Sermon On The Mount
What the Law of Moses is to the Jew, the Torah of the Messiah is for the Christian. With Matthew 7:21-27, we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount but also we get a warning regarding the way we receive the words of the Lord. Just as it is foolish to build [...]
After Jesus told the crowds “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, he also tells them not to seek after wealth that perish and get destroyed. He tells them instead to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and they will be taken care of like the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Jesus preaches no gospel of prosperity, he preaches the gospel of the kingdom of God where those are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for what is right are declared blessed because of a future that has been reserved for them by the Father in heaven.
Continue reading about (Sunday VIII — A) Seek First the Kingdom
Feb
7
angfrayle on February 7th, 2011
Jesus wants us to take his words as expressions of the Father’s will and the measuring stick by which we check whether we are being perfect as the Father is perfect .
Continue reading about (Sunday VII — A) Be Perfect as Your Heavenly Father is Perfect
Matthew presents Jesus as the New Moses who points out to the People of God the Way of Righteousness. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs his listeners how to be faithful to God’s Law. After telling them that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, Jesus tells his audience that to be so they should have a “righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees.”
Continue reading about (Sunday VI — A) Fidelity and Righteousness
Last week’s reading about the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah about the light that dawns upon those who live in desperation and hopelessness is followed up by the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. True happiness (or “blessedness”) is something that belongs to God’s future, but it is given as a foretaste to those who have learned to put their trust in God. The people whom Jesus calls “blessed” are those who have learned that only in God’s reign can there be peace, the wholeness, that everyone desires.
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