(Audio and Text)
Title: For Whom?
May I just say as we begin today that it is truly good to be back. And it is also good to be back in Matthew. On the calendar it’s been three Sundays since last we were in Matthew, but with the holidays, the travel, getting the flu, my hard drive crashing, going back to work after vacation, it just seems ages ago that we were able to meet on a Sunday morning to continue to study Matthew’s Gospel account.
I don’t know if any of you are with me on this, but it is just really nice to be back into a regular routine.
So today we begin 2011 and enter into chapter 6 of Matthew. For the past several weeks we’ve been looking at the sermon on the mount, and more specifically, we’ve been focusing on what Jesus is teaching us our behavior should look like as he clarifies His understanding of the Mosaic Law and contrasts that with the understanding of the Law that the Jews currently held which has been taught and reinforced by the Scribes and Pharisees.
In doing this, we’ve looked at several topics over the last few months ranging from Murder, Insults, Divorce, Taking Oaths, Marriage, Justice, and Loving Your Neighbors.
And as we’ve looked at this wide range of topics that Jesus has touched on, one theme continually seems to be repeating itself: The Scribes and Pharisees were teaching a practice of the Law that focused on outward, measurable, and visible actions, while Jesus was teaching that keeping the Law was really a condition of the heart and that your one’s motives were just as important as their actions.
Today we will see that same theme resurface, but with a slightly different focus and reasoning.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
(read/pray)
I. The Default Setting
(read 1a)
Q: What is a “default setting”? (take answers)
A: It is the normal state of something.
For Jesus, it was normal, expected, and consistent with the rest of scripture that His followers (keepers of the Law) were involved in charitable works.
Jesus never says, “If you should happen to do a charitable deed…” The presumption of Jesus is that His followers would naturally and instinctively be involved in charitable contributions to society.
And Jesus’ concern, as we will look at in a minute, is not about whether or not these deeds are being done (his assumption is that they are, that the default setting is for believers to be involved in charity) but rather that they are done the right way.
POINT: We often think of charitable works as “special” or “above and beyond” the normal state of our operations, both individually, as families, and even as congregations. Jesus didn’t. He expected them to be a very regular and normal part of our lives.
- Who’s Your Secret Santa?
(read 1b-2)
We of course, just went through the Christmas holiday season, so I’m hoping this will be an apt illustration. How many of you, either in your families, or in your offices, places of work, have ever had a Secret Santa present exchange? You know, where you draw someone’s name and your are supposed buy that person a gift, and someone has your name, etc.?
Most of us at some point have participated in something like this and inevitable, someone in the family or the office, gets a reputation for being the best gift buyer in the group, and everyone is hoping that that person ends up buying for you.
As I grew up in my family we went to this model of gift buying because our family was just growing with more and more kids and this was a much easier way to go. For me, the best person to get my name was my cousin’s husband because
- He liked to spend money
- We have a lot of the same tastes
- He was a procrastinator and usually ended up giving me cash
On the other hand, the worst person to end up with was my one aunt. She always bought clothes, they were never in style, they usually didn’t fit, and my mom always made me wear these clothes when she was around and I felt like a fool. (Imagine Ralphie from A Christmas Story with the Bunny Pajamas)
Now, what’s the parallel here? For me, the reward, the quality of the present, was distinctly tied to who the gift giver was. And Jesus makes the same argument here.
Jesus outlines two types of the people: First, the follower, who does his charitable deed in secret. The deed gets done, but no one knows, and no one needs to know who did it, or how it got done.
The second person, the hypocrite “sounds a trumpet” (in other words, draws attention to himself) and they do these acts of self promotion BOTH in the synagogue (a place of worship of God!) and in the streets.
What’s the real difference between these two people?
- Who’s present they want to unwrap.
- One is patient, the other is not.
- One is humble, the other is not.
- One wants to be glorified, the other wants God to be glorified.
- One’s eyes are focused on man, the others on god.
- Why in secret?
(read 3/4)
So this brings us to our final question: Why does it need to be in secret? What’s wrong with a follower of God getting attention for doing something right? Doesn’t that honor the kingdom, and make believers look good?
Perhaps. And Perhaps not.
If a deed is done in secret, though, accomplished only by the faithful humility of God’s servants, then God gets the glory.
When something remarkable happens and the exclamation becomes, “Who would do such a wonderful thing?”
If no one answers, we have no one to praise but God and His sovereignty.
But if someone says, “I did, it was me!” Then we rob God of what should be His glory, for the sake of our own. And how can I claim that? Because with whatever means that person did this thing, whether money, or time, or talent, it all came from God anyway, so why shouldn’t he collect the reward?
Satan knows what a powerful tool our pride can be. And he will use our pride to call attention to the necessary work we do, unnecessarily.
(Let me say that again.)
The unnecessary thing is not the work, that is expected. What is unnecessary is our desire to receive the praise of man because of that work. Instead, here we are told, “Do this in secret, and trust the Father for a better reward than you could ever fathom from man.”
And how silly is it that our pride can talk us into trading an eternal reward from the greatest gift giver of all time, for the fickle and temporary praise of man?