Category Archives: Bulletin Article

by Noel Walker

As Matthew begins his summary of Jesus’ teachings from the mountain he wants to make Jesus’ intentions clear.  This sermon is not a supplement to the teachings found in the Law.  Jesus is not replacing the Law with the Law 2.0; a brand new teaching that is better than the original.  Jesus makes his intentions clear in Matt 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

How does Jesus fulfill the Law?  The Law says that you need to include a railing when you build a second floor balcony on your house (Deut 22:8).  The Law says that you need to keep an ox`s mouth uncovered when it is threshing grain (Deut 25:4); Clothing should be made without mixing materials (Deut 22:11); Mildew must be dealt with following a strict set of instructions (Lev 14:33-53).  All of these laws have reasons why they were part of the Torah but how does Jesus fulfill them?

The Law has individual verses that are culturally distant from contemporary culture today and as a result some verses are very difficult for us to understand.  Because of this, the Law is best understood when it is considered as a whole: The Torah comprehensively described how a member of God’s covenant community was meant to live in the 14^th century BC.  As a result you can capture the essence of who the people of God were meant to be (and who God is) by understanding the requirements of Law.  Some parts of the Law are difficult to understand but that is because God’s thinking is far beyond ours (Is 55:9).  When we have a problem understanding the Law, the problem lies with our understanding and not with the Law.

The Law is a witness to the character of God.  That is why followers of Jesus today can still read the Law and gain insight into who God is.  Just because we live in a time after Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection doesn’t mean we can’t learn about God from the Old Testament too.  David writes, “Oh how I love your law!  I meditate on it all day long.” (Ps 119:97)   If it was good for David it is good for us too!

The Law however is not an end onto itself.  Paul says that the Law does not save (Rom 5:20-21; 7:13-233; 8:2-3) but instead, the Law points to the fact that we need a Saviour.  In Hebrews 10, the Law is described as a shadow, cast by Jesus Christ.  In other words, the law predicted the kind of character Jesus would embody.  The law required the blood of animals to temporarily atone for sin so that we would understand that Jesus’ blood atones for sin forever (Heb 10:10).  The Law described sanctification in miniature, until Jesus came and lived it out writ large.

Jesus finally accomplishes what the Law said was going to have to happen.  In that way Jesus fulfills the Law.  Jesus satisfies the Law’s requirements and grants us God’s approval through our faith in Jesus’ obedience (2 Cor 5:21).  Just like the Law in the Old Testament, the Sermon on the Mount doesn’t describe a way we can earn God’s approval but rather it describes the person that the Holy Spirit is turning us into.  The Sermon on the Mount isn’t God’s wish list for us: “Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t hate your boss.  You really should try to not lust after your secretary.” The Sermon on the Mount is the character of Jesus Christ which we are becoming day by day through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

by Noel Walker

This week we begin a series looking at the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7).  In his gospel Matthew is primarily interested in establishing (for a predominantly Jewish reading audience) that Jesus was the
Jewish Messiah, the anointed one of God.  Matthew therefore shares his stories, and edits his gospel with this objective in mind. Contemporary readers sometimes make the mistake of assuming that Jesus
sat down on the mountain side and rattled off the entire sermon, all three chapters in one setting.  Matthew makes no claim to this effect.  We can see in his gospel that Matthew organizes Jesus’ teaching into five “discourses.” (Matt 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 24-25). Each of these teaching sections has a specific purpose.  The first one, which we call the Sermon on the Mount, is a fair summary of Jesus’ teaching during his three year ministry. He would have shared this kind of teaching all the time.  That’s why we read some (but not all) of this sermon in Luke 6:17-49.  Both writers were summarizing what Jesus would typically teach for their own specific purposes.

In some ways, it is a crime what we have done with the teaching of Jesus.  Regular church going folk have flattened, neutered, oversimplified, qualified, watered-down and explained away most of Jesus’ startling teaching.  If you see a movie depiction of the Sermon on the Mount you see people sitting in the grass nodding approvingly while Jesus rattles off, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
comforted … Forgive your enemies …” and so on.

That can’t be!  What Jesus teaches is outrageous!  The people that Jesus was teaching would have been shocked, and quite possibly outraged. Imagine what a Jewish listener would say when Jesus said that they were lucky to get ripped off by tax collectors.  It is likely that there wouldn’t be a single family in the crowd who had not lost a family member to the hated Roman occupiers. To them Jesus says, “Love your enemies?!?”  Are you nuts?!?

Phillip Yancey in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, talks about a secular university English professor who presented his first year students with the text of the Sermon on the Mount to read as an assignment.  When asked what they thought of the text, the class’s response was vivid.  ”I don’t like the Sermon on the Mount,” wrote one student, “it makes me feel like I have to be perfect and nobody’s perfect.”  ”This is stupid,” wrote another: “Lust is the same as sex? That’s just wacked!” “I hate this!” wrote still another.  People who grew up outside the church who hear the Sermon on the Mount for the first time are outraged at the teaching.  How can this possibly be true!?

What Jesus is calling us to is outrageous. Jesus sets a very high standard but he does not give us these impossible ideals and leave us to fail at achieving them.  In living His life on earth Jesus accomplished these impossible standards and through faith we are granted the righteousness that Jesus achieved.  Jesus calls us to unreserved devotion as disciples and leaves us no room to be supporters, or fans. You are either all-in or all-out. It is a bold challenge to those who call themselves followers of Christ. Giving Jesus your mental assent is no better than ‘believing’ in Jesus like he is the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny. The Sermon on the Mount is a profound summary of the teachings of Jesus and I look forward to exploring them, and the challenge that goes with them over the next few months.

by Noel Walker

3.  Lots of People Get a Chance to Talk About Jesus and Their Everyday Life:  In teacher’s college I remember one of my methodology professors putting it simply.  “The one doing the talking is doing the learning.”  To talk about what Jesus is up to in Luke 10 means you have to think about it, synthesize your thoughts, and build a sentence or two out of your own thoughts and then express yourself.  There is a lot going on in your head when you communicate and all that work leaves behinds mental pathways that last. When you have an opportunity to speak about something, you learn about it too. I would bet that on any given Sunday that we Dwell, you are more likely to remember what you shared in Dwelling than anything about the sermon.  That’s because with a sermon you are just a passive receiver.  When you are Dwelling in the Word, you are a participant.

2.  We Get Practice Listening: I don’t care who you are, there isn’t anyone among us that couldn’t use some practice listening to someone else.  Most of the time we are not good listeners.  Stop reading right here are think back to the last conversation you had this morning …  I’ll bet you can remember what you said and can’t remember the other person said.  We tend to be very self centered in our communications; we talk and then negotiate the next time when we get to talk again.  Jesus was an excellent listener and as followers of Jesus we should be too.  It will do us tremendous good to get some practice at listening and who better to practice with than our church family (they’re a pretty forgiving bunch J )

1.   My Sons Get to Hear How Judy Dickie Thinks About Jesus: When we Dwell during our corporate worship time, lots of inter-generational conversations take place.  The first time we did Dwelling in worship it was clunky and awkward (I will readily admit that) but I looked across the auditorium and found that Judy had sat down with my son Jacob and Micah Rose and was rereading Luke 10 with them and asking them about what they had heard.  I was so grateful that Judy had reached out to them and taken the time to engage them.  That is what church is all about.  If coming to church was just about hearing a sermon and getting juice and a cracker handed to you, you could do it anywhere.  But being the church is about belonging to each other;  Caring about each other so much that it almost hurts!  When we do Dwelling we are being church to each other and when you duck out of Dwelling or fail to engage it you are missing out.  You will never know how much you are missing until you give it a try.