Would You Listen To a Sermon If Jesus Preached?

What if you were driving down the road and saw on a church’s sign that Jesus was preaching that next Sunday? Right there in that little church that you have passed by so many times, Jesus was going to take the pulpit and preach a sermon. The real Jesus, in the form of a man, but the actual Son of God, who was there when the earth was formed and now sits at the right hand of God the Father.

I guarantee that church would be packed and there would be news vans from all over, parked outside, ready to broadcast that sermon. Believers and unbelievers alike, would show up in droves.

Not only would people show up, they would listen attentively. It would be an amazing day.

As a Christian, would you listen? Would you believe Him? Would you do what He said? If you answer yes to those questions, then buckle your seat belts, because I have news for you.

Jesus did show up and preached a sermon to the crowds and we have the recorded words of what He had to say. We do not need Him to come back to our churches, He has already spoken. The truth is that He gave us a sermon and we are to listen to it attentively. We are to believe Him. We are to do the things He said. And what He said is radical. But Jesus said things in His sermon that needs to change our lives and turn us upside down in how we react to people.

Open your Bibles up and read Matthew, chapter 5 through chapter 8, verse 1. Then read Luke 6, 17-49 for the shorter version. This morning I want to share fourteen things Jesus preached that we, as Christians, are to do if we want to be His disciples. Prepare yourselves; it is radical stuff and goes against everything our natural being wants to be.

1.      Love your enemies

2.      Do good to those who hate you

3.      Bless those who curse you

4.      Pray for those who abuse you

5.      Don’t strike back when struck

6.      Don’t worry about what they take from you, give them even more than they take

7.      Give to all who ask or beg

8.      Don’t want back anything taken from you

9.      Do unto others as you wish to be done to

10.  Lend without expectation of repayment

11.  Be merciful, even as God is merciful

12.  Don’t judge

13.  Don’t condemn

14.  Give

 

Yes, we can go down that list and qualify a few things, such as the command not to judge. We have an obligation to use discernment and to call out sin, but in general that type of judgement is not what Jesus is talking about. Read the whole Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things and He will.

But there is no doubt Jesus is preaching to us and He is telling us that we are never to react to the unjust acts of the evil world’s people as non-Christians do.

I suggest we study this sermon everyday of our lives and make it the goal of our process to be more like Jesus. Jesus had the authority to command this behavior from us. Listen to how the crowd reacted.

Matthew 7:28-29, 8:1
 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.

Large crowds followed Him, but the truth is if you read the rest of His story, most of those people ended up leaving Him. They were not true disciples because they did not want to obey the words Jesus spoke.

How about you and me? Will we obey this sermon? Or are we just following Him because His words amaze us and though He speaks with authority as God, we have no intentions of making this type of sacrificial living. We like the whole heaven idea, just not the idea of really living as Christ calls us to. But the truth is, true disciples follow their teacher and they obey. Unless we come to that end, we will not be where we hope to be.

Be blessed. I leave you with the Word of God who has spoken.

Matthew 17:5
 He {Peter} was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”