GETTING REAL: LIVING AN AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN LIFE

Lessons for living God’s way in a godless world from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7)

MOSES – MESSENGER OF GOD

God spoke to Moses and gave him His message for His people. The

Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law of Moses was about how to live lives pleasing to God and how to

have a relationship with God and each other. This message made the people very aware of their sinfulness

and their need for the mercy and forgiveness that God offered.

JESUS – SAVIOR OF MANKINDFast forward about fifteen hundred years. Jesus’ life was the fulfillment of the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17). His birth, his life, his death and his resurrection were all part of the marvelous plan God had

put in place before He created the earth. God-in-the-flesh had come to actually show us and teach us in person how to have a relationship with Him and with

each other.

Very early in his ministry, Jesus taught his disciples the way that God wanted them to “be” in what we now refer to

as his “Sermon on the Mount”. In these teachings, he explained to them

that living for God wasn’t just about their behavior, but more importantly it

was about their hearts – that what they did wasn’t important if their

hearts weren’t right, that God sees and measures a person by what is in

their heart.

Like the Law of Moses, the Sermon on the Mount is a message of

deliverance and hope for our sinful condition. It reveals to us how to

live genuine Christ-like lives: refreshingly righteous lives, lives

that draw us closer to God’s presence, and lives of grace and

love for others that attract them to our Savior.

As we participate in this study of the Sermon on the Mount, let us do so with a desire to understand God’s

will for our lives and with a heart to live what we learn.

May God bless us as we do.