Berlin Immanuel Church gathered on Sunday, January 7, starting a new series on the Beatitudes from Matthew 5:1-12. The precious teachings of Jesus that Matthew collected known as the sermon on the mount are a description of what every Christian is meant to be. These teachings are meant to be lived out as a lifestyle of those who were called into the Kingdom of heaven, through the power of the Kingdom. Matthew records the long sermon along with the miracles and healings Jesus performed to demonstrate that it is through the power of the Holy Spirit every believer can live that way. The teachings and healings of the ministry of Jesus are one unit that Matthew recorded in between two summaries of Jesus’s works, in Matthew 4:23 and Matthew 9:35.
Sunday Service: His Disciples Came to Him and He Began to Teach
The eight beatitudes in verses 3-10, which we will look at in depth in the upcoming weeks, are one unit – the first blessing and last one are worded the same, they speak to us in present tense of the true blessing and happiness found in fact that ours is the Kingdom of heaven. The six others, contained within are promises spoken in a future tense, but since we have been assured both at the beginning and at the end that we already are the citizens of heaven, we already taste the power of these promises in our present time, just to get the full experience of them in heaven. We already experience the mercy and comfort of God, but the time will come when God will wipe every tear and there will be no more death, crying or pain (Rev 21:4). Let us then embrace these blessings and live with the power of heaven that is already within us and among us and be transformed into the blessed citizens of heaven by the mercy and power of God.