Practicing Joyfulness!

Thoughts on discipleship for the week of January 21-27, 2007

“I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.”

(Psalm 119:30)

The Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:1-12

The work of Jesus—the reign of God entering the world through Him—can be seen in the Sermon on the Mount. Notice the call to blessedness through poverty: poverty of spirit, poverty of the essentials of earthly life, poverty of strength, poverty of purity; poverty of the means of protecting self, poverty through persecution.

The point: God is bringing deliverance into the world through Jesus Christ. We are called to faithful and joyful living as a response to that deliverance. “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven…” (Matthew 5:12) If we know Christ, we have been delivered. We are to offer deliverance to others.

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) What greater meaning can there be in life than to participate in the deliverance that God is extending through Christ?

Thoughts to ponder:

1. Think about what it means to “know” Christ—hearing, learning, obeying, and understanding His commands. The Greek word for “hear” is the same word for “learn,” “obey,” and “understand.” Hearing is not passive. It is action-oriented. Hearing is responding. Notice the sequence in one Greek word: “I am hearing,” “I am learning,” “I am obeying,” and “I understand.”

2. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12) and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to faithful living as we study and apply Scripture in order that we might walk as disciples of Christ.

3. Imagine meeting Jesus at that hillside convention. What would He say to you specifically? Imagine Him calling your name…sitting with you…teaching you…healing you…giving you His joy. What does that feel like? Who would you like to share your joy of that encounter with?

Discipleship is two-fold: inward-oriented and outward focused.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20)