His Kingdom: A study through the Sermon on the Mount (Part 1)

There are five discourses in the Gospel of Matthew:

1. The Sermon on the Mount (ch. 5-7)
2. The Missionary Discourse (ch. 10)
3. The Parabolic Discourse (ch. 13)
4. The Community Discourse (ch. 18-20)
5. The Apocalyptic Discourse (ch. 24-25)

We're going to be focusing just on the first one: The Sermon on the Mount. The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to tell Jesus' message – in other words, the Sermon on the Mount is a pretty big deal! Jesus answers the question, how are citizens of the kingdom to live? Before jumping into these three chapters in Matthew, it's important to understand the context. Who are the characters of the Sermon on the Mount?

"Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:" (5:1-2)

There are three “characters” mentioned: the crowd, Jesus (‘he’ in the above verse), and the disciples. Which character in the story are you? Obviously none of us are Jesus, so it leaves us between either the crowd or the disciples.

If you've made the decision to follow Jesus, you're the disciples addressed throughout the sermon. For example, when Jesus says, "You are the light of the world" in Matthew 5:14, the "you" applies to those who are followers of Jesus. This is a significant commitment. When you commit to being a follower of Jesus, you're committing to actually changing your behavior. James 2:17 says, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." As we go through the Sermon on the Mount for a majority of 2025, know that if you've made the commitment, Jesus; commands are for us – there's no getting around what changes He is telling us to make. I'm telling you now, that there will be challenges for all of us (it will be different for each of us) throughout this study if we are committed to making the changes Jesus wants us to make.

The other “characters” seen are the crowds. If you haven't made the commitment to following Jesus, then you are part of the crowds mentioned in the Sermon. While Jesus teaches His disciples specifically in the Sermon on the Mount how to live for Him, He still wants the crowds to hear His teachings. Jesus invites those in the crowd to join Him and His Kingdom. While initially the people in the crowd remain neutral and stay on the fence, at some point they all have to make a decision – intentionally or not. This is part of the reason why the Sermon on the Mount is so significant. It has consequences for people's lives regardless of if they are a disciple or just a part of the crowd in this circumstance. Eventually, those in the crowd will make a choice that will impact their eternity – either they will choose to accept Jesus' invitation or they won't.

As you can see, whether you identify as a disciple or the crowd, the Sermon on the Mount will have an impact on your life.

Right before the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (4:17b) This is why our decision to follow Jesus or not has an eternal impact – the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's important to note that Jesus is also talking about the kingdom on earth in the Sermon on the Mount. It is one that is countercultural – as Jesus’ followers, we don't want to look like the rest of the earth (see 6:5 and 6:8 for examples).

I know this is a shorter blog, but it's important to understand the significance of what the Sermon on the Mount will teach us. My hope is that through this series on the Sermon on the Mount, we will be convicted and challenged to work on becoming more like Christ.

Cornerstone Impact Update

In a couple weeks, we'll be starting a new mid-month series: Every Good Endeavor. You don't want to miss it!

Eventide's Shareholder Letter: Clear Vision Amidst Market Challenges

We wanted to share the letter we received from one of our fund partners, Eventide below. This is written by their CIO, Finny Kuruvilla. I've added emphasis on certain parts that we find particularly important for our Cornerstone clients, including an exciting company they are invested in.

In the 1960 NFL Championship game, the Green Bay Packers squandered their lead against the Philadelphia Eagles, handing Lombardi the only playoff loss of his storied career. As Lombardi brooded over the following months, he realized the team needed to return to the fundamentals. On the first day of preseason camp, Lombardi walked into the team meeting and held up a pigskin. “Gentlemen,” he said, “this is a football.”

When I’m faced with adversity, I need to remember the fundamentals too. Maybe we all do. At Eventide, we regularly gather together and remind ourselves of our purpose and core values. We name challenges, celebrate achievements, and focus our attention on the opportunities over the horizon. Eventide exists to collaborate with investors and advisors, pooling capital and employing research, so that together we can invest in ways that make the world rejoice. This is why we’re investing, and why we’re investing together.

A View of Where We Are
The past 12 months have been a tale of headwinds and tailwinds. Some of our investment products enjoyed strong performance, while others encountered significant headwinds. With our funds that have done well, we are grateful for the results and energized by the growing momentum. With our funds that have struggled, the results are disheartening. It is disappointing, and I feel the weight of that disappointment. As an investment team, we’ve had stellar years, but also years when we’ve been humbled.

We don’t take lightly the trust you’ve placed in us.

Our funds’ bifurcated performance reflects broad market dynamics. In an environment of high interest rates and stubborn inflation, companies generating abundant cash flow were less affected by interest rates and consequently performed well. As such, the markets saw investors pouring capital into large companies as havens. However, smaller, younger companies—those firms in earlier stages and those with a longer time horizon for profitability, making them more punitively affected by rising interest rates—have endured a squeeze.

There are good companies at the early and mature stages of the life cycle. There are those who are firmly established and already making significant money. And there are good companies who are just getting started, still moving in the right direction towards profitability. We invest in both. We believe this is a wise practice for all investors to diversify their portfolios.

In the market’s choppy waters, sticking with those smaller, early-cycle companies requires patience and resilience. And this moment invites us to remember both our investment philosophy and the fundamental values that led us to invest in these businesses in the first place.

Our Philosophy as Investors
As to our philosophy, it’s essential to remember that we are investors, not speculators. We believe chasing what’s hot, or what’s been most profitable in the past cycle, is a fool’s errand; chasing the latest trend typically leads to buying stocks when they are most expensive and being reactionary. Rather, we invest in companies we want to own for the long term, focusing on high-quality companies that excel at creating value for others and trade at a discount to intrinsic value. While we remain vigorously attentive to market conditions, we are not deterred by short-term difficulties.

Trends are often cyclical. Staying the course with a sound strategy provides clarity amid the turbulence. I believe that when investors stick with good companies for the duration, these companies and their investors will have their day. In my opinion, many small-cap firms have been unduly punished by the markets.

And I’m not alone. There’s growing sentiment that it would be a mistake to overreact and abandon smaller companies now. Hania Schmidt and Jiali Nusser from Goldman Sachs believe “the tide is turning” with small-cap equity performance given “a compelling interest-rate backdrop and near-record valuation discounts.”1 Similarly, Morningstar’s chief U.S. market strategist David Sekera recently reiterated how “on both an absolute and relative value basis, [...] the rotation into small-cap stocks and value stocks still has room to run.”2 Sekera also notes that "historically, small caps do well when the Fed is easing monetary policy and interest rates are coming down.” There are no guarantees with investing. It is worth noting, though, that markets have historically favored long-term, patient investors.

Whenever we’re facing a particularly tough patch, I pull out the cover story of Barron’s December 27, 1999 edition. It is memorable because of its bold headline: “What’s Wrong, Warren?”3 At the end of the tech boom of the 1990s, the market had pummeled Buffet’s stocks, with Berkshire Hathaway returning a dismal 40 points below the S&P 500 (S&P was up 21%, while Buffet lost 19.9%).4 The writer suggested Buffet “may be losing his magic touch.” But another investment manager who was interviewed by Barron’s believed the panic was ludicrous, insisting how “Berkshire offers an incredible investment opportunity for those with a long time horizon.”

Of course, that was 1999, and we know which view proved correct. The Oracle of Omaha had a whole lot of magic left. And the years since 1999 have been kind to Berkshire’s investors. Short-term setbacks didn’t undo their fundamental evaluations.

Our Values as Investors

While we remember our philosophy, we also want to re-center our values. We invest in companies we believe will make good profit, rather than bad profit, over the long term. We believe that good profits come from companies that do good in the world. And this conviction is not concessionary. We firmly believe that good profits can produce remarkable returns for their investors. And conversely, bad profits provide unnecessary investment risks for investors by destroying value for society.

Eventide invests in many smaller companies who are trying to meet some need, or alleviate some unaddressed problem, that inhibits human flourishing. And when a company ventures into these uncharted territories, they typically require a longer timeline to become profitable. As investors, we partner in these companies’ good work. And from the jump, we know that we will share in both their struggles and in their successes.

Certainly, it is easier to stay resolute with our values when an investment is going well, like with Eventide’s funds that are more heavily invested in mid and large-cap companies. We understand the temptation to waver when we face significant challenges.

Take the biotechnology sector, for instance. Right now, the temptation to falter can be especially strong because many biotech companies are still in their early phases. In layman's terms, they just aren’t generating a lot of cash, yet. These are precisely the businesses that the market has recently forgotten about. However, being new, small, and a startup does not mean they aren’t a good investment. The opportunities for doing profound good remain. There are so many diseases to confront and therapeutics to create or improve. All this requires time. And capital.

A Company We're Proud to Own
Before I close, I also want to tell you the story of an inspiring company that’s saving lives and should make you proud to be an investor. This particular biotech is creating groundbreaking solutions to help organ transplants reach dying patients in time. Personally, I’m drawn to this story because I used to be a practicing physician. I had numerous patients on the transplant list, and they are dear to my heart. I witnessed first-hand how excruciating it can be for patients and their loved ones to endure an often years-long process and the gnawing uncertainty of whether they might ever receive a life-giving organ.

There are roughly 100,000 people on the transplant list, and there simply aren’t enough organs available.5 The odds are stacked against them. Tragically, 17 people die every day while waiting. Multiple factors contribute to our national organ shortage. The biggest dilemma is time. There is a ridiculously short window for doctors to get viable organs from a donor to a patient. With a heart, for example, they have a maximum of six hours to keep the removed organ stable so it can be revived. Doctors inject the heart with a stabilizing solution, pack it in a cooler with ice, and the clock starts ticking.

Did you catch that? With all our technological advances, we’re still transporting organs in a picnic cooler. This means that a heart can only travel a short distance. It limits potential recipients to just those lucky enough to live in proximity to the organ, not those who are most in need. If a patient lives too far away, they are out of luck. Even worse, due to transportation problems, sometimes an organ doesn’t get used at all.6

We have invested in a company that wants to fix this. They invented a solution to keep an organ alive for longer than the six hours it can survive in an Igloo cooler, better suited for sandwiches and cold water. This company developed a portable device that hooks up a heart, lung, or liver to keep the organ alive. The heart keeps beating. The lungs keep aspirating. They doubled the viable shelf life for the transportation of a live, beating heart from six hours to 12 hours. This is revolutionary! This is life-saving stuff, and I believe this company will radically reshape the landscape of organ transplants.

This is a company I’m proud of, a company that alleviates suffering and helps the world rejoice. We believe this is a good investment in all the ways that matter. This company will save lives. We believe it will upend an industry, and yes, will eventually make substantial profit.

This company is still growing and investing heavily in optimizing their vision to get viable organs to those who need them in time. In fact, they recognized the need to purchase their own planes in order to oversee the entire logistical supply chain operations. They have a big vision. And they need capital to make it happen. That’s why we invested in this company, and why we invest in so many others like them who need critical capital as they bring their companies from infancy to maturity. We will surely adjust as needed, but we are steady with the philosophy and the values that guide us.

Together, we are investing in good companies for the long term. This is true in our funds that are setting the pace and in those we’d like to see catch some fresh wind. We’re constantly on the lookout for companies that create value, companies that we believe will generate good profits for investors and abundant joy for the world.

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