Jesus said, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Jesus establishes the authority of the Old Testament by insisting that not even the smallest part of it (iota, dot) will be lost until it is perfectly fulfilled. Continue reading
Category: Heads Up (Page 26 of 36)
Articles written by Pastor Steve for the White Mountain Independent newspaper
The eight beatitudes that begin the Sermon on the Mount are probably its best-known portion, with the possible exception of the Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12. But in a sense, they are only the introduction, describing the kind of people the rest of the sermon is for. The main body of the sermon actually begins with verse 17 of chapter 5, and it continues to verse 12 of chapter 7, the verses marked off by what scholars call an inclusio, meaning a repetition of words that both begin and end a section, serving a bit like an envelope or a wrap for what comes in between. Continue reading
The fifth, sixth, and seventh of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, beginning with “blessed are the merciful,” describe the inner character of the Christian. He is merciful, pure in heart, and always ready and anxious to make peace. Continue reading
The standards set in the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount are unlike anything that is known or can even be dreamed of by the old humanity. Left to ourselves, our natural beatitudes would go something like this: Blessed are the rich, for they have it all and have it all now; blessed are the happy, for they are content with themselves and don’t need others; blessed are the arrogant, for people defer to them; blessed are those who fight for the good things in life, for they will get them; blessed are the sophisticated, for they will have a good time. Continue reading
The Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew 5-7, and it is the best-known and most extensively studied discourse in the world. It has been the subject of thousands of books and articles.
Matthew’s account is a shortened report of many things Jesus must have been teaching in these days. It can be read in ten minutes, and we cannot suppose that the crowds Matthew mentions walked to some remote area to hear Jesus and then He merely talked to them for ten minutes. Quite the contrary. On one occasion a teaching session like this turned into a three-day conference, and we may suppose that something similar happened here. The teaching may have been spread over days. Matthew offers the sermon as an actual teaching session on an actual occasion, as does Luke in his parallel version. But it is also a sample of the kind of teaching Jesus was presenting throughout Galilee at this stage of His ministry. There are six similar collections of teaching in the Gospel. Continue reading
In many texts, Jesus explains in greater detail and with other images what it means to be his disciple, but the command to follow him, which occurs in the middle of Matthew’s account (4.19) of Jesus’ calling these first four disciples, is most basic.