Pleasing to the Father Matthew 6:1-18 How Well Do You Understand
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Pleasing to the Father Matthew 6:1-18 How well do you understand Christianity? “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.” – J. I. Packer (Evangelical Magazine 7, pp. 19-20) Understanding the Triune Nature of God To call God Father also takes us to the heart of the Christian understanding of God as Triune— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The biblical teaching on the Trinity embodies four essential affirmations: 1. There is one and only one true and living God. 2. God eternally exists in three persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 3. These three persons are completely equal in attributes, each with the same divine nature. 4. While each person is fully and completely God, the persons are not identical. The differences among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are found in the way they relate to one another and the role each plays in accomplishing their unified purpose. This truth about God can be seen throughout the Bible, but comes to its fullest expression in and through the ministry of Jesus. At Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:13-17, the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus and a voice speaks from the clouds, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” In Matthew 28:19, the church’s mission of making disciples includes baptizing believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1:3-14, God the Father plans our salvation in eternity past, God the Son accomplished our salvation through His death and resurrection, and God the Spirit applying this redemptive work to our hearts. “They are not three roles played by one person (that is modalism), nor are they three gods in a cluster (that is tritheism); the one God (“he”) is also, and equally, “they,” and “they” are always together and always cooperating, with the Father initiating, the Son complying, and the Spirit executing the will of both, which is his will also.” – J. I. Packer We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity; we distinguish among the persons, but we do not divide the substance. … The entire three persons are co-eternal and co-equal with one another, so that … we worship complete unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. – Athanasian Creed (c. 500 AD) What about poor earthly fathers? However, I also realize to see God as Father can be hard for some. The character of God provides the best foundation for understanding fatherhood—fathers should be gentle and compassion, protectors, providers, loving, patient and yet consistent in discipline, faithful to instruct and exhort to walk in truth and wisdom. If you are like me, this was not your experience. For some there are wounds we still bear when it comes to our earthly fathers. Let me encourage you today to measure your earthly father by the vision of God as our heavenly Father, not the other way around. My earthly father was deeply flawed—didn’t take responsibility of me until I was four—three years with my biological mother, 1 year in foster care, when on to be twice married & twice divorced. My senior year I came home from work one night to the news of my dad and stepmom getting a divorce. I went out to my car opened up my Bible and began to read. I came to this verse: For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. - Psalm 27:10 God as Father in Matthew 6:1-18 In these 18 verses, we see God called “Father” 9 different times (6:1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 18). Compares this with the 3 times “Father” is used in all of chapter 5 (5:16, 45, 48). Knowing God as Father is evident throughout the Sermon on the Mount, but it is especially highlighted in our passage today. “Often called the charter of God’s kingdom, this sermon could equally well be described as the royal family code, for the thought of the disciple’s sonship to God is basic to all the main issues of Christian obedience with which the Sermon deals.” – J. I. Packer So far in the Sermon on the Mount, we have seen that: - We are to glorify our heavenly Father through our witness in the world as salt and light (5:14-16) - We are to imitate our heavenly Father in showing generous and gracious love over personal retaliation and animosity (5:38-48) - We are to please our heavenly Father through living wholly devoted to Him (6:1-18) Being spiritually devout does not make one a Christian. You can go to church, be morally upright, give generously, pray regularly, and even practice some form of fasting, and not be a Christian. So, what is a Christian? A Christian is someone who at some point in their life turned from their sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ, believing that his death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead was sufficient for forgiveness and eternal life. Anyone who has experienced this cannot stay the same. God changes us from the inside out and we begin to live our lives devoted to God. As a Christian, one of our greatest desires to live in a manner that is pleasing to the Father. This is exactly what our passage is going to talk about today. How can we live in a manner that is pleasing to God the Father? Matthew 6:1-18 shows us that when it comes to pleasing the Father motive matters. Why you do what you do is as important as what you do. I want to draw out two main points from this passage. Verse 1 is the sermon in summary from. Jesus then applies this truth to the three key practices of the Jewish faith—giving, praying, and fasting (6:2-18). In each section, Jesus follows a similar pattern. 1. We please the Father when we fight against seeking the attention and approval of others in our spiritual devotion – 6:1, 2, 5, 16 He begins with this warning, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” (6:1) “Beware” – Pay close attention, make sure you that you don’t do this. This is a serious warning. It should be heeded by every follower of Christ. Do you see where he addresses the issue of motive? Don’t practice your righteousness—this is righteous living, spiritual devotion—before others in order to be seen by them. Spiritual devotion motived by garnering attention and approval of others. It is surprisingly challenging to keep our good deeds to ourselves. Throughout this passage, Jesus calls seeking attention and approval from others “hypocrisy.” Originally, a “hypocrite” was an actor who wore a mask in a Greek or Roman play. The actors performed on stage to the approval and delight of their audience. “Hypocrite” today often means someone who doesn’t practice what they preach. Here; however, it is being used to describe appearing one way but being something else in reality. It is the inversion of priorities—longing for the outward approval of others, we neglect the inward devotion to God. If we are to please the Father, we must fight against this tendency and temptation towards seeking the attention and the approval of others. Listen to Isaiah 29:13, as God describes Israel as “people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.” Their outward spiritual practice was not marked by an inward spiritual devotion. Hypocrisy – “the cruel combination of publicly motivated actions that are out of sync with our inner realities and the self-deceit that masks that reality from the person doing the deeds.” (McKnight) So, the hypocrite is motivated by the attention and approval of others… - Verse 2 – “sound the trumpet before you…in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.” - Verse 5 – “they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.” - Verse 16 – “they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.” What the outcome of all this? [Clapping] 3x – in relation to giving, praying, and fasting – Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” (6:2, 5, 16) The word used for “have received” was a technical term for a financial transaction in Greek at this time…‘provide a receipt for a sum paid in full. How do you know you’re seeking the approval of man in your spiritual devotion… - Grumbling or complaining when your actions/service aren’t noticed - Envy and jealousy when others are noticed/given credit - Entitlement based upon how much you’ve helped, given, or served We need to get rid of the self-calculating nature of our spiritual devotion.