Jesus and the Kingdom

Introduction: If we’re going to be a church that takes the Great Commission seriously...

I can’t think of a better place to start a discipleship reboot than right here in the Sermon on the Mount. The content of the Sermon is quoted more than any other large section of teaching by everyone from religious figures of all religious, politicians, and even Hollywood. We join with the masses that quote from the sermon on the mount.

The Real Problem

But there is a problem we encounter when we read the Sermon on the Mount. We believe the Scriptures, we believe that they are all inspired of the Holy Spirit, they are sufficient and perfect. Yet, we have a very difficult time following the moral demands that this one small portion of the Bible demands.

The Imperfect Solution

For so many, the solution is in the interpretation. Even if you’re not a scholar, you’re a student and a theologian. We all learn and we all teach and we all have interpretations of what we read and learn.

For instance, when we get to the section about lust in the middle of chapter five where Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” And we respond, “Hmm… what do you think Jesus meant by that?”

So the way that we reconcile it is to fight for particular interpretations:

One group says, “Well, everything pre-cross was written for the Jews and therefore is just for our learning, but it really doesn’t pertain to us.”

Another group says, “Jesus spoke these words to show you that you aren’t as good as you think and therefore we fall upon the grace of Jesus.”

Some say, “This Sermon is wonderful, and the really good Christians will follow it.”

Another view is that “the sermon is to be followed only in your private life (with family and your Christian community) but in your civil life, you must do what the governing powers tell us to do.” By the way, this is the view that Lutheran Church in Germany took and why many German Lutherans did not oppose Hitler’s regime. Except for a handful that rejected this view, one person in particular, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

And then there were those that saw this as the entrance into the Kingdom, “so you’d better get started and try really hard not to mess up.”

Several of these solutions have some good elements to them, but ultimately they tend to lead to confusion, a lot of cherry picking, and worst of all most of them evade the imperatives of the sermon altogether.

The Real Question is “What does Jesus want us to do with his words?”

The reality is that this really is an interpretation question. And the Sermon on the Mount serves as a litmus test for how we view the entirety of the Bible.

The Sign Posts

Matthew 7:24 ESV

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Hears + Does = wise person with a strong foundation

Matthew 7:26 ESV

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

Matthe w7:26

Matthew 7:25 ESV

And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

Hears + Does NOT Do = foolish person with a weak foundation

So at the very least, we already can confirm that Jesus wanted his audience to “hear and do” what he taught them.

The Next Question is, did Jesus want his audience (which we’ll see who that was in a moment) to do anything else with his teaching?

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So it seems that the problem isn’t that Jesus wasn’t clear with his instruction, he makes it clear, I want you to take what I’ve taught you and teach it to everyone else, all over the world.

It’s with that premise that we’re going to begin to look at the Sermon on the Mount. And the best way to learn what Jesus wants done with words that are difficult to receive and even more difficult to obey, we’re going to spend time this morning hovering at 30,000 feet level. We’re not going to rush through the Sermon. It will take us right about up to summer before we complete these three chapters.

The Context and Culture of the Sermon on the Mount

All words written or spoken fit into a context. Most of what you and I hear quoted of the Sermon (whether it’s about the Golden Rule, not being judgmental, and that hating someone is just as bad as killing them) is not within the Sermon’s context and literary genre. That might sound boring to some of you, but for people who are serious about understanding the word and being equipped to handle it, it is important to keep all parts of the Bible within it’s context.

A Scene within God’s Grand Story, the Gospel

We have talked about a way to view the totality of Scripture as being one great big story that leads you to Christ. And if it were a dramatic screenplay with scene one being the Creation, scene two the fall, scene three the promise, scene four Redemption and scene five Restoration, this hinges on the tale end of the promise being fulfilled and Redemption.

Second Temple Judaism and the Greco-Roman Empire

The historical and cultural context of Matthew, not even just the sermon is the time of the second temple which spans from the 6th Century BCE when Israel returned from the Babylonian exile to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

This time period has a unique cultural context because it represents a time when Israel was heavily influenced by the Greco-Roman culture. A very clear indicator of this is that the first 39 books of the Bible were written in the Hebrew language, but the final 27 were written in either Aramaic or Greek. That marks the significant influence that Greek culture had on the 100-200 years before and after this specific Gospel was written. You will understand why I’m telling you this as we walk through the Sermon.

Matthew’s Gospel

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The broadest view is that it is a scene in the grand story that is set in the historical and cultural context of second temple judaism that is heavily influenced by the Greco-Roman culture. A little narrower is that the Sermon is not a book of the Bible itself, and that’s because it is to be read within the context of Matthew’s gospel. The sermon as it is in Matthew’s Gospel is not found in any other Gospel. Luke is the only other Gospel that organizes similar teachings of Jesus like Matthew does. And that is actually an important feature of Matthew.

Matthew is highly regarded as a literary artist that focuses not so much on details like Luke and Mark, but on structure. He structures his Gospel very intentionally so as to present Jesus’s life and ministry in a very unique way.

The Stage is Set

The Sermon inside of Matthew’s highly intentionally structured Gospel (biography) begins in chapter 5 and goes through chapter 7, but since the sermon doesn’t stand on it’s own, what stage is Matthew setting before getting to the Sermon?

Chapter 1 - A Royal Lineage of Misfits

The first chapter begins with a lineage, but it’s not random, it intentionally teaches us about Jesus’s royal lineage (David) but also that this royal lineage is not filled with the godliest, wealthiest, and worthy people in history. Instead, Matthew points out that Jesus came from a pretty normal and by normal I mean messed up family tree. He’s telling us something...

He also describes a dream that Joseph, not Mary (Son of David) has that convinced Joseph not to divorce Mary for being pregnant, since she’s expecting the Messiah and all… He’s telling us something...

Chapter 2 - A Visit from the Magi

In the second chapter Matthew tells us about a visit that the Christ child had from the Magi (wise Gentiles). And then there is another dream that Joseph has and he is told to flee to Egypt because Herod the King is going to try to kill all the baby boys. Joseph has another dream where the angel tells him to go back to Nazareth for fulfillment purposes.

Chapter 3 - A Fulfillment of Prophesy

In chapter three Matthew tells the story of this forerunner who preaches and that this preacher, John the Baptist is actually a fulfillment of prophecy’s of both Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Chapter 4 - A Mosaic Image

And in the final chapter before the sermon we have the Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. During this temptation, Jesus resists the temptations from the devil with direct quotes from Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Here

Do You See Them?

What is Matthew trying to tell us?

And just before the first discourse of Matthew (the sermon) Matthew says that Jesus began his ministry in Galilee and he preaches this message,

Matthew 4:17 ESV

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

We’ve taken that 30,000 foot view above the sermon and we’ve seen quite a bit as it relates to the historical and cultural context that the Sermon is placed within. And it would be a mistake not to realize that perhaps the most important context is this phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven.”

You cannot understand the Sermon on the Mount and really the entire Gospel of Matthew apart from this theme. The Kingdom of Heaven/God is mentioned about 50 times throughout the book. That’s 1.5 times per page of the book.

But we’re not always quite clear about what this is.

What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

Is this a place somewhere in the atmosphere? In the sky?

The Kingdom of Heaven/God is best understood simply as “God’s reign.”

You’ve heard the media say something like, “This important update just in from the White House.” Now we know that they’re not suggesting that somehow the white house actually has a message for America. No, we know what they mean is that those who govern the white house, have a message for America.

But to understand the phrase a little better, the whole concept of a Kingdom involves three things:

1. A Kingdom has a King

2. A Kingdom has a People

3. A Kingdom has a Reign

Where do we first see this being played out?

Page 2 of the Scriptures. You have God, the Creator, and Ruler, you have a people (Adam and Eve), and we see the Ruler sharing his reign with whom? His people. He says to them:

Genesis 1:28 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

How did His People Do with this shared reign or stewardship?

They didn’t do to well. In fact, they failed badly.

So by chapter six, the Creator sees the way his stewards are treating each other and decides to reboot with Himself as the Ruler, Noah and his family as his people, and again this shared reign for them to have dominion and how do they do? Well, again failure.

Fast forward to and God calls an unsuspecting family The Abrams, and he tells them that he’s chosen them to reboot the blessing he longs to share with his creation. And this family has some good moments, but mostly just failures.

They end up in the land of Egypt and on good terms. There is a long season of flourishing, but it ends with this family being oppressed by the Egyptian King. And the true King decides to raise up a Egyptian raised Israelite to rescue his people.

And at the tail end of this rescue plan, the family breaks out in a musical of sorts:

Exodus 15:1–2 LEB

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to Yahweh, and they said, “Let me sing to Yahweh because he is highly exalted; the horse and its rider he hurled into the sea. Yah is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him—the God of my father—and I will exalt him.

,

Exodus 15:18 LEB

Yahweh will reign as king forever and ever.”

And we see this scene repeated throughout the Scriptures. Babylonian Kings, Assyrian King, and even Israel’s own leaders are guilty of being in the place of King and they royally mess things up. They abuse power, they take what doesn’t belong to them, they lay heavy weights on the people they’re in charge of. It’s generally all bad.

And this is where the prophets come in to play.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel are constantly reminding God’s people, God is going to come and he’s going to be your King and you will be his people, and He will reign...

Isaiah 52:7–9 ESV

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.

Isaiah 52:10 ESV

The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Is 52:7-

The King, the People, and the Reign

Right after Jesus preaches this message that “God’s reign is here” and in case you hadn’t figured it out, that’s him saying, “I am God the King and I am here to take back my world.”

And what is the second piece of a Kingdom? A people.

So what does Jesus do right after he announces that His Kingdom is here?

Well, he takes a walk on the lake. Skipping rocks, feeding ducks...

Matthew 4:18–22 ESV

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Jesus the King is forming a people. He is rebooting the plan that God had from before the foundations of the world. But he’s doing it in a whole new way. He is breaking into story and bringing fulfillment to all of the promises that he had made in years past.

Who are the people that Jesus is gathering?

He starts with common fisherman, but those aren’t the only ones he has called to follow him. Look at who else is following Jesus:

Matthew 4:23–25 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. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Matt 4:

Oh, so what Matthew has been telling us in the first few chapters is that God has always formed and used a people that were the failures and the misfits? Would you have chosen Jacob or Esau? Who makes more sense? Who has the greater upside? Wouldn’t you have chosen the tall, strong, leader Eliab or the teenage shepherd, David? Honestly, if I’m Jesus, I’m seeing Peter and Andrew and I’m rolling my eyes, I’m seeing James and John, the sons of thunder (wanting to reign fire on people) and I’m like, nope. C’mon, Saul the terrorist, no one in here is choosing that guy.

The point that is being made is that he Kingdom of Heaven, it’s not your Kingdom. The choices that you think would be so wise to make, Jesus doesn’t make. Who is gathering the misfits, the weak, the sinners and saying, “These are the ones. I am choosing these guys to be the people in my Kingdom?”

By preaching “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”, Jesus is speaking in to the current state of Judaism and saying, “Hey guys, you’ve got it all wrong. I am not the way you keep telling people I am.” And Jesus is saying to the current cultural context of the Greco-Roman society, “Hey guys, the life of human flourishing that you seem to be so consumed with, doesn’t come the way you’re telling people it comes. I’m taking over to show and tell.

So, guys before we just walk right in to the opening discourse of the teachings of Jesus, we need to be put in our place. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” is just as much a message for us this morning as it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus preached them. We want to interpret Jesus Words with all kinds of theological and philosophical lenses.

My prayer for us this morning and throughout this entire series is that we sit at the feet of the King, with a heart soft and open to hear afresh the words of Jesus as he reshapes and reforms our thinking for His Glory and our Good.