18 Aug (Matt 5)

The Gospels: The Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5

This Sermon that Jesus gave, was not to the multitudes, but to His disciples. He gave this wisdom to His own...those who were already saved and justified by their faith in Him.

Blessed are those who are poor in spirit ~ this doesn't mean those that have weak spirituality...it means those that KNOW that they are wretched sinners, and require a Savior to rescue them from their doom to hell. Again, Jesus is speaking to the saved, not the unsaved here.

Blessed are those who mourn ~ Because we are sinners, and we fail at meeting God's commandments, we mourn our failures. This puts our hearts in the right place for God to comfort us and use us for His purposes!

Blessed are the meek ~ We often associate being meek as being shy and weak. This is not what the Greek word means...to be meek is to be humble and respectful.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness ~ When we are saved, we hunger to be nearer to God, and to learn more about Him. As Jesus said, He is the Living Water John 4:10 and the Bread of Life. John 6:35

Blessed are the merciful ~ When we are saved and have the Holy Spirit in us, we love others and put their needs before our own.

Blessed are the pure in heart ~ As saved children of God, we seek to be pure and emulate our King, who showed us how to live and serve others.

Blessed are the peacemakers ~ There are two parts to being peacemakers...the first is to try to settle conflicts, and the other, is to lead others to Christ, for they are at war with their flesh and God until they accept Christ.

Blessed are those who are persecuted ~ We always think of those that died for Christ, but this also includes us who live for Christ, and are mocked and persecuted because of it. God will not forget our faith and service in His name.

(v.13) Salt either increases pleasure, or it irritates. God wants us to do both. He wants us to irritate in order to wake people up from their apathetic view of life, and He wants us to enhance the quality of life with love and service.

(v.14) Light overpowers darkness. We are a reflection of God's light. I like to tell my kids how the moon reflects the sun's light in darkness. We are to have God's love reflect off of us to the lost.

(v.17) Jesus was a Jew, and He observed the Law and the Feasts of Israel. He did them perfectly, and by doing so, He absolved our sins by being our Passover Lamb on the cross!

(v.22) Jesus took the Law to another level...when we have hatred and resentment, we allow the devil to move us away from love and God. No matter how bad we've been wronged, we need to give those hurts to God, and let Him deal with it. If we don't, it will keep us from being effective ambassadors for Christ.

(v.28) Lust is the gateway to hell. I take time to point out to my kids, that Satan uses our eyes to tempt us, while Jesus always has us use our ears to hear the Word of God. Once we go on the road of our temptations by our sight, we fall away from God.

(v.44) The best way to defeat an enemy is to love him or her. Love conquers all. Bullies and evil doers are often subdued by love and respect, when in reality, that's what they've been missing all along!

However, I do point out to my kids, that Jesus doesn't want us to be pushovers and punching bags! In Luke 22:36 He instructs His disciples to buy a sword for self defense. It is righteous to protect your friends and family, but it's not Christian to bully or conquer for material gain. There lies the difference.