Sunday, we start a new sermon series titled The Good Life Amid Moral Crisis, from the eight short verses in Matthew five that comprise the Beatitudes. The beatitudes are the opening lines of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and like any good introduction they set the tone for the rest of what Jesus would say in the sermon. These verses are much more than eight simple, pithy sayings. The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ radical interpretation of the Mosaic Law and the Beatitudes are His thesis statement. That Jesus delivers this message on the side of a mountain is no accident. It draws our minds to the fact that Moses received the Law of God while on the side of a Mountain thus making a connection to that remarkable moment in the Old Testament. While the Beatitudes are not written as a law like those of the 10 Commandments, in the Beatitudes Jesus pulls the curtain back on all the Old Testament to reveal the moral under pinning’s of God’s law.  

Do you find that our world has become embroiled in what seems to be one crisis after another? Currently we are dealing with a lingering pandemic, abortion laws and women’s rights, mass shootings, political divide, a war in Ukraine, and inflation. One word is used to describe them all: CRISIS! While we all feel these crises personally, we can add to them our own personal crisis at any given time: relationship conflict in marriage, with children, neighbors, and co-workers. Crisis with our health, our finances, or our emotions. Trying to find the solution or the answer to all of these crises will leave you exhausted, frustrated and disillusioned. Humanism, the prevalent philosophy in society, says these crises can be solved by man. The reality is these crises have a moral nature at heart and unfortunately society’s morals keep changing which only add to the difficulty. We need to look for a moral foundation to find the answers to these issues.

The Beatitudes are the greatest moral document ever written. In them Jesus not only taught us moral values, but he lived the incarnate virtues that He calls us to live by. When I use the term “good life” as in the title of the sermon series, I’m not referring to possessions or prestige as the world uses that term. “Good Life” is a better description of the words “blessed” or “happy” in so many of our translations. The “good life” in God’s economy is living surrendered to His good and righteous standards, enjoying the good blessings that only God can provide. Over the next eight weeks we will consider one beatitude at a time, discovering how it is rooted in the Old Testament, what the New Testament elaborates about it and how it applies to us amid the chaos of our world.

An Assignment – The fact that the beatitudes are short and almost rhythmic tell us that they were designed to be committed to memory – and that is what we will do over the next eight week. We will memorize the beatitudes so we will always have these foundational moral values to always guide our lives.