To Follow Jesus: Obey Your Father

Read Matthew 5:1-13

To be a disciple and grow closer to God we must first obey God. The act of salvation itself obedient worship to God. God is calling humanity back to him

From that time Jesus began to [g]preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17

Repentance means to turn away from something and turn to something. The original Greek word means to “change one’s mind” or “renew one’s 11mind.”

God is continually calling us back to Him through His son Jesus Christ who is the image of God, He is Man and God.

To Be a Disciple we must have a master to learn from; we must obey our master.

This is why Matthew 5:1-11 focuses on having a life of worship, a life of service, of meekness, of lastness instead of always wanting to be first. Jesus is saying that we need to model our lives in this way to become a growing disciple. We need to not love Money, we need to help the poor, we need to be merciful, we need to strive to be pure in heart, for God’s righteousness. The last verse, 11-12, Jesus prepares the crowd and disciples of what will happen under persecution.

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” V.11-12

Jesus is showing the crowd and His disciples that if they have hearts striving to love what He loves (given in the beatitudes) then they will not want to act like the world when the world chooses to persecute them. We will rather act like Jesus.

Jesus calls the disciples salty—they have worth, they have a role to play, Jesus Loves them.

The meaning of "Salt" in Ancient Culture

1) Salt was one of the most valuable minerals in Ancient Rome and Greece. People would invest in Salt as a precious metal because it was so valuable--just like we would purchase Gold and Silver--people would purchase Salt to safeguard their money.

2) Only the richest of the rich people would have Salt. It meant luxury because it would help you preserve food and would help your food taste delicious.

The word "Blessed" in Ancient Culture

1) This word only referred to the gods in ancient pagan culture and those whom the gods would "bless". This means that the richest people were the ones considered to be "blessed" in society.

2) The opposite of "blessed" is not simply "unhappy" rather it goes deeper than that. If you were not "blessed" then you were “cursed."

but close after Jesus warns and talks about How salt can easily lose its flavour. So how does salt stay salty according to Jesus? To abide in Him, to remain in relationsip with our master and to obey Him.

“If you love me, obey my commandments.” John 14:8

If you recognize your repentance and know that Christ loves you then you ought to obey Him. A child that wants to love their father will obey their father. Obey Jesus, Love Jesus, Follow Jesus.