Words for the Wise, The Beatitudes Matthew 5 New International Version

Matthew 5 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount

5 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.

Salt and light

13 ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 ‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The fulfilment of the law

17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Murder

21 ‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, “Raca,”[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23 ‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

25 ‘Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Adultery

27 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.”[e] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Divorce

31 ‘It has been said, “Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.”[f] 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Oaths

33 ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not break your oath, but fulfil to the Lord the oaths you have made.” 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply “Yes,” or “No”; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.[g]

Eye for eye

38 ‘You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.”[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for enemies

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbour[i] and hate your enemy.” 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The Bible Panorama

Matthew 5

V 1–12: DESCRIPTION The progressive blessings of a heart in fellowship with God are reflected in the inner qualities shown in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. These ‘blessed’ sayings are known as the Beatitudes.

V 13–16: DIFFERENCE The Christian should be to the world what salt is to food and what light is to darkness—much needed and distinctively different.

V 17–20: DESTRUCTION The whole of God’s Word, in the smallest detail, will endure after the destruction of the heavens and the earth as we know them. God’s law is our guide to entering the kingdom of heaven. The righteousness of mere religious observance, like that of the Pharisees, cannot give entry to it.

 V 21–26: DANGER Those whose sinful and unrepentant hearts reveal their anger and hatred for others, even for those who are close enough to be brothers, are in grave danger of judgement and hell. Bringing a gift to God is no substitute. Repentance will produce a desire to be reconciled to the person offended. Judgement is the only alternative to repentance.

 V 27–30: DRASTIC In our personal fight against sin, drastic action is called for, emphasised here through striking illustrations. This involves self-denial, and recognising that, in the eyes of God, hatred and anger in the heart count as murder, and lust counts as adultery.

 V 31–32: DIVORCE Jesus teaches the permanence of the marriage bond, which He teaches can only be broken in the case of marital unfaithfulness.

 V 33–37: DIRECTNESS Our language and conduct must be such that we need not invoke oaths to make people believe we are telling the truth.

 V 38–48: DOING A Christian must always do good to others, even when he can insist on an enforceable legal right and even when enemies oppose him. His generosity will evidence his desire to follow God’s directions, as far as possible. His perfect heavenly Father is his standard.

Dictionary of Bible Themes

1620 beatitudes, the

The blessings pronounced by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount on those whose lives exhibit particular characteristics or qualities. These contrast sharply with popular values and outlooks.

The poor in spirit

Mt 5:3 pp Lk 6:20 See also Ps 69:32-33; Isa 61:1; Mt 23:12; Lk 18:9-14

Those who mourn

Mt 5:4 pp Lk 6:21 See also Ps 51:17; Isa 57:18-21; Isa 61:1-3; Jer 31:13; Rev 7:17; Rev 21:4

The meek

Mt 5:5 See also Ps 37:11; Zep 3:11-12; Mt 11:29

Those who hunger after righteousness

Mt 5:6 pp Lk 6:21 See also Isa 55:1-2; Mt 6:33; 2Ti 2:22; 1Pe 3:12

The merciful

Mt 5:7 See also Ex 34:6-7; Da 9:9; Mt 6:12 pp Lk 11:4; Mt 6:14-15; Mt 18:21-35; Lk 6:36; Jas 2:13

The pure in heart

Mt 5:8 See also Ps 24:3-5; Ps 51:10; Ps 73:1; 1Jn 3:2-3

The peacemakers

Mt 5:9 See also Ps 34:14; Mt 5:44-45; Ro 12:18; Ro 14:19; 2Ti 2:22; Jas 3:17-18

The righteous who suffer persecution

Mt 5:10-12 pp Lk 6:22 See also Jn 15:18-21; 2Ti 3:10-12; Jas 1:12; 1Pe 3:14,17; 1Pe 4:12-16

Question: What are the Beatitudes?

A Study of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount

The beatitudes come from the opening verses of the famous Sermon on the Mount delivered by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 5:3-12. Here Jesus states several blessings, each beginning with the phrase, "Blessed are ..." (Similar declarations appear in Jesus' Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6:20-23.) Each saying speaks of a blessing or "divine favor" bestowed upon a person resulting from the possession of a certain character quality.

Answer:

The word "beatitude" comes from the Latin beatitudo, meaning "blessedness." The phrase "blessed are" in each of the beatitudes implies a current state of happiness or well-being. The expression held powerful meaning of "divine joy and perfect happiness" to the people of the day. In other words, Jesus was saying "divinely happy and fortunate are" those who possess these inward qualities. While speaking of a current "blessedness," each pronouncement also promises a future reward.

 Am I Blessed Like This?

Blessed are . . . —Matthew 5:3-11

When we first read the statements of Jesus, they seem wonderfully simple and unstartling, and they sink unnoticed into our subconscious minds. For instance, the Beatitudes initially seem to be merely soothing and beautiful precepts for overly spiritual and seemingly useless people, but of very little practical use in the rigid, fast-paced workdays of the world in which we live. We soon find, however, that the Beatitudes contain the “dynamite” of the Holy Spirit. And they “explode” when the circumstances of our lives cause them to do so. When the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance one of the Beatitudes, we say, “What a startling statement that is!” Then we must decide whether or not we will accept the tremendous spiritual upheaval that will be produced in our circumstances if we obey His words. That is the way the Spirit of God works. We do not need to be born again to apply the Sermon on the Mount literally. The literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is as easy as child’s play. But the interpretation by the Spirit of God as He applies our Lord’s statements to our circumstances is the strict and difficult work of a saint.

The teachings of Jesus are all out of proportion when compared to our natural way of looking at things, and they come to us initially with astonishing discomfort. We gradually have to conform our walk and conversation to the precepts of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit applies them to our circumstances. The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations— it is a picture of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having His unhindered way with us.

Oswald Chambers .  My Utmost for His Highest.

How oil's become the world's most potent weapon. Daily Mail

How oil's become the world's most potent weapon: Forget nuclear arms. The U.S. and Saudis are behind an oil price crash that could topple regimes in Russia and Iran

1.      Price of oil has fallen dramatically - down by nearly half in six months

2.    The collapse in price means it is cheaper to fill up your car at the pumps

3.     But has sparked fiscal crisis that threatens to shift global power balance

4.    U.S. and Saudi Arabia are using market slump to wreak havoc on enemies

5.     While Russia - which depends on a bouyant price - is on the edge of crisis

6.     Most pressing issue for Britain is the fate of oil industry in North Sea basin

From Russia to America, and from Scotland to the Middle East, the dramatic fall in the price of oil — down by nearly half in six months — has sparked an economic crisis that threatens to shift the global balance of power in dramatic fashion.

As Russia teeters on the edge of crisis, America and Saudi Arabia are using the depressed oil market to wreak havoc on enemies such as Iran. The repercussions are being felt closer to home, too, with the North Sea oil industry described as being close to collapse.

The good news is that it’s cheaper to fill up your car at the pumps, but what does it mean for Britain’s national security?

Here, the Economist magazine’s Energy Editor EDWARD LUCAS offers a simple guide to these deeply turbulent times.

Read more here

The Light Before Christmas: Silent Night (Christ the Saviour is Born) pe...

Kingdom Evangelism, Biblical Church Growth

I had the privilege of being raised in a Christian home and being part of a Christian family, I remember spending a lot of time with my Grandmother,  in the latter years of her life, and she used to tell me stories of her early Christian Life, she told me one story out of many that impacted me greatly,  in the 1930’s my great grandmother took my Grandmother and one of her Sisters to hear the Evangelist George Jefferies in Swansea, both my Gran and her sister had issues with their eyesight, and both were healed at the meeting held by George Jefferies.

My mum’s parents Frank &  Mildred Whitton were both Christians and very involved in their local church in Resolven, my dad David was not raised in a Christian family, and had contacts at a local Church in Pontardawe; through them he went to hear Billy Graham in Swansea in 1958, where he became a Christian. My Mum, Alison, became a Christian as a child.

Throughout my Christian Life, I’ve seen and have been part of many evangelistic outreaches and strategies, I remember being an eager and enthusiastic teenager and being part of an evangelism team in Bradford, and seeing God save people and lives being changed by the Good News of the Gospel, my dad was part of an evangelism team in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, I used to go with my dad, I think I was more of a team mascot than part of that team but I loved being part of both teams.

For many years,  Church Growth here in the United Kingdom has been mostly transfer growth where people leave one church and join another church, transfer growth can be successful it also can be unsuccessful,  I’m not going to say something positive or negative about transfer growth, this is not the purpose of this post,  for many churches, evangelism is done through the spectrum of the Alpha Course and similar courses,  I think Alpha is great, but evangelism isn’t spelt alpha, alpha can be part of an evangelism outreach programme but it isn’t the entirety of an evangelism outreach programme/strategy.  Some transfer growth can be due because there is more freedom  for the Holy Spirit to move amongest us in some Churches.

There have been countless evangelistic programmes/strategies some have been successful and many have been unsuccessful, we invent strategies and ask God to bless our strategies, and we wonder why they don’t work or fail our expectations, we read books attend conferences on evangelism, research evangelism yet we don’t do any evangelism or reluctantly evangelise.

 We have superstar or celebrity Christians who bring evangelistic outreaches to our towns and cities, we pray that evangelist a will come to our town, then countless people will be saved,  when this doesn’t happens we pray for evangelist b to come, and this cycle repeats itself for years and sometimes decades. Yet while we sit in our comfortable pews, playing our self-indulgent games, people are going to a lost and Christ less Eternity, The Lord hasn’t called us His Church to be full of active and committed spectators rather he has called us and is calling us to be active and committed participants in His Great Commission.

Matthew 28:18-20 New American Standard Bible.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

 Mark 16:15ff New American Standard Bible.

¹⁵ And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. ¹⁷ These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

I have often wondered, why here in the United Kingdom, our evangelistic outreaches/programmes/strategies have either failed, or are less effective than we hoped or dreamed, is our message the same Gospel Jesus preached or is it either a watered down or wishy washy presentation of The Gospel?

What Gospel did Jesus preach ?

Matthew 4:22-24 New American Standard Bible

23 Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people 24 The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.

See a breakdown of The Gospel of The Kingdom here

[Official Video] Angels We Have Heard On High - Pentatonix

[Official Video] Mary, Did You Know? - Pentatonix

A Penguin called Jack

Post by Royal Navy.

Silent Night

Silent Night.

Silent Night, Pentatonix

When I was in Junior School in the late 1970’s, my teacher Mr Keller because a number of the boys including myself all were interested in the Military and either played Soldiers or played with Action Man or similar toys,  told us the Story of the Christmas Truce of 1914, when it came to our School Christmas Play that particular year,  he decided that we would do the Christmas Truce,  he divided us into British and German Soldiers and we performed a play based on the Christmas Truce.

Although I was playing a British Soldier, and had to learn While Shepherds Watched,  we all had to learn Silent Night too,  Christmas is special and one of the things that make it special too me is Silent Night.

A History of Silent Night.

Silent Night

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz Xaver Gruber, painted by Sebastian Stief (1846)

"Silent Night" (German: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in March 2011. The song has been recorded by a large number of singers from every music genre.

Contents 

1 History

2 Translations

History

Silent Night Memorial Chapel in Oberndorf

The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village on the Salzach river. The young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had already written the lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as a coadjutor.

The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.[1] Both performed the carol during the mass on the night of December 24.

The original manuscript has been lost. However a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers at ca. 1820. It shows that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting.

Translations

In 1859, the Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, then serving at Trinity Church, New York City, published the English translation that is most frequently sung today.[2] The version of the melody that is generally used today is a slow, meditative lullaby, differing slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.

The carol has been translated into about 140 languages.[3][4]

The song was sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops during the Christmas truce[5] of 1914 during World War I, as it was one carol that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.

Since that time in the 1970’s,  although I’ve listened to it numerous times ij the years that have passed since then,  without a doubt I would say that Silent Night is my all-time favourite Christmas Carol,   no other song speaks to me as powerfully about the message of Christmas than this Carol,  there are many great Christmas songs since as a White Christmas and  less great Christmas songs such as The Fairytale of New York.

Silent Night Lyrics

Silent night, Holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant, tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, Holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth
Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Silent night, Holy night
Shepherds quake, at the sight
Glories stream from heaven above
Heavenly, hosts sing Hallelujah.
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born.

Silent Night (Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht)