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Everyone Who Hears. These Words Of Mine. Matthew 5 - 7. Jesus’ Focus. 1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. ( Matthew 5). A Call To A Kingdom Lifestyle.
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Everyone Who Hears These Words Of Mine Matthew 5 - 7
Jesus’ Focus 1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. (Matthew 5)
A Call To A Kingdom Lifestyle Matthew 5-7, the three profound chapters called the Sermon on the Mount, was not an arbitrary composition. The Sermon on the Mount was Jesus’ grand manifesto of discipleship! In a world caught in the “thick of thin things”, as Steven Covey so provocatively puts it, the Sermon on the Mount was substantial and profound. Jesus, the master disciple maker, knew exactly what His disciples needed and spoke thus to them. (Edmund Chan, “A Certain Kind”)
Your Values Must Change Jesus knew how life works, in the kingdom of heaven as well as the kingdom of this world. In a life characterized by poverty, mourning, meekness, a hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaking and persecution, Jesus himself embodied the Beatitudes. Perhaps he even conceived the Beatitudes as a sermon to himself as well as to the rest of us, for he would have much opportunity to practice these hard truths. (Philip Yancey, “The Jesus I Never Knew”, p 125)
Your Mission Must Be Clear 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5)
Your Mission Must Be Clear 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matthew 5)
Your Standard Must Be Right “You have heard that it was said … but I tell you …
Your Standard Must Be Right 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5) 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5)
Your Motive Must Be Pure 1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6) Hidden motives play a large part in our everyday behavior. The important thing to ask is not merely what a person is doing but why he is doing it. Modern psychology is concerned to probe our basic motivation. Certainly no man can know himself until he has honestly asked himself about his motives. What is the driving force of his life? What ambition dominates and directs him? Ultimately there are only two controlling ambitions, to which all others may be reduced. One is for our own glory, and the other God’s. The fourth Evangelist set them in irreconcilable opposition to each other, and in doing so disclosed Christ’s fundamental quarrel with the Pharisees: ‘they loved the glory of men’, he wrote, ‘more than the glory of God.’ (John Stott, “Christ The Controversialist”)
Your Motive Must Be Pure The beautiful truth is this: whereas to practice our religion beforemen is certain to degrade it, to practice it beforeGod, is equally certain to ennoble it. Why is this? Partly because of who and what God is, and partly because this God sees – not the outward appearance which is all men see but the heart, not the deed itself only but the thoughts and the motives which lie behind the deed. So to live and act in the presence of God ensures reality, while to practice our piety before men is to put on a charade. (John Stott, “Christ The Controversialist”)
Your Allegiance Must Be True 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6)
Your Allegiance Must Be True 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them… 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6)
Your Foundation Must Be Sure 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. (James 1)
Response • Transformium– programmable matter, able to assume any shape or colour it is instructed to.
Christians look to Jesus as both their Teacher and their Lord, their Teacher to instruct them and their Lord to command them. We are proud to be more than His pupils; we are His servants as well. We recognize His right to lay upon us duties and obligations .. We desire to not only to submit our minds to His teaching but our wills to His obedience .. He, therefore, calls us to adopt His standards, which are at variance with the world’s, and to measure greatness in terms not of success but of service, not of self-aggrandizement but of self-sacrifice. Because we are fallen and proud human beings, we find this part of Christian discipleship very difficult. We like to have our own opinions .. we also like to have our own lives, set our own standards and go our own way. In brief, we like to be our own master, our own teacher and lord. (John Stott, “Christ The Controversialist”) Life without purpose, service without joy, participation without passion, zeal without knowledge, accomplishment without authenticity, duty without devotion, faith without foundation. (Edmund Chan onNominal Christianity)
Jesus Christ is looking for men and women in the church of this kind and caliber today, who will take him seriously as their Teacher and Lord, not paying lip-service to these titles (“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do what I tell you?”), but actually taking His yoke upon them, in order to learn from Him and ‘take every thought captive to obey Christ.’ The reasonableness of this Christian subordination lies in the identity of the Teacher. If Jesus of Nazareth were a mere man, it would be ludicrous thus to submit our minds and wills to Him. But because He is the Son of God, it is ludicrous not to do so. Rather is submission to Him just plain Christian common sense and duty. I believe that Jesus Christ is addressing the church of our day with the same words: “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.” My prayer is that having listened to His words, we shall not be content with the use of these courtesy titles, but give Him due honour by our humble belief and whole-hearted obedience. (John Stott, “Christ The Controversialist”)
A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. One by one will we run away? With our made up minds to leave it all behind As the light begins to fade in the City on the Hill The City on the Hill Come home and the Father's calling still Come home to the City on the Hill Come home
