Sermon on the Mount Week 5 4/8/2026

Kingdom transformation produces a righteous heart

We finished up last week in Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

We talked about what that means for us and that Jesus is calling us to a wholeness of character as we are filled with his word and changed from the inside out.

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Remember - Jesus is not looking for performers - Jesus is not looking for behavior modification from us.

We are not called to get to work and try to live better - we are called into his presence and in his presence he does the work we can’t do for us.

We are called to private devotion wherein we spend real time talking to God - bringing our cares before him and seeking his wisdom through his word and in those moments is when he begins to enlighten us on how to live our lives for his glory and for our good.

At the end of the day we are called to love God and love people

John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

Mark 12:31 “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.””

In this passage of scripture Jesus transitions from internal heart righteousness - which is the demand from chapter 5 - to external practice of that righteousness. And he specifically addresses how we as followers of Christ must live out that righteousness without hypocrisy.

So Jesus focus goes from teaching of the law, and on what men believe to in chapter 6 teaching on the practice of the law, and what men should do.

One of the primary focuses of tonight’s text is Jesus focus on counterfeit righteousness. We are called to follow Jesus and live and love the way that he did.

Many people want others to think this is the type of life they live but they are not genuine in the things that they do.

In chapter 5 Jesus focused on inner moral righteousness giving us 6 illustrations regarding murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, revenge, and love. Now he shifts our focus to outward acts of righteousness - giving us three illustrations of our religious activity.

These three acts are what biblical scholars refer to as the 3 pillars of Jewish Piety

These are core expressions of personal devotion and righteousness

Jesus doesn’t abolish them he assumes we will put them into practice.

Jesus redirects the motive and method towards a private devotion before the Father rather than public performance.

1st century Jews looked at these three things as foundational to living a devout and religious life.

During Jesus time these acts had become badges of religious status among some pharisees and synagogue leaders. They had shifted from heartfelt obedience and devotion to God into opportunities for social prestige and that is exactly what jesus condemns as hypocrisy.

Matthew 6:1–4 ““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.”

Giving to the needy - also referred to as Almsgiving

The Old Testament commanded that the poor be cared for.

Deuteronomy 15:7–11 ““If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”

Proverbs 19:17 “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”

Back then public reputation was everything. And generosity brought honor and social status. Pharisees were respected as teachers and were supposed to conserve the culture of their religion and because of that they were expected to model righteousness. But many of them took their good deeds and used them as opportunities to show themselves as holier than other people. They would sound trumpets in the temple to signal that they were giving to the needy and the reward for those actions was praise from their fellow man.

You know what this looks like today?

Virtue signaling.

It is an outward display of righteousness or high moral standing that is actually just an act so that they gain approval from people. This is not genuine devotion to God.

We see it on social media all the time you see it at school, maybe even at church and in public activism. It’s when someone broadcasts a moral position or a good deed not because their heart is moved by God or the need, but to signal “I am one of the good ones” Or “I am on the right side of history”

The reward is the same, likes, retweets, comments, social status. The left hand definitely knows what the right hand is doing because the whole point is visibility.

Sharing a charity link with “I donated - will you?”

posting selfie of prayer at an event

Announcing a fast “for the cause”

In verse 1 the meaning of Jesus words “to be seen by them” that wording in greek is prahss toe theh-ah-THAY-nye owtoys

Theathenai - is where we get the word theatre. What happens in a theatre? A performance.

Virtue signaling is literally performed for “the feed” as an audience.

When Jesus says “The hypocrites have received their reward in full” he means that there is no heavenly treasure left. You get immediate payout peer approval - social status. But ultimately its a bankrupt transaction with God. The Father sees and withholds the real reward - intimate fellowship, lasting joy, and eternal treasure.

Application

Audit your output - next time you are about to post something or do something ask yourself “would I still do this if no one ever saw it?” if the answer is no your heart is probably not in the right place.

Matthew 6:5–8 ““And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 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. “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.”

Jesus continues his contrast of true righteousness vs false righteousness, in particular the false righteousness of the Pharisees now exposing their hypocrisy in prayer. The prayers were defective in their intended audience and in their content.

Basically they were praying around people for the people to hear - not for God to hear and the content of their prayers were not for their actions to be aligned with the will of God but so that people would recognize them as being holy and righteous and devoted to God.

No other religion has ever had a higher standard and priority for prayer than the Jews. They were God’s chosen people - God spoke directly to Abraham - they received God’s written word through Moses. No other people as a race or as a nation has ever been so favored by God or had such direct communication with Him. Of all people they should have known how to pray. But they did not.

Like all other aspects of their religious life they had let traditions corrupt and pervert prayer.

Instead of prayer being intentional it was a ritual. The wording and forms of prayer were set, and were then simply read or repeated from memory. They were a routine and semi conscious exercise and they did not to bring them closer to the Father.

Let me ask you this - if you didn’t pray in front of other people would your prayer life exist?

Is your prayer life intentional or ritualistic?

Listen Jesus says don’t be a hypocrite.

How does this play out in real life? True devotion to God in intimate prayer and connection requires discipline.

Discipline is exercising self control - discipline almost always involves doing something that you don’t enjoy in order to get results that you do enjoy.

Discipline delays gratification to a later date. Right now we live in a world where we want immediate gratification - you know how this relates to this text?

Jesus says that if we privately and intimately approach him and serve him that our Father who is in Heaven will reward us. That reward requires discipline - it requires delayed gratification.

The pharisees wanted immediate gratification - they wanted to be seen right now. They got all the reward they would ever get.

Testimony and close.