"Sermon on the Mount - Part I"_Matthew 5_Aug 01 2021

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

(Pray…)

So far - very few lines of dialogue from Jesus - and now, three chapters devoted to his sermon

(Illustration: My early 20’s, personal crisis: stemmed from the very words of Christ…)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit?”

“Blessed are those who mourn?”

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven?”

“You will be liable to the hell of fire?”

If you have lust in your heart, you’ve already committed adultery?

These were small quotes of what Jesus said

They bothered me because I didn’t take them in context

I didn’t take the Sermon on the Mount in context - to see it in the bigger picture - how it relates to the rest of the Bible

And this past week

I was very apprehensive about preaching on this

I want my words to honor the Lord

After all, this sermon is directly from Jesus

My first reaction is to just read it straight from the Bible

How could my sermon do justice to his sermon?

But I want to be obedient - and maybe offer an application you might not thought of

What I want to do, for the next couple of weeks - is to take an overview of the SOTM in its proper context

Why did Jesus preach this?

How does this relate to the gospel?

What was the main point Jesus was getting at?

I want to first point out - Jesus is mainly focused on his kingdom

Secondly, the SOTM is to be obeyed - and we can only obey it through the righteousness of Jesus Christ

1) The SOTM is kingdom-focused - 2) the SOTM is to be obeyed

In the few words of dialogue before this sermon - Jesus mentions his “kingdom of heaven” twice

In this sermon alone, he mentions his kingdom eight times

During his life, Jesus preached “kingdom” all the time

The question comes - did Jesus preach the gospel in this sermon?

And if he didn’t, why not?

The answer is, strictly speaking, no he did not preach the gospel in the SOTM

To be exact, the definition of the gospel of Jesus includes: God’s love and grace for us revealed through the cross & resurrection as part of God’s redemption for us

God’s love and grace for us revealed through the cross & resurrection as part of God’s redemption for us

There is a criticism out there - that Jesus and Paul preached separate gospels

Paul preached justification through God’s grace - Jesus preached God’s kingdom

This is a common criticism

But ask yourself: What is it we seek through the cross and the resurrection? We seek to enter his kingdom

Jesus is setting the stage and making it clear - what the Lord’s kingdom is like - and what it takes to enter his kingdom

It’s impossible to say that Jesus was not about the gospel

Jesus is the only reason we have the good news of the gospel

We are justified by faith through grace in no other way than by the blood of Jesus on the cross

Jesus lived the good news of the gospel for us

Jesus is declaring his kingdom - and btw, the Church is not the kingdom of heaven

The Church is included in that kingdom

That’s like saying everyone who goes to church will go to heaven

The kingdom of heaven - the kingdom of God will include everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus

That’s a big difference from saying, “The kingdom of God will include everyone who goes to church”

You don’t receive eternal life because you go to church - you inherit eternal life only through your true faith in Jesus

Jesus must be your Savior - and if he is to be your Savior, you must make him the Lord of your life

No one goes to Heaven without Jesus as their Lord and Savior

You don’t go to Heaven because you dazzled God with your religious devotion

Notice in his declaration up to verse 11, Jesus never mentions the religious elite

He does not mention religious phonies until Chapter 6 - and only in a very negative sense

An outline to the SOTM:

Chapter 5:1-16 - God’s kingdom and how it relates to us, personally

5:17-48 - The kingdom and how it relates to the Law

Chapter 6: The kingdom and how it relates to God

Chapter 7: The kingdom and how it relates to others

He begins with “the beatitudes” - there are nine of them

Scholars believe these have a similar structure: Old Testament, and even ancient Egyptian literature

They are usually grouped as two sets of four beatitudes

The ninth seems to repeat the eighth, but it is the longest

The first eight begin as “Blessed are the poor,” or “those who mourn,” etc.

The last one is different - “Blessed are YOU when others revile you and persecute you…etc” - It is the most personal of the group

It is the longest

It includes an exclusive promise: “for your reward is great in heaven”

The first and eighth beatitudes offer an inclusion to the kingdom of heaven: “theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

Jesus is definitely saying, “This is my kingdom - this is what it’s about - these are the ones who will be included”

Let’s look at who will be included:

The poor in spirit

Those who mourn

The meek, etc

Nowhere does it say, “you gotta follow the law perfectly”

But as I think of myself:

Am I “poor in spirit?” I suppose so. Does that mean I need to recognize my own brokenness and need for Jesus all the time? If so, then I honestly don’t do that all the time

Do I mourn? Sometimes, I guess - at funerals

Am I meek? Like Jesus was meek? Well, no, not really

How about pure in heart? Not really - just ask my wife

Am I ever persecuted? Yeah - mildly, every now and then - not like others

I need to come to the point - even though I value these virtues - that I don’t qualify

That’s where the gospel comes in - that’s where grace comes in

It’s not my effort

Isn’t that the point of the gospel?

I’m not perfect - but I can still trust him

I don’t even perfectly trust him, but I have faith in him and I’m justified before God because of the grace he gives me

I’ve repented of my sins - and turned from my old way of life, but I still stumble

But what good am I if I always blow it?

Read 2 Cor 10 - Paul makes a difference between walking in the flesh and walking according to the flesh

I know longer walk according to the flesh, but I stumble because I’m still in the flesh

We still need to obey - you’ll never hear me say not to obey

You can’t trust Jesus without obeying him

Trusting Jesus means that I obey him

When I obey the Lord, I’m saying, “Your way of life is best. I’ll live your way, Lord - not mine.”

But our obedience does not gain us entrance to his kingdom

God’s grace came down and imputed his righteousness to our credit

2 Cor 5:21

English Standard Version Chapter 5

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Let’s read it in context - to fully see what happened to us when we trusted Jesus - starting in verse 17:

English Standard Version Chapter 5

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I only qualify to be part of God’s kingdom because of him and his righteousness

That’s the gospel

Jesus goes on -

We’re the salt of the earth - if we lose our saltiness, we’re good for nothing

If you ultimately lose your saltiness, it means you never had a true faith in the Lord

It means you’ve rejected the values of the beatitudes

And we’re also the light of the world - we’re to not hide that light

We don’t make ourselves salty - and we don’t create light - being the salt of the earth and light of the world is something which God makes in us

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” [2 Cor 5:17]

I’m already a new creation

I don’t obey the SOTM to gain access to his kingdom - I obey the SOTM because I’m already part of it

If I trust in him & have faith in him, then I’m justified before him because of his grace

This gains me access to his kingdom - because he loves me - and because he gives me his grace

And since I’m already justified, I’ll continue to trust and obey because I no longer walk according to the flesh

I walk according to Jesus

My trust & obedience is never perfect - but it ultimately never ends, because his love for me never ends

Jesus said he didn’t come to abolish the Law - he came to fulfill the Law

That means I don’t have to fulfill the Law myself - I rest on his perfect righteousness

But that means we don’t ignore his Law - watch how Jesus gives examples of how the Law is now in our hearts

He says if you’re angry with your brother - you’ll bring on to yourself the same judgment as murder brings

If you look at a woman with lustful intent, you have committed adultery with her in your heart

Everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery

Jesus has taken the Law - and brought it to new heights

He goes on:

Do not take an oath at all - but let what you say be simply YES or NO

Don’t seek revenge - turn the other cheek

And the last part of Chapter 6: Love your enemy

We’re going to stop there - and pick up on this next time

What I want us to take from this - our absolute need we have for the gospel - and our need for Jesus

Jesus has given us a glimpse of his upside-down kingdom, which does not reward the religious-elite

But offers mercy to those who truly seek after him

God is looking for his genuine followers

(Pray…)

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