Sermon on the Mount- Part 1
Introduction
Stuart’s word last week- very thought provoking.
Stuart talked about 100-fold obedience …
Mtt 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. NASU
Equated perfection w/spiritual maturity, not w/sinless perfectionism (perfect- complete, reaching a goal)
God is calling us to pursue 100% obedience to Him.
Stuart spoke from- Sermon on the Mount.
Step off of his word- walk through- Sermon on Mount
Where is/what is the Sermon on the Mount?
The Sermon on the Mount is just that, a teaching presented by Jesus Christ to his disciples.
It gives us- clear picture- mature Christian looks like.
It is perhaps the most well known of Christ teachings, at the same time the least understood/obeyed.
Take a quick look at Mtt 5-7 (Bible marked up).
Jesus establishes a very high standard for His people.
It is a description of what Jesus wants His followers-
to be internally and how they are to live outwardly.
He presents a type of Christian counterculture.
We are living in a time of great of disillusionment.
Each new generation starts out with an idealism rejects the world that it inherits.
For too often what they see in the church is not counter-culture but conformism, not a new society which embodies their ideals, but another version of the old society which they have renounced, not life but death. John Stott
If- world looks at- church- sees nothing different than itself- we are not being what we are called to be.
A theme that runs throughout the Bible is that God’s purpose is to call out a people for Himself.
Deut 7:6 "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. NASU
1 Pet 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; NASU
Kingdom of God
This counter culture is what the Bible calls the KofG.
What is the Kof G?
Jesus ushered in- new sense of God’s rule among men
The overall theme- Sermon on the Mount- the principles of the Kingdom of God lived out.
The KofG in the Old/New Testaments- not primarily a kingdom w/geographical boundaries.
It is first an issue of heart- therefore it is a dynamic kingdom, a kingdom filled with- life/power of God
The KofG can refer to- totality of God’s sovereignty.
Mtt 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. NASU
He rules over all creation- believer/unbeliever.
Phil 2:10-11
… EVERY KNEE WILL BOW … every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord … NASU
From the resurrection of Christ down to present time, all of the Father’s divine sovereignty (rule) is mediated to men through Jesus Christ.
However, as we look at the Sermon on the Mount, He is not talking about His universal Kingdom, but of those who have entered into a KofG lifestyle.
Before we can understand- teachings of our Lord, we must see Him not first as teacher, but as Savior.
What does that statement mean to you?
We must KNOW Him as Savior before we will fully understand Him as teacher.
1 Cor 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
If He is to us first teacher, then He has placed before us a standard we can never attain in our on strength He came to make us what He teaches we should be. Oswald Chambers
Sermon on the Mount- a statement of the life we can live once we have encountered the Living Christ.
Our life w/God begins w/repentance- recognizing our own sinfulness/inability to live a holy life.
It is at this point, through faith in the death of Jesus on the cross, as the Son of God, that we receive eternal life and the grace to live the type of life described in Mtt 5-7.
The Sermon on the Mount is to be seen as what a human life/community looks like when they have entered into the life/come under the rule of God
The Sermon on the Mount
First 12 verses of the Sermon- called the Beatitudes.
Mtt 5:1-12 (10) (read)
We will begin to look at- Beatitudes by examining …
Mtt 5:1-2
Mtt 7:29-30- teachers- sit down, position of authority.
Perhaps Jesus went up on the mountain to draw a parallel between …
Moses, who went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, and
Himself, who came to explain the implication of the 10 commandments to His disciples.
Jn 1:18 No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. NLT
As the Jews lived under the yoke of the Torah/Law, He was inviting His disciples to bear His yoke,
Mt 11:29-30
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." NLT
What is the yoke of Christ? How do we bear it?
To bear the yoke of Jesus is to submit to His teachings, come under His rule/authority …
Your right, I am wrong,
Your ways are better than my ways,
Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts,
You are God, I am creation.
Conclusion
Conclude today with a quote by John Stott …
For the standards of the Sermon are neither readily attainable by every man, nor totally unattainable by any man.
To put them beyond anybody’s reach is to ignore the purpose of Christ’s Sermon; to put them within everybody’s is to ignore the reality of man’s sin.
They are attainable all right, but only by those who have experienced the new birth which Jesus told Nicodemus was the indispensable condition of seeing and entering God’s Kingdom. (Nicodemus- John 3:3-5)
The righteousness described in the Sermon on the Mount is an inner righteousness,
But it results outwardly and visibly in words and actions in keeping with the heart of God.
Mtt 7:16-20
The only way for our lives to bear good fruit, is if our heart is in right relationship with God.
If our heart- in right relationship w/God- our lives will outwardly bear- fruit of God’s Kingdom within.
Only a belief in the necessity and the possibility of a new birth can keep us from reading the Sermon on the Mount with either foolish optimism or hopeless despair. John Stott.
In other words, it will take a supernatural life living within/through us to live/walk out the SOTM.
Because we have been given that life, Jesus can say-
Mtt 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. NASU
