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Luke 6 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

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  Welcome to Five Minute Bible in our journey through the New
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  Testament. In each episode, we take just a
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  few minutes to focus on one chapter of the New Testament,
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  exploring the truths God is teaching us through His Word and
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  expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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  you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
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  today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
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  read along episode in this podcast feed.
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  If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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  now. When you're ready, let's dive
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  into God's Word together. In Luke chapter 6, we hear
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  another version of what has become known as the Beatitudes.
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  These are the Blessed are you verses that Jesus teaches.
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  Listen to a few of them here in this chapter.
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  Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.
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  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.
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  Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
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  Blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you and insult
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  you and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man.
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  Now the reason we call these verses beatitudes is because of
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  that word blessed that keeps appearing.
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  The Latin word beatitus is an adjective meaning blessed.
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  So that's where the name comes from.
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  Here's the thing, blessed is a word that has become such an
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  ingrained part of our church jargon in the English language
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  that it's easy to miss the point here.
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  The more common definition of that Latin adjective beatitus is
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  not blessed, but happy. Happy.
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  Take another listen to these verses we just read.
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  But let's put that word happy in place of blessed.
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  Happy are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.
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  Happy are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.
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  Happy are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
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  Happy are you when men hate you and ostracize you and insult you
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  and scorn your name is evil for the sake of the Son of Man.
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  Now I have wept before, and I'm not sure that happy is how I
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  would have described myself. I've been insulted and scorned.
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  Again, not sure happy is the adjective I would have used to
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  describe how I was feeling. So what is going on here?
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  How can Jesus, with a straight face tell us happiness is found
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  in rejection and hunger and pain?
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  What Jesus is giving us in this passage are rules for living.
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  But not just rules for living, rules for flourishing.
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  He is showing us what the path of true joy, of true happiness,
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  looks like. But these rules for living and
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  flourishing go far beyond the temporal world that we live in.
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  Jesus is outlining for us the eternal, the abundant life, the
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  rules of living for his eternal Kingdom.
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  Remember Hebrews 11, the hall of faith that lists out the faith
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  filled acts of many Old Testament Saints?
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  Listen to a short passage from that chapter and I think you'll
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  get what's going on here. In Luke chapter 6 it says all
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  these died in faith without receiving the promises, but
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  having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance,
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  and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the
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  earth. For those who say such things
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  make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
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  And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from
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  which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
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  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a
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  heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to
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  be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
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  These men and women desired a better country.
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  They lived as strangers and exiles on the earth because they
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  were not seeking to be satisfied by the time they spent on this
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  earth, but rather to be satisfied by God Himself
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  forever. And listen, they are tasting it
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  and will taste it in full at the return of Christ.
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  That better country is coming for them and for us.
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  And so we take our place behind these Saints, seeking a country
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  of our own, a better country, a heavenly country.
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  And when we are mistreated and mocked and insulted and scorned
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  and left hungry and beaten down by the world for the sake of
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  Christ, we can smile, we can be happy, we can count ourselves
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  blessed because we are moving closer and closer to that better
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  country, God's country, where sin and death and crying are no
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  more and Jesus is King forever.