Theological Term of the Week

Beatitudes
The “blessed are” pronouncements made by Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

• From scripture:

And 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.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, fortheirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:2-12, ESV)

• From the MacArthur Study Bible notes on Matthew 5:3:

The word [blessed] lit., means “happy, fortunate, blissful.” Here it speaks of more than a surface emotion. Jesus was describing the divinely bestowed well-being that belongs only to the faithful. The Beatitudes demonstrate that the way to heavenly blessedness is antithetical to the worldly path normally followed in pursuit of happiness. The worldly idea is that happiness is found in riches, merriment, abundance, leisure, and such things. The real truth is the very opposite. The Beatitudes give Jesus’ description of the character of true faith.

• From The Good News in Jesus’s Beatitudes (R. W. Glenn):

The context makes it clear that Jesus is describing what happens in a person’s life when they come to understand God’s grace in the gospel (see Matthew 4:23).

• God’s grace in the gospel shows you your moral and spiritual bankruptcy. You must be spirit-poor if the cross is what it took to rescue you.
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you mourn. To know that your sin nailed Jesus to the cross breaks your heart.
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you meek. How can you be touchy and defensive now that you’ve seen Jesus dying for you? There’s nothing in you worth defending.
• God’s grace in the gospel lets you see how hungry and thirsty you are for a righteousness that will open the door to God’s acceptance. Jesus is that righteousness given to you freely as a gift.
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you merciful. How can you choke your neighbor over what they owe you when both hands are already occupied receiving the mercy of Jesus Christ?
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you pure in heart. Knowing that God has accepted you on the basis of Jesus’s blood and righteousness frees you to live honestly before God and people, admitting who you really are and how desperate you are for Christ.
• God’s grace in the gospel leads you to be a peacemaker. Your experience of God’s grace puts so much joy in your heart that you cannot help but tell others how they can be at peace with God.
• And finally, your experience of God’s grace in the gospel will get you persecuted. There is something simultaneously beautiful and repulsive about a gospel-centered life. In the fallen human heart, there is a deep aversion to salvation not based on our own resume — if we didn’t have to earn a seat at the table, it’s not worth much. So when non-Christians hear that all their efforts to make themselves acceptable to God are a galactic waste of time, they’re going to get angry, and we will be the object of that anger.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions.org: What are the Beatitudes?
2. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Beatitudes
3. Arthur W. Pink: The Beatitudes
4. John MacArthur: The Beatitudes (audio series)
5. R. W. Glenn: The Beatitudes (audio)

Related term:

• Sermon on the Mount
• Great Commission

Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

Sermon on the Mount
The title given to Jesus’ sermon recorded in Matthew 5-7.

• From scripture:

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying … . (Matthew 5:1-2 ESV)

(Read the whole sermon.)

• From ESV Study Bible notes on Matthew 5-7:

This is the first of five major discourses in Matthew (chs. 5–7; 10; 13; 18–20; 24–25). Speaking to his disciples (5:1), Jesus expounds the reality of discipleship lived in the presence and power of the kingdom of God but within the everyday world. Some interpreters have thought the purpose of this sermon was to describe a moral standard so impossibly high that it is relevant only for a future millennial kingdom. Others have thought its primary purpose was to portray the absoluteness of God’s moral perfection and thereby to drive people to despair of their own righteousness, so they will trust in the imputed righteousness of Christ. Both views fail to recognize that these teachings, rightly understood, form a challenging but practical ethic that Jesus expects his followers to live by in this present age. The sermon, commonly called the “Sermon on the Mount,” is probably a summary of a longer message, but the structure is a unified whole. 

Learn more:

1. The Bible: Matthew 5-7
2. Got Questions.org: What is the Sermon on the Mount?
3. Greg Herrick: A Summary of Understanding of the Sermon on the Mount
4. Bob Deffinbaugh: The Sermon on the Mount
5. R. W. Glenn: A Sermon on the Sermon on the Mount (audio)

Related term:

• Beatitudes
• Great Commission

Filed under Person and Work of Christ

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

Pentecost
The day on which Jesus poured out the Spirit on his people gathered in Jerusalem, fifty days after the Passover on which he was crucified.

• From scripture:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes andElamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” (Acts 2:1-13, ESV)

• From Christian Faith by Michael Horton:

Acts 1 marks the transition from the ascension to Pentecost. Jesus ordered the disciples to remain in Jerusalem “for the promise of the Father”: the baptism with the Holy Spirit” not many days from now” (Ac 1:1-5). About 120 people were gathered in the upper room, near the temple, where pilgrims had gathered for the feast from far-flung regions.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Astonished that uneducated Galileans were proclaiming the gospel in their own languages, the visitors were provoked to reactions ranging from “amazed and perplexed” to outright incredulity: “They are filled with new wine” (vv. 12-13). 




Just as the Spirit’s presence in Christ’s ministry was identified with his proclamation of the gospel (Isa 61:1-2; Lk 4:18-21), the consequence of the Spirit’s descent at Pentecost was not unrestrained pandemonium but the public proclamation of the gospel by Peter, with the other apostles standing at his side (Ac 2:14-36). The one who had cowardly denied Christ three times was now risking his life for the message that the one who had been crucified a short distance from there had been raised, was at God’s right hand, and would return to judge the earth. Stringing together a series of citations from the prophets and the Psalter, Peter proclaimed Christ and this remarkable descent of the Spirit as the fulfillment of everything the Scriptures had foretold. “Cut to the heart,” three thousand people embraced Peter’s message and were baptized (vv. 37-41). 

Learn more:

1. The Bible: Acts 2:1-41
2. Got Questions.org: What is the day of Pentecost?
3. Blue Letter Bible: What Happened on the Day of Pentecost?
4. George Knight III: Pentecost
5. Ligonier Ministries Blog: Babel Reversed
6. Bob Deffinbaugh: Putting Pentecost in Perspective, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
7. R. C. Sproul: Pentecost (video)
8. D. A. Carson: Pentecost (audio)

Related term:

• ascension of Jesus
• Holy Spirit
• resurrecton of Jesus

Filed under Work of the Holy Spirit

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.