“Get out of jail, Free”
Matthew 6:1-18
Medical science has been telling us now for years that there is a very close relationship between physical illness and stress. That shouldn’t be hard for us to believe since when you go through a time of extended stress and difficulty, many times we become physically sick. I read this week in fact that it is possible that up to 80% of those who are currently hospitalized have a stress related illnesses. 80%.
Hospital chaplains have noticed also that many times there is a strong connection between the physical and spiritual. Jesus obviously knew this and we see this teaching being applied in the gospel of Matthew... Chapter 9. A man who was paralyzed is brought to Jesus on a mat. Jesus heals the man and the Bible says that he jumped up and went home. Amazing. But if you read the passage too quickly you will miss the words Jesus spoke to bring healing to the man.
Here they are. Jesus said, be encouraged my child, your sins are forgiven. Interesting words to speak to heal someone. Yet the words, your sins are forgiven are possibly the most powerful words we can speak to someone who has hurt us... Offended us, damaged us in any way. Jesus teaches on this topic of forgiveness on numerous occasions and the results are always powerful. In Matthew chapter 6, he addresses the topic again and it is here that He tells us how to pray and He concludes with a powerful statement about forgiveness. We need to look at all of these verses to fully understand what Jesus was saying. There are actually at least four topics he addresses here... Giving, praying, forgiving and fasting and He addresses them in that order. I want to look at each one briefly but want to focus on the topic of forgiveness. Because these topics have a definite connection.
(1) When you give, give with the right attitude. It would be easy for me as your pastor to simply say, “I don’t really care how you give, just as long as you give” but that’s not what the Bible teaches. When you give you must give with the right attitude. Here is the principle. When you give, give privately, not publicly.
Jesus is letting us know right off the bat that if we give for the purpose of being seen by others, to impress someone, to make some kind of righteous appearance-you will have no reward in heaven. This word reward runs through this passage like a red thread shows up on white material... In other words it is very obvious. Seven times we will see it today. It is a definite theme and it is the theme that seems to connect these passages. I don’t think most of us give expecting a reward but Jesus makes it clear that if we give with the right attitude there will be one. Notice two things he tells us specifically not to do when we give.
• Don’t give for public applause.
• Don’t tell others about your giving. Give in private.
In Jesus day, right at the entrance to the temple there were large metal containers, like a box, used to collect monetary gifts. The box had a type of funnel at the top, larger at the opening than at the bottom. It was made of metal. So if you were skilled and knew how to toss that coin in just the right way, it would ring out like a trumpet, as Jesus mentions here in verse two. It was very loud. Never give for the applause or approval of others. “Then,” He says, “don’t tell others.” Give privately. Don’t let others know how much you are giving. Give in secret. Then Jesus says and only then, will you be rewarded.
(2) How to pray. Jesus gives us two principles here to follow.
• Close the door and pray in private. Jesus wasn’t saying not to pray in public. Jesus prayed many times in front of others publicly. He was simply saying direct your prayers to the father, not to impress others. When you pray, direct your prayer to the father. Apparently there was a problem in that day with individuals standing out in public to pray to draw attention to themselves. Some even standing on the street corner to get attention.
• Don’t use a lot of words. After all God will not be impressed with your vocabulary. He uses the phrase here, don’t babble. If you recall the story of the Tower of Babel where the people decided to build a tower to stretch to the heavens, God intervened and caused them to speak in a variety of languages, stopping them from understanding one another and they had to stop the project. Babylon was given its name for this reason and we still today understand that babbling on and on using lots of words to impress-well you may impress yourself but not others. Amen? Amen!
(3) Now let’s move to the topic of fasting and then we will come back to the topic of forgiveness. Beginning at verse 16, he tells us in essence how to fast. He gives us some guidelines. Again there are two.
• When you fast, don’t be so unhappy about it. He says don’t be sad faced. Don’t make your face unattractive to draw attention to yourself. I remember my roommate in college had done something to make his girlfriend upset and he was looking for a way to get out of it so we decided to do something to make her feel sorry for him so she would forget about what he had done. So we took pencil and a piece of paper, rubbed the lead off on the paper then rubbed it under his eyes, mating look really distressed. I told him, you’re nuts. But it worked. Jesus says don’t make yourself look all sad. Instead be happy when you fast. Smile.
• Don’t show your fasting to others, show it to the Father. Then and only then will you be rewarded. Now let’s move this topic of forgiveness.
4. God will forgive us in the same way we forgive others. If you don’t think that’s true listen again to verses 14-15. In these four passages, in three of them the word reward comes up repeatedly. Listen.
• Verse four. Give in secret, not to be seen. Then you will be rewarded.
• Verse six. Pray in secret, not to be heard. Then you will be rewarded.
• Verse 18. Fast in secret. Then you will be rewarded. In other words don’t tell anyone and you will be rewarded. But here’s the twist.
Forgiveness needs to be public. Forgiveness usually involves two people. The only one of these for that needs to be public is this one. If you hurt someone in front of other people, you need to apologize to everyone. The more public the offense, the more public your apology should be. Now let’s pull all of this together. There are three things here I want us to take note of.
Jesus gives us first of all (1) A prayer for forgiveness. The Bible describes what we call the unpardonable sin. Unforgivable. It is mentioned in two passages in the Bible, Mark 3 and Matthew 12. Basically this is when our sin is unforgivable-it is when we refuse to accept the only remedy there is for sin. Jesus. It is when we are so far away from God that we do not even desire forgiveness. In other words if you refuse Jesus, you will not be forgiven. Everything else outside of that-no matter what sin you have committed, that sin can be forgiven. In over 40 years of ministry now I’ve spoken to many people who believe they have done something that is so terrible they cannot be forgiven. Let me assure you that if you are afraid that you have committed that sin, you haven’t. The person who has committed that sin doesn’t care-they have completely turned, irreversibly against Jesus.
Now in the model prayer we hear these words-verse 12. Forgive us our debts debtors as we have also forgiven our debtors. So we’re to pray, Lord forgive us in the same way we forgive others. Throughout history men and women have prayed this prayer and have been forgiven. And it is amazing that it is that simple. You see we want to complicate forgiveness. We’ve convinced others that is not simple-it’s hard; difficult and that there are hoops we must jump through. We must say 10 Hail Mary’s and light a candle; in other words we are convinced somehow that we must earn it. And here’s the last thing about forgiveness. The best thing about forgiveness. It is absolutely free. If you are trying to earn it you’re wasting your time. You cannot.
(2) A promise of forgiveness. Verse 14. According to Bible Gateway, a great website by the way, there are 5467 promises in Scripture. This is one of them. If you forgive others, God will forgive you. God is the ultimate promise keeper. Forgiveness is a done deal-if we ask. It’s a promise God will never break. There is also a warning here for each of us. Here it is.
(3) If you do not forgive others for their sin, against you, God will not forgive you for your sin. Now our immediate response to that statement might be, hey that’s not fair. It reminds me of a verse in first John is says, whoever claims to love God yet hates his brother is a liar. Were like, I do love God the Lord you don’t understand-this other guy-this other woman-apparently you don’t know them-there nothing like you. But he says basically I’m going to treat you like you treat others. If you love me you must love others as well. If you don’t forgive others I will forgive you. That’s the message and perhaps one of most important principles in Scripture-after all we really need to grasp this concept of forgiveness and practice it. Wednesday night I will begin a study I’m planning to complete in about eight weeks. If there’s anything we need to understand it would be forgiveness-how to get it and how to give it to others.
Harry Houdini, the famous escape artist issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free quickly and easily. Always he t his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about this lock. For 30 minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed, and still he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. Finally, after laboring for 2 hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! But in his mind it was locked and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.
Forgiveness can be the same way. It can lock us up. When there is bitterness, jealousy, anger between you and another person and you choose not to forgive it can place YOU in jail. Not them, YOU. Choosing not to forgive keeps us from actually being forgiven. You know the peace that comes with forgiveness. And you know what it feels like when you don’t have it. Peace comes from God and without forgiveness we are empty, bitter and even angry. And often even sick. Forgiveness is the remedy and we must go to Dr. Jesus to get it.
Have you been? Do you need it today? Does someone need it from you? Give it and it will be given to you. You can set the prisoner free today.
