Emphasis Preaching Journal

Every sermon should have an introduction and Jesus, ever the masterful homiletician, gave us a gripping preface to the Sermon on the Mount. That introduction is traditionally called the beatitudes, or the blessings. I like to think of them as the blessed attitudes.

These nine, or eight depending on how you look at them, declarative statements are not requirements for entry into the Christian life or objectives of the Christian life but, rather, characteristics of it. These are attitudes Christians have, by virtue of their relationship to Jesus Christ.