Every Christian has the most precious and priceless treasures that any creature can ever have: salvation, eternal life, dwelling with God, and an inheritance in our eternal home. In a world that values and seeks after wealth and material things, let us keep our gaze fixed upon the Kingdom of Heaven where our treasures are being stored up. On treasure maps “x marks the spot” of where the treasure is found. The map we have is God’s Holy Word and we know exactly where our treasure is located. Our treasure is found in Christ and the Kingdom of God to where our treasures are being stored up and kept. So let us persevere following the map of God’s Word with our eyes fixed upon our eternal home. One day we will reap the bounty of these treasures as we dwell forever with God. We can be confident that our treasures and our inheritance will not rust, fade, or be stolen as they are being kept by God omnipotent. Not only is He keeping out inheritance for us, but He is keeping us for our inheritance and treasure! For where treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He has all authority to enter by the door as He is the true Shepherd over His sheep. His sheep are the elect whom the Father chose before the foundation of the world and gave to Him. All the Father gives to the Son they come to Him as His call is effectual. He calls His sheep by name as He knows His sheep personally. He calls them by name because the name of His sheep have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. The Good Shepherd loves His sheep and the love He has for His sheep was on display when on the cross, He willingly laid down His life for them. He laid His life down for His sheep so that they would be saved and have eternal life. Now, He leads His sheep and they will not follow another because they are His sheep as they belong to Him. Although we might face dangers, threats, and difficulties in this life, His sheep know that He is the Good Shepherd and will shepherd us all the way to our eternal home where we will find the most perfect pasture!  

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He has all authority to enter by the door as He is the true Shepherd over His sheep. His sheep are the elect whom the Father chose before the foundation of the world and gave to Him. All the Father gives to the Son they come to Him as His call is effectual. He calls His sheep by name as He knows His sheep personally. He calls them by name because the name of His sheep have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. The Good Shepherd loves His sheep and the love He has for His sheep was on display when on the cross, He willingly laid down His life for them. He laid His life down for His sheep so that they would be saved and have eternal life. Now, He leads His sheep and they will not follow another because they are His sheep as they belong to Him. Although we might face dangers, threats, and difficulties in this life, His sheep know that He is the Good Shepherd and will shepherd us all the way to our eternal home where we will find the most perfect pasture!

We are commanded to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17) yet prayer is something we all struggle with. His disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray and our desire should be the same. Here in the sermon on the mount we get to hear Jesus teach us how to pray as He gives us this model for prayer. Let us surrender our prayer life into conformity with His teaching. Let us understand the undeserved privilege to address the eternal God as Father. Let our petition be that the name of our Father continuously be holy in our words and actions. Let us pray that the kingdom of God and the things of will take priority in our lives as we seek the kingdom of God first and display that He is King over all including our lives. Let us pray that God we surrender and pray that the decretive will of God that we may not know to be done as we trust Him will all our souls. Let us also pray that sanctification which is the preceptive will of God be our will and be done in our lives every second of our lives. Let us then pray that God mercifully supply our daily needs. Let us pray that we understand the debt that we could not pay and be in continuous thanks for Christ paying our debt by His blood on the cross as He declared tetelestai. As Christ has forgiven us and no longer holds our sins against our account, let us pray that we would forgive as Christ has forgiven us. Let us pray that God would keep us from temptation and from the assault of the enemy lest we stumble. However, if we are tempted and tested let us pray that God deliver us as He is the only means of escape. As we reflect on this prayer and all that is teaches, let our souls and voices lift up doxology to our God to whom belongs all glory, majesty, dominion, and authority from before and now and forever. Let us remember the two rules for prayer: 1.) Remember to whom you are speaking. 2) Remember who you are. “Lord teach us to pray.”  As Jesus said in this prayer “Pray then in this way.” 

This man was born blind and there was nothing he himself or anyone else could do to give him sight and heal his blindness until Jesus came to find him. Jesus touched him and mercifully gave him his sight. After Jesus has healed his eyes, the man then believed that Jesus was the Son of Man and worshipped Him. This man had never seen any light until this day and now was standing eye to eye with the eternal God, the Light of World. We can see the story of salvation unfold in this event. We too are born spiritually blind, and we are unable to see the truth of God or the things of God. We can’t give ourselves sight and neither can anyone else. We are completely hopeless to ever see the truth of God unless God the Holy Spirit comes to us and by His power through regeneration opens our eyes to the truths of God. He removes the scales from our eyes, and we now see the beauty of the gospel and of God. Jesus answered Nicodemus and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We can only see the things of the kingdom of God after we are born again which is from God and God alone. We too like this man, after our eyes have been opened, then we believe in Christ. It is this belief that brings about our justification. This believe does not and can not occur before our eyes are open when we are born again as regeneration proceeds faith. One day those who He has healed their spiritual blindness will enter the kingdom of God and we will have the highest blessing any creature can have: We will see Him as He is! 

This man was born blind and there was nothing he himself or anyone else could do to give him sight and heal his blindness until Jesus came to find him. Jesus touched him and mercifully gave him his sight. After Jesus has healed his eyes, the man then believed that Jesus was the Son of Man and worshipped Him. This man had never seen any light until this day and now was standing eye to eye with the eternal God, the Light of World. We can see the story of salvation unfold in this event. We too are born spiritually blind, and we are unable to see the truth of God or the things of God. We can’t give ourselves sight and neither can anyone else. We are completely hopeless to ever see the truth of God unless God the Holy Spirit comes to us and by His power through regeneration opens our eyes to the truths of God. He removes the scales from our eyes, and we now see the beauty of the gospel and of God. Jesus answered Nicodemus and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We can only see the things of the kingdom of God after we are born again which is from God and God alone. We too like this man, after our eyes have been opened, then we believe in Christ. It is this belief that brings about our justification. This believe does not and can not occur before our eyes are open when we are born again as regeneration proceeds faith. One day those who He has healed their spiritual blindness will enter the kingdom of God and we will have the highest blessing any creature can have: We will see Him as He is! 

We see God showing He is the provider in Genesis 22:14 when Abraham called the place on Mount Moriah “the Lord will provide” speaking of the true sacrifice God would provide in this area many years later in the way of Christ His only begotten Son. We are to petition for God to mercifully provide for our daily needs as we are daily dependent upon Him for everything. Give us this day our daily bread should be our daily petition as He is our provider. Above all He provided His Son who is the true bread of Life and we need Him not just daily, but every second of the day! All whom the Father has mercy given the Bread of Life to will not hunger this day or for all eternity!

We see how the model of prayer that Jesus is teaching builds on itself. We must first realize whom we are praying to and the privilege it is to call the eternal God our Father. We are then to pray that we reverence His name as holy in our mouths and also in our actions. As the desire to make His name hallowed in our lives grows, we will then desire and pray that His kingdom and rule will be in every aspect of our lives. Him being in complete rule and kingship in all aspects of our lives will result in a desire and growth in our obedience to His will that is revealed in His Word which is sanctification. Jesus is teaching a model for prayer in this verse, but He also showed us by example when in the garden He prayed “your will be done” as Christ was desiring the eternal will of the Father be accomplished as He lived a life of full obedience to the Law and to the Father. Christ inaugurated the kingdom at His first coming and is reigning now, waiting for the day He returns to consummate the kingdom. While we are on earth let us our lives reflect His kingship in all aspects of our lives. Let our lives also reflect our surrender to His efficacious and preceptive wills as we trust His will eternal decrees and long for sanctification in our lives. Let our petition be as instructed by our Lord in His sermon on the mount “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” 

Notes:

https://www.theactschurch.online/_files/ugd/bc8b4a_9459cb13263345b1a0950b5f3786d729.pdf