THE BLESSINGS NOBODY WANTS - THE BLESSINGS THAT ARE CONSIDERED A CURSE

Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama)

September 1, 2015

In Matthew 5:11-12 Jesus said: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

In Luke 6:22-23, 26 Jesus also said: Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

----Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

----The blessings found in these verses are totally foreign to what we think and believe about blessings.

----We say a man is blessed if men speak well of him, but the Lord said you are blessed if men speak evil of you.

----We think a man is blessed if he is loved by everyone, but the Lord said blessed are ye when men shall hate you.

----We think a man is blessed when men receive him into their fellowship or company, but the Lord said you are blessed if men shall separate you from their company and cast you out of their fellowship.

----We say a man is blessed if he is honored by men, but the Lord said, you are blessed if men reproach you.

----We say a man is blessed if men speak good things about his name, but the Lord said you are blessed if men speak evil of your name.

----We say a man is blessed when men praise them, but the Lord said you are blessed if men shall say all manner of evil against you falsely.

----We say a man is blessed if men are friendly and gracious to him, but the Lord said you are blessed if you are despised and persecuted.

This is why the people were so astonished when they heard this sermon. This was just the opposite of what they were taught to believe. And it is just the opposite of what people today are taught to believe. Modern Christianity has no idea of what spiritual blessings really are. They think that blessings are wealth, health, prosperity, favor, esteem, honor, love, acceptance and smooth sailing. But that is not the blessings found in the sermon on the mount. These blessings are just the opposite of what men today call a blessing. If you tell people that they are blessed if men lie about them, slander them and kick them out of their fellowship, they say you are crazy. If you told someone today it is a blessing to be persecuted and to be hated and to be reviled, they will call you a nut case. Who would ever consider these things to be a blessing?

As a matter of fact, what the Lord calls a blessing in the sermon on the mount, we call a curse. And what we call a blessing, the Lord calls a curse. We think it is bad if men and women lie about us and slander us, but the Lord calls it a blessing. We think it is horrible that people speak evil of our name and speak all manner of evil against us falsely, but the Lord says it’s good.

Only a Christian with a spiritual mind and a Biblical mind considers the blessings of the sermon on the mount to be a blessing. If you have a spiritual mind and a Biblical mind you know why these things are a blessing.