12.10.07
Sermon of the Mount Study: Week One
I wrote out the notes for the second week of the study over the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Please contact me with any questions regarding the content.
Sermon on the Mount Study: Week One
Overview – This is the beginning of the study of the Sermon on the Mount (SOTM) that will cover the first 16 verses of chapter five of the book of Matthew. This sermon defines what a Christian is in the initial verses and uses the remainder of the sermon to define what a Christian does. Ultimately, the sermon is centered on the theme of righteousness. This first week of study will exclusively cover the a section of scripture called the beatitudes:
- Vs. 1-11-Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Vs. 1-2 -Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
This sermon was given by Jesus directly to His disciples. At the end of the sermon we see that there was a crowd that also listened to the sermon (Matthew 7:28). The sermon is addressed directly to believers but is profitable for non-believers also. Jesus pronounces blessings on His disciples which should entice the listening non-believers to seek Jesus to know the experience of these blessings that come from faith. There are eight beatitudes which mean happiness or blessing.
The first beatitudes (vs. 3) and the last (vs. 10) mention a blessing and end by saying “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Beatitudes two through seven (vs. 4-9) end by saying “for they shall…”. The picture is that Jesus is pronouncing upon His disciples the fact that they live in this tension that they currently live in the Kingdom that has been inaugurated by Jesus but will not be completed until He returns.
In essence, we currently experience some of the blessings of the kingdom but the fulfillment of these blessing will not come to completion until the kingdom is brought to an end with the return of Jesus. While we are blessed to be disciples of Jesus in this life the blessings are only a taste of the blessings we will experience in the Kingdom of Heaven. This framework is essential for understanding the whole of the Beatitudes. We will go through the beatitudes one at a time.
- Vs. 3- “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Those people who are currently in the Kingdom of God are those who are poor in spirit. Isaiah tells us that to be poor in spirit is to be humble and tremble at God’s word.
Isaiah 66:2
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
It is the undeserving that are presently in the Kingdom because by grace we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ despite being poor in spirit with nothing to offer God on our own account. We should realize that we are in the Kingdom of God with all the associated blessings not because we are righteous before God but instead because we are unrighteous and God is most glorified when He redeems the unrighteous because it is those who are in need of redemption:
Luke 5:29-32
And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
- Vs. 4- “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
This is the first beatitude that pronounces a blessing that will not be fulfilled until Jesus returns and brings to completion His kingdom. Jesus tells us that when He returns all pain will end:
Revelations 21:4
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
The passage from the book of Revelations is a picture of the future when the Kingdom is completed and Jesus comforts His people and all of their mourning ends in His presence. This is comforting to us as disciples of Jesus because in this world we continually mourn, we are continually hurt and the pain of this passing world is unending. Jesus tells us that for those who love in through faith will no longer experience mourning or sadness. What an amazing encouragement to give hope when the weight of this world is too great to bear!
- Vs. 5 - “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Jesus here is quoting from the book of Psalms
Psalm 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.
We are promised that the meek shall inherit the earth. The Psalmist explains this passage in that the meek will inherit the earth because they delight themselves in abundant peace. To inherit the earth we should delight ourselves in the peace we receive by faith in Jesus Christ. Again, this will occur in the future. The Bible tells us that we, as disciples of Jesus, will inherit the earth following the return of Jesus when the Kingdom comes to completion.
Revelation 21:1-3
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
We can look forward to the future day when we inherit the earth in our resurrected bodies on a resurrected earth. In the future we will have dominion over the new earth when we live in the presence of God eternally. This is our hope in the future that will be realized upon Jesus’ return for those who are meek before the Lord.
- Vs. 6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Righteousness is the essential message of the Sermon on the Mount. We will come back to this idea of righteousness over and over in the coming weeks. Jesus pronounces blessings on those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Our natural state is to seek to establish our own righteous:
Romans 10:3-4
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Isaiah, though, says that any form of our own righteousness is defiled before God:
Isaiah 64:6
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Jesus pronounces blessings on those who desire and seek for righteousness outside themselves because they will find righteousness not from their own good deeds but instead from the righteousness that comes from faith in Jesus Christ:
Romans 3:21-25
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
1 Corinthians 1:30-31
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Philippians 3:8-9
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
I am being detailed on this point because it is essential to the Gospel message and the remainder of the content of the Sermon on the Mount. Our righteousness is found in Jesus Christ, not in ourselves. We should abandon our efforts to seek our own righteousness apart from God. Instead, we should love Jesus and trust only in His righteousness that comes through faith alone divorced from our deeds and efforts that will always fall short of God’s demands for holiness. We as disciples of Jesus should hunger and thirst for His righteousness alone!
- Vs. 7- Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
At first glance, this passage appears to be teaching that we receive mercy from God if we receive mercy from others. We do NOT receive mercy for being merciful because we can do nothing to justify ourselves before God. Instead we should show mercy to others because God first showed mercy to us:
Matthew 18:33
And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
To not show mercy on another is a distortion of the Gospel because God has showed mercy on us. We too then should show mercy on others that leads them to God to find the mercy He provides through the life, death and resurrection of His Son.
- Vs. 8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
We are called to be holy because our heavenly Father is Holy (1 Peter 1:15, Leviticus 11:44). To have a pure heart is itself a gift from God that is received through faith that allows us to see God when the Kingdom is brought to completion in the future:
1 Peter 1:22-23
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Consider also that the state of our heart determines who we act. Sinful deeds are simply a reflection of an impure heart:
Matthew 15:18-20a
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.
We should seek to have a pure heart because apart from a pure heart Jesus says that we can never see God. Remember, though, that a pure heart only comes from Jesus Christ as a gift received through faith. Faith in Jesus alone purifies us before God and allows us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Vs. 9- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
We are called to be reconciled to other believers in Jesus Christ as much as it depends on us. This idea will be wrought out in greater detail later in the sermon by Jesus (vs. 23-26). IN summary though we should be one united body of believers and forgive others because God has forgiven us:
Matthew 18:21-35
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
It is important to note that we should try to make peace with our brothers as much as it depends on us. We should reconcile ourselves to others if we have wronged others or if others have wronged us as much as it depends on us. We ultimately cannot control the actions or emotions of another:
Romans 12:18
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Think also of what James says that to be a peacemaker is to be one who receives righteousness from God:
James 3:18
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- Vs. 10-12 - “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Persecution is a major theme is throughout the Scriptures. In this life we will always be persecuted for loving Jesus and calling other people to repentance and faith in Jesus but we should not worry because our hope is not in this world:
1 Peter 3:14
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
It is encouraging to think that even when we struggle against the forces of this world, our hope and salvation is kept for us in Heaven by God. The trials (i.e. persecution) we experience is affirming and strengthening our faith. We should be encouraged to know that while our faith is being purified by trials that it is being kept by God so that we will not “fall away” or lose our faith because God is the one who gives us our faith and He is the one who guards it through trials:
1 Peter 1:3-7
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In addition, we should rejoice when we are persecuted because it shows us that we belong to Jesus and that we will one day be glorified and see Him forever in paradise:
1 Peter 4:13-14
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
This is where we stopped at the end of the first week. What you should take away from this week is that we are blessed to be children of God through faith in Jesus. We should not be ignorant of the fact that while the blessings in this life are great, the blessings in the life to come are beyond imagination. We will continue to live in this tension of the Kingdom having been inaugurated but not completed until we die and/or Jesus returns. This should spur us on to share the Gospel continually so that we can see the Kingdom brought to completion because this will only happen once the Gospel has reached all the nations. In essence, if we desire the blessings of the Kingdom we should be willing to do what it takes to bring the Kingdom to its fulfillment:
Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.