THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (1 OF 12)
by Will McGee
Scripture: Matthew 4:23, Matthew 5:12, Matthew 7:28-29
This content is part of a series.
The Kingdom of Heaven (1 of 12)
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Will McGee
Matthew 4:23-5:12; 7:28-29
When I was in high school, I had an English Literature teacher. Mrs. Esslinger. To this day, she is the best teacher I've ever had. One of the best lessons she taught me, was the importance of context when it comes to reading.
When we read The Crucible... The play by Arthur Miller... We spent a week or two studying the history of the Salem Witch Trials. Before we ever even started the play. We even took a summer field trip to Salem, Mass. When we read A Farewell to Arms, we spent a week learning the biographical details of Ernest Hemmingway's life. His macho persona that was a defense mechanism to hide his insecurities and depression. When we read, Albert Camus' The Stranger, we spent time on the philosophy of existentialism.... Which is personified in the story's protagonist, Monsieur Meursault.
She did this, because she knew that if we were to comprehend the plot or the significance of a particular piece of literature, we had to understand the context in which it was written.
Stories, teachings, characters, don't exist in a vacuum.
This is why I love to read biographies of musicians.... Their lives help you make sense of their art, their songs and stories.
ESPN does this with athletes... They will have SportsCenter segments, highlighting the childhood of a particular athlete... It gives you a larger story in which to understand the player on the field/court. This hypes up the game... It helps give you someone to cheer for.
Context provides us with the lenses to understand a story.
We are beginning a sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' most famous teachings. Today, however, we won't begin with Jesus's sermon. We will begin by surveying the historical context of Jesus. Because you cannot understand the weight of Jesus's words without knowing the time and place in which he spoke them.
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND
...
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Will McGee
Matthew 4:23-5:12; 7:28-29
When I was in high school, I had an English Literature teacher. Mrs. Esslinger. To this day, she is the best teacher I've ever had. One of the best lessons she taught me, was the importance of context when it comes to reading.
When we read The Crucible... The play by Arthur Miller... We spent a week or two studying the history of the Salem Witch Trials. Before we ever even started the play. We even took a summer field trip to Salem, Mass. When we read A Farewell to Arms, we spent a week learning the biographical details of Ernest Hemmingway's life. His macho persona that was a defense mechanism to hide his insecurities and depression. When we read, Albert Camus' The Stranger, we spent time on the philosophy of existentialism.... Which is personified in the story's protagonist, Monsieur Meursault.
She did this, because she knew that if we were to comprehend the plot or the significance of a particular piece of literature, we had to understand the context in which it was written.
Stories, teachings, characters, don't exist in a vacuum.
This is why I love to read biographies of musicians.... Their lives help you make sense of their art, their songs and stories.
ESPN does this with athletes... They will have SportsCenter segments, highlighting the childhood of a particular athlete... It gives you a larger story in which to understand the player on the field/court. This hypes up the game... It helps give you someone to cheer for.
Context provides us with the lenses to understand a story.
We are beginning a sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' most famous teachings. Today, however, we won't begin with Jesus's sermon. We will begin by surveying the historical context of Jesus. Because you cannot understand the weight of Jesus's words without knowing the time and place in which he spoke them.
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND
...
There are 16486 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
