Gospel of Matthew Chapter 6 -- John Karmelich
1.
There is an age-old
expression that goes, “If you are going to kill a king, make sure you kill
him.”
a)
What
that means is, if you are going to assassinate a king, make sure you kill him
or else he, and all his power will come back with a vengeance.
b)
The
first section of Chapter 6 reminded me of this expression.
c)
Remember
that Chapter 6 is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount.
d)
It
is a three-chapter-long speech given by Jesus.
i)
The
central theme is all about keeping God on the “throne of your heart”.
a)
This
is a constant, moment-by-moment thing, as our ego’s constantly want us to be in
charge.
b)
In
order for God to be in charge, we have to personally get off the throne
ourselves, or dethrone whatever “idol’s” we worship with our time and our
resources.
e)
Which
leads us to Chapter 6.
i)
The
first section of Chapter 6 has to do with our response to God for the eternal
salvation. The specific topics here are
prayer, fasting and giving.
ii)
The
reason I opened with the expression “If you are going to kill a king…” is
because our old-self, our ego, just doesn’t want to die. Even after we accept Jesus as king over our
lives, we still want to be in charge.
We fail to kill “our old king” and our old king still wants to rule.
iii)
Remember
in Chapter 5 we dealt with such issues as not being angry, praying for your
enemies, showing love (giving of oneself) to the unlovable and those who hate
you.
a)
Chapter
6 goes to the next step, which is our religious acts.
b)
It
is almost as if our old egotistical nature is saying, “Well, if I can’t do all
of that stuff in Chapter 5, at least let me rule in Chapter 6”. To put it another way, “If I have to submit
to God’s will in my relationship with other people, at least let me be
in charge in doing “religious stuff””.
c)
Chapter
6 starts with a discussion of prayer, fasting and giving.
(1)
Our
old nature, our egotistical self, wants to be noticed by people.
(2)
We
want to “serve as good examples”, so we parade our religious acts
publicly. Ultimately, we are glorifying
ourselves and not God.
iv)
This
idea of having God-in-charge of our lives in our religious acts can be summed
up in Verse 1 of Chapter 6:
2.
Chapter
6, Verse 1: "Be careful not to do your `acts of
righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no
reward from your Father in heaven.
a)
Verse 1 is a summary
verse for most of chapter 6.
i)
In the next 15 verses,
Jesus gives illustrations on this principal.
b)
The
word to underline is in Verse 1 is “no”.
“You will have no reward in heaven for this.”
c)
This
verse implies a number of things:
i)
First
of all, there are rewards in heaven.
ii)
Second,
any religious effort done for the purpose of being seen by people gets
no reward in heaven…again, the emphasis is on the word “none”.
iii)
Third,
the things we are going to talk about in Chapter 6 are not bad things, it is
only the motivation that Jesus calls into question.
d)
One
of the key words to underline in your bible in Chapter 6 is the word “when”.
i)
Jesus
says, “When you give to the needy”
(Verse 2)
ii)
Jesus
says, “When you pray” (Verse 5)
iii)
Jesus
says, “When you fast” (Verse 16)
iv)
There
are no “if you give, pray or fast statements here.
a)
Jesus
is assuming you are going to do these things.
b)
Jesus
then focuses on our attitudes when we do those things.
e)
Let’s
move on to Verse 2 that starts the topic of giving of our time and resources.
3.
Verse
2: "So
when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the
truth, they have received their reward in full.
a)
Notice that the topic of
giving to the poor is given priority over the topic of praying.
i)
It is not that praying
isn’t important, but I suspect that this principal is given a priority as an
issue over praying and fasting.
b)
In the historical
context, there were religious leaders at this time that would literally blow
trumpets in the town square as they were giving money to the poor. This was common knowledge and Jesus used
that fact as an illustration.
i)
You can almost hear the
logic of people giving that way: “You
know, I need to be a good example for the common people. I need to be a leader, and show the
importance of giving of my resources to the poor. It is important that I sound the trumpet as I give as to inspire
others to give”
ii)
It
is so easy to give that way, as it builds our ego. The attitude is you don’t care so much about the poor as much as
you care about your own self-esteem.
c)
Let’s
look at modern examples.
i)
Go
walk around a university or a hospital and notice all the plaques and signs
given to the people who donated to that university or hospital.
ii)
There
are buildings at universities named after donors.
iii)
There
are wings of hospitals named after donors.
a)
By
the way, I have nothing against donating to major charities.
b)
The
key is one’s motivation.
c)
Sometimes
the receiver wants to show public gratitude as a way of saying thank you. Simply tell them, “if you want to thank me,
keep it quiet”.
iv)
Jesus
is teaching in a sense “Well, good for you, hope you enjoy seeing your name
there, because that is all the reward you are going to get.”
v)
A
big theme of the Sermon on the Mount is all about having eternal-perspective.
a)
If
our desire is eternal-rewards, than we should not care about our rewards here
in earth.
vi)
Unfortunately,
it is just as bad in the Christian church.
a)
We
have rooms and plaques in churches named after the donors.
b)
I
have seen services where people publicly give checks.
(1)
“I
have a vision that there is someone in this room who wants to give a thousand
dollars to this church. Will that
person stand up so God can collect that check?” I hope that person enjoys that moment, because that is all the
reward he will get.
c)
Personally,
I don’t even like those “big red thermometer posters” that show the church’s
fundraising goals and progress. Ask
yourself if they are giving glory to God or to the congregation who gives?
4.
Verse
3: But
when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand
is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your
Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
a)
When
Jesus is saying, “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is
doing”, this is an expression. Your
hand’s don’t have the capacity to think, so it is not literal.
i)
It
is the idea, of when you give of your money and resources, it should be in a
way that is so casual, so quick that it is almost as if you are unaware of your
giving.
b)
I
want to deviate a little on the topic of giving.
i)
Giving
of your money (and your time) to the church isn’t so much for the church’s
benefit as it is your own. It is about
trusting God for today’s and tomorrow’s financial provision as you are trusting
him with the first of your earnings.
ii)
You
should give primarily to your church, but other causes are just as good.
iii)
Think
of one’s giving as investing in the stock market. You want to pick companies with good earning potential. The same should be with Christian
causes. Are they doing good things for
Christian causes? If you see God
blessing a particular ministry and you feel lead to give to support it, do
so.
iv)
Remember
all that you have belongs to God.
God asks that you give ten percent (called a “tithe” in the bible) as a
way of testing and trusting.
a)
By
giving the first of one’s net earnings (“take home paycheck” or net profit if
one is self-employed), one is saying to God “OK God, I am trusting you with my
resources. All of my money and
time belongs to you, but I am giving you a percentage of what I earn to show
that I am trusting you daily to provide for me financially.
b)
Personally,
you cannot out give God. Giving of
one’s money is the one way I know where you can put God to the test to see if
you can out give God. I’ve yet to see a
person file bankruptcy because he or she gave too much of their income to God.
c)
Next,
we move on to the topic of praying.
5.
Verse
5: "And
when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in
the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the
truth, they have received their reward in full.
a)
The words to underline
here are “to be seen by men”.
b)
Jesus is not condoning
public prayer. He is condoning bad
motivation for prayer.
c)
Notice it says these
people love to pray in ways to be seen by men.
d)
Remember in my
introduction I talked about our ego’s getting involved in our religious
activities. Here Jesus is applying this
idea to praying.
e)
This is very easy for us
to do. Let me give you an illustration.
i)
We could be in church
with our children. We could easily not
be sincere because we want our children to see us praying “as good
examples”. There is nothing wrong with
being good examples to our children, but when we love this more than
actually praying to God, “we have a problem”. J
ii)
The same could apply to
friends or acquaintances. It is easy
for ourselves to think “Hey, I haven’t seen that guy for a long time. Maybe if they watch me praying here in
church, they’ will get the idea and be more like me”.
6.
Verse 6: But when you pray, go into your room, close
the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees
what is done in secret, will reward you.
a)
It
is verses like this that remind us of the importance of private prayer.
i)
Notice
Jesus doesn’t say anything about what time of the day to pray, or how one
should dress when praying, or even the position of the body.
ii)
Jesus
emphasis is on privacy when praying.
iii)
Jesus
is encouraging us to go to a place with a minimal amount of distractions.
a)
Personally,
I like praying early in the morning before others wake up only to avoid
distractions. For others, late night
works well. For moms of young children,
“nap-time” may be the ideal time of the day.
b)
I
have met families where they organize “quiet time”. They pick a time of the day were everyone is to be quiet for
bible reading and praying.
b)
It is important to
emphasize that Jesus is not condemning public prayer. There are times for public prayer and times
for private prayer.
i)
You must read this verse
in context of the surrounding verses.
ii)
The topic is not to have
the attitude of prayer about being concerned about communicating with God, and
not to be seen by people.
iii)
There are times when
public prayer is important.
a)
In Matthew 18, Jesus is
discussing prayer again, “For where two or three come together in my name,
there am I (Jesus) with them.”
(Matthew 18:20, NIV)
(1)
Jesus
point in Matthew 18 is that there is “something special” about praying with one
or two others (or more).
b)
In
Paul’s’ 1st letter to Timothy, he talks about praying in times of
worship
(1st Timothy 2:8). The point
here is simply there are times for public prayer and times for private prayer.
7.
Verse
7: And
when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be
heard because of their many words.
a)
The
over-riding topic here is about our ego’s.
God is constantly working at getting us off the throne so He can be on
our throne.
b)
There
is nothing wrong with a repeated prayer.
i)
Jesus
prayed three times to avoid the path of the cross, but finally accepted the
idea of not Jesus’ will but God the Father’s will has to be done.
(See Matthew 26:39-44)
ii)
Verse
7 is not a condemnation against repeating prayers. It is a condemnation about our ego’s thinking “God must answer my
prayer, because I’ve said it seventeen times and now He owes that to me”.
iii)
In
fact, in a few verses, we are going to get to the “Lord’s Prayer”.
a)
In
Luke 11, that prayer is repeated almost verbatim.
(1)
Yet
Luke 11 took place sometime after the Sermon on the Mount.
(2)
Luke
11 is not the same occasion.
(3)
The
point is Jesus taught the exact same prayer later and is implying there is
nothing wrong with repeated prayer.
(4)
The
point is our attitude in praying, not our number of repetitions.
8.
Verse
8: Do
not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
a)
John’s loose translation
of Verse 8: “When you pray, get to the
point”. J
i)
We are not rewarded for
how long we have been praying.
ii)
An old Christian idiom
is, “It is not the length of the prayer, but the weight of the prayer that
matters”. (Source John MacArthur’s
Commentary on Matthew)
b)
Imagine praying, “You know
God, there is that guy down the street, I can’t think of his name. He lives in that yellow house, you know, the
one with the fancy hedges. I think the
address is 3114 Rose Street. Anyway,
here is what I want to say about Him.” J
i)
That isn’t necessary. You don’t have to describe the house. God, who knows all things, is quite aware of
this person, even before you started on that description.
9.
Verse 9: This, then, is how you should pray: "
`Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
a)
There is a classical
debate among Christians as to whether or not one should pray this prayer
literally (word-for-word) or whether one should use this prayer as a model as
one should pray.
i)
Personally, I think the
sincerity of our heart matters more than whether we pray it verbatim or as a
model.
ii)
What is important is
that we understand what we are praying when we recite this prayer and mean
it when we pray it. The danger of a
memorized prayer is going through the motions without giving it much thought.
b)
Before I get into the
specific’s of this prayer, there are a couple of things to point out:
i)
Notice the pluralism
on our part. The pronouns involving us
are in the plural.
a)
It doesn’t say for
example, “deliver me from temptation, but deliver us from
temptation. It does not say give to me
my daily bread, but it says give to “us” our daily bread.
b)
Jesus taught a few
verses back to pray in private. Yet
contrast that with the plurality of this prayer. It is designed to be a corporate effort on behalf of all
believers as well as individual requests.
ii)
The other thing to
notice is that it is mostly about God and the things we want God to do in our
lives and very little about what God expects of us.
a)
In fact the only verse
in the prayer about us has to do with “as we forgive those who have sinned
against us”. The rest focuses on who
God is and what we ask of him to do for us.
iii)
Another thing to notice
is the priorities of the items in the prayer.
a)
The request for daily
sustenance (give us our daily bread) doesn’t come until after we recognize who
God is (“hallowed be thy name”). One
should keep that in mind when we prayer.
Our prayers are often a “laundry-list” of things we desire. There is nothing wrong with bringing those
requests to God. One simply has to
remember priorities. One needs to think
about the opening verses of this prayer in perspective of how God wants us to
pray.
iv)
I should also add that
I’ve never liked the title “The Lord’s Prayer”.
a)
It is the Lord’s
Prayer in that He, Jesus gave it to us.
b)
It is not Lord’s
Prayer as it is not designed for Jesus, but it is for us.
c)
Lets
Get back to Verse 9: Our Father in
heaven, hallowed be your name,
i)
This
opening line has great balance between personal relationship with God and
having reverence (respect) for his Holy name.
ii)
There
are two dangers in our relationship with God:
a)
One
is getting too personal and not having respect for God as the sovereign ruler
of the universe.
b)
The
other is to get too much in fear of his power that we are afraid to approach
God as a loving father.
c)
The
word used here for Father, in Hebrew, is a personal term. The best English paraphrase would be
“daddy”. We would be like loving
children approaching our daddies who love us dearly and unconditionally.
(1)
The
balance is the second sentence: “hallowed be your name”.
(2)
God
is sovereign. He is in control of the
universe. Yes God loves us
unconditionally, but He also is perfect and can stand no sin whatsoever.
(3)
This
opening line keeps both aspects in balance in our lives.
10.
Verse
10: your
kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
a)
Another
classical debate in Christianity has to do with the phrase “your kingdom come”.
i)
Some
argue it is just a reference to the second coming of Jesus.
a)
Not
that there is anything wrong with that.
J
b)
If
you have lived your life on earth with the awareness of how rotten sin can be,
how difficult life can be at times, our desire is “Jesus, get here and get here
fast, because I’m having difficulty taking handling this!” J
ii)
The
other view is to see Verse 10 as one continuous thought.
a)
One
of the big theme’s I’m emphasizing over and over again is about God ruling in
our hearts now. It is about us
getting out of the way so God can take over and rule. It is a continual action of getting our self-interests out of the
way and doing the will of God the Father.
b)
One
has to remember that we cannot let God rule without prayer.
c)
It
is not a matter of self-discipline to say “OK God, I’m stepping down now, come
on in.” Prayer in this verse is for
God’s help in stepping in.
We are asking in this portion of the prayer for divine help to let God rule in
our lives.
iii)
Going
back to the issue of “your kingdom come”, some see this phrase as part of a
single thought with “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
a)
It
is about God ruling in our lives now just as when we get to heaven God
rules in our hearts then.
b)
To
me, the biggest difference between life here on earth and life in heaven is not
God, but us. In heaven, God is going to
take away our old sinful nature so that we won’t have to struggle anymore
between “us” being in charge versus God being in charge.
(1)
God
designed it this way to keep us close to Him.
We have to constantly see sin as a reminder of how bad it is. We have to constantly battle it and pray to
God to help us overcome its pain.
11.
Verse
11: Give
us today our daily bread.
a)
After praying for our recognition of God’s love and
holiness (Verse 9);
b)
After praying for God’s
will to be done in our lives (Verse 10)
c)
Now comes the personal request for God to provide for us
“our daily bread”.
i)
One can read this
literally as bread, or more likely, it is about our daily sustance.
ii)
As Americans who have
more food collectively in our refrigerators than most of the world can imagine,
it is hard to be literal about this one.
iii)
Why should we pray for
“our daily bread” when we have a full loaf sitting somewhere in the kitchen or
can run to the store in a matter of minutes?
iv)
Most of us who have
lived a while know that one never knows how and when our life can change. An injury, a loss of a job or some other
catastrophe can change our whole outlook in a moment.
v)
This prayer is a
reminder that we do depend upon God daily for our sustance.
vi)
This prayer is a
reminder to us to be grateful for what we have and to trust in God and
not our own resources.
d)
The big-picture idea of
this section of Scripture is about keeping our focus on God.
i)
If we look at our
refrigerator and think “I’m set for awhile” or we look at our bank statements
and think, “I’m set for awhile”, we start to get our focus off of God.
ii)
This part of the prayer
is our reminder that all our blessings come from God and further, we are
daily dependant upon God to keep those blessings coming.
12.
Verse
12: Forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven our debtors.
a)
The word “debts” are
also translated “transgressions” and “sins” in other bibles.
b)
“Debts” is my favorite
translation of this word. In the Greek,
there are a number of words for sins.
The idea of debts here is that we are indebted to God for forgiveness.
c)
The second part of Verse
6 is the only part of this prayer that requires us to do something.
i)
Every other part of the
prayer is about God doing things:
a)
“Give us our daily bread
(a prayer request to God);
b)
“Your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven” (a prayer request to God);
c)
And “Forgive us our
debts” (a prayer request to God).
d)
I could go on, but you
notice the pattern of that this prayer is all about requests of God to
intercede in our life. The opening
verse is the reminder to us about who God is and what He expects of us in our
attitude toward Him. (“Hallowed be your
name”).
ii)
“Forgiving our debtors” is a prayer request for God to help us be forgiving to others who have
hurt us. Jesus comments on this in
Verse 14, which we’ll get to.
13.
Verse
13: And lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one. '
a)
The
final request is to keep us strong against temptation.
b)
This
verse, in the English is misleading. It
sounds like God leads us into temptation.
i)
Notice
what James says later in the Bible:
a)
“When
tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be
tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;” (James 1:13 NIV)
b)
James
is not contradicting Jesus.
c)
This
verse is about rescuing us from temptation.
i)
Our
old, egotistical nature constantly wants to take God off the throne of our
hearts and put ourselves, or something else back on.
ii)
Our
sinful nature still exists. There are
things that are tempting to all of us.
Many are more subtle than others.
Anything that gets your focus off of God and unto ourselves is a
temptation to sin.
d) Paul also comments on this.