Most people view the beatitudes as a list of circumstantial blessings. In actuality, the beatitudes is Jesus opening His famous sermon with the Gospel. Rather than a list, this is actually the process of one coming to know Jesus personally.

The greatest sermon ever recorded was the sermon Jesus gave on a mountainside. The Sermon on the Mount starts and ends with the Gospel. Everything in-between is what it looks like to live a Gospel-infected life. Jesus gives us practical life lessons, not to prove we are Christ followers but because we are Christ followers.