When Jesus finished the Sermon on the Mount, the reaction was not casual approval but stunned awe. Matthew says the crowds were amazed at His teaching because He spoke as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law (Matthew 7:28–29). His words did not lean on footnotes to other rabbis. He said, “You have heard that it was said… But I tell you…,” claiming the right to declare God’s intent and press it upon the conscience with divine force (Matthew 5:21–22; Matthew 5:27–28; Matthew 5:31–32). The astonishment was the only reasonable response to the presence of a Teacher whose words sounded like Sinai and felt like sunrise.
That authority still confronts us. If Jesus speaks with the authority of God, then His teaching does not await our vote. It summons our faith and shapes our obedience. He fulfills the Law and the Prophets and reveals the heart of the Father, and in doing so He calls us to build life on His words because they will not pass away when the ages turn (Matthew 5:17; Matthew 24:35). The Church lives by this voice now, and Israel will see the King who spoke on that hillside when He returns to reign, because the One who teaches with authority also judges and saves with authority (John 5:22–23; Revelation 19:11–16).
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Historical and Cultural Background
The Sermon on the Mount comes early in Matthew’s Gospel as Jesus proclaims the nearness of the kingdom and heals the afflicted throughout Galilee, drawing crowds from all directions (Matthew 4:23–25). He sits and teaches His disciples while the crowds listen in, setting forth a righteousness that surpasses the scribes and Pharisees, not by adding more rules but by disclosing the Law’s true aim in the presence of the King (Matthew 5:1–2; Matthew 5:20). The scribes anchored authority in chains of citation. Jesus’ authority is intrinsic. Where the rabbis said, “Rabbi so-and-so says…,” Jesus said, “But I tell you,” and the echo sounded like the voice that first spoke light into being (Matthew 5:21–22; John 1:1–3).
This contrast fit Israel’s story. God had promised a prophet like Moses to whom the people must listen, a figure who would speak all that God commanded and whose words would carry life-and-death weight (Deuteronomy 18:15–19). The prophets after Moses spoke, “This is what the Lord says,” but Jesus speaks as the Lord who has come near. He declares the blessedness of kingdom citizens, unmasks heart-level anger and lust, redirects oaths and retaliation, commands love for enemies, and teaches prayer to the Father in secret, making obedience a matter of the heart before the God who sees (Matthew 5:3–12; Matthew 5:21–48; Matthew 6:1–6). When the sermon ends, the crowds recognize that something more than human commentary has just taken place; a greater-than-Moses has spoken, and the mountain has trembled with grace (Matthew 7:28–29).
From a dispensational vantage point, the setting matters. The King offers the kingdom to Israel, preaching repentance and revealing kingdom righteousness, while the cross, resurrection, and ascension are still ahead in the narrative (Matthew 4:17). After He is rejected and crucified and then raised, the Spirit forms the Church at Pentecost—a body distinct from national Israel, composed of Jew and Gentile in one new man under Christ’s headship (Acts 2:1–4; Ephesians 3:4–6). The sermon’s ethic looks forward to the kingdom’s fullness, and yet its authority binds consciences now because the King’s words reveal God’s unchanging holiness and will. The crowds sensed the weight in that moment; the Church reads it in the light of the cross and the coming reign, with Israel and the Church kept distinct in God’s unfolding plan (Romans 11:25–29).
Biblical Narrative
Matthew’s summary is simple and staggering: the crowds were amazed because He taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law (Matthew 7:28–29). The Gospels multiply scenes that display the scope of this authority. In the synagogue at Capernaum the people are amazed for the same reason: “He taught them as one who had authority,” and in that very moment His word silences and expels an unclean spirit so that onlookers ask what this new teaching is, “with authority” even over demons (Mark 1:22; Luke 4:36). On the lake His rebuke stills wind and waves and the disciples marvel, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”—a question that wraps worship around weather (Mark 4:41).
He speaks to paralysis and bodies obey. He tells a paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” and then, to make visible the invisible, commands him to rise and walk, proving that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, an authority that belongs to God alone (Mark 2:5–12). He calls a dead man from a tomb and the grave lets go when He says, “Lazarus, come out!”—the miracle proclaiming His authority over life and death and foreshadowing a day when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out (John 11:43–44; John 5:28–29). He tells a centurion that his servant will be healed at a word, and it is so, revealing a chain of command in which creation itself is under orders because the Commander has spoken (Matthew 8:8–13).
He teaches about the Law and claims the right to interpret it perfectly. He declares that He did not come to abolish but to fulfill, and then interprets murder and adultery to their root in anger and lust, closes escape routes in oath-making, and redefines neighbor love so that enemies are included, all with the royal cadence of “But I tell you” (Matthew 5:17; Matthew 5:21–48). He asserts the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, asserting authority over a divine ordinance given at creation and codified at Sinai, because the One greater than the temple has arrived (Matthew 12:6–8). He speaks of final judgment and places Himself at the center of it, saying the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne and separate the nations like a shepherd separates sheep from goats, a claim to authority that only the Judge of all the earth can make (Matthew 25:31–33).
After His resurrection He states what the narrative has been showing all along: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and on that basis He commissions His disciples to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything He commanded, with the assurance of His abiding presence to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18–20). The apostolic mission moves forward not on borrowed charisma but on delegated authority from the risen Lord, and the early Church devotes itself to the apostles’ teaching because in it the Lord’s voice continues to shepherd His people (Acts 2:42).
Theological Significance
Jesus’ authority is first the authority of the incarnate Word. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us; the glory seen in His life is the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Prophets say, “Thus says the Lord.” Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you,” because the Lord Himself has come near. He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word, and after He provided purification for sins He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, enthroned with executive authority over creation and redemption alike (Hebrews 1:3).
His authority is the authority of fulfillment. He fulfills the Law and the Prophets not merely by ticking off predictions but by bringing their aim to consummation in His person and work. The shape of righteousness He commands is not new law layered on top of old; it is the unveiled design of love and holiness that the Law always pointed toward and that the Spirit now writes on believing hearts (Matthew 5:17; Jeremiah 31:33; Romans 8:3–4). When He says, “But I tell you,” He is not discarding Moses; He is revealing Moses’ Lord.
His authority is also salvific and judicial. He has authority to forgive sins, which requires a cross where justice and mercy meet and a resurrection where death is defeated and life is poured out on those who believe (Mark 2:10; Romans 4:25). He has authority to lay down His life and to take it up again, a charge He received from the Father, which means the cross is not martyrdom by accident but obedience by design (John 10:17–18). The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father, which places every conscience under Christ now and every destiny in His hands at the end (John 5:22–23). When He speaks of the last day, He speaks as the One who will speak last.
Dispensationally, His authority orders the ages without collapsing them. In His first coming He offers the kingdom to Israel and is rejected by many, yet He gathers a remnant and opens a way for Jew and Gentile to be united in one body, the Church, during this present age as He builds His Church and the gates of Hades do not overcome it (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 3:4–6). Israel’s national promises are not erased; they await fulfillment when the King returns and sits on David’s throne as the prophets foretold (Luke 1:32–33; Romans 11:26–29). The same Jesus who taught on a Galilean hillside will reign from Jerusalem, and the Church now lives under His authority as herald and ambassador, looking for the blessed hope while making disciples in every nation (Titus 2:13; Matthew 28:18–20).
Finally, His authority is verbal and effectual. He speaks truth that sets people free when they hold to His teaching, because His words are spirit and life and those who come to Him will never be driven away (John 8:31–32; John 6:63; John 6:37). Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will never pass away, which means every promise is load-bearing and every command endures beyond the dissolving of galaxies (Matthew 24:35).
Spiritual Lessons and Application
Because Jesus speaks with divine authority, the first response is submission. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to bow the knee to His words in concrete decisions about money, sexuality, truth-telling, anger, forgiveness, and enemies, not as a moral performance to earn life but as the fruit of faith in the Lord who first loved us (Philippians 2:10–11; Matthew 5:21–26; Matthew 5:27–30; Matthew 5:38–48; 1 John 4:19). When His words correct our instincts, disciples agree with the King, trusting that His commands are for our good and His glory.
The second response is trust. His authority guarantees the reliability of every promise. When He says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” anxious hearts can obey by putting the Father’s will ahead of tomorrow’s fears, because the Lord whose word built the world will keep the lights on in our small houses too (Matthew 6:33–34). When He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” the weary can come without fear of being turned away, because the One who commands rest is gentle and humble in heart and His yoke fits the soul He made (Matthew 11:28–30).
The third response is proclamation. The Great Commission stands on the platform of total authority: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him, therefore we go, baptize, and teach, confident that His word makes disciples and His presence sustains the mission until the end of the age (Matthew 28:18–20). The Church does not market ideas; it heralds a King. We speak His gospel not because our tone is persuasive but because His voice raises the dead and opens blind eyes to the light of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4–6).
A fourth response is endurance. When obedience to Jesus brings pressure, remember that storms test foundations and that houses built on His words stand when the rivers rise and the winds beat against them (Matthew 7:24–25). The authority that calmed the sea in Galilee still holds back the chaos in our lives, not always by removing the storm but by keeping the house upright until the storm has spent itself and the sun is out again (Mark 4:39–41; Psalm 46:1–3). Suffering does not prove that His words have failed; it proves that His promises are being proved, and the outcome will be praise and glory when He is revealed (1 Peter 1:6–7).
A fifth response is worship. When the crowds heard Him, they were amazed. When the disciples saw the winds and waves obey, they wondered who this could be. The answer is that He is the Son in whom the Father is well pleased, the Word made flesh, the Lord of glory, and the rightful object of every hallelujah from human lips and angel tongues (Matthew 3:17; John 1:14; 1 Corinthians 2:8). Worship steadies obedience, because we are most ready to do what Jesus says when our hearts are full of who Jesus is.
Finally, keep the storyline clear in your hope. Israel will one day look on the One they pierced and mourn as for an only son, and the King will restore what He has promised to that nation in mercy, while the Church, gathered from the nations, will reign with Him, displaying the riches of His grace in the ages to come (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:26–27; Revelation 20:4–6; Ephesians 2:7). The same authoritative voice that called fishermen to follow will one day call the dead from their graves. His sheep hear His voice now and will hear it then, and in both moments the outcome is life (John 10:27–28; John 5:28–29).
Conclusion
The Sermon on the Mount closes with a crowd astonished at a Teacher who sounded like no one they had ever heard, because no one like Him had ever stood before them. He spoke as One who had authority, and the astonishment was faith’s first stirrings in the presence of the Lord whose words do not waver (Matthew 7:28–29). That authority still speaks. It pardons sins, commands storms, casts out darkness, raises the dead, and will judge the living and the dead at the last day (Mark 2:10–12; Mark 4:41; Luke 4:36; John 11:43–44; John 5:22–29). It is an authority that stooped in love at the cross and now summons the world to come, learn, and live.
So let His words be the bedrock under your steps and the cadence of your days. Submit where He commands, trust where He promises, and speak where He sends. He is not one voice among many; He is the Voice whose word created the many and will outlast them all. Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will never pass away, and the soul that builds on them will never be put to shame (Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 2:6).
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:18–20)
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For Further Reference: A Detailed Study on the Entire Sermon on the Mount