The Sermon on the Mount (Beatitudes) & the Great Commission

*As for me and my house, we will serve you, Lord. Lifting holy hands in worship, we will not bow down to the gods of man. We will worship the God of Israel. You are holy — there is no one else like you. Choose this day whom you will serve. We will not bow to the gods of men. We worship the God of Israel.*

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Shabbat shalom, everybody. My name is Chadwick Harvey, and you have reached Faithful Performance. Thank you very much for joining us tonight as we discover the Great Commission and the Sermon on the Mount, and how those two correlate to the end of the age.

I think it is very important, as we approach the end of the age — which most of us believe we are now entering — to have the right heart posture. We are all familiar with what Yeshua said about how the love of many will grow cold at the end of the age. We can recognize that in the world around us. For believers, the call is to stand firm in what he has commanded us through the Sermon on the Mount and the Great Commission, and to do so at the end of the age.

These two are not unrelated — they are in many ways one and the same. They go back to the full trajectory of Yeshua's ministry. He began his ministry in Galilee, and after the resurrection he returned to his disciples to complete the commission. Thirty-seven days later he went down to Jerusalem, and on the fortieth day of the counting of the Omer he ascended into the heavens. It is important to identify the trajectory he has set for us — to understand the heart posture we must maintain throughout our lives, and especially at the end of the age when these things are tied together.

Tonight we are going to read the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety. I am not going to break it down too deeply or go far down rabbit trails, because there are several chapters to read. We will read it at face value, for the proper heart posture it calls us to — both throughout all of life and specifically for those living at the end of the age. I believe it challenges all of us, including myself, to make sure we are in right alignment with him, in the right heart posture, and waiting on his appointed times.

Thank you all for being with us. Shabbat shalom. We hope you have a blessed Shabbat evening and tomorrow. We will be together again tomorrow night and Sunday night. On Sunday night we will have Middle East updates, and on Saturday night we will extend an invitation for all who want to participate in the new biblical year. I encourage you to share that invitation broadly. The new biblical calendar — Nisan One — begins in about eight days, and there will be a solar eclipse on that evening as well. There is much to cover regarding those anointings, and we will get to those over the weekend. But tonight, we are focused on our Messiah, our Maker, our Savior — Yeshua the Messiah — and on the Sermon on the Mount and the Great Commission, and how they correlate together at the end of the age.

We will be reading tonight from the Complete Jewish Bible. To set the context: we are all familiar with Matthew 1, the genealogy — the seed of David, the seed of Abraham. Matthew 2 gives us his birth, the wise men, Herod, and the massacre of the innocents. In Matthew 3, John the Immerser appears on the scene, calling the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers even as they came to be baptized by him. Then Yeshua comes on the scene and is baptized by John, the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and immediately after that he is led out into the desert.

It is very important to recognize this, my friends: we too will be tested, just as Yeshua was tested. Once we are saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit, he will purify us and test us. Of course, Yeshua was without sin — and whenever Satan challenged him, he responded by quoting his Father's Torah three times. He used the Word of God. I want to read through those temptations, because as we approach the end of the age, when spiritual warfare is magnified and intensified, it is essential to recognize how our King battled the enemy. He said, "It is written. It is written. It is written."

We will begin here, and this will lead us into the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. We will read through Matthew 5 through 7, and then we will go to the Great Commission and tie all of these things together with the heart posture we need as we move forward.

This passage comes right after Matthew 3, right after the Holy Spirit descended upon Yeshua. He was led immediately into the desert to be tempted by the adversary:

*"Then the Spirit led Yeshua into the desert to be tempted by the adversary. After Yeshua had fasted for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, order these stones to become bread.'"*

Look at what Yeshua said. He did not respond in his own strength. He did not try to fight in his own might. He went straight to his Father's Word: *"But he answered, 'The Tanakh says, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai.'"*

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Tanakh is the Old Testament — the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms. And this response is everything to us. Whether you are familiar with the courts of heaven, with intercession, or with spiritual warfare, this speaks directly to you. So many times we try to fight with our own words. Our words do matter, of course, but the power — the power to seal our prayers, to pierce through the darkness — comes from the Word of God. That is how we pray: it is written, it is written, it is written. Our Savior gave us a clear understanding of how to defeat Satan, and it is not by the words that come out of our mouths alone. It is by every word that comes out of the mouth of Yah. That truth should shape our prayers and our intercession. The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, as Paul confirmed. We hang on every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai, and we use it as spiritual warfare to pierce through the darkness.

*"Then the adversary took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'jump! For the Tanakh says he will order his angels to be responsible for you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not dash your feet against the stones.' Yeshua replied to him, 'But it also says, do not put Adonai your God to the test.'"*

After Yeshua quoted the Word of God in the first temptation, Satan — in his cunning — tried to use the Word of God against the Son of Man. He quoted Psalm 91, which we all know well. And Yeshua rebuked him, because Satan was attempting to get him to put the Almighty to the test. Even in this moment, Yeshua answered with his Father's own voice.

*"Once more, the adversary took him up to the summit of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. 'All of these I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' 'Away with you, Satan!' Yeshua told him. 'For the Tanakh says, worship Adonai your God, and serve him only.' Then the adversary left him alone, and angels came and took care of him."*

The spiritual warfare was so severe that after it was over, angels came to attend to him. There are a couple of important points to take from this passage. Two or three witnesses establish a matter — and that is why there were three temptations. As Paul confirms from Deuteronomy, the mouth of two or three witnesses establishes a thing. Yeshua quoted his Father's voice three times, and Satan fled. And because the intensity of that warfare was so great, the angels came afterward to minister to him.