Sermon on the Mount: Introduction & Overview

In the late 1800s, a woman named Emma Lazarus penned a poem entitled, “The New Colossus”.

Having spent time in countries on three different continents, I have never found any place like the incredible nation God has allowed us to live in.

There are plenty of ideas on what the ideal diet and exercise routine look like. There are lots of thoughts on how best to spend and save or plan your time.

One of the most visible symbols of this nation is the Statue of Liberty.

In the pedestal of that statue is a plaque with a poem inscribed on it.

All these things together leave our heads swimming, as often the advice conflicts with each other.

Part of that poem reads like this:

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"[1]

For our history buffs, where is the plaque that contains those words? In the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty sits.

It is a beautiful sentiment, isn’t it?

It expresses the hope and desire of the American dream.

Many have come and found a freedom here that they did not enjoy in their home countries. They have enjoyed religious liberty and economic prosperity that many in the world have never tasted.

However, we must also admit that as a country, we don’t always live up to that standard.

Although I still believe America is the best place in the world to live, I am not blind to the fact that there are real issues and divisions in our country.

Some of those poor are within our own country. There is violence in our streets that even occasionally and horrifically spills into our churches.

As beautiful as the promise of freedom is, some have used that freedom as an excuse to abuse and extort and cheat and hoard.

America is an amazing place, but doesn’t your heart long for something more?

Contrary to popular belief, that freedom we long for won’t be found in either a libertarian government that leaves people to their own devices, nor in a socialistic government that seeks to equalize everyone and everything.

There is only one kingdom in all of human history where true freedom is found, and that is the kingdom of God.

We looked at this last week, didn’t we? We saw that when the kingdom of God comes in its fullness at Jesus’ return, we will see death itself eradicated, along with every painful thing.

We know that we aren’t there yet fully, but we have the beautiful promise of what that will look like, and with it, we have high expectations for those who are a part of that kingdom.

That is what we are going to spend the next several months looking at together.

We aren’t simply looking at bronze platitudes at the base of a statue.

Instead, we are looking at the words of the greatest ruler this world will ever know as he outlines for us what his kingdom is all about.

Go ahead and turn over to , to a passage we call the Sermon on the Mount.

What I can do, though, is point you to a passage where Jesus outlines for us how we are to live.

Go ahead and turn over to , to a passage we call the Sermon on the Mount.

We are going to spend a lot of time looking at this through this year, so go ahead and put a bookmark there.

We will take some breaks along the way, but we are going to drill down and see everything God has for us out of this section of Scripture.

This morning’s sermon is going to be a little different, since we are laying a foundation for what we will be studying this year.

I want to give you a few challenges for this year as we go through the Sermon on the Mount.

I think it is so important for us to spend time in

First, I want you to look in the bulletin you received when you came in this morning. If you notice, there is a new section in there called “Weekly Reading”. Each week, we are going to give you 5-6 different passages to read that will either reinforce what we talked about Sunday or prepare for the following week. This will help us as a church continue to reinforce what God is teaching us on Sundays. This week, we are going to read through the entire Sermon on the Mount over the next six days.

Next, in the coming weeks, we will be putting together a guide to help you memorize these three chapters. That may seem like a lot, but you will have most of this year to work on it.

By the way, we don’t memorize Scripture as a source of pride or for a cool party trick. Memorizing Scripture is a helpful discipline that helps us be able to say what David said:

Psalm 119:11 CSB

I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.

If we have these commands and statements in our heart, they are quicker and easier to access when we need to avoid temptation and honor God.

For the first four chapters of his book,

So, check your bulletin weekly for the readings and stay tuned for more information on our memorization plan.

Ready to dive in?

This morni

This morning, we are going to spend the rest of our time getting a good idea of what was going on when Jesus delivered this sermon. We are going to do this by walking piece by piece through 5:1-2.

By the end of our time together this morning, I hope you will have a better idea of why we are looking at these verses for this time.

We normally have a series of numbered points that pull key principles out of our passage, but this morning, we are going to just tackle some key terms as they come up.

Read those verses with me, and then let’s talk through them.

“When he...”

It seems like we are picking up in the middle of Matthew’s train of thought, so let’s figure out who he is talking about.

You can probably pick this up from what we have said so far, but who is the “he” that Matthew says is getting ready to speak? Jesus.

So, flip back through the first four chapters with me and see who this Jesus guy is, according to Matthew.

Some of this ought to sound familiar if you were with us throughout December.

Start with me in 1:1 - We see that Matthew is saying that Jesus is the Christ, which means he is the one God promised to send to set his people free and set right what was broken.

He is described as the “Son of David,” which means he is the fulfillment this promise that God had made to David:

Psalm 89:3–4 CSB

The Lord said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn an oath to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah

2 Samuel 7:16 CSB

Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”

From the very beginning of Matthew’s gospel, he is telling us that Jesus is the king the Jews have been waiting for.

David was an amazing king, but he made some major mistakes.

Jesus was the perfect king that David couldn’t be.

Jump over to chapter 2.

We see that pointed out again when Matthew talks about the wise men coming to visit Jesus as a child.

Look at 2:1-2.

Jesus is the king that is the fulfillment of all those promises.

In chapter 3 we see that he is not like any other king.

In fact, he is the very Son of God.

Look at verses 16-17 to see what happens after he is baptized to publicly show that he is following the Father’s plan for his life.

So, Jesus is the Son of God, God in the flesh, who is the promised king Israel has been waiting for.

In chapter 4, we see that he refuses to yield to temptation, showing his moral character. He begins to demonstrate God’s power on earth as he starts teaching and preaching and healing.

The summary of his message is there in 4:17.

So, Jesus is the king whose kingdom is coming to earth.

We talked about this at length last week, but remember that we are in the “already but not yet” phase of his kingdom.

He has started pushing back the effects of sin and showing his rule and reign over creation in bigger ways, but he has not fully and completely established his kingdom on earth like he will at his return.

Yet, at the early days of the kingdom, we see that he is already making waves.

That is why Matthew notes that he...

“…saw the crowds...”

What crowds did Jesus see?

These were the crowds of people who were coming from all over to see Jesus, hear him teach, and be healed by him.

Matthew had just given us a summary of who they are in the verses right before this. Look up at 4:23-25...

Jesus has been traveling around an area in Northern Israel called Galilee. This is the area surrounding a lake there called the Sea of Galilee.

He has been creating a stir with what he has been doing:

He has been teaching in their synagogues, where the Jews would essentially gather for church. He has been showing how he is the fulfillment of the prophecies they have looked at and laying the foundation for what he is going to be teaching.

He has been preaching the good news of the kingdom, meaning he was declaring that God was moving to “fulfill His covenantal program with Israel and to establish His kingdom on the earth.” [2] - This was great news, because God was keeping his promises and was setting up his kingdom on earth!

Luke tells us about one of those times. Jesus was in a synagogue, and as the visiting teacher, he was given a copy of Isaiah to read:

Luke 4:17–21 CSB

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

That sounds even better than what the Statue of Liberty said, doesn’t it?

Jesus is coming to proclaim freedom that no amount of money or opportunity in America can ever match.

The crowds were coming because he wasn’t just saying this; he was doing it! Matthew says he was healing every disease and sickness among the people. This doesn’t mean that he was healing every sick person in the region. Rather, it means that he was about to heal any disease or malady he encountered and chose to heal.

Word spread fast, so people were coming from all over to hear him.

The places listed in verse 25 give us a hint that Jesus was coming as a king of more than just the Jews, because some of those areas across the Jordan were largely Gentile regions. News about him was spreading all over.

However, his main ministry at this point was with the Jews.

These crowds would have represented a wide range of people. First, you had the sick and poor from all over. Next, you would have had the faithful Jews who regularly attended their synagogues.

You would also have had some incredibly strong Jewish scholars and teachers from Jerusalem.

The address that Jesus was going to give was going to confront everyone from every walk of life.

In fact, as we will see in a minute, he is largely confronting the Jewish leaders who thought they had everything figured out.

They thought that if you tried hard enough, you could be good enough and follow God’s law closely enough to make it into heaven.

In this message, Jesus is going to completely blow that idea up, starting with the very first statement he makes.

In fact, it is impossible for us to keep the commands that Jesus will articulate, which is why we only enter his kingdom by receiving the gift of salvation he offers us.

One pastor I have listened to preach through these passages titled his sermon series “Impossibly Christian,” because the standards are just that high.

Yet, the crowds who came hungry to hear something were confronted with what kingdom citizens should strive to be.

That gap between what God requires and what we can do is what then leads us to cry out to God for mercy, asking him to save us.

As we will see, that is the only way for us to come into his kingdom.

Once we are in, though, we should strive to live out these principles through the strength he provides.

So, Jesus, the Messiah who was the king from the line of David, is preaching to crowds of people who were from every walk of life and every background.

As he gets ready to speak to them, though, we need to take note of the setting...

“…he went up on the mountain...”

At first glance, that may not seem all that significant.

It seems like this would just be a practical thing. He doesn’t have a microphone and amplifier, so if he is going to address a large group of people, it would sorta make sense to go up on a hill and yell down where everyone could hear.

There is something more going on here, though.

Remember, Matthew’s target audience is Jews.

For Jews, mountains had a very unique significance.

When we studied Moses’ life, we talked briefly about what God did when he took the Israelites out of Egypt.

On their way out of the desert, he led them to a particular place: Mount Sinai, or Mount Horeb.

There, God spoke to them from the top of the mountain. Moses went up the mountain and received the Law from God directly.

This was a crucial point in the nation’s history, where God spoke to them from the top of the mountain.

We aren’t at Mount Sinai, but we are on a mountain again.

So, when Jesus sits down to speak to the people, what is he doing?

He is showing that this is the word of God, just like the giving of the Law.

In fact, he is going to elaborate on the Law and show just how wrongly it was being interpreted in those days.

As Jesus is proclaiming the expectations of his kingdom citizens, he is sitting as God in the flesh in the early stages of fulfilling aspects of the covenant he made with Israel on the other mountain, Mount Sinai.

Here’s what is so incredible, though.

Here’s what happened at Sinai:

Exodus 19:20–22 CSB

The Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and he went up. The Lord directed Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the Lord; otherwise many of them will die. Even the priests who come near the Lord must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out in anger against them.”

If you read the rest of that account, Moses describes God’s glory on the top of the mountain like fire and thunder.

God’s voice was so overwhelming that the people begged to let Moses go up and talk with God instead of hearing from him directly.

Moses and eventually Aaron go up to God’s presence and hear the Law from him.

Let’s look back at what is happening in verse 1...

God is speaking on a mountain, but there are no fires and no thunderclaps.

Here we have that beautiful reality we have talked about for weeks: Jesus came to earth and laid his glory aside to walk and talk with us.

Whatever is going to be said here is incredibly important.

There is another interesting parallel to what we see in Exodus.

Although there are crowds present, he calls a unique group to himself.

“…his disciples...”

It seems that the crowds did follow them to the mountain and hear Jesus speak, yet there was a group that came up closer to him.

These were the first of the men that he had called to follow him.

Matthew records that at least four of the twelve were already called. It is possible that more may have been.

They had the privilege of having a front row seat, just like Moses did on Mount Sinai.

From there, they heard one of the most powerful sermons in the history of the world.

Jesus packed a lot into a brief time, so which we begin to see in verse 2...

“Then he began to teach them...”

Here is a really rough outline of what he is going to cover in this message:

5:3-12 - This section is known as the “Beatitudes”. That doesn’t mean that these are necessarily attitudes we have. Instead, the term “beatitudes” comes from an old Latin word that means “blessed.” In this section, Jesus is showing that his kingdom doesn’t work like the kingdoms in the rest of the world. The things that make you blessed in his kingdom often cause you to be overlooked in others.

5:13-16 show us that those who live as citizens in his kingdom are called to represent him to those who are not yet a part of the kingdom. We don’t hide in the walls and bar the gates; instead, we are to influence those around us and help them to follow Christ as well.

By the way, this is probably where we will take our first break as we get closer to Easter.

5:14-48 take us into a section about how those in God’s kingdom relate to the Old Testament Law. We are going to see that the kingdom standards deal not only with the way we act but the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Being a citizen in Christ’s kingdom isn’t about outward conformity; it is about inward transformation. The final verse in that section is a challenging statement in all of this:

Matthew 5:48 CSB

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Tough, isn’t it?

Now that Jesus has shown us what it takes to be blessed, how we are to impact others around us, and what our conduct should look like, he turns towards some key habits and activities of our Christian life.

In the first fifteen verses, Jesus teaches us that giving, praying, and fasting are also issues of the heart that are first expressed between us and God.

In 6:5-8, he shows how that same humility comes out in the way we talk with God.

He fleshes that out by giving us a model of the kinds of ways we should pray when we approach God in verses 9-15.

In the middle of that section he outlines for us a model prayer that instructs us on how we approach God and ask for things from him.

Jesus wraps that section up with instructions on the role fasting plays in the life of believer.

In case this hadn’t been challenging enough, Jesus hits us head on again as he talks about our relationship to stuff—money, possessions, etc., digging in deep on the heart attitude behind our love of money as he tackles possessions and worry in 6:19-34.

Chapter 7 opens with one of the most misunderstood sections of this passage, where Jesus instructs us to exercise caution when we look at the lives of others to offer judgment. He gives us some key guiding principles to use to know how to approach those kinds of conversations.

He challenges us to seek God fervently in verses 7-12, promising that a good God will give us good things.

As he starts to wind down his message, Jesus outlines several warnings that not many will truly be a part of his kingdom. Some who look like they are truly are not, and many who think they are don’t truly have a relationship with him.

That leads to one final warning to make sure that our lives are built on the foundation Jesus lays of a relationship with him.

So, that’s where we are headed.

We are going to spend time looking piece-by-piece at this incredible message.

I know many of you are familiar with these words. Can I challenge you, though, to slow down and look at them with fresh eyes? Allow the Holy Spirit to take what Jesus is saying here and let it confront you, encourage you, challenge you, and transform you.

As you thumb through it today, and as you read through it this week, let it overwhelm you.

There is only one person who could ever live up to these words, and he was the one giving them.

The very king who called us to live this way to honor him would eventually die in our place because we fall short of his design.

What greater kingdom could you be a part of than one where the king would willingly lay down his own life for you?

In light of these commands, we are all the huddled masses in need of freedom from our sin.

Jesus, the Messiah from the line of David, calls out to each of us and invites us to place our trust in him, surrendering to him as our Lord, our leader, our king.

Instead of the golden door into America, Jesus gives this invitation:

Will you commit to that this year?

Endnotes:

[1] Lazarus, Emma, “The New Colossus”. https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/colossus.htm. Accessed 4 January 2020.

[2] Louis A. Barbieri, Jr., “Matthew,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 28.