Dear Friends,
Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount is widely known and widely revered. Christians and non-Christians alike see the teaching of Jesus in this well-known sermon in Matthew 5-7 as a message about how to be a “good” person.
Which is the wrong way to look at the Sermon on the Mount.
What Jesus teaches in this sermon is powerful and profound and important. It should affect how we live as His followers.
But there are at least four messages Jesus is driving home in this sermon:
1. God’s standards for how we are to live are very different than what most religious leaders, then and now, are advocating. Most religious leaders advocate moral improvement. God calls us to be perfect.
2. God’s command that we must be perfect presents all of us with a hopeless quest. Perfection is the expectation. And no one is perfect. We all fall short.
3. The question we should be left with from this sermon is “how can anyone ever become a child of God?” Clearly we can’t achieve what God expects.
4. That leaves everyone who hears or reads this sermon with a choice. Continue to try to live a better life and hope that God grades on the curve. Or abandon your pursuit of self-righteousness and cry out to Jesus for help.
You’ve no doubt had friends say something like “I try to live my life according to the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.” They think Jesus’ message in this sermon is “Do your best and God will be satisfied as long as you try.”
While the sermon is a statement of the kind of ethical behavior that ought to be true of those who follow Jesus, the message of the Sermon on the Mount is not “here’s the standard – now go do your best to live this way so God will be pleased with you.”
In fact, if someone – then or now – hears this sermon and thinks “okay, I just need to clean up my act a bit and I’m good with God,” they’ve missed the whole point.
Jesus’ purpose in the Sermon on the Mount is to declare that God’s standards for how we live is much higher than what religious leaders are telling you. His goal is to convince all of us to abandon any hope we might have that we are able to achieve God’s commendation through any effort of their own.
The conclusion all of us should draw after reading the Sermon on the Mount is the conclusion the hymnwriter drew:
Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law's demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.
The Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day were false teachers with a false gospel. Their message was that God what expects is an “external only righteousness.”
Jesus uses six illustrations in His sermon to point out how the Scribes and Pharisees had not just misunderstood God's law, they had deliberately altered His word, dumbing it down to an achievable standard of external righteousness.
Jesus shows that God is concerned about both your heart and your behavior. He’s telling us that the only lasting change in our behavior as Christians will come as a result of a changed heart. “External only righteousness” won’t cut it with Him.
The six illustrations are:
You have heard it said (behavior):But I say (heart issue): Don't murder You have an angry heart Don't commit adultery You have a lustful heart Don't divorce someone without doing the necessary paperwork first You have a self-indulgent heart You must tell the truth if you swear by God You have a deceitful heart You must limit your revenge You have a vengeful heart You must love your neighbor, but you can hate your enemy You have a hateful heart
The real issue in our lives is not a behavior issue. It’s a heart issue.
And the core of our heart issue is a focus on self, not on the glory of God or the needs of others.
The Scribes and Pharisees thought they had found a way to meet God's righteous demands by virtuous living. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows that our heart is the problem. Our terminal self-centeredness is the issue.
And the cure is not to dumb down God's righteous standard. The only real cure is a new heart.
Until we understand that fundamental premise, we remain far from God and from His grace.
ROOTS SUMMER FUNPlease continue to pray for our Roots Students as they prepare to head to Memphis next week for our Street Reach outreach to kids in the Brady Heights neighborhood.
On Sunday, we will hear more about their trip and will pray for them as they get ready to leave later that day.
Once they’re back, there are a handful of special events on the schedule for them this summer. Parents, make sure these dates are on your calendars.BRIEF RCC MEMBERS MEETING THIS SUNDAYImmediately following our worship service this Sunday, we’re asking RCC members to stay with us for a short member’s meeting. We have some important family business to pass along to you. We’ll excuse our visitors when the service is over, and will have your kids stay in child care and Gospel Zone during this time. The meeting should take about 10 minutes. READY FOR SUNDAYHere is the preview (https://us.list-manage.com/N0yEa7JJyKG?e=da31571acc&c2id=9646fad7312ad0e2da39a919ec1318cf) of the songs we’ll be singing together this weekend.
After defeating the Midianites (with God’s mercy and might on full display), Gideon was confronted with internal strife and a second battle. But this time, the Lord’s presence is noticeably absent, and Gideon himself lapses into apostasy. We’ll learn the details of the fall of Gideon when we study Judges 8 this Sunday.
Oh, and don’t forget – Sunday is a special day for dads.
See you in church!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Bob
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