Weaver1has's Blog

Why did the Sermon on the Mount take place?

What led to the Sermon on the Mount for it to take place?

What was the feeling within the Jewish communities in Galilee?

These are important questions before we move into the greatest sermon ever preached. It is the greatest sermon because in it are the words of life from Christ himself. Remember that the Apostles only gave witness to Christ, the One who can take away the sins of the world; The true Lamb of God that takes away our sins. This is the One who spoke these words of life or death.

In the middle of a foreign powers occupation of Galilee something big was going to take place something much bigger than anything in world history.  This event had started, and a part of this event would mean great Rome would crumble and fall as Daniel had prophesied.  In the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament indeed there had been many deliverers such as Moses, the Judges even the Maccabees but these deliverances did not last.  In the past deliverances a lot of the time had been at the edge of the sword.  How would this time of God’s visitation be any different?

You may have watched in the past some Jesus films and perhaps they try to show the Galileans craving and cramming to see Jesus.  This is partly true.  Even today one sees rock stars getting lots of adoration, but I have to say it is not the same!

• First of all, a rock star cannot save you!
• Secondly Jesus preaching brought about a spiritual awakening to the truths of Holy Scripture. 

Here before the Jewish nation and Gentile nations was the Messiah and the expectations of salvation would be turned upside down and inside out.  There was a time in world history that Jewish and Gentile Christians were brothers and sisters but by the time of Justin Martyr there was hostility between the Church and the Jewish community.  We know this because St Paul raised money in Corinth and the local churches and sent the money to Jerusalem to help the Jewish Believers there. 

These are important questions.  It is wrong and a great sin to hate Jews which culminated in the Holocaust.  The root of hate towards the Jews can be traced all the way back to Martin Luther and it ended with Adolf Hitler:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_antisemitism

As Christians we must remember that Jesus in his humanity was Jewish.  We must remember that Jesus taught us to love our neighbour no matter who they are (enemies or friends!).

Let’s begin by looking at Marks Gospel:

35 In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. 36 Simon and his companions searched for Him; 37 they found Him, and *said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” 38 He *said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” 39 And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons. Mark 1:35-39

Mark

35 In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.

Here we see that Jesus had a mission from God.  When he got up early in the morning it was still dark.  While everyone was still sleeping, He was praying and communing with God the Father.  Luke says ‘when day came’ but he didn’t go into any details.

36 Simon and his companions searched for Him;

Peter and his companions couldn’t find Jesus straight away!  Obviously, he disappeared while they were still asleep. 

37 they found Him, and *said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

What an anti-climax!  ‘Everyone is searching for you’.  ‘Everyone’ means the crowds.  They were hungry for God’s word.  Jesus’ preaching was different because it touched the core of the human being, their person-hood, their soul.

38 He *said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”

Here it says may preach. The word ‘may’, isn’t found but the use of ‘hina = ‘in order that’ and the ‘I may preach’ is in the subjunctive form. 

Luke’s version has a stronger intention.  He uses ‘δέω= bound’.  It is much stronger. 

https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/deo

Stylistically there is a difference, but the meaning is the same.  Jesus has a purpose from the mandate of heaven ‘for that is what I came for.’ 

The mandate from heaven was for Jesus to preach that the kingdom of heaven was here now, live on earth, die on a cross, be resurrected and open the doors of salvation to the whole world through and in him.  This mandate started from a backwater of the Roman Empire and the world would never be the same again. 

39 And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons. Mark 1:35-39

Galilee was actually according to Josephus a very productive area.  It has a large lake that has a record of being a freshwater lake below sea level (the lowest in the world!).  There were cities and towns on both side of the lake and I can imagine Jesus jumping in boats and crisscrossing the lake on a regular basis preaching the Gospel. 

While doing this ministry of preaching his Apostles were learning how to preach.   The rest of the New Testament is an explication of these teachings that have now changed the world.

REFLECTION

Let us walk in love towards everyone.  Every human being including those who lost their life through abortion were created in the image of God.  Love can take on various forms, but it ought to show respect towards the other person no matter who they are.  This can be difficult at times as some people pull away from society and do atrocious acts.  We can still show love and follow Jesus’ example by praying for them that God’s will, God’s kingdom could also break into them and change them inside out by the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus was a man who was driven by the mandate of heaven.  He was preaching in those cities because out of these cities many people would repent and become children of God.  2000 years later and here we are still preaching the same Gospel Jesus taught.  Jesus was special because while he walked this earth, he was like a mirror that showed people exactly what they were.  They came face to face with their sins.  It is by grace that we are saved.  We cannot save ourselves.  We are helpless.  How helpless is the human race?  The human race is completely helpless before a holy God and God started this plan from the time of the Fall of the earliest human beings found in Genesis. 

Next time as we go through the Sermon on the Mount you will face a mirror that shows you your true self.  My friends we have all turned away from God.  As we look at the sermon on the mount we will be faced by the true ugliness of sin.  We will also be faced with the opportunity to follow Christ into the celestial city. 

Jesus moving away from his hometown and into Galilee part 1

Like Moses our Lord had to go through a Wilderness experience only to come out of it in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The world would never be the same again and the gates of salvation would be opened up to the whole world.  This world-shaking event would not happen through the use of swords, siege engines, political intrigues et al.  No my friends it was going to happen through the prince of peace.  In other words, this world changing event would happen through God’s love for his creation.  This world changing event would happen through humility, even to the point of our Master dying on a cross.  Let us read about the beginnings of this ministry even before the first disciples were called.

Matthew:  Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; Matthew 4:12

Mark: Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14-15

Luke: And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding districts. 15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. Luke 4:14-15

John:   After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country. 45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast. John 4:43-45

After the tests that our Lord went through it is recorded that Jesus went into Galilee.  We have the same story in all four Gospels, but they used different verbs for the movement of Jesus.  This is very interesting because by following these various emphases we get a better picture of the intention of Christ:

• In Matthew Jesus ‘withdrew’ into Galilee   This emphasizes is on sadness of Jesus (John’s arrest)
• In Mark Jesus ‘came’ into Galilee   This emphasizes Jesus coming into Galilee, and we have a perfect tense in ‘fulfilled’.
• In Luke Jesus ‘returned’ to Galilee in the Power of the Spirit.  This seems to emphasis that Jesus has been in Galilee before but this time it was different.  Having been through baptism and the tests Jesus was in Galilee to do God’s work, and nothing was going to get in the way of this divine plan.
• In John Jesus ‘went forth’ into Galilee: Seeing himself as having a prophetic role even as John had. He was received in this region as a full-fledged Prophet. 

This is a very important event as it is recorded by all for Gospel Writers.    Although Jesus being human like the rest of us.  He felt sad that John had been arrested.  John knew that when Jesus came his ministry was going to take a back seat.  Jesus this time came to Galilee in fulfillment of what God had said to previous prophets of the Old Testament.  This time was different Jesus came in the power of the Holy Spirit and this meant that God’s kingdom was now ushered in through the work, life, death, and resurrection of the promised Messiah.    Jesus was on fire for God’s will to be done and he preached everywhere. 

In our spiritual walk with God perhaps we too have very large decisions to make.  We need to follow the example of Christ.  We ought to seek out more time to pray in quiet places listening to the voice of God and to find out what his will is for our lives.  However, God has given us guiding principles we ought to stay in:

• Love God
• Love our neighbour
• Live by faith by God’s grace and trust him in everything.  For some people they are looking for the ‘Mission Impossible’. 

It may be that you are a person searching out God’s will.  You may have been called to do mission impossible, but you may have also been called to be faithful in your local church and do boring things like putting chairs out.   We all have a place in God’s will.  If you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and you are faithful, it means you are already in Gods will.  In God’s will through Christ, we can ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in the direction he wants us to go.  Some of us have faced martyrdom for the faith others of us will be called to put chairs out on a Sunday.  In the household of God, we are both in the will of God.   Don’t fret too much about the future as Jesus said you are better dressed than the lilies of the field!

Reflection

In this story we see that Jesus made ‘the big decision’.  He would never live in Nazareth again.  By the Lake of Galilee and from the surrounding area Jesus would call his seventy disciples and his 12 Apostles.  The next three years these chosen boys would become men of God and by the Holy Spirit the world would never be the same again.  Some would live a long life such as John, but others would have a quick execution under the corrupt despots around that area.  Jesus knew the heart of the Father.  Jesus’ face would be set like flint to Jerusalem and death on a cross. We know this to be the case for the heart of the Gospel points to death on a cross and the resurrection. 

Here we find the true identity of Jesus as he passes all the trials that prove Jesus to be the Son of God, the True Messiah and the Kings of all kings:

5 Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;

and

‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,

SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

8 Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’” 11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. Matthew 4:1-11

Last time we looked at the baptism of Jesus and his identity was made public that indeed he was the Son of God.  One also needs to remember that John was seen as a Prophet, the forerunner to the Messiah coming.  It is John the Prophet who validated Jesus’ identity.  It was time now for our Lord to go into the barren wilderness to be with the rocks and the snakes.  It is unfortunate that Jesus’ testing times are seen as temptations.  In English ‘temptation’ has negative connotations.  The Greek certainly favours ‘test’.  The meaning certainly does carry ‘Temptation’ as “to make someone want to have or do something, especially something that is unnecessary or wrong:” (From https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/tempt)

Satan was indeed trying to knock Jesus off the narrow track of God’s will.  In that sense it is a temptation.  Temptation as ‘a feeling to be naughty’ is not there.   However, it is also a test.  Our Lord and Saviour was keeping in step with the Father at every twist and turn.  These were real tests.  Notice that Satan only came to our Lord Jesus when he was at his weakest point physically.   

We need to remember that Satan wants to destroy God’s work as he is an accuser.  Satan was jealous of God and that is why he got kicked out of heaven in the first place.  In the Fall, he led Adam and Eve up the garden path thinking that they too could be like God.  This is spiritual warfare my friends.  We need to take note of Job too when he lost his family, and everything was taken from him.  In any warfare there are casualties, and it was time for John the Baptist to go to the other side and sleep with the beloved saints.  A holy and righteous man who prepared the way for the true king of Israel, the Messiah, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Having done his work at the baptism we find straight after this story he would be arrested by those evil leaders under the control of Satan.  Nothing can get in the way of God’s will.  There would be other times that Satan would come to lure Jesus away from his path.  The road was set God’s will would unfold no matter what happens, and the flood gates of salvation would break into this world through the death and resurrection of Christ. 

We now turn our attention to the three tests that our Lord overcame.  Jesus Passed the litmus test of devotion to his Father, Our Father who is in heaven…

In the book of Hebrews in our last series, we saw that as believers we ought to live by faith and trust.  In this story we see a prime example of how faith works through the most difficult of situations from the life of Christ our Lord.  In each of the tests Satan says, ‘If you are the Son of God’.  Satan was attempting to feed a seed of unbelief into Jesus that he was not the Messiah, he was not the Son of God.  He was attacking the human side of Jesus, looking for a crack.  Notice that throughout this testing Jesus did no miracles and proved that he was the man of God, the Messiah. 

TEST 1

“If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

Jesus was hungry, he had not eaten for forty days or nights and then his first attack is to do with food!  William Barclay said that in that hot desert there are rocks that look like small loves of bread.  This was an attack on Jesus’ hunger pangs, but Jesus proved that faith is a lot stronger.  Jesus always prayed, he always found quiet places to pray.  This was Jesus’ The desert was a Temple of Prayer for the King of Kings.   Jesus was being tested on his humanity and Satan was picking on the lowest points just like he did with Job.  By asking Jesus to turn stones into bread, Satan was asking Jesus to do a divine act but if this happened it would be an act of disobedience to his heavenly Father.  An act of disobedience from the Son of God would be a sin. 

TEST 2

5 Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;

and

‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,

SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

In this attack Satan was attacking Jesus’ personal security and the Trinity itself.  Here we see Satan attempting to Force God the Fathers hand to do something against the Divine Will by saving Jesus’ life.  Jesus’ answer makes this very clear.  In the story as a whole Satan is referred to as the tempter πειράζω, He was goading not only Jesus the Son of God but also his heavenly Father.  When Jesus said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”  The word here is ‘ἐκπειράζω’ (put to the test).

TEST 3

8 Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

Here we see the true nature of Satan, the jealous Satan.  Satan had influence over the whole world, and he was wallowing in the delusion of his controllability to the extent that if Jesus would bow down to Satan and worship him.  This is a cheap barter.  God had commanded that every human is to keep the first command ‘Obeying and worshiping only God’.  We need to remember that the Trinity was involved in the creation of the world and before sin entered everything was ‘good’.  In a twisted way he was attacking the heart of God ‘the Love of God’ for his creatures.  God became a man to save us.  This is real love. 

Satan offered a warped short cut to free people from their bondage to sin, in actuality, I don’t know what would have happened if Jesus caved into this request.   Jesus again did not sin but stayed faithful to his Father.

The Aftermath (Satan leaves, angels look after Jesus and John the Prophet is imprisoned)

11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. Matthew 4:1-11

11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

At the end in this text Satan is referred to as διάβολος the ‘devil’ the slanderer.  Angels came to look after Jesus because he was too physically weak after this test.  Perhaps these tests were preparing him for the cross.  Let us not think too much about Satan but rather let us focus our life of faith on prayer and getting closer to our Heavenly Father. 

Postscript

12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; 13 and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

In the book of Kings, we have the story of Elijah.  In the story Elijah defeated by God’s hand the prophets of Baal.  The ordeal brought him to a place in which he asked God that he would die.  Elijah ‘was spent’:

Then Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” 1 Kings 19:14

John the Baptist was taken prisoner, Jesus’ cousin, and Jesus too ‘was spent’.  A place of loneliness, feelings of abandonment… In English we may sometimes say ‘we had a desert like experience’ in which we cannot find or feel God close.  Jesus experienced all these feelings of abandonment too.  Our Lord did not give in, he found his sustenance through his prayer and devotional life. 

Questions

Explain to yourself what the three tests were.

What aspects of Jesus’ humanity did Satan attack?

Looking at the example of Jesus; Why should we pray regularly?

Reflection

As believers and for that matter as human beings we will all face desert like experiences.  We need to remember that if we truly trust in Christ, we are not alone.  In prayer we get closer to God and by the Holy Spirit and through his Word Jesus our Lord we can find a place of refreshment and divine community.  We are not alone, and the Holy Spirit is our Comforter. 

This test proves beyond a shadow a doubt that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.  He was revealed at the baptism, and he went though the litmus trials being proven to be the Son of God.  Jesus defeated Satan’s taunting through Jesus’ human life, Although Jesus is also fully divine, he did not rely on his divinity but his humanity to defeat Satan the accuser.  When God became a human being, he was obedient even to the cross and death on a cross.  Yet three days later he came back to life.   This story is a precursor to what Jesus would do in the future.  So much pain and suffering but our Lord walked the walk of faith, and he did the talk of faith to the very end.  As believers in Christ, we too will go through trials.   Let us stay faithful to the end even as our Lord stayed faithful to the end.

Note: the image was taken from wikipeadia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Christ#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-Jesus_Tempted_in_the_Wilderness(J%C3%A9sus_tent%C3%A9_dans_le_d%C3%A9sert)-_James_Tissot-_overall.jpg