Jesus did not preach a theoretical kingdom. Centuries earlier Daniel declared God would set up his kingdom in the days of the Roman kings. It would consume all other kingdoms (Dan 2:44). In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:1–7:29) Jesus shows the tangible nature of that kingdom.
The context of this Sermon emphasizes its kingdom character. John the Baptist and Jesus had preached the kingdom was at hand (Matt 3:2; 4:17). This preaching preceded the Sermon.
This kingdom theme continues after the Sermon. Jesus says, “many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:11–12; emphasis aded).
The Sermon rests between two kingdom-heavy passages. This suggests it is kingdom oriented.
The Sermon’s content confirms this suggestion. Jesus makes eight distinct statements about the kingdom (Matt 5:3, 10, 19, 20; 6:10, 13, 33; 7:21). The first beatitude identifies the persons who possess the kingdom (Matt 5:3). The final paragraph excludes hypocrites from it (Matt 7:21–27). From first to last, this Sermon is about life in the kingdom in which we now live.
Not all Christians accept this conclusion. And, those who do sometimes put caveats on how the Sermon relates to the messianic age.
This post will examine three aspects of the Sermon on the Mount. Inmillennialism—our prophetic model—sheds light on each of these. I will use three personal experiences to frame our discussion.
Is the Sermon on the Mount for Our Age?
When I was a young Christian (many years ago!) a barber in my hometown made a shocking statement. He said the Sermon on the Mount is not a guide for Christian living. Instead, he said it shows how people will live in a future thousand-year reign of Christ. I had never heard of this idea; it left me speechless.
In the intervening years, I’ve learned this view is common among premillennial dispensationalists.1 For example, J. Dwight Pentecost says, “the Sermon on the Mount omits all the major doctrines which would give it a relevancy to this present age.”2 He concludes that the Sermon on the Mount cannot be the church’s rule of life.3 Perhaps my barber had read Pentecost’s (or similar) writings.
This denial results from allegiance to a prophetic model. Dispensationalism says the Sermon on the Mount is for the kingdom age. But, it says the kingdom age is not now present. So, we must relate this Sermon “to the future Messianic or earthly kingdom of our Lord.”4 Jesus did not mean it for us.
Non-dispensational models—including inmillennialism—show this delayed application is an error. The Sermon on the Mount describes life in the present messianic age. Our Lord has delivered us from bondage to sin and has given us the Holy Spirit. These blessings enable us to live as Jesus taught in the Sermon. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom 14:17). This Sermon shows how we enjoy these blessings in the present messianic age.
Did Jesus Teach us to Pray for Our Age?
In a more recent conversation, I spoke with a minister in my denomination. I mentioned I was beginning to see kingdom optimism5 in the Scriptures. This brother was skeptical. He rejected the idea that the kingdom will overcome all pagan kingdoms in history.
To make my case, I mentioned a passage in the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). My friend said, “Yes, we are to pray that way. But, God will not answer our prayers in this age.”
This conclusion shocked me. Would Jesus teach us to pray a prayer he had no intention of answering?
This minister holds the amillennial view of prophecy. This view considers evil to be a (the?) chief characteristic of the messianic age. Kim Riddlebarger is also an amillennialist. He often describes our age this way. We must look forward to when “this present evil age has come to an end.”6 The present kingdom is “anything but a golden age when lions and lambs play together.” And, the millennium of Revelation 20 is “likely to be a description of this ‘present evil age.’”7 Amillennialists do not “believe that things will get better for God’s people” during the messianic age.8
This view teaches something less than a present kingdom. It says “the kingdom came in a provisional fashion at his (i.e., Christ’s) first advent.”9 This view affects our interpretation of the Lord’s instructions about prayer. The kingdom has come only “in a provisional sense during the course of this present evil age.” So, “Jesus exhorted believers to pray for the consummation of that same [provisional] kingdom.”10
Amillennialism says we should pray for the provisional phase of the kingdom to pass. Only then can the permanent kingdom come. In the meantime, the provisional kingdom—the “present evil age”—will grow darker.
Inmillennialism presents a different picture. Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age” (Gal 1:4). The gospel emphasizes Christ’s victory over the evil age, not the evil age’s triumph over the kingdom.
God set up his victorious kingdom during the last days of the Mosaic age. It will destroy all other kingdoms (Dan 2:44). Christ will reign until he overcomes all his enemies (Psa 110:1). His last victory will be over death in the resurrection (1 Cor 15:26). The kingdom will increase until “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14; cp. Dan 2:35; 7:27; Zeph 2:11; Zech 9:10; Mal 1:11; Matt 13:31–32; etc.)
Jesus said the (permanent) kingdom was at hand (Matt 4:17), not in the distant future. He taught us to pray the kingdom—in its present form—would achieve its intended results. This praying is not for a present provisional kingdom to end so the permanent kingdom can come. It is praying for the kingdom to achieve its purpose in history.
Our prophetic view determines how we obey our Lord’s instructions about prayer.
Did Jesus use Typology in the Sermon on the Mount?
During a visit to a church several years ago, the pastor asked me to preach. I was the first of three preachers that morning (cp. 1 Cor 14:29). I spoke about how God designed the Exodus events as types. My texts were “Now these things were our examples” and “all these things happened unto them for ensamples” (1 Cor 10:6, 11). The Greek word for “examples” and “ensamples” is tupos, or type.
After I finished, the second preacher went to the pulpit. His first words were, “We’ve had a good history lesson, now we need preaching.” I assumed he did not appreciate my remarks on typology. But, this ego bruise did not reduce my appreciation for this subject.
We have seen how inmillennialism underscores typology’s importance in the New Testament.11 We considered Patrick Fairbairn’s definition.
In the character, action, or institution which is denominated the type, there must be a resemblance in form or spirit to what answers to it under the Gospel; and secondly, that it must not be any character, action, or institution occurring in Old Testament Scripture, but such as had their ordination of God, and were designed by Him to foreshadow and prepare for the better things of the Gospel.12
The Sermon on the Mount contains typology. Isaac Marlow made this point quaintly. “Christ in this sermon was gospelizing the law.”13
Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the law. God then said “ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel” (Exod 19:6). He gave Moses commandments that governed Israel’s life during the Mosaic age.
In a similar way Christ “went up into a mountain” to deliver his Sermon (Matt 5:1).14 In it, he describes life during the messianic age. He shows how his new “kings and priests” (Rev 1:6) will live in the new kingdom. Moses’s ascent was the type, Christ’s the antitype.
Typological inversion is also present here.15 God had forbidden the people from approaching Mount Sinai (Exod 19:24). Now Jesus blesses them on the mountain. “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him” (Matt 5:1). Paul makes much of this contrast (Heb 12:18–24).
Typology helps us appreciate the superiority of the messianic age rule of life over that of the Mosaic age. The Sermon on the Mount transcends the law of Mount Sinai (cf. John 1:17; Rom 8:2; Gal 6:2; etc.). We are now “under the law to Christ” (1 Cor 9:21).
The Sermon contains other antitypes. A discussion of these must await future posts.
Conclusion
People sometimes ask what difference prophecy makes in our daily lives. There is nothing more practical than the Sermon on the Mount. It addresses every area of life—how we attain happiness, our role in society, our status in the kingdom, the thoughts and intents of our hearts, etc.
Our understanding of prophecy determines how we respond to the Sermon on the Mount. Let us seek to worship and serve God, “believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” (Acts 24:14).
Footnotes
- For an overview of this view see Dispensational Premillennialism. For a comparison of this view to other views see Comparison of Prophetic Models.
- J. Dwight Pentecost, “The Purpose of the Sermon on the Mount,” Bibliotheca Sacra 115.458 (1958): 131.
- Pentecost, “The Purpose of the Sermon on the Mount,” 132.
- Pentecost, “The Purpose of the Sermon on the Mount,” 133.
- For more about optimism, click on the OPTIMISM tag at the bottom of this post.
- Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 137.
- Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism, 207.
- Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism, 24.
- Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism, 101. Emphasis added.
- Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism, 109-10. Emphasis added.
- See Typology and Inmillennialism.
- Patrick Fairbairn, Typology of Scripture (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1989), 1:46.
- Isaac Marlow, The Purity of Gospel Communion: Or, Grounds and Reasons for Separation (London: J. Atwood, 1694), 8.
- The image in this post is The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–90). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
- We discussed this term in Typology and Inmillennialism.
