June 2007
| ‘When he saw the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.’ (Matthew 5:1) | |
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Many people today are asking how are we supposed to behave? What is the right way to live and who do we listen to among the clamouring voices and confusion of opinion? Where do we get the instruction or guidance by which to live and then the ability and power to do so? What, in this 21st century, are we to do for the best because today, in this 21st century, we are as confused as ever, as far removed from the truth as ever, and as lost as ever a people were in any age in the whole of history. So I want to make a bizarre suggestion, I feel moved to voice a ridiculous thought, why don’t we listen to what Jesus says? The reaction of so many people of this modern age would be that this seems ridiculous and bizarre. They see no relevance, no sense and certainly no fun in even considering the content of a 2,000 year old manuscript. But in the lengthy discourse that has become known as The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expresses principles, - moral, ethical and social, that apply just as much to us today as ever they have done to any other people at any other time in any other place. They are principles which come from an eternal mind who longs to offer guidance and help for the whole of life throughout the whole of eternity, and these are the words, the instructions, the helpful hints that we need to listen to. If we could only realise that, as society today, we need to re-learn and re-adopt the standards that Jesus wants, then we will demonstrate a social, ethical and moral pattern of behaviour that honours our creator God and challenges the widespread cancer that sin is as it spreads across every aspect of our world. Maybe then we will see society beginning to take notice of what Jesus says, and who we should be. As Christians, our first priority should be to open our bibles and to ask -what does Jesus want to say that will help us to be the counter cultural people he intended? And then, as Christians, we can do one of two things, we can gather in our neat and tidy ecclesiastical ghettoes and tut-tut about falling standards ‘after all it wasn’t like that in my day’! Or we can demonstrate the difference and distinctiveness of Christian behaviour. True Christianity, true discipleship of this man on a hill-side, demands a standard of behaviour above and beyond that which society has decided is acceptable and normal. And for that revelation Jesus has left us with The Sermon on the Mount. At Castle Hill we are slowly working through this sermon and discovering what Jesus wants to say to us. Please join us if you can or get into the habit yourself of regularly reading the Sermon and asking Jesus to apply it to your heart and life. God bless you, |
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