Matthew
5:48-6:8: “Jesus’ Sermon On The
Mount: Be Perfect / Don’t Perform
Righteousness To Be Seen By Men / Not Using Meaningless Repitition”
by
1.
We first want
to finish up this last verse in chapter 5, and then we shall go into chapter 6.
2.
VS 5:48 - “48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect”” - Jesus
tells His disciples that they are to be ‘perfect’
2.1.
In Eph. 5:1-2,
Paul writes that we Christians are to be “imitators of God” as His beloved
children, and this is the calling that every child of God has, to seek to be
like their Father in heaven in every single way, “5:1 Therefore be imitators
of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you,
and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant
aroma”
2.2.
This is not a
totally new concept for the Jews, for the Old Testament also taught that God’s
people were to follow the Lord with all of their hearts
2.2.1. This is really the same thing that God commanded Moses
in Lev. 19:1-2, “19:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to all
the congregation of the sons of
2.2.2. In Deut. 18:13, the Lord commanded the people that
they were to follow Him in all of their ways, “13 “You shall be blameless
before the Lord your God”
2.3.
We Christians
must on the one hand realize that we will never attain perfection in this life,
yet at the same time realize that God did not place this command for perfection
in His Word for academic reasons, this is something that must also be the
Christian’s passion, to be ‘perfect’ as their Father in heaven is perfect
2.3.1. In Phil. 3:12-15, the apostle Paul acknowledged that
he was imperfect, yet at the same time that he was constantly striving to be
so, “12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect,
but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid
hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid
hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching
forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as are
perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude,
God will reveal that also to you”
2.3.2. In Col. 1:28-29, the apostle Paul wrote that the
purpose of the ministry itself was to present every person complete in Christ,
“28 And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with
all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 And for this
purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works
within me”
2.3.3. James wrote in Ja. 1:2-4 that we Christians are to
allow the trials that we encounter in this life have their intended result,
that we are perfected through them, “2 Consider it all joy, my brethren,
when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith
produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may
be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”
2.4.
When we finally
get to heaven and stand in the presence of the One who is truly perfect and
holy in all ways, then we shall see the importance of being perfected while we
are here in this life, and we will all wish
that we had tried harder to be be perfect
2.5.
Peter writes in 1
Peter 3:3, that purification unto perfection is the inevitable result of coming
to faith in Christ, “3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies
himself, just as He is pure”
2.6.
In 1 Peter
1:14-21, Peter gives us commentary on these verses as well as exhortation to
take to heart, “14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former
lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called
you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written,
“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17
And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each
man’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth;
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or
gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with
precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in
these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God,
who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope
are in God”
1.
Chapter 6
INTRO:
1.1.
Continuing in
the Sermon On the The Mount and revealing the principles of the kingdom person in
His kingdom, Jesus begins to discuss here the kind of motives behind the deeds
which will be pleasing to God
1.2.
Jesus reveals
that a good deed done for a wrong motive will still not be pleasing to the Lord
1.3.
The Pharisees
had no appreciate for the inward motives for outward spiritual deeds, but Jesus
wants His disciples to learn what true righteousness consists of
1.4.
Here in these
verses Jesus contrasts two different motives for the good deeds that we as
God’s people perform
1.4.1. The motive to please only the Lord by what we do
1.4.2. The motive to be pleasing and exalted in the sight of
men by what we do
1.5.
The bottom
line here for us as Christians is that we should desire to please the Lord in
all that we do, and we don’t want to have any of our eternal rewards taken away
by the Lord because our hearts were not right before Him when we did them
1.5.1. It is a godly desire to want to cash in on eternal
rewards to be given to us by the Lord, so we should desire to have as many as
we can get
2.
VS 6:1 - “6:1 ”Beware of practicing your righteousness
before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father
who is in heaven”” - Jesus tells His disciples to beware of
doing righteous acts in order to be seen by men
2.1.
Chapter 5 of
Matthew dealt with internal righteousness before God, and here in chapter 6
Jesus begins to talk about external acts of righteousness to be committed by
His disciples
2.2.
In these verses,
Jesus does not directly command His disciples to do these acts, but rather He
tells them to beware of the motives of their hearts when they do them
2.2.1. It is assummed by Jesus however that His disciples
will do these righteous acts, and that doing them will be both a natural result
of coming to faith for salvation in Him, and it is assumed these are things
which He commands His disciples to do
2.3.
The word
translated ‘righteousness’ here can also be translated “alms”, as some
translations have it, and as such the word refers to acts of charity and good
deeds done to help those less fortunate
2.3.1. Jesus expected that His disciples would be helping out
the poor and needy in society around them when He said these things
2.4.
What is the deep
meaning of these next few verses is that the motive behind why we do the good
deeds that we do, whatever the deeds may consist of, determines whether or not
they truly are accepted by God as being good and pleasing to Him
2.4.1. The things that are done in order to be seen by and
get the attention and admiration of people will not get a reward by the Lord as
they will not be found to be acceptable to Him
2.4.2. The things that are done for the Lord alone will be
accepted by Him and thus rewarded by Him
2.5.
Another great
truth that is implied in these next verses is the fact that all of the good
that we as Christians do is designed by God to bring Him (and only Him) glory
3.
VS 6:2-4 - “2 “When therefore you give alms, do not sound a
trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in
full. 3 “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right
hand is doing 4 that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in
secret will repay you”” - Jesus
tells His disciples that they are not to bring attention to themselves when
they give alms
3.1.
In Jesus’ day,
the Jews were into putting on a big show in order to act religious in front of
people, and thus instead of praying by themselves or even in the synagogues,
they would pray aloud standing in the streets, and when they did give alms to
the poor, they would announce it loudly so that everyone knew just what they
had done
3.2.
There does not
seem to be any external evidence in any writings that indicate that the Jews in
Jesus’ day actually would blow a trumpet whenever they would drop a coin in a box
for the poor or do some other kind deed, so it could very well be that the Lord
was just speaking here in generalities about the importance of doing good works
in secret without bringing attention to yourself
3.3.
Sometimes today
people will give if they can get the recognition
3.3.1. It is often true in our day that people will not give
large sums of money to charities or churches unless they have a media event to
advertize it, or get their name on the building or award, etc.
3.3.2. Sometimes people want to give money to the church, but
they don’t want to do it anonymously, but rather they want to hand the check
directly to the pastor
3.3.3. In the liberal church I grew up in, people who gave a
certain sum of money to the church would then have their name engraved on a
plaque on one of the pews for all to see the fact that they were a benefactor
to the church
3.3.4. One time at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, a man came
up to pastor Chuck and wanted to give him a million dollars for the church, and
pastor Chuck refused it because if the man’s motive had been right before the
Lord he would just have slipped the money into one of the agape boxes
3.4.
Jesus calls those
who do their righteousness in plain sight so that men will see them
‘hypocrities’
3.4.1. This Greek word for ‘hypocrite’ here was used for the
Greek actors who would put a mask on when they went on the stage to impersonate
some character
3.4.2. Religion done for the reward and applause of men is
not religion at all, but rather a farce, for it does not seek God’s glory nor
bring Him honor
3.4.2.1.If men are getting the glory, then God is not getting
it, for it can not be shared, God will not share His glory with another
3.4.3. In the mainstream church today it is getting to be
more so all of the time that human “flesh” is getting glory. Also, today popular televangelists are
constantly promoting and exalting themselves and their faith
3.4.3.1.Jesus has a word for these “modern day” hypocrites,
“They have their reward”
3.5.
Jesus teaches
here that the alms that are done in secret will be rewarded by the Lord
3.5.1. Jesus teaches here that the deeds that are done in
secret are characterized as those which are done in such a way that the left
hand does not know what the right hand is doing, in other words, where there is
complete selflessness in the deeds that are done
3.6.
Years ago, I had just
become a Christian, and I was going around and witnessing to all of the friends
that I had in high school, and some of those friends were becoming
Christians. However, I was also telling
people all the time about situations where I had shared the gospel with a
person, and then he had become a Christian, and I started hearing round town
about that people were talking about not wanting to become a Christian because
they would just be a notch on my belt.
The Lord humbled and convicted me through this to be very careful about
talking about what the Lord had done through me.
3.6.1. Jesus’ disciples had a similar thing happen to
them. Jesus had sent them out to heal
and cast out demons, and they came back after their little short-term mission
bragging about what great things that the Lord had done through them, and Luke
10:17-21 tells us what Jesus said to them, “17 And the seventy returned with
joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” 18 And He
said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and
over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you. 20 “Nevertheless
do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that
your names are recorded in heaven.””
3.7.
I personally like
it when churches use agape boxes instead of passing a plate to receive the
offerings. This makes it easier for
people to give in secret and it removes some of the temptations to giving in order
to be seen by men.
4.
VS 6:5-6 - “5 “And when you pray, you are not to be as the
hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street
corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward
in full. 6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have
shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees
in secret will repay you”” - Jesus
tells His disciples that when they pray they should go and pray in secret to
the Father
4.1.
Prayer is such a
vital part of a person’s relationship with God, and though here Jesus does not
command His disciples to pray, He assumes that they will desire greatly to
spend time with Him in prayer, and that their lives will be preoccupied with
prayer to the Father
4.1.1. There is not a man or woman of God in the Bible who
was not a person of prayer, for their can be no real religion in a person’s
life who does not have the habit of praying to the Lord
4.2.
Though prayer was
meant to be living and vital in the lives of God’s people, the Jews in Jesus
day had turned prayer into a very formal ritual where memorized prayers were
prayed repititiously, and worse than that since a man was considered to be very
spiritual if he prayed long prayers, in hypocrisy many of the Jews for pretense
would stand in public sight and pray long prayers
4.2.1. William Barclay writes that a faithful Jew would
repeat the Shema early in the morning and again at night. That prayer began, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord”, and this prayer was the combination of several Old
Testament verses. Likewise, the Shemoneh
esray (‘The Eighteen’) was another collection of 18 prayers that were recited
for special occassions, and faithful Jews prayed all 18 prayers each morning,
afternoon, and evening.
4.2.2. Jesus tells the Jews who love to stand and pray long
prayers in order to be seen by men that there will be no reward from God for
any of their prayers, but rather that they already have their reward
4.3.
In saying these
things, Jesus is teaching that there will be rewards for prayers that are
prayed in secret to the Lord, and I believe that one day when all of us
Christians are standing before the Lord in order to receive rewards for our
service to the Lord, that there will be many prayer warriors, people who in
many cases are people who were in large part unknown to the church, who will
receive the most rewards
4.3.1. Prayer is hard work, and therefore it will be greatly
rewarded
4.4.
In saying these things,
Jesus is not forbidding all kinds of public prayer, for this is even commanded
by Paul in 1 Tim. 2:1-4, but rather what He is condemning is the pretense of
prayer, praying that is not from the heart to God, but rather is mere ritual,
not engaging the mind, and which is done in order to be noticed by others
4.4.1. The secret place then that Jesus speaks of that the
disciples is supposed to go to to pray is really a secret place in the attitude
of the heart, and this type of prayer can really be offered in any place
5.
VS 6:7-8 - “7 “And when you are praying, do not use
meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be
heard for their many words. 8 “Therefore do not be like them; for your Father
knows what you need, before you ask Him”” - Jesus exhorts His disciples not to use ‘meaningless repetition’ when they
pray
5.1.
The Jews had
really incorporated the pagan practices that the Gentiles of their day used in
praying to their gods. We can see
glimpses of this type of pagan prayer for instance when Elijah in 1 Kings 18 is
up on Mt. Carmet, and he challenges the prophets of Baal to pray to their god
that he will consume the sacrifice they had placed on the altar. These prophets prayed long, loud, and hard
because they felt that they needed to wake up their god, and then they thought
that if they kept on praying that finally out of annoyance that Baal would give
in and grant their request. Further,
they even cut themselves thinking that if they were to suffer and deny and
injure their flesh that their god would see their sacrifice and then be
obligated to answer them.
5.1.1. However, our God does not need to be awakened but
rather He knows our needs even before we ask Him, as Jesus taught, and prayer
as such is not trying to convince God to do for us what He is presently
unwilling to do, but rather it is more for us to get in line with His thoughts
and will and thus allow Him to do what He is already desiring and purposing to
do.
5.1.1.1.It is interesting when some Christians and some
churches get together for prayer, it seems like they are informing God about
things that He doesn’t know about already
5.1.1.2.Likewise, sometimes when some Christian groups pray it
seems like they believe initially that the Lord is really not willing right now
to do some good and righteous thing that they desire to do, and that they have
to somehow convince Him to do it
5.1.2. Likewise, in some religions the priests use prayer
wheels where they write their prayers on cards which they rotate upon the wheel
thinking that if the prayer comes up often enough their god will eventually
answer their request
5.2.
Another aspect of
prayer is that “prayer is not to be something that focuses primarily upon our
needs”, even though we have plenty of needs, rather it is intended to be a time
of acknowledging God’s majesty and glory, and a time of exalting Him and His
glory
5.2.1. However, so many times it is as if many Christians
believe in a genie God when they pray.
It is just as if they feel that whenever they want they can come and rub
a magic bottle and then God will come out of their bottle and be at their beck
and call to do whatever it is that they desire Him to do
5.2.2. We Christians sometimes should feel ashamed that we
always want God to hear us immediately and answer our every prayer, yet we our
so very slow and stubborn about listening and heeding Him when He desires to
speak to us
5.3.
By saying that we
are not to use ‘meaningless repititions’, Jesus is not saying that we should
only pray once for anything, for this would actually go against His teaching
about persisting in prayer which involved the importunate widow of Luke 18:1-8
who kept bringing her request before the judge until he finally ruled in her
favor.
5.3.1. What Jesus is condemning here is prayer that is prayed
not from the heart, prayer that is prayed just in a ritualistic manner with
canned prayers that don’t mean anything to the one praying, and prayer that
tries to manipulate God rather than fall in line with His program.
5.3.2. Prayer must pationate and fervent, and someone said
once that prayer that does not move a man’s heart will also not move the heart
of God
5.3.3. There is a place for coming before the Lord
persistently about a certain request, and possibly the purpose of this is more
to remind us of what it is that we are trusting the Lord to perform rather than
to remind God
5.3.4. The using of rosary beads by Catholics to keep track
of how many times one has prayed a prayer, as well as the repititious prayer of
the “Lord’s Prayer” by them are direct violations of these commands of Jesus
5.4.
Prayer that God
will answer is prayer that is prayed according to God’s will, as John wrote in
1 John 5:14-15, “14 And this is the confidence which we have before Him,
that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know
that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we
have asked from Him”
5.5.
In Ecc. 5:2,
Solomon wrote some wise words which tell us that since the Lord is mighty,
all-present, and all-powerful, in heaven, that therefore we ought to let our
words be few when we come to Him in prayer, “2 Do not be hasty in word or
impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in
heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few”
5.5.1. D.L. Moody once said something that was interesting on
this subject. He said that the man who
prayed much at church didn’t pray much at home.
5.6.
We see here in
these verses that Jesus’ disciples have hope in their praying because they are
praying to their ‘Father’, and as we continue on through the gospel, we will
see how our heavenly Father loves us more than any earthly father, and how that
he does things only for our good, and that He will never do anything to harm us