Blessed! What Does It Really Mean? Dws#5 Series

*******SERMON OUTLINE*******

Blessed! What Does It Really Mean?

Intro...

How many blessed people are in here tonight?

I know that we all say we’re blessed and highly

favored of the Lord,

But do we really know what it means to be

blessed?

Tonight I want to look at two entirely different

Greek words for Blessed,

So that we can gain a full understanding of

what it truly means for us to be blessed.

I. Blessed in the Beatitudes...

A.

Luk 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

Luk 6:21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.

The Greek word in the beatitudes that is

translated blessed is Makarios.

Some scholars, including John Wesley

translate this word happy,

But they lose it’s full definition in that

translation.

See not only can Makarios be used to explain

the overwhelming joy or happiness which

becomes man because of what Christ has done

for us,

But it has other more relevant uses.

Aristotle along with others used Makarios to

describe the sanctity of the Gods,

And also to describe the God like blessedness

of men who had gone on to the Isles of the

Blessed.

The word Makarios denotes the quality of deity.

God is Makarios.

In 1Ti 1:11 Paul talks about the glorious

gospel of the blessed God...

God is also something that no one else is.

He’s God!

So even though we can’t become God we can

inherit some of His qualities.

Holy, Loving, Blessed......

The two-fold meaning of Blessed

1) Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.

The Lord said blessed are ye...for My sake.

Because of who He is and what He has done...

You become blessed which means fortunate

and happy by extension.

By extension means it wasn’t your blessedness

or happiness it is the blessing of the Lord, or

the Joy of the Lord so to speak.

2. In Luk 1:48 For3754 he hath regarded1914 the3588 low estate5014 of his848 handmaiden:1399 for,1063 behold,2400 from575 henceforth3568 all3956 generations1074 shall call me blessed.3106, 3165

The word translated shall call me blessed is

Makarizo. (VERB)

And what this scripture literally implies,

What Mary was actually saying in the Greek is

that

"People will recognize her blessedness because

she was indwelt by God in the person of the

Son she bore.

B.

So to be blessed means to literally be indwelt

by God because of what Jesus has done for us.

There can be no blessedness without Christ

indwelling man. Amen?

No man who is not saved in and through

Christ can be blessed.

But those who are blessed in the sense of being

saved and indwelt by God are fully satisfied.

C.

If you look back in the beatitudes you’ll see

that Those who were blessed had to sacrifice

material things in order to be blessed. Amen.

They did without the material or the temporal

satisfaction so that they might be satisfied

eternally by the God who is able...

See, material things can never satisfy the way

that Christ can. Amen?

Sure they can make you happy but they don’t

make you blessed.

These days it’s hard to tell the makarios people

from the happy people.

See you can be temporarily happy whether you

are a believer or a non believer.

But you have to be indwelt by God because of

Christ in order to be blessed.

People think they are blessed just because

they’re happy and that’s not true.

Jesus never said that he came to make all our

circumstances happy and joyful ones...

He said that He would change the way we felt

about our circumstances.

In tribulation be of good cheer.

Jas 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure.

The word makarizo should be translated we

bless them who endure.

Not just because they endure but because they

are able to endure because they are indwelt by

God.

II. The Second And Most Common Word For Blessed (Eph 1:3)...

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

The word translated blessed here is not

makarios.

It is a word comes from eu, which means good

or well,

and the word lego, which means to speak.