Mat 5:1-12; Introduction to the Beatitudes – the Character of Every Christian.

Class Outline:

Thursday March 21, 2024

 

Introduction to the Beatitudes.

There is no sense in studying this Sermon unless you agree that the characteristics that Christ gives are what you must strive to be.

 

Beatitude characteristics:

Poor in spirit

Mourn

Meek

Thirst and hunger for righteousness

Merciful

Pure in heart

Peacemakers

Persecuted

Reviled, persecuted, lied about

 

1. The Beatitudes are the essential features and characteristics of the Christian man or woman.

 

Our Lord says that this kind of person has blessings upon his life and is truly happy.

 

Makarioi - blessings and favor on … the one and only source of happiness.

 

All Christians are to be like Christ.

 

2. All Christians are meant to manifest all of these characteristics.

Php 4:9.

 

We all are to manifest all of them, and it stands up to reason that each one of them implies the other.

 

3. Each characteristic is produced by grace in the born-again believer and the operation of the Holy Spirit.

None are natural.

 

4. Christ’s apprentice is clearly different in manner than those who are not.

1JO 2:15

 

We in the church must understand that there is to be a clear difference in the manner of the unbeliever from the believer. Greek and Roman philosophers and cultures admired the strong man, not the man poor in spirit. The Roman soldiers mocked Jesus as king of the Jews. To them, He was not sort of king at all. Little did they know who they were beating over the head, and for whom they made a crown of thorns (MAT 27:27-31).

 

5. The apprentice of Christ is the only person who truly knows their limitations.

 

We alone know what we cannot do (sinful and in pursuit of good things that we know have to come from the Lord).

 

6. The apprentice of Christ is a sojourner, alien in this world.

 

We are not only different in essence, but are living in two absolutely different worlds. You are members of the kingdom with the way of the kingdom in your grasp, COL 1:13; Php 3:20.

 

7. You cannot compromise the eternal kingdom with the ways and so-called truths of the kingdom you live in on earth, 2CO 6:14ff. 

 

One day there will be a new heaven and new earth where evil and the devil and the flesh will be entirely removed. Only righteousness, what we are to hunger and thirst for now, will be there. 2PE 3:10-18.

 

The Christian described by the Beatitudes worships Christ every day, throughout the day. There will come a time when everyone will bow the knee to Him, but now we are to do so voluntarily and joyfully, Php 2:10-11.