City-on-a-Hill's video: Blessed Matthew 5:1-12

Pastor Guy Mason preaching on Matthew 5:1-12. The kingdom of heaven is a compelling one. The word repeated throughout the beatitudes is ‘blessed’, or makarios. To the Greeks, this meant inner contentment and joy so great that philosophers like Aristotle were convinced only the gods could truly enjoy it. The kingdom of heaven is radically counter-cultural. The world celebrates sin, but Jesus calls us to mourn our sin. The world says to hunger for success and pride, but Jesus says to hunger for righteousness. We learn that the first four beatitudes are inner attitudes to describe a Christian’s relationship with God, whilst the final four flow out from that relationship with God into the relationship we have with others. The kingdom of heaven centres on Christ. In every beatitude, Jesus is giving a vision of himself. The point of the beatitudes is that we cannot do anything on our own, but be poor in spirit and ask for Christ to live in us so we can live like him. Jesus took on our curse to become our blessing, and was raised to life for our justification. Jesus didn’t come to give us another fix, or provide a set of moral guidelines, but to make us completely whole and one with himself.