Today’s Thought “Didn’t HE Preach?” G. Ward

“When Jesus finished saying these things, the people were amazed at his teaching, because he did not teach like their teachers of the law. He taught like a person who had authority.” Matthew 7:28-29

 

The Sermon on the Mount, chapters five through seven in Matthew are most excellent discourses given by our Savior that have become the centrality of our efforts in Christian discipleship. My reading time embraced these chapters on this morning, and I began to think about the audience then vs. the congregant now. The authority in Jesus’ teaching demanded an attentiveness that required no feedback. Jesus didn’t require any one to stand after making an eloquent point, nor did He require a periodic “amen” or “hallelujah.” As I read the entirety of this living word, I found it so compelling that my desire was immediate change. There are numerous components to these discourses that are antithetical to what the predominant message of today represents. Most preachers perpetuate superiority in themselves vs. Holy God. Expressions like, “I’m speaking in the prophetic” (cf. Heb.1:1-2) and “touch not my anointed” (entirely de-contextualized from 1 Chr. 16:20-22), preclude that every answer lies in whatever they say (cf. Mt.7:15-16). Howbeit that Jesus allowed Himself to be touched by the masses (even up to being persecuted) and our blatant narcissism says days ahead will be exempt from this?

I prefer adapting to Paul’s message to a young preacher named Timothy; “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Ti. 4:1-5).

Happy Friday!