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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Hector Almanzar

The Beatitudes

Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing all of us here to worship you and to learn more about you.

Open our minds and help us understand the lessons that you have for us in the Bible, and help us to apply it in our lives.

When I went to college as an undergrad student, I took a class called Life and teaching of Jesus.

And this class was really important in my life because I learned a lot about Jesus.

I was born in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but until the time, until my college time, I was just following the church because my parents took me to.

I went to church, participated, and read my Bible.

But When I finally got to college, I was living far from my home.

So I needed to take my own decisions and start to grow my own spiritual walk.

So when I take this class, Life and Teaching on Jesus, I realize, wow, there's a lot of stuff that I thought I knew about Jesus but I actually don't know.

I mean, I knew the stories, I knew the parables, but to really understand him, to really have a connection with Jesus and to fall in love with him, I was still missing that.

So 1 of the books that I read was The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey.

That book is a great book, I recommend you reading it.

Part of what I read there was a chapter in the Beatitudes.

What a wonderful God, this is so radical.

And since then, I developed love for this topic, so every time I have the opportunity, I like to share it.

I thought the Beatitudes were really radical.

And I thought, were they radical for the people back that heard this sermon?

The Israelites were expecting a Messiah that will free them from the Romans.

But then Jesus comes and says, no, my kingdom is not like that.

My kingdom, in my kingdom, the first will be last and the last will be first.

In my kingdom, to be the greatest, you have to be the servant.

So the Jews that were listening to this, They were reading the stories of the Old Testament where the Israelites won battles and they were the most powerful, so that's why God was blessing them.

So they were expecting something like that, but Jesus was like, well, in my kingdom, blessed are the poor in spirit.

And now if we take the Beatitudes today for our daily life, still it is radical because when we think about the poor, when we think about those who hunger, we're not thinking necessarily that they are blessed, but in the kingdom of God, that is how it works.

So today I would like to share with you guys 3 aspects of the Beatitudes and how we can take lessons from there.

And in all, it's just to learn more about the character of Jesus and how much he loves us.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him.

Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for there is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, For great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Let's go ahead and read the other version of the Beatitudes in Luke.

And keep your fingers in both of those passages since we're gonna talk about them.

Then he lifted up his eyes toward his disciples and said, Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now, for yours shall laugh.

Blessed are you when men hate you and revile you and cast out your name as evil.

For the son of man's sake, for the son of man's sake, rejoice in that day and leap of joy, for indeed your reward is great in heaven.

For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

So when we read the Beatitudes, the first thing we notice is that it's talking about blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry.

So for people outside, I mean, the first time you read this, you will be like, but are they really blessed, the poor?

But the first thing I wanna talk is how there are actually promises that God is giving all of us that we can claim.

So when the verse is saying, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, it doesn't end there.

When it says, blessed are those who are poor, poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, it's a promise with the birth.

And this is powerful Because it's not another guy, another politician, that's saying, yes, I will take care of you.

It's the eternal God, which is so powerful, and so eternal, and so loving, that he's saying, in all of them, he's saying, you know what?

If you are weeping, if you are sorrow, you will be comforted.

If you are persecuted, don't worry, I will take care of you.

Because God is loving and even though right now the situation doesn't seem as good, He's telling us today, hey, I will take care of you.

This give us hope that even though our situation is not the best, it will get better.

This hope was the same 1 that carried through the slaves that came from Africa to North America and the Caribbean.

This is the same hope that carry through the martyrs and the disciples and the apostles, all of the people that died for the gospel Because they knew the Beatitudes and they knew, you know what, I'm actually blessed because God will provide.

Not only, not necessarily always now, but in the future, God will take care of me.

This say that our God is powerful, that He's actually listening to us.

He actually understands when you are poor.

When you are poor financially and poor in spirit.

When you are hungry literally and when you're hungry for righteousness.

This is the God that we serve, and he's telling us here, hey, you are blessed because even though you could be poor now, you could be hungry now, I will take care of you.

Now, the second thing, aspect of the Beatitudes is that they teach us how the kingdom of God actually works.

You see, as we were talking in the Sabbath school, our world, the kingdom of this world, it's based on the fad of materialism, as we discussed this morning.

It's based on the strongest is the 1 that is good.

The best looking, the 1 who has the most money.

If the Beatitudes were written with the mindset of the world, we'll say something like, blessed are those who have money because they don't have student loans.

Blessed are those who are always happy because they can cheer other people up.

Blessed are those who have strong character because they can get the things done their way.

However, when we go to the Bible we see that that's not how it works in the kingdom of God.

And this is interesting and it's also powerful because that means that we don't have to keep going for more and more and more because in the kingdom of God being the most powerful, the strongest, is not necessarily the most valuable thing.

However, if we look at the stories on the Bible and the people that caught the attention of Jesus, we will see other traits, other characteristics.

Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into their treasury, and many who were rich put in much.

Then 1 poor widow came and threw in 2 mites, which make a quadrants.

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The Beatitudes

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