When we read the Beatitudes, we see a picture of the qualities a disciple of Christ is meant to grow in. The descriptions are of a people so full of meekness and mercy that it is hard to imagine anyone would want to persecute them.
Read MoreIn the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus started by describing the qualities of those who are blessed in His Kingdom. They are very different from the things that receive respect and honor in the eyes of the world. They look like Him.
Read MoreJesus preached the heart-wrenchingly beautiful qualities of a disciple as the opening poem of the Sermon on the Mount. Then He taught that the humility and dependence of His blessed ones would be like salt and light to the rest of the world.
Read MoreJesus declared that the Laws and prophecies of the Old Testament would remain unbreakable and true until the end of time. In His own life on earth, the Lord obeyed them with absolute perfection in response to His heavenly Father.
Read MoreJesus was teaching the Sermon on the Mount. He explained what it means to be a member of God’s Kingdom. The key is found in qualities of the heart such as purity, mercy, and meekness. These rich inner qualities will show outwardly in the way Christ’s followers respond to life.
Read MoreThe next Kingdom ideal that the Lord explained to for His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount was about taking oaths.
Read MoreThe next thing Jesus tackled in His Sermon on the Mount was a law that Moses gave in the book of Deuteronomy. It said: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” I've know some people to find this repulsive and brutal, but my guess is that they hadn't thought it through very deeply.
Read MoreAs Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, He proclaimed six different ways that the Jewish leaders of His time had distorted and misused the high and holy Law of the Old Testament. In His protection against the rages of evil in this world, God gave commands against murder, adultery, and divorce so that sin would be restrained.
Read MoreAs Jesus preached through His piercingly clear Sermon on the Mount, He began to talk about what it means to love. He pointed out that nobody should get a reward for loving the people who love you back. That’s easy.
Read MoreIn the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught a high and holy Law where absolute love is the supreme goal. Then He taught that His disciples what it would look like to honor it perfectly. The vision of Kingdom love that the Lord presented on the mountain is so achingly pure and obviously holy that humanity naturally praises it and longs for it.
Read MoreAs Jesus taught His Sermon on the Mount, He explained how God wanted His disciples to pray. The people of Jesus' time were not to follow the models of their culture. The religious leaders who used prayer to show off their own piety. Instead,
Read MoreOf all the important questions there are in the world, perhaps one of the most important is this: “How are we supposed to talk to God?” If you think about it, the fact that we can talk to Him at all is pretty amazing. There are lots of false stories about God out there that suggest we can’t come to Him.
Read MoreIn His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave some of the most beautiful truths every spoken or written. Each statement has infinite worth, and yet everything He says in His sermon hangs together like a beautiful golden chain. It helps to look at each part in depth.
Read MoreWhen we read the radical, world-changing sermon that Jesus preached on the mount, we are learning what it means to be subjects of His Kingdom. It is a strange Kingdom. We can’t see it, and yet He is seated on a throne ruling in mighty, sovereign power.
Read MoreA lot of times when we hear about the Good News of Jesus, we hear about the beauty of God's grace...and that is really good because His grace is amazing. He paid a tremendous price to give us that grace as a free gift. It means we have been adopted into His family, given the honor of being the children of the Most High God, receiving His love and protection.
Read MoreJesus continued to journey about the countryside telling everyone the Good News and healing the sick. One day He travelled to a city called Nain. His newly appointed disciples were with Him, and they were followed by a huge crowd.
Read MoreAs Jesus preached to the people throughout the region of Galilee, the powerful religious leaders began rejecting His message. But it wasn’t just the religious leaders that refused to hear the message of God through John and Jesus.
Read MoreJesus and His disciples went out once again to the cities around the Sea of Galilee. He proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom of God to everyone who came to Him. There was a group of women who came along with them as well.
Read MoreJesus had spent His days travelling around Galilee, teaching the deepest, richest truths that humanity had ever heard, and healing the broken. He started out teaching in the synagogues, giving the religious leaders a chance to recognize their Savior.
Read MoreImagine if the powerful religious leaders of your day journeyed to find you so they could confront you. Men from the Temple in Jerusalem in the South of Israel had travelled all the way to the North to do just that. Jesus had a lot of choices that He could have made.He could have hid from them...and then gossiped about them for the next 20 years.
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