Today, we finally get into Jesus' words. Matthew is divided between narratives and discourses. Narrative is "telling the story". In narratives, we may have bits and pieces of Jesus' words. Discourses are teachings or sermons of Jesus. These are lengthy. Matt. 1-4 is narrative. Matthew tells us the story of the birth and genealogy of Christ, then in chapter 2, the visit of the Magi and the slaughter of the babies, then in chapter 3, the baptism of Jesus, then in chapter 4, the temptation of Jesus and the start of his earthly ministry. This brings us to chapter 5, which is the beloved "Sermon on the Mount". We cannot imagine the impact of this sermon on a Jewish person following the Old Testament and traditions of the leaders.
Sermon on the Mount Background
1. Probably a digest of a longer sermon. Reading it aloud is only 15 minutes.
2. Jesus may have delivered this sermon in the very format and wording given. We don’t know.
3. Within Matthew’s theology, Jesus is the new Moses. Just as Moses delivered God’s law to the people at Mt. Sinai, so Jesus goes onto the mountainside to set forth God’s instruction (Torah). Matthew says that Jesus, “sat down”—The teachers “sit in Moses’ seat.” Moses was viewed as the great deliverer of the Jews. Think about it, he brought them out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, etc. Jesus, by expounding on the law and the ten commandments, was the new Moses. No other prophet had done this.
4. As Moses delivered the Torah to Israel to prepare them for life in the Lord, so now Jesus, the New Moses, expounds the Word of God to show the people of God, newly constituted around is own person, how to live.
The Beatitudes 5:3-12
1. He does not command listeners to become these people—he says these people are blessed. The poor in spirit are those who understand their deep need for God. Are you poor in spirit? John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace once said, "I am not what I ought to be, "I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world, but I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."
2. The Sermon begins with GOSPEL and not LAW. Poor in spirit is an acute awareness of the nature and the effects of sin (both their own sin and others’ sins) that accounts for such people’s poverty of spirit. This in turn makes the poor in spirit utterly dependant on God and reliant upon his mercy. How blest are those who know their need of God! The poor in spirit are those grieved by injustice, national apostacy, and personal sin. Zechariah, Mary, Simeon, and Anna (Luke 1-2) expressed such longings. In face of such dire needs, they hunger and thirst for righteousness!
3. There is a future dimension to these blessings. Note in verses 4-9 (in each case future tense). They "will" be called sons of God. I don't think we think about eternity the way we should! Just as the major facts of the Bible have already happened, eternity is a yet future event that WILL happen. Last night I had a dream. Roger Conklin, a good friend of mine who died of cancer at an early age, was in the dream. He simply said, "just wait until you get here...it's all true". Can you imagine being called a "son of God" by God himself? That blows my mind.
4.He does not say, “blessed are the sons of God, for they will be peacemakers” or “Blessed are those who see God, for they shall be pure in heart.” There are doubtless many in the crowd—particularly among the outcasts and the oppressed, among the impoverished, the afflicted and the grieving-who are genuinely “poor in spirit” and who “hunger and thirst to see right prevail” but who live without attending to or depending on God, who bemoan their lot without repenting of their sin. Just because a person is poor, weak, or humble does not make them a son of God.
5. The Beatitudes are an invitation to those not yet God-centered. God offers salvation to those who are indifferent to him, or who misunderstand his character, or who are even hostile to him. In our day and age, it is amazing to me how many of my friends are not following God. They may be great people, nice people, even moral people. But there is no hunger and thirst for the word of God or things of the Lord. Here, Jesus, God-Incarnate, offers hope for those who are not yet following him.
6. What makes a person blessed is not poverty of spirit but being rightly related to God as sovereign, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
7. The disclosure of grace in Jesus far surpasses that of the OT. Note the woes on the unrepentant cities of 11:20-24, these cities are in much more perilous position than were the most iniquitous cities of OT times—even worse than Sodom because they rejected grace. Woe to those who reject grace. We reject grace by relying on our works—by relying on the law.
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