Number 2 in the series “Questions Jesus Asked“. Jesus spoke at length to the crowd when he gave what Christians refer to as his ‘Sermon on the Mount‘ (Matthew chapters 5 to 7). To the original hearers, the sermon was radical and disturbing. One historian has observed: “it penetrates the illusions of the day with the strong realities of the Kingdom of God.” However, what impressed and astonished Jesus’ hearers was the authority with which he spoke. Jesus wasn’t in the business of pacifying the masses or soothing the elites. He never watered down His message or made it more palatable in order to appeal to a wider audience. He never jumped on the bandwagon of contemporary social issues to be relevant to his hearers. But he was always faithful to the message that God the Father had given him, and to His divine mission, even though it cost him dearly.

Some people who hear Jesus’ claims regard him as a good teacher; and at the time, those who heard him would follow him around, but unfortunately what he had to say had no changing influence on many of their lives. They may have looked good on the surface of their lives, but it is easier for a person to practice an outward conformity to what Jesus asks of us, while neglecting a devoted and obedient life. Jeff encourages us to consider carefully who is the boss of our lives. Is Jesus Lord of your life? It is often easy to say ‘yes’, without stopping to realise that Jesus expects ALL of our lives, even those personal, private and hidden-from-others parts of our lives, such as the movies and internet we watch, the unfriendly way that we sometimes speak to people, and the thoughts that we would hate anyone else to be aware of.