The Sermon on the Mount is a life hack of Jesus Kingdom. It’s a manifesto to a new way to live.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a message near the beginning of His ministry and it is the longest of Jesus’ sermons recorded in the New Testament. 

Matthew 5:1-2 NIV “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying”

Matthew 5:1-2 MSG “When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:”

The Sermon the mount is a message for the followers of Jesus, for those who want to climb with him.

• A tradition had built up around the religious Law. 

• The scribes and the Pharisees enforced the law but their loyalty we’re in their traditions. 

• When the rabbis taught, they would never initiate any teaching on their own authority, or even the authority of the Word of God. Rather they taught traditions by quoting famous rabbis. 

But Jesus’ teaching was different. Jesus taught with his own authority and the authority of the Word of God. 

Jesus did not say, “As rabbi so-and-so has written. . . . .” Rather Jesus proclaimed, “I say to you . . .” or “The Scriptures say. . . .”   

Jesus’ message was a revolutionary one based on relationships not religion, first a relationship with God and then a relationship with others.

The whole Sermon on the Mount deals with our relationship with God and our relationships with each other.

It calls for radical change in how we relate to God and how we relate to each other. 

Over the next few months as we dig through Matthew 5,6,7 Jesus will call us to live different. He calls us to a deeper relationship with him and one another.

We see here in vs 1 and 2 Jesus begins his sermon with a foundational life principle. 

Jesus wants to draw us away from the crowds to be with him on the mountain. 

We will see quickly that a life of Following Jesus Is Radical.

This is a radical invitation. 

Throughout the Bible, Jesus asked people to follow Him using the simple phrase, “Come, follow me.” Following Jesus meant giving up everything you owned and leaving it behind to embrace the unknown.

A new way to live.

In Matthew 9, Jesus meets a tax collector named Matthew. As a tax collector, Matthew’s life was all about money. Yet when Jesus called Matthew, Matthew sold all he had and followed Jesus. As a result of Matthew’s faith, he became one of Jesus’ closest friends. Matthew walked with Jesus daily, seeing miracles performed and lives changed.

Jesus begins his teaching with with an invitation to you and I to climb the mountain and be with Him. 

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Jesus initiates a relationship with us.  Are you ready to climb?