Part 11 - Three things to do, not to be seen by men, and a model prayer
Sermon on the Mount
The Christian Character
Matthew 5:3 - 7:27
(Cf. Luke 6:20-49)
This is Part 11 in a 14-part series of studies I call “The Christian Character” as described by Jesus as he delivered what is familiarly known as the “Sermon on the Mount.” In this part we examine three things Jesus tells his audience not to do for the sake of being seen. Part of this teaching includes a model prayer.
The 14 parts are as follows:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Beatitudes – the poor in spirit
Part 3 - Beatitudes – those who mourn
Part 4 - Beatitudes – the meek, and those who hunger and thirst
Part 5 - Beatitudes – the merciful and the pure in heart
Part 6 - Beatitudes – peacemakers
Part 7 - Beatitudes – the persecuted and insulted
Part 8 - Salt of the earth and light of the world
Part 9 - Righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees; divorce, oaths
Part 10 - Eye for eye, loving neighbor and hating enemy, being perfect
Part 11 - Three things to do, not to be seen by men, and a model prayer
Part 12 - Laying up treasures, eye is the lamp of the body, serving two masters
Part 13 - Do not judge, do not give what is holy to dogs and pigs
Part 14 - Ask, seek, and knock; the narrow gate; false prophets; building on the rock
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Review of last week’s class
In Matthew 5:38 Jesus says:
AN EYE FOR AND EYE, AND TOOTH FOR A TOOTH
Jesus said “You have heard…any eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” (Read Matt 5:38-42)
That was in the Torah, and they were no strangers to it. In Numbers 35 the law provided for a procedure in the event someone accidental accidentally caused a death. Briefly, the one who accidentally killed another could flee to a “city of refuge,” pending a judgment.
The Hebrews lived in a theocracy (the laws that governed them defined and regulated both civil and religious life). Their laws provided a legal framework of remedies when a person does harm to another or his property. HOWEVER, except in the case of intentional murder, while the Law provided specific penalties and remedies, the one harmed or his kinsman was under no obligation to exact the penalty the law allowed. Jesus taught and demonstrated a better way. When you are wronged by someone, you can “let it go.”
Peter asked “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” Jesus answered seventy times seven,” or 490 times. It is obvious that Jesus means forgive without limit.
Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome:
Romans 12:19 ESV “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'"
While civil law provides some legal mechanisms for an injured party to obtain retribution for a wrong suffered, it is by no means mandatory that those provisions be invoked.
Then Jesus made a shocking statement. Notice what the people had heard taught.
Read Matt 5:43-47
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AND HATE YOUR ENEMY
Here is what the law says about love and hate:
Lev 19:16-18 (NIV) Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Why had the people heard a teaching so antithetical to what the law actually said?
To the Jews, the word “neighbor” meant someone of the Jewish race. Anyone not a Jew was an enemy, whom it was their duty to hate! Jesus gave a different a definition of a neighbor. A lawyer asked him:
Who is my neighbor?
Jesus told the story of a man on the Jericho road, robbed, stripped, beaten and left for dead. A priest and a Levite passed by him, offering no assistance. But a Samaritan man – a Samaritan man! – ministered to him. Jesus showed them that the man – A SAMARITAN! – who rendered aid to the fallen Jew was his neighbor. On the Galilean mountain, Jesus told the crowd:
Jesus’ guiding principle, both in his teaching and life was: “Love your enemies.” (Matt 5:44)
Is there a more challenging passage in the Bible than this? It is an act of the heart and also the will. It lies at the center of all Jesus’ teaching on difficult relationships. To love one who is “hate-able,” we must overcome natural responses through our will and conquer anger and bitterness.
THE LAST BEATITUDES
Jesus taught in the 8th and 9th beatitudes:
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
Last week I asked: “Is this doctrine workable? Is it even possible?”
Jesus proved that it is. Jesus didn’t leave the principle un-illustrated. Jesus asked his Father to forgive the soldiers who executed him
Paul recognized the principle and wrote to the Romans (5:10):
…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…
If this doctrine will not work in real life, then the whole sermon is an empty husk--all we have learned from Jesus about regard and concern for others leads to this teaching and it goes directly against human nature. But we are partakers of divine nature. And that is agape.
BE PERFECT.
Then Jesus said something even more shocking:
Matthew 5:48 ESV You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Is Jesus saying what it sounds like?! Can this even be done? Are you perfect? Am I? We’re not God! Has anyone ever succeeded in meeting this standard?!
We saw last week that “perfect” does not mean sinless, unflawed, and fault-free. Being perfect means being complete and mature, and those are relative – not absolute - terms. In this usage, “therefore” is an adverb, modifying the verbs, “must be.” It means that the foregoing words “make the case” for what follows.
End of review
Part 11 - Three things to do, not to be seen by men, and a model prayer
CHAPTER 6
Matthew 6:1-18 - Read
In each of these illustrations - giving to the needy, praying, and fasting - Jesus teaches that we should do them, assumes that we will, and distinctly says not to do them to be seen by other people. But a minute or two earlier – in the same sermon, speaking to the same people – Jesus had said:
Matthew 5:14-16 ESV “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
How shall we reconcile these teachings?
Shall we light up the world by taking care make sure people are aware of our good deeds…
…and at the same time…
don’t do those very things to be noticed by men? How is it possible to conceal and display our good deeds at the same time?
At this point we come to the trip wire that threatens us with failure.
The trip wire is self - doing good things for selfish purposes.
Look again at the first verse in our text, Matthew 6:1 ESV “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
“Acts of righteousness” (alms in the KJV) in the original language is: eleemosune, el-eh-ay-mos-oo'-nay; from Strong’s number G1656; compassionateness, i.e. (as exercised towards the poor). It is the root for eleemosinary, which means “charity,” in the sense we normally use it.
I believe the harmony of these seemingly conflicting verses lies in our own motivation. If my righteous acts are to gain the appreciation of people, then I’m really doing them for me.
If they are for me, then I fail to meet those touchstone passages that define our standard:
• achieve a righteousness exceeding that of the Pharisees, and that means I will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
• be perfect, as the Father is perfect.
Whatever good works proceed from a person who is attuned to the will and the words of God, are a glory to God and not to the person. Admiration, adulation, and self-importance is the hypocrite’s reward, and it is a poor reward; they who seek them desire to be seen of men.
They are seen by men – possibly admired and praised – and that’s the end of it. Their only reward is that transitory gratification of being thought virtuous by people.
I can’t remember where I’ve heard or read this quote, but it’s relevant here: When we take least notice of our good deeds ourselves, God takes most favorable notice of them.
We learned in the beatitudes that we are to be poor in spirit, meek, and have attitudes that are exhibited only by humble people - poverty of spirit, mourning for losses suffered by us and others, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking, enduring persecution for righteousness, etc. A person filled with the beatitudes will not be inclined to do good things for selfish purposes.
PRAYING
v5-15 The doctrine is the same with praying. Like most right actions, it can be made a self-serving show.
Having described the useless prayers of the Gentiles, Jesus taught the multitude how to pray:
Matthew 6:9-13 ESV
“Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
We are going to forego a verse by verse, phrase by phrase, word by word scrutiny of this prayer. It deserves its own mini-series, and we won’t take the time for a detailed examination of it here. Instead, we will make some overall observations about it, and consider one particular phrase that some consider questionable, and move on.
But before we come to that…the fault of the hypocrites was not that they failed to pray. Their faults were in the manner of their praying--the hypocrisy and vanity of praying in a conspicuous manner, speaking useless repetitions. Jesus said to avoid praying in their manner.
Why? Because their prayers were designed to appeal to the ears of people, not God.
Instead, Jesus said, “In this manner, therefore, pray” What did Jesus mean by “In this manner?” What is there about this prayer that Jesus wanted his listeners to imitate?
• Does “pray in this manner” mean this is an “authorized” prayer he commands us to recite?
• Or are we at liberty to paraphrase this prayer, or pray some other prayer, or to express other thoughts and words?
• Since Jesus mentioned the hypocrites’ long prayers, does he mean prayers should be about as long as this one?
• Does this prayer “cover the waterfront” of content that is appropriate for our prayers?
• Or instead, does this prayer reflect an attitude we should seek to imitate?
On another occasion, Jesus observed and contrasted two prayers (neither of which contained the words in this exemplary prayer).
Luke 18:9-14 ESV - Read
The Pharisee’s prayer was packed with the first person singular pronoun “I,” a dead give-away the his was a self-centered, self-congratulatory prayer. The tax collector used the first person singular pronoun “me” only once – and then to call for God’s mercy.
On the mountain, Jesus showed his disciples and the crowd what must commonly be the substance and method of their prayer. It is a good model prayer. Still, we have great latitude in what we express to God. Jesus’ teaching here is that we are not to pray to gain men’s admiration.
One of the things Jesus prayed for is:
Your kingdom come.
We understand that on the day of Pentecost the kingdom of God came and was opened to penitent believers in Jesus’ divinity.
But did that render this phrase obsolete? Some considerations suggest that the phrase is outdated because the kingdom has come. Other considerations suggest that certain aspects of the kingdom are yet to be realized, and it is appropriate to pray for that to come.
Earlier in this series, we examined at some length the questions, “What and when is the kingdom?” I offered my belief, based on scriptures we read, that the kingdom (of God, Christ, heaven, etc.) has existed from the earliest times, and I explained the reason for drawing that conclusion.
I further believe (for reasons I explained) that the kingdom is manifested in the present day as the church, with Christ as its king, or head. Much of what can be said about the kingdom can also be said of the church.
With that said, there may be a valid point of view in which the prayer, “your kingdom come” is appropriate. If “your kingdom come” is valid in prayer today, it is because there is a manifestation of the kingdom that is yet in the future (not that the church will be destroyed and a new kingdom, built, but there will be a comprehensive change in the kingdom we now enjoy.) I hold the view that there is yet one future manifestation of the kingdom.
Hebrews 12 tells us heaven and earth will be shaken, and what will remain after the shaking of heaven and earth will the unshakable kingdom. A transformation of the entire order of human existence will occur, involving the kingdom in which we are citizens.
Jesus and his kingdom will appear, and he will judge the living and the dead.
2 Tim 4:1 ESV “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word…
The judging is to await the appearing of Jesus Christ and his kingdom.”
Near the end of Paul’s first missionary tour, he returned to some of the cities where they had converted people and planted churches.
Acts 14:21-22 ESV “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Luke was writing about disciples, saying they - through many tribulations - must enter the kingdom of God.
2 Timothy 4:18 ESV “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
In the usual sense, Paul was already in the kingdom. How then will the Lord preserve him FOR his heavenly kingdom?
Peter, writing “to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,” wrote of a future entrance into the kingdom.
2 Peter 1:10-11 ESV “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Peter and his “brethren” were already in the kingdom that came on the day of Pentecost! Peter’s was the first voice to reveal what was going on that day. Yet Peter writes to his brethren, an entrance into the everlasting kingdom WILL BE SUPPLIED. If the kingdom is expected to appear in some way in the future, and our future entrance into it, like Peter’s, will be supplied, what happened on Pentecost? And what is our present relationship to the kingdom?
1 Corinthians 15:50-51 ESV “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed…”
Flesh and blood, says Paul, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Yet we are flesh and blood, and even so, we are already in the kingdom, the church!
Earlier in that chapter, writing about the resurrection of the dead, he wrote:
1 Corinthians 15:22-24 ESV “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”
That Christ will hand the kingdom over to the Father at that time cannot be without meaning.
I don’t see a way around it.
These and other scriptures make it clear that this kingdom we experience is not the final stage of the kingdom’s existence. The scriptures show that there will be a sea change in us, accompanying a change in the status of the kingdom – not in who populates it, but its characteristics. A more glorified and eternal state of the kingdom is coming.
We may pray for the coming of THAT. If we pray, “your kingdom come,” we are doing like John at the end of the revelation on Patmos Island, where he wrote,
Come Lord Jesus.
Jesus had already come, we might argue. Yes, and he is coming again, and when he does…the loud sound of a trumpet will be will be heard all over Montrose, and at the same time, all over the world. All of the cemeteries in the area will become resurrection sites – including long-forgotten and overgrown family burial grounds.
The kingdom will be handed over to God, and will be changed, as all of its citizens will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. So it doesn’t bother me to pray “Your kingdom come.”
Whichever view you hold, I defend your right to hold it. If you have scruples against the use of this phrase, do not pray it, and if you hear someone include it when they lead a prayer, simply omit if mentally from your prayer.
Continuing Jesus’ theme of not doing what we do for the purpose of being seen doing it:
Matthew 6:16-18 ESV “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
We’re not going to go into detail on all of the occasions for fasting, but generally, fasting was not practiced on joyous occasions. That’s why Jesus said, “when you fast, do not look gloomy.”
Matthew 9:14-15 ESV “Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Here Jesus connects fasting and mourning. Sometimes fasting was done in connection with a very solemn event or when a momentous decision was pending, or there was a trial to be withstood. The Hebrews often fasted when they were in hard and trying circumstances, misfortune, sorrow, when threatened by judgments from God, when they repented from sin.
Sometimes these were personal fasts, and sometimes the king or prophet would proclaim a fast for the nation, when the trouble was a national matter.
Jesus fasted before undergoing temptation:
Matt 4:1-2 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.”
From about the time of the return from captivity, fasts were observed on the anniversaries of certain days. To the Pharisees, these fasts became a way of advertising their righteousness, so that many of them fasted regularly on the second and fifth day of every week, i.e., Monday and Thursday were their personal, voluntary “fast days.”
There were problems with the way the Jews were practicing fasting. Although they strictly avoided eating, their fasting was counterfeit. It was a show.
Jesus told them to be quiet about it when they fasted..
We are doing extremely well in conforming to Jesus’ teaching here in Montrose by keeping quiet about our fasting. But there are good reasons we don’t make a show of our fasting.
1) We don’t do it. Along with most in our “brotherhood” we have glossed over.
2) We don’t find a specified day of fasting in the scripture to force us to recognize it.
3) I suggest there is a better reason.
Christian fasting is a personal practice, and in my understanding, private. Jesus’ instruction to the crowd in Galilee was to go about the usual business of their lives when they fasted. If I fast, you don’t need to know it. And vice versa.
It is not without meaning that Jesus said in v18,
“…that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
The word “secret” occurs 3 times in that verse. Does that sound like our fasting is something we should crow about to other people?
About 60 years ago, when I was attending a church in Texas, someone came up with the idea that we ought to have a “church fast.” We could all get together at the building, have some kind of program, and not eat. I recoiled at the idea, then and now, because it goes directly against what Jesus taught the Galilean crowd.
Jesus did not appoint a regular time of group fasting as part of the Christian religion.
However, fasting is mentioned at various times in the first-century Church, associated with important decisions, actions, and prayers to God over some significant matter.
The conclusion: fasting is voluntary and beneficial on some occasions. If one fasts, God takes note of it and is pleased or displeased, depending on the way one does it. If one makes an outward show of it, it violates its real purpose and also Jesus’ teaching, and God is displeased.
The curiosity about whether we should fast¸ since many don’t, threatens to eclipse the point Jesus was making. In v1-18 Jesus illustrated in all three ways that the devout life is, in these respects, not for show. That is the point.
Giving, praying, and fasting are important doctrines, but they are incidental to the central point of the passage: whatever you do, do not do it for the purpose of gaining the admiration of others. Devout acts, though otherwise noble and useful, are wrong and harmful if they are undertaken with the motive of impressing people with one’s own righteousness.
In opening the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
Making a show of giving, praying, fasting, or whatever we do, to gain the admiration of men is antithetical to poverty of spirit.
