Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon
series, Summer on the Mount, where we are diving
into Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, a collection
of some of Jesus' most challenging teachings.
And today we are looking at what Jesus has to
say about some spiritual practices. Giving and
praying and fasting, these are all really good
things. But what if we're not doing them in a
good way? What if our motivation isn't quite
right? This is what Jesus is going to speak to
you today. And so let's listen in as our guest
preacher, Justin Stratus, takes us through this
passage. Today's reading is from Matthew chapter
6, verses 1 to 8, and 16 to 18. Be careful not
to practice your righteousness in front of others,
to be seen by them. If you do, you will have
no reward from your Father in heaven. So when
you give to the needy, do not announce it with
trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and on the streets, to be honored by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward
in full. 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.
Then your father, who sees what is done in secret,
will reward you. And when you pray, do not be
like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and on the street corners to
be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have
received their reward in full. But when you pray,
go into your room, close the door, and pray to
your Father who is unseen. Then your Father,
who sees what is done in secret, will reward
you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling
like pagans, for they think they will be heard
because of their many words. Do not be like them,
for your father knows what you need before you
ask him. Verse 16. When you fast, do not look
somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure
their faces to show others they are fasting.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward
in full. But when you fast, Put oil on your head
and wash your face so that it will not be obvious
to others so that you're fasting, but only to
your Father who is unseen. And your Father who
sees what is done in secret will reward you.
The word of the Lord. Great. Good morning, everyone.
My name is Justin. I'm one of the parishioners
here at the church. And I'm also the preacher,
as you can tell from this jacket I'm wearing
in the middle of August. So it's an honor to
be here. I'm also excited because I found this
pulpit, which is really cool. Now I can pound
it when I make a point. Let's pray. Lord, we
believe. Help thou our unbelief. Amen. Now I
wonder if anyone ever told you to do something
that was fundamentally impossible to do. I don't
mean something literally impossible like go pick
up that Dodge Ram or jump across Niagara Falls
or something like that. I mean something that
is logically impossible. I'm thinking here of
when your boss tells you that he or she wants
you to take more initiative at work but to check
in with them before you do anything. Or when
a police officer yells, freeze, put up your hands.
Or my personal favorite, stand down. Like I could
never figure out what that meant. Well, in the
Sermon on the Mount, sometimes it seems like
Jesus is giving his disciples just this kind
of contradictory command. Well, what do I mean
by this? Well, as Rob's been teaching us these
past few weeks, the Sermon on the Mount, is a
lot about Jesus ramping up the demands of discipleship
to these crazy high levels. I mean, Jesus literally
tells his disciples in chapter 5, verse 48, that
they have to be perfect. That's the demand of
Christian discipleship. You need to be perfect.
How perfect? Well, as perfect as God, God's self.
Now to be fair, that command was not entirely
original to Jesus. If you read the book of Leviticus,
you'll see that the ancient Hebrews too were
commanded by God to be holy as I am holy. So
it wasn't an entirely new command, but what Jesus
is doing in the Sermon on the Mount is elevating
the demands of perfection, the demands of holiness
beyond what was laid out even in the Old Testament.
So don't just avoid cheating on your spouse.
Don't even look at someone with lust in your
heart. Don't just refrain from murdering people.
Don't even get angry. Don't just try to have
the most ethically acceptable divorce. Don't
get divorced at all. Don't be zealous for justice.
Forgo justice in order to show your enemies a
better way. And why are we going to do all these
radical acts of discipleship, acts which surpass
even the highest demands of the Jewish law? Well,
Jesus says, you're going to live this way in
this radical form of obedience so that people
will see your good deeds, see your good deeds
and glorify your father in heaven. Right? So
the demand from Jesus seems to be something.
I want you to be so perfect, so holy, so righteous
that the world is going to take notice. In other
words, I want you to shine. Okay, so far, so
good. But then we get to today's passage in chapter
6, verse 1, where Jesus says the following. Be
careful not to practice your righteousness in
front of others to be seen by them. If you do,
you'll have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Okay, so one side of mouth, don't hide your light
under a bushel. Other side of mouth, make sure
no one sees your light. Or how about the world
is going to see how righteous you are and praise
God. But just make sure no one sees your righteous
deeds. Freeze and put your hands in the air.
All right, so Jesus, which one is it? Do I let
my light shine before people or do I do all my
righteousness in private? Are my good deeds kind
of like landing lights which are guiding my neighbors
to Jesus? Or are they more like blinding flashes
which distract others? As they're trying to figure
out how to make their way to God. Okay, so I'm
doing a preacher thing right now, right? I'm
presenting a contradiction which you probably
already figured out a way out of. And I respect
you. So let's just get it out in the open, right?
Jesus is not really saying, don't practice your
righteousness so that no one ever sees them.
They should be completely hidden. What he's saying,
is that our motivation for doing good shouldn't
be so that we're praised and seen by other people.
In other words, Jesus is teaching his disciples
about the importance of having right intentions
alongside the right actions. And that's, of course,
a very important lesson. And it's something that
I think people of all faiths or no faiths at
all would be happy to endorse, right? There's
really not a pro -hypocrite movement in the world.
But I think there's more to the story here. Now,
one thing that's important to remember when you're
encountering Jesus' teachings is this. Jesus
is not just kind of a moral sage who's going
around doling out life lessons on how to be a
better person. Jesus is not the first century
version of a wellness podcaster. No, when it
comes to Jesus, you can't ever separate the things
that he says from who he is. And so his teachings
are always more than just moral lessons, even
when it sounds straightforwardly like he's just
telling you this good, this bad. It's always
more than that. Jesus' teachings invite us to
live in an entirely new world, a world that's
centered on and determined by And presided over
by Jesus Christ himself. And that's the whole
point of the Beatitudes. You know, blessed are
the meek and all that stuff. They're not general
principles of life. Even though sometimes they're
presented that way. Those blessings paint a picture
of a different kind of reality. With a different
set of rules. It shows us a world where the first
shall be last. and the last shall be first, where
Jesus reigns to the glory of the Father with
all those united to him by the Spirit. I mean,
it's a picture of the kingdom of heaven. That's
what the Sermon on the Mount is. It's a picture
of the kingdom. So the question we should ask,
even here, is this. Why should Jesus' disciples
avoid hypocrisy? Why? Why does it matter what
Jesus' followers' motivations are? for doing
good? What is it about the kingdom of heaven?
What is it about Jesus that demands this kind
of life, this kind of discipleship? And so Jesus
is going to explain all this to us by referring
to three very common, very standard Jewish practices
of religious piety. Three practices that nearly
everyone at the time would have readily acknowledged
as being straightforwardly good. And they are
almsgiving or charitable giving, prayer, and
fasting. It's like he's picking three normal,
good, uncontroversial things. Now, if you were
a Hellenistic Jew living in the first century,
and you knew someone who was pretty faithful
in doing all three of these things, you would
have likely and very reasonably considered that
person to be righteous. That is, someone who
lived the way they were supposed to live. They
weren't in rebellion to God, but were trying
to live according to all of God's precepts as
listed in the Old Testament. And you probably
really wouldn't judge this person for doing all
this stuff in public. Because the three things
that Jesus mentions, they were all very public
practices. So giving to charity, praying and
fasting, these are all things... that people
regularly did in front of other people. In other
words, back in the first century, there wasn't
really such a thing as private religion. You
know, we think, keep your religion in private.
That wasn't the way things are back then. It's
probably not the way things are in most of the
world. Religious stuff back then just was stuff
you did out in the open, in public, for everyone
to see. In fact, you'd probably assume that if
you saw someone praying out in the streets, As
Jesus says, they were really, really righteous.
Not only because they're praying, but because
they're kind of reminding everyone else to pray.
Think of like a prime minister or a president
who puts on a high -vis jacket and goes to help
the cleanup after like a wildfire or something.
They're doing it for the cameras, obviously.
But what are they doing? They're raising awareness,
right? They're lending their support. They're
encouraging others to help out. So that's not
really so bad. But Jesus is going to push things
further, as he consistently does in this sermon.
He pushes things to a deeper level. Look what
he says in verses 2 to 4. Can we get that next
slide? There it is. He says, when you give to
the needy, don't announce it with trumpets, as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the
streets. to be honored by others. Truly, I tell
you, they've received their reward in full, but
when you give to the needy, don't let your left
hand know what your right hand is doing so that
your giving may be in secret. Then your Father,
who knows what's done in secret, will reward
you. All right, so let's unpack this a little
bit. First of all, hopefully it goes without
saying that Jesus is still obviously pretty keen
on the idea of giving to the needy, right? He
says, when you give, not if you give. But Jesus
is also upending something here. And you got
to understand a little bit more from the culture.
In the ancient world, the world that Jesus is
speaking into, when someone gave a gift, it's
normal to assume that the giver is going to get
something back, right? That might seem counterintuitive
to us because for us, a gift is always free.
But in the ancient world, gifts were about establishing
relationships. So you give something to someone,
and they're going to reciprocate in some way.
So for example, if I gave you a house to live
in, it would be expected that maybe you'd be
giving me a share of your crops, your harvest,
every year. Or if I'm an emperor, and I build
like a giant sports stadium in your region, then
maybe the people that live in that region are
going to start sending soldiers for the emperor's
war campaign in the future. But what do you do
when the people that you're giving to have absolutely
nothing to give back? Right? What happens when
the recipient of your gift is just too poor to
reciprocate or give anything in return? Well,
you might think to yourself, Even though this
poor person can't reciprocate my charity, at
the very least I can get something from someone
else. And that thing is honor. Public honor.
And when you think about it in the context of
the ancient world, that doesn't seem like too
much to ask. It makes you actually seem pretty
good, right? I'm giving to a poor person with
no expectation of them giving anything back to
me. All I ask is that you kind of give me a brief...
Round of applause while I do it, if you see me
doing it. Jesus says, look, I want you to give
to the poor. But when you do it, I want you to
ask yourself a very important question. And the
question is this. Whose honor do you care the
most about? Whose honor is most valuable to you?
If you want the applause of your peers, that's
fine. You can have it. But if that's what you
really want, you're going to miss out on something
more valuable. It's the same calculus that Jesus
offers us in the Beatitudes. It's the choice
that he's laying before all of us in this sermon.
Would you like to be first now, or would you
like to be first later? You can be first now,
Jesus says. but it's going to cost you being
last in the kingdom of heaven. Likewise, you
can be last now, and some people, he says, are
last now not because of their own choice. Some
people are just poor. You can be last now, but
what you'll gain in the kingdom of heaven is
a seat at the head of the table. Now, some of
you know that I work in downtown, Toronto. It's
this city kind of to the east of us, if you haven't
seen it. And because I work in downtown Toronto,
it means I've spent a lot of time sitting in
my car on various highways in standstill traffic.
And when you sit in traffic on a daily basis,
you start to notice things. You start to notice
interesting billboards and kind of funky stores,
places where you can go indoor skydiving. You
start to notice colorful school buses sitting
on top of buildings. You know, normal Toronto
stuff. When I see the NIDA Hyundai I'm Your Guy
billboard, I know that I'm about 45 minutes away
from work. I love that guy. He's so happy. But
there's one sign I've been seeing on my commute
for the past couple of months that's always caught
my attention. It happens to hang on the side
of St. Joseph's Health Center, which is a teaching
hospital just off the Queensway. I'm going to
show you this. There it is. So that's... A bloke
by the name of Peter Gilgan. I don't know if
you've heard of him. I'll read it for you. If
you can't see it, it says, Peter Gilgan's historic
$60 million investment is helping build a new
St. Joe's. Let's build on it. And that's like
the length of the building, almost. So Peter
Gilgan, who's that guy? He runs this kind of
mom -and -pop contracting outfit called Mattamy
Homes. Do I have any particular problem with
Mr. Gilgan? Not really. I actually live in one
of his houses, and it's nice, I guess. And am
I glad that this hospital, which probably saves
a lot of lives and lots of people, got a $60
million cash injection? Yeah, I guess. I mean,
I don't know too much about the hospital, but
I'd say, yeah, that's probably a really good
thing. And do I think that Mr. Gilgan should
be acknowledged and applauded for his generous
gift? Sure. In fact, Mr. Gilgan, here's your
reward, a gigantic poster of your face that I
and all other commuters get to look at while
enjoying our stay on the Gardner Expressway.
So I hope you can hear our applause. Now, I'm
bringing this up only by way of example. I don't
know... Much about this Gilgan fellow other than
he can build a neighborhood in like six months
and obviously has an intoxicating smile. Right?
So I don't want to tear him down specifically,
at least in the context of this sermon. But what
an illustration, right, of what Jesus is talking
about here. You can have your reward now. You
can get your mug on a gigantic poster. If you
want, you can do it. But, listen, there's going
to come a time, probably by the end of the summer
even maybe, where this poster is going to come
down. It's not going to be there forever. When
you do your good deeds, Jesus says, I want you
to give your charity not to get a poster. I don't
want you to gain the applause of the masses.
I want you to do this for an audience of one.
For God. And then you'll get a reward that will
last forever. Because you'll receive it in a
kingdom that will last forever. If we were to
go on in this passage, Jesus talks about storing
up treasures in heaven. Right? You have treasures
on earth. Thieves can come and take them. Moths
and vermin can destroy them. But if you have
a treasure in heaven, it lasts forever. They
won't take your poster down. Now as for prayer.
Which Jesus treats in Matthew chapter 6 verses
5 through 15. Well, Pastor Kyla is going to give
us a bit more about that in a few weeks. But
very briefly, let's see. It's pretty much the
same pattern. Jesus says, when you pray, don't
be like the hypocrites. They love to pray standing
in the synagogues and on the street corners to
be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they've
received their reward in full. But when you pray,
go to your room. Close the door. Pray to your
Father who's unseen. Then your Father who sees
what's done in secret will reward you. Again,
just to be clear, praying in public, even praying
on the street, was not an odd thing to do. Right?
Back in the first century. And even standing
up to pray was a pretty common practice. Right?
We think of praying as sort of getting on your
knees and clasping your hands. But back then,
standing to pray, normal. So what Jesus is criticizing
here is not public prayer or prayer with other
people. What he's worried about, again, is your
motivation. The presumption that you can kind
of wear your piety, your religion, like a badge
of honor to receive the praise of others. Which
is ridiculous, right? Because prayer isn't a
show of piety. Prayer is not a show of exceptional
religiousness. Prayer, when done right, is a
sign of absolute desperation. It's a sign of
trust in God. It's an admission that you have
nothing in yourself, that you're completely relying
on God. Prayer should be done with the heart
of King Jehoshaphat. Remember him? He was a king
of Judah back in the day. He was surrounded by
all these Gentile armies. They're about to take
down the kingdom of Judah. And he has this great
prayer where he prays to God and it ends, with
him saying this, God, we have no power. We have
no power to face this vast army that's attacking
us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are
on you. We don't know what to do. We don't deserve
your care. We don't deserve your aid. Nevertheless,
we are praying that you would give it to us.
Likewise, Jesus says prayer is not something
that we're going to do to impress God. You don't
need to say the right words in the right combination
or convince God that you really, really, really,
really mean it when you ask for something. No,
Jesus actually says, right, your father knows
what you need before you ask him. In other words,
your need is not new information to God. In fact,
a simple prayer, prayed by yourself, In the darkness
of your bedroom, without fancy words or even
folded hands, is all you really need. Because
what makes prayer effective is not you, not your
performance, certainly not your own righteousness,
but it's the grace of God, your Father, which
you already have in Christ. You already have
the benevolence of God, and God already knows
your need. So you can chill. When you pray. And
lastly, Jesus speaks about fasting. Jesus says
this. When you fast, don't look somber as the
hypocrites do. For they disfigure their faces
to show others they're fasting. Truly, I tell
you, they've received their reward in full. But
when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your
face. So that it will not be obvious to others
that you're fasting, but only to your Father
who's unseen. And your Father who sees what's
done in secret will reward you. Now the logic
here is pretty much the same as prayer. What
is fasting? It's refraining from eating food
so that your mind can be focused on something
more important. So that you're not being sort
of led around by your material desires. That
you can desire something else, which is God.
Jesus, of course, fasted for 40 days in the desert.
The Bible is full of examples of God's people
fasting as a sign of repentance and devotion
to God. What fasting is not, though, again, is
a sign of super spiritualness. And it's not something
that you're going to do to impress God enough
that he will hear your prayers. If you don't
believe me, read Isaiah chapter 58, which is
the prophet's gigantic screed saying, you guys
are fasting, but you're neglecting the poor.
I'd rather you served the poor and stopped fasting.
You're not impressing God with these things.
Like prayer, fasting is an admission of need.
It's an act of desperation. So to turn a sign
of desperation intended for God into some kind
of public sign of personal virtue is a vast misunderstanding.
It's like when a celebrity goes on a talk show
to demand that they get their privacy back. Right?
It kind of defeats the point. Right? So now you
should be getting the idea, right? You can be
praised for your good deeds either by God or
by people. Now, if you choose people, you're
going to get a reward. But it's going to fade.
If you choose God, your reward will last forever.
As Jesus says in the final flourish of the Sermon
on the Mount, if you're wise, you're going to
build your house on something that will last.
Right? The rock. You won't build your house on
something that will wash away, which is sand.
So I'm coming into land. I want to draw your
attention to one interesting detail in something
that we saw already. Something that Jesus says
in chapter 6, verses 3 through 4. He says, when
you give to the needy, don't let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing, so that your
giving may be in secret. Now I said earlier,
right, that when you're dealing with Jesus' teachings,
They're not just moral lessons. They're much,
much more than that. They are invitations to
a new world. So what is Jesus teaching us about
himself as the revealer of this new world in
the context of this command? Well, I think it's
this. When you do good deeds, giving, praying,
fasting, anything really, not only are you to
avoid the praise of others, It's also important
that you don't praise yourself. Isn't that interesting?
He's imagining you as an audience for your own
good deeds. You applauding yourself. You can
perform good deeds sometimes, not only to impress
others, but to impress yourself. And we do this
for a variety of reasons. Oftentimes it's just
to make us... Feel good, right? We feel nervous
about our place in the world. Am I good enough?
Am I strong enough? Do I have enough faith? Am
I righteous enough? Well, look at all these things
I'm doing. Surely I'm a good person. This is
all the money I gave. This is how much I pray.
This is how much I fast. I'm a good person. Well,
I want to let you in on something. I think this
is really the point of the whole sermon on the
mount. A lot of the sermon is about Jesus trying
to say, what makes his disciples different from
other kinds of religious people? What are my
disciples like that makes them pick -outable?
The answer to the question, what makes Jesus'
disciples different from other people, is not
Jesus' disciples do more good deeds. Jesus' disciples
are more holy. They're more righteous than other
people. That is clearly not true. Right? It's
clearly not true. I mean, there's lots of people
in this world that do good things. And lots of
them are not followers of Jesus. Right? That's
not the thing that makes us different. What makes
Jesus' disciples different is that they are relying
on Jesus. As the engine which drives these good
deeds. We rely on Jesus to make us righteous.
Knowing that it's only in following Jesus, by
sticking with him, that we're going to gain entry
into this new world that Jesus is describing.
This new world whose shape and culture is described
all throughout Jesus' teachings. In fact, true
righteousness, according to the New Testament,
is not the building up of yourself. It's not
becoming a better person. True righteousness,
the scriptures teach us, is death to yourself.
And new life, which is given freely in Christ.
It's not the purification of oneself. It's not
the enhancement of oneself. It's not even the
humbling of oneself. It's the death. of oneself.
It's throwing in your lot with Jesus Christ.
Not with this world, not with yourself, not with
any community or any ideal, with Jesus himself.
Because it's only a person who's died and been
raised with Christ who can do good deeds with
the kind of purity of heart that Jesus is demanding
here in the Sermon on the Mount. It's only that
kind of person who can give to the poor In such
a way that even one's own self, let alone the
watching world, will praise God for that and
not oneself for doing such a thing. Only a person
who's died and has been raised to life with Christ
can pray, not with the confidence of the righteous
person. The confidence of the person who says,
I live so virtuously that God will pay attention
to my prayers. No, a person who's died to self
and has been risen with Christ prays with the
desperate heart of a tax collector who beats
his breast and says what? God have mercy on me.
I'm a sinner. So at the risk of undermining everything
I've said, I want to pray in front of you all.
And it's very simple. Lord Jesus, we can't be
these kind of disciples. We can't rise to this
standard that you give us in this sermon. We
can't pray. We can't fast. We can't be generous
with the kind of pure hearts that you have. But
we want to do this through your spirit, individually
and especially as a church community at Trinity.
We want to do it through the mercies of God,
the mercies of God which we need. And all of
this, all of this that we do, Is for you. Amen.