What You Need to Know About Studies In The Sermon On The Mount
The Sermon On The Mount (Matthew 5-7) is one of the most studied passages in the New Testament, which means there are a lot of resources out there and not all of them are worth your time. I've gone through dozens of commentaries and study guides over the years, and I want to give you a practical walkthrough on how to actually use these materials without getting lost in theological weeds or wasting weeks on a single passage. There are several well-known study series that cover this material. The most commonly referenced ones include the studies by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, which are sermon-based and quite dense, and the more accessible guides from authors like William Barclay or John Stott. Then there are the shorter devotionals and Bible study outlines you'll find on sites like BibleStudyTools, Got Questions, and various seminary websites. The quality varies enormously between them. I'll walk through how I approach these materials, what to watch out for, and where to actually find usable content online.
How to Approach These Studies Methodically
Most people jump into a Sermon On The Mount study and immediately get bogged down in the Beatitudes, spending three weeks on verse 3 alone. This is a common mistake. Here's what I do instead. First, read the entire passage straight through. Matthew 5:1 through 7:29 in one sitting. Do this before you open a single commentary or study guide. You need to understand the shape of the thing before you start pulling it apart. I've seen too many people who can explain the Third Beatitude in detail but have no idea how it connects to what comes next. Once you've read it through, break it into its natural sections. Most scholars agree on this basic structure: the Beatitudes and salt/light imagery (chapter 5:1-16), the relationship between law and grace (5:17-48), practical piety (6:1-18), teachings on money and anxiety (6:19-7:6), and the concluding warnings about false prophets and the wise versus foolish builder (7:7-29). That gives you roughly seven to eight sessions for a full study, which is reasonable if you're moving at a pace that allows discussion.
The problem with most published Studies In The Sermon On The Mount materials is that they don't respect this structure. They tend to jump around, treating each verse as an isolated island rather than part of a coherent argument. Lloyd-Jones' eight-volume set, while brilliant, can feel exhaustive to the point of being impractical for a typical church group. I've used it myself and found that the best approach is to pick individual volumes rather than attempt the whole set in sequence.
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Common Pitfalls That Waste Your Time
Here are the issues I've run into repeatedly, both when leading studies and when studying on my own. The first problem is allegorizing everything. Early church fathers loved to find hidden meanings in every detail, and some modern study guides carry that tradition forward. When a study guide spends two pages explaining why "left hand" in Matthew 6:3 represents secret sin, you need to step back and ask whether the text actually supports that reading. The plain meaning is usually sufficient: don't let your left-hand act be known by your right. It's about sincerity, not mystical hand symbolism. The second problem is that many studies treat the Sermon as a list of moral instructions rather than a description of kingdom citizenship. Jesus isn't giving us a to-do list here. He's describing what life under God's rule looks like. When you read it through that lens, a lot of the harder passages click into place differently. The radical teachings on divorce, oaths, and retaliation in chapter 5 become less about legal compliance and more about the fundamentally different ethics of kingdom people.
I ran into a specific issue a few years ago when preparing a study group on Matthew 6:33. I'd planned to spend the session on the ordering of priorities in the kingdom. But one participant pushed back hard on the translation, pointing out that the Greek word "diōkō" (pursue) carries a sense of urgent, almost aggressive pursuit, not just casual seeking. This changed the whole direction of the discussion. Instead of a gentle nudge toward putting God first, the verse became a call to actively chase after God's righteousness with some intensity. The standard study guides I'd consulted barely acknowledged this nuance. I ended up pulling from several Greek lexicons and a couple of commentary entries to get it right, and the discussion was much richer for it. If you're leading a study, don't be afraid to go deeper when someone asks a sharp question. Having an answer prepared is good, but being willing to dig alongside the group is better.
Practical Ways to Use These Studies
If you're running a small group or Sunday school class, here's a format that works. Assign the reading before the session. Use the first twenty minutes for free discussion where people share what stood out to them. Spend the middle twenty minutes working through the key questions in the study guide you've chosen. Leave the last ten minutes for prayer focused on what was discussed. This keeps people engaged and prevents the study from becoming a lecture. For personal study, the approach is simpler. Read the passage. Read a solid commentary section on it. Write down one or two questions that need answering. Move on. Don't try to resolve every question before continuing. Some of the hardest passages in the Sermon resist easy answers, and that's okay. The discipline of sitting with a difficult text for a while, even without arriving at a neat conclusion, is itself valuable. One specific tip that has helped me: keep a running margin note in your Bible as you go through any study. When a commentator makes a point you disagree with, write "disagree" in the margin and why. When a study question opens something up for you, write that down too. After finishing the Sermon, you'll have a personalized study document that reflects your actual engagement rather than someone else's conclusions.
Where to Find These Resources
Most of the Studies In The Sermon On The Mount content you need is available online for free or at low cost. Crossway and Logos offer published commentaries and study guides. The Reformed Baptist Church of Sanford maintains a solid free study outline on their website. Bible Study Tools has a collection of articles and commentaries, including Matthew Henry's notes which are dated but useful for quick reference. For the Lloyd-Jones material, you can find sermons referenced in most major Bible software platforms like Olive Tree or Accordance, or purchase the printed volumes. There are also a handful of free PDF study guides circulating on Christian education sites. The quality is uneven, but the ones from Calvin Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary are generally reliable. I'd skip the ones that are clearly designed to drive traffic to a paid course or newsletter sign-up.
Limitations to Keep in Mind
No single study guide covers everything. The Sermon On The Mount intersects with so much of Scripture that any study will necessarily leave gaps. A guide focused on the ethical teaching might underrepresent the eschatological dimension. One focused on the theological argument might rush through the practical applications. I recommend pairing whatever you're using with at least one commentary that takes a different angle. Barclay's "Study Commentary" is concise and readable, while the NIGTC volume by Davies and Allison is thorough but academic. Pick based on your needs. The biggest limitation of most ready-made Studies In The Sermon On The Mount materials is that they assume a certain level of biblical literacy that not everyone has. If you're working with people who are new to the faith or unfamiliar with the Bible, you'll need to supplement heavily with background context. The Roman occupation, the Jewish understanding of the Law, the literary conventions of rabbinic teaching — all of this matters and most study guides don't provide enough of it. There's also the issue of interpretation differences between traditions. The Sermon is claimed by almost every Christian denomination, but the way they handle certain passages varies significantly. The treatment of Matthew 5:17-20, for example, differs between Reformed, Lutheran, and Catholic study resources. Be aware of where your guide is coming from and whether its assumptions align with your own theological framework. This isn't about correctness so much as it is about not being confused when a study makes claims that seem to contradict what you've learned elsewhere.
Finally, remember that the Sermon On The Mount is not primarily information to be acquired. It's a text meant to be obeyed, and any study that treats it purely as an intellectual exercise is missing the point. The goal isn't to finish a study guide. The goal is to understand what Jesus is saying and actually do it. Everything else is secondary.
