Our Audience and Our Reward
Matthew - The King and The Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsChrist’s followers live for an audience of One. God desires and blesses true righteousness, but pretentious righteousness is comparatively worthless in His sight.
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We are officially 1/3 of the way through the Sermon on the Mount, at least in terms of chapter length. I have enjoyed hearing from some of you over the past weeks how God is working in your heart and mind through the study of these passages. I would say that the most significant thing about our journey through Matthew so far for me has been to see just how intricately woven and interconnected the Old and New Testaments are. Truly our God is the same yesterday, today, forever. His Word and His Promises stand, and the same God who created all things, called his people out, led them through many challenges into their land, and saw them through centuries of turmoil, is the same God who is speaking in the New Testament.
Jesus’ teaching has been incredibly practical in nature. Matthew 5 was full of blessings and examples of blessed, true Righteousness. And the amazing thing about Jesus’ teaching in that regard is that He is not simply speaking as a man who presumes that these are good things, but as the Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, who made and designed all these things and knows that they are good, because He has declared them Good.
So when Jesus says that the poor in spirit, the mourners, the merciful, the pure in heart, the persecuted, and they that hunger for righteousness are blessed, it is true because He is both the designer and the “blesser” if you will.
And when Jesus’ gives examples of true righteousness, examples like murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, he gives these examples knowing that in following Him there is a blessedness and peace that can only come from following the ways of the One who designed and made the world.
So when we say that these teachings are very practical, it is not simply to say that they are teachings that we can put to work, or put to practice. It is to say that these are teachings that are life changing and world changing. After all, that is what we are called to be, isn’t it?
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Again, we are called to be salt, and light in the world. Agents of preservation, agents of change, agents of truth.
Now, this ties in to our passage today directly. As we walk through the next two chapters in the Sermon on the Mount, we will continue to see this kind of practical teaching.
So far you have heard me say many times, perhaps to the point that you are sick of it, that our righteousness must be more than skin-deep. I think that is one of the major points that Jesus is driving home in the Sermon. Our righteousness must be more than just superficial, more than pretentious, more than outward.
Now, our righteousness must be outward in some sense. Yesterday at the Men’s breakfast, Frank led a study from Philippians. I had Scott read that passage, Philippians 2, earlier in the sermon because it ties in very well. Because of who Christ is, how he came, emptied himself, took on the Servant’s form, humbled himself to the Cross, and is now exalted above all others, so that every knee must bow, because of all that, we are to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling.” That is, what is true within, the salvation that Jesus bought and delivered to us, must have practical ramifications in our life - and Jesus’ is our prime example of what those ramifications are. We must be a servant of God first, and others.
Our righteousness must work itself “outward” so that we can be salt and light. We must be agents of change and truth, by not simply believing truth, but living it. After all, you could easily make the argument that if you don’t live the truth you claim to believe, you probably don’t believe it. If I stand and preach with all my might that I believe these words of Jesus, but in my life I never put them to practice, then I am a hypocrite in the first degree.
So we take that as a warning, a warning that we must be agents of change, and we also must be changing - as the final verse in chapter five told us, we are to be mature - perfect - even as God our Father is mature and perfect in these ways.
But directly after that warning, Jesus takes the warning to the other end - after all, there are two ditches on every road, and its just as bad to go into one of them as the other.
“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.
In this case, it is just as bad to go into the ditch of “self-righteousness” as it is the ditch of “no-righteousness” as it were.
We are going to dive into this passage, and look at the warning or this principle, along with two examples that Jesus’ gives. Here is the main Idea for the sermon today.
Christ’s followers live for an audience of One. God desires and blesses true righteousness, but pretentious righteousness is comparatively worthless in His sight.
Christ’s followers live for an audience of One. God desires and blesses true righteousness, but pretentious righteousness is comparatively worthless in His sight.
1. The Principle: Righteousness Isn’t a Performance
1. The Principle: Righteousness Isn’t a Performance
There is a way that the sermon turns a corner here that goes right along with Jesus’ warning that we just read. The sermon turns a bit from being outwardly practical, to viewing our lives as lived before the Creator. Things like prayer, fasting, laying up treasure in heaven, not being anxious.
But really, even in the very practical things like murder and adultery, our primary audience is One - and that is God. Jesus’ words here get at a basic question - why are you doing what you are doing?
That question is basic, but it is existential - it has a depth to it. We can as that about literally any activity, action, or attitude that we have.
I remember being a boy and doing something silly, or enacting some half-baked idea and being approached by my mom or dad, and they would ask that question: why did you do that? Often as a boy, in the nervousness of that moment with not much clarity of thought, I would spout out something like, “I don’t know, just because.” And all the English experts will tell you that you can’t have a conjunction like “because” just dangling at the end of your sentence, but as a 8 or 10 year old, it seemed perfectly reasonable. Probably because I didn’t want to own up to my own idea, or the real reason.
And maybe that’s how we reason as we get older too. We do things, and we don’t necessarily want to wrestle with the reason why - so we just reason it’s “because...” because it’s a habit, because we were taught to, because we had to, etc.
Well, there is always a “because” in our righteousness, also. And Jesus challenges us that our “because” ought never to be “because we want to be seen by others.”
Now, Jesus does not say here that we are not to have outward, practical righteousness. We are to - again, these teachings are to transform us, and be transformative in the world around us. There is great evidence that Jesus’ teachings were transformative. The early disciples turned the known world upside-down with the spread of the Gospel. And even those who didn’t bow the knee to Christ noticed the reality of the change taking place around them.
Around the year 125, the Athenian Philosopher Aristides said this about the Christians:
The Sermon on the Mount: (Matthew 5–7): An Expositional Commentary The Source of Charity
They do not commit adultery nor fornication, they do not bear false witness, they do not deny a deposit, nor covet what is not theirs: they honor father and mother; they do good to those who are their neighbors.… They love one another: and from the widows they do not turn away their countenance: and they rescue the orphan from him who does him violence: and he who has gives to him who had not, without grudging.… When one of their poor passes away from the world, and any of them sees him, then he provides for his burial according to his ability; and if they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs, and if it is possible that he may be delivered, they deliver him. If there is among them a man that is poor or needy, and they have not an abundance of necessaries, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food.
So for these people, the practical righteousness of Jesus took hold. It was real for them. Real and transformative. Jesus’ is not telling us that our righteousness must not be transformative, real, and outward - He is simply saying that we must not do it for the sake of being seen by others.
“In order to” is equivalent of “for the purpose of.”
Some have seen a contradiction with this verse and Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
But if we look carefully, again, we see that the purpose statement there is in line with what Jesus is saying here.
“so that they may see… and glorify your Father.”
We live before an audience of one, and our actions are meant to point to that audience.
Our lives as Christ-followers should be transparent in the sense that people should be able to see right through our righteousness and see the God who we serve and love.
If our goal is a reputation, then that reputation will be our reward as well. But that will be our only reward. Rather than the eternal and heavenly reward that God may supply, we would have traded it for the earthly and temporary praise of men.
That is why later, in terms of the question of Christian Liberty and Conscience, Paul says that there is freedom on some planes with what we do and do not do. But whatever we do, we have a main purpose.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Let us move on then to see a couple applications of this teaching.
2. Application One: Financial Charity - 2-4
2. Application One: Financial Charity - 2-4
One thing we notice in these examples, Giving and prayer, and again later in another example of fasting, is Jesus doesn’t start them with “if” you pray, “if” you give you alms. He starts them with when. We can see, then, that it is assumed that these followers would be doing these things.
One way we might think of these things is with the word piety. Piety is a word for religious action, religious deeds. You could say that prayer, fasting, and giving are religious deeds practiced by people from many religions. And that was absolutely true of the devout Jew as well.
Jesus didn’t wonder if they would be doing these things - he was concerned with why. And though we may be coming at this from a different experience - none of us are culturally or ethnically Jewish, but many of us have been Christians and churchgoers our whole lives. It may be assumed of us that we will give, we will pray, we will do religious things. And Jesus concern for us would be the same, not just if but why.
So what about Alms Giving, Jesus’ first application?
Again, giving to the needy is expected and assumed here. And we can go back to the Law for that as we have all of Jesus’ examples.
Moses writes in Deuteronomy 15 about times when someone from the congregation of Israel should fall upon hard times, and he says this:
You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Now, this is a law about giving to the needy, but there is a principle from this law that extends into the New Testament as well in all of our giving.
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Again, that we will be giving something is assumed here. Charity of all kinds reveals the heart of God who gives freely and abundantly to His creatures.
The charity that God commanded in the Old Testament caught fire in the early church as well. The church in Jerusalem, particularly, faced great poverty in those first days for many reasons. Time won’t permit a full sketch of what went on, but just this one quote from 2 Corinthians will give an idea.
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
Did you notice that phrase at the end of those verses? They gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God to us.
That goes directly back to Jesus purpose in this teaching of asking “why do we do what we do?” The people Paul was writing to were people who had only known these Christian ethics for a few years - before that they had been fully immersed in Greek and Roman Culture, but they were transformed in their thinking by Christ’s teaching, to the point that they gave miraculously beyond their means to help their fellow Christians, even ones they had never met.
They had given themselves first to the Lord, then to others. That is living before an audience of one. That is living for God’s true reward, rather than the earthly reward of mankind.
“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.
The Greek word for “hypocrite” literally meant a play-actor. Now, Jesus is meek and kind, but he doesn’t mince words here. If we do religious deeds for the purpose of being seen by others, then we are no better than actors on a stage, awaiting our applause after the scene has ended.
The praise of others is relatively easy to achieve, but it is a horribly short-sighted endeavor. And Jesus speaks that way - “truly, they have received their reward.”
I remember saving my money for various things as a young man. I would work odd jobs for family members. I remember one fall picking up dead apples for my Uncle. I got paid per apple. I remember counting apples and doing the math in my head as I went, and thinking of how many more i needed to do before I could purchase whatever thing I wanted to purchase. I then remember the empty feeling after making that purchase, and realizing - “all that work for this?”
Well, that is the idea here. Those who give their alms to others, a good deed, but only to be seen and praised by other men, will eventually say “all that work for this?” They will be greatly disappointed. And there will be no greater disappointment for many than to realize you spent a life’s work of piety only to have your greatest reward left behind you.
Christ’s true righteousness compels us to give freely, cheerfully, and willingly - but we do it not to be seen by others, but to please God.
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.
3. Application Two: Prayer - 5-6
3. Application Two: Prayer - 5-6
We can only scratch the surface of prayer here, and we will continue to look at this particular example in great detail next week when we look at the Lord’s Prayer. But notice today, again, jesus doesn’t say “if you pray” but “when you pray.”
Again, Jesus uses the word “hypocrites” or play-actors here. He points to a kind of prayer that was a performance to be heard by men, not an act of reverence, worship, and approaching the throne of a Holy God.
If there is one basic truth that these verses teach us it is this: prayer is to be offered to God, not for any other purpose. Prayer is not a display of our piety, it is not a way to show our theological knowledge, it is not a way to show our eloquence, it is not a way to bolster our reputation. Prayer is a means of communicating, seeking, crying out to, thanking, and praising God and God alone - anything other than this is no prayer at all.
By Jesus’ day, it was a tradition that devout Jews would recite an afternoon prayer, just after the noon meal. Apparently it was the practice of some men to arrange their day, so that when it was time to recite that afternoon prayer, they were standing at a prominent place - on the street corner - where many people would be travelling by. They would place themselves in the most public place possible, to be seen and heard by the most people possible.
Again, prayer here was not the problem - they were to pray, but this prayer was not so much a prayer as a pretentious recital. Their goal was not to approach God’s throne, but to be enthroned on man’s praises.
And what about the synagogue? There were public prayers in the synagogue, and it was an honor to be asked to prayer publically there - but think of it. The synagogue was the place where God was to be sought and worshiped. To co-opt that as an opportunity to make a religious performance was to knowingly rob the Lord God of his rightful place as the focus and attention of those there.
In stead, Jesus says to “go into the closet.” That is the significance. Whether we are in a crowd of 1,000, or shut up in our closet, the audience of our prayer is the same. The only one who needs to hear it can hear it whether we are alone or in a prayer meeting.
Public prayer is not a sin, and Jesus isn’t saying that public prayer is a sin. There are scores of public prayers in the New Testament. Paul often would devote paragraphs in his letters to writing down his prayer, and they live on as an inspired example of prayer to God. But Paul was not doing this publically, for the praise of men. His prayer flowed from his lips, and from his pen, because he lived before an audience of one.
Now, Of these pretentious kinds of prayers, Jesus’ says, they have received their reward.
The concept of reward is a bit of a mystery. What exactly our “rewards” will look like in eternity is not clear. There are mentions of crowns in scripture, crowns that we will cast at Jesus’ feet. But exactly the significance of that isn’t clear. There is also the concept of “greatest” and “least” in the kingdom. Exactly what that means isn’t abundantly clear either.
But as we see the idea of reward in this passage, I believe the point of Jesus isn’t to teach us what our reward will be, but to simply show the vast and significant gulf between earthly, human, and temporary reward, and the eternal, heavenly reward that we receive from God.
In both of these examples, when Jesus says “they have recieved their reward” he uses one word - a word that normally means “wages.” And when we says, “your Father will reward you” he uses another word, a word that normally means “recompense.” It is like Jesus is saying, those who live to perform before men get their payment as the praises of men, as if they were doing a job. But those who live for the Glory of God work not for a payment, but for God himself, who promises to reward. It is the difference between going to work simply for a paycheck, and going because you have a passion for the work.
We will look at prayer, again, in depth next week - but the principle for this week comes across clearly. If our prayer is simply to be heard by others, it is no prayer at all.
Whatever we are doing, whether prayer or giving, we must ask, why are we doing it? Are we doing it as a job to receive the “paycheck” of man’s praises, or are we doing it as a passion to know, love, serve, and tell of our Great God? Jesus will go on to tell us about the emptiness of these kinds of prayer, and that emptiness applies to all righteousness that is practiced for the purpose of being seen by men.
Christ’s followers live for an audience of One. God desires and blesses true righteousness, but pretentious righteousness is comparatively worthless in His sight.
Christ’s followers live for an audience of One. God desires and blesses true righteousness, but pretentious righteousness is comparatively worthless in His sight.