Matthew 6:1-4 – Humble Righteousness

We are moving into chapter 6 of Matthew, in the middle of Jesus’ greatest sermon, the SOM – Just to remind you, he begins the sermon with the characteristics of those who live in the Kingdom of God, the beatitudes, WHO we are, and spends the rest of chapter 5 talking about HOW that is practically lived out – over the last two weeks, we have looked at the section dealing with 6 antithesis statements, “you have heard it said…but I say to you…”, dealing with the application of the law, and really drilling down into not WHAT you do, but WHY you do it

Now moving into chapter 6, Jesus will challenge some common practices in Jewish religious life: Giving, Prayer and Fasting – Back In Matthew 5:20, Jesus tells them that they don’t get to enter the Kingdom unless their righteousness EXCEEDS that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law – If you were hearing this for the first time, you are being challenged to you your core that you must be better than the most religious in your culture – And, if and when you didn’t measure up, you would likely try to put on an act and fake it ‘til you make it

This weekend, watched a 4 -part documentary on Amazon Prime called Jonathan and Jesus – a film crew follows Jonathan Roumie, (PIC OF JONATHAN)the actor who plays Jesus in The Chosen, as he travels around the world doing interviews and appearances because of his role – it was really interesting to see how people would respond to meeting him – People would literally run up to him, embrace him and just hang on, as if he was Jesus himself – and Jonathan comes across really humble and at times uncomfortable, making sure that people knew that he is PORTRAYING Jesus, but is not Jesus himself – he is merely an actor

There is a word in today’s passage, hypocrite - the Greek word is hypocrates, which described the actors of the day, who would wear masks and act out plays – Today, while we have professional actors like Jonathan that play a part on the big screen, we have everyday people in church wearing masks and playing the part of a Christian, looking the part on the outside, but lacking the true heart and motivation on the inside

Today, as we walk through the passage, ask yourself the question, “Is there any place in my life where I am acting “Christian”, doing “Christian” looking things, but it’s really just an act, because my heart is not really in it?”  - Matthew 6:1-4

V1 – “Be careful not to practice your acts of righteousness before men to be seen…” - This seems to be a contradiction to 5:16 – “Let your light shine before men, so they may see your good deeds…” – looking deeper, talking about two different things – the first speaks to courage, the other to humility

One author explained it this way- “when you want to hide, show and when you want to show, hide.” Most of us will naturally excel in one of these and struggle in the other – I tend think I’m ok in 5:16, but struggle in 6:1 – but looking deeper, it’s about the heart and motive behind both – the question is, who gets the glory? In Matthew 5, “glorify Father in Heaven…” and here in ch. 6, if it is about you, NO REWARD in Heaven – 

Think about it: If you are seeking applause of man b/c of great things you are doing, you are grabbing glory from God – YOU ARE NOT THE HERO OF THE STORY – This is one of the more challenging concepts of the way of Jesus – It’s all about him – he is the leader, he is out in front, which means IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU

Two ways to look at it: We can be instruments for GOOD or instruments for GOD – you can do good things completely without God, but you can’t do God things without them being good, because the very nature of God is good – we are not called to be great humanitarians, but bringing glory to God

2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet started a Billionaires Club with a “giving pledge” to give away at least half of their fortunes to charity – Bloomberg, Hilton, Ted Turner and George Lucas all joined in – Since then, literally billions of dollars given for various causes around world, to the applause of men – All of us say this is a good thing, right? Not wrong, just incomplete – it’s all about who gets the glory – Jesus is clear – you can compete for applause of men and miss blessing of God

V2 – “so, when give to needy, don’t be like hypocrites who announce with trumpets…” First, the assumption that you WILL give – not an option - Jesus will get into giving more specifically in a couple of weeks - clearly another swipe at Pharisees – uses term “hypocrites” – again, this was Greek term for an actor – actors in that day would wear masks and play part in a play – calling Pharisees actors, playing the part of generous givers, but self-congratulatory and FAKE – difference here is they were DELIBERATELY being deceptive to bring glory to self

So, when Jesus was saying in Matthew 5 that your righteousness must EXCEED that of the Pharisees, he was actually saying that their “righteousness” wasn’t righteousness at all – Matthew 23:2-7, 25-27 – looked good on the outside, but heart was unclean - MOTIVATION

Not sure if Jesus was painting a picture of sounding trumpet to be funny or if he had seen them actually do this (imagine the scene), but concept still the same – and what does he say about them? “I tell you (spiritual authority), the have received their reward in full.” What was he saying? Seek the applause of man, and you will get it, and nothing more - Where we get the phrase, “Toot your own horn” – 

Illus. – Social media feeds this: The HUMBLE BRAG – posting about yourself and the spiritual thing you’re doing, or who you’re with while you’re doing it– Insta pic with your coffee and Bible – “Just me and Jesus…” AND all of your followers on social - This is not meant to judge, just a heart check – are you meeting with Jesus for intimacy sake, or so you have something to post about to make you look spiritual? The whole idea of being a social media influencer, especially a Christian influencer, is a slippery slope, because it all comes down to who is getting the glory

Last week, several common phrases come from text:

“Turn other cheek” (v39), “Give shirt off back” (v40)

“Go extra mile” (v 41), “Give ‘til it hurts” (V42) - All great mantras, but here in chapter 6, Jesus says, “Do all those things, be quiet about it.” The ministry of the unnoticed

True confession: I love to be recognized for the things I do – at home, do the dishes or make the bed, pretty low bar, but I want FULL CREDIT – In my profession, I am on stage in front of people, hard to be a public figure but not want attention, and for a long time, I practiced my righteousness in a way that drew attention to me, not Jesus – Less of me, more of Jesus, easy to say, hard to live  How about you? Are you an actor in a play about Christianity? Are you doing Jesus-looking stuff, but your heart is far from him?

V3 – “Don’t let left hand know what right hand is doing…” – 3 possibilities here– I do works to be noticed, I do works to give self pat on back, or I do work to bring glory to God – idea here is one of self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness – humility – not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less  - Of course, you can’t literally accomplish this, but this is the goal – give/serve and move on – and don’t talk about it  - this is where I get dinged – if I don’t talk about it, then who is going to know? 

V4 – “Done in secret” – Why? That is where the reward comes in – your reward is from the Father – no idea what it looks like – could be an earthly reward, like wealth, or a heavenly reward that we won’t see until we pass into eternity, but whatever it is will be better than what we would get here – big challenge is hard to hear these secret stories

Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997, it was front page news, and the world mourned for her –6 days later, September 5, Mother Teresa passed away, and while it was recognized, it was not front page news – Both were humanitarians in their own right, but one lived in a castle and the other in the slums of Calcutta – one had all the trappings of fame, success, royalty, while other had relatively nothing – I would argue that one received an earthly crown, and the full reward that went with it, while the other received a heavenly crown, the full reward of a life lived for the glory of God – Revelation 2:10

“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.”  - Mother Teresa