The Beatitudes
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Church! Welcome to Boyd County!
Take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to the gospel of Luke chapter 6. Our text this morning is verses 20-26
Remain standing please for the reading of God’s Word
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
PRAY!
Newsweek conducted a survey of the question, ‘Was Jesus A Good Moral Teacher?’ The study asked 3,000 random people, believers and unbelievers alike. The results of this study are both encouraging and discouraging at the exact same time. Over half (52%) of Americans believe that Jesus was a good moral teacher. Here’s the discouraging part, 30% of Evangelicals believe that Jesus was just a good moral teacher. Nothing more than a created being from God.
When we think of the moral teachers throughout history, names that come to mind are Muhammad, Confucius, Socrates, and Aristotle, and yes…I would put Jesus in the category of a good moral teacher.
But what is so different about Jesus as a good moral teacher that puts him above all moral teachers past, present, and future? He rose from the dead!!!
Jesus is much more than a good moral teacher. He is God in the flesh. Truly God and Truly man.
But when it comes to morality, we find our morality (or worldview) either in God’s word, or the culture around us.
Todays’s good moral people tend to believe four things:
1. Poverty is a sin to be avoided, and riches are the goal of life.
2. Love is the greatest virtue, and it justifies all our desires.
3.You cannot judge someone else - ever. Period.
4. There are many ways to God and many ways to service God, all of them are equally valuable.
This morning, Jesus through His word, wants to challenge the foundation of our morality. Jesus wants us to view things in the world different than those in the world view things.
He challenges us by our attitudes. Over the next couple weeks we are going to see 4 ways God wants us to grow in maturity in him.
Those four ways are toward circumstances, people, ourselves, and God.
In our text this morning we are looking at the best sermon to ever be preached. This sermon is commonly known as the sermon on the Mount. We see this sermon recorded in length in the book of Matthew and Dr. Luke gives us the highlight reel in his account.
In chapters 4-6 Jesus is busy doing ministry and all of his ministry is building to his teaching here in verse 20.
Jesus’ earthly ministry was two fold. He had his healing ministry and his teaching ministry. His healing ministry was always in tandem with his teaching ministry. The healing ministry validated his teaching ministry. Why should people listen and believe what he was teaching? He had the power of healing to back it up. Only God could do these miraculous things.
Its interesting to see what Luke writes in verse 19, lets back up and look at it.
19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
Dr. Luke, who is a physician mind you, gives very little detail to the healing that took place but forces our attention on Christ teaching.
Luke focuses on what Jesus SAID not what Jesus did.
Why? Because that is what is most important.
Jesus tells us in the gospel of Matthew that all of heaven and earth will pass away but my Word never will.
Lets look at our text, verse 20
Luke 6:20 (ESV)
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
I want to answer two questions in regards to this verse. The first question is who is he speaking to and where is he speaking?
There are three groups of people within earshot of this sermon. The 12 apostles that he just called, His disciples, the multitude. For today lets just focus on the disciples and the multitude.
These two groups are here this morning. In this room are disciples and those who are just here.
The disciples are the ones who are committed to Jesus, the ones who believe in Him through faith.
You may be here this morning and you are not a follower of Christ. Maybe you were tricked in coming or promised lunch after by a friend.
This sermon from Jesus is not a gospel sermon. You cannot just read the sermon on the mount and believe the things said for eternal life.
Next, we see that this sermon took place in Capernaum. We also see that people traveled from all over the region to hear Jesus and to be healed. The previous verses tells us that people traveled from Jerusalem, Judea, Tyre, and Sidon.
I got curious and I wanted to see how far people traveled
CAP to Jerusalem 121 Miles
CAP to Judea 119 Miles
CAP to Tyre 273 Miles
CAP to Sidon 250
People traveled days. By foot or by camel and donkey. How did you get to church this morning?
Please hear me out. This is not a way to guilt you guys into driving to church every Sunday. There are plenty of other Bible believing churches that you pass along the way.
The point of these distances is this. Nothing should stop you from getting yourself or others to Jesus.
He is always worth it.
Let’s continue with verse 20...
Luke 6:20 (ESV)
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Warren Wiersby in his Bible Exposition Commentary has this to say about this word, Blessed.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: So What’s New? Everything! (Luke 6)
To most Jewish people, the word “blessing” evoked images of a long life, wealth, a large, healthy family, a full barn, and defeated enemies.
God’s covenant with Israel did include such material and physical blessings (Deut. 28; Job 1:1–12; Prov. 3:1–10), for this was how God taught and disciplined them. After all, they were “little children” in the faith, and we teach children by means of rewards and punishments. With the coming of Jesus, Israel’s childhood period ended, and the people had to mature in their understanding of God’s ways
So what is Jesus doing here? He is challenging the worldview of the Jewish people and also challenging us as believers to view life and the world around us in a certain way .
Luke says, blessed are the poor....
There are 4 ways the poor is spoken about in the scriptures.
Lazy
Result of calamity, natural disaster, disease etc
Result in Oppression
Poor for righteousness sake…as Matthew says, poor in spirit.
In this sermon, Jesus is talking about those poor in Spirit, not poor financially. It is not a sin to have money, to work hard, and have nice things
A Walk with God: Luke The First Beatitude (Luke 6:20)
There have been those throughout history who have believed that there is a peculiar form of merit to be found in poverty and have trusted in their poverty rather than in Christ for salvation. That is a very dangerous thing to do.
Do not be deceived....the rich and the poor need Jesus all the exact same.
So if you are here this morning and you are poor, you need Jesus. God will not give you a pass simply because you don’t have anything.
If you are here this morning and you are rich, guess what…you need Jesus all the same. You can not buy your way into heaven.
So what kind of poor is this verse talking about. What does it mean to be poor in spirit.
It means this. You realize that Jesus is your only hope in this life and in the next.
You come humbly before him. Your spirit submits to him. You have nothing. You bring nothing to the table.
Being poor in spirit brings with it a beautiful future promise, what does it say...
Blessed are the poor in sprit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus is saying here that those who are poor towards this world, but rich toward God, right now enjoy a special privilege in God’s kingdom.
Lets continue....
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Jesus is going back and forth with this now and later flow. You see it in the words now and shall. You are one way now, you shall be one way later.
Jesus uses physical AND emotional illustration.
The first one is hunger. Hungry for what? The word! Righteousness! Jesus!
A driving desire for God
In this life we will weep. But later we will laugh! We will have the fullness of Joy!
The text goes on....
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
PREACH
Talk about not wanting to be popular....be okay offending people
its not my job to be like by anyone.
Rejoice IN THAT DAY! Not a future day, but rejoice whenever people exclude you for the sake of Christ.
Talk about the prophets in the OT....
You are blessed when people hate you...
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
In the last four verses Jesus has been pronouncing blessings…in the next portion of the text he pronounces woes.
What are woes?
Yellowstone fan. LEarned about horses.
The are warning that we need to heed to!
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Jesus switches from a spiritual poverty to physical, financial wealth.
Heres the warning. If you are so concerned with money and you find yourself rich, without Christ, you have already received your consolation and your checkbook is the only source of blessing you have...
but hear me out....YOU WILL OUTLIVE YOUR MONEY
Your soul will go on forver and all of your stuff will be burned up
3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
The attitude of our day is to get it now. Get rich. Attain all of the stuff and Jesus says to you....woahhhh
Jesus isnt saying that its bad to have things. Its not bad to have wealth....but if thats ALLL you chase after and its all you have.....you will soon find out that you are extremely poor.
A Walk with God: Luke (From Blessings to Woes (Luke 6:24–26))
There is a peculiar temptation built in to prosperity; the prosperous can be self-sufficient; they can be given to arrogance and smugness, assuming that they can buy and sell anything, that they have no need of God.
Brothers and sisters, may we all learn to be poor in spirit.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
PREACH ABOUT HELL
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Be careful if everyone loves you. Watch out if everyone likes you....because if that is the case, you are a hypocrite somewhere.
Stand on the word. Stand on the gospel. Don’t be afraid to offend and speak the truth in love.