Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Sermon on the Mount - Series



In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to His disciples, "You are the salt of the earth." Then, as now, salt served a variety of functions. Before the days of refrigeration, salt was used widely as a preservative. Jesus' call for followers to be "salt of the earth" carries those uses, symbolically, into our spiritual lives.

As salt preserves meat from rotting, believers in Jesus, distributed around the world, help to preserve humanity from falling into godlessness, immorality, chaos, and the resulting judgment. Salt permanently changes the flavor of food, just as the influence of godly people can change a culture. The main point is that Christians serve a godly purpose in the world simply by living out what we believe about Jesus.

Jesus also calls His disciples the "light of the world." Spiritually speaking, there is no light in the world apart from Jesus Christ. His light shines through every person who belongs to Him. In this way, the light of Christ is distributed into the darkness in every corner of humanity. That this light is meant to be visible to the world is also important. Jesus adds to this metaphor by referring to a city positioned on top of a hill. It is not meant to be hidden; a city on a hill is meant to be seen and found even in the darkness of night.

The Sermon on the Mount consists of Matthew 5–7, which features the teaching of Jesus on a variety of subjects pertaining to the Christian life, discipleship, and life in the kingdom of God. This sermon ranks among the most well-known and beloved passages of Scripture, and portions of its content are famous even outside of the church.

The Sermon on the Mount is instruction for the Christian community and for life within the kingdom of God as it enjoys a pilgrim status in the world. Furthermore, it is not a set of principles that ensure success as measured by the world’s standards or an outline of principles for positive thinking. Only those who have rested in Christ alone have any hope of living up to the sermon’s teaching. But ultimately, the sermon does not merely give us vital teaching on Christian living—although it does that. The chief purpose of the sermon is to reveal to us the supreme authority of Jesus over all other teachers (Matt. 7:28) and to drive us to faith in Him as the One who fulfills the law of God on behalf of His people.

The following teachings are a 7-part audio series on the Sermon on the Mount. These recordings were part of our Gospel of Matthew series and is taught by Pastor Bob Lawrenz.


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