We’re doing a Bible study on Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount and the way it reads in the book I’m using, it SOUNDS like he was only talking to his disciples, so I’m not at all sure, but I think it’s one of those things that we just don’t know for sure. Mxxx
The Sermon on the Mount extends from Matthew 5 and 6 and ends at the conclusion of Matthew 7 and the beginning of Matthew 8. Jesus' sermon is bracketed by the following narrative...
"And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying..." -- Matthew 5:1-2
INSERT SERMON ON THE MOUNT HERE
"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." -- Matthew 7:28-29"And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan..." -- Matthew 4:25
Who were "astonished?"
"The people" -- the crowds who came to hear Him and learn from Him.
And we further learn in Matthew 8 that...
"When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him." -- Matthew 8:1
So we know that He was followed by the multitudes as He came down the mountain. Why? Because the disciples and the multitude were with Him since they had followed Him up the mountain to hear Him as He preached.
Did Christ go to the mountain top to separate Himself from the multitudes of eager listers or did He go there in order to be better heard by those multitudes who followed Him up and down the mountain?
Certainly the Scriptures in their totality tell us Christ was speaking to the assembled multitudes, and not to a select few.
However, this error does jive with the RCC's opinion that Christ spoke only to the apostles, and thus the apostolic magisterium is the rightful conduit between God and man.
Which it is not.