Reflect God in Your Public Worship

As we get started today, I want to pose a question to you: What constitutes worship?

Come on. I’m looking for answers here. This isn’t a rhetorical question. What constitutes worship?

OK. Singing. Prayer. Reading and proclaiming the Word of God. Thanksgiving. Magnifying the Lord. Giving to the poor. Fasting. All these are facets of worship. So, what do we mean when we say that we worship something?

What would I mean if I said, for example, “He worships money”?

Probably what I would mean is that the person I’m talking about counts money as the thing that has the highest value to him.

The English word worship comes from an Anglo-Saxon word that meant “to attribute worth to something.”

So, when we worship God, we attribute worth to Him; we declare His worth.

One author defined worship as “being preoccupied with God,” and I think that’s a wonderfully accurate description of what worship should be, whether it is within the walls of the church, or at home in your prayer closet or even out in the streets as you give to the poor.

So, how do we develop a preoccupation with God?

“By developing worship habits and working on them. Intentional worship means a worshipper is not going to church expecting that worship will just happen; but intentionality means that a worshipper is going to church determined to make worship happen …” [Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 814.]

Let me ask you another question: How would your worship be different if Jesus Christ were standing here on this platform today?

If Jesus were bodily present in this gathering, I suspect our songs would be sung more heartily, our hands would stretch out to Him in praise and longing, our offerings would be gladly and generously given, and we would hang on the words of Scripture — all of them His words — with great expectation and hope.

And yet, He is, indeed, with us.

So why is it that our worship of Him is so often wooden and rote?

“There is an old story about a man who dreamed that an angel escorted him to church one Sunday.

“There he saw the keyboard musician playing vigorously, the praise team singing, the musicians playing their instruments with gusto. But the man heard no sound.

“The congregation was singing, but the sound was utterly muted. When the minister rose to speak, his lips moved, but there was no volume. In amazement, the man turned to his escort for an explanation.

“‘This is the way it sounds to us in heaven,’ said the angel. ‘You hear nothing, because there is nothing to hear. These people are engaged in the form of worship, but their thoughts are on other things and their hearts are far away.’” [Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 809.]

Today, as we turn to chapter 6 of the Book of Matthew, we will continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount, this Manual for Kingdom Life, as I have been calling it, and we will talk about the heart of worship for the Christian. We’ll talk about reflecting God in our public worship.

But first, a quick review.

When we began this series, we looked at the marks of a Christian and the mindset of a Christian, and then we talked about how a Christian’s mindset can influence the culture around us, because we who have followed Jesus Christ in faith have His righteousness within us.

All of that was included in the introduction and thesis statement of this Sermon on the Mount, and then Jesus moved into the meat of His message.

That’s where we have been for the past couple of weeks, and we’ll be there for the next several weeks, as well, as we continue to consider how it is that we influence the world as subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Two weeks ago, we talked about reflecting God in our hearts. Last week, we talked about reflecting God in our relationships. This week, we’ll talk about reflecting God in our public worship, and next week, we’ll talk about reflecting God in our private devotion.

Then, we’ll move on to look at reflecting God in our desires, in our concerns, in our self-awareness and in our righteousness, before moving on to three sermons about Jesus’ conclusions for this Manual for Kingdom Life.

That’s the outline that I’ve developed for the Sermon on the Mount, and I’ll tell you that it doesn’t align perfectly with any of the others I have found, but I think that it’s one that works, and I think it’s one that does justice to what Jesus was revealing to His disciples about life as a subject of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So, you might remember from the past couple of messages that Jesus had put great emphasis on our internal motivations, as opposed to our external actions.

He said, for example, that murder was something that happens in the heart before any action takes place. Adultery is something that happens in the heart before it happens between two people.

Subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven are called to be pure of heart and not just pure in actions. We are to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect, meaning that we are to be genuine and sincere in our dealings with one another, with the lost world, and with God Himself.

Remember the beatitude? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” You may recall that I said when we discussed the beatitudes that Jesus was calling His followers to be people who are genuine and sincere with one another, and not hypocrites.

In the same way, He says in today’s passage that we are to be genuine and sincere in our public worship. It is to come from a heart that is preoccupied with God and not with the approval of others — from a heart that is preoccupied with God and not with ourselves.

Let’s read verses 1 through 8 of chapter 6, and then we’ll get into the details.

Matthew 6:1–8 NASB95

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Now, the first part of verse 1 serves as a thesis statement for this portion of Jesus’ sermon. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.”

For the Jews of Jesus’ time, there were three main acts of piety or worship that were expected: giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting.

We will talk about the first two today, because I think of them as the more public-facing acts of worship. Next week, we’ll talk about prayer again as a private act of devotion, along with fasting, another act that takes place mainly in private.

But first, today, we have to reckon with the apparent contradiction between the first part of verse 1 and verse 16 of chapter 5, where Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works”

How is it that in one place, Jesus can say to do good things so they will be seen and just a few sentences later, He can say to be careful about doing good things before men?

The difference is in the object of the good works.

In 5:16, the object of the world seeing the good works is that our Father in heaven might be glorified. But in the warning in 6:1, the object of practicing righteousness before men is to be noticed by them.

The Greek word that’s translated as “to be noticed” here is theaomai, and it comes from a Greek root from which we get the word “theater.”

So the sense here is “don’t let your worship be about putting on a show for other people.” And this sense is confirmed in the negative examples Jesus gives about giving to the poor and prayer.

In both of those cases, he says, “Don’t be like the hypocrites.”

OK, let me give you another Greek lesson here. When the word first appeared in Greek, it referred to an actor, someone who would put on a mask in a play, and everyone knew they were pretending to be someone else.

But by the time of Jesus, this word had come “to be used for those who play roles and see the world as their stage.” [D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 164.]

And, as we read through the Gospel of Matthew, it is clear that when Jesus referred to hypocrites, He was referring to the scribes and Pharisees.

Bible scholars have pointed out that there are three kinds of hypocrisy. There is the hypocrisy of pretending to be something you know you are not. There is the hypocrisy of pretending to be something you are not so well that you have convinced even yourself.

And then there is the hypocrisy of "deceiving [yourself] and others into thinking that what [you do] is for a certain purpose when it is really for a different purpose.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Mt 6:2.]

That third type of hypocrisy is what’s in view in this passage. The Pharisees gave to the poor, and they prayed, and they fasted, and they convinced even themselves that they were doing these things as acts of worship to God, but they were not magnifying God in their acts. Instead, they were magnifying themselves.

In His example of those who gave to the poor, Jesus talks about them sounding a trumpet in the synagogues and the streets before they gave.

Scholars have been unable to find references to this practice outside of this passage, and some have taken to describing the sound the coins made as they dropped into the horn-shaped collection boxes as an explanation of what Jesus refers to here.

And it may be that either of those interpretations is correct, but I suspect that what Jesus was doing was drawing a cartoon image of the hypocrites that showed what they were doing to be laughable, to be scornful even, so that His disciples could see the contrast with truly righteous acts of worship.

“They were not giving, but buying. They wanted the praise of men, they paid for it.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Mt 6:2.]

And this kind of hypocritical worship might well have brought them the praise of men, but Jesus says here that’s all it would bring.

You guys know that I have a heart for missions. And I hope to lead a team from this church to Haiti or maybe Ecuador on a short-term mission trip later this year or early next year. But there is a danger on such mission trips — and, indeed, even when we do outreach right here at home — that we do them for the wrong reasons.

I have personally watched as Americans in Haiti feed a starving child with one hand and photograph themselves doing it with the other hand. And then I’ve watched them pull up their Facebook or Instagram accounts and post the pictures.

Maybe they were just recording a special memory. Maybe they were letting their supporters back at home see the fruits of their investment into those trips.

I don’t know; I’m not good at reading my own heart, much less the hearts of others. But what I do know is that we all yearn for recognition. We all yearn for somebody to tell us, “Well done!”

And so, whether it’s on a mission trip to Haiti or during a food giveaway here in Suffolk, we must always be on the alert for that fleshly desire for others to tell us how well we’ve done.

I’ll give you a personal example: You’ll recall that I said last week I’d finished a 60-page paper for a class. Well, I got my grade this week, and it was an “A,” and I was very happy to learn that.

But when I called home and told my family about it, my first statement to them about it was that I was frustrated the grader hadn’t left any comments about it. He’d simply given me the grade.

You see, what I wanted was for him to have said what a wonderful job I’d done, maybe even to say that it was the best paper in the class, or even the best he’d ever read.

I wish I could tell you that I’m immune to these fleshly desires, but I am not. What I CAN tell you is that I very quickly recognized how my heart was directed to the wrong praise. It SHOULD have been directed to my Father, who sees what is done in secret, and towards His praise and reward for me.

The object of my righteousness should be the glory of God, not the glory of Res Spears.

And that’s also the context of verses 5-8, where Jesus talks about prayer.

“Don’t be like the hypocrites, who stand and prayer in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.”

Now, understand that Jesus isn’t preaching against public prayer. He prayed publicly, and the apostles prayed publicly, and they encouraged the church to do so, as well.

And He’s not preaching against standing when you pray. Prayer in the Bible takes place while standing, kneeling, sitting, prostrate on the floor. You can pray while lying in bed or while driving to work — just don’t close your eyes to do it.

And He’s not preaching against praying on the street corners. If, by doing so, you seek to bring recognition of God into the secular world, then, by all means, go down to Constance and Main and lift up your arms and pray a mighty prayer!

What Jesus is saying here is that your motives matter. Are you praying ostentatiously so that you’ll be seen as especially righteous or holy? Then, you’re doing it all wrong.

Whether you pray in a closet at home or before a stadium full of people, what matters is where you want the attention to be directed — to God or to yourself.

“Rather than becoming absorbed in the mechanics of secrecy, we need to remember that the purpose of Jesus’ emphasis on ‘secret’ prayer is to purify our motives in praying.” [John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 134.]

What matters are your motives. Where is your heart?

Are you giving to the poor, because you love God and want to worship Him by doing good for those whom He loves, or are you giving in order to be seen by others as someone who is generous?

Are your praying or, for that matter, doing your devotions or even attending church in order to seek God, or are you doing those things seeking to be seen as someone who is “religious”?

The piety of the Pharisees was meant to advertise themselves, to show other people just how righteous they were, to improve their reputations among men. It was motivated by their vanity.

But the piety of subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven is motivated by humility. It is secret, even to the point of not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

In other words, Christian piety endeavors always to point to Jesus and not to oneself. Christian piety works always to take “self” out of the picture completely.

As we participate in public acts of worship, our attitude should be one of such preoccupation with God that we have no time or energy left to be occupied with ourselves.

Where is your heart today? What is your preoccupation? What was your attitude on the way to church this morning for worship? Was it an attitude of desperately wanting to seek God in the midst of an assembly of like-minded believers?

I want to challenge you this morning to look at this Sunday gathering in a different way than you might ever have looked at it in the past.

This is certainly a place of fellowship and love, and it should be a time of spiritual refreshment, a place where you can find peace and hope.

But all those things come from God. And all of our worship should arise out of hearts that are intently set upon encountering Him.

I want to challenge you this week to come next Sunday with the absolute intention to see Jesus in this room. I want to challenge you to sing this next song as if He stands right here in our midst, and as if the voice you raise is lifted to Him.

That’s what worship is all about, after all. That’s what we are here for, or at least that’s what we SHOULD be here for.

Let us make our every act of worship a true declaration of the value of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Let us magnify His holy name. Let us come into this place next week and every week INTENDING to make worship happen.

He deserves your praise; He deserves your worship. He deserves your heart.