The Sermon on the Mount

So as we begin this morning together, a series of messages on the
Servant of the Mount, I want to begin by making three general
observations about the Servant on the Mount.
Observation number one, the Servant of the Mount can be said to
represent the Constitution of the Kingdom of Glant.
Notice again how Matthew introduces the Servant on the Mount
in verse one.
Now, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain side
and sat down.
Now a lot of commentators see in there a parallel to an Old Testament story.
And I wonder this morning if you can think in your own mind of an Old Testament story
that somewhat parallels this going up on the mountain.
And of course, the man is Moses, Moses and Mount Sinai.
Why did Moses go up on Mount Sinai?
Well, he went up to receive the Ten Commandments.
What do the Ten Commandments represent?
They represent the Constitution of Israel under the Old Covenant.
God says to Israel, "If you're going to be my people and I'm going to be your
God, if we're going to get along with each other then here is how I want you to
leave."
And so many commentators today believe that in going up the mountain side and
sitting down, Jesus was deliberately drawing a parallel with the Old Covenant.
And he is saying that even as the Ten Commandments represent God's will for
lives of his people under the Old Covenant.
So when I'm about to tell you now, represents God's desire for your way of life under the
New Covenant.
And when the Kingdom of God comes in all its glory and all its fullness, everybody
everywhere in the Kingdom of God, they're going to leave as I am teaching them in
the Sermon of the Mount.
The Sermon of the Mount then represents the Constitution of the Kingdom of God.
Not only that, but the Sermon of the Mount is highly spiritual in nature.
That is to say, it is more concerned about the spirit of the law than merely the
letter of the law.
It is as much concerned about our inner attitude towards the law than merely outward
obedience.
Now, by the time Jesus makes his entry on the world scene and begins his ministry, the
religious leaders of Israel have, of course, established a very tight religious system that
everybody is expected to obey.
They were so concerned about breaking the commandments of God and getting into trouble.
They in fact studied the whole testament and they took apart every commandment that God
gave to his people.
They discovered that God gave 613 commandments in the Old Testament to his people Israel,
commandments they are to obey.
And then because they were worried that people could intentionally or accidentally break
those commandments and get into trouble, they built a whole series of man-made laws around
these laws that God had given.
And as time went on in their religious system, their man-made laws became more important
than the law of God.
That's why Jesus said to them, "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding
on to the traditions of men."
And that is also why later on in Matthew, he says, "Woe to you teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites, you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are
full of greed and self-indulgence."
You see what typically happens with man-made religious systems is that the will of God
gets reduced to manageable principles of external behavior.
And almost all religious systems do that to one degree or another.
It becomes a matter of doing things right on the outside.
And I can think of two reasons why that happens.
The first is like children, we all like clear rules, we don't like ambiguity.
We like somebody to tell us, "Do this and don't do that."
I found it intriguing some time back in conversation with Gary McDonald of youth for Christy.
Man was an interesting observation.
He says that when kids who have no church background get converted to Christ, they are often
initially drawn to some of the most traditional conservative and rigid churches.
Now think about that.
Because at first glance that strikes you as counterintuitive.
Doesn't it?
Here are kids that have not lived under the rule of law.
People who have not known, they're left hand from the right hand so to speak in terms
of what is right and wrong.
They become Christians and they punch themselves into rigid, religious observance.
Why?
Because we all tend to want black and white rules.
Tell me what I'm to do and how I am to do it and then I will be happy.
But that's a characteristic of children.
And the Lord isn't interested in having to spell out for you and me in infinite detail
everything that we can or cannot do.
He wants us to grow up to maturity.
And therein lies the problem for a lot of God's people.
It takes maturity to obey the spirit of the law.
It takes maturity to take the commandment of God above all and to love your neighbor as
you love yourself and to put that into practice in the thousand and one practical realities
of life.
Let me give you an illustration.
Some of you here are old enough to have lived in the Netherlands during World War
13 and you will either have experienced yourself or your family may have experienced the
moral dilemma of protecting life on the one hand and living with integrity on the other.
Let's suppose that you're hiding a Jew in your house as many people did and the Nazis
come to your door and they say to you it's been reported to us that you might be hiding
the Jew is that true?
Now what are you going to do?
Are you going to tell them the truth?
Invite them in and say well he's hiding in that closet and cause his life to be lost
and probably that of your family.
Or are you going to stand there with a straight face and lie and say it's simply not true?
Now for most of us you know that's just sort of a theoretical dilemma.
But it's the dilemma that many godly, god-fearing Christians found themselves in during World
War II.
And the question then is what does loving my neighbor look like?
And what does honoring the commandment to not bear false witness look like?
And I think you'll agree with me it takes a good deal of maturity to work that through.
And to be able to do that all with the clear conscience before God.
And the fact of the matter is that many good and godly Christians came down on opposite
sides of that issue during the war.
There were some that said you must never lie and you must trust God to take care of them
and to take care of you.
That is a very considerable stretch of faith.
There are others who point to Old Testament examples of people telling lies in order
to save lives who said the commandment to love my neighbor and to keep him alive takes
precedence over the commandment to not bear false witness.
And they had no qualms about lying if lying meant to save a life.
And all of us find ourselves in a thousand and one situations where it's not just about
the letter of the law.
It's much more about the spirit of the law and how do we honor God in all that we do?
So Jesus here in the servant of the mount takes the letter of the law which the Pharisees
had been promoting and he goes beyond the interpretation of the letter of the law to
the spirit of the law that lies behind it.
And that's why he says for example in verse 17 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 then he goes on to give some practical example of how they have interpreted the law
wrongly for example he says in verse 21 and 22 you have heard 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.
And later on in verse 27 28 you've heard that it was said to not commit adultery but
I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with
her in his heart and Lord willing his time goes on we'll look at that in much more detail
but understand what he is doing.
He is saying it's not good enough to observe the letter of the law because you can observe
the letter of the law you can wash the outside of the cup and still be filled with poison
on the inside.
He says I want you to keep not only the letter of the law but more importantly I want you
to observe this spirit of the law.
The law says Jesus is highly spiritual in nature.
And because it is highly spiritual in nature you can't live this way except through union
with Christ.
You can't live this way.
You can't keep the sermon on the mount unless you abide in Christ and he abides in you.
I have found it fascinating this past week because I was doing some work on this to discover
would you believe there are no less than twelve distinct and separate schools of interpretation
concerning the sermon on the mount.
And those interpretations vary all the way from Jesus didn't really say it or Jesus doesn't
really expect us to live that way to the other extreme that says you better keep every
one of his admonitions in the servant of the mount or you'll go to hell.
Most interpretations fall in between these two extremes and most interpretations interestingly
enough end up taking kind of a smorgasbord approach to the sermon on the mount.
Take what you like and leave what you don't like.
Eat the meat and spit out the bones and so what happens for a lot of people is that they
will defend those commandments in the servant of the mount that seem reasonable or that
apply to their lives but anything that crosses their will or that doesn't make sense or
that they don't like well Jesus didn't really mean that.
And what it illustrates is how high above our human endeavor lies the will of God as
Jesus reveals it to us in the servant on the mount.
There isn't one of us here who can even remotely begin to measure up to that outside of
and apart from union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says for example unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the teachers
of the law you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now we like to point fingers at the Pharisees and say there were a bunch of hypocrites but
you know in most any church today they would be the most revered members for their keeping
of the law.
Remember Paul said about his preconversion days that as to the righteousness of the law
he was blameless.
These are people who knew how to live right at least externally.
And Jesus says to you and me your righteousness better exceed that of the scribes and the
Pharisees.
And then just in case we haven't got what it is that he's after he says in verse 48 of
chapter 5 be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.
Now let me ask you this morning one is the last time you succeeded practicing perfection.
I dare say that even if you think you may have been perfect this past week your spouse
or your kids or your friends will tell you to the contrary.
True?
Absolutely.
And yet Jesus says not a jot, not a tittle from the law will pass away until all has
been accomplished.
And what he teaches and what the New Testament teaches is that this kind of life is only
available through Jesus.
Jesus is the one who lived this way.
And he died in the cross and he pioneered a path and he poured out his Holy Spirit so
that by faith in Jesus our lives might progressively take on the appearance of the kingdom.
Will we ever be that complete, that perfect in this life of course not?
And there's no sense in pretending.
Not we to be striving towards it, what the sermon and the mount increasingly be a reflection
in our hearts and inner lives, absolutely so.
Here's how to catechism put it many years ago.
On Lord's Day 44 question and answer 114 can those converted to God obey these commandments
perfectly and the answer doesn't come as any surprise, no.
In this life even the holiest have but a small beginning of disobedience.
Nevertheless with all seriousness of purpose they do begin to live according to all, not
only some of God's commandments.
Why do I emphasize this, because as we start this series of messages on the sermon of
the mount and we start looking at the particulars of what Jesus says life in the kingdom ought
to look like there isn't a one of us here at some point or another who isn't going
to come under Holy Spirit conviction.
Had we're going to say Lord that's not my life?
I don't know how to live that way and when that happens we'll either have the tendency
to write it all off and to say well it really doesn't matter very much, God doesn't really
expect me to live that way or we fall off the cliff the other way and we get discouraged
and we give up and we say it's a hopeless business because nobody can do this.
Yes it is hopeless for a human point of view but when Jesus lives in us by the power of
his Holy Spirit he will move us towards that and it will prepare us for the day when
the kingdom of God comes in all its fullness and all its glory and we will have our salvation
made more sure.
We will feel at home in the kingdom of God because we have already started to move towards
it by our lifestyle today and I'm making sense.
Do we get the balance?
It's always that already but not yet.
One day it'll come in its completion but by the Holy Spirit today step by step we learn
how to live God's way.
All right so much then in terms of general observations concerning the sermon of the
Mount that brings us then to this introductory passage that is known as the Beatitudes.
The word Beatitude means speaking out a blessing and the Beatitudes are eight or nine in number
depending on how you count them, typically the number is thought to be eight and the verses
if you've got your Bible there because of course you've kept them open in front of you
like I asked you to do earlier.
The verses 11 and 12 are often thought to be an expansion of verse 10, blessed are those
who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In verse 11 and 12 expand on the privilege of persecution and we'll talk about that
much more Lord willing as time goes on.
Well let me again by way of introduction to the Beatitudes begin by giving you three
general observations about them observation number one the Beatitudes represent God's
prescription for a successful life.
Notice again how each Beatitude begins with a word blessed.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and so on.
Now some of the newer translations translate that word blessed with the word happy and that's
not too bad but generally speaking I'm not too happy with that because it doesn't do
justice to the root meaning of the word blessed.
The word blessed in Greek is the word Makarioss and Makarioss in classic Greek was used to
describe the blessed state of the gods because they were beyond labor, beyond death, beyond
pain and beyond suffering and so Revelation 14 verse 13 I think really captures the full
embodiment of that word when it says blessed are the dead who die the Lord from now on yes
says the spirit they will rest from their labors for their deeds will follow them.
So the word blessed really means this then a state of being highly favored by God and often
accompanied by a deep joy and so Jesus here gives us a recipe for a life that has God's
favor and that will then often produce in our lives a deep joy.
You want a life that makes sense?
You want a life that can be lived so that when you come to the end of your life you can
look back without any regrets.
Well Jesus says here's how I want you to live.
I want you to follow my teachings as embodied in these Beatitudes.
So the Beatitudes are God's prescription for success and then I want you to notice there
is in the Beatitudes and it's easy to miss this.
There is a definite and a logical progression to them.
Notice he begins with blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
and he ends in verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This is a prescription on how you arrive at the kingdom of heaven.
Other gospel writers usually call it the kingdom of God.
Matthew is writing to the Jews.
The Jews had a supernatural fear of taking the name of God on their lips and so he always
calls it the kingdom of heaven.
But the kingdom of heaven is the reign of God in Christ over all the universe that one
day will also envelop all of a very rebellious earth.
But notice there is a logical progression.
It begins with being poor in spirit and Lord dwelling his time goes on.
Well look at that in more detail.
From being poor in spirit you begin to mourn that leads to being meek which leads to
hungering and thirsting for righteousness which leads to being merciful which leads
to being pure in heart which leads to being peacemakers which we'll see in a few moments
inevitably leads to persecution.
There is a logical progression.
There is a set of stairs you begin here and you climb up.
Peter does a very similar thing in 2nd Peter chapter 1 when he talks about supplementing
your faith with virtue and virtue with a steadfastness and a whole bunch of other qualities
ending up with a God-pay-love with the final analysis at the end of that.
And again it's very important for us to understand this because when you start taking seriously
the sermon of the mound and Jesus comes to you and he says you know when you get persecuted
by the world because you belong to Jesus you ought to be rejoicing and you ought to be
glad in it you and I we're going to look at each other and we're going to say what planet
does he live on?
Now in the world can he expect me to live that way to rejoice in the pain of misunderstanding?
Well you don't start with persecution you start with being poor in spirit and when you
learn to be poor in spirit you learn how to mourn and again we'll look at all of that
in detail what that means and once you've learned to mourn you learn to become weak and
then you hunger and you thirst for righteousness and you become merciful and you become a peacemaker
and then finally you discover you get to a place or being misunderstood by unbelievers
is no longer quite so painful because you know that you're marching in the footsteps
of those who have gone on before and as we'll see later on it becomes a positive proof
that your law now has been thrown in with the Lord and no longer with the world.
So it's God's prescription for success there is a logical and definite progression and
when you start living this way you will be at odds with the world.
Why is almost half this passage dedicated to persecution?
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil
and against you because of me how can he invite us into that kind of lifestyle?
Well very simple when you start living the way Jesus lived when these values of the
kingdom become the core practices of your heart and my heart our lives are 180 degrees
out of phase with the world and even as the world persecuted Jesus they will persecute
you and they will persecute me it is not hard to figure out why.
Because think this through with me for a moment in the world how do you arrive at success?
In the world who receives the inheritance who inherits the earth?
Well it's the strong it's the courageous it's the bold you draw on your own gifting you
use your own authority and your power you compete with everybody else and may the best
man win and all the empires of the world are built on that philosophy that if I'm stronger
than you are and if I can outsmart you and out whip you and out clash you and out buy
you then I can bury you because in a fallen world it is dog eat dog that's the kingdom
of the world we've often looked at it before diagrammatically you can represent it this
way God is in the outside Satan espouses his wicked philosophy has the population of the
world deluded under his deception everybody lives for himself there are limited resources
to get around I'm going to scramble for it you're going to scramble for it and it doesn't
matter whether it's money whether it's nations whether it's treasures whether it's a relationship
may the best man may the best woman win and so the world is always characterized by conflict
and by confusion and by death and by destruction and all you have to do is listen to the news
every day and you will find out how this little scenario is played out all over the world
all the time now in contrast to that stands the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is
so amazingly simple that you and I have an incredibly difficult time laying hold of
it and we get offended by the teachings of Jesus because it seems so idealistic and
so far removed from our experience and so impractical in the world because in the kingdom
of God God is the whole universe he's made and the whole universe is sustained by his word
of power in Christ he's become my father and just as he looks after the birds of the
air and the lilies of the field so he is promised to look after me and if I make it my business
to walk with him in close relationship because he owns everything and has all authority
and power and he gives it to his children everything for which the world fights everything
for which the world craves he will give to me as his child because that is the message
of the kingdom of God and the message is scripture from one end to the other is that the
battle doesn't belong to the strong the victory doesn't belong to the most powerful now it
belongs to those who through faith in Jesus Christ have become the children of God and
ultimately Jesus is our greatest model because he is the lamb that is upon the throne who
for his obedience and suffering in death has been exalted as Lord over all and when you
and I by faith belong to Jesus and the Holy Spirit lives in us the Holy Spirit is driving
us constantly towards that lifestyle that lifestyle of faith that lifestyle of trust that
lifestyle of obedience that's why we get out of bed in a Sunday morning to come to a place
like this we can just as easily stay home read the newspaper watch the television and follow
our own entertainment on Sunday like most of the world does why don't we because faith
says my hope lies in God and I need him and he is the source of my life and of my blessing
now please understand then that as the church increasingly embodies the teaching of the
kingdom we are increasingly at odds with the world when the world prides itself and it's
talent it's arrogance and it's power and you and I pride ourselves in our humility so
to speak sounds contradictory but you know what I'm trying to say when we look to God instead
of to ourselves when they struggle and they strive and they cannot get it together and
God pours out his favor and his blessing upon the church instead and the world gets jealous
that's why the Pharisees crucify Jesus that's why the early church suffered persecution
not only at the hands of the Romans but also at the hands of the Jewish people and that is
why throughout scripture there has been a contrast between flesh and spirit Cain and Abel
Ishmael and Isaac and Issa and Jacob and the nation of Israel and the Old Testament
versus the nations of the world and Jesus invitation to you and to me is to take up our
cross and follow him because you see here's the irony of the gospel the powers of the world
are not going to be brought down simply by taking up our sword and fighting them if you've ever
been in conflict with anybody you will know that you can win the battle but lose the war
you can make them conform externally but you cannot win there in thermal conformity because
that takes a laying down of your life and a demonstration of the love of Jesus I was very
much struck and I'm going to end with this this morning with a story that I read in the newspaper
about the ongoing trial of a young man whose name was Jonathan he was killed by his brother
and just recently his mother was before court and she read her victim statement the tragedy
of not only losing a son but losing a second son who was guilty of having killed the first one
now this young man who is in trial and has been for a couple of years now nobody has been able
to crack him because he has just been so cold and so shut down until his mother in the full hearing
of the court described not only her pain at losing her youngest son but described the pain
of losing her oldest son and how she still loved him and wanted to win him back in relationship
and how she wished she could have in some way been there for him to help stop him from doing what he
did and for the first time in years that kid broke down and he cried for 15 minutes straight
because finally the love of his mother had gotten through into the hardness of his heart
that's how God's people are going to overcome evil with good and Jesus's invitation to you
and to me as we take up our cross and follow him and as we start this survey of the sermon on the
Mount is to give him our everything so that by the work of the Holy Spirit he does we may be the
salt of the earth the light of the world and we can make a difference for the glory of God
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