The Beatitudes... series ... Feelings of Expectancy

  Feelings of Expectancy 

On the part of the multitudes from all sections of Palestine and its surrounding countries, this great gathering had a semipolitical aspect. The fame of Jesus had filled the people with new hopes and aspirations. They hoped that He was the Messiah, and they expected Him on this occasion to proclaim His mission and make an announcement regarding the setting up of His kingdom. Indeed, they were looking for the least excuse to proclaim and crown Him king. The disciples shared these feelings of expectancy, and their hearts were also filled with thoughts of the future power and glory of Israel, when it would again become the chosen of the Lord, and when Jerusalem would become the center of a universal kingdom. These were the ambitions and expectations that had brought together this mighty host. 

The expectation of His audience gave Jesus the theme for His sermon. He must correct the popular conception of the nature of the kingdom He had come to establish; for that conception wholly unfitted the people to receive Him and His teachings. The only kingdom that Jews seemed to know anything about was an earthly and temporal kingdom. The disciples had the same conception of Christ's mission, and never fully lost it till after Pentecost. There is danger that modern Israel will become so thrilled over the prospects of the coming kingdom of glory to be established at the second advent of Christ that they will lose sight of the spiritual phase of the kingdom which must first be established in the individual hear. We can never enter the kingdom of glory until the kingdom of grace has entered us. The first phase of the kingdom of heaven is the enthronement of Jesus Christ in the heart to be king of the life.  

While the sermon on the mount is a summary of the Bible, the beatitudes constitute a summary or prologue of the sermon on the mount. Like the decalogue and the Lord's prayer, they are of universal application and appeal, and apply to all races in all ages. A large crown gathered at a railway station in India to see Mahatma Gandhi, and hear his speak. After greeting the people, he opened a New Testament and read to them the beatitudes, and then said: "This is my message to You; act upon it." That was all the speech the Indian leader made, but it contained volumes. 

Be sure and come back next week when we will study the section : The Beatitude Ladder. This section was very eye opening to me - and gave me a new appreciation for the beatitudes! :O)