Giving for the Greater Reward: Sincerity Before God
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 36:32
0 ratings
· 22 viewsThe Christian practices righteousness by pursuing sincerity before God by giving to an audience of One.
Files
Notes
Transcript
“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.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Why do you do what you do?
Why do you live the way you do?
Does Jesus care about the motivations of our actions?
We need to remember what Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:20
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
The past several weeks we talked about what righteousness is in many different areas: anger (Matt 5:21-26), lust (Matt 5:27-30), divorce (Matt 5:31-32), oaths (Matt 5:33-37), retaliation (Matt 5:38-42), and loving your enemies (Matt 5:43-48).
These sections focused on WHAT righteousness is.
But external righteousness is more than merely external actions.
In this section, Jesus turns to talk about the WHY of righteousness.
The motivation behind the externals.
The WHY behind the “practice” of righteousness.
It’s NOT enough to merely practice the right things.
There must be right motivation for righteousness.
It must be right action done in the right way for the right reason.
The Paradigm of Pursuing the Greater Reward
The Paradigm of Pursuing the Greater Reward
“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.
This verse stands as a kind of paradigm for the section.
“Beware” or “Be careful!”
The warning is to merely outwardly practice righteousness.
To practice without the right motivation.
The concern Jesus has here was that His followers would be like the Pharisee’s in their hypocrisy.
Giving to be thought of generous by others. (Matthew 6:2-4)
Praying to be thought of as “religious.” (Matthew 6:5-15)
Fasting to be thought of as holy before others. (Matthew 6:16-18)
Is all giving equal?
Are greater and larger gifts always better?
“Certainly if you’re a big contributor to the poor, God is pleased?”
All giving is not equal.
Matthew 6:1 (ESV)
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them…
Forsaking the motive of being seen by others.
Forsaking the motive of being seen by others.
The human heart is too deceptive.
The human heart is too twisted to allow that all giving is the same.
Even in something as “good” as giving to the poor, our hearts twist it.
Giving as an Unbeliever
There is no reward for you here.
Not enough giving in the world could fix the problem that you’re in.
The problem you have is much bigger than money could fix.
You could NOT drop enough money in the plate to fix your problem.
Your problem isn’t financial.
You need to be reconciled to God in Jesus Christ.
You need the atoning sacrifice of Christ to cleanse you of your sin.
You need to be reconciled to God in the death of Christ.
But believer, this is just as true for you as well.
Even in your best deeds you see the twisting of motives.
“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.
Motived by the Smile of Heaven
Motived by the Smile of Heaven
Jesus says we should not practice our righteousness before others because we will forsake the greater reward from the hand of our Heavenly Father.
The Bible tells us in another place…
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Think about how contrary this is to what I talked about last time in Kant.
“An action is moral, said Kant, only if one has no desire to perform it, but performs it out of a sense of duty and derives no benefit from it of any sort, neither material nor spiritual. A benefit destroys the moral value of an action.”
Kant believed that an action is truly “good” only as long as the motivation behind the action was purely neutral.
We should never act out of a motive for benefit.
Jesus says that if we perform an action for someone to notice other than God Himself, we are forsaking the reward.
This is because the reward comes from the hand of God.
The Christian pursues the smile of heaven by giving done for the glory of the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ.
The Christian pursues the smile of heaven by giving done for the glory of the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ.
Christian
This is our lives as Christians.
We pursue the smile of Heaven over and above the cheers around us.
If you’re listening more to the cheers of man than to cheers of heaven, then you need your ears retuned.
This paradigm is embodied in the Lord Jesus.
He chose the obedience which was motived by the fame of His Father’s Name.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Hypocrites give to the needy for an audience.
Hypocrites give to the needy for an audience.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Jesus assumes that His followers will give.
He assumes they will pray.
He assumes they will fast.
“the needy” here would be the same kind of word that we would use for charity.
Trumpets announcing the giving.
Trumpets announcing the giving.
The phrase “sound no trumpet” seems strange and it may be referring to either a literal trumpet or a metaphorical one
(similar to “tooting one’s own horn”)
“To stand with a penny in one hand and a trumpet in the other is the posture of hypocrisy.” —Charles Spurgeon
We’re not sure exactly what Jesus is referring to here.
Either way, the expression makes clear that they are drawing attention to oneself.
What is a hypocrite?
These sections also focus on Jesus’s followers compared to the “hypocrites.”
The word for “hypocrite” comes from the same word that is used for a person that is a “pretender.”
Or one who places a mask over his face in a play.
“Play-actor”
The mask is the fake cover-up.
Whereas under the mask, the true form is much worse.
Not all hypocrites are the same.
Deceptive Hypocrisy
Deceptive Hypocrisy
“It is saying one thing and meaning another.” —David Spieler (Third Type Hypocrisy)
There is a kind of hypocrisy that intends to deceive like when the Pharisee’s tried to trap Jesus.
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.
And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.
Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?
This type of hypocrisy is definitely something we need to look out for.
Misdirected Hypocrisy
Misdirected Hypocrisy
This person is likely genuinely unaware of their hypocrisy.
It’s the kind of hypocrisy that is hard toward other’s sins while being gentle on their own.
You could also call this a form of a double standard.
They notice the sins of others while all the while being blind to their own.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Honored Among Men Hypocrites
Honored Among Men Hypocrites
Let me give you an example of this type of hypocrite.
They are likely a pillar of the church or community.
They may even be seen as a saint of sorts.
They’re never loud, harsh, or aggressive.
Never critical or argumentative.
“All in all, [they] is a near embodiment of the famous monkey trio—seeing no evil, hearing no evil, and speaking no evil.”
—David Spieler (Third Type Hypocrisy)
The needy never complain because why would they.
This type of hypocrisy can go completely unnoticed in a person’s soul.
Which is why it is so destructive.
“In other words, these people never act primarily for the sake of others; and even where they give the impression of doing so, the purpose of the act is selfish (i.e., self-centered).”
—David Spieler (Third Type Hypocrisy)
This kind of hypocrisy is dangerous because it can go unchecked in the soul.
This kind of hypocrisy is dangerous because it has to do with motives.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Hypocrites have received their reward–others praise.
Hypocrites have received their reward–others praise.
The hypocrite that gives in order to be seen by others has already received their reward.
The reward that the hypocrites received is counted as “no reward.”
It’s counted as NO REWARD because of the GREATER reward.
But notice that this “no reward” actually does receive the “praise by others.”
The hypocrites are desiring the praise of others and it thus is counted by Jesus as NO REWARD at all.
They desire the praise of men and they get nothing.
Unbeliever
This is the highest form of giving that you can ever achieve.
The unbeliever can only ever give for the praise of the crowd.
The Christian on the other hand pursues a greater REWARD.
The Christian pursues the reward from the hand of the Father.
We are not told exactly what this reward is here and it frankly doesn’t matter.
Because faith looks at reward from the hand of the Father and knows that it is better than the praise of man.
Is it wrong that we would publicly take up an offering?
Its not that it’s wrong as much as there are better ways for things to be done in the public gathering of believers.
The heart of faith looks from the reward from the hand of the Father.
The heart of faith believes it is better to obey out of a desire to please the Father more than the approval of any other.
We give to an audience of ONE.
We pray to an audience of ONE.
We fast to an audience of ONE.
If our giving, praying, and fasting begins to look for the approval of others, then we have become like the hypocrites.
When we no longer seek to obey out of love for the Father, we become hypocrites.
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia,
for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
Church
If we give with this kind of mindset, we can raise as much money as we want and still be failures.
We can raise big bucks, build big buildings and be failures.
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
How should we then give?
How should we give that is pleasing to the Lord?
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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Giving to the needy for an audience of ONE.
Giving to the needy for an audience of ONE.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
ALL Y’ALL is emphasized here in comparison to the hypocrites.
YOU on the other hand.
YOU ALL should give by not allowing your left hand to know what your right hand is doing.
Giving in secret guards us from hypocrisy.
Giving in secret guards us from hypocrisy.
The Doctrine of the Depravity of Man and Giving
Think about how wicked we must be that Jesus warns us to keep this knowledge from ourselves.
Think about how thorough sunk through the doctrine of the depravity of man must be that Jesus can actually command us to keep a piece of information from ourselves.
Think about how gross our own hearts are.
The doctrine of the depravity of man says,
“Look out for yourself!”
“Don’t trust yourself because you’re untrustworthy!”
Jesus tells us to NOT tell ourselves when we give.
How much more so do we need accountability in this area?
The idea here is that we should give without even knowing ourselves what we are doing.
We are not even looking to pat ourselves on the back.
We should give in such a way that our own left hand does not know what our own right hand is doing.
Jesus said that if we give to one of the “least of these” we have done it for HIM
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
This is why we take pains to give of our finances.
We pour out our finances to those who need them for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Now does Jesus mean here that we shouldn’t plan out how much we give to the poor?
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 1. Christian Giving (2–4)
If we keep accounts and plan our giving, as conscientious Christians should, we are bound to know how much we give away. We cannot very well close our eyes while writing out our cheques! Nevertheless, as soon as the giving of a gift is decided and done, it will be in keeping with this teaching of Jesus that we forget it. We are not to keep recalling it in order to gloat over it, or to preen ourselves on how generous, disciplined or conscientious our giving may have been. Christian giving is to be marked by self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, not by self-congratulation.
It’s NOT wrong to plan, it’s wrong to PAT.
It’s NOT wrong to strategically think about our giving.
It IS WRONG to PAT OURSELVES on the back for it.
The point here is NOT that we shouldn’t plan to give to the needy.
It’s that we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back after we have done so.
It’s that we shouldn’t gloat over the amount given to the needy.
so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Giving in secret pursues the reward from the Father.
Giving in secret pursues the reward from the Father.
The purpose that Jesus gives for not allowing your left hand to know what your right hand is doing is so that nobody else can notice.
The secret giving has more to do with the motive than with the action itself.
The phrase “in secret” addresses the HOW of a person’s giving to protect the WHY of the giving.
The secret giving is not to be LEGALISTIC.
The secret giving is for the purpose of guarding the intentions behind the giving.
Churches
You’ll never hear me bashing people from the pulpit to give more money.
Bashing people and tell them to be more generous can actual do more harm to the soul than good.
We want to speak where Jesus speaks.
But we don’t twist people’s arms to give.
People that use GIVING as a weapon in local churches are fundamentally hypocrites.
They use their money as a weapon to try to sway people or pastors to make decisions because they “have the most financial influence.”
But Jesus says here that our giving should be IN SECRET.
This is one of the reasons we do giving the way we do here.
Other than the awkward plate passing, we place a box in the back as a way for us to give as an act of worship.
The act of worship that Jesus requires of us is to give in secret because God knows.
Nobody else NEEDS to KNOW if you give here.
The Christian practices righteousness by pursuing sincerity before God by giving to an audience of One.
The Christian practices righteousness by pursuing sincerity before God by giving to an audience of One.
