1. Read Matthew 5.1-12 incarnationally. Where do you find yourself in this text?
2. What exactly are the Beatitudes? Are we to try and live them out, take on these specific characteristics, or is there something more here that Jesus is saying? If so, what is it?
3. What was so magnetic about Jesus that large “crowds” were following Him? Give some specific examples.
4. Why do you follow Jesus? Why do you get up and attend church, come to studies, or get involved in groups? What is it that causes you to engage even in this study today?
5. Anytime Jesus saw “crowds” He was compassionate toward them. How have you personally experienced the compassion and tenderness of Jesus?
6. In your own words describe the “kingdom of heaven” that Jesus is inviting us into.
7. The best translation for the word, “blessed” is “oh, how happy.” Is the goal of Jesus that we become happy? Is there are broader invitation here? What is Jesus saying? What does His blessing mean to you?
8. Read and respond to the comments of Donald Hagner. He writes, “. . . the kingdom is presupposed as something given by God. The kingdom is declared as a reality apart from any human achievement. Thus, the beatitudes are, above all, predicated upon the experience of the grace of God. The recipients are just that, those who receive the good news.
9. Because they are poor and oppressed, they make no claim upon God for their achievements. They don’t merit God’s kingdom; they but await His mercy.”
10. According to Hagner how do we experience and live in His blessing?
11. In your own words define “poor in spirit.”
Dallas Willard and Eugene Peterson both paraphrase Matthew 5.3. Willard says, “Blessed are the spiritual zeros – the spiritually bankrupt, deprived and deficient, the spiritual beggars, those without a wisp of ‘religion – when the kingdom of the heavens comes upon them.”
Eugene Peterson paraphrases the verse this way, “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and his rule.”
12. Describe a time when you have been “poor in spirit.”
13. In his book, The Reason for God Tim Keller writes,
The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself or less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less. In what ways does this truth resonate with you? How are Keller’s words both a comfort and a challenge?
14. Father Greg Boyle wrote, “Tenderness is the highest form of spiritual maturity…The incarnation was necessary because God’s love needed to become to tender.” What, if any, is the correlation between those who are “poor in spirit” and tenderness? Describe a person in your life who is tender? How do you sense a growing tenderness in your relationship with Christ?
15. Jesus made a way for all people to be blessed, including the sinners and the saints. Many were uncomfortable with this dramatic inclusion of the kingdom. Read Luke 15.1-2 (for a deeper dive read all of Luke 15). Why did the religious have a problem with Jesus eating with “sinners?” Why is the Gospel of inclusion so challenging in our day?
16. Read 1 Corinthians 6.8-10. How do these verses challenge you, or comfort you? Now read verse 11. Where do you find yourself in this text?
17. What is one way we as a church can move toward the “hopeless blessable?” How can you personally move toward someone who feels far off from the Jesus inaugurated Kingdom?
