Welcome to the final week of our study on Matthew 5-7. This week we will be looking at chapter seven in its entirety. If you are new to the study, just head over to week one and start there. All of the other weeks are linked on the right sidebar. You can do them at your own pace.
This study should take less than 60 minutes. When you are ready to begin, proceed to week seven below:
week seven. section one. judgment.
WARNING! The following youtube video contains some disturbing imagery. It is footage of a woman being beaten a few days ago by the Taliban. If you want to skip it you can. Though it is disturbing, it also gives us a glimpse into a culture not too different than the time of Jesus. Had a woman been accused of the same transgressions in the Pharisees' world, she could have been executed.
Also, I am not familiar with the network posting this video or their agenda. There is political commentary before and after the footage. My point in showing this at this time is not to make any geo-political statement about the Taliban or American involvement in Afghanistan. It is simply to attempt to transport us back to the world of the Sermon on the Mount as best I can.
After watching the video, read this story in the gospel of John:
John 8:1-11
Take some time to compare and contrast the video you watched with the story of Jesus in John 8. If you see Jesus in a new light, post a thought on the Facebook Group Page.
Now, let's move to the first section of our study today. Read Matthew 7:1-6 and return.
Again, like the rest of the Sermon, Jesus is painting a picture of life within the new community created by the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven under the love of Father God and the reign of Messiah. It seems unlikely based on the totality of Jesus' teaching that he is advocating complete personal moral autonomy. The issue here seems to be most obvious in the vivid analogy of the dust in one eye with the wooden plank in the other. Jesus is saying that moral judgment is most often rooted in our desire to be God. (This is still the original and most basic of all sins.) We want to put ourselves in God's place as the worthy judge, but we are not. Religious people are traditionally experts at condemning sinners to draw attention away from their own sin. Jesus is asking, "Do you really want everyone to get what they deserve? Are you sure you want that?" He has already taught us in the Sermon to forgive and extend grace. Here he shows us why.
What's up with the dogs and pigs?
This is a troubling passage to many. I will give you my opinion as to what it could mean in context. First of all, dogs and pigs are not metaphors for cute animals. Dogs were much more parasitic in the ancient world than in ours. They weren't generally kept as loving pets. Pigs also were not kept by Jews because they were unclean animals. These images almost certainly refer to non-Jews (Gentiles). The big struggle is, what is Jesus saying not to give to the Gentiles? I think he could be saying (still in the context of judgment) that the new community should not waste its time judging those outside of the Kingdom. The gospel will of course spread to the Gentiles. This seems to be part of the plan. I find it appropriate to think that Jesus is now using typical imagery of the "outsiders" (dogs/pigs) to refer to those outside of the Kingdom/new community whether they are Jewish or Gentile. This leads me to believe that the rule of the church is not to judge the world (not yet anyway), but to extend grace and love to those who are not part of our Kingdom. It seems quite ridiculous to expect the rest of the world to live Kingdom-inspired lives without knowing the reality of the Kingdom. It would be like the Catholic Church condemning me for being married as a protestant pastor. I simply don't live within the reality of the celibate priesthood. I'm not Roman Catholic. Why would they waste their time imposing their values on me? Likewise, why would we (catholic and protestant followers alike) waste our time imposing our Kingdom values on those who have not yet accepted them?
week seven. section two. the conclusion.
Read Matthew 7:7-12.
The Sermon is drawing to a conclusion. It will end with some metaphors about Kingdom life, but before that Jesus gives some short practical instructions. These verses seem to be the answer to what would be the obvious questions after such a revolutionary lesson: "What do we do with all this information? What do we do tomorrow?"
Jesus tells us to take action: ask, seek, knock. In the Kingdom, if you genuinely want something, you ask for it. No games, no schemes, no elaborate strategies to get ahead. Just ask. Who do you ask? Most scholars assume that Jesus is saying to ask your Father God. Dallas Willard has some interesting thoughts here that Jesus is also implying that we ask one another as well. The next verses certainly link asking, seeking and knocking with prayer, but they don't necessarily discredit Willard's idea that within the new community it is now safe to ask others for what we need...and conversely, it is now safe to look for ways to say "yes" to our brothers and sisters asking for help.
Ultimately, though, it comes back to Father God. He is a good Father who gives good answers to his children. Every good Father says "yes" to the right things and "no" to the wrong things. We can trust Father to give us all we need for abundant life in his Kingdom. This should bring us back to the Prayer. "Our Father" is the key to the Kingdom. If he is really our Father, we can ask him for anything at any time.
The practical section ends with the "Golden Rule." Jesus was not the first to throw this idea around. Other moral teachers had taught this, but what distinguishes Jesus is the way he links it to the love of the Father. Unlike the others, he shows us why it actually makes sense to love others before loving ourselves - because we share the same loving Father. They are our family.
Jesus will now conclude the Sermon with three warnings told as metaphors/parables. Let's read them now:
Matthew 7:13-29
Warning Metaphor 1 - Broad and Narrow Gates
Jesus' hearers were familiar with entry gates into cities like Jerusalem. Some gates were wide along major entry points. A person could simply follow the crowd and enter a city on a major thoroughfare. Some gates, however, were narrow. Just one person at a time could enter. They would be easy to miss if you were content to zone out and just follow the crowds. Here lies the warning - you won't find the Kingdom by wandering around trusting the crowds. The religious crowd won't accidentally wander into Heaven. Neither will the self-consumed pagan crowd. A person needs to want the Kingdom enough to seek it out and recognize the small entry point when they see it. The warning here - don't trust the crowds. Seek your Father's Kingdom and you will find it.
Warning Metaphor 2 - Good and Bad Trees
Israel's history was full of true and false prophets. A false prophet was someone who claimed to speak words from YHWH but did not. In the past, the people would have to wait to see if the prophets words tested out to be true before they could determine if he was a false prophet or not. Jesus gives us a short cut here. "Look at their life." Think of them like a fruit tree. Is the fruit good or bad? Do they leave Kingdom fruit (love, grace, humility, etc.) in their wake or do they leave anti-Kingdom fruit (greed, immorality, selfishness)? Notice he doesn't say to judge them by their actions or spiritual "powers" but by their real-life tangible fruit.
For the first time in Matthew, Jesus introduces the idea of "that day" - judgment day - in verse 23. He will teach more about "that day" as the book continues. He says that in the end it won't be about what we did, but who we are and the fruit that naturally falls from us. He can warn us to test those who would have us follow them while comforting us with the knowledge that He himself will one day judge them. We don't have to do that. We just have to listen to the warning - Don't follow anyone claiming to speak for Jesus whose life doesn't look a lot like the Kingdom of Heaven in action.
Warning Metaphor 3 - Wise and Foolish Builders
I love the way Jesus ends the Sermon. "...and in conclusion, if you don't do what I have told you to do, you are dumb." That's how I read it anyway. The last warning is this - if you don't live out the Sermon it means nothing to you. I have a feeling that we have the abridged version of this parable. Jesus was a builder before he was a teacher. He knows a thing or two about building houses. We call him a "carpenter" but more likely he would have spent his teens and twenties building complete structures - homes - out of rock and earth. He knew something about the high importance of choosing where to build a house. He warns his followers - build your life on these words and you will survive. Build your life on any other words and you are doomed. This is it. This is all there is. Everything else is going to fail.
Our entire three chapter study concludes with the real time response of the mountain-climbing disciples:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
They stood there motionless, mouths agape. Amazed. Unlike the religious teachers, he taught with real authority. He taught as a master inventor explaining the inter-workings his own invention. He taught as God himself explaining the deepest mysteries of the universe. And then...if you keep reading...he walks down the mountain and miraculously heals person after person. That's real authority.
week seven. section three. assignments.
Thanks for being a part of this study. Your only final assignment is read the entire book of Matthew over the next month. Start at the beginning and take your time. As we learned in the first week, study is about context. Live within the story and your Father will show you what He has for you.
This study will remain on the blogger page should you want to return for it or send others toward it. I'm considering doing another study in the fall of 2010. If you'd like to stay connected with me personally, you can find me here:
Facebook.
Twitter.
Last extra - with no redeeming value at all:
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
More than Enough. Mt. 5-7. Part Six of Seven.
Welcome back to week six of the seven week series studying Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5-7. We pick up new students all the time, so just head on over to week one and start there. All of the other weeks are linked on the right sidebar. You can do them at your own pace.
For the optimal experience, make sure to join the facebook discussion group and befriend us on facebook.
This study should take less than 60 minutes. When you are ready to begin, proceed onto lesson six:
week six. section one. treasure.
Make sure to do these seven studies in chronological order. The work you have done up to this point should actually make these last two sections of the Sermon easier to understand and apply to daily life. So, in light of all we have learned about Jesus' message of the availability of the Kingdom of Heaven, let's read the next section from the text and return to the study:
Matthew 6:19-34
Life is all about what we treasure:
We often know that the things we are treasuring are not fulfilling. We all treasure something. Jesus is telling us what Kingdom people living within the new community naturally treasure above all else: the stuff of Heaven - God the Father, his right way of life, our brothers and sisters in the new community and, ultimately, love.
Jesus taught about treasuring when he was asked about the most important thing in all of life:
Matthew 22:34-40
This is what we treasure above all: God our Father and his people. Since Heaven is already here partially, we can in this very moment begin to store up treasures in these real and present relationships. As we learned last week in the Prayer, our new family with God as Father is first.
The stuff of earth will all eventually run its course. It will fade, rust and be eaten by moths. But in the Kingdom-birthed new community, Heaven's eternity begins now in the relationships we have with Father and his other children, our brothers and sisters. Those relationships will last into the new heaven and new earth when the Kingdom is someday fulfilled.
Jesus then tells us that what we treasure (love) the most determines where our hearts reside. Our hearts are our true centers. Our hearts make us what we will ultimately become. Loving Father and each other is what changes us - forms us into the new community.
Verses 22 and 23 are admittedly a little confusing in the way they are normally translated. The common interpretations revolve around the following three ideas...and Jesus could somehow be implying all of them at the same time:
1. We ought to keep our eyes on God, meaning we should focus our light (vision) on Him. This is praying "Our Father."
2. We ought to be careful about what we spend our time looking at. The applications may be different for each of us, but we all have things that when we gaze upon them, we are more tempted to treasure them than our Father.
3. We ought to "light up" our priorities to guide our way. Taking the time to actively prioritize our treasures is important so that we don't drift into treasuring anything more than God and his people.
This little section concludes with the famous statement, "You can't serve both God and Money." The word money is actually the idea of "Mammon" which is best understood as the lure and power of wealth, property and material possessions. Jesus is clear here to those who believe they can somehow treasure material wealth while also treasuring God. He says, "you can't treasure both equally." Either you will treasure God and He will inform you how to relate to money, or you will treasure Mammon and He will inform you how to relate to God. To take an extreme position from this that Jesus is anti-money can be dangerous. Jesus is speaking of priorities here: what we treasure and what we love, not what we happen to hold in our hands at a given moment. You can have money and not treasure it more than God. You can also not have money and treasure it more than God. That said, Jesus made it abundantly clear that having material wealth is a liability to receiving the Kingdom of Heaven. Having money makes receiving Jesus harder. Most of us can depend on our bank accounts to meet all of our physical needs for the next several weeks. That creates less desperation for our Father's provision of daily bread. That causes us to seek the Kingdom less actively than those who need Father's help in the here and now. Being desperate seems to be central to receiving the Kingdom.
Here's the big reality in all of this: The Kingdom of God is a place of abundance, not scarcity. We have more than we need and plenty to go around because God gives us more and more all the time. This idea naturally flows into Jesus' next area of teaching: worry.
week six. section two. worry.
Read the next section and return:
Matthew 6:25-34
Several weeks ago we watched a message from John Ortberg. Let's return to him again for teaching on this section. Click on the following link and watch John's message entitled "Life Beyond Worry." It's about 20 minutes long. Return to the study when you have finished.
Life Beyond Worry Video
week six. section three. assignments.
Lesson six was a little shorter than the others. Maybe you find yourself with some time left to spend with God. Turn off your computer and take a walk or write a letter to God. Tell him what you worry about. Go for it! He'll meet you. He wants to take care of you and give you all that you need. Just ask Him to help.
Extra?
You asked for it.
For the optimal experience, make sure to join the facebook discussion group and befriend us on facebook.
This study should take less than 60 minutes. When you are ready to begin, proceed onto lesson six:
week six. section one. treasure.
Make sure to do these seven studies in chronological order. The work you have done up to this point should actually make these last two sections of the Sermon easier to understand and apply to daily life. So, in light of all we have learned about Jesus' message of the availability of the Kingdom of Heaven, let's read the next section from the text and return to the study:
Matthew 6:19-34
Life is all about what we treasure:
We often know that the things we are treasuring are not fulfilling. We all treasure something. Jesus is telling us what Kingdom people living within the new community naturally treasure above all else: the stuff of Heaven - God the Father, his right way of life, our brothers and sisters in the new community and, ultimately, love.
Jesus taught about treasuring when he was asked about the most important thing in all of life:
Matthew 22:34-40
This is what we treasure above all: God our Father and his people. Since Heaven is already here partially, we can in this very moment begin to store up treasures in these real and present relationships. As we learned last week in the Prayer, our new family with God as Father is first.
The stuff of earth will all eventually run its course. It will fade, rust and be eaten by moths. But in the Kingdom-birthed new community, Heaven's eternity begins now in the relationships we have with Father and his other children, our brothers and sisters. Those relationships will last into the new heaven and new earth when the Kingdom is someday fulfilled.
Jesus then tells us that what we treasure (love) the most determines where our hearts reside. Our hearts are our true centers. Our hearts make us what we will ultimately become. Loving Father and each other is what changes us - forms us into the new community.
Verses 22 and 23 are admittedly a little confusing in the way they are normally translated. The common interpretations revolve around the following three ideas...and Jesus could somehow be implying all of them at the same time:
1. We ought to keep our eyes on God, meaning we should focus our light (vision) on Him. This is praying "Our Father."
2. We ought to be careful about what we spend our time looking at. The applications may be different for each of us, but we all have things that when we gaze upon them, we are more tempted to treasure them than our Father.
3. We ought to "light up" our priorities to guide our way. Taking the time to actively prioritize our treasures is important so that we don't drift into treasuring anything more than God and his people.
This little section concludes with the famous statement, "You can't serve both God and Money." The word money is actually the idea of "Mammon" which is best understood as the lure and power of wealth, property and material possessions. Jesus is clear here to those who believe they can somehow treasure material wealth while also treasuring God. He says, "you can't treasure both equally." Either you will treasure God and He will inform you how to relate to money, or you will treasure Mammon and He will inform you how to relate to God. To take an extreme position from this that Jesus is anti-money can be dangerous. Jesus is speaking of priorities here: what we treasure and what we love, not what we happen to hold in our hands at a given moment. You can have money and not treasure it more than God. You can also not have money and treasure it more than God. That said, Jesus made it abundantly clear that having material wealth is a liability to receiving the Kingdom of Heaven. Having money makes receiving Jesus harder. Most of us can depend on our bank accounts to meet all of our physical needs for the next several weeks. That creates less desperation for our Father's provision of daily bread. That causes us to seek the Kingdom less actively than those who need Father's help in the here and now. Being desperate seems to be central to receiving the Kingdom.
Here's the big reality in all of this: The Kingdom of God is a place of abundance, not scarcity. We have more than we need and plenty to go around because God gives us more and more all the time. This idea naturally flows into Jesus' next area of teaching: worry.
week six. section two. worry.
Read the next section and return:
Matthew 6:25-34
Several weeks ago we watched a message from John Ortberg. Let's return to him again for teaching on this section. Click on the following link and watch John's message entitled "Life Beyond Worry." It's about 20 minutes long. Return to the study when you have finished.
Life Beyond Worry Video
week six. section three. assignments.
Lesson six was a little shorter than the others. Maybe you find yourself with some time left to spend with God. Turn off your computer and take a walk or write a letter to God. Tell him what you worry about. Go for it! He'll meet you. He wants to take care of you and give you all that you need. Just ask Him to help.
Extra?
You asked for it.
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