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1) Happiness
is Spiritual & only found in God
- (Study
Resource: The Bible Exposition
Commentary:
New Testament)
a) First
off happiness
is only found in the things of
God (MT
6:33)! Happiness
is not worldly
(1Co
3:18-19, Titus
2:12-13)
or carnal
(Romans
8:7),
it is spiritual, so let us not
remain
spiritually immature but
be spiritually mature in the
faith (Hebrews
5:12-14)
! We
are not
allowed to covet, we are
to be content with our wages as
Jesus Christ told the centurion
soldier
(LK
3:14).
BUT
REMEMBER friends
that the Old Testament did
contain material blessings, BUT
THE NEW
TESTAMENT through Jesus
Christ contains spiritual
blessings instead. This is
another thing that is
completely
different as compared to the Old
Testament.
b) What
Does Bless Mean? - Secondly what
does the word Bless actually
mean? For example if our
Lord Jesus Christ says bless you
my friend. What does he really
mean? Or what did Jacob mean
when
he blessed Isaac? Or when
God said those who blesses
Israel will be blessed? Or when
God told
Abraham that all nations will be blessed by him?
Now lets look at the definition
of the word "BLESS"
of what it does mean.
Easton's Bible
Dictionary - Bless —
(1.)
God blesses his people when he
bestows on them some gift
temporal or spiritual (Genesis
1:22;
24:35; Job 42:12; Psalms
45:2; 104:24,35).
(2.)
We bless God when we thank him
for his mercies (Psalms
103:1,2; 145:1,2).
(3.)
A man blesses himself when he
invokes God's blessing (Isaiah
65:16),
or rejoices in God's
goodness to him (Deuteronomy
29:19; Psalms 49:18).
(4.)
One blesses another when he
expresses good wishes or offers
prayer to God for his welfare
(Genesis
24:60; 31:55; 1 Samuel 2:20).
Sometimes blessings were uttered
under divine inspiration,
as in the case of Noah, Isaac, Jacob,
and Moses (Genesis
9:26,27; 27:28,29,40; 48:15-20;
49:1-28;
Deuteronomy 33:1).
The priests were divinely
authorized to bless the people (Deuteronomy
10:8;
Numbers 6:22-27).
We have many examples of
apostolic benediction (2
Corinthians 13:14;
Ephesians
6:23,24; 2 Thessalonians
3:16,18; Hebrews 13:20,21; 1
Peter 5:10,11).
(5.)
Among the Jews in their
thank-offerings the master of
the feast took a cup of wine in
his hand, and
after having
blessed God for it and for other
mercies then enjoyed, handed it
to his guests, who all
partook
of it. Psalms
116:13 refers
to this custom. It is also
alluded to in 1
Corinthians 10:16,
where
the apostle speaks of the
"cup of blessing."
2) Teaching
on The Beatitudes;
a) Matt
5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (LK 6:20)
To Be Humble & Correct Estimate
of Our Selves -
This is the believers to which
walks in humility,
that are
humble in spirit, realizing that
they are not deserving of
salvation, that they are
wretched by all
measures, and
that they only deserve hell
rather than heaven, and these
are those that does receive the
blessing of the new covenant (Salvation)
and will see the glory of God
revealed to them with his holy
truths that they will learn and
know. See Romans 12:3.
b) Matt 5:4 Blessed are those
who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
To Mourn over our Sin -
These are those who grieve over
their sinful condition, over
their lack of
spiritual life
because of their sins, their
weak flesh that has separated
them selves from the blessings
of
God, that holds back their
relationship from him. As Jesus
said; the flesh is weak, but the
spirit is willing. But those believers who mourn God will
bless them by comforting them,
and reinsuring them of his grace
& mercy, of their salvation. Its
all in our attitude, the way we
see our selves, our own sins.
Matthew
5:4-6
see Luke
18:9-14; Philippians 3:1-14.
c) Matt 5:5 Blessed are the
meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
Quietness & Mildness in Nature -
This is in no way means
weakness, as our Lord Jesus
Christ was
not weak , he was
meek, and meek in the dictionary
actually means a mildness, a
quietness in nature as
we all should be, and not be prideful
or arrogant to which is the
total opposite of "MEEK". So the
believers that has a mildness
and quietness of nature, they
will inherit the earth to which
actually means, our spiritual good, to be over comers of this
wicked world, to not give into
its lust and desires, or its
temperament as many people have
& do. So in a sense we have
conquered this world, i.e.
inherited it as far as not being
of this world even though we are
in this world. Its Greek
meaning is "power under control". See
Matthew 5:4-6, Numbers 12:3;
Matthew 11:29
d) Matt
5:6 Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
Desire Righteous Living &
Righteousness of God-
These believers will strongly
desire the things of
God, the
will of God and his Holy Ways.
They will also desire to live
pure, Holy and righteous lives
in
every way possible. They will
also have a deep longing to be
with God in Jesus Christ in his
eternal
dwelling. And those who
desire such things shall be
filled as being content in their
spiritual lives, in their every
day lives, they will not longer
desire the things of this wicked
world because of their desires
of righteousness and Holiness,
to where the affairs of this
world will no longer be of
importance to them.
e ) Matt
5:7 Blessed are the
merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
Show Mercy, Shall Receive Mercy -
These believers here are those
who shows mercy to others and
there are many ways of showing
mercy such as mercy to those who
sins against us, does us wrong,
or
showing mercy to the poor, to
the oppressed, to those who are
hurting, grieving and so on.
This is a
condition of the heart, the heart towards others
in their times of need, i.e.
compassion. And those who
shows
mercy WILL receive Mercy from
God, so IF we show mercy to
others, God himself will show
us
mercy as well to which we do not
deserve. See Ephesians
2:4-7, Acts 15:9.
f) Matt
5:8 Blessed are the
pure in heart, For they
shall see God.
Keep Your Heart Form Wickedness -
These believer must have a pure
heart, a undefiled heart (after
salvation), a heart that is not
corrupt, vengeful or full of
hate, a heart that do not love
violence, but must be a heart of
love, kindness, and seek the
good of others more than that of
their selves, they must not be
oppressive towards others or a
lack of compassion towards the
poor, the widow, the orphans, or
those who are in their times of
need, such as sorrow, depression
and so on. If they have a pure
heart they will see God, in
other words God will abide in
them, since those with a pure
heart abides in God, in Jesus
Christ. See Ephesians
2:4-7, Acts 15:9
g) Matt 5:9 Blessed are the
peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
Seek Peace with Others -
These believers seek peace, and
not debates, not strife or
divisions but
peace, in so that
unity among their families,
congregations, communities,
companies and even the
governments may be achieved.
These are not those who acts out
of rage nor anger without just
cause,
in their communications with others, even when others
may not be interested in making
peace, the
believer seeks the
good of the whole but only
according to Gods Holy Words and
his Holy Truths.
They are the
peace makers rather than causing
strife are called the sons of
God, the children of God,
they
are of God. See Ephesians
2:4-7, Acts 15:9, Romans 5:1.
h) Matt
5:10 Blessed are those
who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Blessed are They that are
persecuted -
Those that live for and serves
Jesus Christ, those who try to
live Godly lives, to share their
faith with others will be
persecuted in one form or
another, they will be
excluded, hated, and treated as if they
are holier than thy at least, if
not also called every dirty name
in
the book, kept from job
opportunities, thrown in prison
and so on. And they that are
persecuted will
achieve
salvation, "The Kingdom of God"
and God via Jesus Christ will
abide in them and they in him.(See Matthew 24:9, John 15:20, & 2 Timothy 3:12.).
i) Matt 5:11 "Blessed are you
when they revile and
persecute you, and say all kinds of
evil against
you falsely for My
sake. 12 Rejoice
and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward
in heaven, for so
they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Rejoice and be glad! -
These believers in Jesus Christ
that are hated by all nations,
even by your own
relatives and
family members because they
follow Jesus Christ and live
Holy lives and they shall be
blessed beyond imagination,
"Spiritually Blessed!". For they
persecuted the prophets, the
disciples the
apostles and Jesus
Christ as well, even more so
than us.
Those that follow Jesus Christ,
and does the will of God shall
be persecuted but great is their
rewards
"In
Heaven!" Jesus
Christ said be EXCEEDINGLY
GLAD, so friends they
rejoice in the Lord
because they
are counted worthy to suffer for
the name sake of Jesus Christ.
Peter was beaten and put
in
prison and yet
he rejoiced
because he was counted worthy to
suffer for the name sake of
Jesus Christ. |
The
Beatitudes, Gods Blessings? Our
Lord Jesus Christ teaches us the
true blessings