Luke 6:20-23 Sermon for May 17, 2026

Good evening, my friends.

Let me start off this evening by asking a very simple question: What does it mean to be blessed?

I ask this because it’s such a familiar word we use in so many different ways and I want us to just sit with this for a moment. Just think of all the ways we use this word and similar iterations of it:

Bless this food. Bless your heart. Be a blessing. I am blessed. What a blessing. God bless you. God bless America. I am quite blessed today. #blessed. Blessed relief. I can’t get this blessed thing to work. I’m blessed with a great life.

We use it in songs such as “Blessed be your name.”

So, we’re no strangers to this word, but what exactly does it mean, especially in the context of our passage today?

Tonight, we are taking a look at just four verses in Luke’s account known as The Beatitudes. The parallel account is found in Matthew 5:3-12. And before I take us on a journey through each section here, I want to ensure we are all launching from the right pad.

The Greek word for “Blessed” used in Luke 6 here is makarios. And its definition is ‘to be fully satisfied.” Its context describes a state of being indwelt by God and experiencing the joy of salvation.

Now, this is very different than how you and I often used it casually today. We use this word often in the context of a fleeting emotion. Almost as if one moment we’re blessed and the next moment we’re not.

Let me give you an illustration here. A year ago, I went to Greece and Turkey. There is an island known as Cyprus. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, located south of Turkey and west of Syria.

And the name given to Cyprus historically is Makarios Island. Why? Well, because people have always viewed the island as completely self-sustaining, meaning, the inhabitants have absolutely everything they need on that island to be self-sustained and happy. They didn’t need to leave the island for anything else because they’ve got everything they could possibly need for a fulfilling, abundant life.

As I reflected on that, I am quickly reminded of this: to be blessed (Makarios), is to have complete fulfillment in God regardless of what life throws at us.

How can this be? Well, because the joy is understanding that we’re in harmony, at peace, with God through the person and work of Jesus. The word “Blessed” we’re going to read in the Beatitudes is rooted in this idea that we’ve been redeemed and this cannot be taken away.

It has absolutely nothing to do with emotions, which are so fleeting. It has everything to do with this idea that we’ve got the greatest and best gift that we could ever have and that’s the gift of eternal life. And because of this, it really doesn’t matter the seasons we go through in life. We know that those valley seasons are temporary. Even among the darkest of season where we aren’t ‘feeling’ joyful, we can have complete joy because we root it in something eternal.

Look at 1 Corinthians 15:55. It says, “Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your string?”

SO, before I lose you here: to be “blessed” is to be in a right relationship with your God and this can only come through the righteousness of Jesus credited to you by faith alone through grace alone. It’s to have divine favor. It does not speak to material things. So, don’t lose that definition here as we now open to Luke 6:20-23.

As you can probably guess, I’ll walk us through these beatitudes one at a time. And by the way, beatitudes are simply declarations of blessedness spoken by Jesus. Jesus is simply saying, “Blessed are those…” who….fill in the blank. In other words, we’re going to walk through a series of declarations that teach a person HOW to be blessed. Let’s begin.

Then looking up at his disciples, he said:

Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours. (vs 20)

Pause.

So, to be blessed in all the ways we just talked about, you must be poor. And when you are blessed, the kingdom of God is yours. So, we must really get a grasp on that word, ‘poor.’

In Matthew’s Gospel, it says, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit.’

Now, when Jesus is speaking to the disciples, he understands that they literally left everything behind to follow Jesus. Most of them were most likely poor in the sense of possessing very little. So, Jesus knows this, but Jesus isn’t talking about being poor in the way we use it today.

What he’s talking about is being poor in ‘spirit.’ Being spiritually bankrupted.

And that’s the heart of the gospel. It’s coming to God with nothing to offer in exchange for redemption. You come with empty hands. You put your faith and trust in Jesus and his person and his work and believe that He is the only way to the Father. You confess that Jesus is Lord. You believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You believe that salvation is a free gift of God and you can’t offer anything for it except empty hands and a heart that believes.

When you come to God with empty hands and ascribe all glory to God for this gift of salvation, the kingdom of God is yours. There is no other way. You acknowledge that you can’t buy it. You can’t trade in good behavior. You have no good resume. You have a severely tarnished legacy, history, and reputation. So, that won’t work. No, you come poor in spirit. There is no room for boasting, haughtiness, or any of that. There is no cooperation in salvation. It’s 100% monergistic.

Let’s continue.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. (vs 21)

So, these two sections of this one verse really go hand in hand. The first says, “blessed are you who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness.” The second says, “blessed are you who weep over your sin.”

Are you hungry for the righteousness of Jesus? And this is a profound question because it seems like we’re not. Are we hungry for following the Word of God? Are we hungry for pursuing holiness? Are we hungry for obedience to Jesus? Are we hungry for imitating Jesus? Are we hungry for sound doctrine? Are we hungry for the pure, unadulterated gospel?

And to be hungry for it, you must hate your sin. You must weep over your depraved condition. You must mourn over it. You must severely have an anger over your sinful condition. You must grieve over sin and not get all cutesy with it.

You see, for the world, grieving sin is regressive and constricting; for the believer though, it is the pathway to joy.

You see, when you feast on sin, there is no fulfillment. You keep coming back for more like a dog that returns to its vomit (Proverbs 26:11). When you chase the world and what it has to offer, you’re never satisfied. Only Jesus can satisfy you. Only Jesus can fulfill you.

And when you are redeemed, you are called to a life of continuously hungering after the things of Jesus, the things found in His Word. You are called to be so in love with your Savior that you want and desire to be obedient to His commands. Doing so, you’ll be filled. Not doing so and grieving the Holy Spirit, you’re left with this feeling inside of you that is void. And be assured that you cannot have two masters. You cannot serve both the prince of this world and the Creator of this universe at the same time.

So, blessed are you who hunger for righteousness and mourn your sin. For yours is the kingdom of God.

By the way, all of these beatitudes must go hand in hand. We don’t just follow one and ignore the other. It’s a complete package that’s all connected to how one can inherit the kingdom of God and be in right standing with God. Like, you can’t hunger for righteousness of Jesus and NOT mourn your sin. It doesn’t make sense at all. Kill sin before sin kills you.

Ok, let’s move on.

Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. (vs. 22)

SO, this is pretty straight-forward. When you come to God with empty hands and are spiritually bankrupted and when you hunger for righteousness and when you mourn your sin, you can guarantee that people will hate you, people will exclude you, people will insult you, and people will slander your name as evil.

That’s par for the course. Now, if people are doing these things because you’re a jerk and obnoxious, that’s a different conversation.

People will mock your faith. People will insult you as brainwashed, stupid, on the wrong side of history, as bigoted, as haters, and all that. People will purposefully exclude you from their parties and inner circle because you’re the weird Christians who believes archaic things.

People will twist your words and drag your name through the mud when you believe God’s Word and live on God’s Word. People will label it a hate crime when you believe that there is no other way to Heaven except through Jesus, when you believe marriage and sex is between a man and a woman, when you believe that abortion is murder, when you believe in xyz.

You need to be prepared for that. If you haven’t experienced any of this to any degree, you might be concealing your faith. You see, people love the Christianity that’s accepting and embracing and that doesn’t ruffle feathers. The problem is that this isn’t Christianity.

You are a fool if you think you can live your faith in a way that honors Christ knowing that they put to death your Savior. Almost every apostle of Jesus died a gruesome faith and we think we’re being persecuted because Starbucks took Merry Christmas off the cups years ago. Stop it. Why do we expect spiritual behavior from godless people?

What I’m trying to say is this: there is a cost to your faith. There is a cost to following Jesus as Lord, Savior, and King. And you need to help your kids understand this. Many will compromise. Why do you think Jesus said, “Many will call me Lord but I will say to depart from me and that I never knew you.”

Listen, it’s no joke. Leaving it all to follow Jesus can be dangerous, yet joyful in the heart at the same time.

This is why Jesus says the next part, which is:

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note- your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets. (vs. 23).

Your reward isn’t here on earth. It’s in heaven. And that reward is great! You see, back in the day, men and women of God were tortured and they died some gruesome deaths and there are accounts of these same men and women who would praise God on that day. They lived with no fear. They lived with no compromise. They lived with conviction.

I’ll end with this: Six months ago, I knew that it was going to cost me if I moved forth with the convictions and principles rooted in Scripture. I knew that, to the world, it seemed ludicrous. I have 5 kids. I have a wife. And one decision to honor the Lord would leave me waking up one day with no idea how to provide for the family.

I lost many friends. Some were afraid to be connected to me. I was called names. It was scary. But I knew I had to contend for the faith. I knew I needed to walk in pure faith. I knew I needed to trust God. I knew I needed to hunger for the righteousness of Jesus instead of hungering for worldly security, validation, and a paycheck.

And little did I know, God was working behind the scenes to bring us to this point we are living today. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but I am fulfilled in Christ. And I’m sure there will be other valley seasons.

Let’s stand and worship our King Jesus.