Sermon on the Mount: Life According to Jesus (Matthew 5:1-12)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel center church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Then he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you, and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.

Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven.

For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

He went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Then he began to teach them.

Let's pray.

Let not our hearts not listen to you.

Which is to say, let our hearts listen to you.

Let us not be led astray.

To bow down to the idols of our hearts.

But Lord give us grace to choose life.

To love you as the Lord our God, to obey you, and to remain ever faithful to Christ our Savior.

It's in his name that we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

There are times as a preacher, you're very conscious of your own inadequacy.

And there's something about standing on the precipice of a study on the Sermon on the Mount that feels especially so.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the Sermon on the Mount.

The importance to Christians, but the importance to our world, the importance to Western civilization.

I mean, you name it, the Sermon on the Mount is infectious.

And it's hard to find a spot, a corner of the world that it hasn't already affected.

Just this last week I was doing some reading of folks reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount.

Folks like President Harry S.

Truman says, I do not believe that there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

And what do you think about that?

That's a pretty wild statement.

More than any other theory of passive resistance, Martin Luther King Jr.

credited the Sermon on the Mount as the principal inspiration for the civil rights protesters in Montgomery, Alabama in the mid-1950s to pursue justice with peace and dignity.

It was the example of Jesus himself, said Martin Luther King Jr., that moved him to, quote, protest with the creative weapon of love.

Isn't that a phrase?

An author like Kurt Vonnegut says, if it weren't for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a human being.

I would just as soon be a rattlesnake.

What do you think about that one?

It's hard to overstate the importance of the Sermon on the Mount, the importance it has for our moral framework, for the ethics of our Western world, but even just the humanization that come with something like the mercy and goodness of God that we encounter in the Sermon on the Mount.

So there's two questions I want us to ask this morning.

What does life according to Jesus that we find in the Sermon on the Mount mean?

And then how do we live it?

We find the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew is writing, let's say, 30 or 40 years after the resurrection of Jesus.

He is a disciple of Jesus.

He's writing a biography of Jesus, but more than just giving us facts, Matthew has a point to his biography, and his point is something like this: Jesus is the Messiah, God's anointed, appointed Savior of the world who is fulfilling God's promises and purposes for his kingdom on earth.

That's very wordy.

But we might say something like this: Jesus is at the center of it all, breaking God's kingdom into our world.

And here we have what's called the Sermon on the Mount for obvious reasons.

Jesus ascends a mountain and begins to teach.

Jesus is signaling.

Well, let's think back to the Old Testament.

We're just reading from Deuteronomy, which is an extended sermon of Moses, his kind of parting sermon with Israel.

Jesus is signaling that God's law is being communicated and renewed in his ministry.

Moses, who we remember, ascended up Mount Sinai and brought down the Ten Commandments, right?

Moses who proclaims God's law with appointed authority.

Jesus is signaling that this is true for him, but even more so.

He's proclaiming the fullness of God's law.

He's proclaiming what Moses only pointed towards.

He's proclaiming God's righteous requirements and commands for human beings.

Even more than that, he's proclaiming what it means to be human and to participate in the renewal of our humanity and all of creation.

The Sermon on the Mount has something like three sections.

And at the heart of it all, if you go right to the dead center of these sections, you find what we know as the Lord's Prayer.

How Jesus teaches us, his disciples, to pray.

And in the middle of that prayer, you find this line: Your will be done on earth.

Help me out.

As it is in heaven.

What's the Sermon on the Mount about?

It's about living life according to Jesus on earth as it is in heaven.

See, it's God's kingdom breaking into our world and into our lives, into our hearts, that reorders our life towards the life of heaven.

Something like that.

God's kingdom reorders our life toward heaven.

That's what life according to Jesus is all about.

That's what we see in the Beatitudes this morning.

These pithy sayings of blessing and happiness.

It gives the character of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, right?

What it means to flourish in God's kingdom.

I wonder if these are the sort of things that we would expect.

Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, right?

Happy are those who know their need for God's help, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who mourn, which is more than just experiencing loss.

It's the loss that goes with repenting from sin, because when we turn away from the idols of our hearts, it feels like a loss, doesn't it?

Feels like we've given something up, and that's a painful process.

Blessed are those who feel that loss.

Why?

Because they're going to be comforted.

They're going to know God's forgiveness and his healing for themselves.

Blessed are the humble, those who are meek and gentle, right?

Not lording themselves over others because they will stand to inherit the earth.

They're not taking the earth for themselves.

They're receiving it like a gift from God to whom it really belongs.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, right?

Blessed are those who know that God is their only source of satisfaction.

He's the only place we can go to find ourselves truly fulfilled, because they will be, pardon me, filled only in relationship to God.

Blessed are the merciful, Jesus says, those who are kind and forgiving, because they will be shown mercy by God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, those with integrity and uprightness, right at the core of their being, because they will see God, who is purity.

Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus says.

Blessed are those who promote, not just a feeling of the absence of conflict.

Blessed are those who promote shalom, right?

This reordering of creation towards God's intended purposes.

Because they will be considered sons of God, right?

They stand to inherit God's promises here on earth, and they're reflecting the very character of God as they do it.

Finally, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness' sake.

Happy are those who are unfairly treated, who are spat upon, who are marginalized.

Why?

Because again, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Is that what we expect to read?

That's not what I expect to read.

I mean, maybe these words are just so familiar they have a ring to them, don't they?

I mean, maybe we expect them in that sense.

But is this really how we expect to get ahead in the world?

Probably not, right?

Blessed are those who ask forgiveness, not permission, right?

Blessed are those who help themselves.

Blessed are those who, you know, make a name for themselves.

That's something like I would expect if I were planning to get ahead in this life, but that's not what this is about.

When God's kingdom breaks into our disordered world, our upside down world, I've heard it said that the kingdom of God turns our world upside down.

Really, it just turns it right side up, doesn't it?

We have it upside down.

When God's kingdom impacts our lives and our world, it has a way of turning it right side up.

It reorders our life towards heaven.

And suddenly what we think is ascending the ladder, you know, through our own self-righteousness, through our own get up and go, suddenly we realize the way down is the way up.

And if we begin with humility, we will find ourselves in the very presence of God.

It starts in the heart and then it goes to the world, which is why I want to just take a moment to say, let's pay attention to who Jesus is preaching to.

He's not preaching to Western civilization.

He's not even preaching to Canada or Port Perry, well, obviously.

He's preaching to the hearts of those individuals who are seated at his feet.

He's preaching to the human heart.

He's preaching to your heart and to mine.

Because Jesus understands that transformation doesn't begin with society and work its way down to the individual.

It begins with the individual who says, Yes, Jesus.

And it works its way outward.

So how do we live life according to Jesus?

If Jesus' kingdom reorders our life towards heaven, how do we live that out?

I want to suggest a couple of things.

Number one, we listen and obey.

That's simple enough, right?

Seems so.

The great theologian in the last century and martyr for the faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he's best known for his book, Cost of Discipleship, which is well worth the price on Amazon, whatever it's worth.

And it's basically an extended exposition of the Sermon on the Mount.

Bonhoeffer writes this.

He writes, humanly speaking, it is possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways.

But Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience.

Not interpreting and applying it, but doing and obeying it.

That is the only way to hear his words.

He does not mean for us to discuss it as an ideal, he means for us to get on with it.

We listen and obey because life according to Jesus is not just a theory.

It's meant to be lived.

We listen and obey, yes, but very quickly we discover we're not up for the task, are we?

Who among us can say that we've lived up to the ideal that we find in the Sermon on the Mount?

And that's by design.

When we read on the Sermon on the Mount, I suspect we find it lands heavy.

Because, like looking in the mirror, we suddenly realize all of our faults and flaws and all the ways that we fall short.

That's by design.

The Sermon on the Mount shows us where we need to confess our sins and repent and hand ourselves over to God once again.

There's no room for indifference to the Sermon on the Mount.

That sounds like a good idea, you know, for you, not so much for me.

There's no room for arrogance, that I'm just nailing it, you know, reading the Sermon on the Mount, check, check, check, check.

We listen and obey.

We confess and we repent.

But all the while we remember that as Jesus proclaims God's law, and as we endeavor by grace to live into that law and live out that law, and as we recognize how badly we fall short of that law, we always bear this in mind, that while Jesus proclaims the law of God's kingdom, he himself is the gospel.

The preacher is the gospel in this case.

So, yes, the Sermon on the Mount lands heavy.

But let's remember that while Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, he is gentle and lowly in heart.

And he did not account account, he did not account equality with God as something to be grasped at.

Yes, blessed are the merciful, but God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Jesus Christ.

Yes, blessed are the peacemakers, but what is it that Jesus came to do?

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

See, it's only in light of the cross and of the resurrection that we can make sense of the gospel here in the Sermon on the Mount.

The preacher is the gospel.

Yes, God's law lands heavy on our hearts, but it should make us run toward Jesus and not away from him.

Because he has come to be for us the law's fulfillment.

If we treat Jesus only as a teacher with some pithy moral sayings, then the Sermon on the Mount should make us quake in our boots.

But Oswald Chambers writes this: if Jesus is a teacher only, then all he can do is tantalize us by erecting a standard.

We can come, we cannot come anywhere near.

But if by being born again from above we know him first as Savior, we know that he did not come to teach us only.

Listen to this.

He came to make us what he teaches we should be.

The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having his way with us.

What God, what Christ demands of us, he supplies for us by his Holy Spirit.

So we endeavor to keep his law by grace.

God's kingdom reorders our life toward the life of heaven.

What I want to do with the remaining time that we have is read through the Sermon on the Mount.

Because it is a sermon, isn't it?

And as we go through it together, I want us to make an exercise of redeemed imagination.

Let's imagine ourselves sitting on that mount at Jesus' feet as he looks us in the eyes and teaches us his law, what it means to live according to Jesus.

Yes, it will probably land heavy.

Good.

That's our opportunity to repent.

That's our opportunity to ask for forgiveness.

That's our opportunity to ask for grace, to live out the law that Jesus requires.

But it's our opportunity chiefly to run to Jesus, who is rich in mercy, who himself is the gospel.

Let's live life according to Jesus.

In whatever way is helpful for you, whether that's taking notes, whether that's closing your bulletin, whether that's closing your eyes and just visualizing, let's listen to Jesus' words.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Then he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

You are blessed when they insult you, and persecute you, and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.

Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven, for that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You were the salt of the earth.

But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty?

It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

You are the light of the world.

A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Do not think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets.

I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

You have heard it said to our ancestors, do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court.

Whoever says, You fool will be subject to hellfire.

So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and then you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First, go and be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you're on the way with him to court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.

Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery.

But I tell you, every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce.

But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery.

And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Again you have heard it said to our ancestors, you must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.

But I tell you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven because it is God's throne, or by the earth because it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king.

Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black.

But let your yes be yes, and let your no me know.

Anything more than this is from the evil one.

You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

But I tell you, don't resist an evildoer.

On the contrary, if any one slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other one also.

As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well.

If any one forces you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to any one who asks you, and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I tell you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven?

For he causes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?

Don't even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary?

Don't even the Gentiles do the same?

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.

Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give to the poor, don't sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people.

Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people.

Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you pray, go into your private room and shut your door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

When you pray, don't babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words.

Don't be like them, because your father knows the things you need before you ask him.

Therefore, you should pray like this Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, and do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their offenses, your Heavenly Father will forgive you as well.

But if you don't forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.

Whenever you fast, don't be gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, that their fasting is obvious to people.

Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting isn't obvious to others, but to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don't break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness?

No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

Therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Consider the birds of the sky.

They don't sow or reap or gather into barns.

Yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Aren't you worth more than they?

Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying?

And why do you worry about clothes?

Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow.

They don't labor or spin thread.

Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these.

If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you, you of little faith?

So don't worry, saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Do not judge, so that you won't be judged, for you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use.

Why don't you look at the splinter in your brother's eye, but don't notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the splinter out of your eye?

And look, there's a beam of wood in your own eye.

Hypocrite.

First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

Don't give what is holy to dogs, or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under your feet.

Turn and tear you to pieces.

Ask, and it will be given to you.

Seek, and you will find.

Knock, and the door will be opened to you.

For every one who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be open.

Who among you?

If his son asks for bread, we'll give him a stone, or if he asks for fish, we'll give him a snake.

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the law and the prophets.

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate, and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

You'll recognize them by their fruit.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?

In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, is cut down and thrown into the fire.

So you'll recognize them by their fruit.

Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do mer many miracles in your name?

Then I will announce to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you lawbreakers.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, yet it didn't collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.

And it collapsed with a great crash.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.

Because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.