The Sermon on the Mount – Session 1

Introduction & the Beatitudes

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

Sermon on the Mount Handout Session 1

Lesson Notes

Introducing the Sermon on the Mount

• The greatest and most famous sermon ever preached!
• Preached to a large crowd of followers and hangers-on by the Sea of Galilee
• Seemingly preached for hours, but Matthew 5-7 can be read in about 15 minutes – obviously the key takeaways, not every word
• 15 minutes to read, but centuries spent unpacking it and seeking to apply it
  • It’s intensely challenging to apply  – every time we read it, it should challenge us 
  • Some have argued it’s an impossible ideal or portrait of heaven
  • Clearly Jesus meant it – right here & now – for His disciples
  • He expects it, empowers it by grace, and forgives our failures through grace
• The Sermon is the teaching of the Kingdom of Heaven
  • Matthew 4: 23 – 9:35 form a single unit describing Jesus’ ministry in Galilee
  • Matthew 4: 17, 23-25
  • Chapters 5-7 represent the teaching & proclamation of the good news of the kingdom of heaven
  • Chapters 8-9 illustrate the kingdom through healings, exorcisms, and miracles
  • Sermon on the Mount represents the message of the Kingdom of Heaven
    • For those who would follow Jesus
    • Matthew 5: 1-2 – HIs disciples – not limited to the 12, but a larger group with at least some commitment
    • This sermon unfolds what’s expected of that commitment
    • By the time Jesus finishes, many have heard, but who will follow???
  • Matthew 7: 28-29 – the original audience was blown away
    • Over these next 7 weeks, I pray you’ll be blown away too!

A Lens to Help Us Live Like Jesus – “The Cost of Discipleship”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • A genius and theological prodigy – born into a brilliant family of scientists and psychologists in 1906
  • Decided to become a theologian at 13 and to reform the German Lutheran church
  • Entered university at 17, doctorate in theology at 21
  • Wanted to be ordained as a priest, but had to wait until 25. He believed theological ideas must be applied practically in the life of the congregation
  • In 1930 spent a year in NYC on a fellowship with Union Seminary
    • There he discovered worship at an African- American Baptist church in Harlem which changed his life
    • Moved by the intensity of their faith, their joy in worship, and their activities throughout the week demonstrating their faith
    • They weren’t just religious, they were true Christians – the church, living faith with joy he’d never seen
    • He attended weekly, taught Sunday School, and lived life with them
    • His faith spread from his head to his heart to his whole being
    • He learned from them how to speak up about injustice in society
  • Upon returning to Germany, he saw rising persecution of Jews under Hitler
    • He felt the church must lead the way in opposing Hitler
    • He gave a radio speech in 1933 denouncing un-Christian forms of leadership after Hitler was elected Chancellor
    • He sought to wake the church up, but was largely ignored by an establishment church used to supporting the government and vice versa
  • In 1935 he started an illegal seminary to train true followers of Christ and took it underground in 1937 when the Nazis shut it down
    • He was forbidden to teach or publish by 1939
    • He fled briefly to America but immediately felt called to return to Germany to do whatever he could
    • He joined German military intelligence as a double agent conspiring against the government and ultimately to assassinat3e Hitler
    • He didn’t take this decision lightly but felt that standing by while murder took place made you complicit in the murders
    • He would be arrested, imprisoned, and executed shortly before the end of World War II
  • In 1937 he wrote “The Cost of Discipleship”, section II of which is focused on living by the Sermon on the Mount
    • “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die”
    • This is what Bonhoeffer understood and lived out
    • It’s the clal Jesus makes to us as we live the Kingdom of Heaven right here in Lake Ridge in 2019 and look ahead to eternity in the Kingdom

The Challenge of the Sermon on the Mount

• Matthew 5: 20 – “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of tghe scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
• Matthew 5: 29 – “For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”
• Matthew 5: 39 – “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
• Matthew 5: 49 – “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”
• How can we meet the challenge?
  • Matthew 19: 26 – “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
  • Matthew 7: 7 – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
  • Matthew 11: 28-30 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
  • 2 Corinthians 12: 9 – “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.””
• The audience
  • Whether the SErmon is addressed to the Disciples or the crowd, those who, through grace, rise to the challenge of the Kingdom of Heaven are followers of Jesus
  • Bonhoeffer sees the Sermon as addressed to the disciples with the multitude in attendance, “The fellowship of the Beatitudes is the fellowship of the Crucified”
  • Bonhoeffer, “Costly grace is hte gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock”

The Beatitudes – Read Matthew 5: 3-12

• Blessed – ultimately means to be approved of by God
• Begin and end with “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” – a bookending to make clear they all relate to theme of God’s Kingdom
  • The beatitudes describe those whose citizenship is God’s Kingdom
  • Not only in future eternity, but right here, right now – the Kingdom is at hand
  • These aren’t optional and it isn’t a menu at Chipotle!
  • If you see that you lack these, you need to address that shortcoming!
  • If you don’t see a lack, you’ve probably got a blind spot!
  • Followers of Jesus Christ will embrace and identify with ALL of these
  • These are the values, attitudes, desires, and heart of those touched and transformed by Jesus Christ
• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  • This isn’t talking about financial poverty
  • To be poor in spirit is to be fully aware of your weakness and shortcoming, to know that you have nothing to offer God because of your own sin and rebellion – no righteousness, no holiness of your own
  • Carson, “Poverty of spirit is the personal acknowledgement of spiritual bankruptcy…it is the deepest form of repentance.”
  • Poverty of spirit expresses your complete need for God
  • It’s the start of the sermon on the mount because we can’t do anything in the sermon on the mount on our own
  • We approach God empty of self-righteousness, moral self-esteem, or desire for personal fame or glory, ready to be filled by God through Christ
• Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
  • Gives the context, this isn’t actually about grief when we’ve lost a loved one
  • Individually this is personal grief over personal sin
  • Isaiah 6: 5, “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!””
  • Paul’s cry in Romans 7: 24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
  • Also mourning for the cruelty, injustice, ungodliness, pain, untruthfulness of the world – which leads us to weep for the world rather than condemn it
  • Bonhoeffer, “By ‘mourning’ Jesus, of course, means doing without what the world calls peace and prosperity: He means refusing to be in tune with the world or to accommodate oneself to its standards. Such men mourn for the world, for its guilt, its fate and its fortune.”
  • Bonhoeffer, “The world dreams of progress, of power and of the future, but the disciples meditate on the end, the last judgment, and the coming of the kingdom.”
  • Bonhoeffer – we bear our sorrow in the strength of Christ who bore the suffering of the world on the cross.
  • Our comfort is Christ – that He came to address our sin now; that one day there will be a new heaven and new earth – Revelation 21: 4
• Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
  • A reference to Psalm 37: 11
  • Meekness isn’t weakness or shyness, it’s about how we relate to God and others
  • Carson – “Meekness is a controlled desire to see the other’s interests advance ahead of one’s own”
  • Jesus calls Himself meek in Matthew 11: 28-30
  • Many American Christians don’t want anything to do with meekness – it runs counter to our culture, despite Scripture praising it often
  • Our culture tries to put us at the center of the universe – we need to “get ours”.
  • Meekness genuinely puts God above, and all others equal below
  • If we truly put God above and align to His good will for others, we’re following Christ. Our inheritance is eternal and glorious.
  • Bonhoeffer, “…they renounce every right of their own and live for the sake of Jesus Christ”
  • Those who now possess the earth by violence and injustice will ultimately lose it and those who renounce it and are meek to the cross shall rule the new earth.
  • Bonhoeffer – the church and our fellowship are our little foretaste of this – our plot of earth
• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied
  • Hunger and thirst are very powerful forces – how many of us hunger and thirst for thorough and complete righteousness?
    • If we’re spiritually impoverished, knowing we have nothing to offer a righteous God, we grieve over personal and social sin, and we’re meek before God and others, then we will hunger and thirst for righteousness!
    • We know righteousness isn’t some good thing to add to our life, but a fundamental necessity because we’re SO unrighteous
  • The Kingdom of Heaven expects us to hunger for righteousness
  • Righteousness here describes a pattern of life conforming to God’s will
  • The blessing is to hunger and thirst to conform your life to God’s will
  • It’s a genuine desire to live like Christ, delight in God’s Word that expresses His will, and get to the point where becoming righteous like God’s will is the most desirable thin in life (not a guilty reminder but a genuine desire)
  • When we learn to hunger like this, God will find us with righteousness through Jesus Christ – we’re filled and satisfied, yet continue to hunger because we will never attain the perfect righteousness of God’s will until we die in Christ.
  • Sparks a beautiful cycle of transformation – the more we pursue conformity to God’s will, the more attractive it becomes, and the more we grow in it
  • Bonhoeffer, “Not only do the followers of Jesus renounce their rights, they renounce their own righteousness too. They get no praise for their achievements or sacrifices…always they look forward to the future righteousness of God, but they cannot establish it for themselves.”
• Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
  • Mercy is a loving response prompted by the misery and helplessness of the one on whom the love is to be showered.
  • We are to be merciful, compassionate, and gentle
  • If we’re unmerciful it’s because we’re completely unaware of our own fallen state and don’t realize how badly we need mercy – which means we aren’t saved!
  • If we’re spiritually poor, mourning our sin, meek, and desperately hungry for righteousness, we’re going to be merciful to those in desperate need because we recognize that we’re in desperate need and dependent on God’s mercy!
  • We are to forgive others as followers of Christ because we have been forgiven so much by God through faith in Christ!
  • We recognize our need for God’s daily grace, mercy, and forgiveness, so we can offer it daily to others, no matter how undeserving
  • Bonhoeffer, “As if their own need and own distress were not enough, they take upon themselves the distress and humiliation and sin of others. they have an irresistable love for the downtrodden, the sick, the wretched, the wronged, the outcast, and all who are tortured by anxiety.”
  • “In order that they may be merciful they cast away the most priceless treasure of human life, their personal dignity and honor. For the only honor and dignity they know is their Lord’s own mercy, to which alone they own their very lives. He was not ashamed fo his disciples, he became the brother of mankind, and bore their shame unto the death of the corss. This is how Jesus, the crucified, was merciful…Blessed are the merciful for they have the Merciful for thier Lord.”
  • So are you merciful to those in dire need? Are you gentle toward the hopeless? Are you forgiving toward those fallen back into sin?
• Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
  • Purity of heart is required for fellowship with God – for seeing Him
  • This isn’t about rule-following or good behavior – it’s about heart attitude
  • 1 John 3: 2-3 – we purify ourselves now because one day we’ll be pure like Him
  • Because we’re already in the Kingdom as followers of Christ, we want to be pure because our kingdom is pure
  • We must reflect on our first instincts, first responses, inner voice, etc. – is that pure or is that filthy while we just put on a good face?
  • Our present experience and fellowship with God is based on the purity of our heart – if we have unresolved sin issues in our lives, it impacts our spiritual lives
  • Bonhoeffer, “Who is pure in heart? Only those who have surrendered their hearts completely to Jesus that he may reign in them alone. Only those whose hearts are undefiled by their own evil – and by their own virtues too…their hearts are not ruled by their conscience, but by the will of Jesus.”
• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
  • This isn’t a blessing for people who are peaceful or desire peace, it’s for those who MAKE peace
  • The greatest peacemaker is Jesus Christ, who made peace between rebellious mankind and God, by removing the sin that separates us
  • The gospel of Christ is the most important peacemaking message
  • A follower of Christ must make peace wherever he or she sees conflict – reducing tension, helping solve conflicts, helping communicate between sides
  • True for our own conflicts – we must make peace rather than seek victory
  • The peacemaker is a “son of God” – the significance of that isn’t gender-based, it’s that the son shared the character of the father and received the inheritance 
  • So whether you’re male or female, as a peacemaker you share the character of God and His inheritance when you’re making peace – you’re a son of God!
  • This should be routine for Christians, because we’re adopted as sons of God through Christ
  • Bonhoeffer, “His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. They renounce all self-assertion and quietly suffer in the face of hatred and wrong…The peacemakers will carry the cross with their Lord, for it was on the cross that peace was made.”
  • Does that describe your Christianity today?
• Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  • This blessing is for those persecuted for righteousness, not for being a self-righteous jerk. For those living these beatitudes and determined to live like Jesus.
  • The reward is the Kingdom of Heaven – which we receive through Christ
  • This is like a final exam for the beatitudes – if you never, ever experience persecution related to your faith – social or relational cost, much less sharp persecution – then are you really living like Jesus and displaying the righteousness that a true follower of Christ displays?
  • Expanded and clarified in verses 11-12 – what does it mean? Toi be hated, slandered, and persecuted because you love Jesus
    • Persecution includes insults and lies about you
    • Righteousness is equated to Jesus, so we’re talking about suffering for imitating Jesus
    • Rejoice in suffering for Christ – Great is your reward in heaven!
    • Pain and grief will be no more and God will wipe away all tears
  • How can we fulfill these? How can we live like Jesus?
    • That’s impossible by our own will, discipline, morality, and hard word
    • It is possible as we unite in faith with Christ and His Spirit lives within us and begins transforming us specifically to make us like Jesus
    • Because Christ is the perfect fulfillment of the beatitudes, there is grace, mercy, and forgiveness whenever we fall short of these standards, repent, and ask God’s forgiveness