The Beatitudes

Among the sermons recorded in the Bible, the Sermon on the Mount is perhaps the best known. Jesus’ hearers literally were astonished when they heard Jesus’ words for the first time. Gently, yet forcefully Jesus expounded the Old Testament with a New Testament focus. It is aptly called the Constitution of the Kingdom of God. In this series we will limit our study to the opening passage of the sermon, commonly known as the Beatitudes. No Scripture equals the description of the citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom than the elementary yet comprehensive sketch of His genuine subjects.

  Today we will consider the fifth Beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” May we all be as Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet, to hear what He has to say to us in this Beatitude. In the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stated a simple but very effective truth with which I want to begin. He says later in Matthew 7:17–18 [that] by the fruit you shall know a tree. Now that’s not only true about trees, but it’s also about people in general and about believers in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. How you act, both in public but mostly in private, reveals who you really are.

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Rev. A.T. Vergunst is minister of the Gospel in the Reformed Congregation of Carterton, New Zealand.