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Published: Feb. 7, 2023, 8 a.m.

Welcome to Day 2113 of\xa0 Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom Sermon on the Mount 11 \u2013 A Christian's Amazement: Who Is This Radical Teacher \u2013 Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message \u2013 07/25/2021 Sermon on the Mount \u2013 A Christian\u2019s Amazement: Who is This Radical Teacher? Matthew 7:28-29 Today\u2019s Scripture is found on page 1507 of the pew Bible. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,\xa0for he taught with real authority\u2014quite unlike their teachers of religious law. \xa0 Many secular and religious people are prepared to accept the Sermon on the Mount as containing self-evident truth. They know it includes such sayings as \u2018God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.\u2019 \u2018Love your enemies,\u2019 \u2018No one can serve two masters,\u2019 \u2018Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.\xa0\u2019 and \u2018Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.\u2019 They say, in these passages, Jesus of Nazareth is the moral teacher at his most straightforward and best. \xa0 As we have learned these past 11 weeks, Matthew 5-7 is much more than that. It is the Manifesto of Christ to the citizens of God\u2019s kingdom.\xa0 It is our marching orders.\xa0 His teachings and sketch of the Christian counter-culture are his commands for radical discipleship. \xa0What remains for us now is to consider the uniqueness of the teacher himself. \xa0 We shall find it impossible to drive a wedge between the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount and the Jesus of the rest of the New Testament. Instead, the teacher of the Sermon on the Mount is the same supernatural, dogmatic, divine Jesus to be found everywhere else. So the main question the Sermon forces upon us is not so much \u2018What do you make of this teaching?\u2019 as \u2018Who on earth is this radical teacher?\u2019 \xa0The reaction of those who heard the Sermon is they were amazed at the authority of his teaching. \xa0 The teacher's great authority struck the first hearers of the Sermon (the crowds, as well as his disciples, 5:1). He did not hum and haw, or hesitate as I do when I speak. He was neither tentative nor apologetic. Nor again, on the other hand, was he ever bombastic or flamboyant. Instead, with quiet and unassuming assurance, he laid down the manifesto for the citizens of God\u2019s kingdom. By the end of Jesus\u2019s teaching, the crowds were amazed, for the Greek verb is strong; it means \u2018dumbfounded.\u2019 \xa0\xa0You know, the look of someone who is dumbfounded. In fact, I look that way quite often.\xa0 Mouth open, glazed look in the eyes because it is difficult to take it all in. \xa0 Let us analyze this authority of Jesus, as exposed in the Sermon. On what was it grounded? What was Jesus\u2019s self-awareness which led him to speak in this way? What clues does the Sermon itself give of how he understood his identity and mission? We do not have far to seek to find answers to these questions.\xa0 Today we will explore the seven attributes of this radical teacher. \xa0

1. Jesus\u2019 authority as the teacher

The crowds were amazed at his teaching,\xa0for he taught with absolute authority. Yes, Jesus presented himself first and foremost as a teacher, and he amazed his listeners with the substance, the quality, and the manner of his instruction. But, of course, there had been thousands of other teachers throughout the area and in the temple. Many were his contemporaries. What, then, was so special about Jesus? \xa0 He...