Total Time: ~3 to 3.5 hours
Focus: Exploring Jesus’s great sermon not as an impossible list of new laws to be performed for salvation, but as a beautiful portrait of the heart and character of a person who has been saved by Grace and is living as a citizen of God’s Kingdom.
𧱠Session 1 β The Citizen and the Standard (60β75 mins)
Theme: Jesus begins not with commands, but with blessings, describing the character of those who belong to His Kingdom. He then re-establishes the impossibly high standard of God’s Law, not to crush us, but to show us our need for His own perfect righteousness.
π Reading
Matthew Chapter 5 β The Beatitudes, the metaphors of salt and light, and Jesus’s radical intensification of the Law’s demands.
π Key Passages
Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
Matthew 5:20: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:48: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
π Word Study Suggestions
| KJV Word | Original Language | Original Word | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blessed | Greek (NT) | ΞΌΞ±ΞΊΞ¬ΟΞΉΞΏΟ (makarios) | Happy, fortunate, blessed. A state of spiritual well-being and favor bestowed by God, not earned. |
| Poor in spirit | β | β | Those who recognize their own spiritual bankruptcy and utter dependence on God. Opposite of self-sufficiency. |
| Perfect | Greek (NT) | ΟΞΞ»Ξ΅ΞΉΞΏΟ (teleios) | Complete, mature, having reached the end goal. |
π Theological Framework: The Foundation of Grace
The Sermon opens with the Beatitudes. This is crucial. Jesus’s blessings are for the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the mercifulβthose who are aware of their own need. He is not speaking to the strong and self-righteous. The prerequisite for entering this Kingdom is not strength, but an admission of weakness. The entire sermon rests on this foundation of grace for the needy.
π£οΈ Discussion Questions
- Why does Jesus start His great sermon by blessing those who are poor, mourning, and meek? What does this immediately tell us about the kind of people who populate His kingdom?
- Jesus says our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, who were the most meticulous law-keepers. Is He setting a new bar for performance, or is He showing the impossibility of achieving righteousness through performance?
- The command to “be perfect” can feel like a crushing weight. In light of verse 20, how might this command be intended to make us despair of our own perfection and seek a righteousness from outside ourselves?
𧱠Session 2 β The Heart of the Matter (60β75 mins)
Theme: Jesus moves beyond external actions to the internal motives of the heart, demonstrating that God’s true standard applies to our thoughts and attitudes, not just our deeds, thereby exposing our universal need for a deeper transformation than rule-keeping can provide.
π Reading
Matthew Chapter 6 β Jesus teaches on the proper motives for religious acts (giving, praying, fasting), the danger of worry, and the priority of seeking God’s Kingdom.
π Key Passages
Matthew 6:1: “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:8: “…for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”
Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
π Theological Framework: Expression, Not Performance
In this section, Jesus critiques religious performance. The issue is not whether one gives, prays, or fasts, but why. The hypocrites perform these acts for a human audience to earn a reputation. The sons of the Kingdom do them in secret as an expression of their relationship with a Father who already sees and knows their needs. The focus shifts from works done to be seen by men to a relationship of trust with a loving Father.
π£οΈ Discussion Questions
- What is the fundamental difference between doing a good deed “to be seen of them” and doing it “in secret”? What does this reveal about who we are really trying to please?
- Jesus tells us not to worry about our basic needs, because our heavenly Father already knows what we need. How is this a direct challenge to a works-based mindset that says, “I must strive and worry to provide for myself”?
- What does it practically mean to “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness”? How does this reorient our daily priorities?
𧱠Session 3 β The Two Ways (60 mins)
Theme: Jesus concludes His sermon with a series of sharp contrasts, forcing a choice between two paths, two trees, two claims, and two foundations, clarifying that the only secure life is the one built entirely on Him and His words.
π Reading
Matthew Chapter 7 β Jesus warns against hypocritical judgment, encourages prayer, and presents the final choice between the narrow way and the broad way, the good tree and the corrupt tree, and the wise and foolish builders.
π Key Passages
Matthew 7:1-2: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
Matthew 7:7-8: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth…”
Matthew 7:21: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
Matthew 7:24-25: “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
π§ Reflection & Application
- How does the command “Judge not” relate to the legalistic mindset? Why is a person who trusts in their own works more likely to judge others harshly?
- Many people are troubled by verse 21, which seems to emphasize “doing the will of my Father.” In the context of the whole sermon, what is the will of the Father? (Hint: John 6:40 says, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life…”).
- The final parable is about building on a rock. How is hearing Jesus’s words and “doing them” (which begins with believing Him) the only solid foundation for a life, compared to the sandy foundation of self-righteousness or religious performance?
βοΈ Final Encouragement: A Portrait of Grace
The Sermon on the Mount is not a new ladder to climb to get to God. It is a divine demolition of all our man-made ladders. It uses the perfect standard of God’s Law to show us our own spiritual poverty and drive us to the One who is our only hope for righteousness. It is not a list of rules for how to become a citizen of the Kingdom; it is a beautiful, liberating portrait of the heart of someone who already is a citizen because they have trusted in the King. It describes the fruit, not the work. It is the manifesto of a Kingdom entered by grace, and lived in by grace.