Episodios
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Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened Matthew 7:7-8
Intro: Before we explore what God has for us in these verses,
We need to address a misconception about what Jesus is promising
- reading these verses closely, something piqued my curiosity
• in verse 7 Jesus encourages us to ask, seek, and knock
• then verse 8 is a virtual repetition of verse 7, only it’s more like a guarantee
◦ is is as though Jesus is saying, “Do this! You’ll see that it works”
- then–as if that were not enough–Jesus adds an illustration
• we'll come to that in a moment, but the point is we can count on God’s favorable response
• why does Jesus make this effort to convince us to go to the Father to ask, seek, and knock? -
Judge not, that yo be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measured you use it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:1-2
Intro: Until recently, whenever I came to this chapter I felt lost
I was able to follow the continuity of Jesus’ Sermon this far,
- but I was not able to see how chapter 7 fit with what came before it
• I assumed that our Lord chose to add these random lessons as an afterthought
◦ but I made a mistake, and that was thinking I had come to a new chapter
◦ and the new chapter appeared different from the previous chapters
• but the truth is that the chapter breaks in the Bible are artificial
◦ they weren’t inserted in the Scriptures until 16th century
◦ this created the illusion of one thought ending and a new thought beginning
- the thread of the Sermon’s central themes continue through chapter 7 to the end
• previously, Jesus had been teaching his disciples with their spiritual development in view:
◦ this included:
The revelation of a true righteousness
Offering service to God without seeking recognition from others
How to eliminate anxiety by seeking first the kingdom of God -
¿Faltan episodios?
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Did you know, many Christians avoid the Sermon On the Mount?
The problem is that they misread the Sermon
- they think Jesus demands a perfection that is beyond us
• what actually happens in the Sermon is that it empowers us
◦ we learn the way of sincerity, integrity, and mercy
• whatever else it might mean to be Christian,
◦ above all, it means to be a “good person”
◦ loving, caring, helping, serving
- I feel that what we go over today can’t be “just another talk”
• we need to know how to get Jesus’ teaching into our hearts, and minds, and our everyday lives
• this verse, that I skimmed over last week,
◦ teaches us where we need to go from here -
Jesus is explaining and extending what he had said in verse 21
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”In scripture, the heart can have several meanings
- here, it isn’t the physical organ that pumps blood through our bodies
• nor is it exclusively the seat of our feelings or emotions
• here the heart is the central hub of our entire inner life
◦ our perspectives, perceptions, and assumptions
◦ our thoughts, feelings, and emotions
◦ our needs, desires, and drives
◦ our motives, intentions, and habits
◦ our actions and reactions, beliefs, and commitments
- the heart stands for your complete interior “person”
• what Jesus wants is for our hearts to belong to God
◦ and that’s where we left off
◦ his last point is that we cannot serve both a heavenly Father and a materialistic god -
We’re still in the Sermon On the Mount,
But I’m going to begin by reading a of couple verses from Psalm 139
- this is one of the very popular Psalms
• its beautiful and haunting poetry are easy for us to follow
◦ and at the same time, carries us from heights of the heavens
◦ and depths of the ocean, to the abyss of our own souls
• it begins:
“ O LORD, you have searched me and known me!”
◦ but then it ends:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps. 139:1 and 23-24)
- although David begins confessing God has searched him and known him,
• he ends the poem with a request that God will search him
◦ I think that’s because he realizes God knows his heart,
◦ and he does not know it as well as God
• the truth is, we can fool our own hearts about how righteous we are -
This week I met with Harry Robinson – a few of you may know him
He is a man of God and a visionary, and for awhile we worked together
- he is also someone I love and respect
• during our long, rambling conversation, Harry said something that woke me up
• he said, “I’ve been finding beauty lately–everywhere”
- it seems I need to be awakened to beauty
• friends do this for me – though they don’t always know it
◦ maybe, I’ve been trudging through too much muck, concerned with
◦ the condition of our nation and disappointed with obnoxious Christians
• but since our meeting on Tuesday, I’ve been seeing more beautyI’ll tell you why we begin with beauty today
Because Jesus has been warning us away from behavior
- we could describe as “ugly religion,”
• and it has been spreading through our culture in recent years
◦ it’s always been here: people who enjoy heated arguments
◦ who assume it’s their job to pronounce judgments,
◦ who will always act like they’re more righteous than others
• it’s possible you’ve seen your share of ugly religion -
Jesus has given the world this incredible prayer
Recited every day and prayed in almost every language,
- it contains the essence of what everyone needs to say to God and ask of him
• and yet, when Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples,
◦ it was in a side comment he felt needed to be included
• up to this point, Jesus theme beginning in verse 1 was, "Don’t advertise your spiritual devotion and service to God"
◦ he follows this statement with three examples: charity, prayer, and fasting
• there are four parts to each example:
First, “Don’t be like the hypocrites, to be seen by others”
Second, “The hypocrites are rewarded when others notice them”
Third, “Serve God in secret, keep it between you and the Father”
Fourth, “Your reward will come from the Father”
◦ this was how he began this second example, "Don't pray like the hypocrites"
◦ but then the Lord swerved onto a side-track
Don’t pray like the Gentiles
• and he was still off-topic when he taught them the "Lord's Prayer" (AKA: the “Our Father”)
◦ the impression I get reading this is that Jesus felt this point required elaboration
◦ in a sermon that defines our spiritual life, prayer is key! -
The next point of Jesus’ sermon has to do with prayer
I don’t think you need me to teach you anything about prayer
- one year in Russia, an orphan tried to teach me the alphabet
• but she gave up on me – there was just one letter, I could not pronounce well enough to please her
◦ I couldn’t even hear the sound she was making when she said the letter
• prayer isn’t like that– prayer is the native language of every child of our heavenly Father
◦ we may feel we're not doing it right,
◦ but God hears what we feel and need even if we can’t put those things into words
- there’s no Christian life or experience without prayer
• if you want lessons on prayer, read the Psalms
◦ there you’ll find every prayer imaginable, and nothing is out of bounds
• otherwise, there is also Paul's explanation of how God’s Spirit helps us and prays within us
◦ and in those instances, words are optional -
Peter and Andrew were knee-deep in Lake Galilee. A school of fish swam near shore, so they threw a net into water, dragging out whatever it collected. Jesus, walking the shore that morning, stopped and called to them. When they turned and looked at him, he said, “Follow me.” It was as if they were waiting for that moment, because they dropped everything to go with him. As Matthew tells the story, it was not long after they got the call that they were sitting on a nearby mountainside, listening to Jesus teaching lessons on True Righteousness and how to walk that spiritual path. They heard, first the Beatitudes, then the impossible requirement (5:20), after that Jesus ran through several examples of what the True Righteous looks like.
Now Jesus takes them to a new gate, where written on a sign hanging from it was the word “Beware.” -
Today we reach the end of this second part of the Sermon
But not until Jesus takes us all the way to end of the trail we’re on
- we've been following a theme that began with Jesus saying,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. . . . For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:17-20)
• we’ve seen the heart of the Law and Prophets is relational
• Jesus will confirm this later on in Matthew's gospel when he is tested by a lawyer
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets" (Mt. 22:35-40)
◦ notice he makes reference to "the Law and the Prophets" again,
and he says that love for God and others is the summation of those Scriptures -
There’s a fateful story in the Bible that begins like this:
It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (2 Sam. 11:2-4)
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You know the directory in the mall, with the little star that reads, “You are here”?
Well, let's figure out where we are in Jesus' Sermon
- we’ve been through the Beatitudes
• we've made the transition from Jesus’ closing remarks to his declaration that he had not come
"to abolish the Law or the Prophets,"
• but to empower them so they do in our lives what they’re meant to do;
◦ and that is to turn human hearts toward God -
Approaching 2025, I found myself struggling with hope for the new year
- I think of myself as an optimist
• for instance, Divorce equals two Christmases and two birthdays
- but today's world looks grim
• vicious election cycle, out of control inflation, wars, many tragedies, etc.
• I have been searching for hope -
We need to know where we are in Jesus’ Sermon
Verses 17-20 are the heart of the Sermon (perhaps the heart of the entire Bible)
- these verses hold the key to interpreting the rest of Sermon
• unfortunately, many Christians read this passage, but don’t understand it
- speculations have resulted in some big errors:
• one, is that Jesus and St. Paul were not on the same page
◦ i.e., Jesus taught we’re made righteous by the Law
◦ Paul insisted we’re righteous by faith, and not works of the Law
• another error: the Sermon was meant for a Jewish audience not for Christian disciples
◦ because of this kind of misreading and faulty interpretation, it’s really important that we get this right -
Back in the days, when I was the pastor of a sizeable church,
We would celebrate Christmas with big productions. One year, when the stage was crowded with props and children, the music still ringing in our ears, I went to the microphone with my Bible in hand. As I began to speak, a girl six or seven years old, who had been sitting on a step right in front of me, stood up. She turned around, and with hands on her hips looked up at me and said, “Boring!”
- Christmas is a challenge – we run through the same story every year
• but here's a twist:
◦ we’ve heard (plenty of times ) that Jesus is God’s Christmas gift to world
◦ but coming to Christmas through the Sermon, we hear something new
• Jesus announces that he is not God’s only Christmas gift
◦ we are also God’s gift to the world–we’re not the big one;
◦ we're more like stocking stuffers – but still, we’re salt and light -
These last two Beatitudes on Jesus’ list are not easy to digest
Jesus envisions a grim future for us – and if so,
- we’re expected not only to survive it, but to rejoice and be glad
• John Chapman was the Abbot of a monastery in Britain
• he was also a spiritual director to others, especially through letter writing
◦ one man who wrote to him, wanted his insight as to
◦ how he could extricate himself from a painful situation
Chapman, “I cannot possibly show you a way out . . . . [what you have is] the simple experience that suffering is really suffering and that the chief feeling it causes is rebellion against it, and even against Providence for allowing it. ¶ It is all a nasty medicine, but works wonders.”
- we agree it’s a nasty medicine, but doubt it works wonders
• we’re more of the opinion expressed by Helmut Thielicke,
Thielicke, “What a ghastly prospect! It makes one ask in all seriousness how Jesus could ever have gained disciples with an appeal like that.”
• so I think what we need to do first, is back away from these verses
◦ and get an aerial view of the entire Sermon -
The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God
became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.
C. S. Lewis, ". . . In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the
heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity . . . down to the very
roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created." (C S Lewis)Incarnation literally means “embodied in flesh…or taking on flesh”
The union of the Divine Nature with human nature…as the Son of God assumed our
flesh, body and soul. -
Jesus is sitting on a mountain overlooking Sea of Galilee
He is teaching a course on “Christian Spirituality”
- we are now five weeks into his introduction: The Beatitudes
• prior to teaching this course, Jesus had been announcing, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand"
◦ the course he teaches is meant to prepare us for that kingdom
◦ the Beatitudes reveal characteristics of the abundant life--the truly "good life"
• Jesus is not giving us a new list of rules
◦ he isn’t telling us what we should be doing, but describing what his followers are becoming
• all through this course, Jesus is working from the inside-out
◦ this is obvious in the next Beatitude we’re going to probe“Blessed are the pure in heart”
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When I began preparing today’s talk, there was a sudden moment when I felt very small
The spiritual wisdom of Jesus rivals every other enlightened text
- even gurus, like Gandhi, who rejected Christianity have admired the Sermon
• reading the words of Jesus, and trying to explain them to you,
◦ leaves me feeling inadequate and foolish
◦ like a four-year old who is told, “Explain quantum physics
- what I know about these two Beatitudes, I learned on the job,
• not from other Bible teachers or commentaries,
◦ but in my own ministry of applying the words of God to the lived experience of people on this journey
• what we’ll go over today may be challenging, but it will be practical and liveable,
◦ and what I believe Jesus wants us to learn - Mostrar más
