Sermon On The Mount – Week 24

We’ve made it to the conclusion of The Sermon. This concluding tripartite (three parts) is going to continue in the theme of makarios-ness (flourishing) through teleios-ity (wholeness) — only now there seems to be an added sense of urgency in light of potential missteps and mishearing.

This whole section has a thematic thread of “two ways” that weaves its way through all three metaphors. Jesus is speaking with an eschatological tone (talking about the end of all things). But this shouldn’t surprise us — Remember the Beatitudes? They set the tone with their theme of this ‘kingdom-coming reversal — And remember the Lord’s Prayer? That’s filled with beautiful eschatological language.

But above all — It was vital that when we approached these last few weeks, we remembered Jesus’ teaching… It is NOT those who merely obey externally or appear to be righteous who are in God’s kingdom. But rather those who actually DO have a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. Another way to describe this is “those who do the will of God.”

The two ways that Jesus describes in our text this week are the two builders — the wise one and the foolish one. The wise builder hears AND obeys Jesus’ words of The Sermon on the Mount and thus builds his or her ‘house’ on the rock so that when (not if) the storm comes, it lasts. The foolish builder hears Jesus’ words but does not do them and thus, their ‘house’ is built on sand and the destruction that will come is great! Who are you building your life on?

The book that Daniel referenced during the sermon was ‘How God Became King’ by N.T. Wright. It’s an amazing book. Go pick yourself up a copy and dive in!