Don't Be A Poser

Introduction:

Good morning and welcome to Hope Bible Fellowship and welcome to those of you just now joining us online. We are so glad you made the decision to join us today. I want to invite all of you to come back next Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. It’s like the Super Bowl for Christians. It’s the day we celebrate and worship and give thanks for the amazing grace we were shown on the cross and the victory Jesus one defeating death and the grave. Please join us.

We are in the midst of a series of messages we named, “Greatest. Sermon. Ever.” In this series we are marching verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew. If you’ve got a bible or device with you go ahead and find Matthew chapter 6 because that is where we are going to be camped out today. Now today’s passage is pretty long and includes the section with the Lord’s Prayer. Because of the way the sermon unfolds, we are going to cover this larger section today as a whole and then in the next sermon in the series which will be after Easter, we will revisit this passage and talk about the Lord’s Prayer. So just be aware of that. But this morning as we begin, I want you to think about this qusestion:

What reasons do people give for why they don't go to church? If you were to ask around town, all of those people who do not attend a church, what do you think their response would be? What answers have you heard people give when you ask them to come to church or maybe what they say when you start talking about church around them?

Maybe you have heard some of these:

- "It's boring."

- "The service is too long."

- "The church only wants my money."

- Maybe they tell you that the church hurt them or they got deeply hurt by someone connected to a church.

- Maybe they say, "I don't like organized religion."

- "The church has become too entangled with politics."

- "My needs are not being met."

Maybe you have heard some of these reasons for people staying away from church. However, I'd say probably the most popular reason for years has been, "the church is full of hypocrites." Have you heard anyone say this? Think about how you responded to this statement. If you've never heard anyone say that, how would you respond to them?

Today I am putting before you the truth that they are right. We are guilty as charged. The church is, in fact full of all sorts of sinners and that includes hypocrites. That's why we need to be in church! So, yes, the church does have hypocrites. I also want to warn you today that we are dangerously susceptible to the sin of hypocrisy. If we come to an understanding of this then it should seem appropriate to us that Jesus addresses hypocrisy directly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is of great concern to Jesus. In fact, the word hypocrite appears over a dozen times in the gospel of Matthew alone. We must pay careful attention to this.

Let's pray and ask God to open our hearts to His Word and the work of the Holy Spirit.

PRAY

READ

Matthew 6:1–18 ESV

“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. “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. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Once again we come back to that statement that I have referenced a few times in the last several weeks:

The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.

Jesus speaks to our motives for religious action here.

Key statement: The motive of the Christ follower must be different and distinguished from that of the unbeliever.

During the message today I want you to think about what is it that motivates your spiritual behavior?

Jesus is dealing with three of the aspects of First Century Judaism. They are giving, prayer, and fasting.

I. Pay attention to your motives when you give. (v.1-4)

First of all, I want to point out that Jesus seems to assume we will be giving in this passage. He says “when” you give. Our disposition as followers of Christ when it comes to giving is to be one of obedience and generousity.

Matthew 5:20 ESV

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

But now He talks about them practicing their righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. The end of that sentence is key. It’s what differentiates this command from that in Matthew 5:16.

Matthew 5:16 ESV

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Others seeing our good works will cause them to give glory to God. The problem is when we are motivated to do good works so that people see us do them. It’s problem of motive. We are not to seek fanfare or make a big show of our doing the things we are supposed to do as followers of Christ. Ultimately when we do things specifically to be seen by others, we are in some way seeking praise for what we have done.

But we are not to them with fanfare or make a big show of it.

I was reminded of a meme I saw online when I thought about this idea of wrong motive:

(Jack Black Meme Here)

The Jews loved and celebrated public, visible displays of religious devotion. So when Jesus tells his followers to do these things privately or in secret, it would have been yet another shocking statement to the Jews listening to Him. Jesus just continues to turn what they thought they knew on it's head.

Dallas Willard Quote: "Desire for religious respect or reputation will immediately drag us into the rightness of scribes and Pharisees because that desire always focuses entirely upon the visible action, not on the source of action in the heart."

The Bible talks about giving a lot. It talks about giving more than some people are comfortable with.

2 Corinthians 8-9 tell us that we should be giving sacrificially, joyfully, liberally, and thankfully. Here in the Sermon on the Mount we find that we need to give without seeking the praise of others.

The use of the world HYPOCRITE:

Of the word “hypocrite” Charles Quarles points out:

Exalting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount Are We Playing the Hypocrite? 6:1-8, 16-18

The word hupocritēs originally referred to a play-actor who performed on the stage of the Greek or Roman theater. The verbal form of the word was frequently used in Jewish writings in the time between the writing of the OT and NT to speak of the act of “pretending.” Many ancient play-actors aspired to be celebrities adored by the masses. They lived for the thrill of standing ovations and the prizes and awards sometimes presented for excellent dramatic performances. The hypocrites to whom Jesus referred were spiritual play-actors who pretended to have a piety that they did not actually possess in order to inspire the applause of a human audience.

Exalting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount Are We Playing the Hypocrite? 6:1-8, 16-18

In Matthew 15:7-9 Jesus appealed to Isa. 29:13 to describe hypocrisy: “Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said: These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.” This suggests that hypocrisy involves pretended devotion to God, empty worship, and the substitution of human authority for divine authority.”

Hypocrite - play actor, pretending

Sinclair Ferguson gives us something additional on this:

Exalting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount Are We Playing the Hypocrite? 6:1-8, 16-18

In ancient drama actors did not wear make-up. They wore masks, representing the part they played. What a vivid picture that gives us of the hypocrite. He pretends to be one thing, but all the time he is really something altogether different.

When we wear a mask(not the Covid kind… like a masquerade or theatre mask), it can seem to benefit us but there is a better reward to receive.

When you give, give seeking to please the Lord.

Not for the approval of others or so they think, “oh, look at how generous he is...” “Or, wow, she’s so devoted because she gave so much.” We are not looking to put others in a position of being in awe of us. Our whole job here is to point them to God and not try and somehow steal some of the praise that is due Him and only Him.

II. Pay attention to your motives when you pray. (v.5-8)

In his book with J.I. Packer, Don Whitney writes of prayer:

Exalting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount Are We Playing the Hypocrite? 6:1-8, 16-18

God not only has spoken clearly and powerfully to us through Christ and the Scriptures, he also has a Very Large Ear continuously open to us. He will hear every prayer of His children, even when our prayers are weaker than a snowflake. That’s why, of all the Spiritual Disciplines, prayer is second only to the intake of God’s Word in importance. Despite the penultimate importance of prayer, however, statistical surveys and experience seem to agree that a large percentage of professing Christians spend little time in sustained prayer. While they may offer a sentence of prayer here and there throughout their day, they rarely spend more than a very few minutes—if that—alone in conversation with God. It’s very easy to make people feel guilty about failure in prayer. . . . But we must come to grips with the fact that to be like Jesus we must pray. (Whitney and Packer, Spiritual Disciplines, 80)

To help us become more like Jesus when we pray, our Master gives us some basic guidelines and principles.

Pray sincerely to your Heavenly Father.

Prayer should be a regular habit.

Hypocrites are non sincere in their prayers. When they pray, they pray for show.

Two questions that will help us evaluate our own motives and tell us if we are being hypocrites.

- Do you pray longer in public than you do in private?

- Do you pray differently in public than you do in private?

Pray secretly to your Heavenly Father.

Hypocrites pray to be seen by people and to gain the approval of a human audience.

The true believer prays for the pleasure and approval of his Heavenly Father.

Pray specifically to your Heavenly Father.

Don’t pray like the pagans. Don’t just be repeating nonsense over and over again.

Helpful tip: Write your prayers out as you pray.

III. Pay attention to your motives when you fast. (v. 16-18)

The purpose of fasting -

Fasting is abstaining from eating, drinking, and sometimes other things for the purpose of devoting that time to prayer, devotion, mourning, grieving, or repentance. This can be done as an individual or as a group (corporate fasting). One examples of this in scripture would be Israel on the Day of Atonement.

Don’t draw attention to yourself.

Again, Jesus uses the word when, and this shows us that it is expected that Christians will fast.

The word gloomy could also be translated “sad faced”

They were sad faced actors who were going around when they would fast and look gloomy and like something was wrong. Maybe they hoped someone would ask: “whats’s wrong?” And then they could reply and tell of their amazing religious piety in depriving themselves of food. They were interested in being approved of and lauded by men and cared actually very little for God’s approval.

Understand, you may be fooling some people but you will NEVER fool Sovereign God. These people got the temporal praise of men but they would miss out on the eternal treasure and pleasure of God in heaven. They were foolish in this way.

Just act normal when you fast.

Your audience when you do the spiritual disciplines is one person. It’s God. Nothing we do in devotion to the Lord should be done with anyone else’s praise sought. Now, here we come to a temptation or weak area for those of us who by very nature of our calling or service in the church end up being in front of people when we pray and do other religious activity. Let there be no mistake, you can be just as much of a hypocrite if the only spiritual things you do are done at church because it’s what you do instead of done with the right motive of worshipping and serving King Jesus.

Conclusion:

Why do you do what you do? We must be vigilant.

It comes down to the motive of our heart. In reality, your motive is more important than the action itself.

We do what we do, because we want what we want, because we worship what we worship.

Unfortunately, what we most desire to see worshipped and what we actually do worship many times is ourselves. We have made ourselves, our wants, our fame, our popularity, our religious reputation into and idol and we act out of that motive.

Don’t be a hypocrite. Don’t be a poser.

But if you find yourself in that position. Repent and believe the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He died for all of your sin.

Gospel here....

Invite to respond:

Pray