Sermon on the Mount: Audience

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Monday, February third, twenty twenty five. It is currently eleven thirty one am Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Albilene, Texas, where, ladies and gentlemen, Well, winter has ended, summer is here. It's going to be almost ninety degrees here in West Texas. That's the way it was meant to be. That's the way it should be. That horrible thing known as winter it was. It was scary.

0:46 I didn't think we were going to survive. I think it got down to, you know, maybe thirty one day. You know, it was almost the end of the world. It's over, ladies and gentlemen. Summer is back. I know. Yes, yesterday was like I think it was eighty eight, was over eighty something. Today I think is supposed to be close to ninety degrees. So yes, I am happy about that. I'm sorry for the rest of you who live in horrible places where the winter just seems to never leave. It's just like the way it works in other states or well, other, well, your states. I live in a country named Texas. You live in states, but in states. Right, for those of you who live in states and other places, y'all wake up when they go, oh, summer is here.

1:35 It's seventy degrees. Make the most of it. Everybody run outside. It's seventy degrees. We have twenty four hours, and then the next day there's a blizzard. Okay, So all right, maybe that's a little hyperbole all right, let's not talk about the weather. It's not the only reason I even came to my mind is I was thinking, it's not too it's not too bad up here in the studio currently, and I'm thinking, well, I better hurry up and get done because that's going to change soon, and it's going to be it's going to be too hot to do anything up here. So or it's time to turn on the air conditioning in February. I guess that's that's what we're going to do. All right, So are you ready? Let's get to something more serious, something more serious. It was May of twenty twenty three. Let me look here, Let me look here. I've got to go back and check.

2:23 I believe it was May. Now May of twenty May of twenty twenty four, May the twenty third, May the twenty third, twenty twenty four, So the twenty third of May twenty twenty four, that's the exact date. That was the last time I did a message, did an episode that went into our series that we call Sermon on the Mount. All right. We started that series Sermon on the Mount because the Sermon on the Mount is one of those passages of scripture, very you know, a large section of scripture that no one seems to agree on how to interpret it, right, So we have talked about all the different ways people interpreted. So again, it was May the twenty third, twenty twenty four when I did my last episode in that series. And today I was like, so do I broadcast? Do I not broadcast? I was going to review the audio of a video that was posted on YouTube where they were criticizing you know, you know you you know Christian YouTube, right, all of the Christian YouTubers, and and there's this like little gimmick they all use to try to get more downloads and streams and listens and views, and it's kind of just get it gets tiring. So I was going to review this kind of discussion about Christian YouTubers. But I decided, well, maybe I'll get to that at some other point. And then I was like, well, go to the sermon's two point. Oh, app let's look. And what did I find? I found

3:53 a sermon that was preached yesterday entitled Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. And I was like, well, there we go. That looks like something I should consider, because oh, we did the series on the Sermon on the Mount, twenty five sermons, twenty five episodes in that series, and again the last one was made the third twenty twenty four. I'm like, okay, it's it's been a while, let's let's do this. So I downloaded it, found out that the audio wasn't loud enough. I corrected that, and then I was like, okay, so what do I want to achieve by reviewing another sermon on the Sermon on the Mount? Well, I think the main thing I want to achieve, and I'm gonna do this by asking you a question. And this is a serious question here, right, and I really want you to think about it. How do you feel, as a Christian who reads the Bible studies the Bible, probably as a Christian who will tell everyone the Bible is the final authority and doctrine in theology. The Bible is the authority, not us. The Bible's the authority, not the Church. It's the infallible and errant word of God.

5:04 We are to study it, we are to interpret it, because it tells us what we are to believe in, what we are to do. Except you know, the basic things that you would probably say if someone asks you about the Bible and its authority and all of that, you would lift up the Bible as the authority and that. And there is at least some I guarantee you in your mind, whether you are very vocal about this, in some way, shape or form, you believe that not only you can read it, not only do you believe you can study it, but you believe you can understand it, and you believe that you can come to a correct interpretation of it. You believe you have that authority, that right, and that power. Some of you may go so far to believe that God helps you come up with the right interpretation. Now, you know, I'm very critical of a lot of this, but so but I won't get into my criticisms. Let's let's step back and do this. Let me ask you the question. Someone who believes that you can read it and study it in interpret it, someone who believes that you can, that you can understand it properly, how do you feel? How does it make you feel?

6:07 How do you process in your mind this reality that just the Sermon on the Mount, just that section of scripture there in Matthew, you know, go five, six and seven, just in the Sermon on the Mount, just when it comes to that section of scripture. There are at a minimum eleven different ways of interpreting the Sermon on the Mount, at a minimum eleven different ways of interpreting it. And these ways of interpreting it have been present throughout Church history. We have the literal ethical approach, we have the the interim the I think it would be called the interim ethic approach. I was going to call it something else.

6:52 The interim ethic approach saying that that this that the Sermon on the Mount was for an interim period of time, a very specific period of time. That's the interim ethical approach. The monastic or or councils of Perfection approach. The monastic are counsels of Perfection approach We have the Lutheran law gospel distinction approach. We have the Reformed or Kingdom ethics approach. We have the dispensational approach. We have the social Gospel approach. We have the existentialist or neo orthodoxy approach. We have the Anabaptist or radical discipleship approach. We have the ethical eschatology approach, and of course we'll throw in in there just to get to a good clear eleven. We have the lordship salvation approach. These are just I mean I just went with eleven just right there, just just right there, and and and that. I mean, I don't how does that?

7:53 What does that do for you? What? What does that? Does that bother you? Do? You not care? It's just weird how Christians are, like, my interpretation is right, everyone else is wrong. And it's like, but there's thirty other interpretations, doesn't matter. They're all wrong. They don't know how to read the Bible. They don't how to study the Bible. I do. But doesn't it bother you to some level? If there's so many different approaches, well one, does this not completely destroy the idea that God is leading us into all truth and He's opening our eyes, and he's helping us interpret scripture. Because if God is helping us in the interpretive process in any way, shape or form, there wouldn't be at a minimum eleven different interpretations of the exact same passage.

8:40 That would not happen. So I think we can just that this is just another piece of evidence that proves God is not involved in the interpretive process. He's not helping you, guiding you. He's not doing anything, because if he was, there wouldn't be at a minimum eleven different interpretive systems that are applied to the sermon on them. There would not be, and these systems completely contradict one another. They it would not be that way, So I think we can. I think that's the case. Second, I think it begins to at least raise the question, well, wait a minute, if there's all these different systems and nobody can quite figure it out, then can the Bible even be accurately interpreted?

9:25 I mean, clearly God is not assisting in it, So then well, can the Bible be even accurately interpreted? If there's throughout two thousand years of church history, at a minimum, eleven different ways of approaching and interpreting the sermon? On the Mount exists, and that's just eleven. We probably could come up with more. Well, then can it even actually be interpreted? If they can come up with this interpretation, I can come up with this interpretation, we're looking at the same text. Then either the issue is no one. Either it shows that people lock them the ability, right, so the issue is with people, or it demonstrates that the text itself just cannot be interpreted. And then you can't really say, well, your interpretation is wrong and your interpretation is wrong. If no one can come up with the same interpretation, maybe it's because people lack the ability and we just can't do it, or the text cannot be actually interpreted. That raises a serious question. Or maybe so I so, I mean, you know, I think this raises God obviously is not assisting in any way shape performer too. The problem is either people can't do it, or the text just can't be interpreted. Maybe number three, maybe the problem is maybe the problem is is that every single person approaches the text to say, the Sermon on the Mount, we can go with any other text, and they interpret it not in light of the text,

10:56 they interpret it in light of a philological syst that they're imposing on the text. So since Noah, since people don't have the same theological system, we get different theological we get different interpretations. I mean that is a fact. And if you take thirty Christians, they all come at things. They all have a thiological system that they're operating from, whether they have named it, whether they can identify it that you start listening to them going oh you're covenant theology. Oh you're dispensational, Oh you're this. You just listen to them start talking about passages of scripture, you can tell the philological system that they have been handed. So I think all Christians are all constantly handed a thiological system that becomes our glasses. We put on the glasses, and so everyone has a different theological system. Therefore everyone comes up with a different interpretation, and all the interpretations are consistent with the thiological system. Meaning we don't actually study the Bible. We actually simply study our things logical system that we read into the scripture and then we read it out as if we discovered it there. But where are the ones who actually put it there? So number one, God is clearly not helping us in the interpretation. Since no there's no agreed upon way to interpret someone on the mount two, the problem is either we just lack the ability to interpret scripture, so therefore we're never going to ever come to a maybe a correct interpretation. Maybe

12:27 the scriptures themselves just can't be interpreted that raises serious questions. Or maybe the problem is everyone interpret scripture in light of their theological system. They have their theological system, they read the scripture through that lens. Therefore they read their interpretation, their theological system into the text and interpret it that way. All of that is None of that is good news. All of that is depressing, discouraging, and should make you want to scream. Right, all of that should make you just as irritated as you go outside today and it's you know, fifteen degrees and snow coming down, and you hear that someone else is doing a broadcast from where it's going to be eighty five, eighty six, eighty eight degrees today, and you're like, wait a minute, that's just right as irritating as that could be, Well, this should be just as irritating, and obviously in a much more serious way. Now, I can't speak for you, but it drives me crazy that we can't come up with and agreed upon interpretation on literally anything. That's one of the things like if you look on Christian social media, if you look at comments under a Christian article, everyone's like, da da da da da. The quote a scripture and it means this, and someone to go, no, no, it doesn't mean this. No, you're not reading it right now.

13:49 You're not reading it. You're not reading into context. I know how to read in context. You do da and. Everybody just and everybody thinks they're right. And sometimes you just want to scream, going, don't you see how foolish we look. I mean, I know I can do a broadcast boom, get an email you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, Thank you, congratulations, and of course you are right. So it drives me crazy. So those are all. Those are just like eleven different ways of approaching. If you want me to go through those quickly, maybe we'll talk about these. And sometimes the literal ethical approach the interim ethic approach. For some reason, interim always throws me off. The interim ethic approach. I think that's and I think that's the best way to call it. So there's there's a period of time and an interim period of time where basically it's applicable. The monastic or Councils of Perfection approach. You can kind of see where that's going, all right. Number four, the Lutheran Gospel approach, which we've talked about countless times, the Reformed or Kingdom ethics approach, the dispensational approach, the the Social Gospel approach, the existentialist or neo Orthodoxy approach, and the Anabaptist approach, the ethical eschatology approach, and of course the lordship's salvation approach. And I think the lordship salvation is probably the most influential way you hear it, Todd. So now we could go

15:21 through each one of those systems, we could go through everything, But as I said, I found this sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, So you know what our goal is? I think I think after fifteen minutes, you know where I'm going. Right, We're gonna listen and try to find out what what approach do they offer? Is it one of these eleven or is it is it number twelve? Which way is this going to go? Now? I did I did? I did offer AI the possibility I said, Okay, hey, I got this sermon that was preached on February the second, twenty twenty five. It's on the Sermon on the Mount. Give me your predictions about it. And it gave me its predictions. Now in some cases, now in some ways, I want to go through all of its predictions first, but that's just going to take too much time. I may come back and read to you if it. If it's predictions are correct, it definitely uh, because I gave I didn't give a lot of information.

16:21 I gave the name of the sermon, the date it was preached. At first, I didn't even give it the name of the church. So AI was kind of like, well, it could be one of these eleven different approaches. Once I said it was a Baptist church, then it kind of it kind of modified its prediction and kind of went a certain direction. But we'll see if AI even gets it right. I'm not too much worried about AI today in this particular case. What I'm more worried or not really worried. What I'm focused on here is just, well, what interpretation are we going to be handed in the sermon on the Amount? What I want you to just think about is how does it how do you process the fact that no body can agree? I mean that that reality you should never you can't hide from that reality.

17:07 It drives me crazy. It just drives me to the point of going, so what does it even matter? If nobody can agree? Then does it even matter? Because can I say you're wrong and say you're wrong? If there's I mean, it just raises so many questions, so many, so many problems. But here we go, let's jump in. The sermon itself is fifty minutes. If we review the whole thing, we know where that's going, that's going to go, you know, five hours of I don't want to necessarily do that unless we stumble upon something here really interesting. What we're really going for is just trying to get okay, do they give us the basic framework? Since this is an introduction to the sermon, they're going to have to give us some kind of framework and how it should be interpreted. Right, which one do they go with? Let's see if we can discover.

17:58 My granddaughter told me that I was only half baked. Because of my age, and I said, well, this was two or three years ago, and I says, well, how long do I have to be before I'm fully baked. You want me to turn that on. I'm just given a little thing here, not that important. So she says, well, Pops, when you get to be seventy, then you'll be fully baked. Well, I'm going to be seventy and I said, well, how long is it before I'm burnt?

18:42 She says eighty five? So I'll see if I can keep going till I'm burnt. How is that at least? I want to keep going that long? Hey? Pretty cool? If you can still preach and teach at seventy, I mean, you know, that's nothing but positives. If you can. If you can do that, I mean, you know, not everyone makes it. There a lot of people. Okay, I've talked about it before. No one in my entire history of my family line ever came made it close to seventy. Okay, no one, zero, zilch nowhere, none for whatever reason. So if you can still be teaching at seventy, that is great. Let's see how uh now does age matter? Now? Sometimes?

19:35 I think age matters? And when you when you listen to a sermon, because sometimes you'll hear people talk and it's kind of like they start they either are still complaining and condemning things like the Beatles, and you're like, what are you talking about? Ladies in general, the Beatles or Elvis Presley, like what are you talking about? Or they'll mention, you know, cities they'll mention or condemning things are like, We've moved way past all of that. Okay. So sometimes I think it leads to references that are way outdated, and so in some cases it matters. Maybe maybe sometimes they do a lot of You know, back in my day, we walked into school uphill and back uphill, two miles and the snow, and we liked it. What is wrong with you people today? Sometimes you get a little of the whole generational difference gap thing. But ultimately, when it comes to the scriptures, it shouldn't matter right now.

20:39 Could it be that someone who is older, right, seventy, maybe their approach to the Sermon on the Mount may reflect and understanding based on something how many Christians handled it many years ago, maybe versus how many Christians handle it today. I don't know. We'll see, but let's find out. Yeah, something like that. All right, turn your attention to the Book of Matthew, if you will Matthew chapter four, and I'm going to embark on a series on the Sermon on the Mount, and this morning will just simply be an introduction to that sermon. I believe that this sermon is one of the most important sermons for the Lord's Church.

21:40 Okay, now I've seen now for me from my theological background, immediately that that makes my ears kind of you know, stand up. Oh, okay, I know where that's going. So he believes the Sermon on the Mount is one of the most important sermons for the Lord's Church. That means he believes then that the Sermon on the Mount is applicable and pertains to the church today. This would go We went through some of those different ways of interpreting it. Some of them place the Sermon on the Mount in a specific historical setting or for a specific time. So this seems that he's going with the fact it's it's for today. So that means there's some of those interpretations.

22:21 I can already see he's moving away from. He's already moving away from. We'll even mention those others. I don't know, so we will see now if it's important for the Lord's Church. Now this becomes the interpretive question, right, and what way is the Sermon on the Mount important or the most important for the Lord's Church today? Well, what makes the Sermon of the Mount Sermon on the Mount so important for the Lord's Church today? Now, Typically it's going to go because it tells us what we need to do, and you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do it. It's gonna be very law based. Some may go, oh, because the Sermon on the Mount is the thing that proves whether you're saved or you're not saved. So typically most people when they say that, it goes in a very legalistic type of approach, a lordship type approach, very works based type approach. We'll see if that's the direction he's going to go. That's my if I'm putting, if I'm betting right, and I'm not saying I am, but if we were gambling, I would probably put the money down. Oh, he believes it's important to the Lord's Church because it's going to tell us how to be good little boys and girls and how to act right and do right, and all we have to do is obey. And I'm most likely it's going to go with the idea that you and I can obey the Sermon on the Mount, which, okay, all right, that's the direction I think I could be wrong. I could be wrong, but that's that's what I'm feeling. I could be wrong. Feelings don't really mean anything, Okay, So I can be wrong, but I'm just basing it, really

23:53 on all the different sermons I've listened to. On the Sermon on the Mount. Here we go. It is the very first instruction that he gave to his church. Very first thing that he taught his church was this discourse. Okay, now, please note he uses the term these are the first instruction Christ gave to his church. Oh, here's a philological question. Was this instruction given to the church at first? Or was it given to someone else? Because if you'll know, Chapter five, verse one, and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them. Is that them the multitudes? Or does he separate himself from the multitude and this is only for the disciples. That's a good interpretive question. Remember we talked now about a week ago about asking good questions.

25:05 So let's go ahead and pose this question. Let's pose this question, right, He says, it's for the church. This is the first instructions given to his church. Was the Sermon on the Mount. Delivered to the multitudes or just the disciples? All? Right, here we go now immediately gets what Ai says.

25:48 The audience of the Sermon on the Mount has been debated. So just think about we already started with, Hey, what do you do with the fact that there are eleven different, at a minimum, eleven different ways of intern putting the Sermon on the Mount? Doesn't that bother you? And we talked about some of the implications. Ladies and gentlemen. There is not even agreement on who the audience was. The audience of the Sermon on the Mount has been debated. Matthew five ' one two suggests that while Jesus was primarily addressing his disciples, the multitudes were also present and listening. Textual analysis look at THEESV 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, say Matthew seven eight through twenty nine the conclusion of the sermon, and when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as the one who had authority, not as their scribes. Now the end of Matthew I'm gonna look at Matthew seven eight through twenty nine. I'm going to look at it in the King James see Matthew twenty seven or Matthew seven, I'm sorry, twenty eight and twenty nine.

27:08 And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these things, the people were astonished. So it seems to imply I think if you take the beginning of Matthew five and the end of Matthew seven, the beginning and the end of the sermon, that the multitudes were there. I think that seems to be clear. So the multitudes were there, But who was the primary audience? Right? The disciples were the primary audience. The disciples came to him. Jesus teaching is specifically directed towards those following him, calling them to a higher righteousness. Is how some people would understand it. The multitudes were also present. Matthew seven twenty eight explicitly states speaks of the crowd or the crowds. This suggests that while Jesus may have been teaching the disciples directly, the larger crowd heard the message as well. Right, So interpretive implications the sermon was given to believers, but hardly but heard by all. Jesus teaching was primarily for those committed to following him his disciples. However, the multitudes also heard it, meaning its ethical and theological implications extended beyond just the twelve. Okay, that's what some people say that the sermon was given to believers. It's for believers. Number two, Jesus was presenting the kingdom's standards. The sermon describes the kind of righteousness required in God's kingdom, which is why it contrasts with the Phariseic legalism of the day. The fact that the multitudes heard it suggest that this was

28:39 not exclusive to the disciples, but intended to challenge all who heard it. All right, So a lot of people. There's a lot of disagreement over it. Now I would argue whether it was the multitudes, whether it is the disciples. Do we say that this was the first instruction to the church. Now this comes into where where does the church begin? We can get into all kinds of theological issues. Let's see where he takes us. Let's start in chapter four and begin with verse twenty three to chapter five. Verse one, he says, and Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases among the people.

29:36 And his fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those which had palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great the multitudes of people from Galilee, and from the capitalists, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. Let us pray together, Father, I want to thank you for thy great grace. Oh Father, how good it is that you should teach us thy word. I asked that you would come upon the preacher, that he might properly articulate and disseminate that which is found in the Word of God, that thy people will have ears to hear and hearts to believe, and that if there be one among us who is not a believer, that today of God should move upon their heart, and that they should be born from above and become a believing

31:08 one and trust in Christ and confess Him. As their savior. Father. Thy word is precious, it is good, and I pray that we should learn from it today those things that we ought to learn. In relationship to thy churches. In Jesus' name, Amen, we have before us one of the longest recorded discourses of our Lord, and I hope, by God's tender mercy, to preach the whole of it over a course of several Sundays, which could be interpreted months. Now. In all my years as a believer and attending many churches, I've yet to hear a complete discourse or a complete set of sermons on this discourse.

32:01 I have heard portions of it taught, but not the whole. And most of the time when it's taught, it deals with the moral implications of. That particular subject. This sermon is far deeper than just mere moral implications. Oh wow, Okay, that's good. Now it is crazy. He's never been in a church that's taught the entire Sermon on the Mouth. That seems weird to me. I do agree that even people who teach all of it almost teach the moral implications more than anything. And he says it's much deeper than the moral implications, which, okay, that makes me excited because that could actually go in a direction that I can be like, Amen, I think it's that's crazy. I mean, I mean, every church I think I've ever been in has at least taught all the sermon of them. I don't think I've ever I think I don't think I've ever been in one that hasn't.

32:57 Have you ever been in a church that never taught the whole Sermon on the Mount? Now I think all of us have been in church is that they taught the whole Sermon on the Mount, but implicize, emphasized, if I can speak correctly, the moral part of it, the moral implications. All right, let's continue. If we don't preach the whole of it, we will lose the context and continuity of the meaning of this text, of the meaning of the sermon to whom it was preached, we lose the scope of its purpose and the application to whom this discourse was intended. Therefore, it's necessary to preach it as a whole. Now, this discourse needs to be preached because it has a vibrant message for the churches of Jesus Christ. It needs to be preached because it teaches us what Christian can character looks like that we that should be common of course among the members of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.

34:08 It is about character, who you are in Christ Jesus. Okay, now he talked about it's more than the moral implications, but he's really focusing on the moral implications. This is about how we should live. This is about our character. This should be common of all of us. So the implication is this is for us, and come on, there's no other way to get around this. The implication, even though he's not been explicit yet, you can do it. You can keep it, you can keep it. Now this is this has been proven so far my entire Christian life. Every every time I go to here in a church or a sermon or in a church and hear a sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, and they imply that we can do it. Inevitably for that to hold true, it will be you can do it, how Ever, see the small print. You can't do it perfectly or how or they'll get to certain sections, well Jesus didn't really mean it this way, or he didn't. They have to water it down to some level to make it possible.

35:13 So whenever I hear that we can do it, then I'm like, oh boy, here we go, because it's going to run into that. It's going to be you can do it, but you can't do it perfectly. Well, if I can't do it perfectly, then I can't do it. And if I'm not doing it perfectly, then I'm of a perpetual state of disobedience to it. So either I can or I can't. You can't tell me I can, but I can't because that's ridiculous. And if I can't, hmm, there what a way? And and why do you have to try to water down some of what most in church history would claim are radical and extreme demands? Right? Why do you have to try to soften that? Well, you have to soften that because you're trying to tell people they can do it. And if anyone's even remotely honest with this sermon. They're gonna be like, come on, now, come on now, we can't because we can't. Let's see which direction he goes.

36:09 It needs to be preached because of the work of the ministry. The ministry is not encoded. If any ministry that's not encoded with the character of this discourse is a blight, a sin, and is not characterized with the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that we do out of the enthused with what we learn here in this great discourse from our Lord. It's not. Be attitudes we teach our Sunday school kids the be attitudes. It is not an attitude. It is the character of the person that it deals with, and we'll get to those.

37:01 So I guess we're saying he's saying that we can basically have perfect character. Oh, it's funny that he was saying, this goes beyond the moral and it's turning. It's this is going to turn into straight up morality, and moralism is where I feel like this is going. I can already tell you which interpretive system he is not going out. You can probably already identify out of those eleven I gave you you can already see this is starting to lean towards maybe the lordship concept, and it's definitely not going the historic law gospel distinction way. It's definitely not going that way. Let's just see where. Let's see if he gives us the definitive way to understand the sermon on the Mountain.

37:46 Now, before I can properly preach this discourse, it needs to be understood to whom this discourse is intended. Who are the You know, there are simple tools that we need to use and apply when we study the word of God. A lot of times we just read the Word of God and we just read it and we glean from it. But a lot of times we don't understand it because there's things that we need to apply in our study. I like the four ws and the H rule, Who want, when, where? And how. You get those right? And then one other thing, comparing scripture with scripture, and you will go far in your studies, and you need to go far in your studies. You need to ask the question to whom is the Word of God speaking?

38:40 Many things are applied. Or misapplied because we do not understand the person or people to whom the word of God is being spoken to, and we wonder where some false doctrines come from because we don't ask the simple question who, what, when, where and how. Now, I completely agree, who, what, where, when how? Absolutely great questions. What a week ago, I did all that about asking good questions, So I'm in complete agreement. But let's make it very clear. You can have two people asking who, what, where, when how and still come to completely contradictory interpretations. I mean, that's just the reality. It's not like, well, their interpretation is different, mind, because they just won't ask who, what, where when? How? I ask what? Who? What, where?

39:31 When how? All the time. I have a strong feeling we don't have the same, uh, the same interpretation. I'm all about hermoneutics, I'm all about checking scripture, I'm all about Bible study methods, hermeneutics, interpretive principles. So knowing that and asking who, what, where, when how does not mean in any way, shape or form, we're coming to the same interpret interpretation. Why not? I mean, that's really the question we can ask. But let's see using his system, and he's going to tell us, well, first of all, let's see if he's going to determine who this was two, because remember there's a disagreement about who it is to in church history. All right, So but don't forget that the end of Matthew seven. Whichever direction he goes, he can't forget the end of Matthew seven because the crowd responds.

40:23 So it means the crowd was there. The crowd was there. I don't think it's I think it's for well, the crowd, for the disciples. It's for everyone. I think that's what you take from Matthew five to one. And the end of Matthew seven is it's for everyone, everyone or to hear these words, it's for everyone. And I think it's for everyone because it has the same purpose for everyone. But I'll let him see what he comes up with. You got to write all those down, and every time you read the scriptures, you apply and ask those questions. You will go far in your learning of the scripture.

41:05 Now when now, first we should consider to whom, and we'll answer all these questions here today, to whom. Are these words addressed? We have several possibilities before us, the first being the multitudes, the multitudes of Jewish people, or we. Might ask, is it. Is it a multitude of Jewish people who are believers, or is it a mixed multitude of Jewish people being believers and unbelievers, or as the common modern thought is, as that these teachings is all Christians in general, and lastly the disciples. So what does our Bible teach us?

41:56 To whom did the Lord address these things? Too? Notice in our texts? And verse five it says, and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain colon. You see, markings are important. When we see commas and periods and colons, they're important. Remember the commas, colons, and periods were not in the original. That are the translators placing it there where they think it belongs. That punctuation is not in the original. Let's make this Just get that out of the way. Okay, just because a punctuation mark, you can't determine everything based off that punctuation mark. Way you can determine is what the translator is trying to demonstrate, what the translator thinks. Okay, because that just needs to be that needs to be clearly established.

42:57 A colon in grammar is he's used to mark a pause greater than that of a semi colon and but less than that of a period, or rather, it is used when the sense of a division of a period is complete, so as to admit the full point. But then again sometimes see is the way the English is, It could be used in a whole bunch of ways. Anybody here Grammarians, all right, so you can fact check me later. How's that. I appreciated a church where one of the ladies was a Grammarian, but not only that a student of the Greek and had I looked at her, said.

43:42 Did I get that right? But sometimes it is. He said, he's going to go all in on this, just so that you know this all right, here we go. I'll just give you an example. The original manuscripts or autographs of scripture did not contain punctuation. Ancient Greek and Hebrew texts were typically written in continuous script, without space between words, without punctuation marks, or without lowercase letters. Right, So just make sure we understand that ancient Hebrew did not have vowels, punctuation, or spaces in the earliest forms. Right, So what is the implication for interpretations? Sentence breaks are interpretive decisions. Modern punctuation choices, periods, commas reflect translators interpretations rather than original divisions. You have to understand that. You have to understand that he can go all in about, hey, it's this mark, or it's this mark, it's this mark.

44:54 You're just making an argument based off what the translator thinks. You can't derive that it's not coming from the original. So you gotta so here that that translator is placing the punctuation mark. And if that in any way impacts interpretation, well then your interpretation is being driven by the translator's grammatical decision, not on the original text. That it has to be understood. It's added by way of illustration, or the description is continued by an additional remark without a necessary without a necessary dependence on the foregoing members of the sentence. In other words, it can stand alone by itself. Says, seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountains in Colon, and when he was set his disciples came unto him.

45:46 There's more information available to us. This is called this is one of the Synoptic gospels. There's something about it here in Matthew, something about it in Mark, and something about it in Luke. And when we combine them we get more details. So we're going to do that this morning. There's additional information that we can go glean by comparing this with other scriptures. Now, the sequence of events. I believe the scriptures lay before us, and we ought to learn the sequence of events. First, there was a. Great multitude of people that were seeking the Lord because of of the mighty miracles that he performed. He had gone out and he was healing a whole.

46:27 Bunch of people, and of course that got to stir everybody wanted to follow this miracle worker. And in verse twenty four it says that his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought all sorts of people to him. And they says multitudes from Galilee, and from the capitalists, and from Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond Jordan. They were gobs of people. I don't know how many a gob is, and I don't know how many multitude is, but it isn't just multitude, is plural multitudes. There were thousands most likely.

47:11 Now, our Lord did not take did not take to the mountain to teach the multitudes of people, as suggested by most preachers. He didn't take all those multitudes up into the mountain so he could have proper acoustics so it would echo forth his voice, and so that all the people. Could hear him. We need to find out what the scriptures say. We need to stop and examine why the translators placed that colon in that place. There is additional information that needs to be gleaned to get the sequence of events right. To discover who this text was taught to.

47:52 Now Luke chapter six, Now keep your finger over there, in Matthew, you need to go over to Luke chapter six. In Luke chapter six, verse twelve and thirteen. And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto. Him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom he named apostles. Now we have a little more information. When Jesus left the multitudes there, and we're going to see when we go over to Mark, that he left them on the plains down near the sea, and Jesus alone went up into the mountain to pray, and he continued there all night in his prayer, praying.

48:52 Because his prayer. Had special significance. He was about to select twelve men that he was going to to call apostles or sent once and commissioned them for gospel ministry, bearing the authority of their commission before the Jewish people. The next day, it says, he called unto them a certain number of disciples. Doesn't tell us how many. We know that there were more than twelve. Because of them of that multitude, he chose twelve. To join him. Now he called many disciples up to the up onto the mountain, but it was not the multitude. Now I believe the Lord then taught this discourse to them, and later in the day returned to the plain the minister to the great multitude.

49:43 That he had gathered. Now we need to go, oh, see verse six, verse seventeen, he says, and he came down with them, that is, with those disciples that he called. Up on the mountain, and stood in the plane, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of Judea, Jerusalem, and from the sea coast and from Tyron Sidon which came to hear him, and he healed to be healed of his disease, of their diseases. And they that were waxed with unclean spirits, and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him for the for the virtue out from him, and he healed them all.

50:24 You see, he came back. Down with his disciples after he had come down and called them and went back up. Then they came down and ministered to the multitude that was there. Along the shore of Galilee. Now I believe that the apostles also healed at this time and cast out devils, because that's what the commission that God gave them, that Christ gave them to do. They did. So let's go over to Mark chapter three. There's more information. Okay, cross referencing is I'm getting a little confused here because he's now trying to go to Luke and saying, no, this is where the teaching occurred. I don't know if there's anything in the text to do that. Let's just make it very clear. He seems to want. Did Jesus have nothing to do with teaching the multitudes the sermon on the Mount? I cannot stress this enough. Let me go back to Matthew chapter seven. The end of the sermon, it is said, and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished. The crowd is there, and the fact that it says he went up into a mountain, right this could I mean, I think this fits. I think that there's a possible symbolic idea here because he goes up into the mountain to teach.

51:50 This mirrors Moses going up in the mount Sinai in Exus Exodus nineteen and twenty, right where he's going to receive the law. And this reinforces the symbolic significance of Jesus here basically expounding the law, giving the law to the people, because before he can be presented as savior, they must be broken under the law. So if you want to start doing cross references, we can. We can all go cross reference anything we want. But it's a fact according to Matthew that when he was done, the entire crowd reacts, not just the disciples. The crowd meaning the crowd could hear. So if he's gonna say he went into a mountain to get away from the people, then he taught the disciples in private, then they came back down the mountain a minister to the people. Matthew seven would if you're going to cross reference, you gotta go to Matthew seven. Right, that's the end of the sermon.

52:51 If you want to know the who, want, where, when, how, don't you have to look at that. I don't know the very words at the end of the sermon that tells you exactly whose respon doesn't even mentioned the disciples response here. All right, let's see, he's gonna go to Mark. This is it. This is I had no idea this was gonna turn into who was the audience? We're gonna we're now see just just this, this is such? Is this not the perfect example of Christianity? We can't even agree on the audience of the sermon on the mount. Yet we will take the sermon in the mount and yell at people, you can't do this, you can't do that.

53:33 You're wrong, You're wrong. We can't even agree in the meantime who the audience was. See, this is the importance of comparing scripture with scripture. Mark chapter three and verse fourteen, verse thirteen, And he goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would. Okay, are you seeing what's happening here? Okay, he's talking about comparing scripture with scripture. I've said this so many times that principle comparing scripture of scripture is thrown out in churches, but sometimes it's actually detrimental for people learning what the scripture say, because what he's doing is well, and Matthew five, he went up into a mountain. Now he's just looking for phrases where he says he went up into a mountain, and then he's correlating, well, he went up into a mountain. Here, this has to be the same event. He could have gone up into a mountain multiple times. What are you utilizing to say that this was the same event. That's just because the phrase is used, doesn't mean it's the same event, doesn't mean it's the same time.

55:04 And they came unto him, and he ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach. And here's their commission, and to have power. He sent them forth to preach and to have power to heal sickness and to cast out demons or devils. So that was their commission that Christ gave them when he appointed them as apostles. Now, our Lord graciously taught the doctrines of this great of this discourse, and when they came down off of the mountain, he taught again. And there was a practical application of the things that he taught over back in Luke chapter six.

56:05 So I know I've got you going back and forth, but this is this is important that we get. This he brought. He came down with his disciples off of the mountain. They came to the multitude along the shore of the sea. Okay, I'm trying to follow his cross reference. Hey, why is he not going to Matthew seven? I don't understand it. Okay, So I asked artificial intelligence here because I was just like, what is going on? AI says, it is not correct to assume that Mark uh Mark three? Was that Mark three? Or was that Mark four? Hang on? Let me, I think maybe I gave it the wrong reference on that that would be on me. I gotta I gotta check myself here. Now I'm getting I'm getting confused. Okay, hang on, is that Mark four? No, it's Marks Mark three. Okay, all right, so Mark uh it is? So AI is emphatic here it is not correct to assume that Mark three, thirteen through eighteen and Luke six describe the same event as Matthew five. They use some they share similarities Jesus going up into a mountain and addressing the disciples. They occur in different contexts and serve different purposes. So then AI compares the passages, gives the context, gives the differences. Right, Matthew five to one, beginning of the Sermon in the mount teaching Kingdom, ethics, disciples and crowds, Mark three and Luke six. Appointment of the twelve selecting leaders the twelve apostles. Conclusion,

57:36 Matthew five to one is not the same event as Mark three or Luke six. Mark and Luke describe the selection of the twelve, whereas Matthew describes Jesus teaching the disciples and the crowds. While all three passages involve Jesus going up in a mountain, the timing, purpose, and audience is different. It would be incorrect to conflate these events as the same. AI did that in five seconds. Once again we have AI winning. Right once again. That's see, ladies and gentlemen, you don't cross reference by going wait up in the mountain. Let's look at anywhere where Jesus goes up in the mountain and just conflate these. They are different time event aud they're different. Who want where when?

58:20 How it's different. If you want to know if the crowds were there, and go to Matthew seven, the crowds are there at the end of the sermon. How is this so complicated? Okay, all right, we gotta get we gotta go a little further. And he preached to them. He healed them, and so did his disciples along with Christ. Healed them because that was their commission to do so. And it says then the whole multitude sought to touch him for virtue, went out and to heal. In then verse twenty, and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, those that.

59:04 Were up with him in the mountain, and brought down. And he said to his. Disciples, lifted upos eyes and his disciples, he said, blessed be ye poor, for yours as the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye that hunger? It changed said, blessed are they? Blessed? Are the poor? Blessed? Are ye poor? Blessed are they that hunger? There's blessed are ye that hunger? It changed the pronoun and it wasn't just they anymore. But it was ye, because there was a practical application for them to serve the Lord and be obedient to those things that he had commanded them to do, and that he had just taught them.

59:52 Blessed are ye that we or ye shall laugh, And he's speaking to his disciples. Now I don't know that I didn't. I don't have every commentator that there is out there in my library. But the ones I read didn't agree with me. But I don't care. A lot don't and that's fine. But this is from reading the scriptures. They all apply to the same event. They don't apply to the same event. Okay, what do you You may want to go back and agree with your comment the commentaries if nobody is agreeing with you, and look, it's okay. I got no problem. If to go against all the commentaries, I got no problem. But when you are going against commentaries that are saying who whoa wha wait, don't conflate these different events, different audience, different time, different contexts, different purpose, then you may want to go, Okay, what am I missing here? What you're doing is you're just like, oh, up in a mountain, so it has to be the same. There's no that's not how you do cross referencing. That's not how you do cross referencing. That's that's the that's the literally the example of death by cross referencing. We we I I've talked, We've talked. I've talked about it here on the podcast, talked about it in church, I've talked about it. There was discussions about this in Bible college and in seminary.

1:01:23 It's there's always those people. And we used to make the joke that sometimes the most dangerous Christian was the one carrying around the strongs concordance, because they're just like, oh, this word is used here, and this word is used here. Oh look, look, look, look, and you're like, you're just connecting random versus He's just connecting random things. One up in a mountain has to be the same event. And somehow this is supposedly proving that only the disciples were there. Will look at the end of the serment, look at the end of the sermons. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these things, the people were astonished, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. It doesn't say, and the disciples were astonished, it says the people. The people clearly could hear. The people were clearly present, and obviously there had to be somewhat close to him because he wasn't broadcasting via the internet, via radio, via television. And the fact that he went up into a mountain is perfect connection to Moses going up in the mountain, who received the law. Now Jesus is going up in the mountain to expand and expound and to teach the true meaning of the law, so that the people will understand their inability to keep the law, so then he can be presented as the Savior. I listening to sermons, man, listening to sermons? What a great idea.

1:02:55 Who came up with the idea of listening to sermons? So we must understand them. This the same event in the context some people say that when he came down the plane and gave the beatitudes again, that was a different event. No, it's the same events happened at the same time. The reason why I give you the sequence of events is to narrow up to whom the Lord. Preached this discourse too. I believe it was to his church, his the first church, the very beginning of the church. Some people the church started at Pentecost. I say, no, it wasn't. It was on the shore of Galiles. It was at this.

1:03:36 Event that he started his church. How do I know that? Because the scripture says, and God set some in the church first apostles. And where did he set them first as apostles? Right here? In Luke chapter six and Mark chapter three, it clearly tells us that he called up his disciples, and of them he named twelve apostles, and then he gives us the names of them. If the word of God is truth, and I believe it to be so, then this was the very first New Testament church meeting. And our Lord was its pastor, and he was the originator, the origin, it is, of the Lord's churches of divine origin.

1:04:28 God the Sun started his church. This would mean that this discourse was never intended or purposed for the masses. The masses read this, and you know what they get. They get a sermon on morality. Okay, So he's saying that. In Luke's six, when Jesus comes down and it says he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, said blessed be ye, poor yours is kame. We'll blessed are ye the hunger. He says, it's the same event I just asked Ai. The giving of the beatitude and Luke six and Matthew five are similar but not the same event. They share common themes. Key difference in setting, audience, wording, and content suggest that these are two distinct sermons rather than two accounts of the same moment.

1:05:22 All right. The sermon on the mount the location Jesus went up on a mountain, Matthew five to one audience primarily disciples, but crowds were present. Number of beatitudes eight style, more spiritual focus. Woes included no structure of the sermon, a long structured discourse, and Luke six Jesus stood on a level place, a large crowd of disciples and people from various regions, four beatitudes and four woes more more physical social focus. Jesus included corresponding woes, a shorter and more direct teaching. So Ai breaks down that similarities and the differences. Most scholars see these as separate sermons, different locations, different focus. Luke has the additional woes. Jesus often repeated teaching, so that would make sense, all right. Some will argue that this is the same event. A minority of scholars argue that Matthew and Luke described the same sermon, but from different perspectives. They suggest the mountain and level place are not contradictory, as a mountain could have a plateau or a level spot where Jesus spoke. They argue that Jesus gives a longer, more detailed version, while Luke provides a condensed summary. However, this view struggles to explain why Luke's version includes woes and emphasizes physical conditions rather than spiritual characteristics. It is best to see Matthew five and Luke six as two distinct sermons. The difference in location, audience, wording, content suggests that gave Jesus gave similar teaching and different settings,

1:06:53 but he wants to make thee His whole reason is, I've got to get Jesus away from the multitudes. It has to be the disciples. And just note he made a big emphasis in this sermon on Luke six where he says blessed, be ye blessed, are ye blessed? Notice he switched it, he says, ye. Remember he said he switched it. We'll go back to Matthew five, Matthew five, where Jesus says, blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs as he came, blessed are they? Blessed are the meek? For they blessed are they? Well he acknowledged that Jesus switched it in Luke six. Well he didn't switch it.

1:07:34 Switch it at the same event. It's a separate event. One is ye, one is they, and the they in Matthew five demonstrates that it wasn't just for the disciples, it was for the crowd, who is mentioned in Matthew seven as responding, what in the world is happening? How in the world, ladies and gentlemen. We can't even worry about how to interpret the Sermon on the Mount because we can't even as Christians agree on the who, what, where? When?

1:08:15 And how? Do you can you wrap your mind? We can't even we don't agree on how to interpret the Sermon on the Mount in church history. We don't even agree on who, what, where, when? How? And we don't even agree on how to do cross referencing. If you want to do a cross reference, what verse would be the most helpful and understanding? Who? What? Where? When? How? Of Matthew five to one, would it not be Matthew seven or it tells us who reacts to the sermon and who is described as reacting to the sermon not the disciples, but the crowd, meaning the crowd could hear everything to such an extent that they able were to respond and contrast it with other teaching that they had heard.

1:09:11 This sermon goes far deeper than morality. It is not addressed to Christians in general, but Christians in general would do well to obey it. There you have it, so he he is approaching it that it's to it's to the church, not directly to Christians, but we would do well to obey it. He implies right there that we can obey it a completely different So trying to figure out who want where, when, how doesn't help us, and how to interpret the passage. Well, we'll stop there because we're sixty nine minutes. I guess we're gonna have to come back to this. I guess we'll have to come back to this. I didn't want to, we'll have to. We're gonna have to come back because we didn't even get to how to enter. So I'm going to change the title of this too. Sermon on the Mount audience. I guess I had no idea that I was going to spend an hour debating on who the audience was for the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, could you have me? Isn't that crazy? That in Christianity when it comes to Bible study, when it comes to Bible interpretation, that is it. There is just it's insanity how there is just no agreement on literally anything like the smallest detail who's the audience? Even though Matthew seven tells you who the audience is by giving you our reaction,

1:10:42 that is not even sufficient enough to give us the answer. We have to go to other passages just because they use the word mountain and somehow conflate those with this one when even Ais know then try to say, in Luke six, those beattitudes are the same as the ones in Matthew five, even though he himself says it's flipped. Well, why did he flip it if it's the same the whole thing? Man? And you know what's so sad. I've dedicated my entire life to Biblical studies. I mean my entire, my entire, my entire adult life. All the schools I've gone to, all the degrees I have in biblical studies, theological theology, whatever.

1:11:45 And you're after all of these years of listening to sermons, and what do I do I find a sermon where we don't agree on who the audience is you, just like we're in Matthew five one and we don't even agree on how to interpret Matthew five one. We haven't even gotten to the beattitude. We don't even agree on how to interpret he went up into a mountain crowds disciple, we don't even agree. Oh, this is for the church, and when did the church? This even brings up the entire theological debate. He believes the church started in Matthew five. Well, this is so. If that's the church, then you have a completely un a church that's not baptized. Does this not he's baptist, doesn't he believe that church membership. Baptism is a requirement for church membership. Well, now he supposedly has a church. Have they been baptized yet or maybe I'd have to look at the chronogle maybe they have been.

1:12:46 Maybe they have all been baptized. No, he's well, no, he conflated it with the choosing of the disciples. If he just chose the disciples that hadn't been baptized yet, right, But he's saying this is the church. All this gets into lots of eccles ecclesiology, a lot of issues with the church. I don't know, that's a whole different problem. All right, Who do you think the audience was to the sermon on the mount? Now? Don't allow you see my law gospel approach gives me a push to go a certain direction. But I think to be fair, the multitudes are mentioned in Matthew five to one, and it's the crowds that respond to the sermon in Matthew seven, not the disciples. It is the crowd, meaning they had to hear it enough. And you said, well, that wasn't the intended audience. Does the text tell you the intended audience? It just seems to say they were all.

1:13:39 I think the point is everyone, disciple and the crowds, because the law is applicable and needed by everyone, the crowds and disciples. That's my estimation. But all right, we'll stop there. Thanks for listening. Everyone, have a great day. Hey, go listen to some sermons because it always makes your day so much better. A little sarcasm, God bless