We are going to start tonight by reading a large chunk of Scripture, the first 18 verses of Matthew chapter 6 and then over the next couple of weeks we are going to unpack it in sections. But, I feel like we need to see it all as a whole so we don’t loose the textual context as we study.
Please stand with me and we will read the Scripture. (Matthew 6:1-18)
Now, over the next few weeks we will break down several topics relating to this passage.
Tonight were going to talk about hypocrisy and heart motives. And the first verse of chapter six is our key tonight.
1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Now some of you may be thinking back to a month ago, when we taught on being the salt and light. And you may remember that in Matthew 5:16, Jesus tells us to let our light shine so that people can see our good deeds.
And this would be very confusing, this would seem directly contradictory if He did not qualify His commands or if He only taught on surface issues. But, if we look closely at both verses in their entirety, we see that He is teaching us the same principle through repetition.
Again Matthew 6:1 says
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
And Matthew 5:16 says
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
So you see, it goes back to the “Why” questions. Why are you doing these good deeds? Why are you staying away from disobedience?
Jesus spent most of Chapter 5 saying, this is what a Christ follower looks like:
— We are to be humble
— We are to have a hunger and thirst for Him
— We are to be peacemakers
— We are to honor our word
— We are to very simply be different from the world, set apart from the world and as we saw in the last verse of Chapter 5, we are to strive for perfection, as God demonstrates it.
— This is our life long goal and we will not reach that goal until after we’re done with this life.
So, we are not to think that God wants us to just go along living the way we once lived. He has no intention of just giving us “fire insurance salvation” That’s not in the Scriptures.
No, The word of God makes clear that we are to confess our sins, and turn to Him trusting that He will SAVE us from those sins, that He will give us the ability to turn away from our old way of doing things.
He will TRANSFORM our lives.
So Jesus doesn’t say here, “Don’t practice righteousness.” No He says beware of practicing righteousness for your own glory.
Look at Matthew 6:2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.
Jesus doesn’t say don’t give, and He doesn’t say IF you give to the needy. He says WHEN you give. This is just a given for Jesus that a child of God, who has been given so much – we were given the riches of His grace when we were spiritually poor. We were given the promise of victory, when we knew only failure — So it is just a given for Jesus that a child of God, who has been given so much would desire to give to those who we see in need.
And read Matthew 6:5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
Jesus doesn’t say don’t pray, and He doesn’t say IF you pray. He says WHEN you pray. This is just a given for Jesus that a child of God would desire to talk with God.
My son desires to talk with me, to tell me about his joys, to come to me with his problems. He knows he can because I am his daddy.
Jesus just lays it out here that if we really see God as our Father, as we should, then we will want to talk to Him. We will want to come to Him like little children to the father.
And Skip down to Matthew 6:16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.
Jesus doesn’t say don’t fast, and He doesn’t say IF you fast. He says WHEN you fast. This is just a given for Jesus that a child of God would fast.
And this is something that we don’t talk about very often in the church today. But it is a discipline that we see throughout the Scriptures. Fasting is a way of stripping away all that provides worldly contentment, to draw us closer to a dependence on God for our ultimate contentment.
Fasting restores our gratitude for the provision of God in our life.
Fasting refocuses our hearts and minds on the majesty of God’s grace to forgive our sins.
The people of Israel were commanded to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement.
In a similar way for us, fasting is a time to reflect on our lives as believers and examine where we still fall short of the will of God and it is a time to mourn such things and to repent.
And I don’t know about you, but it is true for me that some of those levels of examination are hard to come by when I am simply focused on keeping my belly filled and when I’m focused on worldly contentment.
Jesus understood all of these things where part of the Christian life and said in a matter of fact way
— When you give to the needy
— When you pray, and
— When you fast…
In all these areas, we are right to do these things but then He adds the same tail to each by saying, “Don’t be like the hypocrites.”
It’s a heart motivation, just like we saw throughout the first chapter from the Sermon on the Mount.
I heard of a pastor who preached on the same topic for week after week and then month after month until a church member finally asked, “When are we going to move on? You’ve been talking about forgiveness for two months.”
And the pastor said, “I’ll stop preaching on it when we start doing it.”
Jesus seems to have that same feeling in mind in the Sermon on the Mount. We see that no matter what He is talking about it always goes to the heart. He just won’t let up. He says yes, I want you to follow me. But I want your real commitment.
He doesn’t call us to change our facade. He says He wants to transform us from the inside out.
If you look downtown here in the city it is easy to become enamored with the beautiful architecture. In the last few years paint crews have done a fantastic job of making over the exterior of all these old buildings. But, on closer inspection, you will see that several of the buildings are still in a great need for structural makeovers. Foundations and support walls are in desperate need of work.
Jesus says, Ken, or Andy, or Ryan, You have been saved, now it is time to sanctify.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us:
…The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
We are getting a full renovation. So we do the good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do. But we do all the good works as a form of worship to Him and in praise to His love for us. We don’t do it to gain attention for ourselves.
2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full.
In other words, they did it for the approval of others — which is a fleeting and meaningless pursuit. And, they got what they were after.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4a so that your giving may be in secret.
If you give to a charity, if you give to a homeless person; If you give of your time to visit nursing homes or hospitals; If you give of your talent to organizations who need you – Don’t do any of that for a pat on the back by the people around you. As much as you can, keep it to yourself. And even then, don’t keep replaying it over and over again to yourself for your own pride.
Just thank God for the opportunity to give and move on.
4b then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full.
Jesus says that if you are praying in order that someone might notice how righteous you are it is meaningless prayer. He was speaking directly into the culture when religious leaders would wait until the busiest time of day in the marketplace so that as many people could see and hear their demonstrations as possible.
And also in the synagogues, the religious leaders would stand up and say these long and eloquent prayers, but Jesus, knowing the heart, says it was vain talk, those prayers were for the gratification of the speaker not the glory of God or the spiritual benefit of the congregation. And again, there is public prayer throughout the Scriptures that God honors. What Jesus is getting at in no uncertain terms is, if it is for your own glory, just keep your mouth shut.
I would add this observation as well. We pray at the dinner table. Everything from the food we are able to eat to the roof over our head is a gift from God and out of gratitude we thank Him for that.
And I pray weather I am at home or at a restaurant. But, If I begin to see an element of praying in public, at Wendy’s or wherever and I think there may be even a hint of self-righteousness tied to it I stop talking. Usually I say a silent prayer instead when I am in public.
Now, I’ve heard some people say they pray in restaurants as a way of shining God’s light in areas where some people may not know Him. That is great. If that is the reason you’re doing it then go on. I’m not suggesting that you stop. I’m saying that I see false motivations in MY HEART in those situations, so I usually keep my prayer silent. That is, unless I feel the prompting of the Spirit to pray aloud, which happens from time to time.
Just make sure you keep your motives in check.
And another area that this speaks to is corporate prayer. We do pray in church. And there was nothing wrong with praying in the synagogues
UNLESS, the prayers were said in the wrong heart.
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The bottom line here is that prayer in church, prayer in the restaurant, prayer before the ball game, prayer when you get on the plane, it is all fine in the right heart, but you and I are to have a prayer relationship with God that is ours.
And we will talk more about that kind of prayer next week.
Moving on now to Matthew 6:16-18
16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
There are times when we as a community of believers might be called on to fast. We as the leaders may do it if we see that we are disconnected from our mission here. If we see that we are out of alignment or if there are major decisions to be made in the direction of the church, I may call for a corporate fast.
Some other religious groups have periods of time when they fast each year. A friend of mine in college was a Baha'i and he fasted from sunrise to sunset for 40 days each year. Many of my Catholic friends give up different things for Lent.
Community fasts, at least in the Christian life are fine scripturally so long as we do not make them a legalistic mandate. Unlike other groups, we in the protestant Christian faith find liberty here.
But again, when you fast, when you feel guided to do so. Do it without fanfare. Don’t complain to your friends about being hungry, or how you can’t wait for the fast to be over so that you can have some food, or what ever else it is that you are giving up in order to commune with god in that way. And here’s where I struggle when I fast. I end up talking to myself about my hunger pains instead of turning to God in prayer.
It’s like when giving and we are not to let our left hand know what the right hand is doing. In the same way, we don’t fast to make ourselves feel better or more righteous about our works; we do it to turn our hearts to God.
And our Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward us with the closer connection that we seek.
We will go deeper into the issue of fasting in a couple of weeks.
Until then, I would ask that you dwell on these passages as a whole. And when you give to the needy, when you pray, when you fast, do all of that for God’s glory, and not you own.
And take this principle even farther.
When you go to work and work with the excellence and faithfulness you have been called to as a child of God and a follower of Christ, do that for God’s glory, and not you own.
And when you serve in the church, this one or another, do that for God’s glory, and not you own.
And when you pour out your love as a good husband or wife, or brother or sister or son or daughter or parent, do that for God’s glory, and not you own.
And when you treat other people right when you are on the road or in the marketplace, do that for God’s glory, and not you own.
Jesus tells us that we are first and foremost supposed to love Him, with all of our heart and our soul and our mind (Matthew 22:37). And He tells us that we love Him by obeying His commands (John 14:15).
So when you go out from here and even while you are here, do that. Love God. Obey His commands.
But do not do it so others can say how great you are doing, or how nice you are or so others can look up to you. Do it so that they may see Christ reflected in you. And when they do heap praise on you. Thank them and then turn it over to God. Verbally.
And, see how much service you can do under the radar. And don’t tell us or anyone else about it. Just do it for the glory of God.
And now, before we close. There’s one more thing we need to talk about. With nearly every teaching in Scripture, We are given a path that is obedience. But next to this path we end up having two ditches that we can fall into if we don’t obey out of the right heart.
Of course most of this message was about being righteous for God’s glory not your own.
So the ditch on the right of the road is self-righteousness, self-gratification, and the like. It’s reckless, unregenerate disobedience.
A friend pointed out yesterday that he struggled with driving into the other ditch and it is this. He found himself trying so hard to do things in secret that he began making that his focus and what happened is he began making anonymity his ultimate pursuit, instead of God’s glory.
Friends if we do that, we begin to undermine the very reason we are alive and kicking in this world.
Remember, there is not an issue with being seen as a person who does good things or being seen as a person who has righteousness within them.
Jesus says to obey God so that we can be a reflection of His light in the world. So do it on the sly, but don’t do things so quietly that you begin to impede the transmission of the gospel. Remember, we’ve been saying for the last several weeks, our countercultural way of living is that light in the world, it is our way of opening up gospel conversations where we wouldn’t be able to talk otherwise.
Find the path in the middle between legalism and license and live your life in wild abandonment for the Glory of your creator, savior, God. And, let his righteousness shine through you so that you can become His calling card in the world.
Let’s pray…
