Returning to the Mountain

Over the coming weeks at LightHouse we are going to be looking at Matthew 7-10 and Jesus final teaching during the Sermon on the Mount and his actions and teaching afterwards. But you can’t just jump straight into the Sermon on the Mount without first of all getting the context of what has happened before, we need to review the first 4 chapters so that we understand fully what Jesus is teaching. Otherwise the danger is we’ll miss key emphasises and themes.

It’s a bit like Star Wars. As children we only had episodes 4-6 and in them Darth Vadar was the arch baddie, we knew something had gone on before episode 4 but the details were sketchy. But when you watch episodes 1-3 and then watch 4-6 again you have a different take on Darth Vadar. You understand how he came to be like he was, you understand the tragedy, the conflicting loyalties, the influences and stresses that led him to become who he was. In short you watch the film and relate to his character differently.

Far more importantly the danger is that we do the same with Matthew’s gospel if we just dive into the beatitudes, we need to get the context.  Matthew writes his gospel for a number of reasons but here are three of them: he writes so that Jewish Christians are secure in their discipleship of Jesus despite the hostility of their fellow Jews, so that they can answer Jewish objections by pointing objectors to Christ as the fulfilment of God’s promises and the Old Testament, and so that God’s people know how to live counter culturally.

If you were writing a book how would you begin? Some begin Once upon a time, with a cliffhanger, or at the end and show you the sequence of events leading up to it, others with a mystery and then unravel it.

You wouldn’t start with a genealogy would you? But Matthew does and the question is why? Because it reveals that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham, a Jew one of the chosen people of God, and he is in the line of David, he is in the line of God’s promised forever king(2 Sam 7:16).

As Matthew records Jesus birth you notice another theme - prophecy fulfilled. Jesus is born of a virgin(1:22), in Bethlehem(2:6), flees to Egypt(2:15) in a time of crisis(2:18) and returns to live in Nazareth(2:23). Jesus isn’t only in the line of Abraham and David but in him the words of God’s through his prophets are fulfilled.

Then in(ch3) John the Baptist, the one sent to tell people God’s kingdom is about to come, recognises who Jesus is and at his baptism God the Father and God the Spirit recognise God the Son. And then Jesus, God’s Son in whom he is well pleased, goes into the desert just as Israel did, but unlike Israel his concern is to do the Father’s will, he resists temptation proving that he is the true Son of God, he is the Messiah. And then in (ch4) he begins his ministry by declaring “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come.”

Jesus is God’s promised long awaited king and in him God’s kingdom draws alongside. It is not a spatial or geographic kingdom but it is dynamic and active, it’s wherever his people will accept his kingship and live under his rule.

Matthew 1-4 show us that Jesus is the Messiah, in the line of Abraham, and David, God’s Son speaking God’s word and in him the kingdom of God draws near! (4:25)We see “Large crowds… followed him.” It looks like the kingdom is growing but Matthew sees a distinction, he sees two groups. 5:1 “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.”  What are the two groups? Who does Jesus teach?

There are the curious crowd drawn by miracles and the chatter about Jesus, and the disciples, those committed to following him. Jesus sees the crowd but teaches his disciples.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches his people what it means to follow him, the marks of discipleship, characteristics of citizens of the kingdom. It is not a universal kingdom, you cannot come anyway you like, it is not an easy kingdom to join and it is radically counter cultural.