The Sermon on the Mount
The Beatitudes
January 8, 2023
Jesus was announcing to his followers – “this is how I think. This is how I respond. This is who I am!
If these sayings do not shock us, maybe we have tamed them down to nice sayings that we do not intend to embrace.
Jesus is telling us the kind of people the gospel of the kingdom is going to really sound like good news.
Matthew 5:3 NIV
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who come to the end of themselves, because now there is more room for God and his Kingdom.
God always meets us at our point of need. He comes to fill the impoverished places of our lives.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Sorrow is a necessary consequence of loving others. Our love for others creates potential for pain of loss.
Jesus gives us permission here to truly mourn a loss.
There’s no need to put on a façade of perpetual happiness.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
This is the most counterintuitive of all the Beatitudes.
We all know “nice guys finish last” – it is a dog-eat-dog world out there and only the bold and the beautiful have any chance at success – right??
He said those who are quiet and gentle would get the earth.
Can you imagine the smiles on the Roman soldier’s faces when they heard this?
Meek does not mean weak. Meek means we have more faith in what God can do than what we can do alone.
Zechariah 4:6 NIV
Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
Too many Christ followers are doing the right things in the wrong power.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are those who long for things to be made right both inside my life and in the outside world.
Inner righteousness leads to a hunger for things to be made right in the entire human community.
