Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

The baptism and potluck will be rescheduled for June because of the Memorial Day weekend holiday.

Friday May 20 at 7pm we will be having an evening of worship with Juan and Emily.

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC, where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time, one book at a time.

Thank you for that message of music and for everyone’s faithfulness in serving your families, here at the church, and in the community!

We have come as far as Matthew 5, so let us open our Bibles there.

Read Matthew 5:1-12

Prayer

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to worship you in Spirit and in Truth this morning and thank you for your amazing grace that is inexhaustible!

Lord , we have all come with many things on our hearts this morning, some good and some not so good.

Would you please speak into to our lives today a Word that is fit for where we are individually as well as corporately.

Please Father remove any and all distractions that could stop us from receiving the blessing you have for us today.

Fill us with your Spirit and may our time together be a time of refreshing and inspire hope within us all.

In Jesus Name, we love YOU! Amen and Amen!

Review

In looking back to chapter 4 we learned that Jesus called 4 fishermen to become his disciples.

And he did not find them at the local Bible college, but rather he chose men that the religious folks would have never chosen that would turn the world upside down!

When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John they immediately left their nets, their boat, and family to follow Jesus.

Church, it is crucial for us to get this!

Following Jesus will cost you something!

What is holding us back from following Jesus?

What has our minds and hearts?

Then after he called the boys, they all went into all of Galilee.

It is here that Jesus was teaching and preaching in the local synagogues the gospel of the kingdom!

He was healing people from all types of disease and things that paralyzed them.

He set the captives free church and the Lord is the same today, yesterday, and forever!

Today, we will learn what it means to be Blessed!

So we pick up in Matthew 4:25

The last thing Matthew tells us in this chapter 4 is that as a result of Jesus’ teaching and healing, the good news about him spread throughout Syria, Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan (vv.

24–25), covering all the major regions of the country, especially those to the north.

These were spiritually dark regions, but the Light had come and the Holy Spirit was drawing people from these diverse dark places to Jesus.

The world is equally dark today.

The light of the gospel has been unveiled by God’s grace, but men and women continue to prefer the darkness to God’s light.

Jesus was always concerned for the multitudes, for whom He had great compassion—whether they were “distressed and downcast” (Matt.

9:36), sick (14:14; cf.

4:23), hungry (15:32), or in any other need.

Whether the people were physically ill or healthy, emotionally stable or demon-possessed, financially poor or rich, politically oppressed or powerful, religiously insignificant or influential, Jesus had compassion on them.

Jesus attracted all people because He loved them all.

Jesus ‘s compassion did not waiver.

No matter how Jesus felt, no matter what Jesus was going through he was compassionate to the broken.

How is your compassion meter?

Do you have compassion for the hurting, the sick, and the downcast?

Jesus was connected to the Father, therefore, he had compassion for the people who were in darkness.

As Christ’s followers, I believe that our compassion meter works the same way church.

The more passion we have for the Lord, the more compassion we will have for the people.

If we are connected to the Vine, spending time with the Lord in Word, in prayer, in fellowship, that a natural by-product will be compassion and witnessing.

It is crucial that we understand the political and religious climate of the day here.

The Political Context

Most of the Jews were looking for the Messiah to be a military and political leader that would deliver them the yoke that Rome had placed upon them.

And not only would the Messiah deliver them from Rome, but he would also establish a Jewish kingdom that would prosper and rule the world.

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 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.

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

Their primary concern was for a perfect 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 isolated lives in remote areas on the northwest edge of the Dead Sea.

The Zealots were fanatical nationalists who thought that right religion was 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).

Church, the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher that ever lived.

When Jesus came on the scene religiosity and politics was a way of life for most.

Jesus was counter cultural and he spoke a message that challenged both of the systems.

Jesus went up on a mountain as he loved the mountains and hills around Galilee, In fact he loved all of creation!

Scholars are not 100% sure exactly were this sermon took place, but speculations are that it was on a hill in Northern Israel that literally created an amphitheater like effect.

This means that everyone that was there, could hear Jesus preaching and teaching.

It was like there was a Bose sound system and I believe Jesus was gentle, but had a bold and authoritative voice that rattled all who would listen.

Note: that although there were multitudes, the message was for his disciples.

Jesus sat down and his disciples came to him.

A rabbi commonly sat down when he taught.

If he spoke while standing or walking, what he said was considered to be informal and unofficial.

But when he sat down, what he said was authoritative and official.

Even today we speak of professors holding a “chair” in a university, signifying the honored position from which they teach.

When Jesus sat down and delivered the Sermon on the Mount, He spoke from His divine chair with absolute authority as the sovereign King.

While everyone else stood up.

Why???

So they could not fall asleep:)

What do you think?

Do you want to try it?

Disciple- mathētēs - (ma-thay-tes') a student who adheres to (and travels with) a teacher in a pedagogical relationship; especially used of students of spiritual leaders.

A pupil, a learner, or an apprentice.