Sermon on the Mount

Make Me A Doer
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If you would, grab a Bible and turn to Matthew, the seventh chapter, and just keep it open. My son Michael is working for
an HR Consulting Firm in Minneapolis and was telling me about organizations that suffer from a particular problem, a kind
of inertia of inactivity. For example, a company knows they need to improve quality control. They know this. So, they
talk about it, they listen to presentations about it, they read books about it, they talk to consultants, they just never actually
get around to doing it. They never actually raise quality control. Or, a company that has customer service problems.
They know they have customer service problems. They know how important it is, they do studies on it. They appoint
task forces to make recommendations. They write “customer service” in their core values. They just never actually do
customer service. It is a problem. It is not a problem of ignorance. It is not a problem of a lack of information. It is not
that they are not smart enough. The problem is not a problem of knowing too much, but doing too little. There is a gap
that they call the “knowing/doing gap.” Institutions know what they ought to be doing, but there not doing it.
Question: Aren’t’ you glad that even though this can happen to an organization, it never actually happens in the
life of a human being?
Aren‟t you glad that as long as the right information gets poured into you, you find yourself effortlessly doing everything
that you know you ought to do. Isn‟t that good news that if you‟re a friend or a student some place, or if you‟re a spouse
or if you‟re a parent; all you have to do is just shove information into somebody and you‟ll know they‟ll just do what they
ought to do? Maybe not.
We are beginning today a study of “The Sermon on the Mount,” the greatest sermon ever given. More influential than
anything anybody has ever said. I am really excited about this. But I want to begin by having us look at how seriously
Jesus takes this “knowing/doing” problem by looking at the end of His message. We‟re actually going to start this series
this morning by looking at the end of the message and we‟ll get to the beginning of it next week.

Jesus crafts the close of his thoughts very carefully. One of my preaching instructors in seminary told me that the
beginning and end of a message are the most important because they are what people remember.
Now, most of you have listened to a bunch of messages. Which do you think preachers are usually better prepared for, the
beginning of a sermon or the end? The beginning!!! That is usually the best prepared part.
A little trade secret..a lot of times, preachers, once they get started, it‟s like they think,
Well, I just want to get the plane up in the air and once it’s up there, I’ll find a place to land it down there
somewhere.
You would be amazed how often preachers do not give adequate thought to how they will end their
message. I wish I knew how I was going to end this one.
But Jesus does this soaring talk, the greatest message in history, but He knows the problem that people are going to have.
And so, this is how He concludes the talk with a single story, Matthew 7, Verse 24. I want you to try to picture Him,
imagine, feel the drama of this moment, the power of this story. You‟ve been listening to this fabulous message.
“Who is blessed?” Jesus comes to the end of his message....
Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and then puts them into practice (bridges this gap)...He’s
like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and
beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears
these words of mine (In other words, they know what to do.), And does not put them into practice, is like a
foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat
against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-25)
End of sermon. Everybody go home. That was kind of a tough way to end the message. You wonder, why doesn‟t Jesus
end with something more positive? It‟s because He knows the human heart. We like to talk about stuff and we like to
discuss stuff and we like to debate stuff. We like to be smarter than other people about stuff. You see, as long as it‟s just

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a matter of knowing, I‟m still in control.
Doing, that is going to cost something. That is not so much about IQ. Doing is going to cost time; it‟s going to cost
energy. It‟s going to cost my money. It „s going to mean that I, as smart as I am, I‟m no longer in control anymore.
So, here is our prayer as we‟re going through this series. We‟re not just going to be smarter by the end of this series we‟re
going to be doers. James talks about this he says,
Be doers of the word, not hearers only and therefore, deceive yourselves. (James 1:22)
Because when I just hear and know, I give myself credit for doing.
Here is the word. If you have a pen or pencil, you might want to write this one down. This is our prayer,
Doers: God, make us doers of the word. God, make me a doer of your word. Help me to not just hear, not
just know, but actually do what Jesus said.
Now, this is not something we do on our own. A lot of people think that the Sermon on the Mount is a list of rules or a list
of moral principles given by Jesus. That is not what Jesus is doing primarily with these words.
All the people gathered, they‟d heard rules since they were infants. The Torah was full of rules. That is not why they
came to hear this Rabbi named Jesus. There is a message that Jesus gave that made everybody stop in their tracks and you
pick it up in Matthew. Again if you are looking at your Bibles we are leading into the Sermon on the Mount. This is His
first great teaching in the Gospel Matthew and Matthew is kind of summarizing Jesus‟ whole message.
This is how he does it, Matthew 4:17 - From that time on, Jesus began to preach, “Repent, the kingdom of heaven
has come near.” And then, in Verse 23 it says, Jesus went through Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the good news. (v.23)
Another way to translate that is the Gospel. When you think about the Gospel and you ask,
What’s the Gospel that Jesus had to preach?
It was the Gospel, the good news of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. Then, in Chapter 5, it begins
the Sermon on the Mount with His words, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...(Matthew
5:3)
When Jesus said that, everybody came running. The Kingdom of Heaven has come near. It is now available, but as a
familiar concept to them, not so much for us.
So I want to stop here for just a moment and talk about what it meant for those people listening to Jesus.
For a lot of us, when we think of Heaven, we think of some geographical place way, way out there beyond the stars
where you go after you die. Kind of like a pleasure palace or something.
That is not what was going on in the minds of Jesus‟ listeners when they heard the phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven” or
“The Kingdom of God.” And that is not what Jesus meant. It goes back to the prophets, back to Isaiah, who talked about
the good news being that our God reigns. And the idea was that there‟s a sphere or a realm or a reality in which everything
that God wants to happen happens...where things are as God wants them to be. OK? Are you still with me???
That is the Kingdom of Heaven. And that‟s the reality for God, Father, Son and Spirit, for the Angels. However, when
God created human beings, part of what He does is He kind of gives us each our own kingdom. If you think back to the
Book of Genesis, God says, Let us make human beings in our own image and let us give them “dominion.” (Gen.
1:26)
That is a kingdom word. You have your own little kingdom where what you say goes the range of your effective will.
And we can extend that. I get into my car and when I turn on the radio, the stations, the little buttons, are all set to the
stations I want them to be set to. The seat is positioned just where I want it to be positioned. The mirrors are just as I want
them to be. There are no French fries in the cracks down in between the seats in my car. Why? That is my kingdom.

I walk into my office and the books are all arranged there just the way I want them to be. My desk is basically clear and
there are memos right next to the phone. Why? That is my kingdom. I walk into a house at the end of a workday.
There‟s an easy chair with slippers lying by it, there‟s a cold beverage on the table, there are steaks cooking on the grill.
Why? I‟ve walked into the wrong house! But, again the idea is I have a kingdom, you have a kingdom. We‟re made in
the image of God. Your kingdom is where what you say goes. Part of what it means to be human is we can extend our
kingdoms and they merge and they intersect. And then, as they merged, they form families, neighborhoods, school systems,
corporations, countries. And you put all of that together, just practically speaking, and that is what the Bible calls, “the
kingdom of the earth.” That is the kingdom of the earth in which we live.
Question: How are things going in the kingdom of the earth? Not so well. Did you read the paper this
morning?
Crisis in Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia...And then, our life, your life, my life. Heartache, betrayal, hurt, abuse,

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addiction, sin...That is the kingdom of the earth.
And we are waiting for somebody who‟s going to fix this up. Maybe the next president, maybe another government,
maybe another economic system. And then, this Rabbi comes. Now see the people fo Israel have been waiting for this.
We all have been waiting for this. This Rabbi comes and He says, The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.
Life together with God, in God‟s favor, in God‟s presence. That life had now become available down here to ordinary
people. He talks about how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount. If you still have your Bibles open, just leave them
open to Matthew 6:9. He say, This then is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven...(Matt 6:9)
And that didn‟t mean God way far off. It means God all around, God is closer than you can imagine.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come...”
What does that mean? Gods‟ kingdom is the range of His effective will or what God wants happens.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10)
Jesus says, “Now you pray that,” because that‟s God‟s test. No human being can do that. But that‟s what God is doing.
Jesus says, Now, this process has begun. The kingdom is not here in its fullness yet. There are still others kingdoms
that defy it, that compete with it, that are still going on.
That part came as a surprise to Israel. They thought Rome and all of the other countries were going to be obliterated.
“Those other kingdoms are still here,” Jesus says. But now, something‟s happened, something‟s changed in the course of
history. Now, “Up There Is Coming Down Here.” It‟s Gods‟ project. But if you want to, you can get in on it; you can
be a part of it. The divine conspiracy to subvert the kingdom of earth has begun.

They key question is how does Jesus know if this is happening? How does Jesus know? This is a staggering claim. What
the Sermon on the Mount is, is the announcement,
The Kingdom is coming.
And then, Jesus gives, in the Sermon on the Mount, a bunch of pictures or illustrations or examples of what it looks like
when folks begin to live a Kingdom kind of life. It’s very important to understand and we’ll go through this over the
next weeks. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, is not giving a set of new rules. He is not giving a new form of
legalism. He is giving examples of what Kingdom people do with anger or with sexuality or with truthfulness.
I want to throw out a couple of questions, to get you ready for this series. Then I want you to reflect: when you hear Jesus‟
teachings about a Kingdom kind of life, is you problem that you didn‟t‟ know what Jesus was saying? Or is your problem
a doing problem? OK? So, we‟re all going to do a little honest assessment here.
Do we, as a church, have a knowing problem? Or do we have a doing problem? Are you excited about doing this
assessment? Here we go...
This is Jesus teaching..You have heard that it was said,
Love your neighbor and hate your enemies.
That‟s kind of conventional wisdom. But I tell you
Love your enemies.
Now, that is what people in the Kingdom do. That is what God does. An enemy is just somebody that is hard to love.
Jesus says, Love your enemies.
How many of you are surprised to find out that is Jesus‟ teachings? How many of you thought that Jesus was going to
come down on the hate side, on the love/hate issue?
How’s it going?
I know I struggle. I‟ve had some people really irritate me lately. After one little flair-up I called Jill and said,
Jill, there is an inner jerk inside me that‟s just scary.
And she said,
I know.
What Jesus is saying, in the Kingdom now there is this invitation to a new kind of life and in the Kingdom–now it will take
wisdom and discernment and the help of the Spirit to apply this–but in the Kingdom people are characterized by love.
And they love, not just when it‟s easy, but they love when it is difficult. This is a new kind of love. As we walk through
this series you will find enemies, enemies are anybody that it‟s hard for you to love. And then the prayer is, Jesus, would
you make me a doer? We are not just going to get smart in this series. We are not just going to know more. Jesus,
would You make us doers? Would You make up there come down here?

Another teaching of the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus says that the Kingdom has come near. The Kingdom is now
available. Life with God is now available. Therefore, I tell you do not worry about your life...(Matt. 6:25)

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Anybody surprised Jesus taught that one? Anybody here think that Jesus was going to recommend anxiety as a good
strategy for day-to-day living? I know. I know. He says, “don‟t worry”, but I wake up at 4:00 a.m. sometimes.
Sometimes??? All the time. I worry about my sons. I worry about the things I did wrong the previous day. I worry
about the things that I have to do today that I do not know how to do.

What‟s worse mostly, if I am honest about it, my worry is mostly pretty self-centered. I worry that somebody might be
made at me. I worry that somebody might not like me because my mom said everyone is supposed to like me. So, it‟s
kind of her fault. I worry about folks who don‟t attend anymore. I worry about finances, leadership, maintenance and I
cannot stop worrying by trying really hard to not worry. Did you ever try really hard to not worry? What happens? You
just worry all the more. Then, I see Jesus say, “don‟t worry” and then I get worried because I am worrying and Jesus said
not worry.
But, He never said don‟t worry by trying really hard not to worry. He said the Kingdom of God is available; therefore, my
advice to you would be, Don’t worry about what you are going to eat or drink or wear or how you are going to live.
Don’t worry about your life, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matt. 6:31-33)
It doesn‟t‟ mean that storms will never come. Storms come to both houses, but what you find is that when the storm
comes–you lose a job, you lose a relationship, it‟s cancer–your house stands. The storm can‟t blow it down. You find out
that it really is true about the Kingdom. It‟s available to you right here, right now. It‟s not about easier circumstances.
It‟s not about storm avoidance. The Kingdom is here for you.
Of course as we seek to actually follow Jesus we will fail all over the place. Of course, we will. And this brings me to the
last key point and then we are going to go into communion. I mentioned this before, what’s changed? Folks have
always known they are supposed to do stuff and always failed to do it. But, something fundamental has changed. What‟s
changed is “Up There Is Coming Down Here.”

How did Jesus know? Well, it‟s a staggering thing, Jesus says in this story. Matthew paints this quite carefully. There
are two groups of people listening to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. If your Bible is still open, beginning at
Chapter 5:
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside...(Many people flocking to Jesus.) His
disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. (Matt 5:1-2)
He‟s teaching His disciples.
When Jesus had finished saying these things the crowds were amazed at his teaching... (Matt. 7:28)
So, there are the disciples. They are the ones that have said Jesus we will follow you, will do as you say. And then there
are the crowds that are listening.
The crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers
of the law. (Matt. 7:28-29)

When Matthew says that the crowds were amazed at His teaching because He taught with authority, He has a quite precise
meaning in mind. This doesn‟t just mean the crowds are saying, “Man He‟s a good teacher and really knows His stuff.”
It‟s not that. Jesus is claiming something that no other teacher, no other Rabbi would claim.
Jesus says whoever hears these words of mine. You used to have the Torah. Now you have me. What you have been
hoping for is me. The coming of the kingdom has begun, Jesus says, because now I‟m here–my life, my teaching, my
death, my resurrection. It‟s all happening through this one man. The crowds would come because He did amazing things
and said amazing words. They were amazed at this claim, but they were uncommitted. They were hearers who walked
away. But, “Wow!” Every once in a while somebody stands up and leaves the crowd and becomes a disciple.

Let‟s pray...

Heavenly Father, thank You for what it is that You have done through Jesus. Thank You that Up There Is Coming Down
Her. We hunger for that, and our world hungers for that so much. Now, as we come to the table we are so grateful that
Jesus did what none of us can do. He bridged the gap none of us can bridge, that He went to the cross, that He gave His
life to pay the debt for our sin so that we could be forgiven. We remember now, God, as You bless the bread and the cup
what Jesus has done for us. We do this together in Jesus‟ name. Amen.