Ep. 226. Matthew 7 | Sermon on the Mount Part 6

EPISODE 226

SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 6: MATTHEW 7:15-29

Jesus taught as one who had authority and not like the scribes. He plainly says at the conclusion of this sermon, "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock." "These words" are the sum total of the Sermon on the Mount. He has shown them that their way of righteousness was fallible and futile. He revealed himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Messianic texts; he showed that the Pharisees were guilty of sin, that the Pharisee's "righteous" deeds weren't righteous, that the hypocrite misses the plank in their own eyes while seeing the speck in the others, and that the way to life was narrow. He goes so far as to say that not everyone who says to him, "Lord, Lord," will see the kingdom of heaven.

This sermon is an incredibly challenging one, but not for the moralistic reasons we typically assign to this passage, but because it was calling the Jews away from works-based righteousness to righteousness only found in God by faith.

That was surprisingly great news to the masses. They had been told over and over again that they could never be as righteous as the snooty Pharisees, and now they were being told that those fools weren't actually the standard. These helpless cultural "nobodies" were now being told that all they had to do to receive God's goodness and grace was to ask.

ADDITIONAL READING: 2 Corinthians 5:17; Matthew 25:10-13; Luke 6:46; John 6:29; Luke 13:22-30; Psalm 1:1-3