Blessed
Notes
Transcript
Matthew 5
Matthew 5
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This passage is the opening for the sermon on the mount that Jesus taught. We have been going through these beatitudes at my church on Sunday mornings. Beatitude means blessing just as the passage uses the term throughout. When we read through this we can see a clear chain of events that Jesus is showing us and that is what I want to focus on here for a bit.
The poor in spirit are those that realize their depravity and their need for a savior, they get a savior and the kingdom of heaven. Those who are saved mourn over their sin and they are provided with comfort. Mourning our sin causes us to feel meek and their blessing is inheriting the earth. In the meekness that we come to because of our realization of the impact of sin on our lives we hunger for righteousness and we will be satisfied when we truly search it out. As we hunger and thirst for righteousness we grow in our mercy because we continually see more and more how much mercy that we have received. Through our fight for righteousness and our growing mercy we become pure in heart. In our purity we want to see peace and become peace makers. Because of all this we can know that persecution will come but we can know that when it does it is a blessing and ours is the Kingdom of God.
This is the Christian life. There are so many blessings that it holds, they may not be what the world wants but as followers of Jesus it should be what we desire.