At the heart of heresies is often our desire to remain in control, the belief that we are good enough without God. Just like the Ebionites, we are tempted to view Jesus as a great teacher, but not our God, and not our redeemer. We have two choices, just like the broad and narrow road we looked at last week. Either we have to abandon our self-will or abandon our hope. The two seem mutually exclusive; when we trust ourselves we lose all hope.
The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five major discourses in the Gospel of Matthew. All five follow blocks of narrative material; all five end with the same formula (Like Matt 7:28–29 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.) Jesus' Sermon on the Mount deals with ethical issues of deep rooted importance in every age, this “sermon” has caused thousands of books and articles to be written.
