Sermon Tone Analysis
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A reading from Matthew 5:1-16
The word of our Lord,
Thanks be to God.
Going Deep; Growing Strong
New Testament Scholar Robert Guelich in his book, Sermon on the Mount, translated the passage we just heard.
He searched and searched for a word to bring the word “Blessed” into our current vernacular and with the intention of the author.
The word he settled on was, “Congratulations!”
Imagine reading it that way:
Congratulations you the poor in spirit...
Congratulations you who mourn...
Congratulation you who are meek...
Congratulations you who hunger and thirst for righteousness...
Congratulations you who are merciful...
Congratulations you pure in heart...
Congratulations you peacemakers...
Congratulations you who are persecuted...
Congratulations for when other revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account...
It’s a different way of considering this passage.
I’ve read through the Beatitudes so many times.
One question has stood out to me when I read these words from this passage:
Does each beatitude refer to separate people, or do they each refer to the same person?
After much consideration, it would seem that this is all meant to embody the same person.
The Blessed person is poor in spirit, mourns, is meek, hungers and thirst for righteousness, is merciful, keeps their heart pure, is a peacemaker, and is persecuted and hated because of it.
We read our Bibles and we read great statements of faith:
Paul writes:
and he followed that up with Gal 2:21
The reality is our faith is not a works based faith.
He reminds us of that in Ephesians 2:8-9
We are called to be disciples of Jesus, not just when we are children, but throughout our life.
That means going deeper than the Sunday school lessons we learned as children, but continuing to go deeper, continuing to be intentional about our spiritual growth.
Church, I can only implore you to continue seek after Christ, not because you can earn your way to heaven, but because of God’s love for you.
Jesus himself beckons us on.
In the calling of his disciples he said, Matt 4:19
In the Sermon on the Mount he says, Mt 6:33
Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them.
For the Christian, this refers to the process of learning the teachings of Jesus and following after his example in obedience through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Discipleship fundamentally involves all of one’s being, not just the mind or intellect.
All of the biblical terms used to convey the concept of discipleship involve more than just academic engagement.
Moses made clear that the teaching of the law was meant to result in obedience to what it said rather than just intellectual acceptance (Deut 4:5)
In the Old Testament, the concept of discipleship was fundamentally about learning what is required from the Torah and submitting to it in obedience.
In the New Testament the concept of discipleship most often involves being a disciple of a particular person.
You may see disciples of Pharisees, John the baptist, but most of the NT is focused on the disciples of one person, and that is Jesus, and they give up everything to follow him.
In our Lenten journey, this week we are considering discipleship as a lifelong journey.
You should have received a copy of our Bible study in an email from me this past Thursday.
I will be sending out another each Thursday as we journey through Lent.
If you have not received one of these Bible studies, let me know.
Once I have your email address I will be happy to send you a study.
As you and I strive to:
Be Poor in spirit - living in humility
Mourn - repentant and genuinely grieving our sins
Meek - seeking not to be forceful
Hunger and thirst for righteousness - seeking God first
Merciful - showing mercy to all
Pure in heart - Keeping our lives pure
Peacemakers - being people of peace
During the season of Lent, my hope is that each one of us is going deep, and growing strong in our faith.
As we go to communion this morning, let’s rededicate ourselves to the discipline of seeking God first and glorifying only Him.
To God be the glory,
AMEN.
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