Matthew 6:1-18 Sermon

Intro

Illustration of some sort

Context for this new section of SoM

Body

Matthew 6:1

Jesus’ opening statement, the big teaching, followed by examples of it

What does it mean to practice righteousness

Righteousness = Adherence to what is required according to a standard

What is our standard?

The Beatitudes are a good place to start in our context of Matthew

Characteristics of a citizen of God’s Kingdom

Righteousness implies action, you can’t adhere to what is required if you don’t do anything

You don’t just say you are pure in heart, or a peacemaker, or poor in spirit, you demonstrate it

I can say “I love my wife”, you can say “I love my kids”, etc. All you want, but your words don’t mean anything if your actions don’t back it up

So for the Follower of Jesus, practicing righteousness encompasses all of the things we do love, worship and honor Him

Jesus warns us not to practice our righteousness before others in order to be seen by them

A few extremes I want to cut off here

Does this mean I should only worship Jesus in private, by myself?

No, Jesus is not interested in the act itself, he is interested in the heart behind the act

Does this mean that every act of worship I do publically is wrong?

No, again Jesus is interested in the heart of the person doing the act, not just the place it happens

Then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven

Does that mean God is going to reward me for my righteousness? That I earn something by praying, giving, fasting, etc.

Lets keep reading to see what Jesus is saying...

Matthew 6:2-6 & Matthew 6:16-17

You’ll notice that we skipped a section

Next week Brian is going to unpack the Lord’s prayer

It serves as its own teaching inside of the section we are looking at today

Matthew records Jesus’ words here in a specific formula

Three times he says do not do______ as the hypocrites do in public, that they may be seen by others, they have recieved their reward. But do_________ in secret, with discretion, in private, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you

He uses three examples of giving, prayer, and fasting

These examples are not necessarily of importance, we could use other examples and still make the same point

One thing of note is that Jesus says “When you give…When you pray…When you fast”

Not if, but when

Like we’ve already said, there is potential for this teaching to be taken to the extremes, Jesus makes it clear that this teaching is not an excuse to shirk our practices of faith, rather an exhortation to do them with the proper heart posture

So, what is Jesus’ teaching here? Matthew 6:2-4

Here Jesus imagines someone “a hypocrite”, making a large scene of the fact that they are giving to someone in need

Their purpose in causing a scene is to be “praised by others” for the righteous act they are doing

Application

Conclusion

Communion