Mattew 6 1-18

We are looking at verses 1 to 18 in the 6^th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.

I would like to say right at the beginning of this sermon, that some of the statements I make may be quite different to the views which you have, and indeed  from what you have heard from other preachers.  It is good however, to hear different teaching, provided always of course, it is consistent with Scripture.

Each sermon should have a purpose, which should makes clear what the Bible message was meant to convey. When we turn to the Gospel especially, the words of Jesus we must realize are from a Jew. Jesus was a Jew speaking in this passage to Jews, and He was relating His words to Jewish culture and understanding.  When Christianity was adopted bynon-Jews, all His teaching applied, and still does to Christians.

At the present time, many people have a strong feeling against Israel and the Jews, and if you should be of such animosity, I pray you will remember we are looking at events of two thousand years past.  As I have stated, Jesus was a Jew, our Holy Book was written under God’s guidance by Jews, and we have the same God.  Our religious life has been based fromThe Old Testament Prophets which led to the life of Jesus in the New Testament.

 

Looking at the first verse, Jesus starts a discussion on three acts of righteousness. Up to this point, Jesus has been addressing the matter of personal righteousness in terms of morality, and now turns to doing the will of God in religious practice, especially the great hallmarks of Jewish piety.

To the Jews there were three works of religious life, three great pillars on which good life was based, giving, prayer and fasting.  Jesus, at the time of it happening would have expected His listeners to do these things, but He is concerned as to how they may be done, and warns to be careful.  He says, pointing to the motives behind our devotion and duty. are they sincere? The deeds may benefit someone , but are they done just to be noticed. What troubled Jesus, was so often in life, the finest things  were done for wrong motives,

It is a strange fact these three good works readily lend themselves to wrong motives. Jesus was concerned that we should be giving the right approach.  It was His warning that these things were done for the intention of bringing glory to the person or they lost the mostImportant part of their value. He assumes people will be watching what we do, and may try to impress people.  Jesus warns if our acts are to impress people, God will not be impressed and there will be no reward from our heavenly Father.  We should only be concerned to please God, it is His approval we should be seeking.

Public acts may be valuable and honorable, but if they are done merely for public recognition they will earn no reward.

In verse 2, Jesus begins to lay out our duty regarding giving.  To a Jew, almsgiving was the most sacred of all religious duties. They used  the same word for righteousness as almsgiving; they were one and the same thing, and to give alms was to gain merit in the sight of God.

A man may give alms not really to. the person to whom he gives to help, but simply to demonstrate a generosity and bask in the warmth of praise.

I have for a long time been against stewards in Church, walking around Church after the Minister has told the congregation it is collection time.  Some stewards hold the plate with a smile, and pull it away when a person is obviously a visitor, whilst others hold the plate with a grim look, as much as to say now give. Apart from the act, we ask people to come to Church, and then virtually ask them to pay for doing so, but money given to help the work of the Church should essentially be freely given, and the more considerate method is for the Minister to tell the congregation, that plates are available at the back of the Church for any donation people might like to give to aid the work of that Church. Some American

prayer Churches have the acute saying, ‘ thank you for your generous giving’. 

The second part of the first verse speaks of your reward in heaven. It has often stated that the reward motive has no place in the Christian life.  Virtue it is stated, has its own reward and the whole concept of reward is banished from Christian thought. This all very fine, but it is not which Jesus taught,

Three times in this passage alone, Jesus speaks of God rewarding those who have given Him the kind of service He desires. Throughout Scripture Jesus spoke of reward and punishment so we have to be careful we are not trying to be more spiritual than Jesus.

It is a rule of life, that any action which achieves nothing, is futile and meaningless, Unless the Christian life has an aim and a goal which is a joy to obtain, it becomes largely without meaning.  To banish all reward and punishment from religion is in effect to say that injustice is the last word.  It cannot be held that the end of a good life is the same as a bad one. That implies God does not care whether we are good or bad; it would mean there is no point in being good.

When Jesus  was speaking of reward, He is not thinking of material reward, His rewards are those only understood by spiritually minded people.  The first reward is satisfaction of doing the right thing is obedience to Jesus.  The second reward is a vision of God. the third reward is being given more to do.

The teaching of Rabbis was the same as Jesus, they too forbade the ostentatious giving. A Rabbi would drop money behind him so he would not see who picked it up. In the Temple there would be a room called The Chamber of silent people , who wished to make an atonement for sin, and they placed money there and poor people who had come down in the world were secretly helped by these contributions. But as in so many things, practice fell short and too often the giver gave in such a way that all may see the gift so that more glory was gained for themselves.

There are numerous ways in which giving loses its sincerity in so many walks of life. The more offensively arrogant is that practiced in political circles. Regularly we read or hear of men and women giving money to political parties, so that in return rewards of titles and peerages are being given in return. Political leaders promise to abandon the practice, but as time comes for them to retire or be replaced, the enthusiasm wanes for they may be denied that which they disapproved of.

 

In verse 5, we come to prayer.   No nation has a higher ideal of prayer than the Jews, and no religion ever ranked prayer higher in the scale of priorities than the Jews did. The Rabbis had a saying, he who prays within his house surrounds it with a wall stronger than iron. But certain faults had crept into the Jewish act of prayer and the can occur anywhere.  Thet are faults of misguided devotion and tended to become personalized.

A person may pray in such a way that their prayer is not really addressed to God. but to other people, or simply an attempt to show piety.

There two things in the daily use of which was prescribed for every Jew.  The first was ‘Sherma’ which consisted of three short verses from Deuteronomy and Numbers, and had to be said every morning as early as possible, and every evening; no matter where persons found themselves they had to stop and say.  Some would say reverently, others just gobble through it so becoming a vain repetition.

The second thing a Jew had to daily do, consisted of reciting 18 prayers which was and is still, an essential part of Synagogue prayers. They are well formed prayers, and no Church possesses a more beautiful liturgy.

The same thig happened again.  The devout Jew prayed with loving devotion, but there were many for whom it was gabbled formula.  We Christians do the same with the Lord’s prayer which Jesus taught us to pray.

Still further Jewish liturgy supplied prayers for every occasion. There is hardly an event in life that did not have a prayer.  It was the intention that every happening in life should be brought into the presence of God.  But there was the danger that prayers could slip off the tongue with very little meaning.

In addition, there set times for prayers, 9.0am. 12noon, and 3.0pm and no matter what circumstances a man might find himself in, he was required to pray at those times.

There was a tendency for prayers for long prayers. This is not confined to Jews. For some people who perform intercessions, length seems to be considered more worthy, and A person may practice good works simply to win praise and increase their own prestige and show the world how good they are.  As Jesus saw it, there is no doubt that kind of thing does receive a certain kind of reward, but is that is what you wany, you will get admiration from people, but that is all you will get as payment in full. If your aim is to get yourself the world’s rewards, you will get them, but you must not look for rewards which only God can give .

Sometimes the person reciting is unable to terminate.  God is not impressed by such praying, and neither should we be.

I once heard a Baptist Minister say how wonderful the prayers were in the Book of Common Prayer.  Each last just a minute and are completely contained.  Jesus insisted we must always remember that God to whom we pray, is a God of love who is more ready to answer than we are to pray.  His gifts and grace are not to be willingly extracted from Him.

In verses 16-18 Jesus criticized them for looking for looking somber and not washing their faces. Jesus never liked those who made show of their religion and considered them as hypocrites

The Jews had fasting customs, and to this day is part of religious life in the East. There was just one day for compulsory fasting,  the Day of Atonement.  Jesus was concerned that there should not be any public fasting, for fasting for its own sake is pointless. To seriously fast is to symbolize a humble state of mind before God,

 

We give thanks to God for giving us His Word. May He forever be glorified