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The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (The Bible Speaks Today Series) Paperback – May 19, 2020

by John Stott (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 95 ratings
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"The followers of Jesus are to be different," writes John Stott, "different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture." In the Sermon on the Mount, the "nearest thing to a manifesto" that Jesus ever uttered, we find Jesus' own description of what he wanted his followers to be and do.

In this Bible Speaks Today volume, Stott guides readers through Jesus' well-known but often poorly understood teachings in Matthew 5 through 7. Leading us to listen carefully to the meaning of each verse in its context, Stott also confronts the challenges this text raises for today's Christians and draws out practical applications.

This revised edition features lightly updated language, current NIV Scripture quotations and a new interior design. A seven-session study guide at the end of the book will help you more deeply ponder the message of the Sermon on the Mount and how it speaks to your life.

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  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    IVP Academic
  4. Publication date
    May 19, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0830824235
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0830824236
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Stott is known worldwide as a preacher, evangelist and communicator of Scripture. For many years he served as rector of All Souls Church in London, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. Stott was honored by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." His many books, including Why I Am a Christian and The Cross of Christ, have sold millions of copies around the world and in dozens of languages.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ IVP Academic; Revised, Revised edition (May 19, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0830824235
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0830824236
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 95 ratings

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4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
95 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

LVagabond1517
5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2023
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It is easy to follow. It inspires the reader to meditate on Christ’s perfections, and causes feelings of gratitude and praise.
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RobSansBeard
5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful and clearly written
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2021
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John Stott is so good at:
-making the teaching of scripture plain, and helping you understand all the aspects of a passage
-taking the teaching seriously, and balancing both over-reacting and minimizing the implications

Highly recommend this (and any of his works!)
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Daniel Morsching
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2022
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An incredible summation of the Sermon on the mount. A must have for studying this great sermon.
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Contemporaneous
5.0 out of 5 stars Typical High Quality Work from John Stott
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2021
I like almost anything Stott does. This is no exception. A good resource to build a Bible study.
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Janet DeMar
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to understand.
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2023
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I’m leading a Bible study group and using this as a reference book. As I’m putting together my own study plan, the book breaks the scripture in logical pieces that I can plan around.
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Bibliophile
5.0 out of 5 stars How Christians should behave in the kingdom of God, treating others as you would want to be treated
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2022
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MATTHEW 5:1-2
A theme of the whole Bible is that God calls out a people for Himself, to be holy (set apart from the world), who belong to Him and obey Him.
"You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey My laws and be careful to follow My decrees. I am the Lord your God" (Lev 18:3,4).

The Sermon on the Mount describes how people should think and behave when God is their King.
They are ethical precepts for those who are already Christian.

THE BEATITUDES (5:3-12)
1. THE POOR in SPIRIT
To be spiritually poor is to take refuge in no one but God (Zeph 3:12).
Because of our sin and God's holiness, we are spiritually bankrupt. We have nothing with which to buy God's favor. We accept the free, undeserved gift of eternal life, given to us when we put our faith in Christ, who died in our place so we could live forever (Rom 6:23; 1 Pet 3:18).

2. THOSE WHO MOURN
Christ wept over the sins of others, death, and unrepentance.
We should weep over evil and our own sinfulness.
Paul cried out, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (Rom 7:24,25).
Christ came "to bind up the brokenhearted" (Isa 61:1).

3. THE MEEK
Meek means to be gentle, humble, considerate, and courteous toward others.

4. THOSE WHO HUNGER and THIRST for RIGHTEOUSNESS
Righteousness is being legally justified before God, having an upright character, and helping our community by liberating the oppressed, responsibly caring for the planet, seeking justice in the courts, having integrity in business, and maintaining honor in families.

5. THE MERCIFUL
Showing compassion for people in need, and forgiving others.

6. THE PURE in HEART
A heart that sincere, without hypocrisy or deceit in one's relationship with God and others.

7. THE PEACEMAKERS
Peacemaking means reconciliation.
"Never pay back evil for evil to anyone...If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men" (Rom 12:17,18).
"If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them" (Lk 17:3).

8. THOSE WHO ARE PRESECUTED for RIGHTEOUSNESS
How does Jesus want us to react under persecution?
"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great."
No retaliation, no self-pity.
After Peter and the apostle were flogged for preaching publicly about Christ, they were "rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41).

SALT and LIGHT (5:13-16)
Implied in these metaphors is that, morally speaking, the world is a very dark place, and Christians should preserve its decay. When the world sees their good works, they can then glorify God.

THE LAW of GOD (5:17-30)
Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament Law, not abolish it.
Perhaps Jesus "went up on a mountainside" to teach the Beatitudes in order to parallel Moses receiving the Law from God on Mount Horeb.
The Law was WRITTEN down.

Some people think Jesus is in conflict with the teachings of Moses.
He was not, because He said,
"If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for He wrote about Me" (Jn 5:46).
"Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures" (Lk 24:27).

Jesus doesn't compare what Moses had WRITTEN with His teachings, He compares what was SAID with His teachings.
"You have heard that it was SAID ______, but I say to you ______" (5:21,27,33,38,43).
Jesus was critiquing the scribes and Pharisees' ORAL misinterpretations of the WRITTEN Law. How do we know this? Because He told the crowd, "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (5:20).

What was wrong with these oral instructions?

1) They had expounded on God's written Law, sometimes interpreting it incorrectly.
The Pharisees had SAID that Leviticus 19:18, written as "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," IMPLIED the addition of "hate your enemies."
But Jesus correctly interpreted the written Lev 19:18 as meaning, "Your shall love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (5:43,44).

2) The Pharisees considered God's written Law to be too difficult, so they tried to make it less demanding. They tried to restrict the commandments and extend the permissions.
They restricted the commandment, "You shall not commit murder" to only murder, whereas Jesus extended it to include anger towards one's brother.
They tried to expand the reason for divorce to include a husband's every whim, whereas Jesus restricted divorce to the reason of "unchastity" or "sexual immorality."

CHRISTIAN RIGHTEOUSNESS

1. AVOIDING ANGER (5:21-26)
Jesus extended God's prohibition of murder to thoughts and intentions of unrighteous anger, the anger of pride, vanity, insults, hatred, malice, and revenge.
The apostle John later said, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer" (1 Jn 3:15).

2. AVOIDING LUST (5:27-30)
Jesus used extreme examples to promote extreme moral discipline and self-denial against all forms of sexual immorality. He did not want anyone to "tear out" their right eye if it made them stumble.
He wanted them to not look at immorality (eyes), to not go to immoral places (feet), and to not use their hands for immorality.

3. FAITHFULNESS in MARRIAGE (5:31-32)
Rival rabbinic schools existed during the time of Christ. The school of Rabbi Shammai believed that divorce could only be allowed for some grave matrimonial offense. But the school of Rabbi Hillel believed that divorce could be allowed for something as simple as the husband did not like his wife's cooking, or that she was too plain looking and he became interested in a more beautiful women.

The Pharisees wanted to know which side Jesus was on (19:1-9).
Jesus' responded by
1) reminding them that God originally intended for a marriage between a man and a woman to be permanent (Gen 1:27; 2:24).
2) saying that the divorce certificate that Moses issued was a concession to the hardness of people's hearts, whatever particular sinfulness got in the way of their resolve to stay married (19:8).
But notice how the Pharisees mistakenly called this certificate a "command" of Moses!
3) Jesus allows for a divorce only in the severe case of "sexual immorality" (19:9).

4. HONESTY in SPEECH (5:33-37)
Scripture plainly teaches that no would should break a vow.
"When a man makes a vow to the Lord...he must not break his word" (Nm 30:2).

But the Pharisees shifted the emphasis from keeping one's word to what formula was being used to make the vow. One need not worry about keeping vows in which the name of the Lord had not been used, they said.
"Do not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God" (Lv 19:12).

However, Jesus taught that ALL formulas for making vows will included some connection to God, since whatever is sworn by is in a world that entirely belongs to God.
So Jesus said to, "Make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet,...but let your statement be simply 'Yes' or 'No'. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one."
Honest people do not need to resort to oaths.

5. NON-RETALIATION (5:38-42)
The Old Testament Law did make provision for retribution after wrong-doing.
"If people are fighting...if there is serious injury, your are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise" (Ex 21:22-25). But these were instructions to judges of Israel for exacting retribution. They were not given to the common people to take matters into their own hands.

But Jesus' statement, "You have heard that it was SAID, 'An eye for an eye,'" indicates that the Pharisees extended this principle of retribution from the courts (where it belongs) to personal relationships (where it did not belong).
But Jesus clarified that the guiding principle for personal relationships is,
"Do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also." Not resisting the evil person means to not retaliate.

We must remember that Isaiah 50:6 predicted that the Messiah "gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not hide My face from humiliation and spitting."

And after Jesus' arrest, He was blindfolded and struck in the face. He was crowned with thorns, clothed in a purple robe to mock His claim of royalty, given a reed as a scepter, and jeered at. During all this, Jesus held His peace with dignity and self-control and love. He did not retaliate.

Peter later wrote,
"Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,...While being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously" (1 Pet 2:21-23).

6. ACTIVE LOVE (5:43-48)
The Church Father Chrysostom traces nine steps of Christ's teachings about our enemies.
1) We are not to initiate any evil ourselves.

2) We are not to avenge another's evil.
"Never pay back evil for evil to anyone...Never take your own revenge, beloved" (Rom 12:17,19).

3) We are to be quiet.
"While suffering, He uttered no threats" (1 Pet 2:23).
"He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth;
like a lamb that was led to slaughter, and like a sheep silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth" (Isa 53:7).

4) We are to suffer wrongfully.
"If when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God" (1 Pet 2:20).

5) We are to surrender to evildoers more than they demand.
"Whoever slaps you on your right check, turn the other to him also.
If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two" (Mt 5:39-41).

6) We are not to hate them.
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy'" (Mt 5:43).
"Hate your enemy" is not in Scripture.

7) We are to love them.
"But I say to you, love your enemies" (Mt 5:44).

8) We are to do good to them.
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink...Overcome evil with good" (Rom 12:20,21).

9) We are to pray for them.
"Pray for those who persecute you" (Mt 5:44).

We are to love all people like God loves them.

TRUE OBEDIENCE from the HEART and is not "FOR SHOW" (6:1-6, 16-18)
In giving charitably, praying, and fasting, we are to
"beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them;
otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven" (6:1).

The only approval we should seek is from God.
"Your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you" (6:4).

What is the reward that God gives for our charity?
It is probably the satisfaction we receive when we give. Our love for the less fortunate has been satisfied through our charity.

PRAYER (6:7-15)

Christ's pattern for prayer was
1. First, God. "Hallowed be Your NAME...Your KINGDOM come...Your WILL be done."
2. Then, us. "GIVE US this day our daily bread, and FORGIVE US our trespasses...DELIVER US from evil."

CHRISTIAN AMBITION (6:19-34)
1. Jesus did not prohibit possessions or saving our money.
Instead, he forbade storing up treasures "for yourselves," or being covetous,
because our life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions (Lk 12:15).

2. God wants all our loyalty. We cannot serve Him AND money (or anything else).

3. We are not just physical bodies that need food, water, and clothing.
But Jesus forbids us to worry, because His Father will provide for these needs if we "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness." To seek first God's kingdom is to desire the spread of the reign of Jesus Christ. To seek God's righteousness is to desire to think and behave in ways that honor God.
These should be the two major ambitions of every Christian.

HOW to RELATE to OUR FELLOW CHRISTIANS and to GOD

1. DO NOT JUDGE (7:1-2)
This does NOT mean we cannot critically evaluate their behavior as good or bad, or that we should pretend to not notice their faults.
It DOES mean to not be harsh, negative, and destructive in finding fault with other Christians, and enjoying doing so.

I cannot set myself up as a competent authority to judge others.
I am not their Lord and they do not serve me.
"Who are you to judge the servant of another? To their own master, servants stand or fall" (Rom 14:4).
"Therefore, you have not excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things" (Rom 2:1).

2. FOCUS on EXAMINING OUR OWN FAULTS, NOT OTHERS (7:3-5)
We tend to exaggerate the faults of others and minimize our own.
Jesus reverses this by calling the faults of others "specks" and our faults "logs!"
We CAN correct others, but ONLY AFTER we have first corrected ourselves.
"First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

3. APPROACH GOD in PRAYER as SON APPROACHES HIS FATHER (7:7-11)
We ask, seek, and knock, and our Father "gives what is good to those who ask Him!"
We pray, not because God doesn't already know what we need (He does), but to prepare our hearts to receive from Him. He wants us to depend upon Him.

THE GOLDEN RULE (7:12)
"Treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

The Golden Rule is found in negative form in rabbinic Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. "Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else."
Jesus stated it in positive form.

"He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law...If there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Rom 8:9,10).

THE NARROW and BROAD GATES (7:13,14)
What makes the narrow way "narrow" is God imposing limitations on what we believe through His divine revelation. This way leads to life.
On the broad way, we believe whatever we want to believe. But this way leads to destruction.

We enter the narrow way through the narrow gate.
Jesus is that gate.
"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved" (Jn 10:9).

BEWARE of FALSE PROPHETS (7:15-20)
In cautioning us against false teachers, Jesus implies that there is such a thing as truth for us to believe.
False prophets and teachers don't announce themselves. They come in "sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." They feign piety, and claim to teach the truth.

We can identify them by their character, either the good "fruit" of love, joy, peace, patience....or the bad "fruit" of enmity, impurity, jealousy, self-indulgence...(Gal 5:22-23; 19-21).

TRUE and FALSE PROFESSIONS of FAITH (7:21-23)
A true profession of faith in Christ is one that is followed by a life of obedience to Him.
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."
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