The Cause for Applause Pt. 2

Introduction

How do we know right from wrong? The Fall of mankind plunged humanity into a realm where they attempt to determine the good, the true, and the right for themselves.

When someone who studies ethics looks at an act to determine if it was good or bad, he looks at the freedom, aim, motive, and conduct. Was the action freely taken or coerced? Was the aim or goal good or bad? Was the motive rooted in vice or virtue?

The problem is that when our society embraced pluralism in the realm of truth, it did the same thing in the realm of ethics. You see, if what is true is simply what I feel is true, then what is right is also what I feel it is.

At the same time, our feelings are still hemmed in by reality, our legal tradition, and the moral consensus that is, while much looser, still intact.

If what is good is simply determine by our feelings though, the question remains, what determines that are feelings are good? Where do our desires come from? Have you ever had a feeling you know was wrong?

When you remove God from ethics, it removes any objective moral standard and goal along with it. Consider the situation surrounding our text today: giving to the needy. Why should we do this? Why should we be generous with our money? Is it so other people can see how virtuous we are? That would seem to not be motivated by good but by selfish ambition. Is it to make us feel better? If generosity is therapy, who are we really helping?

When we are all in for building Christ’s kingdom, we are not about making a name for ourselves or making ourselves feel better. Rather we have a goal in mind: to glorify God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Matthew 6:2–4 ESV

“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.

The hypocrite

The hypocrite hungers for human attention rather than divine reward (v. 2).

Notice some things about verse 2.

Matthew 6:2 ““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 says “when” you give to the needy. This is a continued expectation, not a conditional clause. Another part of living in Christ’s kingdom is living in obedience to the king. So not only do we have a goal in Christ, we also have a direct law to follow.

He says, “sound no trumpet before you.” There is no historical record of people actually sounding a trumpet before they gave money, thought that could have been the case. There is historical record that the chests for giving in the temple were trumpet-shaped. They had a wide mouth to encourage giving, but thinner stem to prevent theft.

“Sounding a trumpet” could refer to purposefully noisily throwing coins into this shofar chest. But he also says these hypocrites were doing this in the street. So this sounding a trumpet is just bringing attention to himself in the act of giving.

You see: that was the purpose of bringing the attention to himself: “that they may be praised by others”

One commentator writes: “He did not give out of a desire to meet the needs of the poor, nor did He give out of pity for the underprivileged. Instead he gave out of a desire for self-aggrandizement. What was intended to be a selfless act was perverted into a completely selfish act.”

Charles L. Quarles, Sermon on the Mount: Restoring Christ’s Message to the Modern Church (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2011), 175.

The act of generosity becomes instead greed.

And that’s Jesus’s warning behind it all, generosity can quickly become greed.

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IN our own home life (e.g. husband and wife)

In the text in it in the context of worship. Notice the focus of the hypocrite in verse 2, “they may be praised by others.”

In worship, when we shift our focus from God to others, our generosity becomes greed.

Now we cannot control our audience. People are always watching us. God is always watching. But just like an actor, we cannot control our audience but we can control which audience we cater to. We can control which audience is a motivating factor in our giving.

Isaiah 29:13 “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,”

Isaiah says these things in the context of worship. Oftentimes our generosity is practiced in the context of worship. Why do you give? Do you honor God with your money while your heart is far from him? Then you show that you believe the command to generosity is simply one taught by man and not God himself.

From which audience are you looking for applause? If your cause is human applause, then Jesus says you’ve got your reward. God will give us what we want, sometimes as a form of judgment. Romans 1:24 “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,”

Isn’t it a frightening thing to know that if we yearn for people to make much of us God will give that to us? But not as a present rather as a form of judgment?

We live in a day and age where we have a global audience at our fingertips. The church herself lifts up certain people on the stage.

And I think we can take this too far and say “Everything I do will now be done in secret,” but that’s not Jesus’s point. Giving in the church service, maybe even sacrificial giving, could very well be part of your worship. You and I can’t always control who watches us do this or that. But we can control how those watching eyes motivate us. Because if it is the human eyes on us that motivates us to give, we are no longer generous but greedy.

We buy things with money all the time? Why not also buy other people’s respect and admiration with it? And when you put that money in the plate, make sure you got so-and-so’s admiration, it may have cost you $20, but you got it. And there it is, your reward. Nothing else.

Matthew 5:3 ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Those who greedily use money to buy people’s attention cannot be called poor in spirit. They are not dependent upon God when giving. Therefore, their reward is not the kingdom of heaven.

Source of Comfort

A while ago I saw one of these videos, I think it was made in Japan. It showed a man performing a small act of kindness out of the goodness of his heart and how that small act spread to another person watching an so on. Watching that video can be heartwarming and perhaps make you want to do good as well simply for the utility of it.

I also watched another video of a man in a drive thru. Pay-it-forward explanation. Well, in this video a man in the drive thru pays for his meal and the meal for the car in the person behind him. He looks back at the person behind him and give a smile, a thumbs up, and a wave to let them know he got their bill too. And you may think, well this is nice, maybe it will start one of those “pay it forward” chains that go on forever until you get to that one selfish person who won’t pay for the bill behind them. But the man then peels out. Goes back around the drive thru, nearly rams into another car, but shouts out them with some expletives, “Get out of the way, I’m doing something here!” Then he gets back to the speaker box and orders as quickly as he can, “I want 50 hamburger, 50 fries, 50 milkshakes. . .”

He faked his generosity to get a big time payback. And maybe that’s what we think as well: we give to make ourselves feel better.

Matthew 6:3 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,”

This is one of those strange sayings that Jesus says, which he is known for. These sayings are so good because they stand out to us and help us remember them.

And you may be thinking the obvious right at first: my hands can know nothing, they don’t have their own brains. And even further, you only have one brain which is connected to both hands. Whatever you right hand does will always be known, just as your left.

How could you do something and keep it secret from yourself? That’s quite impossible unless you go under a trance or something. The idea behind this hyperbole is that the Christian should not only not seek applause from other, but he should also not pat himself on the back. In other words:

Deeds of righteousness are not the source of our comfort. (v. 3)

We live in a day of performance reviews and promotion all based upon what we do. And all the time we apply this same mindset to God. Our sanctification is like a roller coaster with all its ups and downs. And yet we have the tendency to allow our present holiness to be impacted by this week’s review.

If you’re like me you probably have a tally going in your head right now about all the areas you did well and all the areas you failed in terms of your relationship with God. And the devil loves a performance review. The devil is the accuser and the flatterer, he will do both to keep you from the cross.

Jesus says “blessed are those who mourn over their sin,” yes, but there is a self-deprecation that leads you away from the cross. I get into this gospeless scenario where I’m so focused on my failure that I believe there’s no hope in moving forward so I might as well just give up. And that’s exactly where the devil wants me, far from the cross, far from making any kingdom impact.

But the opposite is just as true and just as dangerous. I become so satisfied with my righteousness that I stop pursuing more. I give with my right hand and with my left I pat myself on the back and think how wonderful that was. There is danger in allowing our generosity, or any act of righteousness to become a source of comfort. If any act of righteousness satiates our hunger for righteousness, we weren't hungry enough.

We’re called to holiness and perfection, but we are not called to be focused on our imagined performance review. 1. Our own review is probably flawed anyway. 2. Our performance does not determine the outcome. 3. Being motivated by our own deeds of righteousness or lack their of shows we are dependent on ourselves rather than God.

So instead we should be motivated by Christ’s sacrifice for us. His resurrection power. It is to the cross we should constantly go. We should discipline ourselves for godliness and regularly practice prayer, scripture reading and meditation.

Living on this roller coaster of devotional highs and disastrous lows is believing the lie that your current life circumstances determine your destination. But our destination is sealed by the Spirit, waxed with grace. And that destination is an eternal relationship with God.

Eternal Reward

Matthew 6:4 “so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Consider the reward in the future: eternal relationship with God (v. 4).

In v. 1 last week, we spoke about the present tense reward: more practiced righteousness. This verse has in it a future reward. God will reward you. I originally wanted to say that God will award you with eternal life, but I realize that could be easily twisted.

People have realized that eternal life could be just as much as a curse as it could be a blessing. To make our current state under the fall into a permanent state certainly would be a permanent curse. It is in God’s grace that he barred mankind from the tree of life.

Several other forms of literature have explored this same theme: The problem of living forever. The problem with a heart that won't stop beating is that it won't stop breaking. The idea behind this is that death is seen as a positive. The unknown of death becomes a release from the seemingly endless cycle of pain that is life.

This is not what death is, however,

Hebrews 9:27 “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”

But what sort of reward would it be to just go on living forever? Well certainly this eternal life would be free from the curse, free from sin, free from any wrong or hurt. It would be like actually being alive for the first time.

But here again we see the twisting of eternal life as a life getting whatever we might want. I could live however I like or do whatever we please. It’s like we put the American dream on steroids and call it heaven. What is the greatest part about heaven?

Is it the streets of gold? The eternal bliss? The time with lost loved ones? The doing away with physical pain?

Jesus says,

Matthew 5:8 ““Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Where is seeing God on your list? How high is your relationship with God on that list? How much do you yearn for him? What greater reward could God give you than himself?

Do you want this reward?

Conclusion: Jesus’s teaching is constantly focused on the heart. Not the appearance of things, but the intention, the motivation, and the goals of the heart.

And just as that is the focus of his teaching, may that be the focus of your meditation right now.