The Kingdom of Heaven

Today, we begin a new series on the Sermon on the Mount, which is found here in Matthew chapters 5-7 as well as in Luke 6:17-49. Both Matthew’s and Luke’s sermon followe a similar outline, but Matthew’s is quite a bit longer. As we go through this series, I encourage everyone to read Matthew 5-7 in one sitting, at least one over the next six weeks, but also try reading it every week, and read Luke’s record of the sermon as well, and see the similarities and differences.

Today’s sermon will set up the series by way of an introduction to the sermon.

Before we begin, just a bit of a background, very quick and messy, on Matthew. Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector, a Jew, and was utterly despised as being a Roman sympathiser. That Jesus would call a sinner like him to follow him, was utterly repugnant to the sensibilities of the leaders of that day.

Nevertheless, Jesus did call Matthew, and Matthew followed Jesus, and was a faithful disciple. He, inspired by the Holy Spirit, set out to record Jesus’ life and ministry, specifically for his own Jewish people. Matthew was a brilliant thinker, and he shows this in the way his gospel is carefully constructed, with five different sermons/sayings/discourses by Jesus. In this gospel we see allusions to the organisation and structure of the first five books of Moses, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

In fact, this has led some people to see connections between Jesus and the Old Testament’s most influential leaders: Abraham (the genealogy we studied in Advent is traced to Abraham—thus Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless all nations through his offspring as well as the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham. Moses: Jesus is the promised messiah, the Son of God who rescues us out of bondage and slavery to sin. There are intriguing similarities between Jesus and Moses. They both had their births announced through dreams, a slaughter of male infants surrounded their births, both narrowly escaped a ruthless ruler, both fled their country, only to return later, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, which corresponds to Moses’ 40 years where both were tested by God, Jesus crossed over the Jordan, having passed the test (Moses didn’t pass the test, thereby pointing to someone greater would come. Both went up the mountain: Moses received the Law, Jesus gave divine instruction on the law.

One of Matthew’s repeated themes is the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God. He is clearly also pointing to the fact that Jesus is the Son of David, the true king, not just of Israel, but of heaven and earth.

The sermon on the Mount is the first of the five sayings of Jesus recorded in Matthew, it is also the longest. There is considerable debate among scholars as to whether or not this ought to be understood as one sermon, or a compilation of exerpts from sermons Jesus preached all over Israel.

When I was at seminary, it was customary for students to refer to their $1000 sermon. While I was there, it was good experience, as well as good income to preach in as many churches as possible. If you were quick, you could preach twice per Sunday at different vacant churches in the Grand Rapids area. I even got to go as far away as a suburb of Chicago! If you preached the same sermon at several different churches, and got paid $100/service, then you had your $1000 sermon.

It is very likely that Jesus preached the same sermon, or similar sermons wherever he went, surrounded by different people. A good sermon, like Jesus’ sermon, can be listened to repeatedly and always imparts something new and meaningful. Jesus sermon isn’t just good, it is the best.

It is my personal belief that Matthew recorded a single sermon for us. In chapter 5:1 Jesus, seeing the crowd, went up the mountain and he sat down, and his disciples came to him.

In those days, public speaking