In this section, we spend six weeks in the Sermon on the Mount (excluding the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer) found in Matthew 5-7. As background, I have used Studies on the Sermon on the Mount by Oswald Chambers, The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air by Soren Kierkegaard, The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox, and On the Sermon on the Mount by St. Augustine.
(Autumn 2019)
Sermon on the Mount – Week 1(a) – Matt. 5:1-20
We will find in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, the highest morals and the perfect standard of the Christian life. – St. Augustine
Sermon on the Mount – Week 1(b) – Matt. 5:1-20
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Sermon on the Mount – Week 2(a) – Matt. 5:21-37
“In the perfect sense, forgiveness is not reconciliation when forgiveness is asked for; but it is reconciliation to need to forgive beforehand long before the other is person is perhaps thinking of seeking forgiveness.”
– Soren Kierkegaard
Sermon on the Mount – Week 2(b) – Matt. 5:21-37
We affirm as our Lord’s principle and standard of marriage a life-long and indissoluble union, for better or worse, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side, and call all Christians to maintain and bear witness to this standard.
Resolution 67, 1920 Lambeth Conference.
Sermon on the Mount -Week 3(a) – Matt. 5:38-6:4
“Only when we love without regard to the identity of the beloved can we ever waive retribution and truly love our enemies.”
– Soren Kierkegaard
Sermon on the Mount – Week 3(b) – Matt. 5:39-6:4
Just as an acorn is perfected when it grows into a mature oak, how do we obtain our perfection or chief end? For what purpose were we created and to what end do we necessarily aspire?
Sermon on the Mount – Week 4(a) – Matt. 6:5-34
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Sermon on the Mount – Week 4(b) – Matt. 6:5-34
Do we obey the trappings of this life and become obedient to acquiring things or do we seek the Kingdom? The promise is that if we seek the Kingdom first, then everything else will fall into place
Sermon on the Mount – Week 5(a) – Matt. 7:1-12
Our Christian faith forbids us from spying on the sins of others and demands that we are strict and merciless judges when it comes to our own misdeeds. – St. Nikolai Velimirović
Sermon on the Mount – Week 5(b) – Matt. 7:1-12
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you – the rest of Scripture is mere commentary.
Sermon on the Mount – Week 6(a) – Matt. 7:13-28
Jesus, through the Sermon on the Mount, is the one who provides us with the correct trajectory. If we are on the way of Jesus then we will hit the mark.
Sermon on the Mount – Week 6(b) – Matt. 7:13-29
The outward appearance is identical, but the foundations are different. Sand won’t support the building, but rock will. The question that Jesus poses to us in the teaching is where is our foundation?