Beatitudes: The Great Reversal Accomplished by Christ

This morning we come to one of the most famous sections in all of Matthew, what has been called the Sermon on the Mount. And as we will see the Sermon on the Mount begins with appropriately with grace, the incredible blessing of God upon those that He has chosen to enter into His kingdom through Jesus Christ. And since grace is the greatest incentive to obedience we find then not surprisingly in the Sermon on the Mount the greatest summons to obedience found in Scripture, “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
The Sermon on the Mount in the NKJV is only 2441 words. But we could easily spend a year carefully going through these chapters. My intention, though, is to spend about 12 weeks on these chapters. My first encouragement to all of you would be to read this section of Matthew's gospel many times in the next 3 months. Meditate on the precious words of our Lord. Seek to better understand the structure as given to us by Matthew. Let's seek as best we can to live in terms of the grace and the commands given to us by our Master and Savior.
This morning I want to first briefly introduce the Sermon on the Mount before we take a new look at the Beatitudes and consider the Great Reversal Accomplished by Christ that we are privileged to have a part in.