So, in the last few weeks, Jesus spent the last chapter helping us understand God’s heart a little bit, understand His care for our heart, and begin to understand how a transformed heart will act differently if we really desire to follow Jesus. And this morning He is still very much in the middle of teaching that same topic. So, let’s read our verses for today.
Read Matthew 6:1-18
Last week we talked about very practical examples that Jesus gave us, as He talked about us living differently. He talked about the seriousness of marriage and divorce and our view on it. He talked about us being people of integrity, people of our word, who’s yes means yes and no means no. And He also talked about our view on people that may wrong us, about retribution, and ultimately about His call to actually love those that many would consider to be enemies. These are all very practical parts of living, that anyone in the world might deal with, but Jesus gave a change of perspective on all of these things for His people. So that His people, would engage in all of these things a little bit differently, as we represent Him to those around us. Maybe going against the grain of culture, but going against the grain of culture for the purpose of Christ’s influence into the that culture, and we have a part in that work.
And so those topics last week, anyone could relate to those things, whether they believe in Jesus or not, and maybe at least see the change of perspective that Jesus was calling for. But today, Jesus shifts the focus from these practical, just living in this world things, to now very specific spiritual disciplines that are part of our relationship with God Himself. Jesus deals with three different spiritual disciplines throughout these verses, and so I want to point out and talk a little bit about what each of these things are.
But, even before that, let’s deal with what a spiritual discipline is. The word discipline can be used in different ways, sometimes it’s the result of getting in trouble, when we were disciplined, but other times it talks about being a disciplined person or being focused and trained towards goals. And so, these “spiritual disciplines”, obviously aren’t the result of getting in trouble, so they fall into that second option of being focused and trained towards something. And that’s what the purpose is, for all of these things, that we are about to look at. They are things that help focus and train us towards godliness. To bring us closer in relationship to Jesus, and also, so importantly, to make us more like Jesus. That’s what these things are for, and that’s why last week could have been relatable or at least understandable to anybody, but this week is talking specifically about life while following Jesus.
And like I said, Jesus deals with 3 of these spiritual disciplines in this passage and we see Him talk about the first one in verses 1-4. In verse 1, we see Jesus referring to these “charitable deeds”, and these are what the bible often refers to as good works.
Read Matthew 6:1
Titus 2:14 says:
14 (Jesus) gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed (from our sin) and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
Hebrews 13:16 says:
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
James 2:17 says:
17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
And there are so many more, but we can see even through these few verses that there is a general expectation of action, of works, on the part of someone that has been saved by Jesus Christ. And just for clarity’s sake, there are a lot of people stuck in religious systems that truly believe that they must earn their salvation from God through works, but that is not at all the case. We could never do enough as people to pay for our own sin and salvation, or to earn God’s favor, and that’s why God had to make it free through Jesus’ payment for it all. I want to go together to Ephesians 2 so that we can see this very clearly.
Read Ephesians 2:1-9
If we believe in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for our sins then this passage speaks of the miraculous that has happened. That we who were once dead in our sin have been made alive in Christ and this was all by God’s hand. Verses 1 through 3 talks about just the state of sin and death that we found ourselves in, but verse 4 is one of the most pivotal, transition points, in all of scripture.
“BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)”
And then in verse 8, it tells us, that this is all a GIFT OF GOD’S GRACE. We couldn’t earn it, it says that it’s not at all of ourselves, verse 9 clearly says that it is not of works and that nobody at all can ever boast that it is. So, we can’t get stuck in that mindset, we need to know that we can’t earn our way to God. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus right now, don’t start trying to earn it, realize today that there is an absolutely FREE GIFT of His grace on the table RIGHT NOW. Grace means getting something that we don’t deserve, we really don’t deserve it, we’ve all got problems, but Jesus came down to pay for the gift, by dying on the cross for our sins, and now it’s being freely given to all of us, and we should be so thankful for that. But this passage doesn’t end where we stopped in verse 9. Let me read verse 10 as well.
Read Ephesians 2:10
So, all of that cool stuff about Jesus giving us this gift of salvation from our sin, and then what comes after that?
It says that we were created in Christ Jesus, for GOOD WORKS, and that God made a plan and prepared good work for us to do, even before all of this went down. So that means that we’ve all got stuff to do in loving and serving the people and community around us for God’s glory. Not good works to earn salvation, but good works because a good God saved us and prepared good things for us to do on His behalf. That’s a definitive part of Christian living and it’s the first of the three spiritual disciplines that Jesus is talking about today.
Back in Matthew 6, we find Jesus talking about the second spiritual discipline in verses 5 through 15, and the second one that He talks about is prayer. And prayer by its most basic of definitions is simply talking to God. It’s not meditation or anything like that, it’s literally talking to the almighty God of this universe, and it’s the main way that we directly fellowship with Him. But even thinking about it like that, it’s a big thing, and maybe we have questions, because it’s not something that we should take lightly. Even Jesus’ disciples, who were right around Him, still had questions about prayer. In Luke 11, and we don’t have to go there, but there is a parallel passage that has this same example prayer that Jesus is sharing in Matthew 6, and in the Luke 11 version of this, Jesus shares this because the disciples ask Him to. Luke 11:1 says:
Luke 11:1
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
They had questions and they wanted to know more about praying and Jesus gave them this same example prayer as He does in Matthew 6. Let’s read this in Matthew.
Read Matthew 6:9-13
These verses are what we often times refer to as the “Lord’s Prayer”. And I want us to recognize the beginning of verse 9 where Jesus says: “9 In this manner, therefore, pray”. Jesus is saying essentially, “pray like this”, He is not saying, pray these words exactly all the time. Jesus’ prayer here is a wonderful example of how we can come before the Father in prayer, because sometimes, and maybe it’s not talked about much, but even prayer can be intimidating if we haven’t really learned about it yet. Like what in the world do I say to the almighty God of this universe? And so, Jesus gives this good example of what healthy prayer might include and I wouldn’t say that it is wrong to say the Lord’s prayer to God, but just recognize that that isn’t what Jesus is calling for here. Sometimes the Lord’s prayer gets used to just recite over and over, and Jesus never called for that, and just memorizing and reciting these same things over and over is very likely, stripping out the heart of the individual towards God, and it can become just an empty reciting of words. And when the whole framework of Jesus’ sermon has been about the heart, then that wouldn’t at all seem to line up with His teaching. So maybe something to just consider in regard to the Lord’s prayer, it’s an example, not a script.
But it’s a really good example, for us, because of what it includes. This example prayer focuses on God, His Holiness, His Kingdom, His will, His power, and His glory. Prayer is talking to the almighty God of the universe with real understanding of His greatness. And yes, we bring personal elements to the mix and pray for what we need, pray for protection, for forgiveness, for others, and such, but it must come from a humble heart, coming humbly before our Maker, acknowledging Who He is and then yes talking to Him about the things in our life. That’s what He desires from us, and we should desire to engage with Him is this way too, because it’s healthy and draws us closer to Him.
And so, Jesus has brought up good works, He brought up prayer, and the last spiritual discipline for today is fasting. We see this in verses 16 through 18. Let’s read this together.
Read Matthew 6:16-18
Fasting is not something that seems really well understood in this day and age, besides maybe in diet terms, but the root word used here, literally meant completely staying away from food for a certain period of time. Which is by far the main way that fasting is described in the Bible. And what’s the point of fasting? This fasting isn’t a diet, it’s a spiritual discipline, and though it can have some health benefits, it’s not a diet, and it’s not like paying penance or punishing ourselves. Fasting is usually described in scripture right alongside of prayer, with this understanding that it allows for a deeper, more intimate time with the Lord. The point of fasting is to turn our eyes away from the things of the world, even the very food that we need to survive, for a time, and fix our eyes solely on God. It’s not a way to force God to do what we want, but hopefully through the prayer, and through the fasting, we are the ones who change, not Him. Hopefully through these things we would grow more reliant on Him, we would grow in faith and in trust, and be more focused on His purposes. That’s why we would fast and it’s a very healthy part of our relationship with the Lord.
And so, Jesus has identified these three things for us today. Doing good works, prayer, and fasting. But Jesus’ main reason for bringing these subjects up in this passage wasn’t just to inform us about them. It was once again to deal with heart problems that He was witnessing. There were people that were taking each of these things; things that should be very personal parts of our walk and relationship with God Himself, and turning them from good and healthy spiritual disciplines, into pride motivated action and opportunities, and how sad is that? Though if we’re honest, we’ve probably all fallen into this trap at least a time or two before. But Jesus describes how this is happening and examples of how this can turn bad.
When talking about good works, Jesus in verse 2 says, “do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.” I mean that’s like next level pride going on. It’s like, I’m about to do something good … “someone sound the trumpet so that everyone can see it happen” and then give a bite to eat to someone hungry or something. Like, what in the world, that’s ridiculous. I would hope that we would all see that immediately, as ridiculous, but the simple fact is then, and it still is now, that a lot of seemingly good things, and charity, and help, and such, is done simply for the glory of the individuals doing the things. And they might actually be really good things, but as God’s people, our focus has to be Him and not us. It can’t be about us at the end of the day, because that’s just pride, and all pride at its core is a reduction of God’s glory, as it is being redirected to a person who is wanting it, instead of God, and that’s a terrible thing, because God alone deserves the glory.
And Jesus points out very similar things about the problems that He was seeing with prayer and with fasting as well. In verse 5, Jesus says “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.” And then in verse 16, “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.”
The problem in all of these areas was seeking an audience of people, with spiritual things, when these spiritual disciplines, are meant at their core, to be for an audience of one. That one being God Himself. When we do good, when we pray, when we fast. We may end up doing these things with other people or with other people around, but where is our heart at? Are we engaging in that moment so that these people will see what I am doing, or are we operating with the sole focus of pleasing our God and bringing Him glory?
In every single one of these scenarios, talking about each one of these spiritual disciplines, Jesus calls out who He refers to as the “hypocrites”.
Our modern dictionaries, define hypocrite as:
1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
And those are very accurate to this passage, but for even more clarity for us, the word for hypocrite that the Greek people would have used, at the time that this was written, was the same exact word that they used for an actor. Like an actor in a play. So, Jesus is basically calling these guys actors, actors that are just playing a part in the show that they are putting on, but an actor acts, it’s not real life, it’s a facade, it’s a show. When I saw Matt Damon play Jason Bourne or the Martian, I didn’t actually believe that he was a CIA assassin or an astronaut, no, he’s an actor. He plays a role; He doesn’t live it. And that’s what Jesus saw in these guys, playing a role, but no heart, and no life, to back it up, and that’s the point and what Jesus is warning us about. He says if you want to play a role and entertain people for your pride’s sake, then them watching you do it, is all the reward that you are ever going to get. That’s what He says in verse 2 about good deeds and repeats it for each of the others as well. In verse 2 He says:
Read Matthew 6:2
That’s it, that’s all you are ever going to get out of it. But recognize that God apparently plans to reward, for the real good works that are done, and that’s something to really consider as we act. But remember this:
We don’t do good things for the Lord, and for other people, to try to make God bless us, with materials things. We don’t do good things, to try to put on a show, and try to convince people, of how good that we are. We do good things for the Lord, and for other people, because God is absolutely worth, every single effort, that we could ever make, to honor Him. He’s our audience, nobody else, and other’s might see our salt and light moments, but our sole desire, should be to PLEASE HIM, with our life, and with our actions. That’s the heart behind this, that’s the lesson that Jesus is teaching us.
And as we head towards wrapping up this morning, I want to go to one more passage of scripture in Luke 18.
Read Luke 18:9-14
This parable ties everything together perfectly. We have this Pharisee who comes into the temple to publicly pray. And as he is publicly voicing these things, he talks about his fasting, and about his giving, or good works. And then he has the nerve, to look around him, and say, “God, thank you I’m not like all of these terrible people around me, especially that tax collector over there”. I mean what in the world is this, and we can look at this be like “yeah, that’s crazy”. But again, have we ever been caught up trying to do good “spiritual things” for the wrong reason before? I know I have in times past. And it doesn’t matter the venue, if it’s in the middle of the temple, or if it’s in our home, if we’re just putting on a show, God isn’t getting the glory in that, we’re trying to get it for ourselves. And we don’t deserve that Glory, He does.
We need to be more like this tax collector guy here, who in humility, couldn’t even raise his eyes towards heaven, but beat his chest and said “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Maybe he had messed up recently, we all mess up. But he approached the Lord in humility, he addressed God specifically, he didn’t have some long-drawn-out speech, he got to the point, and you know what? It says that man went home justified that day, rather than the showboat pharisee and all of his religious show that he put on.
So, to close, these good works, prayer, and fasting, are all really important parts of our spiritual lives in Christ. But please, please, please, remember to check our hearts. To make sure that in doing these things that we are pursuing an audience of one. That one being the Lord. Let’s not put on spiritual show for other people, but let us humble ourselves before the Almighty God of this universe to please Him specifically, because for us it should all be about Him, His will, His Kingdom, His power, and His glory. All of the time.
Let’s pray.