Climbing with Jesus

A Fresh Look at the Sermon on the Mount

Grunlan

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781498271974
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

How does Jesus expect his followers to live in this world? The Sermon on the Mount is the manifesto of his Kingdom. Not a future kingdom, but his present kingdom. Satan is the ruler of this world. The Bible tells us he is the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and a king. This world is enemy territory. As Jesus told Pilate, his kingdom is not of this world. Jesus' followers represent his kingdom and are to live out its values. The Sermon on the Mount lays out the values of Christ's kingdom. It is in living out these values that we can subvert the kingdom of this world. We are revolutionaries inside the enemy's kingdom. But our revolution is not one of violence and force. It is a revolution of love and peace based on obedience to our Lord and living out his values.

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Climbing with Jesus

Matthew 5:1–2

There is a story told by Native Americans about a brave who found an eagle’s egg. He placed the egg in the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, thinking he was a prairie chicken, the eagle did what prairie chickens do. He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and cackled in an odd sort of way. He flew in brief flurries of thrashing wings never rising more than a few feet above the ground. After all, that is how prairie chickens fly.

Years passed and the eagle grew older. One day he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky gracefully soaring on powerful wings. “What a beautiful bird,” the eagle said to a prairie chicken, “what is it?”

“That’s an eagle, the king of birds,” replied the prairie chicken, “but don’t give it a thought, you can never be like him.” And the eagle never gave it a second thought; he went back to scratching in the dirt for seeds and insects. And, eventually the eagle died believing he was a prairie chicken.

How tragic, the eagle was created to fly gracefully on powerful wings in the heavens. But instead it spent its entire life scratching in the dirt. However what is even more tragic is that people God created in his image, created to be full of grace and power, live their lives scratching in the dirt for existence and momentary pleasures. God created us and redeemed us to soar to spiritual heights. God sent his Son to die for us so we could be released from sin and know God’s grace and power in our lives.

In the first two verses of Matthew, chapter 5, as set forth in The Message, we read, “When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him.” The question each of us faces is: are we going to climb with Jesus or are we going to stay down with the crowds? In Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7, we find climbing instructions in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount.

In order for us to fully understand the Sermon on the Mount we need to see the background or setting for Jesus’ message. Verses 1 and 2 set the stage for the sermon. Both Matthew and Luke place the Sermon on the Mount very early in Jesus’ ministry, shortly after selecting his disciples. In Matthew 4:18–20 we find Jesus calling his disciples and then, in chapter 5, we find the Sermon on the Mount. In Luke 6:12–19, we find Jesus calling his disciples and then in verse 20 he begins the Sermon on the Mount. Luke records an abbreviated version of the sermon while Matthew gives us the whole message.

Toward the end of Matthew, chapter 4, we see that crowds had begun to follow Jesus. Then in verse 23 we see they followed him from town to town. Now in verse 1 of chapter 5 we find Jesus attempting to get away from the crowds to be alone with his disciples. Matthew tells us he sat down.

When a Jewish rabbi taught his disciples he would sit with them gathered around him. Jesus went up on a mountainside and gathered his disciples around him. While some of the crowd apparently followed and listened in, Jesus was addressing his disciples. In fact Luke does not even mention the crowds, only the disciples. Luke 6:20 tells us, “And turning his gaze on his disciples he began to say. . . .” The Sermon on the Mount is a message for Christ’s disciples. The Sermon on the Mount is not a message for the world or the lost, it is a message for the followers of Jesus, for those who want to climb with him.

After delivering a carefully prepared sermon a guest speaker stood at the door with the pastor to greet the people. There he received compliments on his sermon as the parishioners filed out. It was the sort of ritual that occurs each week in many churches. The people thanked the speaker for being there and expressed appreciation for his message.

That is, all except one man. When he reached the speaker he said, “That was a terrible sermon.” Although he was taken back, the speaker maintained his composure. The man got back in line and came through a second time and said to the speaker, “Your stories were dull and boring.” Then he came through a third time and said, “Your message made no sense.”

By now the host pastor was thoroughly embarrassed and tried to rectify the situation. He whispered to the guest speaker, “Don’t pay any attention to him. He’s not very smart. He can’t think for himself. In fact all he does is just repeats what he hears everyone else saying.”

That is almost as bad as the woman who came up to her pastor after a service and enthusiastically gushed, “Oh Pastor, your sermons are such a blessing, why each one is better than the next one.” Or the man who told his pastor, “Your sermons are like water to a drowning man.”

In Matthew 7:28 we find the reaction of those who heard Jesus sermon, it says, “they were amazed at his teaching.” The Greek sword translated amazed is strong word that could be translated astonished. Why was there such a striking reaction to Jesus’ message? In Matthew 7:29 we are told, “He taught as one who had authority and not as the teachers of the law.”

A tradition had built up around the Law in the Judaism of Jesus’ day. The scribes and the Pharisees paid lip service to the law but their real loyalty was to their traditions. When the rabbis taught, they would never initiate any teaching on their own authority, or even the authority of the Word of God. Rather they taught rabbinical traditions by quoting famous rabbis. But Jesus’ teaching was different. Jesus taught with his own authority and the authority of the Word of God. Jesus did not say, “As rabbi so-and-so has written. . . . .” Rather Jesus proclaimed, “I say to you . . .” or “The Scriptures say. . . .”

Jesus’ message was a revolutionary one based on relationships not religion, first a relationship with God and then a relationship with others. Jesus declared the religious establishment of his day bankrupt. He had no use for religion. His message was a revolutionary one based on relationships. The whole Sermon on the Mount deals with our relationship with God and our relationships with each other. It calls for radical change in how we relate to God and how we relate to each other. If we would implement it we could impact our world. It is the manifesto of a new kingdom, one that will take over this world. A message that amazed people some 2,000 years ago is equally amazing today.

In fact, the Sermon on the Mount is so revolutionary that many students of the Bible have sought to dismiss it. Some have taught it is an ideal that is not attainable. Others have argued it does not apply to believers today. They say it refers to the Millennium when Jesus will return to set up his earthly kingdom. Others claim it applied only to the interim period between the Law and the gospel.

However I believe it applied to Jesus’ followers in his day and I believe it applies to Jesus’ followers today. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks of persecution, enemies, evil and other things that will not be present in the Millennium. And, except when he refers to the Law, all the verbs Jesus uses are in the Greek present tense which indicates a present and ongoing action.

I believe the Sermon on the Mount is God’s message for us today. I believe God wants us to be kingdom people bringing his revolution into a world ruled by Satan. I believe God wants us to be revolutionaries in enemy territory introducing his kingdom in this world. I believe God is calling us to impact our community and our world with the message of Jesus Christ. I believe we are called to be part of a counter-cultural movement.

A lot of communities have Little League or Pop Warner football programs for children. In a Midwestern community a man walked into the recreation department a week before the football season was to begin. He asked if any of the football teams needed a coach. He was told there was one team left, but all the other teams had already chosen their players. All that was left were the runts and the misfits no one else wanted. The man said that would be fine.

So he took the runts and the misfits and began to work with them. It was only a week until the first game so he knew he could not teach them much. The running backs knew how to run up the middle so all week long he worked on blocking. At the game that week it did not take the other team long to figure out his one play and stop the runts and misfits. But the other team could not score on their defense and the game ended in a scoreless tie.

All the next week the team of runts and misfits worked on blocking and running left. The next week they won their game because they scored a touchdown. The third week the team of runts and misfits worked on running right. Now they had three plays. They could run left, run right, and run up the middle. That week they lost, but they did score two touchdowns.

During the fourth week the coach had to be out of town on business and he asked some of the fathers to take over. The fathers had been frustrated with the coach’s simple game plan so they introduced one of their own. The coach arrived back in town the day of the game and drove straight to the field. It was the end of the first quarter, the score was 21 to zero in favor of the other team. Everyone was running in a different direction. Seven kids went out for a pass and nobody blocked. The kids were confused and crying.

So the coach called a timeout and pulled them together and asked what was wrong. They said, “We can’t remember 42 sweep and 23 fly and 51 dive.” The coach said reassuringly, “That’s okay, we’ll use, go left and go right and go up the middle and block. Keep it simple.” The boys returned to the field. They ran left and they ran right and they ran up the middle and they blocked. They kept it simple and kept the other team from scoring again and even scored twice themselves.

The fathers who had been left in charge started to protest until one of them noticed something. The coach who had taught the boys only three plays was wearing a Superbowl ring. Then they realized the coach knew 42 sweep, 51 dive, 23 fly, and whole bunch of other plays. But he also knew the kids and their limitations and he knew he had to keep it simple.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has kept it simple for us. The message is stated in simple terms and is so clearly articulated anyone can grasp what Jesus is saying. Yet as simple as the message is, it is a difficult one to follow. Jesus invites us to climb with him.

As we seek to apply what we have learned, we will look at what it takes to climb with Jesus. First, climbing with Jesus takes sacrifice. In Mark 8:34 Jesus Christ declared, “If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

We cannot spend Sunday mornings in recreational activities and be in church worshipping God. We cannot read the latest best-seller and study God’s Word at the same time. We cannot watch television in the evening and minister with children or students. We cannot buy everything we want and still support God’s work. Now there is nothing wrong with recreation, best sellers, shopping, or television. However, we have to give up some things for other things. If we want to climb with Jesus we have to give up the things that keep us from climbing.

One Olympic sport where Americans always do well is competitive swimming. Many Olympians are college students. Do you know what many of them do the year they are going to compete in the Olympics? They drop out of school for the year and they spend 6 hours a day in training and conditioning. They set aside anything and everything that will interfere with their goal of winning a gold medal. The Bible, in Hebrews 12:1, tells us to set aside every weight and hindrance that keeps us from following Jesus. Each of us needs to ask ourselves: what is keeping me from climbing with Jesus?

Second, climbing with Jesus takes commitment. Jesus did not just say to deny ourselves, he also said we were to take up our crosses and follow him. Many people think crosses are things that happen to them. But crosses do not happen to us, we need to take them up. Following Jesus is a choice. We need to ask ourselves: have I chosen to climb with Jesus?

Third, climbing with Jesus takes effort. Climbing is not easy. Someone has said, “The road to success is uphill all the way.” We need to ask ourselves: am I willing to put in the effort to climb with Jesus? While climbing with Jesus takes sacrifice, commitment and effort, climbing with Jesus is worth it.

A trapper had been out in the wilderness for months running his trap lines. Now it was time to come to town to sell his furs. When he arrived at the fur-trader’s store he saw a beautiful bald eagle perched on the stand it was chained to. After sel...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Climbing with Jesus
• Chapter 2: How to Be Happy
• Chapter 3: Salt and Light
• Chapter 4: Beyond the Law
• Chapter 5: Beyond the Law—Part II
• Chapter 6: Beyond the Law—Part III
• Chapter 7: How to Talk To God
• Chapter 8: Where Is Your Treasure?
• Chapter 9: Eyewash, Pigs, and Dogs
• Chapter 10: Beggars Welcome
• Chapter 11: How to Spot a Phony
• Chapter 12: Which Are You?