Tag Archives: In Christ

Final Warnings from the Sermon on the Mount

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Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven. Matthew 7:21 ESV1

Read Matthew 7:13-29, 13:1-30 & Luke 6:43-49

Jesus was up on the mountain teaching His committed followers. He had already given them some pretty radical teachings on a variety of subjects. The above words are among His closing remarks. These final few paragraphs contain the most important instructions His followers were going to need to know as they headed down the mountain and back into their daily lives. If any of them were beginning to doze off, these serious words would have perked up them. They should do the same for us.

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Ask, Seek, Knock

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“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 ESV1

Read Matthew 7:7-11 & Luke 11:9-13

These words on prayer were spoken by Jesus to the dedicated followers who had joined Him on the mountainside. They apply to those disciples as much as they apply to Christ-followers today. Jesus is very clear in this passage that God most definitely with absolute certainty answers prayer, but that may not be our daily experience. Let’s explore why.

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The Healthy Eye

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The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. Matthew 6:22-23 ESV1

Read Matthew 6:19-24

Have you ever heard the idiom looking at life through rose-colored glasses? It means positively seeing things or having an optimistic outlook. Often, if one is wearing rose-colored glasses, he/she sees things better than they really are.

There doesn’t seem to be an idiom for the opposite of rose-colored glasses, yet that mindset definitely exists. Some people look through another kind of glasses, and those glasses are half empty. Those people have a negative outlook on life and circumstances. To them, things often appear worse than they really are.

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Model for Prayer

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Pray then like this… Matthew 6:9 ESV1

Read Matthew 6:6-15 & Luke 11:2-4

If you have been around Christianity for any length of time, you are probably familiar with the Lord’s Prayer. You may have repeated several times with others in church services, on your own in times of need, or even at an occasional sporting event. With as many times as you have heard and said it, you probably even have it memorized. But did you ever consider that you may not be using the Lord’s Prayer the way the Lord intended?

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Holy Perfectionism

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You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.               Matthew 5:48 ESV1

Read Matthew 5:13-48 & Luke 6:20-36

In the Sermon on the Mount, (recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7) Jesus challenged His committed disciples to live lives on a higher plane than even the highly respected religious leaders of their day. This plane of perfection went beyond that which they had been taught. Jesus equated anger with murder (see Matthew 5:21-22) and lust and divorce with adultery (see Matthew 5:27-32). He called oaths evil (see Matthew 5:33-37) and commanded His followers to return retaliation and enmity with love (see Matthew 5:38-48). In teaching His disciples to obey not only the Law but the spirit of the law, He was teaching them how to show God to their world. This perfection was, and still is, a high road.

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Ultimate Satisfaction

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Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them.                   Matthew 5:1-2 ESV1

Read Matthew 5:1-12 & Luke 6:20-26

Jesus had been going “throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people, so His fame spread throughout all Syria” (Matthew 4:23-24a). Once again, Jesus was confronted with a crowd of people wanting something from Him, but instead of immediately ministering to the multitude, He climbed a nearby mountain and got away from the hustle and bustle. Only those who were really committed to following Him joined Jesus on His climb. When they all reached a quiet spot, Jesus sat down and began to teach these disciples.

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It’s Not About Me

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“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 ESV1

Read John 3:22-4:3

One day, “Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside, and He remained there with them and was baptizing” (John 3:22) … Although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but only His disciples” (John 4:2). Jesus’ ministry was getting more and more visibility. Many of the people who heard Him speak and saw His miracles wanted to get right with God. To show their commitment to a changed life, they desired baptism. Jesus’ disciples were happy to help. But, without their realizing it, their actions began to cause an uproar.

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Tackling Temptation

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Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Matthew 4:1 ESV1

Read Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, & Luke 4:1-13

Temptation is bad, isn’t it? Why then was Jesus led by the Spirit into temptation (see Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12, and Luke 4:1)? We are supposed to plead with God not to lead us into temptation (see Matthew 6:13). And the Scriptures tell us God “tempts no one” (James 1:13b). Yet, God, through the Holy Spirit, led Jesus right into it. Why?

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Removing Obstacles

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As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Luke 3:4-6 ESV1

Read Matthew 3:1-12, Mark 1:1-8, Luke 3:1-18, and John 1:6-28

All four Gospels begin their accounts of Jesus’ ministry with the ministry of John the Baptist. Luke goes as far as to identify the exact timing of John’s appearance on the ministry scene through the reign of a king, a governor, three tetrarchs, and two high priests (see Luke 3:1-2). Scholars far more knowledgeable than I have used that information to pinpoint John’s ministry as having taken place between the winter and spring of AD 26. Why was it so important to start explaining Jesus’ purpose for coming with the relatively short ministry of another?

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A Home for Jesus

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And He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?”  Luke 2:49 ESV1

Read Matthew 1:18-25 & 2:11-15; Luke 1:26-56 & 2:41-52

“God so loved the world that He gave His only Son … in order that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16a & 17b). But before Jesus saved the world, he was a Baby who needed care, a little Boy who needed providing for and protecting, and a young Man who needed encouragement and direction. Who on Earth could God trust to raise His Son? Who could be up to the challenge of parenting all of God wrapped up in the skin of a little Boy? Both Mary and Joseph must have been exceptional people! Much can be deduced from Scripture about this couple.

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