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    Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:28-29 (KJV)

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN JESUS HAD ENDED THESE SAYINGS, THE PEOPLE WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS DOCTRINE: FOR HE TAUGHT THEM AS ONE HAVING AUTHORITY, AND NOT AS THE SCRIBES.

Introduction

The Lord's Sermon is now finished.  The group breaks up.  This is often the time for the question: "What did you think of the preacher?"  Here, the King of Preachers has been proclaiming the Laws and Principles of His kingdom.  He has been outlining the details of His kingdom, stressing, as Ephesians 4:24 says, "the new man," as the human key to His New Plan.  Now, He has finished.  What are the impressions of the hearers?

Astonishment

Our text says, "the people were astonished."  The word for “people” suggests that it refers to the outer fringe of listeners, at first curious, but now completely gripped.  They had never heard anything like this before.  In other words, they were more and more amazed.  Of course, this impression was not confined only to them; the inner circle of disciples must also have been similarly moved.  Christian people will surely never cease to marvel at Him.  The deeper they get and the further they go, the greater their sense of awe at the greatness of the Lord.

His matter

They were astonished at His matter, "His doctrine," (v. 28).  He had spoken of new things beyond compare.  He had taken up old things; making them live again—He touched nothing He did not adorn.  How infinitely true this is regarding the Great Teacher:  the Lord adorned the despised village of Nazareth, touching it by living there;  He adorned the accursed Cross, by His atonement;  He adorned the then common name of Jesus, by bearing it;  He adorned an ordinary life like Peter's, by redeeming it;  He adorned the Old Law, touching it by interpretation—He opened up its inner meanings, its deeper beauties, in a way that made it glow with new fire and throb with new life. It was not just the message of God they heard from His lips; but God's own voice.

His manner

They also wondered at His manner.  "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."  It was the same wherever He preached in those early days of His ministry as evidenced in Luke 4:32, "And they were astonished at his doctrine: for the word was with power."  Their accustomed teachers were the scribes.  The only authority they carried and wielded was that of tradition and antiquity.  Nothing they said had any practical weight, unless it was supported by quotations from the Rabbis of old.  The point is these scribes had no intrinsic authority of their own.  But, Jesus of Nazareth spoke so differently.  There was an air of complete and final authority in all He said.  He went so far as to say that any life was a success or failure based on obedience to His "sayings."  The Lord taught that our present blessedness and future bliss depends on a personal relationship to Him.  What an amazing claim; yet how completely justified by all human experience.  Yes, "the people were astonished": and the astonishment continues to this day.

Summary

The Lord's Sermon is over.  What remains for those who have heard it?  The story is told of a man who arrived late to a Gospel meeting his preacher friend was holding.  The man was anxious to attend, but had been misdirected to another location.  As he approached the building, he heard singing and saw his friend standing in the foyer.  Not being sure whether it was the hymn before or after the sermon, he asked, "Is the sermon done?"  To which his friend quickly answered, "No, it's got 'to be' done."  Only the power of the indwelling Spirit of God will be sufficient for the task.  But, by His power, let us get up, get out, and do it.