‘THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT’
“…tHE cROWDS wERE aSTONISHED…”
LED BY DAN BROOKS
Time: 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Where: First Baptist Church of Pine
Who: All are invited
Sermon on the Mount
“…The crowds were astonished…”
This is the apostle Matthew describing the crowd’s reaction to the first recorded teaching of Jesus in northern Israel. They had heard scribes teach many times; now they hear Jesus teach on the same topics from the same manuscripts and not only was it not what they were expecting, it was astonishingly different.
Jesus’ told the crowd how they, in their present circumstances of everyday life, could have “blessed” lives, both happy and fruitful. They could have well-lived lives. What He revealed was true for them and is true for all humanity. It is “absolutely” true; He spoke “with authority,” Matthew said.
What did He tell them?
The well-known Bible story of the Sermon on the Mount is recorded in the Bible book of Matthew Chapters 5 – 7. The Sermon on the Mount comes from when Jesus was just beginning His early ministry after being baptized by John and traveling through Galilee. On a mountainside, not far from Capernaum, Jesus stopped to give His longest and most popular sermon, giving this event the name “Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus’ teachings in this message include what’s known as the Lord’s Prayer as well as the Beatitudes. The focus of the Sermon on the Mount was how to live a life pleasing to God and the characteristics of Christian discipleship.
This sermon was a revelation through Jesus to His people. It served as a radical wake-up call for Christians to live wholeheartedly for God through faith, not simply through external actions of keeping the law. Our Savior used this passage to teach us how to live with the Kingdom of God in mind. The Sermon on the Mount is not simply a list of rules to follow. It is an invitation to live under grace and experience blessings and rewards from a living Christ-like.