What I Learned: Sermon on the Mount

Jesus teaches us, His disciples, what following Him looks like

We read the Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 on Days 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the New Testament reading plan.

I recently wrote about the discipline of first seeking the Lord (Matthew 6:33) and how it helps me prioritize my otherwise busy time. What that has looked like for the past almost three years is the daily reading of two Bible plans, one chronological and one with a daily Old Testament and New Testament reading. I’ve engaged in daily Bible reading for over twenty years. What has been different in these years is the reading of two plans simultaneously and, more importantly, formulating what I’ve read into a prayer.

I give credit for the idea of writing a prayer based on my study to Belinda McCarthy, who is now in heaven. I met her at our old church, Wayside Chapel, in San Antonio TX. My husband and I joined her and her husband Michael, and our late Wayside Chapel Pastor Steve Troxel and his wife Connie, in ministry to pastors and their wives in Malawi, Africa. Belinda faithfully ministered to a group of these women by FaceTime even when she wasn’t in Malawi. She shared with me her study approach, learned and applied in Wayside Chapel’s Women’s Ministry, which included a method for outlining and summarizing a particular Bible reading, reflecting on personal application, and ending with a personal prayer. My daily prayer is the fruit of this study approach, which I have also used in teaching women’s Bible studies.

Writing a prayer has become an important disciplinary focus for me. Sharing that prayer has also been extremely important. I’ve shared with many that what I share daily is necessary for my discipline of seeking first His righteousness, even if no one reads or benefits from it. If even one other person is blessed, then I praise God. Even the feedback of one person acknowledging they’ve received it or been blessed by it helps my discipline. It keeps me accountable to this daily exercise.

In 2023, I added to my discipline the attempt to outline what I read. I confessed at the outset that I didn’t know how this would go, but have been personally blessed again by increased learning and insight. I stand in awe how the Lord, through His Holy Spirit, continues to teach through repetitive study of His living word.

That long introduction explains what has become another personal habit and that is occasional reflection on a particular book or segment. In this reflection my desire is to share how Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) convicted me.

I don’t know whether I’d reflected before on how soon in Jesus’ ministry this sermon was delivered. According to Matthew, the writer, an apostle of Jesus, Jesus had not been in Galilee long, where His ministry started after He had been baptized by John in the Jordan and tempted by Satan in the wilderness. He came preaching the same message His prophesied forerunner, John the Baptist, who had just been arrested by King Herod, had preached, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2 and 4:17) He had called four of His twelve disciples. People began following Him as He began to heal people. So, fairly early in His ministry it seems, “[w]hen Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them” (Matthew 5:1-2).

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is familiar to many because it starts with what we call “the Beatitudes,” the listing of those who are blessed for various conditions. Prior to getting to this familiar opening, I was struck that Jesus addressed this message to His disciples, to those who followed Him. That is us.

I was also struck that this three-chapter message is a hard message, delivered early, discounting and anticipating all the ways men might distort His teaching ever after.

If we look at the list of conditions in the Beatitudes for which people will be blessed, they are hard and unpleasant conditions in this world, and the blessing for these conditions is in heaven, not in this world. Jesus teaches us at the outset to look and think eternally. He also basically tells us to expect persecution because of Him. He can never be accused of false advertising regarding the difficulty of following Him. Men can be accused of false advertising as they’ve distorted this message to expect blessings on earth.

German pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote and spoke of something called “cheap grace.” I’m taking liberties paraphrasing his explanation but it is essentially the idea of taking license to sin because of Jesus’ grace that allows forgiveness of sins if we believe in Him. Jesus addresses this concept early in this sermon: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 6:17). Lest we think that is all His responsibility, leaving us with none, He follows with, “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20). He goes on to explain the higher standard we His followers are called to over the Mosaic Law, ending with, “you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 6:48).

He then cautions us against public “religious” activity carried out for the purpose of being observed by others, reassuring us that our Father sees our service to Him and will reward us.

He teaches us how to pray, introducing what we have come to know as The Lord’s Prayer. As we learn in this prayer, He calls us to forgive others as we have been forgiven, adding the grave caution that, “If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:15).

He teaches us not to worry, reassuring us that our Father knows our needs, ending with an admonishment I wrote about, which contains a promise: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

He talks to us about judging others, with the specific caution about hypocrisy in judgment. He doesn’t tell us not to encourage others to righteousness, but tells us to take care of our own righteousness first.

He tells us to seek Him for all we need, and I believe that includes wisdom and strength to live as He has asked us to. He sums up how He has asked us to live in what we call The Golden Rule: “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

He recognizes His way is hard, “for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

He gives us discernment for recognizing “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15). We’re familiar with the concept of knowing them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16). I was struck by another way to distinguish them: those “who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). Might He be referring to those who teach or mistakenly depend on what Bonhoeffer called a “cheap grace”?

He ends with a call to action: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall” (Matthew 7:24-27).

Our faith is not just about belief. Our Savior teaches us that it is also about the action to obey His words. We thank Him for the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower us to do so.