
sons of God.
“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the
sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute
you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is
great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Matthew 5:1-12).
The
first thing that you need to know is that the word “blessed” can be translated
“happy” (the New American Standard gives it this translation in Romans
1. HAPPINESS COMES WHEN YOU COME TO TERMS WITH YOUR SPIRITUAL
POVERTY.
“Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3).
What does it mean to be “poor
in spirit”? That is a quality of which
we do not speak. But if you take the
words apart, it is really very simple to understand.
We know all about
poverty. That is when you don’t have
something. That is the lower end of the
“have’s” and the “have nots.” Of course, we know that poverty can be a bit
relative. When I say that, I’m not
speaking of family relatives: “Where there’s a will, there’s a relative”. I’m referring to the truth that not all
poverty is created equal. I saw that
when Tom and I traveled to
The Greek language has a word
to distinguish between the two types of poverty. In Greek, you can speak of someone who is
poor and they have no money for any extra things. Or you can speak of someone who is completely
impoverished and who is without even the basic necessities. It is the second type of poverty that Jesus
describes in this verse.
Happy is the one who is not
merely spiritually lower middle class.
Rather happy are those who are spiritually bankrupt and destitute.
This goes beyond all normal
reason. Why would Jesus say such a
thing? Because it is only when you come
to terms with the fact that you are spiritually bankrupt that you can even be
saved. It is only then that God gives to
you all of the riches that are in Christ Jesus.
On what are you depending for
your salvation? If you were to stand
before God this morning and He were to ask you why you should be allowed into
heaven, to what would you point? If your
answer was to have anything to do with your own goodness and spiritual worth,
then you are lost. The only one who ever
gets to heaven is the one who realizes that he doesn’t deserve to be
there. Christ didn’t come to save good
people. He came to save the lost. And you can only find His true happiness and
blessings when you come to understand that you are spiritually impoverished.
Jesus is saying, “Happy is the
man who is spiritually destitute, who has to come and plead for mercy, because
it is that kind of man who enters the kingdom of heaven.”
You will never enter the kingdom
of heaven unless you have a sense of your own spiritual bankruptcy. You will never become a citizen of the
kingdom unless you realize that you are unworthy. The kingdom is not for the
self-sufficient. They have no reason to
trust in Christ. God does not save the
self-sufficient. He only saves those who
have found their sufficiency in Christ.
God is looking for people who
are poor in spirit. He seeks to bring
forth this quality in our lives. A
broken spirit is a spirit that He can use.
This process is not very
pleasant. It is often painful. We cry out, “Why is the Lord putting me
through this?” The answer is that God is
preparing us. He is making us to be
poor in spirit.
God is doing a work in you. He is at work within you, bringing to the
place where you will recognize your spiritual poverty. And when you come to that point, then you
have become someone whom He can use.
The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
Thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:17).
What happens when you experience such a broken spirit
and such a contrite heart? At such a
time, you mourn over your lost condition.
That brings us to our next point...
2. HAPPINESS COMES WHEN YOU MOURN OVER YOUR LOST CONDITION.
“Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4).
Notice the tense of this
verse. It is present tense. It doesn’t say: “Blessed are those who use to
mourn but are now over it.” No. It says, “Happy is the one who is mourning
now, for he will find comfort.”
What kind of mourning is
this? I want to suggest that this
describes the one who is mourning over his spiritual condition. These two verses go together.
Verse
3 describes the one who recognizes his spiritual poverty |
® |
Because
of his spiritual poverty, he now mourns |
This is not the sorrow of the world. The sorrow of the world is usually sorry only
about getting caught. The world says, “I
didn’t do anything wrong and I promise never to do it again.” This is a godly sorrow that brings about
repentance.
For
the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without
regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces regret. (2
Corinthians 7:10).
The sorrow of the world produces death. This is illustrated in the case of Judas
Iscariot. He betrayed the Lord and then
became sorry for his sin. But it was not
a sorrow that produced repentance. It
was not a sorrow that brought him back to God.
Instead it drove him to commit suicide.
Godly sorrow is a sorrow over sin that brings us to
the point where we turn to God and accept His forgiveness. This is a sorrow that brings life. And as a result, we find comfort in the arms
of a Savior.
I love the story of the Prodigal Son. You know the story. He went from the love of a father to the
stench of a pigsty. An inheritance
squandered. A life wasted. Forlorn and dejected. And then he resolved to return home. We read about the speech he had
prepared. He would recount his own
unworthiness. He would offer to take the
position of a humble servant. He would
make amends. He must have recited that
speech a hundred times on the road home.
He never got a chance to use it. His father was waiting and watching and came
running to meet him. Before he could say
a word, the father’s arms were around him.
Loving. Forgiving. Comforting.
Those arms were never stretched so wide as they were
on the cross. They were stretched for
us. Saving. Loving.
Forgiving. Comforting. Welcoming us home.
You see, the Christian is one who mourns over his lost
condition. But he doesn’t remain in that
attitude of mourning. Sorrow is turned
to joy in the light of forgiveness. And
the result is described by Jesus as happiness.
3. HAPPINESS COMES IN THE GENTLENESS OF UNDESERVEDNESS.
“Blessed are the gentle, for
they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5).
The first two qualities deal with how we see ourselves
and in how we approach God. This one is
more involved with how we deal with others.
What is it to be gentle? It is not a quality that we generally
uphold. We live in the age of the macho,
the strong, the daring. It is not a new phenomenon. The Jews who lived in Jesus’s
day were looking for a Messiah who would liberate them from the
Say
to the daughter of Zion, “Behold your king is coming to you, GENTLE, and
mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” (Matthew
21:5).
Jesus did not ride into
And then He was arrested and dragged before the
Sanhedrin and later before Pilate. He
was falsely accused, mocked, beaten and humiliated. Yet through it all, He did nothing to protect
Himself. Does this mean that He was
cowardly or weak? Not at all! This was the same man who went into the
This is gentleness.
Never mistake gentleness with weakness.
Gentleness stands up boldly to defend the cause of the Lord, but it
suffers in silence when the attack is against self. That is because gentleness is more concerned
with the welfare of others than it is with the welfare of self.
Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus? Then be gentle. It is the gentle who will inherit the
earth. They don’t have the earth right
now. It is the strong who have the earth
right now. But there is coming a day
when it will be taken from the proud and the strong and it will be given to the
gentle. You might ask, “How are the
gentle going to manage that?” They
won’t. It will be the Lord who
accomplishes this.
Rest
in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers
in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
Cease
from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret, it leads only to evildoing.
For
evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit
the land.
Yet a
little while and the wicked men will be no more; and you will look carefully
for his place, and he will not be there.
But
the humble will inherit the land, and will delight themselves in abundant
prosperity. (Psalm 37:7-11).
When you see the ungodly committing his evil, there is
the temptation to become angry and to seek revenge, especially when that evil
is directed against you. But we are to
be gentle. We are to leave our anger
behind. We are not to envy those who
have wronged us or to seek revenge.
What makes us gentle?
It is when we realize that we are undeserving. It is when we realize that we do not have to
stand up for our rights because we have no rights. It is when we realize that God had been so
very gentle and gracious with us.
4. HAPPINESS COMES IN WANTING RIGHTEOUSNESS.
“Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6).
Notice what this passage does NOT say. It does not say, blessed is the man who IS
righteous. That is the way that the
Pharisees would have worded it. The
Pharisees taught that it would make you happy to BE righteous. Their entire religious system was centered
around becoming righteous by doing good works and abstaining from bad works.
But Jesus didn’t say that. He said, “Happy is the man who hungers and
thirsts for the righteousness that he doesn’t have.” It is only the one who realizes that his own
righteousness is lacking who has reckoned to him the righteousness of another.
This is the doctrine of justification. It can be summed up in three points.
(1) God is righteous.
(2) God demands righteousness.
(3) God freely provides in Christ what He
demands.
If you have come in faith to Jesus, trusting Him alone
as your Lord and as your Savior, then something wonderful has taken place.
Your sins were credited to Jesus upon the cross. He was judged as a guilty sinner. This does not mean that He began to sin, but
rather He was credited with your sins.
God looked upon Him and judged Him in your place.
But that is not all.
That is only the beginning of justification. The other part is that the righteousness of
Jesus was credited to you. That does not
mean that you actually became righteous any more than that He became a
sinner. But you have been reckoned with
and credited with the very righteousness of Jesus. God looks upon you and judges you as though
you had the very character of Christ.
And on the basis of that judgment, God makes a
declaration about you. He says, “You are
hereby RIGHTEOUS.”
We have already mentioned the story of the prodigal
son. When he was hungry, he went to the
pigs, but when he was starving, he went to the Father. This is the question that you face; how
hungry are you?
5. HAPPINESS COMES IN MERCY.
“Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7).
Mercy is part and parcel with
forgiveness. Forgiven people
forgive. And people who have been shown
mercy are themselves merciful.
Jesus told the story of a man
who was in great debt. His debt was
equal to the entire national debt.
Insurmountable. Without hope of
ever paying it off. They didn’t have the
same bankruptcy laws back then. To go
bankrupt meant losing everything - even your wife and children. Even your own freedom.
And to make matters worse,
this man was in debt to the king. He was
in debt to one who could force the issue.
One day he was called to
account. He went before the king. And much to his surprise, the king issued him
a royal pardon. Debt free! The debt was forgiven. A great weight was lifted off his
shoulders. Release. He walked out with a new spring in his
step. Life was wonderful! A new beginning.
But who should he run into but Amos. And that reminded him of something. Amos owed him money. Quite a long time ago, Amos had borrowed $26.41
from him and hadn’t paid it back.
“Where is my money?
What do you mean that you don’t have it on you? We’ll just see about that! I’ve learned all of the in’s
and out’s about the judicial system and I know the right strings to pull. Off you go now and just see if anyone will be
able to do anything about it!”
“What’s that?
The King? I should have forgiven
Amos in the same way I was forgiven?”
For
if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men, then your
Father will not forgive your transgressions. (Matthew 6:14-15).
This could not be any clearer. The way in which you forgive others is in
direct proportion to the way in which you will be forgiven.
Forgiven people forgive. And people who have been shown mercy are
themselves merciful.
You might be thinking, “But John, I haven’t always
shown mercy toward others. What should I
do?” You go to the Lord and seek His
forgiveness. And then you resolve that
you will forgive that one who has wronged you and that you will be merciful,
even as you have been shown mercy.
6. HAPPINESS COMES IN A PURE HEART.
“Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8).
God is invisible.
That means He is unseeable. When we speak of “seeing God” we are speaking
of finding ourselves in His manifested presence. Moses wanted to see God.
Then
Moses said, “I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!” 19 And He said, “I Myself will
make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before
you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show
compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
But
He said, “You cannot see My face, for NO MAN CAN SEE ME AND LIVE.” (Exodus
33:18-20).
Not even Moses was permitted to see the face of
God. The Lord closed him up in a cleft
of the rock and passed by and Moses was permitted just a glimpse of the
afterglow of God. Moses could not see
God. But we are told here that those who
are pure in heart shall see the Lord.
There is coming a day when we shall see the unseeable.
Beloved,
now we are the children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall
be. We know that, when He appears, we
shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him
purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:2-3).
We have been rendered pure through the death of
Christ. His sacrifice did what all of
the ritual washings of the religions of the world could never do. We have been purified. And now, because we have been purified, we
seek to purify ourselves.
Is this a contradiction? Not at all.
We have already been purified in a LEGAL sense. We have entered into union with Christ
through faith and so we have been given a new identity. When God looks at us, it is as though He were
looking at Christ.
But I am not like Christ in my condition. I still wrestle with the problem of sin. Therefore God is working in my life to make
me like Christ. I am being purified on a
day by day basis. I am working out the
truth of my salvation as it is God who works in me both to work and to will.
But one of these days that will all change. There will come a day when that process will
be completed. It will be on that day
that I shall see God.
I used to go before the Lord and I used to pray the
prayer that Moses prayed, “Lord show me Your glory!”
And the Lord answers, “You’re not ready yet. But you wait and you abide in Me as the
character of My Son is formed in you.
You’re not ready yet, but you will be.”
7. HAPPINESS COMES IN MAKING PEACE.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9).
The presence of a peacemaker denotes the need for a
peacemaker. You only need a peacemaker
when there is a threat of war.
I understand that there is a gun which is called by
this name - a Peacemaker.
It allows the beneficiary of the bullet to rest in
peace. Someone described peace as that
fleeting instant when everyone stops to reload.
That is peace on the world’s terms.
But we are speaking here of the spiritual. A peacemaker is one who bring peace between
men and God. We have such a ministry of
peacemaking - a ministry of reconciliation.
Now
all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself though Christ, and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Namely,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating though us; we beg
you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
We have a high and lofty position. We have been appointed to the position of
ambassador of Christ. It is our job to
represent the Lord here upon earth. We
are no longer citizens of the world. Our
citizenship is in the
These two realms are at war. There is open warfare between the kingdom of
the world and the kingdom of heaven. We
don’t fight this war with physical weapons, or even at the election
booths. The weapons of our warfare are
spiritual in nature.
The
breastplate of righteousness
The
shield of faith
The
gospel of peace
The
helmet of salvation
The
sword of God’s Word
And our military objective is nothing less than the
salvation of men’s souls.
The world attempts all sorts of strategies for
peace. But true peace comes through
being poor in spirit and from mourning over sins and from having a gentle and
forgiving spirit and from hungering and thirsting for righteousness and from
being pure in heart.
8. HAPPINESS COMES IN BEING PERSECUTED FOR THE RIGHT REASON.
“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake
of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when
people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great;
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew
5:10-12).
Notice how we move from peace to persecution. The response of the world to the gospel of
peace will be open warfare. As a result,
the Christian is both a peacemaker as well as a troublemaker.
This is not inconsistent. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, said that
the result of His ministry would be contention and division.
“Do
not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring
peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter
against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of
his household.” (Matthew 10:34-36).
Christianity has divided families. It has separated parents from children. It has resulted in the most intense
persecutions.
Why is this? I
think that it is because the Christian who is filled with the Spirit is
manifesting righteousness before an unrighteous world.
You see, the world likes to think that it really is
not all that bad. It has adopted a
standard of relative righteousness. It
grades itself on the curve. It says that
as long as you are not too bad then your sins do not matter. When it finds itself involved in certain
sins, it merely redefines sin so that it will remain acceptable to its own
standards.
But the Bible never lowers the standard of
righteousness. God sets the
standard. He IS the standard of His own
demands. And the Christian is one who
accepts God’s standards, who recognizes that he can never meet them in himself
and who trusts in Jesus Christ as a Savior who met the standard in our place.
The world and its false set of standards is condemned
by this. Faced with condemnation over
its sinful condition, it can do one of two things:
(1) Repent and turn to the Lord for
forgiveness.
(2) Reject God’s truth and try to deny it
and to destroy it.
The history of the church is a history of
persecution. Sometimes that persecution
is verbal or social and sometimes it goes to the point of shedding blood. But whatever the form, there will be
persecution.
Beloved,
do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among, you, which comes upon you for
your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but
to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so
that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.
If
you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed [happy], because
the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:12-14).
Notice what is said in verse 14. You can be happy [makarios]
when you are persecuted for the sake of Christ.
Why does this make you happy?
Because this is one of the evidences that the Spirit of glory and of God
rests upon you.
Blessed [happy] is the man who perseveres under trial,
for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the
Lord has promised to those who love Him (James
What is the crown of life? You might be thinking that it sounds a lot
like a reference to eternal life. And
you would be correct.
Do you want the crown of life? The way is difficult. It involves seeing yourself as God sees
you. It involves recognizing your
spiritual poverty. And mourning over
your sins. And coming to terms with your
undeservedness.
And hungering and thirsting for the righteousness that only God can
provide. And in partaking of the mercy
of God. And in seeking the purity of
Christ. And when you do that, you cannot
help but to share with others the gospel of peace. And that will result in persecution.
We’ve
been looking at the various ways in which happiness comes. But we could sum it all up in one single
statement. Happiness comes in
Christ. He is the answer to your soul’s
desire.
I
like the bumper sticker that says, “Jesus is the answer, but what is the
question?” The truth is that it doesn’t
matter what is the question. He is the
answer to all of the major questions of life.
A rather vain student went to his professor and asked
him a very technical theological question.
The professor thought for a moment and then replied, “Jesus is the
answer to your question!” “Jesus!”
exclaimed the student. “What kind of
answer is that? That doesn’t answer my
question at all!”
“That,” answer the professor, “ is because you are
asking the wrong question.”
Do
you know Him? If you don’t then maybe it
is because you’ve been asking the wrong question. Until you do come to know Him, you will never
know true and lasting happiness. The
delight of deliverance. The romance of
the redeemed. The song of
salvation. And the happiness of the
holy.