A New Relationship with Religion

Matt 6:1-4, 16-19

What does the Sermon on the Mount teach us about life in the kingdom? How would you sum it up?

God’s people by faith in Jesus Christ are called into a kingdom, to live for the kingdom treasuring God and looking to Jesus, it sets up a radical counter culture to the world – be it religious or irreligious - within the world.

That Kingdom living is marked by a greater, more rigorous, more real world righteousness than the religious display(5:21) which strives to please God(48). So it depends on God, it is different from the world, it maximises obedience as a response to grace because God is the believers greatest treasure.

One of the big questions as Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom come and called people to enter it was how should that be lived out? What were the implications for established religious practices? Does the disciple still give, pray and fast or not? And if so how is the kingdom exercise of these different and distinctive from those in Judaism?

Here Jesus establishes a principle(1) and then works through the implications of that on the 3 key areas of Jewish piety, we’ll look at 2 this week and prayer next week.

1. Beware people please God.
What does it mean to ‘be careful’? It means to take care, to beware of a danger, to watch out for something that is potentially harmful, to be alert to something which is a threat or you expect.
Jesus here puts up a warning sign for his disciples because they face a danger, what is it? doing your acts of righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Notice that Jesus is not anti-piety, he is not against acts of righteousness, in fact responding rightly to God means that he assumes that his disciples will be doing them. But how disciples do them, the motives behind them is the issue.

In all three areas, giving, prayer and fasting, he calls them to beware acting like the hypocrites. Originally the hypocrites were actors, those who on stage put on a persona, a character, or a mask before taking it off when they were off stage. It is against this type of double living that Jesus is warning. There is a very real danger for disciples that they play a role in order to gain a good or godly reputation rather than actually treasuring and responding relationally to God. And he says if your motive is to be praised by men then that is all you will get, you will not get any reward from your Father.

Just before we move on to the examples he gives we need to make clear what Jesus means by rewards. In this chapter what is the contrast Jesus makes between two different rewards? Reward from men and reward from God. (3)The reward here is honour from men, it is reputation and standing, it is congratulations and praise. But that is not what the disciple is to want, the disciple doesn’t want themselves to be the centre of attention, to be the one praised, that would be idolatry, rather their treasure is God and that means they seek his glory and his well done, to know God not to be known by men that is the reward.

2. God-ward giving not greed for glory
What assumption does Jesus make about his disciples and giving? (2)That his disciples will be giving to those in need. If disciples are to be those who are perfect as their father in heaven is, if they are to reflect and share the family values then they will have a compassion and a concern for the poor just as God does.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19 “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigners residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

Deut15:11 “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward those of your people who are poor and needy in your land.”

Disciples are to be compassionate to those in need as they reflect the family values. But how are they to do that? Jesus gives them a how not to do it and a contrasting how to do it.

How are they not to do it? With fanfare, in public places and to be seen by and praised and honoured by others.

Instead how are they to do it? Secretly(4) and so that your left hand doesn’t know what your right hand is doing – it’s a curious little phrase isn’t it. The right hand was the active hand, it would undertake the act of giving, but what does it mean for your left hand not to know. I think Jesus is underscoring the point about secrecy, but I wonder if he isn’t also making another point we are not to make much of our giving to ourselves. We are not only to keep our giving private from others but we are not to dwell on what we give and become proud within ourselves, it is not just a reputation with others that can be dangerous.

Disciples will give to alleviate need, they will be open handed and generous because God is their treasure and they share the family values and they will seek reward from God not man. They will give and forget what they have given, aware that they give only as a small response to what God have given them in Jesus, and that they are merely stewards of everything they have which God has given them.

We live in a world that champions givers, that emblazons their names on things, that names hospital wings after them, even at the Keepmoat you could pay £10 for a brick and have your name engraved on it so you had helped to build the new stadium. But not the disciple, the disciple gives not to be noticed, not so they get a reputation, not even so they can feel good or less guilty themselves but because they have the Fathers DNA – they love the fatherless and the widow. And they live to seek God, to please God and to glorify God.

2. Father focused not futile fasting
Again the assumption is what? That disciples will be fasting, elsewhere Jesus confirms this when asked why his disciples don’t fast Jesus doesn’t say it is wrong to or they won’t but says they don’t right now because he is with them but that when he is gone they will fast. Disciples are to fast, but it is how disciples fast that mark them out as distinctive.

For the hypocrites fasting had become a way to display their piety (16)so they made sure people knew they were fasting, they wore the pained expression as a badge of supposed righteousness. The irony is that they are taking and twisting fasting, fasting was a way of expressing sorrow for sin, of focusing on God, of seeking God’s guidance and help, or of focusing on prayer. Fasting was all about God and our relationship with God. But the hypocrites have taken it and twisted it so that what was designed to be god-ward is now man-ward. It becomes a tool not for seeking God but for seeking to increase their own reputation. And says Jesus what is done to get man’s praise will only get man’s praise.

By contrast what does Jesus say the disciple is to do? They are to dress and act in such a way that no one but God knows they are fasting, it is to be done in secret. It is to be done to facilitate and seek after relationship with God not be merely a function of religion. Fasting is an action that shows God is our greatest treasure and we are seeking his kingdom and it is those who seek such that God will reward with just those things.

The kingdom does not throw out acts of piety, they are not old hat but it transforms them so that they are God centred not man centred. They are relational realities for the disciples not religious rigmaroles. The disciple treasures God above all and that shows in their seeking after God and displaying God’s character, seeking his well done, and living for his glory.

In groups:
1. What are the badges of spirituality we are tempted to wear to be thought Godly or praised by others?
2. Is it right for us to hold a day of prayer and fasting in our churches? Why or why not?
3. Is Jesus contradicting himself? In 5:16 he says we are to let our light shine before others, whilst here he says we are to act secretly. How would you explain this to someone?

Psalm 37 -Waiting not fretting

We live in a society that doesn’t like waiting that prizes instant success and results. Samsung recently released a new phone called the Samsung Jet. The advertising campaign picked up on this desire for everything now and carried the tag line ‘impatience is a virtue’. It went on; “impatience got us faster cars, microwaves, remote controls and jets. Impatience is in first, on top, up the front, impatience wants more and more and more…’

It’s a reflection on the way our society works, what it values, and its relentless drive for immediate results.

As we turn to Psalm 37 the call is for God’s people, for us, to be different, it is a call not to judge based on circumstance, not to be impatient but to wait. Specifically this Psalm deals with the problem of injustice in the world – why do the wicked prosper? (35)”I have seen the wicked and ruthless flourishing like a luxuriant native tree.”

Isn’t that refreshing, doesn’t that give us confidence in the Bible as the word of God. It doesn’t duck the hard questions we have. Why is Robert Mugabe still in power? Why do regimes that oppress and persecute Christians grow in strength? Why in the work place do those who cheat, victimise and bully so often seem to be rewarded for it? Why isn’t there a direct correlation between actions and reward? The Bible doesn’t duck the reality of the world we live in.

The Psalmist fear is that seeing that injustice will drive people from faith to fretting(1), from faith to anxiety to anger, to bitterness to resentment. His call is to get our perspective right which will mean we will not fret and that instead we wait full of hope for God.

The Psalms are here for us to sing, we are meant to learn their truths and sing along. It’s not a lyric sheet for us to read over it’s more like a Karaoke machine; they are there for us to learn and sing its songs along with him. But in order to be able to sing this song we need to understand what he has understood.

1. What are we waiting for?
What are you like at waiting? This week sees the advent calendars come out – those instruments of torture for small children that remind them everyday of the too slow pace of the painstaking day-by-day crawl to Christmas. But what makes the waiting bearable? It is the expectation of what is at the end, that it will prove to have been worth waiting for when that day finally arrives.

There is a repeated refrain running through the Psalm, it is what the Psalmist is calling the faithful to live in the light of. It is what will make the waiting bearable. Its there in(9)
“For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.”
And it is repeated in v10-11, 22, 28-9 and 34. The wicked may look prosperous now but they will face God and be judged, justice will ultimately prevail. And those who live with hope, who live waiting, trusting in, looking to God will inherit the land.

Don’t judge by circumstance live by the promises of God is the Psalmists call.

It’s an interesting phrase when you think about it, because as David writes Israel do possess the land, they are living in it. So what does he mean by they will inherit the land?

The land for Israel was not just somewhere to rest their boots and pitch their tents. The land in the Old Testament was part of the promise God made to Abraham; a promise with three focal points: a. God will make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation, b. God will give them a land, and c. they will enjoy a special relationship with God. They are actually all bound up together.

The inheritance of the land that the Psalmist calls Israel to wait for is nothing less than the Kingdom of God. When they will be God’s people in God’s place living under and enjoying God’s rule.

Jesus picks up on the idea from this Psalm(11) in his sermon on the Mount as he teaches about the kingdom, how his people live with the tension of the now and not yet, as he calls them to be distinctively the people of God.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” He says. The meek person is the one who depends on God, who entrusts themselves to God. They don’t need to justify themselves they have a right view of themselves – they are sinners reliant on the grace of God and their future is secure.

What makes waiting possible amidst all the injustice? It is the conviction that God will do what he has promised and one day he will establish his kingdom where justice reigns, where we will be his people and he will be our God.

Don’t fret look to your future. Just like those in David’s day there is a danger that we look at what is around us rather than live looking to our promised future. Will we sing this song and singing it fix our eyes on God’s promises.

2. What does wise waiting looks like?
This is a wisdom psalm, it doesn’t have a clear developing argument rather it gathers together ideas and then arranges them in a Hebrew alphabetical acrostic. Wisdom is about how to live in the light of God’s revelation, it isn’t theoretical or academic but it is intensely practical. So here having called us to take up the song of waiting the Psalmist also shows us what wise waiting looks like. There are things not to do and things to do.

(1,8)Wise waiting means not fretting, not letting the injustice around about us fray away our faith, it means not becoming envious, or bitter and angry about the injustice we see.

Have you seen the programme ‘Grumpy old men’ basically a group of older TV personalities moan about everything under the sun. I discovered this week that you can now go and watch ‘Grumpy old Women’ on Tour. You sit and listen to either the men or the women and there is not just grumpiness but a bitterness about the way things have changed about perceived injustices.

The psalmist is saying don’t let the world drain away your joy and your hope, live in the light of the promises.

Positively he goes on to say that those who wait wisely will trust in God(3), they will delight in – find their joy in God, and that trust and joy will be seen in their patient waiting(7). But the call to waiting isn’t a call to inactivity, that’s not what he means when he says be still, but the righteous because they trust God are seen to be generous, content and just. Their speech is wise, they do good and they live a life of obedience to the God they are waiting for. In short they give people a glimpse of the kingdoms values now.

The wise live in direct contrast to the wicked because they know God is coming, the kingdom is theirs and that hope affects their thinking and their actions.

Am I waiting wisely? How is our hope seen?

3. How can I wait wisely?
The key to waiting wisely is trust in God. But you can only trust in God if you know him rather than just know of him.

One of our dangers is that our default setting is to think that we need to try harder. We do it on every level don’t we – playing sport if you make a mistake you try harder next time to make up for it. If its dieting and you fail to lose your target wait this week you double your efforts next week. There is a danger that we carry this across into out attitude towards God - I just need to pull my socks up.

But did you notice as we read the Psalm the Psalmist doesn’t exhort his listeners to more effort, instead he calls on them to turn to God, to understanding who God is and what he has done for them.

(39-40)The key to living wisely, to waiting without fretting isn’t our efforts it is God’s character and actions. Only when we know God and he is our delight will we be able to wait wisely.
“The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.”

Do you see what we do and what God does?

Just look at the verses again - God provides salvation, God is the stronghold – the place of security - God is the helper, deliverer and Saviour.

What does the righteous person do, what do they contribute? “they take refuge in him.” That’s it, they recognise God is the only one who can save them, that he is the only true security and they look to him not their own efforts.

The way to avoid fretting about the injustices of the world is to remind yourself of the character of God and of what he has done for his people. It is this that will enable us to fix our eyes on the hope of a coming kingdom because we know that justice will be part of that kingdom.

How is your waiting? As we look at the world around us we aren’t meant to be indifferent to the suffering, injustice and pain we see. But neither is it meant to drain us of our joy or eat away and corrode our hope leaving us bitter and angry. Instead the psalmist wants us to join in his song which focuses our gaze on God and on the kingdom which his people will inherit where they will be his people in his place enjoying his rule, where justice will reign.

The complete good news

Luke 4 and 5 are proving to be very challenging chapters as we see Jesus set out on his mission to make the good news of the kingdom of God known. That good news begin that he has come to bring freedom and the year of the Lord's favour.

We live in a world where we create a false dichotomy between words and actions, even within the church there is that debate when it comes to evangelism. With Jesus you see that there is no debate he simply engages in mission. A mission in which he speaks the words that bring freedom and that show his authority but which is also people centred and demonstrates to them what it is like to be in the kingdom.

He then goes on to call his disciples to come be fishers of men. To engage with his mission of proclamation but also of action. The call for us is to engage with those around us showing them the difference the kingdom, which we are in because of the gospel, makes. Just as Israel was God's light to the nations as they lived out their calling as a royal priesthood so it is with us. We must preach the gospel while modelling its effectiveness.