April
4, 2003
CHRIST'S
SERMON ON THE MOUNTAIN
"And
seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when
He was seated His disciples came to Him" (Matthew 5:1,
NKJV).
Christ's
sermon on the mountain was like an inaugural address in that
He set forth the conditions of citizenship for those who desire
entrance into God's kingdom, the kingdom of grace, the kingdom
of heaven. In this discourse, Jesus shared God's values with
us, and likened the person who listens to these sayings of
His and does them "to a wise man
who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and
it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock"
(Matthew 7:24, 25).
The mountain
on which Jesus delivered this address has been referred to
as the "Sinai of the New Testament," inasmuch as
it holds the same relationship to the Christian church as
Mt. Sinai did to the Jewish nation. It was on Mt. Sinai that
God proclaimed, and engraved in stone, the divine law. It
was on an unknown mountain in Galilee that Jesus reaffirmed
the principles and values of the divine law, explaining its
true meaning in greater detail and applying its precepts to
the problems of daily life.
Jesus
leaves us in no doubt as to the traits of character that He
will always recognize and bless. In the human heart, He sees
more than our sins, the mistakes we make and the misery produced.
In His infinite wisdom and love He sees our possibilities
and the heights to which He helps us attain. He knows that
even though humans abuse God's tender mercies and destroy
their God-given dignity, yet God will be glorified in their
redemption.
God,
through Jesus, has shared with us His values. The principles
enunciated to us in the sermon on the mountain are for all
mankind living in all ages. There is a life beyond the grave,
and Jesus teaches us that this life begins here and now for
those who accept the Lord for who He is, and His values.
May you
be blessed as you read and meditate on the words and thoughts
of Jesus in the following meditations from Christ's sermon
on the mountain.
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