Matthew 5: The Beatitudes Series

Jonathan Newlon

Uniontown Church of Christ

18 July 2020

Sermon on the Mount: Beatitudes

Introduction

One of the most famous passages in Scripture not only to the Christian, but also to the secular world, is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is also one of the most important passages in the New Testament. This passage spans three chapters in the book of Matthew. In it, we find the foundations of Christs teachings on which he builds throughout his ministry on earth. These teachings were not just for the people sitting on the mountainside with Him that day but were for all mankind. Over the coming weeks, we will be examining Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and see what Jesus has to say to us.

This morning, I want to start with the first section of the sermon on the mount known as the Beatitudes. We’ve talked about the Beatitudes before, but this morning I want to focus on one word that is used repeatedly throughout the Beatitudes. That word is “blessed.” Many groups have different ideas of what this word means. This morning I want to look at the world’s concept of blessed, how Jesus used the word here, and take a look at how we are blessed throughout the Beatitudes. (Read Matthew 5:3-12).

The Worlds Idea of What it Means to be Blessed

The world is a fickle place. They’re cynical about the Lord and about Biblical truths, but they want to be “blessed.” I once followed a story on twitter of a woman who made a lot of mistakes in her life. She was an atheist who was into getting high, getting drunk, and partying until the early hours of the morning every week. She was never married but had three kids. Because of her partying ways as well as her drug and alcohol abuse, her kids were taken away from her by the state and put into foster care. The next week she won $100 on a scratch-off ticket and posted a picture of herself with the ticket along with the hashtag “blessed.” She obviously has no idea what it means to be truly blessed.

The world is a crazy place when something like this occurs regularly. People have no clue what it means to be blessed by God. You see, the world has very different ideas about what it means to be blessed. They think blessings can only be measured by worldly possessions. They say that blessings aren’t from God but come from either good fortune or from your own hands.

The world thinks that things like money, fame, power, and other physical possessions are the true blessings. I was sitting in a gas station eating biscuits and gravy one morning. As I sat there, I watched a man come in with $100. He spent it all on lottery tickets. After scratching them and seeing that he’d won nothing, he took out another $100 and bought more. I think he ended up winning $15 total. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied, “just waiting to get blessed.” He quit talking to me when I told him that wasn’t going to happen with the Hoosier Lottery.

Just like this man sees the state of Indiana being the source of his “blessings,” so we see many others who think that they are the source of their own blessings. Some people try to work themselves to death in order to have the physical possessions they want but don’t really need. I know a man who works 2 full time jobs. He does this in order to afford a somewhat lavish lifestyle. He has a large house, fancy cars, and a big yard but he never gets to enjoy them. His wife and children hardly ever see him. He has all the things that the world considers blessings, but he is one of the most miserable men I’ve ever known.

Others think they can lie, cheat, and steal their way into blessings. How many times do we see a CEO of a company slash jobs and then get paid a very large bonus for all the money he’s saving? I remember when Delphi Electronics went bankrupt. Their accountants had been cooking the books for years and the Executives knew about it. It finally caught up to them. The company went bankrupt and they fired many people. They stole the pensions away from the men that worked for them for so many years to cover their debts. When it was all said and done, the executives who were in on the scheme each took multi-million-dollar bonuses to end the year. They were incredibly happy to ruin many lives in order to pad their own pockets. I’m sure these men consider themselves to be blessed but think about how they’re going to feel when they have to answer to God for their actions.