THE FIRST WORDS OF JESUS

MEDITATIONS ON THE
Eight Beatitudes
Dr. Alvin H. Franzmeier 

This short work seeks to answer two questions:  

• Why are the Beatitudes positioned in the New Testament as the first teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ? 
• Are the Beatitudes indeed both the introduction to the person and work of Christ and the connecting link between the Old and New Testaments?

Although the book is only 55 pages, it is packed with 172 footnotes pointing to Bible passages in both the Old and New Testaments. The purpose of the footnotes is to encourage readers to study the passages in their context in order to corroborate the teaching of the text.  
In addition, the text is printed on sturdy paper and each page is faced with a blank page on which to make notes. Further, the book is wire-bound so that it may lie flat to facilitate such note taking.  
In the first four Beatitudes Jesus teaches that He is the merciful King who gives His disciples His righteousness and, by the power of His Spirit, new birth as beloved children of the Heavenly Father. In the next three He teaches His disciples to relate in mercy and love to their fellow men. In the eighth, Jesus calls His disciples’ attention to the reality of persecution and opposition, even as He, their Master, was persecuted. The eighth is the closing parenthesis of all eight, complementing the first, which also promises the kingdom of the heavens and the ever-present power of the King to guide and protect.
The book serves as a guide for both personal and group study of the person and work of Jesus Christ and of the life of His faithful disciples. It points disciples to the Biblical teaching that Jesus is the fulfiller of the prophecies contained in the Old Testament about the promised King and His kingdom. He is the one who came to fulfill those promises, who is present in His Word and who is coming again in glory. 

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