Matthew 7:28

Mat_7:28

When Jesus had ended these sayings.

The Sermon on the Mount

I. Some few characteristics which the Sermon possesses.

1. The wonderful literary beauty of the language cannot have been unobserved by any one.

2. Then we have remarked the desultory arrangement and the apparently disconnected progress of ideas.

3. Chiefly, however, all of us have perceived the one great absence in this discourse, I might almost say lack, as we contemplated it from our Christian outlook. There is no allusion to the atonement. Christ is here as the preaching prophet, not as the atoning priest.

4. Hence the history of the Sermon affords a conspicuous example of the way in which men sometimes pervert Gods Word. They say, Our sufficient creed is the Sermon on the Mount.

5. Many of us would admit this statement, for we remember a startling and supernatural reach of requirement in this discourse-Be ye therefore perfect, &c,

II. The purpose Of this Sermon.

1. We find in it the description of a character.

2. We find in it a rule of life.

3. A standard of spiritual and experimental attainment.

4. We find in this Sermon an instrument of condemnation.

5. We find in it an incitement to holiness. (C. S. Robinson,D. D.)

Effects of our Lords Sermon on the people

I. The impression of this Sermon on the minds of the people-They were astonished, etc.

1. Admiration.

2. Some were penetrated with the importance of the word, and became renewed in the spirit of their mind. It is not so much information, as vital impression which the masses of the people require.

II. The cause to which it is ascribed-For he taught them, etc.

1. His doctrine.

2. His manner. There was a combination of dignity, earnestness, and affection.

III. A few points of instruction which the whole conveys.

1. The true nature of personal religion.

2. To exercise Christian charity towards all mankind.

3. Never to despair of the Salvation of any of the human family.

4. A lesson of caution to all who attend the ministry of the Word. (J. E. Good.)

Truth gains by being lived

For whereas precepts and discourses of virtue are only the dead pictures and artificial landscapes and descriptions of it, a virtuous example is virtue itself; informed and animated, alive and in motion, exerting and exhibiting itself in all its natural charms and graces. And, therefore, as we know a man much better when we see him alive and in action than when we only see his picture; so we understand virtue much better when we see it living and acting in a good example than when we only behold it described and pictured in various precepts and discourses. (J. Scott.)

Truth attracts by being lived

A belief without any adequate expression in acts is like an organ when all its pipes are silent and its keys untouched. It is dumb. It charms no one. It attracts no one. But bring forth the player; let him press the keys, let the dead air in all the choral columns be started into vibrations, and how the anthem swells, and how hearts are lifted on the waves of sound, and all the thousands applaud, some with their hands, others with eyes filled with happy tears. (W. H. H. Murray.)

The doctrine of Christian obedience rewarded

1. Let us take A general view of the doctrine of Christ.

II. The effect which it had upon the minds of the surrounding multitude.

1. These may be an astonishment of delight and approbation.

2. It may be a feeling of voluntary unbelief.

3. The high and irresistible authority with which He taught these holy truths.

III. The promised reward of obedience to the doctrine of Christ-He shall in no wise lose his reward.

1. Because the Lord has said it.

2. Because godliness with contentment is gain.

3. Because godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come

4. Because if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

5. Because though they walk through the valley of the shadow of death they will fear no evil. (S. Morrell.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 7:28-29. And the people were astonished at his doctrine — Struck with wonder, having never heard such doctrine before, nor any doctrine on religious subjects, delivered with such solemnity and sweetness, or with such force and energy. Christ’s words, it appears, made a wonderful impression on their minds. For he taught them as one having authority — With a dignity and majesty peculiar to himself, as the great lawgiver, and with the demonstration and power of the Spirit; and not as the scribes — Their established teachers, “whose lectures, for the most part, were absolutely trifling; being drawn from tradition, or from the comments of other doctors, which these ignorant and corrupt teachers substituted in the place of Scripture, reason, and truth.” — Macknight.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matthew

THE CHRIST OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

Mat 7:28 - Mat 7:29.

It appears, then, from these words, that the first impression made on the masses by the Sermon on the Mount was not so much an appreciation of its high morality, as a feeling of the personal authority with which Christ spoke. Had the scribes, then, no authority? They ruled the whole life of the nation with tyrannical power. They sat in Moses’ seat, and claimed all manner of sway and control. And yet when people listened to Jesus, they heard something ringing in His voice that they missed in the rabbis. They only set themselves up, in their highest claims, as being commentators upon, and the expositors of, the Law. Their language was ‘Moses commanded’; ‘Rabbi this said so-and-so; Rabbi that said such-and-such.’ But as even the crowd that listened to Him detected, Jesus Christ, in these great laws of His kingdom, adduced no authority but His own; stood forth as a Legislator, not as a commentator; and commanded, and prohibited, and repealed, and promised, on His own bare word. That is a characteristic of all Christ’s teaching; and, as we see from my text, to the apprehension of the first auditors, it was deeply stamped on the Sermon on the Mount.

I purpose to turn to that Sermon now, and try if we can make out the points in it which impressed these people, who first heard it, with the sense that they were in the presence of an autocratic Voice that had a right to speak, and which did speak, with absolute and unexampled authority.

And I do that the more readily because I dare say you have all heard people that said ‘Oh! I do not care about the dogmas of Christianity; give me the Sermon on the Mount and its sublime morality; that is Christianity enough for me.’ Well, I should be disposed to say so pretty nearly too, if you will take all the Sermon on the Mount, and not go picking and choosing bits out of it. For I am sure that if you will take the whole of its teaching you will find yourself next door to, if not in the very inmost chamber of, the mysticism of the Gospel of John and the theology of Paul.

I. I ask you, then, to note that the Sermon claims for Jesus Christ the authority of supremacy above all former revelation and revealers.

‘Think not,’ says He, ‘that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.’ And then He goes on, in five cases, to illustrate, in a very remarkable way, the authority that He claimed over the former Law, moulding it according to His will.

Now I do not propose to do more than suggest, in a sentence, two points that I think of importance. Observe that remarkable form of speech, ‘I am come.’ May we not fairly say that it implies that He existed before birth, and that His appearance among men was the result of His own act? Does it not imply that He was not merely born, but came, choosing to be born just as He chose to die? In what sense can we understand the Apostle’s view that it was an infinite and stupendous act of condescension in Christ to ‘be found in fashion as a man,’ unless we believe that by His own will and act He came forth from the Father and entered into the world, just as by His own will and act He left the world and went unto the Father?

But I do not dwell upon that, nor upon another very important consideration. Why was it that Jesus Christ, at the very beginning of His mission, felt Himself bound to disclaim any intention of destroying the law or the prophets? Must not the people have begun to feel that there was something revolutionary and novel about His teaching, and that it was threatening to disturb what had been consecrated by ages? So that it was needful that He should begin His career with this disclaimer of the intention of destruction. Strange for a divine messenger, if He simply stood as one in the line and sequence of divine revelation, to begin His work by saying, ‘Now, I do not mean to annihilate all that is behind Me!’ The question arises how anybody should have supposed that He did, and why it should ever have been needful for Him to say that He did not.

But I pass by all that, and ask you to think how much lies in these words of our Lord: ‘I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.’ They imply a claim that His life was a complete embodiment of God’s law. Here is a man beginning His ministry as a religious teacher, with the assertion, stupendous, and, upon any other lips but His, insane arrogance, that He had come to do everything which God demanded, and to set forth before the world a living Pattern of the whole obedience of a human nature to the whole law of God. Who is He that said that? And how do we account for the fact that nineteen centuries have passed, and, excepting in the case of here and there a bitter foe whose hostility had robbed him of his common sense, no lip has ventured to say that He claimed too much for Himself when He said, ‘I am come to fulfil the law’; or that He falsely read the facts of His own experience and consciousness when He declared, ‘I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.’

Still further, here our Lord claims specifically and expressly to fulfil not only law but prophets. That is to say, He sets Himself forth as the Reality which had filled the imaginations and the hearts of a whole nation for centuries; as the living Reality which had been meant by all those lofty words of seers and prophets in the past. He declares that all those rapturous forecastings, all those dim anticipations, all those triumphant promises, were not left to swing in vacuo, or to float about unfulfilled, but that He stood there, the actual Realisation of them all; and in Him, wrapped up as in a seed, the Kingdom of Heaven was among men.

And still further, He claims not only personal purity and completeness, and the fulfilment of all prior and prophetic anticipation, but also He claims to have, and He exercises, the power of moulding, expanding, interpreting, and in some cases brushing aside, laws which He and they alike knew to be the laws of God. I do not need to specify in detail the instances which are contained in this Sermon on the Mount. But I simply ask you to consider the formula with which our Lord introduces each of His references to that subject. ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said to them of old time’ so-and-so,-and then follows a command of the Mosaic law; but ‘I say unto you’ so-and-so,-and then follows a deepening or a modification or a repeal, of statutes acknowledged by Him and His hearers to be divine. He certainly claims to speak with the same right and authority as the old Law did. He as certainly claims to speak with incomparably higher authority than Moses did, for the latter never professed to give precepts of his own. He was not the Lawgiver, as he is often called, but only the messenger of the Lawgiver. But Christ is Himself the fountain of the laws of His Kingdom. Nor only so, but He puts Himself without apology or explanation in front of Moses and asserts power to modify, to set aside, or to re-enact with new stringency, the precepts of the divine law.

One supposition alone accounts for Christ’s attitude to law and prophets in this Sermon, and that is that the Eternal Wisdom and Personal Word of God, which at sundry times and in ‘divers manners’ spake to the old world by Moses, itself at last, in human form and personal guise, came here on earth and spake to us men. It is the same Voice that breathed through the prophets of old, and that spake on the lips of the Christ of Nazareth; the same Eternal Word who manifested Himself in a ‘fiery law’ on Sinai, and in words of no less majesty and of deepened gentleness, when He gathered the people round about Him, and said to them, ‘It hath been said to them of old time, . . . but I say unto you . . . ‘

Here is the sum and climax of all revelation, the last word of the divine mind and will and heart, to the world. Moses and Elias stand beside Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, witnesses of His superiority and servants at His feet, and they vanish into mist and darkness, and leave there, erect, white-robed, solitary, the unique figure of the One Lawgiver and the perfect Revealer of God to men.

And this is the authority which struck even on the unsusceptible hearts of the listening crowds.

II. Still further, let me ask you to consider how, in this same great Sermon, He claims the authority of One who is unique in His relation to the Father.

You will find that in it there occurs very frequently the expression, ‘your Father which is in Heaven’; or sometimes with the variation, ‘thy Father which is in Heaven,’ or, ‘which seeth in secret.’ But you will also find that whilst our Lord speaks about ‘My Father which is in Heaven,’ He never says ‘our Father’; excepting in the exception which proves the rule when He is putting into the lips of His disciples the great formula of prayer which we call the ‘Lord’s Prayer’; and there speaking as through their consciousness, and teaching them their lesson, He says ‘Our Father,’ not as if He Himself were praying, but as if He were telling them how to pray. But when He speaks out of His own consciousness He speaks of ‘My Father’ and ‘your Father,’ never of ‘our Father.’

And that corresponds with other phenomena in Scripture in our Lord’s own language where you find that always He draws this broad distinction. He never associates Himself with us in His Sonship. He ever asserts that He is the Son of God. Even when He wishes to speak with the utmost tenderness, He bids the weeping Mary hear the message, ‘I go unto My Father and your Father.’ This doctrine is thought by many to be one of those which they get rid of by professing the Christianity of the Sermon on the Mount. But it is there as plainly as in other parts of Scripture. If we accept all which it teaches, we cannot escape from the belief that He is the only begotten and well-beloved Son of the Father; and also that through Him and in Him we, too, may receive the adoption of sons.

Dear friends, I press this upon you as no mere piece of hard theological doctrine, but as containing in it the very essentials of all spiritual life for each of us, that all our spiritual life must come by participation in Christ, and that we enter into an altogether new and blessed relation to God when, laying our humble and penitent hands on the head of that dear Sacrifice that died on the Cross for as, we through Him cease to be children of wrath and become heirs of God. ‘To as many as received Him, to them gave He authority to become the children of God, even to them that believe in His name,’ but His Sonship stands unique and unapproachable, though it is the foundation from which flows all the sonship of the whole family in heaven and in earth. Moses and the prophets, teachers and guides, Apostles and Helpers, they are all but the servants of the family; this is the Son through whom we receive the adoption of sons.

III. We have in this great discourse the authority of One who is absolute Lord and Master over men.

‘Not every one that saith unto me, Lord! Lord! shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?’ ‘Whoso heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.’

Jesus Christ here comes before the whole race, and claims an absolute submission. His word is to control, with authoritative and all-comprehensive scrutiny and power, every aim of our lives, and every action. In His name we may be strong, in His name we may cast out devils, in His name we may do many wonderful works. If we build upon Him we build upon a rock; if we build anywhere else we build upon the sand.

Strange, outrageous claims for a man to make! ‘Give me the Sermon on the Mount, and keep your doctrinal theology,’ say people. But I want to know what kind of morality it is that is all traceable up to this-’Do as I bid you, My will is your law; My smile is your reward; to obey Me is perfection.’ I think that takes you a good long way into ‘theology.’ I think that the Man who said that-and you all know that He said it-must he either a good deal more or a good deal less than a perfect man. If He is only that He is not that; for if He is only that, He has no business to tell me to obey Him. He has no business to substitute His will for every other law; and you have no business-and it will be at the peril of your manhood if you do-to take any man, the Man Christ or any other, as an absolute example and pattern and master.

My brethren, Christ’s claim to absolute obedience rests upon His divine nature and on His redeeming work. He has delivered us from our enemies, and therefore He commands us. He has given Himself for us, and therefore He has a right to say, ‘Give yourselves to Me.’ He is God manifest in the flesh, and therefore absolute power becomes His lips, and utter submission is our dignity. To say to Him ‘Lord, Lord,’ carries us whole universes beyond saying to Him, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

IV. And now, lastly, we have in this great discourse the authority of our Lord set forth as being the authority of Him who is to be the Judge of the world.

‘Then will I profess unto you I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.’ He, the meek, the humble, who never claimed for Himself anything except what His consciousness compelled Him to assert, who desired only that men should know Him for what He was, because it was their life so to know Him, here declares that the whole world is to be judged by Him, that He has such knowledge of men as will pierce beneath the surface of professions and will be undazzled by the most stupendous miracles, and beneath the eloquent words of many a preacher and the wonderful works of many a so-called Christian philanthropist, will see the hidden rottenness that they never saw, and, tearing down the veil, will reveal men at the last to themselves.

That is no human function, that is no work that belongs to a mere teacher, pattern, martyr, sage, philosopher, or saint. That is a divine work; and the authority of Him whose final word to each of us will settle beyond appeal our fate, and reveal beyond cavil our character, is a divine authority. He has a right to command because He is going to judge; and the lips that declare the law are the lips that will read the sentence.

So, my brethren, do you take the whole Christ for yours, the Son of God, the crown and end of revelation, the sinless and the perfect, who died on the Cross for our salvation, and loves and pities, and is ready to help every one of us; who, therefore, commands us with an absolute authority, and who one day comes to be our Judge? If you turn to Him and ask Him, ‘Art Thou He that should come?’ let Him speak for Himself, and He will answer you: ‘I that speak unto thee am He.’ When He asks each of us, as He does now, ‘Whom sayest thou that I am?’ oh that we may all answer, with the assent of our understandings, with the love of our hearts, with the submission of our wills, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:28-29 Jesus began teaching only his disciples (5:1), but crowds had followed up the mountainside as well. • Unlike the teachers of religious law, whose authority was derived from the Scriptures they quoted or from the teachings of previous scholars, Jesus taught with real—that is, direct—authority. He quoted Scripture in the Sermon, but his teaching was based on his own authority as the Messiah.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 7:28. Συνετέλεσεν, concluded) The Lord did nothing abruptly: see ch. Mat 11:1, Mat 19:1, Mat 26:1.—ἐξεπλήσσοντο, were astonished) The attractions of true teaching are genuine; those of profane, futile. You may wonder, perhaps, why our Lord did not in this discourse speak more clearly concerning His own Person. But (1) He explained His teaching so excellently, that from thence His auditors might judge of the excellence of the Prophet who thus taught; (2) His person had been already[351] sufficiently declared; (3) in the discourse itself, He sufficiently intimates who He is, namely, “He that cometh,”[352] i.e., the Son of God, the Judge of all; see ch. Mat 5:11; Mat 5:17; Mat 5:22, Mat 7:21-27.

[351] e.g. Mat 3:17.—(I. B.)

[352] See ch. Mat 11:3.—(I. B.)

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_7:28. Καὶ ἐγένετο] וַיְהִי. Winer, p. 565 [E. T. 760].

ἐπί] as throughout the New Testament. In classical Greek the usual construction is with the dat., sometimes with the acc., and more rarely with ἐπί (Xen. Cyrop. i. 4. 27; Polyb. v. 48. 3, ii. 3. 3, al.). The discourse, which has been listened to with deep and unwearied attention, having now been brought to a close, there follows an outburst of astonishment, quod nova quaedam majestas et insueta hominum mentes ad se raperet, Calvin. This in answer to Köstlin, p. 77, Holtzmann, who regard this statement as borrowed from Mar_1:22.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 7:28 . Concluding statement as to the impression made by the discourse . A similar statement occurs in Mar 1:22 ; Mar 1:27 , whence it may have been transferred by Matthew. It may be assumed that so unique a teacher as Jesus made a profound impression the very first time He spoke in public, and that the people would express their feelings of surprise and admiration at once. The words Mark puts into the mouth of the audience in the synagogue of Capernaum are to the life ( vide comments there). They saw, and said that Christ’s way of speaking was new, not like that of the scribes to which they had been accustomed. Both evangelists make the point of difference consist in “authority”.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine--rather, "His teaching," for the reference is to the manner of it quite as much as the matter, or rather more so.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 28. The people were astonished] οι οχλοι, the multitudes; for vast crowds attended the ministry of this most popular and faithful of all preachers. They were astonished at his doctrine. They heard the law defined in such a manner as they had never thought of before; and this sacred system of morality urged home on their consciences with such clearness and authority as they had never felt under the teaching of their scribes and Pharisees. Here is the grand difference between the teaching of scribes and Pharisees, the self-created or men-made ministers, and those whom GOD sends. The first may preach what is called very good and very sound doctrine; but it comes with no authority from God to the souls of the people: therefore, the unholy is unholy still; because preaching can only be effectual to the conversion of men, when the unction of the Holy Spirit is in it; and as these are not sent by the Lord, therefore they shall not profit the people at all. Jer 23:32.

From one of the royal household of George III., I have received the following anecdote: -

The late Bishop F. of Salisbury having procured a young man of promising abilities to preach before the king, and the young man having, to his lordship's apprehension, acquitted himself well, the Bishop, in conversation with the king afterwards, wishing to get the king's opinion, took the liberty to say, "Does not your majesty think that the young man who had the honour to preach before your majesty, is likely to make a good clergyman, and has this morning delivered a very good sermon?" To which the king, in his blunt manner, hastily replied, "It might have been a good sermon, my lord, for aught I know; but I consider no sermon good that has nothing of Christ in it!"

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(28) When Jesus had ended these sayings.—The words again point to the conclusion that the Evangelist believed that he had been recording one continuous discourse.

The people were astonished at his doctrine.—Better, at his teaching; with greater prominence given, as the words that follow show, to its manner than to its substance.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

Ver. 28. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings] All this then was but one sermon, though twice preached at various times, as some collect out of Luke. A long sermon it was, and yet the people staid it out. So did not those Capernaites, Joh 6:66, and therefore fell away from Christ; so did not Judas, and therefore met the devil at the door, Joh 13:30. It is a lamentable thing that a winter’s tale shall be heard with more patience and pleasure than a powerful sermon; that if a preacher exceed his time sometimes people sit at as little ease as if they were in a fit of an ague; and others profanely turn their backs upon the propitiatory, and depart without the blessing, Eze 44:5. In the Council of Agathon it was decreed that none should presume to go out before the minister had blessed the congregation. And in the fourth Council of Carthage, Let him that goes out of the auditory when the minister is speaking to the congregation, be excommunicated. Ite missa est, Go it has been sent. Αφεσις λαου, were the old forms of dismission. And although Zacharias was long ere he came forth, yet the people staid his coming, Luk 1:21. But the word of the Lord is to the wicked a burden, Jer 23:33-34, cords and bonds, Psa 2:3, yokes and bonds, Jer 5:5. Hence they are so soon sated, and their attentions tired out and jaded, as it were.

The people were astonished at his doctrine] They were strangely transported, and enraptured with an ecstasy of admiration and amazement. {a} They were at such a pass that they could neither say nor do, but stood amazed with their eyes set in their heads, as the word importeth. And surely the word never worketh so kindly as when it is received with admiration; yet may we not rest in that, as too many do; but get it mingled with faith in our hearts that works by love, "holding fast the faithful word," as Paul bids Timothy, that part of it especially that in hearing he is pleased to sweeten unto us by the taste of his special goodness.

{a} εξεπλησσοντο. Ubi animus quasi attonitus, nec loquitur, nec quicquam agit, sed apertis oculis aliquantisper quietus manet. Lvser.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His doctrine - His teaching.

As one having authority, and not as the scribes - The scribes were the learned people and teachers of the Jewish nation, and were principally Pharisees. They taught chiefly the sentiments of their Rabbis, and the traditions which had been delivered; they consumed much of their time in useless disputes and “vain jangling.” Jesus was open, plain, grave, useful, delivering truth as “became” the oracles of God; not spending his time in trifling disputes and debating questions of no importance, but confirming his doctrine by miracles and argument; teaching “as having power,” as it is in the original, and not in the vain and foolish manner of the Jewish doctors. He showed that he had authority to explain, to enforce, and to “change” the ceremonial laws of the Jews. He came with authority such as no “man” could have, and it is not remarkable that his explanations astonished them. From this chapter we may learn,

1. The evil of censorious judging, Mat 7:1-5. We cannot see the heart. We have ourselves possibly greater faults than the persons that we condemn. They may possibly be of a different kind; but it is nevertheless not uncommon for persons to he very censorious toward faults in others, which they have to much greater extent themselves.

2. We see how we are to treat people who are opposers of the gospel, Mat 7:6. We are not to present it to them when we know they will despise it and abuse us. We should, however, be cautious in forming that opinion of them. Many people may be far more ready to hear the gospel than we imagine, and a word seasonably and kindly spoken may be the means of saving them, Pro 25:11; Ecc 11:6. We should not meet violent and wicked opposers of the gospel with a harsh, overbearing, and lordly spirit - a spirit of dogmatizing and anger; nor should we violate the laws of social contact under the idea of “faithfulness.” Religion gains nothing by outraging the established laws of social life, 1Pe 3:8. If people will not hear us when we speak to them kindly and respectfully, we may be sure they will not when we abuse them and become angry. We harden them against the truth, and confirm them in the opinion that religion is of no value. Our Saviour was always mild and kind, “and in not a single instance did he do violence to the laws of social intercourse, or fail in the respect due from one man to another.” When with harshness people speak to their superiors; when they abuse them with unkind words, coarse epithets, and unfeeling denunciations; when children and youth forget their station, and speak in harsh, authoritative tones to the aged, they are violating the very first principles of the gospel - meekness, respect, and love. Give honor to whom honor is due, and be kind, be courteous.

3. Christ gives special encouragement to prayer, Mat 7:7-11. Especially his remarks apply to the young. What child is there that would not go to his parent and ask him for things which were necessary? What child doubts the willingness of a kind parent to give what he thinks will be best for him? But God is more willing to give than the best parent. We need of “him” gifts of far more importance than we ever can of an earthly father. None but God can forgive, enlighten, sanctify, and save us. How strange that many ask favors of an “earthly” parent daily and hourly, and never ask of the Great Universal Father a single blessing for time or eternity!

4. There is danger of losing the soul, Mat 7:13-14. The way to ruin is broad; the path to heaven is narrow. People naturally and readily go in the former; they never go in the latter without design. When we enter on the journey of life, we naturally fall into the broad and thronged way to ruin. Our original propensity, our native depravity, our disinclination to God and religion, lead us to that, and we never leave it without effort. How much more natural to tread in a way in which multitudes go, than in one where there are few travelers, and which requires an effort to find it! And how much danger is there that we shall continue to walk in that way until it terminates in our ruin! No one is saved without effort. No one enters on the narrow way without design; no one by following his natural inclination and propensities. And yet how indisposed we are to effort! how unwilling to listen to the exhortations which would call us from the broad path to a narrower and less frequented course! How prone are people to feel that they are safe if they are with the many, and that the multitude that attend them constitute a safeguard from danger!

“Encompassed by a throng,

On ‘numbers’ they depend;

They say so many can’t be wrong,

And miss a happy end.”

Yet did God ever spare a guilty city because it was large? Did he save the army of Sennacherib from the destroying angel because it was mighty? Does he hesitate to cut people down by the plague, the pestilence, and by famine, because they are numerous? Is he deterred from consigning people to the grave because they swarm upon the earth, and because a mighty throng is going to death? So in the way to hell. Not numbers, nor power, nor might, nor talent will make that way safe; nor will the path to heaven be a dangerous road because few are seen traveling there. The Saviour knew and felt that people are in danger; and hence, with much solemnity, he warned them when he lived, and now warns us, to strive to enter in at the narrow gate.

5. Sincerity is necessary in religion, Mat 7:15-23. Profession is of no value without it. God sees the heart, and the day is near when He will cut down and destroy all those who do not bring forth the fruits of righteousness in their lives. If in anything we should be honest and sincere, surely it should be in the things of religion. God is never deceived Gal 6:7, and the things of eternity are of too much consequence, to be lost by deluding ourselves or others. We may deceive our fellowmen, but we do not deceive our Maker; and soon He will strip off our thin covering, and show us as we are to the universe. If anything is of prominent value in religion, it is “honesty” - honesty to ourselves, to our fellow-men, and to God. Be willing to know the worst of your case. Be willing to be thought of, by God and people, “as you are.” Assume nothing which you do not possess, and pretend to nothing which you have not. Judge of yourselves as you do of others - not by words and promises, but by the life. Judge of yourselves as you do of trees; not by leaves and flowers, but by the fruit.

6. We may learn the importance of building our hopes of heaven on a firm foundation, Mat 7:24-27. No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, 1Co 3:11. He is the tried Corner Stone, 1Pe 2:6; Eph 2:20. On an edifice raised on that foundation the storms of persecution and calamity will beat in vain. Hopes thus reared will sustain us in every adversity, will remain unshaken by the terrors of death, and will secure us from the tempests of wrath that shall beat upon the guilty. How awful, in the day of judgment, will it be to have been deceived! How dreadful the shock to find then that the house has been built on the sand! How dreadful the emotions, to see our hopes totter on the brink of ruin; to see sand after sand washed away, and the dwelling reel over the heaving deep, and fall into the abyss to rise no more! Ruin, awful and eternal ruin, awaits those who thus deceive themselves, and who trust to a name to live, while they are dead.

7. Under what obligations are we for this “Sermon on the Mount!” In all languages there is not a discourse to be found that can be compared with it for purity, and truth, and beauty, and dignity. Were there no other evidence of the divine mission of Christ, this alone would be sufficient to prove that he was sent from God. Were these doctrines obeyed and loved, how pure and peaceful would be the world! How would hypocrisy be abashed and confounded! How would impurity hang its head! How would peace reign in every family and nation! How would anger and wrath flee! And how would the race - the lost and benighted tribes of people, the poor, and needy, and sorrowful - bend themselves before their common Father, and seek peace and eternal life at the hands of a merciful and faithful God!

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

With reason were the people enraptured with his doctrines; for he taught as having authority from himself, and not like their doctors, who only spoke in the name of Moses, and whose only ambition was to please, and not to correct. In the Greek text there is only mention of the Scribes or doctors, but not of the Pharisees.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The same words also are repeated, Mar 1:22; Luk 4:32. They declare the effect of this and other of our Saviour’s sermons upon the hearts of those that heard him, and the reason of it. They

were astonished, affected with an admiration at what they heard him in this and other sermons deliver: the Divine verities revealed in his discourses, the purity of his doctrine, the convincing power that attended it, his bold and free speech without respect of persons, the simplicity of his phrase, the gravity of his matter, the majesty he showed in his discourses, affected the people, and made him appear to them one sent of God, and clothed with his authority. He did not teach as the scribes, the ordinary teachers amongst the Jews, from whom they had the discourses about traditions, and rites and ceremonies, cold and dull discourses, of little or no tendency to their eternal salvation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

28. Jesus… ended… people… astonished — Truly might they wonder at one who claimed that he was their final judge.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 28, 29. The impression produced on the multitudes. With the exception of the formula, "It came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings", (cf. Mat_11:1, note) the words are almost identical with Mar_1:22, (Luk_4:31, Luk_4:32) but the time is, as it seems, later. The oral statement of an impression which was probably often produced is affirmed of slightly different times.

Sayings; Revised Version, words (ver. 24, note). The people; Revised Version, the multitudes (oi ocloi). In contrust to the scribes and ruling classes. Were astonished. (cf. Act_13:12) At his doctrine; at his teaching (Revised Version).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The impression made by Christ’s sermon:

v. 28. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine.

v. 29. For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Christ’s manner of teaching differed from that of the scribes, for they taught by authority only, droning out the traditions and precepts and injunctions of a Law which was, in effect, dead in their own life. Christ spoke with authority, His was the authority to teach all men to the end of time. Therefore this power also became evident in His teaching, carrying His hearers along with the force of a conviction greater than that of the polished orator. He spoke the words of eternal truth. Small wonder that the people were filled with surprise and admiration, and that they voiced their astonishment at once. Here was a teacher with a message. Not only were His statements clear, His examples apt, His arguments strong, His presence compelling, but He had a mission as teacher and must be heard: He preached the Word of God as His own.

Summary.Jesus warns against uncharitable judging, urges perseverance in prayer, points out the safe way to heaven, shows how to distinguish false prophets and guard against false discipleship, and concludes His powerful sermon with an admonition to keep His sayings.

The Significance Of The Sermon On The Mount

The position of the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament and especially in the teaching of Jesus has engaged the attention not only of commentators and theologians in general, but recently also of social workers of every kind. And new impetus has been given to the various investigations by the wave of chiliastic literature that has been flooding the country. Some writers have stated, rather mildly, that the Sermon on the Mount exhibits the doctrine of Christ in the first stage of its development, as afterwards it is expounded in a somewhat analogous manner in the Epistle of James. Others, of a bolder turn of mind, have called it the creed of Christianity, the Gospel of the Kingdom, the grand charter of the commonwealth of heaven. One writer has soberly declared: "His primary aim was to deliver men from the effects of wrong beliefs, motives, and habits of living, and to restore them to complete physical, mental, moral, and spiritual health. He endeavored to unite them in the universal fraternity, which He described as the kingdom or reign of God, and thus to develop a perfect social order. " Another says: "Tomorrow educators will reread the Sermon on the Mount and seek to make rich the teachings of the Christian religion. Today all political economy is being rewritten in the length of the Sermon on the Mount. A most impressive political document. " Another declares: "When the will of God is done on earth as in heaven, the kingdom of God and of heaven shall have fitly come. Every social problem shall be solved, and all social unrest shall be stilled. " Still more elaborately: "In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us a perfectly clear and adequate picture of His conception of an ideal world,... a higher conception of the new social order."

The number of such passages from recent books could be multiplied indefinitely. They are all imbued with the millenarian idea, that somehow, some time, probably in connection with the establishment of the much-heralded Millennium on earth, the perfect social order will come into being, sin will be altogether unknown, all men will live in peace and harmony, and Jew and Gentile alike will bow before the throne of Jesus. And all this is supposed to be contained in the Sermon on the Mount.

All this would be perfectly lovely if Jesus had not expressly declared: "My kingdom is not of this world," Joh 18:36, if He had not told the Pharisees; "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation," Luk 17:20, if He had not gently, but firmly rebuked His disciples with their dream of an earthly reign, Act 1:6-8. Jesus has briefly, but comprehensively stated the purpose of His coming: "The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost," Mat 18:11. And again: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," Joh 3:16. St. Paul emphasizes the fact that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," 1Ti 1:15. St. John writes: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin," 1Jn 1:7. These passages represent the distinctive, characteristic, fundamental, essential doctrine of Christianity, without which the Christian religion would sink to the level of paganism. The free salvation of all men through the atoning power of Christ’s blood is the one wonderful ray of light in the Bible, which distinguishes this sacred Book of the East from all other religious writings, in which a religion of works and a final half-spiritual, half-temporal kingdom is set before men as the goal of their earthly ambition.

The Sermon on the Mount is an example of the teaching of Christ as distinguished from His preaching. He had two purposes in mind. In the first place, as His sharp comparisons show, He wanted to arouse His hearers, and especially those to whom the epithet "hypocrite" would apply, out of the lethargy of their slovenly righteousness. He wanted to point out to them the utter inadequacy of a literal understanding and of a literal keeping of the externals of the Law. He wanted to show all men, in fact, how far even their best efforts are from a proper and adequate fulfillment of the will of God. An attempt to live up to the injunctions of the Sermon on the Mount will speedily convince even the most optimistic of the inability of man to live up to the spiritual interpretation of the Law. And the second purpose of Christ was to give a lesson in true sanctification to those that have, by His grace, entered into the Kingdom and are desirous of living in accordance with the highest understanding of the will of God. Using the Sermon on the Mount in accordance with these evident purposes will redound to the blessed and lasting benefit of all such as are actually concerned about living as children of the heavenly Father.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here we have two things observable, 1. The manner of our Lord’s teaching, it was with authority: that is, it was grave and serious, pious and ardent, plain and profitable. With what brevity, without darkness! with what gravity, without affectation! with what eloquence, without meretricious ornament, were our Lord’s discourses! The majesty he shewed in his sermons, made it evidently appear, that he was a teacher sent of God, and clothed with his authority.

Observe, 2. The success of his teaching: The people were astonished at his doctrine; affected with admiration, believing him to be an extraordinary prophet.

Learn, That such is the power of Christ’s doctrine, when accompanied with the energy of the Holy Spirit, that it makes all auditors admirers, yea, believers; it causes astonishment in their minds, and reformation in their manners.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

AUTHORITY OF OUR SAVIOR’S TEACHING

“And it came to pass, when Jesus finished these discourses, the multitudes were astonished at His teaching; for He was teaching them as One having authority, and not as the scribes.” The scribes were the pastors of the Churches and exponents of the Scripture. So decisive was the contrast between their teaching and that of Jesus that the multitudes were overwhelmed with astonishment. Why was this? From the time Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost at the Jordan, He constantly preached “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;” while the scribes simply delivered their discourses, orthodox, nice, and eloquent; but without the Spirit and the power. Hence they had the thunder without the lightning, and consequently no efficiency attended their preaching. We have the same contrast at the present day-pulpits filled with orthodox, eloquent, popular preachers, but the lightning and earthquake of the Holy Ghost are absent, consequently no salvation accompanies their efforts. They suit the people who want to save their scalps, and are unwilling to have a preacher who would hurt anybody. One of these preachers once tried the experiment of reading to his audience a sermon written by Dr. C.G. Finney, when, to his surprise, some of the people broke down and wept bitterly. After adjournment, he went to them personally with an apology, saying: “Please pardon me, if I wounded your feelings, for I did not aim to do so;” thus showing his utter ignorance of the Spirit’s work. All gospel preachers should be sure that they are in the track of Jesus, and in that case, they must preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28. The people were astonished at his doctrine. At his teaching. No wonder they were astonished. The whole world still wonders as it studies this sermon.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

These verses describe how the people in the crowds reacted to Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. (See: End of Story)

It came about that when

This phrase shifts the story from Jesus' teachings to what happened next. AT: "When" or "After"

were astonished by his teaching

It is clear in Mat 7:29 that they were amazed not just at what Jesus taught but also the way he taught it. AT: "were amazed by the way he taught"

translationWords

Jesus

word

teach

amazed

authority

scribe

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

28. ἐξεπλήσσοντο. The tense implies the continuance of the astonishment, or the passing of it from group to group.

The meaning of this astonishing discourse was not lost upon the audience. No word could express more clearly the wonder and sense of novelty excited by the language and (as we may believe) the looks and bearing of Jesus. It was the astonishment of men who find themselves listening to the proclamation of a revolution set forth with marvellous force and beauty of language, who quite unconsciously find themselves face to face with a national crisis, the greatness of which was recognised by the listeners with a swiftness of spiritual perception only paralleled by the intellectual quickness of an Athenian crowd.

οἱ ὄχλοι. The crowds, i.e. the various groups that composed the assemblage.

τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ. ‘His teaching,’ both the matter and the manner of it.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28. And it came to pass when Jesus finished these words, the multitudes were astonished at His teaching.] Cf. Luk 7:1 “When He had fulfilled all His words (ῥήματα) in the hearing of the people.”

καὶ ἐγένετο, κ.τ.λ.] For the formula, see Introduction, p. lxiv.—ἐξεπλήσσοντο οἱ ὄχλοι ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ] With these words Mt. returns to Mar 1:22 after his long insertion, 5-7:27.

(M)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Were astonished [εξεπλησσοντο] . From ejk, out of, and plhssw, to strike. Often to drive one out of his senses by a sudden shock, and therefore here of amazement. They were astounded. We have a similar expression, though not so strong : "I was struck with this or that remarkable thing."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.