Daily Devotional For Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Good morning everyone and it’s Terrific Tuesday and I pray your day goes well. Yesterday, we began looking at the most famous sermon ever – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount, as recorded in Matthew 5, 6, & 7. If you read the devotional for yesterday, it set up the context for Jesus’ sermon. Today, we will start looking at what is called “The Beatitudes” in Matthew 5:3-12. We will do this by doing one a day until we look at all of them over the next few days. The first Beatitude is found in Matthew 5:3, where Jesus says this: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (NASB).

Jesus begins all the Beatitudes the same way with the word “Blessed.” Let’s take some time to put this word in its proper context. This is the Greek New Testament word [μακάριος, makarios]. It means ‘happy, fortunate, blissful. “Blessed” or “blessedness” in the Bible is a term that is characteristically used to refer to God and we get to share in God’s blessedness as we share in God’s nature. So, contrary to liberal or progressive theology, Jesus right up front limits such blessedness to only genuine redeemed believers. This is not a promise just to anyone. This is not for people who are good, loving, kind and honorable. These promises, these Beatitudes, are only for the redeemed. 

There is no blessedness, no joy which Jesus promises here apart from a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. So we do not get the wrong understanding here, what Jesus promises here is not some superficial, temporary sense of happiness based on circumstances. What Jesus calls “blessed” here is a peace or contentment that is produced miraculously by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This “blessedness” is only for a life that is right with God due to a regenerative transformation of one’s soul, not of one’s social status.

Pastor and author John MacArthur writes this:

“The Beatitudes seem paradoxical. The conditions and their corresponding blessings do not seem to match. By normal human standards such things as humility, mourning, desire for righteousness, mercy, and persecution are not the stuff of which happiness is made. To the natural man, and to the immature or carnal Christian, such happiness sounds like misery with another name. As one commentator has observed, it is much as if Jesus went into the great display window of life and changed all the price tags.

In a way, happiness is misery with another name; Jesus has changed the price tags. He teaches that misery endured for the right purpose and in the right way is the key to happiness. That basic principle summarizes the Beatitudes. The world says, “Happy are the rich, the noble, the successful, the macho, the glamorous, the popular, the famous, the aggressive.” But the message from the King does not fit the world’s standards, because His kingdom is not of this world but of heaven. His way to happiness, which is the only way to true happiness, is by a much different route . . .

That is exactly the philosophy of the world: things satisfy. Acquiring things brings happiness, achieving things brings meaning, doing things brings satisfaction . . . Jesus came to announce that the tree of happiness cannot grow in a cursed earth. Earthly things cannot bring even lasting earthly happiness, much less eternal happiness. “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed,” Jesus warned; “for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Physical things simply cannot touch the soul, the inner person.

It should be pointed out that the opposite is also true: spiritual things cannot satisfy physical needs. When someone is hungry he needs food, not a lecture on grace. When he is hurt he needs medical attention, not moral advice. True spiritual concern for such people will express itself first of all in providing for their physical needs. “Whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). But the more common danger is trying to meet almost every need with physical things. That philosophy is as futile as it is unscriptural” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” pp. 142-143).

To go back to the Puritan day, Puritan Thomas Watson wrote this:

“The things of the world will no more keep out trouble of spirit, than a paper sconce will keep out a bullet. . . . Worldly delights are winged. They may be compared to a flock of birds in the garden, that stay a little while, but when you come near to them they take their flight and are gone. So ‘riches make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven’” (Source: quotes in the The Banner of Truth, “Beatitudes,” p. 27).

This is the warning to God to us in Proverbs 23:4-5, "Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. (5) When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens” (NASB). To those health and wealth teachers/preachers of our day, Jesus refutes them in the Beatitudes. To seek joy, happiness, pleasure through possessions, wealth, money, power, position etc, is to substitute these as an idol. Jesus makes it clear in the Sermon On The Mount what we are to seek first and foremost in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (NASB). Literally in the Greek text Jesus says, “Continually seek God’s kingdom . . .” This is not a one time thing we do at conversion, but it is what we consistently do every day all day.

To expect happiness from material things is similar to do what the angels said to the woman on Easter morning in Luke 24:5b,  “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” (NASB). This is why the Apostle Paul tells us what he does in Colossians 3:1-2, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (2) Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (ESV). The genuine and authentic  blessedness Jesus promises in the Beatitudes is not of this world. To experience the kind of blessedness Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes comes not from self-centeredness and selfishness, but from self-denial and selflessness. 

No one can experience the blessedness Jesus promises without having Jesus in them. The blessedness Jesus talks about is not about promises, but instead probabilities. Each Beatitude is the opposite of woe and misery. The blessed life is represented by righteousness whereas the unblessed life is represented by a curse.The Beatitudes are what scholars call progressive, one leads and builds on the next one. Each comes in the right succession, something we will see as we look at each one individually. 

A genuine redeemed person who has each of these Beatitudes will be so far above the world that his or her life will truly rebuke the world, thus bringing ridicule and persecution. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 5:10-12, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (11) Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. (12) Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (ESV).

I close with these words from pastor and author Chuck Swindoll:

“The Greek word usually translated “blessed”—makarios—doesn’t have a precise English equivalent and has thus been rendered by numerous roughly synonymous words: “fortunate,” “contented,” “blissful,” “privileged,” “peaceful,” “serene,” “joyful,” “happy,” and “blessed.” We might define it as “an inward contentment or abiding joy unaffected by outer circumstances.” The Beatitudes are pronouncements, not possibilities. They are statements of celebration, like the worshipful psalms or parts of the Wisdom Literature, not commands, like the Law of Moses dictated from Mount Sinai” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament, “Matthew 1-15, Vol. 1A, p. 87).

Questions To Consider

1. When you read or hear the word “blessed,” what comes to your mind and why?
2. Jesus draws a distinction in the Beatitudes. What possibilities are only possible to not just a church goer, or someone serving in their church? It is only possible to those who are genuinely redeemed and transformed into a new creation by Jesus Christ. What makes what Jesus states as “possibilities” different from what the world does?
3. In Matthew 8:20, Jesus said this, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (ESV). Jesus was dirt poor even though He was God in human flesh – the Owner of the whole universe and everything in it. Jesus never condemns wealth but condemns seeking it over the kingdom of God. How does this put you personally in conflict with the world’s standard and how are you different?
4. In the August 8, 2024 devotional, I dealt with those health/wealth teachers/preachers who equate wealth and health to God’s purpose and will for us. To equal health and wealth to the kingdom of God is to not only make an idol of such things but is an attempt to lower God to our American dream of capitalism and prosperity. The Beatitudes are not about having material possessions, but apply to those who possess the Holy Spirit living in them seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousnes in every area of their life all day long. What is most challenging to you personally to do this and why?
5. As stated above, the Beatitudes are not promises, but probabilities. What is the difference and what differences does this make for you and why? We can have the possibility of seeking possessions, positions, power, a passion or a person and even our pets over God’s kingdom. Which is it for you and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. (17) And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I know You are not against wealth or material things, but I admit it is so hard because in my American culture, I am inundated with the temptation to seek material things over Your kingdom. Being content over being a capitalist is challenging for me. Please forgive me and help me seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness over everything and anyone. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!-- Pastor Kelly