‘And it came about that when Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.’

Matthew now ends Jesus’ words with a summary which is very similar to the summaries in Mat 11:1; Mat 13:53; Mat 19:1; Mat 26:1 (see note below). ‘The disciples’ have now become ‘the crowds’ but not the ‘great crowds’ of Mat 8:1. This may be seen as evidencing that the write was an eyewitness, and true to what had happened. He remembered how the disciples had been gathered (Mat 5:1), he remembered how they had grown into crowds by the time that Jesus had finished teaching (Mat 7:28). And he remembered the even greater crowds who subsequently followed (Mat 8:1).

All who heard Him were astonished at the authority with which He spoke. For the Scribes in general taught by referring to the traditions of the Elders, which in their training they had thoroughly memorised, and claimed no authority for themselves. Although often they did them come to their own ultimate conclusion. But even then it was based on their authorities. Jesus, however, spoke on His own authority. The repetitive ‘I say to you’ was unquestionably unique, and as will be seen in the Sermon it was as against all comers.

Note the reference to ‘their Scribes’. As with ‘their synagogues’ in Mat 4:23 it indicated the close relationship that they felt that they had with them (compare how we might say ‘our Pastor’). They placed great reliance on them. Their religious life was based on them.

Note On The Five Major Dissertations.

There are five major dissertations in Matthew which end with a specific formula as follows:

‘‘And it came about that when Jesus had finished these words’ (Mat 7:28).

‘And it came about that when Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples’ (Mat 11:1).

‘And it came about that when Jesus had finished these parables’ (Mat 13:53).

‘And it came about that when Jesus had finished these words’ (Mat 19:1)

‘And it came about that when Jesus had finished all these words’ (Mat 26:1).

This would seem to confirm his deliberate intent to draw attention to these five major dissertations. This division into five is typically Jewish, for five is the number of covenant. There were five books of the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy). Five books of Psalms. Five books of Proverbs. Other later Jewish literature also divides into five, such as The Megilloth (Esther, Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes); the Apocryphal Ecclesiasticus; the Pseudepigraphics Enoch and Pirqe Aboth. In the ten commandments also five commandments related to God, and five commandments related to man, each group possibly on separate tablets (thus there were two tablets of the Law. Alternatively they might have been duplicates of each other). The purpose in all this would seem to be in order to stress the covenant, and in Matthew’s case to stress to His Jewish readers that in Jesus the covenant was finding its complete fulfilment (Mat 5:17), a covenant whose terms had been renewed and expanded on in Matthew 5-7.

End of note.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

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.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 7:28. Astonished at his doctrine Or, his manner of teaching. See Mar 1:27 for he taught them (Mat 7:29.) as one having authority. This authority plainly appeared in these words, but I say unto you, &c. and in Mat 7:22-23 have we not prophesied in thy name, &c. from which it is evident that the Lord Jesus Christ was not a teacher only of God’s will, but a law-giver, and invested with a much greater authority than any of the prophets that went before him;and not as the scribes. The Vulgate and Syriac versions add, and the Pharisees, whose lectures, for the most part, were absolutely trifling, being drawn fromtradition, or from the comments of other doctors, which these ignorant and corrupt teachers substituted in the place of scripture, reason, and truth. If we may judge of the teaching of the scribes in Christ’s days, by the Jewish Talmuds, or even by their Mischna, nothing could be more generally contemptible; and their frigid and insipid comments and lessons could no more be compared with those strains of divine eloquence with which our Lord’s discourses abounded, than a glow-worm can be compared to the sun. Beza has observed that , he taught them, or rather, he was teaching them, refers to the continued course and general character of his teaching; of which this divine sermon is a noble specimen. Most of the things contained in it were delivered by our Lord oftener than once; for they were of such importance, as to admit of a frequent repetition. Therefore, says Macknight, in agreement with Doddridge (see on ch. Mat 5:1.), the sermon which St. Luke has related, although the same with this in the matter of it, may very well have been different in point of time. The commentators, indeed, are generally of another opinion; swayed, I suppose, by the similarity of the discourses, and of the incidents attending them. Farther, although throughout the Gospels we meet with almost all the precepts contained in this sermon, we are not to infer hence, that there was no such discourse ever pronounced by Christ, but that it is a collection made by St. Matthew, of the doctrines and precepts which he taught in the course of his ministry, as some learned men have affirmed. The reflection wherewith the Evangelist concludes his account of this sermon seems evidently to prove that the whole was delivered at once. It came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, &c. that is to say, had ended this discourse to the people, &c. See Chemnitz and Hammond.

Inferences.All our religion should begin at home; and, instead of being uncharitably severe in censuring others, we should be carefully looking into our own hearts and ways, observing and condemning all that is amiss in ourselves, and labouring by divine grace to reform it. Without this, what will all our pretended zeal, professions of Christ’s name, gospel privileges, prayers, and either preaching or hearing of the word, come to? And what a dreadful disappointment will many formalists in religion meet with at the last day! Our corrupt hearts must be changed by renewing grace, before we can be truly holy in our lives; and our principles must be right before our practices can be so. The best way, therefore, of knowing persons and doctrines is by their fruits, according as they are agreeable to the word of God or not.How should we dread the thoughts of following the multitude to do evil, lest we follow them into hell; or of building our hopes of happiness on insecure grounds, lest they fail us, to our final destruction! And how earnest should we be in our applications to a throne of grace, that we may go along with the happy few to everlasting life, or may be wise unto salvation! Blessed be God for the high assurances we have, that the humble, importunate prayer of faith shall not be in vain; that our heavenly Father will, in the riches of his mercy, hear and answer us, and freely bestow the best of blessings upon us; and that by a faith which is productive of real holiness, we shall rest on a sure foundation, weather every storm, and get safe to glory. But, oh! how concerned should we be, not only to hear and admire the doctrines of Christ, but to be lovingly acquainted with them!

REFLECTIONS.1st, The proud and self-righteous are ever most censorious.

1. Our Lord forbids all rash judgment, unreasonable jealousies, evil surmising, and rigid censures. Judge not, uncharitably, unmercifully, under a spirit of revenge or prejudice; decide not concerning a man’s spiritual state from some single act or circumstance, nor pretend to know his heart, much less to determine concerning his everlasting state: to his own master he standeth or falleth. This precept does not forbid the judgment of the civil magistrate, nor our forming conclusions of others’ state as well as our own, agreeably to the word of God; for, though our own judgment may be fallible, his must be according to truth.

The prohibition is enforced by a weighty reason: Judge not, that ye be not judged. Our charity and mercifulness to others will be the means of securing the like favourable judgment to ourselves; whilst a spirit of censoriousness will provoke the resentment and ill-will of others, and be returned generally in as liberal abuse: besides, what is infinitely more to be feared, God will give judgment without mercy to those who shewed no mercy, and with rigour of severest justice will call those to his bar who dare usurp his throne, and sit as self-authorised judges of their brethren.

2. He gives us some rules about reproof; not forbidding the kind jealousy of love, but condemning the magisterial rebukes of self-sufficient pride. Before we look at the faults of others, we should well consider if there be not greater in ourselves. For how unreasonable and unjust would it be with malignant eye to mark, aggravate, and with severity condemn, the infirmities and follies of others, the mote which is in their eye; while we extenuate, excuse, or justify, what is far more culpable, the beam which is in our own? or with what face of hardened effrontery can we dare set up for reformers of them, while greater evils, unredressed, lie at our own door? This is the grossest hypocrisy, and such pretended zeal against sin but a greater abomination in God’s sight, who trieth the heart. Before we presume to correct others, we should therefore reform the evils in ourselves; lest they should retort, Physician, heal thyself; and our admonition, though just in itself, be rejected with contempt.
3. Christ forbids not only uncharitable censures and magisterial rebukes, but imprudent and unseasonable reproofs. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine. Where men discover their profaneness and impiety; professedly infidel, or avowed enemies to the truths of God; who despise instruction, and are but more exasperated by admonition; there it would be folly, and abuse of things sacred, to persist in rebuking them; and we can only expect insult and harm to ourselves, without any profit to them, or glory to God: but, while prudence is enjoined, we must take care not to make our caution an excuse for our cowardice; not to think men swine till we have found them so; nor be afraid of any consequences when duty calls us, even in the face of persecutors, to bear a faithful testimony to the truths of God.

2nd, Prayer is the means appointed of God to obtain of him the supply of every want, spiritual and temporal; and therefore,
1. The command given is; Ask, seek, knock; implying the fervour, diligence, constancy, and importunity, which must be used, if we would obtain the relief of our necessities; and a deep and humbling sense of our wants, and faith in God’s promises, will engage us so to do; without which there can be no availing prayer.

2. A gracious promise is annexed. They who thus pray shall surely succeed: God will hear and answer them according to their various wants. Every petitioner, without respect of persons, who thus in faith draws near to God, receives an answer of peace, finds acceptance and favour with him, has the door of mercy opened, and is welcome to enter, and freely take out of God’s fulness whatever blessing he needs. Note; They who refuse or neglect to ask, deserve to want. The prayerless soul will be left inexcusable.

3. As an engagement to pray with assurance of being heard, our Lord enforces his command by an argument drawn from the compassions of our earthly parents. Evil as we are by nature, scarce one can be found so unnatural as to be deaf to the cries of his own flesh and blood, much less inhumanly to give his children things noxious, instead of the food that they want. If then, in such corrupted creatures as we are, such compassions and regard are found towards our offspring, much more will the Father of mercies graciously hear and grant the petitions of his dear children who wait upon him: his love, his power, are infinitely greater than ours, and therefore they shall want no manner of thing that is good. Their own requests, perhaps, may be sometimes improper, unnecessary, unreasonable; and these prayers he will best answer by kind denials; whilst all that his wisdom and goodness see fit shall be given them, in such manner and measure as shall be most for their benefit and his own glory. 3rdly, We have, 1. The conclusion and sum of the foregoing commands; the golden rule, universally applicable in all cases,To do unto our neighbours as, according to reason and religion, we might expect they should do for us, if our situations were reversed:to do them no injury; to give them every assistance in our power; to deal with them in uprightness and integrity, without making the least advantage of their ignorance or necessities: and this doctrine both the law and the prophets inculcate; and in this the commands of both, respecting our duty towards our neighbour, are summed up. The rule is short, and easy to be remembered; but how wide and difficult the practice!

2. Christ urges us to all diligence in securing eternal life, and points out the only way thereto: Strive to enter in at the strait gate. The gate is Christ, his infinite merit and intercession: it is strait; as it admits none of the trappings of pride and self-righteousness, and calls us to part from all our most beloved sins, to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ. And as this will require much labour, prayer, and self-denial, Christ urges the necessity of striving to enter in.

[1.] Because of the ruin and danger which attend the ways of sin, in which the multitude walk unconcerned; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction. There no restraint withholds the unbridled appetite; there pleasure, riches, honour, spread their lure; there all may find the gratification of their darling poison, or are engaged so to hope by that wily tempter, who welcomes all with fairest promises of joy and happiness; and many there be which go in thereat, naturally disposed to follow the bent of their fallen minds, and walking every one in his own way. To swim therefore against the stream of besetting temptations, and the tide of custom too, is difficult: but let us remember that the end of these things is destruction; that these paths lead down to hell; that, whether they be those of carelessness and neglect about the soul, open immorality, or self-righteous hypocrisy, all tend to eternal misery, and meet in the place of torment.

[2.] Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. There we must stoop low, our pride be mortified, all self-dependence be renounced; there the restraints of God’s law hedge up the way, and leave us the narrow path of holiness only to walk in; there our very nature must be changed, our inveterate evil habits subdued, our corruptions mortified; there we must expect to meet with many trials, afflictions, and temptations; there every inch must be won with perpetual war against sin, earth, and hell; and every step must be taken with watchful care, since dangers and snares are at the right hand and at the left:no wonder then there be few that find it, comparatively few at least. When therefore the difficulties are so great, the diligence should be proportionable; and if there be but few, comparatively, saved, we should strive to be of that number; and the issue will repay our pains: eternal life will infinitely more than compensate for all the struggles of the way.

4thly, False Christs and false prophets would shortly arise; and false teachers were already abundantly numerous. Against these the Lord therefore cautions his disciples, and sets down marks whereby they may be distinguished.
1. Our Lord describes them as wolves in sheep’s clothing; such as the Pharisees and Scribes were, who, with exterior marks of sanctity, and austerity in their manners and garb, were inwardly full of enmity against the doctrines of grace and true holiness, and in their spirit hypocritical, proud, and covetous. And probably our Lord has respect to the false apostles, the judaizing teachers, and all who should ever afterwards appear in his church, preaching the abominable doctrines of man’s self-sufficiency, justification by works, and the like; grievous wolves, Act 20:29 whom gain, not godliness, Rom 16:18 has drawn into the ministry. Beware of them.

2. He lays down the rule by which we must prove all who pretend a mission from him: Ye shall know them by their fruits, just as easily as a tree is known. They who are evil can no more preach the truth, and live it too, than a thorn can bear grapes. And, on the other hand, where the soul is right with God, there the fruits of truth and holiness are necessarily produced. Two ways the prophet may be known;

[1.] By his life. Is his conduct exemplary; self-denying, humble, meek, zealous? Does the love of God and of men’s souls appear to influence and actuate him in all his works and ways? At least, in the general temper of his mind, and tendency of his conversation, is this manifested? These are good fruits of a good tree. But is he worldly-minded, proud, sensual, indolent, more willing to fleece than to feed the flock? rigid in exacting the wages, but unwilling to be employed in the work, of the ministry? encouraging, instead of reproving sinners, by his example; conforming to the ways of a wicked world, instead of being transformed in the spirit of his mind? These are evident proofs of the falsehood of such a prophet’s pretensions.

[2.] By his doctrine; which seems chiefly intended here: for a false prophet may with the veil of hypocrisy cover his iniquities so as to appear righteous unto men. But are his doctrines according to truth, and drawn from the sacred fountain? does he preach the dignity or the desperate wickedness of man by nature? does he declare the damnable nature of sin, the utter guilt of every man by nature and practice, and the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness; or encourage the false hopes of sinners by smooth prophesies, and soften the harsh terms of hell and damnation, that he may not offend the ear with such inharmonious sounds? Does he exalt the divine Redeemer, his person, his offices, or slightly pass over these glorious subjects, for dry ethics, and lectures on morality? does he enforce religion as an experimental thing, as the work of God’s Spirit in the heart, purifying the inner man? or does he dwell on mere external forms and duties; as silent about divine agency as if he knew not whether there were any Holy Ghost? Does he offend sinners by the freedom of his rebukes, and the formal and self-righteous by his scrutinizing detection of their hypocrisy? or does he study to please men, and, like the false prophets of old, secure the good word of the deluded and misguided world? By these and the like fruits shall they be known. Try therefore the spirits, whether they be of God; for many false prophets are gone out into the world; 1Jn 4:1.

3. He declares the terrible end of these wolves in sheep’s clothing. As the barren tree is only fit fuel for the flames, so are these marked for ruin; the axe of death shall shortly be laid to their root, and ruin eternal be their portion. Beware therefore of false prophets; lest, deluded by them, you partake of their plagues.
5thly, We have the conclusion of this awakening discourse, and the deep impression it made on the hearers.
1. Our Lord shews that no profession of religion, destitute of the power of godliness, will stand a man in any stead at a judgment-day.
[1.] It is not saying, but doing, that must prove our genuine religion. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, in boasting profession and noisy devotion, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, be enrolled as living members of his church, or be admitted inheritors of his glory; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is heaven, who truly believes on him whom God hath sent, takes him for his Lord and Master, not merely in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth; obedient to his commands, following him in righteousness and true holiness, desirous to do his will on earth as he hopes shortly to do his will in heaven. Reader, is this character thine?

[2.] Many in the day of Christ will appear to have deluded themselves with false hopes, whose pleas will then be fearfully silenced. Many will say to me in that great day of judgment, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Many of those who may have filled the highest stations of the church on earth, have been to appearance the most zealous preachers, or public professors in it, yet proved no better than Balaam or Caiaphas: yea, and in thy name have cast out devils, as Judas, and many others, no doubt; and in thy name done many wonderful works? even working the most astonishing miracles: and yet Christ declares, Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, all ye that work iniquity. Notwithstanding all your pleas, your hearts have been false and faithless, and your professions utterly unsound; and therefore your portion must be, to depart accursed with the devil and his angels. Learn hence these awful truths (1.) That a man may be a minister of the gospel, yea, distinguished with gifts and successful in his labours, and yet be finally cast away; may be the instrument of saving others, and perish himself; may cast out devils from the hearts of others, and harbour them in his own. (2.) Names may pass upon men, but God searcheth the heart. There are secret sins to be found in many under the cloak of most glaring profession; and they shall receive greater damnation. (3.) In the day of judgment, terrible will be the disappointment of those, who all their lives long were working, as they thought for life, were esteemed as patterns of piety, and cried up as the excellent of the earth, and yet will be found not only to have deceived others, but to have deluded themselves, falling from the height of self-righteous hopes into the depths of endless despair, and from the gates of heaven driven into the belly of hell. Let every man prove well his own work, and judge himself, that he may he found sincere and without offence at the day of Christ.

2. He enforces the truths that he had delivered, by an opposite parable of a wise and foolish builder, describing the different foundations they laid, and the different issue of their labours.
[1.] The wise builder, his labours, and success, are described. (1.) His character is given; He heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them. Herein is seen the mind that hath wisdom: he receives the truth in the love of it, obeys the precepts, is influenced by the Gospel as a living principle of action, and seeks conformity in heart and life to his divine Lord and Master. (2.) He builds upon a rock, on Jesus Christ, the only sure and safe foundation, depending an his infinite merit, powerful intercession, and free, rich, and unmerited grace alone for pardon and acceptance: and under the teachings of his word and spirit, and the supports of his grace, the glorious superstructure rises of righteousness and true holiness. As he builds for eternity, he is jealous in labouring to make his calling and election sure; and in every good word and work seeks to approve himself to the great Master. (3.) He who thus faithfully and perseveringly builds upon and rests upon this rock, stands against every storm. He may expect, and will meet with many a severe blast: the rain of temptation within, the overflowings of ungodliness without, the wind of persecution, all may unite their fury against him, to move him from his steadfastness, to shake his confidence in Christ, to discourage or seduce him from the good ways of the Lord; but, resting on this rock, and cleaving to this Saviour, the faithful soul shall stand: he shall stand in the day of evil; in the hour of death he shall be supported; his work shall stand the fiery trial; and in the day of judgment he shall be approved and rewarded by the Lord of life and glory.

[2.] The foolish builder, and his sad end, are set forth for our warning. (1.) His character is, that he heareth the sayings of Christ, and doeth them not. He makes profession of religion, and attends upon the ordinances, but goes no farther; the doctrines of the gospel have no deep effect upon his heart, nor an universal and abiding influence on his conduct. (2.) He builds upon the sand, leaving Christ to rest upon something in himself, and looking for acceptance, in whole or in part, on account of some external things wherein he differs from others, whether moral duties, alms, honesty, and the like, or on the form of godliness, baptism, prayers, frequenting the house and table of the Lord, &c. Or if he has a speculative knowledge of the truth, and knows the vanity of these things, he rests on that knowledge, without any experimental possession of the blessings of the gospel; and then it profiteth him nothing: or if his notions are yet more spiritualized, he makes his inward feelings, or supposed gifts and graces, his confidence, depending upon what he calls the Christ within, which is but a more refined self-righteousness, and a more subtle delusion: and therefore, when the time of trial comes, his house will fall, and crush him under its ruins. If persecution arises for the word’s sake, such are quickly offended; in times of affliction and trouble, their hopes cannot support and comfort them; and in death they utterly fail; at least, if the hypocrite’s hopes stand out to the last, they die with him; destruction and despair from that moment seize him; and too late he discovers the fatal mistake, when it is irremediable, and his eternal state is determined.

3. Great was the impression made by this discourse of our Lord on his audience: they were as men thunder-struck; astonished with the uncommon power, weight, and energy which attended his preaching. They admired the dignity with which he spoke, addressing them in his own name as one invested with authority: and his sentiments were new, as well as weighty; utterly unlike the flat and spiritless comments of the scribes, who servilely adhered to the traditions and decisions of their rabbis. And yet, alas! the impression soon wore off from many, from the most of them. So easy, so common, is it to hear with admiration the eloquent or powerful preachers of the Gospel, to feel a transient glow, and notwithstanding to continue in ignorance and unbelief, under the power of sin, and perish everlastingly.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 7:28 . ] . Winer, p. 565 [E. T. 760].

] as throughout the New Testament. In classical Greek the usual construction is with the dat., sometimes with the acc., and more rarely with (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 Kstlin, p. 77, Holtzmann, who regard this statement as borrowed from Mar 1:22 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1335
THE EFFECT OF OUR LORDS PREACHING

Mat 7:28-29. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes.

IT has been thought by many, that this which is called the Sermon on the Mount, was not delivered at one time, but is only a collection of sayings which at different times were used by our Lord. But, as our Lord went through all the cities, towns, and villages of Juda, instructing the people, it is reasonable to suppose, that he should frequently deliver the same truths in nearly the same expressions, because the same instructions were necessary for all. The repetition of them therefore, at different times, and at distant places, is no reason at all why they should not now have been delivered all at once, when so great a multitude was attending his ministry, and he had gone up upon a mountain for the purpose of addressing them to more advantage. Moreover, the words before us clearly shew, that this was one continued sermon; or rather, that these were the chief topics contained in it, together with the principal illustrations of them.

Having successively considered all the different parts of this sermon, we now come to notice,

I.

The peculiar character of our Lords preaching

We shall not enter upon the subject of his ministry at large, but confine our attention to the discourse before us; which, both in the matter and in the manner, appears to have been well calculated to make a deep impression on his audience.
The things with which they appear to have been particularly affected, were,

1.

His wisdom

[There was an astonishing depth in all that he spoke. His knowledge of the divine law was such, as infinitely surpassed all that even their most eminent prophets had ever manifested. David had acknowledged his inability to explore its depth: I have seen an end of all perfection; but thy commandment is exceeding broad. But the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of it were open to the view of Jesus, who saw it in all its spirituality, and in its utmost perfection. He was able to expose and refute all the false glosses with which their most learned teachers had obscured the law; and to set it forth as reaching, no less to the thoughts and intents of the heart than to the most open actions of the life.

There was also a luminousness in his statements, which, like the light of the sun, carried its own evidence along with it. And his illustrations were so apt, so easy, so familiar, so convincing, that every one who was open to conviction was constrained to assent to every word he spoke. Nor did he ever, like the Scribes, dwell upon matters that were altogether useless and unedifying; but he was always on subjects of prime importance, the knowledge of which was necessary for the salvation of the soul. In a word, as at an early period of his life the doctors in the temple were astonished at his understanding and answers, so now, on this and many subsequent occasions, his hearers wondered; How knoweth this man letters (the Scriptures), having never learned, or had a learned education?]

2.

His faithfulness

[He flattered not the people by countenancing for a moment their expectation of a temporal Messiah, but shewed the spiritual nature of that kingdom which he was come to establish. Moreover, in his reproofs he spared not any: the greatest and the wisest among the people were rather the more exposed to his censures, on account of the influence which they exerted over the minds of others. The fallacy of their reasonings, the defectiveness of their morals, and the hypocrisy of their religious acts, (their alms, their prayers, their fastings,) were held up to universal reprobation; and all the multitude were warned plainly, that unless their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, they should in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. They were warned too that they must yield a cordial and unreserved obedience to his instructions; that the retaining of any bosom lust would infallibly destroy their souls for ever: that every sinful affection, though dear as a right eye, or apparently necessary as a right hand, must be cut off; or else they would assuredly take their portion in hell-fire.
These were plain truths; not such as the people had been accustomed to hear from their teachers, who only prophesied smooth things, or amused them with deceits: they were such truths as commended themselves to the consciences of all, and made them feel that they were sinners before God. Every person that heard him bore him witness, that truly he was full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sin [Note: Mic 3:8.].]

3.

His authority

[The Scribes were in the habit of founding their instructions on their own fallacious reasonings, or on the dogmas of some of the more learned Rabbins. But our Lord appealed to no authority above his own. He reasoned indeed for the conviction of his hearers; but the ground on which he required every word of his to be received, was his own authority; I say unto you; I say unto you. In this he differed from all the prophets that had gone before him: they delivered their messages, as from Jehovah; Thus saith the Lord:but Jesus, being himself God manifest in the flesh, assumed a right to dictate as from himself; Ye have heard from others such or such a thing; but I say unto you the very reverse; and require you to receive the word on my authority. To this his hearers were ready to submit: for the miracles which he had already wrought without number had evinced his almighty power and Godhead, and were a standing testimony, that his every word was to be received with implicit faith and unreserved obedience.

Doubtless there were many other things conspicuous in his ministrations: his gracefulness and ease, his tenderness and compassion, his zeal and diligence, could not fail of attracting notice; but the points above specified, are those which seem more particularly adverted to in the words of our text.]
Such was the preaching of our Lord. Let us now consider,

II.

The effect produced by it on his hearers

They appear to have been exceedingly struck with his address; yet not so affected as we might have hoped. We shall endeavour to point out,

1.

How far the effect was good

[The word which we translate astonished. does certainly imply a very deep impression made upon their minds. This impression consisted partly in admiration, with which they were filled; and partly in conviction, with which they were penetrated; a conviction of the truth, the importance, and the beneficial tendency of all he had spoken. The novelty, united with the circumstances before mentioned, made his ministry appear as superior to that of others, as the effulgence of the sun is to the light of a twinkling star. One sentiment evidently pervaded the whole multitude, Never man spake like this man. At the same time they felt in their consciences, that, if this was religion, they had hitherto been ignorant of it in their minds, and destitute of it in their hearts.

Now these two feelings were doubtless good, inasmuch as they argued an openness of mind, a freedom from offence, and a desire of further instruction: and accordingly we find, that, when he came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. But, from all that is recorded, we have no reason to conclude that the impression made upon them was altogether such as might have been wished.]

2.

Wherein it was defective

[They should have been pricked to their hearts with a deep sense of their wickedness, and should have been led to cry out, like those on the day of Pentecost, What shall we do to be saved? Without such humiliation as this they could never be truly penitent: they never could abhor themselves, as every penitent must do, in dust and ashes.

They should have also given up themselves entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ. He required all to take up their cross and follow him: but this was effected only to a very small extent, even to the hour of his death: the whole number of his followers amounted at the last to no more than one hundred and twenty. Hence it is evident, that, whatever effects were produced on this audience, they were only transient; and, consequently, that the word preached did not profit the people, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

They should have been brought to a new and heavenly life. Every thing that falls short of this is in vain. We must obey from the heart that form of doctrine into which we are delivered; just as metal, that assumes the shape of the mould whereinto it is poured [Note: See Rom 6:17. the Greek.]. But we see not in this audience any such tenderness of spirit, such melting of heart, such surrender of their souls, such transformation of their lives. They appear only to have been like Ezekiels hearers, who were delighted with his oratory, but were uninfluenced by his reproofs [Note: Eze 33:31-32.].]

Learn then from hence,
1.

How ineffectual is the word without the Spirit

[If any words could of themselves convert the souls of men, surely the words of our Lord Jesus Christ would have produced this effect. But even his discourses were often as water spilled upon the ground. So it was also when his disciples preached: Paul might plant, and Apollos water, but God alone can give the increase. The truth is, that nothing ever has been done, or ever can, for the saving of immortal souls, but by the operation of the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that quickeneth us from the dead: it is the Spirit that opens the understanding and the heart: it is the Spirit that enables us to mortify the deeds of the body, and that renews us altogether after the Divine image. When, therefore, we come up to the house of God, let us look, through the means, to Him who alone can render the means effectual for our good. Let us remember, that the ministry of Christ himself will produce no saving effects without the Spirit; and that the word, by whomsoever delivered, if accompanied with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, shall be sharper than a two-edged sword, and be more powerful than the hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.]

2.

In what a lamentable state are the generality of hearers

[Multitudes, where the Gospel is preached with fidelity, will approve the word, and perhaps admire the preacher; but they are apt to put those feelings in the place of true conversion [Note: Mar 6:10. Joh 5:35.]. Surely this is a point that deserves to be well considered. We should judge ourselves, not by our feelings towards the word, or towards him that ministers it to us, but by the radical and abiding effects produced upon our hearts and lives. Let it be a matter then of serious inquiry, Wherein does my reception of the word differ from that manifested by the auditors of our Lord? Perhaps I have been often struck, yea, exceedingly struck [Note: .], with admiration and conviction: but have I been brought to the exercise of deep contrition, of lively faith, of universal holiness? Know ye, beloved, that unless the word have this effect upon you, instead of being to you a savour of life unto life, it will be a savour of death unto death; yea, your state will be less tolerable than even that of Sodom and Gomorrha.]

3.

What reason we have for thankfulness that we possess the written word

[Many of Christs hearers probably regretted that they could not retain his discourse in their memory, and that they had it not in their hands for subsequent perusal. And the generality amongst us have reason to lament our inability to remember what we hear, even when the discourse embraces perhaps only a single point of that which was so diffusively treated by our Lord. But, whether this forgetfulness is our misfortune or our fault, we have this consolation at least, that the sermon of our blessed Lord is in our hands; that we may hear him preach it over to us, as it were, again and again; yea, that we may even ask him to explain to us every point in it. What an advantage is this! What a value should we set upon it, if now, for the first time, his sermon were put into our hands! But, alas! because it is accessible at all times, we are apt to make light of it: and not a few are blind enough to disregard it, because it refers rather to the precepts than the doctrines of the Gospel. Let us not however so slight our privileges: let us study this portion of Holy Writ with peculiar attention: and let us endeavour to get every precept wrought into our hearts, and exhibited in our lives. Then shall we be indeed improved by it, and shew forth the excellence of Christianity in all its perfection.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 1

Christ’s Doctrine As a Preacher. The Preacher Like No Other Man Our Civilisation an Inheritance Some Badly-used Words the Helpful Preacher

Prayer

Almighty God, we come to thee through Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, for he alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and there is none other: he is sent of God to bring us unto the Father, and no man cometh unto Christ except the Father draw him. Herein are wonderful mysteries, which we cannot penetrate, but where we cannot understand we fall down and adore. What are we that we should know aught? We are of yesterday and know nothing: our breath is in our nostrils, and whilst we talk of life behold we are thrown down and are dead men. It well becometh us, therefore, to hold our peace in thy house, and to listen attentively, with the whole hearing of our heart, lest we miss any tone of thy gracious and living voice. Jesus Christ our Saviour loved us: he gave himself for us; his head, his hands, his heart, his feet, his side, bled for us: it was holy blood the blood of atonement.

Thou art always careful of us, as if we were worth much in thy sight. We cannot understand thy care. We could understand thy crushing us because of the provocation of our sins, but why thou shouldst save us and spare us and love us and mightily redeem us with blood, every day in the year, lo, this is a mystery of love which baffles our mind. Deep is thy design, gracious is thy purpose, immeasurable is thine intent, unknown in its beginning and uncomprehended in its issues it is enough for us to know that thou doest all things in wisdom and in love. To-day is the battle, and tomorrow the mystery, and on the third day dost thou perfect the issue. Help us to fight, to wait, to worship, to suffer, to endure with noble courage and unmurmuring patience, knowing that the end will come as a great surprise of hidden love, a revelation of infinite tenderness.

We bless thee for thy word; it is good reading in sandy places, and in wildernesses full of stones and wild beasts: it makes the very wind, when loudest and coldest, music in our hearing. It shows us where the tree is, the branches of which will sweeten the bitter pool: it is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Help us to understand it by our modesty, humility, self-renunciation, utter, childlike, unquestioning trust. Thou dost speak wonderful things to the child-heart may ours evermore be such. Save us from our own imaginings, deliver us from the temptations of our own sagacity and learning, and help us in all simpleness, with complete trust and love of heart, and with the openness of soul which receives all heaven’s gifts, to wait upon the Lord, yea, to wait patiently for him.

Every heart has its own story of joy, of sorrow, of baffled hope, of dead ambitions, of frustrated purposes and trusts send a gospel to each soul, that none may feel itself left out on the day of benediction and rest. Speak comfortably unto Jerusalem: send thine angel to cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, yea, let this be the day of jubilee, when silver trumpets shall announce the glad reprieve, the great and universal amnesty and release. Give us a nail in thy sanctuary, give us a standing on the threshold of thy house, bring us quite within the sacred enclosure of the holy temple, and give us rest and peace within its hallowed defences. Amen.

Text: “His doctrine.” Mat 7:28

In what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ’s preaching was shown to be profoundly doctrinal. There is many a figure here and there the figures being points of gold that glitter in the infinite mass of rock, the rock being the doctrine which is expounded with so marvellous and astounding an authority. Yet there is hardly any hint of the parable of which Jesus Christ was to make such copious use in his after-ministry, until we come, indeed, to the closing sentences, and there, in the image of the two builders and the two foundations, we have a hint of the more vivid and popular method of teaching which was coming. In this sermon Jesus Christ was profoundly and vitally doctrinal. In his opening discourse he was pre-eminently the WORD. Hence the deep thinking, the benedictions that seem to come up from eternity, and the whole doctrine of the individual inspiration of character, until we reach the very holiness and perfection of God. This is, indeed, the very mystery of the Logos, the Word, the ineffable and infinite thought. This is the divine meaning, incarnated in plain human words. In this discourse we are quite out of the region of finite speculation; here are no happy guesses, no striking suggestions which startle the speaker quite as much as they startle the hearer. We have here the deep things of God, spoken with an unction which makes the very hearing of them the most solemn responsibility we ever incurred. To have heard some sermons is to have laid up wrath against the day of wrath, or to have added to the joy of the day of supreme gladness. It were better for us that we had not heard some sermons our life was never the same after the hearing.

Now the servant must herein be as the Master, according to the measure and degree of his capacity. His speech must be, above all things, religious. Not religious because of surrounding circumstances, as, for example, the Sabbath, the sanctuary, the pulpit but in itself, its origin, its tone, its meaning, it must be profoundly religious, it must be from above. It must not be literary, clever, piquant, or anything else that is of the quality and limitation of art. It must come with all the sacredness of a divine origin, bringing with it the living air of the upper world, and bearing the thought of the hearer upward to the holy elevation and sympathy which come of the presence of God. The danger is, and the people make that danger greater every day, that preaching be mere literature, made peculiar by a religious accent. The danger is that preaching becomes one of many things all standing upon a level, and if it should become so, the hearer will be to blame quite as much as the speaker. The preacher must be like no other man. Every other speaker you may be able to measure and estimate; you know where he begins and where he ends, and you can weigh out his merit in scales, and announce his stature in inches; but the preacher must be a weird man, without beginning of days, without father or mother, a secret, a mystery, a voice, a flash of light, a revelation, a burning bush, and the great question must always be: Whence hath he this? It is not in the lockers of the rich man, it is not in the treasures of the literary student Whence this wisdom? And the answer must be, God-begotten, Heaven-born, its roots deep in the rock and its pinnacles flashing beyond the stars!

If preaching can be traced back to a school, a teacher, a custom, it is shallow and barren. It must come from eternity, from the invisible God, being at once so simple as to excite the interest and curiosity of little children and so profound as to abash the wise. The first thing, therefore, the preacher has to do is to renounce himself. He must not limit himself to his own little power of invention and expression; he must not dig wells in the sand of his own cleverness, or they who drink thereof will thirst again. He is a messenger: he must deliver God’s message. If he do not deliver God’s message, blame the hearer. The congregation creates the pulpit. The earnest hearer comes to hear God’s word, but how many earnest hearers are there in any assembly? If I had one man here, and he wanted to hear God’s word, I dare not speak my own. But I have a thousand men here who want to hear my word and not God’s. If a soul were here affrighted by its own sin, asking me, with eye and voice and trembling fame, to reveal the Gospel, I dare not keep back any part of it. But you are not here for that purpose I speak of the multitude, not of the individual here and there whose object it may be, indeed is, to hear what God the Lord will say.

But if a sermon be charged with God’s messages, will it be dull and heavy? Look at the Sermon on the Mount for answer. What variety, what penetration, what liveliness, what startling application and appeal! How restful the benedictions, quieting the soul, soothing all fear, encouraging all goodness, and watering the very roots of life from the river of God! Now the great Teacher must be figurative. He has not begun the great parabolical fancy and use yet. Still I see the beginnings of it in that very initial discourse. He cannot be dull. He says, Ye are the light of the world, ye are the salt of the earth, ye are a city set on a hill.” Then he tells about the candle and the candlestick, and the bushel, and then he tells about the beam in one man’s eye and the mote in another’s, and then he winds up with the two hearers, the two foundations, the two houses, and the two destinies. A wonderful sermon, and yet so doctrinal. It is not dry doctrine, but doctrine vitalised, illumined, glittering all over with diamonds of the first water. How solemn the lessons to the lustful, the angry heart, the violent tongue, the anxious spirit; what a review of the past, what an outlook upon the future? Verily this is not a sermon in our sense of the term. You might describe it by great figures, call it the very Ganges of truth, illustration, philosophy, moral teaching, and appeal; call it a sky which seems to have been built to cover our little world, and yet which encloses within itself unnumbered millions of planets.

Was the sermon, then, dull and heavy? It was an infinite beginning. That is the marked peculiarity of Christ’s preaching; it never ended. Persons sometimes said, “What, is he done?” What did that curious question arise from? Not from the abruptness of the speaker, but from the infinitude and immeasurableness of his message. Others can round off their discourses: from the pipe of their wit they can mould and sphere the soap-bubbles of their cleverness, and let them float on the air done! But the speaker of infinite secrets and infinite gospels, conclude as he may, can never be done. There may be a comma, a semi-colon, and even a colon, in this high mystic literature, but the period is never wanted, for the conclusion is never accomplished.

Yes, this sermon on the mount is emphatically the WORD the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, the Word showing itself in our mean syllables, illuminating but not consuming them. It took all that time to get the speech of the world ready to receive the gospel, even in the degree in which it was preached in the Sermon on the Mount You cannot tell how much time is required, or would be required, if you yourself had everything to do in order to enable you to accomplish the simplest act in civilisation. O, ingrates are we, and most thoughtless inheritors of inheritances all but infinite! If you had to do everything for yourself in the simplest act of civilisation, it would be seventy years before you could dine. It would be a hundred years and more before you could travel from one capital to another. But to-day we take all these things as a right. We grumble at the roads, of course; poor fool, dost thou know it, that if thou hadst to make a road it would take thee twenty years to get from here to thy mother’s house? It took a thousand years to get human speech ready to take in the gospel and utter it in poor broken syllables. For God’s difficulty is our language. He cannot tell us what he means because the dewdrop is not big enough to hold the sun. So we have suggestion and hint and flash of light and sudden large glimpse, as we suppose it to be, of things divine. But our human speech is an inn too small for the birth of God into our human imagination and individual grasp of thought.

Jesus Christ had something distinct and definite to say to mankind. He was not one teacher amongst many How often shall I insist that the preacher is not one amongst many, yet the foolish virgins and more foolish men will compare the preacher with the lecturer. The preacher has nothing to say to you; the lecturer lives on his own vitals, spins his own cleverness, and works marvellous jugglery with his own ability, and eloquence, and wit, and fancy and fun. It is beautiful, and instructive, and useful. But the preacher plucks no word from his own tree. What am I a lecturer? A man with so many yards of foolscap on which he writes beautiful sentences and telling stories? Have I fallen to that? The minister is an errand-bearer; he has to tell what he has been told. Do not find fault with him; you want to hear something else; he has nothing else to tell. How I could please you sometimes if I were in tolerably good health, if you would allow me to talk my own nonsense; it would be easy to gratify you then. I would weave coloured clouds around you, and call those coloured clouds sermons. I would salute your ears with witty stories, I would mock you with intellectual taunt, and I would speak severe things to the man in the next pew, and you would be so delighted! But I dare not put in a single word of my own without initialing it. Ah, me! if the manuscript is initialed all over, it is not God’s sermon, but mine. Paul once or twice ventured to say something, and he always initialed it, put a large and most legible P under it said, “I speak this of myself.” He need not have said so. We knew it to be so at once; the discrepancy was infinite. Still, conscientious man as he was, he put down a very large P against his own suggestions, and it was as well he did so, for they are most impracticable.

When Christ’s sermon was done the criticism passed upon it was, “Not as the scribes.” That is the criticism with which every sermon should be listened to, not as the speculatists, not as the guessers, not as the lecturers, not as the inquirers, not as the gropers but with authority, with all the momentum of an eternal and infinite impulse. How can a finite creature give such an impulse? He cannot: this is the gift of God, and always goes along with the word of God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Search the Scriptures. Preach the preaching that I bid thee, and let the hearers come to hear God’s word and they will assuredly receive it.

The Sermon on the Mount is emphatically what is termed a dogmatic discourse, that is to say, it was positive, definite, practical, final. It was not a paper read before a religious debating society, for the purpose of eliciting opinions that is the idea of a modern sermon, and therefore we say when we get away from church, “Aye, aye, it is all very well, you know, for him to be standing up there and having it all his own way.” Indeed! If he has it all his own way he is an unfaithful servant. A sermon is not a paper read before a number of equals for the purpose of the reader’s saying afterwards, “Now, my fellows, men of equal understanding will you be kind enough to tell me what you think of all this?” If it admits of an appeal of that kind, it is not a sermon, it is a lecture out of the lecturer’s own brain. If it is the word of God, pure, simple, unadulterated, absolute, that is to say, if it is quoted from the Book which we, by the very fact of our assembling here, accept as God’s Book, then the preacher has it not all his own way; he is an errand-bearer, he is a deliverer of holy messages, and the messages are not to be measured by his personality, but by the degree in which they can be substantiated from the volume which he is set up to open and expound.

I do not wonder at this word dogmatic falling into a bad reputation. I do not like the word myself. In itself it is an innocent word. Turn it into Greek, turn it into Latin, beat it into English, it is still an honest, a pure word, in itself; but it has been made such bad use of that I do not wonder that people should avoid it. I do not suppose that you would be very fond of using a rope in which somebody has been hung. This word dogmatic is therefore a word which has in some relations a bad or an unwelcome meaning. So is the word casuistry a very innocent word in itself, and expressive of a very proper intellectual process, but it has been so badly used that I have begun to distrust and disown it. So is the word catholic a simple and beautiful word, but it has been tied up in such wrong relations that, like a rope which has hanged somebody, we feel as if it might hang us too if we did not take care of it. So have words been debased, prostituted, defiled, so that I do not wonder at many persons looking askance upon those words and avoiding dogmatic teaching, casuistical reasoning, and catholic divinity.

Looking upon this Sermon on the Mount as a model for preachers through all time, it justifies the preacher in laying down a definite doctrine. The preacher does not invite his hearers to talk over something with a view to a settlement, That of course would be very comfortable if we could meet here and lay our arms upon a table and say, “Now what do you think about it?” Well, it would be chatty, and nice, and sort of friendly, and almost convivial it might become. We do not assemble to make a Bible, but to read one. We are HEARERS: let that word be emphatic. Observe its limit, its meaning; we are hearers, we do not speak, we listen. We say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” How far from this our congregational discipline! The very first word you would have said this morning, if I had not made this remark, would have been, the moment you got outside, “How did you like him this morning, eh?” How did you like him poor hireling performer, poor miserable clerk of all work how did you like him? What about the substance, the doctrine, the call, the appeal, the tears, the unction, the consequences? Ask how you like the electric light as compared with the poor half-drunken gas flame, but do not ask how you like the infinite, the complete, the divine, the eternal. Hear it listen the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him. To be a good hearer is to be a good learner. Hearing is an art of the soul, an accomplishment of the heart, Sir Isaac Newton said the only difference he knew between himself and others was that he seemed to be able to pay more attention than some of them. The power to pay attention is a gift from God. Some of us cannot pay attention. All the while we are making running commentaries in our mind, doing business, entertaining anxieties; we hear the word, we do not hear the music; we hear the syllables, we do not catch the meaning. To hear, a man should pray an hour before he comes into God’s house.

Looking at this as a model sermon for all time, the preacher is justified in preaching practically. A mistake is often made about this matter of practical preaching. If a man denounce the iniquities of his day he is thought to be a practical preacher. To a certain extent he is entitled to that designation. If I were to denounce theatres (as usually understood), racecourses, public-houses, gambling tables, I should be thought to be a most practical preacher, and within a given limit a very small one, albeit I should be preaching practically and usefully. That work needs to be done, must be done. If it is not done, a very solemn duty remains undischarged. But he, too, is a practical preacher who encourages men to try to be better and to do better. He also is a practical preacher who says, “Young man, you failed there, but pluck up your spirits; try again; God bless you; try to do better next time.” He also is a practical preacher who recognises the sufferings of those who come to God’s house to hear his word. Sorrow is as great a fact as sin. There is not a heart here to-day that is not aching, or that will not ache by-and-by, or perhaps that has not already had days and nights of aching. I take you man for man, pew after pew, and the mourners outnumber those who have nothing but gladness. The preacher, therefore, is a practical preacher who recognises that fact, and speaks comfortably, who delivers healing gospels to broken hearts, who deals out bread to the hungry, and who gives the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I often want to hear such a preacher myself, namely, the man who takes the high and bright view of things, who shows me that my pain is for my good, that my loss is the beginning of my riches, that all discipline and chastening, though for the present anything but joyous, yea, truly grievous, will afterwards yield me results that will make the soul nobler and tenderer.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

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 13:30Joh 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. , 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 . Ubi animus quasi attonitus, nec loquitur, nec quicquam agit, sed apertis oculis aliquantisper quietus manet. Lvser.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

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”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

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.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 7:28-29

28When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Mat 7:28 “When Jesus had finished these words” Matthew used this phrase to close several of the major sections in his Gospel (cf. Mat 7:28; Mat 11:1; Mat 13:53; Mat 19:1; Mat 26:1). They form one possible outline of the book.

“the crowds were amazed at His teaching” Jesus’ teachings were so different from the scribes. He based His authority not on previous teachers, but on Himself. This aspect of Jesus’ authority is a characteristic of the Gospel of Matthew (cf. Mat 8:9; Mat 9:6; Mat 9:8; Mat 10:1; Mat 21:23-24; Mat 21:27; Mat 28:18). Jesus claimed the place of both the promised Messiah (i.e., the new Moses or new law-giver) and the eschatological Judge.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

ended. This marks the end of the first period and subject of the Lord’s ministry. See the Structure, p. 1315, and App-119.

people = multitudes.

doctrines = teaching.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Mat 7:28. , concluded) The Lord did nothing abruptly: see ch. Mat 11:1, Mat 19:1, Mat 26:1.-, 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.)

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

the people: Mat 13:54, Psa 45:2, Mar 1:22, Mar 6:2, Luk 4:22, Luk 4:32, Luk 19:48, Joh 7:15, Joh 7:46

Reciprocal: Neh 8:3 – ears Pro 8:6 – the opening Isa 52:14 – many Mat 5:28 – I say Mat 22:33 – they Mar 4:2 – in his Mar 11:18 – astonished Luk 2:47 – General Luk 7:1 – when Joh 4:41 – because Act 13:12 – being

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE PEOPLE ASTONISHED

It came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine.

Mat 7:28

The doctrine of Jesus Christ is the most astonishing which the world has ever heard.

I. It is astonishing in its simplicity.There are portions of Christs teaching which the wisest philosopher might find a difficulty in understanding, and which a little child can realise and love. We may read the mystery of Gods Word becoming Flesh, or the wondrous vision of St. John in Patmos, and we may ask, How can these things be? whilst our little ones will read, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and there will be no difficulty to them. The doctrine of Jesus deals with the deepest mysteriesHeaven, Hell, the Resurrection, Salvation, the Life Everlasting. Yet it is simple enough to come home to the heart of the ragged outcast in the street and the pauper in the workhouse ward.

II. It is astonishing in its universal application.It is a doctrine for every one. It could comfort Lazarus the beggar, and make Felix the governor tremble. It has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the careless empty and sorrowful away. It has added brightness to a palace, and has lighted up a garret. It has brought a hardened unbeliever to his knees, and carried a martyr through the fires of persecution. It is not a doctrine only for the learned, or for the wise, or old, or wealthy. The philosopher can learn more wisdom from that doctrine than he ever knew before; the wise man can there acquire the best of all knowledge, the knowledge of his ignorance.

III. It is astonishing from its authority.Other teachers and moralists speak doubtfully, and offer certain theories as being possibly true. They suggest solutions of difficulties as probable. The universe may have come together, they say, in the form of atoms, and have become what it is; man may have developed from some lower type of organisation; our souls may be absorbed into the atmosphere at our death, or the souls of the wicked may be utterly annihilated. Now Jesus Christ does not speak in this way, but with absolute authority. He does not say that a thing may be, but that it is. He says in His doctrine that all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

Illustration

The doctrine of Jesus Christ is very astonishing to many people at this very day, not only to the scoffer and unbeliever, but to those who are named by His name, and who profess and call themselves Christians. Too many among us put a thin varnish of Christianity over a life which is modelled on anything but the lines of the Gospel. Let us be honest with ourselves about this matter; let us look into our heart of hearts, that secret place of which no one but God and ourselves has the key. Would it not astonish some of us to learn that if our life is that of a Christian it must be formed after the pattern given on the Mount? For whom were that sermon and the whole teaching of the Gospel intended? For a particular class, for a select band of saints? Surely not; they were intended for all, as the guide which alone can point us along the narrow way and through the strait gate which lead to life eternal.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

7:28

The word for astonished is defined by “amazed” in the lexicon, which was caused by the doctrine or teaching of Jesus. People is from mums and that Greek word has been rendered by company 7 times, multi tude 79, number 1, people 82, press 5. It has a wide range of definitions in the lexicon such as, “a crowd; multitude of men who have flocked together in some place, a throng; the common people; a multitude.” From chapter 5:1 and 8:1 we cannot conclude that it means all the people of the territory heard him in the mount, yet a considerable number did follow the Lord to that place as those desiring to learn of him.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 7:28. And it came to pass when, etc. A summary of our Lords sayings would not be thus referred to.

The multitudes, as in Mat 7:1. They must have heard Him.

Were astonished. A strong word; driven from their customary state of mind by something new and strange.

Teaching, rather than doctrine; the former includes the manner as well as the matter of His instruction, both of which awakened astonishment.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

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.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

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. Christs 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.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

AUTHORITY OF OUR SAVIORS 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.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 7:28 f. An Editorial Note (cf. Mat 11:1, Mat 13:53, Mat 19:1, Mat 26:1).Mt. uses this transition formula after each of his five chief groups of Christs sayings. The multitudes were not present during the Sermon (Mat 5:1), but Mt. here returns to the Marcan narrative (Mar 1:22).

The teaching brought together by Mt. in the Sermon on the Mount provides for all the spiritual needs of men, covering the whole domain of the inner life. It regulates conduct for all time by asserting principles of universal application. It fixes the highest standards, and at the same time supplies the strongest motives for endeavouring to reach them. Love your enemies,that ye may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven. Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

If it be objected that an attempt to reconstruct society on lines such as these is chimerical and as a matter of fact has never been realised, the answer is that the character which Christ sets before men and which He Himself exhibited is one which with us can have only its beginnings in the present world. He lived and would have men live, for the eternal and the infinite. The Kingdom of Heaven within us must ever be an ideal which is above our present efforts, pointing us to another state where it will have its perfect work. Meanwhile it is not inoperative or destitute of results. If the world has not yet been transfigured by the teaching of our Lord, no other teaching has done so much to make its crooked ways straight and its rough places plain. If the religion of Jesus Christ has not yet produced a perfect saint, it has planted in the lives of tens of thousands a principle which makes for perfection and will attain it, as our faith assures us, in the day when His Kingdom is fully realised.Swete, Studies in the Teaching of Our Lord, p. 185f. Cf. Rufus Jones, The Inner Life.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 28

Were astonished. This discourse seems to have made at the time, an impression upon those who listened to it, such as its character might have led us to expect. The clearness and simplicity of the aspects of truth which it presents, the force and elegance of its diction, and the beauty and appropriateness of its imagery, would combine to raise the sermon on the mount to the very highest rank, if we were to consider it simply as human composition. And vast has been the influence, too, which has exerted upon all that portion of the human race, to which the pen and the press have yet made it known; as it has now, for sixty successive generations, stood conspicuously before mankind, holding up to view the true tests and characteristics of virtue,–exposing, hypocrisy, promoting feelings of filial affection towards God, and a calm and happy trust in his superintending providence,–quieting the anxieties of human life, and lightening its cares,–and, more than all, soothing the anguish of remorse for sin, by pointing out the means and the certainty of pardon. It is remarkable, too, that its principles, new and startling as they were, when first announced, and hostile as they have ever been to the received maxims and established customs of society have never been seriously assailed. They cannot be assailed; and there is a certain sublime confidence in the majesty of truth exhibited in the form of simple assertion, in which these great principles are left, unsustained by argument or authority. They are left to stand, self-supported, by the innate power of truth, and by the testimony of that incorruptible, witness, ever ready, in the human soul, to confirm, by its voice, the immutable and eternal distinctions between right and wrong.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

5. The response of the audience 7:28-29

Each conclusion to each of the five major discourses in Matthew begins with the same formula statement: literally "and it happened" (Gr. kai egeneto) followed by a finite verb. It is, therefore, "a self-conscious stylistic device that establishes a structural turning point." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 195. Cf. Kingsbury, Matthew as . . ., p. 105.] Each conclusion is also transitional and prepares for the next section.

We learn for the first time that even though Jesus was teaching His disciples (Mat 5:1-2) multitudes were listening in to what he taught them. Probably for this reason the end of the Sermon contains more material that is suitable for a general audience. France believed that all the discourses in Matthew are anthologies of Jesus’ teachings on various occasions that Matthew compiled into discourses rather than single discourses that Jesus delivered on individual occasions. [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., pp. 8-10.] This is a minority opinion, but it is probably true that the Gospel writers edited Jesus’ teachings to some extent.

Jesus’ "teaching" included both His content and His delivery. What impressed the crowds was Jesus’ authority. This is the first occurrence of another theme that Matthew stressed (Mat 8:9; Mat 9:6; Mat 9:8; Mat 10:1; Mat 21:23-24; Mat 21:27; Mat 28:18). Jesus’ authority was essentially different in that He claimed to be the Messiah. He not only claimed to interpret the Word of God, as other contemporary teachers did, but He claimed to fulfill it as well (Mat 5:17). He would be the One who would determine entrance into the kingdom (Mat 7:21), and He would judge humankind eventually (Mat 7:23). He also claimed that His teaching amounted to God’s Word (Mat 7:24; Mat 7:26). Therefore the authoritative note in His teaching was not primarily His sincerity, or His oratorical style, or His lack of reference to earlier authorities. It was who He was. He claimed to be the authoritative interpreter of the Word of God.

"In the final analysis . . . what Jesus says about the law applies to it as something being authoritatively reinterpreted by his teaching. It is not the Mosaic law in and of itself that has normative and abiding character for disciples, but the Mosaic law as it has passed through the crucible of Jesus’ teaching." [Note: Kingsbury, Matthew as . . ., p. 65. Cf. 5:17-18, 21-48; 22:37-40; 24:35; 28:20.]

Scholars have noted many parallels between Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and Rabbinic instruction, probably more than in any other part of the New Testament. The similarities, however, lie in form of expression, subject matter, and turn of words, but definitely not in spirit. [Note: See Edersheim, The Life . . ., 1:531-41.]

"The King has proclaimed the nearness of the kingdom and has authenticated that message with great signs. With people flocking to Him He instructs His disciples concerning the character of those who shall inherit the kingdom. The kingdom, though earthly, is founded on righteousness. Thus the theme of His message is righteousness." [Note: Toussaint, Behold the . . ., p. 119.]

Jesus proceeded to demonstrate His authority by performing powerful miracles that liberated captives from their bondage, signs that the Old Testament prophets said Messiah would perform.

"Throughout the rest of his story, Matthew makes it exceedingly plain that, whether directly or indirectly, the issue of authority underlies all the controversies Jesus has with the religious leaders and that it is therefore pivotal to his entire conflict with them." [Note: Kingsbury, Matthew as . . ., p. 125.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)