01/21/2026
The Good News – A Journey of a Lifetime Volume 2 No 49
by MARCUS AMOS - The Beatitudes
Welcome to this week's The Good News – A Journey of a Lifetime Volume 2, No. 49.
This week our lesson comes from Jesus himself, and maybe one of the most important sermons he spoke of in the New Testament – The Beatitudes.
(Matthew 5:1-12 NIV)
Introduction to the
Sermon on the Mount
5:1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2 and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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If I were to ask you to tell me what what makes you happy, what would your answer be? Would it be something like "happiness is scoring the winning a brand new car or a million dollars" or "happiness is being the most popular person?"
We all want to be happy, don't we? Does it surprise you to know that God wants you to be happy? Well, he does, but you might be surprised to find out that what Jesus said about happiness is quite different from what you and I might expect. Most of us think that to be happy means having a lot of money, having plenty to eat, having someone to take care of us, or being well-liked by everyone. That isn't what Jesus said.
One day Jesus went up onto the side of a mountain. He sat down, gathered his disciples around him, and began to teach them about happiness. Even though these are not the exact words Jesus used, I think they will help us to understand what he taught.
You see, happiness is not a feeling that is brought about by the things that happen to us. It is an attitude that we have because of what we have in our heart. We need to be like the bee, buzzing happily through life because of what God has done for us.
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Did anyone catch that important word? The most important word in this section is the word BLESSED. Did anyone catch how many times the word blessed appeared in this passage?
The word blessed shows up nine times in these twelve verses. That means it is an important idea. Matthew 5:1-12 is known as the Beatitudes.
Beatitudes is an old, fancy word that means blessed. The Beatitudes are a list of blessings from God.
The Beatitudes start off a section in Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount. Chapters 5-7 of Matthew record many teachings, or words of Jesus. Chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew record many of his miracles, or the works of Jesus. This whole section, Matthew 5-9 paint a pretty good picture of who Jesus is, what he did, and how we can be more like him. The Beatitudes, or Blessings, are like an introduction to these chapters.
So what is a blessing? We use the word blessing a lot. We ask God to bless our family, bless us, we even say “bless you” when someone sneezes! When you ask people what blessing means, you may get a lot of different answers. Some people say having a home is a blessing. Others say their pets are blessings. Most everyone would agree that family is a blessing. Lots of people say a blessing is God’s love and peace in their lives.
Do you think these people, and your answers are right? Yes! It is a blessing to have a home, and a family, and pets, and friends, and food and toys, and getting to go to school, and having God’s love and peace in our lives. These things are all blessings. But being blessed means so much more than that.
Here’s a simple way to define what a blessing is: a blessing is God’s gift favor in our lives, even when we don’t deserve it. Because God loves us, he wants to give us good things.
Let’s look at Scripture to prove it. Turn a few pages in your Bible to Matthew 7: 9-11.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
As parents to their children, they feed their children, they teach their kids, they take their children to school, care for them when they are sick, play with them, hug them, and buy them things that they need and want. Parents give you good things out of love. Now in Matthew 7, Jesus is saying that if your mom and dad on earth love you that much, and they are imperfect sinners just like everyone else, how much more does our perfect heavenly Father love and care for us? God blesses us and gives us good gifts because he loves us.
Now let’s think about how that relates to our relationship with God. Do we always get what we pray for? Do we always get our way? No, we don’t. Matthew 7:11 says that our Father in heaven will give us good gifts when we ask him. There’s just one thing. God knows what a good gift is better than we do. Sometimes when we think of blessings, we think of stuff, like money or food or a house. These things can be blessings. We may think about health and family and friends when we think of blessings. These things can be blessings too. But what about people who don’t have homes? What about people who are sick and in the hospital? What about orphans who don’t have any family? Are these people not blessed? Has God forgotten about them?
We can be homeless, family-less, and in the hospital, and still be very, very blessed. In Psalm 29:11, “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.” When we follow Jesus, God strengthens us and gives us peace. We don’t have to have nice things or even be healthy to be blessed. We are blessed when God is with us, and God is with us, in our hearts, when we choose to love him and follow his commandments. Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.”
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Prayer: Dear Father, help us to have the happiness that you want for us. Happiness that comes, not from what happens to us, but from what happens inside of us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
