SERMON SERIES # 2: The Gospel of Matthew

One commentator has said that “The Gospels are important because they can make mortal men and women  immortal .” Every week, we read a Gospel selection, as Christians have done for thousands of years; and every week, God offers you the opportunity to hear His Good News, and to let it touch your heart.  Today we explore the Gospel of Matthew.

·       Matthew was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples.  He had been a crooked tax collector when Jesus called him to become a part of the Jesus movement.  He left behind his old life of crime, and started His new life as a  follower of Jesus.

The Great theme of Matthew’s Gospel is the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew proclaims  that Jesus is the Messiah, foretold by the ancient prophets; and that through Jesus’ life, teaching, death & resurrection, Jesus has inaugurated the Kingdome of heaven on earth.  For Matthew , the Kingdom of heaven did not just involve the afterlife—it involves people in the here in now, hearing Jesus Good News and committing themselves to Him now, so that they  can live forever with Him in the next life.

With this in mind, Matthew describes Jesus’ anger at the religious establishment of His day, which was the opposite of the faith needed for the kingdom of heaven.  The religious establishment/leadership of the temple was hard hearted, egocentric, self serving, vindictive and closed minded.  Jesus contrasted these hypocrites with the people of faith, His followers,  as described in today’s Gospel.  The people listening to today’s Gospel had been attracted to Jesus like a magnet; not just by His great notoriety, His polished rhetoric, nor by his political savvy; but by His  life changing Words of encouragement and hope.

In today’s  Gospel, which is called “The sermon on the Mount,” Jesus had his audience eating out of his hands, for they were hanging on to his every word.

a.    Jesus could not have picked a prettier church to preach this extraordinary message.   The natural amphitheater over looking the Sea of Galilee as a dramatic cathedral in the wild.

b.    The people had walked many miles to be with Him—coming from many different provinces and nations, just to hear Him.

c.     Imagine 5,000 people gathered together in one spot—and all of them-- silent, as they listened to the voice of their hero.  This was a holy moment.

d.    St. Luke says that as Jesus preached that day, power came from Him. Divine power radiated out of Him—through His body and voice.

It is within this spirit-filled context that Jesus spoke the words of this immortal sermon, and the people believed Him:

Blessed are you when you seek reconciliation with one another, for you will be called children of God.

Blessed are you who encounter rejection because of your believe  in me—Rejoice & be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

 Blessed are you who are poor in spirit because you know that you need God ---for you will be satisfied.

PAUSE /  SLOW   As the power came out of his voice & body—I believe that those present experienced the  very presence of God Almighty in His awesome holiness.

PAUSE His  listeners heard His words as promises from God almighty—promises that  would be fulfilled in the future, and  which were actually being fulfilled in their hearing.  This was the Kingdom of Heaven breaking into our physical world.

PAUSE    There was a time, a while ago, when I read the Sermon on the Mount quite differently than I do today.  I must have heard this reading hundreds upon hundreds of times, where I envisioned gentle Jesus, meek & mild, struggling to over some words of encouragement to the hopeless and confused masses. 

I imagined his audience listening to His words with polite interest, and then returning home to their own life struggles—unaffected by what they had heard.  And likewise, this message never really touched me, either. Back then, I did not appreciate the power of God’s Word.

However, that was prior to my visit to the very place in northern Israel, where Jesus preached this original sermon.   My wife and I were on a clergy tour of ancient Holy Land sites in Israel. As we stood looking down the hills at the beautiful water of the Sea of Galilee, in the very spot where archeologists believe that Jesus preached this sermon.  I heard one of our companions read the words that we just read this morning.

·       However, that day I heard these words with a sense of new meaning. I felt like Jesus Christ was directly speaking these words to me, personally.                I experienced the presence of God through the words of the scripture.  It felt rather surreal.  As a sense of His presence began to descend upon me, I was overcome with Jesus’ promise to me—to us all:

·       Blessed are you when you seek reconciliation with one another, for you will be called children of God.

·       Blessed are you who encounter rejection because of your believe  in me—Rejoice & be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

·        Blessed are you who are poor in spirit because you know that you need God ---for you will be satisfied.

Now, I do not wish to talk about myself; but rather I want to speak of the Bible as a possible link between you and God, which can be powerful.  Let us not read the Bible as some words and thoughts, written and spoken, long ago; but rather as a divine  message for you to discern how God wants you to hear it. God wants you to hear it. But it requires that you do some reflecting upon it, talking about it, praying about it—then you will experience His divine touch.  J  J  J  J

This is the power of the Risen Christ, linking earth to heaven and heaven to earth as on that first Easter Sunday, today, and in the future.

This is what Jesus is talking about in His parables in Matthew.  Jesus said, please repeat after me,  "The kingdom of heaven/// is like a mustard seed,/// which a man took and planted in his field. //// Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows,/// it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, ////so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

The Kingdom of heaven begins as something small, and then it grows into some spectacular.    Give a little bit of time reflecting on God’s Word, and see if you do nothear Him speaking directly to you.

So, I would like for you to take a test drive on this.  I ask you to take home your bulletin from today, and spend some time reading today’s Gospel—slowly, quietly, reflectively.  Re- read it, and identify the verse that is most appealing to you, that you would love to believe. Circle it, and come back to it, asking yourself this question:  “What does Jesus want me to hear in this?   What promise is He making to me?  Can I accept it and embrace it and believe it?

For goodness sake, do not apathetically read this Gospel, as I did for most              of my life.  This little Bible study, for you, could be like the little mustard seed.  Plant God’s word in  your heart, and see if it doesn’t grow into something new and wonderful in your life.  You will then discover just how blessed you really are.

J J J J J J J J