When you’re physically hungry, the desire to eat is so overwhelming you can hardly think about anything else. Jesus is counting on that experience in this beatitude. The truly fortunate ones long for that which is missing in this life which only the kingdom of God can fulfill: holiness.
While Matthew 5:5 is probably the most famous beatitude, not many people understand what it means. Jesus does not explain what he means by “meek”, but he is quoting Psalm 37 which gives us a very big clue.
Mourning is the appropriate emotional response to being poor in spirit. When you realize that life is not what it should be and you are not the kind of person you should be, the appropriate response is to weep over it.
Unlike those who are self-satisfied and see themselves as spiritually rich, the poor in spirit know that they are morally bankrupt and nothing in this world can give them what they truly need. This knowledge is a core conviction of saving faith.
Before we look at the beatitudes, we need to understand what it means to be blessed, the nature of a beatitudes (Jesus wasn’t the first to employ them) and how Jesus expects us to understand them.
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most important passages in Scripture, as it is a profound and unique body of teaching from the Messiah himself. Yet throughout church history, believers have found it difficult to agree on what this sermon means and how it is to be applied to our lives. In this introduction, I’ll contrast the different approaches to the Sermon on the Mount and explain which approach I take.
As Matthew closes this first section of his gospel, he highlights the Galilean nature of Jesus’ early ministry. Matthew summarizes Jesus’ early ministry as marked by healing and teaching.
Satan offers Jesus a shortcut to gaining the blessings God has promised him. But idolatry is looking to someone or something other than God to grant us Life. For each of the temptations, we’ll answer 3 questions: Why is the choice wrong? Why is the choice attractive?...
While the temptation to jump to from the top of a high mountain may not appear very enticing at first glance, it’s a temptation we all face today. When life gets hard or overwhelming, like Jesus, we’re very tempted to believe God has ceased to take care of us and we need to take a “leap of faith” to get back in His good graces.
In the temptations, Satan wants to disqualify Jesus as the Messiah while God wants to demonstrate that Jesus is worthy to be the Messiah. We’ll look how how Jesus responds when he’s tempted to believe God is no longer taking care of him. For each of the temptations...
At his baptism, God confirms that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, who will rule on David’s throne forever. We also see what kind of king he is: humble and willing to serve.
John the Baptist was the herald who announced the coming of the King. His message had two parts: repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. The king is coming. It is time to turn back to God and follow his Messiah.