Homily Pastor
Dan Neary
Asking
John led us
in reading the Apostles’ Creed: A systematic statement of Theology that
Christians have embraced since our earliest days. You might be interested to
know that we’ll kick-off 2004 with a seven-week series on the Apostles’ Creed.
We’re going to dig in to these profound statements. It will be a sort of Christianity
101… this would be a great series to bring a friend.
We’re rounding the final turn here
and coming down the home stretch… this is the second to last message in our
series on the Sermon on the Mount. Christian will finish up next week…
and then the following Thursday will be Thanksgiving…
then the following Sunday you’ll find the chapel decorated for Christmas and
we’ll begin our
four-weeks of Advent.
Remember to
mark your calendars for Lessons & Carols on Christmas Eve. We’re having two
services so you can invite your friends and family.
And,
remember, you can join us for decorating on the Saturday following Thanksgiving
to help decorate the chapel.
Our passage
for this morning ends with what I think is one of the most familiar verses in
our Bible… we know it as the Golden Rule
Most of you know that I didn’t
grow-up as a Christian… I was in and out of churches as a kid, but didn’t
really come to faith until I was twenty.
Yet, I can’t
remember a time when I didn’t know about the Golden Rule.
I suppose it
is everywhere.
I’m sure I
heard it in the Sunday School classes my neighborhood friends would bring me
to.
I probably
heard it in a Cub Scouts meeting.
I can
remember that my cousin, Patty, had it on a plaque in her bedroom.
The Golden
Rule is ubiquitous… it is part of our culture.
I’m glad that these words, into
which Jesus coalesced the law and the prophets, are so well known. Really,
these words are more than merely known by our culture; they are embraced by our
culture. I think most people aspire to live by this simple rule.
And, let’s
face it, if we did, the world would be a much more marvelous place. If the
golden rule was our guiding rule, if the golden rule really did govern our
behavior, we wouldn’t need the police, we wouldn’t need soldiers.
Shouldn’t we wonder, then, with
such a plan, simple and clear answer known and available to all… why hasn’t it
worked?
Since
humanity has been presented with this clear answer… since the rule is known…
the truth has been told…
Why hasn’t
this worked?
Maybe this is just too simple… but
I want to make this clear…
The Golden Rule is wonderful… but what we need first is the Golden Key
The Golden
Rule is not the Gospel
People might
think that it is… at some point, I think that I thought that the Golden Rule
was the Gospel
I think it is
worth a moment for us to ask ourselves, “Why would we mistake the Golden Rule
for the Gospel?”
That’s
simple, isn’t it?
The Gospel,
the good news, starts with some bad news.
It starts
from the assertion that we’re sinners.
Not just any
kind of sinners… sinners to the point that somebody had to die.
And that’s
where the good news comes in… somebody did.
Not just
somebody taking my place, or your place… because my death on a cross wouldn’t
save anybody… not even me.
But Jesus,
the spotless Lamb of God, the Son of God, paid the price… making way for our
salvation.
And when we
believe this Gospel, we change our eternal standing with God, and have power
over sin in this life.
That’s the
Gospel.
So now let’s take a step back to
see how this whole passage ties together.
We picked-up
on this series where Christian left-off last week in the Sermon on the Mount.
We read Matthew 7:7-12… but so far I’ve only talked about verse 12.
If we just
considered this passage on its own, it might seem like v.12 doesn’t belong.
Maybe the
Bible-maker-guys put a bunch of verses on index cards… and this Golden-Rule-one
got misplaced or mixed up.
That’s OK… it’s a good one… it fits anywhere… right.
Or maybe not…
could
be that this all hangs together.
Let’s just take one more step
back.
Let’s
remember what this whole Sermon on the Mount is about: It is primarily a
description of what life in God’s Kingdom is all about. It is about pursuing
righteousness. It is about working-out this righteousness that Christ purchases
for us and having it impact the way we live, day by day.
So… what
about this passage?
Matthew 7:1-6 speaks plainly to us
about not immorally judging others.
And v.12
follows right along this horizontal line of relationship.
Verses 7-11
remind us of the vertical line of relationship with God, and specifically that
we are dependant on Him.
We’ve used
this illustration before reminding us that this Christian life involves three
key relationships:
- First our relationship with God
- Then our relationship with Christians
- And finally our relationship with all mankind
It is all
over the New Testament; you can find it in Philippians 2…
and you can find it right here in our passage.
7
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the
door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks
receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.[1]
You’ve heard
us say that
“asking is a rule of the Kingdom.”
It is so…
because we are utterly dependant on God. We must ask.
This goes to
the heart of one of the questions we’ve asked here before.
Do we seek
God or does He seek us?
Is this our
work or His?
And the
answer is YES.
It isn’t an
either or… it is both-and.
100% of our
devotion met with 100% of God’s ability.
It is sort of
like a marriage, isn’t it?
I heard
somebody say once that their marriage was wonderfully fair 50/50.
We meet in
the middle… a little sacrifice, a little compromise… 50/50.
To that I
say… to bad… what a crummy marriage.
You see, in
relationships, especially a marriage relationship, we don’t get to add
these percentages, we must multiply them.
So 50/50 gets
you 25% of a marriage.
The only way
to get 100% is 100/100.
And that’s
the way it is with us and God too.
God’s 100% is
constant… you can count on it.
But to enjoy
His 100% it will take your 100%
Back to this
passage…
I’m afraid
that when pulled out of its Scriptural context and dropped into our cultural
context, it is easy for us to miss this passage’s best meaning.
Think about
it… how are we prone to apply this passage?
Stuff.
If we allow
ourselves to be victimized by our hyper-materialistic culture, we easily jump
on this passage and think “hey, this is how I can’t get the stuff!”
Remember a
few weeks ago that Christian made the point about how it seems that our stuff
is taking over… and that we’ve got so much we have to move some of our stuff
off-site to make room for more stuff?
I saw an
article yesterday that reported that consumer storage space has doubled in the past decade… and
we’re building more!
The same
article reported that the average new house is 11% bigger than it was in 1995…
so we can have more space for our stuff.
And, here’s
an amazing number: 4,704.
That’s how
many times a Visa transaction occurred, per second, during last year’s peak
Christmas buying rush. 4,704 per second!
I figured it
out… a Visa card is about 3” long… so if you laid these 4,704 cards end to end
they would span a distance of about 1,170 feet.
Sound travels
at about 1,100 feet per second… so…
our Visa charging during the busy season is a little better than Mach 1!
Now that
celebrates the birth of our Savior in spectacular fashion.
Seriously… it seems that this
passage can speak to provision of all sorts, but the best and highest meaning
of this passage must be associated with this context in the Sermon on the
Mount.
We ask God
for all sorts of things… it is literally part of our liturgy here in The
Chapel. And I’m glad we do… I’m convinced that God is pleased that we do.
We ask, and
He hears, and He provides.
Just this
week I know there our asking has been met with God’s provision.
- We’ve been asking on behalf of Walt Beals
- We’ve been asking on behalf of Pat Forbes
- We’ve been asking on behalf of David Welk
We should
ask… and be persistent in our asking, just like this passage teaches. And we
can take comfort in knowing that our heavenly Father will provide for our best.
9 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! [2]
Here again,
being a father myself has given me some insight into this passage.
Did you
notice that the passage did not indicate that the petitioner will get exactly
what was requested? Those of us who are parents know that our kids ask for all
sorts of crazy things… and they don’t always get what they ask for, even when
we have it to give.
In fact, we
look with disdain on parents who give their kids everything they ask for… we
say they are spoiling their kids rotten. Yet, there are those who somehow seem
perplexed when they don’t get exactly what they ask for from their Heavenly
Father.
- Even though they’ve been persistent
- Even though they’ve claimed it
- Even though they’ve mustered up all sorts of faith
We often
don’t get exactly what we ask for, when we ask for it, and it is for our own
good.
So What?
I think the so
what today is that we need to be certain not to miss the best and
highest purpose of asking.
We can tell,
by the whole of the Sermon that Jesus preached, that the main point of the
asking is:
- Certainly not about stuff
- And not even about our basic provision
- It is about the Kingdom and Righteousness
You’ve
allowed me to paraphrase before in this Sermon on the Mount series. Let me do
it again focusing on the big idea here. It is as if Jesus is saying:
“Look… here’s
another way to see how the citizens of the Kingdom behave.
They don’t
let themselves be consumed by judging each other.
Here’s why:
they know they’ve got their own flaws to deal with.
They can see the
little things that creep to the surface in others… and even though that little
stuff might bug them, they keep their work focused on their own pursuit of God.
And they
don’t look to the world for answers… they look to God.
They
persistently rely on their Heavenly Father. Asking Him for help, all the time,
because He is their source for everything… especially righteousness.
And with His
help, really only because of His help, the citizens of the Kingdom can deal
with other people selflessly… and thus glorify God through their kindness.
The so what today is ask.
Ask, ask, ask.
Acknowledge
God as your only source.
Believe the
Gospel. He’s given us the Golden Key.
And ask for
the extraordinary ability to live,
really live, by the Golden Rule.