The Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount: A look into the ministry of Jesus Christ

The most well-known sermon of all time… even those who deny Jesus was God in the flesh recognize the wisdom of His words here… 5 sermons in Matt on evangelism, the nature of the Kingdom, prophecy etc. this one is on ethics. Ethics in the purest sense of the word… how you think affects what you do.

Matt 4:17 Prepare yourself for the coming kingdom... an overview of His message

• Calls disciples to train and prepare them to carry the message after He is gone
• Heals the sick… cast out spirits… to display His authority
• And many people come to hear Him teach and speak (we’re talking thousands at a time)

Matt 5:1-2 What was Jesus teaching like? Matthew now follows with an example. Jesus speaks about law, and works. He speaks with great authority. He magnifies the law, expands upon it, he does not diminish it. He explains how the new covenant will work… writing the commands upon our hearts and our minds.

Vs 2-12 Intro: the characteristics of those who will be in the KOG

Blessings come from your response to the message and teachings of Jesus. The blessing is a joy which is not dependent on the circumstances of physical life, sickness or health, poverty or wealth, etc.

1. Poor in spirit – that you realize it is not in yourself to know the way to walk (to determine what is right and what is wrong), you look to your creator and the power of His Holy Spirit to reveal the spiritual principles that lead to righteousness and eternal life in God’s family.
2. Those who mourn – that you are filled with Godly sorrow when you look upon your own sin and the sin in the world… Godly sorrow that leads to repentance and a strong desire for Christ’s return to right the wrongs of the earth… which you will see!
3. The meek – that you are humble before your fellow human beings but especially humble before your God… willing to be trained in righteousness and Godly character… controlling your passions, impulses, your desires and submitting every thought to Jesus Christ… tearing down the mighty fortresses of rationalizations and arguments we build in our minds against the knowledge of God, taking captive every thought and making it obedient to Christ. Why? That you might inherit the earth and take your place within the God Family that rules it.
4. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - "How much do you want the goodness of God for yourself and for the world? Do you want it as much as a starving man wants food, and as much as a man dying of thirst wants water?" How intense is your desire for total goodness? Or are you content with a sloppy mixture of good and evil like we have in this world?
5. The merciful – Christ’s teaching is insistent that to be forgiven we must be forgiving… to pursue mercy it helps to get inside the other person’s situation, to consider their circumstances, their baggage, their background… why are they doing the stupid things they do? Which if you reflect upon it is what Jesus did himself… God allowing himself to be made fully human in every way that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and make atonement for the sins of the people. Jesus does not condone evil, He rejects it and will judge it against the high standard of Godly righteousness… but He gets it, He’s been inside your skin, and He extends mercy…  that we might take the opportunity to repent.
6. The pure in heart –you are willing to examine yourself… your motives, your actions, and to let God search your heart through trial, through His discipline, through the conviction of the H.S… purge out the old leaven, eradicate that which is unclean because no uncleanness will come before God.
7. The peacemakers – (The blessing is on the peace-makers, not necessarily on the peace-lovers) not passive, accepting evil, willing to look the other way… but active righteousness… seeking to establish right relationships between you and your fellow man… Because this is what being a member of the God Family is all about.
8. The persecuted – Jesus never sugar coated it… He did not come to show you how to make peace with the world around you. When you accept and internalize His teachings you will find yourself at odds with this world. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

These blessed attitudes are rejected by this world and if not outright rejected held in low esteem as foolish and weak. At your job, at school, your social life, perhaps within your family, these attitudes of mind and going to bring you into conflict with the world around you. And at some future time, the disciples of Christ will be subject to state-sanctioned violence once again.

Vs 13-16—The Here-And-Now Purpose of Those Who Are Preparing for the future

Considering how different we are to be from the society around us you could conclude that we are called to separate ourselves… live in a monastery, a religious compound in the desert, be like the Amish. But no, we are expected to interact with others in the world to achieve a secondary, God-ordained purpose. Like salt we are to act as a preservative, maintaining purity in a world of corruption. We are to be a light that shines into dark places… exposing evil and offering the truth of God in its place.

Vs 17-20—Sermon’s SPS: God’s Law Is To Be Written On Your Heart

Jesus made it clear that He not contradicting the law or getting rid of it… BUT He is going to change the way it functions in our lives and our world. Prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-34 quoted in Hebrews 8:7-13

Some aspects of the law were going to be accomplished, for example, a couple that are explicitly spelled out in scripture… a sacrificial system will no longer be needed once He offers himself as a sufficient sacrifice for all sins... the priesthood along with all its regulations will be replaced beginning with a new High Priest, Jesus Himself. Both institutions are still part of the plan but they are very much changed.

Some aspects of the law are to be magnified in a way that calls for greater righteousness than even the Pharisees or teachers of the law… expanded in a way that internalizes the law/concept making it part of how you think and feel… or, if you will no longer written on stones, or scrolls, or paper, or an LCD screen but written on your heart.

Sermon’s Core: 6 Illustrations of Greater Righteousness (not exhaustive)

With each of these illustrations, Jesus contrasts the letter of the law and its traditional interpretation with His more exacting requirements. He uses a formula: “You have heard… but I say”. In doing so He is not contradicting the law, or replacing it. He is teaching a new way to apply commandments that requires digging down to the level of thoughts, motivations, and emotions… a project which is ultimately beyond the ability of language to express. If Jesus were merely offering a more complete list of do’s and don’ts it that we could carve on new stones He would not address the core issue of internalization… the Holy Spirit writing the laws of God on your heart and mind.

Gal 3:21 If you could put righteousness into words or regulations… then the law of God was it. Holy, righteous, good.

So, the laws and commandments remain… a guide to life and a starting point for a more intense spiritual project. Putting on the mind of God through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you!

Vs 21-26 Murder—by OT definition not referring to killing in self-defense, manslaughter, holy war, capital punishment after due process. Murder is the ultimate act of hatred and anger and surely comes about by harboring and feeding those emotions. Its that spirit and emotional component Jesus is getting at. Notice that the examples he uses are between brothers and sisters, what they say to one another…  judgment, contempt. What does He say? Don’t just offer prayers or gifts of penance, go fix the relationship and do it quickly before the emotions fester and grow.

Vs 27-30 Adultery—An example that’s applicable to all sexual sin. Thoughts allowed to linger in the heart and mind are a sexual sin and lead to greater sexual sin. The thoughts will come… no doubt… but how do you deal with them? The solution offered here is that you remove yourself from situations that lead to sin, sexual or otherwise. And sins left unaddressed lead to judgment and death.

Vs 31-32 Divorce—Here Jesus appears to be forbidding a practice that the OT permits… Deut.24:1: "When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house." The problem was the Jews played games with the word indecency such that it could mean anything from sexual sin to being a bad cook or just ugly… in other words they could divorce her for any reason. Jesus says this should not be so.

What’s the heart issue here? Something God hates… faithlessness, selfishness, hardness of heart. The letter of marriage is legal rights… the spirit of marriage is love, commitment, unity, faithfulness.

Vs 33-37 Oaths—the Jews had created an elaborate hierarchy of oath taking. To swear an oath on the gold of the altar was very serious… you wouldn’t want to break that one. An oath on the tassels of the Levite's robes would be less so... breaking that one wouldn’t be good but there was some wiggle room. So oath taking, or truth-telling, was not YES or NO it would be shades of grey… Others should be able to trust you and count on your word being truthful in everything… large or small. That is what is in the heart of a disciple!

Vs 38-42 An Eye For An Eye—referring to Ex 21:24, Lev 24:19-20, Deut 19:21… the law is generally interpreted as seeking to limit the escalation of retaliation and revenge. In Genesis 4:24-25 Lamech says “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.  If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” God’s law sought to limit that… yes there were to be consequences for such things but they needed to be appropriate for the actual crime or misdeed. So, the OT law allows retaliation or punishment… in like kind.

But, Jesus says the real answer to retaliation (and implicitly reconciliation) is… let it go. If someone insults you (slapping a person on the cheek with the back of your hand was a big time insult) don’t respond in like kind. Let it go.

On the flip side avoid the downward spiral of grudging resentment of tasks and duties. If you are legally required to do something don’t approach it resentfully… doing the bare minimum required. Go above and beyond with graciousness and good cheer. That’s the way to go about life’s many tasks great and small.

Vs 43-48 Love For Enemies—there is no specific command in the OT to love your friends and hate your enemies. But it’s definitely the way we as people tend to operate. Everybody loves their own. But the greater righteousness is to go above and beyond… showing love for “others”… those outside our family, our group, our race, even to those who oppose us and don’t like us, criticize and mock us.

To do so is to be like our Father. He gives rain and sunshine to all His creation… the righteous and the unrighteous. He loves you even when you are not especially lovable. He judges He disciplines, but He always loves.

Be perfect as your Father is perfect - according to the definitions and meanings of English words, a call to perfection is obviously an impossible task. It’s a weakness of our desire to have a word for word translation of scripture rather than to discern the concept. The original word doesn’t necessarily mean perfection as we mean perfection today.

Dig in with a word study here and you see that the concept/idea Jesus is voicing here is to become complete, mature, tempered and tested, well developed for the purpose you were designed for… which is to become like God… a creation in His own image and likeness… as it has been from the very beginning. Paul fleshes out the idea well in Eph 4:13-16.

Putting on the mind of God, developing the character of God means having the commandments of God written on your heart, to become your way of thinking, your motive, and your actions. So…

• Know the commands of God
• Discern the spirit behind them
• Practice them in a way that conforms to the spirit