Today, I am going to take a look at the teachings of Jesus Christ (yeshua Messiah). The most famous sermon of all times is when Yeshua went up on a mountain side and sat down to teach His disciples and the crowd followed and listened. I will be reading it in the book of Matthew, one of the for Gospels of the New Testament scriptures.
Bible Study tip of the day: The New Testament is NOT a new covenant. The reason it is called new, is the old testament the scriptures Yeshua and His disciples read was compiled hundreds of years before the new testament was. These two testimonies of God, the Old and New Testament, were written down by men over many years. They are not only a Divine record of YHVH God’s love and instructions to His children, but also a history of His love and His people. There is a time gap between the two testaments of hundreds of years. So, it is not Old and done away with, and New and better, it is OLD and full of wisdom and Renewed and reminded of His promise and great love. The New Testament is NOT a new commandment, but a renewed one.
The sermon on the mountain begins in MAtthew chapter five. Yeshua goes up on the side of a mountain and sits down and begins to teach. I love this image. He begins with what we call the Beatitudes. The blessings. Let’s read:
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Wow, wow, wow. The Messiah himself gives His disciples clear instructions for blessing. If I want to be blessed then I need to be gentle, hunger and thirst after righteousness, be merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, and I should expect to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. So these truly must be ear marks of a True Believer.
I know what it means to be gentle. I am not always good at it, but I know and understand it to mean that I should be patient and kind and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in others and not try and force my believes on them.
I think I know what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I think this goes along with the verses He will write His Law on our hearts. Once we realize who YHVH God is we begin to desire to be Holy, as He is Holy. We have a desire to learn everything we can to walk in His Ways and obey Him, because we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Merciful, is having compassion for those who do not have what you have, and desiring to do all that I can to share it with them, whether it is food, clothes, shelter, wisdom, understanding, or blessings.
Pure in heart, this is a heard one. But my understanding is that the desires and motivation of my heart is for YHVH to receive all glory in all I say and do. To be pure in heart means that my motivation is not selfish but selfless.
A peacemaker, this is a hard task in our world today. IT seems everyone one wants to debate and or create war. But I think again this is a matter of the heart, to pray for the peace of God’s people and this world is a good place to begin.
I find it interesting that Yeshua concludes this list with persecution for righteousness sake. He already spoke on righteousness, but now He brings it up again. I think it must be pretty important that we understand righteousness then. What is righteousness? HOw does Yeshua define it?
We will find the answer to what righteousness as we continue reding Yeshua’s teaching. Here is a quote from a Bible dictionary I found.
“Jesus presents righteousness as conformity to the will of God expressed in the Mosaic law ( Matt 13:17 ; 23:29 ; Matthew 27:4 Matthew 27:19 Matthew 27:24 ) and also conformity to his own teachings concerning the requirements of the kingdom of heaven ( Matt 5:17-20 ).”
How exciting to see that Yeshua is going to make it clear how true believers should live. I can’t wait til tomorrow. But I must take care of my children today, so Shalom.
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