Living In The Kingdom Part 13 Series

Living in the Kingdom 13

Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4; 23:2-5; Exodus 13:16; Numbers 15:38

I am continuing with my series “Living in the Kingdom.” This week we will begin examining what is recorded in the first four verses of Matthew chapter six. In these verses Jesus talks about those things we do for the benefit of others. Now, before I go further, I want you to picture something in your minds. I want to ask you a few questions to set the stage for this message. As I ask them, I want you to consider, based on what we read today, what is right and what is wrong. Here are the questions for your consideration: how many times have you seen influential people give large donations to a school, charity or other function in a public manner? How many buildings have been named after someone because they gave a large donation to some organization and in return got a building named after them? How many news articles have you read about some famous person doing something for someone in need enhancing their public persona? Should we even be aware of these things happening? If these “good things” were done in secret, would we ever know who did what? Would there ever be a building named for someone because they gave a large donation to that organization based on what we read today? Just keep these questions in mind as we go through the first four verses in Matthew chapter six.

Matthew 6:1-4 says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father Who is in heaven. 2So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father Who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

How many times have we done something for those in need and then turned around and told others as if it was no big deal? Oh but we really wanted them to know we had done something special. Maybe you told a family member about it or a good friend. Maybe, just maybe, you stood up in church to give a “praise report” which turned out to be you talking about something you did for someone else which made people “praise you” for your good deed. I am right there with you. I have done things in my past to help others and then talked about what I had done when I should have been quiet about it. You see, when I looked for the praise of others for something I had done, I lost my reward with Christ for doing it, but I am getting ahead of myself.

When Jesus taught His followers He taught them to refrain from walking around talking about what they had done for others. He did not want them coming before the Church and giving a testimony about someone they helped as a means of showing their “righteousness.” He did not want them sneaking what they had done for others into their everyday conversations. For example, someone saying “I took some food over to so and so because I heard how they were struggling.” What Jesus requires is that we do what we are going to do and walk away. We are not to wait for praise or an acknowledgement for what we did – from the person we did it for or from others who might hear about it. He wants us to do it and do it secretly. In a perfect situation, the person we help would not know that the help came from us as it would be totally anonymous but we know that cannot always happen.

In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew Jesus told His followers the following in verses two through five: “…..The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. 4They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. 5 But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.” (Matthew 23:2-5) In these verses Jesus talked about the mentality of some of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus told His followers to follow their teachings as they taught the Law of Moses, but He told them not to follow their actions - how they lived. So what was it about how they lived that bothered Jesus? They did everything that they could to draw attention to themselves! I want you to focus on what Jesus said in verse five. He said, “….they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.”