We typically offer an opportunity to make a public decision at the end of our worship services. But we try very hard not to make that an emotional plea. Because a commitment to Jesus Christ is supposed to last far longer than the emotion that can compel someone to walk the aisle. Of course that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with emotion. Anyone who has worshiped with us more than a few times knows we have no problem getting emotional. But that is a fundamental belief we share with the Passion movement. I believe Jesus Christ shared this same belief. That is that the truth changes people more than emotion. Jesus explained, "the truth will set you free," not seven verses of "Just as I Am" or "Kum-ba-Yah."
Matthew is the first of four gospels that tells the gospel – the good news – of Jesus Christ. He explains that first John the Baptist and then Jesus himself announce the coming kingdom of God (3:2, 4:17). And in chapters 5-7, Matthew shares Jesus’ explanation of the kingdom. We typically call this teaching the "Sermon on the Mount," although it wasn’t really a sermon, it was more instruction. Jesus wasn’t on top of the mountain, but on the mountainside. And Jesus wasn’t standing addressing the crowds, he was sitting as he taught his disciples.
That’s a pretty different picture than what I typically have when I think of the Sermon on the Mount. But whatever your picture of the event, the real point is the content, the truth Jesus teaches us about the nature of the kingdom He has come to bring. This truth changes the world. It has for centuries, and it will for eternity. For twelve weeks we will sit with Jesus and learn with them about the kingdom of God. I believe we will discover the truth Dorothy Sayers expressed when she wrote:
"The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man--and the dogma is the drama. That drama is summarized quite clearly in the creeds of the Church, and if we think it dull it is because we either have never really read those amazing documents or have recited them so often and so mechanically as to have lost all sense of their meaning." – Dorothy Sayers
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