Matthew 5

Order of Service

• Prayer of Invocation
• Westminster Shorter Catechism — Questions 96 & 97 (Lord's Supper)
• Hymn — Shepherd of Souls, Refresh and Bless (#424)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — What a Friend We Have in Jesus (#629)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount

Scripture: Matthew 4:23–5:1

I. The Sermon on the Mount Is for Israel

A. Matthew is a deeply Jewish Gospel, presenting Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and as a recapitulation of Israel's history

1. The genealogy in Matthew traces Jesus back to Abraham, the father of Israel, in contrast to Luke's genealogy which goes back to Adam
2. In Matthew 2:15, Matthew applies Hosea 11:1 — "Out of Egypt I called my son" — to Jesus, identifying him with corporate Israel called out of Egypt

B. Jesus recapitulates the history of Moses and Israel through the first four chapters of Matthew

1. Herod's slaughter of male infants mirrors Pharaoh's command in the Exodus
2. Jesus's 40-day fast in the desert recalls Moses's 40 days on Sinai (Exodus 34:28) and Israel's 40 years of wilderness wandering
3. Jesus takes upon himself the baptism of repentance, identifying fully with exiled, disobedient Israel

C. Jesus answers Satan's three temptations with quotes from Deuteronomy — the book of the second giving of the law — succeeding where Israel failed

1. Deuteronomy 8:3
2. Deuteronomy 6:16
3. Deuteronomy 6:13

D. Jesus is the obedient Suffering Servant — the fulfillment of Isaiah's servant songs — who succeeds where Israel failed, then sits down on a mountain as the new Moses to give New Covenant law

II. The Sermon on the Mount Is for Gentiles

A. Classical dispensationalism (C. I. Scofield, Charles Ryrie) argued the Sermon on the Mount is not for the church but for Israel in the millennial kingdom; the context of Matthew refutes this

B. Matthew 4:12–17 records Jesus preaching in the "Galilee of the Gentiles," fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy — a region with a significant Gentile population

C. Matthew 4:25 lists the diverse crowds present: Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan — a mixed Jewish and Gentile multitude

1. William Hendriksen notes the Decapolis was a federation of ten largely Gentile cities extending northeast of Samaria and Galilee
2. The scene echoes the Pharisees' words in John 12:19: "Look, the whole world is going after him"

III. The Sermon on the Mount Is for the Liberated People of God

A. Moses prophesied of a coming prophet like himself in Deuteronomy 18:15: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me… it is to him you shall listen"

1. At the Transfiguration, the Father echoes this: "This is my beloved Son; listen to him" — with Moses present as a witness

B. Jesus gives law not to a people in bondage but to a people he has already begun to liberate

1. In Matthew 4:24, Jesus heals the sick and casts out demons — reversing the curse of the Covenant (cf. Deuteronomy) and breaking Satan's dominion
2. Unlike Sinai, there is no thunder, lightning, or people trembling at a distance; Jesus sits down among his disciples as a friend

C. The law of the Sermon on the Mount is the law of Liberty (cf. James), given to those freed from the curse of the Mosaic law

1. The sermon contains no ceremonial or civil law — only the moral law, the application of the Ten Commandments
2. The law of God is no longer written on stone but inscribed on the heart by the Spirit, as promised in Jeremiah 31

D. Jesus internalizes and heightens the law, moving beyond externals to the heart — as will be seen throughout the sermon

1. Anger equals murder in the heart; lust equals adultery in the heart
2. Greater grace brings greater responsibility to obedience (cf. Hebrews 12)

E. In Matthew 7:28–29, the crowds recognize Jesus teaches as one with authority, not as the scribes — he is Yahweh in the flesh giving New Covenant law face to face, as God spoke to Moses like a friend

1. The Pharisees distorted the law into externalism; Jesus reveals its true, inward meaning
2. The Sermon on the Mount must always be heard with eyes fixed on Christ the Law-Giver and Law-Fulfiller, not as a set of rules to earn heaven