In Secret | Summer on the Mount | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon

series, Summer on the Mount, where we are diving

into Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, a collection

of some of Jesus' most challenging teachings.

And today we are looking at what Jesus has to

say about some spiritual practices. Giving and

praying and fasting, these are all really good

things. But what if we're not doing them in a

good way? What if our motivation isn't quite

right? This is what Jesus is going to speak to

you today. And so let's listen in as our guest

preacher, Justin Stratus, takes us through this

passage. Today's reading is from Matthew chapter

Matthew 6:1–8

6, verses 1 to 8, and 16 to 18. Be careful not

to practice your righteousness in front of others,

to be seen by them. If you do, you will have

no reward from your Father in heaven. 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 others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward

in full. But when you give to the needy, do not

let your left hand know what your right hand

is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

Then your father, who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you. 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 others. Truly, I tell you, they have

received their reward in full. 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. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling

like pagans, for they think they will be heard

because of their many words. Do not be like them,

for your father knows what you need before you

ask him. Verse 16. When you fast, do not look

somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure

their faces to show others they are fasting.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward

in full. But when you fast, Put oil on your head

and wash your face so that it will not be obvious

to others so that you're fasting, but only to

your Father who is unseen. And your Father who

sees what is done in secret will reward you.

The word of the Lord. Great. Good morning, everyone.

My name is Justin. I'm one of the parishioners

here at the church. And I'm also the preacher,

as you can tell from this jacket I'm wearing

in the middle of August. So it's an honor to

be here. I'm also excited because I found this

pulpit, which is really cool. Now I can pound

it when I make a point. Let's pray. Lord, we

believe. Help thou our unbelief. Amen. Now I

wonder if anyone ever told you to do something

that was fundamentally impossible to do. I don't

mean something literally impossible like go pick

up that Dodge Ram or jump across Niagara Falls

or something like that. I mean something that

is logically impossible. I'm thinking here of

when your boss tells you that he or she wants

you to take more initiative at work but to check

in with them before you do anything. Or when

a police officer yells, freeze, put up your hands.

Or my personal favorite, stand down. Like I could

never figure out what that meant. Well, in the

Sermon on the Mount, sometimes it seems like

Jesus is giving his disciples just this kind

of contradictory command. Well, what do I mean

by this? Well, as Rob's been teaching us these

past few weeks, the Sermon on the Mount, is a

lot about Jesus ramping up the demands of discipleship

to these crazy high levels. I mean, Jesus literally

tells his disciples in chapter 5, verse 48, that

they have to be perfect. That's the demand of

Christian discipleship. You need to be perfect.

How perfect? Well, as perfect as God, God's self.

Now to be fair, that command was not entirely

original to Jesus. If you read the book of Leviticus,

you'll see that the ancient Hebrews too were

commanded by God to be holy as I am holy. So

it wasn't an entirely new command, but what Jesus

is doing in the Sermon on the Mount is elevating

the demands of perfection, the demands of holiness

beyond what was laid out even in the Old Testament.

So don't just avoid cheating on your spouse.

Don't even look at someone with lust in your

heart. Don't just refrain from murdering people.

Don't even get angry. Don't just try to have

the most ethically acceptable divorce. Don't

get divorced at all. Don't be zealous for justice.

Forgo justice in order to show your enemies a

better way. And why are we going to do all these

radical acts of discipleship, acts which surpass

even the highest demands of the Jewish law? Well,

Jesus says, you're going to live this way in

this radical form of obedience so that people

will see your good deeds, see your good deeds

and glorify your father in heaven. Right? So

the demand from Jesus seems to be something.

I want you to be so perfect, so holy, so righteous

that the world is going to take notice. In other

words, I want you to shine. Okay, so far, so

good. But then we get to today's passage in chapter

6, verse 1, where Jesus says the following. Be

careful not to practice your righteousness in

front of others to be seen by them. If you do,

you'll have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Okay, so one side of mouth, don't hide your light

under a bushel. Other side of mouth, make sure

no one sees your light. Or how about the world

is going to see how righteous you are and praise

God. But just make sure no one sees your righteous

deeds. Freeze and put your hands in the air.

All right, so Jesus, which one is it? Do I let

my light shine before people or do I do all my

righteousness in private? Are my good deeds kind

of like landing lights which are guiding my neighbors

to Jesus? Or are they more like blinding flashes

which distract others? As they're trying to figure

out how to make their way to God. Okay, so I'm

doing a preacher thing right now, right? I'm

presenting a contradiction which you probably

already figured out a way out of. And I respect

you. So let's just get it out in the open, right?

Jesus is not really saying, don't practice your

righteousness so that no one ever sees them.

They should be completely hidden. What he's saying,

is that our motivation for doing good shouldn't

be so that we're praised and seen by other people.

In other words, Jesus is teaching his disciples

about the importance of having right intentions

alongside the right actions. And that's, of course,

a very important lesson. And it's something that

I think people of all faiths or no faiths at

all would be happy to endorse, right? There's

really not a pro -hypocrite movement in the world.

But I think there's more to the story here. Now,

one thing that's important to remember when you're

encountering Jesus' teachings is this. Jesus

is not just kind of a moral sage who's going

around doling out life lessons on how to be a

better person. Jesus is not the first century

version of a wellness podcaster. No, when it

comes to Jesus, you can't ever separate the things

that he says from who he is. And so his teachings

are always more than just moral lessons, even

when it sounds straightforwardly like he's just

telling you this good, this bad. It's always

more than that. Jesus' teachings invite us to

live in an entirely new world, a world that's

centered on and determined by And presided over

by Jesus Christ himself. And that's the whole

point of the Beatitudes. You know, blessed are

the meek and all that stuff. They're not general

principles of life. Even though sometimes they're

presented that way. Those blessings paint a picture

of a different kind of reality. With a different

set of rules. It shows us a world where the first

shall be last. and the last shall be first, where

Jesus reigns to the glory of the Father with

all those united to him by the Spirit. I mean,

it's a picture of the kingdom of heaven. That's

what the Sermon on the Mount is. It's a picture

of the kingdom. So the question we should ask,

even here, is this. Why should Jesus' disciples

avoid hypocrisy? Why? Why does it matter what

Jesus' followers' motivations are? for doing

good? What is it about the kingdom of heaven?

What is it about Jesus that demands this kind

of life, this kind of discipleship? And so Jesus

is going to explain all this to us by referring

to three very common, very standard Jewish practices

of religious piety. Three practices that nearly

everyone at the time would have readily acknowledged

as being straightforwardly good. And they are

almsgiving or charitable giving, prayer, and

fasting. It's like he's picking three normal,

good, uncontroversial things. Now, if you were

a Hellenistic Jew living in the first century,

and you knew someone who was pretty faithful

in doing all three of these things, you would

have likely and very reasonably considered that

person to be righteous. That is, someone who

lived the way they were supposed to live. They

weren't in rebellion to God, but were trying

to live according to all of God's precepts as

listed in the Old Testament. And you probably

really wouldn't judge this person for doing all

this stuff in public. Because the three things

that Jesus mentions, they were all very public

practices. So giving to charity, praying and

fasting, these are all things... that people

regularly did in front of other people. In other

words, back in the first century, there wasn't

really such a thing as private religion. You

know, we think, keep your religion in private.

That wasn't the way things are back then. It's

probably not the way things are in most of the

world. Religious stuff back then just was stuff

you did out in the open, in public, for everyone

to see. In fact, you'd probably assume that if

you saw someone praying out in the streets, As

Jesus says, they were really, really righteous.

Not only because they're praying, but because

they're kind of reminding everyone else to pray.

Think of like a prime minister or a president

who puts on a high -vis jacket and goes to help

the cleanup after like a wildfire or something.

They're doing it for the cameras, obviously.

But what are they doing? They're raising awareness,

right? They're lending their support. They're

encouraging others to help out. So that's not

really so bad. But Jesus is going to push things

further, as he consistently does in this sermon.

He pushes things to a deeper level. Look what

he says in verses 2 to 4. Can we get that next

slide? There it is. He says, when you give to

the needy, don't announce it with trumpets, as

the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the

streets. to be honored by others. Truly, I tell

you, they've received their reward in full, but

when you give to the needy, don't let your left

hand know what your right hand is doing so that

your giving may be in secret. Then your Father,

who knows what's done in secret, will reward

you. All right, so let's unpack this a little

bit. First of all, hopefully it goes without

saying that Jesus is still obviously pretty keen

on the idea of giving to the needy, right? He

says, when you give, not if you give. But Jesus

is also upending something here. And you got

to understand a little bit more from the culture.

In the ancient world, the world that Jesus is

speaking into, when someone gave a gift, it's

normal to assume that the giver is going to get

something back, right? That might seem counterintuitive

to us because for us, a gift is always free.

But in the ancient world, gifts were about establishing

relationships. So you give something to someone,

and they're going to reciprocate in some way.

So for example, if I gave you a house to live

in, it would be expected that maybe you'd be

giving me a share of your crops, your harvest,

every year. Or if I'm an emperor, and I build

like a giant sports stadium in your region, then

maybe the people that live in that region are

going to start sending soldiers for the emperor's

war campaign in the future. But what do you do

when the people that you're giving to have absolutely

nothing to give back? Right? What happens when

the recipient of your gift is just too poor to

reciprocate or give anything in return? Well,

you might think to yourself, Even though this

poor person can't reciprocate my charity, at

the very least I can get something from someone

else. And that thing is honor. Public honor.

And when you think about it in the context of

the ancient world, that doesn't seem like too

much to ask. It makes you actually seem pretty

good, right? I'm giving to a poor person with

no expectation of them giving anything back to

me. All I ask is that you kind of give me a brief...

Round of applause while I do it, if you see me

doing it. Jesus says, look, I want you to give

to the poor. But when you do it, I want you to

ask yourself a very important question. And the

question is this. Whose honor do you care the

most about? Whose honor is most valuable to you?

If you want the applause of your peers, that's

fine. You can have it. But if that's what you

really want, you're going to miss out on something

more valuable. It's the same calculus that Jesus

offers us in the Beatitudes. It's the choice

that he's laying before all of us in this sermon.

Would you like to be first now, or would you

like to be first later? You can be first now,

Jesus says. but it's going to cost you being

last in the kingdom of heaven. Likewise, you

can be last now, and some people, he says, are

last now not because of their own choice. Some

people are just poor. You can be last now, but

what you'll gain in the kingdom of heaven is

a seat at the head of the table. Now, some of

you know that I work in downtown, Toronto. It's

this city kind of to the east of us, if you haven't

seen it. And because I work in downtown Toronto,

it means I've spent a lot of time sitting in

my car on various highways in standstill traffic.

And when you sit in traffic on a daily basis,

you start to notice things. You start to notice

interesting billboards and kind of funky stores,

places where you can go indoor skydiving. You

start to notice colorful school buses sitting

on top of buildings. You know, normal Toronto

stuff. When I see the NIDA Hyundai I'm Your Guy

billboard, I know that I'm about 45 minutes away

from work. I love that guy. He's so happy. But

there's one sign I've been seeing on my commute

for the past couple of months that's always caught

my attention. It happens to hang on the side

of St. Joseph's Health Center, which is a teaching

hospital just off the Queensway. I'm going to

show you this. There it is. So that's... A bloke

by the name of Peter Gilgan. I don't know if

you've heard of him. I'll read it for you. If

you can't see it, it says, Peter Gilgan's historic

$60 million investment is helping build a new

St. Joe's. Let's build on it. And that's like

the length of the building, almost. So Peter

Gilgan, who's that guy? He runs this kind of

mom -and -pop contracting outfit called Mattamy

Homes. Do I have any particular problem with

Mr. Gilgan? Not really. I actually live in one

of his houses, and it's nice, I guess. And am

I glad that this hospital, which probably saves

a lot of lives and lots of people, got a $60

million cash injection? Yeah, I guess. I mean,

I don't know too much about the hospital, but

I'd say, yeah, that's probably a really good

thing. And do I think that Mr. Gilgan should

be acknowledged and applauded for his generous

gift? Sure. In fact, Mr. Gilgan, here's your

reward, a gigantic poster of your face that I

and all other commuters get to look at while

enjoying our stay on the Gardner Expressway.

So I hope you can hear our applause. Now, I'm

bringing this up only by way of example. I don't

know... Much about this Gilgan fellow other than

he can build a neighborhood in like six months

and obviously has an intoxicating smile. Right?

So I don't want to tear him down specifically,

at least in the context of this sermon. But what

an illustration, right, of what Jesus is talking

about here. You can have your reward now. You

can get your mug on a gigantic poster. If you

want, you can do it. But, listen, there's going

to come a time, probably by the end of the summer

even maybe, where this poster is going to come

down. It's not going to be there forever. When

you do your good deeds, Jesus says, I want you

to give your charity not to get a poster. I don't

want you to gain the applause of the masses.

I want you to do this for an audience of one.

For God. And then you'll get a reward that will

last forever. Because you'll receive it in a

kingdom that will last forever. If we were to

go on in this passage, Jesus talks about storing

up treasures in heaven. Right? You have treasures

on earth. Thieves can come and take them. Moths

and vermin can destroy them. But if you have

a treasure in heaven, it lasts forever. They

won't take your poster down. Now as for prayer.

Which Jesus treats in Matthew chapter 6 verses

Matthew 6:5–15

5 through 15. Well, Pastor Kyla is going to give

us a bit more about that in a few weeks. But

very briefly, let's see. It's pretty much the

same pattern. Jesus says, when you pray, don't

be like the hypocrites. They love to pray standing

in the synagogues and on the street corners to

be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they've

received their reward in full. But when you pray,

go to your room. Close the door. Pray to your

Father who's unseen. Then your Father who sees

what's done in secret will reward you. Again,

just to be clear, praying in public, even praying

on the street, was not an odd thing to do. Right?

Back in the first century. And even standing

up to pray was a pretty common practice. Right?

We think of praying as sort of getting on your

knees and clasping your hands. But back then,

standing to pray, normal. So what Jesus is criticizing

here is not public prayer or prayer with other

people. What he's worried about, again, is your

motivation. The presumption that you can kind

of wear your piety, your religion, like a badge

of honor to receive the praise of others. Which

is ridiculous, right? Because prayer isn't a

show of piety. Prayer is not a show of exceptional

religiousness. Prayer, when done right, is a

sign of absolute desperation. It's a sign of

trust in God. It's an admission that you have

nothing in yourself, that you're completely relying

on God. Prayer should be done with the heart

of King Jehoshaphat. Remember him? He was a king

of Judah back in the day. He was surrounded by

all these Gentile armies. They're about to take

down the kingdom of Judah. And he has this great

prayer where he prays to God and it ends, with

him saying this, God, we have no power. We have

no power to face this vast army that's attacking

us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are

on you. We don't know what to do. We don't deserve

your care. We don't deserve your aid. Nevertheless,

we are praying that you would give it to us.

Likewise, Jesus says prayer is not something

that we're going to do to impress God. You don't

need to say the right words in the right combination

or convince God that you really, really, really,

really mean it when you ask for something. No,

Jesus actually says, right, your father knows

what you need before you ask him. In other words,

your need is not new information to God. In fact,

a simple prayer, prayed by yourself, In the darkness

of your bedroom, without fancy words or even

folded hands, is all you really need. Because

what makes prayer effective is not you, not your

performance, certainly not your own righteousness,

but it's the grace of God, your Father, which

you already have in Christ. You already have

the benevolence of God, and God already knows

your need. So you can chill. When you pray. And

lastly, Jesus speaks about fasting. Jesus says

this. When you fast, don't look somber as the

hypocrites do. For they disfigure their faces

to show others they're fasting. Truly, I tell

you, they've received their reward in full. But

when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your

face. So that it will not be obvious to others

that you're fasting, but only to your Father

who's unseen. And your Father who sees what's

done in secret will reward you. Now the logic

here is pretty much the same as prayer. What

is fasting? It's refraining from eating food

so that your mind can be focused on something

more important. So that you're not being sort

of led around by your material desires. That

you can desire something else, which is God.

Jesus, of course, fasted for 40 days in the desert.

The Bible is full of examples of God's people

fasting as a sign of repentance and devotion

to God. What fasting is not, though, again, is

a sign of super spiritualness. And it's not something

that you're going to do to impress God enough

that he will hear your prayers. If you don't

believe me, read Isaiah chapter 58, which is

Isaiah 58 · chapter mention

the prophet's gigantic screed saying, you guys

are fasting, but you're neglecting the poor.

I'd rather you served the poor and stopped fasting.

You're not impressing God with these things.

Like prayer, fasting is an admission of need.

It's an act of desperation. So to turn a sign

of desperation intended for God into some kind

of public sign of personal virtue is a vast misunderstanding.

It's like when a celebrity goes on a talk show

to demand that they get their privacy back. Right?

It kind of defeats the point. Right? So now you

should be getting the idea, right? You can be

praised for your good deeds either by God or

by people. Now, if you choose people, you're

going to get a reward. But it's going to fade.

If you choose God, your reward will last forever.

As Jesus says in the final flourish of the Sermon

on the Mount, if you're wise, you're going to

build your house on something that will last.

Right? The rock. You won't build your house on

something that will wash away, which is sand.

So I'm coming into land. I want to draw your

attention to one interesting detail in something

that we saw already. Something that Jesus says

in chapter 6, verses 3 through 4. He says, when

you give to the needy, don't let your left hand

know what your right hand is doing, so that your

giving may be in secret. Now I said earlier,

right, that when you're dealing with Jesus' teachings,

They're not just moral lessons. They're much,

much more than that. They are invitations to

a new world. So what is Jesus teaching us about

himself as the revealer of this new world in

the context of this command? Well, I think it's

this. When you do good deeds, giving, praying,

fasting, anything really, not only are you to

avoid the praise of others, It's also important

that you don't praise yourself. Isn't that interesting?

He's imagining you as an audience for your own

good deeds. You applauding yourself. You can

perform good deeds sometimes, not only to impress

others, but to impress yourself. And we do this

for a variety of reasons. Oftentimes it's just

to make us... Feel good, right? We feel nervous

about our place in the world. Am I good enough?

Am I strong enough? Do I have enough faith? Am

I righteous enough? Well, look at all these things

I'm doing. Surely I'm a good person. This is

all the money I gave. This is how much I pray.

This is how much I fast. I'm a good person. Well,

I want to let you in on something. I think this

is really the point of the whole sermon on the

mount. A lot of the sermon is about Jesus trying

to say, what makes his disciples different from

other kinds of religious people? What are my

disciples like that makes them pick -outable?

The answer to the question, what makes Jesus'

disciples different from other people, is not

Jesus' disciples do more good deeds. Jesus' disciples

are more holy. They're more righteous than other

people. That is clearly not true. Right? It's

clearly not true. I mean, there's lots of people

in this world that do good things. And lots of

them are not followers of Jesus. Right? That's

not the thing that makes us different. What makes

Jesus' disciples different is that they are relying

on Jesus. As the engine which drives these good

deeds. We rely on Jesus to make us righteous.

Knowing that it's only in following Jesus, by

sticking with him, that we're going to gain entry

into this new world that Jesus is describing.

This new world whose shape and culture is described

all throughout Jesus' teachings. In fact, true

righteousness, according to the New Testament,

is not the building up of yourself. It's not

becoming a better person. True righteousness,

the scriptures teach us, is death to yourself.

And new life, which is given freely in Christ.

It's not the purification of oneself. It's not

the enhancement of oneself. It's not even the

humbling of oneself. It's the death. of oneself.

It's throwing in your lot with Jesus Christ.

Not with this world, not with yourself, not with

any community or any ideal, with Jesus himself.

Because it's only a person who's died and been

raised with Christ who can do good deeds with

the kind of purity of heart that Jesus is demanding

here in the Sermon on the Mount. It's only that

kind of person who can give to the poor In such

a way that even one's own self, let alone the

watching world, will praise God for that and

not oneself for doing such a thing. Only a person

who's died and has been raised to life with Christ

can pray, not with the confidence of the righteous

person. The confidence of the person who says,

I live so virtuously that God will pay attention

to my prayers. No, a person who's died to self

and has been risen with Christ prays with the

desperate heart of a tax collector who beats

his breast and says what? God have mercy on me.

I'm a sinner. So at the risk of undermining everything

I've said, I want to pray in front of you all.

And it's very simple. Lord Jesus, we can't be

these kind of disciples. We can't rise to this

standard that you give us in this sermon. We

can't pray. We can't fast. We can't be generous

with the kind of pure hearts that you have. But

we want to do this through your spirit, individually

and especially as a church community at Trinity.

We want to do it through the mercies of God,

the mercies of God which we need. And all of

this, all of this that we do, Is for you. Amen.