Morning Bible Study: April 28, 2012: Today we talked about Matthew 4:18-22 (Good News Bible TEV) As Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brother...
Morning Bible Study: May 26, 2012: Today we began to take a look at Matthew 5, The Beatitudes. Before we actually began, Terry Moss, who was supposed to teach today, shared a story that happend to him last week. He picked up a family walking to Walmart to get groceries. This family has since, on Sunday, come to his church...........picked up by the church van. Also, as he shared the story with someone else, Kristen Brown overheard and wanted their address so that the Wednesday night group that takes out food could take food to them. Again, the hand Of God is seen over and over again through believers in this community.
Isaiah 61:1-3 was brought to our attention:
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
Here we see echos of prediction that Isaiah made concerning the coming of Jesus and His teachings. Isaiah references how He will bring good news to the poor, comfort the brokenhearted and bless those who mourn and those who are gentle.......................all direct references to The Beattitudes. It was discussed how the mention of vengeance in the verse is probably speaking of Jesus' vengeance on sin where sin was put to death through the cross.
In Luke 4 , when Jesus went to Nazareth and began to teach in the synagogue, he read these verses written by Isaiah except for He left off the last part of verse 3 where it mentions the "vengeance." We not that Jesus spoke of grace, truth, and freedom. He came an did away with the vengeance of the law that proved people were unable to keep it. He brought grace to enable us to live like His teachings. Only through Him can we.
We only had time to talk briefly about the first verses in Matthew
5:1-3
And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It was mentioned that one meaning of the "poor in spirit", is that it refers to our need to completely die to ourselves in complete submission to Him and that we never really realize what it means to live currently "in the kingdom," until we submit wholeheartedly.
James 4 essentially tells us that we can only become poor in spirit (humble) through his grace. In other words: HE CAUSES US TO BECOME THE WAY HE WANTS US TO BE WHEN WE DRAW NEAR TO HIM.
So until, next time, we will ponder on what it means to be "poor in spirit."
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