Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Reading of Scripture

This is God’s Word, Amen!

Pray

II.

Introduction

A. Introduction to Text and Theme

At the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Matthew records that Jesus is a preacher.

Translated another way: “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near” (LEB).

To preach is to “proclaim aloud” (BDAG).

But preaching is more than making a message known publically, for preaching often calls for the hearers to obey the message that is proclaimed (LN).

In this way,

the act of preaching,

and the message that is preached,

and the preacher of that message

all work in unison to communicate one important message that is worth hearing and responding to.

When Jesus began to preach, he was announcing that “the kingdom of heaven is near” (4:17).

“Kingdom” is an important subject for Matthew’s Jewish audience who were looking for the promised, forever king of Israel.

Still fresh on our minds is the Christmas story and the story of the wise men.

Here is how Matthew introduces them:

Later, Pilate the governor inquires of Jesus:

And while nailed to the cross, Matthew records that:

Kingdom represents power and authority.

A kingdom represents the rule of a king for all within the boundaries of that kingdom!

Jesus preached that the “kingdom of heaven is near.”

Which means that there is a king, and an authority, and a kingdom that does not belong to the kings and authorities and kingdoms of this earth.

There is a king, there is an authority, there is a kingdom, whose kingdom is of heaven.

Heaven’s king is the King of kings!

Heaven’s kingdom is where God rules and where God reigns!

It is the place where God is worshiped before the throne, day and night (Rev 7:15), by those who fall on their faces and say things like:

When Jesus begins to preach, his message is that this kingdom of heaven is near.

It is near in timing — it is “at hand,” and it is near in presence.

Because

Jesus is the king of Heaven’s Kingdom, and Jesus is God who is near.

Jesus fulfills the words of Isaiah who said:

This is the context for the Sermon on the Mount.

Meaning, these are the boundaries which contain our understanding of Jesus’ message.

It is a message of the kingdom of Heaven!

It is a message for those who repent.

That word “repent” represents the clashing of two opposing kingdoms - the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdoms of earth.

It represents two opposing directions in which you cannot travel both at the same time.

It is either one — or the other.

To repent means to have a “change of mind.”

To have been going one direction, but turned 180 degrees the other way with a change of mind and direction.

The message of the Sermon on the Mount is not for double-minded men and women.

It is not for double-agents.

It is not for any who would “serve two masters” (Mt 6:24).

The message of the Sermon on the Mount is not for Lot’s wife, who turned back to look longly at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as they were being destroyed.

The message of the Sermon on the Mount is not for any whose “god is their belly,” who “glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Phil 3:19).

The message of Sermon on the Mount is not for dual citizens of heaven and earth.

It is for those who live on earth but whose citizenship is in heaven, who are waiting for Jesus (Phil 3:20).

The message of the Sermon on the Mount is for those who repent, who “turn their eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”

We cannot receive the Sermon on the Mount without receiving the Preacher of the sermon — Jesus.

We cannot understand the Sermon on the Mount without the Preacher of the sermon — Jesus.

We cannot obey the Sermon on the Mount without the Preacher of the sermon — Jesus!

WHY?

Because Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.

And this Sermon is for all who have repented in preparation for His kingdom and His rule and His righteousness.

As long as a person desires another kingdom — a lesser kingdom, such a person cannot receive the Sermon on the Mount, because the Sermon on the Mount is about a higher kingdom, a better way, God’s way in which the righteousness for living is given by God himself, in the form of a new life through Jesus.

The kingdoms of this world shake.

If you do not yet know Jesus, Jesus knows you.

And he is speaking in this Sermon where you can hear him.

But if you do not bow before Jesus as king, then you will only hear this Sermon as part of the crowd.

And in the end, you will only be amazed — but not changed.

For all who confess Jesus as Lord, however, and for all who believe that God raised him from the dead — we may hear this Sermon as his disciples, who are near, and who are empowered by Him to obey.

Jesus is a preacher, and Jesus is also a teacher.

To preach is to proclaim and call for a response of obedience!

To teach is to instruct.

By preaching we know WHAT to do — we repent and turn from our old life and wicked ways!

By teaching we know HOW to do it — we receive instruction on how to live as a new creation.

Through preaching someone may come to Christ in faith.

Through teaching someone then grows from an infant, to a child, to a mature man or woman in Christ.

Jesus is both a preacher and a teacher, and Jesus does both — he preaches and teaches.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches.

He teaches about the kingdom of heaven.

Today’s text introduces the Sermon on the Mount, and contains the title of this message — “He Began to Teach.”

III.

Exposition

“opening his mouth he began to teach them” (LEB).

Let us give close attention to the movements in this text.

First, in verse 1 the text says: “He went up”

Who went up? — Jesus went up.

This first action described belongs to Jesus.

As often as the Scriptures reveal this we should take note of this — God is the one who acts first!

Always, and in all things!

God is the Creator!

We are the created!

Our existence is a reaction and response to what God has done first.

And so it is that the Scriptures reveal Jesus as the first person acting to give instruction from on high.

To teach God’s ways.

And Jesus ascends to a higher place.

What does he go up?

The text says “a mountain.”

Mountains are important in Matthew’s Gospel.

Jesus was tempted by the devil on a mountain (4:8), he will teach from a mountain (5:1), he prays on a mountain (14:23), he heals on a mountain (15:29), he was transfigured before his disciples on a mountain (17:1).

Why mountains?

The Scriptures don’t tell us why exactly.

Mountains may be historically important.

Important events took place on mountains in the Old Testament - notably when God gave the law, the instruction, the ten commandments to Moses — he did it on a mountain.

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain — mountains cause us to “look up”!

To draw our gaze toward heaven as an act of remembering that there are things higher than us.