Righteousness isn’t celebrated in our culture. We don’t give awards for meekness or being poor in spirit. However, these virtues are celebrated in heaven, where our true citizenship lies. Remember from week one, when we said there is a flow to the Beatitudes? We must go through this process of growth before we can arrive at being persecuted without acting in our human nature.

Key points

1. What’s Celebrated in Heaven? Jesus said: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). Blessed are the poor in spirit.

2. Human Nature versus the New Spiritual Nature. We find Jesus, we grow in the authority of His teaching, and His atoning work at Calvary saves us. We experience the promise of the Faith, and we receive the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. We follow the flow of the beatitudes and are now positioned to receive persecution without acting in the flesh.

3. The two “Blessed Are’s” That Result from Spiritual Growth Also Come with Promise: The first blessing of persecution is for doing right spiritually. The promise is that we will receive the kingdom of heaven. Second, after salvation, we can be persecuted for receiving Jesus. The promise is that when we are persecuted for Jesus’ sake, our reward is great in heaven.

Main Text

Matthew 5:1-12 (ESV)