The Eight Blessings Of Christ To True Believers

STUDY TEXT:  Mathew 5:1-16

MEMORY VERSE: Acts. 3:26. “Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

INTRODUCTION

Now that you have evangelized, you have repented of your sins and has confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, and you have been baptized (Matthew. 3:16 “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire”). Acts. 10:47 “Can any men forbid water, that these should not be baptized “Act 3:19-26 vs 20 “And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you” And vs 26 And having raised Jesus up from the dead, sent Him to bless you. He Sent Him to bear witness of the truth, sent Him to seek and save lost souls, sent him against the enemies of the cross, to conquer them. He sent Him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He was to be preached to all nations, but they must begin at Jerusalem Lk. 24:47. He sent them to you first to bless you, not to condemn you as you deserve, but to justify you. If you will accept of the justification offered to you, you will become blessed, but if you refuse or reject that justification, He will send Him to curse you with a curse (Malachi. 4:5-6).

It is by Christ that God sends a blessing unto us and through Christ only can we expect to be saved and become a blessing (Isaiah. 44:3).
We must understand as a born again Christian that the great blessing wherewith Christ came to bless us with, was the turning of us away from our iniquities, the saving of us from our sins. Matthew. 1:21 “…He shall save His people from their sins”. This is the essence of the Gospel, to turn us from sin that we may be qualified to receive all His other blessings.
Sin is that to which man naturally claques and the design of the divine grace in Christ is to turn us from sin and against sin, that we may not only forsake it, but also hate it.

Therefore, we must all do our part, repent and be converted because Jesus Christ is ready and available to do His part, in turning us from our iniquities and therefore leaving us a blessing.

OUTLINE

1. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. (Matthew. 5:1-16)
   Christians have come to call this Christ’s teaching, Sermon on the Mount, since Jesus gave this teaching on a mountain. Christ preached this sermon which was an exposition of the law on a mountain, because upon a mountain the law was given and this here is another promulgation of Christian law let us note the difference: when the law was given, the law came down upon a mountain then He spoke in thunder and lighting and the people were ordered to keep their distance from the mountain. But here, they were invited to draw near to the mountain what a blessed change. God’s grace and goodness are His glory, then the glory of the gospel is the glory that excels, for grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 and Hebrews 12:18-24.
2. Matthew. 5:3-12, Christ begins His sermon with blessings, tor He came into the World to bless Us, as the great High Priest of our profession, just as the blessed father Abraham in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. Genesis 12:2-3. He came not only to purchase blessings for us, but to pour out and pronounce blessings upon us, His pronouncing us happy makes us so, for those whom He blesses are blessed indeed.
   The Old Testament ended with a curse Malachi. 4:6, the good news on the other hand begins with a blessing, “for hereunto are we called, that we should inherit the blessing“.
3. Each of the blessings that Christ pronounces in this sermon has a double intention:
   • To show who they are that are to be accounted truly happy.
   • What true happiness consists by the promises it makes to persons of certain character.

The general nature and opinion are that blessed are they that are rich, and great and honorable in the society, they spend their days in happiness and their years in pleasure (Psalm 10:6).

• Now our Lord Jesus has come to Correct this fundamental error and give us the proper notion of blessedness and blessed people. If this, therefore, be the beginning of Christ’s doctrine, the Christian practice must take his measures of happiness from this doctrine and directs all its pursuits in life accordingly.
• This is to further remove the discouragement of the weak and the poor who receive the gospel, by assuring them that His gospel is not designed to make only those who are eminent happy, but that even those who are least in the kingdom of heaven, whose hearts are right with God are made happy in honors and privileges of the kingdom.
• lt is designed to invite Souls to Christ and to make by this doctrine into their hearts and it was made at the beginning of His Ministry to prepare the new believers for what He has in store for them. To remind us of Mount Gerizim and Mourt Ebal, on which the blessings and curses of the law were read Duet 27: 12-13. There the curses were expressed and the blessings only implied, but here, the blessings were expressed and the curses implied. In both, life and death are set before us, but the law appeared more as a ministration of death to deter us from sin, and the gospel as a dispensation of life to draw and attract us to Christ, in whom alone all good is to be received. All those that have seen or experienced the gracious cures done in His hand Mt. 4:23-24 and have now heard the gracious words season with salt coming out of His mouth will agree that He is full of love and sweetness.
• The scope of the gospel is to let us know the divine revelation so that we can understand what God expects from us and what we may then expect from Him in return and nowhere is this more fully set forth than here in the sermon on the mountain. It is to be understood that from him and by him, we are to receive both the seed and the fruit, both the grace required, and the grace promised.

Our Saviour here gives us eight characters of blessed people which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. On each of them a present blessing is pronounced, Blessed are they and to each of them a future blessing is promised, which signifies the grace, and the duty recommended to access them.