The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached, Part 1

I want to share with you an illustration that I've been saving for six months And just listen very closely as I read this to you There was a young gifted minister whose preaching was a cut above the ordinary As the ranks of his congregation began to swell, his head followed suit After he had delivered his latest barn burner one morning, one of his loyal parishioners earnestly shook his hand and said, You're becoming one of the greatest expositors of this generation, Pastor

As he squeezed his head into the car and slid behind the steering wheel, his weary wife alongside him and all the kids stuffed into the back seat, he could not resist sharing the story. misses Franklin told me this morning that she thought that I was one of the greatest expositors of this generation, he said proudly, caught up in the heady swirl of the woman's exaggerated compliment No response Fishing for affirmation, he glanced at his silent wife with a weak smile and prod, I wonder just how many great expositors there are in this generation

Unable to resist the opportunity to set their record straight, she said quietly, one less than you think, my dear Man, every time I read that, man, that just makes me laugh When you think of great preachers, you can name guys like Moody and guys like Barnhouse and Wesley and and Edwards and Spurgeon and and you can name a whole slew of great preachers But when it comes to great sermons, we can probably name them on one hand And so tonight, we're going to begin a series which is probably the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher That ever lived

It occupies three chapters of the New Testament, and yet it has inspired a countless volume Of commentaries and expositions and exegesis Not to mention the many lives that have been changed just because They've listened and responded to the Serm on the Mount Tonight, we want to get an overview And begin to uncover some of the gems that are here in these three chapters And so we have three points that we want to cover with you Hopefully, you have picked up an outline and can follow along with us But the points are very simple

We want to look at the purpose of this sermon, its preface, and then conclude with some principles surrounding this sermon that will guide us from this day for But the first thing I want to notice with you this evening is the purpose of this sermon, a sermon that could be read in 15 to 20 minutes Yet it says more than most preachers could say in a lifetime And Jesus, in this sermon, he makes a plea He makes a plea that pretty much is summed up in Matthew chapter 6, verse number 8, when he records these words: Therefore, do not be like Them

That has been the resounding theme of our God for centuries concerning his people, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament He says, some, my people are to be different They're not to be like the world After all, they are aliens They are strangers They are citizens of another country And therefore, the admonition is: don't be like them And as I read that in Matthew chapter 6, verse 8. I'm reminded of the fact that there are so many of us that long to be like the world We really do We try to get as close to the world as we can to somehow blend in with the world

When the Bible speaks explicitly the other way, that somehow we are to be different than the world And Jesus says, I don't want you to be like these people Who are these people? Well, those are the religious leaders of the day Who claimed to have a relationship with the living God, but was only superficial It was all on the external, there was nothing on the inside And Jesus says, that's not the way my people are to be From the beginning of time until the end of time God has always and will always call out a people for him. A people to be a holy people, set apart from the world

To obey God and not be among those of the world because they belong to God Turn back with me in your Bible to Leviticus chapter. 18 And before we get actually into the purpose of this, I just want to kind of set the tone for you Leviticus chapter 18 is a chapter That God uses to inform us on how He addressed His people after He had rescued them from slavery, from Egyptian bondage And you'd think that after the miraculous delivery in which these people went through, that they would always be committed to serving God. I mean, after all, when

When God parts the waters in a miraculous way, and you walk through on dry land, and everybody else who is the enemy is drowned, God has done a great work And so you'd think that these people would really be fired up about always following the Lord God And so he says in Leviticus 18, these words: Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel And say to them, I am the Lord your God You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived Nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you You shall not walk in their st

You are to perform my judgments and keep my statutes to live in accord with them. I am the Lord your God That phrase, I am the Lord your God, surrounds the mandates You're not to walk according to these people in Canaan Nor like the place in which you lived before Why? Because I am your God, and you are my people, and my people are to walk as I walk My people are to walk in a way in which when people look at them, they will see me You are different than them Don't be like them, is the call Be like me Is the mandate

Well, turn back with me or turn over to me to 1 Samuel, and we'll see what the Lord did about that or what the people did about that Excuse me God's people did not exactly rise to the challenge In fact, it says in First Samuel chapter 8 Verse number four, these words Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah And they said to him, Behold, You have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations Samuel, we want you to do something for us We want to be like all the other nations

So we want you to appoint a king so we will be like all the other n But the king was displeasing, or but this thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people In regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, they have rejected me from being k over them Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt, even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and ser other gods

God says they did exactly what I told them not to do. I told them, don't be like those other people, don't serve their gods, you serve me, but they didn't listen And now they want a king, like everybody else has got a king My kingship, evidently, is not sufficient for them So the Lord says, Now then listen to their voice However, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them So, in verses 10 and following, Samuel does that We're going to give you a king And this is what's going to happen

And he begins to spell out all the negative aspects of what it means to have an earthy king Now note, verse number 18 Samuel says, Then you will cry out in the day because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves But the Lord will not answer you in that day One day you're going to cry out to the Lord because the king that you have is not going to be sufficient And God will not answer you Do you think that made a difference? Read verse 19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, no

But there shall be a k over us, that we also may be what? Like all the n You see, they were interested in being like the world They weren interested in being like God So they wanted to have the same kind of rulership among them as the world had God warned them against that You turn over to Psalm 106, verse number 35, it says this: but they mingled with the nations And learned their practices and served their idols, which became a snare to them That's a sad indictment of the nation of Israel When the king comes on the scene in the book of Matthew, he has the same theme

You are not to be like them You are not to be like the world You are to be like me, for I am your king, as you recall There have been 400 silent years between the Old Testament and the book of Malachi to the book of Matthew And finally, God sends the true king. I like what Stephen says over in Acts chapter 7 when he was talking to those leaders there in Jerusalem, indicting them Because the prophets kept coming back to the nation of Israel, telling them, Look, you're going the wrong way You're doing the wrong things You've got to come back to your king And they killed all the prophets

And so Stephen would say, which of the prophets did you not kill? Answer, you killed them all Everybody who tried to get you back on track, you killed You did not want to listen to them, including the king of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ And when the king came in Matthew In the book of Matthew, what his emphasis was, that is Matthew's emphasis, was to emphasize that Jesus and his monarchy has arrived He's here And so the king came, was baptized, was tempted, and began to preach all through the region of Judea In the synagogues in Galilee And his sermons to his followers echo the same

As God in the Old Testament, because he was God in the flesh His theme was the fact that his people are different They're different from the world They're different on how they solve conflicts They're different on how they run their business They're different on how they interact with people They're different on how they respond to conflict They're different on how they worship They're different even in the area of what satisfies them My people are different

And so Jesus comes on the scene and begins to preach this sermon in Matthew chapter 5 and outlines for all who listen what kingdom living is all about And so the purpose of this sermon is wrapped up in seven key elements And I'm going to kind of take you through the Serm on the Mount in a very sketchy kind of overview before we get to verses 1 and 2 and talk about the preface to the sermon But the purpose is this Number one, to interpret our identity To interpret our identity That's verses 3 to 12 You see, it's important to understand who you are

And you think that people who are children of the king would be rich But Jesus says they're poor You think that those who are children of the king would laugh, but Jesus says, no, they mourn And you think that those who are children of the king would be powerful, but Jesus says, no, they're very meek and they're very gentle

And you think that those who are children of the king would be well liked by all those in whom they come in contact with, but Jesus says, No, nope, they going to revile you, they're going to persecute you, they're going to insult you, they're going to speak all manner of evil against you And so Christ begins to spell out the identity of those people in his kingdom And that's totally contrary to anything anyone can ever imagine But that's kingdom living because Jesus was unlike any king they could ever imagine And so he came to proclaim And inter our identity Make it very clear

This is your character This is what you're like on the inside, and how it's going to manifest itself on the outside And so we will look at what it means to identify our identity But the second purpose is to articulate our authority That's in verses 13 to 16 This is who you are, Christ is going to say And as a result of who you are, this is How things are going to be You will be salt and you will be liked and you will have impact and you will have influence You will be able to preserve the corruption of the world As you proclaim the solution to the world, you are salt and you are light

You have authority, you have impact Because of who you are And so he begins to articulate our authority in the world as kingdom citizens And then thirdly, the third purpose is found in verses 17 to 48, and that is to manifest our morality It depicts our attitude toward the moral law of God And Jesus will say, I did not come to abolish the law, I came to actually fulfill the law And therefore, citizens of my kingdom understand the law of God and how it governs their behavior

In fact, he would go on to say that entrance into God's kingdom was impossible unless the righteousness of those who listened Was greater than that of the Pharisees And that was a powerful statement because you see, the people round about would look at the Pharisees and say, man, these people are so righteous They are so godlike. I mean, they dress like they're godlike They pray like they're godlike They tell us they're godlike Therefore, they must be godlike

And then Jesus, the king, comes on the scene and says, Wait a minute, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees You'll never enter the kingdom of heaven Why? Because you see, people in my kingdom are not concerned about external ritualism They're not concerned about geographical location in terms of their worship They're not concerned about social activism The people of my kingdom have the law of God written on their hearts And I believe that that's what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 31:3

When the Lord God said, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Hearts That's what Jesus said in Matthew 5:2 Their law or my law is going to be embedded in their hearts And because it is, It will manifest itself in a way unlike anything that you have ever seen before Because that's the way people in my kingdom. R And then he gives six illustrations Six illustrations What about murder, adultery, divorce, swearing, revenge, and love? But I'll begin with the phrase, you have heard that it was said, but I say unto you

And he totally blew out of the water everything they had ever been taught by the Pharisees You have heard that it was said, You shall not murder But I want to let you know that when God's law is written on your hearts, We're talking about more than just the outward physical act of killing somebody We're talking about the inward heart attitude of hatred toward another brother

And so Jesus would take the commandments that he gave all the way back in the book of Exodus, in the book of Deuteronomy, and help you understand the morality behind them, the character of God that helped put them on tablets Because the Ten Commandments define the character of God And say, Look, you think this is just murder when you kill somebody But I want to let you know that if you hate your brother, it's murder You think that you shouldn't commit adultery And that's true, you shouldn't

But I want to let you know that if you lust after a woman, you have already committed adultery in your heart And the people sitting listening to this were extremely shocked to hear what he was saying He goes on and talks about revenge and love and what true love is all about, unlike anything they had ever heard before The people of my kingdom, they manifest my morality They have my morals My morals are not just external acts, but they come from an inward heart that's been revolutionized by me He destroyed the tradition, yet he reaffirmed the authority of the Word of God

The fourth element, or the fourth purpose, is found in chapter 6, verses 1 to 18, and that is he prescribes our piety He prescribes our piety, our religious devotion to the duties and practices And he gives three illustrations: one about giving, and one about praying, and one about fast He says, when you're involved in my kingdom and you begin to worship me, you do it because there's sincerity, there's authenticity, there's not hypocrisy Nor some kind of mechanical form of rel He says, My people, when they give, they give in secrecy My people, when they pray, they pray in simplicity

And my people, when they fast, they fast out of sincerity He says, look, my people are not into the show The Pharisees were into the show Having everybody see what they gave, blowing trumpets every time they gave a big amount of money, making sure that their faces looked like they were fasting Making sure that when they stood in the marketplace, they would yell and say, Oh, God, I'm glad I'm not like the Pharisee. I'm excuse me, the tax collector. I'm glad I'm not like those people that I fast and I give to you

And they would say many words, thinking that because they had the outward articulation of certain verses of the Bible, that people would think they were holy And Jesus would say, Listen, when you want to pray, go to your closet, shut the door, pray in secret And your Father will reward you openly When you want to give, Be so secret Your right hand doesn't even know what your left hand is doing That's how secret it should be when you give Because you serve an audience of one You serve the living God He is the one who observes And so he prescribes our piety in verses 1 to 18 of chapter 6

And then in verses 19 to 34, he portrays our priority My people in my kingdom have different ambitions They have a different devotion Our attitude toward material possessions and wealth is different We don't worship money We worship God You can't serve both You can't worship both The world is preoccupied with food and clothing and the temporal things But my people and my kingdom are concerned and preoccupied with seeking first my kingdom and my righteousness, knowing that all those external things Food and clothes will be added unto them They will receive those things

Why? Because they have a Father in heaven who cares for them and they have a faith In that Father that sustains them And so they seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness And fifth or sixth The sermon will reveal our responsibility in chapter 7, verses 1 to 20 Our responsibility to fellow citizens Not to judge them, but to serve them Our responsibility to our Father in heaven That is to keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, because he cares to give

And our responsibility. to false prophets, to be aware of them, to know about their devices, because they keep people from following and going into the narrow gates They lead people down the broad road of destruction And so you've got to beware of those people And we'll learn about what that means And then lastly, this sermon defines our duty Verses 21 to 27 of chapter 7 Only the man who obeys Christ as Lord is w Jesus says in verse number 21, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven

The people of my kingdom understand what my will is, and they set out to fulfill that will They set out to obey My will, know that they serve the true living God They do hear They do listen And the result? Very short, very sweet, very simple to the point In verse number 28 of chapter 7, it says: The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, The multitudes were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes They were amazed. H's this guy who comes on the scene He doesn't quote anybody He just begins to speak

And they marvel at his words In chapter 7, verse number 46 of John, it says, Never a man spoke like this man In Mark 1, 22, the people were astonished It says that his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes In short, that's the purpose of the sermon Over the next few months, we will articulate all those for you into great detail What do those mean by examining it verse by verse so that we might understand what it means to live like a child of the king? It's the greatest sermon ever preached By the greatest preacher who ever lived.