Episode Notes

Episode 94: Matthew 5-7 - Two Kingdoms, One Choice: The Sermon on the Mount in One Episode

March 26, 2025 - Host: Dr. Gregory Hall

In this episode we’ll be talking about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It spans nearly three chapters in Matthew’s gospel… and it will challenge you to rethink many assumptions you may have had about how this life of ours should be lived. This is a quick flyover looking at the structure of the sermon.

Resources Referenced and/or Read:

Where Luke puts the blessings and woes together... Matthew separates them out into two separate discourses and on two separate mountains.

1. Matt 5:3 - kingdom opened vs. Matthew 23:13 - Kingdom shut
2. Matt 5:4 - Mourners comforted vs. Matt 23:14 - Mourners distressed
3. Matt 5:5 - Meek inherit the earth vs Matt 23:15 - fanatic compassing the earth trying to gain control
4. Matt 5:6 - True righteousness sought vs Matt 23:16-22 seeking a template for righteousness.
5. Matt 5:7 - Merciful obtain mercy vs. Matt 23:23-24 - mercy neglected
6. Matt 5:8 - purity within vs Matt 23:25-26 - external purity
7. Matt 5:9 - Makers of peace vs. Matt 23:27-28 - makers of lawlessness
8. Matt 5:10-12 - The persecuted vs. Matt 23:29-33 - The persecutors
Gage, W. A., & Carpenter, S. P. (2014). A Literary Guide to the Life of Christ in Matthew, Mark, and Luke-Acts: How the Synoptic Evangelists Tell the Story of Jesus (p. 35). St. Andrews House.
- The Dual Reference to “the Law and the Prophets”
- This placement of this phrase in the sermon (5:17; 7:12) marks off the main body of Jesus’ teaching in the sermon. The two occurrences of the phrase establish an inclusio, a kind of envelope, for holding the teachings of Jesus in which he challenges the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
Deppe, Dean B. All Roads Lead to the Text: Eight Methods of Inquiry into the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011. Print.

Show Music:

Intro/Outro - "Growth" by Armani Delos Santos
Transition Music - produced by Jacob A. Hall

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94. Matthew 5-7 - Two Kingdoms, One Choice: The Sermon on the Mount in One Episode