We all have a need for acceptance. In fact our self-concept is often determined by the approval or rejection of those around us, whether family, peers, business associates, fellow students or even Christian friends. We tend to do and say what we hope will win people’s favor.
Group Discussion. What kinds of things have you done to try to earn someone’s favor? Perhaps you can recall a humorous incident from your dating life or a way you tried to gain favor with a schoolteacher.
Personal Reflection. This tendency to try to earn favor often carries over into our relationship with God. What are some ways you have tried to earn God’s approval?
The first four beatitudes deal with our relationship with God. Being right with God on the inside shows up on the outside in how we treat people. If we are right with God, the fifth beatitude will be the natural result. Write it below (Matthew 5:7):
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
There are tremendous benefits of being merciful. To understand these benefits, we must answer three questions:
We live in a culture that craves satisfaction but never finds it. Even the rich and famous can't find satisfaction because they are trying to find it in all the wrong places. How does Jesus explain how we can find satisfaction in Matthew 5:6?
A "journey into blessed living" requires we become poor in spirit and recognize our spiritual poverty. Next, we must mourn over our sin. Then, we must become meek and submit to the lordship of Christ. When we let Jesus Christ be the Lord, or Master, of our lives, we will naturally hunger and thirst after righteousness. To do that requires three things...
A "journey into blessed living" requires a series of steps. The first step requires we become poor in spirit, which means we come to understand, in God's sight, we are all spiritual beggars, totally destitute of the righteousness required to enter heaven. The second step is to mourn over our sin. Mourning is the emotional response to the intellectual knowledge of our spiritual poverty and sin. How does Jesus sum up the third step in Matthew 5:5?
Did you know you must mourn to have a blessed life? It is the second step on a "journey into blessed living." In our last lesson we discovered the first step is to become poor, or a beggar, in spirit, which means we must first acknowledge our spiritual poverty. The second step for finding lasting happiness is found in Matthew 5:4.
The Beatitudes are one of the best known portiotns of Scripture because they tell us how to have a blessed, happy life. We live in a very unhappy world. Someone has said, "Unhappiness is not knowing what you really want and working yourself to death to get it." Blessed living is knowing what you want and that you don't have to work for it and you can't buy it, because it is a gift of grace from a loving God. The first step on a "journey into blessed living" is understanding what statement of Jesus in Matthew 5:3?
In the previous lesson we saw God change Peter's prejudice toward Gentiles through his encounter with Cornelius. Now, the explosive growth of the church, even among Gentiles, brings fierce opposition from King Herod Agrippa I, who begins to arrest some who belonged to the church (12:1). This Herod is the brother of Herodias (wife of Herod Antipas), who was responsible for having John the Baptist beheaded (Mk 6:17-28). Herod Agrippa is also the grandson of Herod the Great, who reigned over Judea at the time of Christ's birth. In an attempt to kill the baby Jesus, Herod the Great ordered all boys, two years of age and younger, in Bethlehem and its vicinity to be killed (Mt 2:1-18). Herod Agrippa was part Jewish and had a good relationship with the Jews. However, now that the chief persecutor of the church, Saul, has converted to the other side, Herod takes Saul's place as persecutor of the church. To keep his good relationship with the Jews, what does Herod do, according to Acts 12:2?
