This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 11, 1988.

This morning we are reading from Matthew chapter four. We are beginning with verse seventeen. We will read through the opening verses of the fifth chapter. Hear the word of God. Beginning with verse seventeen then of Matthew four. From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, and they were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw two other brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic and those that were sick of the palsy and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from the capitalists and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond the Jordan. And seeing the multitude. He went up into the mountain. And when he was set. His disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and talked to them.

Pray with me briefly now. Our Father, if the word simply lay there, does it not remain a dead letter? So Lord, as is your Spirit’s intent, And as your spirit himself has been the author of the word, so may this word come to us well mixed with the spirit in our hearts that we might be found to be willing listeners and ready and obedient servants. May this be true, yes, for us. but may it be true as well for your people with whom we are bound in this common faith throughout this wide world. Amen. Our goal is Matthew 6.

And we are intending to get there in a week or two. But we have been concerning ourselves with some preliminaries. We have considered, first of all, the structure and the intent of Matthew’s gospel as a whole. And I would remind you, those of you who heard that sermon, The test will come on a morning you’re not expecting. In order to get out of this church, you will have to tell me the outline of the Gospel of Matthew. But we won’t delay with that this morning. We have since moved on to consider the setting of the Sermon on the Mount. We will next week take up the structure of this sermon, but this morning we are finishing our messages on the setting of the sermon.

Last week we spoke about that setting as it pertains to the audience. We noticed the importance of the multitudes, for instance. how those multitudes are brought before us at the end of Matthew four spoken again of at the beginning of Matthew five, and then even at the conclusion of the sermon on the Mount as a whole in Matthew seven. The multitude then are very important.

We also saw how Jesus distinguishes his disciples from the multitudes at large. And that’s how we move into the fifth chapter. And when he saw the multitudes, he in effect withdrew himself into the mountain. After he sat down, his disciples, as distinguished from the multitudes, came to him.

So, last week, the setting with regard to the multitude and the disciples, specifically with regard to the audience that heard the sermon. This morning, the setting with regard to the geography. Before us today, then, is specifically the mountain. Now I want you to know the peculiarity of Matthew at this point. If you have a King James version, and we read from the King James in our scripture reading this morning, but you might have noted that I fudged a bit. If you read that first verse of the fifth chapter from the King James, you will note there that there is an indefinite article before mountain. So that in the King James, it reads a mountain. He went up on a mountain.

If you have a New American Standard version, however, you will note that the reading there abandons the indefinite article for the definite article. So it is not a mountain. but the mountain. Now that’s odd. Let me say, by way of confirmation of the New American Standard Version’s rendering here, that the Greek does have the definite article.

It is not a mountain Rather, in the Greek, it is THE mountain. Well, it’s odd, of course, that Matthew writes this way, because we don’t know, as the readers, what specific mountain this is. THE mountain? Well, what mountain? What mountain are you talking about?

Now, I might point out further to you that this is not simply a simple occurrence, a single occurrence of this phenomenon in Matthew’s gospel. For instance, if you were to turn to the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, and look at verse twenty-three. This is the chapter that tells you about the feeding of the five thousand, certainly a familiar story. But then you come down to verse twenty three and certain features of this passage parallel what we read in Matthew five one and after he had sent the multitude away there, the multitude of the mentioned again, you will note he went up to There it is again for you, not a mountain, but the mountain. He went up to the mountain by himself to pray. And when it was evening, he was there alone. Well, turn the page. Matthew 15.

And here you have the story of the feeding of the four thousand. And the mountain, this time, is worked right into the story of the feeding of the multitude that gathered that day to Christ. The fifteenth chapter, the twenty-ninth verse. And departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up to the mountain, he was sitting there, and great multitudes came to him, bringing with them those that were lame crippled, blind, dumb, and many others, and they laid them down at his feet, and he healed them. And then you go on to the story of the feeding of four thousand. Not a mountain, but Zena. And you might note, for instance, how the Gospel ends.

Matthew 28. Here, Matthew, in describing the scene, is a little bit more specific, but the same terminology is used. Verse 16 of that 28th chapter. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain, and there somewhat parenthetically, which Jesus had designated. There you have Matthew’s treatment of the mountain in his gospel. To what end? Why does Matthew speak this way, using that definite article, the mountain, as he communicates to us concerning Jesus’ activities?

Well. There’s something going on here. That. Is beneath the surface of the mere words or the consideration of a mountain. Of this creation. Now please understand. Matthew is very much interested in the historical events, the actuality of those events, the reality of them, as he records them in his gospel. But as he reflects upon those events, he is also endeavoring to communicate to us the significance of Christ’s action. and specifically the significance of those actions, as now they pertain to this mountain, the mountain which he has designated in his gospel. The mountain is a theme, then. It’s a thread that runs throughout. And Matthew here wants us to see something specific, something very special, as we read of Jesus’ ascent of the mountain. How are we to understand the mountain in Matthew?

You might recall passages or events from the Old Testament. You might remember mountains that are important in the history of the people of God. You may recall the mountain in the story of Noah. You may recall the mountain in the story of Abraham. You might recall most definitely the mountain in the story of Moses and the importance of it. You might recall the mountain in the story of Elijah, for instance, and the importance of it. You might recall the imagery that is woven throughout the Old Testament that is especially important to the Psalms and very important to the prophets. the mountain becoming, if you will, a symbol of something beyond simply a pile of stones, a geographical phenomenon of this world.

The city of God is set upon a mountain. The city of Zion brings to mind all kinds of images, all kinds of thoughts. We think of the hill of the Lord, which the righteous are to ascend. We think of that mountain that is unshakable, to which God himself is compared. We think of the mountain that was mentioned in Psalm 48 this morning at the beginning.

We think of Psalm 87, a beautiful psalm that speaks about the mountain and the hill hills of the Lord and the city of God positioned there, unto which then all of the nations are streaming, because there and there alone God is revealing His glory and salvation is being unveiled. But nowhere in the Old Testament is the mountain so important as it is in the prophecies of Isaiah.

And you may want to turn to those prophecies, for instance, to the second chapter of Isaiah and read there what Isaiah has to say concerning the mountain of God in the last days. Verse two of that second chapter in the last day, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations. shall stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For the instruction will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The mountain of God in the vision of Isaiah. And then, in the twenty-fifth chapter of that prophecy, one of those incomparable declarations by the prophet, one that moves you to tears as you read it. The twenty-fifth chapter, the sixth verse, and the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all people upon this mountain. a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow refined and aged wine, and on this mountain he will cover up, he will swallow up rather the covering which is over all the peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all the nations, and he will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth, the Lord hath spoken.”

The mountain. The mountain of God. And what about Isaiah fifty seven? Rather, Isaiah fifty six. Verses six through eight. Also, the strangers, the foreigners. Who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him and to love the name of the Lord To be his servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even though I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their bird offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my off on my altar and my house will be called a house of prayer for all the people. the Lord God who gathers the dispersed of Israel declares, yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.” That’s the background of demount. Amen. The mountain is a scene of glory and wonder in which all of those things spoken of in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, in the Prophets are coming to their culmination, their fulfillment.

So when Jesus goes up on the mountain, it is deliberately that he goes and there is greatest significance to that action in and of itself because he takes that mountain of this creation and literally transforms it into something even more glorious and wonderful.

Note how the glory then is revealed from the mountain. At the end of the Gospel, you remember the 28th chapter, the disciples go up and it is on the mountain that then Jesus declares that all power and authority have been given unto him in heaven and on earth. It is from there that he dispenses his disciples to the ends of the earth that they might then disciple the nation. Remember all of the language about the nations in the prophecies that we read from Isaiah. The nations themselves will be gathered, and they are coming up into the hill of God, the mountain of the Lord. The glory, the glory of the great mountain is being revealed in this activity by Christ.

Think, also, of that fifteenth chapter and the story of the feeding of the four thousand. As Jesus withdraws into the mountain, and all of those who are distressed and perplexed, the great multitudes come unto Him and make of Him their request. They offer to Him their prayer. In the fourteenth chapter, after the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus withdraws. He goes up into the mountain to do what? To pray, to intercede, a scene of glory, not one of desolation, a scene of glory.

And thus you come back then, working our ways, our way backward to chapter five. And what do you read there? You read there simply, well, Jesus went up into the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, he opened his mouth, and he began to speak. Is that all you see there now? No. You see the ascent of Christ.

He ascends up into the mountain. What did Jesus do when he had ascended into the mountain of God? He sat down at the right hand of God the Father. And what does he do from the right hand of the Father? He teaches, he instructs his own. Every scene of the mountain in Matthew’s gospel then, conveys to you the reality of what Jesus Christ is doing presently in heaven. Did you wonder what Jesus was doing in heaven these days?

Why he’s sending out his emissaries under the banner of his power and authority to the ends of the earth, that his elect may be gathered unto the hill of God why he’s bringing to himself those who are distressed, those who are overcome by the affairs of life, those who are distressed to the point of giving up completely, they come unto him and they pray of him that he hear them. And does he hear them? Matthew 15, from glory, from heaven, he hears and he answers. That not only is this one the one to whom others come in prayer, he himself prays. Matthew fourteen, what is Jesus doing on the mountain?

He is interceding prayer for whom himself. each one of you that is what he is doing now do you realize that right now Jesus is alive and praying for you Do you need the saints to pray for you? But what about the Virgin Mary? We have the Great Mediator and the Great Intercessor. None other than Christ Jesus. And specifically, this one is not only answering our prayers and praying for us. Those are things that make us feel good and even make us feel very warm inside.

But you see, there’s something else that this Jesus does on the mountain. He teaches. he instructs, he commands. What is the Sermon on the Mount? It’s the message from heaven to all the sons of the kingdom about their life here until their Lord returns. You know, the beautiful thing about this sermon on the mountain.

Do you have any question about what Jesus is, in fact, teaching from his throne? Are you in a quandary about the will of God? Are you asking yourself, well, what did he really say or do we know? Jesus is saying the same thing now from glory as he said on the mountain in the very first century.

Well, there’s the mountain. Glory. telling you what Jesus in heaven does now and does for you. But there is one last dimension to all of this. Hang with me. You see, when Jesus goes up into the mountain, that mountain is changed. Now, it may not look like it, but you see, there is a point here in this world that has been transformed by the activity of Jesus, so that glory is superimposed upon it. It’s ordinary, it’s mundane, it’s like any other hill, but, you know, this mountain now has been transformed, changed, altered. because glory, the transcendent glory of God and of heaven has now revealed itself, manifested itself there. Well, let’s move along with that thought. Just one more step. Your life, the ordinary, the mundane, Nothing unique about you, right? Just like everyone else, basically.

This one who has ascended the mountain and thus transformed it has also descended to be with you, and to be with you in a most intimate fashion, so that He is bound to you and with you, thus transforming you, so that in you the very reality of the Kingdom of Heaven is unserved.

That’s the significance of the title which Jesus bears in the Gospel of Matthew, Emmanuel, God with us. See how it all ties together. God with you. God with you. not just mountains then, men, women, children transformed so that in them there is now seen the reality of the glorious kingdom of heaven. All of this is in one verse in Matthew 5.

For your benefit, instruction, certainly your consolation and encouragement. Let’s pray. If our thoughts ascend, Lord, if they are set upon that mountain, will we not there perceive the glory and realize those things that our Savior does for us even now? And Lord, also remind us that the one who has ascended has also descended, that the imprint of the glory of that kingdom he proclaims, that glory which is embodied in him may be manifest in us, sons and daughters of that eternal kingdom. May we love you, your son, and this message which we have about him and his glory. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.