Matthew 6:25-7:12: The Heavenly Father

Introduction: We have entered the home stretch of this miniseries on the Sermon on the Mount and to be honest, as someone who can struggle with pride, I have had my own expectations torn apart and rebuilt by these chapters throughout my life. I pray they have restructured your understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus as well.

In the first two weeks we looked at what the people who will enter the Kingdom of God are. They are the opposites of what we expect based on our earthly kingdoms: the meek and humble, the righteous and just, the persecuted and hated. Last week and this week we are now focusing on what those people are to do. A week ago, we studied the first part of chapter 6 and saw the two options we have in our spiritual actions. We can do spiritual things to build ourselves up in our societal standing, in which case our only reward is what we get in this life, or we can do spiritual things in private and humbly, in which case we will see our reward in the Kingdom of God.

This week Jesus turns our attention from our spiritual life to our physical and social life. Let’s read Matthew 6:25-7:12 together and learn what beauty the Scriptures hold for us today.

Read

Pray

I. Trust in God (25-34)

A. The Place of Possessions in the lives of the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven(25)

1. Do not be anxious about food(26-27)

a. Look to the birds…

i. They are fed even though they do not work the ground or gather food and yet are fed by the Heavenly Father

ii. You are even more valuable to God

b. You can’t add any time to your life by spending time worrying

2. Do not be anxious about your clothing

a. Look to the lilies… (28-30)

i. They don’t work or create clothes and yet are clothed better than the richest king

ii. If God clothes them so well, even though they live, die, and are burned in a day, will he not do more for you?

B. Anxiety shows a lack of faith (30-32)

1. Don’t be anxious about what to Eat, Drink, Wear (31)

2. The Gentiles (nonbelievers) chase these things (32)

3. The Father knows His children’s needs (32)

C. Seek the kingdom of God over earthly comforts and God will take care of your needs. (33)

D. Stop worrying about the future, because there is enough trouble for today (34)

II. Social Relationships (7:1-12)

A. Don’t put yourself in God’s position as the ultimate judge (1-5)

Don’t judge lightly (1-2)

Matthew (Explanation of the Text)

in this context it does not mean a court trial or admonition. It cannot refer to discerning or evaluating right and wrong. All such are valid for believers (e.g., 1 Cor 5:5; Phil 3:2; Gal 6:1; Heb 3:13; 1 John 4:1). So what does this judgmental attitude connote? It means looking down on a person with a superior attitude, criticizing or condemning them without a loving concern

The key component is the absence of love. Admonition has a humility that says, “I love you enough to want to help you, and tomorrow you will need to correct me.”

There is no sense of superiority, no desire to make yourself look good at the expense of another... this prohibition is the flip side of the fifth beatitude (5:5, “God blesses those who are merciful”) as well as of the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer (6:12, “forgive us our sins”) and recapitulates the commands in ch. 5 against anger, revenge, and hate.

You will be judged by God in the same way that you judge others (2)

Don’t be a hypocrite (3-5)

If you see an issue with someone else, ensure you take care of your own issues first

Judge with righteousness so that you can help others

B. Use discernment when you offer holy things to people (6)

i. Holy to the dogs, pearls before swine

The pigs (which were wild) will trample them underfoot and the dogs (which were scavengers) will tear you apart

What are some holy things we might give?

The Gospel

Baptism

The Lord’s Supper

C. (Jump to verse 12) The Golden Rule: How God’s people treat one another

i. Do to others what you would like for them to do to you

1. This is the Law and Prophets

D. Prayer (7-11)

i. Ask, Seek, Knock

1. To receive, you must ask

2. To find, you must seek

3. To have the door opened you must knock

ii. The Heavenly Father cares for you

No evil father (by Jesus’ standards) would ever give evil gifts to his children who requested food

How much more will the good Father in Heaven give good gifts?

Closing: There is a story about Alexander the Great and one of his generals. I can’t guarantee the truth of the story; I am no Alexadrian scholar and I first heard it from another pastor and in some quick research I couldn’t find the record other than a book by J. D. Grear.

Alexander had a general who had served him faithfully for many years

This general had a daughter who was getting married

He requested that Alexander pay for his daughter’s wedding to reward the general’s faithfulness

Alexander granted the request and sent the general to the treasurer

Not long after, the treasurer came to Alexander with a problem: he was concerned the general was taking advantage of Alexander

The general had requested so much that it would fund the grandest wedding Greece had ever seen!

After pondering it for just a moment, Alexander gave a dismissive wave of his hand and told the treasurer to grant the request in full

He said that the general has paid two compliments to his leader.

First, he thought that Alexander was wealthy enough to be able to easily fund this expense

Second, the general clearly thought that Alexander was generous enough to grant this expense

In assuming those two things the general greatly honored his Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters, Don’t be afraid to assume the wealth and generosity of your Heavenly Father by never asking, seeking, or knocking. He has already given so much in His Son and yet He invites you to ask for anything you need. How sweet it is to know that we have a good Father in Heaven because of Christ’s imputed righteousness. The Lord delights in giving good gifts to His children and cares for them deeply. If you have put your faith in Christ alone and that is made clear in your changing desires and actions, you can rest easy knowing that your Father will take care of you. This is not to say, like the pagan prosperity preachers say, that if you do all the right things then God will bless you with financial prosperity to buy anything you want to buy. That flies in the face of last week’s teaching that we cannot serve God and money. But it is to say that everything we need is provided by the Father. The righteousness, outlined in the second half of Matthew 5, that we so dearly need is provided by God Himself, through the death of His son Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus alone for your salvation and the Lord will handle the rest.