Don’t be Religious with Your Religion

Intro

The title for the sermon today is “Don’t be Religious with your Religion.” This sounds somewhat contradictory at first. So what do I mean?

I believe that Jesus is calling us to value the motivation behind the things we do, rather than valuing the thing itself. Jesus wants us to fully embrace acts of religion with correct motivation that is drawings us closer in our relationship with God.

I realize that religion has both negative and positive connotations. But often in our culture, religion is negative.

When I was a teen, I used to have a shirt that said “no religion” with the Christian movement overemphasizing personal relationship with Jesus at the expense of obedience Jesus called us to.

Religion is not a bad word in an of itself. It can mean worship and obedience to God.

But when it becomes outward performance rather than inward devotion, religion becomes bad. We might also call them “spiritual disciplines.” Another hard phrase that sounds taxing and like legalistic law. This is what Jesus will continue throughout Matthew to condemn. The confusing of outward performance for inner devotion. The outward religion means nothing if there is not inner faith.

Consider Balloons. Balloons bring joy and wonder. And for our kids, it will keep them busy for days. When we have a birthday, Erika and I will spend time the night before, blowing up balloons. The kids love it. And even after all the celebration and all the birthday fun, the balloons last. Longer than the cake and the candles. Longer than the present unwrapping. The balloons stick around our house for sometimes weeks. The kids will kick them around, gather them up, try to keep them all in the air, pass them back and forth to each other. They are great.

But balloons can deflate right? Eventually they do.

Jesus’s goal is not to throw away these deflated balloons of religion, but rather to fill them with genuine affection and a true heart. When religious acts are filled with true affection for God, they better create love, humility, and dependence on God.

If religious acts rather than the heart behind them are made significant in our lives, they harden us and make us depended upon ourselves.

Jesus is going to give us three examples of this in our text today. Prayer, Giving, and Fasting. Three acts of religion that can either harm us and our relationship with God, or be used to create a deeper relationship with God and be useful for the kingdom.

You may notice that we are going to skip some of the text today. Some of you have asked to better understand prayer. And I wanted to do a separate sermon on prayer. So we will skip the Lord’s prayer and do it next week, and today, just assess the motivation behind prayer.

Those of you who have been asking, you are going to have to wait one more week.

I. Please the Father v1

First today, see pleasing the father in verse one. This is Jesus’s introduction to this section.

What we see is a shift from chapter 5. The 6 examples we looked at in chapter 5 were heart intent towards people, whereas these three examples here for us are going to be heart intent toward God. Remember chapter five of murder, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, love for enemies. Now the examples will be giving, prayer, and fasting. We might think of chapter five as inward and then outward. We might think of chapter 6 as inward then upward.

All of these three examples will follow the same pattern. 1. Don’t act for praise. 2. Guarantee that those who seek praise will get what they want and nothing more. 3. How to perform the act secretly. 4. Assurance that the father who sees in secret will reward.

This section is continuing Matthew 5:20 of telling us how Kingdom disciples of Jesus practice a better righteousness. Not of more quantity, but of more quality. A different kind. And we are going to see that in the verses that follow.

This section opens with the ESV saying Beware, Or give your attention to this thing.

So Jesus tells us what it looks like to practice righteousness his way. It looks like not practicing righteousness to be seen, but rather in response to God knowing us.

And Jesus says if we are practicing righteousness or religious acts for our own glory, we have no reward from our father who is in heaven.

We might think of 1 John 2:29 “29 If you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by him.”

This is going back to us not being righteous in and of ourselves. We don’t have any righteousness in us. But rather, Christ has given us his righteousness and by his spirit, we live out righteousness. And if we practice this, we are displaying that God is our father and we are his children.

We might be tempted to think this verse, and the rest of chapter six are in contrast to Chapter 5:16 that we looked at few weeks ago. Matthew 5:16

Matthew 5:16 NET 2nd ed.

16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.

So is Jesus contradicting himself? 5:16 says we are supposed to be seen, and then 6:1 verse says we are not supposed to be seen? Jesus, what do you want from us ?!

Look down at the verses. There is a key difference.

In 5:16, they are not looking at you, they are seeing your good deeds, your righteous living. And in 6:1, they are looking at you.

The first one causes them to glorify your father, the second causes them to glorify you.

The word translated as “see” is two different greek words here.

We want to get a bit technical. In 5:16 it is εἶδον and in 6:1 it is θεάομαι. While they both mean sight, they have a different nuance. Eidov has the idea of glance, notice, see, but θεάομαι has the idea of behold and give your attention to. The soul and heart are involved with θεάομαι while they eyes and mind are involved with Eidov.

Think about how you might get two different types of waiters at a restaurant. They are at your table to make much of the food of their restaurant or much of themselves. While I love conversation with a stranger as much as the next guy, which might not be a lot. But the reason I go to a restaurant is for the food, not to converse with strangers. I’m the type of person that if I am going to a new restaurant, I’ve probably looked at pictures of the food online. But usually, you can tell tell within 5 min what type of waiter you got. I do this thing at restaurants that makes Erika feel odd, because she doesn’t do it. I love to ask questions about the food. Have a conversation about the food. That is the job of your waiter. I want to converse about the food. I want to ask how is this item. Is it worth it. Which item does your restaurant do better. Tell me about the sauce on this item. When I ask those questions, some people make it all about them. Talking about their food likes and dislikes, their preferences, their food allergies, their childhood and and medical history. And then other waiters, make much of their restaurant. They deflect and talk about how well their restaurant does this item special and unique. They seek to make the chef known, not themselves. The person that makes the conversation all about them seeks to be θεάομαι. The person that talks about their restaurant wants you to Eidov them on the way to enjoying the restaurant’s great food.

Jesus wants people to notice your righteous living as something that points them to the father. He doesn’t want their attention to be stuck on you.

Practically, We want to consider how our religion, our christianity is practiced publicly to some degree. When people tell us their faith is private, we know they haven’t read the new testament. The New Testament encourages us to grow together in love and good works. Encouraging each other toward living for Christ better in community. God, in his grace, gave us the church for our spiritual development.

But here, Jesus wants us to ensure we get it right with our faith living. And one of the main hazards is that we would be living righteously for our own glory.

This is not a heart conformed to the will of God and to imitate his perfection. But to gain human approval.

Not seeking the reputation and service of God, but seeking our own reputation.

Lets consider the concept of reward.

This concept is a bit counter cultural to the world. The world tells us if we don’t get anything out of it, why do it at all? Why even bother?

Jesus is telling us that we do have a reward, a reward that is already promised to us. Our reward is eternal, not temporary.

The reward for us is inner growth in the kingdom of righteous living, and final perfection in the afterlife that is already promised to us. If this is our great reward, why seek other temporary rewards that distract from the Rewarder?

In contrast to the world, we are motivated by something outside of ourselves. Gratitude for God. Emulating the Love of Jesus. And the abundant life of Joy that is being offered to us.

We labor in these activities not to earn something, but rather because it has already been given to us! At the end of the service, we will be singing “All Sufficient Merit” talking about how i have already been given the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness that he earned for me.

I work in response of the reward already promised, not to earn a reward.

You might have this concept of “fake it till you make it.” I’ve heard Christian preachers use this phrase in regards to religious practices. I don’t like this phrase much. I think it is contrary to what Jesus is saying. Religious deeds just to do them is worth little.

I want to say something quick on feelings. We all go through highs and lows in our spiritual walk and our emotions. Saying “I don’t feel like it today” is not a good reason to not glorify your Savior, the one who bought you with his own blood.

Saying I don’t feel like praying today is a poor reason not to pray. You probably need it more. Saying I think fasting is not for me, is not a good reason. Saying I’m not in the mood to give is not a reason not to give.

We have Savior who is gentle and lowly and meets us in our weakness. He is patient and kind with us. He is willing to work with us on our attempt to better motives and realizes they need improvements. Consider the father of the demon possessed boy from Mark 9 who was hurt by religious action in the past, looking for healing for his son. He comes to Jesus broken, angry, not “feeling it,” but says “I believe, help my unbelief.”

I think this can be our heart as well with these things. Jesus does not want us to stop praying, fasting, giving, coming to church, reading our bible, doing acts of kindness for people. Rather, he wants us to change our hearts while continuing to do them. And we might need to pray like the father of the demon possessed boy, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

II. Giving to the Father v2-4

Let’s dive into these three items today. First giving. They would have collections shaped like horns that would be given to the poor. While this is specifically to the needy, we certainly can generalize the principle and talk about being generous and giving in general.

Also notice, Jesus assumes his disciples will give. He does say “if you ever happen to give” but rather “when you give.”

Jesus says that when we give, it shouldn’t be like a sounding trumpet. Some commentators think that this is Jesus connecting the idea of the collections looking like a conical shape and the money would have to work it’s way down like one of those spinning coin things in a mall for charity.

Some think that Jesus is just being hyperbolic and symbolic since no horns were blown. Jesus is using this vivid picture to explain how some give in a way that advertises themselves.

Notice in verse 2 that “they may be praised by others.” This is the same work that is in 5:16. Instead of praising or glorifying the father, they are praising and glorifying the one who gives loudly.

Notice the word hypocrite in verse two. A favorite word of Jesus to describe religious people who don’t understand religion. This term wuold originally mean “actor.” They are acting to deceive others, but maybe deceiving themselves also.

When we act like a hypocrite, we are deceiving ourselves into thinking that we are acting for God’s best interest. But really, we are deceiving ourselves and others.

Rather than giving that is motivated in love, we are motivated by self love for personal gain.

Giving in order to get is not really giving. It is paying for approval.

The end of verse two says they have already received their reward. It’s a mocking promise. That if you are seeking the praise of people, you can have it. You can have the reward of nothing that will be temporary.

Jesus is saying your aspirations are short sighted and small when the kingdom of God and his glory are being offered to you.

Notice in verse 3, Jesus’s solution is not to stop giving, but to do it in secret. So secret, taht Jesus gives another hyperbolic picture of being so secret, that your left hand doesn’t know what your right hand is doing.

Look at verse 4, your giving in secret and your father will reward you. This is what is being offered to you. A far greater reward that is being offered.

Your text might have the word “openly” at the end of verse four. I have heard this text preached before that someday, God will reward you in front of everyone. This seems counter intuitive to what Jesus is trying to teach and didn’t make sense to me.

But, most likely a later addition and not original to Jesus’s words. Jesus’s intention is not to discuss to types of public recognition, one you do, and one God does for you. Jesus’s intentions are to discuss the difference between public recognition and divine recognition.

I know this is not the place for a lesson on manuscripts and textual criticism, but the texts that we have better support a reading without the word “openly.”

Verse 4 is also a promise that everything we do is seen by God.

This is a great promise for us who are people pleasers. We may be seeking the attention of others, and found it lacking. We can never measure up. We can never be enough. If you seek to please people, you will always end up disappointing someone. If you seek to please your parents, your teachers, your boss, your spouse, you will be left wanting and lacking. To the people pleaser, admiration will never be enough, you will always need more of it. How can you measure enough? What about when doubt starts to creep in? This fragile thing of your image, (which secretly is negative self love) before them feels like like a fragile 6 foot ice cycle being balanced in the palm of your hand. One wrong move, and it will shatter to a million pieces.

But not so with God. If you seek to honor and glorify him? Guess what? He sees you. He will reward you. Can we rest in that? Our heavenly father sees us.

And guess what, the work that we do for the father is not to earn or please him. We can’t people please God. That’s what he sent Jesus for. Jesus was the ultimate one to please God in his righteous life which he then credited to us. When God looks at us, he doesn’t say “not enough yet..keep going...” he says “my son is enough for you.” Now we can live for him, the one who sees us in secret.

III. Prayer to the Father v5-8

Next, lets think about prayer to the father. Again, we aren’t taking a deep dive here on prayer, we will do that next week. This is just assessing the action of prayer, and our motive behind it.

Notice again, Jesus assumes his disciples will pray. Notice the way that verse five, verse six, and verse seven start. All assuming that Jesus’s disciples would be a people who pray. This is a command in scripture given to us many times. Do we as a church pray? I hope you do.

Prayer is central for the life of the believer.

Jesus says again not to be like hypocrites, acting like they are spiritual when in fact they are not. Deceiving themselves and God.

The “room” or inner room that Jesus mentions here would have been a room at the center of the house with no windows. Not a chance for anyone to see you. Here is some good news. You don’t have to come to church to experience God. You can experience him in the quite of your own home. In the secret an the private. We don’t have to invite the Holy Spirit to join us, he is always with us.

And guess what, just like giving, this inner secret room will exclude people, but not God.

Again, I don’t think Jesus is calling for literal action of setting up a prayer room at the inner part of your house. Remember there is a pattern going on here and Jesus told us in the last one not to let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. This prayer room is metaphorical.

We don’t need to lean into legalism with setting up a prayer room. If this is what God is leading you to do, then by all means, do it. But Jesus’s focus is the private place of our hearts. Our intimacy and communion with God alone.

One think I want to point out, Jesus is not prohibiting public prayer. He would pray publicly, his disciples and the apostles would pray publicly. The early church prayed publicly. Jesus’s jab here is heart motivation, not public prayer. Rather than forbidding public prayer, he is forbidding badly motivated prayer.

One author said it like this. If you feel motivated to pray privately, maybe you should probably pray publicly. If you feel motivated to pray publicly, maybe you should pray privately.

Maybe test yourself how we pray. Do we pray more publicly or more privately? Do we only pray over meals in a ritual way, or do we pray to commune with God in other parts of our day?

Notice the focus of verse 7. The point of Gentiles is that gentiles don’t have a relationship with God. Their prayers are meaningless. That there is a misunderstanding of how God expects to be approached. Praying like gentiles with babbling words. Going on and on.

These prayers are not seeking God, but seeking to manipulate God with the length. This is how pagans in the ancient world would attempt to reach their God. By going on and on and on trying to get his attention. The quantity of our prayers are not as important as the quality.

In Acts 19, the pagans are worshiping Artemis, repeating this phrase to give glory to a false God for two hours.

Jesus is not forbidding long prayer any more than he is forbidding praying in public. He is saying that the length does not contribute to the acceptance from God or your spirituality.

One of the all time best stories of the Bible is Elijah vs the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. In this story, Elijah challenges the prophets of BaAl to a showdown. If you don’t know this story, spoiler alert today, but it’s on your reading list this week. Elijah, this one prophet of God, takes on these 450 prophets of BaAl. The challenge is simple, make an alter, slaughter an animal, and call on your own God for fire. Winner takes all, and by all, the nation of Israel. And these BaAl worshipers get to go first. They are shouting from morning until afternoon. Jumping around, calling on their God, mutilating themselves till they were covered in blood trying to get their God’s attention. Elijah mocks them by saying “yell louder, maybe he is deep in thought, maybe he is sleeping, maybe he is on a trip, maybe is resting.” The text says that from BaAl, there was no sound, no answer, no response. Then Elijah soaks his alter in a dramatic fashion. His alter sits in water. As wet as wet could be. He says a 20 second prayer, and God sends fire to consume the offering, the water, and the stones that made the alter. God does not need long prayers, he wants our sincere hearts.

If you are seeking to pray long for the sake of long prayers or are seeking to be seen praying, you are joining to pagan practices.

Look at verse 8. Don’t be like them. the reason? Because your father already knows what you need before you ask him.

What a comfort this is. God is benevolent and loves us. He is also omniscient meaning he knows all things, including our needs. This verse is also a reminder of the purpose of prayer.

The father does not need badgered and begged from. He already knows.

The next logical question then, is why pray if God already knows?

He needs to be trusted. We need to trust him.

Prayer is less for God, and more for us.

The purpose of prayer is not to demand God’s attention, then inform him of what he may have overlooked. He already knows!

The purpose of prayer is not to give information to God that he already knows. We do it to express desire, needs, and dependence on our father.

You might want to think about 3D in an imax theater. I remember the first time my parents took me to one. It was amazing! To feel like objects were coming off the screen at you! Like the were actually going to hit you! The experience is incredible right!? But you need one thing for your to fully experience the 3D Imax in a theater. What is it? Glasses. Without them, the quality is awful! It is difficult to see. It doesn’t make sense. Not only do you miss the immersive experience, the experience is worse than a non 3D movie because it is all blurry.

Think about our prayer in this way. When we pray, if we are praying to get from God with the wrong motivation, we are sitting in an imax without glasses. Not only will we not understand, it will have a negative impact on our lives of frustration and distance from God. But, if we pray with correct motivation, our lives will be more aligned with God, closer to him in humility and dependence. Our character, will, and values align with God’s as we seek his response.

We must stop treating prayer like a vending machine, and more like a relationship.

IV. Fasting for the Father v16-18

Last today, lets think about fasting.

Jesus says not to be like the hypocrites who fast and show it on their faces. They’ve already received their reward.

Jesus says to go out of your way to ensure others don’t know you are fasting. Make yourself look like you are not fasting. At this time, people would intentionally make their faces depressed, ashes, and not get ready so that they would be noticed.

Jesus says it is better for your father in heaven to know that you fast. He will see you when others do not. And when God sees you have done it privately, he will reward you.

Notice again, that Jesus assumes his disciples would fast. Fasting is not something that is commanded or mandated. Other religions like Islam mandate all muslims to fast. But it is not commanded for Christians. But, because of the spiritual benifit to us, it is assumed.

The only time that the bible commands fasting is for the day of atonement which is no longer an obligation for us on this side of the cross. However, Daniel, Ezekiel, Nehimiah, Zechariah, Esther, Anna, Jesus, the apostles, and the early church all fasted. When asked why Jesus’s disciples don’t fast, Jesus’s response is that he assumes they would fast.

Think about how unnecessary communion might seem in our Christian walk. It doesn’t get us anything from God. But God wanted us to experience the gospel in a physical way.

A similar idea might exist for fasting. Fasting doesn’t get us a better standing with God, force him to answer us, but it is a physical reminder of our dependence upon God. We don’t fast to fulfill a spiritual discipline, this becomes legalism.

Fasting is an unpopular thing in our culture. Even in Christianity. Lifeway has done some research and found that only 21% of Christians fast. Not something that is very popular today. And people do fast, they might fast from a menial thing like sugar or tv for a time.

Why Fast? Fasting helps us to reflect on our standing before God. It helps us realize that we are dependent upon him. It helps us grasp the weight of our sin and repent from them.

Fasting is not about proving your religious devotion to God which is what the hypocrites are doing. Jesus wants us to know, like these other religious issues, fasting is about our relationship wth the father.

Think about How Jesus is showing us the issue of the heart. Fix the heart problem, then fast.

You should ask four questions when fasting.

How? This is Jesus’s issue here. This is most important to Jesus. Are you fasting to be noticed or to look spiritual, or out of obligation? Or are you doing it for simply and purely you relationship with the father.

What? Determine what you are fasting from. It could be your phone, social media, TV, certain items that are good, but we lean dependently on. Ultimately, the pinnacle and maybe most basic thing we depend on is food.

Fasting is a reminder of our relationship with God. When our tummy is hungry and grumbly, you remember that our ultimate satisfaction is found in God. Its a reminder that what we should long for and crave is Jesus. It is a reminder that it is good to empty our lives of the clutter to better hear from the Holy Spirit.

When? Determine how long the fast will be. Will it be a one day think? Two day? Week? Maybe even one meal. Set a goal and stick to it.

When we think of time, can you image the time you would have to commune with God if you remove preparing and eating food? Think about how meals usually go. You pray over your food for 30 seconds, and then spend 15 min eating it? How would your relationship with God be drawn closer by increasing your time with God 30x if a 30 sec prayer turns into 15 min? If you fasted for a day, between eating and preping, you might get an hour or two to commune more with God. Be in his work and prayer.

Why? Determine what you are fasting for. It isn’t great to fast meaninglessly. Many people try fasting to fulfill a religious obligation, then decide it did nothing, so they don’t do it again.

But fasting for a purpose is more meaningful. Fast and ask God to reveal the sin that is in the deepest part of your heart. Fast to pray for a spouse or maybe your Child. Maybe you fast asking for Gods direction in your life for a decision or in General.

Beyond the Walls (Grace and Growth)

If you are here today, and have yet to accept Christ as your Savior, let me encourage you that abundant life in him is being offered to you. A rescue from your sin and a peace that surpasses our knowledge. What I want you to know is that the things we have talked about today do not earn you a place in God’s kingdom. Doing good works to achieve God’s favor is like taping fallen leaves to a dead tree. It is dead. No amount of tape and leaves fixes it. The Bible tells us that the payment for our sin is spiritual death apart rom God. But his son Jesus came to pay the full price of your penalty, and is offering you life. You must repent and trust him as Savior and Lord today.

Though we may look at giving, prayer, and fasting as not very important in the Christian life, Jesus uses these as pinnacle examples of righteous living for our lives. So important that they are rewarded by the father. We should not neglect them.

We might be tempted to think we should be striving for doing stuff just to do them sometimes. This is not what Jesus wants. Jesus wants our hearts.

Erika loves to make pizza. From complete scratch. We had one family over, don’t worry, they don’t go to this church, and they were confused. They said “you know you can buy sauce and crust and graded cheese at the store right?”

But this motivation is just to accomplish the thing we call food. There is a better motivation.

Erika makes the dough herself. She makes the sauce herself. She even grades the cheese herself. She has been perfecting this recipe for years. First she worked on the dough till she got it perfect. She researched and researched for the perfect recipe and got it just right. Then we moved to this altitude from 10,000 feet and she had to relearn to make the dough. Then she learned to make the perfect sauce, blending just the right ingredients, finding just the right tomato's. Then she tried different types of Cheeses. And found the right one that graded well, and would be a good texture on the pizza. Then she experimented with the oven. We didn’t know it, but our oven was broken for a while and we couldn’t figure out why the pizzas took so long. Then we fixed the oven and pizzas went much better.

Now she has it perfected. So when she makes a pizza, her heart goes into it. We love to have people over, and she shares that pizza with them. But Erika isn’t just sharing food, she is sharing her heart. This meal that had her heart poured into it means so much more. And it doesn’t just mean more, it tastes so much better. There is a relational aspect and connection with Erika’s cooking. No we try eating frozen pizza and it just doesn’t compare. It feels lacking and empty and heartless.

So it is with our relationship with the father. Jesus is telling us that the Father doesn’t want your religious obligations, he wants your heart. Will you pursue him with all of you this week?

Let’s pray as we respond to the text today.

Father, help us to realize the reward you have given us in the relationship we have with you.

Jesus, help me to set aside impure motives and worship you from my heart.

Spirit, help me realize my dependence upon you this week as I live out my faith in the World.