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

Welcome to Day 2113 of  Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom Sermon on the Mount 11 – A Christian's Amazement: Who Is This Radical Teacher – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 07/25/2021 Sermon on the Mount – A Christian’s Amazement: Who is This Radical Teacher? Matthew 7:28-29 Today’s Scripture is found on page 1507 of the pew Bible. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law.   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 ‘God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.’ ‘Love your enemies,’ ‘No one can serve two masters,’ ‘Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ’ and ‘Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.’ They say, in these passages, Jesus of Nazareth is the moral teacher at his most straightforward and best.   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’s kingdom.  It is our marching orders.  His teachings and sketch of the Christian counter-culture are his commands for radical discipleship.  What remains for us now is to consider the uniqueness of the teacher himself.   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 ‘What do you make of this teaching?’ as ‘Who on earth is this radical teacher?’  The reaction of those who heard the Sermon is they were amazed at the authority of his teaching.   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’s kingdom. By the end of Jesus’s teaching, the crowds were amazed, for the Greek verb is strong; it means ‘dumbfounded.’   You know, the look of someone who is dumbfounded. In fact, I look that way quite often.  Mouth open, glazed look in the eyes because it is difficult to take it all in.   Let us analyze this authority of Jesus, as exposed in the Sermon. On what was it grounded? What was Jesus’s 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.  Today we will explore the seven attributes of this radical teacher.  

1. Jesus’ authority as the teacher

The crowds were amazed at his teaching, for 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?   He...