The eighth and final defining characteristic of those who have truly entered the kingdom of heaven, what we have come to know commonly as the Beatitudes, is persecution. But not just any persecution, persecution because of righteousness, and persecution because of me, Jesus says. That is persecution that is the direct result of the godliness and Christlikeness of our lives. That’s an important distinction. A great deal of what passes today for Christian persecution may be more about our lack of those qualities than it is about either righteousness or him. Hostility that is the direct result of our lack of wisdom, or lack of love, or lack of Christ-like graces like meekness and mercy. Or even worse, hostility that is a direct response to our hostility. This morning we’ll turn our attention to understanding this key marker of authentic Christian faith, in Matthew 5:10-12, in a message entitled “The Blessing of True Spiritual Persecution”.

In our journey through the Beatitudes we come to the penultimate characteristic of those who have entered the kingdom of heaven, and as a result, are living that reality here and now.  It is the consummation of all of the other Beatitudes.  All of the others are prerequisite to this one, and all of the others have their desired purpose and end result in this one.  It is the goal of all kingdom living.  It is the characteristic most needed in our world today, and yet at the same time, it is the one that seems the very most elusive.  And not least among those who claim to be God’s children. This morning we turn to one of the most needed and urgent words for our times, about the characteristic that should be core to all who have entered the kingdom of heaven, in Matthew 5:9, in a message entitled “The Blessing of True Spiritual Peace”.

God places the highest premium upon truth and truthfulness. Falsehood and deceit are among some of the sins he most abhors. In the list of the seven things that God hates in Proverbs 6:16-19, no less than three of the seven concern an assault on truth and truthfulness, “a lying tongue”, “a heart that devises wicked schemes” and “a false witness who pours out lies”. Hypocrisy, living untruthfully, was the target of some of Jesus’s fiercest criticisms. And yet, we live in a time and place in which concern for truth and truthfulness has never seemed at a lower ebb. Given that, it might come as a complete surprise, to some at least, that Jesus made a direct correlation between the summum bonum of the Christian life, that is to see God, and the essential need for personal truthfulness. This morning we turn to one of the most significant statements in all of scripture, Matthew 5:8, in a message entitled “The Blessing of True Spiritual Purity”.

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that the word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword, judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb. 4:12). Nowhere is that scalpel more searching or revealing than in the laser-focused words of Jesus known to us as the Beatitudes. They are – to an examination of the spiritual life – the equivalent of taking a house down to the studs. An opportunity to see what we’re really made of below the surface of our familiar practices and assumed beliefs. We turn now from the four characteristics concerning our relationship to God to the four concerning our relationship with others, beginning with the first and foundational characteristic, in Matthew 5:7, in a message entitled “The Blessing of True Spiritual Mercy”.

It’s hard to imagine a spiritual quality more out of step with our culture than the quality of spiritual meekness or gentleness. It is the complete antithesis of self-assertiveness, the secular virtue considered most important to any chance of success in our highly competitive world. And yet Jesus identified it as one of the foundational characteristics of kingdom living. How can we know, let alone live and demonstrate a quality so completely counterintuitive to the values and practices of everything and everyone around us? This morning we’ll turn to the scriptures for an answer to that important question, beginning with Matthew 5:5, in a message entitled, “The Blessing of True Spiritual Gentleness”.

We’ve tapped the brakes in our series on the Sermon on the Mount.  The Beatitudes have caught our attention and caused us to slow down enough to be able to take in the full panorama of their meaning and purpose.  The foundational nature and spiritual significance of these eight qualities, describing what it actually means to enter and live in the kingdom of heaven, simply do not lend themselves to a brief drive-by. This morning we turn our attention to the second of those qualities from Matthew 5:4, in a message entitled, “The Blessing of True Spiritual Sorrow”.  Again, we’ll consider what this particular quality actually describes and how it is made true and lived out in each one of our lives.

In our introduction to the Beatitudes, we learned that the characteristics Jesus describes don’t refer to eight distinct different groups of disciples, but are the eight characteristics that are true at one and the same time of all who are his disciples. And that this is not a description of a spiritually elite class of Christians, but rather a description of all who have truly entered the kingdom of heaven. This morning we’ll drill down on the first four of those Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-6 in a message entitled, “A New Set of Values: Part II”. We’ll consider what these qualities and characteristics actually mean. And how are they actually developed, made true and lived out in each one of our lives.

What does it mean to actually enter the kingdom of heaven? What does it mean to live our lives under the rule and reign of Christ, here and now? Given that his kingdom is here – and truly among us? As we’ll see this morning, the values, standards, beliefs, and behaviors that govern all who truly submit to his rule and reign, were like nothing that had ever been seen or heard before. They completely stood on end both the secular and traditional, liberal and conservative values of his day. Jesus begins with a set of eight foundational principles for kingdom living that have come to be known as the Beatitudes. In Matthew 5:3-6 we’ll take a close look at the first four of those principles in a message entitled, “A New Set of Values: Part I”.

During the first days of his public ministry, as large crowds were just beginning to follow him, Jesus slipped away to a remote and quiet place on a hillside. A small group of his earliest disciples came to him, and there seated before them, Jesus delivered one of the most foundational and consequential messages in all of scripture. Known to us as the Sermon on the Mount. As we’ll see, it is nothing less than a manifesto on the values and standards, beliefs, and behaviors that govern all who truly submit to his rule and reign. In Matthew 5:1, 2 we’ll be introduced to that timely and much-needed message, in a sermon entitled, “A Primer on Kingdom Living”.