Posted on by rschut1945

Summary of the Sermon on the Mount

After reading the Sermon on the Mount you might be thinking to yourself that no one can achieve the perfection that Jesus teaches here, but if you are thinking this, you are missing the point.  We are not here to judge ourselves or others as to whether we are perfect or not, but whether we really love the one who is perfect.  Paul understood exactly what Jesus was teaching and reflected it in his writings to the Philippians:

Philippians 3:12-14 (KJV)
12Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We are called to strive toward the upward call of God in Christ.  The truth remains that we cannot accomplish the goals set for us in this sermon by our own willpower nor achieve it by the use of self-help books.  But such weakness is not an excuse for our failure. Realizing this brings us much closer to understanding Jesus’ teaching.  What Jesus expects from us is to love the character that he just described in his sermon.  This character is, in fact, a profile of Jesus himself.  If we say that we believe in Jesus, this is the Jesus that we must believe in.  This is the true Jesus who lifts us out of sin by his own character through love.

The Sermon on the Mount cannot and should not be reduced to one idea or simplified into a cliché. It is complex and speaks to us differently at different levels at different times in our lives.  Today, many have taken Jesus’ teachings and transformed them into a behavioral psychology in order to satisfy man’s psychological needs. We see this frequently when pastors take the words of Jesus and conform them into motivational techniques in order to publish best-selling Christian self-help books.  These are mere imitations of the true teachings of Jesus. We must understand that what started out as divine teaching has now been transformed, conformed, and finally adapted to the needs of humanity as a technique to improve the quality of life and not the divine teaching of God that brings eternal salvation.

Posted on by rschut1945

False Prophets (Matt 7:15-20)

These verses are directly related to the previous verses on the wide gate and broad way. Here Jesus warns of false prophets.  From Jesus’ time till now they have existed and still exist today.  These are people who claim to be speaking about the things of God when, in fact, they are deceivers.  So, outwardly they appear to be like sheep, but inside they are ravenous wolves.  So how can we tell the difference? These wolves are people who have an extreme appetite or hunger for wealth and power.  Although they appear to be driven by Biblical teachings, they are really driven by greed, wealth, and power.  Many such wolves have been fooling naive believers with their false performances for generations, but eventually their true motives are revealed.

Jesus tells us that we can know them by their fruits.  Sometimes this gets a little tricky because they are very good at their sheepish disguise.  We must look for love not in their words or even in their deeds, for both can be imitated, but in their character (this is their real fruit). It is their character that is faulty because it is like bad fruit from a bad tree.  Even if it looks good, it is rotten to the core.  Rest assured that their reward will be justly deserved for all the deception that they have spread.

2 Peter 2:3 (ASV)
3  And in covetousness shall they with feigned (false) words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.

The King James and American Standard Version are closest to the proper Greek interpretation of this verse in Peter.  We can see the fulfillment taking place today where churches are concerned more with the production of their service than its content.  Believers have been turned into merchandise.  Making money off the Word of God in books, movies, and speaking engagements have priority over the real teachings of Jesus.  Let us remember how much Jesus charged for his teaching—nothing!  As a matter of fact, Jesus paid the ultimate price for us to listen—his death on a cross.  But over the years of my experience I realize that this is all that they have.  They do not have any real understanding of Jesus and therefore can’t teach what they themselves do not know.  They would be far better to be quiet sitting in the pews listening than to be preaching from the pulpit.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (KJV)
13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Paul warns us as he warned the Corinthians to be careful of appearances.  Many false prophets will appear to be apostles of Christ even to the point of looking like angels of righteousness.  It is one thing to preach about righteousness and another to be righteous. But God will not be fooled by them and they will suffer a righteous judgment by their own words.

Posted on by rschut1945

On Prayer (Matt 6:5-15)

Now Jesus warns us not to pray like the hypocrites, but exactly what is a hypocrite?  The word has evolved in our language to mean someone who says one thing and does another, but that doesn’t seem to fit here.  It is interesting to note that the word hypocrite, ὑποκριτής in Greek, originally meant an actor who plays a role of another person.  It is not truly who he is, but merely an artificial person.  That definitely fits much better because Jesus goes on to say that these hypocrites would put on quite the performance by standing in synagogues and street-corners just so that they could be seen by others.  So again such people have already received their reward. 

Jesus tells us that the correct way to pray is to be quiet and alone where the focus can be on our heavenly Father.  When you pray in this manner you will be rewarded openly.  Here again, I take this to mean that such prayer transforms our character into a more humble person rather than into someone who has become proud and arrogant about their prayers where their focus is more on how impressive they sound to others.

He then tells us that our prayers are not heard because of their eloquence and length for if God is truly infinite he already knows our needs even before we ask.  So then one might ask, “Why then do we pray if God already knows what we need?”  The reason is not that God needs to hear our audible prayers before he answers them, but rather they are spoken so that we can be transformed by putting our needs into words.  Our words complete our ideas and thoughts and also complete the emotion behind them.  I think that we fail to understand just how important the spoken word is to our psyche.

So then when we pray incorrectly like the hypocrites we become the center of attention and importance.  But when we pray with correctly we become humbled in the presence of God as he becomes the true focus of our thoughts and needs.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Jesus gives us an example of how we ought to pray.  We address our prayers to God as our Heavenly Father.  We also proclaim the importance of his Name which is Yahweh (Jehovah).  The importance of this is to make the connection between the identity of Yahweh in the Old Testament with our Father in the New.  Many overlook this intimate connection that is extremely important in understanding the true nature of Christ.  

We must look forward to the coming of God’s kingdom rather than want to postpone it until we finish all our projects and the power of his kingdom will be just as wonderful on earth as it is in heaven.

We only need to ask for whatever is sufficient for this day.  In this way we are encouraged to live during this moment and not be so concerned for the future that we miss what’s happening right in front of us.

We ask for no more than what we are willing to do ourselves.  So when it comes to forgiveness we must be willing to forgive others because by doing that we pass God’s forgiveness on to others through the exercising of our forgiveness.

The next part of the prayer is very difficult for most people because sin is so attractive and its whole purpose is to lead us into evil.  But we are to ask God to take away temptation.  We are not to try to live on the edge of sin like many do.  We must remember that temptation is the beginning of sin.  If we could only repeat these words in this prayer with passionate sincerity we would be so much holier than we are.  Why should we want to be holy?  Because God is holy and so is his kingdom.

In verse 14 Jesus addresses forgiveness as being directly related to our forgiving of others.  This is not as though we are earning forgiveness by the act of forgiving others; it is rather our accepting the principle of forgiveness as being part of God’s character.  This fits nicely into our belief that the source of our transformation is not in anything that we do but is in God himself and that only by our love for him can we be transformed into the image of Christ.  If we do not forgive others, we are not letting our love for God work within us and by not forgiving others our faith becomes mere religious ritual. 

To better understand what Jesus is saying we first need to understand more about what forgiveness is.  According to the usage in this prayer forgiveness is not the same thing as when we forgive someone when they say they are sorry.  The forgiveness Jesus is speaking about is a response to a moral debt owed to us by another.  This is the general theme throughout this sermon: we must be prepared to show mercy to others if we expect God to show mercy to us.  By so doing we give others a chance to actually practice repentance by changing their behavior.  How do we forgive them and to what extent?  In the same manner that we want God to forgive us.  

When we consider forgiveness under these terms it eliminates the possibility that man can accomplish this by means of his own will. The source of our forgiveness than is not the human will, but the love of God.