The Life of Christ

“The Principles of Heaven”

Volume Seventeen

We request only that the original address be left on it, although this is not compulsory.

This volume is based on:-

Matthew 5:1-48

It is recommended that you read these before you read the book.

The language of the Scripture quotes has been

modernised for easier understanding.

The Life of Christ

“The Principles of Heaven”

Volume Seventeen

THE GOSPEL INFORMATION SERVICE

P. O. Box 146,

Waihi. 3061.

NEW ZEALAND.

ISBN 1-877158-68-2

August 1999

Internet: http://NonConformist.MyChurch.com

“Come to Me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28.

The Sermon on the Mount

c. 29AD

Christ seldom gathered His disciples alone to receive His words. He did not choose for His audience those only who knew the way of life.
It was His work to reach the multitudes who were in ignorance and error. He gave His lessons of truth where they could reach the darkened understanding. He Himself was the Truth, standing with hands ever outstretched to bless, and in words of warning, entreaty, and encouragement, seeking to uplift all who would come to Him.

Therefore the Sermon on the Mount, though given especially to the disciples, was spoken in the hearing of the multitude. After the ordination of the apostles, Jesus went with them to the seaside. Here in the early morning the people had begun to assemble. Besides the usual crowds from the Galilean towns, there were people from Judea, and even from Jerusalem itself; from Perea, from Decapolis, from Idumea, away to the south of Judea; and from Tyre and Sidon, the Phoenician cities on the shore of the Mediterranean.

“When they had heard what great things He did,” they “came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases:... there went virtue out of Him, and healed them all.” Mark 3:8; Luke 6:17-19.

The narrow beach did not afford even standing room within reach of His voice for all who desired to hear Him, and Jesus led the way back to the mountainside. Reaching a level space that offered a pleasant gathering place for the vast assembly, He seated Himself on the grass, and the disciples and the multitude followed His example.

Another mountain

More than fourteen centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the children of Israel gathered in the fair valley of Shechem, and from the mountains on either side the voices of the priests were heard proclaiming the blessings and the curses - “a blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God:... and a curse, if you will not obey.” Deuteronomy 11:27, 28. And thus the mountain from which the words of benediction were spoken came to be known as the mount of blessing.

But it was not upon Gerizim that the words were spoken which have come as a benediction to a sinning and sorrowing world. Israel fell short of the high ideal which had been set before her. Another Joshua must guide His people to the true rest of faith. No longer is Gerizim known as the mount of the Beatitudes, but that unnamed mountain beside the Lake of Gennesaret, where Jesus spoke the words of blessing to His disciples and the multitude.

An expectation

The disciples' place was always next to Jesus. The people constantly pressed upon Him, yet the disciples understood that they were not to be crowded away from His presence. They sat close beside Him, that they might not lose a word of His instruction. They were attentive listeners, eager to understand the truths they were to make known to all lands and all ages.

With a feeling that something more than usual might be expected, they now pressed about their Master. They believed that the kingdom was soon to be established, and from the events of the morning they gathered assurance that some announcement concerning it was about to be made. A feeling of expectancy pervaded the multitude also, and eager faces gave evidence of the deep interest.

But as the people sat upon the green hillside, awaiting the words of the divine Teacher, their hearts were filled with thoughts of future glory. There were scribes and Pharisees who looked forward to the day when they should have dominion over the hated Romans, and possess the riches and splendour of the world's great empire. The poor peasants and fishermen hoped to hear the assurance that their wretched hovels, the scanty food, the life of toil, and fear of want were to be exchanged for mansions of plenty and days of ease. In place of the one coarse garment which was their covering by day, and their blanket at night, they hoped that Christ would give them the rich and costly robes of their conquerors. All hearts thrilled with the proud hope that Israel was soon to be honoured before the nations as the chosen of the Lord, and Jerusalem exalted as the head of a universal kingdom.

A wrong idea

When the Saviour began His ministry, the popular conception of the Messiah and His work was such as wholly unfitted the people to receive Him. The spirit of true devotion had been lost in tradition and ceremonialism, and the prophecies were interpreted at the dictate of proud, world-loving hearts. The Jews looked for the coming One, not as a Saviour from sin, but as a great prince who should bring all nations under the supremacy of the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
In vain had John the Baptist, with the heart-searching power of the ancient prophets, called them to repentance. In vain had he, beside the Jordan, pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world. God was seeking to direct their minds to Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Saviour, but they would not hear.

Passed over

Had the teachers and leaders in Israel yielded to His transforming grace, Jesus would have made them His ambassadors among men. In Judea first the coming of the kingdom had been proclaimed, and the call to repentance had been given. In the act of driving out the desecrators from the temple at Jerusalem, Jesus had announced Himself as the Messiah - the One who should cleanse the soul from the defilement of sin and make His people a holy temple to the Lord.

But the Jewish leaders would not humble themselves to receive the lowly Teacher from Nazareth. At His second visit to Jerusalem He was arraigned before the Sanhedrin, and fear of the people alone prevented these dignitaries from trying to take His life. Then it was that, leaving Judea, He entered upon His ministry in Galilee.

It was time to speak

His work there had continued some months before the Sermon on the Mount was given.
The message He had proclaimed throughout the land, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), had arrested the attention of all classes, and had still further fanned the flame of their ambitious hopes. The fame of the new Teacher had spread beyond the limits of Palestine, and, notwithstanding the attitude of the hierarchy, the feeling was widespread that this might be the hoped-for Deliverer. Great multitudes thronged the steps of Jesus, and the popular enthusiasm ran high.

But Christ disappointed their hope of worldly greatness. In the Sermon on the Mount He sought to undo the ideas that had been brought about by false education, and to give His hearers a right conception of His kingdom and of His own character. Yet He did not make a direct attack on the errors of the people. Although He saw the misery of the world on account of sin,
He did not present before them a vivid description of their wretchedness. He simply taught them of something infinitely better than they had known.

Without combating their ideas of the kingdom of God, He told them the conditions of entrance to it, leaving them to draw their own conclusions as to its nature. The truths He taught are no less important to us than to the multitude that followed Him.

We no less than they need to learn the foundation principles of the kingdom of God.

Humility the base

Christ's first words to the people on the mount were words of blessing. They were His greeting, not only to those who believe, but to the whole human family.

“He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:2,3.

As something strange and new, these words fell upon the ears of the wondering multitude.
Such teaching was contrary to all they had ever heard from priest or rabbi. They saw in it nothing to flatter their pride or to feed their ambitious hopes. But there was about this new Teacher a power that held them spellbound.
The sweetness of divine love flowed from His very presence as the fragrance from a flower.
His words fell like “rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.” Psalm 72:6.

All felt instinctively that here was One who read the secrets of the soul, yet who came near to them with tender compassion. Their hearts opened to Him, and, as they listened, the Holy Spirit unfolded to them something of the meaning of that lesson which humanity in all ages so needs to learn.

Feel a need

In the days of Christ the religious leaders of the people felt that they were rich in spiritual treasure. The prayer of the Pharisee, “God,
I thank You, that I am not as the rest of men” (Luke 18:11, R.V.), expressed the feeling of his class and, to a great degree, of the whole nation.

But in the throng that surrounded Jesus there were some who had a sense of their spiritual poverty.

When in the miraculous draft of fishes the divine power of Christ was revealed, Peter fell at the Saviour's feet, exclaiming, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8); so in the multitude gathered upon the mount there were souls who, in the presence of His purity, felt that they were “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17); and they longed for “the grace of God that brings salvation” (Titus 2:11).

In these souls, Christ's words of greeting awakened hope; they saw that their lives were under the blessing of God.

Jesus had presented the cup of blessing to those who felt that they were “rich, and increased with goods” (Revelation 3:17), and had need of nothing, and they had turned with scorn from the gracious gift. He who feels whole, who thinks that he is reasonably good, and is contented with his condition, does not seek to become a partaker of the grace and righteousness of Christ. Pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give. There is no room for Jesus in the heart of such a person. Those who are rich and honourable in their own eyes do not ask in faith, and receive the blessing of God. They feel that they are full, therefore they go away empty.

Those who know that they cannot possibly save themselves, or of themselves do any righteous action, are the ones who appreciate the help that Christ can bestow. They are the poor in spirit, whom He declares to be blessed.

The same for all

Happy are they, He said, who recognise their spiritual poverty, and feel their need of redemption. The gospel is to be preached to the poor. Not to the spiritually proud, those who claim to be rich and in need of nothing is it revealed, but to those who are humble and contrite. One fountain only has been opened for sin, a fountain for the poor in spirit.

The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ.

The Lord can do nothing toward the recovery of sinners until, convinced of their own weakness, and stripped of all self-sufficiency, they yield themselves to the control of God. Then they can receive the gift that God is waiting to bestow. From the soul that feels their need, nothing is withheld. He or she has unrestricted access to Him in whom all fullness dwells. “For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isaiah 57:15.

True mourning

“Blessed [happy] are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” By these words Christ does not teach that selfish mourning has power to remove the guilt of sin. He gives no sanction to pretence or to voluntary humility. The mourning of which He speaks does not consist in melancholy and lamentation. While we sorrow on account of sin, we are to rejoice in the precious privilege of being children of God.

We often sorrow because our evil deeds bring unpleasant consequences to ourselves; but this is not repentance. Real sorrow for sin is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit reveals the ingratitude of the heart that has slighted and grieved the Saviour, and brings us in contrition to the foot of the cross.

By every sin Jesus is wounded afresh; and as we look upon Him whom we have pierced, we mourn for the sins that have brought anguish upon Him. Such mourning will lead to the giving up of sin. The worldling may pronounce this sorrow a weakness; but it is the strength which binds the penitent to the Infinite One with links that cannot be broken.