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1. What are the traits of people that Jesus calls blessed in v. 1-12?

2. Who is supposed to bear these traits? What does that mean for us today?

3. What kind of people does Jesus expect his followers to be? What kind of faith is Jesus asking for?

4. Considering v. 13-16, how does Jesus expect His followers to interact with the world around them?

5. How can Jesus’ command to his disciples, both in character (v. 1-12) and in their interaction with the world (v. 13-16) be followed today? What challenges might we come across?

6. Why does Jesus pivot to talking about the law in v. 17?

7. How does Christ relate to the law? How do His commands and actions fulfill instead of tear down the law?

This week we will be covering  the start of the Sermon on the mount. This sermon will serve as our focus for the next few sessions.

As per usual, your agenda should be to fellowship, then pray, then read Matthew 5:1-20, then get into the discussion and see where it takes you. It is okay to skip over or even add questions, these questions are just a guideline. As always I have provided you some answers for these questions if people seem a bit stumped.

1. What are the traits of people that Jesus calls blessed in v. 1-12?

   • To be humble and seek God. He also mentions being willing to suffer for the sake of God.

2. Who is supposed to bear these traits? What does that mean for us today?

   • Jesus’ disciples are meant to have these traits, these are the traits of the citizens of heaven.

   • In other words, we as Christians are meant to emulate these things.

3. What kind of people does Jesus expect his followers to be? What kind of faith is Jesus asking for?

   • He is asking for a complete conviction, an absolute devotion to God

   • He is also asking for humility. Humility to allow suffering, humility to admit your own poverty in spirituality, humility to wait on God and submit to Him.

4. Considering v. 13-16, how does Jesus expect His followers to interact with the world around them?

   • We as christians are meant to act as a flavor enhancer, preserving agent, and representative to the world.

5. How can Jesus’ command to his disciples, both in character (v. 1-12) and in their interaction with the world (v. 13-16) be followed today? What challenges might we come across?

   • These are often contrary to human nature, and especially American culture. We want to be proud, we want to force our way, we want to be high and mighty and be the authority on things. Yet Jesus asks us to be humble, and meek, and admit our own deficiencies.

   • Only by the Spirit can we become this, we ourselves will fail at all of these.

6. Why does Jesus pivot to talking about the law in v. 17?

   • His teaching is often criticized by the experts of the law because Jesus is rejecting legalism and embracing the heart of the law. This becomes even more evident in the next session.

7. How does Christ relate to the law? How do His commands and actions fulfill instead of tear down the law?

   • Jesus fulfills the prophecies, and is the culmination of the law and prophets. It all points to Christ, and Christ then tells us that we need to internalize the law, not just follow it externally (which ends up as legalism).

Introduction

Hello everyone, welcome to session 7. This session is the opening of a larger section of Matthew commonly known as the sermon on the mount. The set up here is that Jesus has begun his ministry and then has gone onto a mountain to speak to his disciples. There is a crowd here but they are mainly sitting in the background, most of this sermon is directed towards the disciples specifically. 

The Beatitudes

Throughout this opening section, there is a list of “blessed are”s. What is attached to these “blessed are”s are qualities expected of the disciples, and of us as Jesus’ subsequent followers. Which is to say that this portion is very easily directly related to how we ought to live as Christians, it’s a list of qualities that we should see in our own selves and can rely on God to bring about in the process known as sanctification.

The first attribute listed is “poor in spirit.” This does not refer to those who are financially poor or disadvantaged (France, 114), rather it refers to those who are poor in a spiritual sense. On the surface this may sound a bit contradictory: Wouldn’t Jesus want his followers to be rich in spirituality? This poverty of spirit acts, in actuality, as a sign of actual spiritual authenticity and maturity. These are people unlike the Pharisees that puff themselves up and want to look like spiritual powerhouses. Instead these are people that will humbly admit that they, like everyone else, struggle in one or more aspects of spirituality (Turner, 76). Those who are poor in spirit are those who are spiritual humble and are pursuing a genuine faith which means admitting that we can do nothing without God and that it is only through Christ that we attain righteousness. It is these people who will get to be apart of the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus is establishing. 

The next attribute expected of us is mourning. This is not mourning due to bereavement, but is mourning due to affliction (France, 115; Turner, 76). These are those suffering for the sake of their faith (France, 115; Turner, 76). While persecution might be rather scarce here in America it is a prevalent theme throughout scripture and is alive and well elsewhere in the world today. 

Many of the prophets suffered because of their message. The great Elijah who challenged the priests of Ba’al had his very life threatened time and time again, to the point that after that wondrous event on Mt. Carmel, Jezebel threatened his life so greatly that he ran about 90 miles to Beersheba. For a modern equivalent that is the same as running all the way from New York City to Philadelphia. Beyond just Elijah we see other prophets suffer worse fates, like Isaiah, through whom God sent an angel that devastated the Assyrian army. He was sawn in half because of his message. Time and time again the prophets are scorned, threatened, and even killed because of their faith. 

We also see this suffering in the Apostles as well. According to tradition (for more look at places like Eusebius) all but one of the apostles were martyred. They were also not the only ones who suffered a terminal fate due to their faith either, we see others like Stephen being killed, and there are also the numerous accounts of Christians being executed in the Colosseum. 

Thus it fits that we should expect to see persecution in our own lives as well. Elsewhere in the world, places where Christianity is not well accepted, we do see this persecution alive and well. Probably the most obvious modern example would be China or Iran, both of which are heavily anti-Christian for their own reasons.

All of this is to say that we as Christians should expect persecution, and those who are mourning because they are suffering as a direct result of their faith will be comforted. God will not abandon His own, and despite Christianity’s long history with martyrdom, God does care for those afflicted and does comfort them. Additionally if you take a look at Revelation 6, you will see that God intends to bring about justice on their behalf as well.

The next beatitude I have seen translated as gentle (NASB), meek (KJV), or humble (CSB). These are people who refuse to enforce their own will and throw their weight about (France, 115). Instead these are those who humbly wait on the Lord. These are people who have been duly humbled by God and have let go of their pride (Turner, 76). It is these people that will inherit the Earth, contrary to what our culture would imply. For Americans it’s all about flexing your strengths like a peacock, trying your very best to be the big dog in the room. Yet Christ is asking us to be the opposite, to speak softly and let God carry the big stick. 

The next attribute listed is a much more straightforward and comforting one. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. Simply put in more understandable language this says: those who seek God will find Him. 

Our next piece needs little to no comment. Those who are merciful will receive mercy in kind. This is the basic ideal that we should be seeing in our churches, and is woefully lacking in the stereotypical “hateful” church. 

The next portion requires a bit more parsing out on exactly what is meant by the “pure in heart.” Simply put these are people who love God with all their hearts and follow Him with undivided loyalty (France, 116). You need not look far to find this same idea elsewhere in scripture, mainly because it’s on just about every page. These people will “see God.” Let us not forget that our end destination is not a grave, we will be with the Lord for eternity. But in order to find this reconciliation with God, we must pursue Him with all that we are, a pure heart. 

The next beatitude is more of a role: peacemaker. This is beyond just being peaceable, but refers to those who actively seek to reconcile with others and seeks to reconcile two other people (Turner, 77). Ultimately as Christians our mission is not to tear down the wicked, but is to establish peace on Earth. Peace between people and, more importantly, peace between God and mankind. Jesus has facilitated this peace already, we are just the messengers.

Verse 10 is very similar to what we discussed in verse 4. Those who are persecuted are not abandoned by God, but rather they are seen and they are comforted and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. God is not casting these people aside, but is fully embracing them.

Verses 11-12 expand this idea of persecution even more, telling us what to do when we face suffering induced by our faith. Simply put we are told to rejoice, be glad that we are facing persecution. We rejoice because we face a greater reward after the resurrection. 

Salt and Light

The next few verses compare Christians to salt and light. To be the salt of the earth means to act in a way of preservation and added flavor. Salt, as we know it mainly today, is a flavor enhancer. There is something to be said about adding value to the lives of those around us, but just as much can be said about Salt’s other role of preservation. In the modern day we still cure things like beef jerky, but in the ancient world, essentially a world without refrigeration, salt would have been the primary means of preserving food. Similarly we as Christians must preserve the way Christ taught us to live.

This role of preservation becomes all the more clear in Jesus’ question here in v. 13: what happens if the salt loses its flavor? If you left a shaker of salt on the counter for a year, it would still be just as salty. The idea of salt losing is flavor is inherently connected to the kind of salt Jesus and His disciples would have encountered. Our salt is typically purified through scientific means, but their salt (likely dug up from the dead sea) (France, 117) would have had impurities in it that would lead to the sodium chloride (the actual salt) diminishing over time. Thus we must remain pure, otherwise the impurities in our hearts and in our lives will eventually cause us to lose our “saltiness” or more aptly our wisdom (France, 117).

Jesus and the Law

In the last bit of our passage for this section Jesus shifts to speaking about “the law and the prophets.” This is a common term to refer to the Old Testament (France, 119), and I will be referring to it as such for this guide. 

Jesus is about to put forth in our next section a list of “you have heard it said” for a few OT laws and then will offer a new teaching on them. For example the first two verses of the next section can be summed up as: You have heard it said “you shall not murder” but those who are angry with their brother are guilty of murder. Thus it makes sense that Jesus is giving us this section to prepare us for what He’s about to say. 

Jesus isn’t looking to get rid of the Old Testament, nor is He intent to just leave it be and repeat what has already been put forth. Instead Jesus is going to give new teaching on the existing scripture. He will in the next section, and further on throughout Matthew, take an existing law and make it internal instead of external. Instead of just not doing the external act of murder, Jesus wants us to not hate: an internal thing. 

He has come not to just repeat nor to repeal, He is doing what in improv is called “yes and.” Jesus is affirming the former teachings of the Old Testament, and these teachings are still Spirit inspired and profitable for teaching an understanding. Yet Jesus will add on even more to them and truly makes the law even harder to follow. It truly is good news that He also gave to us the Spirit of God to enable us to follow His much harder expansion of the law.

Bibliography

France, R. T. Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985.

Turner, David, and Darrell L. Bock. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 11: Matthew and Mark. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2005.