What is an Epistle?—One of the letters, written openly, adopted as books of the New Testament. Paul authored 7 canonized letters. These are the letters or epistles to Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, and Thessalonica. 

What is an Apostle?—Apostle (Gk. Apostolos). Envoy, ambassador, or messenger commissioned to carry out the instructions of the commissioning agent.

Who is Paul?—This is the former Saul of Tarsus, a Jewish Rabbi of the Jewish sect of law-keeping, brilliant-minded, hard-hearted Pharisees of which we read so much of in the gospels. We learn of this man called Saul in Acts chapter 7, a man filled with rage and hate for the Christians. He hated what was being preached, so much so that he consents to the death of the first Christian martyr, a young man named Stephen.

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In our first message here from the beatitudes we explored the setting and the context of the Word blessed. Makarios=happy, satisfied, inwardly content. The first beatitude was poor in spirit! Thank God that’s the starting point! We are destitute, unable to provide for ourselves. We are in complete need of everything from God spiritually. We must recognize that we do not have what we need within ourselves, our humanity is corrupt. But the story doesn’t end with our corruption as we will see. There is an escape. 

We started at the ground level with our ladder of The Beatitudes—

Rung 1- Poor In Spirit

Rung 2- Pressed In Soul

This week we climb to Rung 3- Patient In Strife

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