On this episode of Preaching the Text, John Hoyum and Steve Paulson talk about the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. We learn how these characteristics of the Christian aren't virtues to be conjured by hard work and devotion, but are descriptions of what happens to the Christian once faith in the promise has been given.

In this episode of Preaching the Text, we discuss the beatitudes – what Luther once described as the devil's favorite text of scripture to distort.

As long as the church teaches the gospel, it will suffer persecution.

The title “peacemakers” is not ours except as we tell and retell his peacemaking story.

We are not saved by the success of our refining process. We are saved precisely because our impurities, no matter what the percentage, ruin the whole thing.

Jesus did not need a single act of mercy to get him started on the road to mercy, his essence was by nature merciful.

Blessed are we, for we are filled by the cornucopia of Christ’s righteousness.

The only one rightful heir of the kingdom of God, inherits from us, our cross, and descends into the kingdom of the damned.

The giver of life, the source of joy, stands weeping together with the human family as they grieve under the curse of sin.

“Poverty of spirit” is not an ethical value we strive for. It is an act of God’s mercy spoken to the deepest recesses of our soul when it’s overwhelmed by God’s grace.

The only one truly blessed of God, who in himself is God’s incarnate makarios, surrounds himself with a multitude of the accursed, the non-makarios.