6 Things to Know About the Sermon on the Mount

This Sunday we begin our series in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5–7. It can rightly be said that Jesus’s Sermon here is the most famous ever preached. Even Mahatma Gandhi said after reading the New Testament, “The New Testament,...especially the Sermon on the Mount, went straight to my heart.”[1] Unfortunately for Gandhi, what he saw was only a profound ethical code and not the authoritative Word of the Living God. We want to hear it as it was meant to be heard. To help us, here are six things we need to know as we prepare for our series on the Sermon on the Mount.

1. The Sermon is the Word of the Davidic King

Matthew’s first four chapters are unmistakable that the Jesus born to Mary is none other than “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1). And as the son of “David the king” (1:6), he is the one promised to reign forever (2 Sam 7:12–13). In chapter two, Jesus is presented as “king of the Jews” (2:2), “a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” (2:6, citing Micah 5:2). The last prophecy he fulfills before the beginning of his ministry is Isaiah 9:1–2, which he fulfills by coming out of “Galilee of the Gentiles” (4:15). But Isaiah 9 will go on to say, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore” (Isa 9:7) When he begins his ministry, his message is summarized as “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17), and he went about "proclaim the gospel of the kingdom" (4:23). Why? Because the King is “at hand.” By the time we get to Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount, we are unmistakably hearing the words of the promised Davidic King.

2. The Sermon is Instruction About Life in the Kingdom

Not only does Matthew set up the Sermon on the Mount by presenting Jesus as King, but the Sermon itself is God's teaching on life in the kingdom. The opening verse of the Sermon tells us, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 5:3). This is both a reminder that entrance into this kingdom is through being “poor in spirit,” and that once in the kingdom, we need to be those who are continually “poor in spirit.” Throughout the Sermon there are references to "the kingdom of heaven" (5:10, 19, 20). Jesus instructs us to pray, “Your kingdom come” (6:10). He calls us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (6:33). Then there's his closing warning that we “enter the kingdom of heaven” only by being God’s people and not by doing great deeds of power on his behalf (7:21). These references are God’s clues that what we are given is clear instruction for life in the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is not easy to define, but the essence of the idea is "God's sovereign reign."[2] It is not a place or a period of time only, though it encompasses all places in different ways and will be expressed differently at different times. We don't want to internalize it too much, as if God's kingdom is only where Christians are, for our God is "a great King over all the earth" (Ps 47:2). Everything is under his sovereign rule, whether angels, the devil himself, heaven and hell, hearts and minds, worldly powers and institutions, the destinies of all individuals. He is comprehensively "God over all" (Rom 9:5). And yet, the distinctive aspect of Christians is that they have bowed their hearts before God the King. And so they have "entered into" the kingdom in a way that others have not (Matt 5:20; 7:21). We must enter it like a child (Matt 18:23) and be born again to "enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, 5). And for those of us who have entered into his kingdom, we are longing for a future day when his kingdom will indeed come in a glorious consummation of all his promises (Matt 8:11; Mark 11:10). 

The Sermon on the Mount instructs in how we are to live as those who have entered into God's kingdom through Christ the King. That's why we're calling our series, Living in the Kingdom.

3. The Sermon is about How to Live Before "Your Heavenly Father"

A remarkable aspect of Jesus's Sermon is his abundant use of calling God "your Father"/"your heavenly Father" (Matt 5:16, 45, 48; 6:1, 4, 6, 8) or "our Father" (Matt 6:9). Seventeeen times God is referred to as "Father" in this Sermon. This is a stunning amount. It is more than all the references to God the Father in the entire Old Testament. The idea is certainly not absent in the Old Testament (Isa 63:16–17; 64:8–9; Deut 14:1–2), but Jesus is clearly wanting us to know and feel that as God's people we have a special relationship with God. Just as Jesus can speak of God as "my Father" (Matt 7:21), so can we! The use of "Father" in the Sermon helps us see two things about it. One is that it's written to those who have become children of God. And the second is that we can trust God to be generous, loving, forgiving, and a perfect provider (Matt 7:11), all because he is "our heavenly Father." 

4. The Sermon is a "Manifesto" for a "Christian Counter-Culture"

When John Stott was trying to capture the radical lifestyle portrayed in Jesus’s Sermon he was struck for its intensity, its comprehensiveness, and the fact Jesus meant it “to be obeyed.”[3] For him, it was nothing short of a “Christian Counter-Culture” that Jesus was presenting and “the nearest thing to a manifesto” to be found in his teaching.[4] It was a calling from our King to embrace a lifestyle that would demand everything and penetrate to the deepest reaches of our hearts. To speak of a “Christian counter-culture” means to embrace a lifestyle that does not exist like an island within a larger culture (sub-culture) and does not simply oppose the culture and certainly does not absorb the culture. Instead, we live as dual citizens, engaged as citizens of earth but with our values, identity, and community rooted in being citizens of heaven at the same time (Phil 3:20). To live the life held up to us in the Sermon will mean no one is likely to say to us, “But you are no different from anybody else.”[5]

5. The Sermon is One of the Five Blocks of Teaching in Matthew

Matthew uniquely organizes his gospel around five blocks of teaching. These are each followed by a phrase like the one we find after the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:28, “And when Jesus finished these sayings...” “When Jesus finished these sayings” or words to that effect will appear four more times after each of the blocks of teaching. The second block is in chapter 10 and focuses on the mission of the apostles and then concludes with, “When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples...” (Matt 11:1). After the third block of teaching on the parables in chapter 13, we read, “And when Jesus had finished these parables...” (Matt 13:53). After the fourth block of teaching in chapter 18 on sin and the Christian, we read, “Now when Jesus had finished these sayings...” (Matt 19:1). And then after the fifth block of teaching on the end times in chapters 24–25, we read, “When Jesus had finished all these sayings...” (Matt 26:1).

Seeing these motifs in Matthew helps us to organize Matthew’s gospel into clear sections. There is a first section introducing the whole book, and then the last section concludes with the Great Commission. Here is how we can divide his gospel:

• Matthew 1:1–4:17 – The Prologue
• Matthew 4:18–7:29 – Galilee Part 1 (The Gospel of the Kingdom)
• Matthew 8:1–11:1 – Galilee Part 2 (Christ and His Apostles)
• Matthew 11:2–13:53 – Galilee Part 3 (Christ and His Kingdom)
• Matthew 13:54–19:2 – Galilee Part 4 (Christ and Our Response)
• Matthew 19:3–26:2 – Galilee to Jerusalem (The Stone Rejected is the Cornerstone)
• Matthew 26:3–28:20 – The Crucifixion and Triumph of the King

6. The Sermon is a “Rule of Life” for the Christian

We misunderstand Jesus’s Sermon if we turn it into something we need to obey in order to be saved. And yet, we also misunderstand his words if we turn it into something we don’t need to obey because we are saved. This Sermon is part of God’s gracious word that presents a “rule of life” for us (Trinity Confession 21:6). God’s commandments are a guide, a rule, a pattern that is to be the shape of our lives and behavior. “Rule of life” is traditional Reformed teaching for the idea that while there is no salvation to be achieved through obeying God’s law, there is nonetheless blessing, life, grace, and joy to be found in obeying it. A related idea is what Calvin meant by “the third and principal use of the law.” God’s law (i.e., his moral commands throughout the Bible) serves three purposes for the Christian. First it is like “a mirror,” revealing to us our sinfulness (Institutes 2.7.7). Jesus's Sermon is certainly a mirror, revealing to us our need for his redemption and grace. Second, it restrains our sinfulness as it convicts us (2.7.10). May Jesus's Sermon have that affect on us, too. But “the third and principal use of the law” is as a guide for our behavior, showing to us “the nature of the Lord’s will” which we desire to obey (2.7.12). It teaches us what we are to do to walk in obedience to Christ our King and Lord. Of course, the ability to obey was lost with the fall of Adam (Rom 3:9–12). But through the work of the Spirit giving us new hearts through regeneration, we are given the desire and ability to obey (Ezek 36:25–27). In this new state, we can walk in obedience to God’s law. And part of that good law is given to us in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

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As always when we are starting a new series, one of the best things to do to prepare is simply to read and meditate on the passage. In this case, that isn’t too difficult. You can read these three chapters in Matthew in ten or fifteen minutes. You might be helped if you read the whole book of Matthew in the next week or two. That will help you see this marvelous sermon in the context in which Matthew-the-tax-collector-turned-apostle wrote it.

May God help us to live out the radical kingdom lifestyle we find in Jesus’s Sermon. 

Daniel

[1] M. K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1948 orig.; NY: Dover Publications, 1983), 60.

[2] George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1959), 22.

[3] John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, BST (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity, 1978), 10.

[4] Stott, 15.

[5] Stott, 17.