Sermon on the Mount part 1: “The King and his Kingdom”

INTRO> We being a new series today, walking verse by verse through the sermon on the mount. What is the sermon on the mount you ask? *ILL> One of the ways to look at the sermon on the mount is like a inaugural address. I looked up the most famous inaugural addresses this week and out of the top 5 there is only one man who made the list twice. That is our 16th President Abraham Lincoln (PIC). His first speech as president was so famous because the country was on the brink of the Civil War, but everyone agrees that it was his second address when re-elcted president that is the most famous of all time (PIC). It was only 750 words long and took him seven minutes to die it. The civil war had just ended and 100,000+ Americans had died. He ends the speech with these words: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations”

TRANS> You see an inaugural address is what the newley elected president gives as his vision for what it looks like to live under his rule and being and president. Which is exactly what Jesus is doing on the Sermon on the Mount.

CONTEXT>

• • • We are in the Gospel of Matthew which is a eye witness account of Jesus life death and resurrection.
    • This section of teaching is known as the “Sermon on the Mount” first got that phrase from Augustine church father.
    • “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt 4:17
    • “And he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” Matthew 4:23

APP> What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God through the people of God.*ILL> Playing barbies with And Grace We see this individually as christian and corporately as the church. It’s “already and not yet” that where we live.

Ways to view the Sermon on the Mount:

• • Moral?
  • Legal?
  • Political?
  • Social?
  • GOSPEL! – The word Gospel literally means “good news” It would be used when a kingdom went out to war and won and the herald would come back and announce the victory! APP> The gospel is an announcement of what’s been done. If there is a kingdom then that implies that there is a king? And if there is a kingdom then that implies that there are citizens of that kingdom.

1. The King.

1. 1. speaks with authority. “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” Matt 7:28-29 Look at the peoples reactions who heard this, there really is no neutral way that you can react to Jesus.

Context> We need to know what Matthew the gospel writer is doing here. Look again at verse 1 “went up on the mountain” “sat down” then teaches. Matthew to his Jewish audience is comparing and contrasting Jesus to Moses. *run through moses and Jesus comparison! “On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God.” Exodus 19:1-3 APP> Mosses goes and get’s the law from God, here we have God speaking directly. *ILL the word authority is where we get the word “author” from. Seeing Courtnee for the first time and sending over Philis Guthrie then talking to Courtnee in person.

1. 1. is approachable. “he sat down, his disciples came to him” This is a subtle move that Matthew is doing but it is a big one. Rabbis and givers of the law taught sitting down, the Pope ex cathedra “from the chair” “Now when the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off.” Exodus 20:18 All through the OT we see this caution and fear of approaching God. *ILL> This week I got to meet and here from Congressmen Jason Smith of the Missouri House of Represeetives. He was talking, Charolette, Parker’s daughter walked right up to him. APP> That’s what these verse’s are showing us, that this king is good and approachable.

2) The King’s subjects.

• • • “seeing the crowds… his disciples came to him…” Do you see the difference here? The sermon on the mount is not “how to be saved” is shows the life of people who are, it’s for disciples. That word literally means “learner” somone who walks in Jesus’ shoes.

*ILL> Growing up in Kennett meeting Sherly Crow, I don’t know her, I’ve seen her. APP> Proximity to Jesus doesn’t equal intimacy with Jesus. “not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven..” Matthew 7:21

APP> What does a disciple look like?

• Worships Jesus
• Walks with Jesus
• Works for Jesus.

APP> Kingdom life is about submission not addition!

*ILL> This is a newspaper article from 1930. At the top it says “The King opens the conference” They are talking about King George the V, who was doing a live radio broadcast around the world for the disarmament conference, the world is not he brink of WWII. As the broadcast was about to begin, a cable broke in the New York radio station, and more than a million listeners were left without sound. A junior mechanic in the station, Harold Vivien, solved the problem by picking up both ends of the cable and allowing 250 volts of electricity to pass through him. “

Close> This sermon changed the world, it changed people lives. Rodney Stark is a social scientist and historian on the faculty of the University of Washington. He wrote a fascinating book called The Rise of Christianity. In it he documents how Christianity moved from being a tiny minority religion in a pagan empire until (within less than 300 years) it became the official religion of the empire. He said it was because the Christians lived by a completely different set of rules:
Abortion was rampant – – – but the Christians did not abort their babies.
Infanticide of female babies was common – – – but the Christians did not kill their babies and often rescued those whom others had abandoned to die.
The pagans practiced premarital sex – – – but the Christians insisted on biblical chastity.
Divorce was widespread – – but the Christians frowned on divorce and kept their marriages together.
Pagans fled their cities in fear when the plagues and epidemics struck–but the Christians often stayed behind to care for the sick, winning them to faith in Jesus Christ.

• What would it look like if that happened here in PB? What would it look like if that happened in your home? Your life?

Big Idea> The sermon on the mount is the king’s invitation to kingdom life, will you accept the invitation?