6. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching
in their synagogues, proclaiming the good
news of the kingdom, and healing every
disease and sickness among the people.
News about him spread all over Syria,
and people brought to him all who were
ill with various diseases, those suffering
severe pain, the demon-possessed, those
having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he
healed them. Large crowds from Galilee,
the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the
region across the Jordan followed him.”
MATT 4
vv.23-25
7. The Sermon on the Mount, then,
is a comprehensive sketch of the
teaching and preaching message
of Jesus. In the context of
Matthew’s narrative, the Sermon is
a presentation of Jesus’ moral vision,
his ethic. You could say Matthew is
saying to his audience “Here’s Jesus,
here’s his message [5–7], here are his
actions [8–9]. You can now decide.”
8. Second, the ending of the Sermon on
the Mount provides a fundamental clue
on how to read the Sermon. Jesus ends
the Sermon by calling people to do
what he has taught.
9. For those who are serious about
being a disciple of Jesus, serious about
learning to live the way he taught,
the Sermon on the Mount is of supreme
importance. This is where Jesus sets forth
his radical vision of how we should live.
And make no mistake about it; it is
radical—so radical that for much of
Christian history,
the church has occupied theologians
in finding ways to get around it.
10. It should be obvious from an honest
reading of the Gospels that Jesus
expected his disciples to master the
lessons he taught and actually live a life
centered on love and forgiveness.
11. ROOTED IN JESUS
At Vintage Church we are committed to
the authority of God in scripture, and
seek to root our understanding and
application of the Bible in the cruciform
character of Jesus as the exact
representation of God’s heart, mind,
character and being, through
the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.
12. ROOTED IN JESUS
We seek to unite around Jesus’ life,
ministry, teaching, victory over
sin and death, and around the
foundational convictions of
the historic Christian faith.
13. ROOTED IN LOVE
Love is a school of fire…
You embrace its mystery
only in losing yourself,
in finally becoming what you love.
In the process, you discover that
what you had thought to be
entirely outside had been
within you all along.
RUMI
14. The SOTM crystallizes what Jesus
gave to his disciples as the new way
of life, the kingdom way of life in
a world surrounded by the power brokers
of empire. From the mountain, the
posture of Moses, Jesus utters
forth God’s will for kingdom people,
and as Jesus descended he gave
those who heard the option
of following. That same option
stands before every reader
of the Sermon.
STANLEY
HAUERWAS
