Jesus taught principles of nonviolence and humility in the Sermon on the Mount, urging against armed rebellion and encouraging embracing God's mission. He demonstrated his authority as God through miracles. His message warned Israel against violence and rebellion, and called them to worship the one true God, but it was often rejected. Next week will cover Jesus' trial, death, and resurrection.

1. The
Historical
Jesus
Week 4 Christ: God. Creator. Man. Prophet. Savior. King.

3. God has never had a “Plan B” for rescuing His fallen creation.
Jesus was always the answer (Gen. 3:15; 2 Cor. 5:21) but God did call Israel to
proclaim His offer of salvation to the world. They failed, so He formed the church.

6. Now we turn to Jesus’ teachings and actions.

8. The “Sermon on the Mount” (Matt. 5-7 and Luke 6) was also (and largely continues
to be) misinterpreted. For example, Jesus stated, “Blessed are the poor in
spirit.” The Greek word translated as “blessed” really means “to be in a state of
Divine approval.” “Poor in spirit” is from Isaiah 66:2 and means “the humble and
pious who know that they need God’s grace and “tremble” at his word.” (Kenneth
Bailey Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes p. 69).

9. Jesus goes on to speak of those who mourn as being in divine
favor. This should be contrasted with those who angrily sought
vengeance rather than serve those who had been hurt by the powers
that be. He then extols the “meek,” which was not a term applied to
the weak but to those who sought the will of God and only became
angry when God too would be angry.

10. Jesus’ applauding the “meek” should be connected with His
instruction to “turn the other cheek” (Matt. 5:39 and Luke 6:29),
which was actually a non-aggressive way of demanding the
attacker treat the victim as an equal. For in the Middle East, you
use one hand for work and another for taking care of bodily
functions. You also slapped a slave with the back of your hand
but struck an equal with an open hand. Thus, Jesus’ teaching is
a nonviolent way to demand equality!

11. Jesus is teaching all of this in a culture obsessed with reacting to violence with
violence to win independence. Jesus knew this would ultimately culminate in the
great Jewish rebellion of 66 A.D. in which the Temple would be destroyed and
the people of Israel would suffer greatly. Jesus agonized over this! (See Matt. 23:37).

12. Jesus’ message contains eternal principles but we must recognize the
historical context in which He was teaching. As scholars such as N.T.
Wright have pointed out, Jesus was warning Israel against armed rebellion
and, instead, encouraging them to embrace their God given mission to
bring the rest of the world to worship the one true God!

13. Jesus’ “sermon” was really the command of the King of all
creation! He demonstrated His authority through his miracles
(see Matt. 8:23-27 [Mark 4:35-41 and Luke 8:22-25]) as well as
Matt. 14:13-21 and John 11:1-44.

14. But His message was rejected by the People of
God then (and often by those who call themselves
Christians today!). This was the point of two of His
parables—Luke 10:25-37 and Luke 20:9-18.

15. NEXT
WEEK
Jesus’ warnings toward Israel
have also been wrongly applied
to predictions about the “end
times”, which we will cover in two
weeks. Next week, we will look
at the trial, death and
resurrection of Jesus.

16. You can see all of the slides and
handouts at
www.historicjesusccc.com

17. Please Don’t Hesitate.
QUESTIONS?

18. For Your Precious Time and Attention.
THANK YOU