Well, you’ve just read the world greatest sermon (at least excerpts from it), from the world’s greatest Preacher. What thoughts are running through your mind right now? How is God’s Word tugging at your heart? Are you still in awe of the Beatitudes, this pronouncement of blessings, that opened the Sermon on the Mount? Are you stunned that Jesus said that “not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished (5:18)?” Are you wondering how your righteousness could ever exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20; the disciples most certainly were!)? Are you feeling guilty over sins of anger, lust, and more? Are you convicted over the ways you’ve laid up treasures here on earth (6:19), and have not sought first God’s kingdom and His righteousness (6:33)? Are you taking great comfort in knowing that our Father in heaven gives good things to those who ask Him (7:11)? Are you trembling at the thought of God saying to some, on “that day,” “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness (7:23)?” Are you recommitting yourself to build your house on the rock (7:24)? Are you, above all else, “astonished at [Jesus] teaching,” because He teaches as One who has authority (7:28-29)? I am. I trust you are too.
Reflect: Take a few moments to journal about your thoughts, and what’s going on in your heart right now. Just you, before the Lord, responding to Jesus’ words. May the Lord bless you as you do so.
Connect: If you’re feeling the weight of Jesus’ words, and wondering how you’ll ever live up to this standard of ethical teaching, take comfort in knowing that although you won’t (at least in this life), Christ has lived up to it for you! Christ Jesus has earned every spiritual blessing, and graciously shares these blessings with all of God’s children. Know also that He does this for a purpose, that we should one day be “holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:4).” You will one day live up to this standard of teaching, Christian, and just because you won’t get there in this life, does not mean this is not your trajectory. Ask the Father to help you to live more fully, by His grace, and by the power of His Spirit at work in you, this kingdom life you read about in the Sermon on the Mount! Do you really think He’ll turn you down? (Mediate on 7:7-11 a bit more if you do.)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
Ephesians 1:3-4
– Rev. John McCombs