Sermon On The Mount | Paula Wiseman

The gospel of Matthew contains some of the most familiar passages in the New Testament- the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer and the Great Commission – and that helps make it great choice for study.

There are two major themes running through Matthew.

Jesus is the long-awaited King – Matthew's audience was Jewish, and he intended to show that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. In fact, tags about the prophets appear throughout the book. His genealogy was royal, His decrees were majestic, and He introduced us to "the kingdom of heaven".

Jesus faced stiff opposition – Beginning with the early threats on His life by Herod, the political ruler, through His eventual trial at the hands of the religious authorities, the King was rejected by all segments of society. Many times Jesus' words ran counter to the conventional wisdom of His day or to the long-held traditional interpretations.

If you are a list-maker, here are some suggestions.

What does Jesus say?
What is the response to His teaching?
What do others say about Him?
What is the kingdom of heaven like?

In some ways, I think it's harder to study the Gospels than some of the other books, maybe because these are the words and actions of Christ Himself. Usually with the Gospels, I tend to study by "episode" rather than take an entire chapter. I like to soak it in and let it percolate before moving on to the next thing.

What do like about the gospel of Matthew?

Whose Standard Are You Using?

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? John 5:44 (NAS)

At first glance, this is a confusing question, but if you go back and read the whole exchange between Jesus and the religious types, it makes a little more sense. Jesus preached a message that turned the religious ideas of the day on their head. He said God doesn't care about what you do until He changes your heart, and that can only happen once you understand how rotten you are on the inside.

In Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a relentless list of items 'you have heard it taught this way, but God really meant it like this'. The people flocked to Him because He gave them hope. They COULD please God, not on their own merit, but because they trusted Him to make them worthy.

The religious leaders of the day had a far different system. Your worth to God was based on your ability to keep the Law and all the other corollaries they had devised through the generations. They were the experts, so they kept it better than anyone else, as a result they were God's favorites, and no upstart, uneducated hick was going to tell them any different.

The issue is one of standards. As long as the religious leaders were better than the common people (and better than most of their colleagues) they figured they were in good shape. However, they were using the wrong standard. God doesn't compare us to each other. He compares us to Himself. Are we as holy and perfect as He is? Of course not.

As long as we are content just to be "better" than those we see around us, if that's our idea of righteousness, then we have no room to receive the imputed (real) righteousness than comes from God. Only when we recognize our spiritual bankruptcy, does God take over.

Whose standard are you measuring yourself against?

STT: Matthew

Whose Standard Are You Using?