Badenoch Free Church

Morning Service Sunday 1st October 2007.

 

Matthew 6.

Context: ch4v17, Jesus preaching the good news. The kingdom open for all, no barriers for entrance into the kingdom.

 

Chp 5 Jesus begins to teach the disciples what it means to be in the kingdom.

5v1-12 - the kingdom is open.

V13-16, once in the Kingdom you are a witness.

V17-48 place of law in the kingdom. V20 righteousness of kingdom dwellers to be greater than the Pharisees.

 

Intro: mt6 & its principles on kingdom living.

V1-18 - deal with the proper way of going about our religion.

V19-34 - deal with the proper attitude towards money and the things of this world.

If we get these 2 areas right then we’ll grow into great servants in the kingdom. If we get them wrong our growth will be hampered.

 

1^st area. Our religion. There is a right way and a wrong way of doing it.

Jesus pick on 3 aspects of our religion.

Giving, praying and fasting. The key to it all is v1.

If we do our good works in order “to be seen” by men then we’ve got it wrong. If human approval is all we crave then we will have no reward from our Father in heaven.

 

V2-4 Giving.

Hypocrites put on a big show when they give to the needy. They’re not really giving to the needy at all they are paying for the praise they will get from man! And that is there reward! A passing reward of no eternal value! What they want is what they get! Like rich people today giving money to hospitals and then getting their name up on a plack!

KD are to give in secret! Secret in the sense that they are doing it for God, so that He is honoured. Not that if anyone finds out its been a waist of time. It’s the attitude of heart that is being looked for.

Secret Giving results in Gods reward! He honours us rather than man.

 

V5-15 Prayer.

Hypocrites pray to be seen. Their reward is mans praise.

KD pray to God, not man - that is in secret. Public prayer!?…

Real prayer understands that God is our Father, the great personal intelligent being who knows us and all our needs v8.

Not like the pagans who think of God as something that needs to be manipulated with the right words v7. Like a Giant Coke Machine in the sky!

Real prayer always involves forgiveness v14-15. KD live by Gods mercy & therefore extend that mercy to others.

 

V16-18 Fasting.

Again hypocrites fast in order to show men! Fasting Face!

KD fast to God, in secret! God’s praise is what they seek not mans.

Reward is experiencing more of God - Deu8v3 “man does not live on bread alone…”

Application:

for our religion to be acceptable to God it must be for his glory alone. If we do what we do in order to get mans praise then its of no eternal value. Not that if our “acts of righteousness” are seen then they’ve been a waist of time, 5v17 tells us to let our light shine! It’s the attitude of heart that counts - for God or mans praise?

For who do you do your religion? So that your neighbour sees you? So that you impress the elders? Or are you doing it to show God how good you are in an attempt to earn your salvation?

The challenge is to always ask why we do what we do. For mans praise or Gods?

 

 

These verses are of vital importance for our daily living in the kingdom, because its all about where we place our trust. Do we trust our wealth and our riches or do we trust God to look after us from day to day?

We say we trust in God as Christians but in reality is not our bank balance often the thing that is constantly on our minds.

 

Before we go any further we have to note that there is nothing wrong with wealth. The bible is full of great believers who were very wealthy. However there is the constant danger that our attitude towards money becomes idolatrous and all consuming. We need to remember the warning of 1Tim 6v10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

 

We also have to note that the Christian is never to be foolish with money - there is nothing wrong with saving and investing our wealth as long as we are rich towards God and not just ourselves. Always we have to remember the example of Jesus; “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 2Cor 8v9.

 

So to v19-34.

This covers the desire to secure ourselves by gaining more wealth.

V19 - what is treasure? Anything we highly prize. To find out what your treasure is ask what is it you seek to protect the most? Our treasure is our Treasurings.

Jesus 1^st points out the folly of treasuring earthly things. v19 not lasting thus not truly valuable.

Then v20-21 he points out what we should do. How? By treasuring God himself. To love him is to treasure him.

V22-23, the effect of getting our treasuring right - we see properly. V24 - half-hearted attempts wont work! Ultimately Gods demands and the worlds demands will conflict!

 

The consequence of placing our security in wealth is worry v25-34.

Naturally we will worry about life/food/clothing. If however we treasure God we wont worry at all because he is completely reliable!

Jesus tells us to live like the birds v26. They work hard but ultimately they rely on God to feed them : they don’t store up.

Or like the lilies v28. They don’t even work hard yet God makes them beautiful. The point is we have to put our total dependence on God to look after us. In so doing he will make us beautiful people. More beautiful than anything in the world - “Solomon in all his splendour”.

The world craves the outward appearance and because of that very fact it can never be beautiful enough. True beauty come by treasuring God & his kingdom v33.

 

Sum Up: Good Kingdom living must seek above everything else to please God. And good kingdom living must seek its security from God alone, not the world.

Humanly speaking this is very hard to do - because naturally we want the praise and approval of others and we want the security that wealth offers us. So there is a battle to be won. Let us take up the fight.

 

Finally just a we comment on what this passage tells us about our Great Lord Jesus. It tells us quite simply that Jesus was a brilliant teacher. At the start of the Sermon on the mount we read that Jesus sat down on the mountain and began to teach the disciples. We need to recapture the attitude of the disciples and sit at our Great Teacher feet and learn from him afresh.

 

 

Jesus is Lord - that is our guiding principle in matters of lifestyle!

The example in the passage is the Sabbath.

The Pharisees had one idea - No Work! Don’t even do anything that hints of work and you will have safely kept the Sabbath.

To the text.

V1-2 : sets the scene

V1 - it was the SABBATH

Going through the cornfields the disciples eat because they are hungry!

V2 - Pharisees think this constituted harvesting! Thus the disciples are braking the Sabbath - thus not a righteous lot! What is Jesus going to do about it!!!

V3-5: don’t you know your bibles?! David ate consecrated bread! Because he was hungry. Thus the disciples can eat when they are hungry. The priests at the temple continually brake the Sabbath, but they have special dispensation because they are working at the temple!

V6 - Yet now Jesus is here. And he is far greater than the temple. Things have changed!

V7 - they would have understood if they had understood Gods desire for heart righteousness not outward righteousness. For a merciful heart rather than a legalistic approach to the sacrificial system! The disciples were totally guiltless - they had no case to answer.

V8 - what is more important? The Sabbath or the Lord of the Sabbath? Son of Man is a claim to Messiah-ship. As messiah he is lord of the Sabbath.

 

V9-10 more scene setting: in the synagogue. There is a man needing healed - is it lawful to heal?

V11 - Jesus answer’s by giving them a situation and asking what they would do. Would they save a sheep or let it die for fear of braking the legalistic approach to Sabbath keeping.

V12 - if they would save a sheep on the Sabbath then healing a man is obviously a righteous thing to do! An a fortiori argument: For similar but more convincing reasons. A no-brainer. For those with hearts that love God there would be no question over its legality! Mercy not sacrifice. Do good.

V13 - Jesus heals the man.

 

V14 - the Pharisees want to kill him!! Why? Is this not a bit extreme!?

They realised that if what Jesus was teaching was true then their whole way of life and getting right with God was wrong!

Their foundations were coming apart. They were losing control!

In the face of Jesus they felt inadequate and they want to reassert their control!

They couldn’t cope with him. Their world view had no place for Jesus!

Conclusion:

Jesus is Lord. All issues of faith and practice come down to this.

Love and adore Him and everything else will work itself out!