The Sermon on the Mount



In July Matt and I will preach five sermons through the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus's Sermon on the Mount is found in chapters 5-7 of Matthew's Gospel.  There is so much to say about the Sermon on the Mount, but I don't want to get into all the details here.  Rather I want to explain why we will spend the month of July looking at it and raise the question of interpretation.

 The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus's most famous sermon.  It has always been a primary teaching pastors have passed on to their congregations.  In the early church, before the New Testament was organized, pastors at least had some version or copy of the Sermon on the Mount.  These pastors would work with their church's to memorize the sermon.  Just think about that.  Early Christians, without leather bound Bibles, gathering at church to memorize Jesus' teaching.  There is no doubt that the practice of memorization - specifically the Sermon on the Mount - formed character and behavior of the early Christians.  It also set them apart and made them attractive to those outside the church.

 So we will start with that.  We are preaching through the Sermon on the Mount because it has always been a primary formative Scripture of the church.  For those who claim to follow Christ it makes sense to learn, memorize, and, yes, live out the contents of Jesus's most important sermon.  It is our aim that, as we interact with the Sermon on the Mount, we will change in such a way that we will be visibly different and comparably better than those who don't follow Jesus.

 As soon as we talk about "living out" the Sermon we jump into the realm of interpretation.  There is a wide spectrum for how one understands Jesus's ethical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus says some very radical things that stretch our imagination and our comfort zone.  There are two extremes.  On one hand, some believe the sermon expresses a ethic that is so high it is impossible.  Maybe Jesus is demonstrating a elevated ethic for certain people, only for a certain time period, or illustrating our inability to fulfill the law.  In this view, the Sermon is not understood as normative Christian behavior (i.e. how Jesus actually expected his followers to live).  On the other hand, there are those who believe the sermon should be understood as normative for all Christian behavior at all times.  This view would argue that Jesus expected his followers to live out the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount and that it is possible.  There are many views in between (see Wikipedia's article).

 The famous ethical teaching that highlights this interpretive question is Jesus's teaching on enemy love.  He says, "Love your enemies," but what does he really mean?  To Matt goes the honor of preaching this famous command on Sunday.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discipleship Pastor

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. Titus 1:5-8 So you shall present the Levites before the tent of meeting. You shall also assemble the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, and present the Levites before the Lord; and the sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. Aaron then shall present the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering fr
Read more

Gospel Living

Image
But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent... Acts 6:1 This morning Matt preached a message titled "Gospel Living."  He shared from Acts 6 where, as Matt said, "A Gospel issue develops."  The background in Acts 6 is that there are two groups of widows and one group feels like they are being overlooked.  Well, this is an affront to the Gospel and the Apostles immediately put together a plan to make sure no one is overlooked.  (It is worth noting what they don't do:  they don't take sides.) Now, I don't sense any type of rumblings of discontent, but, as Matt rightly pointed out, a Gospel issue has developed.  (Really, when is there not a "Gospel issue" in our life?  That's kind of the point.  The Kingdom of God creates constant tension in our life.  It constantly forces us to rethink things.)  We are faced with selling our building which presents a nice variety of Gospel issues.  When will it sell?  Wh
Read more

Sorrow will Flee Away

Image
Isaiah 35:1-10 - Isaiah's Vision of the Blossoming Desert It will blossom profusely... The first two weeks of Advent we walk through the wilderness.  We mourn and confess our sins and the systemic sin of the world in which we live in.  It is a step into darkness; the dark ways of this world and the darkness of our very souls.  As we walk through the wilderness of our sin the proper response is lament and contemplation.  We lament the evil depths humanity (including me) is capable of wallowing in.  We contemplate - we recognize that something is not right here and hope to God there’s a better way. It’s not hard to feel like God has left us while we walk through the wilderness.  It is easy to feel like He’s distant, like He doesn’t care, or like He doesn’t hear our prayers.  But even in the wilderness, flowers bloom.  The crocus is a small flower that thrives in the dry, gray wilderness.  It blooms late in the season.  After all the other flowers have had their turn, it blo
Read more