UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM Week 1: BLESSED

This morning we start a series that will most likely take us through the end of the year. It’s a series that will take a close look at the best and quite possibly the most famous sermon ever: the Sermon on the Mount. Of course these few chapters in Matthew’s gospel are not the ONLY words Jesus used while teaching - but the Holy Spirit prompted Matthew to record them because they represent the bulk of what Jesus meant when he announced that the Kingdom of God was at hand. He had a mission, yes; the cross and the empty tomb. But he had a message as well. The religious leaders of the day had missed the mark by a longshot. They had taken the message of the Scriptures and had complicated them to a ridiculous degree. It was more in style to LOOK godly rather than to actually BE godly. And this sermon really was an amazing way of Jesus calling out the fact that God’s people were NOT living in God’s true Kingdom. They had adopted the way of the world, the system of self - and Jesus’ message called God’s people to live in a radically different way.