Jesus' Sermon On The Mountainside: Jesus' Authority

Everyone who heard Jesus recognized that what He was teaching came straight from God

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:28-29)

The scribes and Pharisees spoke from “the authorities” of past rabbis and experts of the law. But Jesus spoke with the voice of God Himself.

God’s wisdom comes with obeying His word

Hearing what’s right is not enough.

Knowing what’s right is not enough.

You need to have it inside you, be a part of you because you are obeying what’s right, you’re living it.

** The more you obey that which is right, the more you will be able to recognize that which is wrong. **

The two roads help you and me to examine the cost of our profession of faith. Is the way hard, is there a cost?

The two trees help us to see whether our lives are really changed – is there spiritual fruit?

The two houses give assurance that true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will last – there will be strength, wisdom and courage for the crises of life, and there will be the assurance of God welcoming us into heaven on the last day.

Review what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying to you in these commands and warnings. Take one thing and apply it before this day is done; God will help you, by His spirit.

* Jesus may be saying you have to stop judging someone,

* Or you may need to persevere in prayer about something, specially in asking for wisdom.

* God may be calling you to love someone else the way you want them to love you.

* Could be God is pointing out where you have chosen the wide gate instead of the narrow gate.

* Could be you‘ve been learning a lot in studying the Bible but you haven’t been obeying it.

How ready are you to go to the next level with God and do what Jesus is teaching you as He enables you?

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Jesus' Sermon On The Mountainside: Wrong Foundation

4) The Lord Jesus Christ's fourth warning was to watch out that you don’t build on the wrong foundation for life, which is anything else besides God’s Son
The real key to this verse is not hearing, or even understanding Jesus’ teaching.

-->The real key, the crux of the matter, is whether you put Jesus’ teaching into practice in your life<--

Wisdom is not the extent of what you know. Ph.D’s in theology will not make you wise. Putting into practice Jesus’ words, Who speaks with authority, will make you wise.

Only storms will reveal the quality of the foundation upon which your house has been built

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

"And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

"And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

"And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27)

The foundation is the application of Jesus’ teaching.

* The foolish person maybe applies what the Lord Jesus says to everybody else.

* The foolish person will have an intellectual understanding of Jesus’ teaching.

* In fact, by Jesus’ definition, a person can even be teaching Jesus’ words to others, but if they are not applying Jesus’ words to their own lives, they are foolish, and when crises hit, they will discover that they have no wisdom to deal with it.

What are the storms in your life revealing about the foundation you’ve built on?

The two houses can also represent the end of this life, when God will call all people to judgment.

There are false teachers at the gate that leads to the broad way of self-indulgence, making it easy for people to enter.

But when judgement comes, all those houses built on sand will be swept away and nothing will be left. The final test is not what we think of ourselves, or what other people think of us. The final test is what will God say?

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Jesus' Sermon On The Mountainside: Wrong Focus

3) The Lord Jesus Christ's third warning was to watch out for the wrong assumptions about good deeds, which ignore relationship with God’s Son

The test for a claim to Christianity is whether or not we have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

"On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'

"And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' (Matthew 7:21-23)

There are two vital points here.
1) The first is that only the person who does the will of the Father will enter the kingdom of heaven. Flip with me to the Gospel of John,

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)

The will of the Father is to believe in His Son.

2) The second point is the critical, vital, importance of being known by the Lord Jesus, to be intimately connected with Him, made one with Him.

God’s wisdom comes to those who have His Spirit

Spiritual discernment comes from a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do you know whether you have a personal relationship with Christ?

Tell God, “I want to make sure about my relationship with you. I want Your Spirit to tell me in my inner being that I am Yours. I confess that I am sinful person, and I know I deserve Your judgement. I know I stand condemned, and that I deserve the punishment that sin earns. I understand that I am I am helpless to change that.”

Ask Jesus to save you from the punishment you deserve, and believe with confidence that He will do that, He will save you because you know that He is God the Son and He came to earth specifically to save you from the judgement of your sin, because He loves you so much more than you could ever even imagine.

Ask Jesus to give you new life by coming into your life, by putting His Holy Spirit into your heart.

Tell Jesus you are ready to submit to His authority in your life, as He gives you the power to do it. You know you can’t do it by yourself, but when He puts His spirit in you, you will obey what His spirit says; as He enables, you will work it out.

Jesus says that whoever comes to him He will take to himself, so believe it, it is true, count on His peace and affirmation.

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Jesus' Sermon On The Mountainside: Wrong Teachers

2) The Lord Jesus Christ's second warning was to watch out for the wrong teachers, who undermine God’s Son's teaching

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves." (Matthew 7:15)

Not all teachers are true, truth can be violated.

False teachers usually conceal their hostility to the gospel, and will try to blend in with true believers. They’ll use the right language, all the same words, and will talk a good line. So we need discernment to recognize the true sheep from wolves dressed up like sheep.

One clue would be whether they teach
--> The narrow gate and closeness with Christ, living under His authority, or
--> The broad road, which caters to our own sense of importance, indulges our desires and is permissive.

Ultimately false teachers are not interested in helping people, they’re interested in helping themselves to fame, or popularity, or power and influence, or wealth, or some other gain by exploiting people. That road leads to destruction.

Two trees,

"You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit." (Matthew 7:16-18

You may not see it right away, but once the fruit begins to mature, you will begin to see the difference between fruit that is healthy for you and fruit that is poisonous

1) Look at the way they live – are they following the narrow way in their lifestyle?
2) Listen to their words: do they glorify God, or themselves?
3) Look at the people who have been applying their teaching, what is the fruit in their lives?

Do you recognize the fruit of the Spirit?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Is serving the Lord Jesus Christ the focus of their lives?

Or are they all about the blessings, earthly prosperity, or power, or some other bonus that they say comes from being a Christian?
4) Listen to what they teach – is it scriptural?
- Do they teach the denial of self, or promotion of self?
- Do they teach the cross, or do they teach that life on earth is supposed to be like heaven?

What kind of tree are you?
* What are you teaching your children?
* What do your children see in your own lifestyle?
* Can you recognize the fruit of your teaching, your character, and your lifestyle in your children?

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Jesus' Sermon On The Mountainside: Is The "Narrow Gate" Legalism?

How often do you deny yourself in the course of an ordinary day?

How often do let go of your own rights, as you view them, for the sake of what’s better for someone else?

People, as a rule, don’t like discipline and self-sacrifice, so this narrow way is often accused of being legalism.

What have you accused as being legalistic, recently?

Legalism exalts law above grace.
* Legalism elevates human rules and traditions to the level of divine law.
* Legalism binds God’s people where God has left them free and this was the Pharisees’ way – they counted on their scrupulous observance of God’s law and their own added regulations to earn their way into the kingdom of heaven, and condemned everyone who did not do as they did.

The Pharisees’ way certainly looked like the narrow gate.

How discerning are you about the difference between the narrow gate and the wide gate?

Legalism majors on the minors and minors on the majors, it is really adhering to the letter of the law to the exclusion of the spirit of the law, which makes it doable for the few very disciplined people, and just about too hard for everyone else.

The narrow gate Jesus is talking about is totally the opposite. He is the gate, and through Him God puts His Spirit in us to obey His word completely, in spirit and in truth.

Compared to Jesus’ gate, legalism becomes the broad gate, because it is doable without the Holy Spirit living in you.

Humbling yourself to Jesus’ strict authority, and willingly obeying even the spirit of His commands will be hard.
* Denying yourself,
* Disciplining yourself,
* Self-sacrifice for the sake of others,
* Giving up your rights for someone else is hard.

But Jesus’ road leads to life.

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Jesus' Sermon On The Mountainside: Wrong Gate

Jesus’ warnings begin with two gates,

"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many." (Matthew 7:13)

God the Father will become the of each person who believes in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Narrow Gate.

Watch out for the wrong gate, it won't lead you into the kingdom of heaven, it will lead you to destruction.

Jesus is saying, "Make the right decisions because it will affect the whole rest of your life."

We all have a bias for sin, inherited from Adam, we all have the tendency to act out that sin, every day. Those who come to Christ for forgiveness in this life will never have to face judgment, they entered the narrow gate of Jesus. Those who reject Jesus Christ as savior from sin and Lord of life will be judged for all their sin, including the sin of unbelief.

There are only two gates, there’s no neutral zone. Not deciding is really deciding to enter through the broad gate.

"For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:14)

The word “narrow” in the first quote does mean “narrow.” But in the second quote “narrow” means “tribulation.”

“The way of discipleship is narrow, restricting, because it is the way of persecution and opposition”

Entrance into the kingdom of heaven is through this narrow gate, under the strict authority of Jesus, through persecution and tribulation.

Jesus says there is no way to the Father but through Him. When you want to begin a new phase of your life with the Lord, as a Christian, you want to go deeper, a new level of a life of faith, then it will mean denying yourself and taking up your cross to follow Jesus.

* Living out the Gospel is the narrow way.

* Being permissive is the broad way.

It's hard to obey Jesus' teachings; it's easy to be permissive and tell people what they like to hear, and indulge their wants.

As parents, you know what that kind of parenting leads to. The Bible says "The Lord corrects the people He loves and disciplines those He calls His own."

The Bible continues this teaching by saying "Be patient when you are being corrected! This is how God treats His children. Don't all parents correct their children? God corrects all of His children, and if He doesn't correct you, then you don't really belong to Him."

Jesus pointed out that any one of us earthly parents, as flawed as we are, feed our children with good food and; we don't give them what is bad for them, or dangerous for them.

Scripture teaches that "Our human fathers correct us for a short time, and they do it as they think best. But God corrects us for our own good, because He wants us to be holy, as He is. It is never fun to be corrected. In fact, at the time it is always painful. But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we will do right and live at peace."

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Blended Gospels: Jesus' Sermon On The Mountainside, Warnings

"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, for each tree is known by its own fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

"A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

"On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'

"And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

"Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a wise man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, it did not fall because it had been well built and because it had been founded on the rock.

"And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand -- ground without a foundation. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and when the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and great was the fall of it, and the ruin of that house was great.

"And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes."

[Blended Gospels: Matthew 7:13-29, Luke 6:44-49, ESV]

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