This fall, we are launching a new sermon series on Sunday mornings that is the second installment of eleven parts of the gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. We covered most of part one last spring and what remains will be addressed during Christmas of this year.
The fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew gives us the content that we will cover in the next several months. It is famously called The Sermon On The Mount. It is an incredible description of a value system that produces a life that is useful, fruitful, and stable. Jesus puts it this way,
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 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.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. 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.
Matthew 5:24-27
Our culture has largely abandoned Jesus and His authority to give instruction and direction for our lives. In many ways, we are described accurately by the the homeowner who selected the beach as a place to build his house. It seems like a good idea when the sun is shining and the ocean breezes keep things cool in the shade. But when the storms of life lash out with turbulent waves, torrential rains and violent winds… a sandy foundation is insufficient. We often blame the ‘weather’ for the destruction in our lives rather than taking personal responsibility for the choices we have made to build our lives on blatant lies and lofty, yet foolish, hopes.
Let’s be honest, we have all built our lives on ‘the sand’ either partially or fully. That is why The Sermon On The Mount sits so early in Matthew’s gospel. It is important to hear the heart of God’s righteousness and glory in order to find ourselves falling short. We become aware that we need something (or someone) to transform us from the inside out, rather than us working harder to improve ourselves from the outside in. As this gospel unfolds, we gain a greater and greater vision for the beauty of God’s kingdom and our desperate need for God to send the anticipated Messiah for both the Jews and for the Gentiles. It is Jesus who calls us with His loyal love (hesed) and one way grace to “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17). That means that the fulfillment of God’s kingdom is defined by the incarnate life of Jesus the Messiah.
I look forward to not only this week, but the next three months of discovering the beauty of the God oriented life that Jesus describes in The Sermon On The Mount.
Your bro,
Kevin