Matthew 7: Practicalities

Introduction

We are now approaching the end of the Sermon the Mount. Up to this point the sermon has consisted of the following:

The Beatitudes, a blueprint of discipleship and becoming “children of God”

The risks and rewards of pursuing such an endeavor

The expectation: perfection. Thus Christ fulfilled the Law to show us what it is we are really pursuing.

The Lord then revealed that the truth behind all righteousness is the heart. If the heart is good, the acts are good. So keep your heart in the right place.

If our heart is in the right place - seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then everything else in life will fall into place. So we don’t need to worry about life.

This brings us to the end of the sermon where the Lord turns to the practicalities of all he has said.

1-5: Careful Judgement

Now that the Lord has established that what truly matters is the heart, or motive, behind our actions, this brings up an important question: how do we know someone’s motive?

We don’t!

The truth is, Christians do things and find themselves in situations all the time that are morally ambiguous but may ‘raise eyebrows’ among their brothers and sisters. And so the Lord Jesus warns us: be careful with your judgement!

The reverse is also true: when a Christian doesn’t do something, their actions should not be rashly judged.

Now this doesn’t mean that we don’t ever judge. If we truly love our brothers and sisters we should always be on the lookout for them making sure they aren’t doing something they shouldn’t or are doing something they should be. But in all cases we need to be graceful and kind.

Jesus uses a comical illustration to get this point across: if we see a speck their eye, how can we remove it while we have a log in ours? Remove the log in our own eye first!

This takes great humility on the part of every believer!

I think Paul elaborates on this concept further with the “weaker and stronger brother” portion of 1 Corinthians.

6-11: Getting what we ask for

I think verse 6 is more closely related to 7-11 and 1-5, even though that doesn’t match the usual subheadings.

The Lord encourages us to be careful when sharing ‘holy’ things, describing them as pearls. This could refer to many things, but I think it is especially refers to the truths of our faith.

Jesus himself was often very careful to wrap up the truths of hte kingdom in parables so that not everyone could understand them. In fact, they had to want to understand.

Jesus says that the same is true for us. There are plenty of things about Christianity that, to the outsider, may be strange or confusing. We should be hesistant to “spill the beans” on everything. Instead we should tell it to them as they are able to handle.

This isn’t lying to them. It’s simply withholding things they aren’t spiritually ready for.

The reason this is important is because it also protects us - notice Jesus says that they might “turn to attack you”. The Gospel is offensive on it’s own - no need to give unbelievers further ammo against us if it isn’t necessary.

I have several non-Christian friends that I plainly do not discuss theology or other faith-related matters with because they simply wouldn’t understand. I will discuss the basics of the faith though. I want to lead them to The Gate - but I don’t want to scare them away by discussing what is beyond the gate first!

This leads to the next question: “What ‘holy pearls’ am I not suppose to talk about? I don’t think I even have them yet!” To which Jesus says: “Ask! Seek! Knock!”

I think ‘Asking’ refers to asking for the strength to follow everything the Lord commands of us.

I think ‘Seeking’ is the genunine pursuit of His truths.

And ‘Knocking’ is when we have discovered what the Lord is trying to tell us we bang on the door until He lets us into that beautiful wisdom and knowledge!

Jesus tells us that anyone who does these things with a genuine and sincere heart will receive all that they ask, seek, and knock for!

How can we be so certain that our Father will give us these things? Jesus gives us an obvious reason: even earthly fathers give their kids good gifts!

Again Jesus uses some funny illustrations for this: if asked for bread, who gives a stone…or even worse if asked for a fish who gives a snake??

Or in modern terms, “Who among you, if your son asked for a donut, would give him a scone?”

Notice that Jesus says, “you who are evil”. Remember, even the ‘best’ people are still sinful and therefore evil. And yet, if we can even give ‘good’ gifts, how much more will our Father in heaven?

Now it’s important to remember that this isn’t necessarily talking about earthly gifts. In fact, in Luke’s version of this sermon, Jesus specifically says he’s talking about the Holy Spirit.

Luke 11:13 “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!””

This makes sense since the context is Jesus telling us how we can obtain those “holy” things that we should be careful about sharing with others. The holiest of which is the Spirit Himself!

12-23: Summing it all up

If you think that everything Jesus has said across three chapters so far has been confusing, or ‘too much’, that’s okay. Jesus sums it all up right now: do to others as you would have them do to you.

That is ultimately what all the Law and the Prophets come down to - treating others well!

This is what the religious leaders were missing. They were so concerned with “keeping the Law” they often did it at the expense of people! We can easily do the same if we aren’t careful.

No matter what situation we find ourselves in with people, if we aren’t sure what to do, we should simply ask this question: what would we want them to do to us?

Now we can’t get this twisted either - this is referring to good things we would want others to do to us.

This, and everything the Lord has commanded to this point, is certainly difficult. He made it clear at the beginning of the sermon that it isn’t for the feignt of heart. Again, Jesus tells us that it is difficult but it is something we should pursue.

He compares it to a narrow gate. Most people aren’t willing to go through this gate - they instead choose to go take the ‘easy’ way of life. This gate is wide and the path easy, but it also leads to destruction!

Many people interpret that is saying that the number of people who get into the kingdom is small. This may or may not be true. But I don’t think it’s necessarily referring to quantity.

I think of it like a highway. Highways are large, fast, and take us to the largest cities. And yet the Kingdom isn’t the ‘large city’. It’s a small town that is ‘off the broken path’ and a place that most people ignore.

Anyone who travels knows this - this ‘scenic route’ isn’t always the easiest road. But for those who are willing to pursue it, the destination is far more fulfilling. And here’s the thing: the road less traveled can still have the same amount of travelers as the highway. I don’t think the Lord limits those who want to find His Kingdom. They only have to be willing to go “offroad” to find it.

This brings us to an important lesson: in our pursuit of the kingdom we need to be wary of the false teachers who will try to lead us away from the True Path. Ironically they might even use their heretical teachings as trying to argue that they teach the ‘narrow way’ and that’s why nobody else teaches the same thing!

How do we know the difference between a good teacher and a false teacher? The Lord says: watch their ‘fruit’ or actions! Remember, this whole sermon has been about purifying the heart so that the actions that come out of a pure heart are righteous.

It never fails that false teachers are ultimately undone by their deeds. Jesus uses the illustration of trees and fruit.

First, trees can’t produce fruit that doesn’t come from them (grapes from thornbushes, figs from thistles).

Second, good trees can’t produce bad fruit and sick trees can’t produce good fruit.

So keep an eye on their actions, or ‘fruit’. If it doesn’t add up, or doesn’t match Christ, then their identity should be obvious.

By the same token, Jesus warns us that not everyone who “says the right things” is genuine either. Just because they call themselves ‘Christians’, or claim to believe in God or Jesus, or even perform incredible miracles, doesn’t mean that they actually know Jesus.

Just as He said that every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit will be cut down, the Lord says he will flatly tell them, “I never knew you.”

I think this should be a word of caution for every believer, too. We can’t ever become complacent in our faith and get to the point where we think we’ll just be able to say ‘Lord, Lord’ and think we’ll get in - not if we haven’t been obeying Him!

24-28: Where will you build?

Jesus wraps up the entire sermon by almost begging us to ask the question, “What do we do with all of this?” His answer: Build on it.

Again, Christ uses an illustration, this time of building a house on solid rock or on sand. It is fitting that He uses this illustration, because the Scriptures call Jesus ‘the rock’.

If we want protection from this life, where better to find shelter than in The Life?

I think this is an excellent defense of Christianity. Jesus himself said to test His words and see that they come from God. It seems to me that it is abundantly clear that His words truly are life changing and it is why they have transformed billions of lives since He spoke them 2000 years ago!

And the reverse is also true - those who do not obey Christ build their homes ‘shifting sands’ and when the troubles of life come their way, their entire life collapses!

Notice why the crowds were astonished: The Lord taught with authority. They were so use to the scribes arguing about the Law, but now someone different was here. Jesus wasn’t just commentating on Scripture. He was speaking it. That was new, and that was powerful. And it demonstrates who the people believed Jesus was. As we see in the very next verse, great crowds followed him!

Conclusion

To live out the Sermon the Mount is to really live out the Christian life. It is about achieving a pure heart, becoming children of God, pursuing the Kingdom, and ultimatley treating others the way we want to be treated. It is putting our faith into action and building lives on ‘the rock’ that is The Lord Jesus Christ.