Finding True Blessedness (Part 1) Series

I have entitled our message this morning, “Finding True Blessedness (Part 1).” The words of Jesus seen in our passage today are called “The Beatitudes,” and this does not mean “beautiful attitudes,” even though this phrase might have catchy ring. “The Beatitudes are blessed sayings.”(1) “The word ‘beatitude’ comes from the Latin beatitudo, meaning ‘blessedness.’ The phrase ‘blessed are’ [seen] in each beatitude implies a current state of happiness or well-being. This expression held a powerful meaning of ‘divine joy and perfect happiness’ to the people of Christ’s day. In other words, Jesus was saying ‘divinely happy and fortunate are those who possess these inward qualities’.”(2)

The Greek word seen in our passage for “blessed” (makarioi) means “happy,” which in English can be traced back to “hap,” which means “chance” and “good-luck.”(3) However, A. T. Robertson says that “blessedness, is of course, an infinitely higher and better thing than mere happiness.”(4) William Barclay adds that in the Christian faith we have “a divine and godlike joy,” and that the word “blessed” (makarios) in this passage “describes that joy which has its secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable and self-contained, that joy which is completely independent of all the chances and changes of life.”(5) So, as we encounter the word “blessed” in our passage, we will understand it as meaning “joyful.”

“The Beatitudes” are jam-packed with spiritual insight and need to be examined in great depth; and so, we are going to tackle Jesus’ message by doing a verse-by-verse exposition. In “Finding True Blessedness (Part 1),” we are going to be looking specifically at Matthew 5:1-6. So, let us go ahead and get started with verses 1-2.

The Sermon on the Mount (vv. 1-2)

1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

Beginning in verse 1, we are told that “He went up on a mountain.” The mountain is not identified, but it is probably a reference to a place west of the sea of Galilee in the vicinity of Capernaum.(6) The suspected location is based on Matthew chapter 8, in which we read, “When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him” (v. 1), and “Jesus had entered Capernaum” (v. 5). Verse 1 also says that Jesus was seated with His disciples. According to Luke 6:17, they were seated “on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem.” In verse 2, we read that Jesus “opened His mouth and taught them.” Because Jesus was teaching on a mountain, His entire discourse, which comprises three whole chapters (Matthew 5-7), is known as “The Sermon on the Mount.”

In the gospel of Luke, “The Sermon on the Mount” follows immediately after the official choosing of the Twelve (Luke 6:13 ff). For that reason, it has been called “The Ordination Address to the Twelve.” “Just as a young minister has his task set out before him, when he is called to his first charge, so the Twelve received from Jesus their ordination address before they went out to their task”(7) – and of course, there was also a crowd of people present to hear the words of this ordination sermon.

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit (v. 3)

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“A young man in college was so engrossed in preparations for final examinations and in extra-curricular activities, that he neglected to write home for five weeks. Then his parents received a letter, which said, ‘The inevitable consequence of not writing for five weeks is that I am now broke.’ [Likewise], the inevitable consequence of not keeping in close communication with the heavenly Father is that the child [of God] becomes spiritually bankrupt . . . [and] it is sin which cuts the communication lines.”(8)

“The phrase ‘poor in spirit’ speaks of a spiritual condition of poverty. It describes the person who recognizes his or her need for God.”(9) “One’s honest and humble acknowledgement of his [state of spiritual poverty] opens the way for the reception of God’s blessings.”(10) “The kingdom of heaven” refers to people who acknowledge the one true God, and who know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their life. “Only he who does God’s will is a citizen of the kingdom; and we can only do God’s will when we realize our own utter helplessness, own utter ignorance, our own utter inability to cope with life, and when we put our whole trust in God.”(11) One who is poor in spirit knows that he or she is spiritually bankrupt apart from Jesus Christ.(12) A paraphrase of this verse could read as: “Joyful are those who realize their own utter helplessness, for they have put their entire trust in God.”(13)