R.C. Sproul

The concept of blessedness is spelled out to the Jew to be blessed and

was to have God make His face shine on them, to have God lift up the light of His countenance upon Him.

The supreme blessing that we are promised in the New Testament is that when we are in heaven, we will see God face to face.

We call that the beatific vision.

the vision that will flood our soul with the highest degree of blessedness imaginable.

So you see then why I'm not satisfied with the word happy.

To be blessed of God is to receive a spiritual benefit from him that lasts forever.

So this is what Jesus is pronouncing

upon the various groups that he mentions here in the Sermon on the Mount.

Now after all of that, we're finally, God willing, going to get to the text.

Seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated—remember,

that the rabbis in that time did not stand when they preached or when they taught.

They sat down, and that was the signal that class was in session.

And then the disciples would sit on the ground

literally at the feet of their master.

So what Matthew is describing here is a session by their rabbi as he assembles his disciples here and begins to teach them as they sit at his feet.

Verse 2, then he opened his mouth and taught them.

Well, that seems like totally unnecessary.

The Holy Spirit, in inspiring the Scripture, has a certain economy of language and is not prone to wasting words.

So why would he bother to tell us that he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, how else could he teach them without opening his mouth?