Blessings and Woes

It’s been a month since I preached, and this will be my first time preaching in the new building after our most recent move, but hopefully you haven’t forgotten that we are working on a monthly series where we look at the core doctrines as Christ taught them in the four Gospels.

Just to recap, we’ve looked at a few parables over the last few months and Christ’s lessons during the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

But, no discussion of what Christ taught would be complete without discussing the central sermons given by Jesus.

Today we will begin examining two which parallel one another, but have some very distinct differences.

Those sermons of course would be the Sermon on the Mount, found in and the much shorter Sermon on the Plain found in

We obviously won’t be able to get through all that today, but let’s start at the beginning.

So what are the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain and why are they so similar but also so different?

For a casual reader, it may seem that these are the same sermon just Luke including and leaving out things that Matthew didn’t, but for someone who is really studying the gospels deeply, there can be a lot of confusion about when and where these sermons are happening.

The sermon in Matthew takes place after he calls his disciples and when he had gone up a mountain, while the sermon in Luke takes place after he calls his disciples and when he had come down a mountain and this leads some, even Bible scholars, to think that either Matthew or Luke made a mistake; you’ll even see this on well known atheists websites as a major Bible contradiction

The sermon in Luke however takes place after he calls his disciples and when he had come down a mountain.

This leads some, even Bible scholars, to think that either Matthew or Luke made a mistake and you’ll even see this on well known atheists websites as a major Bible contradiction. You’ll often even see footnotes in some Bibles that link these two sermons together.

Now some of you may know what I am about to say, and others may not, but if we look at the passages it is true that Matthew does indeed happen after Jesus calls his disciples and goes up a mountain and yes it is true that Luke does happen after Jesus calls his disciples and after he came down from a mountain, but even though they both took place in Galilee and may even have been the same mountain, they aren’t the same event.

But, if we look at the passages, yes, Matthew does indeed happen after Jesus calls his disciples and goes up a mountain.

And yes, Luke does happen after Jesus calls his disciples and after he came down from a mountain, but they aren’t the same events and they aren’t the same mountain.

Luke gives us more information; in chapter 6, beginning in verse 12, Luke writes:

He then says that Jesus “came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon” (Luke 6:17)

(Read )

Contrast that with Matthew who says, “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” (Matthew 4:23-25)

But look what Matthew says in chapter 10 verses 1-4:

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“And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The first event where Christ gathers his students and the second event where Christ infers his authority to the 12 apostles act as sign posts and there really is no need to be confused about when these things happened.

Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5-7 occurs during Luke’s chapter 5, while Luke’s Sermon on the Plain takes place during Matthew’s chapter 10 which was likely several weeks or even months later, even though it was still during his Galilean ministry.

This is not uncommon either.

You’ll find many times that Jesus repeats the same teachings, even in the same gospel.

That Matthew chose to highlight one while Luke chose to highlight another shouldn’t really be all that controversial as one is writing to Jews and the other is writing to Gentiles, one was an eye-witness and the other was writing what he heard from the eye-witnesses.

As for the place, the sermon in Matthew took place at Har HaOsher, which literally means, the Mountain of Blessings on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, while the sermon in Luke took place at the base of the mountain, closer to the synagogue at Capernaum, as that is the city he enters immediately after the sermon.

So, let’s begin understanding what Christ teaches in these sermons.

Luke

Both sermons begin with blessings; Matthew has 8, while Luke has only 4. However, Luke’s 4 do something very interesting, they are what Ambrose called “The Four Cardinal Virtues”, that is, these 4 when understood rightly, contain all 8 from Matthew.

Those virtues are temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude and as Ambrose said it, “These virtues are interwoven and interlinked, so that a person who has one may be seen to have several...” and “Where virtue abounds, the reward too abounds. Thus temperance has purity of heart and spirit, justice has compassion, patience has peace, and endurance has gentleness.”

Just, A. A. (Ed.). (2005). Luke (p. 104). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

These “blessed are” statements aren’t simply Jesus telling us what God will do for us, they are much more than that; they are the characteristics of a true disciple of Christ, a true Christian, and the sign of the Christian life is that you are being conformed to these characteristics because they are the characteristics that Christ demonstrated during his life.

(Read and )

If you aren’t growing in any of these characteristics, you need to take a long hard look at your faith, so pay attention and please read with me.

Now, while we have that fresh in our minds, please read with me.

(Read as a group)

These “blessed are” statements aren’t simply Jesus telling us who God will redeem, they are much more than that; they are the characteristics of a true disciple of Christ, a true Christian.

As I said, these are the traits that Christ demonstrated and they are they traits that we should be growing in and being conformed to.

If you claim to follower Christ you will be poor in spirit, that is humble, you will recognize your need for God’s work through the Holy Spirit to bring you into the kingdom of heaven.

If you are a true follower of Christ you will mourn, and this isn’t the mourning you might do at a funeral, rather this is lamenting, grieving your sins.

The one who is poor in spirit is humbled, and humility brings about a deep sorrow for sins.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.”

A true follower of Christ will be meek.

As Christ stepped down out of heaven and became a man, a Christian should become the servant of their brothers and sisters.

A meek person is gentle, neither provoking others to evil, nor being provoked by evil and having deep sorrow for their sins is quick to repentance.

A true follower of Christ will hunger and thirst for righteousness, that is, having repented of your sins, literally having turned around from them, you will chase after God and have a desire to do his will.

A Christian will be merciful.

There are many ways of being merciful, but chief among them is forgiveness of wrongs done against you.

As I mentioned in a past sermon, Jesus sums this up easily when he says, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” ().

So the one who is quick to repentance should be quick to forgiveness.

A Christ follower is pure in heart, they have been made clean, and they are blameless.

The one who is quick to forgiveness is forgiven by God because of what Christ has done and no one, neither man nor angel, not even the devil, has the ability to make them guilty.

A true Christian is a peacemaker, they stand as guards over the love and the peace of the church. They don’t abandon their friends in times of trouble.

They don’t push their brothers and sisters away when there is a disagreement. When trouble arises, they are impartial and seek to bring brothers and sisters together.

The one who is blameless abides in Christ’s peace and seeks to bring their friends and even their enemies into that peace with them.

But, a true Christian for all that will be persecuted for it.

Even though they are blameless, empty charges will be brought against them by people who think themselves more spiritual, or less sinful, or who are prideful monsters who are starving to justify themselves and showing no mercy and having no sense of justice, they not only cause division among brothers, often to make themselves look good to others, and they will not only speak bad about you, but even hurt and kill those who live in God’s grace.

As Jesus says in , “woe” to them because they have already recieved their reward and they will never be satisfied.

But, the good news is this, and notice again, as Ambrose put it how interconnected the virtues are: Those who are poor in spirit are humbled and they are brought to a deep sorrow for their sins which makes them meek and those who are meek are quick to repent and having repented they hunger for righteousness, seeking to do God’s will by becoming merciful, eager to forgive others which makes them pure in heart, blameless to all creation, and those who are blameless are able to stand guard over the love and peace of the church because they belong to the kingdom of heaven.

These who have endured all will be comforted, they will inherit the earth, they will be satisfied in Christ’s righteousness having received the mercy of God and able to stand in his presence being blameless children of the Most High, who has brought them into the kingdom of heaven through Christ’s righteousness and they will rejoice and be glad because their reward is eternity in union with Christ, in the kingdom of God.

I hope this is both an encouragement and call to action.

Be encouraged that if you lack in one of these, you can go to God in repentance and prayer, but consider it a call to action if you do not see yourself growing in these characteristics, it’s time to examine your faith and the best place to start is right at the beginning, by humbling yourself before God.

Please pray with me.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

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