New Kingdom Blessings

Background Scripture: Matthew 6–7
Lesson Scripture: Matthew 5:1–12

Introduction

When we get the feeling that there should be more blessings in Christian life than we are experiencing, let us consider our priorities. We can become so engrossed in the pursuit of things that we think will make us happy that we miss the real joy God wants to give us. As long as we seek happiness by our own efforts, it will remain a mirage just beyond our reach.

To be raised in a happy Christian home and to live in a land of peace, freedom, and prosperity are the blessings of God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17); however, the blessings of God are not a sign that He is pleased with our efforts to be good Christians.

Key Verse

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed (James 1:25).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

Jesus began His discourse by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This is the starting point for receiving any blessing from God. If we feel rich and satisfied, our hearts and minds will not be receptive to anything God wants to give us. When we are aware of emptiness in our hearts, we are prepared to receive the blessings of God.

Meekness allows us to accept whatever God permits without questioning or complaining. It allows us to accept criticism without trying to defend ourselves. The essence of meekness is the trust that God is near, even when we are assailed by the enemy. In surrendering everything in our lives to God’s providential care, we inherit God’s blessings both now and in the life to come.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” It is a daily effort to keep our hearts pure. Pure from envy, pride, lust, anger, resentment, and all the impurities that seek a hiding place in our hearts. If God seems distant or if we cannot see His hand or sense His love in our daily life, perhaps we need to search our hearts to see if we are hiding something from God.

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Pet. 4:12–13). We may think it strange when circumstances do not unfold in the way we thought they should. When this happens, perhaps a sense of entitlement is hindering us from experiencing the rich blessings of God.

Practical Truths for Today

While we have no trouble remembering that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace, we must also remember that longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are needed as well. The latter virtues may be more difficult to maintain; however, we cannot fragment the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22–24).

The Sermon on the Mount outlines the way to receive the blessings of God. We like the idea of being blessed of God, but we must accept that these blessings come on the condition that we deny ourselves. In self-denial, we must deny the lusts of the flesh as well as go against our natural instinct to protect ourselves.

We can drift into the superficial religion that some writers have called the “prosperity gospel.” This belief holds that physical well-being and financial success are always the will of God. Those following this way want the warm and pleasant things of Christianity but resist the difficult aspects, believing that they should not be part of Christian life. They read passages of the Bible with a wish to glean something to help them feel good about themselves and to inspire them to be good and kind to others. This fallacy passes for Christianity for too many people in North America. This belief does not satisfy the soul in the way that we can experience through a personal relationship with the living God.

A few years ago a Canadian pastor spoke to a large evangelical youth rally, using Psalm 84 as his text. At the end he asked them all to bow their heads and close their eyes. Then he asked if a relationship with God, such as David described in this Psalm, was better than anything else they could be doing. He repeated the question to be sure that they understood, and asked those who truly felt that way in their hearts to raise their hand. Out of the hundreds of young people present, three hands went up.

We are not immune to the influence of these permissive spirits around us. They can erode our faith in God if we become lukewarm in our devotion to Him.

David wrote, in Psalm 84:2, “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” This longing within us is the hunger and thirst after righteousness.

The promises in the Beatitudes reveal a life more fulfilling than anything the world has to offer. To be part of God’s kingdom, to be comforted and filled, to obtain mercy, and to see God are the abundant life.

John Newton, the writer of the song “Amazing Grace,” said, “I know not a better rule of reading the Scripture than to read it through from beginning to end; and when we have finished it once, to begin again. We shall meet with many passages hard to understand; but not as many in the second reading as in the first; and fewer in the third than in the second.”

May we read God’s Word for inspiration; it will not lead us astray. Other religious books should not be considered completely reliable. Contemporary Christian books from evangelical writers may convey biblical truths, but some contain false teachings. We must be careful not to accept anything that is not compatible with the Anabaptist faith.

We should not be looking to evangelical Protestantism for truth about how to deal with the temptations of this world, what it means to be poor in spirit, or what it means to be a humble Spirit-led Christian. For confirmation of our faith and interpretation of Scripture, we should look to the writings of our Anabaptist forefathers. They had a spiritual grasp of Bible doctrines developed under persecution. They knew what it was to love their enemies when they were reviled and persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ.

Illustration

Kim was a nine-year-old girl in the village of Tran Bang in South Vietnam. The war in her country became real to her when North Vietnamese soldiers destroyed her family’s home and occupied the Cao Dai temple where her family worshipped. On June 8, 1972, a South Vietnamese air force pilot mistook a group of children for North Vietnamese soldiers and dropped a napalm bomb on them. A news photographer took a picture of those children running down the road, and in the front is Kim, her clothes completely burned away by the napalm.

Kim and the other children were taken to a hospital in Saigon. Kim’s burns were so severe that the doctors thought she would not survive. After many surgeries and skin grafts to repair her badly burned back and left arm, Kim went on to finish school and enter university.

During those years she gave up the Cao Dai faith of her family, as it had no answers or relief to her emotional turmoil. She met a Christian Vietnamese pastor through one of her sisters and found the peace she was seeking through faith in Jesus Christ.

The photograph of those children running appeared in newspapers around the world, and Kim became a symbol of the horrors of war. When years later people learned that she had survived, many reporters from around the world wanted to interview her. That led to her being manipulated for several years by the communists in Vietnam. Kim did not understand the languages her words were supposedly translated into, yet she understood that her interpreters were not interpreting her words but were telling reporters the propaganda the officials wanted them to hear.

She acquired permission to go to Cuba to attend university and there met Toan, a Vietnamese man. In 1992 Toan and Kim were married and travelled to Moscow for their honeymoon. When the plane taking them back to Havana made a refueling stop at Gander, Newfoundland, they defected to Canada.

Though skin grafts and laser treatments have partially relieved her suffering, pain is still part of her daily life. Her parents would have nothing to do with her after she renounced Cao Dai. After many years, Kim’s happiness convinced them that she was serving a God with power that Cao Dai could never deliver, and they too became Christians.

Kim is invited to speak to audiences around the world on the subject of peace and reconciliation. In December 2016, a reporter in Turkey asked her for her position on war, clearly hoping to prompt her to take a political stance.

“My ‘position’ on this, and all matters, is forgiveness. My ‘position,’ if you will, is love. My faith in Jesus Christ is what enabled me to forgive those who had wronged me—and as you know, the wrongs were severe. My faith in Jesus Christ is what enabled me to pray for my enemies rather than curse them. And my faith in Jesus Christ enabled me to love them. I do not just tolerate them, nor am I merely civil toward them. I love them. It is this love, alone, that ends wars.” 1

Questions

1. Can we know the fullness of the blessings God wants to give us without experiencing a struggle to surrender our will?
2. What are some ways in which we can be peacemakers?
3. Would active persecution bring more converts to the fold?
4. How can we tell if we are walking in the perfect law of liberty? Or are we just taking liberties?
5. 1 Fire Road, © 2017 by Kim Phúc Phan Thi, pp. 309–310. Published by Tyndale Momentum, Carol Stream, Illinois
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).