Sermon on the Mount: Week 7

What is it about this world that makes us want to accumulate more and more stuff? To put our faith in the things we can buy, collect, display, or store in closets and under stairs? To find it easier to be comforted by looking at our bank account balance than by studying the Word of [...]

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Sermon on the Mount: Week 6

What an incredible thing to know that Jesus Himself taught us how to pray. So often we stutter and mumble while praying, unsure of the “right” thing to say to God, wondering if what we are saying truly expresses our hopes, desires, and needs to our Father. How many of us simply turn to the [...]

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Sermon on the Mount: Week 5

Jesus says a lot in the Sermon on the Mount about how we should respond when we feel hurt, cheated, or wronged. The Law gave Israel specific instructions for how to penalize those who commit crimes: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” (Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21) Under the [...]

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Sermon on the Mount: Week 4

One feature of the Sermon on the Mount that jumps off the page is the juxtaposition of the phrases “You have heard” and “But I say” — without a deep study of the text one might think that Jesus is changing or contradicting the Law with which the Jews were so intimately familiar. However, Jesus [...]

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