Isn’t it incredible that every part of the Bible is still relevant today? Let’s take a look at one of Jesus’ most memorable passages found in Matthew 5,6, & 7.

The Sermon on the Mount holds valuable lessons and truths about how Jesus wants us to live and who He we are called to be as His followers.

God is always teaching us something new and revealing Himself in new ways when we read through the Bible. The Sermon on the Mount has incredible wisdom for everyone, whether we’re a new believer or have been a Christian for years.

Like all of Scripture, each passage comes alive every time we read it. Take a look at these 4 truths from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and see if you’ve noticed them before.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” – Matthew 5:8

At first glance, the Sermon on the Mount might look like a bunch of rules we’re supposed to follow in order to be good people. But the way Jesus opens this sermon sets the tone for His entire message. By looking closer at Matthew 5, we’ll see that Jesus has a different agenda than we thought.

The very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, also known as the Beatitudes, tells us that Jesus cares more about who we are than what we do. He cares about the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and those who are pure in heart. He praises the kinds of people we will be, not just the actions we take.

Teaching our children is a whole-life process. It’s not just about family Bible study or church on Sundays. Parenting our kids to know and love Jesus is something we get to weave into every moment with them.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” – Matthew 7:24

Jesus teaches us about what it looks like to have healthy internal and external spiritual lives in the Sermon on the Mount. Our external spiritual lives are how we live in relationship with others, and our internal spiritual lives are how we love and obey God.

Matthew 6 primarily encourages us to have a faith-filled, trusting, and vulnerable relationship with God. Matthew 7 invites us to rely on God and not on others. Both chapters teach us how to love people. Throughout the entirety of this sermon, Jesus invites us to live holy lives through our interaction with Him and with the people we interact with.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” – Matthew 5:17

During the Sermon, Jesus makes it very clear that He knows the Scriptures. He preaches with wisdom and knowledge, and the people who heard Him preach quickly recognized that He spoke with authority. Throughout His message, Jesus references passages of the Hebrew law, found in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

Jesus recounts passages of Scripture that His audience would’ve been familiar with, but He spins them in a new light and expands their understanding. He tells us that He doesn’t come to teach us a different law, though at the time it sounds like He’s contradicting it. He justteaches the same law in a new way. In fact, He says that He is the fulfillment of the law: the ultimate authority.

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” – Matthew 7:28-29

The end of the Sermon on the Mount says that all the people who heard Jesus preach were astonished. Throughout Matthew 5, He makes multiple statements that start with, “you have heard it said … but I say to you.” Not only did He have knowledge of the original law, but He preached it in an entirely new and different way.

Jesus is counter-cultural on the religious norms that the original audience would’ve been used to. For example, they knew that adultery is wrong, but Jesus pushes the bounds by saying that even looking at someone with lust is akin to adultery (Matthew 5:28). Jesus’ teachings are just as ground-breaking today as they were when He first preached them.