Elements City Church
Sermon on the Mount - Week 13 - Build Wisely
The Sermon on the Mount is the most famous sermon Jesus ever preached. It derives its name from the place where Jesus preached it; a mountainside that acted as a natural amphitheater along the shores of Galilee. The Sermon on the Mount, preached to ordinary people, covers a wide range of topics like prayer, fasting, money, worry, forgiveness, anger, lust, judging others, and more. But the theme that unites it all is Jesus explaining the heart of God behind His given Law. It is one of the most challenging biblical texts to interpret properly because the Sermon goes far deeper than promoting external obedience to God’s moral imperatives or simple behavior modification. Every line of the Sermon goes to the heart of discipleship. The Sermon offers a clear understanding of what a blessed life that is pleasing to God looks like from the inside out. What Jesus taught often runs counter to mainstream thinking, but every lesson is brimming with heavenly wisdom and practical instruction that leads us into a flourishing life.
Locations & Times
Elements City Church
1825 N Alvernon Way, Tucson, AZ 85712, USA
Sunday 5:00 PM
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Whether you're on-site or online, we are praying that tonight will be an encouragement to your soul. May God whisper to you and help you in taking your next steps in a journey with Him. If you're new, we'd love to have you fill out our connection card.
https://connect-card.com/yr4Y0g8VLBSqzKXeubjbIt's here in the Sermon on the Mount -- found in Matthew 5-7 -- that King Jesus gives us a radical picture of what life in His Kingdom looks like. And it’s our hope that, as we meditate on Jesus’s words, we might become people who more closely follow His Way and experience a life that truly flourishes in the process.
“I think the Sermon is a piece of wisdom teaching from Jesus that invites people into true human flourishing through wholeness centered on God and his coming kingdom. Jesus’s Sermon invites us to see the world in a certain way and to be in the world in a certain way that accords with God’s nature, will, and coming reign upon the earth; in short, “righteousness” (cf. Matt 5:20). It is a call to faith‐based discipleship in Jesus, the Son of God.”
- Jonathan T. Pennington
- Jonathan T. Pennington
Quote:
“It’s important to note the radical Jesus-centeredness that undergirds this closing exhortation of the SOTM. Jesus does not say that the wise and foolish are distinguished according to how they obey God or practice Torah or follow the teachings of the elders. Jesus emphasizes that the wise and foolish are distinguished on the basis of how they respond to his words. While Jesus is certainly presented as both a Prophet and Sage, he is also repeatedly offered as more than these roles - the true and final source of revelation itself. His hearers are invited to build the foundation of their whole lives upon his teaching and way of being in the world. He is presenting himself as the authoritative arbiter of God’s revelation and the path to human flourishing.”
-Jonathan T Pennington
“It’s important to note the radical Jesus-centeredness that undergirds this closing exhortation of the SOTM. Jesus does not say that the wise and foolish are distinguished according to how they obey God or practice Torah or follow the teachings of the elders. Jesus emphasizes that the wise and foolish are distinguished on the basis of how they respond to his words. While Jesus is certainly presented as both a Prophet and Sage, he is also repeatedly offered as more than these roles - the true and final source of revelation itself. His hearers are invited to build the foundation of their whole lives upon his teaching and way of being in the world. He is presenting himself as the authoritative arbiter of God’s revelation and the path to human flourishing.”
-Jonathan T Pennington
2 stories side by side. 2 builders. 2 identical storms. 2 different results.
One is viewed as wise, a wise man who wants to build something, a wise man who gets spiritual training, and a wise man in the storm. The other man is a foolish man who wants to build something, a foolish man who exposes himself to divine truth, a foolish man in a storm.
Wisdom, in Scripture, is the ability to take divine truth and apply it to life. The fool in Scripture is not necessarily the person who lacks information. It is the person who does little or nothing with the information received.
One is viewed as wise, a wise man who wants to build something, a wise man who gets spiritual training, and a wise man in the storm. The other man is a foolish man who wants to build something, a foolish man who exposes himself to divine truth, a foolish man in a storm.
Wisdom, in Scripture, is the ability to take divine truth and apply it to life. The fool in Scripture is not necessarily the person who lacks information. It is the person who does little or nothing with the information received.
Jesus is the sure foundation to build your life upon.
When Luke tells the story in Luke 6:48, it says the wise man dug deep.
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
It costs to build on rock. You can build on sand fairly cheaply. To build on rock is hard work; to build on sand takes little time.
This difference between the two builders is fundamentally rooted in the fact that the second man, the foolish man, was building a house for show. The man building his house on rock was building a house to last.
When Luke tells the story in Luke 6:48, it says the wise man dug deep.
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
It costs to build on rock. You can build on sand fairly cheaply. To build on rock is hard work; to build on sand takes little time.
This difference between the two builders is fundamentally rooted in the fact that the second man, the foolish man, was building a house for show. The man building his house on rock was building a house to last.
Only the storms reveals the nature of your foundation.
TRUTH: Our foundation must be formed before the storms come.
TRUTH: Our foundation must be formed before the storms come.
John 16:33 (Jesus said)
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Jesus is to be your foundation, which involves the truth of God applied in the realities of life. Foundations are not merely the information to stand on. It is to have the truth of God as the modus operandi of decision-making.
What differentiated these two men? Both heard, but only one did.
Jesus is saying - build your life on me.
Don’t just be a hearer of my words - be a doer.
The apostle James would later write:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.--James 1:22–25
What differentiated these two men? Both heard, but only one did.
Jesus is saying - build your life on me.
Don’t just be a hearer of my words - be a doer.
The apostle James would later write:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.--James 1:22–25
Jesus explained that his true followers, by acting on his words, are like a wise man who built his house on rock. The one who builds “on rock” is a hearing, responding disciple... not a phony, superficial one.
As character is revealed by fruit (7:20), so faith is revealed by storms. The wise person, seeking to act upon God’s Word, builds to withstand anything. It will be the foundation, not the house, that will determine what happens on the Day of Judgment.
What action did Jesus expect as a result of his words? What “building” did he expect to happen? Radical discipleship—people whose lives revealed the characteristics that he had been describing in this entire sermon (see Matthew 5-7).
What action did Jesus expect as a result of his words? What “building” did he expect to happen? Radical discipleship—people whose lives revealed the characteristics that he had been describing in this entire sermon (see Matthew 5-7).
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http://elementscitychurch.org/giveWhether you joined us on-site or online, thanks for being with us tonight!
May you have a blessed week ahead!
Join us next week as we engage in our next Worship Night as we wind down this summer. You won't want to miss it! We look forward to gathering again next weekend!
May you have a blessed week ahead!
Join us next week as we engage in our next Worship Night as we wind down this summer. You won't want to miss it! We look forward to gathering again next weekend!