Opinion ¢ THINK Alvin Tay is the Managing Editor of Methodist Message and a member of Wesley Methodist Church. / Photos courtesy of Goh Cheng Joo for Wesley TIDINGS, Wesley Methodist Church
Sermon on the Mount
Intentional discipleship at its best!
Rev Stanley Chua preaching at Wesley Methodist Church at their 137th Anniversary Worship Service
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ny pursuit of happiness that focuses on material possessions is bound to disappoint because these things simply don’t last. Returning to preach at the 137th Anniversary Worship Services at Wesley Methodist Church, where he was Pastor-in-charge before becoming President of the Trinity Annual Conference, Rev Stanley Chua preached Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and what it means to be a truly happy disciple of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is regarded by most Bible commentators to contain the central tenets of Christian discipleship and essential principles for living a genuine Christian life. It’s intentional discipleship at its best! Setting the context, Rev Chua said, “Jesus declared and proclaimed ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ in Matthew 4:17. In the Sermon on the Mount that follows (Matthew 5 to 7), Jesus made clear how all who belong to his kingdom should live and conduct themselves as his subjects.”
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METHODIST MESSAGE April 2022
Best-known of Jesus’ teachings but least obeyed But how do subjects of a kingdom align themselves to the kingdom’s principles? Rev Chua said he is keenly aware of the challenges and difficulties that most Christians have in understanding and obeying the teachings found in the Sermon on the Mount. He agreed with what the late Dr John Stott observed in his commentary: “The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed.” “One common challenge that most Christians have is that they find the values and demands of the Sermon on the Mount out of the world as it completely reverses the values of what our world teaches,” said Rev Chua. For example, in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), Jesus gives happiness a new definition. He includes within
