Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Matthew 5:8

Summary
Jesus tells us that true happiness is found not in wealth, comfort, recognition, or even the best things this world can offer, but in seeing God. We were made for him, and nothing less can finally satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts. Yet Jesus also says that it is the pure in heart who will see God, confronting us with a problem we cannot solve on our own. The good news is that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Through his death, the barrier between sinful people and a holy God has been torn down. In Christ, God gives us clean hearts, draws us into his presence, and promises that one day we will see him face to face.

Discussion Questions

1. Read Matthew 5:8. What do you think Jesus means by being “pure in heart”?
2. Why is it significant that Jesus focuses on purity of the heart, rather than merely outward behavior?
3. Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” What does it mean to “see God”? How is this more than simply knowing facts about Him?
4. Why do you think seeing and knowing God is presented as the great reward of the Christian life?
5. What are some things our culture tells us will finally make us happy? Which of these are you most tempted to believe will satisfy you?
6. Read Ecclesiastes 3:11 and consider C. S. Lewis’s argument that desires nothing in this world can satisfy may point to another world. What does this tell us about the longings of the human heart?
7. What is the difference between being near spiritual things and actually experiencing the presence and beauty of God? How can someone confuse the two?
8. Exodus 33:20 says sinful human beings cannot see God and live. Why does our sin make the promise of Matthew 5:8 such a remarkable promise?
9. How does the tearing of the temple curtain at Jesus’ death in Matthew 27:51 help us understand how sinful people can come into the presence of a holy God?
10. What is the difference between trying to make yourself pure enough for God and asking God, like David, to “create in me a clean heart” (Psalm 51:10)?
11. Read 1 John 3:2–3. How should the hope that we will one day “see him as he is” affect the way we live now?
12. If you really believed that seeing God is the highest happiness available to you, what might change about the things you pursue, worry about, or pray for this week?

Quotes
“To see God is the highest honor and dignity to which the human nature can attain.”
– Jonathan Edwards, The Pure in Heart Blessed (Sermon)

“In America I saw the freest and most enlightened men, placed in the happiest circumstances which the world affords: it seemed to me as if a cloud habitually hung upon their brow, and I thought them serious and almost sad even in their pleasures.”
- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Vol 2, Part 2, Ch 8)

“But to see God is this.  It is to have an immediate, sensible, and certain understanding of God’s glorious excellency and love.” – Jonathan Edwards, The Pure in Heart Blessed (Sermon)

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”    - CS Lewis, Mere Christianity