Hear the King

Matthew 5:1-2

OPENING — Who is speaking?

Who is this man?

Before we read a single word of the most famous sermon ever preached, Matthew demands that we answer that question. He has spent four chapters — sixteen pages in my Bible — making sure we cannot mistake the answer.

Who is this man?

He is the Seed of the woman, promised in Eden, who will crush the serpent's head.

He is the Seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth will be blessed.

He is the Son of David, the rightful King, born in the city of David, hailed by Gentile magi who fall on their faces and worship.

He is Immanuel — God with us — conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, fulfilling the word of the prophet Isaiah.

He is the new and better Israel, called out of Egypt, who passes through the waters of baptism, and who is driven into the wilderness to be tested for forty days — and where the first Israel failed at every turn, this Israel stands. Where the first Adam fell, this Adam holds the line.

He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, upon whom the Spirit descends like a dove, of whom the Father says, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

And in the closing verses of chapter 4, Matthew tells us this: this man went throughout Galilee, teaching, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. They brought him the sick, the demon-oppressed, the epileptics, the paralytics — and he healed them. The crowds came from Galilee, from the Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judea, from beyond the Jordan.

They came because this man has authority over demons. This man has authority over disease. This man has authority over death itself.

And then — Matthew chapter 5, verse 1:

"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…"

Church, hear me. The one who has authority over demons is about to open his mouth. The Son of God, the Son of David, Immanuel, the Messiah — sits down on the mountain — and begins to teach.

We are about to hear the words of the King.

TRANSITION TO THE READING

For the next several months, we are going to walk slowly through Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. But this morning, before we walk slowly, I want us to listen all at once. I want us to hear the Sermon on the Mount the way Matthew wrote it — as one continuous declaration from the lips of the King.

So I'm going to ask you to do something simple and difficult. I'm going to ask you to listen. Not to take notes. Not to follow along in your Bible unless you need to. Just listen. Hear his voice.

Hear the King.

THE READING — Matthew 5:1–7:29

[Read the entire Sermon on the Mount. Slow at the Beatitudes. Slow at the Lord's Prayer. Let 7:28–29 land.]

MOVEMENT 1 — The Enthroned King on the Mountain

Hear how Matthew ends the sermon: "the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes."

Authority. The same word that has been ringing through Matthew's gospel since chapter 4. Authority over demons. Authority over disease. And now — authority in the word itself. The crowds did not say, "what a fine moral teacher." They did not say, "what wise advice." They were astonished. They had never heard a man speak this way.

Look back with me at chapter 5, verse 1. I want you to see two things in this verse. Two small details that Matthew puts there on purpose.

① "He went up on the mountain."

In the Greek, Matthew uses the definite article — the mountain. Not a mountain. The mountain. Geographically, we don't know exactly which mountain this was. But Matthew is a Jewish man writing to Jewish readers, and when a Jewish writer says the mountain, the mind of the Jewish reader goes to one place: Sinai. The mountain where God descended in fire and smoke and thunder, and gave his law to his people through his servant Moses.

And Matthew has been preparing us for this connection from the beginning of his gospel. A wicked king tries to kill the infant deliverer — like Pharaoh and Moses. The deliverer is preserved — like Moses. He is called out of Egypt — like Moses and like Israel. He passes through the waters — like Israel through the Red Sea. He spends forty days in the wilderness — like Israel forty years. And now — he ascends the mountain.

Beloved, this is no accident. Matthew is telling us: something greater than Sinai is here.

But notice the difference. Moses ascended the mountain to receive the word of God and bring it down to the people. Jesus ascends the mountain and the people come up to him. Moses spoke the words that God gave him. Jesus opens his mouth and speaks as God himself. "You have heard that it was said… but I say to you." No prophet ever spoke that way. No prophet could speak that way. Only one greater than the prophets. Only one greater than Moses.

② "And when he sat down."

Why does Matthew tell us he sat down?

In the ancient world, posture meant something.

A rabbi to teach with authority sat

A king on his throne to render judgment sat

And the God of Israel — Psalm 2 — — the enthroned LORD declares his decree."He who sits in the heavens"

When Jesus sits down on the mountain, Matthew is telling us: the King has taken his throne. The Messiah is enthroned. And from that throne, on that mountain, he opens his mouth, and he declares his kingdom.

This is not a good moral teacher offering helpful advice for a flourishing life. This is the King of kings and Lord of lords, sitting on his mountain throne, declaring with the authority of God himself what life in his kingdom looks like.

MOVEMENT 2 — The Map of the Sermon

So what is he declaring? Over the next several months, we are going to walk through it slowly. But let me give you a map.

The Sermon on the Mount falls into three chapters, and each chapter has a center of gravity. If you remember nothing else this morning, remember this:

Chapter 5 — The CHARACTER and RIGHTEOUSNESS of kingdom citizens

Who are the people of the King? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They are salt and light. And their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees — not because they keep more rules, but because the King reaches down past the rules into the heart. You have heard that it was said, "do not murder" — but I say to you, do not even harbor anger. You have heard, "do not commit adultery" — but I say to you, do not even look with lust.

Chapter 5 is who kingdom citizens are.

Chapter 6 — The DEVOTIONAL LIFE of kingdom citizens — toward the Father

When you give. When you pray. When you fast. Not to be seen by men, but in secret, before your Father who sees in secret. Chapter 6 gives us the Lord's Prayer — "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And it ends with the call to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, trusting our Father for everything else.

Chapter 6 is how kingdom citizens live before their Father.

Chapter 7 — The DISCERNMENT and DECISION required of every hearer

Judge not. Ask, seek, knock. The golden rule. The narrow gate. The two ways, the two trees, the two builders. And it ends with the warning of warnings: not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father.

Chapter 7 is the call to enter and to build on the Rock.

Three chapters. Three movements. The character of kingdom citizens. The devotion of kingdom citizens. The decision before every hearer. Hold that map in your mind as we walk.

MOVEMENT 3 — How We Are to Hear

Now — how do we hear this? How do we sit under these words for the next several months in a way that does not leave us merely informed, but transformed?

I want to give you a simple practice for the weeks ahead.

Read the entire Sermon on the Mount each week.

Just as we have done this morning. It takes about thirteen minutes. Sit down with your Bible — Saturday evening, Sunday morning, whenever — and read the whole thing in one sitting. Let his voice wash over you again and again.

Bring three questions to the text.

Whatever portion grips you that week — write it down, or simply turn it over in your mind — and ask:

① What does this reveal about the King?

② What does this reveal about his kingdom?

③ What does this reveal about me?

That's it. Three questions. Bring them to the Beatitudes. Bring them to the Lord's Prayer. Bring them to the warnings about the narrow gate. The Holy Spirit will use the Word of the King to do his transforming work.

Hear me — and this is important.

The Sermon on the Mount is not a ladder for you to climb to earn the kingdom. If you read it that way, it will crush you, and it should. None of us has been pure in heart. None of us has loved our enemies. None of us has been free from anxiety, free from lust, free from anger, free from the desire to be seen. The Sermon on the Mount, read honestly, will drive you to your knees.

But that is precisely where the King wants you. Because the one who declares this righteousness from the mountain is the one who came down from the mountain to fulfill it for you. He is the only one who has ever lived these words perfectly. And he lived them — and died bearing the curse for our failure to live them — and rose — so that his righteousness might be credited to all who trust in him, and so that his Spirit might be poured out to begin to form this very life in us.

So when the Sermon on the Mount reveals your sin, run to him. When it shows you the kingdom, long for him. When it reveals the King, worship him.

CLOSING DOXOLOGY

Beloved, what an extraordinary thing we are about to do together.

For the next several months, we are going to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear him speak.

We are going to sit on the slope of the mountain — the mountain greater than Sinai — and we are going to listen to the enthroned King declare his kingdom.

And here is the joy of it:

He is not a distant King. He is Immanuel — God with us. The same Spirit who anointed him at his baptism dwells in every one of his people gathered in this room. When he opens his mouth from the page, the Spirit opens our ears in the pew. We do not study the Sermon on the Mount; we sit at the feet of the living Christ and hear him speak.

This is the ALREADY.

Right now, this morning, by the Holy Spirit, the King is speaking and his people are listening. Right now, his kingdom has come into our hearts. Right now, we are being conformed to his image, line by line and word by word, as the Spirit takes the words of Jesus and writes them on our hearts.

And this is the NOT YET.

One day — and it may be soon — the mountain will not be in Galilee. It will be Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. And the King will not be teaching a sermon; he will be reigning forever. And every word he declares this morning will be fully and finally true in us. We will be poor in spirit and inherit the kingdom. We will mourn no more. We will be pure in heart, and we will see God.

The joy you taste this morning, sitting at his feet — that joy is a foretaste of an everlasting feast.

So come. Come weekly to this mountain. Come hungry. Come with the three questions. Come ready to be undone, and ready to be remade.

The King is on his throne. The King has opened his mouth.

Hear him.

TRANSITION TO COMMUNION

And now — hear this.

The King who opens his mouth on the mountain is the King who, on the night he was betrayed, took bread and broke it and said, "This is my body, given for you."

The one who declares the righteousness of the kingdom is the one who fulfilled that righteousness for us, and who shed his blood to cover every place we have failed it.

So we cannot hear this sermon and then walk away. We hear the King — and then we come to his Table. The Sermon on the Mount drives us to Christ, and Christ has set a Table for his people.

Let us prepare our hearts.

COMMUNION

Opening the Table

Beloved, the Lord Jesus has invited his people to his Table.

This is not a Table that we have set. We did not bake the bread of our own righteousness; we did not press the cup from our own obedience. This Table belongs to the King who declared his kingdom from the mountain. The bread is his body; the cup is his blood. And it is for us.

Hear me carefully.

This Table is not for the perfect. If it were, none of us would come. The very Sermon we just heard has shown us that. We have not been pure in heart. We have not loved our enemies. We have stored up treasure on earth. We have judged our brothers. We have built, in places, on sand.

But this Table is for sinners who have fled to Christ. It is for those who have heard the voice of the King and who, by the grace of God, have bowed the knee. It is for those who confess that he is their only righteousness and their only hope. If that is you this morning — if you have trusted in Christ and you walk with him — then this Table is for you. Come, and welcome.

But the Apostle Paul, by the Spirit, gives us a solemn warning before we come. Hear the Word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

The Warning — 1 Corinthians 11:27–32

"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world."

Framing the Warning

Hear what the Apostle says, and hear what he does not say.

He does not say, examine yourself, and if you find sin, stay away. If that were the standard, no one would ever come. He says, examine yourself, and so eat. Self-examination is the doorway to the Table, not a wall around it.

To eat in an unworthy manner is to eat without discerning what this is. It is to take this bread and this cup carelessly, as if it were ordinary, as if the body and blood of the Lord were nothing. It is to come clinging to unrepentant sin. It is to come without faith in Christ.

So examine yourselves. Not to find perfection — you will not find it. But to find Christ. Ask the Spirit to search your heart. Confess what he reveals. Look to the cross. And come.

A word to those who have not yet trusted Christ.

If you are not yet a follower of Jesus this morning — if you have not yet trusted in him — we would not ask you to take this bread and this cup. Not because we want to keep you out, but because we love you too much to let you take what you have not yet received. Let these moments instead be a time when you consider the King who is calling you, and we would love nothing more than to talk with you after the service.

Let us take a moment in silence to examine our hearts before the Lord.

[Pause for silent self-examination — 30 to 60 seconds.]

The Institution — 1 Corinthians 11:23–26

Hear now the words of institution, as the Apostle Paul received them from the Lord and delivered them to the church.

"For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

Before Distribution

Until he comes.

Beloved, this Table looks back, and it looks forward. It looks back to the cross, where the King who declared the kingdom from the mountain laid down his life for his sheep. And it looks forward to the day when we will sit at his Table in the kingdom of our Father — when faith will give way to sight, and we shall see him as he is.

This morning, in between, we eat and we drink, and we proclaim his death, and we feast on him by faith.

Come, for all things are ready.

Let us pray.

A few notes on the formatting

A quick word on what each formatting cue is doing, so your eye knows what to look for at the pulpit:

marks load-bearing phrases — the lines that carry the argument. If you lose your place, find the nearest bold and you'll know where you are.Bold

mark the major movements and sub-points. Numbered circles (①②③) mark internal lists you'll likely enumerate aloud.Headers (##, ###)

mark the lines where the doctrine the joy — the places where, in Piper's register, you'll want to slow down and let the weight land. These are your emphasis points.>> block quotesis

are direct Scripture or quoted speech — read these as written rather than paraphrasing.Single-line > block quotes

mark phrases where wording matters — mountain, , , . These are exegetically loaded and should be said as printed.Italicsthebut I say to youso eatuntil he comes

mark the three landing phrases — / / and the closing call before communion. These are the moments where the room should feel the weight.# H1 headersHear him.Come, for all things are ready.

Print and preach well tomorrow. He is faithful.