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I
have a bumper sticker that says, Climb
Mountains – Jesus Did, and it’s true.
Jesus climbed a lot of mountains.
In fact, according to James Ridgeway, the founder of Educational
Opportunities, a non-profit group that takes people on tours of the Holy Land,
you can tell the story of Jesus by looking at mountains. After his baptism, Jesus went up to a
mountain where he was tempted. Before
big decisions like choosing his disciples, Jesus would go into the mountains to
pray. He multiplied the loaves and fishes
and fed thousands of people in the mountains.
Jesus stood in the presence of Moses and Elijah on a mountain, on Palm
Sunday he entered Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives and on Good Friday he was
crucified on Mt. Calvary. His last words
were given on the top of mountain and it was from that mountain Jesus was taken
up into heaven. So mountains played an
important part in Jesus life, but it wasn’t just Jesus. Mountains have always been special for God’s
people.
In
a test of faith, Abraham was told to go to Mt.
Moriah and sacrifice his son.
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| Mt. Moriah where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac |
When he got there, Abraham didn’t have to kill Isaac because on the
mountain God provided a lamb. Moses went
to the top of Mt. Sinai to
receive the 10 Commandments.
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| Mt. Sinai where Moses received the law. |
The prophet
Elijah defeated all the false prophets on Mt.
Carmel.
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| Mt. Carmel where Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal |
So mountains have always
been special places for God to work and they seem to be the place where God
loves to speak. God spoke to Abraham,
Moses, Elijah and Jesus on the mountain top and it’s on the top of a mountain
that God clearly speaks to us, Mark
9:7. From the top of a mountain God tells us to listen to Jesus and so
we need to pay careful attention to his teaching and message.
The
most powerful message or sermon Jesus ever gave was from a mountain which is
why we call it the sermon on the mount,
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| The mountain where Jesus preached. |
but before we look at that sermon it’s
important to understand a few things about Jesus teaching in general. When he taught, Jesus used a lot of stories
called parables. Parables helped people
easily understand a truth about God’s character, activity or will for our lives. For example, the parable of the lost sheep is
a powerful story about the love of God. The
parable itself is a story about a shepherd who has 100 sheep and when one gets
lost the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes to search for that one lost
sheep. When he finds it, the shepherd lifts
the sheep in his arms, places it on his shoulder and returns home with
joy. The parable is simple and easy to
understand, God is the good shepherd who rescues us when we are lost.
So
the parable is told to teach us about the love of God and the lengths that God
is willing to go to save us, but we can’t push the parable too far. For example, it would be foolish for us to
hear this story and think that Jesus is telling us that we should eat grass,
walk on all fours and have our bodies shaved once a year like sheep. Parables usually just have one main truth to
share and so we need to be careful not to push the analogy or comparison too
far.
Jesus
also used bold and sometimes provocative statements to make a point and we call
this prophetic hyperbole. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus
says that if our hand causes us to sin we should cut it off and throw it
away. Now let’s be clear – Jesus is not
advocating cutting off our hands, but he does want us to take seriously the
reality of our sin. In another place
Jesus tells a rich man to sell everything he has so that he will have treasure
in heaven. Again, we can’t sell
everything we have and just become a burden on the church or society – but we
need to take seriously the hold that our possessions and money have on us and
find ways to free ourselves. So as we can
see, it’s important to know some of the figures of speech Jesus used so that we
can rightly interpret what Jesus is saying.
So
now let’s turn and look at Jesus Sermon on the Mount.
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| looking out from where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount |
It is found in Matthew 5-7 and since we are
not going to be able to read and discuss it all this morning, I want to
encourage you to take time to read it through this week. One of the first things Jesus tells us in the
sermon is that our lives and our faith need to make a difference in this world. Look at Matthew
5:13-16. We don’t follow Jesus
and walk in his way just so that our lives will be blessed and so we will
experience the fullness of God – we walk in the footsteps of Jesus to be
blessing to others. We were created for
good deeds that can be seen by others so that when people see them they might
see the truth and power and love of God through us.
This
has always been God’s desire for his people.
In the Old Testament we read that the people of Israel were to be a
light to the nations which means they were to live their lives with so much
faith and trust in God that the people around them would turn toward God
themselves. My guess is that you have
known someone whose passion for God and faithfulness to Jesus was so compelling
that it made you think more about living for God yourself. That’s what it means to be the salt of the
earth and the light of the world and these are the kinds of lives we need to be
living.
The
second thing Jesus does in his sermon is to remind us of the true intent of
God’s law. In Matthew 5:21-48, Jesus helps
us see the true intent of God’s law given through Moses. For example, Jesus said, you have heard that it was said
you shall not murder, (that
was the law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai to give to the people) but I
tell you that you should not even by angry with your brothers and sisters
(this is God’s real desire). In other words, it’s not just our actions that
God cares about it is our attitudes as well.
Again, Jesus said that God doesn’t just care about adultery as much as
he cares about lust. And while the law given
through Moses allows us to seek justice, God really wants us to practice forgiveness. The religious leaders had done a really good
job defining in detail every law that God had given, but what they lost in all those
details was the spirit of the law and God’s original intent. Because of this, Jesus goes into the
mountains and suddenly is seen as the new Moses giving the people a new law
that helps people once again understand what it means to be the people of
God.
In
Matthew 6 Jesus teaches us about the importance of practicing the spiritual
disciples of prayer, fasting and giving to God.
All these things are important but we have to make sure that we are not
doing them for show. We don’t give and
pray and fast to get recognized by others in hopes that people will think
highly of us. We do it to show our deep
commitment and gratitude to God and we do it to grow closer to God. When we pray Jesus tells us to pray in secret
where only God can hear us. And when Jesus
tells us to give he says we are to do it so quietly that our right hand doesn’t
even know what our left hand is doing (again, an example of prophetic hyperbole - we can’t actually
have one hand not know what the other is doing, but that is how seriously we
should strive to give without looking for recognition). And when we fast we are not to do it in a way
that makes us look miserable so people will think we are some kind of super
Christian, we are to do it in a way that no one even knows we are doing
it. Spiritual disciples are important
but again, we have to do them for the right reasons.
In
Matthew 6:19-34, Jesus takes time to address the danger of money and worldly
possessions. Jesus tells us not store up
treasure on earth, or look to the things of this world to take care of us and
it is here that Jesus states clearly, you can’t serve both God and wealth. I think Jesus takes time to address this clearly
because he knows this is one of the most difficult areas of our life. As we heard a few weeks ago, this was a
temptation for Jesus and so he reminds us not to give in to the wealth of the
world around us but to keep our faith and trust in God alone.
Jesus
ends his sermon with two important points.
The first is that as we consider all these teachings and how we are
supposed to live them out – we can’t look at others to see how well they are
doing it or not doing it – we can’t judge how well other people are living up
to this teaching – we have to look at
ourselves. Here again, Jesus uses a
great illustration or story to teach this.
Matthew 7:1-5. The image is powerful – we can’t be worrying
about what is going in the eyes or the lives of others – we need to be worrying
about what is sticking out of our own eye.
We need to examine our lives and our motives and our attitudes and
actions and allow God to convict and challenge and call us to change where
change and faithfulness are needed.
So
we have to examine our own lives and make sure we are living these words out
and that is how Jesus ends this sermon.
If we don’t live out these words then in time our lives and our faith
will fall apart. Look at Matthew 7:24-27. After hearing this sermon, if we don’t live
it out, if we don’t use it as the foundation of our faith – it means nothing
and it won’t support us when we need it.
We have to live it out because as we learned last fall – application is…
(everything!)
It
is not surprising that Jesus went into the mountains to give this sermon
because this sermon lays out for us how God wants us to live. This is the new law given to us by the new
Moses on the mountaintop. Like the
original law given by God, this teaching is challenging, some might say
impossible, but that’s ok, because it shows us that living the way of Jesus
requires not more hard work but more grace and love and the power of God. We can’t live out this sermon alone, we need
Jesus. We need Jesus for courage to step
out and live this way. We need Jesus to
guide our hearts and lives as we walk in his footsteps. We need Jesus to save us when we fall. We just need Jesus.
I
hope you will take some time this week to go to the mountains, go someplace to
read God’s word, maybe this very sermon, and ask God for the strength to live
it out because according to Jesus, when we ask it will be given to us, when we
seek we will find and when knock on God’s door – God will answer and give us all
that we need.
Next Steps
The Way ~ Mountains
Take
time this week to study Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Every day find ways to live out this message
of Jesus.
Monday:
Matthew 5:1-12
· What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness and
how can you increase this hunger?
· How can you become a peacemaker?
Tuesday:
Matthew 5:13-15
· How can you be salt and light in our world? What practical ways can you show the grace
and love of God to others?
Wednesday:
Matthew 5:17-48
· Which one of Jesus’
teachings here most applies to your life?
What is God trying to say to you?
Thursday:
Matthew 6:1-18
· How can you grow in
faith this summer through prayer, fasting and giving?
· What one step can you
take this week?
Friday:
Matthew 6:19-34
· Has money and wealth
become the focus of your life?
· Does worry consume
you and derail your faith?
· Pray this week for
Jesus to open your eyes to all the ways God wants to provide for you and your
family.
Saturday:
Matthew 7:1-27
· Who is that you are
quick to judge? Why? What would it look like for you judge
yourself instead?
