Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to be Blessed | New Testament | Matthew 5

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

What leads to a blessed life? Do your values align more with the world's or with Jesus's? Do you have to earn God's blessings? What do God's blessings look like? In today's episode, Jensen reads the beatitudes in Matthew 5 and discusses the differences in the blessed life according to the world and according to Jesus. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in 2023. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Matthew 5

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. So as Jesus' ministry continues to grow, he finds himself surrounded by large crowds that continue to grow as he heals and teaches of the kingdom of God. And Matthew chapter 5 opens with one of these instances of Jesus beginning to teach on the kingdom of God. You're probably familiar with this particular sermon. It's often referred to as the sermon on the mount. This sermon is an authoritative sermon from Jesus, the Messiah, and it's given to his disciples to teach them what a life lived

for the kingdom of God will look like. And he begins his sermon by laying out instructions, instructions that shed light on what life in the kingdom of God is like. You could say he's laying the foundation of his kingdom's values in this first section of his sermon. Hopefully you're reading along with us because chapter 5 has so much more to offer than just these first 12 verses. But for today, we're going to focus in on these kingdom values, oftentimes referred to as the beatitudes. verse 2. And 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 satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure and 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 theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Now, if you've been around the church long enough, this most likely isn't

your first time hearing these phrases. And because of this, they probably seem familiar to you, maybe even so familiar that you don't think twice about them as you read them. I know I have that experience when I come upon these verses. But when Jesus first spoke these verses, they were challenging and shocking even. And if we open our eyes and hearts to really hear what he's saying today, I think we'll find ourselves similarly challenged. I was recently in a Bible study where the teacher asked us to rewrite the beatitudes from the perspective of our 21st century modern thought.

We had to fill in the blank. Blessed are the blank, for they shall blank. My list looked a little bit like this. Blessed are the wealthy, for they shall live comfortable lives. Blessed are the successful, for they shall receive praise from others. Blessed are the funny, for they shall have many friends. Blessed are the famous, for they have made a name for themselves. Blessed are those who put themselves first, for they will follow their dreams.

names. Blessed are the retired, for they can relax and enjoy life. Blessed are those in power because they have control of their own lives. You get the point, and you can probably think of your own. If you were to sit down and write out beatitudes that reflected modern thought, I think you find that your list would look a lot like mine and a lot less like Jesus's. That's because Jesus' kingdom values show us a way of living that is completely opposite to what we think will lead us to a blessed life. It's a different way of living, but one that brings true life. So let's look back at what Jesus says in these verses. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So first, we have to cut away at what we might start to think of

when we hear blessed. Oftentimes, blessed is equated with wealth, health, happiness, comfort in our modern world. But Jesus knows that to be truly blessed is the goodness and richness and fullness of life that comes from being in a state of right relationship with God. So blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who recognize their need for God because through repentance theirs is the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. See, we see in Jesus' kingdom that we have to humbly recognize our need, our inability, our deficiency when it comes to living a holy life, because only in that recognition can we reach out and hold tightly to Jesus who makes a way for us to enter into His kingdom.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. In a similar vein here, those who mourn over their sin, who mourn over the brokenness and fallenness of our world, will find comfort in a God who promises to redeem and restore all things. We are able to be in right relationship with God, to be blessed when we can rightly see and mourn our sin. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. This is a far cry from our culture's call to be strong, capable, and powerful, to speak your truth, to defend yourself, to cut down your enemy and thought. Jesus says that it is the meek, the gentle who are blessed.

who will inherit the earth. The mark of someone living by kingdom values is that they no longer feel the need to fight for, defend, or assert their own agendas on the people around them, because they trust in God. They know that he is in control, and so they don't have to fight to be heard. They can live a life of gentleness and still inherit the earth through faith in Jesus and the hope of His coming kingdom. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Not blessed are those who accomplish their dreams, hunger for success, hunger to win, but who hunger for righteousness.

Our world tells us that satisfaction comes from fulfilling your dreams, winning, attaining the good life. If I just get that thing, then, then I will be satisfied. I've told myself that lie a thousand times. And guess what? It's quite literally never worked out. Jesus gives us another way of living. To seek after righteousness, to long for God's righteousness to rule on earth in the hearts of all people. We can only find satisfaction in living the life we were created to live, alongside Christ, building his kingdom in our lives. and spreading it to the lives of those around us.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. I don't know about you, but sometimes the war cry of cancel culture can feel suffocating and stifling. It seems like there's no place for grace, mercy, or forgiveness in our modern world, and anything except perfection and conformity to popular thought is unacceptable. But in Jesus' kingdom, his disciples are called to mercy, and in return they will find mercy given to them. It is a kingdom not built to assert your own agenda or dominate others or show them that you are better than them, but one to generously give forgiveness and receive it in turn. Jesus's kingdom is like a breath of fresh air, allowing his people to live kind and generous lives,

not plagued by the need to always execute their own unforgiving version of justice. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Goody Two Shoes, prude, the good girl. You've heard someone called these things once or twice in your life, I'm sure. When I hear those phrases, I think of the song from Greece, when Sandy is being, mocked because she won't give up her virginity. Won't go to bed till I'm legally wed. Why, yes, I'm Sandra D. A classic. But it shines a light on a common occurrence in our culture, the mockery of those who live by a certain moral code. Maybe you faced this kind of criticism before, being mocked for not drinking, not having sex, not swearing, not cutting corners at work,

or not watching pornography. My friend was telling me the other day that his boss, and coworkers tricked him into going to a Hooters equivalent for his birthday, because they knew he had a moral conviction not to go to places like that. They thought it was hilarious when they walked him into the building. They didn't take his moral conviction seriously. They found them childish and naive. Now our world has always been a long way off from the holiness required by God, but Jesus is calling his disciples to pursue purity in every area of life. life. We don't do it to earn anything from God, but because our Creator made us to live in a way that brings flourishing and healing and peace to our lives. Jesus has already paid the price to allow us

to be seen as righteousness, and now we joyfully seek after purity in our life because we know that this is the way we are created to live, whether we have the approval of others or not. Blessed are the pure and heart for they shall see God. When we have a right view of who we are and who God is, we can see that that is a far greater gift than fitting into the world around us or indulging in our sinful desires. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. When we seek out peace in our lives and the lives of others,

rather than fighting to prove ourselves right or defend our honor, we are called sons of God, because we will look more and more like our Father, who is the Creator and giver of all peace. Those in God's kingdom know that they are secure in Christ, and they no longer feel the need to win, but to find joy in bringing peace and hope to a world that desperately needs it. And finally, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

These final instructions for Jesus bring home a central point behind each and every one of the beatitude. I oftentimes feel blessed when people like me, and when I don't face opposition or persecution or people who hate me and speak evil against me falsely. See, when those kinds of things happen, I don't feel blessed. I feel hurt and angry and bitter. But Jesus is calling out my disordered way of seeing the world. See, when we are persecuted, when we are reviled and spoken falsely of on the account of our faith, it shows a dedication to Christ above all other things in this world. It reveals that we know that standing firm in faith, living an upside down life, choosing to live by kingdom values, not worldly values, is the best thing for us.

Rather than be bitter, angry, and hurt when we face persecution, we're called to rejoice. Rejoice because although we face difficulty right now, we have to be bitter, have a far greater reward waiting for us in God's kingdom. Jesus sets the tone in these first 12 verses of chapter 5 for the rest of the sermon on the mount. He's laid out a way of living that is countercultural, that can seem crazy and backwards, but that is full of the goodness and richness of life. Jesus' kingdom is not the one we would expect. It isn't the one that we would build for ourselves, it isn't an easy kingdom to build, but it is the only one that lasts for all eternity. Rather than spending our lives trying to keep up with the ever-changing, exhausting, empty values

of our modern world, my hope is that we would find rest in the upside-down kingdom values that he lays out for his disciples, because his kingdom is the only kingdom that can produce real biblical blessing in our lives. Thanks for listening. If you haven't heard already, we've created a plan to help you read through the New Testament this year. This New Testament reading plan is the same one that we're going to be using on 10-minute Bible talks, so you can read a chapter at home and then listen to an episode on the chapter that you just read. The link to the PDF is in the show notes.