The sermon on the mount has to be one of the most massively important parts of Scripture. There’s more of Jesus’ wisdom concentrated here than almost anywhere else in world literature. (Which I suspect means it wasn’t actually a `sermon`, but themes probably shared out thoughtfully, bit by bit, maybe with repetitions (and maybe with the additional material in Luke 6) over several hours at least?) Jesus‘ most significant, central teaching, his manifesto if you like: really, how to live!
For me it was spoiled by being read in school assemblies by teachers who didn’t believe it. I realised later that this was like playing soccer with unexploded bombs; since these chapters are actually Jesus’ manifesto of radical discipleship! Left wing British MP Eric Heffer said that they are more radical than the Communist Manifesto. They’re a learning course through which Jesus – who is beside us as we read them! – trains us practically how to live in God’s blessing in everyday life. That’s very much the point of the beatitudes, as we call Matthew 5:1-12. But ch5 goes on to tell us much more: here’s how you stop the fighting; then, about sex, radical purity, and building marriages that last; about learning to be radically generous; about absorbing the evil out of the world; about actually loving your enemies. Then chapter 6: here’s how you pray, here’s how you fast, here’s how you break free from worry, here’s how you live for things that last not things that don’t; and so on. He’s saying to his disciples, and to each of us: the life of God’s radical kingdom is fantastic, and this is how it works.
How does that make us feel? It sounds so good – if only the world was this way! And yet as we read it we must wonder: am I capable of that kind of discipleship? For myself, what I learned in the church where I grew up meant I misunderstood this for years – I read all this and got the idea No, this is not for me; it’s just to show me I’m a sinner and need a Saviour. And indeed Matthew 5>7 do make very clear why Jesus’ coming to pay for our sins was necessary; especially the end of ch5, `Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect` – we read that, and the rest, and surely realise we aren’t good enough and need a Saviour to deal with our failures and forgive us. And yes, we must never forget that that forgiveness is the heart of our faith; rather than, first, the Sermon on the Mount. When we take communion it brings us back to the cross and our being forgiven, in all our sin and failure; that’s where our faith and life centres; not on the Sermon on the Mount, fantastic though it is.
AND YET… I remember what an eye opener it was when I heard Bible teachers from outside my tradition, like Roger Forster, and suddenly grasped: once we’re forgiven, these dynamic lifestyle principles, this transformed life, is actually the destiny God’s Spirit helps us start living by: they’re God’s agenda for us! We won’t get all the way in this life, but this is where we’re going, this is what we’re built for, this is how true, really glorious life works! These are the secrets of life, & they’re not meant to be unattainable! The Sermon on the Mount isn’t only to teach us that we need a Saviour: this radical discipleship, says Jesus, is the way his fantastic new kingdom works – when people live by them, `theirs is the kingdom of heaven` (5:3). So these chapters are vital for us NOW as children of the kingdom, they show us the life that’s genuinely possible for us to move towards by the Spirit; and because God is the loving master-craftsman, He’s going to reshape us & get us there. The whole point of the sermon’s close in 7:24-27 is that these words are intended to be heard and lived out; indeed `Almost one sixth of the entire Discourse… is devoted to emphasizing the importance of actually doing what it says!` (Dallas Willard, in his excellent book The Divine Conspiracy about these chapters). God is going to grow us into beings that can live like that; so then, here’s the Spirit’s agenda that he’s going to work towards, with us and in us!
In this then, Jesus’ key manifesto, he does nothing less than show us the secrets of a really great life. As Rick Warren says, what the beatitudes give us is `eight secrets of genuine happiness`: being poor in spirit whatever that means, being meek whatever that is, being pure in heart, and so on. We may feel a strangeness in all that – indeed if not, we’re not catching on at all; but if we can grasp these verses, we’ll catch the way to life as we, and God, would always want it to be. Jesus will show us how to control anger, restore relationships, avoid broken wedlock and divorce. Next, he’ll explain absorbing evil and returning good for harm; then how to give with the right attitude, how to pray, how to store up treasure in heaven, how to overcome worry. These are the secrets of true life – we may indeed think as we proceed, why haven’t we been pointed to these chapters more often?
But if we really want our lives to be transformed by these chapters, we need to put in some effort to grasp just what Jesus is doing; and we need to look briefly at the previous chapter, ch4. Jesus doesn’t just introduce the Sermon on the Mount out of nowhere, he’s doing something very deliberate. When he preaches this, it’s because he’s launching out to transform the world; and Satan’s hit back, John the Baptist has been put in prison (4:12). So in ch4 Jesus says three things that are the foundation to the whole transformational Sermon. `Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near`, he says first in 4:17. And then he says to Peter & Andrew, James & John, Follow me (which is what that repentance means). And then we find in 4:23 that what Jesus is preaching is `GOOD NEWS of the kingdom`. Then finally he proves this good news by action, proves that this kingdom of heaven has come.
First, then, his starting point in 4:17. Jesus explodes into Galilee & starts changing the world. He’s saying, God’s glorious, miraculous kingdom is within reach, but if you want it, you’ve got to repent – which means, give yourself to God for Him to completely reshape how you think & live, away from the way you, your mates and your society would naturally live, to the way God wants, the way his kingdom works. We need to remember that when Jesus talks of repentance it’s not just a casual feeling of sorrow. When we think of what he preaches in the gospels, it’s following Him into a changed lifestyle – obviously, as we later learn, by the Spirit’s strength. (This is what John the Baptist means by repentance as well, Luke 3.) `Repent`: that’s always a foundational part of God’s message – that, and faith, are the `double doors` into God’s kingdom that make up the gospel for both Jesus and Paul (Mark 1:15, Acts 20:21); the way to God, the way to growth. It’s repentance, leaving and following, turning around, no longer living your life your way, responding to the reign of the King, turning from self to God — that opens the way to the kingdom of heaven. And surely that must set us thinking: I want God’s goodness and glory and kingdom; if repentance leads to the kingdom breaking into my life, what then would be the life marked by repentance?
And once that becomes important for us, we see Jesus’ answer is the radical discipleship of chs5-7. Because repentance is both a moment and a process. Our initial new birth is indeed made up of repentance & faith; these are the `double doors` into the kingdom. But if they finish at our conversion we will end up as spiritual dwarves. Just as `the just shall live by faith`, by faith in God that shapes every aspect of life, so the repentance Jesus is talking about, turning from self & its values to the reign of the living God, will be a lifelong process by which we are made like Jesus. Through the Sermon on the Mount, therefore, the disciples – and we – will be trained in what the repentance really means that leads to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus will show us what in practice it means to turn from self & our own values and so see the living God’s kingdom break into our lives more and more. Again, therefore, we face a radical heart-challenge: do I want to be part of this?
Look then secondly at 4:18-20, which puts the challenge another way: `”Come, follow me”, said Jesus… At once they left their nets and followed him.` `Follow me` is the gospel; when the kingdom comes where God rules, this has to be the response; if we have truly repented & committed ourselves to the King, it means we follow! And we feel a sense of urgency here – it’s not `When it suits me`, because to say `Not yet` to God is actually saying to God `No it’s my life, and if I surrender it, or parts of it, I will do so when I choose`. In fact, as Paul pleads, today is the time of God’s favour, the day of salvation, the opportunity’s come, seize it, don’t let it slip away (2 Cor 6:1-2). Normally we can’t see these things aright; we’re brainwashed, but moments do come when Jesus passes by and shows us reality. Turn around, says Jesus: turn from all your sin, self-centredness & independence; follow me, learn to know me (it’s not just abstract rules, it’s relationship!), build your life around me.
And he calls us to both repentance and faith; leaving our own `nets` behind, because of faith that God’s goodness will see to all we need. We may indeed find that God supplies something for us to actually trust him about (either through the following chapters, or in our life-circumstances), so that the relationship is real. Faith is committing to that relationship’s reality: trusting that Jesus died so that my sin and independence can be forgiven; trusting him to come as King and live within me; trusting his kingdom to make a good shape out of my life. So then in vv19-22, these men step forward in faith, leaving their nets, their boat and their father, and they follow Jesus. What, concretely, might following Jesus into the kingdom of heaven mean for me? The Sermon on the Mount’s going to show me. Do I want that?
That raises another question: Why is it worth it? Answer: Because the usual way we live just doesn’t work. In the end, the way things normally are is that they slowly fall apart; in the end there’s pointlessness, decay, tragedy; we seem locked into futility, a messed up system of the world. So now Jesus appears, saying: God is bringing in a totally new arrangement, a totally new kingdom-system, and it WORKS: love where there was pain, healing where there was brokenness, light where there was darkness, joy where there was tragedy. `The Spirit of the Lord is on me`, he told the Nazareth synagogue, `because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, freedom to those in any kind of captivity, recovery of sight for those in any way blinded, release for the oppressed….` And here in Matthew 4:23 he proves it: he heals, casts out demons, deals with everything that’s wrong. He’s saying, Come, there’s a whole new kingdom, a whole new way of things now, & I’d love YOU to be part of that – in fact I’d love you to be part (v19) of bringing all that goodness, that whole new order, more and more widely into this desperate world. Only, IF you’re coming: my new way has to take over your life & heart & mind first; first Repent, turn from self & your normal values & commit yourself to live by the radical principles of my glorious but totally different kingdom. And it is `totally different`, yes; when we actually listen to him spelling these things out & don’t try to water them down, they do start to feel really radical, even alien. Famous, bizarre words: blessed are the poor in spirit whatever that means; blessed are those who mourn; blessed are the persecuted…
But if we start to wonder about their practicality, Jesus says: You know what? These principles of my kingdom are radical, but actually the only way to live that works! Look, here’s how you really can stop the fighting in the world – if somebody smacks you in the face you don’t hit them back harder, you really can absorb the evil out of the world like I did on the cross by turning the other cheek; by the power of my Spirit you can actually find ways to love your enemies. It will work! And again: Here’s how we’re going to break the flood of broken marriages, & of loneliness, & kids without parents, how we’re going 2 build marriages that last: we’re going to be really radical about sex and about purity, and NOT just teach No sex before marriage, but rather, even if you find yourself eyeballing somebody & thinking how cool it would be to get them into bed, well, by my power you can learn to stop that absolutely dead. (Jesus will all this work? Today?) And again Jesus: OK, we’re going to solve the world’s greed and poverty by learning to be radically generous: give & give & trust God! And don’t think about storing up treasure/resources on earth, trust God to look after you, and use what you have to be generous to the needy. And so on and so on.
Is all this sensible? Turning the other cheek, turning down the chance of sex, loving your enemy, letting the one suing you have your coat too: are these things really a good idea? Well, this is the point of the third foundational thing he says in ch4. We read that Jesus is preaching `GOOD NEWS of the kingdom` (4:23). The reason why this lifestyle is worthwhile is exactly this GOOD NEWS – that the kingdom of all of God’s infinite goodness, joy, glory and healing is now genuinely within reach, if we’re up for following him. Jesus is proving it (v24); and he still does!! And although the following Sermon’s point is that, if we want this, & we surely do!, his kingdom, reign, like any other has principles for anyone who wants to thrive within it, and here they are — yet these chapters are in themselves `good news`: people who live this way, God promises, will actually inherit the earth, will actually see God, theirs shall be the kingdom of heaven! The `good news` here is the promise of God himself that the way of heaven is the way that works. It’s what the resurrection proves: Live this way and it will work out, will lead to triumph and glory! And so just as the `good news`, the gospel, always leads in some way to a call to repentance and faith, so again this `good news` here challenges each of us to live by faith; to trust Jesus, that the way He calls us to live will be worth it, that it will be the way that works. (And I don’t always find it easy to believe that, do you? Better pray!)
In summary then: when in 4:17 Jesus says, The kingdom of heaven is near – what’s that about? Well, a new kingdom is a place where things happen the new king’s way. What we have here is a 100% clash of systems. A new kingdom has come; there are now two alternatives in the world, and we have to choose. Christ’s kingdom is not how matters normally are. The usual way is that things don’t get healed and sorted out (cf 4:23); things fall apart, there’s tragedy, decay, pointlessness. We decay, we grow old, we die. In the end everything crumbles, we seem locked eventually into futility and disaster. That’s the way it’s `normally` been because we rebelled at the start of human history by demanding our independence, and we’ve gone on demanding it ever since. And God let us, and withdrew his overruling reign. The result was vast amounts of unrestrained evil, and a totally messed up planet. But NOW, says Jesus, God is bringing in a wonderful alternative: light breaking into darkness, love into pain, healing into brokenness, joy into tragedy. The King has come, the kingdom’s come, there’s an alternative now and you can be part of it! So we have to choose: which kingdom will I live by? We each have to decide whether Jesus is right; whether what he calls the `good news of the kingdom` works, and the meek WILL inherit the earth and the persecuted WILL end up with the very Kingdom of Heaven itself belonging to them. Can this be trusted, will I dare to put my faith in Jesus’ way and turn the other cheek and be seriously unusual about sex, divorce, investment etc? Sooner or later it’s going to make radical differences to my lifestyle, shall I set out to live by faith?
And once we grasp all that, it makes sense of the slight weirdness we feel in what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. Don’t parts of it strike us as a bit disquieting, even bizarre? Blessed are the poor in spirit, whatever that means; blessed are those who mourn (those who cannot accept how everything is?); blessed are the meek (that’s NOT our world’s way). Really? And again, blessed are those who don’t hit back, those who find ways to LOVE their enemies, those who don’t lay up resources on earth, and so on. It’s an alien way of God in real confrontation with the ways of the current system, presenting an overturning of our most apparently sensible values. We start to feel a challenge to our whole attitude, and sense Jesus demanding loyalty to a life very different from the system surrounding us; rebellious, subversive, consciously turning away from the norms of a world that lives by selfishness, by keeping two-thirds of its inhabitants hungry, and worse still by forgetting God.
Not surprisingly, when Jesus came preaching this gospel, he got crucified. The true disciple, Jesus said, is not of this world, even as Jesus himself is not of this world (John 17:16). We need to feel the alienness of this discipleship (see Matthew 11:12, 10:34), and then hear Jesus say that this new, alien kingdom has to come first for us, 6:33. Or in chapter 4’s terms: the kingdom is within your reach, therefore — leave your nets, your boat, your father, and put your faith in the loving trustworthiness of the kingdom. This is the way to growth and blessedness that underlies the whole Sermon on the Mount: choose to leave the old kingdom’s way, leave our own way, respond to the reign of the new King even in the apparently bizarre ways his Sermon says; trust God & his new kingdom to make a good shape out of my existence. Wow. Do I want that?
And if once we see this, we realise why Jesus himself not only talks but acts so apparently bizarrely. As we come into 5:1 it’s been a story of huge success. Every disease is healed, every demon driven out (4:24), and (4:25) he’s successfully attracted a large crowd. So,`Seeing the crowds` (5:1), he sat down. What would you have done next? Now at last – at last! – the world is starting to follow the right Man, and the right way. Great!- sign them all up!- here’s real church growth! But look what Jesus does instead – immediately he teaches deliberately bizarre things, about the blessedness of being mourners and being persecuted; be radically unusual, he says, about divorce, sex, investment; go the second mile; love your enemy! Was this sensible?- surely Jesus needs a management consultant! And it’s as costly as one would expect: as Robert Coleman says], by the end of Christ’s life he could have had far more than 500 disciples, and he didn’t. But he’s God and he knows what he’s doing. What’s going on?
Inevitably in a large crowd a percentage are there just to watch, they’re just curious. And Jesus’ passion isn’t first for numbers and crowds, but for individuals; he wants each of us to step beyond mere curiosity and into deliberate seeking of this real, transformed life he made us for. Oh yes, 4:25, `large crowds` are following him, but they need sorting out. So he preaches the Sermon on the Mount deliberately to sort out the real from the casual. He preaches his most radical teaching: if you want to follow me and be part of my Kingdom, here is what happens. It’s still really `good news` (5:3,5; 7:7), this kingdom lifestyle `works` – but he wants us to know what joining the kingdom will involve: yes hungering and thirsting for righteousness, yes radical purity, yes radical generosity, yes loving your enemies, yes forgetting about materialism. He says to them, and to us: are you up for the kingdom? Will you really follow me?
And it’s not the only time he does this; look at Matthew 8:18-23. And John 6 is worse still: the crowds there want to make him king, he goes away; the crowds follow, and he tells them, Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. `This is a hard teaching; who can accept it?` say many of his hearers. And v66 is the result: `From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.` Will you follow me, he was saying, even if what I tell you feels wildly unnatural? Over and over again, once Christ has their attention, he’s uncompromising. (See also Luke 14:25-33.) Are you really willing to face this, he asks, to trust me, to do what’s necessary, no matter how out-of-this-world, to follow me? (In Bonhoeffer’s terms this is surely not `cheap grace`; it’s not taking Jesus as `Saviour` and then `Lord` later when it suits us.)
So, Matthew 5:1, `when he saw the crowds`, he sat down, and the `disciples` who came to him, the ones committed enough to trouble to grapple with it all (cf 13:10, 34-36), `and he began to teach them`; and (Luke 6:20) the `blesseds` apply to them. As regards the rest he has quite a `fall-away` rate. Perhaps any really Jesus-style ministry will, because it will joyfully attract a fringe of spectators who aren’t (and never become) really serious. That challenges me: me, am I a real `disciple`? There are only two occasions when the new testament tells us to examine ourselves, and one is 2 Corinthians 13:5; choose to `examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.` Truly repentant? truly following Christ as Lord? What about me?
So: as followers of Jesus, hopefully we WANT this kingdom of heaven, Jesus bringing joy and healing and truth and every kind of goodness, starting here, now, and growing forever. And what we’re given in these chapters is a serious learning course with Jesus about how to live; because Jesus is actually still here, & he loves us & wants to train us how to be his followers, and so see the genuine release of God’s goodness lifelong, in the destiny God created us for. Let’s close up, then, with just the first verse of this magnificent manifesto, the foundational starting point of the entire glorious Sermon, 5:3: `The kingdom of heaven` comes to the `poor in spirit`. What’s that about?
It means that the kingdom won’t come to those who can live out its principles by their own strength, experience and resources. Which is good, because we can’t; we know it. Indeed this is where God and his gospel always start: the initial way in for experiencing God’s kingdom is turning repentantly from self and my independence, my resources, my self-rule, to God and his resources & his rule. Repentance that’s the opposite of egoism: the humility that worships God as the Power-source of all. But then, what does being `poor in spirit` mean for me if I’m a Christian a little bit further down the road? It means equally, stepping out of any complacent idea that I can live this Jesus lifestyle in my own self-sufficiency – I never will! I need God! – and holding on tightly to that vital sense of utter dependence on him. This opening verse means, blessed are all those who’ve grasped that they haven’t a hope of living the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle on their own, they can only live this radically unusual lifestyle by God’s grace and the power of his Spirit alone. `God is committed to rewarding those acts of the human heart that signify human helplessness and hope in God!` (John Piper).
This is where the Sermon on the Mount’s whole life starts. The world tries to train us: Believe in yourself, you can do it. Jesus says forget that, it’s totally the wrong way! He absolutely loves to take those who recognize we are fairly grotty material, and then to do fantastic things with us. God’s kingdom, with all the enormous goodness he brings, really has come – but it’s not for those who think they can do this stuff in their own strength, but for the `poor in spirit`, those who know deep in their spirit that we haven’t got the resources & can’t. As we read these chapters about turning the other cheek, loving our enemy, going the second mile, we’ll feel that, we’ve felt it: How can I? And this is where spiritual growth always starts: turning repentantly from my self-sufficiency & my independence, even if I’m an `experienced Christian`, and from doing things my way, to God and his resources & his rule. That, indeed, is at the heart of the gospel!
So as we start to feed on these chapters: the starting point for the whole brilliant Sermon is, let’s choose to be realistic about being poor in spirit, let’s acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy. Throughout the gospels, says Carson, `The kingdom of heaven… is [brought by God] to the poor, the despised publicans, the prostitutes, those who are [so “poor” they] know they can offer nothing` to him and can’t possibly handle this lifestyle alone; and God blesses them with the kingdom!
Is that me? Is that you? Then we’re ready for God’s Spirit to do things within us, to lead us into radical kingdom life and all the glory and joy that will follow! And because of his resources, this life will characterize us more and more as his Spirit and his Word change us year by year. In the end it’s going to be glorious! Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, no less…. King Jesus is here; let’s give ourselves consciously (now, and then daily) to our King, to train us, and change us, and give us all we need for the journey of growing! And then when we do, we’ll discover this glory is the Spirit’s agenda, this is a Jesus lifestyle that we can’t do ourselves but is what the Spirit IS going to do in US! Let’s pray!
