It's January, which means we get to kick off our study of the Sermon on the Mount! I am so excited about this study! It is so tempting to jump right in with the beatitudes, but I know that would be irresponsible. Many people have misunderstood and misapplied these three chapters of Scripture because they have done just that.
If we want to understand the verses we are about to study, we must first understand the sermon as a whole. That is why this post is necessary. There are some things we need to know in order to properly interpret Jesus's sermon.
The wonder of its existence
The Sermon on the Mount is breathtaking when you think about it. The verse immediately preceding the sermon contains an incredibly astounding statement.
He opened His mouth and began to teach them… (Matthew 5:2, NASB)
At first glance these words seem pretty mundane. But look again. Who is this teacher? This is Jesus Christ. This verse tells us that God the Son, incarnate in human form, stood on a hillside preaching to mere men. Let that sink in.
This shows us the God of the universe is no distant God. He is with us. He is communicating His will to us. He is showing us how to live. He is not calling plays from a distant heaven. He is guiding us here on earth.
God is not waiting in the invisible wings to judge us by an unknown rule book. He is standing on a hillside among us, showing us the way.
It is a sermon
The sermon on the mount is, in fact, a sermon. As common sense as that sounds, it will radically change the way you view the contents.
Whenever I preach, I intend my message to be heard as a whole. What if someone took my sermon notes, pulled out a couple random sentences, and interpreted them with no understanding of the rest of the sermon? They may conclude some things that were not intended by the preacher.
We do the same thing so often with the sermon on the mount. Matthew 5-7 contains some of our favorite one-liners and quick phrases. There we find the golden rule, “judge not lest you be judged", the teaching about pulling out your own log before pointing out someone else's speck, and many more. But these things were not spoken in a vacuum. We will need to keep in mind that this is a sermon crafted by Jesus to bring people to a particular conclusion. It is not just a collection of phrases.
The purpose of the sermon
Jesus's sermon is a masterpiece. It is like several sermons within a sermon. Yet, all of these subsections intersect to show one primary picture. If I had to present the main theme of the sermon on the mount as simply as possible, I would say this: life as a citizen in the kingdom of God. Throughout the sermon Jesus presents a different way of living. Just look at the beginning, middle, and end.
It is the poor in spirit who possess the kingdom of heaven, not the rich (Matt. 5:2). It is only the perfect who can enter the kingdom (Matt. 5:20, 48). Endurance to the end depends not upon the strength of the house, but upon the foundation it is anchored to (Matt. 7:24-27). This is the gospel message in summary. Perfection is required to enter heaven, but none of us are perfect. This should impoverish our spirits enough to turn our hope away from our own efforts. When we do this we behold Christ, who was and is perfect in our place. Our salvation then comes, and is maintained, when we anchor our lives in Him.
From beginning to end, the Christian life is fueled by the gospel. It is this gospel fuel that allows us to strive for our new way of living in God's kingdom on earth.
The beatitudes
The first subsection of the sermon on the mount is the beatitudes. The beatitudes serve as a description of the character of a Christian. Jesus is describing here what His followers will be like.
With that in mind, go ahead and read the beatitudes. How did you do? Every honest Christian will admit that they do not score perfect points. The beatitudes are a way of evaluating the Christian life. These are things that Christ is working out in the heart of every Christian.
I like to view the beatitudes as a mountain. The mountain peak symbolizes the perfect embodiment of all these character traits. The base would be someone who has not been converted and, therefore, has not begun to climb.
If you are a Christian you are somewhere on the mountain. There are some ahead of you and some behind you, but none are on the peak. Jesus is working out Philippians 1:6 in all of His people throughout their time on earth. This means we ought to be somewhere on the map in these beatitudes. There ought to be a sense of them all within us. But none of us can claim to have arrived at perfection.
With that said, I invite you to come stand with me at the base as we prepare to make the climb up this beautiful mountain.
Next study: “Blessed are the poor in spirit"
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