This Fall we’re going to be preaching through a portion of Scripture where a man of God goes up on a mountain and teaches God’s word to God’s people. As God began to form a people for himself they needed to know how they were supposed to live, so God sent a messenger to share his law with his new people. 

 

It may sound like I am referring to the story of Moses giving the law to the people of Israel from Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus. . . but I’m not! 

 

This Fall we’re preaching through the Sermon on the Mount, one of the longest two teachings of Jesus recorded in Scripture where “seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught his disciples” (Matthew 5:1-2).

 

The Sermon on the Mount has puzzled many Christians throughout the centuries. Applying its teachings is both simple and very complex. Is this a new Torah, a new version of the Mosaic law that we must follow as Christians or are these strict commands just meant to show us our sin and make us realize our need for Jesus? If Jesus says he “fulfills the law” why does he intensify the commands of the Old Testament Law as he connects anger to murder and lust to adultery? 

 

Identifying the structure of the Sermon on the Mount helps us see its true purpose.

 

At the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount is the Lord’s Prayer. At the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus teaching his disciples how to talk to God their Father. This is a reminder that even as Jesus gives his disciples and the crowds commands for what the lives of his followers should look like, what God wants most is our hearts. God wants us to know him. 

 

In the verses just before the Lord’s Prayer Jesus offers a multifaceted explanation of how the life Jesus wants for his followers relates to the Torah, to God’s revealed will thus far in Scripture. In the verses following the Lord’s prayer Jesus teaches about how his followers should relate to God and other human beings. 

 

At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus called the people to “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” To “repent” means to turn around or to change direction. Immediately after announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus called his first disciples to follow him, he ministered to the crowds, and then he stood on the mountain and delivered what we now call “The Sermon on the Mount!” 

 

All that Jesus requires of us is to trust Him. He saves us. We don’t save ourselves. When Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John immediately followed Jesus they entered into a relationship with him where he would preserve their faith, he would be faithful to them even when they are faithless. “Only one thing is necessary” as Jesus tells Martha. And yet, Jesus does not leave us without instructions, he doesn’t leave us wondering what is good and what is sinful. In his kindness, Jesus leaves us with both the wisdom of his words in Scripture, and with his Holy Spirit.

 

Our prayer as we study the Sermon on the Mount together is that as we encounter the words of Jesus we would encounter Jesus himself. Our prayer is that as we learn from his wisdom his Holy Spirit would make us wise.

 

We cannot reduce Jesus’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount

to one single purpose or one simple command. 

 

Does the Sermon on the Mount teach us what

our lives should look like?

Yes! Does the Sermon on the Mount

highlight our own sinfulness?

Also, yes! Were we saved the moment we

decided to follow Jesus?

Yes! Should we strive to obey Jesus’s commands?

Also, yes!

 

As we preach through the Sermon on the Mount

we hope that you will be comforted

by the good news of Jesus, challenged

and convicted by his words, and that together

we will be transformed into his image.

We are taught to pray, after all,

“Your Kingdom come,

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!” 

As Ever, 

​

Pastor Tyler