As promised a few weeks ago, I want to share some of the notes from our church’s Winter Bible Study on The Sermon On The Mount. I’m going to do so in small bites, so it might take a couple weeks to get all the notes published that I want to share. I hope you are blessed by the study.

Every January our church does an in-depth study of a biblical passage, book, or topic.  2024’s Winter Bible Study passage was Matthew 5-7; a passage we know as “The Sermon On The Mount.”  Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Matthew wrote his Gospel to a mostly Jewish audience.  He paints Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, proving that He is the Messiah that the Israelite people had waited for.  The Kingdom He had come to establish, though, was not a worldly one. His Kingdom would be populated by citizens of many backgrounds. We may not be a nation of common ancestry, language, or culture, but we are a Kingdom of Faith; and Jesus teaches us what being a citizen of God’s Kingdom is all about.

Many of Jesus’s teachings about authenticity and personal morality are grouped together in these three chapters.  Luke records many of the same teachings but spreads them out across his writing.  Matthew’s Gospel shows Jesus as the new Moses – teaching in Godly authority on a mountaintop, laying out the standards of this new Kingdom for those who would participate in it through faith.  Though Luke’s Gospel may present these teachings differently, it could be that Jesus preached the same message – or different parts of this message – to different crowds in different places.  It could be that Matthew and Luke record different presentations of this message, or that they record the same teaching in different ways to meet the needs of their audiences.  Neither option lessens the truth or reliability of Scripture.  We can trust that God has given us exactly what we need know in order to know Him deeply, serve Him faithfully, and represent Him well. 

Jesus’s ministry began at a time when the religious leadership in Judea and Galilee was absolutely bereft of Godly righteousness.  The PHARISEES were self-righteous, controlling the people of the towns and villages through spiritual oppression.  The SADDUCEES were power-hungry, controlling the temple and politics in Jerusalem in order to maintain their positions of authority.  The SCRIBES were haughty, controlling the information that people could receive about God through their worldly interpretations of the scriptures.  And the local ELDERS were confused, unsure of who to believe or how to properly lead.  They often chose a side based solely on personal gain, not on biblical faith.  Thus, the people were led by worldliness, with no example of Godliness.

This is where Jesus steps in.  His ministry follows on the heels of John the Baptist – the first prophet the people of Israel had in 400 years.  For all those centuries, these factions had grown more and more worldly, but even though John was born into a priestly family he rejected the power-hungry pull of the Sadducees.  Even though he was an expert in the Law of Moses, he rejected the haughtiness of the Scribes.  And even though he was a beloved and holy figure, he rejected the self-righteousness of the Pharisees.  John showed the people there was a way of true devotion to God that was marked by sacrifice – he lived in the wilderness, dressed in unadorned clothes, subsisted on natural honey and grasshoppers.  John showed that following God was about daily faith – speaking and acting in God’s power, not human power.  And having caught the people’s attention and emphasized their need for repentance and faithfulness, he paved the way for Jesus to fulfill the people’s desire to follow God completely.

It is not long into Jesus’s ministry that He brings this message – The Sermon On The Mount – to those who were following Him.  They came because they had heard He could heal the sick and perform miracles.  They came because He was proclaiming the Kingdom of God like John had done.  And  when Jesus had a crowd who wanted to see God’s Kingdom come on earth, He told them all about what a citizen of the Kingdom must be.

He tells them the truth about themselves…  That regardless of their difficult circumstances, God knows them and loves them and wants to provide the best for them.

He tells them the truth about their morality…  That none of us meet the standard of righteousness that God has for us, for all of us are murderers, adulterers, liars, and thieves.

He tells them the truth about their reputations…  That our faith must be deeper than mere hypocrisy.  We are to practice our faith because we love God, not because we want the approval of others.

He tells them the truth about their possessions…  That nothing we have truly belongs to us, so we should use our blessings for God’s glory and we should expect that God will provide what we need daily.

He tells them the truth about their assumptions…  We assume that God is pleased with the least we can do, or with our self-righteous attitudes.  We are wrong.  Our devotion to God is proven in sacrificial obedience