Sermon on the Mount - Background

So today, the title of the sermon, of course, is about the Sermon on the Mount. We'll get a background as I hope you have found it interesting in your studies, as you read. Hopefully you have read this week Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and why it's considered by many to be the greatest sermon ever given. We are going to spend the next few weeks on a series going through there. Today, I would like to do the background on that because to truly understand the magnitude of the sermon, you would need to know a lot of background. And even as I was talking to many people about this sermon, they had quite a few questions. So I think I would like to try to answer some of those questions today. This is more of a teaching sermon than a preaching sermon. So I have a couple handouts too that I will be handing out that hopefully will answer some of your questions and have you kind of prepared. The interesting part about the Sermon on the Mount is that a God is telling us how to be godly. And it's in very plain and simple English, if I can put it that way. I would like to look at today the who, what, when, where, and why. So that as you read it this week again, and hopefully we will go through it even more depth next week, you can understand who's talking, where he's talking, why he's talking, and why he says what he says. Because the who is very easy. It's Jesus Christ, the Word, the Great I Am saying these words. And it's been preserved for us for almost 2,000 years. The why is it is instruction in righteousness. And that is unique because before John the Baptist, who just started a year or two before Christ preaching in the wilderness, it had been 400 years since there was a prophet or a true teacher of God teaching the nation of Israel. 400 years since Malachi. And during those 400 years, things got really messed up. Things got misconstrued. Things were being taught that God never intended for his priests, his teachers, to teach in the way that they were teaching them.

And the where? The sermon was given outside of Capernaum on a place called Amout. That was actually a flat place we will get to a little bit later. But I want you to try to understand the mindset of the people that are about to receive this message from Jesus Christ. Understanding the people will help you to understand why he said what he said in the way that he said it, and why it maybe is just as important to us today.

I think something else is very important is a historical background is needed for you to understand the people.

There is uniqueness. I was thinking about this because I think most of you can relate to this, being you have lived here some amount of time. Before five years ago, we, Mary and I, almost five years ago, Mary and I moved here, didn't really understand or know much about Miami. We previously had seen a TV show that was filmed out of Miami, and it was called Burn Notice. Don't know if any of you ever saw the show. Burn Notice, it was actually filmed here and made about a kind of a...blacklisted spy. Yes, a blacklisted spy who was out to try to help people, kind of a Robin Hood kind of thing, or trying to help people. And so the show would actually...we would watch...I think it came on Thursday nights or something. We would have on a few shows that we did watch. Little did we know that we would ever be moving to the Miami area, but when the show would talk about, well, we're going to Hylia, we're going to Kendall, or these people are near Pompano, and I remember that came up in one of the shows in a warehouse in Pompano, and I had no idea where Pompano was compared to Miami, and where Brickell is, and all these kind of things. So now if I were to see the show, now that I know these streets, now that I know these areas, I can relate to the people and the things going in it even more than I ever could before. So I want to do that today here. I'd like to hand out this map if you don't mind. I think you will find it to be very interesting if you've ever had any questions.

As we look at the topography of the lands we will be talking at, so you can understand the land that this is taking place at. And when you read in the Bible, and you read maybe an example of Jesus Christ and or his family going from Nazareth down to Jerusalem to keep the feast, how far is that? Just like me not knowing how far Pompano was from Miami Beach. Now I can understand and know kind of the mileage. This handout here will actually give you distances. I have a smaller version than you have, but it actually shows how far it was from one place to another. So when Jesus Christ is moving from Capernaum down to even Tiberius or to Nazareth or to Cana, remember where the wedding took place in Cana, how far was it from one place to the other? And that most people did not ride in chariots or on horses. Most walked. And so here when you look at this little map, you can also see the distances that Jesus Christ and his disciples covered as they were walking across this territory. I found it very interesting that from Capernaum, which is at the top of the Sea of Galilee down to Jerusalem, 87 miles, that's a long walk. That's a long haul to be walking, especially for those keeping the feast are going to pass over down in Jerusalem. You can imagine taking your families, your animals, and starting that trek in a very hot environment at that time. You can see they're walking just from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, from Bethany or to Jericho. You can see how far it is and how they actually walked and how they got around. I find it interesting from Nazareth to Jerusalem was 65 miles, and from Capernaum to Nigh, was 22 miles. And you would see that they would walk this a lot of times in a day, day and a half, which meant they had to walk at a pretty good pace as you can keep this and understand this. I have another map I want to give you now, keep you busy here.

I want you to see this map. This is a map of Palestine in Christ's time. And as you look at this, I'd like you to consider that the area in which Jesus Christ spends and His disciples spend the majority of their time is in where? Galilee, right? We hear Galilee, the Sea of Galilee. As you look at this map, you will see all the cities, and using the other map, you can see the distances. But I made this in color because I wanted you to actually see the mountains and the lay of the land there, exactly where the Sea of Galilee is, and the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea at the very bottom of the handout. And you're able to actually see that this area is broken up into regions. We might even say like counties here.

Now, I'd like you to look at the Galilee area. Everybody sees that. Up above it is Phoenicia, and then you see Etturia, Trachonitis, Decapolis, Samaria, Pareia, Judea, and Idomea. You may say, well, why do I care about this? I want you to consider that Jesus Christ's ministry, He spent 90% of His time in that area that you see as Galilee. You can go through there, and we're going to look at a couple places like that today. So He spoke mostly to Galileans who were there unless people came from these other areas to hear Him, and we will see that they do.

Now, I would like to let you understand that the Galilee territory that we're looking at, if you go back to when the children of Israel came into this land, it was divided up. All this land was divided among the 12 tribes, right? And this land of Galilee, that we're going to be looking at, was the land of Naphtali, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, and Dan, five of the tribes. So this is a good-sized area here that this is taking up. It's actually said that in this area of Galilee, about the time of Christ, there were about 200 cities and villages in Galilee.

Now, you can look on your map, and you see that there were, you know, major cities here. And you can see that there were, you know, major cities here. But the little villages could only, they only hold 10 people, 20 people, a family, but they would be little villages. So there were a lot of these scattered around, being it was very agriculture-minded territory there.

But as you can see, the major cities, and I want you to look at those, there is Carasian at the very top near the Sea of Galilee, Bessaeda, Capernaum, Magdala, and Tiberius. Okay? Now, I bring this up because I've always had certain questions that I never really had anybody explain to me, and I also had this question by somebody on the phone this week, where they didn't understand, wait a minute, who was really talking to me?

I'm not talking to anybody. I'm talking to somebody who's talking to me. I'm talking to somebody who's talking to me. Well, it was actually Herod. Okay? Herod. So if you want to put that in your notes, you'll find that in the Bible, it even talks about Herod the Great was the king. He was This is actually known as the king over this whole area you are looking at on your page. And Rome, being Rome controlled that area, the emperor actually made him king, gave him responsibility to collect and pay all these taxes.

And you might remember this is the Herod, Herod the Great, that actually put the edict out to kill all the children before the time of Christ because he had heard that there was another king. King Herod was an amazing man. He had a lot of things that were built that were amazing.

He loved to build. But he knew how to play the game with Rome. That's why they put him up there. He would placate them. He would collect his taxes and make sure that they got their fair share. Then some. But Herod was a vicious man. He had quite a few kids, killed some, had quite a few wives, killed some of those too. But he set up the order of the sacrifice. He's the one that actually redid the temple that Jesus was talking about. It was still in construction at that time.

But he controlled this whole area. It was all his. But we see right after Christ was born, Herod the Great died. And when he died, there was a great debate. Well, what do we do now? What do we do? Caesar Augustus was the emperor at that time after taking over from Julius Caesar. So Caesar Augustus decided or had to make the call that we're going to divide this up because Herod the Great had left this to his three sons.

So you can imagine, here's Herod. He has three sons and he divides his territory up. He divides the territory up to his oldest son he gave Galilee. That's what you're seeing there. His oldest son, in case you need to know the name, his oldest son was named Herod Antipas. So that's the Herod we are seeing in the Bible at the time of Christ. Herod Antipas.

And Herod Antipas received from his father the territory of Galilee. And if you look on your map, Peraea. Now, he had a younger brother and his younger brother was named Herod Archales. Herod Archales. That was his younger brother. Herod was given this Herod. Herod actually means hero. It's a title. It's a title they were given.

Herod Archales. Archales, he got Judea and Samaria. So he was to rule over that. And then there was another son. And that was the third son. And this son was named Philip the Tetrarch. He wasn't really known as Herod. But he was considered equal. And his area was the Decapolis. You can see on your drawing here. Now, you may say, well, this is all boring history. I don't really care about history. It all plays in because you find out that this Herod Archales, who was controlled over Judea, he was given 10 years to rule, and he did such a lousy job that the emperor said, you're out of there. We're not going to have you rule. So the Romans decided they would rather send their own prefect in there, their own governor in there. So after kicking him out of office, they actually sent in then just before Christ started his ministry, a man by the name of Pontius Pilate. So we see at the time of Christ, Philip was ruling Decapolis, Herod Antipas was ruling Galilee, and Pontius Pilate was ruling the name of Judea. So that helps explain what the rulership was at that time of Christ. Why is it important? Well, it's very important because if you will remember, it was Herod Antipas that put John the Baptist to death. Right? And he did it because John was saying, you took your brother Philip's wife.

And if you look down on your map down there, you will see by the Dead Sea, there's a city called Macareus. Macareus, excuse me. Macareus. Macareus down by the Dead Sea is about five miles from the Dead Sea, and Macareus is where the party took place because you have to remember he had pariah. Herod Antipas had pariah. That was part of his territory. This is where he had this really nice home built. This castle, this fort also near Masada that he also built. This is where he actually had John the Baptist put to death, where he had his head cut off. Okay? So when you read the story where Christ was actually baptized, where was he baptized? Anybody know? He was baptized in the Jordan River right almost at the top of the Dead Sea. If you see there, there's one called Bethabara. Bethabara is about where Jesus Christ was baptized. That's where John was doing his work. Then you see that John was actually put in prison, and you find that Jesus Christ and his crew went where? Straight north to Galilee. So there's a lot going on here. You have three different rulers ruling over this, and they really don't get along. And here you have Jesus Christ and his disciples going from one area to another area to another area. But the man who controlled the area he spent most of his time in was Herod Antipas.

And Herod then, if you look on your map, you will see the city of Nazareth. But something is missing there.

There is a city named Sepharus. S-E-P-P-H-O-R-I-S. Sepharus. The interesting part about Sepharus is that it was only about four miles from Nazareth. Now, who lived in Nazareth? Jesus Christ grew up there, right? Mary and Joseph lived there.

But to explain the mindset of the people, after Passover in 4 B.C. and I say B-C-E before the common era, okay? After the Passover at that time, Galilean farmers rebelled against the taxes, that's in Galilee, that Herod Antipas had imposed on them. Because he wanted to build these big cities that looked like the cities in Rome, looked like the cities that the Greeks would build with the nice columns and everything. But you see, Galilee was a hard-working, country agrarian society. Their buildings were very simple. They were made of wood. It might be a little stone, but nothing fancy. It's just how they all lived.

So when the rebellion happened, Roman troops swept in as Herod Antipas said, Wait a minute, we gotta stop these farmers from getting up. So they came in and they killed 3,000 Galileans in one swipe. Most of them were innocent. They just came in and said, let's just wipe them out. We'll find if you can't tell me who the leader is of this, we'll just wipe all of you out. And after they did that, Rome then attacked Cepheras, sent troops in, and they burnt that city to the ground about 4 BC. And they enslaved all the inhabitants of this small city. You don't see it there anymore, do you? But then something happened. In 6 CE, Common Era, 10 years later, in Galilee, a man by the name of Judith Gamala, Judas of Gamala, it's actually called Gamla, it was actually 3 or 4 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, it was a city.

He rebelled and pulled together a bunch of people. They came in, of course, and fought him and wiped his town out, that's why it no longer exists, because that's what the Romans were. But this Judas, he formed and inspired men to carry on even after they found him and killed him. You will find those group of men scattered out all through this area, from Samaria to Judea. They are known as zealots. You might read about the zealots. They were men who were against the Roman government. You also might remember that Jesus Christ had one of these zealots following him.

So when this happened to put down the uprising, Roman soldiers came in because of the zealots that were in Galilee. And Roman soldiers came in and they burned as many fields as they could all over Galilee. And then they poisoned the wells, because that's where people got their water. And they wiped out entire small villages. Just killed everybody. Destroyed them. Two thousand Galileans were actually executed. And six thousand young Galilean men were taken and enslaved and taken to Rome and the various areas to be slaves for the rest of their life. So once this rebellion was put down, Herod Antipas decided to rebuild Cepheorus. Except this time he was going to build it like the incredible architecture of Rome. There was going to be these big columns. There was going to be porches. There was going to be this. It was just going to be this amazing city which he did build. But it took decades to build this city. And they hired a lot of the local men to help build this city for decades. And one of those, by all archeological digs and other historical things, point to Joseph, Jesus' stepfather, being one of those who were hired to walk the four miles and to be employed during that time. I bring this up because it goes to the mindset of the people that Jesus Christ was teaching.

Jesus is talking to an occupied, oppressed, poor, agrarian society. Most were uneducated and really just struggling to make it and to survive. Imagine working just really hard physical work all of your life just to eat, just to survive. There wasn't any grand plan. There wasn't any real hope while the Romans were there. Because anybody that prospered, you were just taxed more. As a matter of fact, when you see Matthew, the tax collector, that's why he was so despised. His little office was up near Capernaum. He was at the crossroads. So whenever fishermen came out with their fish, they were taxed on their fish. Whenever a wagon or anything brought through goods that was stopped and they were taxed. You were actually taxed per wheel and then you were actually taxed what was in there, what you were carrying. So it was a very tax-heavy nation in which they were living in. So the people were primed for hope. Can you imagine living under those conditions, having every ten years something big happening that would have locked that in your mind that... And then put on top of that, imagine being sick, crippled, diseased and afflicted. Those people were primed for hope and hope was about to arrive. In their minds, they would hear about the wonderful kingdom of God that would be coming. They knew it because they would hear it sometimes as this Messiah was to come and liberate Israel and put it at a time and they would actually be the center of the world. And it would be a time like Solomon had.

And so for a thousand years, almost, they had been looking forward to a time. When someone would come and liberate them from the Roman occupation and before that, the Greek occupation that was there. And before that, the Babylonians, the Persians and the Babylonians. So I want you to look at your colored map now. And I want you to consider that 90% and some even say 95% of Christ's three and a half years that we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the ministry was spent in the Galilee area north of Samaria. And we have talked about many times the Samarians, right? The Samaritans that they really didn't like. And here, if you went to Jerusalem, which they had to make three times a year, three journeys, you would have to go through Samaria and you remember the story of Jesus Christ. He didn't spend a lot of time in Samaria, did he? Remember, he came through one time and the woman at the well. And another time, he was just passing through. And the people didn't even want him to stay there because he had his mind set on going to Jerusalem. And so they said, well, if you can't stay more than a day or two, then you're not welcome. And that's where James and John actually said, well, how dare they insult you? They're Samaritans. Let's call fire down from heaven. Burn these people up. That was Samaria. But I want you to look at the Sea of Galilee because it plays a major part. As you see, Corazin, Capernaum, Magula, Tiberius, and Bethsaida was actually considered a part of that.

The Sea of Galilee was also called Lake Tiberius. Lake Tiberius. So when you see that mention, because they can even throw you when you're studying, wait a minute, I thought I'd see a Galilee. They wanted to name it because the actual city was there and the city was named after the second emperor, which was Emperor Tiberius. So Herod Antipas decided, well, hey, let's name it after him. It'll make him feel better because we're not only going to name the city after him, we're also going to name, we're going to name the entire sea, the lake after him. So when you see that anywhere, you see the Sea of Galilee and you also see, it's also called Lake Tiberius. You'll also see it's called the Sea of Kennerith and also called the Sea of Geneseret. So you say, wow, why do they change the names? Well, it was occupied at different times by different people who decided they would name it whatever they wanted to name it.

So how many stories do you recall of Jesus Christ and around the Sea of Galilee? Remember all the fish stories, sailing stories? This is where he spent the majority of his time and the many seas, cities around the Sea of Galilee. But when you see Capernaum, I want you to think about something because Matthew 9 and verse 1 says that Capernaum was actually the Christ-owned city in town. He based his ministry out of Capernaum. So this area of Capernaum, Corazin, and Basaeda, as you can see on your map, these three cities were pretty close to each other. They were fishing villages and they were heavy traffic for people to come and go. But you might remember that these three cities are the ones that Jesus Christ announces. You remember? If you'll go with me in Matthew 11.

Matthew 11 and verse 20. Matthew 11 and verse 20 said, Then he began to upbraid, reproach, the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Woe to you, Corazin! Woe to you, Basaeda! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in you, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Why was he saying this? Because he's two years or so into the ministry at this time. He spent two years talking to the people who lived in these three cities. And what was it? They didn't care. They just came to what? To be healed and to be fed. They just came to listen to Christ. He was a good speaker. He began to do miracles. Man, he was like a faith healer walking around.

But did they follow him for the right reason? No. He said, boy, if the work had been done because in these other cities, like Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, if I had been there for two years, they would have repented. But these people didn't. They didn't really care. Bethsaida, you might remember, was a hometown of Peter, Andrew, and Philip.

You might look at the city of Nain over there. That's where the widow's son was brought back to life. See, we see what was done. We can look back because of this word. We can see what was done. And not a lot of change was happening. You might want to look at your own lives. God's been working with you, but how much change has been done? Oh, I feel pretty comfortable. I just have to show up, go to church, keep the Holy Days.

Be a pretty good person, and then that's just about it. I got it locked in. That's all I need.

Because I'm in the church. See, these three cities and others thought just because they were of, they came from the right families.

They were the right race. They didn't really need that much grace.

Like you go back with me to Luke, Luke 7.

And here we can actually see on our little map there that from Capernaum down to Nain is 22 miles.

And so you can see by the different names of Jesus Christ was covering all the areas.

But in Luke 7 and verse 11, Now it happened the day after that He went into a city called Nain. And many of His disciples went with Him and a large crowd. So here He already had people. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said to her, Do not weep. Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried Him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say to you, arise.

And he who was dead set up and began to speak, and He presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon them, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited His people. And this report went about Him throughout all Judea and the surrounding regions. So are we talking Galilee? No. We're talking Judea. This man raised a dead man. So word was spreading.

Because you see, thousands and thousands of people were healed. The dead were raised. Thousands and thousands of people heard the truth, and it was preached in power. It was preached in the synagogues. Now you have to understand, all these cities that you're looking at this map here, they all had synagogues. They were basically synagogues. They were wood-type buildings built like all the other houses and buildings. They were used to worship. And they all had a priest, or they all had some Pharisees hanging around, or some scribes who were teachers of the law.

It wasn't the temple. That's where all the main teachers were. That's where they taught everybody. That's where the school was. But up here in these synagogues, the basic teachers just read a little bit from the scrolls. And you have to understand, most of the people in Galilee, they could not read, nor could they write. It wasn't something that they did. So there were very few. That's why when Jesus Christ actually walked in one time and grabbed the scroll and started reading, they're going, Where did he learn to do that? Because it was rare. It's not what they were used to. Like you turn with me to Luke 4. Go back to Luke 4. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4 and verse 14. Luke 4Unity, Luke 4. Luke 14. Luke 4 and verse 14.

So here they would hear him speak, so he had such a following, like you turn over with me to mark. Mark 3, please. Mark 3 and verse 7. Mark 3 and verse 7. But Jesus withdrew from his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, and Jerusalem, and Idomea, and beyond the Jordan, and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things he was doing, came to him. So not only now was he just, all the people of Galilee knowing him, all these other areas were healed, were hearing of his healing, of this amazing work. And verse 9, and he told his disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for him because of the multitude, lest they should crush him. Thousands of people were coming there to hear him, and it was getting so much that if he didn't do something, they would have just crushed him because everybody wanted to touch his garment, or have him heal this, or solve this problem. Verse 11, and the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him and cried out, saying, you are the Son of God. And look at verse 20, and the multitudes came together so that they could not so much as eat bread. There were so many people following them, even his disciples, they didn't have time to eat or a place to eat. They were just forced upon by thousands and thousands and thousands of people. 21. But when his own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of him, for they said, he is out of his mind. Who were his own people? His mother and his brothers. It's like this phenomenon they just couldn't get. Oh, whoa, what's this big deal? Why are these thousands of people? And he's up there speaking, and people are just like staying for days. He must be out of his mind. Throngs of people, crowds of people.

Like turn to one other scripture here, which we begin to close today because I'm covering just the background. Yeah, I'd like you to John 21. John 21. Because John speaks of this.

John 21 and verse 25. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. We only have a small piece, a fraction, of everything that Jesus Christ did. John said there wouldn't be enough. How many people did he heal? How many demons did he cast out? How many people did he raise from the dead? Do you think the three or four that's mentioned here are all that's there? What else did he do? Was he able to solve a problem? These people come and have these questions of what I should do. You think he didn't answer them?

You look and you see that up in Tyre and Sidon, if you look up there at the top, he went all the way up to Tyre and Sidon and healed the daughter of a Gentile woman in Matthew 16. He went all the way to Caesarea Philippi, which you can see at the very top of Galilee. It's 28 miles up there, and of course that's the place that Peter proclaimed that you are the Christ. It's also the place we're going to be looking at in the month of August for the transfiguration as we go through there that took place. Now I want to prove to you that it did take place up at Caesarea Philippi, up at Mount Hermon. But you see, when you study the scriptures, you see even after the Sermon on the Mount, which took place in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and also Luke, that Jesus Christ traveled. I'd like to go to Luke 14 again. Go to Luke 14...no, excuse me, Luke 4 again, please. Luke 4. Luke 4. And verse 31, said, Then he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority. And it says, Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice. This was in Capernaum. Go over to verse 44.

Verse 44 said, And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. So I hope you see, he spoke everywhere. All this area. Can you imagine three and a half years? How many people heard the words, saw the miracles, did all this stuff, and yet, at the end of three and a half years, 120 people.

And almost 20 percent of the 120 were his family, members, and his disciples and relatives. All this stuff being done, and actually talks about in Matthew 4, that people came from everywhere, that echopolis, Tyre and Sidon, all these people came to hear him. They came to hear Jesus Christ. Because they were looking for a miracle.

I asked the question, are you here today for a miracle?

Are you here in church, sitting here, because you expect to see a miracle? Or you expect to have a miracle happen in your life?

When this did not happen in other people's lives, they left. Will you? See, I bring this out because I find this very interesting as you go back to Matthew 5 now. Matthew 5.

In verse 1, it said, "...and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and he taught them." And that's where the Sermon on the Mount started. So here, all these people had gathered around. You understand the mindset, because really, brethren, did they have any other hope?

And I ask us, in this world that we live in today, with all the problems that we have, do you have any other hope than that there is a miracle and that miracle is called the Kingdom of God? Are we so different than those people gathered around Capernaum to hear the Sermon on the Mount? Are we all that different? Do we need these words as much as they needed them? And it's interesting that he starts out, with, blessed are the poor in spirit.

Why would he say that? She realized that those people knew what poor was.

Except this is something they never heard before. That's why they were gathered around. These are words that just, oh, wow!

It describes the character of those seeking the Kingdom of God, the Beatitudes. Hopefully, you've read the Beatitudes.

Are you blessed or, as the English word says, happy? Are you happy because you're poor in spirit? For it says, yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. How happy are you?

Why would you be happy, poor in spirit? Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. This does not sound like real positive words, is it? Happy are you if you mourn.

Blessed are the meat, for they shall inherit the earth. What had they gotten so far? Except beaten up, occupied, beaten, killed, enslaved? And he said, you need to be meat because you're going to inherit the earth. You're going to inherit the earth.

Rather than we have the opportunity in the next two or three weeks to hear and to read the Sermon on the Mount. It is one of the greatest sermons ever given, but you have to, hopefully today, you understand about the nation, about the people, and why this message should resonate not only with them, but with us. And why we need to be poor in spirit.

Why we should be happy if we are happier those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meat, for they shall inherit the earth. Some incredible words given, and they're given for us. So I hope everyone will, with the knowledge you have from the background, not only read the Sermon on the Mount, but also make it a better Bible study for those who read so you can keep these notes so you can understand exactly what Jesus Christ is talking about. So next week we will go into the sermon called the greatest sermon ever given, the Sermon on the Mount.