Sermons on the Mount

By William Merrifield

Come with the author to that place just outside of Capernaum, to once again hear, with renewed interest, the words that Jesus brought to a people who were so keenly aware of their shortcomings. Those who were ever mindful that God had promised them a Messiah, a redeemer-kinsman, one who had the power to heal and forgive sins. Jesus, the man from Galilee, a simple carpenter who came to die, to ransom repentant souls, and to rise again overcoming the power of the grave and the hold that dead had over us. Jesus the Son of God who came to "take away the sins of the world."

About the Author William Merrifield (Bill) is a Southern Baptist deacon, minister, and a retired army chaplain who holds a master's of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a master's of strategic studies from the US Army War College, and a doctor of ministry from Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary. With forty-plus years in the ministry and more than thirty years as a chaplain, Bill has made it his practice to maintain his strategic studies concerning the events happening in the world today. Since retiring, Bill has been working with various churches in Columbia SC speaking, preaching, teaching, and conducting funeral honors for former military and civilian personal. He has written four other books, The Threat from Within, published by Tate Publishing Company; Who Do You Say I Am, Jesus Called the Christ, Thoughts on Paul, and What Every American and Christian Should Know About Islam, published by the Christian Faith Publishing Company. Bill and his wife Jo Ann have been blessed with fifty-five years of marriage and reside in Columbia, SC.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098020835

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cover.jpg

Sermons

on the

MOUNT

William Merrifield

ISBN 978-1-0980-2082-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-2083-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2019 by William Merrifield

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

—Matthew 4:25¹

Introduction

Hopefully, others will view this as a scholarly study on the Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to call them the Sermons on the Sermons on the Mount, but for brevity’s sake, I chose "Sermons on the Mount." "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).

Regardless of the title, most Christians acknowledge that these three chapters in Matthew give us Jesus’s words to His disciples and those who followed after Him. These three chapters also record the moral doctrines of Christian discipleship. Christian discipleship, now there is a phase that is hard to get a handle on. It means something different to so many different denominations of the Christian faith that one is hard pressed to give a universally acceptable definition.

Matthew’s Jewishness is a matter of considerable debate. That being said, it is without a doubt the most fertile field of study of the Gospels for discovering the relationship between the Hebrew ideal of covenant and the Christian understanding of the reign of heaven. The primary reason for this is that Matthew’s Gospel is dominated by a structure that provides, for the most part, a Jewish viewpoint. However, a question arises as to how Matthew uses the Greek word pleroo (I fulfill or I complete) to validate Jesus’s nature as satisfying the Christian understanding of the model Messiah who introduces the reign of heaven as a new covenant community?

While Matthew’s Greek is not of the high caliber of Luke’s gospel, neither is it gutter Greek best known as the Greek of the marketplace, also called koine. It is a standard language that arose as a result of contact between multiple languages. Matthew takes these vital Jewish issues and dresses them in such a way as to have appeal to the Hellenized Jews, and at the same time the non-Jews of the region.

There are seventeen teachings presented in five divisions.² Found in these chapters are also the immortal utterances of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. These messages concern the ethical and spiritual authority with regard to their original background.³ Tradition ascribes the site of the Sermons to be near Capernaum, a place named Karne Hittim.

Somewhere between then and now, we have lost something? The power and the influence the sermons had on the believers of Jesus is lacking in the Sunday school, Bible studies, and the worship services. If we are to regain that which was lost, we must rediscover our sources in God’s Messiah. After all it is His voice that is obtaining a larger consideration in the hearts and minds of humanity. These are not simply abstract thoughts. They are clear, uncomplicated, and practical commandments. If we could only find the power to obey, we could establish a new social order in humanity.

Truth comes to the human heart in a diversity of ways. Some truths come to us like precious gemstones. Most of the time we keep them hidden away in a bank vault, to be brought out only on the most important of occasions. Our joy is in the simple act of possessing them. Other truths are like the undiscovered county.

For who puts up with all of lives humiliations? The whips and scorns of time, the abuse of supervisors, the proud man’s insults, the pangs of unrequited love, the law’s inefficiency, the rudeness of people in office and the mistreatment that the good must take from the bad…who would chose to bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, unless they were afraid of something after death, the undiscovered country from were no traveler returns, questions that have no answers, makes us rather bear those ills we know than have us run to others that we know not? Thus, the fear of death makes cowards of us all.⁴

But why do we fear death when our greatest satisfaction should be to enter into the newness of life in Christ, and to explore that life? There is a new sky above us, and a new earth underfoot. Our every thought and our every action are new because of what God has revealed to us. Everything that we do or think is different. The very fiber of who we are is changed, because of what God has done. We are who we are because God is who He is!

Everything that we do, God has made it possible for us to accomplish. Every action is good or bad, as it is in or out of harmony with God’s will. Everywhere God is, or ought to be first in our lives, with mankind coming after Him causing us to enter in and find in God the setting and the background for life. There is no part of life that is not changed when Jesus becomes a part of life. There is no fear in death, only the thought of a painful exit. All the depth of truth out of which we form our opinions and shape our lives, and from which our creeds draw their inspiration and dignity, is Jesus, the One and Only everlasting Truth.

How many have said, I will love God? How many have struggled to do what they could not do. To do what in their hearts they knew was right, and have failed miserably? How many have faced these questions from the wrong side? It is not whether you love God, but rather does God love you? If He does, and He does, and if you can know that He loves you, then you give yourself to Him totally to the assurance of that love. Then we find ourselves with a voracious thirst to know the One to whom we should return such love.

These sermons are not impossible things, but clear, simple, and practical commandments. Commandments that if obeyed would establish a new order of things in the social life of humanity. I would be lacking if I did not acknowledge that this volume is in response to the appeal of several friends. I am indebted to the scholars and expositors that have written on the verbal teachings of Jesus. I am grateful to my pastor, Brother Chuck, for a new vitality that has rekindled my thirst for the nuances of Scripture and the joy that finding them brings.

I must acknowledge that there is neither time nor space to write on all that is to be found in the sermons that Jesus preached there at Karne Hittim. I will endeavor to be true to both the teachings and words of those verses that I do write about. I must also acknowledge that much of what I write is taken in part from sermons I have preached over the years.

So let us go to that place just outside of Capernaum, to hear again with renewed interest the words that Jesus brought to a people who were so keenly aware of their shortcomings. Those who were ever mindful that God had promised them a Messiah, a redeemer-kinsman, one who had the power to heal and forgive sins. Jesus, the man from Galilee, a simple carpenter who came to die, to ransom repentant souls, and to rise again overcoming the power of the grave and the hold that dead had over us. Jesus the Son of God who came to "take away the sins of the world."⁵

Chapter One: The Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes

The Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes

The closing words of the fourth chapter of Matthew reads, "Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed Him." The large crowds that followed Jesus followed Him because of the miracles He performed. Certainly, what Jesus had to say was tantalizing. Certainly, what He had to say spoke to the masses and their lot. He spoke with such authority. But vacillating masses will always follow, in largest part, any individual who will heal infirmities, real or imagined, who will starve off the growing hunger of human existence, and who will reach out to the wretched underbelly of humanity. I am not undertaking even a passing examination of human behavior; all I contend is that a healing cult is sure to command the attention of the people, and the physician is at once the man of the hour and of all men most favored.

The teaming masses set apart from their religious and civil leaders will always seek to affirm that their God hears their cries. Come down Lord and liberate us. Liberate us from our tolls, liberate us from our pain, liberate us from our sins. It was to such people that Jesus addresses at least some of His Sermon on the Mount. One finds that Jesus considered His teachings to be of supreme importance. Christ always considered His words as being more significance that His miracles. Jesus’s declaration of "I am in the Father and the Father is in me is the prime directive. Only secondary is the act, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves." ⁶

In all that Jesus says there is the underlining current of the drive for life everlasting. "The father is in me, follow me! The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life,"⁷ hear me. It is far better to set sail upon a turbulent tempest sea, then remain tethered to an eroding shoreline. It is better to venture into the darkness with a solitaire candle, than curse the sun-drenched day. It is better to place one’s hope in the eternal, than to place one’s trust in a decaying world. Countless thousands have passed through history carrying the banner of salvation proudly proclaiming God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. To attempt to explain it is an exercise in futility. But to deny it is to condemn one’s soul.

If you are of a tame and timid soul, then believe the evidence. See the grandeur of a universe display. See the timeless turning of the seasons, each bringing its own radiant colors. Hear the cry of the newborn, and the last breath of the aged. Watch the unfolding of the years, and hear the eternal call, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth"⁸ "I am in the father, and the father is in me."⁹

There is no clear consensus as to the time, or the period of the ministry, of Jesus in which He gave this sermon. Matthew and Luke give us information of a sermon that though in some respects is contradictory and yet in others aspects are almost identical. There is no academic agreement, yet most scholars concede that a lapse of time and memory most likely account for the different discourses. Even if translation from the Aramaic to Greek were necessary the accounts as given should give the reader no cause for alarm.

It is generally thought by some scholars of New Testament literature that the Sermon on the Mount is a collection of teachings and that Jesus could not have given such a large amount of instruction at one setting. However, when taken with other verses, such as Matthew 14:13–21 (The Feeding of the Four Thousand), they certainly could have accounted for such a long discourse. It would most certainly have been toward evening, and the large crowd would have needed nourishment.

Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:17–36) is in a more abbreviated form. However, only Matthew’s account begins with, "He went up on a mountain side" (Matthew 5:1). We are not privy to the site of the mountain. Most believe it to be near the lake. We are told that He sat down, which is the normal method for the giving of instruction. In Jewish worship, one stands to read the Scriptures, and then sets to expand on the reading.

In the discourses of Jesus all are invited to come and listen. The teachings are often given to the inner circle, some to the disciples as a whole, and other times to the multitudes that came to listen. Having acknowledged this, the Beatitudes were spoken to those who were close to Jesus, and who had already learned of Him. Yet when carefully reading the passages, we can agree that all classes of listeners are included. Some words were directed to the apostles, some to the disciples, and some to the great constituency, which He simply calls the multitudes.

There are times in Scripture when Christ speaks and I find myself asking, What does He mean? Not merely what does His words mean, but what does He mean? I walk with Jesus and am almost afraid to hear Him speak. Not because of the words, but because of the meaning. It seems to me as if no sympathy could be so encompassing, no inflow of His richness could be so perfect; no joy could be so complete. As with humanity, I cry out, What cost?

There are those who view the Sermon on the Mount as the epitome of religion. Some declare that if one could live up to the height of the Sermon, that they are not far from the truth and the Kingdom of Heaven. Actually, they are wrong. Teaching was not the end-all of Jesus’s ministry. Jesus came to deliver the world from the caldron of sin. He was born into this boiling pot of human degradation so that He might die for it. That was the purpose for which Jesus came. That was the cost.

Humanity requires to be taught, but more importantly they need to be redeemed and regenerated. While ignorance is deplorable, it is only the shadow of sin. If one is willing one can learn. Knowledge overwhelms ignorance. "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin."¹⁰ Sin is to the soul a black moonless clouded night. Knowledge of the Divine is important, but more important is eternal life.

We are moved by the Divine instruction, but we are overjoyed by the Divine forgiveness. The Sermon on the Mount is but one of those things that accompany salvation, but it is not salvation. The Sermon is the foyer that leads to the Holy of Holies. Beyond the vestibule there is a chamber and, in the chamber, there is a cross, and on the cross, there is Salvation.

But the pendulum swings both ways and on the other extreme there are those who announce that as an ethical guide it is both imperfect and one-sided. These arrogant souls would tell us that this Sermon causes us to be lost in thought and unpractical hope; that there is nothing in the Sermon with which to make patriots and martyrs.

Such individuals acknowledge that meekness and mercifulness are all well and good in their place, but that pride, and public spiritedness are equally important, and that these virtues are not enumerated in the Sermon. They seem to cry out, I am my own, I own no other, what is good for me is good for the mainstream of humanity.

Such individuals do not ask, "Who is He that I may believe in Him?"¹¹ They fear to believe, they hide from it, they deny it. For to believe is to acknowledge their own immoralities. Their ingenuity is in discovering the flaws of intangible proof. Should they ask for more proof, it is because they are sure that some discrepancy will miraculously appear to release them from the disdainful duty to believe. They cry out, Show me more of Him, of what He is? And yet they find some reason why they should not believe in Him. The tendencies of such individuals are to develop superstition on one side, and a skeptical spirit on the other.

For all intents and purposes, such individuals confuse the issue and indorse the maxim that there are religious people who are not good, and good people who are not religious. Such contentions are based upon the assumption that the passive virtues, which are presented in these verses, are somewhat coarse, and are absolute and that there are no others. If these were the only teachings of Jesus, such might be the case, but His teachings are not confined to the Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus does here, in large part, is to stress the importance of the spirit in regulating principles of all our lives and practice. Perhaps a good question would be, What is Christianity according to the Sermon? It is not an institution but an inspiration; it is not a form but a force; and it is not a luxury but a lifestyle.

Here is to be found something much more than compensation and consolation. It is not a gift given for pity’s sake to make up for the loss of the privilege of a better life. It is a life force within itself. It brings out its own qualities and power for the individual who lives it. One may think it better or worse than some other life. They may strive to pass on to a fuller life. But while one lives in it, it should make him or her more profoundly aware of one’s own soul, more reverent toward God, more capable of thinking grand thought of humanity and of the possibilities that exist.

This then is the value of the Sermon; it is a counter-balance to an inadequate ceremony. Accordingly, Christianity is an internal quality, an outward manner, and a self-imposed disposition. Ceremony is serviceable only as it enshrines religion, it is form and formula only as it is suggestive of the Spirit, and it is passion, only as long as it fuels the inter fire of service to God. Christianity is a Spirit; it is an embryo in humanity that is brought to life in Christ. God is the Spirit and whatever Spirit there is in us is derived from God. The qualities of God, accentuate the qualities in us. It tells us that the important element in mankind is His Spirit. It calls us to look away from things that are seen, to the things that are unseen. God is not forest or mountain, or stream, He is Spirit. Likewise, humanity is neither money nor manna, nor material gain, we are spirit.

Lest I be misunderstood, I am not against ceremony. Ceremony may be a great medium of spiritual influence. However, there is nothing divine in a sloppy, shoddy, and spontaneous service. The church should offer the very best to God in service and sacrifice. A ceremony must be the outward symbol of the invisible reality of the Sprit. "A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…"¹² The Christian may worship to the accompaniment of stately hymns and echoing anthems, and hollowed creeds if they wish, but they must worship "in spirit and in truth."¹³

The Bible is not an emotionless piece of literature. It is not a puzzle in which the various parts fit into one another. It is not a history merely of God’s people. It is so much more. It is a Spirit. The invisible part of Scripture is far greater than that which is visible. The mind of the Master is far greater than His methods. The Bible is the outer shell. The real Bible is not seen. The voice with which it speaks is authoritative but not audible. "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."¹⁴ Therefore, Christianity is a Spirit, and must be both an agency and a force. Get the Spirit right and everything else falls into place.

"Now