The seventh chapter of Matthew is the culmination of the famous Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is a sprawling passage of nothing but the words of Jesus, three full chapters of some of His’ most famous teachings. They are theologically rich, beautifully structured, and culturally stunning in their opposition to the religious teachers of Israel at the time. At the core of Jesus’ teachings was the idea that religious tradition and superficial, outward displays of piety were meaningless, and undermined the original Law God had provided for His people. Instead, the more important focus had to be on the heart behind the actions.
Jesus closes this message with two important directives for His followers. As we have explored Kingdom living in our most recent sermon series, let us take a brief look at these two sets of instructions:
Ask, Seek, Knock (Matthew 7:7-12)
Jesus here challenges the listener not to be a passive observer of what God is doing on earth, but to be active participants in His work. The verbs here indicate an ongoing action, a continued effort of repeated petitioning of God to act and provide. He also encourages us to trust that He alone truly knows how to grant the most wonderful gifts to His children, beyond what we could possibly imagine for ourselves. Beyond simply the courage to ask God to meet our needs, however, a primary obstacle to this command is to allow our hearts to be fashioned after God’s own, so that our requests and petitions become less about self-indulgence and superficial material possessions and more about the well-being of our fellow man. Rather than viewing this passage as an invitation to some sort of heavenly Walmart, we should read it as a paradigm shift, in which our needs become secondary to the will of the Father, and our prayers and petitions grow to mirror His own desires for His children.
2. Building on Solid Ground (Matthew 7:24-27)
After warning his listeners about the broad path to destruction and the imminent danger of false teachers, Jesus closes his sermon with an appeal to wisdom. Being both fully God and fully man, Jesus was more aware than anyone ever of the tendency of humankind to hear a message and promptly dismiss it, or to pick only the parts that we want to hear and apply to our lives. The analogy He provides is of two men who build their homes on very different foundations: the wise man (the one who heeds Jesus’ message) builds his house on rock, while the foolish man (who hears but fails to respond or change after encountering Jesus) has built his house on sand. Jesus then completes the analogy by describing a great storm, a time of chaos and destruction, and the very different outcomes for the two builders. Our application for Kingdom living in this passage is perfectly clear: to not only engage with God’s word as consumers, but to put it into practice and make it a very literal “foundation” for our life decisions.
These verses reveal the heart of Jesus, and the invitation He offers to each of us: to partner with Him in helping to advance his Father’s Kingdom here on earth. May we as individuals and as a church family make this a priority in 2020. And may we encourage others at every opportunity and recognize that this is not something we have to do on our own.
