Chapters 05-07

The Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount (the first and lengthiest of the five discourses of Jesus in Matthew) is one of the most rich and interesting, yet misunderstood sections of sacred Scripture...The Savior’s sermon is crucial—for it is one of the lengthiest, most complete expositions of what Christ expects from His disciples in their attitudes, behavior and service to God. In our day of “easy-believism” or antinomianism, the church growth movement (i.e. the idea of making the church grow by making it more like the world), the prosperity gospel (i.e. the teaching that Jesus came so we could be wealthy, healthy, happy and full of self-esteem), the emergent church movement (e.g. postmodernism applied to the church), Charismatic mysticism and existentialism and widespread nominalism (i.e. Christianity applies to church on Sunday and not much else spiritually or ethically), the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is as needed and relevant as ever.

...the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount applies to every Christian. The sermon is not an invitation to asceticism for spiritual elite. The message is not a form of Christian idealism that no one is really expected to follow. The teaching is not directed at only super spiritual believers who want to take their faith to another level. - Brian Schwertley