Sermon oin the Mount

In my Sunday school class, we recently finished a series on the Sermon on the Mount.  Found in Matthew 5 through 7, it is easily one of Jesus’s longest continual teachings. Within this sermon we find some well-known passages such as the beatitudes, the Lord’s prayer, and the golden rule, to name a few. Covering a lot of ground in the three chapters, Jesus speaks on many topics. Preparing my lessons, I realized that while I sometimes use excerpts and verses form Jesus’s sermon, I hadn’t read it through in its entirety in quite some time. Doing so, I was reminded that the many topics Jesus touched on were all examples used to underscore his theme. The sermon, in all its many parts, was designed to announce to the listener that the kingdom of heaven had arrived and that citizenship was accessed through the heart, or, more specifically, a changed heart. Therein is the context to the entire sermon, one in which I believe he gave repeatedly as he traveled the ancient world. I bet if Matthew recorded every time and place Jesus spoke it, the book of Matthew would be the size of my entire bible.

Too often we, even Christians, love to throw context aside. It is just so much easier that way isn’t it. How often do we take a verse or worse yet, a piece of a verse and blurt it out like a bumper sticker.  Psalm 37:4 says, “God will give you your heart’s desire”, but I still don’t have that beach house, or a new truck, or prime hunting ground in southern Iowa. What gives! Out of context, I can make the verse what I want it to be. Worse yet, I can use God’s own words against him to convince myself that God is saying exactly what I want him to say.

The world was doing just that with Gods law. Then Jesus comes on the stage and says you’re doing it all wrong. Thankfully, he didn’t stop there but went on to say that he would show us how it should be done, in fact, he said that was the very reason he was here. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them”. 

The law of Moses is by no means a riveting topic to write or read about, but that’s where Jesus started to show us that our hearts needed to change, so that’s where we will start today. We need the law of moses today to make our point just as Jesus used it 2000 years ago to make his. Rolling through examples, Jesus shows us that we fall short in every aspect of our lives. The law said do not murder (Matt 5:21) Jesus said do not be angry (Matt 5:22). The law said an eye for an eye, Jesus said turn the other cheek (Matt 5:39). The law said love your neighbor, Jesus said love your enemy (5:44). He wraps up chapter 5 with these words, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.”

Why do you think he ended his discourse on the law in chapter 5 by telling us to be perfect? He was echoing the words of God the father when he said to Moses in Leviticus 19:2b, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” You see, Jesus was setting the bar in chapter 5 to show us that you can’t punch a ticket to the kingdom of heaven based on any achievement you can muster up. Let’s recap, Jesus is here to announce a new kingdom, HIS kingdom, an eternal kingdom, and yet the entry gate is closed, or so it appears.

To understand that perhaps the gate is in fact wide open, we need to take a minute and consider the audience. Who was the audience for the sermon on the mount? I am not talking about age, social status, or education levels; I am talking about “hearers of the word”. Who were the people that heard the words of Jesus that day. Reading through the three chapters and using only the words of Jesus, I come up with three types of people: “Pagans”, “Hypocrites”, and “You”. Let’s break them down.

Keeping with the context of the scripture, a pagan in the time of Jesus was a non-Jewish person who saw no need to worship God, heed the words of His prophets, or adhere to the law of Moses. This would include the Greeks and Romans with their god for every occasion, as well as those who just did not concern themselves with the spiritual at all. The pagans sought what the world had to offer with no concern for the God of Isreal. To them, a god was something you appeased in exchange for being left alone. Jesus refers to them several times in the sermon. He says this in Matthew 6:31-33, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”. Clearly there is a great benefit in being a kingdom citizen, but it does not come from the pagan idea of worldly pursuit. Our quest for the open gate continues.

The second group, the hypocrites, were, or at least appeared, very different from the pagans. When Jesus said hypocrite, he was typically referring to the religious leaders of the day. In apparent contrast to the pagans, religious leaders sought fulfilment of the law in every aspect of life. Yet Jesus called them hypocrites. Hypocrite is originally a Greek word meaning “actor” or “stage player”.  It referenced one who spoke from behind a mask. The word was later used to describe someone who pretended to be something they were not. Jesus pointed out that the Jewish leaders whom the people were supposed to look to for guidance were not what they purported to be. In Matthew 6:5 Jesus says, “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”  Here Jesus shows us that behind action is intent. If your intent is to be seen and admired by the world around you, then the world’s applause IS your reward. If you have received the reward you sought, then there is no reward in God's kingdom. If you have not sought the approval of God, why would there be a Godly reward. It turns out, the religious leaders of the day were wearing masks, not on their faces but on their hearts. To them, the gate to the kingdom of heaven remained quite closed indeed.

I once heard pastor Paul LeBoutillier say that if Jesus had a summary statement for the sermon on the mount, it would be, “Do not be like them”. That certainly seems like a true statement. Both audience groups we’ve so far discussed fall into the “Do not be like them” category. That leaves us with the last group, “You.” Jesus has some cool things to say to you and me.  “You are the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world.” It turns out, “You” are the people who desire the kingdom of heaven. Maybe it is better put, those who seek it. Or better still, those who seek Him. Turns out, the “You” in the sermon on the Mount is the believer in Jesus. It is the person who believes that Romans 5:8 is true, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

To “You”, the believer, the gate to the kingdom of heaven is widely open. Not through religious processes, well-kept traditions, or individual achievement, but rather the acceptance that Jesus did what you could not and the willingness to remove the mask from your heart. Jesus kicks off the sermon with these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. The kingdom of heaven is open to those who recognize that they are spiritually empty, destitute even. The gate is open to those that recognize that they need the atoning work of Jesus and seek it.

Since 1987, American Express has touted the phrase, “Membership has its privileges”. We could say the same about kingdom citizenship. To his disciples who step through that gate, Jesus provides a wonderful promise. It is found near the end of the sermon on the mount in chapter 7: 7-8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Ask to understand Gods will for your life and he will answer you. Seek Gods wisdom for your life and you will find it. Knock and keep knocking. Remain persistent and God will open doors far beyond the entry gate. Persistence is not for God to change his mind but rather for you to change your heart. Ask, seek, and knock, and you will learn what Gods wants for your life and understand that God wants you to care about the same things that He cares about. Early on I quoted Psalm 37:4 “God will give you your heart’s desire”. When we allow God to align our hearts, minds, and will to his own, he will do just that.

The audience that heard those words from Jesus on the hillside of Galilee those many years ago is the same audience that he talks to today through his written word. So, the question to the believer today remains, do I want to want the same things that Gods wants? That is the question that the sermon on the mount challenged me with these past few weeks as I read and studied Jesus’ wonderful sermon.