§ 6. The Sermon on the Mount (According to Matthew)

General

Asking, seeking, and knocking all exhibit persistence.

everyone who asks receives

First we should say the Good Father already knows our needs and is more than able to meet them.

Matthew 6:8

…Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Ephesians 3:20–21

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus referred back to this teaching when giving us instruction to pray in His name.

John 16:24

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

The Faithful's Requests Granted

Hannah asked for Samuel, whose name is a pun on "asked" in Hebrew.

1 Samuel 1:11, 17, 20, 27

She vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will…give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life….”
Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.”
And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the LORD.”
“For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him.”

Solomon asked wisdom from God and received it with riches and honor to boot. His thought for God's kingdom prefigures the teaching of Jesus earlier in Matthew.

1 Kings 3:5, 9–13

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” [Solomon said,] “…Give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil….”
It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.”

Matthew 6:33

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

But perhaps most striking among the examples of old, David spoke fervently of seeking the Lord in Psalm 27.

Psalm 27:4, 7–9, 13–14

One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.
…
Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, LORD, do I seek.”
Hide not your face from me.
…
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living!
Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!

James on Asking

We saw above that Solomon had pleased God by asking for spiritual knowledge. James points out the need for us to ask for the right things in the right way. There is great blessing for the one who seeks first the kingdom, but let others take the warning!

James 1:5–6

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

James 4:2–3

You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

the one who seeks finds

Several parables center on seeking and finding.

It is no coincidence that the first to become disciples of Christ were those who were looking for Him in the first place.

John 1:40–42

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus….

John 1:45

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

When Paul addressed the Greeks at Athens, he appealed to any who may have been seeking truth. He revealed that God set up our lives to enable our search for Him to succeed.

Acts 17:23, 26–27

…I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you….
[God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us….

Finally, in a very literal and encouraging way, the Ethiopian eunuch asked for help to understand Scripture and got it!

Acts 8:30–31, 35

Philip…heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him….
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

to the one who knocks it will be opened

God opens doors for the word—as well as for those who preach it.

Colossians 4:3

…Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison….

Acts 16:25–26

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

Acts 12:6–7, 10

…Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands….
When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him.

bread…stone…fish…serpent

The illustration here recalls the terrors of Israel's wandering in the wilderness after leaving Egypt.

Deuteronomy 8:11, 14–16

Take care lest you forget the LORD your God…, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.

God's purpose letting the Israelites suffer so was to do them good in the end. Jesus, too, suffered the same way for the same reasons and referred the tempter to Deuteronomy 8.

Matthew 4:3–4

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Finally, James points out the suffering of Job had a purpose in the Lord, too.

James 5:11

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

If you who are evil

When the Lord says we are evil, His statement is not absolute, as the translation here would have us believe. Scripture does not teach mankind has a fallen, sinful nature—whether here or in any other place.

A better translation would be, "If even the evil among you…." The main action of this sentence is "know how to give", while "being evil" is actually something of a side note. The Greek expresses "being evil" in a way that allows translators to choose whether it perhaps addresses such things as, "time, manner, means, cause, purpose, concession, condition, etc." (Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges).

how much more your Father in heaven

God is better at forgiveness than we are. It should come as no surpise He also knows better how to give gifts!

Isaiah 55:6–9

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

egg…scorpion

Luke's version introduces the illustration of an egg versus scorpion. There does seem to be a forebear in Isaiah, which contrasts God's forgiveness with Israel's impenitence. In the passage, God is far more charitable than we are.

Isaiah 59:1–2, 5–6

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
…
They hatch adders’ eggs;
they weave the spider’s web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
Their webs will not serve as clothing;
men will not cover themselves with what they make.

Holy Spirit

Luke's version also introduces the Holy Spirit specifically as a good gift from God.

Jesus promised that the Spirit would be given to the apostles, guiding them into all the truth that we now benefit from in the form of the Bible.

John 14:25–26

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 16:13

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth….

But note, too, that this circumstance was foretold in Isaiah as a general sharing of the Spirit in the famous passage where God introduces his Servant.

Isaiah 42:5–7, 9

Thus says God, the LORD,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
"I am the LORD; I have called you[, My Servant,] in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
…
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them."

And that last verse in Isaiah brings us back to John.

John 14:29

And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.