What God Has Joined Let No Man Separate

“The Sermon on the Mount is as important to understanding Jesus as the “Ninety-Five Theses” is to understanding Martin Luther or the “I have a Dream” speech is to understanding Martin Luther King.” Brian Zahnd What God has joined together, let no man separate--The greatest sermon Jesus ever preached. Yet, we avoid the Sermon on the Mount, we marginalize it. WHY? To the world the church is largely irrelevant Why do you think that is so? The world doesn’t want the message we proclaim And We (the church) don’t want the message Jesus proclaimed “Life with Christ doesn’t just have to do with forgiveness, but more than anything, it has to with relationship to real life.” Dallas Willard Honey, I Shrunk the Gospel Once we have reduced salvation and the purpose of Christ’s coming to “how to get to heaven when you die,” the sermon on the mount seems marginal. It doesn’t seem to fit our evangelical system of salvation. Where’s the Sermon on the Mount in the Romans Road? The Four Spiritual Laws? What is the Gospel? Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures I Cor.15:1-4 When we compress the gospel to the death and resurrection of Jesus, we make the life and teaching of Jesus largely superfluous The entire life of Christ is part of God’s purpose to redeem the human race. The “work of Jesus Christ” began at the Incarnation and extends to the Ascension and being seated at the right hand of the Father. The full gospel begins at Christmas. When we begin with Bethlehem and NOT Calvary, we incorporate the Sermon on the Mount into the saving work of Jesus. Jesus was not just born to die, He was born to live-to live fully and freely as no human has ever lived! Christ came to reveal… No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. Jn.1:18 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Jn.6:46 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Jn.14:6-9 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 Christ came to reveal… “You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst in order that He might renew mankind made after Himself.” Athanasius, fourth century bishop of Alexandria On the Incarnation “It’s as we look at Jesus Christ that we remember what we are to look like, what we are to be like. Jesus Christ is a human as God intended.. He is the one who faithfully bears the image of God and informs us how we should be.” Brian Zahnd Jesus was not born just to die, but to live, teach, and reveal For what have you been born? In his magnus opus, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching us HOW to be like God and HOW to bear God’s image. The recurring theme is forgiveness. Blessed are the merciful…Mt.5:7 Turn the other cheek…Mt.5:39 Give your coat…Mt.5:40 Go the second mile…Mt.5:41 love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…Mt.5:44 Forgive as we have forgiven…Mt.6:12 Putting back together what the church has separated Mt.7:12-13 What does everyone want from one another? Love Mercy Forgiveness Remember the story of the adulterous woman? Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Gen.12:1-3 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:7-10 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Gen.12:1-3 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:7-10 Salvation is the kingdom of God What Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount is teaching us how to live the kingdom of God. Jesus is teaching us how to live our salvation What about Paul? He (Paul) lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Acts 28:30-31 There’s no us and them If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors…. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:8-9,12-13 Christ came to reveal… No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. Jn.1:18 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Jn.6:46 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Jn.14:6-9 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. I Jn.4:12 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice (reconciliation), and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Mt.5:43-48 “Living under the governance of heaven frees and empowers us to love as God loves. But outside the safety and sufficiency of heaven’s rule, we are too frightened and angry to really love others, or even ourselves, and so we arrange dreary substitutes in the form of pleasures of various kinds and “loves.” A contemporary wording of Jesus’s comparison of God’s kind of love, agape, and what normally passes for love might be “What’s so great if you love those who love you? Terrorists do that! If that’s all your ‘love’ amounts to, God certainly is not involved. Or suppose you are friendly to ‘our kind of people.’ So is the Mafia!” … Now reflect: Has your heart gone out in generous blessing to someone who has insulted or humiliated you? Can you work without thought of gain for the well-being of someone who openly despises you, maybe has told you to drop dead? Are you enthusiastically pulling for the success of someone competing with you for favor, position, or financial gain? That is what those possessed and permeated by God’s kind of love find themselves doing.” Dallas Willard Who are our enemies?