R.C. Sproul

And that's the only way we can deal with tragedy and with calamity.

is to understand that behind things that we're experiencing in the here and now stands the eternal purpose of God.

And it's funny how differently we respond to pain and to sorrow and to tragedy.

For some of us, if we lose a loved one or experience a painful loss, it makes us bitter and angry towards God.

But for others, in the midst of that pain, we are driven to our knees and to rush to the presence of God to seek the solace, the consolation, and the comfort that He is prepared to give to His people.

Remember the promise of God to His people that on the last day, He will personally

dry the tears from our eyes.

And when God dries our tears, they stay dry.

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.

We look today at Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through 4.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain and

And when he was seated, his disciples came to him, and then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Before I look at the text itself, let me just give a little bit of introduction to it as we begin now our study of the Sermon on the Mount, which should occupy us for several weeks to come.

Let me give a little bit of background on the meaning of a beatitude.

They're called beatitudes, by the way, because in the Latin version of the New Testament, the opening statements by which Jesus said, blessed are these and blessed are those and blessed still are these over here, the word that is translated in the Latin is the word beati—

and that means simply a pronouncement of blessedness upon those who are included in the categories, and because there's a list of several of those beatis, they were called the beatitudes historically.

Now,

We see the formula, blessed, used over and over by Jesus in the Beatitudes and in the Sermon on the Mount in times past.