I didn't take notes on session 5 because it was mostly on divorce and oaths. The main thing there was don't swear oaths wrongly and don't treat divorce lightly.
Jesus has covered the don'ts of what a righteous citizen of Heaven looks like. He will change now and look at the "do's".
Jesus will push further on line-walking. He's pushing us towards what must we get away from? In our righteous acts, there are things Jesus will address with our heart issues. He's going to talk about 3 things:
1) Giving
2) Prayer
3) Fasting
Mattew 6:1-18 (read)
Jesus teaches these 3 things in an orderly way. There is a rhythm to the text.
He starts with a general statement of not performing your righteous acts to receive mens approval. Who do we have to understand this? Because the praise of men becomes your reward when you do your acts of righteousness before others. It says "when you..." not "if you". He's going to discuss motives.
The formula He uses:
1) When you....
2) Do not be like the hypocrites - the show offs. But we all on some level are dealing with hypocristy - not just in the church.
3) Truly I say to you...Jesus is speaking truth where error has been taught or implied. He's going to tell us His authority in the way righteousness should be practiced.
4) "They have received their reward"- forfeited the praises and reward of God for man.
5) Then He will give a challenge - "sees in secret".
This is not a prohibition of these three things because we see in scripture these things being done in a public manner. We must reconcile Matthew 5:16 with what He is saying here. "Let your light shine" - "see your good deeds". Now in 6:1 he says "beware of practicing your righteousness......to be seen". How is this even consistent? Understand where the conversation has gone. In 5:16 Jesus is combating the sin of cowardize. In 6:1 He's combating the sin of pride.
There is a time to show and a time to hide. That time depends on our motives.
When He says "obey in secret", He gives a challenge to examine our motives that are a current contrast to the pharisees.
6) The other part of this formulat is to say "Father who sees in secret will reward you". "Your Father" - it's personal. A relationship between a Father and a child. A loving Father and much loved child. A Father who sees is a caution to us and a comfort to us. He sees through the smoke and mirrors. He also sees our motives when our actions fall short. The Omniscence of God is a comfort to us.
We do receive a reward from Him now as well as in the future. We receive that purity of heart. We also have a reward "not yet" - one that will come when the Kingdom is consumated. Acts of righteousness with humility and not pride.
Giving. Mattew 6:2. Sound a trumpet in the streets. This use to happen. A parade of sorts when offering your offering at the temple. This was accepted. These men were respected so the people thought they were setting a good example.
How can your left hand not know what your right hand does? What does this mean? Jesus is using hyperbole here to show to us a kind of giving that is almost unconscious. It's as close as we can get to not counting the cost and not looking for a reward. So how are we like this? Giving money and wanting your name on the building. Giving to curry favor. We can give in secret to bless others. Giving without getting in return - a great form of giving. We steward what we've been given. It's the Lord's anyway.
Prayer. Matthew 6:5-6. Notice "you" and "your". He's turned the discussion on us and saying "examine yourself". The issue here is not what their bodies are doing but where their hearts are in it.
The tax collector/pharisee. Humility and pride. What does it mean to be someone who prays in secret? The way we can know if our prayers in secret reflect the right attitude is to ask "do my prayers in secret and my prayers in public sound any different? Prayer voice versus regular voice. Ask ourselves: "do I pray in private and not just publicly?
Matthew 6:7-8. Pagans heap up empty phrases. When pagans offer prayers to gods of their own, they load on the vocabulary. Do we use "catchy phrases" or speak without thinking? Jesus here is not speaking against persistent prayer. Jesus is talking about an aimless approach to prayer. So Jesus will tell us what He means.
Verse 9. The Lord's prayer starts with worship.
Verse 10. Allegiance then submission.
Verse 11. Petition.
Verse 12. Confession.
Verse 13. Deliverance.
God doesn't lead us into temptation. See James 1:13. It means "Lord lead us away from the temptation", that left to our own devices, we will walk right into it.
We need to think about the content of our prayers. What do most of us go to when we pray? Petition. It's also not a check list. What if all prayer was for worship? Wouldn't that alone be reason enough to pray without ceasing? It's interesting that the Lord's prayer, just like the beatitudes did, begins first with that vertical relationship. Vertical to horizontal. The Trinity is seen in the Lord's prayer.
Verse 11 - daily bread (Father)
Verse 12 - forgiveness (Son)
Verse 13 - deliverance (Holy Spirit)
Verses 14-15. Jesus reiterates forgiveness. Does this mean that our forgiveness of sins is contingent on us forgiving the sins of others? No. It means that those who recognize their sins have been forgiven by God, will go and forgive the sins of others.
How can I know if my motive for praying is off?
1) Does the majority of your prayer happen in public or in private?
2) Are your prayers dominated by requests?
3) When your requests go unanswered or receive an answer of no, do you feel your prayers are useless?
4) When you finish praying, do you feel better about yourself or more dependent on God?
Prayer reorients us to understand the Kingdom is His and the agenda is His. All that we receive comes through His hands.
While the prayer of the hypocrite results in pride, righteous prayer humbles us by reminding us that we are small and we control nothing.
Fasting. Matthew 6:16. Jesus assumes that fasting will be a part of our practice. He shows us how not to fast in verse 16.
Verses 16-17. "anoint your head" - "wash your face". Not a ritual. Just be normal.
Verse 18. The pharisees had found a way to make fasting much ado about themselves. Fasting that honors the Lord is done between us and the Lord. What does fasting do? Why not eating? There's no faster way to recognize that we are like the grass of the field, a mist, a vapor. The Lord sustains us. Jesus' point on all these is don't exalt yourself with what was meant to humble you.
Giving humbles us because we acknowledge we are merely stewards of someelse's things.
Praying humbles us because we acknowledge we are small and in control of nothing.
Fasting humbles us because we acknowledge we are frail and utterly dependent on God's sustaining grace.
Our motives matter.
How do we know when we should show what we're doing and when we shouldn't? F. B. Bruce says: "show when tempted to hide, and hide when tempted to show".
Jesus is saying right actions must have right motives to be Godly obedience.
Next: Session 7 Matthew 6:19-34
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