The latest on 'Life at Metro'

It seems we just started our series in the Sermon on the Mount, and now we have reached its conclusion. In Matthew 7:15-27 Jesus concluded His sermon with what might be called three warnings, or three doses of healthy fear. Healthy fear is a good thing, intended to cause us to consider. That's exactly what Jesus wants us to do at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. He calls us to "beware" of false teachers, to "beware" of false professions of faith where someone's life does not resemble their profession of devotion to Jesus, and finally, to "beware" of the kind of foundation we build our lives upon. These warnings and exhortations call for discernment, and Jesus is so eager to provide us with the wisdom we need to rightly discern.

We studied Jesus' words about anxiety from Matthew 6:25-34. It seems Jesus is saying essentially one thing, which is that we have a heavenly Father who cares for us beyond our comprehension. He knows what we need and He intends to provide. But we can all confess that sometimes we face circumstances that put our trust in the promises of our loving heavenly Father to the test. In the sermon we looked at the example of Abraham from Romans 4. Commenting on this passage Paul Tripp said the following:

"Your Father who sees in secret will reward you." That's how Jesus ends each section in Matthew 6:1-18. We have a Father in heaven. We are his children by adoption through Jesus Christ. And our Father sees. He sees everything that goes unnoticed and unaccounted by others. And he rewards. What a breathtaking reality!

Does it get more radical than this, friends? Does anything in the Sermon on the Mount communicate to us more the need for poverty of spirit? Let’s remember, this sermon isn’t about entrance into the Kingdom; it’s about life in the Kingdom. That life is made possible by the power of Jesus Christ!

We just studied Matthew 5:21-26 together on Sunday. What a passage. What a hard passage! When Jesus said our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees he wasn’t kidding! It is a hard passage, because it humbles us in seeing that what Jesus is really building in us by His Spirit are a people who don’t just refrain from external acts, but who are literally changing from the inside out. I want to be the kind of follower of Jesus who does not grow indifferent to a passage like this, because it really is a demonstration of the Gospel’s power in us. Relationships are plain hard work. As fellow Christians we are all redeemed works in progress. We are fully forgiven and righteous, yet we change by degrees (1 Corinthians 3:18).

Throughout church history the relationship between law and grace has been a lively discussion. Legalism and license have been tripping up the saints for centuries. Does it have to be that way? No! The Gospel is our anchor, keeping us from either error! Lets pray together for a deeper understanding of what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, and out of that understanding, a right application of living completely at rest in the finished work of Jesus on our behalf, while we also walk by the Spirit, as God who began a good work in us, will be faithful to complete it! We love God’s moral law because we desire to be like Him and shine forth His glory on the earth.

Have you ever sprinkled broccoli bits on broccoli? Probably not. The reason is fairly obvious: there's no point in doing so. There would only be a point if the two items were different and one enhances the other. When Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16), he is saying that we are different in a way that's intended to enhance and improve and influence the world in which we live.

Today we are probably all going to live out our lives according to some system of blessing. Maybe it's God's system, maybe it's the world's, or likely it's our own personal blend. At the outset of Jesus' teaching on his kingdom he established that real blessing is found as we come to him in a counter-cultural and counter-intuitive way. We must be empty in order that we may be filled. This is the main theme of Matthew 5:1-6. We are blessed as we come to Jesus emptied of our own self-importance, self-righteousness, and self-confidence and in turn receive his abudance, his righteousness and submit to his will.

Ok, many of you at MLC aren't old enough to even know where the title of this blog post comes from. Well, long before the Partridge Family wanted to get happy, Jesus was eager for you and I to be happy. He wants that so much for us He gave a sermon on a hillside dedicated to it. The Sermon on the Mount is where true happiness (blessedness) is found. Happiness, I think, shares something similar to death. They are both great equalizers. We share these in common; death will happen to all people, and all people want to be happy.