1. In The Footsteps Of The Master: The Life and Times of Jesus Christ
The Sermon on the Mount (Part 1)
Beatitudes
May 17, 2009

2. Sermon on The Mount

3. Luke 6:20-26
 20And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
 21"Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
 22"Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.
 23"Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.  

4. Luke 6 continued
24"But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.
 25"Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
 26"Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

5. Sounds strange
Now, this sounds crazy. Since when did poverty, hunger, sorrow and rejection become blessing?
When did those four things become blessing?
And then on the tail end, when did wealth, a full stomach, joy and being loved become what we shouldn’t ascribe to?

6. Success Stories
In every great success story, the key component in every book, they moved from here—poverty, rejection, hunger, despair—and they moved to wealth.
But Jesus shows up and goes, “No, no, no. It moves the other way.”

7. With Authority
When Jesus preaches as one with authority, what that means is He's not making suggestions or prayers;
He's letting you in on how things ARE
Do you understand the difference there?
When Jesus says, “Blessed are those...Blessed are those…Woe are those...Cursed are those...
He is not hoping, wishing and praying
Jesus is trying to tap you into how it is

8. Where are you
The Beatitudes are in a definite order: they are not haphazardly presented
It is a picture of man turning to God
They speak of emptying one’s self; the rest speak of filling
Who is blessed and this is who is cursed”
What we want to do is kind of figure out where we are in that, correct?

9. Poor
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (vs20)
But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. (vs24)
We know from Scripture that God does not hand out salvation based on economic status
There's something else going on here because this isn't just talking about how much we make or don't make or what we have or don't have.

10. Poor vs Rich
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3
So now we've moved past just external economics, and now we're talking about the state of the heart
So happy is the man, transformed is the man, who understands that he's spiritually bankrupt

11. Owes Who
Blessed is the man who understands that no matter how many religious activities he's in, no matter how well he pulls off the moral code, no matter how clean his life is,
God still owes him nothing.
And although I think a lot of us know that in our minds,
Most of us still don't really grasp that in our hearts.
Most of us still feel that God owes us favor because we've been good

12. Jesus Heals Many
Remember when Jesus was reading from the scrolls and rejected at Nazareth.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”
Poor in spirit and felt that they couldn't get close enough to God
It makes even more sense when you look at who gets enraged by the gospel message -who?

13. Whipping Boys
For the last two weeks, we've covered how the Pharisees have responded to Jesus coming and preaching grace, mercy, and love
What were there responses? Wrath/Fury
So the religious elite, those who believed that they were clean and they did have right standing because they were good and they didn't do this and they went here and they did that, so God has to love them—
Found Jesus' message unbelievably offensive.

14. Hungry
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied –Luke 6:21
But, Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry –Luke 6:25
Jesus can’t be talking about food here
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied - Matthew 5:6
Let's view this as progression.

15. Hungry Blessedness Blessed are those who are hungry for forgiveness,
Who are hungry for intimacy with God,
Who are hungry for wholeness.
Blessed are those who are hungry for those things, because if you're hungry, you're going to pursue Him
Matthew 5:20 says that our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees

16. Hunger
Blessed is the one who's hungry enough to pursue God, because he's going to find Him
Those who are born again desire personal righteousness
Matthew 6:1 tells us not to perform our "acts of righteousness" before other people

17. Quote
We cannot shoot the gospel into a man – he must know what the gospel offers
He must realize his own condition without it and desire what the gospel will do for him, will obey its conditions and come into the full measure of its forgiveness and pardon
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; Psalm 42:1-2

18. Next Week Questions? The Sermon on the Mount (Part 2)