The Wise Life

Passage

Matthew 7:24-8:1

Sermon Summary

Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount with a final challenge to build the house of your life on a rock, not on sand, so that it will stand in the hardships of life and in God's final judgment. This Rock is not just hearing Jesus' words, but doing them. The Sermon pictures it as a life of internal-external wholeness, both  individually and in community. This wholeness is powered by the Fatherly abundance of God and anchored in the Kingdom of Heaven, which is already here and yet to come in its fullness. No one could even begin to live this life without the hope of Easter. Jesus died to pay for our failures to live it, and he was raised to secure the promise of our resurrection with him.

Discussion Questions

1. [Optional starter question] What stood out or stuck with you from the sermon?
2. Open a Bible and scan the main sections of the Sermon on the Mount. Which attitudes and/or behaviors to you personally find most challenging?
3. If all of us ived out the Sermon on the Mount more consistently, how would it change our community? Describe a few specific scenarios.
4. It's impossible to live the Sermon on the Mount without confidence in the abundant generosity of God the Father. What are some practical ways to cultivate that confidence?
5. James 2:14-22 says that faith without works is dead, and Jesus says that the one who hears his words but doesn't do them will fall in the final "storm" of God's judgment. How do you reconcile the necessity of works with the "free-ness" of grace for salvation? Consider adding Ephesians 2:1-10 to the conversation. Consider Tim Keller's illustration of the 3.0 grade cutoff.
6. Why is it necessary to believe in our own sinfulness in order to love others well? And is it possible to overplay the "sin card"?
7. If Jesus wasn't resurrected, we have no reason to believe that doing his words will keep our own houses standing. But if he did, we can lose in this and still stand in eternity. What are some ways you have already lost in this life—or may lose in the future? How does the hope of your resurrection comfort you in those losses?

Resources Consulted:

• Africa Bible Commentary, ed. Tokunboh Adeyemo
• True to Our Native Land, ed. Bryan K. Blount
• The New Testament in Color, ed. Esau McCauley
• Matthew for Everyone, NT Wright
• The Message of Matthew, John Stott
• The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard
• The Sermon on the Mount, Sinclair Ferguson