Trinity Baptist Church

 

For several weeks, we have, at Pastor’s Conference, been studying The Beatitudes as Matthew recorded them. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of that study, and having the privilege of leading one of those studies. 

 

And God has used it to renew my interest in the Sermon on the Mount. And we will begin tonight a study of this section of scripture. 

 

Obviously, it's going to take us some time to get through all of this. The Sermon on the Mount takes up chapter 5, chapter 6 and chapter 7. And I believe that all of this was delivered by our Lord as one sermon, at one particular time.

 

Now virtually all the truths found in the sermon on the mount are again taught by Him at different points, at different intervals in different locations but there is a tremendous strength and power to putting this all together as one great sermon. And we're going to take a long time to study these revolutionary truths, these truths that, hit the world like some kind of a bomb that exploded on the minds of those who heard them.

 

Let me begin our with this statement: Jesus is in the business of providing people with happiness. And that's why we've entitled this opening message, Happiness is ... Sadly, not everybody really understands that, not everybody really believes that. 

 

In fact, there are many Christians who aren't too sure that they really experience the reality of true happiness but Jesus is in the happiness business. Happiness is His concern.

 

Now this is very evident to us because here in the very first sermon ever recorded as having been preached by Jesus Christ, we meet a sermon of our Lord that begins with the constant ringing theme of happiness.

 

If you'll notice in verse 1 and. following you'll see the word blessed used 9 times. The word simply means happiness or happy. In fact, we may read these that way.

 

"And seeing the multitudes He went up into a mountain and when He was seated, His disciples came unto Him and He opened His mouth and taught them saying; Happy are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are they who mourn for they shall be comforted. Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Happy are they who do hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled. Happy are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Happy are the pure of heart for they shall see God. Happy are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. Happy are they who are per­secuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted the prophets who were before you."

 

Nine times we see the word blessed, the word happy. And I say it again, the Lord is in the happiness business. The Lord is in the business of giving men and women blessings. The ultimate end of it all in verse 12 is that these points of happiness should result in rejoicing and exceeding gladness. And so I say it again, God is in the business of making our lives full of joy, full of gladness, full of happiness.

 

Now this is only the introduction to the sermon. Having stated that basic goal of His teaching to bring about true happiness, He goes on to talk about how it is that that becomes possible. What kind of life style it is that produces this kind of happiness? That becomes the running theme through chapter 5, chapter 6 and chapter 7.

 

Now we have to get the basics before we can understand this absolute fantastic sermon. I think, the greatest single sermon ever preached. We have to get the foundation. So tonight we're just going to lay some ground work and we're going to give you a little bit of teaching approach to it rather than a preaching approach but we've got to get a grip on these basics so that the rest will be meaningful to you.

 

First of all, I want to set for you the context.

 

There are several contexts to look at.

 

First of all we have to get a biblical context. By that I mean a biblical background. Where are we in the bible? Where are we in the flow of God's revelation? Where are we in God's plan of revealing His truth to man? Well, this is a new point.

This is a dramatic change. This is an incredible transformation.

 

To illustrate that, think about the last message of the Old Testament. The very last message is in Malachi chapter 4 and verse 6, this is the way the Old Testament ends.

 

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers", now listen to this, "Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse".

 

How interesting. The Old Testament ends with a curse. Then we open our New Testament, and it begin with a blessing.

 

Blessing and cursing. We close our Old Testament on the law, Sinai, thunder, lightning, judgment, cursing.

 

We open our New Testament with Zion, grace, peace, blessing. A dramatic change.

 

Blessed is an adjective that basically means happy or blissful. It means an inner peace, an inner bliss, an inner happiness, an inward joy that is not produced by circumstance or is it affected by circumstance. It is a state of happiness, a state of well‑being in which God desires His children to live.

 

But let’s take it a step further. It is a word that indicates character. It is touching man at the very base of his existence. In fact, it is a word that used to describe God.

 

For example, we find many times in the bible the statement, "Blessed be God".

 

That thought is frequent in the Psalms, you find it in the New Testament in I Timothy chapter 1 verse 11: "The blessed God". So whatever this state or condition of blessedness is, it is true of God.

 

It is also used of our Lord Jesus Christ. It says in I Timothy 6:15, "The Lord Jesus Christ who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords".

 

So this blessedness is a character which is true of God and of Christ. Now that makes it something we need to take a step further. If whatever this blessedness is, it is true of God and it is true of Christ, now watch this, then the only people who will ever experience it are those who partake of God and partake of Christ.

 

Understand that? There is no blessedness apart from that.

 

Peter tells us in II Peter 1:4 that, "We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ", "are partakers of the divine nature.”

 

That means then that we can know the same kind of bliss, the same inner state of contentment, the same happiness deep down within us that is known by God and the Lord Jesus Christ themselves..

 

So, watch. From the very beginning it is established, the Sermon on the Mount has nothing to say and nothing to offer to someone apart from faith in Jesus Christ. That's basic.

But for those of us who know and love the Lord. Jesus Christ, for those of us who by faith in Christ have become partakers of the divine nature, the same bliss, the same contentment, the same happiness, the same sense of blessedness is known by God of Himself and Christ of Himself can be known by us of ourselves.

 

In fact, that’s the only happiness there is. And what we will hear Jesus saying in this sermon is simply this, “You will never find happiness in this world.”

 

Paul put it this way, "If ye be then risen with Christ seek those things which are", what? "Above, set not your affections on things on the earth." John put it this way, "Love not the world neither the", what? "Things that are in the world." There's no satisfaction there. Happiness is not here, blessedness isn't in the cursed earth it's on another level.

 

And the Sermon on the Mount sets that Biblical context by moving us to the introduction of the King who has come and the life that He offers. 

 

Now let me take you to another thought about context. There is a political context.

 

The Jews were looking for a Messiah, only their definition of a Messiah was a political ruler. They were looking for somebody to come riding into Jerusalem on a great horse and zap all of the Romans and they'd all fall over dead and He’d lead a great revolution infinitely beyond anything they'd ever heard of. They expected some really whirlwind deal to happen when the Messiah arrived; they were looking for political things.

They tried to make Jesus a king there in Galilee when He first began His ministry, John tells us, because they saw a welfare state. He fed the twenty‑thousand people and they showed up the next morning for free breakfast, they thought it was the greatest thing they had ever seen. This guy was going to feed them, there was going to be constant welfare, never had to work again, He just makes food. He was going to redistribute the wealth!

 

They were looking at the politics of it; they were looking at the accommodation to their own humanness. And the Lord passed through and left them and didn't want to be that kind of king.

 

The Jews were looking for a political kingdom but Jesus never offered one. He looked at Pilate that day when He was going through the mockery of a trial and He said, Pilate said, "Are you a king?" And Jesus said, ‑You said it. And Pilate said, in effect, ‑ Well, what in the world kind of kingdom are you?

 

In fact, the political aspect of this message is devastating. It was absolutely everything that was the opposite of what they expected a Messiah to say.

 

Then think about the religious context.

 

Jesus was confronting a very religious society. In fact, a whole society full of religionists. There were four main groups within the religion of Judaism. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots.

 

 

 

First of all the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that happiness was found in tradition or legalism. They were big on the past. They believed that real happiness came through obeying the traditions of the fathers.

 

Then there were the Sadducees. And the Sadducees believed that happiness was found in the present, modernism, liberalism, can the past, man, we're here. We got to do it now. An updated religion, brand new liberalism, chuck the old stuff. You know, in a sense, they both had a little bit of truth. The Pharisees were right, true religion has to be based on the past, the Sadducees had a little bit of truth because true religion also has to work in the present.

 

And then there were the Essenes who saidsaid, ‑ No, happiness is in separation from the world. Oh, that sounds good, doesn't it? Only they were talking about geographical separation. They just moved out of town. Years ago there was an ad in a Christian magazine put in by one of our very, very fundamental Christian colleges that said, the school was located 15 miles from the nearest sin. Just off‑hand, I'd say, that's wishful thinking. But the Essenes believed they had to get out of town where there's no sin. So there were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes.

 

And then there were the Zealots. The Zealot said happiness is found in the political overthrow. Happiness is found in revolution. Happiness is found in knocking off Rome. So you see the Pharisees were saying, Go back. And the Sadducees were saying, ‑ Go forward. The Essenes were saying, ‑ Go out. And the Zealots were saying, ‑ Go against.

What a mess. And so contemporary. We've got religionists living in the past. We've got liberals trying to invent new religions for the present. We've got people who think holy living is an issue of geography and they just want to make sure that they don't go near anything that looks like sin. And then we've got the people who think religion is a matter of leading a parade and you march on somewhere.

 

Jesus was confronting a whole society full of religionists. They all had their own little thing going and the point that Jesus was making is ‑ Hey, you know, you're all wrong, every one of you.

 

For the Pharisees He was saying religion is not a matter of external observance. For the Sadducee He was saying religion is not a matter of human philosophy invented to accommodate the new day. And to the Essenes He was saying, religion is not a matter of geographical location. And to the Zealots He was saying neither is religion a matter of social activism.

 

What He was saying is this, My kingdom is inside. Do you see? It's inside. That's the whole point. That's the whole message of Jesus to the world. That's the whole basis of the Sermon on the Mount. It's inside not outside. Not outside rituals, not outside philosophy, not outside location or monasteries or anything like that, not outside activism, it's inside.

 

So that’s the context. 

 

Now notice the first two verses and we’ll see

 

 

verse 1. "And seeing the multitudes", we'll stop there. Jesus always cared for the multitudes.

 

And you know it says in Matthew 9:36, Matthew 14:14 and Matthew 15:32 that when He saw the multitudes He had compassion. Jesus saw that multitude of people; the multitude is described in verse 23 to 25 of chapter 4'. "Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing all manner of sickness, all manner of disease among the people. His fame went throughout all Syria and they brought unto Him all the sick that were taken with divers diseases and torments, those which were possessed with demons and those who were epileptics and those who had the palsy and He healed them and there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, from Decapolis and from Jerusalem, from Judaea and even beyond. Jordan."

 

Here is this mass of humanity coming from North, South, East and West following Him and when He sees them as always His heart is broken.

 

You know, when He saw them hungry He gave them food. And when He sees the spiritual hunger of their hearts, the deepest thing that is in Him is God reaching out to give them what they need. There was a wonderful attraction to Jesus Christ. Crowds just surged after Him. All sorts of people, in fact, this isn't really the nicest bunch of people you've ever met. Sick, demon possessed, it's kind of a motley crowd. 

 

Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, ritualists and harlots, publicans, scholars and illiterates, refined and degraded, rich men and beggars, a motley bunch but Jesus Is always the attracter of men and there's some strange attractiveness in Jesus Christ. 

 

So there was a general thrust toward Christ of the multitude. "And He saw the multitude and He spoke", and I add this. His message really wasn't to them even but He wanted them to hear it. They couldn't live it out, they couldn't know this blessedness but they could at least know that it was available. And. so they were the secondary audience. They were what prompted the message because He wanted them to hear it and be attracted to it.

 

So we see the context and the occasion.

 

And then a word about

 

 

Who is the preacher? "He went up into a mount, He was seated, His disciples came to Him and He opened His mouth and taught them saying."

 

The greatest preacher who ever lived, that's who the preacher is.

 

"Of whom they said never a man spake like this man", of whom they said, "He spoke as one having authority not as the scribes and the Pharisees", you know what they meant? He didn't quote any sources. He didn't quote any old rabbis; He spoke like He had authority on His own.

Of whom the woman of Samaria said, Come see a man who told me all things whatsoever I've done. Oh, what a preacher. This sermon is one of the greatest illustrations of homiletics I've ever seen. It's got three points; it can't get any better homiletics than that.

 

A fantastic introduction, the introduction and then the first point, the citizens of the kingdom. And then the second point, the righteousness of the kingdom, and then the third point, the exhortation to enter the kingdom and then the last part of chapter 7, the effect that the sermon had. It's homiletic, it flows beautifully, it moves from one thing to another, the transitions are magnificent. The master preacher.

 

He had structure, He had power, He had a divine commission.

 

The context, the occasion, the preacher,

 

The Setting

 

Look at verse 1 again, "He went into a mountain". He found a pulpit. By the way, it's beautiful to note that the Greek adds the mountain, the mountain.

 

What mountain? Oh, no mountain in particular. It was probably just a slope that goes right down the north shore of the sea of Galilee right to the water where Jesus gave this tremendous sermon, surrounded by the gentle hills of Galilee on the right and the golden heights on the left and at the beginning of the Jordan river ascending down the Jordan valley until it finally comes to the Dead Sea. 

 

To the right and over the hills to the west the valley of Sharon and then the Mediterranean and there on that little hill sat Jesus and spoke. And it wasn't anything but a mountain but the Greek says the mountain. And it isn't the mountain because of what mountain it was but of what mountain He made it to become.

 

It wasn't the mountain till He gave the sermon and then it was the mountain. It was the mountain when Matthew wrote it and it was the mountain because that's where Jesus taught. He made it the mountain.

 

He had a way of sanctifying the very insignificance of the place and setting it apart as the mountain and throughout all the hundreds of years since the Christians have always remembered where that mountain was. It's just a little slope but it's the mountain. Why? Because He made it the mountain.

 

Not Just the context, the occasion, the preacher, the setting but

 

The Style.

 

He was seated. "And when He was seated He opened His mouth and taught them saying." He sat down because, you see, that was the traditional way a rabbi taught. And when a rabbi was just talking and standing and walking around it was unofficial but when he sat down bang‑ that was official. We even have that today.

 

When a professor is honored at a university we say he is given the chair. And. from the chair he teaches.

The Catholic Church tells us the Pope speaks ex cathedra. You know what that means? From his seat, from his chair. When a man sat down to teach that was authoritative, it was official.

 

And what Jesus was saying was not some random thought it was the official manifesto of the King. He opened His mouth is a colloquialism In Greek. 

 

It is used of solemn, grave, dignified, serious, weighty statements. This is not just off the cuff, this is dignified, solid, grave teaching. And also this phrase ‑ He opened His mouth. That phrase is used in some extra-biblical references to speak of somebody who really shares his heart intimately. So it was official, it was solemn, it was serious, it was dignified and it was His heart.

 

And who were

 

the recipients?

 

It's right here in verse 1, His disciples came to Him.

 

You see, they were the primary target because they were the only ones who could know the blessedness of which He spoke. They were the only ones who could live the Sermon on the Mount; they were the only ones who could follow it through. They were the only ones who could carry it out because they were the only ones who were partakers of God's own power and presence in their life. It was only possible for them.

 

 

 

And by the way, beloved, let me add this. It's only possible for you as you know Jesus Christ. It's only possible as you are a partaker of the divine nature.

 

The late archbishop McGee of England once said that it was impossible to conduct the affairs of the English nation on the basis of the Sermon on the Mount because the nation was not loyal to the King." He was right.

 

You can't live the Sermon on the Mount unless you know the King.

 

And finally,

 

The Teaching Itself. 

 

And that comes in verses 3 to 12, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. Oh, it's a tremendous lesson people. What He has to say to us here is profound. Life changing. I believe our church will be different when we get through this. I don't believe you can study the Sermon on the Mount and be the same. I can't. God's already been doing things in my heart.

 

Let's commit ourselves to be the kind of people God wants us to be. Remembering this, that we have the capacity if we know the Lord Jesus Christ to see this a reality in our lives to His glory and our blessedness. Let's pray.