Sermon on the Mount
- Dates
- 29 AD
Just as Moses gave the law that God gave to him from a mountain, so Christ also gives the law with even more depth and explanation to the people.
In detail
The appointment of the Twelve constituted the first step in the organization of the Christian church. Christ was King in this new kingdom of divine grace, the Twelve were its charter citizens, or subjects (see Mark 3:14). On the very day the Twelve became charter subjects of the kingdom the King gave His inaugural address, in which He set forth the conditions of citizenship, proclaimed the law of the kingdom, and delineated its objectives. The Sermon on the Mount is thus at once Christ's inaugural address as King of the kingdom of grace and also the constitution of the kingdom. Soon after the formal establishment of the kingdom and the proclamation of its constitution came the second tour through Galilee, during which Jesus gave a vivid and complete demonstration of the ways in which the kingdom, its principles, and its power can be of benefit to men.
The mountain on which Christ delivered the Sermon on the Mount has been called the "Sinai of the New Testament," inasmuch as it holds the same relationship to the Christian church as Mt. Sinai did to the Jewish nation. It was on Sinai that God proclaimed the divine law. It was on the unknown mountain of Galilee that Jesus reaffirmed the divine law, explaining its true meaning in greater detail and applying its precepts to the problems of daily life.
Bible passages
- Matthew 5:1-48
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. …
- Luke 6:17-49
17 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; 18 And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. …
Text of the King James Version.
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