Great Gospels Speeches
Introduction-The Great Sermons
The Gospel Books of Matthew and Luke contain Sermons which are in part duplicates of one another, and which have come to be called The Sermon on the Mount and The Sermon on the Plain. Before reading them, it is important to note some of the limitations under which Jesus labors when He speaks to us today. First and foremost, of course, please understand that for Jesus to speak against the prevailing religion of His day was a capital crime, and there were Temple guards often listening nearby so He could never speak plainly. And He spoke Aramaic. His words were translated into Greek, and then subsequently they were translated from Greek into English. He also used some terms that make His words sound harsher in spots than He means them to sound. For example:
- When Jesus talks about getting into the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God, He isn’t talking about the afterlife, which is universal; but rather, He is talking about a spiritual awakening.
- His reference to a camel going through the eye of a needle is to a very narrow gate into the city of Jerusalem, which was called The Needle’s Eye. Camels had to be unloaded before passing through it, so what Jesus is saying is just that rich folks will find it hard to grow spiritually unless they first give up their wealth.
These “Sermons” were almost certainly not given all at once, but rather they are compilations of Jesus’s teachings that were heard and were carefully remembered, were lovingly passed down for approximately six decades before they were first written down, and they were gathered into sermons for convenient delivery to us. And in order for you to really get the most out of these Great Sermons, you might find it helpful first to delve into Jesus’s Core Teachings in order to better understand how He used some key terms during His approximately three and a half years of public ministry. But sitting and listening to Jesus is beautiful, simply for its own sake. Enjoy!
And there is one more Great Sermon that Jesus may have channeled through the Apostle Paul. This sounds like Jesus and not like Paul, it stands out in context, and my spirit guide, Thomas, tells me that in fact Jesus channeled it. Whether or not he is right is up to you, but it is beautiful nonetheless.