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Youth Ministry Parenting

Sermon on the Mount Curriculum

Sermon on the Mount

Rooted’s Newest Short Study

In this 8 lesson curriculum you can walk students through the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7. This study has everything you and your volunteers need to teach this sermon, complete with week by week student and leader guides, all for $60.

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Why teach the Sermon on the Mount?

Jesus did a lot of preaching and teaching during His earthly ministry. But perhaps His most famous sermon is the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7. In this sermon, Jesus expounds on the Ten Commandments and explains what it looks like to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. 

These Kingdom principles are exactly what our students need today! In studying the Sermon on the Mount, students will see how Jesus’ words apply to their daily lives. They will learn what Jesus has to say about worry, prayer, money, lust, and more. While this study certainly instructs students in Jesus’ ways of the Kingdom, they will be left with the good news that Jesus has come to offer them a righteousness they could never achieve on their own merits.

Written by Clark Fobes, Edited by Kendal Conner

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Lesson Outline

  • Sermon on the Mount

    Written by Clark Fobes, Edited by Kendal Conner

    INTRODUCTION: CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM (Mt 5:1-16)

    • Lesson 1: A Blessed People (Mt 5:1-10)
    • Lesson 2: A Distinct People (Mt 5:11-16)

    THE GREATER RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE KINGDOM (Mt 5:17-48)

    • Lesson 3: A Greater Holiness (Mt 5:17-32)
    • Lesson 4: A Greater Love (Mt 5:33-48)

    THE PRACTICES OF THE KINGDOM (Mt 6:1-18)

    • Lesson 5: A Hidden Righteousness and Heavenly Rewards (Mt 6:1-18)

    LIFE IN THE KINGDOM (Mt 6:19-7:12)

    • Lesson 6: The Treasures of the Kingdom (Mt 6:19-34)
    • Lesson 7: The Generosity of the Kingdom (Mt 7:1-12)

    THE WARNINGS OF THE KINGDOM (Mt 7:13-29)
    Lesson 8: Two Paths and Two Foundations (Mt 7:13-29)

Contributors

Clark Fobes, Writer

Clark is the Associate Pastor at FirstSF in his hometown of San Francisco, and has served in Youth Ministry in the Asian-American context for over a decade. He received his M.Div. from Talbot Theological School in Southern California, and is a Doctor of Missiology (D.Miss.) candidate at Southern Seminary (SBTS). He is also an emeritus member of Rooted’s Youth Ministry Steering Committee, and a current member of the Asian American Steering Committee. He and his wife, Janet, have two daughters, Kara and Nora.

Kendal Conner, Editor

After spending 10 years working in youth ministry, Kendal currently serves as a Groups Minister at Redeemer Fellowship in Kansas City, MO. Originally from Memphis, Tenn. Kendal received her BA from Union University. After graduation, she served 2 years overseas working with youth in Central Asia. After returning to America, she spent several years working for a parachurch youth ministry before moving to Oklahoma to serve as a Girls Minister in a local church. Kendal loves to travel, and dreams of one day being able to say she has enjoyed coffee in every country.

“My experience with the rooted curriculum has been nothing short of phenomenal. It offers an easy-to-understand Old Testament view into the person and work of Jesus Christ. As a teacher it is easy to follow but offers depth and richness in study that isn’t found in most curriculum.”

Michael P.| Student Minister | Field Street Baptist Church

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For more resources on the Sermon on the Mount, check out these articles and podcasts.

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What will students learn from the Sermon on the Mount? 

Throughout the sermon, the call to citizenship in God’s kingdom and discipleship in Christ is constantly juxtaposed with living according to the kingdom of the world. Jesus frequently presents His listeners with the ultimatum of which kingdom they will choose to live by, giving the “code of conduct” of God’s kingdom coupled with warnings if they choose not to live by them. Jesus’ teachings allow us to confront students with these two kingdoms and to regularly present the greater love, grace, life, and righteousness of Christ’s kingdom over the world. As our students grow up in a world that longs for the “kingdom without the king,” we can show them that that world is possible, but only through relationship with the king—the king who met all of God’s demands, and gave Himself up so that we might become His royal citizens. Similarly, as our students are constantly tempted to chase after the kingdom of the world, with all its promises of pleasure and fulfillment, Jesus brings a kingdom that far surpasses this world’s in the breadth and longevity of its promises for hope, fulfillment, and joy.

However, just as Jesus sought to sift out His disciples from the crowds, we must not shy away from teaching the righteous demands for His kingdom citizens. None of us are made citizens by our efforts, but only by God’s gracious choosing in Christ (even as Jesus chose the Twelve apart from their merit). His choosing also leads us to a way of life that is holy and distinct. Just as Jesus was not shy about confronting the religious superiority of the Jews, we must not be afraid to confront the religious elitism, nominalism, or apathy of our students. None are chosen by their merit; so also none are kept by their religious efforts. Just the same, God did not choose us apathetically, so we are not to remain apathetic to His choosing.

Jesus brings a kingdom that far surpasses this world’s in the breadth and longevity of its promises for hope, fulfillment, and joy.

Clark Fobes

We will weekly have the chance to confront students with the truth of the kingdom of heaven, and to consider the truth of their hearts. Whether they’ve been in the church their whole lives, or are brand new to Christianity, they will learn in a clear-cut manner through Jesus’ teachings what life with Jesus in the kingdom requires. Inasmuch as we are a new covenant people compelled by the love and grace of Christ (2 Cor 5:14), we must remember that we are also a set- apart, distinct people, called to be holy as we live no longer in the darkness, but in the light (1 Pet 2:9-10; Eph 5:7-14).

In a world that calls for total inclusion and acceptance, this is an unpopular message. The cultural message of our students’ world is one of extreme individualism, and thus, extreme acceptance. To call people to conform to standards that clash with their desires is tantamount to death—both for the messenger and the hearer. Even in our evangelical world of “gospel-centered” everything, it can become easy to forget the righteous demands of Christ’s kingdom to which the gospel calls us. The unpopularity of the message of righteousness—both in the world and even in the church —is one that Jesus is precisely calling us to as He calls us out of the world to be a distinct people. This is a call that will often result in persecution from the world, as Jesus warns, but it also encourages us to place our worth in our heavenly status, not our earthly one. As our students face persecution for being different in the world, we can comfort them with Jesus’ teachings in the sermon, that their persecution is often confirmation that they have forsaken the lesser to choose what is greater.