Have You Noticed My Humility?

Introduction

Why do we give?

Why do we pray?

Why do we fast?

Jesus wants us to examine our hearts (our motives)

Jesus has a clear warning and instruction for us in each section of this passage.

Two Ways of Being Seen

Matthew 6:1 ““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 opening verse, what does Jesus tell us not to do when practicing our righteousness?

(To not practice our righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them)

Why does He say this? In Matthew 5:16, Jesus says, “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 here he says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.”

Why is the instruction in Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them,” and Matthew 5:16 “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works” not a contradiction?

In Matt. 5:16 the Greek word for “that they may see” is eidon,which literally means “to see, or to perceive” In Matt. 6:1 the Greek phrase “to be seen” is from theaomai, which literally means “to be a spectacle.”

So, there is a way to be seen and a way not to be seen.

How would you characterize the difference between the two ways of being seen?

(Eidon helps others to see or to perceive that God is at work through you. Theaomai makes others see only you.)

How can you distinguish if your actions are about glorifying God or yourself?

A Word About “Reward”

In each section (giving, praying, and fasting) Jesus contrasts payment and repayment. He uses two different words for “reward.” First, He says that if you do your acts of righteousness before men, you have received your payment or wage (mithos). Then, He says that if you do your acts of righteousness in secret, you will receive your repayment.

Why repayment? See Mt. 25:31-40

Because the acts we do in secret are done unto Him, and since they are done unto Him, He repays us for our giving, our prayers, and our fasting, based upon what we deserve.

How does this help you understand the importance of right motives when practicing your acts of righteousness?

As seen in this passage, repayment could be retribution for wrongdoing or reward for virtuous acts.

Is it Humility or Is it Pride?

The Protection of Secret Giving

If we give so that we may be seen or praised by others, we fall into the sin of vanity.

Examples of going on mission trips to visit a new country, or helping out people in Mexico because it will allow us to practice our Spanish.

1) Vanity is preoccupied with appearances.

“The vain person does not so much seek to be admirable as to be admired. [They] derive self-esteem from the turned head, public honors, or tokens of success…Because the vain depend on an admiring audience to brace up their tenuous self-esteem…vanity is the most fragile form of sinful pride. ” (Dr. Paul Sands)

God is very clear. We are not to worship any other god but Him, but when we do our giving to be praised, we act out of vanity.

A main characteristic of Vanity is that (in relationship to man) the vain person seeks admiration, but in relationship to God, he seeks worship that does not belong to him (Ex. 20:3; Ex. 34:14)

So how are we to practice righteousness through giving? Secretly. In Humility

Why would Jesus want us to give secretly?

Because it guards against vanity.

How does the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing protect you against vanity?

Humble giving has 4 characteristics, according to verses 2-4:

v.2 Don’t sound a trumpet

1) It is quiet and without fanfare

v.3 Don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing

2) It is discreet (to point out you’re meeting someone’s need could be embarrassing to them). Only the persons being helped are aware.

v.4

3) It follows the Spirit, not the self.

4) It seeks to meet needs for others, not shore up our fragile self-esteem.

The Protection of Secret Prayer

Mt. 6:5-8 focuses of Prayer.

In this passage, Jesus warns us not to pray like two groups of people: Hypocrites and Gentiles.

In Matt. 6:5-6 the idea of "being seen" by others could also be translated as "to shine" before others (phaino). This puts a whole different context on what the hypocrites are doing. Instead of being seen as “light,” the people are “shining” under their own power. As before, they are performing their acts of righteousness in a theatrical way.

Although public performances of prayer can be done out of a sense of vanity, they lean more heavily towards conceit, for their performance diminishes others by showing how superior they are to those who are not praying in this way.

Again, the reward for the conceited is nothing more than the praise of man.

2) Conceit is an exaggerated opinion of one’s virtues and accomplishments. It seeks not so much excellence as superiority.

The conceited are competitive and adversarial. The conceited will diminish others to elevate themselves, because conceit thrives off of inferiors.

“Thus, a conceited physicist who cannot hit a baseball, play a violin, or manage a small business will think himself superior to those who can — superior, that is, as a human being, not simply as a scientist.” (Sands)

In relationship to man, Conceit seek superiority over others, but in relationship to God it seeks to steal a position that is not his own. (Isa 45:5-6)

Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

How does secret praying protect us from conceit?

It helps us to see others as more important than ourselves

To guard us from the lure of admiration.

If we are out of the view of others, we cannot perform for others. If admiration by others is all you want, then that is all you will get. The admiration of God will be absent.

To help us be vulnerable.

If we focus our communication with God on openness, vulnerability, and intimacy, we are not competing against anyone. Instead, we are being honest with God about the weaknesses, deficiencies, and needs that make us inferior to others and unworthy to be called his son.

To develop intimacy within privacy.

We behave differently in closed-door conversations than in open-door conversations.

The God of the universe wants a closed-door conversation with us. When we close the door of our prayer room, we send a signal to others (and God sends a signal to us) that a serious conversation is about to occur.

We are having a private conversation with Jesus and a closed door allows us to be our real selves with God. Over time, this creates a sacred environment in prayer between you and God so that when we do have to pray in public, we are still having a private, intimate conversation. Even though other people are listening, a sacred environment occurs between you and the Spirit, and all who are listening encounter God, not you.

How does Jesus teach us to practice prayer?

Dialogically.

See handout on Conversation Types

Matthew 6:7–8 ““And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Some differences between prayers to Yahweh and the prayers of the Gentiles/pagans:

Gentile prayers portray their gods as disengaged from the affairs of humanity and must be cajoled to take notice. (1 Kings 18:25-29)

These prayers often included the consultation of omens, oracles, and magic rituals as a way of appeasing the gods’ anger and arousing their attention.

By contrast, the biblical prayers portray a God who is eager to listen to the concerns and cares of His people: “I call out to Yahweh; he answers me from his holy hill” (Psa 3:4).

Most significantly, Hebrew prayers were monotheistic—addressed to Yahweh alone. The nations and cultures surrounding Israel were polytheistic and offered prayer to multiple gods.

While Israel’s neighbors praised their gods for their attributes and character, the Israelites praised Yahweh for His involvement in human history.

An additional difference is that the prayers of Israel’s ancient Near Eastern neighbors are unidirectional, not dialogical.

How does the video about the still-face experiment relate to how the Gentiles prayed? How does it relate to how we pray?

https://youtu.be/FaiXi8KyzOQ?si=v7MmS2j08DIc3Pan

Unlike the Gentiles, who believed they had to pester the gods to make them aware of their needs and to force them to act, Christians do not have to act this way.

God knows what you need before you ask. This contrasts God against the pagan gods who had to be informed. God already knows. Just go ask.

Lk. 18:8 shows God is not reluctant, but is eager to respond.

Dialogue with God

Prayer with God is not unidirectional. It is dialogical. In other words, we pray because God has invited us into a dialogue.

The word “dialogue” comes from the Greek word dialogos.

Logos means “the word” and dia means “through,” so that dialogue is a stream of meaning flowing “through the word.”

It is important to note that not every dialogue with God will be an audible, back-and-forth conversation (as with Moses, for example), but all prayer will be “through the word (Logos),” giving us an understanding of why we Christians pray “in Jesus’ name.” (See Jn.1:1)

We see examples of this “through the Logos” dialogue throughout scripture. It is: in Creation (“Let us make man in our image”), in the Garden (“Adam, where are you?”), with Moses (“Take your sandals off your feet, for the place you are standing is holy ground.”), with the prophets (“‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’”), and with Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the NT (“If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” Jn. 14:14 and the Macedonian call in Acts 16:9 “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”)

This “through the Logos” dialogue also helps us understand how God has granted us the privilege of being part of the work He does in history.

Piper says, “God runs this world with infinite wisdom. You and I never inform him of anything he doesn’t already know. We never add to his wisdom about what he should do next. He doesn’t need our prayers to know what he should do. This is as basic as it gets. He is God...(Romans 11:34–36).

“Nevertheless, God has ordained to make our prayers real causes of real events. Real causes. The words of James 4:2, “You do not have because you do not ask,” do not mean, “You would have had anyway, even if you didn’t pray, since God had a plan and your prayers don’t matter.” “You do not have because you do not ask” means prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t happen. This is breathtaking. And if you neglect this privilege—your participation in God’s moving the world—you are acting very foolishly. We pray because it is a staggeringly awesome privilege.”

How does this make you think differently about prayer?

We pray because it glorifies the Father and the Son. See John 14:13 And it keeps us in touch with His movement(s) within history.

“Otherwise, we tend not to see God’s hand anywhere -- when in fact it is everywhere.” (Piper)

The Protection of Secret Fasting

Mt. 6:16-18

Fasting was often part of mourning rituals in the Ancient Near East as a sign of humility and grief.

This is why Jesus says in Matt 9:14-15 that fasting is an expression of longing for someone who is missing (i.e., Himself). Therefore, since Jesus ascended:

We fast because there’s an ache in our heart for Jesus to come back, to reunite with us, to make things right in a wrong world.

We also fast to expose the hidden or latent sins in our heart that need excising, healing, and/or purifying.

There are two words in Hebrew for “fast”: tsom and anah. While tsom means “to deny yourself from food,” anah is often translated more generally as simply “deny yourself.”

This more general reference may imply that other forms of self-denial were also intended, such as abstinence from contact with the opposite sex, from anointing with oil or bathing, or from wearing sandals (Yoma 8:1; Hartley, “Atonement,” 58).

The term עָנָה (anah) also means “to afflict,” “to weaken,” “be humble,” or “be bowed down” (BDB, 776). On a day when the sins of the people were to be atoned for, afflicting or denying oneself by fasting would serve as an outward sign of inner repentance for breaking God’s law.

In Jesus’ day, some people would go to great lengths to let other people know how “repentant” they were and to ensure that others thought highly of their spirituality.

Washing your face and anointing your head while fasting was an instruction to keep your fast private. But for what purpose?

Why did Jesus want our fast to remain secret?

3) Arrogance is a feeling of superiority that shows itself in a lofty, overbearing manner. Whereas vanity needs admirers and conceit needs inferiors, arrogance needs no one.

“The arrogant are a law unto themselves; they do not need other people to validate their self-image. What other people think or achieve is neither here nor there. The arrogant are too proud to be vain or conceited.” (Sands)

In relationship with man, arrogance lords itself over others, but in relationship with God the arrogant presume a preeminence that is not theirs.

Private fasting guards against arrogance in three ways:

1) It focuses on God, not man.

Isaiah 58:5 “Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Why does God say that He would not choose a fast where one humbles himself, bows his head or sits in sackcloth and ashes?

Because if one just goes through the motions of an appropriate fast, it will not be the kind that delights God. A true fast seeks the heart of God and to effect the purposes of God in history.

2) It focuses on accurate self-appraisal to align your heart with God’s.

Sometimes this is done in confession and repentance, sometimes in mourning, sometimes when facing danger, and sometimes when seeking God’s will. In all of these examples, though, fasting is an intensifier that brings the condition of your heart into focus. Once you can see yourself clearly, you can humbly align your heart and actions with God’s.

Also, when you have to ask God for help, guidance, comfort, etc., what does that mean about your position in relation to Him? (You are NOT preeminent)

The serpent in tempting Adam and Eve promised: “You will be as gods.” Here is the primary temptation, to put ourselves where God should be—at the center of things, to ignore our creatureliness and finiteness as though we were self-made and self-adequate, and assert our independence and sovereignty (McCracken, 1966, p. 12).

This sort of self-assertion is incompatible with a true knowledge of God. As C. S. Lewis explains, “In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all.” Of course, the proud are ready to admit theoretically that they are nothing before God, but they “are really all the time imagining how he approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people” (Lewis, 1980, p. 124).

3) It focuses on activating God’s purposes in history for others.

Isaiah 58:6–7 ““Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”

What would we need to deny in our lives in order to effect these results?

For instance, the desire for convenience? (All service is inconvenient to some degree) Or the desire to not get involved? (Notice, God asks us to give them what is ours — our bread, our home, our clothes, etc.)

A God-honoring fast helps free people from: the wicked or from wicked sins that enslave them, unjust agreements that bind them, the trauma and weight of abuse and oppression, and every yoke (both literal and metaphorical) that oppresses them. Remember, it is “for freedom that Christ set us free” (Gal. 5:1). This statement is not only a personal reality about our salvation but is also a cosmic declaration about how He desires to effect His dialogue with us in history!

Community consists in people living with one another interdependently and with mutual concern. Individuals in a crowd may share nothing but proximity, but individuals in a community have “the same care one for another” (1 Cor. 12:25). The proud, however, are too self-absorbed to empathize with other people. They tend to see others, not as independent persons of worth, but as extensions of themselves.

How does giving and praying in secret help with this type of fast?

________

If fasting is to be about self-affliction/mourning for how we/society have rebelled against God’s will, why don’t we fast in today’s day and age?

Where is the grief for betraying God, both as individuals and as a nation?