On the Mount, as presented in Matthew chapters 5-7, is not a set of individual commands but a foundational teaching block for the community of Jesus' followers, establishing a distinct counterculture. Jesus begins by describing the identity of his disciples, stating they "are" the salt and light, and then elaborates on their character through the Beatitudes, emphasizing a spiritual poverty that acknowledges utter dependence on God. The sermon's purpose is to fulfill the law by revealing its deeper meaning and intent, calling for a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees by focusing on internal attitudes rather than mere external observance. Ultimately, Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount are presented not as a burden, but as a liberating path that enables disciples to become who they are called to be in relationship with God.
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Mike back there. So why don't you all just move down? No, of course it's good to see you again. And be back where the weather's a little warmer. I don't think Jimmy ever forgave me from moving to Minnesota. But I'm delighted to see you all again this morning. But I originally planned to do. Hanshire Camp Maria and just just the stress of doing it put me in vitro fibrillation again so I'm just realizing I should no longer do the kinds of things I'd like to do and I just thought we'd play it by ear today see how I do and not only physically but far as teaching is concerned.
It's any good for us listening to. And maybe tonight we'll talk about having a study tomorrow night. If you're interested, see how this goes. It may not generate any interest. You may say, no, that's enough. We don't want to hear any more. And that's fine. You won't hurt my feelings. I'll go home crying, but that's all right. Don't worry about that. But we'll play it by ear today and see how things go. What I'd like to do is begin with the Sermon on the Mount this morning in Matthew chapter five. I'll switch if you've already done something with the Sermon on the Mount recently. But if you haven't, I'd like to begin with Matthew chapter five.
Verse one says, now when he saw the crowds and at the close of chapter four. The last verse says, large crowds from Galilee, the capitalists, the ten cities across the river Jordan, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed him. So he had large crowds following him. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, etc. And we'll hopefully get time to look at some of those Beatitudes this morning. Matthew, as you know, is... And if I'm saying stuff you already know, we want to move on to this point, because I'm telling you all this stuff, and I'm telling you all this stuff, and I'm telling you all this stuff that we're looking for in the future, and that we're in the future, and that we're looking for in the future, and that we're looking for in the future, and that we're in the future, because that's the only future.
more theological doctrine, he doesn't look at the life of Jesus in the same way Matthew, what we do. That doesn't mean we don't have the issue, that's what we do, that's the truth. So Matthew is one of the synopsis doctrine, and Matthew, who has chosen to build his doctrine, and they should not die out of this doctrine. There are the proclamation of good news in all hell by life. Nobody would write a biopsy that said, well, you're not admitted in one book. But they're in the old side. You should want to implement them in twelve, and then pick them up at ninety and thirty.
What are you going to write a biopsy that way? You should look biopsy. You should look at biopsy. You should look at the biopsy. What we have is a record with which we should be able to produce enough for us to write a biopsy off. That, we found to have chosen the Cyril is the challenge of the Holy One to be around five great teaching blocks that Jesus gave to you in the New Year. The first of those five teaching blocks is here in chapter five through seven, but we know that some will not. I want to say that that's the law of the language. How Jesus, what Jesus, the disciples are, and how they live, what they live.
The second part of the teaching block, the ministry, occurs in chapter... Oh, I'm just behind this, isn't I? It occurs in chapter ten, and it's the law of ministry. Jesus is sending his disciples out, and he's telling them how they are to conduct their ministry. And when you come to chapter thirteen, you have another great block of teaching. And I would call that the law of kingdom growth. How the kingdom of God grows. You have the sowing of the seed, et cetera, and the growth of the seed, the mustard seed, all the rest of it, yeast in the dough. How the kingdom of God grows. The laws of growth in the kingdom of God in chapter thirteen.
And then when you come to chapter eighteen, you would have what I would call the law of relationship in the kingdom of God. And he takes up primary subjects of servanthood. where the disciples are grasping after power and prominence, and Jesus teaches them the law of servanthood and the law of forgiveness. Because if we are going to be what God wants us to be, we have gotten to learn and do each other. And I would say we do ourselves. But forgiveness is key in that chapter. And then comes chapter twenty-four and twenty-five. The last part is building blocks. of teaching the gospel of Matthew.
That has to do with the return of the king. And our Lord talks about his second advent. Those are the five great teaching blocks around which Matthew builds his gospel. John, as you remember, builds his gospel around the seven great miracles of Jesus. But what Matthew does, Matthew is the great teaching gospel. And it presents Jesus, the Messiah, teaching in those five great blocks of material. And Matthew, as you know, is the Jewish gospel. You have more quotes from the Old Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew, the reading of the Bible, means a great thing to show who this person Jesus is and what he did fulfills what the Old Testament said about these guys.
Why is the gospel of the Jews to the Jews? Remember the Old Testament says what to do. But it's obvious the evangelism of the people of Israel in the first century. That was the gospel of Mass. So we come to this first of the building blocks, the Sermon on the Mount. And we have to ask, what is the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount before we have a look at it? And again, you're going to get all kinds of answers to that. There are people who feel that the Sermon on the Mount isn't the one. If you hold that, you have to believe in whatever it is.
is more common. It's true for us. A lot of the goals of the church are to be by inspiration to God and is profitable. So even if you feel the sermon in the mouth is not there for you to do it. So even if it's for you, you know, you're going to do it. You're going to do it. You're going to do it. You're going to do it. You're going to do it. You're going to do it. You're going to do it for you. that is, he is forming a new society of his followers that is going to be different from any other group in this spiritual society.
They are going to be distinct in ways that really matter. They are going to be differently as a group. And this sermon on the Mount is not written to you. the individuals who spoke to the disciples. It's as they create this Christian community, this community of followers of children, and together they live the way Jesus says his disciples are supposed to live, but they are going to be solved in life. Some of that isn't it? Solved in life in the world. But he's forming a new community. We are not in the showroom now.
individual disciples of Jesus living there in all of his city. We do that. But we form a community that together has a lifestyle that is markedly different from the lifestyle of the society around us. And I say community because we need a subject to do that. All these addresses are in the plural and assumed plural. that Jesus is talking about, when he talks about his disciples. And so the church ought to be, and I'm just talking about the followers of Jesus now as the church, the church ought to be a community of people whose lives reflect this new relationship to God in Jesus.
What? Well, we ought to be doing it. But we ought to be there to be very few months of Christians. not to be different in ways that we recount. And when we read the sermon on the Mount it's quite obvious if in any way we live there, we are going to be quite different in ways that we recount. I hope we get a chance to look at some of that this morning. But when he begins this sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about who we are, the kind of people His disciples are before he talks about how his disciples should live.
Now, when you look at the Beatitudes and then his statements, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, those are not excitations. He's not saying be that. He's saying you are that. And in the Beatitudes, he's not saying you come now. Because you are that, you are blessed. And it's what we are that Jesus begins with, and then moves on to what we do. So we, as a group of disciples of Jesus, are a company culture to our society of life. And that's true in Jesus.
The president of Jesus is going to be a counterculture to the society of life. And our purpose then is not to blend in with our society, but to be so different and so attractive that people see, they'll either hate us or love us. They'll want what we are in Jesus, or they won't be able to stand on one or the other. And the negative response will not be because we are abrasive. It will be because we are so different. And when you go through the Sermon on the Mount, or take any of the instructions of Paul and his business, for example, if we literally carry them out, you can see how we would be different from our society around us.
And I think that's the purpose of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, is to create this kind of counterculture. Let me talk briefly about what I think are some of the key ideas in the Sermon on the Mount. And then we'll move on to look at some of those specific passages. First in chapter five, verse seventeen, Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. And Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. How do you fulfill? one, he does what the Old Testament says the Messiah and the two.
You can look at it prophetically. That what the prophet said about the Messiah, Jesus does. And so he fulfills the Old Testament as a prophet. You can look at it through his death and resurrection. He has taken the curse of the law. He will fill everything in the law. The man needs set us free you could also see this word will fill in the way in which he uses he talks about the law in this chapter you have heard it was said now he's not contradicting the law he's showing us real meaning he's getting past the surface meaning of the law surface in the sense that we look at and showing what God had in mind.
There's those instructions we all have. And he fills out the meaning of the law. And you can see that all through here. In this fifth chapter, in verse twenty-seven, you have heard it was said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now he gets that from the command. He's not contradicting the command don't commit adultery. Any more than in verse twenty one, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder. And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.
Where do you get that? That's already implied. If we had the heart, please God. That's implied in the commandment, do not murder. You sit down and think, I am not to commit murder. What leads to murder? Anger. Desire for revenge. Hatred. If I am not to commit murder, then I am not to hate. I have to get rid of the anger. That's already implied. Even if God doesn't spell it out, people who have a heart for God are going to be thinking that way.
If we are only interested in an external kingdom of a commandment, we won't think that way. But if we really have a heart for God, we are going to look at those commands. What are the implications of those commands? And that's what Jesus is doing. So in his teaching, he fulfills the law, He fills it full of its real meaning. He goes beyond the surface, digs into it, said, think about it. This is what God is saying to you. Not only don't commit murder, don't hate, don't commit adultery, don't lust. Second idea is that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in verse twenty of this chapter.
I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, then the teachers of the law, it will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. I don't think he's speaking of judicial righteousness here. I mean, I disagree with you, and I don't think he allowed me wrong, but I don't think he's talking about judicial righteousness. I mean, God is clear enough that he's needed for the righteousness of Christ himself. He himself is our righteousness. I don't think that's what he said a year or so. That's a greater righteousness than the Pharisees. Because what he's talking about all through this sermon is how people live. What was the righteousness of the Pharisees?
About one keeping the surface of the law that they shall not murder, but they didn't murder. And they were satisfied with that. But if Jesus' teaching is correct, they didn't keep the law. Because they hated it. They could say, I have not committed adultery. And remember in Jesus' story of the Pharisees and the tax collector, the tax collector, he did not pay other than law. This public, he did this tax collector.
and unlike him. And on that superficial level, I don't mean to minimize the surface meaning of the commandments. That's what they were content with. I haven't committed adultery. I haven't committed murder. That was their righteousness. Jesus said, the true keeping of the law is not to lust, not to hate. And your righteousness must exceed that of the righteousness that the scribes and Pharisees. In that sense, you penetrate beyond the surface obvious meaning of the commandment to the implications that lie under it.
And those attitudes of lust and hatred are the things you begin to feel. You see that? So in that way, the righteous deeds of the disciples exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Now, if Jesus means our righteousness has to exceed their righteousness in the same way that their righteousness is, I give up. How are you going to do any more than the Pharisees did? It is meticulous observance not only of the law, but of all the traditions that have grown up around it.
No, our righteousness is greater because it goes beyond the surface meaning of the scriptures and penetrates to the incantations and begins to change what is internal, not just what is external. So we are not satisfied with not killing. or not committing adultery. We want the internal attitudes to change. And in that sense, our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Okay, any questions? Please interrupt me. If I'm not clear, if my thinking is muddied and you can't figure out what I'm talking about, maybe I don't know either, but ask me and we'll see what we can do with it, okay?
So the righteousness... of the disciples of Jesus must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. And I want to say a few other things here. He was more than trial-loving than the Jewish community. I don't command it quietly. One by obvious willful, transgression. I don't care what the commandment said, I'm going to do what I want to do. I don't care what the Bible says, I'm going to do what I want to do. That's one obvious thing. Another obvious way that Jesus knows about the religious leaders in this day is by elevating tradition over men.
They had centuries of tradition that had grown up around the law, and those traditions became more important than the commandment themselves. And that's always at age where our traditions become more important than what it's the teaching of the Lord, the teachings of the Lord God is. For example, it's very clear that the Lord, for example, is not any worship. You do it. That's what we do.
That's what we do. It's very possible to say that our distinctive attitude with church orders that may distinguish us from other Christians, which isn't our goal. We ought to be distinct from our society in that we so want to one another. And it is possible to put our tradition He denied that I was sending the prophet to put on a tradition that allowed the instruction of Jesus to live with.
But nobody would have thought over this for you. I know I had it there because I didn't thought my eyes properly to cross my feet properly. What I experienced, I don't think, was Christian law. It didn't even seem if I was wrong, which I'm not, that if I was wrong, I should be correctly and wrong. You don't shoot me through the foot without doing anything. You go living in the world trying to help them.
And some of them are wrong and right, but you don't love trying to help them. too often when people cross what is really traditional, what we do is shoot them. And it's possible for us, that the company of God's people, to what our tradition follows, the names of Jesus. And in that way, these two can transgress the law. And then, as I just said, the Pharisees transgress the law. by not penetrating into the situation. So why are we certain? They're intent to try to assert this meaning without digging deeper into its implications and meaning of that.
Those are some of the ways in which we transgress the law. And then some of you may be uncomfortable with the idea that I'm talking about. But even though I don't mean it, along with that. That's not right. That's right. Because you have only to do all that is to go through all that is to go through all that is to go through. That's the only way to go through that is to get up there now. It's the false reputation that God is doing to go on That is Paul here trying to meet teaching people that he can be made gracious before God by looking into the Lord.
What we do, how do you know these relations, do you need that teaching? You show that the Lord can't accept the prayer more times, he can only condemn the law in Paul's thinking in that context reveals that we are sinners in need of Jesus Christ, of being saved by grace, and he opposes grace and law to those who are trying to be justified by the law. Is that clear? So when Paul talks about the law as just condemning showing us our sin, it's because of what he's trying to meet.
All right? Be with me so far. When you go to the Old Testament, you find God, his people, like the farmers, Jeremiah, other prophets, rejoicing in the law. Now if the law only condemns us, how can you be twice in it? But they did. The whole hundred and nineteen psalms is a peal of praise to the law. And how wonderful it is. And how great it is. And if you are not trying to be justified before God by the law, you realize, as it will have Old Testament news in and justification comes through the mercy of God.
It's not anything we can achieve or do. Then the law can be at the light. Why is that so? The law in the Old Testament did not only have the function of showing people their sins. It had the function of setting boundaries around the relationship in this own God. And boundaries are necessary for any healthy person. If you don't have boundaries, it is, you shouldn't solve. And so there's a light in those boundaries because they didn't relationship properly.
That's true in marriage. You have boundaries around the marriage. You made certain vows. when you were married, those vows of boundaries protected relationships. And you've delighted those boundaries because of the strength of that relationship with people. Right? And for people with a heart for God in the Old Testament, for honor and for life. Look over at the rabbis added to it. That became a burden they couldn't bear, he said. Look at that. But the law itself will be the right people who knew God.
But am I clear? That the law condemns those who try to be justified by keeping it. It does not condemn those who are justified on the basis of God's grace and mercy. It guides them. It nurtures and strengthens their relationship with God. I'm not sure I'm clear. I think I know what I'm talking about. Are you clear? Whether you agree with me or not is what I'm saying clear. That's what I'm asking. All right. Now look at James chapter one. James chapter one.
And that will begin in verse twenty two. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. By the way, you notice that the New Testament is full of commands for God's people. It's full of law. Those are law. Those are commands. Full of commands. Do what it says. There's a command. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this.
You see that man who looks intently into the perfect law? He's not content with just, all right, there's what it says. He looks intently. He's doing thinking about what it says. and its implication for his own life. The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does. Now, back in that twenty-fifth verse, how does James describe the law? How does he describe it? That's a question, folks.
The answer is right. It's perfect. How else does he describe it? What does he say about it? The perfect law of freedom. You ever think about that? The perfect law of freedom. The law gives us freedom. Oh, how's it do that?
Well, if I could use GTHS to do that, it's called orthodoxy. It talks about setting up law of a giraffe. Okay? And when you first draw a giraffe, if you decide, you are going to draw a giraffe for a short time.
When you do see this as new to the giraffe, look, you must be able to draw you have to follow the laws that you are abolishing. And only by following the laws that you are abolishing, are you free? You are not free. If you want to be free, the laws that you want to be free, you should not take care of that. But if you say that you should be free, you should decide You look up the mutation in the wild with aerodynamics.
Whatever it is you build, it ain't going to work. The only way you can have a freedom, no attainable path follows the God that is available. You are free not to follow Him. But in taking that with Him, you surrender the freedom to build attainable path. if you want a relationship with God you are free to violate the laws of God but by doing so you surrender the freedom of a relationship with God same in marriage you are free to violate the laws your marriage vows, you're free to do that.
But in doing so, you are not free. It's one or the other. So it's the laws of God that make growing relationship with God possible. They give me the freedom to grow in God. And I may choose to throw those laws out. I may want that free. But if I do, I am no longer free from God. So it's the perfect law that gives freedom.
And there is no freer place to be than in relationship with God. Unless you confuse God with an idol, there is no freer place than in relationship with God. It's free as a burden. And that's why Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And in that relationship he sets us free. Free to be what we were created for. And it's only by following the instructions of God that we are free to be what we were created for.
So when Jesus gives these commands in the Sermon on the Mount, he's not imposing a burden on us. He is setting us free to be his disciples. Is that clear? So for someone who wants to be a disciple of Jesus, These laws are not restricted in the galling sense. They are freeing. They enable us to be what we really want to be, which is a disciple of Jesus. Any questions about that? How I see that thing?
All right. Coming back to chapter five, where it begins with the attitude. Jesus, as I've indicated, first of all, talks about who his disciples are, and then he talks about what they do. Notice, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn. He's not exhorting us to do that. This is what his disciples are. And then when you jump down, The passage I want to take at the next hour, in verse thirteen, you are the salt of the earth.
In verse fourteen, you are the light of the world. He didn't tell his disciples to become that. By virtue of being his disciples, that's what we are. So he begins with what we are. And then he moves on to how we are to live. Okay? So let's come to how he starts here. with these Beatitudes. This is what we are. We are blessed. Blessings are the poor in spirit. And we need to talk, first of all, about the word blessed. Some translations give that as happy. I'm not happy with that translation, but because happiness is happiness.
circumstance of the life. And I don't think when Jesus says, bless us, he's talking about anything that depends on the circumstance of the life. This is a divine communication. His disciples are blessed. And it has nothing to do with what goes on in Rome or everyday life that needs to happen to us. That's not the idea that we're blessed. It's a difficult word to get hold of. One translator wants to, one commentator wants to say, congratulations, they are to be congratulated, the disciples of Jesus.
The idea of the word in the Old Testament, as scholars tell us, is to be enriched by God. Not material, necessarily. But the blessed are those who are enriched by God. God communicates genuine riches that it means to be blessed. So when Jesus is saying blessed are, he's not saying happy, but God has communicated a richness. And that richness largely, as I understand these Beatitudes, is in the future.
It's true we are in the kingdom now, but the kingdom is still to come. There is the kingdom of heaven. They will be, note the future, they will be comforted. They will inherit the earth. His disciples have not inherited the earth. They will be filled. And in these statements, Jesus is saying a day will come when to the disciples of Jesus, all of this is going to be fulfilled. And when you think of that, what it's going to be like with those eternal riches, no wonder Jesus says of his disciples, you have been enriched, blessed.
Now, if you read characteristics of those who are blessed, nobody in our society is going to say those people are blessed. But in God's society, they are. And they will one day inherit all that God has for them. When you look around you, that sounds unbelievable, but there it is. It's believable. It will happen. We've been waiting two thousand years for it to happen, but it will happen. And all that Jesus has promised in these blessings will happen.
But what are the characteristics of people who are blessed? Let's begin with those. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now Luke in his account simply says, blessed are the poor. But he can't mean blessed are the materially poor because everything here has to do with the spiritual life. Now the spiritually poor and the materially poor were often the same in the Old Testament. That's one word for poor. The other word for poor is destitute. He doesn't have enough to have enough to get by on.
He doesn't have enough to get by on. He can't make it. And that's the word Jesus uses here. Blessed are those who are destitutes. That is in spirit. There. I was saying that in the Old Testament, those who are destitutes are destitutes. And the world moves in that direction in the Old Testament because The poor in the Old Testament, the materially poor, were usually poor because they had been oppressed by people in power.
They were not poor because they were lackadaisical about work. The book of Proverbs said a great deal to say about people who are too lazy to work, and none of it is good. So getting poor because you're lazy is nothing less than the Old Testament those who won't work in the New Testament Paul says shouldn't eat. That Christians shouldn't feed people who refuse to work within the Christian community. But the poor in the Old Testament became poor because of corruption in the courts. Usually that's how they became poor. Their neighbor, after all, remember every family had a lot of ground in the land of Palestine.
That land was divided up, right by the tribe, enemy by the enemy, and the enemy was known as the enemy. And that man, even if it was sold, could be a Jew or a Jew, or a Jew, that he was a enemy. And God set up those laws so that every enemy could be seen with and heard, and I'm sure he was in this. For the first week he came forward, what he decided he didn't, and I hadn't given him. And that was done through the court of law court. The neighbor coveted the land and bribed the judge. And the judge rendered a verdict against you that involved surrendering the land to this neighbor that had a complaint against you.
And you lost it. It was an agricultural community. And if you didn't have the land, you had nothing. And it became poor that way. And when they had no means of survival is a good and strong. And so the maturely poor and the spiritually impoverished were on his knees. They had no one to trust with God. They had to rise throughout the world. But here it's those who are destitute in spirit that there is the inner awareness I am poverty-stricken.
I have nothing to offer God. There's nothing in my hand that I can bring. My hands are empty. And that means God can fill that with me. He's not so handled at school. And this, in my pride, I think I had something or am something in my self. on the ancient roads. And as long as I recognize my future search of poverty for all the