Hopefully making theology simpler to understand! (2 Corinthians 1:12)

I have started a small group series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). I am sharing my notes in case anyone else wants to use them with their group. [Reminder that these are only notes!] (And I just realized I forgot to publish this earlier in the week!)

Sermon on the Mount – Part 7

Matthew 5:1-2:
Jesus wants to teach the crowds: Who are they? Jewish disciples: People who understand the
Scriptures (at least to a point). Notice from 7:28 the crowds still came along, but this teaching is for His disciples.

What does “blessed” mean?
Based on the first twelve verses, blessed means realizing our own wretchedness and need for a Savior. In other words, it is becoming/being a Christian.

Can God see into our hearts and minds?
• 1 Samuel 16:7 – “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looks on the heart.”
• Psalm 44:21 – Would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
• Proverbs 21:2 – Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
• Jeremih 17:9-10 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can
understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his
ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Mormons believe God can’t see into human hearts.

What is that old, archaic word for wanting something badly (found in the 10 Commandments)?
Covet – What does this mean? [To want more than God, to desire to the harm of others]

Is it the same as lust? What is lust?
[e.g. disordered desire for someone or something, usually sexual in nature]

Matthew 5:27-28:

What is Jesus saying?
[Is it okay to look? “It’s not hurting anyone!”]

Matthew 5:29-30:

What is Jesus saying?
[“STOP IT!” It is severely serious how bad sin is.]
• Matthew 18:7-9 – Our own temptations can lead others into temptation
o Will we actually enter eternity mutilated and deformed? (Remember, Jesus has His scars!)

Matthew 5:31-32:

• Jesus refers to Deuteronomy 24:1-4
o Sometimes a woman was given a second dowry if she remarried.
▪ What is the abomination in God’s sight?
• Remember that brothers were to give their widowed sisters-in-law a child, so is it purely sexual?
• If there is a second dowry, the first husband may be taking her back just for the money.
• We see the seriousness of divorce.
o Matthew 19:1-9 (Genesis 2:24)
• Does this mean a divorcee can never remarry?
o Consider 1 Timothy 3:2
o What if it was before they became a Christian?
o Consider Israel through Hosea: Israel was His unfaithful wife. The Church is not a new wife, rather a
renewed wife, for Israel is still included. In fact, we have been grafted into Israel (Romans 11)