Matthew 5:17-20 - Law and Prophets

Jesus makes it very clear that He did not come to "abolish the Law and the Prophets". Given the clarity of this statement it is amazing the number of people who seem to think He did just that! 

The Law refers to the first five books of the Old Testament. The Prophets refers not just to what we think of as the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah etc), but also to what the Jews called the "former prophets", meaning Joshua, Samuel, Kings. And the term "Law and Prophets" meant the whole of the Old Testament.

The Law expressed the heart of God. In sending His Son God's character had not changed, he had not changed His mind. Rather Jesus came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets. He did this by perfectly obeying His Father, and by fulfilling the prophecies of the future salvation. 

As I have just said, the Law expresses the heart of God. It was wrong to murder before the ten commandments were given, it was wrong to murder after the commandments were given, and it is still wrong to murder. 

Jesus' words here on not one least stroke of the pen disappearing should help us to interpret the Sermon on the Mount. It is said by some that He was overturning what Moses said. This is not true, rather He is getting to the heart of the matter. As we go on through this sermon we will see that many of the supposed "innovations" are actually there in the Law.

It was the Pharisees who were actually guilty of setting aside the requirements of the Law, though they were seeking to the very opposite. Again, we shall see examples of this later in Matthew. We need to take this as a general warning as well, those who seek to defend something most ardently can end up being guilty of destroying it.

The righteousness of Jesus' disciples has to exceed that of all others. Jesus also makes it clear that the righteousness of the Pharisees would not get them into the kingdom of heaven. Note that "kingdom of Heaven" here means "rule of God". Legalism does not get us into the kingdom of Heaven. We can be guilty of applying this in various areas, eg evangelism and tithing. We rightly seek to be a Church who witness to Christ and who give generously, but if we try to achieve these goals by legalism we will end up failing. 

Sometimes we can be guilty of teaching tithing as a legalistic thing, we do this from the best of motives, but it will produce the wrong results. But note this too. If we live the Sermon on the Mount then we will be doing much more than a legalistic interpretation of the Law would produce. Likewise, if we have God's generous heart, then we will give much more than any teaching on tithing requires.

Matthew 5:13-16 - Salt and light

Having proclaimed the kingdom, Jesus now starts to teach, explaining how it all works out in practice.

"You are the salt ..." This is both a rebuke for Israel and a warning and instructions for all of us. Israel was meant to be a light to the world. God said to Abraham that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. God's people are meant to be a blessing to the whole world. Yet Israel had become anything but a blessing. She had truly lost her saltiness, and so would be "thrown out and tramples underfoot". Now this does not mean that Israel no longer has any part in God's plans, see Romans 9-11! We too must recognise our purpose and heed this warning. We are meant to be a preservative in society. There are two ways we can fail to do this. One is to withdraw from society, the other is to compromise our standards (or rather God's standards). We need to understand that we will often be going against the tide in society. This is part of our calling.

While being a preservative is in some ways a negative thing, ie resisting corrupting influences, we are also to be light to the world.

We are the light of the world. We need to realise this. Our lives are on display and are meant to be on display as examples of the goodness and grace of God, as examples of His salvation power taking effect. This is how the world will learn of the good news of the kingdom.

Matthew 5:3-12 - Beatitudes

First we come to the beatitudes. At the end of Chapter 4 it says that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom and taught. The beatitudes can be looked at as a proclamation of the good news of the kingdom.

The normal human response is that all the things listed in the beatitudes are actually bad news. It is bad to be poor in spirit. Things are going badly if we are mourning, hungry or thirsty. Things like meekness and mercy are viewed as weakness by the world. To be pure in heart is thought to be simple or naive. The peacemakers just get trouble and little thanks, and the persecuted are, well, persecuted.

The kingdom of heaven comes to such as these. We need to remind ourselves that kingdom of heaven, means the kingdom of God's rule, it is not referring to where we go when after we die.

The kingdom was made for the poor in spirit. The world, and religions, say "you have to be like this". The kingdom says "I will make you like this". The kingdom is about overcoming and healing our sins and weaknesses.

The kingdom brings comfort to those who mourn. Right at the end, as it says in Revelation, every tear will be wiped away, but even now we can experience the comfort of God.

Meekness is seen as weakness by the world, but it means trusting in God, and so adopting a gentle attitude instead of an aggressive one. It is the meek who will inherit the earth, not the forceful and boastful. How can this be? Because it is God who makes the final judgement.

Those who seek to show mercy in this world can be taken advantage of, but we all need mercy, and God will show mercy to the merciful. The peacemakers will be called children of God. 

The final three verses make it clear that Jesus is not promising an easy life in this world, but when the world rejects us it is only because God accepts us. So we should rejoice.

Matthew 5:1,2 - Sermon on the Mount

This is one of the most famous sections in the gospel, but also one of the least well understood, and almost certainly the least well practised!

Some say this represents a summary of a single teaching session, others that it is a compilation of teachings presented on several occasions. The text seems to make it clear that this is a summary of a single period of teaching. However, it is also equally clear from Scripture that Jesus taught at least parts of this message on other occasions. Most prominently in the "sermon on the plain" in Luke. They didn't have printing presses, tape or video recorders, and certainly not the internet. So if someone said something worth saying, they would almost certainly repeat it, or something similar, on many occasions.

A more vital question is that of application and meaning. Some say the standards are impossibly high, and see it as referring to the future kingdom. Such a notion is complete garbage. The teaching is designed for sinners coming into the kingdom of God living in a fallen world, ie now! So however it should be applied, it is meant to be applied to our lives today.

I will offer my view here so you know where I am coming from. However, this is such an amazing section of Scripture, and I offer these views tentatively, to at least give us a framework within which to work. The framework may well need changing though.

First there are three things that I believe the sermon is NOT:

1. It is not a replacement for the Law. Jesus Himself says that He did not come to do away with the Law or Prophets, but to fulfil them (Matt 5:17).
2. It is not meant to be applied in a legalistic manner, but is more about a change in our hearts.
3. It is not a meant as a system for government. The rest of the Bible makes it quite clear that government is meant to resist evil. It is just not designed for this. Moreover, Jesus said that His kingdom is not of this world.

So how are we to view it? I believe we are to view it as how the kingdom of God operates in our lives today, and how forgiven sinners are to live in a fallen world.


A detailed look at the various approaches taken to interpreting the Sermon on the Mount can be found here.

Matthew 4:23-25 - Jesus' ministry

These verses summarise the ministry of Jesus, and therefore what the ministry of the church should be. This is teaching, proclaiming, healing. We need all three.

Jesus could teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath, and during the rest of the week He taught in public places and the open air.

As well as teaching He proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, ie the good news that the rule of God could come into people's lives. We need to have both teaching and proclamation. In the West we are so prone to thinking that it is only by intellectual argument that we can win people for the kingdom, but this is not true. We need to both teach, and declare the truth. For it is not just us who testify, it is the Holy Spirit as well, and He can take our proclamations and speak to peoples' spirits. 

Equally we must not go to the other extreme and think proclamation is enough. It isn't. It needs to go together with teaching.

This was all bundled together with healing, a demonstration of the reality of the kingdom rule. The people recognised some special happening, and so brought all sorts of sick people and demon possessed people. And Jesus healed them.

There can be much controversy over healing. Some of this is richly deserved, especially when people claim too much, claiming miracles are happening when they are not. Yet it is quite clear from the New Testament, both in the ministry of Jesus and of the early church, that healings and setting people free formed a key part of the mission. It is all part of the package. So we should humble ourselves before God, trust in Him and do what He commands us to do.

Matthew 4:18-22 - Follow me

Jesus now calls the first disciples, Simon and Andrew. Passages in the other gospels (John 1:35-42, Luke 4:38-41, 5:1-11) make it clear that this was not the first time Jesus had met Simon and Andrew. The picture some people give of this being their first meeting with Jesus and being so overwhelmed by Him that they just left their boats and followed Him is not consistent with the Bible. They had had some previous experience of Jesus.

Jesus called them to follow Him. This is the most fundamental call and decision on a person's life. The call is to follow Jesus. It is not to make an intellectual decision about whether or not we believe certain things (though that will undoubtedly play a role), but to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Having decided to follow Jesus He will change us, He will start to make us into what God always intended us to be. In Peter and Andrew's case it was to be "fishers on men".

Following Jesus involves a leaving. Sometimes this may be a physical leaving, but more usually is a change in the direction of our life, a change in what motivates and directs our life. 

Later Jesus called James and John, who were also fishermen. They left their boats and their family. Now later events showed that they all still had some connection with fishing, and they had connections with their family. So we must not read too much into this leaving. Otherwise we make these decisions into something so massive that we feel we cannot emulate them. Now their are times when we may have to leave a job, or choose between Christ and family members, but we must not try and give the impression that we need to do this in order to prove our allegiance to Christ. The decision we make is to follow Christ. This may then have all sorts of consequences, but these will differ from one person to the next, and the root decision is the one to follow Christ.

Matthew 4:12-17 - Jesus begins to preach

John the Baptist's preaching was considered too dangerous and he was put in prison. The true preaching of the gospel represents a sharp challenge to society, government and to individuals. Preaching should be dangerous. On hearing this Jesus withdrew to Galilee, this is a region somewhat north of Jerusalem, see map. 

Jesus went to live in Capernaum for a period. This area was by the Sea of Galilee, and Capernaum was a town of reasonable size.

Matthew sees another messianic fulfilment here. Isaiah 9:1,2 says that in the future God would honour Galilee, and that the people walking in darkness would see a great light. Galilee was looked down upon by many Jews, partly because it was a distance away from the main religious centre (Jerusalem), and partly because it was inhabited by a significant number of Gentiles as well as Jews. 

Jesus then began to preach, "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". See that this is the same message that John preached. The kingdom of heaven is the rule and reign of God. A different kingdom is at hand, and the people need to change their ways and turn to God. In this we see encapsulated the basic gospel message. There is a new way of living, a new life, a new kingdom, a new rule. The world need not be the way you think it is at the moment, your life need not be the way it is at the moment. A different rule can come in. But in order to enter that new kingdom we need to repent. We need to turn away from our ways and turn to God's ways.