THE PERSON AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT The Superior Righteousness of the Kingdom of Heaven
As mentioned earlier, whenever you study the Sermon on the Mount, it would be easy to be overwhelmed by the absolute nature of the sermon. Very seldom does Jesus temper any of His statements. It is almost as if He tells us that anger and lust automatically send us to hell. In the previous statement we saw Jesus become quite adamant about not judging.
Two elements in the sermon though temper this. First, one of the major characteristics of the Christian is mercy, forgiving one who has wronged you. Moreover, Jesus tells us that we can expect forgiveness from God if we in turn forgive others. By this last statement Jesus is implying that we ARE going to sin; otherwise, why do we need to be forgiven in the first place?
Second, in this very passage itself (Matt. 7:6) we see Jesus tempering some of His previous statements. Previously He told us not to judge. Right after that instruction Jesus says that not only are some things holy (and some not) but also that some people are dogs and pigs! Later in His denunciation of the Pharisees Jesus even calls them and their disciples "sons of hell" (Matt. 23:15). We shall see how all this works out as we discuss verse 6.
RESPECT WHAT IS HOLY (7:6)
A casual reading of 7:1-5 would almost lead us to remove our brains for fear of judging anybody. Whereas Jesus does condemn those who sneer at others and commands us to love others, He also in this verse instructs us to be wise. Not everybody is just a broken vessel. Not everybody has just experienced some bad luck but will change for the good the moment their circumstances change. The truth is that there ARE evil people in the world. It is true that because of sin we are all flawed; however, it is equally true that there are many in the world who are under Satan's influence and are going to remain beneath that influence.
How do we respond to such persons? "Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine." Don't waste your time with them. Yes, you might have to wait and give somebody time to discover what their true nature is, good or bad; however, once you've discerned that these people are "dogs" or "swine," avoid such people. They may just drain you of your time and energy which could be spent on people who are going to respond positively to Jesus; they might though do you irrevocable harm.
I've seen both such types in my ministry. I've worked with people who were just so negative towards another minister or towards the church as a whole. After about one year working with such people, you would think it would be time to move on. I did not. That situation really took a lot of time out of my life which could have been spent productively on other people in that community. Moreover, Jesus' prediction about the wild swine came to be true. By the time these people were through, they had even turned on me as well.
You may say though, "You shouldn't judge." The truth though is that I am not the one who called them "dogs" or "swine." Jesus did. If you have a problem with this concept, you're really having a problem with Jesus Himself.
PRAYER (7:7-11)
Verse 6 serves as a transitional statement from the passage on judgmentalism to the passage on prayer. As we shall see, verse 6 relates not only to judgmentalism, it relates also to prayer.
Ask and it shall be given to you;
Seek and you shall find;
Knock and it shall be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds;
And to him who knocks it shall be opened to you.
The Command to Pray
In this passage we see first that Jesus commands us to pray: "Ask . . . seek . . . knock." These are commands, not suggestions. In fact He basically links the receiving, giving, and opening to those who pray. We will receive ONLY IF WE ASK; we will find ONLY IF WE SEEK; and it shall be opened ONLY IF WE KNOCK! Moreover, the converse is true: if we don't ask, we won't receive; if we don't seek, we won't find; and if we don't knock, it won't be opened to us. Whereas it IS true that many times God is going to do what He does no matter what we do, this verse, however, implies that many times God will NOT do what He would have done otherwise if we had prayed.
Why does God limit some things to prayer? Probably to get us involved in what He's involved in. It is true that God loves our children; however, from a human standpoint and to a real degree from a divine standpoint, they are OUR children. If they are our children and we don't fight for them in prayer, why should God bother? If this is our nation and we don't fight for it in prayer, why should God bother about our nation? God has made us part of certain groups and expects us to grow up and act like adults by taking responsibility for these groups. If we don't, God does NOT guarantee us that He is going to step in and take responsibility.
Perseverance in Prayer
In this passage we see second that Christ commands us to persevere in prayer. The Greek text literally means "Keep on asking . . . keep on seeking . . . keep on knocking."
Why the command to persevere in prayer? For GOD'S sake we need to persevere. Earlier I said that verse 6 serves as a transitional verse from the passage on judgmentalism to the passage on prayer. With reference to this passage we see that pearls and the holy thing apply to the subject of prayer. Think about whom we are praying to. We are praying to someone very precious, someone very holy. Not only is God valuable, He knows that He is valuable. He has a healthy self-respect for Himself. He doesn't take Himself lightly and He refuses to let others take Himself lightly.
God is the perfect Father and wants to be respected as the perfect Father. When my dad was Vice President of Safeway, he became very disenchanted with most of his extended family. The reason is that they NEVER contacted him UNLESS they needed something. He would help them in whatever way he could; however, he was so disappointed that they did not get in touch with him simply because they cared about him.
How would we feel if our children talked to us only when they wanted something? There would come a point I would refuse to give any more to my children UNTIL they actually sat down and had a decent conversation with me. Well, God is a perfect Dad who wants His children to value Him. Moreover, He is not cheap and refuses to be treated that way.
It is also true that we need to treat God as holy and valuable FOR OUR SAKES.
The best things in life don't come easy. They come as a result of labor and hard work. When these good things come as a result of hard work, we appreciate them so much more.
Nathan and his good buddy Tim McClure were recently invited by Baylor University to participate in a debate in January, 2007. Baylor invited them along with 7 other debate teams from all the public high schools in Texas because Baylor felt that these 8 teams were the best high school debating teams in Texas (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, AND 5A). Were they invited simply because they happened to be good? They were invited because they had worked really hard for 3 1/2 years to be really good in the area of debate. Nathan was blown away by the invitation. It meant a lot to him because it validated all the hard work, time and effort he and Tim had put into debate in the last 3 plus years. In the same we are better off when everything spiritually does not come to us easy.
For example, I didn't get married until I was 33. Not that I didn't try! Somebody once said that I was single by choice--every girl I dated chose that I not get married! (That was not even funny then.) Every night for 7 years I prayed the same prayer, that God would give me the kind of wife HE wanted me to have. As a result when God finally did bless me with Nancy, I knew beyond all doubt that she was a blessing from God.
In the same way I prayed for both of my children to be saved from the day Nathan was born and from the day we knew that Nancy was pregnant with Molly. We never pushed our children into making a decision for the Lord. Whenever they would ask when they were going to get saved, we told them it would happen whenever the Lord told them it was time. The wild thing was that they were both saved at the same age. Moreover, they were saved on days that had been so tragic for my family: Molly on the 11th anniversary of my niece's suicide and Nathan on the 7th anniversary of my dad's death. There have been confirming signs that they both were saved when they were 7; however, there has never been a serious doubt in my mind that they were saved. Prayer makes these things more real than they would be otherwise.
Motivation to Pray
In the previous verses Jesus encouraged us to persevere in prayer. What though should motivate us to pray? Isn't it just a crap shoot whether or not our prayers get answered POSITIVELY?
By no means. The truth is that the One we are praying to is none other than our heavenly Father. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has repeatedly informed us that God is nothing less than our Father: "Your Father in heaven" (6:1); "your Father who sees what is done in secret" (6:4); "your Father in secret" (6:6); "Our Father" (6:9); etc. When God listens to our prayers, He listens to them as a father listens to His children. As a result we can have confidence that God will answer our prayers POSITIVELY.
Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone?
Or if he shall ask him for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
will not your heavenly Father also give good gift to those who ask Him?
That is a rhetorical question. The answer is a categorical "Yes, He will give good things to those [His children] who ask Him!" Even those who are NOT the best dads in the world give good gifts to their children. If such men give good things to their children, won't our heavenly Father even more give good gifts to His children?
The problem is that we take lightly the NT teaching that God is our Father. Whereas we think of God as being like our Father, Jesus categorically declares that God IS our Father. He says this because He knows that at the time we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, His Spirit, the Spirit of God's Son, comes to dwell in us. The fact that the Spirit of God's Son dwells in us makes us God's sons and daughters as much as Jesus now is God's Son. Until you really process this fact, you will never understand how deeply God loves us and really wants to bless us, His children. He loves us and wants to bless us as much as He loves and wants to bless His Greatest Son Jesus.
The issue then becomes, "If from these verses God is supposed to answer my prayers postively, then why doesn't He always answer my prayers positively?" First, these are not the only verses Jesus utters on prayer. These verses must be understood in light of other verses which deal with prayer. Second, always keep the entire Sermon on the Mount in mind when interpreting any part of the sermon. The very beginning of the sermon starts, "Blessed . . ." In other words, God is working to produce within us blessing, a life of blessing. If we were honest with ourselves, we would realize that many of our requests are selfish which do NOT lead to a life of blessing, the very kind of life which God Himself enjoys. Rather, if God were to grant us many of our requests, we would remain nothing more than a spoiled 2-year old spiritually. God wants us to grow up. His response to our prayers many times is based upon His desire for us to mature, to grow up, to become the kind of adults who really can enjoy life.
SUMMARY STATEMENT (7:12)
Jesus now concludes the main body of the Sermon on the Mount.
In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you,
For this is the Law and the Prophets.
Right before Jesus begins this section (Matt. 5:21), Jesus claims that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; rather He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. We mentioned that many well-meaning Christians claim that Jesus was referring to the 10 Commandments. This verse though shows us what He meant by fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. All the material from 5:21-7:11 informs us what Jesus means by fulfilling the Law and the Prophets.
It is hard though to keep in mind all the different commands Jesus gives us in 5:21-7:11. Jesus makes it easy though by summing up 5:21-7:11 in this one verse: "Treat people the same way you want them to treat you." In other words, if you want to be the object of people's anger, be angry at them. If you want to be the object of someone's leering gaze, go ahead and look lustfully at others. If you want to be dealt with dishonestly, go ahead and break your word to others. If you want people to retaliate against you every time you mess up, go ahead and retaliate against them. If you like being used by others, go ahead and be a user of other people. If you love being looked down upon, go ahead and sneer at others.
On the other hand, if you want to be the object of kindness, remove anger from your heart and treat others kindly. If you want to treated with respect, respect others. If you want to be dealt with honestly, treat others honestly. If you want to be valued and not used, then value others, and don't use them. The bottom line is this: treat others the same way you want them to treat you. When it is all said and done, this is the key to experiencing the blessed life that Jesus came to give us. It is actually the very life that He Himself lived on earth and continues to live in heaven.