“And seeing the crowds, He ascended the mountain, and when He sat, His disciples came to Him.  He opened His mouth and taught them, saying…”

(Matthew 5:1-2)

These words introduce what is commonly called Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Follows in this sermon is a philosophy on Christian living, something that might be called the “Pastoral Theology” of Christ. We have a series on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ teaching on the nature of the Law and its application, on piety and prayer, and on the marks of a Christian as he or she lives out faith in this world. It is a boiled-down version of Jesus’ instructions for living a God-Centered life boldly in a fallen world.

Often, though, when we look at these teachings, we focus on them in the context of our personal living. And, while it is true that there is much personal application that can be made from within this text, we sometimes miss the corporate nature of this sermon. Indeed, to whom does Jesus preach this? He preaches to the crowds that are following Him. He preaches to His disciples, not just to the twelve. Corporately speaking, he is teaching the church, not just persons in the church.

As Americans, I fear that we often focus too much on the individual. We are “rugged individualists” at heart, and that is an asset in many parts of our culture. Yet, we sometimes forget that Christ has united us as a one body that is designed to be unified in thought, attitude, and action for the furtherance of His kingdom. Over the next several weeks, we are going to spend some time together on the Sermon on the Mount, beginning here in the Beatitudes. And while we will talk about many personal and individual applications, our focus will primarily be to apply this language to the church — the corporate gathering of Christians — to ask the question, are we really being faithful in being Christ’s church, or has the church simply become another civic organization to which we may or may not have ties.

For instance, is “church” just something you do one day of the week? Is your commitment to church something that begins and ends when you walk into the church building? For many professing Christians, the extent of church is just that — it is a program of sorts for Sunday participation. In contrast, if we take the Gospel (and this Sermon) seriously, we should see church not as something we do, but as the natural outflowing of who we are (or whose we are). As laid out here by Jesus, church is part of the fabric of your being, and it shapes all that you do, not just what you do on Sundays. Indeed, in light of these words of our Lord, I would suggest that taking the teachings of Christ seriously also ought to shape (or challenge) what we do when we gather as a body on Sunday morning and evening. 

A final note. Who does Jesus gather to teach? We are told that he gathers His disciples. A disciple (μαθητής, mathates in Greek) is literally a student. Ask anyone who has ever taught, what is the mark of a good student? They learn and apply. You may learn every teaching that is given in the Bible, you might even memorize the Bible, cover to cover, but if you do not apply the things that you learn within the Bible to your life, then you are every bit as much a heathen as the person who is utterly disinterested in the Bible. Further, if you, as a corporate body — as a church — do not submit to the teaching of the Bible, but rather pick and choose what you like and you don’t like, you are not a True Church and have more in common with a social club than anything else. Corporately, we are a body with one Head who is Christ; we must live like it.