Breaking Down Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount

The Most Famous Sermon Ever

What is the most famous sermon ever preached? Without question, it is Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. It is one of the most influential messages across countless cultures throughout history. It contains many of the most well-known sayings of Jesus. Among its most memorable sayings are the following:

“Blessed are the peacemakers.”
“You are the light of the world.”
“Turn the other cheek.”
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
“Judge not, that you be not judged.”
“Love your enemies.”
“Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.”
“Enter by the narrow gate.”

Jesus did not give these as a bullet-point list of disconnected sayings. He did not link them together like colorful beads on a bracelet. These are so powerful because they are part of a carefully structured vision for true human flourishing.

What was it like for those who first heard it? Jesus had just begun his ministry, which Matthew summarizes with two features: preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing all who came to him (Matt. 4:24). Very soon crowds from far-away regions streamed to him (Matt. 4:25). When he saw these crowds come near, he went up a mountain, sat down, and began teaching his disciples (Matt. 5:1). The crowds also gathered to hear his message (Matt. 7:28). Matthew’s account likely condenses Jesus’s broader teaching into a concise summary of his teaching.

The Sermon on the Mount

Drew Hunter

This 12-week study examines the Sermon on the Mount passage by passage and helps readers apply Jesus’s words of wisdom in their daily lives.

One reason why this sermon is so appealing and powerful is due to its brilliant organization. The whole sermon is saturated with triads. It has three main parts: an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Each of those three parts also contains three parts, with multiples of three embedded throughout. This pattern of threes creates a thoughtful progression and serves to aid memorization. Jesus gives a carefully crafted, comprehensive vision for flourishing as members of his new community. Each of the sections makes its own unique contribution to its lasting impact.

The first part of Jesus’s sermon captures our imagination with a portrait of life in his kingdom. His nine beatitudes (a multiple of three) announce hope for the poor, comfort to the grieving, and blessing to the persecuted. As he spoke to disciples and crowds who likely felt as though they made no difference in the world, he gave them a dignified calling as salt and light. Those who live under his rule will be like a city on a hill, shining light on the rest of the world.

The second part gives a beautiful moral vision of life in his kingdom. The two key words in this whole section are “fulfill” and “righteousness.” The main body of the sermon is bracketed with notes on how Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets. He first clarifies that he is bringing the whole Old Testament to its fulfillment. He did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, “but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). This means he brings the entirety of the Scriptures to their appointed goal. The Old Testament is a storyline waiting for completion, an arrow soaring toward a target, a train steaming toward a station. Jesus is that destination. One way he brings it to fulfillment is by launching the kingdom of God into the midst of this broken world. All of Jesus’s ethical teaching in the sermon flows from this reality. Jesus is essentially saying, “I am bringing the long-awaited kingdom, which includes new hearts and the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that you can live radically whole lives of true righteousness.” His righteousness fulfills the Old Testament expectations, and it surpasses the traditional Jewish teaching and external-only righteousness of the Pharisees. This is how God’s renewed humanity will live–with true, radical, heart-rooted righteousness.

The Old Testament is a storyline waiting for completion, an arrow soaring toward a target, a train steaming toward a station. Jesus is that destination.

This leads to six examples (another multiple of three) of what this righteousness looks like in practice. He gives penetrating and profound instruction on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love (Matt. 5:21–48). Then he gives three examples of how his people’s piety must transcend that of the Pharisees—with sincere, Godward generosity and with prayer and fasting (Matt. 6:1–18). His teaching on prayer is the literary center and heart of his teaching. If we envision the sermon as a mountain, this is its summit. Jesus teaches on a mountain, and he leads us to the highest point of his teaching—the place where humanity connects with the Father, where heaven and earth meet, where we request that, as the center of the prayer says, God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

As if his sermon was not penetrating enough thus far, Jesus directly addresses our heart idol of wealth. He commands us to lay up treasures in heaven, not be anxious about anything, and to serve God rather than money. This all culminates with the golden rule, which brilliantly circles back to the beginning of this section as the fulfillment of the law and prophets: “whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12).

Perhaps one of the most underappreciated reasons why this sermon has had such a lasting impact is its three-part conclusion (Matt. 7:13–27). This is a call to decisiveness. He does not offer his wisdom as a take-it-or-leave-it collection, as if we can simply pick whichever bits we like best. Instead, he presents his teaching as a whole package, and he calls us to decisively come under his authority. There are only two ways—the way of life or death. Only two trees—good or bad. Only two foundations on which to build—rock or sand. This conclusion leads us to come fully under his gracious and authoritative rule.

The crowds who first heard this sermon “were astonished at his teaching” (Matt. 7:28). It was unlike anything they had ever heard, for he taught with direct, divine authority. This is wisdom from above. This is true righteousness.

Nearly 2,000 years later, this astonishment of that mountain-top teaching still transforms us, because the Sermon on the Mount reveals the life we were always created to live—under the gracious rule of the true King.

Drew Hunter is the author of The Sermon on the Mount: A 12-Week Study.

Drew Hunter (MA, Wheaton College) is the teaching pastor at Zionsville Fellowship in Zionsville, Indiana. He is the author of Made for Friendship and the Isaiah and Matthew volumes in the Knowing the Bible series. Drew and his wife, Christina, live in Zionsville, Indiana, and have four children.

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