Matthew 7:7-12
Ask and you shall receive
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Today we are looking at Matthew 7:7-12. You could say we are entering the final lap – the final chapter - of the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount covers some very diverse topics. Witnessing about Jesus – being salt and light. The relationship of the Old Testament Law to Christians. Anger and murder and right relations between Christians – and others. Lust, flirting, marriage, adultery, divorce and remarriage. Telling the truth and taking oaths. Loving our enemies and not retaliating. Giving to the needy. Correct attitudes in giving, fasting and prayer. Prayer – how and what to pray for. What we do with our money. Anxiety. Judging others and dealing with conflict.
Such a diverse range of topics, but yet there’s been a common element to just about everything in the sermon in the Mount, and that is that they are tough to do. Very tough. In fact, the Sermon on the Mount possibly has the highest concentration of tough to do commands in the whole Bible. Things like not even calling your brother a fool, or lusting after someone, or letting other people know how much you are giving away, or telling the truth all the time – even on your tax return, or turning the other cheek when someone hurts you, or focusing your money and energy on the Kingdom of God rather than the material things of this world. Tough. Any one of those things is tough, let alone all of them. And the requirements of the Sermon on the Mount are so tough that a lot of teaching out there on the Sermon on the Mount actually tries to explain away Jesus’ demands - to make them less tough, more palatable to our ears. But we’ve been learning as we go through the Sermon on the Mount, that if we really believe that this is God’s word, the inerrant, infallible, accurate word of God, then we have no right to tone down Jesus’ words and we must take them at face value – even if they are tough.
And as we go through the Sermon on the Mount it seems like there’s just more and more seemingly impossible demands that Jesus places on us, and there’s only a couple of places in the whole Sermon on the Mount that it seems like we can come up for a breath of air. And today is one such passage! Phew! What is today’s passage? Well we’ve just heard it read out. It’s a wonderful promise that when we ask God for good things, He will give them! It’s nice to have a promise to help us through life! But let’s have a look at this promise – what does it mean?
Matthew 77 “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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
On the face of it, it looks as though whatever we ask for, whatever we seek, whatever door we open, God will give it to us. And some people take this to mean just about everything. Many of you have heard of the Prosperity Gospel, otherwise known as the Health and Wealth Gospel. It says that God wants all Christians to be wealthy and healthy, and they say that if you are a Christian and you are not living in financial abudance and good health, then you aren’t living the victorious Christian life, and all you need to do is stand on the promises of God and claim your inheritance as a child of God - your inheritance which includes financial wealth and good health in this world. And one of the verses they use to support this doctrine is our passage today - Ask, and it will be given to you. That’s it – the reason you aren’t wealthy, or at least living in financial abudance - the reason you aren’t healthy, and that you are sick - is because you haven’t asked and haven’t believed God in what you are asking for. Well, is this what this passage is saying?
Well to understand this passage we must look at the whole passage, and also to look at its context. First – a little bit of it’s context. This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and this passage is dealing with asking God for things. In other words – it is dealing with prayer. This passage today is basically dealing with the effectiveness of prayer. That is, that God does actually hear and answer prayer. Now this is not the first time the Sermon on the Mount has talked about prayer. Where else have we come across prayer in the Sermon on the Mount? Well – the most obvious, is the Lord’s Prayer! Matthew 6:9-13. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus told us what to pray for. That is, He told us what sort of things we should be praying for, what sort of things we should be asking for.
Then a couple of weeks ago we looked at Matthew 6:25-34 about not being anxious. In that passage Jesus told us not to be anxious about the things of this life - food, drink and clothing. Jesus told us that our Heavenly Father provides for the needs of the birds of the air and the flowering weeds that grow up in our paddocks. If He does that – God will look after us too. And in that passage Jesus told us not to be worried about or pre-occupied with the things of this world, but rather to seek first – primarily – the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Now while that passage from Matthew 6:25-34 doesn’t use the word “prayer”, it does talk about God providing our needs as we seek His kingdom.
So when we read today’s passage about asking, seeking and knocking, we need to read it in light of these passages we’ve already looked at in previous weeks. Why? Well, they are part of the same sermon! While for us those passages might be separated by several weeks, when Jesus orginally preached the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus would have said our passage today only several minutes after He taught on the Lord’s Prayer. So we need to read them together, and this will help us to understand today’s passage better.
So let’s read on further in today’s passage. We’ve already seen that what we ask for will be given to us, and in the next two verses Jesus reassures us further :
Matthew 79 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
Jesus compares God to a human father. Most fathers, even the ones who aren’t so good, will feed their kids! What parent is there among us who if our child asks us for bread, would give him a stone to try and eat instead? Or which of you, if your kid asks for a fish, would give them a snake? You see- a stone looked a bit like the bread they used to eat back then. A smooth stone was much the same shape and size as a loaf of bread , or as bread roll. And a snake was a similar shape as one of the types of fish they used to get from the Sea of Galilee. It’s true there are some pretty bad parents out there, but even among the bad ones, there’s not many that would try fool his kid when he asked for bread and give him a stone instead, or give him a snake when he asked for a fish. Even bad parents feed their kids, as Jesus says in verse 11:
Matthew 711 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.
Well, that’s quite blunt that Jesus calls us evil, and we’ll get back to that later in the sermon, but for now we can see that Jesus says that even evil parents - even bad parents - generally speaking – feed their kids, and if they ask them for food they give it to them. Now if bad, evil parents do that, then what about God who has no trace of evil in Him at all? Who is perfect in goodness, holiness and love? Will God give us a stone when we ask for bread? Or a snake when we ask for a fish? Certainly not! As Jesus says
Matthew 711 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Yes, even evil parents give good gifts to their children. So of course, how much more will our heavenly Father give us good things if we ask Him! Now some of us have had good parents. And I’ve been blessed with fantastic parents. And for those of who’ve had good parents, we can relate easily to God as our Father who always has our best interests in mind and who will give us good things if we ask for them. But I know some of you have not been blessed with a good father. It’s hard for you to imagine how God can be like a Father when you haven’t had a good experience of a Father. But what Jesus is saying here is that even if you’ve had a bad father, even he – unless he was really bad – fed you. And if a bad father can do that, what about God your loving Heavenly Father, who is so much better than any earthly father is? Surely He will give good gifts if you ask Him. And so Jesus wants to give us confidence that our Heavenly Father cares about those who are His children, those who humble themselves and come to Him in prayer and ask Him for His gifts.
And now we get to that part of the passage where we need to ask, “Does our Heavenly Father give us everything we ask for?” Everything? Well – some people say that that’s what this passage says. So if you want a Ferrari, and ask God for it – then God will give it to you. Or you want that luxury villa at Noosa – then God will give it to you if you ask. Now it might seem obvious to most of us that God won’t necessarily give us a Ferrari or a mansion at Noosa. That’s very obviously the prosperity doctrine. But what about on a more realistic scale? Will God give us that new Ford Falcon if we ask for it? Or do we have a right to ask for our dream house on a 5 acre block and expect that He will give it to us? Is that what this passage is saying? Well let’s have a look. This passage actually does tell us what God will give us when we ask Him. Verse 11 says:
Matthew 711 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
That’s it! God will give us good things to those who ask Him. Good things! And that makes perfect sense when you look at verse 9 and 10. If a child asks his parent for bread, he or she wouldn’t give him a stone. But what if the child actually asked for a stone? What if his child asked for a snake? Would the parent give his child a stone to eat even if he asked for a stone? No, of course not! Why? because it’s not a good thing. And lots of times kids to ask their parents for bad things. They ask for stones – or to be stoned, and a good parent will NOT give them what they want! They will not give their kid a bad thing, no matter how hard their kid asks for it. They will only give their children good things. And so too with our Heavenly Father. He will only give us good things. If we ask for bad things, then don’t expect Him to give it to you. What loving father would give their children a bad thing, even if he pleaded with his father for it? So we can be quite clear then that our Heavenly Father will only too happily give us good gifts when we ask Him for them, but He won’t give us bad gifts!
So, next question - what’s a good gift? And apart from bread and fish, our few verses here don’t tell us what a good gift is, and because of that there’s a lot of speculation about what are good gifts. But although these few verses we are looking at today don’t tell us precisely what the good things are that we should ask for, the Sermon on the Mount as whole definitely does tell us. And it’s found in chapter 6 and is called the Lord’s Prayer! So what am I saying? I’m saying exactly this: Jesus has already told us exactly what we should be asking for! Exactly! Remember, this passage today is all part of the same sermon that has the Lord’s Prayer in it! So in Matthew 6:9-13 which is the Lord’s prayer, Jesus tells us what to pray for. What to ask for. What to seek for. What to knock on the door for. And He’s also told us what to seek for in Matthew 6:33 when Jesus tells us:
Matthew 633 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
So in our passage today what Jesus is saying is that when we ask for and seek those things that He’s already told us to ask for
then He’ll give them to us! Now that’s wonderfully encouraging! Let’s review those things the Lord’s Prayer tells us to pray for in order to refresh our memories. Remember the first part of the Lord’s prayer is about God’s kingdom and His purposes in the world.
Matthew 9b “Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
We are to pray for God’s kingdom to come, for His will to be done. Remember that Jesus’ basic message during His ministry was
Matthew 417b “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus’ ministry was bringing in the Kingdom. And so He called people to repent. Why? He was calling them to turn from their sinful ways, from their own way of doing things, and to turn to God’s way of doing things. God’s will. God’s kingdom. And so when a person turns from their sins and asks God to forgive them their sins, then they enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And Jesus through His Bible and through His church - which is you if you are a member of His church - issues the same call to repentance to people today.
Most people today do not recognise the rule of God, but when someone who is not following Jesus turns from their sin and asks God to forgive them their sins, then their sins are forgiven based on what Jesus did by rising from the dead, and they receive eternal life! Which means you enter the kingdom of heaven and you enjoy that in some part now in this life as a downpayment, a deposit, of the fullness of God’s glorious kingdom to be revealed in all its fullness in the next age. And if you are here today and have not confessed your sins and repented – that is, turned from your sins and turned to God - then Jesus is issuing the same call to you today. Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Jesus is coming back – we don’t know when, but He’s coming. Are you ready for the kingdom of Heaven?
And so the first thing Jesus wants us to pray for, to ask Him for, is for God’s kingdom to come, His will to be done. That is, for us as Christians to live righteous lives, to overcome sin in our own lives, and to live according to His kingdom, His will. And not just for us, but for others, here in Gympie and in the whole world, which Jesus died for. For people everywhere to come to God in repentance of their sins and to recognise His rule and His kingdom and His will. And that fits in too with what we saw in Matthew 6.33:
Matthew 633 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
When we ask God for kingdom things, in line with His will, He will answer our prayers and give us these good things.
Well, we might say, what about our needs too? And the rest of the Lord’s prayer covers that.
Matthew 6 11 Give us this day our daily bread.
Yes, we are to pray for our needs – our daily bread. And here we have exactly the same thing that Jesus used as an example in our passage today. We are to pray for our daily bread, and in our passage today in Matthew 7:9 Jesus says that if a son asks his parents for bread they wll give it to him. So we know that God wll supply our basic needs if we ask Him. And of course we need to not just pray for my daily bread, but our daily bread - pray for those much less well off than we are who really do wonder where their next meal is coming from. Pray for those in the current famine in Africa - and just a reminder that today was the last day to give to that famine appeal through the church. If you missed that and wanted to give then catch Steve straight away after the service, or give directly to Baptist World Aid or Barnabus Fund – their details are in the newsletter.
So we should pray for our needs, and as Jesus promised us in the passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago, as we seek first the things of God, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, God will supply our needs. Not necessarily our wants, but our needs. And so that is a good thing that Jesus says our Father will give us. And then if we continue on in the Lord’s prayer we read
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And that’s the greatest need that any of us have really - forgiveness of our sins. One of the problems in our modern Aussie culture is most people, including many Christians, don’t realise they are sinners and we don’t realise how offended God is by our sin. Remember we saw in 7.11 that Jesus calls us evil when He says,
Matthew 711 If you then, who are evil.
We don’t like that. I don’t like that. Jesus is saying here that I’m evil! That you are evil! And we don’t like to think that we are evil, but I’m afraid that if Jesus says we are evil, then He’s right! And perhaps that’s one reason He gave us the Sermon on the Mount, is so that we can realise how evil we really are in God’s eyes. I know that as we’ve gone through the Sermon on the Mount that we’ve been constantly hit with how far short of God’s standard we are. Being bombarded with God’s standards for righteousness and realising how far short of it I am. What a sinner I am! What a sinner you are! Oh we need God’s grace, we need His forgiveness. Which is why Jesus tells us to pray “Forgive us our debts.” And the wonderful promise we have today is that when we ask for that, provided we forgive others of their debts against us too, that God will indeed forgive us our sins! Because of what Jesus did on the cross, by dying and rising from the dead, He’ll wipe the slate clean! Hallelujah! Is that exciting or what?? And then the last part of th Lord’s prayer is
Matthew 613 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
It’s great that God has forgiven us of our sin, but I know for myself I’d also like to not sin again, or at least not as much as I used to. Oh God, lead us not into temptation, deliver me from evil, and help me follow these standards of righteousness that you give in the Sermon on the Mount, standards that are so far beyond my own ability. And God promises that good gift too. Now it’s interesting that over in Luke Jesus teaches almost the same thing:
Luke 1113 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
This time in Luke, Jesus says that what the Father gives us when we pray is The Holy Spirit! And surely the Holy Spirit is one of the good things that Jesus means in our passage in Matthew. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to live a holy life, to become more like Jesus, who helps us sin less and less as we grow in Christ. Who leads us not into temptation but delivers us from evil.
And so today we have a wonderful promise. We have a promise that as we pray for and seek the things that God has told us to ask for, to seek for, then we can be sure that He will give them. So then, let us bodly ask for those things in the Lord’s Prayer. Let us seek that which Jesus told us to seek for - God’s kingdom and His righteousness, with the assurance that God will hear us, and give us these good things, especially the gift of forgiveness of sins. And again I ask you if you haven’t received that gift from God yet - forgiveness from your sins - then come and ask me after the service more about it.
