In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us how much God our Father wants to bless us (Matthew 5:3-11), reward us (5:48; 6:1; 6:4; 6:6; 6:18), forgive our sins (6:14), look after our needs (6:32-33; 7:7), and lift us up to everlasting life in Heaven (6:20; 7:21).

In one way, we could  sum up the Sermon on the Mount as a challenge to seek blessing, to avoid wrongdoing, to love others - even our enemies - and to set our sights on heaven.  But we should not reduce the Sermon on the Mount only to the level of a challenge.  These chapters also give us a glimpse into everything that Jesus learned from His Father while He walked the earth and grew in His Father's wisdom. The Sermon on the Mount doesn't just tell us how to live; it tells us about the way Jesus Himself lived His entire life!

The Bible says that Jesus was like us in every way except sin (Hebrews 4:15).  He lived out everything that He commanded us to do in the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus has not asked us to endure anything that He Himself did not endure.  He has not called us to a life any more challenging than the life that He lived when He walked the earth.

If we think on a human level alone, we would say that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, had every right to demand respect, power, and honor.  We would say that, since He never sinned against anyone, he had every right to be angry, resentful, and unmerciful toward those who hated and opposed Him.  While we don't always see the depth of hatred or envy that some people might have for us, Jesus saw into everyone's heart (John 2:25).  He could  see through the Pharisees' attempts to trap Him.  He felt their hatred and murderous intent.  Most of us would not blame Him if He were filled with a desire for revenge against the people who orchestrated His death - humanly speaking, that is.

But the human way is not always God's way.  The opposition Jesus faced was overwhelming, yet He rose above every temptation to react sinfully toward those who wanted to destroy Him.  In spite of all the evil thrust upon Him, Jesus never gave in to temptation.  His heart was filled with love - a love for people that was deep and high and wide (Ephesians 3: 17-19).  His love had a way of blotting out all the anger, hatred, resentment, and lies.

My fellow ministers in the A.E.C.C., Jesus is our example.  He is the model for us of a person living out the new covenant with God.  He embraced a higher standard - the standard of His Father that He taught in the Sermon on the Mount - and He set that as the standard for all of us.

Think about it - Jesus faced extreme temptation in the desert.  He saw Satan's anger and jealousy and deceptions.  He was tempted to respond in a sinful way to the Pharisees and Chief priests and scribes.  Time and time again, Jesus was tempted to give up His mission, to neglect the day-to-day demands of obeying His Father, and to live for Himself instead.  But Jesus embraced His Father's calling to die for the sins of the world.  His human desire was to live, to "let this cup pass" (Matthew 26:39), yet, he willingly chose death, death on a cross.

How could our heavenly Father be anything but pleased with Jesus? Can there be any doubt, any hesitation at all? Our great and perfect heavenly Father was pleased with His Son because Jesus reverently submitted to His Will (Hebrews 5:8).

Our experience tells us that if any of our sons or daughters did exactly as we asked, we would be pleased.  Similarly, our hearts are filled with joy when we think about Jesus dying for our sins, and our joy confirms the dramatic words that our Father expressed about Jesus:  "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).

Just as God gave Moses the Ten Commandments - the rules that He wanted His people to follow - God also gave Jesus new rules for living - not to abolish the old laws,  but to fulfill them and perfect them (Matthew 5:17).

The ancient Israelites understood that the Law of Moses was a revelation of the wisdom of God.  It was their sure guide of conduct, and God blessed them when they followed it.  However, God did not intend the law to be His final word.  He also promised a new lawgiver and a new covenant (Deuteronomy 16:15; Jeremiah 31:31) that would perfect and bring to completion everything He began with the Ten Commandments.  This is exactly what Jesus has done for us.

In His teaching, Jesus took the commandments of God to a level that surpassed the written law.  He redefined the commandments against murder, anger, adultery, and revenge, and said that the legal way of interpreting the commandments (Thou shalt not..") was no longer sufficient.  Instead, He said that love, respect for others, forgiveness, and unity are implicit dimensions of God's commands.  It was not enough just to eliminate the negative; He was calling us to embrace the positive as well.  In other words, the old wineskins could no longer hold the new wine.

But where would the new wineskins come from?  From Jesus Himself.  Spiritually, the "new covenant" had not yet been accomplished or implemented because Jesus had not yet died.  the blessings promised in the Sermon on the Mount were a foreshadowing of the new covenant that would take effect once it was ratified by the very blood of Christ.

In summary.  1.  Jesus lived in complete obedience to His Father every day of His life, even unto death., 2.  Jesus was completely pleasing to His Father.,  3.  Jesus has asked us to live a life worthy of our calling as described in the Sermon on the Mount.,  4.  Jesus Himself lived out everything that He has asked us to live - in spite of intense temptation.

But how is all this possible for us? Where do we get the strength to live out the Sermon on the Mount?  From Jesus Himself.  He is not only our model and teacher, He is our source for this new covenant.  His grace is always with us, surrounding us and empowering us beyond our human capability.

On our part, God wants us to follow His Son Jesus and take up the challenge of the Sermon on the Mount - the challenge to live in a way that pleases Him.  He wants us to love Jesus with grateful hearts and live according to the new covenant poured out in His blood.  But He doesn't ask us to do this on our own strength.

On His part, God wants us to ask Him for a share in the new life available to us in Jesus Christ.  He wants us to ask for His grace, His gifts, His mercy, and His wisdom.  Jesus has obtained all these blessings for us, and He delights in bestowing them on everyone who asks for them.