Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
– Matthew 7:24 NIV
We’re excited to go deep in one of the most pivotal passages of scripture. The Sermon on the Mount, as we call it, is the longest collection of Jesus’ teachings, found in Matthew 5-7, and it’s powerful. Even unbelievers regard this as the greatest moral teaching in history, but Jesus is doing far more than setting forth some guidelines. Come find out what exactly He is inviting us to, and how He calls us to live each day. Below you will find resources you can use to go deeper each day, and a week-by-week guide with the latest message from our church community, questions for discussion, other scripture readings and more.
Resources
As we journey in this Manifesto of the Kingdom, we don’t just want Sunday to be our once-a-week dip into the powerful teaching of Jesus. We want to allow His Word to wash over us and shape us daily in our personal walk with Him, as well as in LifeGroups or U+2 Groups. If that’s your heart as well, join us on the journey and go deeper! Here are some great resources to let the Manifesto of Jesus shape you every day:
The team at Bible Project has been unpacking the Sermon on the Mount over the course of the year, and have created amazing videos, podcasts, and more to help us grow in understanding this fundamental teaching of Jesus.
This short book is broken up into bite sized thoughts for us to chew on, all from the Sermon on the Mount. It will challenge us to think through what Jesus really said, and what He really desires from us.
In one of the most amazing moments in history, Jesus teaches His followers to pray as He prayed. The prayer of Jesus has marked the church for 2,000 years, and continues to shape how we pray and live today. Join the renowned scholar N.T. Wright as he unpacks Jesus’ prayer in an impactful way for us.
If you want to study deeper, there are few guides better than the one prepared by John Stott, one of the last century’s best Bible teachers. This little guide is interactive, and will help you apply the message of Jesus in daily life.
Going Deeper Week-By-Week
As we wrap up Matthew 5, and Jesus’ teaching on A Greater Righteousness, He calls us to the counter-cultural act of loving our neighbors AND even our enemies. This challenging command affects every one of us on multiple levels, and deserves careful study and an open heart.
Lets reflect:
- Jesus combines a command from Leviticus 19 with a cultural assumption: “If we are to love our neighbors, we can hate our enemies, right?” When Jesus combines these two in a single statement, He calls us to treat our enemies as we would a neighbor.
- This command in Leviticus 19:18 is very dear to the heart of Jesus. Look at Matthew 22 and the Greatest Commandment. How does Jesus response in that moment interact with “fulfilling the law” here in the Sermon on the Mount?
- Famously, in Luke 10, Jesus is quizzed by a Teacher of the Law – “Well, just who is my neighbor then.” In response, He tells a story, and makes someone they considered to be an enemy into the hero, because they acted in mercy and compassion, they way God acts with us.
- Throughout this whole section, Jesus has been examining our hearts, and calling us to line up with the Character of God.
- Remember, it’s natural for us to form battle lines and see others as enemies. It’s part of our human nature, and so much of the media and social media climate around us reinforces this. Jesus wants us to keep our eyes on the real enemy.
- Ephesians 6 calls us to put on the armor of God, and reminds us that we are in a battle, with an enemy that is not flesh and blood.
- How does this reframe the interpersonal struggle you might be facing today?
- While it’s natural to us to be defensive, and engage other broken people with either fight or flight, withdrawing or attacking, Jesus calls us to live differently. He calls us to live as He did, choosing to love, even when it doesn’t feel right, so we can see the freedom of God’s Kingdom advancing.
- Remember… Jesus has overcome, and He is ultimately on the throne. He sees every struggle, and every time we are wronged.
- He doesn’t just tell us to love our enemies, He lived it. In doing so, He set us free.
- So as Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 10, “We might live in this world, but we don’t wage war like the world. We have different weapons with spiritual power.”
- Since Jesus overcame for us, and set us free, we can live differently. We can be salt and light, and set others free by living in countercultural ways.
- 2 Corinthians 5 reminds us that we used to look at everyone from a worldly perspective, but now we see possibilities everywhere for renewal.
Go Deeper:
- How does this particular point from Jesus strike you? Maybe you’ve been through a lot of hard times with people in your life. Is Jesus being insensitive, or even absurd? Others around us often cheer us on in getting even or holding a grudge, but what does Jesus ask us to do?
- On Sunday we looked at some important practical steps toward loving our enemies:
- Name our Enemies – those people who might have hurt us, or people we can’t stand or think and believe totally different things.
- Who do you feel like is an enemy today?
- It could be a person, or a whole group of people
- Submit to Jesus as Lord, and try to live out what He commands
- Remember, trying to act on this command with people we do not feel good about is ultimately an act of worship.
- How can you choose to honor Jesus first in your life in the way you interact with that person or group?
- Engage with Wonder
- This comes from Pete Scazzero, whose work on Emotionally Healthy Discipleship is so valuable.
- This is a countercultural step, because we’re used to engaging people we disagree with by shutting down or forming counterarguments even while they’re talking.
- Scazzero asks us, what would it look like to engage them with wonder: to “wonder why they believe that” or even “wonder why I feel so defensive.”
- One Tangible Step
- We start on this path with one foot in front of the other.
- Jesus names the first step for us: prayer.
- Prayer changes things. It powerfully impacts the relationships where there are struggles. Often times, it changes things by changing our hearts toward others.
- How can you begin to pray for (not just against!) that person or group you feel is an enemy? How can you ask God to bless them and draw them close to Himself?
- Name our Enemies – those people who might have hurt us, or people we can’t stand or think and believe totally different things.
- It’s always helpful, if you want to move toward the ways of Jesus, to have a trusted brother or sister in Christ that you can be open with. Maybe share who you feel like an enemy is at this moment, and ask them to ask you some questions. In this way, we create accountability, and they can help hold us to the Word of God.
- What is the Holy Spirit saying to us as His people in our moment? What would it look like if the church latched onto this way of living? How would it change neighborhoods and relationships?
Chugging along in Jesus’ examples of Greater Righteousness that fulfills the Law, we tackled two big ones in our eighth week of the Manifesto. First, He transitions from the vows of marriage to vows, oaths and promises we make to others in daily life, and the way we tend to manipulate things for our personal gain. Then He moves into a more contentious area… what we do in conflict situations; when we’ve been wronged or offended.
Lets reflect:
- Jesus teaches us to let our yes be yes, and our no be no. He wants His followers to be people of the truth – people who say what they mean and mean what they say.
- What areas of our lives as believers does this apply to today? Where are we tempted to twist things for our advantage? What areas has the church in general compromised in this way in our time and place?
- Why might we feel tempted to embellish facts with others? How does it affect our relationships with others if we follow the ways of the world and use our words to manipulate? How does it affect our relationships when we live as Jesus calls us to?
- Next Jesus talks to us about how we act and react in moments of conflict. Pause and reflect for a moment on where this is relevant in our culture, and also in your life.
- Can you think of a time where you felt personally insulted or belittled by someone? What did you want to do in that moment?
- Have you ever felt cheated by someone? How do Jesus’ words about giving your coat as well strike you?
- Maybe you’ve had moments before where you were forced into doing something for someone else you didn’t want to do. How does Jesus call us to transform those kinds of situations?
Go Deeper:
- Let’s continue to meditate on the way we use our words, especially in relationships.
- Jesus calls us not to respond in kind when we face injustices and hardships at the hands of others. Meditate on some more teachings that correspond to this in scripture.
- Remember how Jesus ends His introduction to this message in Matthew 5:11-12
- Paul piggybacks on the teachings of Jesus to help the struggling church in Rome with persecution and the response of our hearts Romans 12:17-21
- Peter also uses the words of Jesus to instruct the churches scattered throughout Asia Minor – 1 Peter 3:9
- What would Jesus say to us today, as His church in our city?
As we said on Sunday, Jesus is getting very real with us in this section of the Sermon on the Mount. The six case studies He presents hit at some truly personal things with us, and go so much deeper than the law. Jesus is after our hearts, and continually brings us face-t0-face with our need for His righteousness. In week 7 of our study, we looked at two more things Jesus challenges in us as He talks about lust and divorce.
Lets reflect:
- Jesus speaks directly to the men in this section. Why is that? Does that mean women can skip to the next section or are these things really embedded in every human heart?
- In our world, lust isn’t seen as a big deal. What does Jesus think? Why might He challenge us on these heart-level habits and tendencies? In what ways do our lustful habits shape us?
- When Jesus talks about our “looking,” He isn’t referring to simply noticing an attractive person. He is talking about a sustained gaze that incites something in our hearts and minds. Do you know the difference in your life? How can you develop a habit of cutting any gaze short and, as Job says, “make a covenant with your eyes?”
- As we read through Matthew 19, the wider debate around divorce in Jesus’ day and the law in question from Deuteronomy 24, what are the two ways of interpreting Moses’ “wilderness proviso?”
- How do you think Jesus’ words would be received in our culture when it comes to marriage?
- Paul gives further instruction to the church in 1 Corinthians 7, helping lay a framework for situations that are not specifically adulterous, but where covenant faithfulness has also been broken. Remember, these are not merely academic issues, and that our primary job is to cheer on marriages while remaining sensitive to people, not to pass judgment.
- Jesus enters the debate by reminding us of God’s ideal, and how marriage is meant to point to the kind of covenantal, self-sacrificial love that God shows to each of us. We want to be salt and light, and our marriages can become a signpost of heaven when we live according to God’s way.
Go Deeper:
- How do these discussions apply to us, in our view of faithfulness and fidelity to one another, both in marriage and in friendships within the body of Christ?
- Our enemy is called the accuser, and if you are struggling with shame from either situation, with the fallout of divorce or in battling with lust… remember, Jesus is for you! His forgiveness is ready and waiting, and so is His healing power. Invite Him to come wash you clean and give Him authority in your heart, and then take some action, pouring yourself into His Word and His Ways and letting Him reshape you into a new creation.
- Remember, three ways to stage a militant campaign against lust…
- Cut It Off: Whether it is a place you go, people you hang around with, a device or any access created by it, a show or movie or habit you have, if it’s inciting lustful desires or tendencies, Jesus says don’t flirt with it… cut it off.
- Get People Around You: The enemy wants you isolated where he can hit you with his one-two punch. First striking with temptation, and then nailing you with the left hook of condemnation every time you fall. God has given us people for exactly this reason. We don’t need to suffer in silence, we need to bring things into the light with one another, and find accountability and support with people who love Jesus and love us. James 5:16 even says “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
- Be Filled: Whenever we empty ourselves of sinful habits, that’s not the end of it. We need to not only be empty but be filled with the Holy Spirit and with the Word of God. We need to lay aside patterns and those things we cut off, but equally commit ourselves to taking up God’s ways and the patterns He calls us to live by.
- If you’re looking for a great book to study the Biblical vision for healthy masculinity, check out Brant Hansen’s The Men We Need.
- If you are looking for help overcoming lust, try out Covenant Eyes: a software that builds accountability and limits access to the tidal wave of hyper-sexualized content around us.
- If you’re struggling in your marriage, we want to be praying for you, and surround you. Marriage is seriously hard work and even the best marriages hit rocky times. Once again you don’t have to suffer in silence or hide. There is no shame or condemnation for those who belong to Jesus. Find some Jesus-loving friends who can pour life into you and your marriage.
- As believers, we resolve to take God’s view of Marriage and see how He intends things to go. We are not flippant or casual, but thankful for God’s faithfulness and the way He delights in us and brings good things into our lives. We cheer on our married friends in God’s family, and we commit to honoring marriage as God’s design.
Hey we made it out of the introduction! What an introduction it was, and now Jesus continues to teach in a way that far exceeds expectation – with true Authority. He isn’t just commenting on the wisdom of God, He is the Wisdom of God. He launches into the main body of His Teaching by affirming His commitment to the whole story of the Bible, and all the instruction of God found in the Torah and Prophets. Then He begins to take us deeper than just the commands… to the heart behind the law… God’s desire for His People. Sunday we unpacked the first “Case Study” – Murder.
Lets reflect:
- First, Jesus said He cares more about the Word of God than we can imagine, down to the tiniest stroke of the pen.
- In our day, do we see this kind of care for and devotion to God’s Wisdom and Instruction and the bigger story of the Bible?
- How do you read scripture? As John Stott asks, “What portions of the Bible have you tended to skip over or neglect?”
- How can you cultivate a love for the Word of God, and read it in community with others who want to go deep with Jesus?
- Second, How are anger and murder related?
- What is Jesus forcing us to wrestle with in this first case study?
- What makes you angry today?
- How on earth can our righteousness in these matters surpass the moral superiority of the Scribes and Pharisees?
Go Deeper:
- Part of the reality in approaching the Bible from our Postmodern Western worldview is figuring out where we fit in! As non-jewish believers in Jesus, we must cultivate a heart for the whole of God’s Word, and understand what part of God’s law is directly applicable to our lives today, while never for a moment disregarding the heart behind laws that maybe aren’t binding on us, like some of the food laws or sacrificial laws for Israel. What helps us a ton is to read through passages in the New Testament where the early church is figuring this out.
- First, the Book of Acts shows us multiple times where the Holy Spirit helps the blossoming church navigate the question of how to integrate gentiles into the family. Do they have to become Jewish to follow Jesus? Check out Acts 10 and 11 as the Holy Spirit guides Peter, and then Acts 15, where the council at Jerusalem formalizes an understanding.
- Don’t think that is the end of it though! – Read Galatians and you will see Paul and Peter still figuring things out about the law and how to bring groups with vastly different traditions together under the Lordship of Jesus.
- There is also the famous passage in Romans 13:1-10 where Paul instructs believers in Rome on how to live under unjust human government and still choose to love. He builds on what Jesus says in Matthew 22 about the greatest commandment – All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two things… Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and… Love your neighbor as yourself.”
- You can go on to read that this continued to be a hot issue in the church throughout the New Testament, with Paul encouraging young Pastors Timothy and Titus to avoid foolish controversies and arguments around it.
- At the end of it all, we as 21st century believers cannot understand Jesus fully while removing Him from the context He inhabited. We can’t get to the heart of all He said without tracking from Genesis 1, and understanding God’s choosing of a people to be His blessing to the World, and getting to the heart of the Torah and the Prophets, so Jesus can show us how He fills them to the completion.
- Jesus talks with us first about anger, and it comes at a really great time in our nation, where tempers have been flaring up, even in the church. Though there are things going on that will continue to anger us and we will feel are purely evil, Jesus wants us to watch what’s going on in our heart.
- How can we surround ourselves with people who won’t just nod in agreement with all that’s wrong and frustrating in our world, but will also steer us toward our peace, grounded in the reality that Jesus is on the throne, and has overcome the world for us.
Finishing up His introduction, Jesus continues to talk directly to “you” – His audience then and now. He calls us to be salt and light right where we are. On Sunday we unpacked what these two metaphors mean, and how they build on one another. Jesus calls us to be citizens of His Kingdom, an expansive spiritual reality, but He calls us to live it out here and now in tangible ways as we love our neighbors.
Lets reflect:
- When you think about Salt, what comes to mind? How does it stick out?
- The even-more-universal idea of light in the darkness has been a symbol of truth and goodness for thousands of years. Where have you seen this in our culture, the idea of enlightenment? What gospel is it tied to in our world?
Go Deeper:
- Take a look at Mark’s version of the salt statement from Jesus in Mark 9:50. Knowing that the people of God were called to add Salt to their sacrificial offerings (Leviticus 2:13), what is Jesus calling us to? How does this connect with the previous section and our identity as Peacemakers?
- Let’s get practical. Salt and Light are both intended to stick out in their surroundings. What are some ways you can stick out and “let your light shine” today? Begin by asking God, “Who have you put in my life?” and then let Him show you how to love on them in His way.
As Jesus wraps up the Statements of Blessing, He shifts gears in a few significant ways. He begins to talk about who we will become as God changes our hearts – Peacemakers. We take on this identity as His followers because He is the Great Peacemaker for us. He made Peace with God for us, and living in His ways leads to right relationships in our lives as well. Not that it’s easy! He promises there will be challenges along the way, but that He will be with us, and we will be blessed as we choose His ways.
Lets reflect:
- Sunday we looked at differing ideas in Jesus’ day of what would bring peace to the people. How would they arrive at peace? By what methods is peace initiated? Just as in His day, we have differing ideas in ours. What are some of the ways we define peace in our culture and how do we propose to get there?
- How about for you? What does peace mean to you?
- Since Peacemaking is a big part of our calling in Christ, we have to be real about how we are wired, and how we operate in times of conflict. What is your natural style when facing conflict with someone?
- What do you feel the Holy Spirit whispering to your heart about your role in relationships in your life?
Go Deeper:
- Romans 5:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” First and foremost, we have the ultimate peace we need. Jesus has made peace with God available for us.
- Let’s go a little further with what the cross means for us. Read through Ephesians 2 and meditate on what it says. Not only are we personally saved and reconciled by His Grace alone and His sacrifice for us, but there is restoration that God wants to bring into our relationships. Paul says groups that are divided are brought together when they come under the lordship and direction of Jesus. The greatest division in their mind was the Jews and Gentiles. Today we have so many divisions and classifications we can relate. Imagine you are one of Jesus’ followers… do you align more with Simon the Zealot? Peter the Passionate? Matthew the Tax Collector? Nathanael the outspoken? Philip and Thomas the questioner? James and John the ambitious? So very different from the beginning, these men of humble beginnings were united by Jesus as Lord, and became the greatest force for change in the history of the world. “For He Himself is our peace, who made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two.”
- As we continue in the Manifesto of Jesus, He will get really specific on ways we are to act in peace, especially with those we would naturally think of as enemies. In reality this isn’t the first time in scripture where God calls His people to be countercultural in relating to enemies. Take a look at Jeremiah 29. We love to quote verse 11, but this is actually a letter to God’s people in exile, with some surprising commands about how they are to live among the captors in the worst of times.
In the second triad of the Beatitudes, we looked more closely at the change God wants to affect in our hearts and the people we become when we belong to His kingdom. We become people of Mercy, people who hunger and thirst for Righteousness and people with a Pure Heart. Check out CJ’s message here if you missed it.
Lets reflect:
- As Jesus changes gears, He calls us to live in particular ways. How do these ways (Mercy, Righteousness and Purity of Heart) look in light of the world we live in?
- What does it mean to be merciful?
- What is the right way to stand for righteousness and justice? What do I hunger for?
- What does it mean to be pure in heart?
Go Deeper: Jesus’ words stand at the crossroads of the Old Testament laws and the New Covenant He is initiating. Dive a little deeper with us in both!
- Meditate on Micah 6:8, the ancient instruction for God’s people. Pay attention in particular to the way these commands interact with one another, and the necessity of humility for us to grow.
- Watch the Bible Project videos on this portion of Jesus’ Manifesto
- This part of Jesus’ teaching interacts a lot with Jesus’ words later in Matthew, in Chapter 18. Read this section and chew on what Jesus asks of us.
- As we prepare to keep moving into the third set of Beatitudes, take a look at Paul’s comments in Romans 12, particularly verses 14-21.
As we continue in the Sermon on the Mount, we’re taking the Beatitudes by threes. These countercultural statements from Jesus about who is truly blessed are a direct challenge to the value systems of our world. Scot McKnight says this list from Jesus, “… is the way both to get your audience’s attention and to force introspection… The Beatitudes are a radical manifesto of a kingdom way of life because Jesus reveals who is in and who is not… Beginning with this list shapes the entire sermon, because it jolts us into listening more attentively. We ask, ‘If these are the people who are in, what does that mean for me?'” In the first three statements, surprising people are the focus. Not the wise and the strong and the good, but the poor in spirit, the mourners, and the meek. Jesus calls them blessed and makes incredible promises to all who find themselves in these states.
So, lets reflect:
- What do you think of Jesus’ opening? Is it familiar, or shocking?
- What does it mean to be Poor in Spirit?
- How comfortable are you with grieving and loss?
- What is your understanding of “meekness?”
- As you consider these opening words and meditate on their meaning, what is the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart?
Go Deeper: As Jesus begins to teach, new wisdom from God comes into focus, and it’s amazing to see some of the things Jesus is connecting with in the Old Testament. Use the buttons here to interact with the following…
- Meditate on Psalms 1, and 37 (particularly verses 9-11, 21-22)
- Watch the Bible Project videos on this portion of Jesus’ Manifesto
- Think about someone you know who represents each of these three things Jesus points to… those who are poor in spirit (lacking in agency and aware of their dependence on God), those who mourn for things that are wrong in our world or in their own life, and those who are gentle toward others and restrain themselves from forcing their own way.
On Sunday we kicked-off our study in the Sermon on the Mount, and made it all of two verses. Before jumping into the meat of the message, we want to make sure we are bringing our whole hearts to Jesus with ears to hear! We looked at the people to whom Jesus was speaking, and the reality that this isn’t just another “sermon,” because He isn’t just another teacher. He is the King, the one we all need and long for, and this is the Manifesto of His Kingdom.
You can find the video intro to our series here, along with the intro video from Bible Project. As you prepare your heart, read through Matthew 5-7 this week and ask yourself: How familiar are these teachings to me? And how much do I try to live by them?