What does First B Jackson teach about blessing others?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on blessing others starts with a question: why does God bless his people in the first place? Working from Psalm 67, both Pastor Ray and Pastor Jason showed that the blessing God gives is never meant to stop with the people who receive it. The psalm opens with a prayer drawn almost word for word from the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6, but it immediately adds a purpose clause, that God's way would be known on the earth and his salvation among all nations. The blessing is the means, not the destination.
That pattern runs all the way back to Genesis 12, where God promised to bless Abraham so that Abraham would be a blessing, and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. Pastor Jason made the point that this spreading circle is not a New Testament invention; it runs through the whole of Scripture. Paul saw the same thing in Galatians 3, arguing that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham and that in Christ the blessing of Abraham was always meant to reach people outside the original covenant community. Anyone who has placed faith in Jesus has been drawn into that same circle and carries the same outward purpose.
A third dimension of this teaching came through a series on 1 Peter, where the call to bless rather than return evil was set inside the ordinary relationships of home and neighborhood. The passage asks believers to live the grace they have received in plain sight, whether that means a wife persevering with a gentle spirit before an unbelieving husband, or a man honoring his wife as a fellow heir of grace. The way God's people treat one another and the people around them is itself a form of blessing, and none of it is hidden from God.
Taught from Psalm 67 · Genesis 12:1-3 · Numbers 6:24-26 · Galatians 3:14 · 1 Peter 3:1-12
The passage taught · Galatians 3
1 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain?
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- February 19, 2023 The Spreading Circle Psalm 67's "spreading circle" shows how God's blessing flows from Abraham through us to every nation, rooted in faith and the call to carry the gospel outward.
- February 19, 2023 The Spreading Circle Psalm 67 shows God blesses His people not as an end in itself, but so His grace spreads outward to every nation, people, and tongue on earth.
- September 23, 2018 Called to Bless, That You Might Inherit a Blessing Peter calls all believers to bless rather than repay evil, submit to God's order, and live faithfully so that even unbelieving spouses might be won to Christ.