Dr. Bradford Reaves
CrossWay Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
I recently read a powerful description of the human brain in a book by R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man: “The complex capacity of the human brain is the subject of ever-widening scientific wonder. Its ten billion cells (neurons) are only a shadow of its complexity because each cell sends out tens of thousands of tentacles that connect to tens of thousands of neighboring cells, each of which is constantly exchanging data impulses. The complexity intensifies as we understand that each data signal can then take one of a possible twenty thousand different paths per cell. These, in turn, radiate out to another possible twenty thousand paths and so on, so that the potential number of combinations grows beyond our comprehension.' The staggering fact is that the total number of possible pathways through the brain exceeds [10 to 80th power], which is more than all the protons and neutrons in the universe!?
The human brain does not miss a thing. It is capable of giving and receiving the subtlest input from imagining a universe in which time bends, to creating the polyphonic texture of a Bach fugue, to receiving and transmitting a message from God himself -feats no computer will ever accomplish” (pp 91-92).
In our current day, the introduction of A.I. technology is expected to completely transform our entire world in the same way smartphones have over the last 20 years, except the transformation of A.I. is expected to take just months. The amount of energy and cooling required for these computers is astronomical, so scientists are working on growing human brain cells for storage and computing. The human brain stores and computes vast amounts of information far more quickly than any modern machine and only uses 20 watts to do that.
But there is one thing that the human mind can do that no machine will ever be able to accomplish, and that is to know the mind of Christ. No computer will ever be able to communicate with God, know the heart of God, be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, or discern the will of God. Only man created in God’s image will ever be able to do that.
Kent Hughes goes on in his book to say that one of the great scandals of the church today is Christians without Christian minds. Harry Blamires wrote that while Christians may worship and even pray as Christians, we do not think as Christians. Wow! What an incredible description of the Laodicean Church! As I have said before, we live in a world where believers are biblically illiterate - or living without the mind of Christ, all the while leaving our minds and thoughts unguarded to the world's perversions.
And without the mind of Christ, we are self-centered instead of other-centered. Hence, the trend of me-centered worship lyrics in many of our modern-day worship music. Hence, the focus on comfort and entertainment instead of following the Apostle Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
So when we come to a Scripture like we have today, proper interpretation is paramount because it is easy to interpret what Jesus is saying with a selfish lens instead of digging deep into the mind of our Lord. Before I further explain, let us read this passage together.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7–11)
Now, there are some who erroneously and perhaps unwittingly interpret this Scripture through a lens that the Sermon on the Mount is just a collection of sayings that are indiscriminately assembled. With that kind of biblical interpretation, we can assume that what Jesus meant is that we can write a blank check for whatever our hearts desire, and he’s going to cash it for us. This is the false interpretation that prosperity preachers use to promote their false teaching.
If this blank check principle was what Jesus was teaching, then every want, need, and greed would be fulfilled because all we have to do is ask, seek, and knock. So when that happens, then the prosperity preacher will tell you that you didn’t have enough faith. Nowhere in the Bible does God ever tell us that He is some magic genie in a bottle to fulfill our greedy little minds and lusts.
So, let’s dispense with the idea that what Jesus is doing here is a collection of rules and sayings. He is a master orator, putting an illustration between two principles, which is the key to understanding this passage. With that proper interpretation, we can see that Jesus isn’t talking about our selfishness but how we, as believers, can live in the Kingdom of God.
In the first six verses of Chapter 7, Jesus tells us not to judge because we are hypocritical in our ability to make a judgment. Matthew 7:4: “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?” But we also learned that we are to use discernment, not making judgments by our own unrighteousness, but through the authority of the Word of God.
Now, after this passage, we are studying today, we find in verse 12 what is known as the Golden Rule. Matthew 7:12: “Therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” As we will see next week, Jesus’ use of the Golden Rule points us to the two greatest commandments.
“You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut 6:5)
‘You shall not take vengeance, and you shall not keep your anger against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 19:18)
What we are looking at are spiritual principles. Both of these principles taught by our Lord, Judging and the Golden Rule, have to do with how we love each other as believers. And so in the middle of these, Jesus tells us how we can fully live in these. Because I can’t discern the heart of man, but God can. My heart is too selfish to put the needs of others before my own, but God can. That completely changes how we look at this passage. So with that, we can look at our passage this morning.
Now, there are a couple of conditions to the things Jesus is saying. First, you must be a child of God. Secondly, you must be living in obedience. Third, we are asking with a selfless heart.
and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. (1 John 3:22)
And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. (1 John 5:14–15)
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:3)
Something else that is important to understand here that does not show up in the English but is present in the Greek is the imperatives of these verses. The action verbs here, ‘ask, seek, knock,’ are persistent actions. We keep asking, we keep seeking, we keep knocking. It is more than being persistent; a child may try to badger his parents to give him something until they relent. This is the lifestyle of the believer. This is something that is part of our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Asking is a verbal action. We have an understanding of the need, and we ask.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)?
Seeking implies doing life. Our lifestyle is that of constantly discerning God’s will
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)
“I love those who love me; And those who earnestly seek me will find me. (Proverbs 8:17)
Inquire of Yahweh and His strength; Seek His face continually. (1 Chronicles 16:11)
Knocking requires patience and persistence. We cannot relent to the enemy and the schemes of the world.
And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. (Galatians 6:9
although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:4)
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2)
The Christian lifestyle is a life of persistence with God. We see a need; we need discernment; we require wisdom. Whatever it is, we continually go back to our Father with our requests. It is not that He is a reluctant giver but that we are slow. We struggle and can only handle a little bit at a time. At the same time, God is teaching us to persevere, and then we are more involved in the process. The deeper and more meaningful our communion with God becomes. And instead of us just saying, ‘God, I have this problem, please fix it.’ and we just sit back, we become part of the solution as our Father involves us.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, (Ephesians 5:1)
And then Jesus gives us this marvelous illustration that should delight our hearts in verse 9:
“Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? (Matthew 7:9–10)
Remember that Jesus is preaching on the shores of Galilee. And in Jesus’ day, bread was a pale, flat loaf, like a big biscuit, and if you go to the Sea of Galilee, you will find round stones that look just like a loaf of bread. And so the illustration is, what kind of father would give his child something that looks like bread but is actually a rock?
Fish are abundant in the Sea of Galilee and can be easily caught. They are delicious, and they are ceremonially clean food for the Jews. But an eel or a snake is unclean and unfit for the Jewish diet.
‘Whatever in the water does not have fins and scales is detestable to you. (Leviticus 11:12)
So, what good father would make his son purposely violate the law of God?
Luke adds the fact that if his son asks for an egg. Luke 11:12 “Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” Scorpions in that part of the world are large, and when they tuck their legs and their claws underneath and sleep, they look exactly like an egg from the top. If the son asks his father for an egg, is his father going to give that which not only deceives him and defiles him but destroys him? No father would do that.
So a decent earthly father would not purposely deceive his son, defile his son, or destroy his son. So then Jesus drives the point home in verse 11:
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11)
Now, that is quite a statement that shouldn’t pass you by. You are doing good things for your children, yet you are still evil. But if an unregenerate father can take care of his children in a good way, even in our sinful, corrupt, vile, fallen, evil selves, what kind of care do you think our Holy, Righteous, Almighty God gives to those He calls His children? And that being the case, what are we living in defeat?
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (James 1:17)
Our Heavenly Father desires every child of His to know that He will always take care of us. He is good and He is a loving Heavenly Father. Some of us bear the scars from our earthly fathers - that is not who our Heavenly Father is!
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6)
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is dignified, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, consider these things. (Philippians 4:6–8)
William Barclay said, “True prayer is asking God what He wants.”
During an especially difficult time in the work of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor wrote to his wife, “We have all of 25 cents and all the promises of God!”
And since we serve a God, who is our Lord and Heavenly Father, and we can be assured that we are under His constant care, then we don’t need to go about selfishly thinking about our own needs but turn our attention and love to the people around us. We can stop being judgmental and depend on the Lord to grant us wisdom and discernment. We can treat other people the way we want to be treated, not because of our own sufficiency but because God is taking care of us.
I remember Noah and I were playing outside, and as he was running away from me, he took a bad fall and scraped himself up really well. He was almost inconsolable as the pain and bleeding continued, despite my reasoning that they weren’t that bad and everything was going to be okay. No matter what I said, he continued to cry.
Realizing this wasn't working, I sat on the bed beside him and held him close. Then I said, ‘Noah, look at me. Do you trust me?" I asked.
He nodded. ‘You are gonna be just fine. Do you trust me on that?" He nodded again, and the tears dried up, and we went back outside to play. All the reasoning in the world wasn't going to change how he felt. But his trust in me did. It all depends on who you trust.
We do not think as the world thinks. We do not worship as the world worships. We trust God. Period. Are you trusting God today?
