Hughes The Sermon on the Mount

The Message of the Kingdom
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3624-3
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 304 Seiten

Reihe: Preaching the Word

The three chapters of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount contain truths so rich and powerful that even a lifetime of study could not exhaust their depths. For centuries, Jesus's majestic portrait of the kingdom of heaven and his unparalleled instructions for godliness have captivated Christians and non-Christians alike. In this classic commentary, now revised with a fresh look and ESV Bible references, seasoned pastor R. Kent Hughes guides readers through this glorious portion of the Bible with exegetical precision, expositional clarity, and practical sensitivity. Whether used by preachers, small group leaders, or individual laypersons, this resource will prove invaluable for illuminating the Sermon on the Mount's enduring power to enliven hearts and transform minds. Part of the Preaching the Word series.

R. Kent Hughes (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and former professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hughes is also a founder of the Charles Simeon Trust, which conducts expository preaching conferences throughout North America and worldwide. He serves as the series editor for the Preaching the Word commentary series and is the author or coauthor of many books. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Spokane, Washington, and have four children and an ever-increasing number of grandchildren.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hughes, R. Kent

Leseproben

1

The Riches of Poverty

MATTHEW 5:1–3

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

5:3

JESUS’ SERMON ON THE MOUNT is so famous and powerful that we can hardly overstate its influence. St. Augustine, for example, described it as “a perfect standard of the Christian life.” The great preacher-poet John Donne spoke of it in the most ornate terms:

As nature hath given us certain elements, and all our bodies are composed of them; and art hath given us a certain alphabet of letters, and all words are composed of them; so, our blessed Saviour, in these three chapters of this Gospel, hath given us a sermon of texts, of which, all our sermons may be composed. All the articles of our religion, all the canons of our Church, all the injunctions of our princes, all the homilies of our fathers, all the body of divinity, is in these three chapters, in this one sermon in the Mount.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer based his classic The Cost of Discipleship upon its exposition. The influence of the Sermon on the Mount is truly past reckoning.

The Sermon on the Mount has even exerted a great influence on those outside the Christian faith. Its influence upon Gandhi’s political approach is a matter of common knowledge. Those who hate Christianity and its ethics likewise have made it an object of contempt. It is seen as the source of the “slave morality” that Nietzsche so hated. When Nietzsche’s teaching bore its terrible fruit during the ascendancy of National Socialism in Germany, the Sermon was vigorously attacked by men like Alfred Rosenberg, and a modified version was produced for those who wanted to remain within the Christian tradition and accommodate themselves to Hitler’s philosophy. So like it or not, everyone in Western civilization has been touched in some way by the Sermon on the Mount. No one can legitimately minimize its influence.

For the Christian believer, it is simply the greatest sermon ever preached. Why is this? To begin with, it came from the lips of Jesus. The original sermon was probably quite long, possibly even several hours, and what we have in Matthew 5—7 (which takes about ten minutes to read) is a distillation of his teaching. The Sermon on the Mount is the compacted, congealed theology of Christ and as such is perhaps the most profound section of the entire New Testament and the whole Bible. Every phrase can bear exhaustive exposition and yet never be completely plumbed. Along with this, it is the most penetrating section of God’s Word. Because the theme is entering the kingdom of heaven, it shows us exactly where we stand in relation to the kingdom and eternal life (see 5:3; 7:21). As we expose ourselves to the X-rays of Christ’s words, we see whether we truly are believers, and if believers, the degree of the authenticity of our lives. No other section of Scripture makes us face ourselves like the Sermon on the Mount. It is violent, but its violence can be our ongoing liberation! It is the antidote to the pretense and sham that plagues Christianity.

For me personally, the Sermon has been the most important factor in my spiritual life. Every time I return to it, especially the Beatitudes, I am brought up short as I face the bedrock reality of this amazing revelation. My dream and prayer is that somehow the spirituality of the Sermon on the Mount will penetrate our hearts, lifting us from the mediocrity that characterizes our society.

We will begin with the Beatitudes, which someone has, not inaccurately, called the “Beautiful Attitudes” of the kingdom, for they give us the character of those who are true children of God. Many suggested titles say essentially the same thing: “The Character of the Kingdom,” “The Manifesto of the Kingdom,” “The Norms of the Kingdom.” The first four Beatitudes focus on our relationship to God, and the second four on our relationship to our fellowman. Each of the eight builds upon the other, so that there is an amazingly beautiful and compelling progression. At the same time there is a profound unity. The first Beatitude (v. 3) and the last Beatitude (v. 10) end with the same reward, “the kingdom of heaven,” which according to Hebrew style means that the Beatitudes between them all deal with that very same theme.

As we begin our study, we must envision the snowballing of interest in Jesus’ ministry leading up to this event. He has been traveling around Galilee teaching in the synagogues, and people are coming to him by the droves for healing. News has spread all the way to Syria, and every kind of case imaginable is coming to him. Great multitudes were following him clear out into the wilderness beyond the Jordan. Matthew 5:1, 2 tells us: “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, . . .”

In the midst of his escalating ministry, Jesus chose a prominent rise or hill, sat down in the customary teaching posture of a rabbi, surrounded by many disciples (that is, those who were at that time interested in learning), and began to teach them.

Those of us who grew up in the fifties are quite familiar with the name Mickey Cohen because he was the most flamboyant criminal of the day. Perhaps some have even heard of Cohen’s becoming a “Christian.”

The story goes like this: At the height of his career, Cohen was persuaded to attend an evangelistic service at which he showed a surprising interest in Christianity. Hearing of this, and realizing what a great influence a converted Mickey Cohen could have for the Lord, some prominent Christian leaders began visiting him in an effort to convince him to accept Christ. Late one night, after repeatedly being encouraged to open the door of his life on the basis of Revelation 3:20 (“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me”), Cohen prayed.

Hopes ran high among his believing acquaintances. But with the passing of time no one could detect any change in Cohen’s life. Finally they confronted him with the reality that being a Christian meant he would have to give up his friends and his profession. Cohen demurred. His logic? There are “Christian football players, Christian cowboys, Christian politicians; why not a Christian gangster?”1

The absurdity of what happened to Mickey Cohen dramatically underscores what is happening to untold numbers today. Though many ostensibly have “accepted Christ,” they continue life as they always have. There is no repentance. They remain self-sufficient, even puffed up. Indeed, they are nowhere near the kingdom because they have not experienced the poverty of spirit that the first Beatitude insists is the initial ground of the kingdom of heaven.

What evangelical Christianity needs is an exposure to the life-giving logic of the Beatitudes and the blessedness of their fearsome surgery.

Blessedness: The Approval of God

Each of the eight Beatitudes opens with the word “blessed.” So it is essential that we understand here in the beginning what this word means, because it bears on everything that will be said in the remainder of this book.

Contrary to popular opinion, blessed does not mean “happy,” even though some translations have rendered it this way. Happiness is a subjective state, a feeling. But Jesus is not declaring how people feel; rather, he is making an objective statement about what God thinks of them.2 Blessed is a positive judgment by God on the individual that means “to be approved” or “to find approval.” So when God blesses us, he approves us.3

Of course, there is no doubt that such blessing will bring feelings of happiness and that blessed people are generally happy. But we must remember that the root idea of “blessed” is an awareness of approval by God. Blessedness is not simply a nice wish from God; it is a pronouncement of what we actually are—approved. Blessedness indicates the smile of God or, as Max Lucado has so beautifully put it, The Applause of Heaven.

As we begin this study of the Beatitudes, let us realize that if God’s blessing/approval means more to us than anything else—even the approval of our friends, business acquaintances, and colleagues—then the Beatitudes are going to penetrate our hearts, speaking to us in the deepest ways.

The question is, do we really want his approval more than anything else? Not, do we want to be happy (as proper as that desire is) but, do we truly want God’s approval above all else?

If so, then we must heed every word of the first Beatitude, for it gives us the condition of blessing in just three words: “poor in spirit.” “Blessed/approved are the poor in spirit.”

It is so essential that we get off to a good start with the first Beatitude if we are to understand them all that I would like to encourage the following prayer.

Dear Lord,

I long for your smile upon my life. So please open my heart to the meaning of the Beatitudes.

I open myself to their light. Shine their rays into the deepest part of my life. Sear my soul. Heal me.

Build the character of the kingdom in me so that you can call me blessed.

Amen.

Understanding Poverty of Spirit

Let us understand what poverty of spirit is not. It is...