Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5-7

Joshua Aguilar

Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

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Intro: When you think of the Sermon on the Mount what comes to mind?

When we think of the Sermon on the Mount, we must think of the larger context of Mathew:

The Long Awaited Messiah - King has arrived. He is here. The book of Matthew is a Jewish Apologetic book proving that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah-King we have been waiting for. We can recognize this with all the Old Testament references. “this happened to fulfill”

Jesus is the Long Awaited Messiah but we must not miss the connections Matthew draws to Jesus as being the new and better Moses.

Moses and Jesus both were delivered from death as babies.

Mathew Records the verse “out of Egypt I have called my son” After Joseph is told to leave Egypt and return.

When we get to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1

Matthew 5:1 ESV

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Almost the exact same wording when Moses is going up the mountain to receive the law. Just like Moses when up the mountain and spoke with authority, Jesus is going up the mountain and speaking with authority.

The Parallels extend to the very structure of the book of Matthew. Matthew has 5 blocks of teaching or discourses in his book

The Sermon on the Mount (5:1-7:28)

The Missionary Discourse (10:1-42)

The Parable Discourse (13:1-53)

The Community Discourse (17:22-18:35)

The Apocalyptic Discourse (24:1-25:46)

Some Scholars believe Matthew structured his book this way to mirror the Torah/5 Books of the Law.

The Messiah-King has arrived and so has the long awaited kingdom. Matthew categorizes Jesus ministry in Matthew 4:23

Matthew 4:23 ESV

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Matthew 9:35 ESV

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

Teaching, Proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom (This king has a kingdom), healing

Proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, there is a New King and and the King is preaching the kingdom of God is here. A new king, a new kingdom, a new people.

It was always God’s intention to usher in this kingdom which would not just give us commands to obey but transformed hearts so that we can obey.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Ezekiel 36:24–28 ESV

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

We must not forget when the Book of Matthew opens up with the birth narratives we are given a crucial statement. Matt1:21

Matthew 1:21 ESV

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus will save people from their sins. Matthew calls attention to the problem of sin, and the answer and cure to man’s problem, Jesus.

The book of Matthew ends with the last 8 chapters focusing on the last week of Jesus life, culminating in his death and resurrection. Why does this matter? Because Jesus’ work on the cross is absolutely necessary to understanding the Sermon on the Mount, it is absolutely necessary to understanding the Bible as a whole. Without the cross the Sermon on the Mount is a large list of my failures, of which I have no hope to remedy. When we read all that the sermon on the mount contains, we should not walk away think “ I have to live worry free or I wont be accepted by God, I must love my enemies or I wont be accepted by God, I must turn the other cheek to be accepted by God”. We are not accepted by God by anything we do, we are accepted by God because of Jesus who died on a cross in our place, rose again from the dead to seal the victory and has given us his Spirit to empower us to live a life that Glorifies the Father, and what kind of life glorifies the Father? How are we to live as citizens of the kingdom of God? This is what Jesus teaches us in the sermon on the Mount. Jesus teaches us,

The Character of Kingdom Citizens

The Nature and Role of Kingdom Citizens

Kingdom Citizens and the Law

Kingdom Citizens and Their Devotion

Kingdom Citizens and their Ambition

Kingdom Citizens and Their Relationships

Kingdom Citizens and their commitment

Who is the sermon on the mount directed to?

This is a very important question, because some have taken this sermon and have tried to aplly it socially to all people. They will say something like, we must turn the other cheek and try to apply that to government, nations, even secular communities. But is this Sermon directed to everyone?

Others may say this sermon is given by Jesus, speaking of life in the future messianic kingdom and impossible to live now. Yet when we read Matthew’s opening line to the Sermon,

Matthew 5:1–2 ESV

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:

Jesus saw the crowds and moved away from them to the top of the mountain, he sat down and the disciples came to him. When Jewish Rabbi’s were teaching they would take a seat to teach. when Jesus sits, what do the disciples do? Come to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them - who is them? The disciples, the Sermon on the Mount in the Words of John Stott “is the nearest thing to a manifesto that he ever uttered, for it is his own description of what he wanted his followers to be and do.” John Stott Continues to say the sermon on the mount “it describes what human life and human community look like when they come under the gracious rule of God.

And what do they look like? Different! Jesus emphasized that his true followers, the citizens of God’s kingdom, were to be entirely different from others. They were not to take their cue from the people around them, but from him, and so prove to be genuine children of their heavenly Father.”

The Sermon on the Mount are the principles of the Gospel Kingdom, it is how people transformed by the Gospel should be and how they should live. Will we as citizens of the kingdom be perfect to live up to the principles, of course not, but a heart transformed by the Gospel, who is filled with the Spirit is empowered by the Spirit to live out the principles of the kingdom in this sermon which we see leads to the blessed life or as Derwin Gray says “The Good Life”.

I. The Character of Kingdom Citizens Matt 5:3-12

A. The Blessed Life

We can’t help to notice the word Blessed in this passage, the passage is known as the beatitudes - he name “beatitude” comes from the Latin beatitudo/beatus, because the first word of each statement in the Latin Vulgate is beati, which translates Matthew’s Greek word makarios(traditionally translated “blessed”). Some recent versions translate makarios as “happy” or “fortunate,” which can be good renderings, but the modern usage of those terms tends to trivialize the meaning by simply suggesting a temporary emotional or circumstantial state. The somewhat ambiguous English “blessed” perhaps is still the best term to describe Jesus’ statements.

So what does Jesus mean by Blessed or happy is? The Blessing or Happiness Jesus is talking about happiness and blessing you find In Christ, which is not dependent on circumstances but anchored in the Christ and the joy he provides which is our strength, even in the moments when we are at our worst.

The Sermon on the Mount: (Matthew 5–7): An Expositional Commentary Chapter 1: The Secret of Happiness (Matthew 5:3–12)

A. M. Hunter writes, “The Beatitudes of Jesus describe the character of the men who, living under God’s Fatherly Rule made manifest in Jesus, enjoy … happiness even here and now, though its perfection belongs to the heavenly world.”

As we look at the reason for our happiness, blessing, we just need to look at the promises given in the passage.

theirs is the kingdom

for they shall be comforted

for they shall be satisfied

for they shall receive mercy

for they shall see God

for they shall be called sons of God

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

B. When we come to this passage we must think of the beatitudes as a description of what a disciple of Jesus should look like.

This passages is not for just certain people, but is descriptive of all followers of Christ. John Stott says “the beatitudes are Christ’s own specification of what every Christian ought to be.”

We can divide the 8 beatitudes as the first four describing a believers relations to the Lord and the second four as his relationship with our neighbors

Poor in Spirit - We see this as our utter dependency on God to save us from our sin. We are helpless without him and when we realize our helplessness we run to the Lord poor in spirt, in humility, and dependence on him to save us, transform us, and make us new.

Those Who Mourn - it is one thing to acknowledge your poverty before God and another to mourn over your sinfulness. Something I have noticed is as I grow closer to Christ, I become more aware of how sinful I am, this awareness should break out heart, should cause us to cry out to God. Another aspect of this is we should mourn over the sinfulness around us, what did Jesus do before he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, he wept over Jerusalem, why? Luke 19:41-42

Luke 19:41–42 ESV

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

3. The Meek - Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones says this about meekness -

“Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others … The man who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do”

4. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - God changes out desires, when we hungered and thirsted after our own selfish desires, a believer should hunger and thirst after righteousness. There are 3 aspects to righteousness:

a. Legal - this justification or right relationship with God.

b. Moral - the righteous lifestyle which pleases God.

c. Social - we should desire righteousness in society. justice in the courts, integrity in businesses, liberation from oppression,.

The second 4 deal in our dealings with man.

5. the merciful - Mercy is compassion for people in need, a mercy that leads to action.

6. pure in heart - the purity in heart Jesus is talking about is sincerity. We see this refrenced through the sermon on the mount, don’t be like the hypocrites, pagans, scribes and pharisees. All insincere. Purity of heart speaks to a “whole life, public and private, is transparent before God and men. Their very heart—including their thoughts and motives—is pure, unmixed with anything devious, ulterior or base. Hypocrisy and deceit are abhorrent to them; they are without guile”

7. peacemakers - we are to be ministers of peace, bring ing peace, the armor of God says we are to have shoes of peace.

8. Persecuted for righteousness sake -

II. The Influence of Kingdom Citizens

A. Salt

Salt had a twofold function in Jesus’ day.

Salt was a preservative. They would put it on their meats to keep them from decaying, because they did not have refrigeration. As kingdom citizens, we are like preservatives, we prevent the decay in our world by being pillars and ambassadors of truth. We are to speak truth in the societies and cultures we live in. Which leads us to the next use of salt.

Salt also was used as season food, much like we use it today, to flavor our food. When I think of being and ambassador and pillar of truth, I do not only think of the truths I must stand for and communicate, but I must also think how can I communicate truth in a way that does not cause a double offense, because the truth will offend, I do not want to add to the offense by how I communicate the truth.

B. Light

Light functions as illumination so we can see where we are going and what we are doing. While salt prevents decay and attempts to stop the spread of evil. Light functions to promote truth, the beauty of God and the happy life provided to us in Christ.

III. Kingdom Citizens and the Law

Matthew 5:17–20 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

A. Jesus did not come to destroy the law and the prophets.

When Jesus says the Law and the prophets, he is encompassing the whole Old Testament. My kingdom that I am inaugurating, is not destroying the previous work of the Old Testament, which is God’s word and useful for us. What is the purpose of the law?

The Law keeps sin under control.

The law is a mirror that reveals sin

The law is map, it shows us how to honor God

Those 3 purposes are still true today.

B. Jesus came to fulfill the law

Jesus came to fulfill the law, that word fulfill means to fill up, to bring to completion. We see Jesus doing both of these things. After this discourse on the law Jesus gives us 6 examples on how teh law is filled up, while the people were obeying the letter of the law for the most part, Jesus wants ud to obey the spirit of the law. Jesus tells them you have heard it said… but I say to you…, by doing so Jesus is fulfilling the law.

Jesus also brings the law and prophets to completion by obeying the law perfectly, by fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament, Jesus brings the law to completion, which is why we no longer have a sacrificial system or follow the ceremonial laws any more. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and prophets.

IV. Kingdom Citizens and Their Devotion Matt 6:1-18

V. Kingdom Citizens and their Ambition Matt 6:19-34

VI. Kingdom Citizens and Their Relationships Matt 7:1-23

VII. Kingdom Citizens and their commitment Matt 7:24-27

Matthew 7:28 ESV

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,

John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 49.

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