The Mystery of Redemption

Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12

Matthew 5:1–12 NIV

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. He said: 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 children 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.

2/8/2026

Order of Service:

AnnouncementsOpening WorshipPrayer RequestsPrayer SongPastoral PrayerKid’s TimeOffering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)Scripture ReadingSermonClosing SongBenediction

Special Notes: Standard

Opening Prayer:

Prayer of ConfessionHoly God and Father Almighty, we confess that we often fail to live by gospel expectations. We seek our own selfish satisfaction and forget to act justly, walk humbly, and love mercy. Forgive us and guide us to walk humbly with You. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Call to WorshipLeader: O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?People: Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right.Leader: Jesus opens His mouth and teaches us the way of the kingdom.People: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Leader: Come, let us worship the one who calls us to live in justice and mercy.All: We lift our voices to the Lord of heaven and earth!

The Mystery of Redemption

Movement 1: The Outdoor Synagogue

The beauty of God is often uncomfortable for us. When we think about sanctuaries and church buildings, they create holy space for us to gather and worship. God's people have consistently looked to those spaces as symbols of our faithfulness to Him. The more beautiful they are, the better our relationship must be.

Yet God tells us and shows us in the scriptures that no man-made structure can hold His presence. We know from experience that there is no worship space as beautiful as just being out in nature, in that sacred space that God has created for Himself. On days like today, though, it may be beautiful to worship out there, but it is not comfortable.

Last week, we learned that God calls us to be like salt and light, so that the grace we receive overflows from us and makes a difference in the world around us. It's hard to be salt and light when we keep ourselves hidden in the church building. We often do that, though, because growing beyond these walls means growing uncomfortable.

Jesus did teach in the temple and in synagogues from time to time. His most famous teachings, however, usually took place when He preached and taught outdoors. Matthew tells us that the Sermon on the Mount took place outside, as Jesus sat down on the hills in Galilee. We call it the Sermon on the Mount because that's where it took place. While the hills of Galilee may not be as steep or rocky as Mount Sinai in the book of Exodus, Matthew's Jewish readers would have drawn a quick parallel between Jesus and Moses in this moment. They would have understood that while Moses brought the law, Jesus is the one who will teach it to us with new and greater authority.

When Jesus sat down, He was taking the role of teacher, because that's how teaching worked in the temple and synagogue. The teacher sat, and the students all stood. So there, on the hillside, Jesus created a rabbi's seat from dirt and rocks. In that powerful move, He transformed this beautiful outdoor setting into a place of worship, where people could come and hear the word of God.

There's a little bit of mystery around how Jesus chose the places to teach and the people to call alongside Him. Teaching outside the way He did allowed Him to reach bigger crowds. When you really study the preaching and teaching ministry of Jesus, though, for Him, it's not about the number of people. It's about the people themselves. Unlike all the other teachers of His day and all that came before Him, He knew everyone who came to hear Him.

There were plenty of people in the crowd who would not have stepped foot in the synagogue and would have been kept out of the temple. There were women and children. There were people who found themselves unclean more often than not. There were travelers without a consistent place of worship and people of mixed heritage who found themselves rejected by everyone.

Out in the hills, though, just beyond the city, there were no walls to keep them out. Those who had ears to hear could finally hear. And it was there that many first heard their Savior, calling them by name.

Movement 2: The Problem with "Blessed"

Jesus was welcoming people. Jesus was inviting people from all places and walks of life to become His disciples before He even spoke a word. The first word that came out of His mouth was "blessed." That's a word that gets our attention, and it got their attention, too, because it holds a sense of mystery and hope. The act itself is like a light shining in the darkness, transforming the situations it appears in.

It's a good word. Like so many good words we find in scripture, and that Jesus used, we have taken it and used it and overused it, and sometimes abused it in contexts that don't match the places it came from. In fact, when we read this passage today, we sometimes ask ourselves: do we pronounce it "blessed" or "blessèd"? "Blessèd" has a more mysterious, ancient sense to it — something high and holy and reverent and untouchable.

"Blessed," on the other hand, is a much more common word for us today. It comes out in our prayers and praise, and has even worked its way into polite language, as we teach our young people to say, "God bless you," when they hear someone sneeze. When we lived a little further south, we learned that in some parts of our country, the phrase "bless you" is not always a positive or polite one. It can almost be used as a swear word.

So that puts us at polar opposites in how we understand the first word Jesus shares and repeats throughout the introduction to His Sermon on the Mount.

Either it's a common word that can mean many different things, both good and bad, and it's hard to figure out exactly what Jesus meant by it. Or it's an old, archaic word that we pronounce differently ("blessèd"), and it makes everything He says after it feel like a mysterious, unapproachable universal truth we're just meant to ponder for the rest of our lives. Neither of those options is very accurate or fair to how the word was used in Jesus' time or the way He uses it in this sermon.

So just for today, I want to give you an alternative way to translate and interpret this very important word. When you see and hear that word come up in this passage — this introduction to the Sermon on the Mount that we call the Beatitudes — I want you to think in your minds, "It's all good." Instead of "Blessed are..." think, "It's all good for..."

Movement 3: The Welcome

These first words from Jesus are a welcome, as these people gather around Him or take their first steps in following Him. He's telling them, congratulations, you made it. Welcome to the first day of class. Here's what you have to expect. You're going to face some challenges. In fact, some of you are facing challenges right now. Some of you are scared out of your minds, and you don't know what you've got yourself into. It's all good because God's going to work it out. Here's the short version of what He's going to do in the days ahead.

Picture the crowd gathering around Jesus that day. They're on the hillside in Galilee.

There's a man standing at the edge who has never set foot in a synagogue. He doesn't know the prayers. He doesn't know the scriptures. He feels like he doesn't belong. He is poor in spirit. It's all good for the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

There's a woman who lost her husband last winter. She wears her grief like a garment. She came because she didn't know where else to go. She mourns. It's all good for those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

There's a young lady who's been walked over her whole life. The world uses her and discards her. She's learned to stay quiet, stay small. She's meek. It's all good for the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

There's a young man who has tried so hard to do right, and it never seems to work. Temptation wins. Injustice wins. Life just works against him. He hungers and thirsts for righteousness. It's all good for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

There's an older woman who spent her entire life caring for broken people. She knows suffering — her own and others'. She shows mercy because she knows what it's like to need it. She's merciful. It's all good for the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

There's a young child with a childlike heart who hasn't been hardened by the world yet. We sometimes worry about people like them. How will they survive out there in the real world? They're pure in heart. It's all good for the pure in heart, for they will see God. Not in death, but in life. They'll see Him working where others can't.

There's someone who always finds themselves in the middle of other people's conflicts. They try to bring peace, and sometimes they become casualties of the battle. They're peacemakers. It's all good for the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

There's someone who has done exactly what God made them to do, and the world has no place for them. They've been pushed out, ignored, rejected. They're persecuted because of righteousness. It's all good for those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Jesus, He says, it's all good. More than that, He says, rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. The prophets who came before you faced the same thing.

Do you see the mystery here? Every single one of these people is defined by what they lack. No power, no status, no control, no voice. The world says they're unlucky, unfortunate, maybe even cursed. But Jesus looks at them and says, it's all good. [KEY] That's the mystery. God's ways are not our ways. He blesses those the world overlooks.

The redemption we experience is not that our circumstances magically disappear, but that when we follow Jesus, transformation begins. Comfort comes. Provision comes. Filling comes. Mercy comes. We see God. We become children of God. As we join with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven becomes ours.

Movement 4: Why "Happy" Misses the Point

These Beatitudes are some of the most beloved and well-studied words that Jesus ever taught. You might know this, along with the Bible scholars, that those at the beginning and end of this list — those who are poor in spirit and those who are persecuted for righteousness — both get the same reward: the Kingdom of Heaven.

You might notice that the first half of the people mentioned in this list, who are lacking something, are filled, while those in the second half of this list are people who are actively doing something or being something. Their reward is a closer relationship with God.

Jesus taught this passage in a structure that would have been easy to memorize and still is for us. Yet we can still dive deeply into each one of those statements on its own as we learn to interpret and understand those words better.

I have seen some more modern translations use the word "happy" instead of "blessed" or "blessèd" for each one of these statements, and there's a good linguistic reason for that. It better captures the tone of how Jesus used the word in His day. The trouble is in how we read the statement as a whole today, because "happy" is a feeling or an attitude, and we have been taught that it's something we can choose, which puts the ball securely in our courts.

If we say, "Happy are the poor in spirit," we can interpret that in our minds that if we just be happy, even if we're poor in spirit, we'll get the kingdom of heaven. At that point, you can summarize all of the Beatitudes as Jesus telling you, "Just be happy." Each one of these statements becomes a command. Each one becomes works righteousness. But that's a common misinterpretation.

What Jesus gives us here is a list of people who do not have control, provision, strength, or a voice. Each one is identified precisely by what they lack. His message to them and to us is that even though that is a problem, it's all good because He is going to take care of them when they follow Him. [KEY] There is a choice to be made, but it's not the choice to be happy.

The choice to be made is to follow Jesus.

Movement 5: The Application — The Invitation

As I shared last week, the whole Sermon on the Mount is given to us to help us live out the life God desires for us. These opening statements from Jesus are not there to make us feel less than and not enough. They are there to invite us in and to let us know that if we choose to stick with Him, He will provide everything we need.

So where are you standing in the crowd this morning? Are you on the edge, feeling like you may be in the church building, but you don't really feel like you're part of the church, part of God's people? Jesus has a seat at the table waiting for you.

Are you mourning your past, someone or something that you've lost, and you feel like you can't find a way forward? Jesus has comfort and hope for you to hold on to as you let go of that hurt.

Do you feel small and hushed, never noticed until someone needs something from you? Jesus will lift you up, and others will see Him at work in you.

Do you feel like you're constantly fighting a war that you cannot win, with yourself and with the world around you? Jesus is going to fight for you and prepare a way ahead of you, so that you will know the rest and satisfaction you long for.

Are you burdened by the hurt and brokenness that seems to fill the world around you, overcome in your efforts to try to make a difference? Jesus sees you, and He's there to help you in the midst of your brokenness and hurt, too.

Are you worried that you're not prepared for the world, that you don't know enough, and do not have enough wisdom and experience to make it in the challenging times that we live in? Jesus promises that if you keep your eyes on Him, He will lead you where you need to go and show you everything that you need to know.

Are you always caught in the middle of a mess and wish people would stop fighting and just see each other as human beings? Jesus is right there with you, and He invites us to be even more than human beings. He invites us to be children of God.

Do you feel like the more good that you do, the more you have a target painted on your back, and the more the devil and the world attack you? Are you weary and worn out, feel like it's easier to just give up? Jesus knows exactly how you feel, and He's right there with you. Today He's telling you that's what it means to be part of His kingdom. The greatest people who ever walked with Him have been right there in your shoes.

Jesus taught that where two or three are gathered together in His name, He's there. He is here among us. As we gather with Him, we transform wherever we are, whether that's in a church building, out in the fields, on a hillside, or in the store. Wherever we are, that space is transformed to a place that's safe to be honest with Jesus and one another.

By acknowledging the brokenness and the mess that we come from, we come to follow Him. He shows us that we don't have to clean ourselves up first. [KEY] He wants us to come as we are and allow Him to do that mysterious work of redemption in and around and through us.

We heard the goal last week of this Sermon on the Mount — to live out the life that God desires for us. We've heard the invitation today. As we prepare for the season of Lent, which is right around the corner, we're going to walk with Jesus and learn to let Him do the transforming work in us. Sifting our salt, purifying our light, cleansing us from sin, and finding new blessings in Him to hold us firm, give us strength, and lead us into that life with Him that He calls us to.

Closing Prayer

Lord, You fill our lives with blessings every day. We don't see those blessings often enough. We pray that You open our eyes and help us become more aware of all that You're already doing. We pray that You open our ears and help us to hear You clearly as You call our name. As You lead us and guide us like the good shepherd You are.

When we find ourselves struggling, You are the one who gives us strength, who provides for us in our times of need, who lifts us up from our brokenness. Help us to trust You and to love You with all we have and all we are. As You invite us to come and follow You again today, help us to offer all of ourselves, not just the parts that we think have been cleaned up enough. Help us offer up all of ourselves to You. In Jesus' name, amen.