Lesson 3 – The Sermon on the Mount

This is the largest continuous teaching section in all of the gospels. It doesn’t appear in any other gospel exactly like this. Mark has a “sermon on the plain,” with some similar teaching. All have some of these teachings scattered throughout the books.

How could this be? Do you really think Jesus only taught every point of doctrine once? No! Jesus gave the same teachings over and over again throughout His ministry. There’s no problem with similar teachings be described from different sermons.

• What’s happening leading up to this? (Context of the SOTM)
  • “It was fulfilled” – establishing Jesus in an OT context.
    • Matthew 1:20-23
    • Matthew 2:14-15
    • Matthew 2:16-18
    • Matthew 2:22-23
    • Matthew 3:1-3
    • Matthew 4:13-16
  • Additional events are recorded that connect Jesus to Moses
    • Jesus’ life is almost taken, so he flees to Egypt
    • Jesus recapitulates the Exodus, coming from Egypt, 40 days in the desert
    • Jesus faces the same temptations that Israel wasn’t able to conquer (Matthew 4:1-10)
    • John the Baptist comes out of the desert and invites the people into the wilderness (clearing the way for a second exodus).
  • Central point of the context: Jesus is the new Moses. (remember our audience!)
    • What is expected of Moses? Teaching!
    • Jesus will ultimately finish the job that Moses was not able to finish (he will bring his people into the promised land) 32:48-52
    • What do the hearers expect? Jesus to stand up and teach the law of Moses. And he does, but now as they expect.
      • This will be the paradox of the SOTM. The Pharisees think they’re one with Moses’ teaching. Jesus shows they’re against Moses (which is what they’ll accuse him of).

• Organization (Structure of the SOTM)
  • It’s not as random as it seems. There is a coherent structure here.
  • 5:3-16 Kingdom Disciples
    • What does it mean to be a part of the kingdom? What’s included? What’s required?
      • Beatitudes: What’s included (blessings of the kingdom – dispensed)
      • Salt and Light: let the blessed life shine.
    • 5:17-48 Jesus and the Law (6 Antitheses)
      • Where Jesus is with Moses and the Pharisees are against him (distortions).
      • “You’ve heard it said, ‘x,’ but I tell you, ‘y’.”
      • Jesus has come to fulfill the law, not accommodate it to his own ability/preference.
    • 6:1-18 Religious Hypocrisy (self righteousness masquerading as righteousness) (sanctimony masquerading as sanctified)
      • Righteous deeds (6:1-4)
      • Prayer (6:5-15)
      • Fasting (6:16-18)
      • This describes “anti-kingdom” living
    • 6:19-7:12 Kingdom Living
      • Wealth (6:19-24)
      • Worry (6:25-34)
      • How to treat other people (7:1-12)
    • 7:12-27 Eschatological Warnings
      • He ends with a warning of where people will go; there are only 2 choices.
      • Three analogies
        • Narrow and wide gate
        • Good and Bad Fruit (really about a good and bad tree)
        • Wise and foolish builders.
          • It is easier to build a house on the sand.
          • It is harder to build a house on the rock.
          • Kingdom living is hard. Anti-kingdom living isn’t.

• How to Understand this Sermon (Interpretation of the SOTM)
  • Lots of people (historically and today) get this sermon wrong and abuse the passage.
  • Q1: What does this sermon say about the law?
  • Q2: What does this sermon say about Christ?

• View 1: OT Law + a little (Augustine and the early Church)
  • Christ brought out the real intent of the OT law, adding more than was clear from the OT. The law meant the same thing in both but you wouldn’t have known that until Christ.
  • Understandable, given they’re dealing with Gnostics (denied the OT) and the Jews (made the OT paramount).

• View 2: OT Law + a lot! (Medieval Roman Catholic)
  • Jesus went way beyond the OT.
    • It was hard then, it’s even harder now. Jesus makes it “more holy”
  • Jesus’ law cannot be fulfilled in the real world – it’s too strict.
    • So what do you do?
    • Thus, you need to remove yourself from the world
    • In order to be pure, you need to have an ascetic, monastic life

• View 3: Totally New Law (Anabaptists)
  • The law of Jesus (for the church) supersedes the OT law; Jesus brought a new ethic.
    • This is an abrogation of the OT
    • This requires a literalistic interpretation (not literal, literal respects writing conventions, context, tone, intent)
    • Example: passivism

• View 4: Impossible Ideal (Lutheran)
  • Luther understood the law as oppressive and binding and only useful to Christians to point them to Christ.
  • Thus the sermon is the “Impossible Ideal” – what you’re supposed to keep but can’t.
  • It only exists (functionally) to crush you and point you to Christ

• View 5: Ethical Guide (Liberalism)
  • Just moralize the whole thing. These are great sounding ethics.
  • If you think these are great, and do them more than you don’t do them, you’ll get to heaven.
  • This is why Jesus was such a great teacher. Listen to the stuff he said!

• View 6: Israel’s Law (Dispensational – Schofield, Ryrie, Hagie, etc.)
  • The Sermon is not for the Church; God’s ultimate plan is for ethic Israel.
    • It is given by Jesus in the context of Israel.
    • It is a description of how the millennial kingdom will be set up.
    • Jesus was actually trying to set it up at the time, but they killed him.
    • Eventually, He will set up His reign, and this is for that reign.
    • This has no use for the church because this sermon is law (Jews) not grace (church)
  • I’m doing you a disservice if I don’t take a brief aside here to explain some of the problems with this particular view:
    • The most important is that it confuses the relationship between law & gospel.
      • The dispensationals say that there is no gospel with the law, but without the Law, you have no Gospel. Gospel without the Law makes no sense.
        • Without the Law, the Gospel has no context.
        • It is the curse of the Law that Christ bore on the cross.
      • Second: the details don’t fit their so-called “millennial kingdom of peace”
        • This law fits life in the midst of turmoil and persecution, sin and evil.
        • This is relevant now, not to the dispensational millennium.