Join us as Pastor David begins a new 8 part series from the greatest sermon ever preached - the sermon on the mount.    Matthew 5:1-3

Join us as Pastor David begins a new 8 part series from the greatest sermon ever preached - the sermon on the mount. Matthew 5:1-3

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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

The Beatitudes

David Shin

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Blessed Are They that Mourn

Blessed are the Meek

Blessed are Those Who Hunger for Righteousness

Blessed Are the Merciful

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Blessed Are the Persecuted

Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath, for blessing us with your presence.

We pray that you would inspire us with a new vision of Jesus and of the gospel.

We pray that the Holy Spirit would come, enlighten our minds, speak to our hearts.

May Jesus be uplifted and Christ be seen.

Today we begin an eight-part series of messages on the Beatitudes, and I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.

The Beatitudes are 9 blesseds at the beginning of the greatest sermon ever preached in history by Jesus.

The people were following Jesus up to a mountain.

Richard Davidson, professor of Old Testament at the seminary, says that he believes that he has found the place of the Sermon on the Mount, and he says it's an acoustically natural where the voice projects.

It's just an amazing thing that he indeed has found that spot.

Jesus is at the beginning of his ministry.

People believe that he's the Messiah to come to deliver them from the Romans, and he comes to this place and sits down.

The disciples are in the inner circle next to him.

And you could just picture this scene as Jesus opens his mouth and starts this all too familiar passage we know as the Beatitudes.

I want to read through the Beatitudes, make a few observations, and hone in on today's topic.

And seeing the multitude, he went up on the 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 the sons of God.

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

Blessed are you when they revile 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 persecuted they the prophets who were before you." The Sermon on the Mount continues all the way till chapter 7, and after this, the multitude are astounded.

They're stunned because they have never heard a man speak like this before.

When you study the Bible, it's important to just step back and make a few observations.

1 of the observations, when you look at this collection of blessings, are there are 9 blessings in rapid succession.

Scholars believe that there are actually 8 Beatitudes, not 9, because the eighth blessed and the ninth blessed are actually on the same theme.

It's an expansion of the eighth beatitude.

Jesus spends the majority, or the most time I should say, on the eighth beatitude.

It is a progression describing how we can become a citizen of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, the first Beatitude, and the last Beatitude, number 8.

Bless are the persecuted for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

They are the same promise, do you see that?

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Meaning, It doesn't matter where you are on the ladder of the Christian experience, whether you are beginning the Christian experience, or whether you are growing in grace and at the later reaches of the Christian experience, the promise is the same.

You are saved regardless of whether you've been a Christian for years, or whether you're just beginning.

Another interesting observation about these Beatitudes is the tense of the verbs.

The first and the last beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, is in the present tense.

The other beatitudes in between are in a different tense, Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

The other ones are a future reality, indicative of the notion that it doesn't matter, or I should say, that the Christian experience is a present reality of grace in our lives, but the future fulfillment is yet to come.

We are to experience the kingdom of grace now, but the future fulfillment is also a reality.

Jesus gives these blessings indicating how we are to become a citizen of God's kingdom.

Our focus this morning is, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now, this Beatitude is quite unique because Jesus uses an economic term the description of being poor To describe a certain condition that is a state of blessedness.

When I was in high school, I sold books as part of my work study program at the boarding academy I was in.

For 2 years of my high school experience, 20 hours every week, 5 days a week, 4 hours a day, I would knock on doors.

I would go to school in the morning and then pile into a 15-passenger van and we would be dropped off in the middle of nowhere in rural Arkansas.

I remember some of those streets, the canvassing leader would drop me off and say, hey just walk, just walk.

Go up these winding driveways out in the middle of nowhere.

In the summers, I would work 10 weeks in a different location, many times near a large city.

And this particular summer, I was in New Jersey.

And in canvassing terms there's different territories that we call them.

We call them the senior citizen territory.

It's this neighborhood that's a little bit older and it's a retirement community.

Then we have what we call sweet territory and this is territory where there's a lot of children and a new development that has not yet been entrenched.

They have not met a lot of people that are going door to door.

And I would notice something as I would go to the economically poor neighborhoods.

And many times, the majority of the time, the people in the economically poor neighborhoods, they would want whatever it is I was selling.

I would have these books and I would come to the door and they would open the door and say, hey, how you doing?

And many times have me come into their home, they would want to see everything that I had.

I would get excited, especially early on when I was selling books.

I would bring out all of the material, go through my whole impassioned canvassing spiel and say, these are the books and you can get them.

And then I would get to the price and I would see their face drop.

They wanted the books, the problem was, they didn't have the money.

And then my canvassing leader later on in the day would drop me off in another neighborhood that was quite different.

It was many times a gated community that somehow the canvassing leader would get me in, drop me off, and say, have your radio ready because if the police come, call me.

So I would go up and the lawns would be neatly manicured.

They would have a Bentley parked in the driveway.

I walk up to this grand Taj Mahal of a building and the door is solid oak, brass knobs.

I knock on the door and a distinguished gentleman with spectacles would come with his cashmere lined European slippers at the door.

He would come, open the door, very distinguished, and I would say, my name is David.

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Series

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Healer

59m

How to Grow Spiritually

Looking to Jesus

47m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

20 The Judgment Continued Phase 2

50m

Plenary

Pentecost Repeated

55m

Surety in the Last Days

1h 11m

Just Look

36m

Daniel Vis Weekend

02 Walking with God

35m

A Study in Hebrews

A Study in Hebrews 9: Once for All

32m

Plenary

The One Thing Jesus Can’t Give You

55m

Loss

41m

Faith and Works

42m

This Generation- 2

1h

Sound Doctrine