The Beatitudes Series

The Beatitudes - Introduction

Matthew 5:1-12

July 3, 2022

I’d like to do an informal survey. I have one very simple question . . . Who would like to be blessed by God?

That’s it . . . simple isn’t it? If you want to be blessed by God, then raise your hands! Most of you raised your hands, and I can only assume some of you don’t want to be blessed by God, or you know me well enough and you know I have something up my sleeve.

So, what does it even mean to be blessed? After all, when someone sneezes many of us say, “Bless you” or “God bless you.” Sometimes after a conversation with another Christian we may say “God bless you.” How about when we eat a meal . . . we ask God to bless this food into our bodies.

But how reasonable is it to ask God to bless that oil soaked delicious stuffed pepperoni pizza into our bodies. I mean, is God going to take out all of the fat and salt and replace it with vitamins? What about the quick prayer after we’ve ordered that Big Mac, fries and coke? Is God going to take that 75% fat content and reduce it to nothing? Just because we’ve asked Him to bless the food.

And sometimes, we proclaim, “God has really blessed me.” And we mean it, and I’m not being sarcastic about that. But what does it mean to say God has blessed me. Are we simply saying, “As of this moment in time, I’m living comfortably.” Or maybe after enduring some hardships, we say it knowing we haven’t suffered as much as others have, so we somehow sense or feel, God has blessed me.

But does that mean the person who is suffering is not being blessed by God? It seems to me that a really clear understanding of what it means to be blessed by God, seems to get away from us.

So, what does it mean to be blessed? Well, God gives us some ideas, and in all honesty it is not the manner in which we normally seek blessings. For the upcoming weeks we’re going to look at what it means to be blessed by God. To do that, we’re going to look at the beginning of the first major sermon Jesus gives.

Some have said this sermon, called the Sermon on the Mount, is kind of like Jesus’ platform speech. If you wanted to know what Jesus stood for, this would help you understand who He is. The first part was called “The Beatitudes.”

The word beatitude comes from the word BEATIFY which means to have supreme blessedness. Let’s look at the beatitudes, at what Jesus said in Matthew 5:1-12 - -

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, 2 and He began to teach them saying:

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

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Think about what Jesus was saying. Who are the blessed?

The poor in spirit the merciful

those who mourn The pure in heart

the meek The peacemakers

the hungry and thirsty the persecuted Christ followers.

When this happens to you, what are you to do? Jesus said it in verse 12

“Rejoice and be glad.” Anyone want to say a collective “uh-oh!” That’s not our idea of being blessed . . . is it?

Lots of people have translated the Beatitudes to be what Pastor Robert Schuller called in the title of his book The Be-Happy Attitudes. We seem to transfer the word happy, for the word blessed. But that’s a poor translation.

The word happy comes from the word HAP, which is a Middle English word from the 1400's which means luck. It’s where we get the word happenstance. In other words, happiness is dependent upon circumstances and luck.

But, the Beatitudes are in no way chancy. There’s no sense of uncertainty to them. When Jesus said, “Blessed are they . . .” there were no qualifying phrases, like “In most situations, blessed are they . . . or Given the right conditions, blessed are they . . . or if you are over 60, blessed are you . . .”