Living Jesus

Over the course of the next 12 weeks this blog will follow the progress of our Sunday morning adult Bible class on the Sermon on the Mount. This class will be using as a guide the book called Living Jesus, by Randy Harris with Greg Taylor.

The approach that will be taken will be to examine the Sermon on the Mount with a goal of answering the question, "How can I live this out in my life?"

Perhaps that should always be the goal or at least a goal of any Bible study, but we are often content with merely trying to figure out what a particular text means.

Todd Egstrom writes, "In large groups, studying the Bible often feels like you've obeyed it. Knowledge is not necessarily obedience, however, and we need specific accountability to help our hands obey what our head and hearts know."

A friend and author of Dying to Control, Leon Hayduchok used to compare the modern day church to the Gnostics of New Testament times. For many, knowing the truth is good enough for them and even gives them feelings of entitlement and superiority. 

We must be moved by James' words, " don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves" (1:22 NLT).

And that is precisely how the Sermon on the Mount ends... 
Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish builders and makes it clear to the people who just heard His teaching: If you don't live these things out, if you don't follow them or put them into practice then you are a fool and when trouble comes you will fall. On the other hand, those who hear the teachings and put them into practice will be considered wise and stand firm when the storms of life pass through.

So what is the least we can do to put these things into practice?

Each week we will answer that for the section of the sermon we dissect, but for now, the main point that Harris and Taylor want us to digest is that Jesus said what He said in Matthew 7:24-28 because He fully believed that is audience (then & now) could do all of the things He taught from Matthew 5:1 - 7:23.
That is the least we can do as we begin this study: know and believe that by the grace of God, the power of His Spirit and the strength of His Son, we really can do all things and in particular, live the life that Jesus teaches.