The huge crowd covered the entire mountainside like an unending field or colorful flowers. They had come because He was there. They couldn’t help but be drawn to Him, to look into His face, to hear the amazing words that flowed flawlessly with life from His mouth. Who is the man the multitudes longed to touch and hear? Why had He come? What would He say?
Climbing up a mountain that His own hands had formed, sitting on blades of grass His very words had created, there He was, the God-man. Emmanuel, “God with us”, had come down from heaven, become a man, and now was going to open His mouth and speak. In all of human history, this had never happened before. Sure, God had spoken to mankind for thousands of years …by the mouth of prophet and priests. He had spoken by His spirit into the hearts of men and women, but this day was different. Now God Himself was ready to pen His mouth and speak to mankind. The Word made flesh, the Son of God, was about to talk to the world He had created.
The anticipation of that day’s oration must have been incredible. Four thousand years of relative silence was about to not only be broken, but shattered by the crystal river of heavenly word, stream ing from the very mouth of God. These would be the most important words ever spoken on this planet. Surely, that day’s congregation more than sensed that. Two thousand years later, may God help us to ho feel the same urgency and importance in regards to the words that
Jesus spoke to mankind that day.
First impressions are important because they can’t be done over. As we look into the first recorded me age of Jesus Christ in the scriptures, we must understand that the these words, their meaning, their order, and their structure were perfectly calculated by God to His heart and mind to mankind. Eery single word was chosen like a surgeon’s medical implement for an exact purpose and result. Not a single word would be deemed unessential, unimportant, or uninspired.
Now God going to make His intentions unmistakably clear. Perhaps after enduring thousands of years of mankind’s sin, rebellion, weakness, and willful ignorance, the first words spoken would be spewed out as an angry judgment on a very sinful world. Surely mankind deserved to hear and receive the judgment of God.
The First Words
Then it happened, suddenly, like a clap of thunder, the first words leapt from His lips. It wasn’t a curse or judgment. It wasn’t an angry rebuke to sins unending battle with God. It wasn’t, “Thou shalt not…” He said to all of mankind, loud and clear, “BLESSED!”
To a world deserving judgment and cursing, Jesus Christ came, instead, to bring God’ blessings. Grace poured out on the souls of mankind like rain on the thirsty, dry ground. He spoke blessings, not once, or twice, or three times, but nine times in the beginning paragraph of His first recorded message to the human race. Now the very mission of the Son of God was made clear for all to see: He came to remove the curse of the law that came as a result of our sins and to re-establish God’s design that we might live in the grace and goodness of His blessings every day of our lives. Jesus Christ came to bring God’s blessings to mankind.
I have spoken in many countries that speak foreign languages. When I minister, I am required to have an interpreter who can hear what I say in English and translate it into the native language of the audience. Some of my interpreters will struggle with a word or a phrase. Sometimes someone in the audience, who speaks both languages, will shout out an appropriate word to help the translator. Whenever there is a translator, the potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding is present. The problem with religious systems is that they attempt to “translate” God’s words and thoughts to us. When Jesus Christ opened His mouth to speak, He removed the “middle man,” or translator, of religious tradition and made God’s thoughts and will unmistakably clear to us.
God wants your life to be blessed! Believe it! It’s true!