Blessed Are - Week 1

Blessed Are 

“The Poor in Spirit..”

Matthew 4:17 

“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

An outline of the Sermon on the Mount is as follows: 

1. The Kingdom and Blessings (Matt. 5:1-16) 

2. The Kingdom and the Law (Matt. 5:17-48) 

3. The Kingdom and God (Matthew 6) 

4. The Kingdom and Others (Matthew 7:1-20) 

5. The Kingdom’s Foundation (Matthew 7:21-27)

Religion: Be righteous in order to be restored.

The Gospel: Be restored so that you may now be righteous. 

Matthew 5:1-3

“1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Who is the crowd that Jesus is speaking to? 

Matthew 4:25 

“And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.”

Matthew 5:1 

”Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.”

Matthew 5:1b-3

“…and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

We were under God and over creation

Isaiah 53:6a 

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.”

Romans 3:23 

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What can change our condition?  

Matthew 19:24 

“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Ephesians 2:1-10

“1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

So if you came into the church today and in the presence of God began to feel unworthy, good.. You might be close to the kingdom breaking out in your life. 

If you came in thinking I can't fix what I am, good you might be close to the kingdom of heaven.