A Survey of the Sermon on the Mount

In this opening session, we set the stage for the entire series by asking who Jesus was actually speaking to on that hillside, and what he meant when he announced that God's kingdom had arrived. We'll look at how Matthew carefully built this sermon, tracing the literary bracket that runs from Matthew 5:17 to 7:12 and the way the whole middle section keeps circling back to one question: what does real righteousness look like. By the end of the night, we'll land on the thesis that will carry us through the next four weeks: righteousness is not the price of the ticket in, it is the shape of a life once it actually belongs to the kingdom Jesus is announcing.