The sermon on the Mount is a collection of the most well-known teachings of Jesus

found in the Gospel of Matthew. Today Tim and I look at how the Sermon on the Mount fits into the

structure of Matthew. And with me as our co-host, Michelle Jones. Hi Michelle.

Hi, Michelle. Hi, John. Did you know that there are five big blocks of teachings in the Gospel of Matthew and that the sermon of the Mount is just the first one.

Right, why does it come first and how does it fit with the other sections?

So I guess we need to understand the sermon on the Mount in light of the whole of Matthew.

Yeah, Tim puts it this way.

The sermon on the mount shouldn't be taught or understood or read in isolation.

The sermon on the mount is one of the means available to Jesus for bringing the kingdom of God on earth as it is

in heaven.

Today on the show, how the sermon on the mount fits into the entire gospel of Matthew. Thanks for joining us.

Here we go. So one really important thing about understanding the sermon on the mount is to recognize that it is the first of five big speeches that Jesus gives in the gospel according to Matthew and that the sermon isn't the only thing that Jesus teaches

but it is the first big speech in Matthew of Jesus and that's on purpose. There's

five speeches in Matthew. Five's five big speeches that all

have identical conclusions. Okay. So Matthew really wants to present Jesus as

teacher, as a teacher figure. He talks more in Matthew than he does in the Gospel of Mark, for example.

The Sermon the Mount's not the only teaching.

Yep, it's the first, but not the only.

Okay. We need to read the Sermon on the mount within the context of all of his teachings

because there are some things that he says here that will get unpacked or expanded by another story or another

teaching later on. And the other piece is that the

sermon on the mount comes right after a very carefully crafted introductory

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