You may be surprised to learn that Jesus had a favorite preacher. You may be even more surprised to learn that Jesus’ favorite preacher was not a Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Anglican, or Presbyterian. Rather, he was a Baptist! We know him as John the Baptist, of course! Jesus said of him,

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11a).

Since all people are “born of woman,” this was another way of saying that, in Jesus’ estimation, John the Baptist was the greatest person who had ever lived. Why Jesus felt that way was is a matter of conjecture. It seems reasonable to think, however, that Jesus thought highly of John because of John’s spiritual qualities. If so, we would certainly be wise to study and imitate those spiritual qualities. I’ve found at least seven spiritual qualities in John the Baptist that are praiseworthy. Although John’s ministry best represents the ministry of an evangelist, all seven spiritual qualities are appropriate for any and every minister of the gospel. Let’s consider the first of seven.

John would not baptize people who didn’t appear repentant, not wanting to bolster anyone’s self-deception. He baptized people “as they confessed their sins” (Matt. 3:6). He warned those who came:

The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire…. And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:10, 12).

John was not afraid to tell the truth about hell, a subject that is often avoided by preachers who are trying to win a popularity contest rather than win souls for God’s kingdom. Neither did John fail to proclaim the same theme we discovered in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount—only the holy inherit God’s kingdom. Those who don’t bear good fruit will be thrown into the fire.

If John were alive today, he would no doubt be castigated by many professing Christians as a “hellfire and brimstone preacher,” a “gloom and doom prophet,” “not seeker-sensitive,” or worse, “negative,” “condemning,” “legalistic” or “self-righteous.” Yet John was Jesus’ favorite preacher. John preached about hell and made it clear what kinds of people on their way there. Interestingly, Luke referred to John’s message as “the gospel” (Luke 3:18).

Because of his desire to make disciples, teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded, the disciple-making minister will be very interested in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. There is no lengthier recorded sermon of Jesus, and it is full of His commandments. The disciple-making minister will want to obey and teach his disciples everything Jesus commanded in that sermon.

This being so, I’m going to share what I understand about that sermon contained in Matthew chapters 5-7. I encourage ministers to teach their disciples the Sermon on the Mount verse by verse. Hopefully what I’ve written will be helpful to that end.

Below is an outline of the Sermon on the Mount, just to give us a general overview and to highlight the primary themes.

I.) Jesus gathers His audience (5:1-2)

II.) Introduction (5:3-20)

A.) The traits of the blessed (5:3-12)

B.) Admonition to continue being salt and light (5:13-16)

C.) The Law’s relationship with Christ’s followers (5:17-20)

III.) The Sermon: Be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees (5:21-7:12)

A). Love each other, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (5:21-26)

B.) Be sexually pure, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (5:27-32)

C.) Be honest, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (5:33-37)

D.) Don’t take revenge, as do the scribes and Pharisees (5:38-42)

E.) Don’t hate your enemies, as do the scribes and Pharisees (5:43-48)

F.) Do good for the right motives, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (6:1-18)

1.) Give to the poor for the right motives (6:2-4)

2.) Pray for the right motives (6:5-6)

3.) A digression regarding prayer and forgiveness (6:7-15)

a.) Instructions concerning prayer (6:7-13)

b.) The necessity of forgiving each other (6:8-15)

4.) Fast for the right motives (6:16-18)

G.) Don’t serve money, as do the scribes and Pharisees (6:19-34)

H.) Don’t find little faults with your brothers (7:1-5)

I.) Don’t waste your time giving truth to the unappreciative (7:6)

J.) Encouragement to pray (7:7-11)

IV.) Conclusion: A Summary of the Sermon

A.) A summarizing statement (7:12)

B.) An admonition to obey (7:13-14)

C.) How to recognize false prophets and false believers (7:15-23)

D.) A final warning against disobedience and summary (7:24-27)

A pastor or teacher’s ministry would of course be characterized by a broader range of subject matter than was John’s. John was preaching to the unrepentant. Pastors and teachers are supposed to be primarily teaching those who have already repented. Their teaching is based on those things Jesus said to His disciples and that are written in the New Testament epistles.

We often fail, however, to rightly identify our audiences, and it seems today that sinners are often preached to as if they were saints. Just because people are sitting in a church building does not mean our job is to assure them of their salvation, especially if their lives are essentially indistinguishable from those in the world. There is a crying need today for millions of “John the Baptists” to preach from church pulpits. Will you rise to the challenge? Will you become one of Jesus’ favorite preachers?

The sixth trait of the heaven-bound is purity of heart. Unlike so many professing Christians, true followers of Christ are not just outwardly holy. By God’s grace, their hearts have been made pure. They truly love God from their hearts, and it affects their meditations and motives. Jesus promised that they shall see God.

Again may I ask, are we to believe that there are true Christian believers who are not pure in heart and who therefore will not see God? Is God going to say to them, “You can come into heaven, but you can’t ever see Me”? No, obviously every true heaven-bound person has a pure heart.

Finally, Jesus called blessed those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Obviously, He was speaking of people who are living righteously, not just those who think that Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to them. People who obey Christ’s commandments are the ones whom nonbelievers persecute. They will inherit God’s kingdom.

What kind of persecution was Jesus talking about? Torture? Martyrdom? No, He specifically listed being insulted and spoken against on His account. This again indicates that when a person is a true Christian, it is obvious to nonbelievers, otherwise nonbelievers wouldn’t say evil things against him. How many so-called Christians are so indistinguishable from nonbelievers that not a single unbeliever speaks against them? They are not really Christians at all. As Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). When all men speak well of you, that’s a sign that you’re a false believer. The world hates true Christians (see also John 15:18-21; Gal. 4:29; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 John 3:13-14).

If the first characteristic is listed first because it is the first necessary trait of the heaven-bound, perhaps the second trait is also listed meaningfully: “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matt. 5:4). Could Jesus have been describing heartfelt repentance and remorse? I think so, especially since Scripture is clear that godly sorrow results in a repentance that is necessary for salvation (see 2 Cor. 7:10). The mournful tax collector Jesus spoke of who humbly bowed his head in the Temple, beating his breast and crying out for God’s mercy, was indeed a blessed person. Unlike the proud Pharisee who also prayed in the Temple, the tax gatherer left that place justified, forgiven of his sins (see Luke 18:9-14). I suspect that there were those among Jesus’ audience who, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, were mourning. Comfort from the Holy Spirit would soon be theirs!

If Jesus was not speaking of the initial mourning of the repentant person who is just coming to Christ, then perhaps He was describing the sorrow all true believers sense as they continually face a world that is in rebellion against the God who loves them. Paul expressed it as “great sorrow and unceasing grief in [his] heart” (Rom. 9:2).

Peacemakers are listed next. They will be called sons of God. Again, Jesus must have been describing every true follower of Christ, because everyone who believes in Christ is a son of God (see Gal. 3:26).

Those who are born of the Spirit are peacemakers in at least three ways:

First, they’ve made peace with God, one who was formerly their enemy (see Rom. 5:10).

Second, they live in peace, as far as possible, with other people. They’re not characterized by dissensions and strife. Paul wrote that those who practice strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions and factions will not inherit God’s kingdom (see Gal. 5:19-21). True believers will go the extra mile to avoid a fight and keep peace in their relationships. They do not claim to be at peace with God while at odds with a brother (see Matt. 5:23-24; 1 John 4:20).

Third, by sharing the gospel, true followers of Christ also help others make peace with God and their fellow man. Perhaps alluding to this very verse of the Sermon on the Mount, James wrote, “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (Jas. 3:18).

Do Christ’s disciples ever sin? Apparently sometimes the do, since Jesus taught them to ask for forgiveness for their sins.

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions (Matt. 6:12-15).

Jesus’ disciples realize that their disobedience offends God, and when they sin, they feel ashamed. They want the stain to be removed, and thankfully, their gracious heavenly Father is willing to forgive them. But they must ask for forgiveness, the fifth request found in the Lord’s Prayer.

Their being forgiven, however, is conditional upon them forgiving others. Because they’ve been forgiven of so much, they have an obligation to forgive everyone who requests their forgiveness (and to love and work for reconciliation with those who don’t). If they refuse to forgive, God won’t forgive them.

The sixth and final request, too, is one that obviously reflects the true disciple’s desire to be holy: “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil [or ‘the evil one’].” So much does the true disciple long for holiness that he asks God to not lead him into a situation where he might be tempted, lest he succumb. Additionally, he requests that God would rescue him from any evil that might entrap him. Certainly this is a great prayer to pray at the beginning of each day, before we journey out into a world of evil and temptation.

Those who know God understand why all six requests of this prayer are so appropriate. The reason is revealed in the final line of the prayer: “For [or because] Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever” (Matt. 6:13). God is a great King who rules over His kingdom in which we are His servants. He is all-powerful, and no one should dare resist His will. All glory will belong to Him forever. He is worthy to be obeyed.

What is the dominant theme of the Lord’s prayer? Holiness. Christ’s disciples desire that God’s name be hallowed, that His reign would be established over the earth, and that His will be perfectly done everywhere. This is more important to them than even their daily bread. They want to be pleasing in His sight, and when they fail, they want forgiveness from Him. As forgiven people, they extend forgiveness to others. They long to be perfectly holy, to the degree that they desire to avoid temptation, because temptation increases their chances of sinning. The disciple-maker teaches these things to his disciples.

The fifth trait, mercifulness, is also one that every born-again person naturally possesses by virtue of his having the merciful God living within him. Those who possess no mercy are not blessed of God and reveal that they are not partakers of His grace. The apostle James concurs: “Judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy” (Jas. 2:13). If one stands before God and receives a merciless judgment, do you think he would go to heaven or hell?^[1] The answer is obvious.

Jesus once told a story of a servant who had received great mercy from his master, but who was then unwilling to extend some mercy to his fellow servant. When his master discovered what had happened, he “handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him” (Matt 18:34). All his formerly-forgiven debt was reinstated. Then Jesus warned His disciples,”My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart” (Matt. 18:35). Again, non-merciful people will not receive mercy from God. They are not among the blessed.

^[1] Interestingly, the very next verse in the book of James is, “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (Jas. 2:14).