Reflect God in Righteousness

I think that most of you know I am an only child. And for those who didn’t know it, based on what my wife is always telling me, you had probably guessed it anyway.

Let’s just say that I might have been a little bit spoiled as a kid. Of course, if she were here now, Annette would chime in and say that things haven’t really changed in that regard, but since she’s not we’ll just move on as if it’s not so.

But for the sake of argument, let’s just say that as a child, I occasionally demonstrated a spoiled quality that was somewhat stereotypical of only children.

And there is no time like the season leading up to Christmas when a spoiled child is more spoiled. And there was no greater resource for the spoiled child of my time than the Sears Christmas Wish Book.

Do you remember that?

Now, some of you have no idea what I’m talking about, so let me explain.

Sears was a department store that carried everything from clothing to car tires, from refrigerators to rifles, from stereos to stepladders.

And the best Sears stores also had great toy departments. But even the best in-person Sears toy departments could not hold a candle to the selection of toys available from the Sears Christmas Wish Book.

This was a catalogue almost the size of a phone book (something else that some of you have never seen) that showed all of the many things you could buy — or order — from Sears.

The Christmas Wish Book was THE place to go to find whatever you might be hoping to get for Christmas, and the toy section of that catalogue was legendary.

I can remember when I was little looking forward to the arrival of our Sears Christmas Wish Book with nearly as much anticipation as I had for Christmas itself.

And I have a distinct memory of sitting in my room with that fat catalogue, turning its glossy color pages and coveting all manner of toys that I’d never heard about before.

As I would encounter one that I simply could not do without, I would take my ballpoint pen and circle it and then dog-ear the page so that when I gave the Wish Book back to my parents, they would know exactly what they should be getting me for Christmas.

Possibly spoiled. Jury’s still out.

And here’s why I say POSSIBLY spoiled: I don’t actually recall ever receiving any of the things I had circled in those catalogues. Didn’t get the four-foot-long aircraft carrier. Didn’t get the BB gun. Didn’t get the room-sized Hot Wheels setup.

I DO recall getting scolded one year about the whole attitude I was taking about my Christmas gifts. Whatever. I just thought I was helping.

Anyway, here’s the thing: You guys know my mother, and you know how generous she is, and so I can assure you there was never a Christmas — even when we had very little money — when I went without toys under the Christmas tree, and the thing is that they were always better than the ones I’d marked in the Sears Christmas Wish Book.

My parents knew how to give me good gifts. The problem was that I didn’t always ask for good gifts.

Today, as we begin the first of four sermons on the concluding sections of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapter 7, we’re going to talk about the Father who always gives good gifts and never gives us things we shouldn’t have.

We’ll see that He uses our prayers to teach us the things that we should be asking for.

And we’ll see that the righteous way that He treats us is a picture of the righteous way that we should treat others.

If you haven’t done so already, please turn to Matthew 7:7, and let’s read this next passage of the Sermon on the Mount together.

Matthew 7:7–11 NASB95

“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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Now, because verse 7 follows verse 6, and since there’s no evidence that Jesus has changed his train of thought between the passage we studied two weeks ago and today’s passage, we should expect that what He says in these verses relates in some way to what He said in the first part of this chapter.

You’ll recall that in the earlier passage, which dealt with the difficult matter of discernment, we said that it is appropriate for a follower of Christ to judge the sin in his or her own life before thinking about judging sins in the life of another believer.

And we said that, in the case in which we have dealt with our own sin and now want to help a brother or sister deal with their sins, it is important to be discerning about the state of their heart and to recognize when giving them good, Christian advice is giving what is holy to dogs or casting pearls before swine.

This kind of discernment is hard to come by in human terms, and I think part of what Jesus is saying in today’s passage is that we should seek God’s wisdom in these matters, asking Him in prayer help us be discerning, seeking answers from Him about how to help them and knocking on the door — in other words, earnestly pursuing His guidance, the good gift of His wisdom.

But we’ll see in verse 12 in a few minutes the word “therefore,” and this is an indication that Jesus is concluding an argument.

A reasonable case could be made that verse 12 serves as the conclusion to this passage that began in verse 7. Or it could conclude the passage that began at the beginning of chapter 7.

Or — and I think this is the best answer — it could be the culmination of a concluding thesis statement for the entire Sermon on the Mount.

And that concluding thesis statement encompasses everything from verse 7 to verse 12. What follows these verses in the passages we will study during the next three weeks are three metaphors that represent applications to be applied in light of this conclusion.

Now, in order for us to understand the point that Jesus is making in this paragraph of conclusion, we first have to make sure we understand what He means when He says, “Ask and IT will be given to you.”

Clearly, this is a reference to prayer, as Jesus says in verse 11, “How much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

Does this mean that God will give you anything that you ask of Him in prayer? Is that what Jesus meant when He told the disciples in the Gospel of John, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do”?

That’s pretty much the message of the name-it-and-claim-it theology. That’s pretty much the message of those who preach a false prosperity gospel that says God just wants you to be healthy, happy and wealthy.

But the only way to come to that conclusion is to take both these verses and the verses in the Book of John out of their context.

To understand what I’m saying, turn to John 14:11, and let’s look at the context of what Jesus said there.

John 14:11–15 NASB95

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

In the context of the Gospel of John, when He describes the works He has done, Jesus is talking about telling the things that draw people to the Father.

In this particular passage, one of the disciples had just asked Jesus to show them the Father. His response was that they had seen the Father, because they had seen the Father’s character perfectly reflected in Him.

But if they would not believe because of that, then they should believe because of what He had SAID about God and because of the things that He had DONE to reflect the Father’s character.

And then in verse 16, He promises that He will send another Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would enable them to believe and who would guide them in keeping His commandments — to love God, to love their neighbors, and to make disciples throughout the world.

So this statement, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do,” has a context that cannot be ignored.

It doesn’t mean that we can pray for a nice new boat in Jesus’ name and we’ll get it.

What it means is that we who follow Jesus can always expect that as we pray to the Father through the Son for the things we need to glorify God through our witness for Christ, God will provide them.

So, back in today’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount, we must again ask: What’s the context? What does Jesus mean when He says, “IT will be given to you”?

What is it that Jesus has been talking about throughout this sermon, from the Beatitudes on?

Do you remember that I told you His statement in Matthew 5:20 gave us the theme of this Sermon?

Matthew 5:20 NASB95

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Remember that the scribes and Pharisees were meticulous about doing religious things in order to look righteous to the world. But Jesus said that nobody would enter the kingdom of heaven unless their righteousness surpassed that of the religious leaders in and around Jerusalem.

Do you remember the beatitude?

Matthew 5:6 NASB95

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

In other words, blessed are the ones who have an unquenchable desire for things to be right in the world, beginning with themselves.

And they will be satisfied — they will have their hunger fulfilled and their thirst quenched — by the righteousness of God.

Remember this? “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

So, I think we can conclude that the “it” in verse 7 is the righteousness of God. Ask for the righteousness of God, which is found in Jesus Christ, and it will be given to you.

Remember the beatitude? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In other words, blessed are those who recognize that they are spiritually bankrupt, that they have no righteousness of their own that would earn them a place in the kingdom of heaven, that the only way they can become citizens of the kingdom of heaven is by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, whose righteousness they receive as believers.

And note the progression in verse 7. Ask. Seek. Knock.

This is a picture of someone fervently in search of something. This isn’t a picture of someone who simply recited a prayer during a revival and then went on about life as they’d lived it before, trusting that some magical words had saved their souls.

This is a picture of someone desperate to get something. It’s a picture of someone dying of hunger and thirst praying and then searching and then pounding on a door hoping for mercy from the person inside.

And here’s the promise: Those people — the poor in spirit, the ones who mourn over their sins, the ones who hunger and thirst for things to be right between them and God, the ones who are willing to submit to Him and to His will — they will receive salvation. They will find a Savior, and He will open the door to His kingdom to them.

Jeremiah 29:13 NASB95

‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

That’s what God said through the prophet Jeremiah. That’s what He said through Jesus in this Sermon on the Mount. And that’s what He says today, too.

Search for him with all your heart, and you will find Him, because He wants to be found, and He wants to bring you in and give you a ring and a robe and a feast, just as the father did in the parable of the prodigal son.

He promises good things for those who come in. He doesn’t promise health or wealth, because the truth is that those might not be good things for you, and they might not be the things that bring Him glory.

A good father gives his children good things. Even earthly fathers, who are cursed by sin and self-regard, don’t normally give their children things that might hurt them. They don’t give a stone to a child who needs bread or a snake to a child who needs a fish.

But sometimes, the things that we want — sometimes even the things we think we desperately need — are not the things that we really do need.

I thank God that He has not always given me everything I thought I needed or wanted. If He had done so, I’d never have met my wife. If He had done so, I’d be living on a houseboat that probably by now would be half underwater.

If He had done so, I’d be a newspaper publisher and not a pastor, and I would have missed the great joy of shepherding a flock that belongs to Jesus.

God doesn’t promise to give us all the desires of our deceitful and desperately sick hearts of stone. Rather, he promises to give you a heart of flesh.

He promises to give you a right and righteous relationship with Him as adopted sons and daughters if you will place your faith in Jesus. He’ll give you the Bread of Life, and that is the very best gift of all.

He will give you the righteousness of Christ, because it is only by the righteousness of Christ that you can be saved from the just penalty for your sins.

It is only by the righteousness of Christ, who gave His life at the cross, taking upon Himself your sins and the penalty for them, that you can have eternal life in His kingdom — life in eternal fellowship with Jesus and with His Father the way it was always meant to be.

He gives the good gift of Jesus’ righteousness to those who seek it with all their hearts, because He is a good Father and because He is a righteous God.

And we who have followed Jesus in faith — we who have been adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters — are called to reflect our good and righteous Father in righteousness.

That’s how verse 12 connects to and wraps up this concluding thesis statement.

Matthew 7:12 NASB95

“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Treat people the same way you want them to treat you. The Golden Rule. Everybody knows it, and a version of it was commonly known in the Jewish religion, even before Jesus spoke these words.

But the version that the scribes and Pharisees taught was this: “What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else.”

Do you see the difference? The scribes and Pharisees taught the principle from a negative perspective. Just don’t do things to hurt other people, because you wouldn’t want them to do things to hurt you.

That’s a nice start, but it’s not righteousness. That’s self-righteousness. True righteousness is this: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

If we are to reflect God’s righteousness in the world around us, then the place to start is to approach every situation we encounter, every person we meet with this question: How would I want to be treated in this situation? How would I want to be treated if I were this person?

This isn’t how the world’s culture works, but remember that this Sermon on the Mount is a call for we who follow Jesus Christ to be a kingdom counterculture within the broken culture of this world.

Treat others the way you would want them to treat you. This is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 5:17 (NASB95)

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” Jesus said. “I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

He ate with tax collectors and sinners. He brought the outcasts of society into His inner circle. He stood against injustice. He touched the untouchables.

Maybe you feel like an outcast, like you are alone in this world and that all your friends have turned their backs on you.

Let me tell you that Jesus knows and understands. He is King of kings and Lord of lords and had eternally existed in perfect fellowship with His Father in heaven.

And yet He came to earth as a baby who spent His first night here wrapped in burial cloths and laid in a feeding trough for cattle. He was vilified by the religious leaders of His time, and He was finally betrayed by one of the men He had spent the previous three years with.

Maybe you feel that the world has treated you unjustly. Jesus knows and understands. He is the righteous Judge who was proclaimed innocent by the very man who then turned and sentenced Him to death on a cross.

Maybe you feel untouchable because of some terrible secret you believe you could never be forgiven for. Maybe your sins caused you to wonder if even the roof of this church might collapse when you came in this morning.

Jesus knows and understands. He is the one who was cursed by hanging from a tree. He is the one from whom God turned His face, the one from whom God removed His very presence as He hung there on that cross, bearing the guilt for all the sins of mankind.

Do you desperately wish for things to be right in this broken world? Are you willing to submit yourself to God’s will for your life? Do you mourn over your sins? Have you realized that you are spiritually bankrupt without Jesus?

Ask for His righteousness, and it will be given to you. Seek Him with all your heart, and you will find Him. Pound on the gates of His Kingdom, and He will hear you and open them to you.

He is the everlasting father of Isaiah 9:6, and He wants to give you the greatest gift you will ever receive.

Won’t you come to Him?