Sermon on the Mount- An Introduction - Matthew 4:23 - 5:2

Sermon: FCC Marianna 1-9-2022 Sermon on the Mount: An Introduction Scripture: Matthew 4:23-5:2 Quote: "The most obvious feature of the life of the Christian church today, based on contemporary observation of the Church in light of previous eras within the life of the Church, is it superficiality. Therefore, there is nothing beneficial to the developing Christian life than to read the history of the Church, the Acts of the Saints, the great movements of the Holy Spirit, and the various happenings of the Church- but most importantly, familiarizing ourselves with the person of Jesus Christ on a regular basis." (Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones) Today we begin our survey through Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount has been referred to by theologians as the "Ordination Address to the Twelve," as well as the "Magna Carta of the Kingdom of God." The Magna Carta, of course, being the charter of rights, protections, and responsibilities issued in 1215 between the English king and English barons, which is the culmination of idea of inherent human rights that are guaranteed by God- the Maga Carta was one of the influencing documents for the US Constitution; of course the ideas that make it famous have their roots in Scripture. The Sermon on the Mount is labelled these two titles: Ordination of the Twelve and Maga Carta of the Kingdom of God, because it spells out, directly to the disciples in Jesus' sermon, but also to the church at large, what our rights and responsibilities are within the Kingdom. While the sermon was preached in front of crowds who had come to hear Jesus or who hoped for healings to take place, this teaching was preached to Jesus' inner circle of chosen men. It's literally the playbook for the coming Kingdom of God. Read Matthew 4:23-5:2 here: Pray here! I use the word survey to describe these teaching series purposefully. I do not mean a survey like what you get asked to fill out on a receipt in order to get a free sandwich. No, what I am referring to is the lifestyle/ activity of a surveyor- like the old-time gold rush-era miner. Surveying the Scriptures is the idea of digging into the Word, examining what ends up in our hands, then sifting through it to find the nuggets of truth and wisdom that the Holy Spirit is sharing, and storing those things away for further examination later on. When we did our survey through Ephesians, we examined that letter to the Church and its place as the foundational teaching on how Believers/ Followers of Jesus should live and the essential doctrines that they should know and understand in order to be effective in their role in the Kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount has a similar role for the Believer. Main point: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents His fundamental teaching about the coming Kingdom of God, the need for repentance in order to enter the Kingdom, and how those who are in right relationship God should conduct their lives. The Sermon on the Mount is not a list of rules or do's and don'ts, but rather an instruction manual for life as a child of God. It is a reminder for each of us that because this world is not our home, our perspective in this life should be entirely different than everyone else's. Not that the things around us don't matter, but that they are not our main concern- our focus belongs to another Kingdom and another way of living. We are not examining a code of ethics or some kind of new ten commandments, but rather Jesus' description of what the character of a Believer should look like. The sermon does not includer rules that must be followed mechanically, but rather the embodiment of the Holy Spirit within us that says, "Because I know who God is, and I know what He has done for me, saved me and forgiven me, if this is His will, then this is how I will live. This is how I will act." The Sermon on the Mount does not instruct us to remove ourselves from the world, to go be monks in isolation, but rather to live this life with a completely changed attitude and focus. We are instructed to not worry about circumstances- because of our relationship with the God of the universe and our knowledge that He is always in control. The Sermon is divided into distinct parts that we will be covering over the next several weeks. Remember, this is Biblical surveying; it is a process of taking a big mountain of content and slowly digging into it, dividing it into smaller portions, sifting through it all, and then determining what truths the Spirit is revealing to you. Each portion reveals more and more about God and about what He is wanting to teach you. While I could preach a sermon that summarizes the entire Sermon on the Mount, our job as followers of Christ is to, like I read from the quote earlier, "to read the history of the Church, the Acts of the Saints, the great movements of the Holy Spirit, and the various happenings of the Church- but most importantly, familiarizing ourselves with the person of Jesus Christ on a regular basis." Developing our faith and learning more about who God is must be a purposeful act on our part, and that is much better done with a slow, steady survey than it is with a large explosion of content. The distinct parts of the Sermon that we will be exploring and digging through are: * the Beatitudes * the Believers' impact on the world * the Believers rejection of old teaching and practices * Jesus' calling to the Listener. Point #1 The first section that we will be digging into are the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are a key text for learning the Christian faith and would have been learned by heart for most early Christians, along with other passages such as the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Fruits of the Spirit, and the Apostle's Creed. Over the next several weeks, we will be examining the Beatitudes themselves, taking them two at a time. Each Beatitude contains a three-fold pattern that includes an announcement of God's blessing (reaffirming that God desires to bless those who believe in, and surrender to, Him; He pours out His blessings on our lives, especially when we live Christ-like lives), God's calling (something that listeners are called to emulate or nurture in themselves), and God's promise (the thing that the person who lives out the calling will receive for his efforts). It is important to note that Jesus does not speak of some future state of the Believer who has accomplished being poor in spirit, being meek, and hungering after righteousness. He speaks in present tense: Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. It is the reminder that this promise from God is two-fold: it is in living out God's calling that we receive now the blessing from the Father and that we store up for ourselves the promises of God for the future. But it is not a statement of "You will be blessed at some point in the future." Yes, we receive our invitation to a future reward, eternity with the Father and eternal life unimaginable, but we also receive the direct blessing from the Father because of how we conduct ourselves in this life. The Beatitudes are a totality and should be taken as a whole; we do not have the opportunity to say, "I like this one, but I can't do that one." While there may be some that we are naturally inclined toward, such as showing mercy or being meek, or struggle with, such as being gentle or making peace, we must always take them as a whole and strive to live them out. A life that lives out the Beatitudes is a Christ-like life. There is a reason that Jesus spoke these instructions first to the disciples. He is literally showing them the marks of what being His true disciple looks like and then following it up with the calling to go and show everyone else. That is still our calling today. Quote: "If you 'sow' the "Beatitudes," you will 'reap' the "fruit of the Spirit." (Mark Besh) Point #2 Matthew 5 marks Jesus' place within the rabbinical teaching structure. People are coming to hear Him teach, rather than simply coming to see or experience miracles. "When He saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down His disciples came to Him. Then He began to teach them, saying:" (Matthew 5:1-2) We get a fantastic look at the true significance of the Sermon on the Mount through this little introduction in Matthew 5. Jesus began to teach after he had sat down. When a Jewish rabbi was teaching officially he sat down, signaling those following him that what was about to be shared was important and official to the man's position. Of course, we know that the disciples viewed Jesus as a rabbi, even before they fully understood His identity and role. They left their lives and followed Him in a rabbi/ student relationship, rabbi meaning both master and teacher. They followed Him to learn from Him. We see in Luke 4 that there was already an identification of Jesus as a recognized teacher; He is allowed to read out of Isaiah in the synagogue, something reserved for religious leaders and rabbis, but it isn't until the Sermon on the Mount that we get a view of just how wide the scope of His ministry had become. Much like we might judge a religious speaker today on the number of people who would come to hear him speak, the same is possible with Jesus and those who followed Him. Not that this was the attitude in Jesus' day, but it is safe to say that a rabbi's influence or impact on the culture was demonstrated by the number of people who followed him and the number of people who would gather to listen when he sat to teach. With Jesus, we have a very considerable crowd who begins to follow Him. Consider that in Matthew 14, when Jesus feeds the crowd of 5,000 men, the crowd is estimated to have actually been between 10,000 and 30,000, depending on the number of children present. Har Haosher, or the Mount of the Beatitudes, just off the Sea of Galilee, the generally accepted historic site of the Sermon, has been analyzed to project how many could have been present and actually hear Jesus- and the number is estimated that well over 30,00 could have comfortably heard and understood Jesus speaking, and that's without any kind of supernatural assistance. We don't know the exact number of those in attendance. Of course, Matthew simply states it as "the crowd," but we get more information out of Luke's account in Luke 6: "After come down with them [them being the 12 apostles], He stood on a level place with a large crowd of His disciples and a great number of people from Judea and Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well. The whole crowd was trying to touch Him, because power was coming out from Him and healing them all." (Luke 6:17-19) So, we have a great number of people, all clamoring to touch Jesus because they wanted to be healed and to see miracles, but when He sits and speaks, the crowd is calmed, and the Sermon begins. Point #3 The people who listened to Jesus were amazed by His teaching. "When Jesus had finished this sermon, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, because He was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like one of their scribes. When He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him." (Matthew 7:28-8:1) This should be our response to coming face to face with Jesus, as well. If we really paid attention to what Jesus has to offer, we would be amazed by His teaching and we would drop everything and really begin to follow Him. Question: What does this mean for you? -We are doing this survey of the Sermon on the Mount because it is vitally important for your health as a Believer to always be familiarizing yourself with who Jesus is and what He teaches about your role in the Kingdom of God. That's what we're going to be covering over these next weeks. We are going to examine His teaching, examine His instructions for us on how to live for the Kingdom of God, of how to really be effective in the Kingdom of God. What is it that He expects from you and what blessings will He prepare you with in order for you to be effective in the Kingdom? Invitation: