If you have your Bibles with you today and you want to follow along, we are going to be looking at the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew starting at verse 1 and going down to verse 18. Matthew 6:1-18. While you are looking for that, I just have a question. I am sure I have asked you before and you have answered in many different ways. My question is how many of you are actively involved in a Facebook account? How many of you want nothing to do with Facebook? A little bit more about the nothing to do with Facebook. I am one of these people who go back and forth. Sometimes I think it is a total waste of time but other times I think it has some value. Especially when I find out some information about a member or a former member that is really cool. I was recently on Facebook and was on the Facebook page of a young man who used to attend here. A man by the name of Jeff M. I was on his Facebook page and found out that Jeff received a Medal of Commendation from the Secretary of the Navy. I wouldn’t have known that had I not been on Facebook. In case some of you want to see a picture of that, I took the picture off of Facebook and there is Jeff receiving the letter of Commendation. He received it because of his response to an incident that occurred in 2013 at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. There was a shooting. A former Navy reservist went crazy and ended up killing 12 people. Basically caused the whole capital to be partially shut down. Jeff was one of the medics who responded to this crisis even while the shooter was still at large. Because of that bravery, he received a Medal of Commendation along with the letter that I would like to read.
It says “This is to certify that the Secretary of the Navy has awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation to Hospital Corpsman, third class, Fleet Marine Force, Jeffrey H. M, United States Navy, for meritorious achievement while serving with Washington Navy Yard Branch Health Clinic on 16th of September 2013. When alerted to an active shooter incident in progress at the Naval System Command Headquarters Building, Petty Officer Jeff M volunteered to join the medical response team that was moving to the site to treat victims. He carried emergency supplies to the casualty collection point across the street from the shooting scene and began rendering first aid to victims that had escaped the building. As the danger persisted for hours, he calmly continued to aid and comfort the evacuees and help move them to safer areas of the base. Petty Officer M’s professionalism, initiative, and dedication to duty reflected credit upon him and were in keeping with the highest tradition of the United States Naval Service, given this 23rd day of June 2014. Signed the Secretary of the Navy.”
Some of you know that Jeff is not here today, but obviously members of his family are, so just give a little round of applause to show your appreciation for that. I think it is okay to show recognition like that. I think it is okay to show that recognition because unlike the people in the story today in Matthew 6, Jeff was not out to seek recognition. He was not out there seeking the applause. He was just responding to something that was natural in him. His character along with the training that he received from the Navy. As we continue with the series The Story, we are going to see that really that is what Jesus is trying to teach us to do. We are in a series called The Story: God’s story as told through the people, places, and events of the Bible. We are going through the New Testament story of the Bible. We are looking at the ministry and miracles of Jesus. As I said last week, when Jesus wasn’t doing ministry when he wasn’t doing miracles, when he wasn’t hanging around with people, what he was doing was teaching. He was teaching others. We find the bulk of his teaching in a long discourse called the Sermon of the Mount. In that Sermon on the Mount, he taught a lot of things. So much so that the Sermon on the Mount could be considered a manual for discipleship. A manual that would teach his disciples and his followers what it is to live in this new reality that he would call the Kingdom of God. Last week, we talked about some of the things that Jesus tried to teach that were really way out there like how you are supposed to turn your other cheek when somebody insults you. How you are supposed to respond in love to your enemies and even pray for them. I imagine some of you had that opportunity this last week. I don’t know how you did. Those are things that we were supposed to work on. This week, he is teaching us a new discipline. I would call it the discipline of secrecy. What I am talking about here is learning to do your religious activities in secret. In this particular story, Jesus points out three particular religious acts; the act of giving to the needy, the act of prayer, and the act of fasting. I am going to read from Matthew 6:1 all the way down to 6:18. (Scripture read here.)
You see over these 18 verses that Jesus is really addressing three actions: giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting. These are spread over 18 verses, but they are really held together by a common theme. We see that in the very first verse. In Matthew 6:1 we see that he 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.” This idea of being seen is kind of the central thing here. Not being seen in these actions. When he refers to acts of righteousness, he is really referring to what we would probably call the spiritual disciplines or the common spiritual practices, including things like prayer and fasting and giving to the needy. One thing I need you to keep in mind as we go through this is that Jesus is not implying that you should never do your acts, spiritual disciplines, in public. He is not trying to create a law that says by penalty of death you should never do these things in public. He is not doing that. What Jesus is doing is talking about the heart. That is what he often does. He is trying to get to the heart level of people. He wants people to examine their motivation for doing things. He is trying to get people away from the motivation to do these acts of righteousness for the sole purpose of a show. Of being seen by other people. A better way to translate this is “Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men in order to be seen by them.” In other words, your reason for doing it is to be seen by them. “If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Again, he is not saying never ever do anything in public. That would be impossible. He is saying don’t do it for the purpose of being seen by men. Then he goes on to really unpack these three disciplines by showing what it means to be doing them just to be seen by people.
He starts off talking about giving to the needy. He says “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the street to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” Some translations use the word “alms”. Alms is just a word that means charity. Charity could mean things like giving money, giving clothes, giving food, or even giving shelter. He talks about here when you give to the needy. Back in the day it was expected that the Jewish people would give to the needy and help the poor. It is expected today that Christians should help the poor. Back in the day, what would happen is the Jews would go into the synagogues and give their money to the poor and then over time some people decided this was an opportunity to be seen in public, to be recognized in public. We don’t know whether or not trumpets were actually used, but we do know that people would do things to get attention. Some actually think that Jesus is just king of using a figure of speech here. Kind of how we would say don’t blow your own horn. Don’t toot your own horn. That is really what he is saying there. People would do that. They would make a big deal. Especially the ones that were the big contributors. They would want the attention for that. People caught on to that and began to give them attention for it. They would give them honor for helping the needy. Jesus refers to these types of people as hypocrites. You see that over and over. A modern definition of hypocrite is really somebody who is pretending to be someone that he or she is not. Somebody pretending to have a high holiness about him or her but really may be having a bad character inside. The word hypocrite was a theater term back in the day. It was a term that was used for an actor on stage. What Jesus is saying is don’t be like these guys that basically are doing an act. They are performing in front of an audience. They are trying to make themselves off to be holier than though when really their hearts are not right. Because they are seeking the recognition of men, because they are seeking the honor of men, that is what they get. God just steps aside and says you want the reward that comes from the honor of men, you’ve got it. Thinking about ourselves, it is very easy for us to get caught up in that mentality. We live in a world that is all about honor and recognition. What happens if you give a lot of money to a nonprofit, you usually get your name on something. If you give enough money, you get your name on a stadium. Heinz Field. If you give enough money to the Pittsburgh Opera, you get your name in the program. We have opportunities to get our name out there and to get the recognition. Jesus is saying don’t let that worldly mentality spill over into the church or you are going to have problems.
So he talks about giving to the needy, and then he goes on and talks about the concept of the spiritual discipline of prayer. He goes on to say “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” Back in the day, the Jewish people were expected to pray on a regular basis. They would pray often publicly at least three times a day. The prayers would often happen on the street corners and in the synagogue. People caught onto that and pretty soon the Jewish people got a reputation for being holy because they prayed all the time. So the people that didn’t have a right heart went out there and volunteered to pray just so people would think they are really high and mighty. They would do it basically to be seen by men. That is not a good thing. Jesus is saying don’t be like them.
Then he goes on and addresses a little bit more this idea of prayer. He talks about people who seem to have the need to just pray on and on and on and use a lot of words. He goes on to say “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Some translations instead of saying babbling use the term vain repetitions. I think it is the King James that uses that. The meaning is the same. The idea that Jesus is trying to get across here that the Jewish people would understand is that the pagan people, the idol worshippers of the day, they would engage in this sort of activity because they believed that the more words they used, the more times they mentioned the name of their god or goddess, the better likelihood that that god or goddess is going to respond to their needs. Really it was a form of manipulation of the gods is what it was. Jesus says don’t be like them for your Father knows what you need before you even ask him. As we think about our own prayer life, it is very risky to be in a group or even in church and say a prayer and be so conscious about the words we are using that we are not even doing it for God. We are doing it because we are trying to gain some recognition from men. We are trying to be seen. Then there are other people we know that spend a lot of time praying and using a lot of words over and over and over, the same words. At some point you say I think God got it. We feel this need to continue to talk over and over and pray and use the same words and say God so many times. Jesus is saying don’t go there. Then he goes on to give the model prayer that we would call The Lord’s Prayer to give a model of how to pray. We don’t’ have time to get into it, but it is the idea of putting your focus first and foremost on God, hallowed be your name, so we take the focus off of ourselves. Jesus is using a negative example here of how not to pray.
Then he goes on to talk about fasting. He says “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.” There is an assumption here that they will fast. It starts out by “When you fast”. There was an assumption that the Jewish people would fast and there is also an assumption that Christians would occasionally fast. For those of you not familiar with fasting, it is simply voluntarily abstaining from something for the purpose of connecting with God and really disconnecting from the world. That disconnection from the world could be in the form of disconnecting from your need for food, but it could also be things like TV, the internet, technology, alcohol, even sex. It could be any one of those things that keep you enslaved to the world. Fasting is a very appropriate and very healthy thing for Christians to engage in. The expectation of the Jewish population was that they would fast. Some people caught on that this idea of fasting, when you did this, you would be able to gain some sort of attention. People would take notice because the people that would fast would disfigure their faces and look like they are really suffering. They would put sackcloth and ashes on their face so people would look and say look at that holy man. He is fasting. They were trying to show off in front of men. That is what they were doing.
These three illustrations Jesus is using to show what the motivation was or the wrong motivation of engaging in these three exercises of giving to the needy, of prayer, and fasting. The motivation was eyes. Allowing eyes to see you do these things. The apostle Paul would refer to this as eye service in the letter to the Colossians. He is talking about the importance of slaves obeying their masters. He says in Colossians 3:2 “Slaves obey your earthly masters in everything and do it not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” A little bit of a mini Greek lesson is that those words “their eye is on you” is basically summarized in one Greek word called ophthalmodouleia. What is ophthalmology? Eyes. What is douleia? Think about doulos. Slave. So ophthalmodouleia is serving with an intent to have eyes look at you. Service, the douleia part, with the intent to have the eyes look at you. That is a disease of the Jewish people. It was a disease of the first century people. Doing something so you could have the eyes of people looking at you and saying you are pretty cool. So you are getting that reward. It is so easy that everybody in this room, including myself, can fall into that trap. If Jesus was here today in this room, he might talk about giving to the needy. He might talk about our prayer habits. He might talk about our fasting habits. But he could just extend the list and say when you are at work and you open your Bible are you doing it to read it or are you doing it to impress the person sitting next to you? So they think this guy is holy. He is reading his Bible. Are you quoting scripture because you really want to give something to somebody that is really going to edify them or because you want to impress them with the fact that you memorized some scripture? I will pick on the worship team. When you are up here worshipping and singing the songs and playing the music, are you doing it because really your heart is bent totally towards serving God or is it because you want to get a little bit of eye service given to you? I can say the same thing for myself. Am I preaching because I really want to give something out for God or am I preaching because I like that eye service? I think if we are honest, we are not 100% always thinking about God. We like that eye service because we live in a culture that thrives on eye service. From the time we are little all the way to working in a corporation to working for the nonprofits. We do things in order to get recognized. What Jesus is saying is don’t do that. Don’t let that come in and taint your religious life. If you are doing these things just to get recognition that will be your reward and that is all you are going to get.
As we know, Jesus never leaves us stranded. He never leaves us hanging figuring out what to do and how to break free of this cycle. So he gives a solution. The solution is really the discipline of secrecy. Thinking about this idea of giving to the needy, he goes on to say “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” This is another one of those weird phrases your left hand not knowing what your right hand is doing. The people back in the day would understand that to mean when the people went into the temple, normally the offering plate was on the right hand. Jesus is saying don’t let your left hand even know that your right hand is giving. Be totally unaware of it. So much so that if somebody said did you give an offering today, you say I don’t remember. I think so. I just don’t remember. I am totally unaware of it. That is really what he is speaking of here.
Then he goes on and talks about the discipline of secrecy regarding your prayer life. He says “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.” This idea of going into your room is easy to think of as a bedroom or something like that. Really, what I understand the author, Jesus, had in mind was a store room. A store room could have a lock on it. The idea is go into your store room and lock the door so no people can come in and see you. When it comes to prayer, I would say 99.9% of your prayer should happen behind closed doors. Think about it. We pray a little bit on Sunday. We pray at our small groups. But 99% of it is going to happen behind closed doors because that is a safe place for it to happen. You have no need to impress anybody when you are with God. You can’t just impress God. He is not easily impressed. Another thing as a side note, some people suspect when he says “go into your room and close the door”, he is not just referring to keeping the physical people out. He is talking about keeping the people out of your mind. I don’t know about you, but when I pray, I think about everybody. I think about all sorts of people. I can never really focus because I have what I would call the thought monkeys just jumping around. I am trying to settle down and I have people on my mind. I am thinking about the people I like and the people I don’t like. I am thinking about people I am mad at and I am thinking about people I have to meet. All these thought monkeys are jumping around and I am trying to have my prayer time. There are ways you can do this. I will talk about it later at some point. It is called centering prayer where you learn to just meditate on God’s word. Over time what you find is those thought monkeys get pushed out of the way and pretty soon you are able to concentrate. There are methods that teach you how to pray so those thoughts are not attacking you while you are praying. There is another interesting thing, before I move on, in this particular passage. It is best expressed in another translation, the English Standard Version, which says “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” This is another one of those strange phrases when it says “your Father who is in secret.” What does that mean? It means we have this God of the universe who is out there. Every day he is just dumping gifts on us. Every day he is serving us. I think of John 1:16 “From the fullness of his grace I receive one mercy after another.” Over and over and over. How many people in the world see that? As I said before, everybody is a recipient of God’s grace. The fact that we have breath. The fact that we have life. All these things are coming at us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but we don’t see it. Even Christians have a hard time seeing it. We have this God out there who is living in secret and yet we, the little bitty people, feel that we need to be made visible by our works. He is doing a little bit of play on words there. So this Father who is in secret also sees in secret. That means he sees the motivations of your heart. He sees what is driving you. He sees in secret.
Finally, he talks about the discipline of secrecy when it comes to fasting. He says “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face 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.” We are expected to fast from food or technology or whatever. What he is trying to do is say don’t make a big deal out of it. Don’t feel like you have to be on show about it. During Lent, everybody is big about giving up meat for Lent but then they go to fish fries and shove a half pound of cod in their mouth. That is a holy thing. I like the way The Message says it. It says “When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity, but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, and brush your teeth, and wash your face.” In other words, look normal. Don’t let people know that you are fasting. There are times when you have to let certain people know just for menu planning and that sort of thing, but you really don’t have to promote it. Fasting is such a spiritual exercise that the temptation there is very high to let people know. He says if you go into training inwardly, act normal outwardly.
Really what we are talking about here when we talk about the discipline of secrecy is we are talking about training. We are talking about spiritual training. The discipline of secrecy is actually as much of a discipline as giving service, as praying, as fasting. In fact, I would say the discipline of secrecy is one of the most difficult disciplines to follow. Jesus is not saying you are never, ever, ever to do your acts in public. He is not creating a set of laws here. You have to understand that. He is giving examples. What he is talking about is the attitude of your heart. What is going on inside of you that is motivating you to go after that eye service? If it has to do with an attitude of your heart that means that the training has to happen at the heart level. There is a verse in Psalm 51:6 where David, speaking of God, says “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” I just thought that was ironic. We learn the discipline of secrecy in the secret place of our heart. The heart is a secret place. There is no one else knows what is going on in your heart except God. Not even your spouse. No one knows the thoughts of a person in their heart. That is a scary thing. God knows the heart. You have to engage in a little bit of spiritual training that occurs inside the heart, which means you have to expose your heart to God, allow him to really penetrate, and maybe point out some ways that you were trying to seek some recognition. When you were trying to seek out those eyes. If you do that, God will honor that. God will answer those prayers. If you are wondering if God answers prayers, just say look at my past 24 hours and show me where I might have done something for my own recognition. I guarantee he will answer that prayer. I would say 100%. God does answer prayers. He answers the ones we don’t like that he is going to answer, but he is going to expose it. I guarantee if I get into my secret place and I start talking to God and I examine my last 24 hours and I say show me where I sought my own recognition to be seen by men, God is going to show it. But we have a gracious God who says okay I showed it to you, and just like an apprentice working for a teacher, he says you didn’t do so well this time. Here is another chance. Go out tomorrow and do the same thing only be more aware of it. Be aware of when you are giving. Be aware of when you are praying. Be aware of when you are doing anything that is spiritual that you are not doing it for your own benefit. What you will find is that at first you are not going to do so good. You might only get it right one out of ten times. Over time, you will find that average improving. You might get it right three out of ten times. A .333 average, which is a pretty good average in baseball. People are rewarded millions of dollars for that sort of average. We are not seeking material rewards. The reward that God wants to give us is a reward called character. Not just any character. The character of the master, of the Rabbi, of Jesus Christ. God is intent on forming the very character of Christ in you so that you are equipped to go out and function very effectively in this world where you are not enslaved by the need for eye service. Ultimately be able to function in his kingdom now and forevermore.
In closing, this is a hard passage to try and figure out. I know it has you thinking a lot because it gave me a lot of challenges. I was trying to think of what is an example that would sum it all up. What came back to me was Jeff M as the perfect example. Jeff went through all sorts of training. He was probably trained when he was a little boy. He learned the training of discipline. He learned how to live a disciplined life. He learned character traits at an early age. Then when he went into the military he learned specific tactics on how to respond to different things. So much so that when that siren went off that there was a shooter over in the Navy Yard, I can pretty much guarantee 100% that Jeff didn’t sit there and say if I do this, will I get a Medal of Commendation? No. He just responded to what would become natural for him. The natural thing, because of that self-discipline, because of the training, was to go out and serve somebody to the point of risking his own life. That is a picture of the spiritual disciplines. This is important stuff and I don’t even know how to say it. You cannot grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ unless you practice the disciplines. Unless you have a disciplined life. When you are willing to sit before God and willing to practice all these disciplines that are not magic in themselves. They just get you in a place where you can hear from God and you can talk to God and God can work on you. What happens is, over time, before you know it, you are different. Your character has changed. You are actually out there in the world and saying I used to have a problem with doing things so people would see me and I don’t seem to have that problem anymore. What about that? It happens over time. Not overnight. Over time by practicing the things you can do so you are ready for the things that come out of the blue. I would say practicing off the spot so when you are on the spot you respond in a natural way. When you do that over and over, pretty soon you find you have the character of Christ and you are equipped to live an effective life, a better life in this world and for all eternity. Let us pray.
