Hearing Jesus: Devotionals from the Sermon on the Mount

By Kourtney Govro

“You can never go wrong studying, Jesus,” Dr. Darrel Bock told me. This has become one of my favorite phrases. The Bible is one of the most accessible, understandable, and yet completely complex books ever written. It is filled with stories, advice, love letters, prophecy, poems, and prose. It is history in all its rawness combined with a promise that started when time began and was fulfilled with Jesus. With him as our focus, we cannot go wrong.

If you have ever wondered, “Who is this Jesus?”, “What does He stand for?”, “What does it mean to be a follower of Christ?”, or “What makes Him different than religion?”, then I encourage you to take a journey through the Sermon on the Mount. Nothing speaks to the heart of the Messiah’s mission more than it does.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664287426

Kourtney Govro

Kourtney Govro is an avid studier of the Word of God. Her heart’s desire is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in personal, understandable ways that anyone can enjoy. She and her husband have four sons and one daughter-in-law. She has an MBA and is currently working towards her Ph.D. in Bible Exposition at Liberty University.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Greek And Hebrew Word Reference

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26

Day 27

Day 28

Day 29

Day 30

Day 31

Day 32

Day 33

Day 34

Day 35

Day 36

Day 37

Day 38

Day 39

Day 40

Day 41

Day 42

Day 43

Day 44

Day 45

Day 46

Day 47

Day 48

Day 49

Day 50

Day 51

Day 52

Day 53

Day 54

Day 55

Day 56

Day 57

Day 58

Day 59

Day 60

Day 61

Dear Sweet Sisters,

I like to think about these devotionals as a conversation instead of just a book. I imagine sitting at a coffee shop with a friend discussing the Sermon on the Mount after we have chatted about our children’s follies. As you read these devotionals, I hope it will be the same for you. Remember, a big part of your Christian life is to be experienced in community and partnership with other believers. We are to encourage one another and build each other up. We are to bear one another’s burdens and pray for each other in Jesus’ name. We are one body. We are one family. We are the Church. Jesus’ words are instruction and encouragement.

Here are a few things about this devotional to help you get all you can from this experience.

1.At the end of each daily devotional, there are three questions What did God teach me today? How will it impact my life? What do I need to pray? There are lines provided for you to write your thoughts down. Somedays you will have time to write other days you can just think about it – that is ok!

2.You will also find some Greek & Hebrew references. Take time to ingest those words, and use the worksheet to write down your thoughts and learnings. If you are meeting with a friend, take some time to talk about what you learned about these words.

I look forward to taking this journey with you.

Sincerely,

Kourtney

INTRODUCTION

You can never go wrong studying, Jesus, Dr. Darrel Bock told me. This has become one of my favorite phrases. The Bible is one of the most accessible, understandable, and yet completely complex books ever written. It is filled with stories, advice, love letters, prophecy, poems, and prose. It is history in all its rawness combined with a promise that started when time began and was fulfilled with Jesus. With him as our focus, we cannot go wrong.

The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the story of Jesus told by those who were with Jesus. Each has its unique perspective and account of the life and teachings of the Messiah. The book of Matthew was most likely written by the disciple Levi. Jesus renamed him Matthew, which means gift of God. Many believe that Matthew was written after the book of Mark, and like the author of the book of Luke, Matthew used Mark as a reference. This is important as it explains similarities and even variances in the story’s telling. While each gospel writer had their experience with Jesus, the book of Mark came first. It is the cliff notes of the life of Jesus, focusing all on His ministry.

Though it was probably written later, the book of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament, and that placement provides a fitting transition from the Old to the New Testament. It is the most Jewish of the books, having more Old Testament references than any other gospel. It is the perfect bridge between Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament and the New Testament’s telling of the completed promises of God because Jesus is presented as the new Moses with His story laid out in five groupings like the books of Moses (Genesis—Deuteronomy). First, Jesus is born and His life is at risk. Next, in a striking parallel, Herod ordered to have all the baby boys killed just like Pharoah ordered all the baby boys killed. Jesus’s family fled to Egypt and Moses fled out of Egypt. A third parallel comes with Jesus’s baptism with water, which symbolically follows the Israelites as they walked through the parted water of the Red Sea. In another parallel, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days just as the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Finally, Jesus went to a mountain to teach God’s word (see the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5), while Moses went to Mount Sinai to receive God’s word. Isn’t the Bible just amazing?

Compared to Luke, Matthew takes a broader look at the life of Jesus. He starts His narrative with the lineage of Jesus, going clear back to Abraham (Luke’s lineage goes all the way back to Adam). Matthew’s lineage includes an interesting addition that is not generally found in ancient texts, let alone Jewish ancestry texts: women. Matthew notes mothers by name in some areas. The mothers he highlights are not women of great reputation. He includes a prostitute, a Moabite, an adulteress (possibly a victim of rape), and a woman pregnant out of wedlock. As a woman reading this list, I feel like Matthew is communicating that Jesus came for all. It’s as if he is saying, I see you, and you matter. God has a plan for you no matter what you have done, where you came from, where you are, what has been done to you, and what your life situation looks like. Do you ever wonder if God can use you? Sister, God has a plan to use you and your story for His glory!

The author of Matthew makes sure the reader understands that Jesus is not only claiming to be the son of God, but He is clearly fulfilling prophecy as the incarnate God. He was all man and all God. Matthew takes us through the nativity of the Messiah while providing a scripture reference back to the prophecy being fulfilled. Isaiah 7:14 describes a virgin birth and prophesies the child’s name will be Immanuel, which means God with us. Jesus’s deity was verified during the description of His birth. After he comes of age, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, and in a beautiful passage in Matthew 3:16–17, all three members of the trinity are present at the same time: Jesus in the water, the Spirit descending like a dove, and the Father speaking over him—things that make you go Wow!

After His temptation, Jesus builds His team. Each one with a designed destiny determined before all time, culminating in that precious moment when Jesus says, Follow me. Do you ever see yourself that way? That before all time, Jesus chose you to be His disciple (Eph 1:4)? As we study the Sermon on the Mount, we will see Jesus teaching us what it means to be a disciple.

If you have ever wondered, Who is this Jesus?, What does He stand for?, What does it mean to be a follower of Christ?, or What makes Him different than religion?, then I encourage you to take a journey through the Sermon on the Mount. Nothing speaks to the heart of the Messiah’s mission more than it does.

GREEK AND HEBREW

WORD REFERENCE

The Bible was written a long time ago, in a land far away, and in an entirely different language(s). While scholars have painstakingly translated it into English for our use, we should all recognize that anytime you translate something from one language to another, nuances and beauty are sometimes lacking. That’s not to say the translated version is incorrect, but to say if you love something wouldn’t you want to know all you can about it? Wouldn’t you want to appreciate its original beauty as well?

Two thousand five hundred seventy-four individual Greek words are used in the Bible, and one thousand five hundred and eighty-one Hebrew words. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is the tool used by scholars to reference words. James Strong assigned a number to every word in the Bible so that you and I could easily reference and study God’s word. If you use an online tool like Biblegateway.com or blueletterBible.org, you can search for any of these words and learn more. Biblegateway.com