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2001
17th June (pm) - Who is the teacher?
MATTHEW 7:28-29

There is no doubt, The Sermon on the Mount is admired by many in our world today. As a body of teaching, the Sermon is compared to some of the greatest pieces of literature, and the Sermon's ethical content is much admired, the blueprint of Utopia, paradise on earth.

Therefore, the image of Jesus which emerges from this body of teaching, is one of a teacher, a moral teacher, perhaps even the greatest moral teacher. Here is the true Jesus, a simple man teaching plain ethics and no heavy theology. An uncomplicated teacher, telling us to do good and to love one another. This is the image of Jesus that was so attractive to Mahatma Gandhi, the advocate of non-violent resistence. A Muslim teacher once said that, when he read the Sermon on the Mount he could not keep back the tears. Is this as much as we can take out of the Sermon on the Mount, and therefore use it to advocate a way of living that will in some way bring harmony between the variety of faiths and no faiths in our world today?

To do so, I believe, would be to be grossly mistaken, because to take such a view of the Sermon on the Mount would be to grossly misunderstand the One who gave the teaching contained in the Sermon on the Mount in the first place. For to do justice to our understanding of the Sermon on the Mount we have to wrestle with the question, 'who is this preacher?'

Indeed, I believe that this is the question the people themselves wrestled with when they heard the Sermon on the Mount delivered by Jesus. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

The teaching of Jesus was met with amazement, because he was a different sort of teacher that to what they were accustomed. The teachers the people were accustomed to quoted other sources, for their authority. Jesus spoke giving the impression that he had a right to say the things he said. The translation of the Greek is more accurately rendered, 'dumbfounded'. The people were dumbfounded when they heard this teaching.

How can we understand this 'authority' of Jesus? Why did he speak this way? What can we glean from the Sermon on the Mount that will help us understand better the person and mission of Jesus Christ?

There are seven such gleanings which help us to understand better the person and mission of Jesus Christ. I am not an original thinker, as these seven are from John Stott's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. As there are seven they will be brief, but hopefully informative and even more so challenging. Good theology should not merely inform the mind, it should stir the heart and transform our lives. 'Who is this preacher who speaks with such authority?'

Jesus the Teacher

We have already noted that the people who heard the Sermon on the Mount were amazed or dumbfounded. Is there still amazement when we hear the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus first and foremost presented himself as a teacher. There was nothing so unusual about this as there were thousands of teachers in his day. And Jesus was contrasted quite naturally with contemporary teachers, notably the scribes.

But Jesus was unlike his contemporary teachers. He was a Jew alright but his message was no quite Jewish. Jesus' interpretation of the law of Moses showed that it was actually God's word. Jesus spoke as one who knew what he was talking about. And to contrast Jesus with the prophets who said, 'Thus says the Lord, Jesus said, But I tell you, thus speaking in his own name and authority. Jesus did not teach like the scribes, neither did he teach like the prophets. Jesus was God's wisdom and truth in the flesh. In Proverbs 1, Wisdom is depicted as calling out in the streets warning people about rejecting wisdom. In verse 33, we read, but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.
We could apply these words to Jesus, for it is only by paying heed to him who is the wisdom of God, that we learn to be wise. Jesus the teacher.

Jesus the Christ

The Sermon on the Mount tells us that Jesus knew he had come into the world on a mission. Remember what Jesus himself said, Do not think I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. There was purpose to Jesus' coming. He was not another in the long line of prophets from God, he was the fulfilment of all that the Law and the Prophets pointed to. The time had come to usher in the new kingdom, which Jesus was inaugurating. And only Jesus had the authority to admit people into God's Kingdom and to bestow its blessings on them. In other words, Jesus knew himself to be the Christ, the Anointed One, God's promised Messiah, thereby fulfilling all Old Testament expectations.

Jesus the Lord The word 'Lord' in ancient times could be used in different ways. It could be used as a polite form of address, like the modern day 'sir'. Or it could be used to address a god. This was a popular way of addressing Jesus. Remember what Thomas said to Jesus when he had seen him, My Lord and my God. As we saw previously, Jesus has said that there will be those who will address him on that final day with the word 'Lord', but Jesus will reject them. His point for rejecting such people was that they will use his name glibly and not invest it with the right meaning. John Stott says: He was not just 'Sir' to be respected; he was 'Lord' to be obeyed. So Jesus saw himself as more than a teacher, giving good advice and sound moral teaching, which may or may not be heeded.

The expectation of Jesus was that people would not just merely absorb his teaching, but that they would be devoted to him personally, that they would obey his teaching out of loyalty to him in the first place. Jesus is not the sort of teacher that we just tip our hat to for an hour on a Sunday. He is the teacher who calls us to bow before him, and devote ourselves to him personally. For the teaching of Jesus demands such prior devotion. Jesus the Lord.

Jesus the Saviour

It is quite clear from the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus knew the way of salvation and taught it. He was able to clearly describe the life that would perish and clearly describe the life that would not. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught the way of salvation, the gate that leads to life and the house that survives the storms of judgement. There is an exclusivenss to such teaching in the Sermon on the Mount which reflects other parts of Jesus' teaching where he claimed to be way, the truth and the life, and that if people wanted to be a part of God's eternal kingdom, then they had to go through him. Jesus was their passport to eternal life. Jesus didn't say, 'here is a way' or 'choose from these different ways' he said, I am the way.

Jesus said his people would be salt and light. But how can evil people be good for society, and people living in darkness be light. Only through the salvation offered by Jesus Christ, the salvation which rescues people from evil and darkenss. Only by imparting his goodness, can people become good, and only by imparting his light can people be light in dark places. So we see that as we dig a bit deeper into the Sermon, we find that Jesus not only taught salvation, he is the one who bestows it upon people aswell.

Jesus the Judge

This is one aspect of the person of Jesus many have difficulty in coming to terms with. The truth of the matter is that the mission of Jesus will not be complete until has acted as judge. We affirm this truth about Jesus in The Apostles' Creed, where we say, he ascended into heaven, and is seated on the right hand God the Father Amlighty, from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. The whole Sermon is preached against the background of judgement. Jesus knew this to be the reality people faced in their lives and he wanted to make sure all who listened to him that day knew this aswell.

So he painted a picture of judgement, but more than that, he declared himself to be the judge. Jesus himself would be the judge, hearing the evidence, and passing the sentence. The criteria of the judgement will be Jesus himself. The eternal destiny of men and women, will not depend on their knowledge and use of the name of Jesus, but on whether they knew Jesus personally. Relationship will be the issue. Like someone trying to defraud an insurance company or send back a false income tax claim, there will be false claims in the presence of Jesus, and Jesus will say, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. Such judgement will involve banishment from his presence. Nothing worse could be envisaged, for those who said no to Jesus Christ in this life. Jesus will be the central figure on judgement day.

Jesus the Son of God

When we delve into the Sermon on the Mount, we are given by Jesus a comprehensive picture of God. God is shown to be the creator, the living God of the natural order, who gives sunshine and rain, and supplies the birds with food. We are also told that he is the King, for Jesus instructs us to seek first his kingdom. And through Jesus, God is referred to as the Father. Jesus tells us we can call him 'our Father'. Jesus in speaking to the discplies refers to God as 'your heavenly Father'.

But the relationship of Jesus to the Father, is very different than a disciples relationship to the Father. For Jesus never included himself in the phrase 'our Father'. His relationship with the Father, is altogether different, it is unique. In the Sermon Jesus referred to the will of my Father who is in heaven. While Jesus did not refer to himself as the Son of God in the Sermon, it is seen in such a phrase as 'the will of my Father'. Jesus was therefore more than human, he was also claiming divine status as well. Jesus the Son of God.

Jesus who is God.

This is what we have been building to all along. It is as if we have been treading carefully on stepping stones and have now arrived at our destination. We could be excused for missing so much about the person and mission of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, for he does not spell it out, we have to go looking for it, and in doing so we find it. We find a potrait of Jesus, which brings us to the last stroke of the brush, Jesus who is in fact God, the picture is now complete. For if Jesus was not God, then those other brush strokes could not be claimed either. What is the evidence in the Sermon that Jesus is God? There are three examples.

The first concerns the beattitudes. We read, Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The parallel with the prophets is the key. The prophets suffered for their faithfulness to God, for example Jeremiah, while the disciples of Jesus were to suffer for their faithfulness to him. The parallel is unavoidable. If Jesus is likening his disciples to God's prophets, he is likening himself to God.

The second example comes from Matthew 7. Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. In Luke's gospel, Jesus asks people why they call him Lord, and then fail to do what he says. In both cases Jesus is referred to as Lord. The evidence for such a profession is doing the will of his Father in heaven, in Matthew'a gospel, or doing what Jesus says himself, as in Luke's gospel. If Jesus regarded obeying him and doing his Father's will as the same thing, he was putting himself on a level with God.

The same is true for the third example. It comes in the context of the day of judgement. In Jesus' day, everyone knew that only God had the right to pass judgement. And so did Jesus. But Jesus also asserts that he has the right to pass judgement. He knew that people would have to appeal to him. And in saying such a thing, Jesus was equating himself with God and so what people are doing to him they are doing to God.

Therefore Jesus who is God.

We cannot afford to have an imbalanced picture or incomplete portait of Jesus Christ. We cannot ignore the evidence and therefore the conclusions to which the Sermon on the Mount point.

For in the Sermon on the Mount, we not only have the picture of God's alternative society, the standards, values and priorities of the kingdom of God, we also have the portait of the one who has inaugurated this new society. For if we are to live as part of God's new society, then we cannot do it on our own. We must bow to the Lordship of Jesus, who is the Christ, the Saviour and the Judge, the Son of God, God himself. For it is only in bowing to his Lordship, and building our lives on him, are we opening ourselves up to his teaching and leading in our lives.

We cannot be part of God's new society, if we have not first acknowledged our poverty of spirit, if we have not mourned over our sin, if we have not humbled ourselves before God, and come to Jesus as the only one who can restore our brokenness, forgive us our sin, and welcomed us in, for only Jesus as Christ, Lord and Saviour has the authority to do such things.

Also we cannot live out the values of God's new society, if we have not bowed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives and in our church, for the values of God's new society reflect what is going on in our hearts and our minds prior to the way we behave. The failure of politics in our land to solve our problems, is that politics only deals with surface matters. The problems of our society is not that we like to throw stones at each other, or worse, it is that we are sinful people, and politics does not solve the problem of sin, only Jesus Christ can do that.

So the Sermon on the Mount challenges us to live a radical lifestyle, which is counter to the prevailing culture around us. It is a radical lifestyle, because it bows the knee to Jesus Christ, and seeks first God's kingdom and righteousness, which immediately sets us against those who seek to build their own kingdoms, either through politics or through church. John Stott says: No comment could be more hurtful to the Christian than the words, 'But you are no different from anybody else'. The Sermon on the Mount challenges us to be different from the society in which we live, different in our attitudes, our lifestyle, our ambitions, our priortities, lives which live under the rule and authority of Jesus Christ. Only such lives can then be salt and light in a world of depravity and darkness.

Who is this preacher which speaks with such authority? Jesus, who is a teacher yes, the teacher who speaks in his own name and authority, the teacher who is Christ, who is Lord, who is Saviour, who is Judge, who is Son of God, who is God himself, and who calls us to bow the knee to his rule and leadership in our lives, that we may be known as his people and therefore known and seen as his ambassadors in our society.

If there is one passage of Scripture which in some measure sums up the Sermon on the Mount, it is this, and I finish with it. Romans 12 verses 1 & 2, and I read it from The Message:
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your cultuire that you fit into it without ever thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity,
God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. May we be such people as described in these verses.

AMEN!