Sermon by Pastor Samuel Niblack

We are currently studying the famous Sermon on the Mount, which is sort of like a « King’s Manifesto » which sets out the values of Jesus’ kingdom and that describes the behavior that is expected of its citizens.

Up to now, Jesus has been very critical of religion and religiosity. Someone listening to him might say, « Hey ! Jesus is even more anticlerical than the average Frenchman! Go ahead, Jesus, down with religion! » 

But Jesus is not finished overturning typical world values…

Sermon by Aurelien Duperchy, apprentice pastor

In today’s passage, Jesus is talking to believers, that is people living out their faith. He is not talking to people who know nothing about God’s Word, but to those who do charitable giving, who pray and who fast.

The general subject raised here is our attitude before God. And I will address the three examples given here, charitable giving, praying and fasting –three strict practices of the Jewish religion– which Jesus presents as something different from mere prescriptions to be followed.

De nombreux chants en parlent, de nombreux chrétiens en font un sujet de prière, mais qu’en est-il au niveau biblique? Est-ce légitime de vouloir sentir la présence de Dieu? De manière plus fondamentale, cette expression que nous adoptons si facilement fait-elle partie du langage biblique? Enfin, et plus important encore, que dit cette aspiration de notre foi et de notre vision de Dieu?

En guise de réponse, ou du moins d’élément de réflexion, je reproduis ici un extrait de l’excellent commentaire du livre de l’Ecclésiaste, écrit par Sylvain Romerowski.

Dans le Nouveau Testament, nous sommes invités à offrir à Dieu des sacrifices de louange (Hé 13.15). Or ces sacrifices peuvent devenir des « sacrifices d’insensés ».

Suite sur Tout pour sa gloire.

Sermon by Pastor Vincent Bourrel

To participate in the Olympics you need to have achieved a minimum level of performance. If you do not meet this minimum level, your nation deems you unworthy to participate in the competition. So there is always stress until you achieve this minimum level of performance. If the minimum levels are too high and no one reaches them, then there will be no competition, and if the levels are too low, there will be too many people and the games lose their appeal.

We often imagine that entry into the kingdom of heaven is possible for us if we achieve the minimum level of God’s justice. And we can experience the same stress. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was meant to be a scrupulous application of the law, but in reality they altered the law, they usually sought to reduce the requirements of God’s commandments (v. 18-19) by making them more accessible and less onerous, to achieve the minimum level.

Sermon by Pastor Samuel Niblack

We are studying Jesus’ most famous sermon. Matthew organizes his Gospel around 5 great speeches that Jesus gave, 5 books of Moses. Matthew wants to convince his fellow Jews that Jesus gives full meaning and accomplishes everything that Moses announced concerning the Messiah.

This sermon has been called the King’s Manifesto. The charter of the citizen of his kingdom. In these 3 chapters, we find Jesus’ program, the values ​​of Jesus. But “Manifesto of the King” also because it is when his disciples put his words into practice that Jesus manifests himself today.