Since I have grown in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus and all that He is and has and does for us, as we receive from Him, I have noticed that while He was on earth, Jesus had a two-fold ministry.
1. Bring the Law of Moses back to its pristine, absolute, and humanly impossible standard
2. Announce the Gospel: that through the death and resurrection of Christ Himself, we would be made righteousness before God.
For years, I had heard preachers and pastors tell me that the Sermon on the Mount was a guideline for living, or that these precepts would demonstrate what every person would become when they were born again.
When we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our understanding of God's Word, we find that Jesus is speaking to different groups of people, all of whom have different understandings, or different agendas.
To the multitudes, Jesus was a celebrity, someone whom they found fascinating.
To the disciples, Jesus was a great teacher, someone from whom they could learn how to live.
Then there were those who understood who Jesus is: the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God who came into the world to save us, and not just from death to life, but for all time!
So, we read the context for Matthew 5 through 7 starts with the two groups: the multitudes and the disciples. This group of disciples, by the way, indicates a group much larger than the final Twelve who Jesus called specifically.
Those twelve Apostles were called in Matthew 10: 1-4.
Keep in mind, also, that while these disciples at the Sermon on the Mount came to Jesus to learn from Him, apostles like Peter, James, John, and Matthew were selected by Jesus:
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." (John 15: 16)
And for all of us today:
"8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." (Romans 5: 8-9)
He has chosen us!
Now, back to the Sermon on the Amount. These sermons were for disciples.
Now, Jesus did not die on the Cross so that He could serve as an example, but that we would receive Himself:
His righteousness:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
He is our Wisdom, as well as our sanctification and our redemption (1 Corinthians 1: 30)
He came not just to die for us, but to give us Life:
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)
And He lives in us:
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1: 27)
Jesus is our life (Colossians 3: 1-4), not a pattern, not a discipline, but the Person who lives in us:
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." (1 John 4: 9)
Yet for people who want to be disciples, or those who boast in their law-keeping, they need to understand the full implications of the law, that God gave the law so that no man would boast in his own works (Romans 3: 19-20)
The multitudes were not listening to the Sermon on the Mount, and many of Jesus' disciples eventually abandoned Him:
"64But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 65And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
66From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?" (John 6: 64-67)
And in Luke:
"And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14: 25-26)
Discipleship is impossible for us. We need to receive all things from Jesus!
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 5)
Yet as long as we think that we can do something, anything without the grace of God through Christ, we frustrate His grace in our lives (Galatians 5: 4)
Yet human beings need to see God's standard is impossible, the Sermon on the Mount, they see their need for a Savior.
And then we can receive His invitation:
"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." (John 15: 15)
Jesus wants us to be His friends, and moreover God the Father wants us to receive Him as Father, that we may be His Sons:
"9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren," (Hebrews 2: 9-11)
and
"1Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3: 1-3)
and
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
The Sermon on the Mount is for disciples, not friends or sons, and Jesus is inviting us to be Sons and receive all things from God the Father through this Spirit of Sonship (Romans 8: 15; Galatians 4: 6)
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