“And He Began to Teach Them”

Main Point: Jesus people look different… they look increasingly like Jesus

The greatest sermon ever preached (Matthew 5-7)

The Sermon on the Mount is not…
• The entrance exam to Jesus’ kingdom
• A new set of laws to keep
• An unrealistic set of ideals that will never be realized
• Just a “someday it will be so” sermon

“The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations: it is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting His way with us.” —Oswald Chambers

An outline of the Sermon on the Mount
• What a follower of Jesus looks like (Matthew 5:3-12)
• What a follower of Jesus wants (Matthew 5:13-16)
• Where a follower of Jesus operates from (Matthew 5:17-48)
• How a follower of Jesus lives in relationship to God (Mathew 6:1-7:12)
• The choices that a follower of Jesus makes (Matthew 7:13-29)

Living out the Sermon on the Mount isn’t difficult, it’s impossible without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

The scariest verses in the Sermon on the Mount?
• For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

• Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

We surpass the righteousness of a Pharisee when we receive the righteousness of Jesus as our own.

• Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. (Philippians 3:8-9)

Takeaway: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are your most-loved sections of the Sermon on the Mount? Which passages cause you the most trouble?

2.C. S. Lewis said, about the Sermon on the Mount… “As to ‘caring for’ the Sermon on the Mount, if ‘caring for’ here means ‘liking’ or enjoying, I suppose no one ‘cares for’ it. Who can like being knocked flat on his face by a sledgehammer?” What do you think he was trying to say?

3.Legalism says if we obey the rules, we’ll be okay with God. We make a mistake when we read the Sermon on the Mount as a set of rules to obey. Why is that a problem?

4.The gospel says receive the love of God through faith in Jesus, and let Jesus change you. How does keeping the gospel in mind help us as we listen to the Sermon on the Mount?

Table Discussion Question – When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount there were two groups present: His followers and “the crowd,” people who weren’t following Him (yet) but were listening in. How do you think people in the crowd may have felt as they listened to Jesus’ sermon?