Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Blessed - Luke 6:17-26

We are continuing our series in the Gospel of Luke called the Orderly Account of

Truth. Sorry, I got thrown off. Either I'm getting taller or the

TV shrunk. Please God to let me get taller. Oh I can't handle

it. Okay, yeah, Orderly Account of Truth. Well, we are

examining Luke's account of the Gospel the life, death and Resurrection of our Lord

Jesus. Luke did a very careful, detailed investigation into the eyewitnesses of Jesus's

life, death and resurrection. And last week we looked at how Jesus spent

an entire night evening till morning before in prayer to the Father before deciding which

of the twelve of his disciples were then promoted to the office of apostle,

where they were to be his emissaries and ambassadors throughout the area and in the

church. We looked at who those twelve men were and some of what they

accomplished for Christ and his church. And today we're looking at a sermon Jesus

gave shortly after choosing these twelve men, and the sermon is commonly known as

the Beatitudes. In his sermon, Jesus spoke about what true blessings look like

compared to what the world calls blessings. And so my sermon is appropriately titled

hashtag blest, hashtag blest. So we're going to be reading in chapter six,

verses seventeen through twenty six. If you'll turn there with me, and

if you need a Bible, we have some on the table back there.

It's yours to keep. Let's read through the passage. Then we'll pray,

and we'll talk about everything that Jesus taught. So after he selected his twelve

apostles, he went down with them and stood on a level place. A

large crowd of his disciples was there, and a great number of people from

all over Judea, from Druz, and from the coastal region around Tyr and

Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to

touch him because power was coming from him and healing them all. Looking at

his disciples, he said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours

is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you

will be satisfied Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you,

and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice

in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.

For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. But woe to you

who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you

who are well fed now, for you you will go hungry. Woe to

you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you

when everyone speaks well of you, For that is how their ancestors treated the

false prophets. Let's pray, Lord, I thank you for your word today,

the words in your holy scriptures. I asked that they would pierce us

and change us. Help us to trust in them, to learn from them,

and to apply the teachings of the Sun to our lives every day.

We love you, Amen. All right, Let's reread through the first handful

of verses again just to get an understanding of who Jesus was preaching to.

He went down with them his apostles, and stood on a level place a

large crowd of his disciples was there, and a great number of people from

all over Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coastal region around Tyr and Sidon

who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those

troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him

because power was coming from him and healing them all. After Jesus chose his

twelve apostles, he stands on a level place to receive, heal, and

teach a great multitude of people that traveled many miles from all over the area

to be healed by him. Many that came to see Jesus were afflicted with

illnesses or diseases, and as we saw somewhere, troubled by impure spirits or

demons were all healed. As we see many times in Loose Gospel, Jesus

is constantly being surrounded by people that are in need. And while his ultimate

reason for being on the earth was to tell the people to repent for God's

kingdom was near, Jesus took the time to heal those that came before him.

He didn't brush them off. My first point or question for us today

is who am I brushing off? Who am I brushing off? Are we

making ourselves available to those in need? Not only are brothers and sisters in

the church, but our neighbors. Are we making ourselves available? Are we

looking for opportunities to support one another, to support our neighbors. Are we

looking for opportunities to be there when they need someone? Or are we brushing

them off because we're too busy? Or are we avoiding those opportunities altogether because

we feel nervous or awkward? Who am I brushing off? If any of

those examples hit home for you, I I want you to ask yourself this

question. Who better to be there for the person in need than someone that

knows and can demonstrate real love, love in action, a christ like love.

Who better to be there for those persons in need than the people that

Jesus called to do so? After healing many people with diseases and casting out

demons, Jesus looks to his disciples and begins to give this sermon. Let's

look at the beginning of it. Look in at his disciples. He said,

blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger, now, for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep, now, for you will laugh. A first

glance, we might read this and think, how can someone who is poor,

hungry, and weeping be considered or consider themselves as blessed? How can

someone rejoice when they're in that state. It's obviously hard to consider rejoicing when

you're struggling financially, when you're hungry, when you're weeping because of a real

hurt you've experienced, or just the hurt of the world, let alone call

yourself blessed. So what is Jesus saying? Then? What is he teaching

when Jesus calls the poor, hungry and weeping blest. Jesus isn't teaching what

the world would consider to be blessed, not then and not now. Think

about it. If we think of the word blessed only through our worldview,

only through what we see on social media every day, on every television channel,

on adversement, that's advertisement advertisement, British advertisement, that's shoved down our

throats. If we look at the word blessed only through that lens and not

through what scripture tells us means it starts to make sense. I think the

list looks something like this. Blessed through a worldview means money, financial security,

Money buys you happiness, right status, how you're viewed, how you're

looked at, how your thought of position in a company. Food. Yeah,

I hear that for food, being well fed. And listen, every

one of us in this room are rich compared to the people that Jesus was

preaching to, and compared to most of the world's population. A house,

a house for your car, technology, having the latest and greatest phone or

tablet, computer, whatever it is, being well liked, easygoing lifestyle,

and for all you kids, toys and this. This lists only a few

of the things we consider that the world that the world would consider to be

blessed. If you looked at someone, I think most of us in this

room could say, we have these things by the grace of God. We

have these things, we are given these things, and we enjoy these things.

And from the world's point of view, this would mean we are blessed.

But when we look at what Jesus says blessed means, we find that

all of these things by themselves miss the point entirely. They missed the point

of what a true blessing is. Now, don't misunderstand me. All of

these things money, food, a house to live in, technology, these

things are beneficial. They are helpful. They're not bad in and of themselves.

They are certainly blessings from the Father, and we should thank God for

blessing us with them. Before the unbeliever, the term blessed is only represented

in this list. For the unbeliever or the forgetful Christian, blessed simply means

fortunate and happy. That's all it means. But according to Jesus, the

true meaning of bless implies so much more than fortunate and happy. According to

Jesus, and for the believer to know and to remember it means this being

hashtag blessed means enjoying the unmerited favor of God. It means enjoying the unmarriage

did favor of God. If we look all the way back to the first

chapter of Luke, we find what's called Mary's song. We see when we

see that she proclaims a good and right understanding of the unmerited favor of God.

Let's go there and read it. And Mary said, my soul glorifies

the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he

has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on,

all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things

for me. Holy is his name. Before being chosen by God to carry

and give birth to our Lord Jesus, Mary was a poor, lowly girl

according to society's standard. According to the worldview, she didn't have great wealth

or status. When the angel Gabriel visited her, he didn't give her that

status or wealth. He delivered a message of blessed salvation to her and told

her that she was about to be used by God to bring about his plan

and purposes. God's favor towards Mary was unmerited. She did nothing to earn

it, nor does she deserve it. None of us deserve God's unmerited favor.

And Mary, in her song rightly attributes this true blessing, this act

of unmerited favor, and responds in the best way possible by praising God for

it. So our next point is this, Enjoy God's unmerited favor and always

praise him for it. Enjoy God's unmarried favor and always praise him for it.

Let's look at what Jesus said again at the beginning of his sermon.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are

you who weep, now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you who

are poor, For yours is the kingdom of God. In James Chapter two,

verse five, James wrote this, Listen, my dear brothers and sisters,

has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world

to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom of God? Excuse me

to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him. Now, what James

is not saying is that all poor people are chosen to inherit his kingdom.

Being poor doesn't qualify you qualifiers. It's God's choice, and scripture doesn't teach

that. When we consider God's unmerited blessings and his gift of unmerited blessed salvation,

we understand that what James is saying is that those chosen by God and

who are also poor are seen only one way in the eyes of the world

and seen entirely different in the eyes of God. God sees us through his

son Jesus. God sees us as redeemed adopted children that are rich with faith

of his promised kingdom. My next one is this, God's promise of salvation

means that even if we're poor, we are rich in faith. Even if

we're poor, we are rich in faith. This is why Jesus is teaching

that the poor are blessed because the kingdom of God is promised to them.

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. And blessed

are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Whether we are poor,

hungry, or weeping. Because of Jesus' finished work on the cross,

where God's promise of salvation was completed, we can call ourselves blessed. Let's

continue in verse twenty two through twenty three. Blessed are you when people hate

you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil

because of the son of man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,

because great is your reward in heaven, For that is how their ancestors

treated the prophets. When people hate you exclude, you reject you, you

are blessed? What how? Why? Well? You have to pay attention

to this clause here. There's a clause here because of the Son of Man,

because of the Son of Man. If we're being hated, rejected,

and excluded because of our faith in the risen Son of Man, we are

blessed. This will feel like suffering. Yes, this will feel like great

hardship. Yes, it'll feel like persecution. Yes, but when we remember

who we suffer for, who we are persecuted for, we can rejoice in

that blessed persecution. Reverend Jeremy Walker explained it like this in one of his

table talk articles about suffering. Christian suffering is distinctive. It arises from our

union and association with Christ. It lies in those pressures, pains, and

persecutions that follow when we cling to the name of and walk in the way

of the Lord. Such trials and tribulations and connection with the Savior are honorable

and profitable. The apostle Peter also spoke about our suffering for Christ in his

first book, I Should Say Puss. Peter first spoke about it Reverend Jeremy

Walker's Just cop gat Cha four one Peter. He wrote, dear friends,

do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come to you, that

has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to

you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so

that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted

because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the spirit of

glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not

be as a murderer or thief, or any other kind of criminal, or

even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do

not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. Last week

we looked at the apostles of Jesus, Peter being one of them, and

how they lived this out exactly. All of them suffered persecution in life for

the sake of following our Lord, many to the point of martyrdom in excruciating

ways. But they did so with joy because they shared in the sufferings of

Jesus. In the Book of Acts, which is also written by Luke,

were showing an example of the apostles, rejoicing in the pure persecution that they

experienced by proclaiming the good news of Jesus, by being associated with him.

The apostles left the Sanhedrin the leaders of the Jewish community, rejoicing because they

had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. I'm gonna read that

again. They left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had counted they had been counted

worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Wow. Day after day in the

temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the

good news that Jesus is the Messiah. Praise God. It shouldn't come as

a surprise when we suffer or are persecuted for Christ's sake, or promised it.

Look what Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians. But whatever orgains

to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is

more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ,

Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I

consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. Not

having a righteousness in my own that comes from the law, but that which

is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God. On the

basis of faith, I want to know Christ, yes, to know the

power of his resurrection, and participation in his suffering, becoming like him in

his death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead, based

on what we've seen from Peter, from James, from Paul. My next

point, brothers and sisters, is this, to suffer for Jesus is promised.

To suffer well is our joy. To suffer for Jesus is promised.

But to suffer well is our joy. And there is no higher honor than

to serve and suffer well for our Lord. There is no higher honor.

In the last portion of Jesus' sermon, he closes his teaching with these warnings

or woes as they're called verse twenty four. But woe to you who are

rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are

well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh

now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks

well of you, For that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

The word woe is interesting because when you look at its use in the Old

Testament, it communicates a message of doom. While those who know the truth

of the Gospel may be poor, hungry, sorrowful, and experience hate on

account of following Jesus. Jesus gives a strong warning of woe or doom for

those that rely on their own achievements and worldly blessings that don't see that they're

living in a state of spiritual poverty. And its parable about the rich man

and a beggar named Lazarus found in Luke chapter sixteen. Jesus shows us how

empty, temporary, and meaningless worldly blessings are when someone relies on them.

Only let's read it. There was a rich man who was dressed in purple

and fine linen and lived in luxury. Every day. At his gate was

laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell

from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

The time came when the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's

side. The rich man also died and was buried in Hades, where he

was in torment. He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by

his side. So he called to him, Father, Abraham, have pity

on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and

cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. But Abraham

replied, son, remember that in your lifetime you receive your good things,

while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here and you are

in agony. While the baggar experienced poverty, pain and suffering in life,

he found his true treasure in God's kingdom by Abraham's side. Because of God's

mercy and grace, the beggar was giving a true and everlasting blessing, founding

God's presence. The rich man, however, while he was wealthy and comfortable

in life, he found that all that wealth, all that luxury, was

only dust. It's fleeting and temporary. He was relying on and resting in

his worldly possessions instead of God, and like Jesus said in our text,

today, he received his consolation. Do you see the comparison in these two

sections of Jesus Scripture. Jesus sermon a believing begar is hungry on earth but

filled in God's kingdom. An unbelieving rich man is filled on earth, but

empty and tormented and death. A believing begar may weep on earth, but

then lives in the joyful presence of the everlasting God. An unbelieving rich man

is joyful on earth, but then mourns and weeps in hades or shoal,

awaiting eternal judgment and hell. A believing begar may be hated and rejected on

earth, but is welcomed and accepted God's loving embrace in his perfect kingdom,

while an unbelieving rich man may be spoken well of on earth, but it's

all meaningless. Avery gets it. It's okay, embrace it everyone, and

this is family service. Also want to point out the ends of each of

these sections. In verse twenty three, after speaking of being hated on the

account of the Son of Man, Jesus says, rejoice in that day and

leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven, for that is

how their ancestors treated the prophets. And then when Jesus delivers warning, he

says, woe to you who when everyone speaks well of you, for that

is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. I think it's very easy to

when you are speaking or doing things that makes the world happy, you're going

to get a lot of praise. When we speak or do things in the

name of our Lord, you're going to get a lot of hate. But

rejoice in that hate. When the false prophets spoke things that were not of

God, they were treated well. When the true prophets of God that were

sent to speak the truth of His word, the truth of the word given

to them, they were rejected, they were hated. So if you are

rejected and hated in Christ's name, you're doing something right. Gotta get the

band come up. So what do we do with this teaching from Jesus.

What's our application? First, if you have not submitted to Jesus as Lord

and savior, don't wait. The Bible says that if you confess with your

mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus's Lord, you will be saved.

And that's all it takes. He is the true blessing, and through knowing

him and living for him, we know that true and everlasting blessing. Don't

ignore Jesus's warnings of the doom and woe of relying on the false, temporary,

fleeting, worldly blessings. They won't save you. Only He can.

For the believer, our application is this, Rejoice in your suffering. We

are promised suffering. We are promised to be hated. On account of our

belief. We will experience sorrow on this earth. We may be poor and

hungry, but because of God's unmerited mercy and favor, we can rejoice because

sharing in Christ's suffering makes us more like him. We are promised paradise with

him. We are promised that in Him we are and will be filled.

It's in Christ that we find our joy, our everlasting salvation, our true

blessing. So rejoice and rely on Him.