The Gospel of Matthew - Righteousness in Secret [April 26, 2026]

Good morning church. How's everyone doing this

morning? Great. It has been a beautiful weekend

for us. But welcome to the house. My name is

Alex Campbell, if we haven't met before. I'd

love to meet you. Please catch me after church.

And I am excited today to be bringing a sermon

on the Sermon on the Mount. So this is a sermon

about a sermon. Last year in the SHED we actually

were able to go through the Beatitudes and even

a portion of the Sermon on the Mount and there

was something that I read in that prep that has

really stuck with me since then and it was just

that these are the words of our Lord and Savior

like these are the words he taught to other human

beings and I think that should have a special

kind of weight when we we read and consider and

just how wonderful it is that we get to read

it over and over and over the words of Jesus

who experience life as we experience life. Not

only that, but he has a plan for how we are supposed

to experience life. And that's what the bulk

of the Sermon on the Mount is. So I'm excited

to bring some of that today. In the beginning

of the Sermon on the Mount, chapter five, verse

one, it says, now when Jesus saw the crowds,

he went up on a mountainside and sat down. So

if you could just imagine with me that you are

following this Jesus to the base of a mountainside

to sit and to find a seat to listen to what he

has to say. Now you've probably traveled quite

a distance just to get here. You probably traveled

with a group of people that you know, but as

you look around you see thousands of people that

you have no idea who they are. They're all here

to see this one guy. What is so important about

what he has to say, this Jesus of Nazareth? Well,

you like other people are hoping upon all hope

that this is the one that you've been hearing

about the one that has been preaching and healing

The one who has come to bring the kingdom of

heaven near For most of you for most of the the

Jews and the people there that primarily means

freedom from the Roman Empire So over the course

of several decades and the last several generations

the land has been taken taxes were imposed that

were burdensome. Every negative experience that

you have up to this point was at the fault of

the Roman Empire, their oppression that they

have put on you and your people. And you grew

up hearing about a time when there would be freedom

in the kingdom of God. And so everything that

you know and understand the coming of the kingdom

to you was external it was something that would

be imparted on you the same way that rome imparted

its ways on the jews but rather than be subject

to the bondage of rome you would be subjects

to whatever system the kingdom of god looked

like because for the jews that generationally

long and deeply felt experience of oppression

they were waiting for a materialistic conception

of the kingdom to change their circumstances.

If I could only just be free of this one thing,

then I would experience the freedom of the kingdom

of heaven. Then I can enjoy life. Last week,

even when we considered the Beatitudes, we found

that Jesus didn't really fulfill that expectation

right off the bat from his Sermon on the Mount.

But what he does is look at you, the thousands

of people gathered. The brokenhearted, the poor,

the weak, the sick, the hopeless, the beat down,

the crushed, the defeated, the rejected, passed

over, the forgotten, and abused. And Jesus says,

my kingdom is for you. My kingdom is for you.

My kingdom grows here. It doesn't just get by,

it thrives here among you. And he launches into

teaching, the teaching to explain the kingdom

way. And it must, man it must have been so exciting

to hear about how they would no longer be oppressed,

how they would be free, they'd have their own

land back, they'd have plenty of money, there

wouldn't be doctors you don't have to wait in

line to see. You get PTO at a higher rate, I

mean it would have been amazing. Life would have

been great. But no, he doesn't teach that, he

doesn't. He doesn't teach about an externalized

kingdom being imposed on his people. Instead,

Jesus teaches the kingdom of God is one of right

relation, enjoying people, enjoying God, and

enjoying the gift of life. Because the kingdom

of God is all about how his people live. And

so today, if you would grab a Bible and open

up to Matthew chapter six. We're going to read

verses one through 18. This is just a portion

of what Jesus teaches about his right relation.

So there are Bibles on your tables. You can take

that home if you need, or you can open up a Bible

app to follow along. Here at the house, we do

have a tradition of standing whenever the scripture

is read in the context of a sermon, just to give

our full attention. So however you're able and

willing to do that, if you would like to join

me in standing, do that now. And we're going

to read six, one through 18. We're not going

to talk about every single verse, but I just

want to read the words of Jesus's teaching over

you, even though we're not going to go into depth

on all of them. But I thought that would be important

for us today. 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 the 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 the pagans, for

they think they will be heard because of their

many words. Do not be like them, for the Father

knows what you need before you ask. This then

is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your

will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give

us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts

as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead

us not to temptation but deliver us from the

evil one. For if you forgive other people when

they sin against you, your heavenly Father will

also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others

their sins, your father will not forgive your

sins. 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 it will not be obvious to others

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. So let us

pray. God, we just thank you for the scriptures

that we have them to remind us of the good news,

to remind us of your faithfulness. Lord, be gracious

with us today and soften our hearts this morning

that we may receive the words of Jesus, our Lord

and our Savior, and may stick and become part

of the framework of our faith. And Lord, that

there would be an encouragement to live as you'd

have us live in right relation to others and

to you. Amen. May we be seated. Matthew 6 here

in this section is generally about our right

relation with God, our Father. And so when we

read righteousness, when it says practice your

righteousness, you can really substitute like

right relation, being made right with God. And

the focus of these teachings is about how we

can posture our hearts toward God. how we can

communicate and commune and participate in the

kingdom that he has. So in this section, Jesus

gives us one lesson, just one lesson. And just

make sure we like really get it. He gives us

three different examples, right? So the first

one, this is the lesson right here. 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. Jesus

here is looking beyond what you do to why you

do it. It's through this why that Jesus is introducing

a new way of righteousness. He's teaching that

our motivation should not be to be seen by other

people. He shows us that our actions, even when

right, can be tainted by the why. The means.

don't justify the ends. The means or the why

don't, I said that backwards didn't I? The ends

don't justify the means. The ends don't justify

the means, the what we do don't justify the why

we do it. I just realized that, I've read that

like 10 times this week. Glad that made sense

right now. Our right standing with God cannot

be validated by other people. This was completely

outside of what the Jews experienced though like

right at this time there were generally four

groups of leaders They were the theological leaders.

There's the Pharisees They believe things weren't

getting better because there wasn't enough faithfulness

to the mosaic law They weren't trying hard enough.

They needed they were trying to spur along that

kingdom of God Through obedience to that written

law all 613 of them in addition to a few other

ones they caught, they made up along the way.

The second group of the Sadducees, they also,

you see them a lot in the New Testament, they

thought it best to cooperate with Rome. They

thought, this is what we're in. Let me integrate

into their system. So they were integrated into

a political system. They were also priests. They

did all this to hope to maintain peace for the

people. But their position of political power

also came with wealth and left the common people

pretty frustrated that Their day -to -day was

pretty much unchanged. The third group was the

Zealots. They were a militant group. They were

attempting to overthrow the Roman Empire by force

and violence to bring about freedom and peace.

And then there were others that fled the desert

just in solitude, just waiting it out. Let me

just get out of here. Everyone else was just

kind of left. Doing what they could do live and

get by Under Roman rule under he's a under oppression

and being influenced by this group of leaders

any four of these different facets That they

chose to follow their own way of attempting to

follow God and bring about the kingdom of God

When Jesus came the people didn't quite know

it then he was preparing to their hearts to accept

a new covenant of grace Where the terms of the

relationship would be a little bit different?

And this new covenant is no longer a written

law where righteousness is dependent on obedience.

That's the Mosaic Law. Instead, the law would

be written on our hearts and on our minds. And

our hearts represent our desires, our wants.

And our minds are just like the filter through

which we understand and experience all things.

His word says that they would be written on our

hearts and our minds. And he teaches our righteousness

is determined by the submission of our hearts

rather than just the submission of our actions.

So this new covenant Jesus is bringing, he brings

it while staying faithful to the old covenant.

He did what the Israelites could not and what

we are unable to do is that he obeyed the law.

He fulfilled the whole law. while also wholly

demonstrating the intent of the law all along

was to change our hearts, our internal being,

our relationship with God. And the difference

in this teaching is toward our motivation. Who

gets the glory? Who gets the glory? So we're

going to dive into these three examples to provide

more shape to what it is to actually look like

in our lives because Jesus has some pretty specific

examples of how the kingdom of heaven operates

in this world. So the first, they're titled in

my Bible, these three, the first one is giving

to the needy. So it says, 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 the reward in full, but when you

give to the needy, do not let your left hand

know what your right hand is doing, so your giving

may be in secret, then your father who sees what

is done is secret, or is, will reward you. So

the straightforward understanding of this is

simply just not to boast about your giving, right?

Do what you're gonna do, right? But, you know,

you should probably, probably should leave your

trumpet at home. and not bring it with you, but.

All right. Yeah, thank you, here. Adley, I present

you with this dollar. Thank you, thank you. Yeah,

yeah, let's hear it. Yeah, yeah. I think most

of you would probably agree that. Yeah, you can

keep that, keep it. Most of us can agree that

self -promoting boastfulness is not very attractive,

right? As cool as this thing looks. This happens

all the time, not necessarily with trumpets,

but we find that people either loudly boast about

their accomplishments or sometimes, even worse,

kind of subtly slip it into conversations as

off -putting, right? Yes, you can find it all

over the media, but you can find it within the

church too, and you can probably find it within

yourself. No, I don't carry this around with

me, but what's the difference of me providing

money and clothing to a family in need and then

coming and sharing what I've done as a testimony

to what God has provided? Jesus says to not even

let your left hand know what your right hand

is doing because If that left hand sees what

your right hand is doing something good, it's

gonna it's gonna want that applause, right? It's

gonna clap and say hey you done great job You've

done something righteous But in the same way

if my left hand can see what my right hand is

doing something that's gonna harm me It's gonna

don't do that. It's gonna try to prevent me from

doing something detrimental But our right actions,

our actions are not determined by what is right

and wrong, by how it may positively or negatively

affect us. But this is our instinct, right? Our

instinct is self preservation and self promotion.

We often choose what is right by whether we can

afford it. We say giving this amount of money

is judged as righteous. as long as I can afford

it. Giving this amount of time is righteous for

as long as I can fit it in my schedule. Engaging

in this friendship is righteous as long as it

doesn't drain me. Pursuing this vision is righteous

as long as I enjoy it and it doesn't get hard,

as long as I can handle it, as long as it doesn't

interrupt my time, as long as I feel safe, as

long as and as long as. The righteousness of

God is not concerned with the question, what

do I gain? What does this cost me? Because righteousness

has been determined by the grace of our Father

through our faith in Jesus. Righteousness is

determined by the grace of our Father. Not by

what we do, but what He has done. Not from fear

of losing out, not from Fear of falling behind

or being misrepresented. In fact, even last week

we read in the Beatitudes, blessed are those

who are persecuted because of righteousness.

Righteousness is not determined by how it may

negatively affect us. Paul writes later, specifically

discussing disagreements between two believers,

he says, why not rather be wronged? Why not rather

be cheated? If it's going to affect your heart

posture, your right relationship with God, and

particularly around today's ongoing discussion

of our wellbeing, this isn't about being unwise

or self -destructive, right? Even in following

the example of Jesus, look at his life, there

is rest, there are times of friends and gatherings,

and there's times of seclusion, and there are

times of eating and weddings. Looking at Jesus'

life demonstrates unlimited generosity. Because

this is how Jesus lived. He lived that when he

was tired, he had compassion. When he was angry,

he was not hurtful. When he was questioned, he

was patient. And all these things culminated

into his death. But his motivation was pleasing

his father so that we might be saved. So when

he says, Do not let your left hand know what

your right hand is doing. He's saying don't even

announce your good deeds to yourself. Don't keep

a record of your righteousness. Later, Paul writes

to the Corinthians that love keeps no records

of wrongs. Here, Jesus is saying keep no records

of even your good things. Why is this? Why would

you need a record? The only reason we need a

record is to show and approve to another person

what we've done. Look what I've done. Jesus says

you don't have to justify your righteousness

to anyone. Don't keep receipts. In doing so,

you can guard your heart against pride because

even if the other people don't know what you've

done, you know. You know what you've done. And

letting those records... But even the good things

live in your memory as how humility is squashed

because you will always be better than someone

else. You will always be able to say, at least

I've done this. But you don't need to because

your father sees. Your father sees you. He does

not need you to present your own record of good

things. Your father sees you. Your father does

not need pestering to look at you. Your father

does not need shouting to turn his ear towards

you. Your father does not need fanfare to enjoy

you. Your father sees you. Can we just say that

together? Can we just say, my father sees me?

Your father sees you, you don't need a list.

Yeah, take a breath. shredding some mental file

cabinets, perhaps, but. Okay, the second example,

he gives us his prayer. Now it was common for

certain individuals to publicly pray, not to

where people could see, but so that they couldn't

not see, right? It was in a manner that was loud,

it was in the synagogues, it was on the street

corners, it drew a crowd, and it probably included

like some grand, but probably general admission

of guilt. It sounded nice. The words they used

were elegant. It became the norm and expectation,

but not only that, it became the standard of

righteousness. This is what true faith looks

like. That guy on the corner that's praying,

man, if I were only as faithful to God as that

guy. The words he says, the way that he just

bears his heart towards God. These are the people

being held in high esteem. And I wonder, too,

if we become so enamored by the appearance of

things that are right and good and holy because

of how good they sound. Like, do you have someone

in life that you might envy their appearance

of faith? Maybe it's warranted. Maybe that word,

appearance, isn't necessarily what's on the inside.

But I what I am convinced is that our faith our

relationship with God is the most vulnerable

thing about us It is the most vulnerable thing

about us because it can be so difficult to share

joys Let alone the struggles and the questions

and the doubts that when we share those things

we feel like we're really just opened up and

It's so vulnerable to share that but our prayer

is that communion with God where our hearts are

laid bare and yet we have people on the corners

displaying that for applause. This is the very

point that Jesus draws our attention to. Your

father sees you, yes, and knows your heart before

you even pray a word. And here we see that shift

from the action to the motivation. Whose eyes

are you hoping to be on, right? Whose eyes are

you hoping to get? Is it other people? The third

example here is fasting, and a more general consideration

is what we would call mortifying the flesh. This

is just ways to remind ourselves that we are

human, that we are fragile, that our total dependence

is on God. And it says, when you fast, do not

look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure

their faces to show others that they are fasting.

So just like all the other examples, right? One

lesson, three examples. What was happening was

the seeking of attention and then ultimately

acceptance from other people. They were saying,

hey, look how righteous I am. Look at how good

I am at following God. They were looking to be

seen. But who sees you? Your father. Your father

sees you. Instead, when we fast, when we practice

ways to remind us of our physical dependence

on God, Like, hey, my stomach's going to growl.

But am I, like, who sustains me? God sustains

me. In that discomfort, in that discomfort, we

should be seeking comfort from our Father in

heaven and not the acceptance of other people.

These three examples we have read are about giving

to the needy, prayer and fasting. In each of

these three examples, what was the issue? Was

it the practice itself? Our motivation, yes.

You know, it wasn't the action itself. Jesus

doesn't say stop giving to the poor. He doesn't

say stop praying. He doesn't say stop fasting.

It's quite the opposite. He assumes all three

of these things are regular practices in our

faith. What was common in these three stories

are other people, right? They're kind of portrayed

as the antagonist, right? Like if I can just

remove them from the equation, then we'll be

good. There's no one here to witness what I'm

doing. There's no opportunity for praise. There's

no temptation to seek their approval. This is

why Jesus says to practice righteousness in secret,

right? Yes, but also just removing people from

the equation misses the point, right? Like changing

our external circumstances is not the solution

to righteousness. It is not the solution to a

righteous heart, to right relationship. with

God. I don't know if you've heard of the Jesus

for President movement. It's kind of been cycled

through the last several election cycles, and

I get it. Jesus for President sounds nice just

for immediate circumstances, but it also sounds

nice theologically, right? Like Jesus is our

King. He should be in charge. He should be setting

the rules. That's what the Bible says, right?

But this is what the Jews were anticipating.

It was largely the expectation that the kingdom

of God for the Jews, that Jesus would come and

change their external circumstances. That is

freedom from Rome, freedom from this, freedom

from this, so that I can be free to enjoy God.

But Jesus comes to show that the kingdom of God

is a way of living. It's how we do it, why we

do it. not just what we do. It is not externally

imposed. It is to be internally restored and

lived out in the flesh. It is turning our hearts

to the face of our Father. It is writing the

kingdom of heaven on our hearts and our minds

and we are meant to enjoy God amidst even the

toughest of circumstances. So when Jesus comes,

he opposes those four leader groups. His teaching

is distinctive from the Pharisees, that he begins

to remove barriers so that all can access the

Father, rather than just saying, just try harder.

It is distinctive from the Sadducees in that

he did not seek status or position to bring restoration

to people. It's quite the opposite, he sought

relatively quiet life. We don't know much of

his life before he started preaching. is distinctive

from the zealots and that he promoted peace and

taught to love your enemies. And it was distinctive

from those that fled to the desert because he

stayed with the people and shared in their experiences.

Living the kingdom way it looks different. It's

thrusting your identity solely on who Jesus is

because you have no record of how good you are.

No record of giving no record of how many times

you've prayed or how good that prayer sounded

or whether that prayer worked Whether it was

answered in the way that you hoped there's no

record of you denying your flesh and fasting

It is a total rejection of self -preservation

rejection of self -promotion Because all we have

is Jesus and what he's done and what he has done

is fulfill the written law and still paid the

punishment of death And that death on the cross,

that is the grace that grants us right relation

with our Father. It is not of our own doing.

There's nothing that we have done that earns

that right relation. It is Jesus who has fulfilled

the law and has granted us presence with the

Father and are imitating Jesus who holistically

relied on his Father for acceptance. It's no

longer obey so that you can be with God, but

instead your father sees you obey him. So do

you practice righteousness to be seen by other

human beings or in a way as to not bring attention

to yourself? Do you know that your father sees

you? That your father sees you, that the kingdom

of heaven is to be lived out here on earth? Where

obedience is no longer a duty but is a joy an

expression of who we really are as image bearers

of God because Jesus came to make that right

relationship He came to make a right relationship

For us a regular practice and it's an instinctive

way of living And your reward your reward is

what we've read is the everlasting presence of

your father in heaven