Jesus Call us to a Life in the Spirit
Today we are continuing our study of Jesus’ words on how to
live our lives. He preached about this
in His famous “Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew 5,6and 7 of our
Bibles. Jesus is calling out a people to
reject the world’s ways of doing things and live their lives completely
trusting their heavenly Father. As
children of God, Jesus calls us to a new way of living, and He gives us His
Spirit to help us walk in this new way.
Jesus gives His followers many different commands in this sermon. Without His Spirit to help us keep these
commands we would not be able to obey any of them on our own.
We have covered much of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” already
in previous blogs. But today we will
continue as He has many commands for His followers. And some of Jesus’ commands go against
worldly wisdom and upsets our sense of pride.
Here is one that I struggle with.
Jesus asks us to go the second mile.
Here is what He said: “You have heard it said, ‘an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth’. But I tell you not
to resist an evil person. Whoever slaps
you on one cheek, turn the other. And if
anyone sues you and takes away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go
with him two. Give to him who asks you, and
from him who wants to borrow, do not turn away.” (Matthew 5:38-42)
Jesus has a great deal to say about humility. And no wonder, since it was pride that first
caused mans’ downfall into sin when Adam and Eve felt that their own way was
better than God’s way. Now restored
godliness requires that we humans do the opposite and humble ourselves before God’s
will. Perhaps here in Jesus’ command to
go the second mile and turn the other cheek, He is calling His followers to
renounce any form of pride and retaliation against those who treat us badly and
leave all vengeance to God. Obedience is
the response of faith to Jesus’ commands.
We are to let mistreatment by others remind us to overcome
their evil through love. Our heavenly
Father will take care of us and be our shield and defense. Even when our enemy kills our bodies, we will
be taken to heaven and will be made whole.
In these situations, we are promised that “not a hair of our heads will
be harmed!” (Luke 21:18) But of course,
this promise in Scripture must have a spiritual meaning. There is nothing that
our enemies can do to harm us that our heavenly Father cannot take care of,
even if we don’t see the reward until we reach heaven.
Jesus gives more commands concerning how we are to live our
lives in His “Sermon on the Mount.” He
says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal: But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do
not break in and steal. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also. … No one can serve two masters, for
either he will hate the one and love the other, or else be loyal to one and
despise the other, you cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:19-21 and 24)
There is a common thread throughout all of Jesus’
commands. That we should be like little
children, trusting our heavenly Father with our lives. And that we are to “travel light” and not be
anxious or worried about grasping for more and more money and coveting more earthly
stuff. And we must not put all of our
efforts on becoming wealthy and make that the goal of our lives. Worldly riches can be stolen or lose their
value in a falling stock market. But our
heavenly inheritance is incorruptible.
This earth is not our home, we’re just passing through. Our citizenship is in heaven and our lives
should be different because of that.
Scripture always warns about the love of money taking away our love for
God. Jesus reminds us that we cannot put
God first and also put the pursuit of wealth first. Jesus isn’t warning us
against working to earn money to provide for our families. Scripture doesn’t say that money is the root
of evil. It says that “the “Love” of
money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy
6:10)
Lastly, Jesus warns His followers of false teachers that
will come in our churches and pretend to be good Christians – or the sheep of
God’s pasture. But really, they are
there as ravenous wolves to destroy your church. Here is what Jesus said: “Beware of false prophets,
who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous
wolves. You will know them by their
fruits. Do people gather grapes from
thorn bushes or figs from thistle bushes?
Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a
bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree
that does not (Matthew 7:15-20)
False teachers have been there to ravage and destroy the
Church from the very beginning. They plant
seeds of unbelief and rebellion wherever they go. They pretend to be religious and good, but
they hate Jesus Christ and they deny that He died for our sins and that He is
the Son of God and Savior. That He came
in the flesh and that He is the only Way, Truth and Life. Over my lifetime I
have seen many of these false prophets come in and tear apart the Church. We have been warned by Jesus. And throughout Scripture there are stark
warnings.
And Jesus closes His Sermon by giving the parable of the
wise and the foolish builders. (Matthew
8:24-28) One person builds his house on
the Rock and the other person builds his house on the sand. When the storms come, the wind and rain are
too much for the house with no foundation that is built on the sand. And it falls down and is destroyed. But the house with its foundation built
firmly on the Rock withstood the storm.
The Rock is Jesus Christ and the sand is everything else that we can build
our lives on. This parable shows the
necessity of doing the will of God.
After Jesus finished his Sermon to the crowd that was gathered,
He began healing all those in the crowd.
And He spent the next couple of years going through the countryside with
His disciples and healing the sick. He
made the lame to walk and the blind to see.
He cured leprosy and He even raised the dead. Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. And He sent His disciples out and many were
healed when they prayed for the sick.
When Jesus rose from the dead and went back to heaven, He left His
Spirit to empower each of His followers, so He could work through them. The
early Church grew and was persecuted because the Holy Spirit power flowed through
their lives. And they loved one another,
and miracles and healings occurred wherever they went.
,
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