Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Beatitudes, Part 9 of 50

TEXT: Matthew 5:1-12

IDEA: Contradictions in the Scriptures are often more apparent than real.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand how different writers can see the same scene from different perspectives.

Case: A woman reported to me and to the elders in her church that she had seen their pastor in a drive-in movie with a single woman in the church. Was she telling the truth?

I.  Different witnesses sometimes differ in their testimony in a court case.

Does this mean that one of them is lying?

How can both of them be telling the truth?

II. Matthew and Luke give differing accounts of what we call “The Sermon on the Mount.”

Matthew says that Jesus went up the mountain (Matthew 4:23-5:2) and Luke sounds as though he is talking about the same sermon but in a different place (Luke 4:17-20, a level place.)

How might we explain the differences?

Matthew probably wasn’t talking about a particular mountain.  Many have noted that the area in question is so hilly that “hill country” or “the hills” would have been a more accurate translation.
Then Luke is saying that Jesus stood “on a level place.”

What would you think if you read that Billy Graham preached to an enormous crowd in Wembley Stadium in London and preached on John 3:16, and then you read another account that said that Billy Graham preached to a great crowd in Wembley Stadium and he preached from John 3, “You must be born again”?

Would you assume that the article referred to two incidents or to the same event?  Why?

If the writer of one article said “in 1955 Billy Graham . . .” and the other article said “In 1975,” what would you think?

Because the incidents are similar, does that mean they are the same?