Title: The Upside-Down Kingdom Text:  Matthew 5:1-12 Theme: God honors Christlike, countercultural character that honors God. Teaching Notes: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is describing how to live as his disciples in his kingdom that has already arrived. The first major theme is the upside-down nature of this kingdom. Jesus doesn’t value and honor the same character traits that our world celebrates. He calls us to live counterculturally, walking in humility and grace, rather than mimicking the pride of our society. Click on link below: Notes and Questions for Life Application

In modern academics, we go to school to learn subjects like History, Science, Math, and English. A successful education is defined in terms of being able to retain and use a certain percent of the information we’re learning. Generally, we don’t spend time with our teachers outside of the classroom, and we certainly aren’t trying to pattern our lives after theirs. But in the rabbinic model of discipleship, becoming like your teacher was the whole point. Taking on the identity of your rabbi was even more important than memorizing facts and information. In this lesson, we’ll see how Jesus purposely...