LEARNING DAILY

 

Matthew 5:1,2, And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him.  Then He opened His mouth and taught them saying:

 

Many people are searching for success and for happiness.  Some people who have worked so hard for what the world defines as success look back at their life and find the result of their search has only been misery.  They have lived their life in fear of impending disasters and fear that what they have will be taken from them.  So, they work harder and longer to keep what they have.  They look at the world and nothing looks encouraging; instead of the happiness they sought, they worry about what will happen. 

 

I read a devotion once that stated Satan wants us to live in fear and not trust God.  He wants us to worry about our lives and entices us to live for ourselves, in our own strength.  His deceitfulness may help someone think they are happy living this way but unfortunately it only adds to one’s misery.  Satan gets us to worry just knowing that calamity is ahead and everything is going to pieces.

 

But God wants us to know the secret for living a successful life and He wants to teach it to you.  The Sermon on the Mount speaks to the one who really wants to be happy – this is the way!

 

A number of years ago, I taught a Sunday School class on the Sermon on the Mount.  I also had a website that included a section for a Bible study where I wrote on Jesus’ teaching.  For that I used Studies in the Sermon on the Mount written by Martyn Lloyd-Jones as my primary source of information.  I will not mark his words with quotation marks because I no longer have the book to quote his work precisely.  I do want to give him the credit for much of the following teaching as I use the notes for the class taught and the articles written for the website.  I would suggest to any of you who desire further knowledge on Jesus’ teaching to find the book and read it. 

 

Jesus began His teaching with what is known as the Beatitudes.  He knew that His followers wanted dominion and prosperity.  They no longer wanted to be ruled by the Romans and hated the tax burden placed upon them.  They were certain that the Kingdom of God would make them free and even wealthy.  But Jesus turned that expectation upside down.  With the Beatitudes He said all Christians are to be interested primarily with character.  Jesus speaks of God’s principles of righteousness by which all Christians are to live through faith in Him.  Paul said in Romans 1:17, “the just shall live by faith.”  Lloyd-Jones said all Christians were to live according to the Beatitudes; “they do not describe exceptional Christians”.  All the Beatitudes were to be followed by each Christian.  In other words, we must not think that one Christian is to be “poor in spirit” and another to be “meek” and another to be “merciful”.  It is more than interesting to see how each beatitude leads to the next one.  Lloyd-Jones also emphasizes that to live the Beatitudes is not something that anyone is able to do on their own; it is just not natural.  To live them in our daily lives comes only through grace and the Holy Spirit’s presence in our life.

 

There is a lot of pressure on Christians to be different.  Worldliness has invaded the Church.  I remember hearing at a conference how the competition among churches for membership is leading to worldliness in the church.  The difference between the church and the world as a result is becoming blurred because of the need to make the church “attractive”; the result has been the church becoming like the person it is trying to attract.  However, the gospel of Jesus Christ is absolutely different from the world and that has to continue to be in order to attract those who are seeking something different.  While the gospel message might be hated at first revival comes as a result of Christians offering the One who has overcome the world! 

 

Our desire as Christians is to be more and more like Jesus Christ and not conform to what the world says.  The Sermon on the Mount is to be studied to show us how to be different.  Jesus words here and His words on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24-25) have been so influential in my life.  I hope you look forward to each day as we study the words of Jesus; I hope you begin to make them a part of your life if you have not already done so.

 

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