Archives: Pastors' Corner

We turn our attention to the third beatitude found in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”  It is impossible to understand these verses without understanding the context in which they were given.  After being “on the public scene” for about a year, there were those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah; at least their concept of a Messiah or deliverer.  They wanted more than anything to be delivered from the rule of the Romans.  Their whole land lay under the rule of the Romans.  They longed to be “free”.  They wanted a Messiah […]

I’m not much of a botanist but I thought a little play on words might be kind of fun to start off this blog…sort of see what it blooms into! Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” in the second beatitude in Matthew 5:4.   Not many of us would consider mourning to be a blessing.  But it truly is.  Mourning truly does bring God glory.  What kind of mourning might Jesus have in mind?  Well, I don’t think I can say for sure.  Perhaps one kind of mourning is over the loss of a loved […]

Today we look at the first of the beatitudes, the first recorded sermon by Jesus.  The first beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.  This is the first one that Jesus starts off with.  Why?  Well, as I see it Jesus starts off with the most important blessing.  The most important blessing that Jesus offers is entrance into the kingdom of heaven.  There is no greater blessing than this.  This blessing lasts for all eternity…long after the Energizer Bunny has run out of juice. What does the phrase “poor in spirit” mean?  […]

Tomorrow morning we begin to look in depth at the text of the Sermon on the Mount.  Of course, on Sunday morning we don’t have time to walk through very much of the specifics or details.  I plan to do some detail work each day for the next week on the blog.  However, I thought I’d start out this section by focusing on the word “blessed”. Jesus begins His longest and greatest sermon by promising blessing to large groups of people.  The promise of blessing gets my attention.  However, if you have ever read the first 12 verses of chapter […]

It is important to think for a minute about the context of the Sermon on the Mount.  Let’s focus today on the political context.  The Jewish nation has been under the authority of other nations for many years leading up to Jesus’ incarnation.  At the time of the first century, their land was occupied by Rome.  And the Jewish people were not happy about it.  This time of history is full of rebellion and conflict.  The Jewish people want to be “free”.  And then Jesus shows up.  Jesus heals the sick….some people believe that He practically wiped out disease in […]

There are various interpretations of how we should apply the words of Jesus in what is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount.  Some believe that the words of Jesus are not to be taken literally.  The words He says are ideals but cannot be taken as a way of life.  I don’t claim to be a theologian and I’ve never played one on TV…nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night; but I think that the end of the Sermon on the Mount gives us a strong indication.  The end of the Sermon on the […]

I think that’s a valid question.  Have you ever tried “Life”?  Many of you remember the old Life cereal commercial with a boy named “Mikey”.   The commercial opens with two boys staring at a bowl of Life cereal.  One boy says, “What is it?”  The second boy says, “Some cereal, it’s supposed to be good for you”.  Those two boys go back and forth about trying the cereal and then one says, “Let’s give it to Mikey”.  The other boy says that Mikey won’t eat it, that he hates everything.  The bowl is pushed before Mikey and he eats it.  […]

My interpretation and application of the Sermon on the Mount centers around it being some instructions about how we are to live life.  The teaching of Jesus in Matthew chapters 5-7 is not a collection of rules and regulations but in many ways is a revelation of who Jesus is.  We cannot live out the teaching of Jesus in these chapters, or any other chapters for that matter, without the life of Jesus Christ living out the teaching through us. Yesterday I asked the question “What is life?”   I proposed that the answer is that life is Jesus.  We cannot […]

Since we are talking about “Life” during our time examining the Sermon on the Mount, I think it is a good idea to talk about what “life” really is.  Unfortunately, I think many in our culture see “life” as mostly “stuff”.  We even have this interesting phrases that we use:  “what do you do for a living?” or “Can you make a living with that job?”  Those phrases clearly indicate that we associating living or life with our job and/or money.  I really hope that “what I do for a living” doesn’t define my life; at least if you mean […]

Today we begin a new journey on the blog after taking the summer off.  It was pointed out to me that my last post before I stopped was titled “Lazy”. I guess that was a bit of foreshadowing because when I wrote that post I had not intended to stop writing at that time.  But now I begin something new.  I will use this blog to supplement my sermon series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount titled “Life”.  Each day I will attempt to ask a question or make a comment regarding the text that I am preaching on at […]