Northridge Vineyard Evening Community

Following on from his teaching on humility last week, Jesus turns to the subject of prayer.  In Christian circles, we’re so used to the Lord’s prayer that we often miss the context it’s delivered in. Not that it’s not an incredible prayer on its own… but it’s not just a set of words to recite, it’s actually a teaching on the very heart of prayer. So let’s be honest… in what ways are we, the modern church, like the pharisees when we pray? How does the Lord’s prayer teach us a different way? In very tangible terms, how do I pray differently as a result of this passage?

We’re very used to interpreting this passage with reference to consumerism and material things—but the truth is, it speaks to anything that we treasure over the things of the Kingdom. What are some other treasures that perish, spoil, and fade? Is this a call from Jesus to take on a poverty mindset? What do ‘treasures in heaven’ look like in 2022?

Here, Jesus teaches us that when we do good things, not to do it for our own benefit by making it public. Instead, we’re supposed to do this on the down low. In Christian culture, this seems like an obvious teaching… we scoff at the pharisees who make a show of their generosity. However, in so many ways we are still the same… what are some of the ways we are just like the pharisees? What’s the cost of humility? And how do we practice it on a day-to-day basis?

In this week’s passage, Jesus goes on to make his claims from last week very concrete, applying them in three situations — murder, sex, and oaths. The shift is from what the law says to what it means. In a society with a very different moral compass to the ancient Jews, does this passage still apply to us? How does it it cause us to live differently?

Having shocked his audience with a subversive commentary on society’s concept of who is blessed and who isn’t, Jesus gets into the meat of his sermon — talking about how he will fulfill the law. While this ‘fulfilling’ rather than ‘abolishing’ the law sounds neat, what does it actually mean… especially when Jesus tells us we must have greater conduct than even the pharisees? Looking forward, how does this set us up for the rest of the sermon?