Life Can Begin Again: Sermons on the Sermon on the Mount

by Helmut Thielicke

Christians have always turned to the Sermon on the Mount for inspiration. In Life Can Begin Again, Helmut Thielicke, himself one of the great preachers of the 20th Century, comes to grips with what is often seen as a collection of lovely, but impossible ideals. Thielicke makes it clear that the Sermon on the Mount can never be understood if, even for a moment, we forget the person of the Preacher of the Sermon. For without the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the marvellous words of the Beatitudes and the injunctions that follow them are the most radical and devastating distillation of God's claims that can be conceived; they leave us in utter, hopeless dismay. Only 'in Christ' do these words of the law become the glorious gospel that promises a new life. Here is not only great preaching on some of the most urgent and sublime themes, but great tenderness and compassion too. As in so many of his works, Thielicke brings the profundities of Biblical religion alive for the modern era.

215 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 1966

Reviews

[Kenneth Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helmut Thielicke was a powerful preacher. I respect his ability to apply the Word directly to the immediate context of his listener, preaching to post-WWII Germans who were experiencing deprivation, severe hardships, and the negative scrutiny and censure of the (victorious) nations of the world. Thielicke speaks in terms and applications they couldn't help but understand and find great encouragement in. Highly recommended, especially for those who preach or teach, and are particularly intent on applying the Bible to the specific, daily conditions of life faced by the people to whom they preach.

[Bart de Bruin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great and inspiring book on the sermon of the mount! New insights and fresh appraoch from a book which is more than 70 years old. Absolute must-read when you study on Jesus’ sermon on the mount.

[Ken Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

As this book title suggests, Helmut Thielicke describes the Sermon on the Mount as an opportunity to make a fresh start in life along a new path. But he also assures us that the ideals of that sermon are pointless apart from knowing the One who preached it. Thielicke wanted his listeners to recognize that it is by knowing He who has looked after everything in our past and has assured us of a future full of promises fulfilled that we are made ready to obey the unflinching demands of the Sermon on the Mount, and to confidently begin living our new life with the Preacher of that sermon.

This sermon series by Thielicke was delivered soon after WWII ended to German listeners whose lives had been shattered by the war. With his usual pastoral manner, Thielicke makes Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount immensely relevant and pointedly challenging to people seeking to make sense of life in tough times. I felt wowed by some of these sermons and unfazed by others, but as a whole I appreciated Thielicke’s insights regarding the passages he focused on, and I was fascinated by his specific references to how his listeners had been impacted by the war.