Matthew 6:1-18 God’s Secret Service Talk @NSCCCS 20070325
William Ng
Sub Point: God will justly repay what is done, whether in secret or in open.
1. Fresh organization (Matthew 6:9-10; 5:1-10, 48)
2. For His eyes only (6:1-4, 5-8, 16-18)
3. Forgiveness, the essential response to God (6:12-15)
4. Our secret service
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.
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. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
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. 6But 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. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]' 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you…”
Matthew 6:1-18 “God’s Secret Service”
1. Fresh organization (Matthew 6:9-10; 5:1-10, 48)
Fresh Organization
We should always shudder with fear and excitement when we listen to Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount. Because Jesus is showing to His dearest friends and followers a fresh organization of our present world. He tells us what this organization, or God’s new kingdom looks like, feels like and what the people act like. And we see from the middle of this passage that the standard of God’s new kingdom is perfect.
It’s in verses 9-10:
“…'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven…”
What is heaven like? It’s perfect! God is bringing that heavenly world to our present earth. That’s a world being organized by God, a world under His rule with people listening to His ways. That is exciting news. But it is fearful news, because we as Jesus’ friends, we hear what we are to be like. The opening of the Sermon on the Mount called Jesus’ friends blessed, remember those poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, who thirst and hunger for the right, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers and those persecuted for following Jesus. In summary, 5:48 tells us that Jesus’ friends, who are part of this new kingdom are to be “perfect, therefore, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect.”
God’s people will be willing
A massive part of our lives will be to respond to God’s teachings and be willing to be His people of the new kingdom and work out His teachings in our lives. Jesus wanted our active will and participation in this kingdom when He asked us to pray the Lord’s prayer:
“…'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven…”
But because it’s God’s kingdom, which He’s bringing, and we are weak humans who cannot meet His standards, we must ask for His help. So why don’t you pray with me:
[Prayer. Note this prayer is important as we bring the hearers to depend on God’s grace and mercy.]
2. For His eyes only (6:1-4, 5-8, 16-18)
Good works for His eyes only
Jesus wants us to be doers of good, but more than that, He wants us to have God as our only audience. We are to do all our work for His eyes only. And we do not want to please our peers, friends or even leaders or parents. Instead we please God alone and God is our only audience. 6:1 tells us clearly:
“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.”
How to give, pray and fast
And Jesus mentions three righteous acts of giving money to the poor, praying to God and fasting, where we are to avoid a public audience.
Have a look at 6:2-4. In those days, the temptation was to boast in how much you could give to the poor. The synagogue was an organization that would have the role of looking after the needs of the poor. They didn’t have social services then. And on top of the tenth of what they earned given as offertory, people would give more to meet the needs of the poor. But it is easy to brag, to let the neighbours know how much you are giving, to ask the Rabbi to make a special announcement or to publicly shower food and coins to a blind man on the market street.
But Jesus says that when we give we don’t need to tell the whole world, we don’t even want the person sitting next to us to know how much we give, and if we could help it we don’t even want our left hand know what our right hand is doing. So secret is our giving that only God our Father, who sees everything we do, is to know! He is our only audience.
Similarly from vv.5-6, we don’t shout on top of our voices and kneel in the middle of our rooms to pray. We are to find a private room, close the door and pray to our Father, who is our only audience when we pray. There is no need either, in vv. 7-8, to use fancy words, complex sentences to manipulate God into giving us our needs. God sees our hearts, and He knows our needs already when we pray to Him. So our prayers can be short, straight to the point and we can use our own words to pray to God, our only audience.
And it’s the same when we fast. Now I know not many of us fast, but Jesus treats it as something that His disciples do normally. Fasting teaches us that we depend on God1. But when we fast, it’s not public, we don’t mess up our hair, forget to wash our faces and write on our T-shirts “Holy Man Fasting”, but it’s a matter between us and God, because He is our only audience.
God justly repays
The reason to choose God as our only audience our friends, peers and leaders is that God rewards justly. Look at what happens when giving is done in secret, verse 4b: “…then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” It is repeated again in v.6, “Then [our] Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward [us].” And just in case we missed it, Jesus tells us again when we fast in v.18, “[so] that it will not be obvious to men that [we] are fasting, but only to [our] Father, who is unseen; and [our] Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward [us].”
You see, when we live for other peoples’ praise, “Ooh, look how generous he is,” or “Hey, isn’t so and so a great prayer?” or “Did you know that this leader fasts 3x a week?”, God gives us what we asked for: the praise of other people. If we only look for boasting in this life time, that is what we will get and no more. The congratulations, the high from feeling great about ourselves and our paper certificates, will turn to dust and burn with the end of this world. Men’s praise will be forgotten, useless and empty.
But our Father in heaven loves to reward things done for His eyes only. He will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant2,” when we see Him face to face at the coming of the new world. Because He sees right into our hearts and looks for the attitude that aims to please Him and Him alone.
Jesus isn’t talking about earning our favour with God, or pleasing our perfect Father so that He pays our good work with salvation. That’s blasphemous, contrary to Jesus’ teaching and His work. No, Jesus is saying that those who are already in God’s kingdom and saved, they are the ones who will want to please God alone, they are to say no to the temptation to gain earthly praise at the loss of God’s own praise3.
So when we work for God alone, He sees our hearts, and will justly reward us with the praise He so enjoys giving to His children. He is to be our only audience and the only audience that matters.
3. Forgiveness, the essential response to God (6:12-15)
Forgiveness is our basic need
Our Father, understands our deepest need and this is in the centre of the whole Sermon and in the middle of the prayer that Jesus modelled for us. We are ignoring the prayer as a whole because that is another challenging lesson by itself. Concentrating on vv.12-15, we see that our deepest need is the forgiveness that comes from our Father. Our most urgent prayer is that God will cancel the debt that we owe to Him as we sin against Him, fail to do His will, forget to honour Him, and even as we fail in our relationships with other people because He cares for the ones we sin against.
Once forgiven, we will forgive others
But Jesus told us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Why does Jesus expect that God’s people to have already forgiven others who owe them, who sin against them, who have hurt them? Because those, who experience the deep, wide, long and broad forgiveness of God, have the capacity to forgive other people. And an unforgiving heart is a sign that we have not tasted the forgiveness of God.
Try a little mental test with me. Think of someone who’s hurt, sinned against or mistreated you. Turn all your energy into hating that person with your heart and mind… do you notice what’s happening? We do not remember or feel the love of God, the mercy of God and His forgiveness whilst we are hating our sister/brother like that. It’s like trying to move and be still at the same time, to sleep and be awake in the same moment, it cannot be done.
But on the other hand, think now, and give thanks with your heart for the love of God shown towards you, freely and deeply. When you remember this, you can extend the same forgiveness toward your enemy. These two attitudes, thoughts and emotions are compatible, but an unforgiving heart, is incompatible with an understanding of God’s kindness to us. So we pray to our Father “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
4. Our secret service
Today’s challenge to live with God as our only audience from Jesus’ lips is real in so many ways.
a) CLAY parallels: Giving, serving, leading
Empty Praise
Do all ministries for God, do them well,
Do not minister for our own good, own name, own reputation…
Face is not only big in Chinese cultures, it’s big in all earthly cultures…
Empty, useless rewards, waste of our lives…
Does not result in good ministries…
Godly Freedom [to serve God]
I think there is incredible freedom when we reject peer pressure, peer review and peer judgement…
Instead, use our freedom to serve God… because His reward and praise is best and sweet.
E.g. Unrewarding ministries, hard ministries, dangerous ministries, unwise ministries…
b) Private time = secret service to God
Not Sunday time, not fellowship time, but every other time…
Esp. in relationships with others away from home, away from Christian circles, away from CLAY because He sees all, delights most in our daily walk with Him.
c) Care in our study and work
School work, uni-work and work-work…
Work as though we are working for the Lord.
d) Attitude of forgiveness
Forgiveness…
Whom do we need to forgive?
1 Must find biblical support apart from Matthew.
2 Matthew 25:21-23.
3 Luke 17:7-10. Even when we do God’s will, God does not necessarily need to give us praise, yet He delights in praising His servants, cf. Matthew 5, 25.
