WE now come to what is popularly known as the Sermon on the Mount. It derives its name from verse one of chapter 5 where we are told that Jesus sat down on a mountainside to deliver this discourse. This sermon continues up to the end of the seventh chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.

Preliminary remarks need to be made before we start to look at the contents of this sermon. The first is that this sermon was not delivered to all and sundry but only to the disciples. Although we are told Jesus saw the crowds who were following him, we are also told that he specially went up the mountain side, presumably to distance himself from the crowd. Then Jesus sat down and specially spoke to his disciples.

The second preliminary remark is this that from the fact that Jesus was teaching his disciples in this sermon we can deduce that the contents are not meant for anybody and everybody. This is not because the teaching is not good for everybody, or that it would not be good for everybody to live this teaching, for of course the teaching is good, but because unless we are disciple of Jesus committed to him by faith and obedience, we will never be able to carry out the precepts which Jesus speaks of in this sermon. It is only those who know in their experience the life which is expressed in the opening verses who will be able to begin to follow this teaching and put it into practice in daily living. These opening verses we know as the Beatitudes.

The reason for this is that the human condition is such that there is no ability to live the Sermon on the Mount however much we may approve of its teaching, and want to live it. The fact about human nature, which is proved everywhere in the world, and all down history, is that human nature has a deep malaise which is biased away from good towards evil. Such a statement as this is furiously resisted by the world, and has always been resisted. But the fact is that history proves that human nature is corrupted, and we are unable to do even what we approve that is good either as we want to or as we should. On the other hand we naturally lean towards and indulge so much that is wrong and harmful. This diagnosis of human nature is revealed in the Bible, but it is not believed or received but by the grace of God working in our inner being God’s saving power.

This shows the folly of much thinking and teaching over the last century. During the twentieth century it was taught that we do not need all that difficult doctrine in the Bible, but rather all that was needed was for people to follow the maximums of the Sermon on the Mount, and live them, and then the world would become a better place. This teaching has been proved by experience to be fallacious, because such teaching has not made things better, for our society has not got better but has rather grown worse. However good the teaching is which Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, the truth is that people just don't want to hear it, or if they do hear it, it runs contrary to what they wish to do. What is needed is a conversion within which brings new life into being which then gives a person not only the desire to live the Sermon on the Mount, but gives the power also. Such new life only comes through Christ and faith in him, and knowing the doctrine concerning him.

We are told here that the disciples of Jesus came to him to be taught. The fact is that only true disciples of Jesus ever really want to come to Jesus to be taught. It is only believers in Jesus who want to hear and live the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus opens this wonderful sermon with eight sayings which we call Beatitudes. The name is derived from the fact that each of these sayings commence with the word ‘blessed’. There is nothing random about the fact Jesus commence the sermon with these maxims. The fact is that in the Beatitudes Jesus is describing the character and experience of those to whom he is addressing the rest of the sermon. It is only those who know from experience what Jesus is describing in the Beatitudes who will be able to benefit by the sermon and be able to carry out the teaching.

In fact the Beatitudes describe the experience of the true Christian, in whose inner being God has worked a work of salvation that has raised them to new life in Christ. Unless we can identify with the character and experience which Jesus describes in these eight sayings, and can say honestly that these sayings describe their feelings and desires, we can’t say that we are Christians at all. These Beatitudes describe what the new life in Christ produces in the soul.