Matthew 5:1-5

Also I lost my voice during a bought of flu and I couldn’t even hear myself let alone expect you guys to hear me.

So, with that said, we’ve now arrived at Chapter 5 and the so called sermon on the mount and it’ll take up all of chapter 5 and chapter 6 and 7 as well. We could call this part of the flow of the Gospel The Doctrine of the King.

 

The King is going to give to us the law. That’s the Mosaic law given by God to Moses which includes the 10 commandments. But to the astonishment of all who heard Jesus’ word, He magnifies that law way higher than the 10 commandments.

 

Nobody would have felt any comfort in these words and there would have been a collective squirming in the stomachs of everyone it was presented to.

We’re going to see however that the picture Jesus painted was totally necessary for us to understand the true state of mankind and most importantly how we can be saved from it.

 

The sermon on the mount is a majestic and magnificent sermon but it’s also one of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament.

There are certain pieces of it in the other gospels and it’s probable that the Lord didn’t just give it the one time. He more than likely gave it on many occasions, and we know that He repeated many of the great truths that He gave.

For example, in the version recorded in Luke chapter 6 we see He gave this sermon on the plain not on the mountain. Luke only records a portion of what’s recorded in Matthew and even the record in Matthew may well have only been a portion of what Jesus spoke. However, what was recorded is given to us for our learning and for our understanding today.

 

Many preachers and teachers have failed to understand the true context of these passages and they treat the Sermon on the Mount as the gospel.

Many tend to believe that all they need in the bible is this sermon and some go even further and say that the only thing needed in the bible is the golden rule from the sermon, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” That’s verse 12 of the seventh chapter of Matthew.

 

Many believe that the sermon was given as the standard for Christian living and if we just try hard enough we can meet that standard and God will look on us with approval and pleasure and give us our rightful place in heaven when we die.

Of course, it sounds very good and very Pious to say we’re living by the sermon on the mount, but the question is, “Are you really living it because if you believe your eternity depends on keeping those standards, you better be.”

 

Now we need to notice something. The content of the Christian gospel is not found in the Sermon on the Mount.

For instance, there’s no mention of the death and resurrection of Christ, yet Paul clearly described the gospel when he said to the Corinthians, “…  I declare to you the gospel….”

What is the gospel? Is it 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; And we see that in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

We hear nothing at all of salvation by faith in Christ alone, which is the central message of the New Testament. Nor do we see what Ephesians 1:7 says,

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

You don’t find anything about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

My friends, the gospel is simply not in the Sermon on the Mount, and that’s the reason many people like to claim it as their religion, because that’s the only part of the bible they see.

They look at it as a sort of standalone mini rule book on what you need to do to be a Christian.

The preaching that this sermon is the gospel and those that say, “I live by the Sermon on the Mount,” has made for more confusion and rejection in the church than anything else.

If a person is genuine and honest and actually reads the Sermon on the Mount, he’ll know that not only is he not living up to it but that he can’t, and that’s the whole point of it.

 

You see, if the Sermon is God’s standard (and it is) and we come short of it (which we all do), what are we going to do?

We’ve broken God’s law even if we only broke one law one time.

James 2:10 tells us this,

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 

We’re condemned by the perfect righteousness of God which makes it absolutely necessary for that breaking of the law to be punished. And what is the punishment? Death! Eternal separation from God.

If we believe that this sermon gives us the steps by which we can achieve a level of righteousness enough to please God, what happens when fail to keep it?

Do we have a Saviour who gave His life as payment for our lawbreaking and who can extend mercy to us? Do we know the One who can reach down in grace and save us from our failure to keep the law when we put our faith in Him? Well, NO, not if the only scripture we have is the Sermon on the Mount!

 

To reduce the Christian message to the Sermon on the Mount is a gross distortion of the Scriptures but many do exactly that.

The Sermon on the Mount is not the Gospel of salvation, and it’s tragic to give it to an unbelieving world as a standard of conduct that they must strive to keep. And it’s wrong to tell an unbelieving person that if he just tries to measure up to it, he’s a Christian and has eternal life.

It simply isn’t true, and it’ll lead that person away from Christ and His salvation.

 

The Sermon on the Mount is the Law of Moses, the ten commandments with the bar lifted much higher, in fact lifted to the very highest degree.

If man couldn’t keep the Law in the Old Testament, and he definitely couldn’t, how in the world can he keep the Sermon on the Mount which elevated the Mosaic law to an even higher degree than in the Old Testament?

Giving the standard for Christian living is not the reason Jesus gave us this sermon.

 

Many people who read the whole Sermon hate it because of their inner knowledge that they can never reach its high standard and it’s easier to just reject it outright than try to meet that high standard.

 

Before we get into the Sermon let’s look at a scripture that we’ve repeatedly used so far in our bible study, 2 Timothy 2:15,

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Rightly dividing the word of truth. What does that mean?

Strong’s concordance has the word “dividing” as meaning cutting straight or dissecting, so we’re to rightly dissect or rightly cut the word.

There’re many instances where rightly dividing the word is critical but perhaps none more so than in making that divide, that straight cut, that dissecting, between the Old Covenant, The Old Testament and the New Covenant or the New Testament.

If we’re to fully understand the message that the Lord Jesus was teaching us in the Sermon on the Mount this is critical.

Nothing displays the insurmountable gulf, the immense difference between the Old and the New covenants more than the sermon on the mount.

You see we’re reading from the Gospel of Matthew, which is the first book of the New Testament, however, and this is critical, it’s written during the Old Testament times. Jesus, the Christ, The promised Messiah was not yet crucified, buried and risen from the dead which bought the New Covenant into being. Here He’s the One doing the teaching.

So where does the Sermon on the Mount fit in our search for understanding of God’s Word, the Bible.

Well, first we need to know who the audience is that the Sermon was preached to.

It was to Jews.

Jesus is talking to Jewish people who are relying on the Mosaic law for their righteousness. However, we must not forget what 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us,

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,  that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

Much of scripture is not speaking directly to us today but all scripture is for us today.

Those Jews that Jesus was speaking to were largely unbelieving Jews in the sense that most did not and never would believe that this One doing the teaching was the long promised Messiah of Who their own scriptures and all of their prophets foretold.

The Messiah had been promised for many centuries and this nation should have understood the signs of His coming and Jesus would hold them responsible for not recognising Him.

Many listening to Jesus’s words would become believers in the years following this point in time but here they’re people who were bought up on the Old Testament and the blessings and curses associated with keeping the law. To them salvation was based on the keeping of the law. They themselves knew they couldn’t keep the whole law and they had a system of sacrifices that would cover sins.

The most well-known of these laws are the Ten Commandments, but the Torah contains a total of 613 commandments covering many aspects of daily life, including family, personal hygiene, and diet.

Well see this more clearly when we get to our studies in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

 

Jesus is going to completely destroy the concept of salvation and righteousness by law keeping in this sermon and it’s going to upset most of the people who hear it, not only those present but right down through history to today.

Even though these listeners had the scriptures and the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah they’re hearing for the first time just how far short they are of keeping the works of the law.

You and I today have a great deal of scripture that tells us the futility of trying to work our way to salvation by doing the works of the law.  For example, Galatians 2:16 says, and I read,

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

 

Now if Galatians 2:16 says that about the law of Moses, then it would be many, many times more difficult for a man to be justified by the Sermon on the Mount because here the law of Moses is lifted to an impossibly high degree.

Let’s try it for a moment in our own life. Let’s take these two commandments: “You shall not murder” and “You shall not commit adultery.”

The Sermon on the Mount says in verse 22 that if you’re angry with your brother you’re guilty of murder. Are you keeping that one?”

Then it gives the meaning of adultery in verse 28, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”, “How about that one?”

 

Are these the only two of the ten commandments that Jesus lifted to that higher level? Well, these are the only two recorded in Matthew, but He most likely did or could lift every commandment to a much higher level.

 

This Sermon buries every living person who thinks they’re reaching God’s required level of perfection by their own works!

If our eternal salvation relies on the absolute impossibility of us keeping the Sermon on the Mount then I’m afraid we’re all cursed and hopelessly lost. But this is not the case.

 

The Sermon on the Mount needs to be preached to bring conviction to the hearts of men and to let mankind know that they’ve sinned, and that none are righteous and that all have come short of God’s glory.

Jesus’s motivation in giving this sermon is not to crunch and bury every person who heard Him. He doesn’t want them all condemned. He wants to save them, every single one of them. He wants them to be free. Free from what? Free from the law of sin and death.

He’s informing and guiding every person to true salvation, the Jewish audience first, then the Gentile nations, you, and me.

He loves us, you see, and He knows He must get mankind to see that they’ll never be free trying to work their way to heaven. That’s exactly why He came to this earth in the form of the humans He created.

 

It’s worse than futile to teach that the Sermon on the Mount is a standard by which we can be saved because if it is, all of us are in a hopeless predicament because It’s loaded with law and impossible to attain to. However, if you and I look at the Sermon honestly, it’ll bring us to a Saviour who died for us on a cruel cross in Judea. He gave His life so that we may keep ours and it was the one and only way by which any person can be saved from the death penalty of sin.

We need to know it, but it shows us how far we come short and how desperately we need a saviour.

 

Now, there’s something to notice about the audience.

The last verse in the previous chapter, Matthew 4:25 tells us that,

Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. 

But the first verse of this chapter, chapter 5, tells us,

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.

 

You see, the receivers of the message were Jesus’ followers and more than likely many more than just the 12.

He gave the sermon to the disciples because He saw the multitudes and their need so, it was given to those multitudes indirectly, through the disciples. In chapter 8 verse 1 we do see that after He came down from the mountain “great multitudes” followed Him again. It’s more than likely that this sermon was repeated by Jesus many times and to many others, but in this account the ones who the sermon was directed at were followers.

 

Jesus starts the sermon by giving what’s become known as the Beatitudes. There are 7 Beatitudes that have to do with us and our spiritual state and there’s 1 that relates to what is done to us, something external, beyond our control, and this one covers 2 verses.

It’s very important to keep in mind the Lord’s purpose in giving them, so we’ll say again that Jesus is speaking to religious Israel who were trusting in the law to be saved. But He’s also speaking to us today who believe, just as those religious Jews did, that they can climb up a ladder of righteousness and be acceptable to God by their own works.

The main point of this chapter and the next two chapters is that our own works, no matter how good they may be, will not save us.

 

In this section, The Beatitudes, The Lord is not giving a to do list that we need to tick off to achieve salvation. He’s not saying that we must work hard to achieve these standards and when we do achieve them we’ll be saved.  We can’t use some sort of self-improvement formula to get to the point that they describe as if salvation is our goal, and the Beatitudes are steps we must climb to make that goal. They’re a result of something not a must do list.

So, what are these attitudes, these conditions of the heart a result of?

It’s simple, they’re a result our understanding of how impossible it is for us to achieve the next section of the sermon on the mount, the law.

As we begin to see the high and lofty standard that God requires we look at how we’re doing with that standard, and we realise how desperately short of it we are.

When we really come to see this for the first time, and we actually “get it” something changes deep within us. We come to really see the real us, the real me.

It’s perhaps the greatest shock we’ll ever experience. We see for the first time our spiritual bankruptcy. Our hopelessness in our reliance on our own works.

It’s only when you and I come to this realisation that a process begins deep within us. That process changes us inside and we understand that the only way we can possibly be free of this world of sin is by mercy and grace and there’s nobody who can give us that mercy and grace but God through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

We’re utterly bankrupt spiritually, totally unable to work our way into God’s favour.

Without this heart condition that the Beatitudes describe we simply can’t and won’t cry out for mercy and Grace.

Why?

Because without this condition we’re self-righteous. We’re still believing we’re basically good people and we can reach God’s impossible standards our way. Therefore, we’ll not feel the need for Christ as our Saviour, and we’ll reject Him.

We simply must understand our true spiritual state before we can come to God. Again, we don’t get to that state by some sort of formula, we get there by first seeing the standard that the Lord requires, and we see that in the second part of the sermon on the mount. Then we understand how impossible it is for us to achieve that standard by our own works.

The process starts in Matthew 5:2-3,

Jesus then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We realise we’re poor in spirit, we’re spiritually bankrupt. But wait! In case you and I think that this a terrible, hopeless state to be in, The Lord gave us the rest of the verse. “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Not will be in the future some time, IS.

Through the realisation that we cannot reach God through our own efforts we know that we’re hopelessly lost. We’ve just become honest with ourselves and it’s a huge shock and that shock is what creates the condition that the first Beatitude speaks of. It’s the first in a process of spiritual change. You see it’s a result of our realisation of who we really are. How sad that in many of our churches today this is not preached. It’s not popular to tell a congregation that they’re spiritually bankrupt. It’s easier to turn the process of salvation into some sort of ceremony where people put up their hand come to the front of the church where often they’re told they must repent invite Jesus into their heart.

That’s much easier than telling the truth that we are sinners and there’s nothing we can do about on our own.

 

So now begins this process where our inner being, our heart and soul, is empty of all pretence.  We’re empty of ourselves and only in that state of the heart is God able to come in.

This state begins in us when the law leaves us.

You see the law has completed its purpose. It’s done what it’s supposed to do and that’s to show us our true state.

We see our hopelessness at this point, but Jesus says we’re blessed.

The word “blessed” means “happy”, but it means much more as well.

This blessedness is a spiritual state of well-being and prosperity, a deep, joy-filled contentment that can’t be shaken by poverty, grief, famine, persecution, war, or any other trial or tragedy we face in life. In purely natural human terms, we can’t see how being poor in spirit or spiritual poverty, or any of the next Beatitudes we’ll look at could be blessings. However, the result of those conditions brings us to a trust in The Lord which in turn brings about the greatest blessings a human can experience. All we need do is look at the result of each condition.

This first one, poor in spirit, brings the blessing that the Kingdom of Heaven is ours. This is both an instant blessing and an eternal blessing. The instant is that the King comes into our heart, our spirit, in the form of the Holy Spirit.

When Christians say Jesus lives “in their heart,” little kids might picture a tiny Jesus inside them. Older people might think Jesus “living in them” is just a warm spiritual feeling.

But God “indwelling” us is more than that. The Bible sometimes says the “Spirit of Christ” lives inside believers as Romans 8:9 says. More often it says the “Spirit of God” as Romans 8:9 also says, or just the “Holy Spirit” is in us as in 1 Corinthians 6:19. Those phrases all mean the same thing: when we believe, God establishes a relationship with us that’s so close that we become one with him. He’s in us, and we’re in him.

1 Corinthians 6:19 says,

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

The Kingdom of Heaven in our time in history is in our hearts, when the King (Jesus) is in the heart of humans who believe.

At some point in our journey through these spiritual conditions we’re going to realise the only way to salvation is God’s way through believing in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Romans 8:16-17 tells us we become joint heirs with Christ to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. 

Now, we see that this first change in our spiritual condition brings about the next change and with it new blessings.

 

Verse 4,

Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. 

Once we realise that we’re a sinner, that we have perverted tendencies, embedded iniquities, and sinfulness, and that we really are poor in spirit, then we begin to mourn, and Jesus said Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.

This is not a mourning as in the grief we experience at a funeral, it’s when we mourn over our true state. We become disgusted in who we really are spiritually and that makes us mourn.

The blessings that come when we really mourn for our lost state is that the Lord Himself comes to us and comforts us. We’re comforted by the knowledge of how our true nature and our sin has been paid for by Jesus Christ and that He lives nothing can separate us from His love His Mercy and His Grace.

In Romans 8 verses 38 and 39 Paul writes,

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

What could possibly more comforting?

 

The third Beatitude is in Matthew 5:5,

Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. 

 

Just as a reminder, the Beatitudes in this chapter are a process where one rises up as a result of the one before it.

This third beatitude, blessed are the meek, couldn’t have been first. It would’ve been out of place. You see the first operation of the grace of God within our soul is true poverty of spirit where the Lord makes us aware of our emptiness through the revealing of the law. As a result, we’re humbled and then we mourn over the sin within us, the second Beatitude.

 

The word meek or meekness doesn’t mean weak and weakness.

It means strength and power that’s under control.

To be meek means to show willingness to submit and work under authority. It also shows a willingness to disregard our own “rights” and privileges. See, it’s one thing for me to admit my own spiritual bankruptcy, but what if someone else points it out for me? Do I react meekly?

The one who is meek is both meek before God, in that they submit to His will and conform to His Word. And they’re meek before men, in that they’re strong and yet also humble, gentle, patient, and longsuffering.

They’re no longer strutting their stuff, there’s no more arrogance or bragging or boastfulness about how great they are. But they have a strength that’s harnessed for the King and only for the King and they’re contented with whatever situation God’s given to them in this world.

The world says regard yourself highly, strut you stuff, strive for greatness, but Jesus said blessed, happy, are the meek.

 

In the only time Jesus personally describes His personality in Matthew 11 verses 28 and 29 He says,

Come to Me, all you who Labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Some translations say gentle instead of meek but it’s the same Greek word, praos, meaning meek.

We can only be meek, willing to control our desire for our rights and privileges if we’re confident that God watches out for us, that He’ll protect our cause.

The blessing of this Beatitude is the promise “they shall inherit the earth”. Can we really understand exactly what that means? I somehow doubt it.

Hebrews 9:15 speaks of this inheritance,

And for this reason He (that’s Jesus) is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

 

Then we have in 1 Peter 1:3-4,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 

 

Now we come to Matthew 5:6,

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

 

But we’ll need to leave that for next time my friends and until then may God reveal His will to you through His eternal Word.