Transcript
Well, now we're back to our text. Right in the middle of the sixth chapter, after the way he has intensified the law and brought that arc around, then he warns us about not practicing our righteousness in front of people and does this wonderful, in my opinion, this wonderfully wise teaching with regard to how you handle lifestyle. Notice the lifestyle advice he's giving. It's sort of this mixture of doing something because it deserves to be done. And
not playing the actor in it or playing a performance or a role, but having it sort of as a part of who you are. And I think that's the whole logic of that in secret and not hypocritical, not like the first century Greek-Roman actor. And you've got to realize that's the context of that word, hypocrite. It means we think of it one way, but think of it the way they thought of it. They thought of
it as a role of an actor. And so in that way, hey, it's fine. We are glad some people can play roles. But he is saying don't do that with these key lifestyle decisions, like your piety, which would be your relationship with God, righteousness, and with your prayer, and with your acts of discipline. Make your acts of discipline healthy. Christians get in trouble when their acts of discipline, like fasting and any other act of discipline, becomes
a kind of art form. It becomes a kind of performance that you then are playing by certain kind of game plans that would be great in a game, like soccer, and in a game, but not in life. When you're playing a game with something like your art, your prayer, and your acts of charity, and also your acts of discipline. Those acts of discipline should be healthy. And I think that's the key. And right in the middle
of that comes this wonderful section where after he says don't heap meaningless language and just say things, your Heavenly Father knows what you need. And then pray then in this way. And that is now chapter 6. We'll start with verse 9 in the famous pray in this way. Another thing that we need to say before we do the prayer is that Jesus as a rabbi and as a teacher with his disciples would be expected to do
two things. He would be expected to give a commentary in the law. He would also be expected to give commentary on the prophets. And remember he does that when he sits down also and recites Isaiah 61 and says today this great text is fulfilled. He'd be expected to do that. And he would be expected to teach his disciples how to pray. Now this becomes quite interesting in the first century because we know from the Dead Sea
Scrolls, that's one thing the Dead Sea Scrolls helped us with, is that a great part of the Dead Sea Scrolls were the manuals of discipline. And they were prayers, special prayers for special times. And you were given this great number of prayers that people were trying to memorize and know. And they were prayers for all these different seasons of your life and prayers when you go to war, prayers if you've killed somebody, prayers if you've got
contaminated somehow, prayers, special prayers. And so Jesus would be expected by his disciples to have a whole, you might say, catalog of prayers that he would teach them. And as you know, there is one of the texts in the Gospels where they say, why haven't you taught us prayers like the Pharisees and the others have taught prayers? Why haven't you? And in that context, in Luke's Gospel, he teaches our Father prayer. In this context, in the
book of Matthew, it's taught right in the midst of his Sermon on the Mount. So when you're praying, do not heap empty phrases like the Gentiles do. They think they'll be heard because of many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way. And now we get this very simple prayer. Our Father in heaven, Jesus uses the word Father. I already made a reference
to that. At the time of the first century, it was considered by many people, especially in certain movements, impious to use familiar language with reference to God. And so the word Father would not be ordinarily used. Kingdom of heaven would be used to refer to God and kingdom language, but not Father. And that's why when our Lord uses our Father, that would be, in a sense, scandalous to some people because it's too familiar. And yet, as
I pointed out in the last hour, Moses did the same thing in his great prayer. So Jesus isn't breaking with tradition. He's actually going to an older tradition than what the people had done by the intertestamental period when they had become so careful about naming the name of God. So he decides to go to an older tradition and use the word Father to refer to God. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Now we have
the holiness of God being affirmed. And then I made a comment also in the last hour that we have a couple of fair statements that if you don't mention the kingdom of God in a prayer and in your worship, then you have not really properly prayed. So again, he uses the kingly reign language. Your kingly reign come. Your will be done. Notice the prayer is beginning by focusing upon our Father in heaven and his kingly reign.
And we're claiming it, that his kingly reign will come on earth as it is in heaven. So the first, remember the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments begin with the first three commandments having to do with our right relationship with God, the upward relationship. And that's exactly how our Father prayer begins to, the upward relationship with God. Then he moves to ourselves, just like in the fourth commandment, which talks about us, that we shall be rememberers. We
shall remember how God made us. We shall remember that he loves us. And then the ethical part moves outward toward our parents and then the people around us. But also our relationship to the earth is involved in the first three commandments. We worship God. We do not worship anything in the earth. We steward the earth. We don't worship the earth. We care for the animals. We don't worship the animals. So that's why we're warned against idolatry.
By the way, somebody asked me to define idol. Idolatry means that you project a meaning on something that it does not have. For instance, when I worship my parents, I'm projecting a meaning. I'm projecting an expectation on them that they cannot supply. They are not able to handle worship. No human being can handle worship because that's an expectation. And when I do it in a way, I'm setting them up for failure. And I'm also getting everything
ready to now idolize and then later I will hate, I will hate the idol that lets me down. And so don't let that happen. Don't project a meaning to anything in the earth that it does not have. And that would be the animal kingdom or the earth. So the earth is stewarded by us. The animals are stewarded by us, but they're not worshiped. So now we have focused on our up relationship. And then in the fourth
commandment, we get to deal with our daily life. And it's interesting, isn't it, that next line, give to us this day our daily bread. Daily bread, notice, not daily cake. We're not praying for cake. We're praying for daily bread, enough to survive. That's the way it's written in the Old Testament, too, that your daily bread, there's a line in Proverbs about our daily bread, the bread enough for today. We're asking for God's blessing upon us in
the sense of leading us to where there is bread for today. And that earthy prayer for our survival, that now we're on the earth, we have worshiped God, and now we ask for our survival. We're encouraged to pray for our survival. We have a right to survive. Even in that, we see the worth that's being imputed to us. And then it faces up to our sinfulness. Forgive us. By the way, the word forgive, again, is afleil,
means to leave behind. Leave behind our sins. You can do that. Leave behind our sins and our debts. Here it's interesting. The word debts is used in the Matthew text. And then a little later, when the text is amplified by our Lord, he will then use the word trespasses. So both trespasses and debts. And if you read the Luke account, it's the word sins that are used. So again, you can take your pick, and you have
a biblical reference for each of those. But forgive us our debts, what we owe. That's just the word for owe. And then when it's expanded a little later, forgive others their trespasses. That word literally means to cross over, the crossing over of our lives. So you can work it both ways. So forgive us our debts, what we owe that we cannot repay, as we have also forgiven our debtors, those who owe us stuff that they can't
repay. And do not bring us to the time of trial, is the way that New RSV has put that. The King James Bible and many Bibles will say, and lead us not into temptation, which is the old traditional way of putting it. And bring us not, it's now the word, the time of trial. The word for temptation is the word peril. We get the word, it's pareo, but we get the word peril from that word. In
other words, bring us not to the place where we're in peril, in pressure or temptation, too great for us to bear. Temptation, protect us from this, the RSV decided to translate it, the time of trial, of peril, of great peril, the peril of temptation, where we're being tempted to make bad choices. Notice that our choices are preserved in the Lord's Prayer. Otherwise, that prayer would make no sense. If we're not temptable, if there's no way we
can be tempted, then there's no point in having the prayer to protect us from peril. The peril or temptation is too great for us to bear. So, bring us not to the time of temptation, peril, but rescue us from, and now the word tou poneru is used, from the evil one. Calvin translated it all kinds of evil, seeing that tou poneru is the word used for the devil. It's one of the phrases used in the New
Testament to refer to the devil, is the evil one, or sometimes he's called the tempter, and sometimes he's called the slanderer, that's the word Satan, and sometimes he's called the evil one Diabolus, that's the devil. So you've got all these words for the devil, and then the one word used once in the book of Revelation, Apollyon, the one who tries to destroy. He can't destroy, but he calls himself the destroyer. So you've got the tempter, you've
got the slanderer, and you've got the evil one, the twisted or bent one. Poneru is an interesting word. Poneru is the word for bent or sick, the sick one, but it's the sense of morally sick or bent. So he's the bent one, and then the slanderer is Satan, the accuser. So you have all those words used to refer to the devil. The most interesting of the devil language that appears, it doesn't use here, is the word
for the tempter, because here we are meeting temptation, and it's interesting that the word for tempt, or the one who tempts us, is in Greek the plano, is the word, as used, for instance, in 1st John when he says, if you say you have no sin, you are deceiving yourselves, you're deceived, the deceiver, or the tempter who deceives. And then we've got Satan, the slanderer, Diabolus, the evil, that's evil, and then Poneru, the Poneru, the evil
one, or the bent one, and then, of course, I told you Apollyon would be the destroyer. So you've got all these language choices, but the deceiver is the one who tempts us. He tempts us by deceiving us, so that we choose a lesser value, we choose a false value in the face of a positive value, and that's called the peril, the peril of the deceiver, of being tempted, and then Satan, the accuser, Diabolus, Poneru, and plano
is the word for deceiver, and it's interesting that Greek word choice is quite interesting because in Greek astronomy, the Greeks didn't know about Copernicus, but when they looked at the sky, they made a mistake, and when they looked at the sky, they thought the earth was the center of the universe at that time, they thought about that for a long time until Copernicus, but they looked and they saw all the stars, and the sun seemed to
go around us, stars moved, and the Greek astronomers were smart enough, though, to realize that in the constellation of the moving stars, of course, the sun and the moon, that was easy, they're going around us, so that was easy, simple, but the stars were not so simple because they noticed there were two kinds of stars. There were the stars that twinkled, and they were stationary, they shouldn't be stationary, they should all be going around us, right,
because we're the center, but they were stationary. There were other stars that were moving all the time, like Venus and Mars and Jupiter, and they began to realize they're moving, so I love what the Greek astronomers did, they decided to name those, they used the word star, the Greek word star is used for the twinkling ones, but with the ones that were not twinkling, like Mars does not twinkle, we know why it doesn't twinkle, right, it's
just reflecting light from the sun, they didn't know that, except they knew it was not twinkling, and they also knew it was not stationary, it was moving, and so they called it plano, planets, moving ones, deceiving ones, they were deceiving you, they made you think they were stars, but they're not stars, so that if you're a sailor, don't set your compass or your sextant to Venus, you're going to be in trouble, you set it to the
north star, because it does not move, and sailors, even sailors back in the first century figured that out, you could use the north star to guide yourself in the Mediterranean, but you better not use Mars to guard yourself in the Mediterranean, you can use the sun, because the sun comes up in the east, back in the west, east, hey that works, but not the planos, the planos are deceptive, and you know that becomes the word used
in the New Testament for the deceiver, for the devil, one of the words for the devil is that he tricks you into thinking he's got answers, but he doesn't have answers, and he puts you in peril with false answers, he puts you in peril, right? Like especially if you were going to navigate out in the Pacific Ocean, and you were going to navigate from Mars, you're going to be in peril, who knows where you're going to
end up, but you're not going to end up where you think you're going to, because you don't know where north is, you will not find north with Mars, so anyway, plano becomes the Greek word that is used, becomes one of the words for the devil in the New Testament, and it's that though Jesus doesn't use that word in this part of the prayer, but here he uses tou poneru, the evil one, the bent one, but notice
how that does tie in with plano, the deceiving one who is bent, he's not straight, he's not righteous, he's evil, and that's the peril that we're told to pray for protection from, and so it's a beautiful thing when you think about it, forgive us our debts, what we owe, as we have forgiven, notice that's a prayer, and it's almost like, and help us to forgive those who are indebted to us, and then don't bring us, or
King James, lead us not into temptation, but do not lead us or bring us to the time of trial, in other words, protect us from the peril of the tempter, the peril of trial, and that's temptation, from the peril of temptation, but rescue us, save us from the evil one, and Calvin felt that tou poneru could be rightly translated, protect us from all the forms of evil that have their source in the devil, and that's why
we don't use the word devil in our prayer, in fact, we don't even pray when we say, and rescue us from the evil one, we say from evil in our prayer, if you look at the prayer that we use in our prayer book, deliver us from evil, all the kinds of evil that come from that bentness, then comes a warning, I'm going to help you with this warning now, for if you forgive others, that means leave
behind, others there, and now the word trespasses is used, the word means to cross over, people who have crossed over you, like the people who are in debt to you, two different understandings, there are people who have sinned against you, use Luke and Matthew both, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, now a little hyperbole here again, neither will your father forgive your
trespasses, is that an absolute statement, I don't know, I'll tell you how Luther decided to handle that statement, and I kind of like Luther's handling, Luther wrote a great commentary also on the Sermon on the Mount, and Martin Luther handles it this way, he said this last warning is really a word of encouragement, but it's put in positive negative terms, and Luther says, Jesus now warns us that we who have experienced forgiveness, we've experienced forgiveness of
our debts, and then we pray, Lord help us then to forgive others their debts, now Luther says, Jesus gives a P.S., he says, now you, when you have experienced the forgiveness of your trespasses, then you get to help forgive others their trespasses, and if you don't, then there's a warning, Luther says, the reason for the warning is to assure us, Jesus gives us this line, to assure us of our salvation, of our forgiveness, now think of
Luther, here's his logic, when you're able to forgive others, it proves you have been forgiven, you're able to forgive, if you're unable to forgive, then you're not assured of your own forgiveness, that's why you keep clinging to other people's, you know, you get into the blame game, because you're not assured of your own safety, if you're assured of your own safety, then you're able to forgive others, so that's how Luther handles that passage, and I think
it's not a bad handling of it, but it still stands as a warning, he's warning us, he says, I'm forgiving you, now be sure you forgive others, and if you take Luther's line, when you assure others, that assures you of your forgiveness, it's an assurance, but it's also a warning, be sure you don't take this lightly, I intend you to forgive others, that is, once again, he's taken the ark, and he's brought the ark around full
circle, you're forgiven, if you take that ark around, it means that forgiveness is a powerful force that's put into your life, when God forgives, and takes away your culpability and sin, that starts an ark around, now carry it all the way around, and you'll carry it around, and you'll be assured that when you're able to forgive others, and that's Luther's handling of that passage, all right, following that prayer, where we're invited to ask for help, notice
the kind of help we're asked, first we're honoring God for who he is, and then we're asking for help to survive with daily bread, and then we're asking for forgiveness, and then we're asking for the power and the ability to forgive others, so that we can live out that forgiveness, and then we're asking for protection against the peril of the tempter, the deceiver of deception, and then frankly and squarely we're asked to be rescued from the
power of the evil one, who is the bent one, who does the deceiving, and then for if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you, now as you know in the Luke account, there is added a final benediction, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, amen. And that passage is added, not in the Matthew account, but in the Luke account, it's added, and some have wondered, is that a
part of the prayer that our Lord then ends the prayer by once again turning our eyes, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, amen. Actually our Lord is quoting from the final part of David's prayer, in the Old Testament, David had a prayer for his son Solomon, and he ended it with that prayer, for thine is the kingdom, not referring to his son, but referring to God, for thine is the kingdom, the
power, and the glory forever, amen. And that's a Davidic prayer. And so did Jesus, I kind of like this approach frankly, did Jesus then end the prayer here with just the spareness we have of this Matthew account, or did he add that David benediction? I kind of like that he did that, because he starts by honoring the Pharisaic requests for kingdom, and he ends with very Davidic kingdom language, because Jesus is the fulfillment of David too.
Notice what he's doing in the Sermon on the Mount, though he doesn't do that in the Sermon on the Mount, he doesn't add that Davidic benediction, but he does in the other rendering of the Lord's Prayer that we have. So you can take your pick, there it is. Some people would maybe stop the prayer right here as it is in Matthew, but I think it's correct to have the final ascription, the final benediction, this quotation of
David. It makes perfect sense that our Lord would do that, that he starts with kingdom, and then he concludes with kingdom. It's kingdom, kingdom. Kingly reign, kingly reign. It surrounds our requests for what we need, okay? And now let's move on. Then we got the fasting, and now we move on to concerning treasures. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust disfigure. Okay, remember, that's that word that he told you not
to do when you were fasting. Disfigure and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust disfigure and where thieves do not break in and steal. And then, of course, this wonderful line, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And many people have been very touched by that tremendous insight that Jesus is giving. Notice how once again in that insight our Lord is
giving commentary on the law and giving commentary on the fourth commandment, too. In the fourth commandment and in the first three commandments, we don't take treasures and get the meaning for our life from treasures, so we don't worship anything on earth. So we're not going to store up for ourselves a treasure as if it is going to give meaning to our lives. No, treasures are transient, but it isn't an ironic truth that where your treasure is,
what you value so highly, that's where your heart will be. And so Jesus warns us against having our heart zeroed in on the treasures of the earth. See, that's in the first three commands. We were told not to worship the earth. We're to steward the earth, not worship it. And so don't treasure, see the treasures of the earth as something that gives meaning to your life. They also pass away. And then the warning, where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also. So be sure you have your heart and your treasure in the right place. Find a treasure that does not have moths breaking in and stealing it. Then the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is unhealthy, the whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how
great is that darkness? Okay, once again, he is giving us, you might say, this is kind of what we would call advice narrative. It's a little bit like the book of Proverbs. Jesus will do this in this part in the Sermon on the Mount. He is giving us, what you might say, epigrams of wisdom. Scholars, when they look at this, call this wisdom literature here. It's wisdom teaching. It's very similar to what you get in the
book of Proverbs, where you get an insight into life, and then it's just given, and there it is, it just stands. And there you have, again, that kind of wisdom teaching. That's the sound eye. Then the serving of two masters. No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one or love and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. That's just a repeat. The Jews love parallelism,
so he's just saying it twice. And then you cannot serve God and wealth. And the word mammon is used, but that's the word tying up with the treasures again. So we're getting another wisdom teaching about treasures. Don't worship treasures. Then you'll have two masters. You'll have your stewardship of your life, you'll have the responsibility of your life and what you want to live out, and then you're going to have this other thing that is a rival.
Now, don't worry is the way the RSV decided to put this next one, because the word for worry here is the Greek word for anxiety. It's used by St. Paul in the Philippians when he says, be anxious for nothing. It's this anxiety word. In other words, don't be eaten up by small things. And that's the way it's sort of used in St. Paul, and that's used that way now by our Lord. Therefore, I tell you, do
not worry, do not be anxious about your life. Okay, I have to tell you the word for life here now is he's used the word spirit to refer to us earlier, the spirit of, you know, pouring spirit and that spiritual language for who we are, the wind language, because that's what spirit language is, wind language, the wind that identifies who I am. Now he uses another Greek word, psuche. We get the English word psychology from this
word, but it means soul. It's usually translated soul, psuche. PSCH, you know, psych, your psyche. So this is another word for your life. There are other words like bio is the word for life and zoe is the word for life. You get zoology from zoe, you get biology from bio, and those two words are used for life, but this word is used, and the RSV decided to translate this, your life. It could have been translated your
soul, but your identity and who you are. So when you see the word life here, I think it's not a bad idea if you're making a note on it to put psyche there because it's saying your, about the meaning of your life. See, rather than, he could have just said zoe or bio, your biological life, your zoological life. He doesn't do it. Your, the meaning about your life. So do not worry about your meaningful life, the
meaning of your life, and your psyche, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear. In other words, when you're thinking about the meaning of your life, don't see that meaning in terms of what you eat, what you drink, or what you wear. Is not your life, and now he repeats the word psyche again, souquet, psyche, is not your soul, your life, more than food, and your body, more
than clothing. We're getting now again, just like the book of Proverbs, you're getting wisdom, teaching about who we are, and then a parable, and Jesus is great for these parables, so is the book of Proverbs. You get a parable, and then very much in the Proverb tradition, look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of much more value? Okay.
Here is the word. The word for value is diaferro. I've got to give you another word, because this word value is a good word to see. Diaphrio. Dia is a road language. Dia is a way, is the way language. Diaphrio. And diaphrio means the, it's a kind of a, in the first century, it's a kind of a common sense word. It's a word about the way of the road, the way of the road. When I, I
saw this word in the Philippians, and I thought one of the best translations of it would be, where Paul is praying, that he prays for the Philippians, and he said, I'm praying that you will have three kinds of knowledge. I'm praying that you will have epiginosko, that means knowledge in every direction. I'm praying that you'll have isthesis, that means in depth knowledge. And I'm praying that you'll have diaphrio, common sense, street knowledge, knowledge for the street.
See, just makes sense. And so this means the way of the road, it just makes sense. And it's sort of common sense. And Paul, it's beautiful that Paul prays for that, for the Philippians, in the opening of Philippians. I'm praying for those three things. I want you to know a lot, epiginosko. See, epi is an intensifier, ginosko to know. I want you to know in every direction. Talk about the mandate to go to college. Here would
be the mandate to go to college. Learn everything you can learn. And I want you isthesis, to look inside, thesis, we get the word thesis. I want you to think into things, to know in depth. I want you to do that. But then he has that third one. And I want you to have common sense. Common sense. And you know in the RSV they translate it, discernment. Common sense. Knowing how long to pray when the food's
getting cold. That's common sense. How hard to push a kid at a point. Common sense. It's like parents is learning about discipline with kids. Kid comes home and it's one o'clock at night and the next morning you say to your kid, what time did you come in last night? Why did you ask it? You already knew because you were definitely awake at one o'clock when he came in. Don't play that game. That would be
hypocritical. You'd be play acting. Say instead, I know you came in at one o'clock last night. Hey. Why? I thought we had a curfew at 11. But a parent that will do this to a child makes a child just hate it. He says, when did you come in last night? Oh, I think about 10. You did not. I know you came in at 11, 12, 14. Look, if you know it, don't ask it. That's not,
it doesn't make common sense. It's not common sense. And it isn't good. See, Paul is praying that parents will know how to have knowledge in every direction. That means you should know the schedule of the bus routes and all. And that you should have in-depth knowledge, especially in your faith. And then you should have diaphrio, common sense. You should know the worth. And you should know what's the road skill, the roadway knowledge. See, dia
phrio, the phrio that carries weight. It's the ambulando. It's ambulando. You should know that. Now watch how that word works by our Lord here in this thing. Is not life more than food? Is your soul more than food? Is your body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? You're on a more
important road than they're on. See, that's all he's saying. You're on a more important road than they're on. You're stewarding all those little birds and animals. But you're on a very important road. Don't you know that? You need to know it. It's a very important road. That's street knowledge. This is not a small thing. You're on an important road. And the RSV decided to translate that value. I'm not sure I like that. It's just an important
road. You're on a very important road. And can any of you by worrying, add a single hour to the span of your life? This is so great, isn't it? And why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field. Again, the parable. They grow. They neither toil nor spin. Notice how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But
if God closed the grass of the field, which is alive today, tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, don't worry, saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? The Gentiles strive over these things. Indeed, your Heavenly Father knows what you need, that you need all these things. And now comes a very famous line. But strive, now I'm sorry for the
word strive here, because the word is going to be used a little later again by Jesus. It's zeteo. The word is zeteo. And zeteo in Greek means seek. Strive is to seek is the word. Zeteo. It's a strange Greek word. Zeteo means to seek or look for. Seek. Seek first. Strive sounds like it's a warfare word. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, His character. And all these things will be yours, will be
given to you as well. And then one final book of Proverbs type little epigram. So don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's troubles are enough for today. Is enough for today. Notice he's not saying, he's not taking life lightly. He's not taking today lightly. But he is saying here's where you are right now. Live where you are right now. And use your common sense. Realize that the road you're on is very
important. And God is not taking lightly your road. Does that make sense? I think that's what our Lord is doing in this part of the parable. In this part of the Sermon of the Mount. And He makes a parable about it. See, God takes your road very seriously. Okay? I'm going to read it that way then. Notice is not life your soul more than food? In other words, the meaning of your life more than food and
your body, the meaning of your body more than clothing. Now look at the birds of the air. They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Okay? Are you not of more street value? Is it your road? And the road you're on, will be the way I would translate that. It's not the road that you're on and where you are. Your life and what yours is not. It's more
important. And therefore as a matter of fact, it's so important and yet you can't add one minute to your span by worrying about it. Just live it. See, get on with your life and see what happens. But don't worry. Don't brood on that. Don't brood on the wrong thing, I guess is the way you'd put it. Brood on the right thing, not the wrong thing. And I just think this is a perfect example of Jesus in
the tradition of the Proverbs, in the tradition of the wisdom teachers. Then the seventh chapter. Now this is our important final chapter. And it's really big. Do not judge. Okay, the word judge is the word crino. It's the big word. I should tell you about that word. Krino. Do not judge, krino. We get so many English words from krino. It looks like this in k-r-i-n-o. Krino. We get a lot of words from
this root. Well, first let's go through some of the built words. Kata, krino. I already told you that one. Krino by itself means way. To way. And that's its literal meaning in Greek. Kata, krino means to weigh down. So that is the word for condemn. And we don't like that word at all. To condemn, to weigh down. And when a person is weighed down, they're called a crim a crimino. And the word criminal in English is
person is weighed down. And so the word to weigh is very big. Who has the right to weigh? Who has the right to do the final weighing? For example, the word is used very decisively in Romans 8. In Romans 8, Saint Paul actually ends, you could have ended the whole book of Romans at the end of Romans 8, but he does it in a very dramatic way using this word crimino. He comes there, he says, this
is Romans 8:31. What should we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not withhold his own son, but gave him up for us all. Will he not give us everything with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, that's the word dicaios, who is it to condemn catacrino? Now, in that case, who has the right, the catacrino also means, in condemn
it means to say the last word. Who has the right to say the last word? That's the condemn word, the last word. The last word is spoken by the judge when he says you will go to prison now for the rest of your life. That's the katakrino judgment. Who has the right to say this last word, this katakrino? And now Saint Paul gives this wonderful answer. Who has the right to say this last word? Is it
Jesus Christ? Who died? Yes. Notice, Jesus Christ has the right to say this last word. He's the judge. And he died and he was raised. And he's at the right hand of God. He indeed intercedes for us. Now suddenly he becomes our defense attorney. He intercedes for us. And then he goes one more step. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? He loves us. And will hardship or distress or persecution, there's that word, or
famine or nakedness or peril or sword, there's that word, pareo, temptation, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all day long. We are a counted sheet to be slaughtered. There you quote the Old Testament. Know in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth
nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The decision God made to love us is the lasting decision, is the last word. See? The last word is not the condemnation of us by other people. Who's going to condemn us? Who has the right to say the last word if God is for us? Who's against us? We can think of a lot of people
against us, especially when Paul wrote this, Nero is the emperor. There are a lot of people you can think of who are against us but who has the right to say the last word? And he raises that question, I love it, he raises that as he gets to the close of the eighth chapter of Romans. And then he puts in this powerful word. Who has the right to say this last word? And he makes it clear
only Jesus Christ can say the last word. Now with that in mind, to ring in our ears from Paul, notice where Paul got it. He got a lot of that from our Lord himself. Listen to Jesus. Do not krino, judge so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment that you make, you will be judged. And the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's
eyes, famous passage, and do not see the log that's in your own eye? How can you say to your neighbor, let me take the speck out of your eye while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite. Now once again, you play actor. You're acting. Don't you realize this is the game you're playing. Take the log out of your own eye. And then you'll see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye. So
in a way, he takes away from us this right to judge and weigh other people. Karl Barth puts it this way in his commentary that the dividing line, the judgment dividing line, is hidden from us. That's in God's hands. And it's taken out of our hands. And we are not given that right to be the judge of our neighbor. Now communities have to play judgment roles. And that's why court systems and communities play that in order
to protect the community from marauders and all that. But we do not get to say this last word about people around us. In a way, the story is still not over, so we don't get to say that. so he takes that out of our hands. But then as soon as he says that, he then talks about apparent contradiction. As soon as he tells us not to do that, then he says, but don't give to the dogs
what is holy. Don't throw your pearls before swine. They'll trample them under foot and turn and they will maul you. So now he takes and tells us not to judge. We don't get to do ultimate weighing. And yet we still have to be streetwise. We still have to be streetwise. So in a way, don't assume that he means that people are pigs that are going to trample. But he says don't take the good thing that you've
received and just throw it down carelessly. He's asking, I think, for us to be strategic and to be wise ourselves. And don't take something that's holy and just throw it down so that it will be trampled over by dogs or pigs, swine. Don't let it happen. I don't think it would be proper to say he means that people are the dogs and swine that will trample it down. I think instead he's saying don't take lightly. See,
he's already made that clear that the road that you're on is very important. It's a very important road. And now you don't get to say the last word about others, the judgment word, but you need to use wisdom when you take that which is holy and what you're saying. Don't just carelessly throw it down so that it's trampled on. And then again, it almost sounds like the book of Proverbs. After that, he now turns to the
disciples and says ask, and it will be given to you. And search, by the way, that's that same word zeteo, the word that was earlier strive. Search means seek. Seek you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. And everyone who searches finds. And for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who if his child were to ask for bread will give a
stone? Or if a child asks for a fish will give a snake? By the way, the word ophis is the word for snake here. And I got an insight into that when I was in the Holy Land a couple years ago and we were up at the head waters of the Jordan River at Lake Galilee and there's just all kinds of fish that are like catfish. They're there and catfish, look like catfish at least, they were
calling them catfish, and they were they're kosher wise an unclean fish because they're bottom fish and they're not supposed to eat them. And I was told by our guide that the Jews used the word for snake to refer to those fish. Ophis, they would call those fish ophis, though they were not snakes like cobras or adders, but they used catfish that were an unclean fish. And it's true we were there and nobody was fishing for those
fish. We like catfish, you know, they're good. But there was nobody fishing for those because they're not kosher. And they were just if you walked down, I didn't want to be anybody want to be baptized there, believe me, you have to be baptized in among all these fish. And there were some of them huge. And they were just swimming all over the place. It was alive with them. And I thought to myself, certainly don't want to
be baptized with those catfish. But at any rate and then and I said, so I said to the guy, why aren't they fishing for these? If this was in you know, we don't have catfish particularly in California, but if it was the Ozarks, man, they would have they would be pulling them in serving them at the restaurant Cajun style. And he said, oh, no, no, no one's fishing for those because they're not kosher. And so when
Jesus said this, this guide said, probably the ophis would be used, not that not literally that a father would give a snake to his son, but it would give him a catfish that's not kosher. And no good father would do that. It's not going to give his son one of these catfish. Okay, now so if your child were to ask for bread, would you give them a stone? And if your child asked for a fish, would
you give them an ophis, a snake? If you then who are evil, by the way, notice how Jesus is showing that evil people can do good things. And they remember like Mr. Fenger, the Nazi, he can do good things. And that is we should honor him for that and thank God that he makes a good choice because that's putting on the road that's that's one step ashore toward goodness. So we should be grateful for that. When
Lewis decided that he liked goodness and he respected goodness, he was on his way. In fact, after he says that in the surprise by joy, he said there are snares everywhere for an unaware atheist everywhere. When these acts of goodness happen, they're snares and an atheist has to be very careful not to run into those because they were winning Lewis and they were drawing him. He was cynical and he was atheist at that point. He was
in his late teens, 19 that point when he was in the battle of Psalms. Then he came back and finally in 1931 he became a believer. But it was people who these people that played a good role in his life like he said Chesterton and this man Johnson whenever I saw goodness I respected it even though I didn't want to be good myself. I respected it when I saw it and that is interesting isn't it? When
you see goodness you're grateful for it and our Lord preserves that here. He says you who are evil, I mean maybe you're bad people sometimes, but yet you give good gifts to your children. I'm glad that you don't have to be a perfect parent to give some good gifts to kids. You can give a good gift to a child. How much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? It's again
in the tradition of the wisdom literature giving a little parable here. But I've always loved this text because it's a good text on being a parent. It means that we are commanded to give good things to our kids to give them things that are healthy and like he says we're judged by this because is there anyone among you if your child were to ask for bread? So there is a way of testing a parent when your
kid asks for bread do you give him stone? That's why child abuse is so unforgivable in the Bible. It's such a horrible grievous sin. Child abuse or sexual abuse of a child by relatives or parents or uncles or aunts is such a huge and horrible thing because a kid is asking for bread and he's been given a rock. He's asked for fish and he's given a snake. Horrible. And so our Lord puts that in. He says
even those who are evil know that they cannot do that. They should not do that. It's almost like Louis the way he begins good and evil as the key to the universe. We know that instinctively that bad things that's written in our hearts, bad things should not be done to a child. We know it. We recoil when we see it happen. So our Lord uses that logic and says is there anyone among you if your child
asked for bread would give him a stone or if a child asked for a fish would give him an ophus, snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, thank God a lot of people give good gifts to their kids that aren't Christians. Man, I'm so glad they do. Give good gifts to your children. How much more will your but what a great thing could happen if a parent knew
of the greater good and could share that with their children as well. How much more your Father in Heaven will give good things to those who ask him. So notice what's happening in the Sermon on the Mount. He's created a crisis for us in the challenge of the way he brought the arc of the law around. And now he gave us the prayer to ask for help and now we get again prayers for help. And isn't
it interesting he doesn't use the word pray at all. He uses earthy words to describe prayer. Instead he says and now I want you all to pray to the Lord for help. But notice what it says. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open for you and by the way notice our freedom is preserved. Have you ever thought about how the evangelistic key lines in
the New Testament preserve your freedom. Take Revelation 3:20 which is the most beautiful invitation text in the whole of the New Testament really for invitation to discover Christ's love. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. Revelation 3:20. By the way that's given to the bad church too. The Laodicean church. Not one of
the good churches. It was the bad church that heard that good word. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice. Notice the freedom text. Ask seek knock. You get to do it. That's ashar. You get to take this path. Take this path. Ask seek and knock. The door will be open for everyone who asks receives everyone who searches finds. There's this wonderful invitation to discover the goodness of God and come into
it. If anyone is among you then of course the parable about parents. He said and you know about this because even a father that's not a good father knows that if a kid asks for bread you give him bread. He asks for fish you give him fish. And then comes another famous line. In everything due to others what you would have them do to you. For this is the law and the prophets. And of course as
you know our Lord asked a young lawyer what do you read in the law and he said love the Lord your God with all your heart strengthened in mine and your neighbor as yourself. And our Lord said do this and you will live. And then the lawyer said okay but I have one technical question who's my neighbor. And that one technical question introduced us into the parable of the good Samaritan. But the lawyer got the right
answer. And so that's here again repeated. Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction. And there are many who take it. But the gate for the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life. And there are few who find it. And now I believe now this word is zoe for life here. It leads to the fulfill life. And there are few that
find it. So here again Jesus invites us. I call this the good news of the narrow way. He's calling us now to trust him and come to ask, seek and knock and then to come on this pathway. And now there are going to be a few more warnings before we get to the final parable. This ties in with Psalm 1. In a way this seems a little bit contradictory to the fact that he just said even
evil fathers know how to give good gifts. But still you have to allow those kinds of apparent contradictions. It is true that here you have we're complicated and yet here there's a tree that's got good fruit. When we see that good fruit we honor it and we thank God for it and we see it as a sign aiming toward life and toward God's grace. And so yet here it is. It's put in very strong terms. Now
not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. But only those only the one who does. Now the word for does is poeo. In Greek that means who makes or who does and does something. And so it's a little bit that ambulando again. Who does it? Doesn't just think it but does something. He moves. Who does the will of my father in heaven? And so you're getting that strong word. On that
day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy? Now here are people who are speaking in your name. Did we not cast out demons in your name? And did we not do many deeds and power in your name? But I will declare to them I never knew you. Go away from me, you evildoers. Okay. By the way the word for evildoers here is and in light of Jesus being a teacher of the law
this is not the word ponerou. Evildoers here is literally it's a gnome. Gnomia is the word for law. In Greek gnomia is the word for law. And I'll give you another little Greek lesson. If you put an A in front of a Greek word it means no. See take for instance the word theos which is the word for God. Theos. And you put an A in front of atheos and you get atheist. Okay. Take the word
gnosis which is the word for no. And put an A in front of it and you have agnostic. There's a lot of A words. The word for idol is a-erg. Away from work. Not work. That's idol. So this is the word there's a lot of these so called A words. Here is anomos which means lawless. Away from the law. And for you who are lawyers you'd like to see that. He's not saying evildoers now. And
I don't know why the RSV translated evildoers. It's the lawless ones. You're the lawless ones. So in a sense it's makes sense that he's giving commentary on the law. And now he decides to come back to that and say that at the end. That is what it means to be lawless. To be lawless away from the law is when you do not do the will of my Father in heaven. It's not enough that you know about
it. It's not enough that you say Lord Lord. But to do the will of God. James brings the same up when he says you say you have faith. I'll show you my faith with my work. Erg. With what I do. And so now our Lord is doing the same thing. That's very much in the tradition of the wisdom tradition of the prophets and of the book of Proverbs. He's doing it in that wisdom tradition. You show
that you are following by what you do. Now the final parable. It's a little bit like the parable in Psalm 1. Everyone who hears these words of mine and now again I cannot understand why isn't this odd? Translators, remember up here look at your text. Those who enter the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of my Father. And now here again everyone then who hears these words of mine and now the RSV says
acts on them. It's the same word. Why would they not give you a clue in the it's almost like there's two different groups of committees that were translating the first paragraph there and then the second paragraph and they use two different English words for the same Greek word. It's the same word. So circle that and correct your text. It's not acts but does. Do again. All right. And doesn't that help you to see that the same
word is used? Jesus is a good teacher. And we there are I don't know if the NIV makes the same mistake as the RSV did here. Anybody have an NIV Bible there? It'll be interesting just to check it. Anybody got an NIV? Read your NIV for verse 21 of chapter 7. All right. Perfect. That's the same as RSV. Now go down to 24. Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is
not a Christian. Yeah. Okay. I don't even like that. See why not yeah. Why not just use the same word twice? Now who's what's that translation? The ESV. Okay. Now you see that's why you need five translations around you when you're doing Bible study. Because for one thing you're you deserve to know what is the Greek word that was used in the text. Because it looks like different words are being used in different places and then
you start getting crazy interpretations. But now even there the NIV fouled us up by saying puts into practice they took one word and put three words to do it. I would rather stick with does. Does. See because that's what he first said. You do it. Okay. Oh here we got another what's yours? King James? It'll probably be the best. Read the King James. Ah you see the King James. I always love the King James. It's earthiness
and it's sort of they were let's face it they were all Elizabethan, Shakespearean translators that did the King James. And they want that kind of wonderful rich language choice. And so the only problem with the King James is there were manuscripts that were discovered that were more ancient manuscripts that they didn't have access to. They had Alexandrinus but they didn't have Sinaiticus and all that stuff. So we need the RSV and the new RSV which is
what I put here because that's the most accurate ordinarily. And that's why we put it in. But isn't it wonderful to have these different translations? So be sure you always have the King James. And be sure you always look at the King James. Because the original revised it says seek instead of strive. Hey you see now that's the original RSV. You know I do love the original. I debated whether to give you the original RSV or
the new RSV. But I figured in the pure act you probably have the oh you have the new RSV. Yeah. And since I knew that you had the new RSV I thought I'd rather rather than to confuse you more. But that's wonderful. I do like the original RSV. It's a great translation. But it just bothers me when when well I it bothered me when three words were used up there for oh yeah when salt has lost
its taste. It bothered me why not just say when salt is tainted. See. Or is worthless. Because that's what the word is instead of getting three words lost its taste. It makes it sound like salt is a spice. And salt is not a spice. Pepper is a spice. Jesus could have said you are the pepper of the earth. And if he said that then he doesn't want you to lose your taste. But salt he cares about
your preservative purity. See. So that you are a preservative. And the Dead Sea will preserve in its own way. But it's not going to preserve the way you want fish preserved. See. And that's why the Jews love salt. You gotta have salt. Salt as you know is terribly important because it preserves. Alright. And now here. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like the wise man. By the way, I have
to make another criticism. I can't understand that. There is a great word for wise and that is sophia. That's not the word that's used here. It's the word phroneo that's used here. And it means thoughtful. Just for the fun of it. What does the RSV say? The wise man. Does it say the wise man? What does the NIV say? Wise. Wise. And it's the thoughtful. Maybe they figure that's too weak. But it's phroneo. This is the
same word phroneo that is used in Philippians when Paul says have this mind in you that you have in Christ Jesus. Phroneo. It's used in modern medicine to refer to the frontal part of the brain. The executive function of the brain. The part that thinks. Okay? And that's the mind. And that's what it is. Wisdom is a richer and bigger word of course. Sophia. And you put it with phileo and you get phileo, sophia, philosophy. The
love of wisdom. And I'm a great wisdom person. I love that word. But here, the word is the person that thinks it through. That is thoughtful. See? Has a mind that's correct on this. But anyway, I'm not going to fight over that because the RSV does say wise and yours say wise. But let's think of it. If you take it circle on that. Circle it and write phroneo which means thoughtful or prudent. Thoughtful. Okay. So everyone
then who hears these words of mine and acts on them or does them I don't like acts on them is like the thoughtful man. The one who's using his head. And he built his house on rock. Doesn't that make better sense? A thoughtful man will build his house on rock. Okay? He's using his head. Ties in with diaphrio, doesn't it? He's got street knowledge. It ties in more with what the teaching has been in the Sermon
on the Mount. He thinks it through and he builds his house on rock. Then the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and they beat on that house. Jesus uses all the same words twice. But it did not fall. By the way, the word for fall is pipto. Only it's oak pipto. Pipto is a word that means literally fall or collapse. And remember that's the word St. Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 13. Love never fails.
Actually that should be literally translated. Love never collapses. It doesn't collapse. It doesn't collapse. Pipto. It doesn't fall down. It does hold. And that's what Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 13. Here it's used pipto and the RSV translates it fall. But it did not collapse. Because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears, notice this is a perfect Hebrew poem. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them, act on
them, will be like a, okay folks, are you ready for our word again? Moron again. A foolish man. See? And that's where the RSV does have it right again. It has it right. Foolish. That would be moron. Isn't that funny how many decisive uses of moron were in this Sermon on the Mount? The moron was used about bad salt. Moron salt. Salt that is away from what it was meant to be. And it was foolish salt.
And it was used several times. Now here it is. That same word is used again. And everyone that hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. And don't you like foolish there and thoughtful? It is a thoughtful man. It's better than wise. Don't over inflate him. Don't make him greater than he really is. He just used his head. And I'm going to build
my house on rock. The other guy didn't use his head. He was foolish. And didn't use his head correctly. Because he he did a moronic use of his head. And he built his house on sand. And then he goes on to say, and then notice he repeats it identically. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat on that house. And it pipto. Same word. It fell. It collapsed. And then he goes on to
say, and it mega collapsed. It had a great collapse. This final parable is a wonderful parable. Notice, don't miss the big thing. The big thing in the parable is what Jesus does about himself. At the end of everything he says, what you've heard from me is like a rock and you can build on it. And if you are a thoughtful person you're going to build your house on this rock. Notice he is doing an amazing thing.
He is claiming don't miss the messianic significance of this. He is claiming to be the fulfillment of the truth. See the rock. In other words, he's saying what you've heard is buildable. You can build on this. You can count on this. He's making that claim. And that is profoundly messianic. Okay? And you shouldn't miss this. You have a right now to build on this rock. And so he's doing that. Now the big question is how do
we test if Jesus Christ is buildable? If he is because he's making the claim here that you can build your life on this rock. How do you test it? And Jesus gives a test. And the test is the storm came and beat on that house. Notice he doesn't imply that every storm is identical. Because there are different kinds of storms. But every house has a storm. That means that the parable then is not a parable about
weather. See? It's a parable about building your house to endure weather. Make sense? So like when you raise kids say I want to raise my children in a place where there are no storms. Be careful. So I'm going to say I don't want my kids to be in the school system here or that school system because I don't want them to be endangered. So I've got to find this perfect school without temptations. The perfect neighborhood without
temptations. Folks, don't try that. And so you'll say I'm not going to put them in that school. Temptations there. That's got a bad reputation. So I'll homeschool. The only problem with that is remember the parable our Lord gave of the wheat and the weeds. And this is in the book of Matthew also. And Jesus said he planted a field with wheat. And then a few days later in the parable a worker comes up and says, Master,
you planted good wheat? I did, I did plant good wheat. Well, there are weeds growing up with your wheat. What shall we do? Shall we go out and pull them up? The weeds, they're different heights now than the wheat. And in the parable our Lord surprises in the parable. And the owner says, no, let them grow together and then later in the harvest we'll divide them. And so Jesus in that parable gives a parable that no
parent wants to hear. He is saying it's impossible to have wheat growing where there are not weeds. So you better have a way of growing wheat where there are weeds. Because the weeds are there. So the family that says we don't want a kid in this school because there's weeds there. We want them in this school, there are weeds. So we'll do homeschooling. But then you're the weeds. So you can't get away from the weeds. I
mean you cannot get away from the weeds. There are going to be weeds. So the key is like this parable is not a parable about finding weather where there are no storms. Notice it's not a parable about the wise man built his house where there are no storms. Monterey Bluff. No storms. That's a joke. Because their storms are. There are no places where there are no storms. And our Lord makes it very clear by even having,
he does a redundancy. The wind blew, the rains came, the floods came. All three. And they beat against that house. And it stood. So it's not a parable about weather, it's a parable about foundation. And notice it's not a parable about house building. Jesus shows no interest in whether you build a big house or a little house. This bothers ecologists. He doesn't say, and the thoughtful man built a very small compact house that did not was
very green house and did not do any harm to the economy. No. He doesn't say anything. He isn't saying he built a small house or he built a mansion. But it's true. A house does tell a lot about you. If you're in a neighborhood and you see a house going up and it's got a lap swimming pool, it's one single lap. And then a one bedroom house. You're not going to get a big family moving into
that house. You're getting an aerobic, long distance swimmer. Maybe he isn't even married because he only has one bedroom. But he's got a long pool and it's only a one lap pool. It's going to be one guy. He gave you a clue. But notice Jesus shows no interest in that. He doesn't show any interest in what kind of house. And that bothers some people. Why doesn't he now at this point put a pitch in for economy
houses? He doesn't do it. He doesn't do that. He says both houses the man who was thoughtful built his house on the right foundation. That's the key. So Jesus Christ can be the foundation for all sizes of houses. I'm glad of that. I'm glad he can be the foundation for a house that has eight bedrooms or a house that has one bedroom. He can be the foundation. That's what he does. But he does make the claim
that he is the foundation. Now, he then gives a way of testing the foundation. And the way you test it is how well it can withstand storms. How well can it withstand storms? There are storms. Isn't that something? Everybody has storms. Can it withstand storms? I made a joke about this with think of some of the storms that people have in their lives. I mean there's storms of disruptions of our lives and all these things that
happen. But Jesus Christ as the foundation can he withstand the storms? He can. And that's the promise that the parable makes at the end. It's almost just like Psalm 1. The wise man had a tree that bore fruit and the fruit grew. And the wicked was like chaff blowing away in the wind. This is like the house that was built on a rock stands and the house that was built on sand doesn't. Whatever else I choose,
some other foundation other than Jesus Christ. And that is the boldness of the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He is boldly putting himself as a rock. A faithful rock you can build on. And that's how the parable, and that's how the sermon ends. So what's the good news of the Sermon on the Mount? The good news is the teacher. Can he fulfill the ark that he started? Does he make sense out of the law?
What he does when he says seek, ask, and not. Is he able to fulfill the promises that he makes? Can he answer your deepest needs? Can he fulfill your life? These are all the questions you have a right to ask. And in a way Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, you might say, brings all those questions to the surface and puts them right out in the open. And then he ends with this parable in which
he claims that if you build on those who hear my words and do them are wise, are thoughtful, and they're building their house on a rock. Now when it was all over, I read that last sentence to you when we started. We'll read that last sentence again. When it was all over, now when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astounded at his teaching. I guess like we're astounded too, aren't we? He taught them as one
having authority and not like the scribes. So there it is. Hey, now we have a few minutes, just a few minutes before we have to quit in 3:30, but questions, comments, and I'll repeat them again to get them on the tape if anybody has. There's some things that maybe stirred you up that you want to dialogue a little more on. I'm putty in your hands. Hey, right over here. And I'll repeat these so they get
on the tape. You were telling us earlier about Jesus saying verily, verily, and it meaning rock. You can trust this? Do you think that when he says founded on the rock, it was a clue to then you can trust me? Oh yes, yes. She's saying that earlier I said when you see verily, verily, like in the King James Bible, it's really rock. It's really amen, amen. And amen, it's a Hebrew word. There are not too many
Hebrew words that are in the Greek text. Hallelujah is one of those few words that praise the Lord. That's come into the Greek text. And then amen does. And then some of the nicknames that Jesus gave the disciples are put in the Aramaic, are put in. But amen is the big one. It means rock or peg in Hebrew. Sure peg. And therefore in the Old Testament it becomes a double use word. When it's used for reference
to God, it means faithful. So it can be translated faithful. When it's used for us, it means you can put your faith on this rock, okay? So that when it's double used, faithful, faithful, amen, amen, it means this is a rock you can put your weight on. See, and then that's very Hebrew. The one word to refer to God, the other word to refer to us. See, you can put your weight down. See, weight because it's
rock. You can put your weight on this rock. So when Jesus says faithful, faithful, amen, amen, he is saying this is a rock or this is faithful and you can trust it. There it is. Amen, amen. And so I agree with you. She said, do you think when he calls himself rock here, those who hear these words of mine are like the wise or the prudent, the thoughtful man or woman who built his house when he
decided to build the house and he built it on rock. And I think that's exactly what in other words, on the faithfulness of God. Builds your life on the faithfulness of God. Jesus Christ is that faithfulness of God. Hey, good. Yes. Someone who's listened to you speak for many years, your words on judgment really impacted my life as a judge in the civil courts of our state. And largely, I think every person that I sentenced in
some way or another, I would always tell them, you did something that's going to cost you and this is what it's going to cost you and I tell them what the sentence was going to be. And then I would say that you also have to know that that's not the last word. You can make different choices in your life and turn your life around and go in a different direction. So thank you for that. Well, that's
a, that's a, do you hear what he said? And I know that Steve has been a judge in the courts for a long, long time. And for a long time you had to be in the juvenile court system, too. So it was kids you were sentencing. And I think, I thank God that you were there because I really believe that you, you're right. You have, there have to be consequences and I don't believe that consequences should
ever be meted out by mobs or by gangs or by the vigilante, but they've got to be done decently and in order with the protection of law and the protection of the rights of the defendant. So, but when that happens and a person is in the court system, then there have to be consequences. Otherwise, there isn't, it isn't injustice. But it's so beautiful when you can add that line, but you know, this is not the end
of the story for your life. And I think that is exactly what St. Paul does in 2 Timothy. I was so struck with that in 2 Timothy that his whole approach to Timothy is Timothy treat, and he has a long list of sins with that he says, I know the way you're up against and he gives us a long list of sins, it's just almost humorous. Because you wonder how many more sins can you think up,
Paul? But he says, but you know, treat these people in route. They're in the middle of their story. And they're making terrible choices right now. But be patient. Macrothuma. Take your time. Preach the word. Teach them. And leave the rest in God's hands. But you know, when the judgment is taken out of my hands, and I leave it in God's hands, it's a very good, there's a great Lewis quote there too. He says, you might as
well leave it in God's hands because it's there whether you leave it or not. That's certainly true on our side. It is true that when the civil magistrate has to decide, which is what role you played, and thank God that we have honorable people playing that civil magistrate role, then there have to be consequences. Costs. But it's good to say to a kid who's made that mistake or a man or woman, story's not over. Now, what
are you going to do? Boy. Yes? This sermon concludes with the story that houses on the rock. And Jesus is saying that this is the rock that you can build your life on. Later he's talking to Peter, Peter, you are the rock. How do I connect those two? Boy, isn't that marvelous? Here he uses the word the large Petra word, and then he'll use that same word, only a variation on Petra for Peter, which means little
rock or rocky. And when he calls him, you are rocky. In fact, that is what he was called, rocky. And Peter gets that surprise announcement that I'm going to build my church on you. On people like you. On other rocks. But I'm the big rock. And I am going to build my church on you. And so Jesus Christ is going to use people like Peter. And that's why I love the quotation from Joachim Fest's book where
that's the Peter quote, even though all others may do, not I, but yet Peter did, he denied the Lord. But then Jesus found him, restored him, and put him right back into that rocky position. So he is the, it's beautiful. Yeah? It's just about Abba being father, and that being too familiar. But I think of father as being formal. I think of daddy as being familiar. So I'm curious if all this father, if there's another word
for daddy, or if that wasn't. Abba is the word for daddy, or is the affectionate? And that is also used in the New Testament, thankfully. Abba, father. It's put with father to show that we have an affectionate relationship with God. And that would be offensive to people that were so worried about protecting the honor of God. You know, be careful about protecting the honor of God. You do not have to protect his honor. Because he was
humiliated in our behalf. And he went to the cross. It's interesting to me that the first heresy that caused so much trouble in the Christian world was the Gnosticism that denied the humiliation of Christ. Because they didn't want a humiliated Christ, they wanted a phantom, triumphant, spiritual Christ. So they said that he didn't die in the cross. He only appeared to die. And they did that, and unfortunately, Muhammad, when he wrote the Koran, puts that into
the Koran, that Jesus didn't really die, he only appeared to die. And that he borrowed from the Gnostics. If only Muhammad had read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, instead of these Manichaean documents, it would have been a different story. But the story is not over for Islam. Because they honor Jesus Christ. The Koran treats Jesus Christ as the last great judge. He is the great judge. But yet, it's not the humiliated Christ. And when, Karl Barth
has a great line, when the world realizes that the omnipotence of Christ and the grace of Christ are the same thing. His humiliation at the cross and his power, there's a mystery of they came together. Because how did Jesus Christ disarm death? How did Jesus Christ disarm the power of the devil? How did Jesus Christ resolve human sins? He did it at the cross. The resurrection validates it, but the cross did it. He defeated Satan at
the cross. And he defeated death at the cross by taking it. It has to be taken. See? And only Jesus Christ did it. And by the way, that's good news for you. That's why you can't be a messiah for anybody. You cannot take anybody's sin. You can point to the one who can do it, but you can't do it. And sometimes people will put that on you and say you've got to forgive. You've got to forgive
me. I can point to the one who forgives and can heal. I can't heal you. Only Jesus Christ can do the healing. But you thank God we know who the healer is. But he did it at the cross. He did it in humiliation. So that's why you don't have to protect his honor. He protects his own honor. Yeah. The difficult passages like you mentioned that Martin Luther, et cetera, struggled with. And then in John it says
if you don't forgive others, God will not forgive you. Well, naturally in John also says that. And then is that changed by the new covenant? Alright. He says if you don't forgive others, I won't forgive you. Why not leave it stranded? And squirm under it. I think it's better to squirm and realize that we are given a command to forgive those who transgress. We are praying for the ability to forgive their transgressions. Now, try to do
it. You can't heal them spiritually and redeem them. You're not the redeemer. So it's good for us maybe to squirm under that and say, man, have I ever dropped the ball on this? Have I ever dropped the ball on that? Like Peter did. All others may do it, but not me, but he did. And yet Jesus Christ forgave and healed him. And thank God he's able to do that. We have that kind of gospel. You might
say, that's why I said the gospel in the Sermon on the Mount is the teacher. When he himself resolves these, you might say, impossibilities that the Sermon on the Mount poses. Yeah, that's very good. Here's another one of my, here's one of my guys I knew when he was just a college kid. Now look at him. And you have flowers in the Anaconda. The Anaconda has the power to get nutrients up and so is there maybe
something to do with that in a much more pragmatic way? Oh, you're worried and you're anxious. Well, you know that's interesting. I never thought of Jesus as a great botanist and at that point, but he really is. And I don't think he's teaching science, but I think he's opening us up to want to be scientific. He's opening us up and just like St. Paul does when he says in his prayer for the Philippians, epi gnosko. I
want you to have knowledge epi in every direction. Not just knowledge in, you know, in my direction that I'm in, but in every direction. And I think that would be a great thing to, with a young kid that is getting opened up to the world. Why not see how flowers work? And Jesus encouraged us to look at it. And in looking at it to realize that it's one more marker. I call them markers. It's a marker
of the care and the creative and redeeming care of God that he cares. Because, you know, lakes and rivers and sounds can be redeemed. You know, when I came to Cal Berkeley, I'll give you a Cal Berkeley story, I came here in 1949. I graduated from high school before some of you were born. But I graduated from high school, came here, and did you know what the big joke was when I was a student, I lived
in Barrington Hall right down the street, was the smell of the Berkeley Estuary. You don't remember that, because it doesn't smell now. He remembers it, I remember it. We joked about it, and we especially joked about the fact that the Cal crew had to row in the Berkeley Estuary. It was so polluted, there were no fish in the Berkeley Estuary. It was a totally polluted estuary. And yet ordinary people in the state of California decided that
we can clean up San Francisco Bay. And San Francisco Bay was cleaned up. Fluents, you know, various, you know, sewages, that were even treated sewages, were not put into the bay. And now, when the biggest, when I left Berkeley here, 1991 to go to Seattle, the biggest recreational site in the whole Bay Area was the Berkeley Pier, because of fishing. When I came as an undergraduate, there were no fish on the Berkeley Pier. And there are
now fish, because the water is clean. It shows that we can, don't you love the third beatitude? Blessed are the poor in spirit, and blessed are the meek, are the teachable ones. They will inherit the earth. We inherit the earth when we're teachable. And teachable people cleaned San Francisco Bay. And we did the same thing in Lake Washington. When I went to Lake Washington in 1956, you could put your hand in Lake Washington, and you could
see algae in the water. They were then saying that Lake Washington was going to become like Lake Erie, a totally contaminated lake. And my wife was a young, is my wife still, is she leaving here, or is she still here? There she is, Shirley, right there. My, what's my wife, Shirley? She was a public health major, and she worked as a student, campaigning to get that passed, to get all the sewage that was going into Lake
Washington to stop it. And Lake Washington, I swim in it every single day in the summer. Lake Washington now is pure. You drink water. You swim, you can drink water right in the lake. And there is no algae there. And that was done by people. And God blesses us when again, we find the right road. And it's interesting that he put that promise in. Those who are teachable inherit the earth. And that's what's gotta happen. When,
and kids need to be encouraged. Our Lord's parable encourages us to do that. And maybe, I never thought of it your way, John, that maybe he told about, consider the birds of the field, and consider these little creatures and the lilies. You know, Solomon's not as glorious as those lilies, but consider them. Maybe you should, I gotta do a word study, maybe it means study those, study those birds. Hey, you're alright. Hey, let's see, I gotta
stop pretty quick. Anybody else? Yeah. I've already struggled with that second the attitude, blessed are those who mourn. Mourn. And the mourning, are you talking about people who mourn because of themselves, that they are empty or sinful, or those who mourn because of something that happens to them? Yeah, is a mourning over something that happens to us, or probably most people who mourn, mourn for what they have seen happen to others that mean a lot to
them, but then naturally to them too. But I would think it's a big word. I don't want to take away from poor in spirit, because poor in spirit is just before it. And poor in spirit means that I feel a kind of emptiness, my wind is emptied. I'm emptied, I'm emptied in spirit, which is my self-feelings are emptied. But thank God the king is there. Now, thank God the one who comes alongside of me is
there. See, that's the mourn, the one who comforts, who comes alongside. And you know, when you think about it, the best, have you ever thought of this? George Buttrick was a great pastor in New York City, and he wrote a book on suffering, and he said that suffering is an event, and suffering people need an event alongside of the event of suffering. And in a way, that's why Jesus Christ is so comforting to people who suffer,
because he suffered. Mother Teresa was able to comfort people because they knew that she was authentic in her life. And a person alongside who is authentic and real, and especially someone who has suffered ahead of you, is able often to comfort. But that's an event, an event, and then Buttrick went on to say, that's the power of the cross of Christ. That's an event that's put alongside of our lives, and when we mourn, and when we're
grieving, and when we feel totally empty. According to what you're saying, you're on the right road when you are comforted as you mourn. First, start with mourn. You're on the right road when you care that deeply. I think we should never take lightly people, and that's why I'm glad Lewis didn't say of Jill, crying, she should stop. No, crying is alright in a way, as long as it lasts, but sooner or later you have to stop,
and then decide what to do. And it's great when there is the comforter who can come alongside in the midst of that. Thank you, this is a pastor, I didn't even know this, what's your first name again? Celia, she's a pastor from Boston, we both knew each, of Gordon Conwell together when I was there. Hey, God bless you all, I'm going to have to stop now with prayer and end this whole day. Lord, thank you for
this time together, and for these friends. So many of us in this room go back, all the way back to Cal days when I was a student, and we were students together. I mean, Sally Hudgens and Arba and I, we were all together. Nancy Davidson was one of my kids in my youth group. And then to see all these others who are here, people that we just have we've come to mean a lot to each other,
and then all these brand new people that I had the chance to meet today, Lord bless them, bless us all, and give us your grace and your scold us where we need to be scolded, encourage us where we need to be encouraged, and most of all, draw us close to the Lord who is the encourager. In his name we pray, Amen. Anything else you need to say? This is Sharon. Thanks, Sharon. Thank you all so much
for coming, and thank you for a very rich day and expository teaching on really a spiritual passage. Thank you.