Blessed - “The Obedience of a Fisher of Men”

Matthew 7:24-29

"God never issues instructions He is not prepared to equip us to obey."

– Elisabeth Elliot –

This Sunday we wrap up our series on the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus calls His disciples and clearly defines His role—and theirs—in the journey of discipleship. He says, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus began His Sermon by first calling them to let go of everything and follow Him, and then He says that He will make them into fisher’s of men. With this call as the foundation, Jesus then goes into 111 verses which are not only counter-cultural, but an announcement that God’s Kingdom has arrived! This Sermon rocked the listeners then, and still does today. From the first verses Jesus describes how God’s Kingdom has come, and He shows how God’s Kingdom Agenda should be the priority for His followers.

As you read through these 111 verses - Jesus has a main theme which is stated from the very beginning - God has always been about relationship and the heart transformation of mankind. He starts by saying that His followers are the Salt and the Light to the World, then He redefines “blessed” with the Beatitudes. After that, He shows that the teachers have made the Law all about performance, position, and presentation - when it was always about a change and transformation of the heart of the individual. He reiterates this by showing how men have taken His Law and made it a spectacle to gain reputation, recognition, and reward from the world rather than seeking His kingdom and His will. He says this is hypocritical and fake, and that the rewards that they have already gotten is all the “reward” they will ever get. He then goes into how we should be transformed and how we should apply these teachings to our life. He shows how important His teachings are and how they are the only way to have true transformation.

He finishes with four separate examples of how we should not loose focus or make anything in this world a priority over His Kingdom Agenda. Last week we looked the first three, and how we can not be a “bad tree” and produce “good fruit.” This week we look at the last example which Jesus describes by using two houses built on two different foundations. He ends the Sermon on the Mount by saying “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice…”

When He says that we should put these teachings into practice, He is reminding us that His teachings are not meant to just be information that we store in our mind or simply application that we only “do” - but it should transform us and change our hearts toward obedience to Him and Him alone.

Looking forward to this Sunday at Likewise,

Pastor Josh