The teaching in this sermon certainly sets a high
standard. If we take it seriously we realize that we cannot attain it
and therefore cannot merit salvation. It is the end of the way of law
and drives us to seek salvation in Christ. But when we have received
this salvation as God’s free gift, the sermon shows us how we
should live in the service of our gracious God. It shows us what life
is like in the kingdom of God. The sermon removes all complacency.
The follower of Christ cannot say, “I have done all I should; I am
the complete servant of God.” No matter how far we have gone along
the Christian road the sermon tells us that there is more ahead of
us.
But if it stretches our horizons in this way, it also
enables us to understand more of what the grace of God means. Dale C.
Allison, Jr., brings this out when he sums up his examination of the
structure of the Sermon in these words: “The Sermon on the Mount
sets forth God’s grace in the past (4:23–5:2), in the present
(6:25–34; 7:7–11), and in the future (5:3–12); and this is the
context in which 5:13–7:12 is to be heard. Amos Wilder was right on
target when he wrote that Matthew 5–7 offers ‘not so much ethics
of obedience as ethics of grace.’ ” We miss the point if we
see the Sermon on the Mount as nothing other than a series of
far-reaching demands. The demands are there, certainly. But the love
and the mercy of God are there, too.
Most critics hold that this is not the account of any
one sermon, but that Matthew has gathered (and adapted) material used
on several occasions. We need not doubt that some of what we find in
this sermon was delivered on other occasions, but I wonder whether
some commentators have paid sufficient attention to the fact that an
itinerant preacher normally makes repeated use of his material, often
with minor or even major changes. He adapts what he has used
elsewhere to the situation now confronting him. That we find somewhat
similar statements in other parts of the Gospels does not mean that
Jesus did not use them on this occasion. We should be on our guard
against thinking that it is Matthew’s sermon rather than that of
Jesus. The introductory and concluding verses (5:1–2; 7:28–29)
read like the beginning and ending of an address. The best solution
to a difficult problem seems to be that Matthew has taken a sermon
Jesus delivered, and expanded it by including matter given on other
occasions. He may be giving a summary of an extended session of
teaching given over several hours (or even stretching into days; on
one occasion at any rate people were with Jesus without food for
three days, evidently to absorb his teaching, 15:32). It can scarcely
be a verbatim report, for it is too long for anyone to have
remembered the exact words, and there is no suggestion that it was
written down as Jesus delivered it. But for us the important thing is
that here we are brought into contact with Jesus’ teaching on
important aspects of the life of the servant of God.
This discourse displays many resemblances to Luke’s
“Sermon on the Plain” (Luke 6:17–49), and many interpreters
hold that they are variant accounts of the same discourse. Luke’s
use of “plain” does not rule this out, for it means no more than
“a level place” and may well indicate a rather flat area in the
mountains (though against this is the fact that a great multitude
came to be healed, Luke 6:18, and it is unlikely that the sick would
have climbed a mountain). Both sermons begin with beatitudes, go on
to significant ethical teaching, and conclude with the little parable
of the men building houses. But the differences between the two are
such that it is not easy to regard them as variant accounts of the
same sermon. It is better to think that Jesus used similar material
on more than one occasion.
important
bridge to the ‘Sermon on the Mount’; ‘Seeing the crowds’
(5:1), Jesus goes up onto a mountain.
The King’s speech: what is his kingdom like?
(5:1–7:29)
The Sermon on the Mount is the first of the five
sections of teaching in Matthew’s Gospel and is really a statement
of life within God’s kingdom. I often compare it to the Queen’s
Speech at the State Opening of Parliament. Each November in the
United Kingdom, when the new session of Parliament officially begins,
the monarch reads a speech outlining the policies which his or her
government will pursue over the coming year. Amid great pomp and
ceremony, with many theatrical touches, the Queen’s Speech is a
statement of intent, declaring a programme of government.
There is no pomp or ceremony in the Sermon on the Mount.
But there are echoes of the Old Testament; we are meant, perhaps, to
see Jesus as the new Moses, outlining the rule of God in the lives of
members of his new community. This is the formal inauguration of his
kingdom; here the King sets out his plan, the programme by which his
kingdom is identified and his rule administered.
So what do we have in the Sermon on the Mount?1
There are two things I would like to say by way of
introduction to this section. One is that the far right and the far
left are not confined to politics, but among theologians who expound
Scripture we also have the far left and the far right. This is
vividly revealed in the understanding of the Sermon on the Mount. The
liberal theologian is to the far left. He treats the Sermon on the
Mount as the gospel, the good news. He acts (even if he doesn’t say
it) as if it were the only important part of Scripture.
Many years ago I played handball with a very liberal
preacher who later became rather famous as a leader of the liberal
wing. One day he told me that all he needed of the Bible was the
Sermon on the Mount. He went even so far as to say that all he needed
was the Golden Rule, as recorded in Matthew 7:12: “Therefore all
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so
to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” To say that this is
all the Bible you need may sound good, but it is pious drivel. The
question is not whether you feel that the Sermon on the Mount is your
religion. The question is: Are you living it? That is the
important thing, and we’ll have more to say about that later.
Those who reduce the Christian message to the Sermon on
the Mount represent a very large segment of liberalism in our day.
But please notice that the content of the Christian gospel is not
found in the Sermon on the Mount. For instance, there is absolutely
no mention of the death and resurrection of Christ. Yet Paul said to
the Corinthians, “… I declare unto you the gospel….”
What is the gospel? The Sermon on the Mount? No. Paul made it clear
that the gospel is this: “… that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1, 3–4,
italics mine). My friend, the gospel is not in the Sermon on the
Mount, and that is the reason a great many people like to claim it as
their religion. The preaching of that doctrine has made more
hypocrites in the church than anything else. It is nothing in the
world but verbiage for men to say, “I live by the Sermon on the
Mount.” If a man is honest and will read the Sermon on the
Mount, he will know that he is not living up to it.
My friend, if the Sermon on the Mount is God’s
standard (and it is) and you come short of it, what are you going to
do? Do you have a Savior who can extend mercy to you? Do you know the
One who can reach down in grace and save you when you put your faith
in Him?
To reduce the Christian message to the Sermon on the
Mount is a simplicity which the Scriptures would not permit under any
circumstances whatsoever. To do so is the extreme left point of view.
There is also the extreme right point of view. This
group treats the Sermon on the Mount as if it were the bubonic
plague. They have nothing to do with it. They give the impression
that there is something ethically wrong with it. This group is known
as hyper–dispensationalists. (Don’t misunderstand, I am a
dispensationalist but not a hyper–dispensationalist.) They
maintain that we can’t use the Sermon on the Mount at all. In fact,
one of them told me that the Lord’s Prayer has no meaning for us
today. He was a prominent man, and after I heard him make that
statement, I ran a sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount and the
Lord’s Prayer. In fact, I have a book entitled Let Us Pray
which deals with the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer does have
meaning for us in our day. It is for us although it is not to
us. But the extreme right want to rule it out entirely.
It is true that there is no gospel in the Sermon on the
Mount, and it is tragic indeed to give it to unregenerate man as a
standard of conduct, and to tell him that if he tries to measure up
to it, he is a Christian.
The Sermon on the Mount is Law lifted to the nth degree.
Man could not keep the Law in the Old Testament. So how in the world
can he keep, in his own strength, the Sermon on the Mount which is
elevated to an even higher degree?
It is likewise true that the modus operandi for
Christian living is not really found in the Sermon on the Mount. It
gives the ethic without supplying the dynamic. Living by the power of
the indwelling Holy Spirit is just not one of the truths taught in
the Sermon on the Mount. Paul says: “For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3–4).
You don’t find that teaching in the Sermon on the
Mount. It contains nothing of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
However, it does contain high ethical standards and practices which
are not contrary to Christian living; in fact, it expresses the mind
of Christ which should be the mind of the Christian also. The great
principles set down here are profitable for the Christian to study
and learn, but he can never attain them in his own strength; he must
go elsewhere to look for the power. What you have in the
Sermon on the Mount is a marvelous electric light bulb, but you do
not have the generator that produces the power that will make the
light. And it is the light, not the bulb, that is all important.
The primary purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to set
before men the law of the Kingdom. In Matthew we are talking about
the King who has come to present Himself. John the Baptist was His
forerunner, and the King called disciples to follow Him. Now He
enunciates the law of the Kingdom. This is the manifesto of the King
and the platform of the Prince of Peace. And it’s law! It will be
the law of this world during the Millennium, and then it will find
full fruition. Christ will reign on earth in person and will enforce
every word of it. The Sermon on the Mount will finally prevail when
He whose right it is to rule shall come. Now it’s inconceivable to
me that anyone who acknowledges Him today as Lord would despise this
document or turn from it. The Christian who calls Jesus Christ Lord,
will seek to do what He commands, but he can obey only in the power
of the Holy Spirit. It is worse than futile to try to force the
Sermon on the Mount on a gainsaying and rebellious world. Only the
gospel of the grace of God can make men obedient to Christ, and it
was given to bring men into obedience to God.
The Sermon on the Mount needs to be preached to bring
conviction to the hearts of men. This document lets men know that
they have sinned, and it reveals that none are righteous and that all
have come short of God’s glory.
The Christian can take the principles set down in the
Sermon on the Mount and consider them in the light of other
Scriptures. This will provide a wider view and a better understanding
of the mind of Christ. For example, only here can you find Christ’s
definition of murder and adultery. Christ took two of the
commandments and lifted them to the nth degree, “Thou shalt not
kill” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exod. 20:13–14).
Are these the only two which He lifted to a higher level? The answer
seems to be obvious. These are the only two which are recorded in
Matthew. Apparently, He did or could lift each commandment to a much
higher level of attainment. If it could be said of the Mosaic Law, “…
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal.
2:16), then it would be ten times more difficult for a man to be
justified by the Sermon on the Mount.
Try putting down upon your own life these two
commandments: “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not commit
adultery.” Let me illustrate what I mean by a little story. This
incident took place during my first pastorate when I was a lot more
blunt than I am now. An elder in the church I served in Nashville,
Tennessee, invited me to speak at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
This elder was a very wonderful man. He was the vice–president of a
bank in the city, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and when he
asked me to bring a brief message, he said, “You won’t have but a
few minutes, but I want you to give these businessmen the gospel.”
Well, I arrived at the place a little early, and there were several
men standing around. I went up near the speaker’s table, and there
was a man there who shook hands with me and began to rip out oaths. I
had never seen such a fine–looking, well–dressed man curse as
this man did. Finally, he said to me, “What’s your racket?” I
told him that I was a preacher, and he began to cover up immediately.
He apologized for his language. He didn’t need to apologize to me;
he needed to apologize to God because God heard him all the
time—which I told him. Then he wanted me to know that he was an
officer in a certain liberal church, and he boasted, “The Sermon on
the Mount is my religion.”
“It is?” I said, “Let’s shake hands. I
congratulate you—you’ve got a wonderful religion! By the way, how
are you doing with it?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said that the Sermon on the Mount is your
religion. Are you living by it?”
“Well I try.”
“That’s not quite it. The Lord said that you are
blessed if you do those things, not if you vote for them. Are you
keeping it?”
“I think I am.”
“Do you mind if we take a little test?”
“All right.”
“The Sermon on the Mount says that if you are angry
with your brother you are guilty of murder. Are you keeping that
one?”
“Well, that’s pretty strong, but I don’t think I
have been angry enough to kill anyone.”
Then I quoted the one the Lord gave on adultery:
“Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart” (v. 28), and asked him,
“How about that one?”
“Oh, I guess that would get me.”
“Well, I imagine that there are several things in the
Sermon on the Mount that would get you. Apparently you are not living
by your religion. If I were you, I’d change my religion and get
something that works.”
Oh, how many people there are like that man! They very
piously say that the Sermon on the Mount is their religion, but all
they mean is that they think it is a good document and a very fine
expression, but it doesn’t affect them one whit. I found out later
that the man I was talking with had two wives—one at home and one
at his office. My friend, if the Sermon on the Mount is your
religion, you had better make sure you are keeping it. It is loaded
with law. But if you will look at the Sermon on the Mount honestly,
it will bring you to a Savior who died for you on the cross. The
Sermon on the Mount sets before us great principles and high goals.
We need to know them, but they reveal how far we come short.2
attain, thus nullifying its significance for the
Christian.
From Nazareth to Cana
and Capernaum
Nowhere in the presentation of the message of the
kingdom does Jesus indicate that this message is significantly
different from the proclamation of evangelism by the church. The
difference, rather, seems to be in relation to those to whom the
message is directed. During the early period of the Gospels, the
message of the kingdom of heaven was directed to the nation of Israel
and contained the potential fulfillment of the promised kingdom to
the Jews. To the Gentile nations of the Church Age the proclamation
of the message is that God will gather a people for Himself from all
nations into this great kingdom. The prerequisite for entrance into
this kingdom included repentance (Mt 4:17), righteousness (Mt 5:20),
faith (Mt 18:3) or, in summary, being born again (Jn 3). Because the
people rejected these requirements, Christ taught that His earthly
reign would not be centralized in the nation of Israel but in a
gathering of a people from among the nations of the earth.
5:1–2. The opening verses of the Sermon on the
Mount indicate that this message deals with the inner state of mind
and heart which is the indispensable absolute of true Christian
discipleship. It delineates the outward manifestations of character
and conduct of the true believer and genuine disciple. A
dispensationalist, Lawlor writes: “We do not find basic,
fundamental Law here, for law cannot produce the state of blessedness
set forth herein” (cf. G. Lawlor, The Beatitudes Are for Today,
p. 11). Rather, the quality of life herein described is the necessary
product of grace alone. As Jesus states the outward legal
requirements of the law and then carries His listener beyond the
letter of the law to the true spirit and intent of the law, He
describes a life-style which no human being could live in his own
power. Thus, the life of the believer, described by Jesus in the
Sermon on the Mount, is a life of grace and glory, which comes from
God alone. To make this quality of life the product of man’s human
efforts (as does the liberal) is the height of overestimation of
man’s ability and underestimation of his depravity. To relegate
this entire message, Jesus’ longest recorded sermon, to a
Jewish-only life-style, as do hyperdispensationalists, is to rob the
church of her greatest statement of true Christian living!
The depth of spiritual truth proclaimed in this message
of the kingdom, however, does not present the gospel of justification
by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. Pink states: “Its
larger part was a most searching exposition of the spirituality of
the law and the repudiation of the false teaching of the elders”
(A. W. Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 13).
Jesus made it clear that the spirit of Christ goes beyond the outward
demand of the law. The Christian, though not under the law, is to
live above the law.
It has always been difficult to clearly draw the
distinction between the relationship of law and grace. Dr. Martyn
Lloyd-Jones has observed: “Some so emphasize the law as to turn the
gospel of Jesus Christ with its glorious liberty into nothing but a
collection of moral maxims. It is all law to them and there is no
grace left. They so talk of the Christian, that it becomes pure
legalism and there is no grace in it. Let us remember also that it is
equally possible so to overemphasize grace at the expense of the law
as again, to have something which is not the gospel of the New
Testament” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the
Mount, pp. 12–15). He goes on to note that the Sermon on the
Mount and the message of the kingdom do have definite application to
the Christian today. It was preached to people who were meant to
practice it not only at that time but ever afterwards as well. Boice
(p. 9) observes that that “World” of the Sermon on the Mount
cannot be restricted to life in the future millennial kingdom, since
it includes tax collectors, thieves, unjust officials, hypocrites,
and false prophets.
Embodied in the Sermon on the Mount is a summation of
Jesus’ basic ethical teaching of the life of a born-again man.
While the Sermon on the Mount is not a way of salvation, neither is
it only a message to those under the law, for it obviously goes
beyond the law. It is a presentation of Christian discipleship which
can be wrought in the soul of an individual only by the power of God.
This message does not tell one how to be saved; it tells one what it
is like to be saved. It explains the quality of the life changed by
the saving grace of God. Its basic truths are reiterated everywhere
throughout the New Testament epistles. There is no fundamental
contrast between this message and the message of Paul. Both are in
agreement that “the just shall live by faith!”
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus states the spiritual
character and quality of the kingdom which He wished to establish.
The basic qualities of this kingdom are fulfilled in the church which
He would establish. Virtually every section of this message is
repeated in the substance elsewhere throughout the New Testament.
There is nothing here to indicate that this message is to be limited
in its application only to the people of Israel. Notice in the
opening verse that his disciples had come to Him and he …
taught them the following message.3
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most misunderstood
messages that Jesus ever gave. One group says it is God’s plan of
salvation, that if we ever hope to go to heaven we must obey these
rules. Another group calls it a “charter for world peace” and
begs the nations of the earth to accept it. Still a third group tells
us that the Sermon on the Mount does not apply to today, but that it
will apply at some future time, perhaps during the Tribulation or the
millennial kingdom.
I have always felt that Matthew 5:20 was the key to this
important sermon: “For I say unto you, that except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
The main theme is true righteousness. The religious leaders had an
artificial, external righteousness based on Law. But the
righteousness Jesus described is a true and vital righteousness that
begins internally, in the heart. The Pharisees were concerned about
the minute details of conduct, but they neglected the major matter of
character. Conduct flows out of character.
Whatever applications the Sermon on the Mount may have
to world problems, or to future events, it is certain that this
sermon has definite applications for us today. Jesus gave this
message to individual believers, not to the unsaved world at large.
What was taught in the Sermon on the Mount is repeated in the New
Testament epistles for the church today. Jesus originally gave these
words to His disciples (Matt. 5:1), and they have shared them with
us.4
Of greater importance is the matter of interpreting the
Sermon on the Mount. There are three serious errors that are widely
held in the church with regard to understanding the sermon. The first
error teaches that all the ethical mandates found in the sermon have
no bearing on us today. Rather, this sermon is seen as being about
the ethics of the kingdom of God, and since the kingdom of God has
not yet come, the sermon is irrelevant to us now. That is a serious
distortion, which is based on an equally serious misunderstanding of
the concept of the kingdom of God in the New Testament.
Jesus ascended to heaven to assume the role of King of
kings, so even though the final consummation of His kingdom is in the
future, to think that the kingdom is something completely future
misses one of the central thrusts of the New Testament. I believe
that the content of the Sermon on the Mount is very much relevant to
us today, as it is to Christians in every generation. In fact, the
virtues spelled out here in the sermon are spelled out in the
teachings of the Apostles.
The second error is to see that the Sermon on the Mount
is merely a new declaration of law by which an impossible ethic is
set before us so as to reveal the necessity of the gospel. That is
indeed one of the things that the law does—expose our desperate
need for the gospel—but I think that again misunderstands the basic
essence of the sermon.
Perhaps the worst distortion was brought to bear in
nineteenth-century liberalism. It holds that the Sermon on the Mount
is about the social gospel and that the ethic of Jesus is not about
personal redemption but about teaching the church ethical behavior so
that the mission of the church is to be an agency of mere
humanitarianism. That, of course, scuttles not only the relevance of
the Sermon on the Mount but the entire New Testament.
If you look closely at the content of the Sermon on the
Mount, in it Jesus sets forth our response to Him as the ultimate
test by which we and all men will be judged eternally. Therefore, let
us be careful not to get caught in the trap of those erroneous views.
The sermon is the Word of God for us today and for Christians in
every age.5
1
Campbell, I. D. (2008). Opening up Matthew (pp. 41–42).
Leominster: Day One Publications.
2
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels
(Matthew 1-13) (electronic ed., Vol. 34, pp. 67–72).
Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
3
Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible
Commentary (pp. 1882–1884). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
4
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol.
1, pp. 20–21). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
5
Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 73–74). Wheaton, IL:
Crossway.
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