FOLLOWING HIS FOOTSTEPS ON THE MOUNTAIN

Sermon Summary, of Last Week’s sermon, Footsteps of Jesus: “On the Mountain.”  (Mark 1:21-28)

“He went up on the mountain, and when he had sat down, he opened his mouth and taught them saying…” Matthew 5:1-2.  Thus begins the Sermon on the Mount, the most important and influential teaching in the world.  Yet it’s frightening.  Before Jesus gets into the moral teachings he says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Frightening.  But here’s the good news: Righteousness is not your job!  It’s God’s!  Your job, my job is to follow the footsteps of Jesus.

My sermon in large part is based on Dallas Willard’s book The Divine Conspiracy, awesome book, beloved author.  He makes the point that the sermon is both the vision of the kingdom of God (Jesus’ central teaching), and the process for achieving it.   He outlines it as

· First, the Beatitudes (those blessings in Mt 5:3-12), that tell us that we are blessed because Christ has come near.  And the good news is that because Christ is here, the kingdom of God is an option for all of us!  He then says he needs us to be salt and light if he is to change the world!  (Mt 5:13-16)

· Next, that we are to take sin seriously and uses prophetic hyperbole (if your eye cause us to sin..., if you hand offends you...),

· He urges us to habituate the goodness of God’s kingdom: prayer, fasting, turning the other check, loving your enemies, praying for those who persecute you. 

· Then, to be wary of finding security in things or in judging others.

Here’s the thing, all the time we are doing this, Jesus, the vine, is allowing his sap to drip into our branch’s veins and change us from the inside out.  We become new beings.  We become the kind of being whose very nature it is to enter by the narrow gate and to follow the narrow path.  Jesus has changed us from the inside out. 

It’s like a little boy or girls stepping into the foot prints of Mom or Dad (I want to be like Him.), and being changed without really knowing it.

In fact, we become the kind of people whose very nature it is to love our enemies.  Without knowing it, we have become perfect as our heavenly father is perfect!  (Your task is to read the sermon (Mt 5-7) as it was written and experienced by the first hearers, in one sitting.  Let it begin your footsteps!)