MY THOUGHTS

Scripture "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."  Matthew 5:7 TAKE AWAYS Jesus has established a theme of examining what following Him should look like. He speaks of things like being in a place of desperate need, of mourning, of being humble, and of having a strong yearning to get it right.  The current religious thought was that it was all about effort. Jesus teachings leading in to this are not about effort, it is about the condition that we are in. Jesus now teaches about mercy. That to receive mercy, we must possess mercy.  Jesus is not reverting to a new law ( Matthew 5:17-18 ). However, for those who have been in great need, mourning, are humble, and have a great desire to get it right, this is the next step. If we have been forgiven much, our response should be to forgive nuch in return. ( Matthew 6:12 ,  Luke 7:41-50 ) APPLICATION Jeremiah 24:7   "I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be th

Scripture "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."    Matthew 5:6 Take Aways I see a pattern in the beginning of this sermon: Breathing, mourning, humility, hunger and thirst...basic needs and emotions. Driving forces of life that occupy you until satisfied or resolved. Now imagine wanting righteousness so much that you pursue nothing else until it is satisfied, that you pursue it like a driving force of life.  Keep in mind that Jesus was not trying to teach people how to rightly live, He was trying to teach them how to rightly relate to God.  We should pursue righteousness not to earn God's favor, but because of who He is.  There are two paths  when pursuing righteousness. One is to pursue righteousness through my own effort. The other is to pursue the righteousness found in Jesus.  The righteousness we pursue in Jesus is not mere behavior change. It is the pursuit of the one whose sacrifice provided righteousness, the one

Scripture "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."   Matthew 5:5 Blessed  (Fortunate) are the  meek  (humble), for they  shall inherit  (will obtain through inheritance)  the earth  (from among those of the earth). TAKE AWAYS This is a great passage for those who preach the prosperity gospel, if you don't mind ignoring the life and message of Jesus. He is not talking about material possessions here. Blessed , yes, but in peace and contentment rather than in stuff, even good stuff! Translating it as "fortunate" also conveys the idea that it is not our effort that is bringing this about, but it is God's.  Also, translating  meek  as "humble" seems appropriate.  Often when we think of the idea of meek, we connect it to weakness. I don't think we need to be weak to be meek or humble, in fact, I believe it takes great strength to be humble.  Jesus has so much to say about humility. He was humble. ( Matthew 21:5 ) I don't ever se

Scripture "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."   Matthew 5:4 Take Aways The question is, what is being mourned? I think you have to go back to the previous verse for the answer. If a good interpretation of 5:3 could be, "Fortunate are those who are begging for breath, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs," then perhaps this indicates what is being mourned. Conversion requires repentance, not just an acknowledgment that God exists. It is a change of heart, a change of life, not just a desire to be fixed or healed. Those who are desperate for a change are most apt to truly embrace it.  It is not enough just to want change, you must embrace it.  This, in my opinion, is where the mourning comes in.  So what exactly are we mourning? I am not sure, but I have some thoughts. First, perhaps we are mourning the time we wasted in our previous way of life. Not that I believe that Jesus would promote the idea of living in past regret, but I think a certain

Scripture “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."   Matthew 5:3 Take Aways Blessed can also be interpreted as  happy  or  fortunate Poor literally means a  beggar , one who lacks all Spirit is the Greek word  pneuma  which we interpret as air, or a breath. So a more literal translation could be  "Fortunate are those who are begging for breath, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." APPLICATION I believe that what Jesus is talking about here is that those in the most desperate need are the ones that are the most likely to earnestly reach out to God.  Throughout this sermon and His ministry, Jesus will point to the idea that He did not come for the righteous, but for sinners. In fact, He did not even come for those who are somewhat okay. He came to seek and save the lost ( Luke 19:10 ), to heal those in need of a physician ( Mark 2:17 ), and to gather even one lost sheep ( Luke 15:1-7 ). Jesus came to bring redemption from Hell. He came for t

Scripture And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:   Matthew 5:2 TAKE AWAYS It should not be surprising that religion had been diverted from God's intent by the time Jesus came. This started all the way back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sought to pursue their own knowledge rather than to trust God alone.  Yes, Jesus came to give His life as a sacrifice for our sins, but that would have been an incomplete sacrifice had it not been accompanied by teaching us what it means to love and worship God  as God would have us do.   Whether it be the religious leaders of Jesus' day, or some of the leaders of today, there is only one place we can be assured of finding truth, and that is in the words of Jesus.  APPLICATION Just because someone has a title or a position of authority does not mean that they speak for Jesus. There are a variety of reasons people are in error. Some are sincere in their beliefs, but sincerity does not guarantee truth.  Our truth needs to align