A few weeks ago I began a serious study of the Sermon on the Mount and it has been a richly rewarding time, examining what Jesus Christ actually said and how he is commenting on what was taught and revealed in the Old Testament and how the scribes and Pharisees and legalists had distorted and twisted much of what Almighty God had said through Moses and the prophets.
The Old Testament indicates the reality of sin and the power of sin and its devastating effects. Some people tend to run away from this fact and even in government circles today we see leadership that has gone against God’s ways, plans and will.
In the Old Testament, we see some of the problem, and then God gives us the remedy, when Jesus Christ comes to us in our sin to rescue and forgive us.
You are forgiven. Now she lives like this. That is the basic message of the Sermon on the Mount.
If the Old Testament is likened to the bud, then Jesus is the flower, and this kind of discipleship is the fruit. Jesus Christ can turn a tough, tough legalism from the inside out.
Everything else in the Sermon on the Mount makes sense when we see this. So you must follow me with your heart.
Only the Bible reveals the nature of sin, and God’s answer and God’s remedy are in Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ alone. Now that is a stumbling block for many.
Jesus challenges superficial religion.
The Old Testament provides humanity with a pattern of just laws, whereby man can be governed by these laws. Most of the good just laws go back to the law given by Moses. When we stray from these laws we find ourselves in trouble, and that is where we are today. Consider the mess that society has sunk into and it is mostly due to the sin of turning away from God’s Word and its light and truth and guidance and direction for the best kind of life and way of living.
This book provides an inexhaustible source of material for spiritual meditation.
Psalm 1 talks about meditating on God’s law day and night. The key is what you meditate on. Some people who claimed to be Christians chose to meditate and have what they called their devotional time reading Shakespeare or reading the newspaper. What a difference it can make when people have the Word of God as we have it in the Bible at the heart and center of their devotional or meditative time.
Seeing Christ at Easter is a rich source of meditation.
The Old and the New fit together. There are no contradictions. The New affirms and fulfills the Old.
Jesus quotes from the Old so often. When tempted, Jesus turns to the Old Testament. When asked about marriage, Jesus quotes Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Society has moved away from Genesis, so now society is moving away from marriage.
The Old Testament covers some 2,000 years in great detail.
We have the election and the exodus, then the empire and the seventy years of exile in Babylon, which is present-day Iraq.
We have leadership from Abraham and Moses and King David and Isaiah and the prophets
We have the Patriarchs and the Prophets, and the Kings, and the Priests.
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, was Prophet, Priest, and King, and He is the living God who speaks and acts.
In Luke chapter 24, Jesus led these disciples through the Law, the Prophets, and the Scriptures.
When we get to the New Testament, some things change. No special buildings are needed, no special priesthood, and there is no longer any need for killing and sacrificing animals, or special days. A lot of it can come as a shock to some people.
So it was national. Now it is personal, and thus we become part of a holy people, set apart for God to glorify His Name.
As we read the Sermon on the Mount, it will become more than an ideal, but our practice. Read it slowly and prayerfully and be blessed.