And seeing the multitudes, he went up on the mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to him. Then he opened His mouth and taught them, saying:  Matthew 5:1-2

The above scripture is the beginning of the sermon of Jesus known as the Sermon on the Mount, and in it Jesus gives us the most comprehensive expression of the kingdom of God that we have in the Gospels. In this sermon Jesus lays out for us the nature of the kingdom of heaven, and the nature of our lifestyle as citizens of that kingdom. The central theme that is expressed throughout this sermon is God’s love for us and our love for each other. Just under the surface of every concept given is God’s love expressing itself through the kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is a beautiful, fertile place to live, and though we live on the physical earth we can also live in this place of spiritual strength and abundance, and enjoy its authority and benefits.    

In the coming weeks we will go through this Sermon on the Mount and mine the nuggets of love contained in its concepts. Much of what Jesus teaches here has been misrepresented and misinterpreted so that the full importance of living as citizens in the kingdom of heaven is lost. If there is no understanding of the kingdom then there is no understanding of citizenship, and if there is no understanding of citizenship then there is no understanding of who we are in the world.

The book of Matthew itself is a book emphasizing the Kingdom of Heaven, and the role of Jesus as the Kingly Messiah. The word “Kingdom” appears fifty times in Matthew’s Gospel and “Kingdom of Heaven” appears thirty times. Matthew’s is the only Gospel that contains the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety and it is Matthew that gives us the genealogy of Jesus establishing him as descending from the line of King David.

This message was very important to Jesus. The above scripture tells us that when Jesus saw the multitude his first inclination was to teach them of the kingdom. The love of Jesus was manifested to the multitude with the given them the knowledge of the kingdom. With the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches us who are blessed, what believers are, that He fulfills the law, the condition of our heart, and much more. All of these lessons taught in this sermon spring from the common soil of love.

I look forward to diving into the study of the Sermon on the Mount with you and exploring our citizenship and our role as love ambassadors in this world.

Next week: Blessed are the…