Peace and grace in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Overall, Luke 6 refers to righteousness, the Court of Tabernacle.
In the beginning, God creates perfect man as glorious as Him, according to His image. God puts him in Eden and he lives in happiness.
But human falls into sin, so he loses God's image, glory, holiness, and righteousness.
Consequently, they are cast out to the world, to live in curse and perish.
God is not willing if human perishes. So, He makes efforts to return human to His image, namely righteousness, holiness and glory.
God's effort to return us to His image is called God's upbringing.
There are seven kinds of God’s upbringing as follows:
Ad. 5. the mind is brought up by God
Luke 6:20-23
6:20. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.
6:21. Blessed are you who hungernow, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weepnow, For you shall laugh.
6:22. Blessed are you when men hateyou, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.
6:23. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
If we have the mind of the cross, we will receive the things as follows:
We discuss about the second point.
Four characteristicsof Jesus are as follows:
God blesses us.
Overall, Luke 6 refers to righteousness, the Court of Tabernacle.
In the beginning, God creates perfect man as glorious as Him, according to His image. God puts him in Eden and he lives in happiness.
But human falls into sin, so he loses God's image, glory, holiness, and righteousness.
Consequently, they are cast out to the world, to live in curse and perish.
God is not willing if human perishes. So, He makes efforts to return human to His image, namely righteousness, holiness and glory.
God's effort to return us to His image is called God's upbringing.
There are seven kinds of God’s upbringing as follows:
- Luke 6:1-5is about the body is brought up by God to enter in spiritual activity.
- Luke 6:12-16 is about the soul is brought up by God that we have spiritual positionin the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Luke 6:17-19 is about the spirit is brought up by God that our spiritual is not sickbut healthy until perfect.
- Luke 6:6-11is about the deed is brought up by God.
- Luke 6:20-26 is about the mind is brought up by God.
- Luke 6:27-45is about the heart is brought up by God.
- Luke 6:46-49is about life journey is brought up by God.
Ad. 5. the mind is brought up by God
Luke 6:20-23
6:20. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.
6:21. Blessed are you who hungernow, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weepnow, For you shall laugh.
6:22. Blessed are you when men hateyou, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.
6:23. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
If we have the mind of the cross, we will receive the things as follows:
- happiness of Heaven that cannot be influenced by anything in this world (we can be happy even we are poor and hungry),
- four characteristics of Jesus.
We discuss about the second point.
Four characteristicsof Jesus are as follows:
- 'Blessed are you poor'.
Luke 6:20
6:20. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.
It refers to the character of Jesus as the King.
2 Corinthians 8:9
8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
God is rich, but He is willing to give everything to us so we who are poor can become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:1-2
8:1. Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia:
8:2. that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.
The measurement of being rich is we like to give. It starts from returning tithes and special offering that belong to God and giving alms to others who are in need.
2 Corinthians 9:7
9:7. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
The term of givingis one gives as he purposes in his heart cheerfully, not of necessity or being forced, but giving in gratitude until he can say that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Acts 20:35
20:35. "I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.’"
2 Corinthians 9:8
9:8. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
The results are as follows:- We experience the grace of God that is able to make us sufficient in all things.
- We have an abundance for every good work.
It means that we receive the bright fine linen or the cloth of the bride of Heaven who is ready to greet when Jesus comes a second time.
Revelation 19:8
19:8. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
- We experience the grace of God that is able to make us sufficient in all things.
- 'Blessed are you who hunger'.
Luke 6:21a
6:21a. Blessed are you who hungernow, For you shall be filled.
It refers to the character of Jesus as the servant.
A servant does God's will.
Jesus fasts and feels hungry to do God's will or become the servant of God.
We have to serve God with hunger and want to eat.
Eating becomes obligation and necessity. The signs are as follows:- We never get bored to worship and serve God.
- We do not need to be forced or reminded to worship and serve God.
Isaiah 11:5
11:5. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
Luke 17:8
17:8. "But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourselfand serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’?
If we serve faithfully and correctly, we give Jesus food and drink which means we satisfy God.
The result is we will be satisfied too by satisfaction of Heaven and we will never fall into the world satisfaction which culminates in sin of eating-drinking and marrying-giving in marriage.
Our business is serving God faithfully and correctly.
Our food-drink and life-death are God's business. - We never get bored to worship and serve God.
- 'Blessed are you who weep'.
Luke 6:21b
6:21b. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.
It refers to the character of Jesus as the Man.
In the Bible, Jesus cries a lot. Now, we have to cry ourselves too, namely crying our sins. It means we cry to regret and confess our sin to others (horizontal) and God (vertical), which is the same as the sign of the cross.
Romans 4:7-8
4:7. "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered;
4:8. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin."
Be careful!There are people who do not want to confess their sin but laugh in sin (it is the same as a liar).
The consequence is his spirituality becomes dry and he will cry in the hell forever. - 'Blessed are you when men hate you because of Jesus' name'.
Luke 6:22-23
6:22. Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.
6:23. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
It refers to the character of Jesus as the Son of God.
Jesus is hated and tortured until He dies on the cross because He confesses Himself as the Son of God. But, He rises, ascends to the Heaven and is glorified.
THERE IS GLORY BEHIND THE CROSS.
That is why we have to suffer with Jesus, that we can receive the Spirit of glory.
1 Peter 4:14
4:14. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
The functions of the Spirit of glory are as follows:- Spiritual miracle, namely the change of life from carnal men to glorious ones like Jesus. It starts from being strong and of good courage.
We are not disappointed in facing evil speaking but give thank to God. We do not defend ourselves when we suffer with God.
We keep believing, hoping and worshipping God against anything. - Physical miracle.
God is able to change from decay to beauty, from failure to success, from impossible thing to possible one.
John 11:31-32, 39-40
11:31. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."
11:32. Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."
11:39. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."
11:40. Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" - We are changedas perfect as God when He comes a second time, lifted up on the clouds to return to the Paradise, and enter the kingdom of Heaven. We have happiness of Heaven forever.
- Spiritual miracle, namely the change of life from carnal men to glorious ones like Jesus. It starts from being strong and of good courage.
God blesses us.