A LifeGuide® Bible Study

SERMON ON THE MOUNT

12 STUDIES FOR INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS

John Stott

With Notes for Leaders

An imprint of InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

InterVarsity Press

P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515

World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com

E-mail: email@ivpress.com

©1987, 2000 by John Stott

This guide makes use of material originally published in The Message of the Sermon on the Mount ©1978 by John R.W. Stott. Originally published under the title Christian Counter-Culture.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

LifeGuide® is a registered trademark of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Cover image: Kirsten Pott

ISBN 978-0-8308-6298-6

Contents

Getting the Most Out of Sermon on the Mount

1 Unexpected Blessings

Matthew 5:1–12

2 God’s Way to Make a Difference

Matthew 5:13–16

3 The Importance of Obeying God’s Law

Matthew 5:17–20

4 What’s Wrong with Private Sins?

Matthew 5:21–30

5 Faithfulness in Marriage & Speech

Matthew 5:31–37; 19:3–9

6 How to Really Love Your Enemies

Matthew 5:38–48

7 How Not to Be Religious

Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18

8 A Pattern for Dynamic Prayer

Matthew 6:7–15

9 What God Thinks of My Ambitions

Matthew 6:19–34

10 Relationships That Encourage

Matthew 7:1–12

11 Detecting the Lies of Our World

Matthew 7:13–20

12 Making the Choice of a Lifetime

Matthew 7:21–29

Leader’s Notes

Getting the Most Out of Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed. It is the nearest thing to a manifesto that he ever uttered, for it is his own description of what he wanted his followers to be and to do. The Sermon is found in Matthew’s Gospel toward the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.

Immediately after his baptism and temptation Jesus had begun to announce the good news that the kingdom of God, long promised in the Old Testament era, was now on the threshold. He himself had come to inaugurate it. With him, the new age had dawned, and the rule of God had broken into history. “Repent,” he cried, “for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). ...