What is the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount? As Jesus begins teaching His disciples, He describes the character of those who belong to the Kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount is not a list of requirements for earning salvation, but a description of what Kingdom citizens look like and how they are to live.
In this introductory sermon, we consider the larger context of Jesus’ teaching, including Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as the Son of David and the true and better Moses. We also examine the meaning of “blessed” in the Beatitudes and why biblical happiness is fundamentally different from the world’s understanding of happiness. True blessing is not rooted in our circumstances or possessions, but in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
As we begin our journey through the Sermon on the Mount, we are challenged to rethink what it means to be truly happy and to recognize that those who are in Christ are already blessed—even as they look forward to the fullness of that blessing in the age to come.
