Beatitudes: Blessings of the Kingdom Life
The beatitudes describe the good or blessed life because they expound the lifestyle of those who embrace Jesus Savior and Lord, Redeemer and Teacher. They describe the blessed life of taking Jesus in full rather than half measure. Over the next several weeks we will look at what the beatitudes show us about being an attractively different community.
As we wrap up the Beatitudes, we see that Jesus’ vision of the good life is a community living out His righteousness, which will make them the object both of opposition AND admiration, precisely because they are different.
Resources:
The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Thomas Watson
Why Does Anyone Become a Christian? Article by Timothy Keller
A Missionary Encounter Today? Article by Timothy Keller
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
How can we have peace in our divided country, city, and lives? Jesus calls those who make peace blessed, for they shall be called sons of God.
Resources:
The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Thomas Watson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Jesus tells us that a pure heart is required to see God. Jesus was the only truly pure hearted man. It is by clinging to him that we have hope.
Resources:
Matthew 5:1-8
“The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World” by Sinclair Ferguson
“Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount And His Confrontation with the World” by D.A. Carson
“Studies in the Sermon on the Mount” by Martin Lloyd-Jones
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The millennial and younger generation is marked by a more visible social concern and volunteerism, but it often doesn’t influence the way they choose to live. In this Beatitude, Jesus pronounces a blessing on the merciful, those who allow the miseries of others to affect them and change the way they live. He presents a vision both challenge and hopeful, especially to us living in America today.
Resources:
The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Thomas Watson
Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road, Timothy Keller
Where to Turn to Help People Who are Homeless
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We all say things like, “they shouldn’t do that,” or “it shouldn’t be that way,” but what should life look like? What is righteousness, and how can we affirm it while dealing with the ways we fall short? Jesus shows us in this beatitude that living the good life are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Resources:
The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Thomas Watson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
As we continue looking at the good life through Jesus’ eyes, we come to another attractively different trait of the good life: Meekness. It not a cowering weakness or a brash self-assertiveness, but something altogether different, rooted in a true reckoning that God is God, and I am not.
Resources:
The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Thomas Watson
The Beatitudes, sermons by Charles Spurgeon
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In a world captivated by how to feel as good as possible as often as possible, Jesus calls mourning “blessed.” How can that be? Because it is only those who appropriately mourn the brokenness of our world and selves who will experience true comfort.
Resources:
The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Thomas Watson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Resources:
The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Thomas Watson
The Beatitudes, sermons by Charles Spurgeon
Podcast: Play in new window | Download