S.O.T.M. Happiness [Matthew 5:1-2]

The Sermon on the Mount: Happiness [Matthew 5:1-2]

Today we begin a new series on the sermon on the mount. We’re going to be looking at the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher ever. With that in mind, what could I possibly have to say about this sermon that hasn’t already been said? And the answer is not much really, I don’t having anything profound to add... but, my hope is by looking closely at this magnificent sermon it will change us. My prayer for this church is that we are changed after going through this sermon. I know it has changed me and is already changing me again more as I’ve been studying and preparing for this series. My fervent prayer is that this series of messages is not just preached from the pulpit but also practiced from the pews.

Why the sermon on the mount? Because we need it. Because we need it! this message from Jesus paints a new message for the world, it points us to true happiness, yes true happiness, we’ll see this in more detail as we go, but I want us to know right from the get go that Jesus is in the happiness business, yes Jesus is in the happiness business, and right now who doesn’t need a message of happiness? We’re going to be in this sermon for quite some time, we’re going to take our time and really look at this sermon, at times we’ll look at it from 10,000 feet, or from a distance, and at times we’ll be looking at it through a microscope, but you can’t seriously come to this sermon without being affected greatly. So buckle up as we dive into the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher ever.

We’re going to read the first 12 verses today, but we’re not really going to get into them, we’re really only going to get into verses 1 and 2 in a little detail, and we’ll study the beatitudes in more detail later. Today we’re just going to stick our toe in a little. Today’s sermon is going to be more background or context of the sermon than anything else, because it’s interesting to say the least and it’s important to help us understand the message better. And here’s the core of Jesus’ message… personal heart change is necessary for personal life change. A changed heart is the key to a changed life…your life will not be changed if your heart is not changed…and we’ll see more of this as we go. So let’s first...

Stand for the reading of the word of God. Matthew 5:1-12.

We’ve all experienced life’s “wake up calls” right? I know I have in my life, I can think of several times when God gave me a wake up call which resulted in a significant change of heart and direction. Now, I’m a fairly what you’d say typical guy, I’m task-oriented, goal-focused, and mission-driven for the most part. Like most men, generally speaking, I am not always as alert to the relational nuances involved in my life. I tend to be more focused on the task at hand than wondering about how everyone’s feeling about it. Sometimes that’s okay, but in marriage for example…that can be trouble.

Nicole and I celebrate 21 years of marriage this year in June, yes she’s put up with me for that long. One would think after all that time there would be no problems right??? But generally speaking, when problems or arguments arise in our marriage it’s typically due to one or the others heart not being where it should be. whether it’s being closed off emotionally, or not being sympathetic, or just being selfish, or whatever, typically, not always, one needs a change of heart, before one’s actions and attitudes will change. And that is at the core of this sermon by Jesus. Without a change of heart about one’s self and about God you’re going to have problems…in fact without a change of heart toward self and God there is no hope. So this sermon is hope for the hopeless, it’s help for the helpless, it’s power for the powerless, but so much more. This sermon is our wake up call in a world of sorry! So let’s look at some background to help us out as we go.

First, Matthew is setting the stage for the first of five significant sermons, or discourses, by Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. The sermon on the mount is first in chapter 5-7, then the next is in chapter 10, then chapter 13, then chapter 18, and finally in chapters 24-25. Matthew’s purpose, in his gospel, is to present Jesus as the long awaited king, this is very important and we’ll see why as we go…but Jesus is the long awaited king. In Matthew’s gospel the central theme is the coming kingdom, so if there is a kingdom to come there needs to be a king to come and the king will have some rules for his kingdom. So, right from the start Matthew presents us with the manifesto of the king, the principles of the morals of the kingdom.

These present guiding principles of the king’s teaching, truths that Jesus repeated many times in his ministry and the rest of the NT writers restates as well. If you look at the epistles you’ll see these same principles repeated by the disciples. What we must understand, most importantly is as Sinclair Ferguson said, “The sermon is a description of the lifestyle of those who belong to the kingdom.” The principles in this sermon isn’t a list of behaviors to get into the kingdom, it’s the way those who are already in the kingdom should live, it’s as Augustine put is, “a perfect standard of the Christian life.” We will get into this more as we go as well because it’s vital to properly understanding the sermon.

This sermon is a discipleship course! One of the big things in the Baptist denomination right now is discipleship…how do we disciple? What method’s are the best for discipleship? What are the best books and programs for discipleship? There are some great books, programs, and teaching on discipleship…but where all of them lack is where the sermon on the mount starts…the heart of a man. Discipleship will never be successful without a personal heart change! The best books, programs, and teachers won’t affect anyone who has not had their heart changed by Jesus Christ.

I understand the push for discipleship and it’s vital to the church, but sometimes I think we miss the forest for the trees. I truly believe that if a Christian would, instead of saying, “I need someone to disciple me, or no one has discipled me I don’t know how to live the Christian life.” If they would instead, look to this sermon by Jesus, read it, study it, get real familiar with it, and pray God, change my heart so I can then apply this sermon to my life…and we by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, put this sermon into practice…you’d see a changed world. Not a perfect world, that’s a fantasy until Christ establishes His kingdom yet to come…but we’d see a change in our world for sure.

Just imagine if you will, as you read through this sermon, what if Christians actually began to put into practice what Jesus is telling us here??? You’d see a radical change in our society. People are asking right now, “how do you change the way things are?” Well somethings you can’t do anything about, hatred and evil is a reality we can’t escape because friends we have a heart problem, and it doesn’t need an exercise program and a low cholesterol diet…we have a heart problem because of sin in the heart of man and it needs to be changed by God! I’ve heard it said many times and I don’t know who the source is but, the phrase, “we need a revival in our world and the revival starts with me.” Friends the change or the revival, we need in our world starts with you and me, when God changes my/your heart to conform to His heart, to his will. And the sermon on the mount challenges us to change…so how do we do it? How do we change? We’ll get there, we’ll see it, but let me just tell you, the change of heart doesn’t reside in yourself…in resides in Jesus Christ.

Alright, so before I run out of time, let’s look at some context and background of this sermon so we can better understand it as we move forward in the months to come.

First let’s look at...

The Biblical Context

What I mean by biblical context is where we are at in the scope of God’s revelation, where are we in the bible? We are at a new point in God’s revelation to man. We are in the New Testament as opposed to the Old Testament, now it’s not new because the old is outdated, no, no, no, it’s new because God is doing something new in the world. A new work, a new revelation, a new covenant…and the sermon on the mount marks the beginning of something radically new. Let me point out why. Just a couple of pages and four chapters we see something very very different and new.

If you have your bibles open turn back a couple pages to Malachi 4, the last book of the OT, and look at the Last verse of the last book of the OT. It says, Malachi 4:6, “and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” God’s talking about a heart change that is needed, without it... The OT, Malachi 4:6, ends with a curse…the NT begins with a what? A blessing. Did you see that? The last word’s of God in the OT a curse…400 years of silence from God, then as soon as the NT opens and God opens His mouth again to His people it rings of blessing…not cursing. Did you ever notice that before? It’s quite wonderful right, in fact it’s not just one blessing…but nine times Jesus says blessed, blessed, blessed.

The word blessed in the Greek is [makarios] it means happy or blissful. In fact the Greek word makarios comes from the root word makar which means a state of happiness or blissfulness that is not influenced or changed by circumstance. It’s a state of bliss that is not affected by the things going on around. It’s a character word, all through out the bible, you really see it in the Psalms, what is a very common title or characteristic given or said about God??? Blessed be the Lord, blessed be God, blessed be the Lord God, blessed is the man who fears the Lord over and over again. It is said of God to be blessed, or happy, or blissful.

So this idea of blessedness or happiness is this idea that happiness isn’t dictated by your circumstance or the things around you, it’s being at rest or at peace in God alone, in spite of what is going on around us. Paul addresses this in his letter to the Philippians, which we had been looking at for several weeks…Paul said, I had learned contentment, or peace, or happiness no matter what state he was in prison, free, poor, rich, beaten, or healthy…it was Christ who strengthened Him. Here’s the same idea in this one word…makarios, blessed, happy.

That’s where we are in the bible…a new age, a new king, a new message. A new age of blessing not cursing, a new king, one that will not fail, a new message…true happiness is available to all who trust in the king…Jesus. Let me just insert quickly, and we’ll see this as we get into the beatitudes, that this new message is completely counter to what the world says happiness is. Notice the beatitudes…and tied to happiness is what? Misery??? What if I told you the key to true happiness is misery, what would you say? I don’t want that kind of happiness…this is where the sermon on the mount really challenges us, are you ready for it?

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The Political Context

At this time the Jews were looking for a political messiah to free them from oppression. The Jews had been living hundreds of years under the oppression of other nations Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greek, and now Roman rule. While there had been many revolts and attempts to separate themselves from oppression it was to no avail, but they believed that when the Messiah came he would over throw Rome and rule over them in Jerusalem. But Jesus right from the start portrayed a very different kind of kingdom.

Here’s what the residents of my kingdom look like Jesus says…poor in spirit, mourners, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted, reviled. Wait a second, that sounds like a bunch of losers according to the worlds standards. Well it is, and that’s the point. The sermon on the mount is totally contrary to human ideas of politics and kingdom. The world says, happy are the rich, the healthy, the famous…happy are those who have all kinds of stuff. But, the king of kings comes and says, you’ll never know true happiness through things of a cursed earth. You’ll only know true happiness by partaking of the king of happiness…Jesus Christ.

The sermon on the mount is talking about a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one. While the sermon on the mount is to be personally applied to us today, as citizens of God’s kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ..there is a now not yet reality to our citizenship. We are citizens of God’s kingdom now spiritually, but we also await the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God when Jesus returns again.

The Religious context

In Jesus day it was a very religious society. Just the Jews themselves could be separated out into four religious groups, generally speaking…not all Jews fell into this category obviously, because there was a remnant that followed Jesus, but the four groups I want to point out to you are the following.

1. The Pharisees: They believed that happiness was found in the outward observance of tradition. These guys were the traditionalists, you don’t do anything new, it’s all about observing the former traditions of the fathers.

2. The Sadducees: they believed happiness was found in modernism or philosophy. These guys were the liberals, man everything was about the new, modern approach, they were cutting edge…not concerned about all that old stuff, you had to progress forward without looking back.

3. The Essenes: they believed happiness came from physical separation from the world. Sounds good, but this group was the separatists, their idea of separation was removing themselves physically from society and all the influence of society, like spending your life in a monastery or compound away from all outside filth.

4. The Zealots: they believed happiness came by overthrowing government. These guys were the activists, always marching, parading, revolting against the establishment…don’t let the man get you down…but these guys were violent, keep that in mind.

Sounds a lot like today doesn’t it? You had the traditionalists saying, “you’ve got to keep all these rules from the past”, the liberals saying, “no you’ve got to be cutting edge and new, go forward don’t look back. The separatist saying, “remove yourself from everything, go live on a deserted island, or hold up in a secluded compound or something… and the activists screaming, “revolt, go against, stand up, fight!”

Jesus came on the scene and said what? You’re all wrong! Oh I know there is a little bit of truth in all of these, our faith is based in the past, but we do need to be modern and up with the times, we do need to be not conformed to the pattern of this world, and we do need to be involved socially in our world. But these positions in and off themselves isn’t a means to happiness. Christ is…and only Christ is…and that’s what the sermon on the mount teaches us…the only way to true happiness in this world in through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

You know one message that really resonated with me this week as I was studying this sermon…that wasn’t popular then and it isn’t popular now. Jesus called for persecution without retaliation. You want to know just how radically different the kingdom of Christ is to this world’s ideas…read through this sermon and then just turn on the news today.

One last thing concerning context is...

The audience context

Who is Jesus speaking to and teaching…this is very important for proper understanding of the sermon.

Verse 1 says, “and seeing the multitude” the crowds were people comprised of all levels of faith and unbelief. These people were not necessarily believers or followers of Jesus but Jesus drew great crowds wherever he went. Jesus would address the multitudes at times and at others times he would huddle with the smaller group of committed followers.

Two, there were the disciples of Christ: this group was a much larger group of Christ followers, not the twelve, but a group outside of them. They are not specifically mentioned here but you know they are there, because they were always there in the larger crowds.

Three, the twelve or the disciples, or the apostles. These were the men Jesus spent most of this time teaching and discipling. Jesus knew a man, even the God-man, was limited in the number of lives he could directly influence effectively. Modern sociological experts say that a person is limited to 12 truly significant relationships at a time, and only a maximum of three of these at most can go to the deepest levels of intimacy. Interesting right? Jesus had twelve disciples and an inner circle of Peter, James, and John. Jesus was pretty modern I guess.

In Robert Coleman’s book, “The master plan of evangelism” He said it was the twelve that Jesus trained and sent out to do his ministry, it was the twelve that he privately explained the parables to, and it was the twelve that got most of His instruction, especially when getting close to the cross.

and you’ll notice that is who Jesus was teaching here in this sermon…he sat and taught His disciples…His followers, the believers. I’m sure the multitude heard what he was teaching and that true happiness was available to them…but it was only the true believers that could actually know this happiness. And that is a major point of emphasis…this sermon is for the follower of Jesus. It’s for the believer because, you can’t live the sermon on the mount apart from Christ living in you and changing you heart to follow Him and only by the power of the Holy Spirit living in the believer can we put in to practice the sermon. that’s out MI: personal heart change is necessary for personal life change

Which leads to our conclusion points…you might want to write these down.

Why the sermon on the mount is important

It shows us the necessity of being born again. Friends you can’t live this sermon in your own power…it’s impossible. It’s only by being born again into Christ that these things can be applied because it’s Christ who lives in us.

As John Stott said, “It gives us the greatest insight into the mind of Christ.” You want to know what Christ wants from His followers??? Read His sermon, want to know the heart of Christ, read his sermon, it’s all there, read it study it, pray God change my heart so I might do it!

It’s the only way to true happiness for the Christian. It’s going to go against everything the world says, everything you see on TV, or internet, everything those around you that are worldly minded says…this sermon is going to go against that…but it’s the only way you’ll find true happiness.

It’s the best means of evangelism there is. What do you mean? You said it was for the believer…I did and it is…but what do you think would happen if believers actually started living it? If believers started living the way Christ said to live, as in this sermon, people around us would be like, what in the world is with this guy, this gal, they’re goofy, nothing seems to rattle them, they’re different, they seem to be from a different world…well friends, if you are in Christ you are of a different world…this world may be where we live but it is not our home…our home is in Jesus Christ.

What’s the key to happiness? If someone were to ask you that today, what would you say? Well let me tell you…happiness is a change of heart, which leads to a changed life, which comes by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ…are you happy?