Beatitudes Bible-study (discipleship 101)

Beatitude- The word beati means blessed, happy, or rich. Jesus is pronouncing happiness upon, how happiness is attained, or what happiness looks like the opposite of miseritude.

Jesus hence lays down a repetitive cycle of (beatitude) and effect or cause (happy-because of).

There are a total of 8 beatitudes with an additional state of blessedness at the end (in Matthew), 4 beatitudes in Luke. However, Luke’s gospel has a feature that is not in Matthew’s gospel and that is what is thought to be 4 miseritudes (4 woes).

Side by Side Comparison:

Matthew Luke

Poor in spirit The poor

They that mourn Those who hunger

The Meek Those who weep

They who hunger and thirst for righteousness Those who hate you

The merciful

The pure in heart

The peacemakers

The persecuted for righteousness sake

In addition to the 4 beatitudes of Luke we also have miseritudes:

Woe to the rich

Woe to those who are well fed

Who to those who laugh now

Who to those who are spoken well of

****It is important to note that the sermon in Matthew and the sermon in Luke although very similar and yet different are not the same sermon. One is taught on the mount (Matthew 5:1-2) and the other is taught on a plain (Luke 6:12,17).****

Although Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known to be synoptic gospels, we must also know that Mark gospel does not contain the beatitudes and John’s gospel does not contain any beatitudes.

So in the beatitude, when we consider the statements of Jesus, he uses a category of individuals who would seem to be downtrodden, outcasts of society, ostracized, those who are hurting, those who are struggling, those who desire see justice or righteousness.

We have the poor

We have the poor in spirit

those who are in mourning and weeping

those who are meek

those who hunger

Those who hunger after righteousness.

We have those who show mercy

We have those who are hated

We have those who are pure in heart

We have those who are peacemakers

We have those who are persecuted for doing right

In addition, we see that in Luke’s gospel (the sermon on the plain) Jesus also uses 4 woes to categorize those who are well off, those whom appear to be self-contented.

Woe to those who are rich.

Woe to those who are full.

Woe to those who laugh now.

Woe to those who are well spoken of.

Goals of tonights study:

What we want to do tonight is break these down.

Analyze them.

Truly understand Jesus intentions for teaching these.

Then look for ways to implement and retain his teachings.

I. The Poor and the Poor in Spirit (Luke 6:20 / Matthew 5:3).

Jesus says blessed (makarios) (happy, rich, fortunate, well-off) are the poor. Now this initially appears to be an oxymoron, it seems confusing to some that Jesus is saying that the poor is blessed, that the poor is happy, or fortunate, or well-off. Even though often times the poor are marginalized, overlooked, frowned upon, taken advantaged of, Jesus looks into the crowd and he sees poor people. Now, we have to understand that first of all Jesus is addressing a specific group of people (those who are following him). Those who were in the crowd who were poor, had seen Jesus perform miracles and was healing the sick (Matthew & Luke), but I also want to draw to your attention the beginning of Luke where the scriptures says that on the second sabbath, his disciples plucked ears of corn, and did eat them in their hands. They had no food, remember that the disciples had occupations and they left their occupations to FOLLOW JESUS! Even though it was the Sabbath, Jesus understood and knew that his disciples had to do something to eat or they would perish. But the pharisees were so concerned about their self-righteousness, that when they saw the disciples picking corn and eating it (just so they could survive) that they figured they had a chance to discredit Jesus and the disciples and to make their own-selves look good.

The disciples left their occupations: fishermen, tax-collector, politician (Simon the Zealot), although nothing was none of Judas Iscariot’s occupation prior to him becoming a disciple but we do know that he was considered to be a thief and a betrayer. Even the Apostle Paul who comes in latter after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension was a religious scholar and tent-maker, often times would forgo his occupation to minister the word of God. Now understand, that there were times that they still possibly returned and did work on a part-time basis, however once they met Jesus their priority shifted.

Lesson 1 tonight: When you become a disciple, you priority begins to shift to the things of God. The disciples shift was so extraordinary that they were not as concerned about making money as they were about being with the LORD. Even after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, the disciples learned a valuable lesson, their concern wasn’t being concerned with worldly possession but putting in work to obtain a spiritual possession (inheriting the kingdom of God). So their occupation in and of itself shifted from working for themselves to working for the LORD. You may lose some things when you start to work for the kingdom, you may lose friends, you may lose social-status, you may even lose your job at times, but what God has prepared for us is far-better than what this world can offer us (which is temporal). SHIFT!

I want to do something a little different, normally when people look at scripture they tend to view them from a chronological order. Meaning that if something is in Matthew and Luke, they tend to look at Matthew first and then Luke. Tonight I want to do the opposite, I want to look at Luke’s gospel and compare it to Matthew’s and then our next biblestudy we will deal entirely with and isolate Matthew’s account of Jesus’ beatitude on the Mount.

Blessed are the poor (Luke 6:20 & Matthew 5:3).

These two beatitudes are alike and are alluding to the same. On the surface level it appears that Jesus is just referring to those who are poor. However when we compare Luke 6:20 to Matthew 5:3 we see that Jesus was hinting to something more than just the casual observance of an individual who is poor, he references those who are “poor in spirit”.

Blessed are those who are needy, those who are crouched down and sunken low, blessed, the destitue, those who universally lack in anything, specifically in Matthew’s gospel those who are lacking in spirit. These are those who are most readily to give themselves up to the cause of Christ. Why? Because they don’t have anything else, they are lacking, lacking life (spirit), remember that it is the spirit that gives life, God breathed the pneuma into man and man became a living soul. But sometimes we can be lacking in life! We can be low in spirit, we can be poor in spirit, but the LORD says you are blessed!

Lesson 2: A poor person can sink so low in life that all they have is their faith in God. God wants us to be in a place that we depend and look solely to Him! When we look to Him, when we depend on Him, when we lean on Him, the LORD will bless us! This is what is necessary for us to enter the kingdom of God presently and in the future. We have to be willing to forsake all, anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God, we have to be willing to forsake it to follow Jesus! This is discipleship 101! The poor, the poor in spirit are the ones who will possess the kingdom of God.

Blessed are they that hunger (Luke 6:21 & Matthew 5:6).

When comparing the next category of beatitudes, we see that Matthew 5:6 & Luke 6:21 are very much alike with the difference that Jesus include “those who hunger” in Luke’s gospel, whereas he addresses “those who hunger” a bit later in Matthew’s gospel. Again, we must remember that these are two different sermons that are dealing with the same context.

(Side note) Jesus believed in reinforcing teachings to his disciples so that they could remember his teachings. In today’s society we have a lot of people who are looking for “something new” something unique and novel, but that was not how Jesus taught. He used the law and expounded upon its teachings and taught the true intent of the scriptures to his followers. Be wary of people who teach “new doctrines” that are not truly biblically based, because Satan himself used a portion of scripture when he tempted Jesus.

Blessed, fortunate, rich, happy, well-off are the hungry. Seemingly another oxymoron. Note again that Jesus is speaking to a multitude of people who follows Him because of the miracles he performed. Surely, the idea and reasoning for this is that in the case of both those who are poor and those who are hungry both groups of people think that Jesus can help them in the situation that they are currently in.

Lesson #3: Jesus can help you in your situation! They realized that Jesus had power. However Jesus wasn’t looking to give people a quick fix and then they return to the same state that they were in before, continuing in the same god-less lifestyle before. Jesus’ mission was to change people’s lives, his mission was to save people from their sins, to redeem them back to God. Many people come to Jesus to get help in their situations today, but know and understand that Jesus isn’t interested in surface problems (no money for rent, pain and disease in body, family/martial problems, job problems, personal problems) He came to help you, he wants to get to the root of the problem and we must know and understand that the root of 99.9 percent of problems is rooted and stems from sin! Jesus wants to help you in your situation!

Some of these people were hungry, they were looking for a hand out, Jesus just performed some super-natural feats that defies logic and surely he can help me, I just want to get a bite to eat. Of course this is surface thinking, again just as we consider what Jesus said in the previous scripture, Jesus is referring to something more than a hunger because of physical hunger pangs. He is referring to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew’s gospel).

To hunger is to crave, is to intensely desire something. When a person is truly hungry they will do what it takes to fulfill that hunger. There have been times in history that people went to extraordinary lengths to alleviate their physical hunger, even to the point (it’s in scripture) that people have resorted to cannibalism. When you are truly hungry it will drive you! Jesus is alluding to the fact that there are a group of people who are driven, desperate, and craving righteousness. These are blessed people! Blessed are those who are driven after, craves intensely righteousness (dikiaosune) is defined as equity. Equity is defined as the quality of being fair and impartial, not fair and impartial to the world’s standard but fair and impartial according to God’s standards. Hence, righteousness does not only include the thought of being in right-standing with God (acceptable with God) which most of us think when we read this, but it also encompasses the notion of being right, fair, and just.

Leviticus 19:36 AV

Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

and again:

Deuteronomy 16:20 AV

That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Proverbs 20:7 AV

The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

To be just is to do what is lawful and what is right (Ezek 18:5). The word “just” is the root word for “justice” which is the action of doing what is right, acting according to God’s standard.

This means that you have to treat people right, you have to be fair with people, you have to be just with people. Why? Because God is a just God and if God is a just God his children should be just too.

Isaiah 56:1 AV

Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

Listen to this in the NLT:

Isaiah 56:1 NLT

This is what the Lord says: “Be just and fair to all. Do what is right and good, for I am coming soon to rescue you and to display my righteousness among you.

He’s coming to rescue those, that’s why they are blessed, he’s coming to display his righteousness among us, meaning that He is going to reward those who crave for righteousness, those who earnestly seek and desire to be fair and justice according to God’s righteous standard. Those who crave after these qualities shall be filled.

In a sense, I can understand Jesus telling his disciples that these are desired qualities that his followers should strive to have.

Blessed are they that weep/mourn (Luke 6:21 & Matthew 5:4)