This post is Day 3 in a series of studies about “Mountains”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).

Mountains – Day 3

There are many mountains mentioned in the New Testament and Jesus seems to often be climbing a mountain for a specific reason. Here He saw the crowds, and we can imagine that He needed to escape for a while. Jesus used that opportunity to teach His disciples some important things.

Matthew 5:1-2

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them.

The Thought

An encouraging “mountain story” from the New Testament. There are many mountains mentioned in the New Testament and Jesus seems to often be climbing a mountain for a specific reason. This verse tells us that “He saw the crowds”, and we can imagine that He needed to escape for a while. The crowds didn’t follow Him, but His disciples did and Jesus used that opportunity to teach them some important things. We don’t know how long they all stayed on that mountainside, but it became a Bible school which continued until the beginning of Matthew 8.

In those three chapters, Jesus turned the normal reasoning of the apostles upside down, telling them how blessed they were when everything went wrong (Matthew 5:11)!

Surprising them by saying that they were the “light of the world” (verse 14).

Assuring them that anger was a very bad thing (verse 22). Defining adultery (verse 32), how to treat our enemies (verse 44), and many more important teachings that can challenge all of us today.

Mountains which are sometimes hard to climb can become places for learning for all of us.

In the natural realm they can be places to learn new skills; overcoming loneliness and survival. They are places where we feel small looking at the vast world below us. They are places when we can appreciate the amazing creation of Father God.

Action

Read Matthew 5-7 today and challenge yourself to be stricter in obedience to what Jesus is teaching. Just choose one subject, otherwise you will do nothing else all day!!

Remember that He is quick to forgive, and that He knows the pressures you have had to face so far in this fast changing 21st century world.