Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Great Sermon of the Great King* (5:1-2)

*And when He saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.

And opening His mouth He began to teach them, saying*, (5:1-2)

Until this point in Matthew, Jesus’ words have been limited (4:17, 19) and reference to His teachings general (4:23).

Now, in one powerfully comprehensive yet compact message, the Lord sets forth the foundational truths of the gospel of the kingdom He came to proclaim.

Here begins what has traditionally been called the Sermon on the Mount.

Though Jesus repeated many of these truths on other occasions, chapters 5-7 record one continuous message of the Lord, delivered at one specific time.

As we will see, these were revolutionary truths to the minds of those Jewish religionists who heard them, and have continued to explode with great impact on the minds of readers for nearly two thousand years.

Here is the manifesto of the new Monarch, who ushers in a new age with a new message.

The Context

the biblical context

The King’s new message was closely related to the message of the Old Testament and was, in fact, a reaffirmation of it.

Yet the emphasis of the gospel (which means “good news”) was radically different from the current understanding of the Old Testament-an astounding clarification of what Moses, David, the prophets, and other inspired writers of God’s Word had revealed.

In addition to that, Christ’s message struck violently against the Jewish tradition of His day.

The last message in the Old Testament is, “And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse” (Mal.

4:6).

By contrast, this first great sermon of the New Testament begins with a series of blessings, which we call the Beatitudes (5:3-12).

The Old Testament ends with the warning of a curse; the New Testament begins with the promise of blessing.

The Old Testament was characterized by Mount Sinai, with its law, its thunder and lightning, and its warnings of judgment and cursing.

The New Testament is characterized by Mount Zion, with its grace, its salvation and healing, and its promises of peace and blessing (cf.

Heb.

12:18-24).

The Old Testament law demonstrates man’s need of salvation, and the New Testament message offers the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord had to begin with a proper presentation of the law, so the people would recognize their sin-then could come the offer of salvation.

The Sermon on the Mount clarifies the reasons for the curse and shows that man has no righteousness that can survive the scrutiny of God.

The new message offers blessing, and that is the Lord’s opening offer.

As will be developed in the next chapter, however, the blessedness Christ offers is not dependent on self-effort or self-righteousness, but on the new nature God gives.

In God’s Son man comes to share God’s very nature, which is characterized by true righteousness and its consequence-blessedness, or happiness.

In Christ we partake of the very bliss of God Himself!

That is the kind and the extent of the contentment God wants His children to have-His very own peace and happiness.

So the Lord begins with the offer of blessedness and then proceeds to demonstrate that human righteousness, such as the Jews sought, cannot produce it.

The good news is that of blessing.

The bad news is that man cannot achieve it, no matter how self-righteous and religious he is.

The Old Testament is the book of Adam, whose story is tragic.

Adam not only was the first man on earth but the first king.

He was given dominion over all the earth, to subdue and rule it (Gen.

1:28).

But that first monarch fell soon after he began to rule, and his fall brought a curse-the curse with which the Old Testament both begins and ends.

The New Testament begins with the presentation of the new sovereign Man, One who will not fall and One who brings blessing rather than cursing.

The second Adam is also the last Adam, and after Him will come no other ruler, no other sovereign.

The first king sinned and left a curse; the second King was sinless and leaves a blessing.

As one writer has put it, the first Adam was tested in a beautiful garden and failed; the last Adam was tested in a threatening wilderness and succeeded.

Because the first Adam was a thief, he was cast out of paradise; but the last Adam turned to a thief on a cross and said, “Today you shall be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The Old Testament, the book of the generations of Adam, ends with a curse; the New Testament, the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, ends with the promise, “There shall no longer be any curse” (Rev.

22:3).

The Old Testament gave the law to show man in his misery, and the New Testament gives life to show man in his bliss.

In Jesus Christ a new reality dawned on history.

A new Man and new King of the earth came to reverse the terrible curse of the first king.

The Sermon on the Mount is the masterful revelation from the great King, offering blessing instead of cursing to those who come on His terms to true righteousness.

 

the political context

Most Jews of Jesus’ day expected the Messiah to be, first of all, a military and political leader who would deliver them from the yoke of Rome and establish a prosperous Jewish kingdom that would lead the world.

He would be greater than any king, leader, or prophet in their history.

After Jesus miraculously fed the multitude on the far side of the Sea of Galilee, the people tried “to come and take Him by force, to make Him king” (John 6:15).

They saw Jesus as the anticipated leader of a great welfare state in which even their routine physical needs would be provided.

But Jesus would not allow Himself to be mistaken for that sort of king, and He disappeared from the crowd.

Later, when Pilate asked Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” the Lord replied, “My kingdom is not of this world.

If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm” (John 18:36).

The thrust of the Sermon on the Mount is that the message and work of the King are first and most importantly internal and not external, and spiritual and moral rather than physical and political.

Here we find no politics or social reform.

His concern is for what men are, because what they are determines what they do.

The ideals and principles in the Sermon on the Mount are utterly contrary to those of human societies and governments.

In Christ’s kingdom the most exalted persons are those who are the lowliest in the world’s estimation, and vice versa.

Jesus declared that John the Baptist was the greatest man who had ever lived until that time.

Yet John had no possessions and no home, lived in the wilderness, dressed in a hair garment, and ate locusts and wild honey.

He was not a part of the religious system, and he had no financial, military, or political power.

In addition to that, he preached a message that in the world’s eyes was completely irrelevant and absurd.

By worldly standards he was a misfit and a failure.

Yet he received the Lord’s highest praise.

In Jesus’ kingdom the least are greater even than John the Baptist (Matt.

11:11).

They are characterized in this sermon as being humble, compassionate, meek, yearning for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers-and persecuted for the sake of the very righteousness they practice.

In the world’s eyes those characteristics are the marks of losers.

The world says, “Assert yourself, stand up for yourself, be proud of yourself, elevate yourself, defend yourself, avenge yourself, serve yourself.”

Those are the treasured traits of the world’s people and the world’s kingdoms.

the religious context

Jesus lived in a highly complex religious society, one that included many professional religionists.

Those professionals were in four primary groups: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots.

At this point, it is only necessary to introduce these groups briefly.

Later chapters will unfold more of their distinctives.

The Pharisees believed that right religion consisted in divine laws and religious tradition.

Their primary concern was for fastidious observance of the Mosaic law and of every minute detail of the traditions handed down by various rabbis over the centuries.

They focused on adhering to the laws of the past.

The Sadducees focused on the present.

They were the religious liberals who discounted most things supernatural and who modified both Scripture and tradition to fit their own religious philosophy.

The Essenes were ascetics who believed that right religion meant separation from the rest of society.

They led austere lives in remote, barren areas such as Qumran, on the northwest edge of the Dead Sea.

The Zealots were fanatical nationalists who thought that right religion centered in radical political activism.

These Jewish revolutionaries looked down on fellow Jews who would not take up arms against Rome.

In essence, the Pharisees said, “Go back”; the Sadducees said, “Go ahead”; the Essenes said, “Go away”; and the Zealots said, “Go against.”

The Pharisees were traditionalists; the Sadducees were modernists; the Essenes were separatists; and the Zealots were activists.

They represented the same primary types of religious factions that are common today.

But Jesus’ way was not any of those.

To the Pharisees He said that true spirituality is internal, not external.

To the Sadducees He said that it is God’s way, not man’s way.

To the Essenes He said that it is a matter of the heart, not the body.

To the Zealots He said that it is a matter of worship, not revolution.

The central thrust of His message to every group and every person, of whatever persuasion or inclination, was that the way of His kingdom is first and above all a matter of the inside-the soul.

That is the central focus of the Sermon on the Mount.

True religion in God’s kingdom is not a question of ritual, of philosophy, of location, or of military might-but of right attitude toward God and toward other people.

The Lord summed it up in the words “I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (5:20).

The dominant message of the Sermon on the Mount is that one must not find comfort merely in right theology, much less in contemporary philosophy, geographical separation, or military and political activism.

Right theology is essential; so are being contemporary in the right way, separating ourselves from worldliness, and taking stands on moral issues.

But those external things must flow from right internal life and attitudes if they are to serve and please God.

That has always been God’s way.

He told Samuel, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam.