The Beatitudes | On Human Flourishing

Scholars have debated the translation of the word rendered 8x as "blessed" in our version and one writer who's been a big help to ME, Jonathan Pennington has translated it "flourishing" – "Flourishing are the poor in spirit because theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I'm going to GO with that idea… in fact I'm going to agree that it's the THEME of the entire sermon: how to flourish in life. What makes for a genuinely happy and good life…the "summum bonum" – the chief good? So today, we hear Jesus Christ's main speech on how to be happy… BUT…what is He really saying in this apparently shocking sermon?

Let's look at :

1. The Problem With the Sermon
2. The Upside-Down Administration
3. The Most Important Phrase