May 9th, 2010

Today’s scripture focus – Matthew 5:1-16

We are picking up today in Matthew where we left off in January. In the first four chapters of Matthew, the focus was on the preparation for Jesus’ ministry. Chapter one details the preparation of history for Jesus’ coming. Chapter two gives us the preparation of Jesus’ culture for His arrival. Chapter three shows us the preparation of Jesus’ calling through baptism, and Chapter four demonstrates Jesus’ preparation for trial through fasting. The end of chapter four is a transition, showing how Jesus took over the ministry of John through calling disciples, preaching, and healing.

In chapters 5-7, we will focus on the preaching of Jesus’ ministry. The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five great blocks of Jesus’ sermons in Matthew.

The first section of Matthew five is known as the Beatitudes, or “blessings.” Jesus is just beginning to gather followers. The crowds have been attracted through His miracles and want to follow Him, but how are His followers to live? In Jesus’ day, being a disciple meant following your rabbi (teacher) everywhere they went, and living according to a code they taught. The Beatitudes lay out the lifestyle code for Jesus’ followers, and the rest of the Sermon expounds on this code.

Jesus went up on a mountain and sat down to teach, as was the custom for rabbis of that time. As the crowd gathered around Him, He began to lay out His radical discipleship lifestyle. We find in Jesus’ teaching that He has a special place in His heart for the poor and oppressed – which would have included most of Jesus’ audience. In contrast to the dominant message of the empire culture (blessed are the rich and powerful), Jesus teaches that it is actually those who know they are poor and suffering who will be able to receive blessings from God. For those in Jesus’ audience who don’t think they are spiritually poor, Jesus will use the rest of His sermon to illustrate their poverty (maybe you don’t murder, but do you hate? Perhaps you don’t touch, but do you look?) While the first four Beatitudes are passive (dealing with being), the next three are active (dealing with doing.) Mercy, purity, and peace are not just virtues to be obtained, but involve a lifestyle of actively seeking to live as Jesus’ lived, influencing others to do the same. The last two Beatitudes show how the world will react when a disciple lives out the first seven, but Jesus promises blessing even in persecution.

In the next section, Jesus moves to the “you are” section of the sermon. By living as Jesus’ followers, we become the salt and light of our world. We bring purity, flavor, preservation, and illumination to a dirty, bland, rotten, and dark culture. Jesus promises the world will hate us for exposing their darkness, just as they hated Him. However, we know that following Jesus offers blessing abundant and eternal, in this world and the life to come!

CrossGroups

• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.

• Let everyone who would like share anything exciting from their week.

• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as would like.

1) Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?

2) What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?

3) Which of the Beatitudes is the hardest to live out today?

Today’s Sermon

Faith focus – “…He rose again from the dead”

Life need – What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Key truths –

• The disciples went up the mountain.

• We must go up the mountain.

• Jesus sat and blessed them.

• Jesus sits and blesses us!

Assignment – Make a list of seekers you know.