Sermon on the Mount: A Look Into The Ministry of Jesus Christ (Part 2)
Sermon’s Core II: 3 Illustrations of Greater Righteousness in Good Works (done towards God)
Jesus now teaches about good works…
namely giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting. This is not meant to be a complete list of good works. Rather, like the previous section they are a sampling used to illustrate how good works are to be offered up to God rather than used to enhance our status.
namely giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting. This is not meant to be a complete list of good works. Rather, like the previous section they are a sampling used to illustrate how good works are to be offered up to God rather than used to enhance our status.
In each of these three illustrations Jesus describes the all too common hypocritical approach and contrasts it with an approach that is from the heart. And in this He offers a very simple technique for testing your own motivations.
The Greek word hypocrite literally means an actor, so we have the idea of one who plays a role that is not reflecting his own character. In Jesus’ examples this person plays his role to be seen doing it by other people. Perhaps it feeds his or her vanity or perhaps it improves their social status. They may be deceiving themselves that these righteous acts tip the scales of judgment in their favor… making up for unresolved sin in other parts of their lives…
As an antidote to hypocrisy and mere role playing Jesus proposes the idea that we do these in private or secret… an act that takes place between you and God… a spiritual matter. God can tell a lot about you by what you do when there is no one there to see you. Neither I, nor anyone else here can ever know that part of you. I might fool you, I might fool everybody else here. I might deceive myself… which is a bit harder, but I cannot fool God. He knows what’s really going on.
Notice that each of these examples ends with the phrase “and your Father who sees in secret will reward you”.
Vs 6:1-4 Generosity & Giving—To the Jews charity to the poor was huge… in the fact the word for charity is the same word used for righteousness. They tended to view this and other good works as a means to gain merit with God… and often as a way to publically demonstrate their superior status economically and spiritually. Jesus instructs us to test the compassion in our hearts by continuing to do this good deed … but to do it in secret, before God alone.
Vs 6:5-15 Prayer—Jesus describes the wrong way to pray and then offers guidance regarding the right way to pray. Prayer was top priority for the Jew… They had formal prayers to recite when they got up, they had prayer before and after each meal; there were prayers in connection with the light, the fire, the lightning, new moons, comets, rain, storms, at the sight of the sea, lakes, rivers, on receiving good news, on using new furniture, on entering or leaving a city… They also had set times for prayer 9am… 12 noon… 3pm. So, if you were at a busy street corner at noon you would simply begin to pray with your head bowed and your hands up in the air… hmm Mordecai certainly seems to just happen to be on the street corner at the stroke of 12 an awful lot… wow that guy can pray! I’m sure God hears him… I certainly can.
There is a time for public and communal prayer but Jesus instructs us that our prayers are primarily to be unto God with a sincere heart… where there is no one to show off for (I would think if we were trying to show off to God in prayer we’d feel pretty ridicualous). Jesus then gives us an example of a heartfelt personal prayer (more of an outline) commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. There is a good balance of intimacy with our creator who loves us as children… with respect and reverence for Him as supreme head of all that exists… and acknowledgement of His sovereign will… and a special emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation.
Vs 6:17-18 Fasting—is a good thing for drawing close to God but not if you are doing it to show off how spiritual you are. The Jews had semi-official days of fasting on Monday and Thursday. These were also market days, and people would come in to town from the country. This meant a bigger audience for those who were ostentatiously fasting… a bigger audience to see and admire their righteousness. Some took deliberate steps to see that others could not miss the fact that they were fasting. They walked through the streets with hair deliberately unkempt and dishevelled, with clothes deliberately soiled and disarrayed”.
Again Jesus says… yes, fast unto God… not to an audience.
Note: these rules, obligations, expectations Jesus was slashing and burning His way through were the traditions of men. God’s word doesn’t give rules about how often to fast, how long to pray, how much to give.
All this is interesting background explaining why Jesus would criticize them… but assuming everyone in this room is indeed doing these things privately before God… tooting your own horn doesn’t really seem to be a problem among God’s people… our key take-away from this itemizing of bad behavior is to remain humble and reverent before God who knows our hearts and motivations.
What About Legitimate Spiritual Discipline?
You can make rules for yourself and proactively try to develop habits of righteousness (examples)… But when we start thinking that following our own rules makes us righteous, then we have a problem… when we start judging others based on how well they measure up to our rules we have a bigger problem… when we try to force others to follow our rules and expectations… you get the picture…
Is Seeking A Reward Godly?
Jesus ends each of these three examples with this phrase… “and your Father who sees in secret will reward you”. But isn’t the whole idea of doing something for reward… ungodly? Shouldn’t we simply do good for the sake of doing good itself or the love of God? Short Answer: not according to Jesus Christ. He talks about reward frequently.
The idea of doing something with no thought of reward sounds noble but shouldn’t be applied to the rewards that God has promised… without them life is without purpose or goals, without joys to be obtained, with nothing to anticipate and look forward to… all action is meaningless, every day the same as the next… in the end who cares? That is not how God thinks. God has purpose, He has plans, he has goals and He has rewards in mind. The key is…
What kinds of rewards are we looking forward to?
- Satisfaction (the joy & happiness of knowing you have done well)
- Increased responsibility - Matt.25:14-30 parable of the talents (the brilliant student gets harder assignments, the talented musician gets harder, not easier music to learn, the athelete who does well playing on second string gets moved to the more challenging first string… and so it is with the disciple of Christ… so it is with the firstfruits.
- To see God (to be in his presence without fear but with joy)
Contrasting Earthly Riches (Rewards) with Heavenly Reward
Vs 19-22 back before the days of cash, credit cards, 401k plans, people had to stash their wealth in the form of things… fine clothing, homes, jewelry and so forth. These all fade and wear out (compare inflation to a moth or rust)… and even if you care for them and keep them in mint condition… you wear out… you die and none of your stuff goes with you.
What goes with you is the Godly character you have developed… how you have written His law upon your heart and mind, how you have developed to the fruits of the Holy Spirit, how you have walked in the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do.
Vs 23-24 Money can cloud your vision and get you off track (eye as window metaphor… if its clear and unclouded the light can get in). The solution is generosity and godly stewardship of the blessings God has given you.
Vs 25-34 Why do people care about money so passionately? There are plenty of reasons… power, vanity and pleasure come to mind… but I think the one most common to all humans is fear (worry). Wanting to know where is my next meal coming from… Can I pay the mortgage this month? What will happen to me? What can I do to control events? Etc.
Fear and worry is the opposite of faith. Trust in money is incompatible with trust in God.
Jesus uses a classic rhetorical technique to compare the two… “if so in the lesser case (animals plants), how much more so in the greater case (the children of God).
Everything Leads to Judgment Before God
Jesus now begins to wrap up His sermon with a nice conclusion: the point of pursuing this greater righteousness is to prepare yourself to be judged (and rewarded) by God. But along the way He makes some key points about how we treat one another with regard to judgment and compares human judgment with God’s.
Matt 7:1-5 Krinos – means discernment, analysis (which are good), it also means condemnation and vengeance (which are not… as Jesus discussed in His teaching on the spirit of murder). Condemnation and vengeance are God’s job…
The goal of this teaching is not to get us to all just shut up, but to actually fix our own lives so we can legitimately help others. That’s part of what you were designed to do. Judgment is hardwired into humans… it’s a God level function… you were designed to judge righteous judgment.
Gal 6:1 you cannot help your brother or sister without the ability to discern and makes judgments on the basis of God’s word. But it is not your role to condemn.
Verse 6… a warning, even constructive criticism from a pure heart and a clear eye will likely be rejected by those who are outside the brotherhood… those who are ungodly, unspiritual and/or deceived by false teaching.
How Does God Treat Us?
Matt 7:7-11 When we think about how to approach other people a good place to start is to remind ourselves of how God treats us. Of all people you know the problems in your life… and hopefully you are aware of the great patience and gentleness an generosity God shows you.
Matt 7:12 Summary: The Golden Rule (as Jesus explained earlier to be forgiven you must be forgiving, to be treated with kindness you should be kind etc.). Someone might say… “I’m hard on myself so I can be hard on others”… back up to the previous point, consider your dealings with your creator, consider how kind He is to you.
There Are Only 2 Ways You Can Go… Life or Death (3 Illustrations)
The choice is the same as it was in the beginning… I set before you life and death, choose life! Your decision before God’s truth and way is binary… its on or off, up or down, in or out… there is not third way.
Vs 13-14 true disciples will always be few. Our success in preaching the word of God cannot be measured in numbers or percentages. Writing the law of God on your heart and mind is challenging.
Vs 15-23 here and elsewhere we are warned that people will come into the church with bad ideas… perhaps some new tradition of men they have cooked up… perhaps some outrageous heresy. For our own sake we will have to judge them based on the fruits of their lives… are they pursuing the will of the Father. How do we know the will of the Father? The Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start.
You may have said all the right words… you may be in the right place at the right time… but is it your personal goal to write the laws and commandments of God on your hearts and your mind? What about the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Do you have a plan to walk in the good works He has prepared in advance for you to do? Are you preparing yourself for your place in the family of God and the Kingdom of God.
Need guidelines? A to-do list? The Sermon on the Mount is a great place to start.
Vs 24-27 just read it
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