This week we have been looking at a section
of a famous sermon that Jesus preached, called the Sermon on the Mount, which
is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew, where
Jesus was addressing the issue of prayer. We discovered a
timeless truth about the true nature of what it means to obey the
message and teachings of Jesus and the true nature of a lifestyle that is
living a right relationship with Jesus in that a right relationship with God requires that we
accept His invitation to pursue Him in prayer.
A person who is living in a genuine and growing
relationship with Jesus will accept His invitation to pursue God in prayer for
God to provide for them materially so as to meet the needs that they have in
our lives. A person who is living in a genuine and growing relationship with
Jesus will accept His invitation to pursue God in prayer for God to provide the
guidance and direction that they need in their lives. And, most importantly, a
person who is living in a genuine and growing relationship with Jesus will
accept His invitation to pursue God in prayer for God to experience His
presence in their lives.
We discovered that the main function of prayer is a growing and continual communion with God
on the deepest possible level. Prayer is divinely designed to be the vehicle by
which we experience life with Jesus and life change by Jesus. You see, to pray
is to change because prayer is the central avenue that God uses to transform
us. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we will see our need
and the more we will desire to be more like Jesus. If we are unwilling to
change, we will give up on and avoid prayer, because when we pray, God reveals
to us who we are and what needs to change.
Jesus addressed the issue of prayer because Jesus is concerned with
our internal heart condition. Jesus is concerned with our internal heart
condition because Jesus knows, and human history has shown, that eventually
what is in the heart will spill out. And
because of that reality, Jesus was calling the crowds listening to Him, and
humanity throughout history, to accept
His invitation to pursue Him in prayer for His provision, direction, and
presence so that He could be at work to change us.
Jesus then concluded this section of
His sermon by making a summary statement that would serve as a transition point
to what He was about to address next in His sermon. So, let’s look at that
summary statement together, which is found in Matthew 7:12:
"In everything, therefore,
treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and
the Prophets.
Now if you grew up in church, or
spent any time in church, you are very familiar with Jesus statement here. And
even if you did not grow up in church, spend any time in church, or read the
Bible, you are still familiar with this statement, but may have not have known
that it came from the Bible. This statement is known as the Golden Rule.
Here we see Jesus summarize all that
He had said in this sermon about how we relate to others in this simple, yet
profound statement. This statement paraphrased God’s command to the Jewish
people in Leviticus 19:18. In Leviticus 19:18, God commanded the Jewish people
to love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus called the crowds, and
humanity throughout history to this standard because we reflect God’s love for
us and our love for God by loving others. Jesus point is that in everything,
which literally means everything, in every aspect of our relationships with
others, we are to show our love for God by loving others. Jesus then explained
the reason behind His command with the phrase for
this is the Law and the Prophets. But what does that mean?
During Jesus day, and still today, the Hebrew
Scriptures were classified into three main sections; the Law, the Writings, and
the Prophets. The Hebrew Scriptures take most of what we call the historical
books like the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, and classify them under
the Law. Jesus point is that everything that God had commanded the Jewish
people in the letters that make up the Old Testament of the Bible revolves
around this principle of treating people the same way you want them to treat
you. Everything that God had commanded the Jewish people in the letters that
make up the Old Testament of the Bible revolves around loving our neighbor as
ourselves.
I would like to illustrate this by way of our ideas
of obedience and sin. If what is most important to God in terms of obedience is
loving God with our total being and loving our neighbor as ourselves, then sin
could be defined as love of self over God and our neighbor who was created in
His image. If we treated people the way
we wanted to be treated; if we loved our neighbor as ourselves, would we lie?
Cheat? Steal? Murder? Gossip? Slander? Be divisive? Commit adultery? Be
involved in pornography?
You see, Jesus here, by giving what we call the
Golden Rule, was not giving us a new teaching, but is
instead reinforcing what the Old Testament already taught, but the Jewish
people had missed. Once again, we see Jesus
move past external obedience to the issue of the heart. Once again, we see that
Jesus is concerned with our internal heart condition. Jesus is concerned
with our internal heart condition because Jesus knows, and human history has
shown, that eventually what is in the heart will spill out.
So, with that in mind, here is a
question to consider: what does how you treat others reveal about what is going
on in your heart? What does how you treat others reveal about where you are at
with God?
And how have you responded to Jesus
invitation to pursue Him in prayer? Are you willing to create the space to
pursue Him in prayer for His provision, direction, and presence so that He
could be at work to change you? What is one thing that you could do this week
when it comes to being more consistent in prayer?
Because a right
relationship with God requires that we accept His invitation to pursue Him in
prayer...
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