Let’s take a look at the Sermon on the Mount, which in essence, was Jesus’ first sermon. I heard a sermon this morning on my phone by a High School Coach in our church that was his first sermon before a congregation, and he did a really good job. It was great to hear his testimony as he shared it with our church and then to hear the heart of his message, “How Jesus Wants to Use You”. I hope that his message touched the hearts of all who heard it. And also there was a great message in song by a group that was organized by one of the young men in our church. I believe his band came together about three weeks ago. We will be hearing from them on the top of the Christian Charts before long! In all, it was a great service and we were blessed by the Lord by it.
Speaking of “blessings”, Jesus’ sermon on the mount began with pronouncing blessings upon the people whose attitudes and characters were a certain way. But let me set the stage for that message. It can be read in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and when He got through preaching, Matthew records that “the crowd of people who heard it were astonished at His teaching because He was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like the scribes and Pharisees” (Matthew 7:28-29). But here is the setting, both Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels tell us that after Jesus had chosen His twelve disciples, His twelve “learners”, for that’s what “disciple” means, He began traveling throughout the area of Galilee, teaching and preaching in the synagogues the good news of the kingdom of God, and healing every kind of disease and sickness among the people, as well as casting out unclean spirits that had been tormenting many people as well. And here’s where the people were coming from, from all Judea and Jerusalem, from throughout the country of Syria, and from the sea coasts of Tyre and Sidon in the southern part of Phoenicia. Folks, that was a whole lot of people who had come to see and hear and be blessed by this man from Galilee, men, women, and children alike! You might say, they were a traveling congregation! Think about that. Here was a guy who had come among them preaching and teaching and doing miracles among them like nobody else had ever done, especially from among their religious leaders and scribes. If someone came among us today doing all of that, don’t you think that a whole mess of people would begin following him? You bet they would!
However, now it was time to teach them about the love of God. They had been following Him for healings and blessings, and Luke tells us that “there were so many people following Him that they were trying to get close enough just to reach out and touch Him, because power was coming out from Him to heal them all!” (Luke 6:19) They had been coming for miracles, but now it was time to tell them about the One who was behind all the miracles.
