The Sermon on the Mount, Part 18
Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas. This season, Pastor Jim is leading us in a study of The Sermon on the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew, chapters 5-7.
Human beings are an asking, seeking, knocking species. What are we asking for? What are we seeking? And upon which doors are we knocking?
Some of the classic questions we ask:
- Where did everything come from?
- How did we get here?
- Why is there something rather than nothing?
- Is there a God? IF so, who is God?
- What does it mean to be human?
- Is there any meaning or purpose for my life?
- Why did this or that thing happen or, why did this or that thing NOT happen?
- And yes, why do people climb mountains? What draws and compels us to do things like that?
Asking, seeking and knocking are gifts God has given us. What are we doing with these gifts? What might that tell us about our needs, our curiosities, our affections and desires?
But asking, seeking and knocking are not always or only about “things.” Sometimes we are asking for something that will meet one of our needs, but other times we are asking deep questions, hoping to find intellectually satisfying and meaningful answers.
Sometimes we are seeking for something we have lost but other times we are seeking because we are lost and hope to find our way.
Sometimes we are knocking in an attempt to gain access or entrance, other times we knock to summon help, still other times we knock because we are hoping the door will open up some kind of adventure.
“To most humans, curiosity about higher things comes naturally, it’s indifference to them that must be learned.”
Mark Lilla, The Hidden Lesson of Montaigne
Let’s not grow so old that we stop asking, seeking and knocking. Jesus said we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. He did NOT mean we should become childISH BUT rather, childLIKE; eager and open to the wonders of God and His creation; overwhelmed by transcendence of God and the beauty of His love for us!
“The curiosity which is always seeking to discover more seems to be one of the necessary conditions of life. But seeking is only serious if the seeker is following some clue, has some intuition of what it is that he seeks, and is willing to commit himself or herself to following that clue, that intuition. Merely wandering around in a clueless twilight is not seeking.”
Leslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
“We shall never really understand the wonder of his grace until, seeking mercy like beggars before a judge, we discover that he wants us to be his sons and daughters.”
Sinclair Ferguson
“I must get rid of this thought that God is standing between me and my desires and that which is best for me. I must see God as my Father who has purchased my ultimate good in Christ, and is waiting to bless me with His own fullness in Christ Jesus.”
MLJones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
