The Kingdom Transformation

Countdown

Something fun (eg. Game, video, etc.). It is not necessary for this to have a tie in to the lesson, but it can. We usually start this before 10:30 as students are coming in.

Introductions

This is culture/ introduction to the series. About 2 Min

We are glad that you are here with us at bcsm and we want you to know, more than anything, that you have a community of people here that love and care about you, you have a purpose or a place within this community which means we are better off with you than without you and you have a mission outside of this community. All of that rests on this one foundational truth that we want you to hear and want you to share: God wants to have a relationship with you.

I am Ken. I am one of the volunteers here in bcsm. Eric, the Student Minister here and a group of 42 other people from this church are in Puerto Rico serving a church there and before we start, I thought it would be good for us to pray for them, this morning.

*Pray*

We are continuing our Kingdom of Heaven series where we will are exploring the very first book of the New Testament, Matthew, a couple chapters at a time. Matthew is one of four biographies of Jesus that we have in the Bible, we call them the gospels, which is just a fancy word for good news. But Matthew tells us a little bit about the things that Jesus did while he was walking around here on earth, it tells us what he taught, how he healed people and ultimately it tells us about his death and resurrection. These gospels give us an insider’s perspective on the things that Jesus said and did. But each of them has kind of a different angle, some things that they want to focus in on about Jesus’ ministry. What we are going to focus on in the book of Matthew is something that he is keen to bring out: this idea of the Kingdom of Heaven. So far we have talked about Jesus’ origins and his preparations for ministry. Today we are covering three chapters of Matthew. A section of Scripture generally referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. This is a large section of text and it condenses a lot of Jesus’ teachings into one place. So we will not be able to do the Sermon on the Mount justice today, but the goal will be to set it up in such a way that you can perhaps, explore it on your own over the next week or so. bcsm does put together daily devotions that follow along with what we talk about in here on Sunday mornings at thebcsm.com or through the church app. So if you are interested in exploring more those could be helpful.

Teaching

This is the main point/ story of your lesson. Everything you want your students to Know should be covered here. About 5 Min.

Summary of the Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount is one the most intense points of scripture. It’s lengthy.

What is it? It is what life would look like if you had perfect faith in God. The standards laid out in the sermon are not attainable by anyone on their own. However, anyone can, with the help of God. It describes the kind of people reborn Christians are, or should be.

The context of the Sermon on the Mount is to describe the saved, not declare a path to salvation.

It’s broken into 3 sections:

True Righteousness - Matthew 5:1-20

The beatitudes thus outline the attitudes of the true disciple, the one who has accepted the demands of God’s kingdom, in contrast with the attitudes of the ‘man of the world’; and they present this as the best way of life not only in its intrinsic goodness but in its results. The rewards of discipleship are therefore spelt out in the second half of each verse

France, R. T. (1985). Matthew: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 1, p. 114). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

True Intentions - Matthew 5:21-6:34

Moving from outward religion to heart level stuff

Hinderances To Righteousness - Matthew 7

Jesus is trying to move us from religion to relationship. He moves us from law to love and from behavior to belief.

Source: https://12stone.com/watch/unlearning-religion/an-overview-of-the-sermon-on-the-mount

Tension

What is the rub? Create some questions and feeling. About 5 Min.

Kingdom of Heaven is now and not yet.

We are not talking about behavior modification, but life transformation.

Response

This is the response portion. Everything you want your students to Do should be touched on here, but you should have at least one immediate action that can be taken. About 5 Min.

When we adopt this Kingdom mindset, as it transforms our life, it will cause us to stand out. We will be salty. We will be light in the darkness.

We will experience resistance there. But that does not mean we should stop being transformed because our lives are being molded to fit the deeper reality of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 7:24–27 (ESV)

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Right now we are going to do something we do every week to celebrate the fact that Jesus was not just an ordinary dude. We celebrate what he did to answer all of these questions the Old Testament and even our lives cause us to ask. Where God’s Justice and His Mercy come together in one single moment as Jesus died on a cross to solve the problem of sin and then rose from the dead to solve the problem of death so that his throne could last forever. So while I play this song, feel free to get up and move. If you would like to take communion, just make your way up here and take a chalise. Eat the bread to remember his broken body and the juice to remember his shed blood. If you need prayer or need to make a decision, or you have questions… if you need to talk to an adult, this is a good chance to do that. Or if you want to just sit, listen to the lyrics of the song, pray, or read the Bible, you can do that as well.

Suggested Song

Oh Mercy- Stu Garrard, Audrey Assad, Matt Maher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=137&v=8tEgzJaudoc&feature=emb_logo

Discussion

You might find this a helpful starting point:

https://www.brazospointe.com/matthew