The kingdom manifesto. How should I really live?

Pete Alwinson:
The kingdom manifesto. How should I really live? Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We’re here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Steve invited our friend, Pete Alwinson to do the teaching this week. Pete is a former pastor, founder of ForgeTruth.com and the author of Like Father Like Son.

Pete Alwinson:
Thank you Matthew. I want you to know it’s so good for, to be with you guys today. My name is Pete Alwinson. I’m sitting in for Steve Brown this week, giving him a little bit of a break. And we’re going to be talking about the kingdom manifesto of Jesus, which is the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount. We’re going to have a great time. Hey, listen, I’m looking forward to getting into this and spending some time with y’all. But, before we do, since it’s Monday, let’s bow our heads and hearts in prayer and get started, in the right way. Let’s pray. Our Father, thank you for this week-end. Thank you for the opportunity that we had to spend time with your people in church and Lord, we thank you for our pastors. We thank you for our messages that we received. And we just pray that Lord God, you would give us the ability to recall those messages. Be the one who teaches us and leads us and guides us in the way we should go. We need you more than we know. We love you because you first loved us. And so, we commit this whole week to you. Pray for Steve. Pray you’d give him a great week off and that you would honor this time. For, we pray in Jesus’ strong name. Amen. Well, it is good to be back with you guys. And, I thank you for following Key Life and being a part of what we do here. We are all about grace as you know, and about how grace energizes following the God of the universe in a powerful way. And, what we’re going to be looking at in this coming week is this whole subject of the Beatitudes. And I love it more than you can ever imagine. The Beatitudes is way more than I actually thought. I’ve taught on it before, but as I’ve studied it this time again and prepared these messages, I have learned so much more than I ever thought before. And I hope that’s true for you as well. You know, one of my favorite authors is John Mason, who wrote the book, Your Enemy is Average. Your Enemy is Average. And he said this, he said.

Mediocrity is a region bounded on the north by compromise, on the south by indecision, on the east by past thinking and on the west by a lack of vision.

And I love that. It’s such a challenge to me about mediocrity, and I know that in my Christian life, how easy it is to sort of get on the plateau, and not grow anymore and just say, Hey, I’m doing alright. But when you study the Beatitudes, it’s Jesus taking everything to a whole new level. Have you ever heard of WC Fields? If you’re old, you have, if you’re young, you maybe never heard of him. He was a comedian from the days of vaudeville, through Hollywood’s silent movie era. And even in the movies in the 1940’s. One time when he was really sick, WC fields was visited by a friend and the friend saw that he was reading the Bible and the friend said, WC, you hypocrite you, why are you reading the Bible? He looked up and in is usually slow and slurred speech. He said, looking for loopholes. Boy, I tell you, when it comes to the gospel, we don’t have to look for loopholes. We don’t have to look for a way to get right with God because the gospel, if there’s Jesus sets us right with God, but here it is, the Pharisees were always looking for loopholes. They were always looking for a way to get right with God, through their understanding and their manipulation of the law. And so, Jesus comes onto the scene in first century Israel and absolutely blows them away. And so, in the Sermon on the Mount, he starts out this life shaping ministry of his, this world changing ministry, by giving the Beatitudes, which really is his introduction, his eight point introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. And I’ve called it the Kingdom Manifesto. Now, what is a manifesto? We can’t jump into all of this until we understand what that is, but it’s important to understand, that a manifesto is a public declaration of principles, of intentions, especially as we think of it, of a political nature. A manifesto then is sort of the platform, the vision of life. In a manifesto, those who put one forth say, alright, this is how you used to live. This is how you used to think, but that was horrible, it was flawed. And we’re going to overthrow that way of thinking. And now we’re going to give a new way of thinking and that’s exactly what’s going on in the Beatitudes and in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s the, it’s the Kings Manifesto. King Jesus saying, now you guys have heard that life was to be structured this way, but let me tell you, I’ve got a whole new platform. I’ve got a whole new way for you to think about life and this will change your life. And then he launches into the Beatitudes. You know, probably when I say the word manifesto, most of you think of the Communist Manifesto, which was written by Karl Marx in 1858, published then. And it really is a Utopian idea, this Communist Manifesto, this socialist manifesto, that life would get better if you get rid of God and emphasizes Marx’s points. It was anti-God, it was anti-freedom and it was horrible in every way, shape and form, but when Jesus bursts onto the scene in first century Israel, he comes to the Sermon on the Mount, which is the first of five sermons that the book of Matthew is shaped around. You want to impress your friends and you say, Hey, how is Matthew as a gospel structured? You can say, well, it’s structured around five sermons and the first one is the Sermon on the Mount. But in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Beatitudes, Jesus is saying, it is a whole new day. The Kingdom of God is here and I am here to institute a new day. I’m not going to kill people. I’m going to serve people. I’m going to help people. I’m going to heal people. I’m going to show people the love of God and then I’m going to die for people. I will sacrifice myself to show you a different way, a better way. And so, here we go. The Sernib on the Mount, let’s start, we’re not going to get it done. But let’s start today by looking at the first Beatitude. Let me read to you some of these, and you may want to start this week out by getting out your copy of Matthew and memorizing these verses. Here you go, Matthew five verses 1 through 12. This has God’s word.

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 he 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.

This is God’s Holy Word and what a powerful text for us. And just a short time for me to just do a quick bit of the introduction. And I want you to know that how this verse starts out, how this whole thing starts out is it says.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And so, what we see is Jesus right outside of the Sea of Galilee in Northern Israel, leading up to the mountain, there’s all kinds of mountains surrounding the Sea of Galilee. It’s a beautiful place and I hope you get a chance to go there sometime, but he sits down and he begins to teach. And it’s interesting that in our days, our spiritual leaders stand up to pray. Excuse me, they sit down usually to pray and stand up to teach. But back then in the first century, it was the opposite. They stood to pray and then they sat down to teach. And when they sat down to teach, they began to give their authoritative truth to their followers, Jesus starts out.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now, let me tell you what this does not teach. Number one, it does not teach that people who are poor economically are blessed, that being poor is a blessed state or that poor people are more spiritual or more moral or more acceptable to God, than those who have more money than they have.

Poverty does not guarantee spirituality.

Martin Lloyd Jones said, and he’s right on. Well, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? We’re going to talk about that tomorrow. And so, I want you to think what it might mean for you to be poor in spirit. Hey, we’ll talk about it tomorrow. See ya on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Pete. That was our friend, Pete Alwinson teaching us today about the Beatitudes and great news. He’ll be with us all this week, teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. So, be sure to join us again, starting tomorrow. Hey, speaking of Pete, he contributed a fantastic article to the 2022 edition of Key Life magazine. It’s titled Why is God so Unpredictable? Yeah, let’s face it. God, doesn’t always do what we expect him to, but there is way more to that story. Again, you’ll find that peace in the brand new 2022 edition of Key Life magazine, which we would be happy to send to you, for free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] and ask for the magazine. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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