The Sermon

Luke 6 And He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. An all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power had come out from Him and healed them all.

And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples and said,

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

I wonder if the people gathered to hear Him were just a little surprised at the beginning of this sermon. I mean, here they were, this great crowd of people that were gathered, and here HE is, healing, casting out demons, performing miracles....He had their complete attention. You can hear in Luke's words as He sets the scene here that Jesus is on the verge of saying something so profound and as He lifts His eyes to the crowd they must have been anticipating His next words...

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

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

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

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven...

And there is one of His greatest abilities; to turn our hearts toward eternity.

Jesus did not promise them an earthly kingdom where they would never be hungry or sad again, He did not promise them fame or freedom from illness. He did not say that He would hang around forever to make sure that nothing bad ever happened in their lives again. He gave them something better. Hope.

You have the kingdom of heaven waiting. You will never be hungry again. You will laugh again. This life will end and you cannot even imagine what is waiting on the other side of temporary. There is a day coming when all things will be made new.

The miracles were temporary. Healing the sick or blind or lame is temporary. He was offering them something so much more, so much better.

And for the ones who stayed around, until the end and believed...they received the promise, fulfilled.

It won't always be like this. There is a day coming when all things will be put in order. You may be hungry now, you may be weeping now, you may be suffering now for His name but something so much better is coming. You will receive the promise, fulfilled.