The beatitudinal Christian is a person of heart and heaven.
It is good to reflect upon the interior aspects of ALL of the beatitudes. All are in the heart first and foremost.
- Poor in spirit
- Mourn (flows from the heart)
- Meek (a relationship expression anchored deeply in the Christ-like heart)
- Hunger and thirst for righteousness (The hunger and thirst is in the heart)
- Merciful (Action and attitudes given to others from the heart)
- Pure in heart
- Peacemakers (Hearts filled with God’s peace overflow into helping others experience His peace too)
- Persecuted (We are delighted, in our hearts, to experience Jesus’ sufferings in our body).
Jesus has MUCH to say about your heart in His Sermon on the Mount.
Today’s text invites us into one of Jesus’ primary revelations; reward in heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11, 12
Jesus builds the beatitudes to a vibrant and energizing finale, “Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”
Reward in heaven is a central theme in Jesus’ teaching.
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
Matthew 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Matthew 6:1 For then you will have no reward.
Matthew 6:4 And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:6 And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:18 And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 10:41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.
Matthew 10:42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.
Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
What is truly in my heart gets lived out in my life and is considered by God for reward or punishment.
Live as Jesus teaches (and requires) and the benefits are exponential:
- Rejoice and be
- Great is your reward.
- In heaven.
- In your life today, keep the basis for your rejoicing and gladness in the Jesus life revealed in the Sermon on the Mount.
- Make sure your priority today is on your reward later.
- Continuously live wisely from a beatitudinal heart in expectation of your reward in heaven.