This week we finished the Sermon on the Mount, looking at the passage in the Bible where Jesus tells us that when we seek God, we will find him; the passage where Jesus describes the gate to heaven as being the narrowest gate (the one fewest people will pass through); and the passage where Jesus says our actions will show what our hearts are like.
In the first passage (Matthew 7:7-12), Jesus reminds us that, even though we are evil, we know to give those we love good things. He says that God, who is completely good and loves us infinitely more than we could love another person, will only ever give us good things when we ask him. Therefore, if we need something from God, we must have the faith to ask and believe he can and will give it to us if it really is something good that we need for his purpose. (Therefore material things are not always given, not because God can't give them, but because he is not there to grant a wishlist and give us things we believe will make us 'happy,' but rather we are here to bring him glory and he will give us all we need to do so and if we live according to his plan we will be filled with an everlasting joy that can't be gained from earthly things. In the gospel of Luke, this passage is written in terms of God giving us the Holy Spirit when we ask him). Jesus also says here that we need to seek him, or to "Knock at the door," and we will find him, or he will open the door to us. Searching for God is an active process, but if we really want to know him, he will always reveal himself to us: God created us to be in relationship with him and longs for us to reach out to him. Revelation (the last book in the Bible) talks about Jesus standing at the door and knocking: it's not just us who want to be allowed to be near God, God wants to be with us and in our hearts.
The next passage we looked at (Matthew 7:13-14) used the illustration of wide and narrow gates. Jesus tells us to "Enter through the narrow gate" (verse 13) because the wide path and broad gate - which most people will take because they are the easiest to walk along - lead to destruction. This means that the way of life most people choose to live is not that of following Jesus. To follow and love him means to deny yourself and most people are not willing to do this as they believe that they know the best way to live, and this is why Jesus calls the path leading to righteousness the narrow one.
The final passage we looked at today (Matthew 7: 15-23) tells us to "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves" (verse 15). Jesus says that we will know these people by their 'fruits' - ie by what their life produces. He says that "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit" (verse 18). In other words, if a person goes around claiming to be righteous and says all sorts of things about God which are not accurate but which people believe, we will be able to know them by what they do (a little like what we were talking about last week when we spoke about needing discernment): when Jesus says a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, he means someone whose heart is not surrendered to God cannot live as if it is. If your heart is not full of love, you cannot love others. Therefore, if someone seems to be very wise in their knowledge of God, their life could show that they do not know him in their hearts. Jesus ends this passage saying that there will be those who call him "Lord" but who will not enter his Kingdom, even some who have done great things in his name: there is great power in the name of the Lord, but not all those who use this have given their lives to him and have let him in their hearts.
Lois and Eleanor
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