Setting The Stage Series

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 …