Sermon on the Mount
The Christian Character
Matthew 5:3 - 7:27
(Cf. Luke 6:20-49)
Part 1 – Introduction
This is the introduction to a 14-part series of studies I call “The Christian Character” as described by Jesus to a crowd of people on a Galilean hillside, as he delivered what is more familiarly known as the “Sermon on the Mount.”
The 14 parts are as follows:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Beatitudes – the poor in spirit
Part 3 - Beatitudes – those who mourn
Part 4 - Beatitudes – the meek, and those who hunger and thirst
Part 5 - Beatitudes – the merciful and the pure in heart
Part 6 - Beatitudes – peacemakers
Part 7 - Beatitudes – the persecuted and insulted
Part 8 - Salt of the earth and light of the world
Part 9 - Righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees; divorce, oaths
Part 10 - Eye for eye, loving neighbor and hating enemy, being perfect
Part 11 - Three things to do, not to be seen by men and a model prayer
Part 12 - Laying up treasures, eye is the lamp of the body, serving two masters
Part 13 - Do not judge, do not give what is holy to dogs and pigs
Part 14 - Ask, seek, and knock; the narrow gate; false prophets; building on the rock
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
PART 1 - INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
Please turn to Isaiah 61 – we’ll be reading there in a few minutes
Today’s sermon is the first of a series of studies on Jesus’ sermon commonly called the “Sermon on the Mount,” located in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. The text doesn’t refer to the discourse as a sermon, nor does the word “sermon” appear in the bible; however, that fact alone doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use the word in this and other contexts.
While everyone recognizes the occasion as the “sermon on the mount,” to which I have no objection, I prefer to think of it as Jesus’ extended description of “The Christian Character.”
Some years ago when my wife Robin and I lived in Mandeville, Louisiana, we were driving to Slidell, a town about 20 miles away. Knowing that I would soon be teaching a series of adult classes on Matthew 5-7 I asked her to read the sermon aloud at what she considered to be a normal rate of delivery assuming there were no interruptions or long intervals of silence as originally delivered by Jesus. She did so, and when she stopped reading, 13 minutes had passed.
It takes about 13 minutes to read Jesus’ description of the Christian character.
This series will take about 13 weeks, and in that time we will not plumb the depths of what Jesus said out on the Galilean mountain. We will probe for more than a superficial grasp of what the words and phrases mean, but we will not exhaust the depth of what Jesus revealed.
Countless words have been written and said, and many more will be said about it, yet the 13-minute sermon itself is greater than all that can be said about it in 13 weeks (14 including this introduction) – or 14 lifetimes. You see an extraordinary mode of living described – much of it directly contrary to human nature. Jesus takes us beneath the surface-level “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” his audience had already heard, to show us that where there is a command for or against doing something, there is true purpose and objective that is greater than - but not contrary to - doing or not doing the thing at hand. and that purpose has to do with Christian character.
Jesus’ teaching penetrates directly to the innermost person, not just the person’s observable actions. He shows that the human heart is at the root of--and governs--our actions, and that is where we need to address problems - not merely externally where the action is, but internally, in the heart that prompts our actions.
1. We would learn less than we should from the study of this sermon if we failed to begin by considering the one who spoke it.
Jesus was not just another teacher. He was certainly one of a kind. God, who created earth with its majestic mountains and its mighty seas, and the incomprehensible vastness of the night sky, most importantly created man in his own image. Being in God's image, man is like God in many respects, but unlike him in others. Man has flaws. These flaws lead to actions that render man unfit to be in God’s presence.
So God sent his Son who had been one with the Father throughout all eternity, by whom and through whom all things were created, to take upon himself the form of a man - and not just a man, but a servant. And to that service, the Son of God was divinely anointed.
The mission of this “anointed son” was shown to the prophets – most explicitly in Isaiah 61:1-3
Isaiah 61:1-3 NASB – “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me to –
• bring good news to the afflicted;
• bind up the brokenhearted,
• proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners;
• proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
• and the day of vengeance of our God;
• To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
• So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
This passage tells us what the “me” of Isaiah’s prophesy would come to do – that work to which Jesus was anointed.
NUMBER 1 (of 7) – “To bring good news to the afflicted”
Jesus read Isaiah’s prophecy in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. There, Luke renders that first duty (Luke 4:18):
“Preach the gospel to the poor”
What in Isaiah’s prophecy is called “good news” is called “gospel” in Luke’s account.
In the New Testament’s original language, the expression “preach the gospel” is from a single Greek word euaggelizo¯ (yoo-ang-ghel-id'-zo)
Write it on the white board
The precise meaning is to literally speak news – news meaning information not previously known – in this case good news that is favorable and beneficial to those receiving it.
That’s the first thing in the list of things the Spirit anointed Jesus to do.
Turn to Matthew 4 (and while you’re turning to it…)
• In the year A.D. 1227, Stephen Langton divided the Latin Bible into chapters. Langton was a professor at the University of Paris and later he became the Archbishop of Canterbury.
• About 300 years later, in 1528, the Italian Santes Pagnini in 1528 published a Latin translation of the entire Bible, apparently the first to divide the Old Testament into the verses most bibles use today.
• 23 years later, in 1551, Robert Stephanus (later Anglicized to Stephens), a French printer, divided the verses for the New Testament in Greek and Latin.
The chapters and verses in the bible you’re looking at are not actually part of the bible, but an index and locator system added for convenience in finding passages and communicating their location to others.
I told you that so I could tell you this: I wish That Stephen Langton had decided to put Matt 4:23-25 into chapter 5, as those verses rightly belong with what follows them.
Matthew 4:23-25 NASB Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and [note this!] proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. Matthew 5:1-2 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. he opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying…
Jesus preached the sermon on the mount as he was going through Galilee proclaiming, or preaching the gospel!
Here the word for gospel is euaggelion – the noun form of the verb euaggelizo.
I’m telling you this to show that what Jesus was doing on the mountain in Galilee was the first item in the list of what Isaiah, 700 years earlier, said that the Spirit would anoint Jesus to do. It was the same thing Jesus himself said was fulfilled in himself, and what the lead-in to the 3 chapters of the Sermon on the Mount says Jesus was doing: Preaching the gospel of the kingdom to the afflicted, or poor.
Preaching the gospel?
Years earlier than Peter preached the first gospel on Pentecost, Jesus was already preaching
the gospel of the kingdom? (the kingdom we consider to have been established years later, on the same day Peter preached the “first gospel sermon?”)
What have we here? Jesus preaching good news before it happened to a kingdom that didn’t exist yet?
We will consider that question in the course of this series.
The words of Jesus – in this sermon and elsewhere - are the words of God.
John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
On one occasion Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63)
Therefore these words are of immense value. The sermon in these three chapters is a gold mine of Jesus’ teachings.
2. This sermon is (I believe) an actual event rather than a compilation of Jesus’s teachings, although the sermon is similar to others given at different times and places. Here Jesus taught his disciples and the multitude. In the parables, He sometimes answered those who were challenging him, and sometimes teaching the disciples about the kingdom--things that were to come to pass later.
“Sermon on the Plain” - This title is sometimes given to the discourse recorded in Luke 6:20-49, because according to Luke (Luke 6:17) it was delivered on a plain at the foot of the mountain. In some respects the passage in Luke 6:20-49 is somewhat similar, but it’s shorter and the content doesn’t exactly match the one recorded in Mt 5 through 7. The two are so different as to make it uncertain whether they are different reports of the same discourse or reports of different occasions.
3. Jesus’ teaching is often the reverse of natural human understanding and tendencies.
Over and over, Jesus’ sermon tells us things are not as they seem to be.
Matt 5:3 – If I am poor (not rich) in spirit, I am blessed.
V4 - If I mourn, I am blessed.
V10 – If I am persecuted for righteousness’ sake, I am blessed.
V11 – If people insult me and say false things about me, I am blessed.
Vs21-22 – It is not enough that I do not murder. I’m not even to hate my hateful brother, or speak contemptuously about him.
Vs27-28 – Avoiding the sin of adultery is not enough. If I lust, I’m already guilty of it.
Vs25-33 – In everything I am to be proactive and responsible, except when it comes to my basic physical needs. There I am to seek first the kingdom.
V39 – If someone slaps me on the cheek, I’m to offer the other cheek.
V44 – I’m to love my enemies, and pray for them.
In fact, the whole of Christianity is a lifetime study in these opposites.
The Christian religion teaches me that:
To gain my life I must lose it. Matt 16:25
The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Matt 20:16
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. 1 Cor 1:27
When I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor 12:10
I should count it as joy when I undergo temptations and trials. James 1:2f
The teaching and life of Jesus embody a revolutionary kind of faith and practice. They teach that we must not only act, but think, in a way contrary to natural human tendencies and reactions, and train ourselves in it. This is the essence of the rehabilitation that occurs in a redeemed, sanctified person - (2 Peter 1:3-4) participating in the divine nature
It has sometimes been called pacifism.
In some ways it appears to resemble pacifism but there is a huge difference.
It is not driven by the desire to placate overly assertive people or bullies, and thus avoid confrontation and conflict.
The doctrines of Jesus are borne on zephyrs’ wings of love.
4. The sermon also is different from the religious doctrines most emphasized Jesus’ day.
The last verses in Matthew 7:
Matthew 7:28-29 ESV And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, (29) for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Jesus’ teaching was different in that he was the author of the law they professed to know so well. Little did they know - as Jesus did – that Jesus came to be the fulfillment of the law the religious leaders thought they owned!
Apart from Jesus’ own teaching, what was the teaching going on in the religious schools of Jesus’ day (and by the scribes and Pharisees and those in religious government)?
• Strict conformance with the law
• Exactness in understanding and obeying commandments
• Measurement of a person’s adherence to the law (e.g., tithing)
• Externalities, such as broadening of phylacteries - These were either strips of parchment or small cubes covered with leather, on or in which were written four sections of the Law, viz. Exo_13:1-10; 11-16; Deu_6:4-9; Deu_11:13-21. They were worn fastened either to the forehead, or inside the left arm, so as to be near the heart. Their use arose from a literal and superstitious interpretation of Exo_13:9; Deu_6:8; Deu_11:18. Their dimensions were defined by rabbinical rules, but the extra pious formalists of the day thought more of any good thing was better than less of any good thing, and increased the breadth of the strips or of the bands by which they were fastened, in order to draw attention to their religiousness and their strict attention to the least observances of the Law.
Jesus calls on his followers to be different, not only from the irreligious world, which is largely guided by its appetites, but also from self-satisfied, self-righteous religious pretenders.
He begins with beatitudes. This is significant. The rest of the sermon, and in fact the whole of Jesus’ teachings, as well as his life, rests on the beatitudes. He demonstrated and taught the Christlike character as described in the beatitudes at many times and in many places. For this reason, we will spend about half of the time in this series exploring the beatitudes. After that, the study will accelerate because we will be examining larger passages at a time.
Beatitude (from the Latin word beatitudo, meaning supreme blessedness or happiness. There are nine beatitudes in Matt 5:3-11. Luke 6:20-26 has four, which correspond generally to some of these nine, and are coupled there with four woes, which are the opposite of the beatitudes.
Jesus shows that those who have these “be” characteristics are blessed.
Blessed is from the Greek work makarios, which means – what? extremely happy? joyful? well off?
But “being” any of the things Jesus mentions would seem to make us unhappy, joyless, and not well off. Could it be that being blessed in the sense is another of those upside down principles of the Christian faith? For example, look at Revelation 2:9 and 3:17. At the end the first century the resurrected Jesus told the church at Smyrna,
“I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich!” (Revelation 2:9a),
while he told the church at Laodicea,
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked”
Which church is blessed? Clearly, the afflicted and poor church in Smyrna was blessed with “richness” of a different kind.
Can it be that blessedness simply means “well off” in the things that matter – in harmony with God - although we are poor in spirit, mourning, hungry and thirsty, and so on?
It seems that is what Jesus is teaching.
As noted, Jesus has begun the sermon with “be” rather than “do” and “do not.” This doesn’t mean that the “do” and “do not” that follow aren’t important to being pleasing to God. Rather, it shows that the “doing” is the outworking of the “being.”
First “be.” Then “do” follows naturally. And according to the beatitudes, the being drives the doing, and blessedness follows accordingly.”
…the poor in spirit possess the kingdom of heaven
…mourners are comforted
…the hungry and thirsty are satisfied
…blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy
…the pure in heart shall see God
…peacemakers they shall be called sons of God.
…those persecuted for righteousness' sake possess the kingdom of heaven.
…those reviled, persecuted and are spoken evil of rejoice and be glad, for their reward is great in heaven
In the next part we will begin a study of the beatitudes one by one.
