Welcome to Episode #160 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our eighth of eight episodes in our Twentieth mini-series entitled, Sermon on the Mount. On today’s episode we’ll be taking a walk on the beach with DrZ, hey that’s me, sorry, couldn’t help that it was just there. As I was saying, we’ll be taking a walk on the beach to overview and comment on what we’ve learned on this mini-series.
So glad so many of you were able to join us today given the reality of two hurricanes impacting the Gulf shores of Florida. First was Hurricane Helene which roared onshore n the Big Bend area of FL last week as a Cat 4 hurricane before quickly crossing into Georgia, South Carolina, Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee leaving in its wake catastrophic devastation. And a week later, Milton making landfall as a Cat 3 hurricane on Siesta Key near Sarasota, Fl before slicing a path across Florida and heading out over the Atlantic Ocean.
The beaches along the emerald coast along Highway 30-A between Destin and Panama City were spared this round. But all those who have been around for forty or more hurricane seasons sense and are fairly resigned to the reality that it is only a matter of time before a storm comes knocking on your door.
But enough of that for now, while the coast to our east and south have been ravaged by wind and waves, the Gulf waters out back are almost perfect. Still a little warmer than normal as are our daily temperatures. While we won’t break a sweat this morning, you can still get sun burned pretty quick, so hats, sunscreen, and sunglasses suggested.
I’ll meet you out back in five minutes. Make sure to top off your coffee or get one of many other options available at the bar area. Speaking of bars, we’ve got the Rooftop bar of Bud and Alley’s reserved for a private mid-morning brunch. They’re expecting us within the hour so let’s hop to it. See you out back.
I see we are all here. We’ll head toward the water and the lightly breaking surf and take a left, heading East into the early morning sun. As we head that way I’ll remind you we’ve not yet finished overviewing Chapter 5 of Matthew. The first of three chapters (5 to 7) that are referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. We still have at least two and likely three more mini-series before we complete the Sermon on the Mount. That means at least two or three walks on the beach after this one.
Perhaps for one of those walks we can take a road trip over to the Big Bend area to lend a hand with recovery and do the same on another walk on Siesta Key. Participation is not mandatory, but if you have the inkling to go and would like to help let me know as there is a lot of preparation and staging to be done to make our trips beneficial and not an inconvenience for those most in need of assistance in these areas.
We are not at the water’s edge and ready to make our turn to the East. As you go through the text of Matthew, you get the sense Jesus made a similar turn at his baptism by John the Baptist. His turn was from a life in Nazareth which we know little about to a focused three-year life of ministry teaching, calling and training disciples. During this time, he taught with authority, was a miracle healing extravaganza, and demonstrated with signs and wonders power over the created order that testified to his being the Son of God, the Son of Man.
Shortly after his ministry life began he called his first disciples and laid out for them the foundational teaching upon which all his subsequent teaching rested. We call this teaching the Sermon on the Mount. You will discover as you dig into the epistles, the apostles were writing the boots on the ground versions of the principals Jesus was teaching his disciples. These principals deal with living in the kingdom of heaven. Something all believers are doing even today, though not all believers know it.
Let’s do a quick recap of where we’ve been so far in t
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