The Story of Jesus

Jesus the Christ:The Sermon on the Mount

Jesus with the Crowds

Matt. 4:23-5:1- Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galiliee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Now then when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside, and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying

The Beatitudes

Beatitudes:

Announcing Wonderful News!

Subverting Powerful Empire, Legalistic Righteousness and Jewish National

Aspirations!

This is Heaven and Earth Rejoined: Kingdom

Salt of the Earth & Light of the World

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers

of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. - Matt 5 :17-20

Heart Was Far From God“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” (Matt. 15:7-8)

Treasured Money“Full of Greed and sef-indulgence.” (Matt. 23:25)

Treasured Praise From Men“They do all their deeds to be seen by others…they the place of honor….best seats in synagogues…being called rabbi. (Matt. 23:5-7)

Religious Cloak (Law-Keeping Exactitude: Hypocrisy)“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” (Matt. 23:25-26)

“For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So that outwardly you appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matt. 23:27-28)

Kept Others Out Blind- “Blind leading the blind, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:14)Defilement- “For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” (Luke 11:44) Mercilessly Demanding- “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matt. 23:4) Jesus is gentle and humble and has a light burden!Shut Others Out- “For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” (Matt. 23:13)

You want to destroy a society, decimate the family, rip marriages apart, pervert love & integrity: our words, our commitment, our imagination. In other words destroy relationship and You will see the House fall with a great crash!

We Needed a New Righteousness: Trust From the Heart

1. From No Murder to No Anger (From Ex. 20:13)

2. From No Adultery to No Lust (From Ex. 20:14)

“To look upon another human being with the express purpose of fantasizing illicit sexual activity or mentally and emotionally gratifying a sexual desire is out of bounds.”

“He’s focusing on the look which longs to possess for expressly sexual purposes. It would appear, then, that our Lord has deepened the 7th commandment, the prohibition of adultery, in terms of the 10th, the prohibition of covetousness.”

–Dr. Sam Storms

3. From No Divorce to Faithfulness (Deut. 24:1)

In 1910 only 1 in every 10 marriages ended in divorce. By 1920 it had risen to 1 in 7. By 1940 it was 1 in 6. By 1960 1 in every 4 marriages ended in divorce and by 1970 it had

escalated to 1 in 3. Today, for every marriage that lasts a lifetime there is yet another that does not. In other words, 1 of every 2 marriages today will end in divorce.

4. From Oath-Keeping to Simple Honesty

5. From Eye for an Eye (Retaliation) to Extravagant Love (From Ex. 21:24)

6. From Conditional Love to Loving Our Enemies (From Lev. 19:18)

Acts of Righteousness

Before men to be seen by them or before your Father? World’s Rewards or Father’s Rewards?

• Giving to the needy• Prayer• Fasting

Why is a sermon about the Kingdom filled with so many references to the Father?

Jesus Reveals Father: Trust• Matt. 6: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your

name, your kingdom come your will be done on earth as in heaven.

• “Father sees” when you give, pray, and fast and will reward

• “Father knows what you need”- you don’t see Him but he sees you (Prayer)

• “Are you not much more valuable”- we have infinite value to Father (Worry)

• “Father knows what you need” (Faith)• “Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask

him.”- (Ask, Seek, Knock)

Choice of Two: Seek First His Kingdom and His Righteousness (Matt. 6:33)

2 Audiences (Father or people) 2 Treasures (Heaven or Earth) 2 Visions (Good Eyes or Bad Eyes) 2 Masters (God or Money) 2 Minds (Faith or Worry) 2 Postures (Grace or Judgement) 2 Gates, Roads, Destinations (Narrow or Broad) 2 Trees (Good Fruit or Bad Fruit) 2 Testimonies (True Lordship or No Lordship) 2 Builders (Wise or Foolish) 2 Foundations (On the Rock or On the Sand)

Building Our Life on Jesus: Unshakeable Kingdom and Righteousness

Matt. 7:24-27- Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who build this house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Jesus Incarnates the Sermon and Is Our Surpassing Righteousness

• Jesus is the Wonderful news and the perfect example poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaker, persecuted for righteousness

• Jesus is the salt of the earth and light of the world• Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and prophets• Jesus valued life, women, honesty• Jesus lived for Father not before men, in prayer, no

worry• Jesus would be struck on the cheek, stripped naked,

forced to walk a mile, forgive enemies, set on a hill

Way of an Orphan or Slave (Pharisee)

I have an orphan heart. I don’t believe my Master loves me, but I will prove I love him. I will keep all His laws if it kills me. I have lost my saltiness, and concealed my light. Here is my shiny, failed outward righteousness. I can’t control my anger, my eyes or my heart, though I try. I have broken the covenant I

promised to my wife, broken my word but pretended I hadn’t. I need justice, if you cross me I will get even. I know who loves me and who doesn’t, and I will treat them accordingly. I put on a huge show of generosity to be honored, know all the right prayers, just not the one’s the Father hears. I fast often but I am sure you

already knew that, right.

My heart is hopelessly dark imprisoned by things of this earth fading away. I’m consumed night and day by all that I have, anxious with worry to preserve my own kingdom. Don’t even suggest I must change, I will point out your weaknesses and hold you hostage in your failings. I deserve to be the judge around here after all I am perfect. I am headed through the broad gate living just how I want, down the broad road straight to my ruin. But you’d never know it cause I am all dressed up in this outward innocence. But I can only hold this mask up for so long until my true colors start shining through. I

thought I knew You Lord but it was all a myth. Trouble and turmoil have revealed my faulty foundation. Here I am, lying in ruin and rubble, on this foolish pharisaical sand I built my life on.

Way of a Son or Daughter (In Christ)

By Jesus’ righteousness I stand in the announcement of Kingdom blessing, receiving what I do not deserve in myself. I have become what I once was not. I am the salt of the earth, made to preserve a world in decay. I am the light of the world made to illuminate the beauty of God, and shine in the darkness. I am free from anger, contempt, lust and unfaithfulness. I am free to keep my word in simple honesty. Free to love my neighbor despite how I am treated and to love

even my enemies who hate me. I am free in love.

I am a loved child of the Father, made perfectly righteous by Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit of adoption,

living for Father’s praise alone, giving to the needy, praying for the kingdom come, joyfully fasting as He fills me, storing up treasures in heaven from a good heart full of light. I have an undivided heart for God, free from the

control of money, the worries of this life and self-righteous judgement. I know and believe how valuable I

am in Father’s eyes. Therefore, I will keep asking, seeking and knocking in wholehearted pursuit of my Father, His kingdom and His righteousness, knowing that He is good and has good gifts. I have chosen to

build my life upon Christ the solid rock and His unshakeable Kingdom! I am what I am by the grace of

God, I am who I am in Christ my Lord!

New Covenant

Jer. 31:33- “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people…for I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Ezek. 36:26- “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws…you will be my people, and I will be your God.”

Rom. 8:3-4- “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”