Why Care?
Matthew 6:1-4
The Sermon on the Mount is the longest recorded teaching of Jesus in the NT, the most widely quoted and the best known, which includes the Lord’s Prayer. Many Christians say the Sermon on the Mount contains the central tenets of the Christian life. In this Sermon, Jesus’ addresses the problem of hypocrisy in the faith. The Greek word for hypocrite means stage actor. In other words, it’s impersonating somebody you’re not, pretending to be someone on the outside that you’re not on the inside. But hypocrites aren’t relegated to Jesus’ day alone. We must admit that we, as God’s people, throughout history, and even today, have not been God’s best advertisement at times. If we’re honest, there’s some hypocrisy in all of us. The modern notion of a hypocrite is someone who says one thing but does another, a person who is two-faced, who is inconsistent or phony. But as followers of Jesus, we are called to a higher standard, for Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the leaders of the law, by no means will you enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 5:20 What’s the solution? In the words of the REM song playing at the beginning of worship, “You’ve got to lose your religion.”
What’s a religion? A religion is usually made up of a set of institutionalized, religious practices and observances, rules of conduct and entrenched traditions. A religion focuses on religious practices, rules, observances, and traditions, all in an effort to find favor with God. Faith on the other hand is about a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Because we have a Savior who died on the cross for our sins and paid the price for us, we believe we don’t have to earn our way into God’s favor by following religious observances, keeping traditions, and doing good works. We believe God reconciled us to himself through Jesus, and our response is to love God, keep his commandments, love our neighbor, do good works, and serve and worship God. Anything we do should be the result of that love, not to gain favor with God. Thus, our faith is about a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ which literally changes our being. The Apostle Paul put it this way in “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” Eph. 2:8-9:
Now the problem with religious people and the Pharisees whom Jesus is speaking to is that they tend to emphasize or focus on orthodoxy or having “right” beliefs and practices of the faith and they judge everyone by that. The reputation that religion has earned is we’re judgmental. If the Pharisees believed people didn’t have the right beliefs, they were judged to be heretics. Christians have been just as guilty of this through the ages. We saw it in the Crusades. The Pope put a price out on the head of Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant movement, when his beliefs were deemed heresy. In colonial Massachusetts, if you were deemed a heretic, you were put to death by burning at the stake. Yet Jesus says, we must go beyond the religious who emphasize orthodoxy or right beliefs or practices.
It’s not so much about right belief or practices as it is about a relationship and right being. It’s about who you are. You’ve got to be the Gospel before other people will be able to hear the Gospel from you. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “You are the light of the world” and “You are the salt of the earth” The old saying is true: seeing is believing; hearing is not believing. God’s plan for us is to be witnesses of the faith by how we live before we tell them about the faith. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love…” Seeing is believing.
Steve Saccone tells the story of meeting Michael who was a young entrepreneur with an athletic training business in LA. His business kept growing as did the demand for his services. He was sharp, witty, successful, wealthy, good looking, had a way with the ladies and everything he touched turned to gold. He seemed to have everything going for him. But there was a struggle underneath. Michael was also an alcoholic. When he finally went to AA, it changed his beliefs. He just knew there had to be something more in life and thus began his spiritual journey. Steve began meeting with him regularly and having spiritual conversations. He eventually invited him to church until one day, he asked Steve how he could become a follower of Jesus Christ. He gave his life to Christ and within a few weeks, he asked if he could start a small group Bible study with his friends from AA with Steve leading. The night of the first meeting, Michael’s living room was packed. Steve began with a simple question, “So where do you see God at work in your life lately?” The conversation unfolded for hours as people opened their lives, their fears, their struggles and their doubts. These deep conversations continued each week as they met. Finally, Steve asked how Michael was able to get so many people to attend. Michael shared his compassion for his friends because he knew they were as broken as he was and he wanted them to get to know God as he had. He began sharing his faith respectfully and humbly making sure he didn’t talk down to them, demean them, undermine what God was already doing in their life. But most importantly, Michael’s friends began to recognize the changes in his life. They saw he had a newfound contentment and peace and a new joy and strength that exuded from him. And because of that, they heard the Gospel because they saw it first in him. And Steve Saccone writes, “If only Christians understood….(they) could do evangelism that way….What if we let our life story speak?...And what if the changes in who we are becoming were so evident that others were compelled to come to…” Christ? This is why Jesus said you’ve got to lose the religion and instead allow your faith to change who you are.
How can we avoid being a hypocrite and instead be a faithful witness? First, check your motivation. Everything we do, we do from some type of motivation. There is good motivation and bad motivation. Good motivation in God’s eyes is doing in response to the love and grace you have received in Jesus Christ. Bad motivation is selfish, doing something for personal reward like to earn the esteem or praise of others. If you do, God says, “Don’t expect anything from me for what you have done because you’ve already received everything you’re going to receive.”
Second, give to the poor. In our Scripture today, we see the heart of the Jewish faith: giving to the needy, the broken or the poor. This was commanded by the law and so Jesus’ comments assume that religious people are already giving to the poor. He didn’t say, “If you give.” but “When you give.” All religious Jews understood that you had a responsibility for the poor. There are over 2,000 verses in the Bible that deal with our responsibility to the poor.
Third, serve in secret. That way, you do them for God rather than to receive the praise of others. But there is one exception. In Matthew 5:16 he says, “Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and as a result of seeing your good deeds, they are going to glorify your Father because of it.” If people do see what you do, let it be a part of your witness to non-believers so that then they might be more open to hear about your faith. Jedd Medefind tells the story of the Romans in Jesus time who if they had a baby which was born sick, deformed or was a girl when they needed a boy, would often take the child outside the walls of the city and either drown them or leave them to die in the element. Christians heard about this and began to go out of the city and rescue those babies, nurse them back to health and raise them. And that is that the early church came to be known for, saving children and raising them in a house filled with love. Jews didn’t do that. Jesus said we need to go beyond what religious people are doing.
Fourth, give freely. It changes your perspective toward material things. When you have the heart of Jesus, all of a sudden you have a new understanding about your stuff. In describing life in the early church, Acts 4: 32 says, “No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own but they shared everything they had.” It’s no longer my stuff, it’s God’s stuff. I’m not an owner, I’m a caretaker of what God has shared with me. And what has been given to me is to be used to serve God’s purpose in the world. The early church had this understanding and they shared their resources, willingly and freely. Continuing in verse 32, “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” Why? Because seeing is believing, sisters and brothers. Now we go on, “God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all.” No longer is it religion with me doing my best to do what God wants me to do; it’s the gift of God’s Spirit working in me. This is why Jesus said, “The things I do, you will do and even greater things.” “For there were no needy persons among them. From time-to-time, those who owned land or houses sold them and brought in the money from the sales.” The Bible doesn’t say they sold all of their stuff. The apostles understood they had more than they needed, so they sold stuff to meet other people’s needs.
It’s about relationship rather than religion. When I become committed to the concerns of God’s heart, it’s not something we do because it’s the law. It is what we do in response to God transforming love and grace in us. With religion you’re forced to, you’re mandated to. But with faith, it comes from the heart. People who have a relationship with God don’t do it because they have to. They do it out of devotion and the love for God. That’s the difference between religion and a relationship. Religion is when you do it out of duty, when you do because you have to. Relationship is when you give and serve in response to God’s grace and the love of God you have received.
What did Jesus say the greatest commandment is? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. And “Love Your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said, “You’ve got to get beyond this religion of have to, of duty and get to that place where it comes out of love; out of devotion, out of want to, or I don’t need it. I don’t need it, nor does God see it.” So this week, find a need and fill it. There are needs all around you: the hungry, the poor, the homeless, or the hurting. Just find one and begin to serve that person this without any accolade or any awareness of others that your Father may be glorified in all you say and do. Second, make a commitment to community. You’re never going to make it in this Christian life if it’s just you. You’ve got to be connected to community. I need you. I need to see the practical working out of faith in your life. It’s in community that God’s bigger purpose for my life is clarified.
Third, fake it until we make it. Just keep doing what’s right until your heart follows. Can I be honest? Can we talk here? There are times that I still do things for God out of gut devotion and duty. So here’s what I do; fake it until you make it! There are going to be times when you don’t feel like doing it but you have to keep doing it until you feel like doing it. I need your help, prayers and support; but I’ll tell you what, for me, I’m just going to keep faking it until I make it. I’m going to do it until I feel like doing it and make it all the way to heaven and all the way to eternity, sisters and brothers. Here’s what it comes down to, just keep doing what’s right until your heart follows. Don’t wait until you feel like it. Fake it until you make it. Keep remembering that you’re playing before an audience of one. And He’s the only one that matters! Amen
