​The World’s Most Famous Sermon is a Bomb – a Complete Revolution( Matthew Chapters 5,6 & 7)

The Sermon on the Mount astonished its hearers (Matthew 7:28). Jesus had taken the disciples and His followers up to a high place to hear this most profound message. There had been insufficient space on the narrow beach below. Every word He uttered came from God, and He spoke with the authority of heaven. "The words that I speak unto you," He said, "they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63. His teaching is full of ennobling, saving truth, to which men's highest ambitions and most profound investigations can bear no comparison. He was alive to the terrible ruin hanging over the race, and He came to save souls by His own righteousness, bringing to the world definite assurance of hope and complete relief.  {CT 439.1}  All who heard the Saviour "were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power" (Luke 4:32)
 
Failure of the Nation in the Practical Application of the Sanctuary
God’s chosen people the Jewish nation had gone off track. Their sanctuary services had become a series of outer ceremonies and rituals that were having little impact on transforming the hearts and minds of the people towards God. They were the salt of the earth.
 
However, the salt had lost its strong and distinctive flavor. And what good is salt when it has lost its flavor? (Mat 5:13) It is good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matthew 23:37,38)
And the Romans laid waste to Jerusalem burning down the Jewish temple. 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust in the darkest chapter of human history.
 
Jesus makes this point by beginning the sermon with the Beatitudes in the pattern of the sanctuary. "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God." The Jews were so exacting in regard to ceremonial purity that their regulations were extremely burdensome. Their minds were so occupied with rules and restrictions, and the fear of outward defilement, that they lost sight of the necessity for purity of motive and nobility of action. They did not perceive the stain that selfishness, injustice, and malice, leave upon the soul.  {2SP 208.2}  Jesus declared that the pure in heart should                                                                       see God. They would recognize him in the person of his Son, who was sent to the world for the salvation of the human race. Their minds, being cleansed and occupied with pure thoughts, would more clearly discover the Creator in the works of his mighty hand, in the things of beauty and magnificence which comprise the universe. They would live as in the visible presence of the Almighty, in a world of his creation, during the time that he apportions them here. {2SP 208.3} 
 
Those who realize their plight in need as they recognize their sinful state in the light of the presence of Jesus. Sorrow at the foot of the cross at the pain our sin has caused Jesus and the gap sin creates between us and Jesus is the cause for genuine repentance.
 
If the Christian possesses the Meekness of his Master, he will rise above the slights, the rebuffs, and annoyances to which he is daily exposed, and they will cease to cast a gloom over his spirit. That meekness which Jesus blessed, operates amid the scenes of domestic life; it makes the home happy, it provokes no quarrels, gives back no angry answers, but soothes the irritated temper, and diffuses a gentleness which is felt by all within its charmed circle. It calms the inflammable spirit of retaliation, and mirrors forth the character of Christ.  {2SP 206.2} 
 
These beatitudes are a road map of spiritual progress from the altar of self sacrifice in the courtyard of the Ancient Hebrew Sanctuary to walking by faith with Christ in the Most Holy Place as a peace maker whom the world will persecute as they did Jesus. Jesus presented the true meaning and intent of the sanctuary pattern here as a blue print for dealing with sin. Not by the blood of animals but by transforming His people by the renewing of their minds by walking in loving faith with Jesus each moment each day. Watching and praying lest they enter into temptation.
 
Having given the extension of understanding in the purpose of the Sanctuary pattern to include the way to keep our thoughts connected towards Jesus.  He went on to give the extension to the Law to include our accountability for our thoughts in the judgement.
So here is an extension of the Sanctuary Pattern to a matrix for keeping our thoughts righteous and an extension of the Law to include response-ability in our thoughts. (Mat 5:21-28)
 
The church leaders had drifted away from the mindset in the spirit that the sanctuary pattern pointing to Jesus was designed to instill. The covenant was still good from God’s side. But it had failed to be kept by the Hebrew people. Theirs was a declaration of faith with lots of outer ceremony with little genuine humility before God. They had failed to listen to the calls for reforms that God’s messengers the prophets had spoken.
 
When the Seventh Day Adventist church began keeping all God’s Ten Commandments they were blessed with a prophet. The reforms called for by Ellen White are widely ignored today and most SDA church pastors will not preach with the testing truths she wrote of in her Volumes of the Testimonies to the Churches. SDA’s call themselves the people of the Sanctuary. However the mindset in Christ and right thinking taught through the Sanctuary by Jesus, the Bible, Paul and Ellen White is like a lost doctrine today. Except your righteousness shall exceed that of the church leaders you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.
 
Benevolent Disinterest
Do not resist evil but love your enemies and help them. What greater condemnation could there be than someone who has been wronged helping the person who has wronged them?
 
When we receive Christ as an abiding guest in the soul, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The Saviour's life on earth, though lived in the midst of conflict, was a life of peace. While angry enemies were constantly pursuing Him, He said, "He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him." John 8:29. No storm of human or satanic wrath could disturb the calm of that perfect communion with God. And He says to us, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest." John 14:27; Matthew 11:29.
 
Benevolent disinterest concludes chapter five of Matthew. Where Jesus calls us to not only love those close to us who we find easy to love but also to love our enemies. Our benevolence is to not be stained by self-interest.
 
Jesus emptied Himself, and in all that He did self did not appear. He subordinated all things to the will of His Father. And He bids us, "Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself"; let self be dethroned, and no longer hold the supremacy of the soul.  {MYP 162.1}
 
Human nature is ever struggling for expression, ready for contest; but he who learns of Christ is emptied of self, of pride, of love of supremacy, and there is silence in the soul. Self is yielded to the disposal of the Holy Spirit. Then we are not anxious to have the highest place. We have no ambition to crowd and elbow ourselves into notice; but we feel that our highest place is at the feet of our Saviour. We look to Jesus, waiting for His hand to lead, listening for His voice to guide. The apostle Paul had this experience, and he said, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." --Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing," pp. 14, 15.  {MYP 162.2}
 
Prayer
Short and simple in public prayer. Prayer is more to be a private communion with Jesus. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Mat 6:6).  The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 is given here by Jesus in the form of the divine Sanctuary Pattern. Thereby the extension to the Law to include our accountability for our thoughts is surrounded by the Pattern to keep this right thinking, at the beginning by the Beatitudes and afterwards by the Lord’s Prayer. Here is the model prayer and scripture tells us to Watch and pray always through this Sanctuary pattern for right thinking, that we enter not into temptation.
 
Right Thinking
After outlining our responsibility in the Law for our thoughts, in chapter 6 of Matthew Jesus talks about focusing the thoughts: The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (Mat 6:22) Not to focus on the worldly but on the heavenly. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We are to be looking always towards Jesus with 100% of our heart our soul and our Minds. The word thought is repeated six times from Mat 6:25 to 6:34. Our diligent seeking is to be towards His righteousness which in this context clearly means right thinking. Then He will bless His people with their needs.
 
Judge not and ensure your life is first on track before trying to help others. And your Father in heaven like a worldly father will answer the prayers and calls of His children.
There are few who find the way to life. Many will call to God for salvation but without following His will, training the thoughts and character to be built on the Solid rock that is Jesus they shall not enter the kingdom. Those who do not conform to these words of His righteousness shall be swept away in the storms of life and death.
 
With Jesus as the foundation The Sermon on the Mount may be summarized as  – Your thoughts lead to your actions, leading to your habits leading to your character formation, which will determine your ultimate destination.