Be Blessed

The Blessed Way

We have spent 8 weeks looking at, what must be considered, the greatest sermon ever preached.

It is the greatest sermon because it is Jesus’s sermon, and a message from the Messiah, the perfect God/Man, is a greater sermon than any man could ever preach.

But it is also the greatest sermon because in it we find the heart and soul of Jesus’s purpose and message, and the soul and substance of the life we as His followers are designed to live.

The blessed life- that has been our series title and that is the theme of Jesus’s great sermon.

But as we have said from the beginning, Blessed does not mean blessing as we so often define it in our worldly minds.

The word “Blessed”, used 9 times in our passage today, can be translated to mean “happy, fortunate, or one to be congratulated.”

The “Blessed life” isn’t a prosperous and comfortable life, or one free of pain and suffering.

The happiness and fortune is the result of a persons closeness and commitment to Jesus and His way.

We could have easily started and ended our sermon series with these verse, because in them we find the qualities that are to define someone who is a follower of Jesus (a Christian).

We find “The Way” that we have talked about the last 2 weeks, and really throughout the whole series.

What’s this “Blessed Life”?

It is everything Jesus has laid out throughout His sermon and it is what is encompassed in these 8 qualities listed here.

Matthew 5:1–12 CSB

1 When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to teach them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the humble, 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 the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

My very first sermon series here at EHBC almost exactly 6 years ago was on the Beatitudes.

So today my goal is not to be exhaustive on each of them, but to point out 4 overarching qualities of the Blessed life that emerge from these 8 attitudes.

The first quality seems to me to be quite obvious as you read through these verses:

1) RADICALLY COUNTERINTUITIVE

Each of Jesus’s statements push against what lives so naturally in us as human beings.

Much like the analogy I gave a few weeks ago about the narrow and wide ways, the beatitudes seem to be guiding us against the flow of the crowd.

There are Beatitudes that govern our world:

"Blessed are the self-sufficient and the prosperous, because they can build their own kingdom."

"Blessed are those who put on a stiff upper lip and pretend they are good, because vulnerability is weakness."

“Blessed are the proud and assertive, because they get what they want.”

"Blessed are the merciless, for they will be successful."

"Blessed are the people who only care about morality when it's convenient, because they will have a much easier life."

"Blessed are the winners, because everyone who's not a winner is a loser."

“Blessed are those fight with every weapon they have and get back at those who hurt them for they will not be overcome.”

In the world of men, we find nothing approaching the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty of spirit, we find the rankest kind of pride. Instead of mourners, we find pleasure seekers. Instead of meekness, we find arrogance. Instead of hungering after righteousness, we hear men saying, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Instead of mercy, we find cruelty. Instead of purity of heart, we find corrupt imaginings. Instead of peacemakers, we find men quarrelsome and resentful. Instead of rejoicing in mistreatment, we find them fighting back with every weapon at their command. — A.W. Tozer

before we get weighed down by these as if they are burdens and responsibilities to shoulder we have to understand that that the beatitudes both aspirational and effectual meaning

they are things for us to aspire to but

they are also things that God grows or effects in us, so don’t get weighed down by the sense that these are burdens for you to carry.

yes God desires and calls us to these, but He does so from a changed heart and a reborn person.

In the face of these Jesus calls us to a different way:

To be poor in spirit means to acknowledge our spiritual neediness and powerlessness (bankruptcy outside of Christ).

the ones who will enter my kingdom are those who know and acknowledge their need.

To mourn isn’t only concerned with sadness over the loss of those we love, but grief caused by our sin and the brokenness of the world around us.

when Jesus wept at the grave of Lazerus, he knew he was about to raise him. He wasn’t weeping over his death, but the awful affects of sin.

do you long for relief from the brokenness in our world? or do you avoid and ignore it by keeping busy and entertained?

To be meek means to be humble, gentle, and not aggressive.

this isn’t weakness, but the absence of aggression and pride.

Hungering and thirsting for righteousness points to a desire to see God’s ways and standards established and obeyed in every area of life.

it is hungering for good to prevail in the world and in my own heart.

Merciful embraces the characteristics of being generous, forgiving, compassionate, and caring to others who don’t even deserve it.

Purity in heart refers to moral uprightness that stems from a new heart created by Christ in salvation.

To be a peacemaker is to be someone who pursues and works for “shalom” which is wholeness and harmony rather than strife and chaos.

Obviously, to be persecuted means to be rejected and scorned because of your devotion to Jesus.

The key to true happiness/blessedness, according to Jesus, isn’t the way that comes so naturally to us.

Proverbs 14:12 CSB

12 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.

2) Deeply SELF-FORGETFUL

The blessed life is not a life devoted to our own comfort, safety, security, or prosperity.

Jesus tells us the way into his kingdom is by dying to ourselves.

ingrained in each of these is that very response.

and it peppers the rest of the sermon.

Pray God's kingdom come and will be done not our own

Trust God as father to provide and care for you not your own power or ingenuity.

Seek first the kingdom of God not our own kingdom

Do onto other as you would have them do to you

The blessed life is not a life devoted to our own comfort, safety, security, or prosperity.

3) Joyfully CHRIST-EXALTING

These beatitudes are not meant to save us to but reveal how a saved person should live.

And each is rooted and reveal in and through Jesus. He perfectly live out each of these and then calls and empowered us to live in step.

If you want to know who qualifies: those building their house on rock- look at these qualities

If you want to know who Jesus is talking about in the last section, the ones he will not know, look at these.

Are you poor in spirit? Do to mourn over your sin? ...

4) Oddly ATTRACTIVE

Though this life we are called to live is counter to the world, even foolish, what you will find when we walk this walk of faith faithfully is others will be oddly attracted.

Who doesn't long for hope in this hopeless world

Comfort from the pain and brokenness we all experience

Peace and contentment in the chaos around us

Truth and stability in an increasing confusing on hostile world

Mercy and grace when judgement and condemnation overwhelm us.

Freedom from shame and guilt

True community free from having to prove ourselves worthy and acceptable

And freedom from bitterness and the responsibility to avenge ourselves

Sure the life Jesus present here is odd and doesn't make sense in the eyes of the world, but if we are honest, it is incredibly attractive.

- Asbury

- Jesus Revolution

- chosen series

- the witness of faithful, selfless Christians.

Matthew 7:21–29 CSB

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’ “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.” When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, because he was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes.