Sermon Tone Analysis

Today is a day set apart to honor mothers.

Originally established in America by Ann Reeves Jarvis in 1868 to honor mothers who had lost sons on both sides of the Civil War, it has now expanded to an opportunity to honor all mothers as well as those who wish to be mothers.

We observe this day in many ways.

According to History.com, “More phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year.

These holiday chats with Mom often cause phone traffic to spike by as much as 37 percent.”

Jarvis’ daughter, Anna Jarvis, revived the day in the years surrounding the First World War.

Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge and visiting one’s mother or attending church services.

But once Mother’s Day became a national holiday, it was not long before florists, card companies and other merchants capitalized on its popularity.

While Jarvis had initially worked with the floral industry to help raise Mother’s Day’s profile, by 1920 she had become disgusted with how the holiday had been commercialized.

She outwardly denounced the transformation and urged people to stop buying Mother’s Day flowers, cards and candies.

Due in part to the changing role of motherhood, today the holiday has morphed from a day to go to church with mom into a day for Mom to take a break from her kids.

I heard on the radio that Kraft is offering $50,000 of paid babysitting.

Well if you can’t get in on the Kraft promotion, perhaps you just need this gift from Hallmark.

What Hallmark thinks is a humorous novelty is actually good advice from the Scriptures.

Many of us have been told by our mothers, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

But how does that coincide with what we’ve been learning in the Sermon on the Mount?

We’ve been told to season our world.

We’ve been told to light our world.

We’ve been told to non-judgmentally remove speck from the eyes of other AFTER removing our own obstacles.

We will read today that we are supposed to intentionally do to others what we would want them to do to us.

But how do we obey these commands when they respond by attacking us or trampling on our values?

Jesus tells us to…

Go, ASK Your Father (vv.7-8)

Matthew 7:7–8 (ESV) — “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Explanation

1.

The word ask forms a convenient acrostic in English for the 3 commands.

a.

In the languages that Jesus spoke and Matthew wrote “ask” (αἰτέω) is not a 3 letter word.

b.

So, what connects these 3 verbs in meaning or intensity?

i.

Some see an increasing urgency

Jesus’ disciples will pray (“ask”) with earnest sincerity (“seek”) and active, diligent pursuit of God’s way (“knock”).[i]

ii.

Some see the “power of 3” as a rhetorical device, similar to acrostic as appears in English, or alliteration (as I use today) or rhyme (which is common in Southern Gospel preaching).

The three verbs function as synonyms, as do the three responses;…the saying simply uses the “rule of three” as a memorable means of communication[ii]

iii.

I see synonyms based upon location.

Richard Glover suggests that a child, if his mother is near and visible, asks; if she is neither, he seeks; while if she is inaccessible in her room, he knocks.[iii]

2. Jesus is not promoting a random “golden ticket” or “Genie’s lamp” idea of prayer that some today label “the prosperity gospel”.

The content of the earlier parts of this sermon indicate that He is talking about the daily needs of clothing and food from the last paragraph of chapter 6. He’s talking about the ability to be non-judgmental with others in vv.1-5.

He’s talking about the ability to respond appropriately when we experience the harshness of v.6.

He’s setting up for when we read v.12 and we say, “I can’t do that!”

3. Every commentary I read highlights the verbs as being a repeated action: i.e. keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

Prayer is not a “one and done” but requires persistence.

a.

Not because God is hesitant to give, but because when we want something bad enough to be persistent, we are more grateful when it happens.

b.

The repeated persistence is complimented by the repeated certainty of “it will be given”, “you will find” and “it will be opened”

Illustration

Several years ago two speakers came to a Christian University to give a series of messages in chapel during a missions conference.

The speakers were trying to help the students understand how to find God’s will for their lives.

The first message had as its theme passage Psalm 46:10: “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth” (nasb).

The speaker entitled the message, “Let Go, and Let God.”

The second message had as its theme passage Matthew 7:7: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

This speaker entitled the message, “Knocking Down Doors.”

The first message advocated letting go of the problem and turning it over to God.

The focus was on letting God take control of their lives and then finding peace about what they wanted to do in their lives.

The second message advocated personal responsibility.

The focus was on exercising faith as a means to discovering God’s will for their lives.

The students were encouraged to go enlist godly advice, to explore possibilities, and to attempt various alternatives.

Many students were visibly confused by those seemingly contradictory messages.

The speakers seemed to be telling them opposite things.

Instead of living with one or the other, both principles can have crucial significance in the attempt to discover God’s will for us as individuals.

Balance.

Some mentors advise to seek “balance”.

I prefer to suggest that we live in the tension of the paradox.

The important point is that the opposing alternatives are not necessarily contradictory, but from the perspective of the observer they appear to be contradictory.

Application

· Ask your Father AND Do what He says.

1. Think sensibly!

Don’t be carried away by emotional reactions to either extreme.

2. Be honestly open to both truths, regardless of past experience or background.

3. Hold those seemingly opposing truths at the same time.

If they are both biblical, they will both have value and ultimately will reveal themselves as complementary, not contradictory.

4. Apply both sides of the issue to life at the same time.

Since Scripture is a guide to life, both principles may be more easily lived out than fully comprehended.[iv]

Transition: The reason that repeated requests are met with repeated certainty is because…

Giving Expresses God’s Goodness (vv.9-11)

Matthew 7:9–11 (ESV) — Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Explanation

1. Aseity - One of the attributes that makes God God is that He exists in perfection totally apart from any created thing.

2. If God was totally perfect before earth was created, why did He do it?

Because giving generously is part of His nature.

3.

He didn’t create because He was lacking in fellowship.

He didn’t create because He was lacking in praise.

He didn’t create because He needed anything from us.

4.

He created because creating a good earth and placing humanity in the center of that good garden are expressions of God’ generous giving.

5.

This is why the Westminster Catechism says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

By “glorify”, this is not something that we do as much as it is something that we experience – we bask in the glory of who He is.

God gives, we enjoy.

6.

It is important to see that “evil” in v.11 is talking about our selfish nature.

That same selfish nature that wants time away from the children that we love so much.

Illustration

1.

The use of bread and fish was a daily staple of the diet of Jesus’ listeners.

2. The link between bread and stones is that a crusty roll may look like a stone, not that women baked bread that was hard as stones.