This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 24, 1989.

This morning we begin our scripture reading with Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. This is 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Then we will move over to Matthew chapter 6. Here is the word of God. and Timotheus, unto the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father Knowing brethren beloved your election of God For our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.” For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God is spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from who he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, All these things shall be added unto you. So you can go. Our Father, we would starve if it were not for your word.

And let us be then as those who understand that our satisfaction is found with you. And may we rush then, Lord, to have your word, to have it declared in our presence, to have it presented to us for our understanding. Day by day, our God, may we read your word, take it up and reflect upon it, meditate upon it. But at the beginning of the week, on a day such as this, may we rush to hear your word and to receive the profit that you have for us in it. So train us, Lord. And we being blessed will be a blessing, a blessing unto you to be sure, but to many others as well.

We pray this through Christ who is himself the living word. Amen. Jesus is making assault on anxiety. Jesus is making an assault on anxiety. He is in the verses we have just read this morning, delivering his second blow. The first is found in verses 25-30. Verse 25 is the occasion for his first assault. For this reason I say to you, don’t be anxious. And now verse 31, Therefore, take no thought, for do not be anxious. The third assault will follow in verse 34. But it is this second assault that is before us this morning, and this second assault Most important.

Central, if you will. Strategic. Just how strategic it is, is proven by the way in which it is constructed. We reviewed its construction last week and marked its uniqueness But just by way of reminder, it is in this section, with respect to this specific assault against anxiety, that Jesus delivers his lone positive statement. You have him in this section repeatedly saying, and you may well be waiting for him to give you a positive corollary to that negative statement.

You don’t want me to be anxious, well then what do you want me to do? You find that positive thrust in verse 33. Don’t be anxious, rather, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Throughout this section of the Sermon on the Mount then, verses 25 through 34, there is this one lone positive statement or thrust. so as to concentrate the power of Christ’s own positive message. There are those who underline in their Bibles, and I expect that there are those who would double-underline verse 33. But even a double underline is not adequate. You need big spaces between the lines to adequately underline this verse. So important, so strategic is it.

For it not only stands at the center of this section of the Sermon on the Mount, It stands at the center of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. As if to say, remember this word, and you have it. Remember this line, and you have it. You can go even further. Not just the section, not just the sermon as a whole, but I would say the gospel. Here it is. For you. Above all else, seek first God’s kingdom, the kingdom of your Heavenly Father and His righteousness. Understand what I mean when I say those things.

And if you do, gospel is yours. Salvation is within your grasp. And don’t be dismayed about the world and the things that occur in it. Everything else will take care of itself, and all the things you need will be supplied. The second assault on anxiety, the central assault, with its lone positive statement, and that for you.

That all of the energies of your piety and devotion, all the energies of your understanding might be concentrated there. If you haven’t memorized the verse, stop listening to me this morning and spend your time profitably memorizing this verse. For it’s better for you to listen to Jesus than to listen to me.

Here then we are brought to the heart of things. You are brought to the very heart of biblical religion. For this passage draws us upward. This passage draws us upward. heavenward to face God. It draws us upward and heavenward to a station from which we can survey the storm and stress, the uncertainties, the insecurities of life in this world. Here it is.

Do you want a place to stand? After this past week, can you be confident that there is any place in this creation secure? A place that is literally isolated and insulated from every form of threat Be assured, there is no such place in this creation. But that does not mean that there is no place of security for you. There is a place.

In this passage, you are drawn upward, heavenward, to face God. to a station from which you can survey the storm and stress, the uncertainties and insecurities of this world. This passage provides you the only standing place above the world. But not only does this passage draw you upward It draws you inward, and I mean that in the very best sense of that word. I know there’s a lot of discussion about inwardness and going in and finding your inner space these days. But in the very best sense, you see, sublime, biblical religion takes you not only up, but in. And here is an irony. By going up, you go in. By ascending to face God, you go in and face Him. For the one you will indeed see one day above, you shall see God, so says Christ. you presently behold by journeying inward in your soul. It is an hidden affair, you see.

We are speaking of things invisible. Those things only grasped by faith. the means by which you grab hold of the unseen. So then, we are drawn inward as we know our hearts. as we survey our souls, as we learn and admit the truth about ourselves, and are confronted by the truth concerning what drives us, what motivates us, what we are all about. God’s righteousness?

Take a trip inside. See if it’s true. Have the courage to take a trip inside and see if it’s true. And if it’s not, repent. Turn around. Well, this passage then will focus, obviously, on verse 33. But it does begin with verse 31. It is in 31 that we are presented with the connective. The connective. The word is therefore. That’s a connective. Binds the present passage with what has gone before. Jesus is building on what he has said in those previous verses, verses 25 through 30. The argument goes like this.

Hold on. Since there are two essential approaches to existence, since in the one life and body are externally, I’m sorry, since in the one life and body are eternally preserved by God for those bound to him through his son. body and life in the other approach are reduced to mere meat and raiment, to the level of the mere temporal. Since the temporal serves the eternal, the provisional serves the permanent, as birds and flowers prove. Since God who gives eternal life, namely the greater, gives also the necessary things for the temporal life, namely the lesser, therefore do not be anxious.

There it is, verses 25 through 31. So you not only begin with the premise in verse 25, you end with it in verse 31. That’s why you have the connected pairs. Therefore, do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drain for? With what shall we clothe ourselves? But now we move on from the connective to the conjunction. Verse 32. The conjunction is the word for.

Jesus’ words here have a consequential and conformational force, as if he were saying, with this conjunction, After all, don’t you know? After all, don’t you know? The Gentiles, eager to speak, always After all, don’t you know your Heavenly Father knows you have need for this? This then provides his rationale. His argument continues.

You are not to be anxious for these various things that have been listed. because the pursuit of these temporal, provisional things is truly the center of Gentile, that is, pagan existence. Jesus here is providing his own sociological analysis, his own cultural assessment. his own course in the study of the history of religion. What is Gentile existence all about? What is at the heart of pagan life?

It is the pursuit of temporal, provisional things. That one of whom the Gentiles, the pagans, are ignorant, namely the Father in heaven, is well aware of your temporary, provisional needs. And do you not know, He loves you. And He will give you what is necessary. Maybe not what you want, but what is necessary. Now these words of Jesus in this 32nd verse need a little bit further explanation. He has mentioned the Gentiles. But the mention of the Gentiles brings to mind the subject of the Jews.

For isn’t that how humanity is divided? Jew and Gentile? And is that not especially how humanity was divided according to those who lived in Palestine in the first century? But is Jesus here excusing the Jew? Is he suggesting the Jews don’t seek after the things that the Gentiles seek after? Does he not know the problems peculiar to the Jews? Is he holding out the Jews here specifically as immune to this kind of threat and imposition? Not at all.

What Jesus is saying here is something actually quite profound. He marks out the Gentiles and does, by inference, call attention to the Jews, because he wants to set before his disciples the objective for Israel from time immemorial. And that objective for Israel, despite what theologians may say, despite what the rabbis may say, despite what men now may think, despite what they are saying presently in Tel Aviv, the objective for Israel was the higher life of a kingdom above where the Father in Heaven dwells. It was never a plot of ground in the world. The objective was the region above, and the righteousness of that region. The glory of it. So Jesus here speaks in such a way so that by inference he can place before his hearers, who were themselves Jews, the true objective of Israel. Not a life consumed by the things of this created order, and anxiety with regard to them, but a world that is higher above, an eternal world, a world in which there are treasures, treasures that are never diminished in glory or value, and treasures that can never be lost.

It was the intent of the covenant. The entirety of the history of redemption. But you know the irony, don’t you? So there is coming that day in which the statement which Jesus makes here will be reversed. when he will say to Gentiles coming out from all the nations, pagans who are face-to-face with the light of the kingdom of heaven, don’t you know, after all, all these things the Jews seek after eagerly? But you are not to be like them. You, by grace, Our Gentiles, pagans, say, as were those Thessalonians, who turned from idols to the true and living God, and who wait for his Son from heaven. 1 Thessalonians 1, 9 and 10.

We come then to verse thirty-three. We have moved from connective to conjunction to conclusion. The positive, wonderfully positive imperative. But seek ye first your Heavenly Father’s kingdom and his righteousness. Here, Jesus balances the negative statement of verse 31. Instead of living a life given to the anxious pursuit of temporal provisional things, those who are his are to live a life given to the earnest pursuit of the kingdom, the eternal kingdom, of the Father in glory. the earnest pursuit of his righteousness, with the confident assurance that subsequently all temporal provisions necessary will be given. Now there are two questions that arise with respect to Jesus’ words at this point. First, what does he mean by the word see? But seek first. The father’s king.

Some have approached his words as if he meant a quest. As if we were to be spiritual religious explorers. who are on an expedition to discover the kingdom of God, wherever that may be, whatever dimensions it may have. That approach to this verse has been very popular in this century. The mood and method of Eastern mysticism has driven us in that direction. Jesus means quest, so that we might discover the kingdom according to our personal interests and estimations.

But Jesus doesn’t have in mind a quest that has an indefinite and even insecure end, for how do you know you’ll find? Rather, he has in view something else altogether. The seeking in view here has in mind the attitude of heart and the disposition of affections. When he says, seek first the kingdom of heaven, he is saying, set your heart and your affections upon the kingdom, that kingdom which is revealed in and through me.

I cannot say this without speaking about your love. What do you love most? That’s what Jesus is asking you. What do you love most? Do you love Him? Do you love the Kingdom? Do you love His Father’s righteous rule above all else? That’s what He’s asking you. But set your affections upon the kingdom of heaven first. Love first the kingdom.

Love it. That isn’t understand it. That isn’t argue about it, discuss it. That isn’t define it. That’s love it. Love it. Your heart. Your affections. And it is with respect to the kingdom as it is with all other affections. You have to stir them up. They are constrained from within. That’s why it’s set in the mode of a command, an imperative. You have to work at this, my friends. You have to labor at setting your affections on the kingdom of heaven above all else. That’s the first question. The second question is this.

What does Jesus actually mean by the words, the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Some have thought that he means by these words a subjective appropriation of righteousness on our part, in justification and then its concrete expression in sanctification. But that’s not what Jesus means here.

What he means by these words is the objective reality of the kingdom, something though unseen is utterly real and true. And this objective reality is as real as his own person. It takes eyes of faith to see it in him. But this objective reality Though present in and through, Jesus Christ has an objective consummation. There shall come the appearance before the face of all nations, there shall come an appearance of the Heavenly Father’s Kingdom and a manifestation of His righteous rule over all things. the kingdom, the righteousness for which we are hungering and thirsting presently. Yes, there is that objective kingdom of glory and righteousness which shall assert itself and bring all things to conclusion. That which will conclude the entire exercise of setting our hearts upon it because we will no longer have to set our hearts upon it we will have it in all of its fullness in all of its glory and this will come about when the Father answers the prayer of all those who now earnestly seek the kingdom.

That prayer which says, Come, Lord Jesus. Even so, quickly come. Amen. Amen. Let’s pray. O Lord, there were those believers in Thessalonica years and years ago, who had turned from idols to serve God, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from Heaven. These are they who seek first your kingdom, your righteousness, which shall be wonderfully, perfectly manifest, revealed when Jesus Christ returns. So therefore, our God, may we set our affections on that coming of Christ, on the eternal things that are part and parcel of that coming. And may we know in the meantime that the temporal things necessary are given us by a loving Heavenly Father who does not turn away from his children. but delight in giving them all things necessary. Hear us, Lord, for we are weak and many of us right now need the medicine that this verse

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