Matthew 5:1-16 – Chapter Study
Matthew 5-7 is what is known
as the Sermon on the Mount because of
what we read in v. 1 . . .
1And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.
Ch. 4 ends with great
multitudes following Him as He traveled around
He
went from city to village to town, teaching as an itinerate rabbi in their
synagogues.
But
what separated Jesus from the other numerous traveling teachers who were common
at that time, was the authority with which He s
Look
at the last 2 verses of the Sermon in ch. 7 –
28And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
It was the common method for
Jewish teachers of that time to quote
one another; rarely did someone say something new or innovative.
A
rabbi was considered a good teacher if he could recite from memory what half a
dozen different religious authorities had said on a given subject.
For
instance, when teaching on marriage, a rabbi would say something like, “As the
esteemed Hillel of Damascus taught us . . . and as the godly Joshua ben Joshua
was fond of saying . . . ”
It
was rare when a teacher would dare to say something based on his own authority.
This was what was so unusual
about the form of Jesus’ teaching.
He
didn’t quote, except to say something like, “You have heard that it was said .
. but I SAY to you . . . !”
Instead
of relying on previous authorities, He refutes them and establishes His own
authority.
And then, once He’d s
And
the healings were undeniable; they weren’t like so many of the shyster healings that are staged at some
of the big religious shows staged today.
Don’t
get me wrong – God still heals; miracles still take place.
But
a lot of what you see on religious TV is nothing but a crass merchandising of
the things of God.
The miracles Jesus performed
left no doubt about whether or not a person was being truly healed.
When
a lame man everyone has known in their village for 20 years stands and walks,
and starts jumping up and down for joy – that’s a miracle.
When
your aunt Elizabeth whose been living in the city dump as a leper for the last
6 years suddenly has skin like a baby’s, well, that’s a miracle you cannot
gainsay.
When
the man born blind can see, when a foot suddenly is where there was no foot,
and people who were certifiably insane through demon
So, vast multitudes followed
Him around, because He said and did really cool stuff.
But Jesus wasn’t interested
in just staging an exciting religious event.
He’d
come to inaugurate the Kingdom, the rule
of God.
Remember
what ch. 4:17 tells us was Jesus’ theme? à The Kingdom of heaven!
Now, some people like to get
all excited about the difference
between the Kingdom of heaven and the
You
can find studies, articles, and even booklets in which some self-professed expert will say the Kingdom of heaven
refers to this, while the Kingdom of
God refers to that; and they go on to
make exacting & details descriptions of each.
This
is a classic example of reading something into
the text.
[Eisegesis
vs. Exegesis]
What
they don’t do is to interpret the text as it ought to be – asking “What did the
Kingdom of heaven mean to the original audience Matthew wrote to?”
Remember, who did Matthew aim
this gospel at? The Jews, to prove that
Jesus was the Messiah and the fulfillment of the OT prophecies.
Well,
among the Jews of that time, and even of this – there’s a strong reluctance to
say or even mention the word “God.”
Jews
of that time, would simply quietly intone, “Ha-shem” (The name).
Even
today, orthodox Jews will write the letters “G-d” in order to avoid writing it
out.
When Matthew writes “Kingdom
of heaven” he’s merely using the euphemism for the
There
is no distinction between the two kingdoms; they refer to the same thing; the
rule, the dominion of God.
What we find in the Sermon on
the Mount is what Jesus taught about
the
It’s
reasonable to conclude that since they had no printing press, no tapes or CD’s,
no print media at all, that what Jesus said in one place, He repeated in
another, saying the same thing time and again so that the disciples who
followed Him heard the same truths again and again and committed them to memory
– which would be crucial, since when Jesus finished His mission in 3 years,
they would be able to carry on.
So what we find in the Sermon
on the Mount, constitutes the central essence of what Jesus taught about what
it means to be in the Kingdom.
You see, it was crucial Jesus
re-educate the people because they’d been led to believe some really goofy
stuff about what the
They’d
been taught that the
In
their scenario, the Jews would just replace the Romans and
The
Messiah would be the One who would make all this happen.
In this coming kingdom, it
would be those who’d shown the greatest devotion to the Law who would find the
highest
But
devotion to the Law was reduced to nothing more than an exacting set of rules
and regulations that governed one’s external piety.
Motives
meant little while exacting obedience meant everything.
In the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus nukes this false view of righteousness and shows that character is everything.
V. 20 is the key to unlocking
the Sermon on the Mount.
20For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
This
would have caused those who heard Him to reel – no one was as righteous as the
scribes & Pharisees; these guys were the absolute holy-men of the day and
everyone expected that when the Messiah came, they would be His chief
lieutenants.
Jesus
said that you won’t even enter the
Kingdom unless your righteousness exceeds that of the sup
His
So, Jesus goes up on a
hillside, sits down, which was the
2Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the
4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when
they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely
for My sake. 12Rejoice and be
exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Each of these deserves their
own study and message, but we’ll just summarize them tonight.
As
you know, they’re called the beatitudes,
from the Latin word for blessed.
This word Jesus used,
“blessed,” was a
To
them it meant “divine joy & perfect happiness.” [1]
The
word was rarely used to describe the human condition or what was
It
described the kind of joy experienced only by the gods or those who had passed
beyond the trials and troubles of this life and had entered
To
be “blessed” meant to enjoy an inner satisfaction and sufficiency that did not
depend on outward circumstances for happiness.
And
this is why I don’t like the way some of the modern English translations render
this word as “happy.”
Blessedness
far outstrips happiness; it’s a joyous settled confidence that cannot be
shaken.
And
this is what the Lord offers those who trust Him in the beatitudes!
There are three basic
mind-sets revealed here:
1)
toward ourselves
2)
toward God
3)
toward the world
First, there’s the way we see ourselves in vs. 3-5.
We
begin by realizing that left to ourselves there is absolutely nothing to
commend ourselves to God; we are spiritually bankrupt and bring nothing to Him
except our NEED of Him.
Then,
we experience sorrow and grief over the fact that we are broken &
needy. We don’t try to put a good face
on our wretchedness or hide it behind a façade of self-righteousness – we
simply admit our need with a sense of desperation.
Then,
we humbly wait on the Lord to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Second, there’s the way we
see God in vs. 6-8.
We
realize He is the answer to our
He
becomes the source of the mercy we need, and as we receive it, it begins to
flow through us, washing us thoroughly of all of that which is impure.
Third, is the way we see and
relate to the world in vs. 9-12
Finding
ourselves at peace with God because of His abundant mercy, we become the agents
of mercy and so work for peace among those still in need.
But
the world doesn’t like being shown it’s true spiritual condition – its
It’s interesting that all the
rewards Jesus promised in vs. 3-12 are the things the scribes & Pharisees
believed were going to be theirs when the Messiah came, by virtue of their
outward piety alone.
Jesus
said these rewards are really the fruit of inner
righteousness, of a character that isn’t self-righteous, but simply sees its need and finds that need met by
what God does, not what we do.
13“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14“You are the light of
the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a
lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
These words reveal what
happens to those who’ve entered into the
We use salt mostly as a
condiment. But in the ancient world it was a precious commodity because besides
being a flavoring, it was used as a preservative.
By
salting food, they could remove the water from it and so reduce the rate of
decay, Salt also acts as a natural anti-bacterial.
Since
the process of making salt was so expensive, unscrupulous merchants would
sometimes mix a cheap, flavorless white
Such
compromised salt was good for nothing but to throw on the dirt path to act as a
kind of weed retardant.
Jesus says that His followers, the one’s whose lives are
characterized by the blessedness identified in the beatitudes, are going to be
like salt in this world.
They
will act as a preservative that will resist the moral and spiritual decay of
sin.
They
will also add spice and color to life, showing to the world what true life
really looks like.
But
Jesus issues a warning – the salt can lose its flavor and effectiveness; it
loses it’s
In
the same way, His followers must be sure they don’t compromise with the world,
or they will end up being good for nothing.
Many
good believers, people with incredible
Then Jesus likens His
followers to light. It’s the nature of
light to shine. You don’t light a lamp
then hide it! The pur
Jesus
says that God has set His people in this world to be spiritual light, showing
the world what true life is all about and how to discover it for themselves.
Therefore,
we must not hide away from the very thing we are here to do – shine!
We
must not hide by surrendering our light to the darkness of evil.
And,
when we shine, we must do so in a way that people are drawn to the real source
of light, not the vessel it’s coming through.
This is a Mag-Lite.
I
love these flashlights. They are so
shiny and solid and they just say, “Manly!”
But
the whole pur
“This”
is the way some religious people are – they look
good, and they like to advertise their piety – the attention is on them!
The
whole aim of the Christian ought to be on the light, on shining the light, on focusing the beam on Jesus, so that
people see Him!
[Jesus]