Youth Bible Study Sermon on the Mount

Jesus The new Moses, why a mountain?

Jesus going up on a mountain reflects the the giving of the law to Moses on the mountain

Exodus 19:3 “And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:”

In Matthew 5:17-43 Jesus opens six repeated statements with these words: "You have heard it said, and I say to you …." The first part, “you have heard it said,” refers to the original Torah. Some thought Jesus opposed that first instruction, but Jesus emphatically says the opposite. He doesn’t think the old law is flawed or obsolete. It was limited in its scope, and he’s providing fuller explanation and illustration.

The meaning of Torah: The teaching

The meaning of righteousness: to cause someone to be in a proper or right relation with someone else—‘to put right with, to cause to be in a right relationship with others and with God