Best Sermon Ever (series) Wk #6

Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:2–12 “Then he began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:17–18 ““Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor/theologian during WWII on living the sermon on the mount:

The restoration of the church must surely depend on a new kind of monasticism, which has nothing in common with the old but (instead is) a life of uncompromising discipleship, to follow Christ according to the Sermon on the Mount.” (Bonhoeffer in letter to his brother in 1935)

*Monasticism was a prayerful return to daily discipleship during the middle ages

I want to Suggest…These 2 Passages Frame the SOM

Matt 5:2-12 The Beatitudes serve as the front and back cover (They wrap the essence of Jesus’ teaching in the SOM)

These first 12 verses are what it looks like when you live-out the sermon…when I make the ways of Jesus the standard for my life I can live the BLESSED LIFE! “What we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount is a concise statement of Jesus’ teachings on how to actually live in the reality of God’s present kingdom [in the world today].” - Dallas Willard

Matt 5:17-20 Jesus himself is the binding that holds it all together.

Acts 17:28 “For in him we live and move and have our being…”

We can’t hear the SOM as a boring lecture…it’s an Invitation

*Not a boring lecture!

As far as sermons go, I know this is hard to believe, but may have preached a bad sermon or two in my years as a pastor… [PAUSE…maybe one!]

But when I think about my one bad sermons I always think about Paul’s very long, very boring sermon….

There’s a story in Acts 20 where Paul preached a sermon that was so long a man named Eutychus fell asleep and then fell out of a two story window to his death! …As sermons go that feels like a pretty bad outcome!!! As far as I know, no one has died because of my sermon. Luckily Paul being full of the spirit was not deterred. He just raises the man from the dead and keeps on preaching!

Sadly, I have had to speak with a church member or two about falling asleep during my sermons (you know who you are…Jack!!).

Principle: Jesus is doing more than giving us a boring lecture of things to do…He’s giving us his life as a Livable Model for getting in on what God is doing in the earth today!

We get caught up in the DOING…but Jesus is really just inviting us to get in on the good things God is already doing.

YOU’VE BEEN INVITED!

(Ask somebody: Did you get your invitation?!)

You will remain frustrated in your faith as long as you see it as a list of do’s and don’ts, rather than an invitation to get in God’s great project of making all things new.

The enemy will use a performance mentality to steal away your joy and keep you locked in old cycles of sin and doubt.

But I want to tell you today, Jesus has come to break you free from those old cycles of limitations!!

You were created to experience the full-measure of Jesus!

[SLIDE: Copy Version as shown below]

Ephesians 3:16–19 (CSB)

16 I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 19 and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The Binding & the Cover

Illustration: I got this (preaching) Bible many years ago…it was a higher quality…very soft leather cover and high-quality binding…its made to hold up over time and use…

[Great Grandpa Howard’s Bible] Then there is this Bible passed to me from Rev. E.E. Howard from the early 1930’s…it’s cover is ragged and it’s binding loose…it’s falling apart with time… The person of Jesus and the Ways of Jesus are the binding and glue of our lives. When that binding starts to deteriorate, it’s hard to hold our lives together.

Here’s what I want you to see today as we zoom out from the SOM:

The Beatitudes show us the Ways of Jesus (Matthew 5:2-12). They are the cover we wrap our lives with.

When your life is patterned after Jesus, like a good book cover, your life becomes a display of God’s faithfulness.

Here’s what it looks like to live like Jesus:

humble, yet confident

weak by the world’s standard, but strong in spirit

poor and insignificant in the world’s eyes, but rich in God

suffering at times, but not without HOPE!

persecuted for Christ sake, but victorious in Christ Jesus

Jesus’ Life in me makes my Life Full and Complete (Matthew 5:17-20). He is the glue that binds it all together.

Jesus is saying: Everything the Father has done from Genesis to now is all held together in me.

Jesus is the revelation and meaning of all God has done, is doing, and will do (full-stop)!

Cultural Truth: Too many of us live our lives feeling like G-pa Howard’s Bible…ragged around the edges…barely holding ourself together…worried…driven by fear…disappointment…anger…bitterness…and pain.

Scripture Truth: The enemy wants to steal away what Jesus has provided for you…specifically your peace, joy, and contentment in the Holy Spirit.

I want to end with this key phrase Jesus uses at the start of his sermon: “Blessed are…?”

There are a few ways to translate “blessed”....from the Greek word meaning “blessed”, “happy”, “fortunate”, “prosperous”...

..but in its original context the best translations might be this… “blissfully content”

**Kind of like your teenagers during summer break! NOT A CARE IN THE WORLD EXCEPT WHAT’S IN THE FRIDGE DAD??!!

They lay around like they just got finished digging trenches for a year in the desert heat!!

They’re all about enjoying the good life!! Any parent in the room wish sometimes you could go back to that carefree life!!??

[Re-read inserting “blissfully content…”]

Matthew 5:3–12 (CEB)

[SLIDE: Copy as shown below]

Blissfully content are the hopeless in this world, the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blissfully content are those who grieve, they will be made glad. Blissfully content are the humble, they will inherit the earth. Blissfully content are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be fed until they are full. Blissfully content are the merciful, they will receive mercy. Blissfully content are the pure hearts, they will see God. Blissfully content are the peacemakers, they will be called God’s children. Blissfully content are those who are harassed because they are righteous, the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blissfully content are you when people insult you and harass you…Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven.

Here’s the Takeaway: When my attitude and outlook is formed by the ways of Jesus, empowered by the Person of Jesus…I live blissfully content!

Psalms 1:1-3 “How happy [blissfully content] is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

It’s Not Complicated

Part of why Jesus taught on the hillside instead of the synagogue was because the teachers in the synagogue were trying to make things WAY more complicated than they needed to be.

Truth: If you can make the ways of Jesus complicated and unreachable, you can moralize his teachings as just a high-minded ideal, while continuing to live life “the best you know how.”

But here’s the reality of the Sermon on the Mount:

Following God is not complicated, but it is difficult.

Difficult not because it’s hard to understand or hard to measure up.

It’s difficult because it requires that you die to yourself, die to your preference, die to your wants and demands…so that you can experience the FULLNESS that only Jesus can bring to your life.

RESPONSE:

What do you need to come and lay down today?

What are you carrying that is too heavy?

How has the enemy stolen away, tricked you out of your inheritance of blissful contentment?

Matthew 11:28–30 ““Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.””