Matthew 8
A Genuine Faith
Have you ever attended a school band concert? Some high school bands sound amazing. Most junior high bands do not. As a band kid, I didn’t notice too much when we made mistakes or weren’t quite tuned correctly. I know my band director did, because he would harp on it quite a bit. But, when I became a teacher and started listening to the bands as an adult, I could hear every squawk, squeak, and missed note. It’s awful.
Whenever the band is playing a great piece of music, I always lament it a bit because I know how the song should sound. Whenever I’m listening to some kid butcher a piece of music, though, I don’t blame the composer. It’s not the composer’s fault these kids are still working out how to play their instruments well. The players just need more practice.
Sometimes Christians just need more practice. It’s not God’s fault they aren’t playing the Christian song well. The Christian just needs more practice.
The word ‘hypocrite’ gets thrown around quite a bit in church circles, or about church people, and while everyone is a hypocrite to some degree, the fact is Christians are simply humans learning to live as God desires. But, there are those who truly are hypocritical. They use religion and good works to manipulate others or to put on a mask of righteousness.
Today, we are going to read how Jesus continues to root out heart issues as he turns his attention to the truly hypocritical.
In chapter 5 we examined how Jesus gets straight to the problem which is a heart problem. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” because they recognize their hopeless situation. The kingdom of heaven is available to any who would seek it, but only the repentant can find it. Only those who understand the sin in their heart are willing to let God transform their heart. The latter part of chapter 5 illustrates the higher ethic God requires of us, but in order for us to live such a life, we must allow Jesus to transform our hearts.
Now, in chapter 6, Jesus is going to further illustrate the problems with religious systems. What we are going to see is:
Religion for the sake of human praise is complete hypocrisy.
The previous teachings centered on the everyday person and how they viewed and treated others. Now, let’s read what Jesus has to say to the truly hypocritical.
Genuine acts of righteousness need no applause
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 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.
Matthew 6:1-6
There is a key word that permeates this section, as well as the whole chapter—‘secret’. Jesus reminds us the Father sees everything done in this world, whether on the street, in the prayer closet, or even in the heart. It is unnecessary to parade your acts of righteousness. When we give, we can give secretly. God still sees it.
If we feel the need to announce our giving, then we must ask ourselves, “Why?” Why should we tell everyone else about the good thing we’ve done when the only person it really matters to is God? And God has already seen it.
Proverbs 19:17 says,
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
Proverbs 19:17
Giving to others is a transaction between the giver, the recipient, and God. The Lord will repay the gift in time, but if the giver decides to gain his reward from people, then God is under no obligation to continue blessing the gift.
Genuine giving trusts that God sees the act of giving.
The faith to give without reward comes when we truly have faith in God’s justice. Do we truly believe God rewards those who do good in life? Parading our good works and seeking attention from others only demonstrates a lack of faith in God. We are saying that we don’t think God is watching, and if we don’t get praise or rewards from others, then the rewards won’t come. Or, even worse, we are only doing good and giving because we want to elicit praise or rewards from others. Giving then becomes a form of idolatry. Praise of man is more important to us than what God says about us.
Genuine prayer is much the same. Who needs to hear your prayer? Why does it matter if the people around you are impressed by your prayers or not? Are you praying to them or God? Do you believe God hears your prayer, regardless how eloquent it may be?
Genuine prayer trusts that God hears the prayer.
How then should we pray? Jesus gives us an example.
Praying as Jesus prayed
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:7-14
We are not to pray “as the Gentiles do.” In the temples of Greece and Rome, the people would bow to statues and light candles offering their prayers up. Some scholars even draw a connection between the “speaking in tongues” Paul refers to in Corinthians to the babbling prayers of Gentiles. Even today, there are folk religions which offer babbling words to deities as a means of prayer. Even if the prayers were in an actual language, the idea of praying in the Gentile world had more to do with spiritual invocations and magical rites than appealing to the goodness of some deity.
Genuine prayer is not an attempt to manipulate God, but rather a bending of our will to His.
The contrast Jesus draws is that the One True God already knows what you need and is happy to help you. There is no need to babble on or attempt to invoke His power. He is not a cosmic ATM that requires the correct code to activate blessings. Instead, Jesus’ example prayer demonstrates the faith that God not only hears us, but that His will is best for our lives.
Consider the first part of the prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
First, the Lord’s Name is hallowed—it is holy. We do not invoke the Name of God lightly. Commandment number 3 is to “not take the Lord’s Name in vain.” Our prayer begins with an acknowledgement of whose ear we have. He is not some demigod trickster, some weather controlling daemon, or some spiritual guide, He is the Supreme God whose Name is above all names, whose power is above all powers, and He is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Because of Jesus we can come boldly to Him, but we certainly should not come lightly. And because of who He is, and because we recognize He only wants good for us, we can say, “Your will be done.”
Prayer should begin with acknowledging who God is in order to rightly set our mind in reverence.
The next part reads:
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
We then can turn to what we need, remembering that God already knows what we need. Why do we ask if He already knows? One reason is because it is an act of faith. True faith culminates in action. If we have a need, and we know God is the only source to fill that need, then our faith will flow into asking God. If we are unwilling to ask, then do we truly believe He will do it?
“Our daily bread” reminds us to not concern ourselves with tomorrow so much. Jesus will teach more on this topic later in the chapter, but for today, we should note Jesus’ prayer helps us center on today’s problems. We can have faith that God will take care of tomorrow on tomorrow. For today, we focus our mind on what needs done today.
Then, Jesus turns to forgiveness. We can ask for forgiveness, because we know God is willing to forgive, but we are also reminded of what Jesus taught in chapter 5. If we are at odds with a brother or sister, then it is time to forgive them. We have already been told to take care of it quickly, and if we are in the midst of praying, and God reminds us that we have not reconciled, then now is the time. If you are praying this kind of prayer and discover that you still harbor bitterness, then take this prayer time to give it to God.
This section concerns both physical needs and spiritual needs. More importantly, it is not a prayer about wants or selfishness. It is about “what do we truly need?”
Discussing our physical and spiritual needs with God helps turn our attention to what truly matters.
It is not that we can’t bring our desires to God. He already knows them anyway! It is about listening to what God has for us this day. The blessings will come in time. Don’t worry about that. Concern your heart and mind with the day’s work and the day’s needs.
Finally, Jesus says,
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Once we finish our prayer, it will not be long til some temptation or evil arrives. Jesus tells us to ask God to guide us away from such things. And as we are praying about a generic “temptation” or “evil,” inevitably God will bring our mind to the specific sin problem in our lives. It may draw our prayer back to forgiveness, but in God’s forgiveness we can find power to overcome the temptation. Now, if we have already established being poor in spirit because of our sin, then it is not much of a leap to ask for God to protect us or empower us. And God will surely come to our aid because that is exactly why Jesus came—to end the works of the devil. But we must be ready to change our behavior or change our responses if we are to overcome. We cannot keep doing the same things expecting different results—that’s called insanity.
By ending our prayer on our limitations, we are reminded to lean on God for better living and responses to life because our power is insufficient.
Then Jesus says something quite controversial in Baptist circles,
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
It is controversial because the majority of us have grown up with the mantra “once saved, always saved.” Now, Jesus is certainly not saying we will lose our salvation. Jesus also said,
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
John 6:37-39
But what does this mean the Father will not forgive us if we do not forgive others? It means that when we hold bitterness in our hearts, our prayers will be ineffective. We cannot pray and tune our heart to God’s heart because God’s heart is to forgive. We are trying to play two different songs, as it were.
Have there been times in your life when it felt like God was not listening? Perhaps you were going through a period of trials or simply a time when God wanted you to wait. But, sometimes (and I wonder if it’s more times than not) the reason God doesn’t seem to be talking to you is because you aren’t really listening. While He is telling you to forgive someone, you are too busy talking about how angry you are.
If we are to be genuine in our prayers, we must be willing to bend our will to God’s even if we don’t think we can.
A Joyful Fast
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:15-18
This last passage teaches us to fast with the same principle as giving and praying—do it in secret. When we fast, we are making an extended appeal to God or giving more time to our relationship with God. Fasting is about removing something from our daily life in order to give more attention to God.
If true fasting is about our time with God, then why does it matter whether other people can tell that we are fasting? It doesn’t, unless we are being the truly hypocritical that want to manipulate with religion.
Brandy and I once visited a church, and it just so happened they were having a new member class the same day. It was an open class for those who wanted to join or wanted more information about the church. Since this was in the days before we had children, we had time to spare that Sunday and decided to check it out. After all, the church had a nice building. The people were friendly, and the worship service was enjoyable. The only qualm I had was how the pastor talked about the fast he and some others were doing together. I figured he was using the fast as a teaching moment for the whole church, so I tried to not let it bother me. But then we went into the class.
Throughout the time we were together, the topic of the fast kept coming up. The tables had chocolates on them, and he made a point to say he wasn’t going to have any because he was fasting. Someone asked him about lunch, and he had to explain he was abstaining because he was fasting. I think someone sneezed and after the “God bless you,” he said he hoped God would bless his fasting. (That last one might be an exaggeration).
We decided that wasn’t the church for us, not just because the pastor wouldn’t keep quiet about his fast, but it certainly didn’t help.
Acts of righteousness, whether giving, prayer, or fasting, should be done in such a way that God is honored—not the one doing the act.
In fact, Jesus will say in the next verse these acts of righteousness are “laying up treasure in heaven.” Unfortunately, we must end here today, but consider this before we do:
Why do we give? Who reaps the honor for our giving?
Why do we pray? Whose ear do we truly want to hear our prayers? Whose will do we want done?
Why do we fast? Do we fast? Are we willing to give up some comfort or time in order to truly know God’s will for us?
Perhaps the reason we do not see the results and power in our lives that we want is because we have spent our time seeking after the wrong attention. Our reputation has become our idol. We certainly look righteous on the outside, but God knows the rotten sin on the inside.
When we compare this passage with chapter 5, we see two sides of the same sin problem. For some, sin manifests in anger, lust, lies, and vengeance. But for others, sin manifests in hypocritical religious mockery. They put on an air of goodness all the while seeking after the attention and the manipulation of others. They are truly hypocritical. They use the things of God to seek power over their fellow man.
As we close today, perhaps you find yourself leaning to one of these sides. I have good news for you. Jesus still loves you. No, he does not want you to keep sinning, but he is willing to forgive you and transform you.