When many of us think of Jesus, we probably have a famous picture of Jesus in the company of little lambs with children sitting on his lap smiling.  While that may have been true, there is much more to the picture of Jesus than this.  Jesus was a radical in his day.  He completely blew the minds of the contemporary religious people.  He was constantly challenging their view of God.  He was constantly eliciting violent reactions from the most religiously zealous people.  Of course the strongest evidence for this case is that finally he was killed for his teaching.

One of the things he did in the company of those who knew the Bible the best was to turn their understanding of the Bible on its head.  He didn’t change the meaning of the Bible.  Rather He clarified the true intent and indeed the true meaning to those that thought they were already following its rules.  He turned the Kingdom of God “Upside Down”!  This semester we will be looking at Jesus’ most famous sermon, his most challenging sermon and his most intimidating sermon- the Sermon on the Mount.  A sermon that quite honestly has put people under religious pressure for hundreds of years as it has sometimes been misunderstood.  We will look how Jesus was turning the Kingdom of God Upside Down from the contemporary understanding and instead of putting pressure over people, gave them freedom and hope in the midst of life.  I hope you will come and join us.

-Miles