The first part of the verse is about seeking the kingdom of God. Seeking the kingdom of God has everything to do with seeking the king, and the king is King Jesus. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14). The kingdom is that spiritual kingdom on earth as well as in Heaven. [Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.] We need to learn to seek His Face (relationship) instead of seeking His hand (provision). If you have a relationship with the King, you will have access to all of the provisions of the King!
The second part of the verse is about seeking His righteousness which is also a key ingredient in our relationship with Jesus. Righteousness is simply doing what is “right in God’s eyes!”. As human beings, we have a tremendous capacity to convince ourselves that what we want, is what the Lord wants. We quite easily rationalize and justify our behavior and wind up doing and saying things contrary to what Jesus calls us to. The scriptures are filled with God’s plans, purposes, and pursuits for us, but we often insist on doing what is “right in our own eyes!”
The Holy Spirit
As a Born-again Believer Jesus speaks to us, teaches us and guides us through the Holy Spirit. Remember you are the temple of the Holy Spirit and He actually lives in you (1 Corinthians 6:19). The Holy Spirit is not a thing or an it, He is the third person of the Triune God. The Holy Spirit is a person! Your spirit has been made alive and therefore is able to communicate with the Holy Spirit of God. This is the key to relationship – communication. Communication is defined as “an exchange of information”. This means it is a dialogue not a monologue; two-way interaction.
God was and is intentional and proactive…
The Lord always makes the first move:
- Proof 1: sending Jesus. John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
- Proof 2: Drawing us to Himself. John 6:44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
- Proof 3: Putting His Holy Spirit in us. 2 Corinthians 1:22, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
If the Lord is being proactive then, we who are made in His image, need to be proactive too. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the Lord is beseeching us to seek Him. For example, Jeremiah 19:11, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
The Lord has a plan and purpose for you, and it is clear from verse 11 that it is a good one. Verse 12 tells us that if we seek Him, He will hear us. That’s a promise! Finally, in verse 13 is the promise that we will find Him if we seek Him with all of our hearts. Seeking means being intentional or proactive!
Seeking Him…
Matthew chapter 7 gives clear a picture of what the Lord expects from us as evidence that we are seeking Him. Keep in mind the following; The Jews in Jesus’ day thought by virtue of the promise to Abraham and the fact that they were descendants of Abraham that they would inherit the promise. However, the Lord made it clear to the people of Israel that their relationship was based upon the spirit of the Law, not by association alone. In other words, the Lord is looking at motivation when fulfilling the Law.
How wonderful it is that, as Christians, we are not under the Law, but under grace; Ephesians 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Matthew 7
Verses 1-5 Judging others. These verses tell us that we are not to judge another. Jesus uses the illustration of having a plank or board of wood in your eye while trying to remove a speck of sawdust from another’s eye. The point being, remove your own faults and sins before pointing out or condemning another’s behavior. When you judge condemnation upon another you take the place of God, and that is a dangerous position to take!
V6 Witnessing
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
Not everyone is ready to receive the Gospel when you are ready to share it. Jesus says in John 6:44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. We are called to pick the fruit when it is ripe. In other words, to share the Good News with those who the Lord has prepared to hear the Gospel of Christ. The Holy Spirit will show you when and who to evangelize.
V7-12 Ask, seek and knock
Verse 7-12 deal with the heart of the matter- asking, seeking and knocking are all metaphors of pursuing the Lord.
7 “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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being 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! [in Luke 11 it says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!“] 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
You see, Jesus was talking about receiving the Holy Spirit by asking, seeking, and knocking. The Holy Spirit is the person we communicate with and through. (Romans 8:26-27)
V13-14 The Narrow gate
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
What Jesus is saying here is that the way to find the abundant life (John 10:10) is to pursue the Lord, that is to actively, intentionally find the time and make the effort of working on the relationship with Him.
V15-20 You will know them by their fruit
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Be careful of who you follow on earth, remember Matthew 15:14 and what it says about the blind leading the blind. Always seeking confirmation in the Bible!
V21-23 I never knew you
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
The most tragic words one can ever hear from Jesus is “I never knew you!” The Lord knows who belongs to Him (John 10:14)) As born-again believers in Christ, we never have to worry about hearing those tragic words. If we are asking, seeking, and knocking we will hear these words from Jesus instead, “Well done good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21, 23)
V24-26 Build on the rock (doers)
The following verses make it clear what asking, seeking, and knocking means.
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Building on the rock means that you are a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. Doing the Word is not always easy, that is the meaning of the narrow gate in verses 13 and 14. Knowing what the Lord expects of you means having discernment and you are taking the time to confirm what you are taught by a man checking it against the Word of God. (verses 15-20) Remember it is only the Truth that will set you free!
V28-29 Conclusion
28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Jesus taught with authority because He taught the truth. Remember John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Seeking the kingdom and His righteousness in order to receive the blessings of the Lord is not simply about obedience, but more importantly, knowing the One whom you obey (Jesus). It is all about developing a spiritual relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit who lives in you. We need to learn to seek His Face (relationship) instead of seeking His hand (provision). If you have a relationship with the King, you will have access to all of the provisions of the King!
