06.15.08
Posted in Bible Study, Bryan Dunn at 1:33 pm by Bryan Dunn
In spite of the rejection of His message by the Pharisees, Jesus could anticipate some would receive His word. Because of this, He turns His focus in the sermon to those who wanted to meet God’s high standards for entrance into the kingdom. There are a number of important areas that are touched on.
An earlier rejection of the Pharisaic practice of prayer now leads way to how it should be done. What is the true nature of prayer? One area is that of perseverance in prayer. Look at verse 7 and 8 in the Amplified Bible
7 Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened. AMP
A result of persistent praying is that a believer will receive what is sought. Why is that? God’s nature. Think of yourselves and your families. What father – who has the responsibility to provide for his children – will mock them when a need is presented? The same goes with the faithfulness of God. God, our Father, will not allow Himself to deny needs presented to Him by His children.
However, let me add this, as eloquently put in The Life Application Commentary -
Believers, however, must not take Jesus’ words as a blank check; prayer is not a magical way to obtain whatever we want. Jesus had already explained some conditions on this promise: His followers were to show mercy and forgiveness to others (5:7; 6:12), avoid praying in order to get attention (6:5-6), and be willing to persevere in prayer. Our requests must be in harmony with God’s will (”your will be done,” 6:10), accepting His will above our desires.
(from The Life Application Commentary Series copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 by the Livingstone Corporation. Produced with permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.)
And that’s the rub, isn’t it. When it comes down to it, when we pray, are we in our will or God’s will? Are we persistent in our prayers? Is it really a need, or are our prayers a bunch of wants?
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07.27.08
Posted in Bible Study, Bryan Dunn at 2:17 pm by Bryan Dunn
After addressing the things that the Pharisees taught as being fitting of true righteousness (and knocking them down), Jesus now describes what the character of true righteousness really looks like. If you want to be righteous, then you must do for others what you would want others to do if the situation were reversed. If we treated our neighbors like ourselves, then no neighbor would be mistreated.
Of interest here is that Christ – while not demanding the righteousness of the Pharisees – demanded the righteousness of the law, for what He was teaching was a summary of the righteous requirements of the law.
So, we are to jettison the things that were taught (or piled on) by the religious leaders of that day and actually follow the letter and intent of the law. An interesting thought! What would that mean for us today? How much of God’s word do you have in you? Enough to be righteous as you follow it? Or do you just listen to what others say and do your best to follow their words and examples? If that is the case, how do you know you’re following the right thing?
At this point Jesus points out there is a difference between what He is teaching and what the religious leaders were teaching; a confrontation of two diverse interpretations of what God demanded for acceptance into His presence. Which way should be chosen? Jesus exhorts His hearers (and us) to enter through the narrow way – by hearing His word and accepting His person.
Make no mistake, the narrow path was just that – narrow and uneasy to follow because it was less traveled. As were the requirements Jesus was laying out – they were hard, but were of God. And not much has changed today. We hear that God is love (and He is), that there are many ways to find Him (that’s a lie, He’s not lost and can be seen in creation but only can be ‘found’ in the person of Jesus Christ). Many things are espoused, but God and His requirements have never changed. Who is at the end of your chosen path?
4 – Warning to False Teachers (Matt. 7:15-23)
Here Jesus labels the Pharisees. Most of us don’t like to be labeled (democrat or republican, fundamentalist or liberal, metrosexual, homophobic, etc.). Imagine you are a Pharisee listening to Jesus say verse 15 – false prophets. The Pharisees claimed to be God’s representatives with His message to instruct the nation in His way…right…. Appearances can be deceiving.
So, how can someone tell the difference? The way to tell a false prophet from a true prophet was his life. The Pharisees were to be judged by their fruits. If they were righteous, they would be producing fruit that was righteous. But the proof was in the pudding – looking at the bad fruit they were producing showed that nether they or their system was righteous.
Jesus pronounced judgment on the false system He is rejecting. In verse 19 we see a pronouncement of judgment and that should follow to those that chose to follow the flawed system as well.
Along with this you may notice that lip service is not enough. Look at verse 21 (“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven). Again, this may seem to be a hard saying, but if we’re not fully committed and devoted to only one master, what are we committing or committed to? If it’s not the truth, it (logically) must be something false. Looking through history, it’s hard to tell why wars were fought. Umm, ok, perhaps it is easy! There were opposing sides, and they fought over something that was important at the time. This is the very thing Christ is pointing out here – choose your side! When Jesus ushers in His kingdom, it will be in spite of Pharisaic opposition to the King. And when folks come with the thinking that they too belong because they served in some capacity to the way other men taught them…there will be disappointment. The only way to get in is by putting faith in the person of Christ alone.
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