Hard Enough Already: Following Jesus in the 21St Century: Teachable Moments from the World’s Most Famous Sermon

By Johnny White

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is the most familiar sermon in the world. Jesus of Nazareth spoke it over 2000 years ago. The Sermon on the Mount provides insight into the authentic Jesus of the bible. Jesus did not come to make things more complicated than they already are by limiting salvation to only a few. Instead, he upheld impossible possibilities that point to the undeniable grace of God for the many.
Have you ever asked yourself, “Who was Jesus? Is the Bible true? Or how do we know the bible is true?” Then Johnny White’s Hard Enough Already: Following Jesus in the 21st Century could be a good Christian book to explore. It will help you answer, “What did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount?”
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is still a critically important message for followers of Jesus in the 21st century. This brief Christian book addresses every word and topic of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is drawing the watching world to remarkable teachable moments about being salt and light citizens in the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
He also unpacks what the authentic Jesus looks like to those who want to follow him. Jesus pointed to a life more abundant than retribution, revenge, and violence. He told of the Third Way of mercy, forgiveness, and grace that refuses violence yet never fails to confront evil. The author helps people understand who Jesus is today and how to trust in him even amid a crisis of belief.
What could be more apropos for a contentious uncivil time such as this? No matter what happens next.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664228313

Johnny White

Johnny White is a Christian minister and follower of Jesus. A lifelong student of the Bible, he believes that all truth is God’s Truth, there is objective Truth in scripture, but truth must be personally experienced. Therefore, both objective Truth and subjective truth are essential. He has academic credentials, but those are less important to him than life lessons about the necessity of a Loving God. He knows that he does not know what he does not know! Johnny is less concerned about unproveable doctrines of orthodoxy than about the undeniable ramifications of the Gospel. He believes the world would be a better place if redeeming grace, forgiveness with mercy, and reconciled relationships replaced the competitive necessity of winning, replaced revenge and retaliation, and replaced violence as a means to peace. He is most grateful for his spouse and helpmate of fifty years, Patricia Robertson White, along with his family, children, grandchildren, and friends.

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All Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International

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Mere Christianity by CS Lewis © copyright CS Lewis Pte Ltd 1942, 1943, 1944, 1952.

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c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY.

Copyright © 1963 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Renewed © 1991 by Coretta Scott King.

In the body of the manuscript, I frequently allude to scripture without directly quoting.

If it is a direct quote I have used quotation marks. I do not use quotation marks if I am

repeating a scripture without directly quoting from any particular translation or version.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2832-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2833-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2831-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021906174

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/19/2021

Did Jesus come to make things harder than they already are? This is the question that Johnny White asks in reflecting on the impossible possibilities of Jesus’ life and his teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. Readable and stacked full of illuminating stories and anecdotes, this is a book that will help its readers to think deeply about God’s call on their lives, even as they must seek His grace in trying to live it out.

Iain Provan, PhD

Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies

Regent College

Vancouver, Canada

A remarkably thorough and insightful perspective on the Sermon on the Mount. I enthusiastically recommend Hard Enough Already: Following Jesus in the 21st Century for personal or group study.

Al Staggs

Minister, theologian, author, and performing artist of

A View from the Underside A one-person portrayal

of the life and legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pastor Johnny White’s newest book is a deep dive into the most well-known teaching by the world’s greatest teacher: The Sermon on the Mount by Jesus of Nazareth. It is the longest continuous quotation attributed to Jesus in the Bible. White brings to this task over fifty years of following Jesus, which is to say a lifetime of considered wisdom. He draws upon personal stories from his own life---from childhood memories to our global pandemic, ministry experiences around the world, critical reflection on Biblical scholarship and popular culture, denominational perspectives from his Baptist heritage to the Celts and the Quakers, and, as you would expect, careful and creative interpretations of the Biblical text. Each chapter ends with questions for personal reflection and group discussion. White’s book shows how and why Jesus’s 2,000-year-old sermon is more relevant today than ever before.

Daniel B. Clendenin, PhD

www.journeywithjesus.net

A weekly webzine for the global church, since 2004

Palo Alto, California

Being a follower of Jesus often entails more than we expect and less than we fear. From the first words of blessing in the Sermon on the Mount to the last words of promise, Johnny White takes us on a humble journey of personal reflections on Jesus’ undeniable prescription for life. Anyone who engages with him in this study will come away reminded that grace is in the living.

Rev. Dr. George A. Mason

Senior Pastor, Wilshire Baptist Church Dallas, Texas

Host of "Good God" podcast

Dedication

Barbara Ann Gerrard White

March 23, 1927 – August 25, 2020

"Are you trying to see how close

you can get to the LORD?

Or how far you can get

without losing Him?"

She could not remember.

I cannot forget.

Contents

Preface

The Text

Introduction

i. Jesus the Teacher

ii. The Beatitudes: Everybody is Blessed!

iii. Kingdom Citizenship: Salt of The Earth

iv. Kingdom Citizenship: Light of The World

v. Impossible Possibility

vi. The Hard Sayings

vii. Murderous Anger

viii. Lustful Sexuality

ix. Swear Words

x. Resisting Evil, Doing Good

xi. Who Do You Love?

xii. Hidden Motives

xiii. Hidden Generosity

xiv. Hidden Prayer

xv. The Model Prayer

xvi. Hidden Devotion

xvii. Hidden Priorities

xviii. Ownership

xix. Do Not Worry

xx. Judging Others

xxi. Making Choices

xxii. False Prophets

xxiii. On the Rock

xxiv. The Third Way

Postlude

Sources and Resources

Appendix

About the Author

Preface

UNDENIABLE!

The following reflections about The Sermon on the Mount were begun in November 2019 just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that has consumed the year 2020. The world was turned upside down in many respects. Without a doubt, 2020 was a stressful year for everyone.

Our immediate family was affected in numerous ways just as families all across the country and even around the world. Such as:

• Unanticipated and financially frightening employment changes necessitating relocation and career change.

• Maintaining job responsibilities through distance technology.

• Home schooling children separated and isolated from their friends and teachers.

• Graduation and other well-earned achievements largely unrecognized, certainly not celebrated in a normally expected way.

• Medical emergencies seriously complicated to the point of life threatening.

• A devastating life-threatening diagnosis of a beloved family member.

• Normal family traditions and contact derailed.

• Social distancing and masks everywhere. Normal social contact curtailed.

• Isolation of my elderly mother in the final months of her life.

• Routine civic involvements brought to a screeching halt.

• Strained relationships.

• Online church worship services.

These were all micro-level ramifications to our immediate family and routine life.

On the macro-level, nationwide social distancing and Covid-19 testing, business shutdowns, enormous social unrest around police over-reaction and wrongful deaths, rioting and unnecessary destruction of property. Running just beneath the surface of the pandemic and all this nationwide unrest has been the most divisive political election in over a century.

To say the least 2020 was a stressful year.

As a result of the pandemic, this was the first Easter of my life that I was not in worship with family and friends. Perhaps that was true for you as well. Easter 2020 became for me a time of private reflection about the nature of the Good News message that I have believed for virtually my entire life and preached for most of my life.

Thinking about the impact of the Good News upon the world, I was reminded of my favorite Christmas movie, It’s A Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart. His desperate suicidal character, George Bailey, was blessed by his eccentric wingless angel, Clarence, to see what the world would have been like if he had never lived. It was a revealing vision about the impact one life can have.

What if Jesus had never lived? How would the world be different?

My Easter morning ruminations during this unique pandemic season dwelled on the different ways Christians have focused on the Gospel story.

My conservative Evangelical heritage has focused more on the historical reality of the scientifically inexplicable resurrection event. Despite the life changing evidence that really does demand a verdict, the Christian faith in the resurrection of Jesus is a scientifically unproveable impossible possibility. I have accepted and believed in that impossible impossibility of the resurrection of Jesus for the majority of my life. Many of those years in an uncritical way. In later years, I have come to believe in a more critically examined way.

Many of my more liberal Mainline friends have focused more on the meaning of the resurrection but have been more reserved about the literal historicity of the resurrection event. In my ruminations about this dilemma, it dawned on me how many years I have dwelt on proving the unproveable rather than focusing on the undeniable. One of the primary messages of resurrection is that love will win over hate! If that is true, it is an undeniably beneficial truth. As Jesus taught in The Sermon on the Mount, love is so victorious that we can love even our enemies.

Where would this world be and what would it be like without the desirable qualities of life that the Gospel teaches, and the death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrate? What would our lives be like without the teachings of Jesus that interrupt and detour our natural inclinations toward win-lose competition and the never-ending revenge and retribution cycle which Jesus so clearly opposed?

Where would this world be without the undeniable benefits of confession and forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation, grace and mercy? Where would our relationships be without those blessings that are the real Good News of the Gospel story? Where would anyone of us be if these essential reciprocal and undeniably beneficial results of Jesus’s resurrection were not possible?

To draw on the story of George Bailey in "It’s A Wonderful Life" - the world would have a lot more of Pottersville and a lot less of Bedford Falls. We have far too much of Pottersville all around us. Just turn on the morning or evening news programs.

So how real are the results of the resurrection mystery - whether it can be proven or not? Even whether one believes it literally or not? Regardless of how one reads the evidence that demands a verdict, the world is better if love wins over hate! That is, in my opinion, undeniable.

We can choose to forgive because we ourselves are forgiven. We can choose to be merciful because we have received mercy. We can seek reconciliation with those we have hurt, or with those who have hurt us, because we have all been redeemed by God’s grace. God has demonstrated his love for us; even while we were yet sinning, Christ died for our sins. That is the Good News of the Gospel.

Because the spirit of Jesus is alive and well, and because these truths of the Good News Story are undeniably real, we can seek reconciliation with those we have harmed, and extend mercy and forgiveness to those who have harmed us. We who are followers of Jesus need not continue in unforgiveness and separation, revenge and retribution, or justification of violence in the name of self-defense. We can love and pray for even our enemies just as Jesus taught and role modeled for us.

Because Christ is resurrected, we can love - because God loves us first. God has been redeeming us from the moment of our rebellion. God forgives us. God desires reconciliation with us and for us. The Spirit of God is within us. God desires us to love, forgive, and reconcile just as God Himself does. God desires none to perish!

Jesus is the ultimate revelation of all that God is, and all that God does, and all that God desires for us. If we listen to the words of Jesus and hear what he is teaching in his most famous sermon, then we have seen and heard the desires of the Creator God for his creation. We will know how to follow Jesus in the 21st century.

For all of the years that I have preached and given leadership in worship, I have used variations on the following Benediction as we gazed out the large glass wall of our sanctuary on to the beauty of God’s creation visible in our lakeside community:

It is by the LOVE of God Our Father that we have been born into this beautiful life.

It is by the GRACE of God, fully revealed in Jesus Christ His Son, Our LORD, that we are being redeemed each and every day. And…

It is by the POWER of His indwelling Spirit in our lives that we are impowered to live the impossible possibilities of following Jesus.

Does the most familiar sermon in the world, The Sermon on the Mount, spoken by Jesus of Nazareth over 2000 years ago, have anything to say to us in these unsettling times of the 21st century? Absolutely.

Every word of every paragraph of every topic Jesus addressed speaks to us. Jesus the Teacher is offering us unparalleled teachable moments about how to be salt and light citizens in the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

My contention is that things are hard enough already.

Jesus did not come to make things harder than they already are.

What could be more apropos for a time like the 21st century?

No matter what happens next.

                                                                            Johnny White

                                                                            November 3, 2020

                                                                            Election Day

For Personal Reflection or Group Discussion

How do you respond to the thought that the resurrection of Jesus is unproveable, but the benefits of resurrection are undeniable?

The Text

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

The Gospel According to Matthew

Chapters 5 - 7

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,

        for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

        for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

        for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

        for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

        for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

        for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

        for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

        for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

"Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgement. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

"Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

"It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

"You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away