In preparation for our next series, here are six thoughts coming out of a day spent considering the greatest sermon ever preached – Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

1. The Sermon Gives You A Comprehensive Vision for Life.

The sermon is just 20 minutes long. And yet, Jesus manages to cover a wide array of topics including money, marriage, relationships, forgiveness, anger, prayer, anxiety, and more. Grab your Bible and just look at the section headings in Matthew 5-7 and you’ll see all the topics the sermon hits on. Jesus is not longwinded and He doesn’t waste words. His sermon is a series of jabs and uppercuts that connect on all the practical issues of life.

2. The Sermon Focuses on External Behavior and Internal Motivation.

The sermon slams those who are externally perfect and internally corrupt. He repeatedly calls out the hypocrites who put on public displays of piety in order to be seen by others. At the same time, there is no room for those who are supposed to be the light of the world to live in darkness. Jesus expects that His followers will connect heart and hands having a genuine righteousness that stems from a heart made right by God.

3. The Sermon is Counter-Cultural.

The sermon calls for Christians to be distinct. Several times, Jesus flatly says that His people are not to be like the hypocrites and Pharisees, or the tax collectors and Gentiles. They are not to be like the religious or the irreligious. They are not to be like the Pharisees in Jerusalem or the pagans in Rome.  Instead, they must be something other. A third way. A Kingdom people who are distinct in every way.

4. The Sermon is about Kingdom Life that is Already but Not Yet.

The sermon comes on the heals of Jesus preaching the good news of the Kingdom and calling people to repent because of the Kingdom’s arrival (Matt. 4:17, 23). The sermon then is a vision of what life in Jesus’ Kingdom looks like. Meaning, here’s what it looks like to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. And with that comes the tension that this life in the Kingdom has begun already but not yet fully. Those who say that Matthew 5-7 is so impossibly glorious that it is only describing life in the age to come (thus irrelevant for us), and those that say that Matthew 5-7 is basic ethics 101 for everyone everywhere (thus attainable by all), are both missing the point. The sermon is to to be lived out here and now by those who have entered the Kingdom of God through faith in the King but will only be lived out perfectly then and there when the Kingdom fully comes.

5. The Sermon is Authoritative.

The sermon ends calling people to make a decision. Either we will submit to Jesus as King and heed His words or not. Either we will walk the broad easy way towards destruction or the narrow difficult way towards life. Either we will build our lives on shifting sand or on the solid rock. There is no way around it. If it were today, Jesus would end His sermon by dropping the mic and walking off stage. The only appropriate response is to do what that first audience did and marvel at His authority.

6. The Preacher is the Sermon.

Unlike every other preacher who has ever preached, Jesus is the embodiment of His sermon. He lived it out perfectly. He fulfilled the law and the prophets. He turned the other cheek and walked the extra mile and gave up his cloak. He loved His enemies and prayed for those who persecuted Him. He never lusted. He won’t divorce His bride. He keeps His word. In every way, He is the King who perfectly lives out the ethic of the Kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount is essentially Jesus giving His followers a vision of what it means to be like Him.

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