The Culture of God's Kingdom: Studies of the Beatitudes

By Nick Wilson

The teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount serves as a manifesto for Kingdom life, and the Beatitudes portray for us a Kingdom culture that is contrary to that of the world. These studies reveal to us an invasion of this world with a culture that defines a heavenly kingdom. The Kingdom of God is not a simply a far-off dream held by Christians. The Kingdom was established by Jesus Christ, and the culture of the Kingdom invades the world through the lives of Gods people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449782801

Nick Wilson

Nick Wilson has formerly been both a police officer and criminal defence solicitor. He has now been a senior crown prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service for the last 15 years. He live on the Wirral

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The Culture of

God’s Kingdom

Studies of the Beatitudes

Nick Wilson

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Copyright © 2013 Nick Wilson.

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Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8278-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8280-1 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8279-5 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013901277

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/25/2013

Table of Contents

The Culture of the Kingdom

Blessed Are the Poor In Spirit

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Blessed Are the Meek

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst…

Blessed Are the Merciful

Blessed Are the Pure In Heart

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Blessed Are the Persecuted

The Great Counter Culture

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The Culture of the Kingdom

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Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness; sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

-Matthew 5:1-12

Webster’s Dictionary defines culture as, the social and religious structures and intellectual and artistic manifestations that characterize a society. Every society in history has had some type of a culture that defines it. This culture is comprised of their art, music, values, and the ways the people interact with one another.

The pervading culture of our day is considered post-modern. It is characterized by a distrust in many things that were considered truth in previous generations. It holds to the belief that truth is different for each person based on their specific circumstances and experiences. Whatever feels good, do it, is the mentality of our modern world and we have even seen this philosophy creep into the church at times. This is a change from the Enlightenment culture of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The culture of that day taught that science and fact could eventually explain everything that we see in the world around us.

Even in cultures that hold to a strong belief – whether it be in objective fact or relativism – there always seems to be some type of counter-culture within the larger society. A certain element of people are always willing to go against the popular culture of the time and live in a different way. Really, this is what Jesus was calling His people to do when He came onto the scene 2,000 years ago. the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapters five through seven, is the manifesto of this counter-culture that goes against the values and norms of the society in which the people lived. This is the definition of what it means to be called out of the world, and the beatitudes listed in the first 12 verses define the character that God calls His people to display as they journey through this life. William Greathouse, in his book, Wholeness In Christ, tells us, It is not too much to claim that the Sermon on the Mount is the essence of the Christian life.¹ Let’s consider the characteristics of these traits that define life in God’s kingdom.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.² This idea went completely against what the people of Israel expected in the days of Jesus. It goes against what many are expecting today. People had long sought a deliverer who would set up a political kingdom in this world and overcome those who have persecuted and imprisoned God’s people for almost all of their history. When Jesus came into the world we were indeed invaded by a kingdom, but it was not the long expected kingdom. Instead, it was a kingdom that turned the values of the world upside down. The things that man pursued were considered of little value in this counter-culture established by Jesus Christ.

Man looks for riches and possessions, but Jesus came to turn the focus from those things back to the God who will provide all that we really need. God has taken the prideful, self-centered heart and turned it back toward Himself and His will through the power and the blood of Jesus Christ. He turned the unapologetic sinfulness of the human heart to mourning for those around us who are lost and dying with each passing day. He turned our human ideas and desires into a meekness in our soul that will listen and submit to the Holy Spirit. Our hunger and thirst are no longer for the evil that the world offers us which so often consumes us, but we now hunger and thirst for the very character of God Himself – righteousness. Jesus promised that we would be blessed for these very characteristics. As the holy character of God begins to define our lives we find that we are more fulfilled than we have ever been by any of the temporal things of the world. When man looked for a political kingdom to be set up by a revolutionary, Jesus brought what he really needed: a sacrifice that would purify his heart and make him a proper dwelling place for the Spirit of God.

These consuming qualities of the kingdom are not something we struggle through this life to attain by our sheer determination, but they are a character that is cultivated in our heart by the Holy Spirit as we surrender to God. His Spirit will instill these values in us, and allow us the blessing of God, as we submit to the rule of this invading kingdom. We so often try to attain