Matthew  chapter 6: 1-21 (continued)

“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. ‘Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.   In this manner, therefore, pray:

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 forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We ended last week with a challenge from the Lord to be more righteous than the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. These men were accused by Jesus of having an outward appearance of holiness but nothing on the inside to mimic their actions. What was really happening is this:  They had trained to behave religiously outwardly but without any inner change spiritually. A lot of that going around, it is nothing new. It has been the plague of “religion” since the fall of man.

Adam and Eve put on manmade clothes to appear modest to a Holy God, but their covering could not mask their shame and sin—since that was an internal matter. Only God can clean the inside, only God-made coverings would suffice, and so God made Adam and Eve coats of skin to wear. This established two principles. 1. Only God can cover sin and 2. Blood had to be shed for God to do that.

Let me ask you about your internal man/woman? How is being a Christian changing the way you think?  Most of us are worried about the way we act, but Jesus made it clear that if we let God change the way we think, the way we act will naturally follow—ultimately giving glory to God.  Men how are your thoughts towards the ladies you see at work?

Young teens how are your thoughts about the “outcasts” at your school are you helping them or a part of the problem? Pastors, do you view your church as a blessing or a burden? Are we closet Christians? (We don’t want anyone to know that we are saved; they might think we are weird.)  By the way, according to the standards of the world we are supposed to weird.

How do we feel about money? Is it our God? Does it serve us or do we serve it? These are the kinds of thoughts that God wants to change. What about your “arch rival” at work or the person that you just can’t stand? How are the principles of Christ and your surrender to the Holy Spirit helping you to see that person as a beloved potential child of God?

In this chapter of Matthew, Jesus is about to aggressively attack those who are outwardly religious, posing as such designed to get the attention of the people around you. The intent of these actions are never to bring God glory but to be thought of as “religious and/or pious,” thus b benefitting to oneself. God does not tolerate this kind of behavior as it flies in the face of the first commandment:

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”

You make yourself to be a god when you draw attention to you and not the Almighty. God frowns upon this kind of behavior.

Give and Pray Privately, Verses 1-7
We live in a world that loves accolades. We see money being given to charitable foundations every day. Men who give millions and even billions of dollars are lauded by the media,  government officials and the world in the form of prizes and awards. This kind of giving is expected from lost men and women who have nothing in heaven to gain, so their rewards are the accolades of the men and women around them.

But as Christians are not to seek the accolades of men. We are to give and to do so with the simply goals of serving others and pleasing God. This should be enough. The same goes for prayer. We should not seek to be seen as articulate or educated or pious by our prayers. Our goal is simply to relay our needs and glorify God.

One should not deduce from these verses that all public prayer is bad or forbidden by God.  Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact there are many instances where Jesus gave thanks to God in the midst of great crowds, read the account so the feeding of the 5000 and 4000.  But more often Jesus went off to pray by Himself, or He went a few yards away so that His prayers were private between him and His Father.

One can pray privately even in public. In Mark 12:41-44 we find that there is a poor widow who comes to give her offerings at the Temple. Jesus is observing her and while there are many rich people giving from their abundance, she discreetly, whether out of shame for the amount—or more probably out of sheer need as described by Jesus, gives her money.

No one noticed except God, and that was all that mattered. It is amazing for us to learn that     even in the act of giving it is the inner-man that counts not the size of the check. Why you give  is more important that what you give. God is not poor. He does not need your money to do His business. But we should give cheerfully as the Bible tells us to do, happy that God would allow us to have something to give.

Don’t give to get accolades from men and women. Simply give out of a deep gratitude that God would allow you to have money to give and the opportunity to do so. I read once that when one is blessed by God with more money, it should inspire us to give more rather than live better. Often God allows us both if we truly seek to honor Him.  Money is simply a tool; we can just as well give time, goods, food, companionship and array of other gifts that we can use to honor God for His goodness to us.

The Model Prayer, Verses 8-14
How we should pray, not what we should pray is the true goal of this “Model Prayer.” Jesus simply gives us the structure by which we are to pray. We address God as our Father and confess His holiness. There is no reason to come to God if He is not good. Only a good God will hear the prayers of His people. We pray for God’s will to be done and for His kingdom on earth to come. We are called in the Scriptures to look forward to the Lord’s appearing; in fact there is a crown for that:

2 Timothy 4:8 -“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

We can ask for all that we need or want on behalf of ourselves and others simply framed inside the “will of God.”  The idea is that God will answer according to what He knows is best and we will be satisfied. We thank God for supplying our daily needs and He does so as He promised He would.

Matthew 6:31-34 – “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Then we are to seek forgiveness as we forgive others. This is the most important part of the prayer for us, forgiveness. We all need it from God and others, but we are often slow to give it.  God hates a lack of forgiveness among His people; it is an insult and a mockery of His grace.  We ask for God’s deliverance from sin and temptation. We attest to God’s glory and we end.

This can be a short prayer and long prayer; it can be sung, said or written. It is to be sincere and with reverence to the Lord in heaven. It is not to be a mantra or some kind of ritual. There is nothing wrong with it being either spontaneous or scheduled.

Daniel scheduled prayers each day. Jesus seemed, as we see the Bible, to take an early morning approach, but in deep distress the late night approach worked for Him as well. The simple instruction is pray, pray often and pray right. God will hear and answer your prayers.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com

Matthew chapters 5: 33-48 (continued)

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the men of old, you shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord [as a religious duty]. But I tell you, do not bind yourselves by an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is the throne of God; or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.

And do not swear by your head, for you are not able to make a single hair white or black. Let your Yes be simply ‘Yes,’ and your No be simply ‘No;’ anything more than that comes from the evil one.

You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the evil man [who injures you]; but if anyone strikes you on the right jaw or cheek, turn to him the other one too.

And if anyone wants to sue you and take your undershirt (tunic), let him have your coat also. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two [miles]. Give to him who keeps on begging from you, and do not turn away from him who would borrow at interest] from you.

You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy; but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, to show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike].

For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that?

You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

When we reflect upon Jesus’ crucifixion sometimes it is difficult for the world to understand how we can celebrate the death of someone we love so much. But Jesus’ death brought eternal forgiveness for all of our sins.Anyone who has ever been forgiven a great debt can understand the joy we feel. Imagine, that you own a home and have a large mortgage, one that you could not pay off in a lump sum and the bank demanded payment or you would lose your home.

You have no money and no friends or family with enough money to help you.Then one day that bank calls and tells you that they have forgiven your debt and all you have to do is come and get the deed to your home; it is yours, the debt has been paid in full and can never come up against you again. What would you do? Would you ever forget that day? NO, NEVER!

Well, you and I have a sin debt to God. He is holy and we are sinful in every way possible. That debt has to be paid and we have no friends or family who can pay it for us. BUT, Jesus came and lived a holy life, He never sinned and He loved us so much He died on the cross to pay our sin debt.

Romans 6:23 tells us that the payment or the wages of sin is death.Jesus was and is holy. His payment should have been life—but instead God poured out the pain and suffering that we deserve on Him and our debt to God has been paid.All we have to do is believe that Jesus is God, that He paid the price, agree with God that we are sinners needing to be saved and then ask to be saved.We find this message in Romans 6:23:

“For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus paid the price for all of your sins and all you need to do is receive the payment.”

Today we will finish up Matthew chapter 5.The last three verses, 46-48 hit us pretty hard in the heart—the inner man so to speak.We will talk about love for our fellow man, even and especially those that hate us or dislike us.And then true perfection and the standards we are to meet as Christians.

Love Your Enemies, verses 44-47

This to me is one of the hardest verses in the Bible to come to grips with.Matthew goes on to explain and clarify this to make sure that we understand what is being said.We all have our cliques, we have people who are just like us and with whom we feel comfortable.

This is especially true for Christians, as we get more and more into the Lord it is easy to simply close out the world and live in safety. We know of communities that do that here in North America—the Amish and the Mennonites are a closed people.They speak their own language and live in segregated communities so that there is little interaction with the “unwashed.”

But this was never God’s intention for the New Testament church. We are called to go into the world, to engage in it and ultimately love the lost—because God loves them.We are called to love and honor those who are our enemies with the sole purpose of having the opportunity to share Christ.We are to be in kingdom expansion mode at all times and not avoid sharing the gospel with someone we do not care for.

Why are we to care for these people?We are supposed to because God cares for them.We are told in verse 45 that God makes it rain on the “just and the unjust.” Simply put, God feeds them too.He allows them to awaken in the morning and He protects them when they travel.He keeps their children safe and watches over them as they sleep.

God cares for all of humanity and so should we if we are to be Christ-like.You and I were once enemies of God; it is our sins that put His Son on the cross.We were born the enemies of the living God and yet in His great love and compassion, He fed us and clothed us and made sure that we lived long enough to hear about His Son.

He made sure that we had a chance to accept the gift of salvation because He loves us; and He loves all men and women with the same fervor. As maturing children of God we need to have this same fervent love for our fellow man.

Even when they hurt us, the love of God for them is in us, and the constant realization that were it not for the grace of God, we would be His enemies. This should compel us to love them and share Christ with them.Anyone can love their friends, even the heathen do that.God’s people are called to love our enemies.

The Standard of Perfection, verse 48

We are to be perfect as God is perfect. Wow, this is hard to swallow.How can I be perfect?I am a sinner and I cannot be perfect in this life.This verse is an impossibility for me to come to grips with outside of the context of these verses. I am to strive to be perfect in the area of loving my enemies.This is very important for us to understand; if not—one can become very discouraged and maybe even give up on even trying.

The call to perfection is based on the previous verses; we are called to make the effort to live like Christ did in the midst of His enemies. We are to love and honor them for the purpose of offering them the chance for forgiveness and eternal life. We are called to put aside grudges and personal agendas for the kingdom.

Nothing is more important than a person’s eternal destiny that was paid for with the precious blood of Jesus.We are not to let personal grudges and feelings get in the way.We should not use hell as a weapon—ever.Sometimes we get the feeling in us that someone deserves hell because they are a murderer, or a child molester or a rapist or because they hurt us.

In Kenya, Africa dozens of people have been killed simply because they were Christians; the murderous hoard came into their school, asked if they are Christian or Muslim and killed all who answered “Yes” to being a Christian.These men are not to be hated by us but pitied; they live for nothing and die for nothing.

They are simply doing what sinful men do and were it not for the love and grace of God, those men could be us.We need to pray for these men that they will be saved and they will become children of God.This is what God wants for them and this is how we need to work at being perfect. This is about having the mind and heart of Christ.

Philippians 2: 5 tell us: “You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had.” What attitude did Jesus have right to the end? He prayed for God to forgive His executioners, He redeemed a thief on the cross next to Him and He cared enough for His mother to make sure she was cared for.

He never forgot the cause and He did not let things like pain whether physical or emotional get in the way.The redemption of lost souls was more important.Let us strive to be perfect in this as our Heavenly Father is perfect and love your enemies.

2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com