Sermon Tone Analysis

Wednesday, April 13, 2022 The Commands of Christ-21

A Christian's Priorities

Last week we began to think about this passage:

Read: Matthew 6:19-24

The key to right priorities is realizing what missionary Bill Elliot said:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Not only can we not keep anything for which we labor here on the earth — but there is also a REAL downside that the Preacher talks about in ...

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 (NASB95) I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure.

So enjoy yourself.”

And behold, it too was futility.

2 I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” 3 I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

4 I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; 5 I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; 6 I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.

7 I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves.

Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.

8 Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.

I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men—many concubines.

9 Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.

My wisdom also stood by me. 10 All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor.

11 Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:18–26 (NASB95) Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me.

19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?

Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun.

This too is vanity.

20 Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.

21 When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them.

This too is vanity and a great evil.

22 For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest.

This too is vanity.

24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good.

This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

26 For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good in God’s sight.

This too is vanity and striving after wind.

Explore It

Why should we store up heavenly treasures rather than earthly ones (Matthew 6:19-21)?

Revelation 3:14–19 (NASB95) “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.

16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

17 ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

Question 2. What Jesus forbids his followers is the selfish accumulation of goods ("Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth"):

extravagant and luxurious living;

leads to hardheartedness which does not feel the colossal need of the world's underprivileged people;

leads to the foolish fantasy that a person's life consists in the abundance of his or her possessions;

Luke 12:15 (NLT) Then he said, “Beware!

Guard against every kind of greed.

Life is not measured by how much you own.”

Leads to the materialism which tethers our hearts to the earth.

In other words, to store up treasure on earth does not mean being provident (making sensible provision for the future) but being covetous (like misers who hoard and materialists who always want more).

This is the real snare of which Jesus warns here.

Does this mean that we cannot have personal property, savings accounts or insurance policies?

Explain.

*Where did Jesus urge His followers not to "store up treasures"?

Why? (6:19)

Is Jesus discouraging us from stockpiling things?

(6:19)

What can happen to a person’s material possessions?

(6:19)

*Where did Jesus encourage us to invest our wealth?

Why? (6:20)

Revelation 14:13 (NASB95) And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

Why is heaven a better place to "bank" than earth?

(6:20)

Nothing will diminish what we store in heaven.

What does the location of a person’s treasure say about that person?

(6:21)

Philippians 3:18–19 (NASB95) For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

What is described as the "lamp of the body"?

How is this so?

(6:22)

Perhaps NOT just the eyes, but all of our earthly senses?

Not infrequently in Scripture the "eye" is equivalent to the "heart."

That is, to "set the heart" and to "fix the eye" on something are synonyms.

Therefore, Jesus' argument seems to go like this: just as our eye affects our whole body, so our ambition (where we fix our eyes and heart) affects our whole life

LifeGuide Topical Bible Studies - Sermon on the Mount.

What is the result of "good eyes"?

(6:22)

Only two instances of haplous are found in the New Testament; both of these appear in Jesus’ saying about the “haplous eye” (Matthew 6:22; Luke 11:34).

In both texts haplous contrasts ponēros (4050), which in a physical sense can mean “in poor condition” (Bauer, “ponēros”).

If that is the case, “sound, healthy,” or “whole” are proper renderings of haplous.

It is the physically “healthy” eye which permits light.

At the same time, ponēros can mean “wicked, evil, bad” in the ethical sense (ibid.).

If that sense is preferred, then haplous can mean “sincere,” “innocent,” or even “generous.”

Marshall wants to take haplous as an “over-literal translation of an Aramaic word, perhaps with a contrast to the idea of ‘double vision’; the metaphorical sense of ‘wholehearted, single-minded’ . . . is basic in the application” (see Marshall, New International Greek Testament Commentary, Luke p.489).

He thus sees haplous as a reference to the “single-mindedness” of the genuine disciple.

Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary, The - Alpha-Gamma.

Complete Biblical Library Matthew (Chapter 6)

The term “single” (haplous) when used of the heart indicates a singleness of purpose, hence “sincere, pure, sound, upright, free from wrong motives, guileless, and generous.”

When used of the eye it means “sound, whole,” that is, clear and healthy.

The haplous kind of eye therefore can not only see but see well.

It does not suffer from double or distorted vision.

A healthy eye is the “light of the body” because the entire body depends on it to function properly.

It enables the body to be oriented properly to its surroundings.

Jesus, however, by using haplous, probably had an application in mind that would include all meanings of the word.

This would give further understanding of the need to be free from hypocrisy, jealousy, and greed.

If it is spiritually healthy, the eye of the heart will fill the life with good and generous works.

It will help in making right decisions because the motives will be true and pure.

It will focus the attention on aims that will be to the glory of God.

(Golfer who won Masters: Sheffler)

When will people’s lives be full of darkness?

(6:23)

Complete Biblical Library: In contrast to the person with healthy eyes, the person with bad eyes fumbles and stumbles in the darkness.

Eye trouble was very common in New Testament times, and there were many blind people.

Jesus touched and healed many of them, but as long as their eyes were blind, their whole body was in darkness.

To make the application obvious Jesus used a word that means not only “bad, sick, degenerate, or worthless,” but also “wicked or evil-intentioned.”

Such an eye will be full of worldliness and will call good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20).

Isaiah 5:20 (NASB95) Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

It will seek the praise of men instead of the praise of God and will eventually cause a person to become like those who lived before the Flood where “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” and “the earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:5, 11).