Tag Archives: Sermon on the Mount

Apr
23
2012

Salt and Light

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Believers are to be “salt.” Salt works better if it’s scattered. I love salt, but even I don’t like to pour myself a big bowl of salt to eat. When salt is scattered, however, it brings the natural flavors out of food, and can preserve food from going bad too quickly. The people of God should be like this. We are to preserve and we are to add beauty. To do this, we cannot be contained in “Christian community.” We need to be scattered into every dimension of society, promoting justice and equality and mercy. We are to be in every dimension of society (art, music, Hollywood, politics, etc.) preserving, promoting justice, and adding beauty.

Believers are also to be “light.” Light works best when it is gathered. Put yourself in the shoes (or sandals) of a camel rider at the time Jesus preached this sermon. If it’s the middle of the night and you are looking for a place to rest. I’d say there is a better chance that you will be able to see a group of lights from a distance rather than the faint glow of someone’s Yankee Candle in the window. When the people of God are together in love and fellowship, the beauty of their community becomes a bright light, a beacon of hope, for all the world to see. The local church is God’s demonstration community, putting on display in its love for one another the beauty of Christ (John 13:35; Acts 2:42-47; Ephesians 3:10; Matthew 5:16).

via Between The Times.

Apr
23
2012

The Doctrine of Vocation in the Sermon on the Mount

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Seeking the kingdom of God first does not require a life lived apart from the world. Matt Perman wrote a short post about the myth (excerpt follows):

Jesus says “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6).

In the Middle Ages, before the Reformation, it was thought that life was divided into two areas — the “perfect life” and the “permissible life.” Those in “full time Christian service” lived the perfect life, and everyone else was relegated to second class — your life was acceptable, but not most important. If you wanted to live a truly important life, you had to be in “ministry” (which was also conceived of very differently then).

Jesus explodes this error.

He doesn’t do this by saying “the things of the world are as important as the things of God.” The teaching of the Bible is not that there are no priorities in life. Seeking the kingdom of God is the most important thing.

But the revolutionary teaching of Jesus and the Bible is that you don’t have to be a pastor or missionary or full-time Christian worker to do this.

Wherever you are, whatever your job, you can and must seek the kingdom of God first.

via The Doctrine of Vocation in the Sermon on the Mount : What’s Best Next.

Apr
16
2012

Authority from Ray Ortlund’s blog

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“The Rabbis spoke from authority, Jesus with authority.  Those who heard Him ‘were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes’ (Mark 1:22.  C. H. Dodd renders ‘He taught them like a sovereign, and not like the Rabbis’).  W. Manson . . . cites the saying of Justin Martyr, ‘His word was power from God.’  ‘Thus says the Lord’ is typical of the Old Testament, but Jesus’ characteristic expression is ‘Truly, truly, I say to you.’  The difference is significant.  Jesus appealed to no other authority as He spoke to men of the deep things of God.”

Leon Morris, The Lord from Heaven (Downers Grove, 1974), pages 13-14.  Italics his.

via Authority – Ray Ortlund.

Feb
16
2012

Praying in your room

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In Matthew 6:5, Jesus turns to a very familiar act, that of praying, and directly and more strongly tells his disciples that they must not be like the hypocrites when they pray. The hypocrites were praying to impress, with a motivation entirely centered on what others thought. The hypocrites contrived to be in places where their prayers would be visible to all (and maybe heard as well). They wanted the attention of folks so their astonishing piety could be observed.

It is a solemn warning to all of us who pray in public on a regular basis. There is nothing wrong with public prayers – at the start of a church meeting, or a Bible study, or during a worship service. It is good and proper for God’s people to come before him together in prayer. And I’m not saying we shouldn’t prepare to pray in public – making sure our tongue isn’t tied up and our grammar or phrases don’t distract. Yet, we need to be cautious that our praying isn’t done to impress those listening. Our prayers bring us to the throne of God (Hebrews 4:16); it is him we should be pointing others to in our prayers.

But where does Jesus tell us to pray? In the closet! Jesus describes praying inside the small storage closet located in most single room homes of his day. There can be no desire to impress other people in prayers made in secret to our “Father who is in secret.” We must spend time with him in prayer and we must do it in total privacy.

 

Dec
18
2011

Week 18: Matthew 7:24-29 (NIV)

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[24] “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

[25] The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

[26] But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

[27] The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

[28] When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,

[29] because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

 

 

Dec
11
2011

Week 17: Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)

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[21] “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

[22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’

[23] And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

 

Dec
04
2011

Week 16: Matthew 7:13-20 (NIV)

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[13] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

[14] But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

[15] “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

[16] By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

[17] Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

[18] A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

[19] Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

[20] Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

 

Nov
27
2011

Week 15: Matthew 7:7-12 (ESV)

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[7] “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

[8] For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

[9] Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

[10] Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

[11] If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

[12] “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

 

Nov
20
2011

Week 14: Matthew 7:1-6 (NIV)

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[1] “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

[2] For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

[3] “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

[4] How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

[5] You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

[6] “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

 

Nov
13
2011

Week 13: Matthew 6:27-34 (ESV)

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[27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

[28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

[29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

[30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

[31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

[32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

[33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

[34] “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.