Sermon Tone Analysis

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

Hears + Does = wise person with a strong foundation

Matthe w7:26

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?

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

This

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,

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.