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Broken and the Blessed Week 1, Day 4

by David Joynt on January 11, 2017


DAY 4

MATTHEW 5:17-30, 33-42

 

The Beatitudes begin the Sermon on the Mount because the following provisions reveal the full scope of God’s will for his creatures and the true character of holiness. They destroy any illusion we have of self-sufficiency, moral adequacy, or spiritual accomplishment. As we compare our own lives with Jesus’ teaching on desire, generosity, truth telling, hypocrisy, simplicity, and forgiveness, our true brokenness is revealed and our absolute poverty is glaringly real.

We are driven by the demands of the Sermon back to the beginning - to the gracious words “Blessed are the poor in spirit - theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

It is by grace alone that we enter God’s presence, experience his kingdom, receive his mercy, and are filled with his love. The first beatitude is the key to the Sermon on the Mount - God chooses to bless those who recognize their need for Him. Do you agree?

FAMILY TIME—

Ask one another, “What does God want people to be like?”

 

Tags: beatitudes, devotional, the broken and the blessed

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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