Sermon Tone Analysis

We have come now to Jesus’ second portion of teaching on prayer in the sermon on the mount.

We gleaned so much from the great section on the “Lord’s Prayer.”

In that section, Jesus gave some excellent instruction on how to pray.

It really was a pattern of prayer.

We broke that prayer up into four parts, and saw that a fully rounded prayer life will include prayer of exaltation, prayers for transformation, prayers for provision, prayers for remission, and prayers for salvation.

Exaltation is giving honor, glory, and thanks to God for who He is and His great character.

Transformation is praying for God’s will to be done, his Kingdom to come, to see the effects of it here in our lives and our world.

Provision, is asking for our daily bread.

Not asking for wealth and abundance, but asking for enough.

Remission is that right and continual going back to God for forgiveness, knowing that our Father forgives His children, and asks us to forgive as well.

Salvation is not just initial salvation, but that ultimate deliverance from evil and the Evil One.

That is our pattern of prayer.

If our prayers are all requests for provision, but never include prayers of forgiveness and exaltation, we are missing out.

Likewise, if our prayers are simply praise, but we never approach our Heavenly Father for help, then we are missing out as well.

And that really ties in to our passage today, because if in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus was giving us a pattern of prayer, teaching us how to pray, then in this section He is doubling down and really teaching us the importance of prayer.

And not just any prayer, but persistent, earnest, heartfelt prayer.

I ask a simple question by way of introduction this morning.

Do we really sense the urgency and importance of prayer?

Do we cling to it as a gift, and a weapon so powerful and magnificent, a gift from the loving Father to His children, to reach out, to enter in, to commune, to ask, to plead, to lay out our emotions and desires and needs and praises in such a childlike and honest sense?

Do we see it as so important?

I was reading some of Charles Spurgeon’s writings on prayer this week, and I wanted to share with you some quotes.

Charles Spurgeon is, of course, one of the more well-known pastors of the 19th century, perhaps London’s most famous minister, and his sermons are still being used by God to transform lives.

Spurgeon has the nickname of the “Prince of Preachers” for his eloquence, skill, and success as a minister of the Word.

But as good a preacher Spurgeon was, his personal conviction was that prayer was even more important than preaching.

“Anything is a blessing which makes us pray.”

“Prayer is not a hard requirement-it is the natural duty of a creature to its creator, the simplest homage that human need can pay to divine liberality.”

“Prayer and praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into the deep waters of the knowledge of Christ.”

“I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.”

“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.”

Many weeks in my study I am personally challenged and convicted by the scripture.

And I have to ask myself this week, do I consider prayer such a gift, such an important treasure?

Jesus spent no small amount of time in prayer.

Beyond the Lord’s Prayer, He is seen many times praying.

Going alone to pray, praying that the Father would be glorified.

One of the longest uninterrupted monologues of Jesus that we have is John 17, which is an entire prayer of Jesus for His disciples.

Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane before His death.

Jesus was no stranger to prayer.

I took a quick count, and Jesus is recorded as praying or is said to pray around 38 times in the Gospel Records.

Now consider something significant.

Jesus is known mostly for his teaching, and maybe more for his miracles.

Do you know how many miracles of Jesus are recorded for us?

I counted around 37. So 38 prayers, and 37 miracles.

If i’m off by one or two on either number, that information is still incredible.

Jesus Christ, who is God in Human Flesh, spent as much time in prayer to the Father as He did performing miracles.

Now, what does that tell us about our Spiritual lives?

It should tell us that prayer is not just necessary, but critical.

Absolutely critical.

You see, we all know that we should pray.

After all, its one of those three spiritual disciplines that Jesus taught us in this sermon - giving, praying, fasting.

We know we should pray, and we know the scriptures teach us that prayer works.

And if we’re good Christians, we believe these things.

But Jesus is calling His disciples to go beyond mere knowledge, and even mere mental belief, and take the step into practice.

Ask, Seek, Knock, he tells us.

Its not enough to simply believe in prayer, or to believe it works, we must pray!

We must pray.

And of course, as we will see, the reason that prayer works, and that we must pray, is because God our Father hears and answers prayer.

The life of the disciple is not easy, but if God is your Father, He provides and helps when you seek Him diligently.

And since we have been helped, may we help as well.

1. Ask, Because We Need Help - Vs. 7-8

As we come to verse number 7, I think we really start to come to the summary and conclusion section of the Sermon on the Mount.

There is a sense in which this is not just another teaching on prayer, but a teaching on prayer that backs up everything else that has been taught.

Think of where we started in the Sermon on the Mount

One definite tie between those first four beatitudes is that they describe in great detail our need.

Blessed are the Poor, Blessed are the Mourners, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are the hungry and thirsty.

Now, as we discussed those we noted that those are all primarily spiritual things, and spiritual needs.

In terms of poorness, its to be poor in Spirit.

In terms of mourning, its mourning the state of sin and unrighteousness.

In terms of meekness, its not weakness but humility and gentleness.

In terms of hunger and thirst, its a yearning for righteousness.

All of those things place us squarely in the place of “need.”

Spiritual need, yes, but real need.

And we saw that there is a sense in which we are blessed in our need - blessed meaning, to be congratulated.

Why is that?

Well, in our poorness of Spirit, in our mourning of sin, in our meekness, and in our hunger and thirst for righteousness, we know we are insufficient, we know we are lacking, we know our true condition and from that point we can reach out for the help that we need.

If you are dirt poor but deny it, you will hardly ask for help.

If you do not mourn for sin, you will hardly sense its weight.

If you are not week, you will certainly find yourself confident.

And if you do not hunger and thirst for righteousness, you may find yourself satisfied with unrighteousness.

But as disciples, we are poor in spirit - we are mourning - we are meek - we are hungry, so we know we need help!

In fact, the rest of the sermon on the mount goes on to tell us even more what a dread condition we are in spiritually without help.

We need help being salt and light.

We need help with our Anger

We need help with our Lust

We need help with marital faithfulness

We need help keeping our word

We need help with reconciliation

We need help with loving our enemies

We need help with our generosity

We need help with prayer

We need help with fasting

We need help with our priorities

We need help seeking the Kingdom first

We need help with our worries

We need help with our perspectives on others and our judgmental attitudes.

You see, all of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount can pile up like stones on top of us if we do not have help.

But here, we are called to ask, seek, and knock, because we need help!

I was reminded of Jesus’ teaching to His disciples in John 15.

If there is one thing that I can stress, it is that the teachings and the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, the teachings and ethics of the Kingdom, are never to produce self-righteous individuals.

If we adopt the ethics of Jesus but deny Him as our Master, Savior, and Lord, then we are not one stitch better off for our better living.

The Scribes and Phariesses, whom Jesus denounces multiple times, prove to us what a life of self-righteousness looks like.