Building on the Rock

This week, Will Dyer offers an epilogue to our Beatitudes study looking at the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. Being people of the Beatitudes is about more than listening to Jesus's words but about putting them into action.

Please find the slide deck for this week's teaching here.

Home Church Questions:

1. What stood out to you from Sunday’s teaching?

2. Why is it important to have a Christ-centered hermeneutic? Why is it important to have a community hermeneutic?

3. Brian Zahnd says that, “God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus. We haven’t always known this, but now we do.” What does this mean and what significance does it have for understanding the scriptures?

4. Read Matthew 4:17, 5:1-7:29. Take turns reading 2-3 sections at a time. This will probably take a while! 

5. What stands out to you from these passages? Feel free to apply the community hermeneutic as we try to understand Christ’s teachings together by raising questions about what is puzzling, offering various angles or perspectives on the text, and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide the conversation.

6. Bonus (optional): read Luke 6:17-49, 11:1-13. What stands out to you from these passages when compared to the same teachings in Matthew?

7a. Pray with and for one another, our church community, and our world. Ask the Lord to form us into people of the Beatitudes.

7b. If you would like to pray the Lord’s Prayer together…

Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

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