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The Text

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:1)

Premise

God is intent on revealing Himself to His creatures. And, in this passage in Matthew 7 and its parallel Luke 12, we are challenged to look for guidance (for metaphors) at our own parenting and then ratchet that up a thousand fold to get some glimpse as MacDonald states of the “Himalayas from our sand hills.” To help our finitude absorb some portion of the infinite, we are given our own parenting (evil as it is acknowledged) as a telescope to increase our eyesight and advance our understanding of our Father in Heaven.

The Early Years

This message examines the experience of parenting young children from both the perspective of the parents and the children to better understand the metaphor offered by Jesus. Babies/young toddlers are characterized by utter helplessness. They must be constantly tended, fed, cleaned and kept out of trouble. Even evil parents do a reasonable job nurturing feeding and caring for little ones with expectations limited to the little one eating, sleeping, thriving and growing. From the perspective of the children, they are largely ignorant of the quantity of loving care that is being showered on them. They simply connect the expression of their discomfort with the supply of good things from familiar big people that look for the most part lovingly toward them.

Nature of God’s Parenting of Us

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8:14-17

Our Responsibility As His Babes

God’s stated expectation of His children is to thrive through receiving the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), being filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:17-19) and not quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:19). And to grow, God’s commands us to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) and for the pure spiritual milk of His Word (1 Peter 2:1-3), the Word made flesh (John 6:35,40).

The Confirmation of His Presence

The passage in Luke adds that the source and nadir of God’s giving is the Holy Spirit. That gift is the guarantee of everything that follows. And, that gift of the Holy Spirit is manifest in our lives, in the examples daily set before us and the gifts He has given to His body, the church (Ephesians 4:11).

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Text

“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!” (Matthew 7:11)

1. God is bent on revelation of Himself to His creatures.
What has God revealed or how how He revealed Himself? In Romans 1:19-20  “Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” While we may think of this verse primarily in terms of general revelation to an unbelieving world, George MacDonald points out how God reveals His character in very practical and poetic ways to reveal Himself to His children.

2. Jesus’ use of the “how much more” argument
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus argues from the lesser to greater four times using the phrase: “how much more.” For example in Matthew 7:11, Jesus says, “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!” The argument is, if you know how to act kindly toward your children, how much more will you Father in Heaven be actively giving gifts to His children.

3. Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of starting with a finished product and working back through its components to understand how it was made. Similarly, if we look at how we raise our children and experience life with them, even as wicked people, we can reflect on how much more God deals perfectly with us.

4. How it all starts
In John 3, Jesus deals with Nicodemus’ desire to understand entrance into God’s kingdom. Jesus lays out with clarity that God’s family is entered through only one door — spiritual rebirth. What Nicodemus struggles to comprehend Jesus answers with analogies and Scripture aimed at heart issues of need and faith.

5. Hinderances to rebirth and growth
Belief is not stopped by the knowledge of a God more powerful, more loving or more awesome than Jesus. It is not like we are evaluating all the religions of the world, building a spreadsheet and making a comparison or ranking, and then choosing the best of the lot. No, John 3:19-20 says that unbelief is a result of loving the darkness rather than the light because of evil deeds and the resulting shame. While this verse is pointed toward unbelievers, it often applies to believers trapped in some level of unbelief about the thoroughness of God’s forgiveness.

6. God’s purpose in redemption of His children
God’s purpose in bringing this about is based solely on His love and extended grace to us. “While we were yet sinners Christ loved us” His express purpose is to unite us together with Himself and the Son. In Christ, God has already cleansed us from our sins, and in our new state of being (as child of God), we are being changed into His likeness. And, while this process will not be complete until the day of Christ Jesus (1 John 3:2), it is inexorable (Philippians 1:6).

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