In this text we encounter words on the lips of Jesus that will likely surprise us even trouble us. He speaks about the Old Testament and its continuing role in the life of Christian faith. The key to understanding what exactly he is saying comes in the fact that Jesus fulfills all that we find in Gods written and revealed Word. When we grasp what Jesus is saying, we will be deeply encouraged and inspired as we follow Him as His disciples.

As we move from the Beatitudes with which the Sermon on the Mount begins into the sermon proper, we encounter an astounding claim on the lips of Jesus. He asserts something remarkable about the identity and vital role of his people in this dark and decaying world. As those changed by the good news, we engage in the world, influencing it for good and for God.

In this message we look at the eighth and final Beatitude with which Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps the most difficult of the eight to hear, Jesus asserts that those who are persecuted on account of Him are blessed. The hard truth that we are here confronted with is that following Jesus in a life of discipleship will mean opposition and pain but we are also reminded of the great, unshakable joy that awaits us. The promise of Jesus is that those who are persecuted on account of Him are also those who receive the kingdom of heaven.

As we approach Christmas, we want to take a close look at Mary, the young woman through whom Jesus came into the world. What we see in her is a wonderful example of surrendering to God, but more than that, we are pointed to the one she bore who came to redeem us from our sin and to empower us to live lives surrendered to Him too.

With the seventh Beatitude Jesus speaks to the dignified calling of the gospelized. Those who have heard and believed the good news are invited to participate in the divine work of making peace in a world that is broken and full of anger and division and violence. It is costly work and involves a cross but it leaves us looking like our Father in Heaven. That is the glorious promise.

The sixth Beatitude may not strike us as good news at least not initially. Blessed are the pure in heart? Is that even possible? Yet when we look more closely, we discover that what is here blessed, is produced in us by Jesus. And what is promised is utterly remarkable.

In this message we explore Jesus fifth Beatitude which centres on mercy. We encounter a number of important questions. What is mercy and why is mericifulness a mark of those in whom the gospel has taken root? Perhaps the most pressing question concerns what may sound like we earn mercy by first being merciful. Is that what Jesus is saying?

Nate Vedoya - Local church planter and Send City Missionary Nate Vedoya wasour guest speaker.

Here we come to the fourth Beatitude with which Jesus opens his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus speaks about a desperate craving that is produced in people when they hear and believe the gospel. They will begin hungering and thirsting for the healing and restoration of every broken relationship, between people and God, between people and other people, and even between people and the created realm. This hunger is for nothing less than the Shalom which God desires for the whole of His creation.

With the third Beatitude, Jesus challenges almost everything we assume about the way things work in the world. He pronounces as blessed those who are meek and promises that they are the ones who inherit the earth. When we look around it seems otherwise, that the strong and powerful get what they want. But meekness proves to be something quite different than what we might expect. It proves to be Gods means of changing everything!