Religion From the Heart
- Scriptures: Matthew 6:1-18; Luke 11:1-13; Luke 16:15
- “God Wants Us To Pray For All”
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Being a Christian is not just doing the right thing. It’s doing the right thing for the right reason. Jesus taught a powerful lesson about this in Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 18.
Let’s read verses 1 through 4. Jesus said, “Take heed that you do not your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory for men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”
Remember in the Sermon on the Mount that the Scribes and the Pharisees were the religious leaders that Jesus has in view many times. Now I’m not saying that everything in the Sermon on the Mount is about the scribes and the Pharisees, but people follow someone usually in religion. They listen to religious teachers, and the popular and the well-respected religious teachers of Jesus day were the scribes and the Pharisees. They had a big impact on these people and some of their influence was not good.
They were not living the right kind of lives and they were not giving the right kind of teaching. And one of the problems is what He discusses here in Matthew 6, verses 1 through 18. Now, to get this picture even clearer, let’s look at a few other verses that would serve as a commentary on what Jesus is talking about here.
We’re looking at the problem of these scribes and Pharisees putting on a show before other people. In Matthew chapter 23, beginning in verse 1: “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do. But do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But you do not be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and you all are brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Now again we see the picture here of the scribes and Pharisees in the first century. They wanted people to praise them. They loved to be adored by the people. That was their motive. They did some things that were right. But they had the wrong reason for doing them.
Here’s another interesting passage. It’s found in Luke chapter 16, verse 14 and 15. This gives you some insight about the kind of lives that these men were living and the kind of motivation and the kind of heart that they had. In Luke chapter 16 verse 14, the Bible says, “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money’—they were covetous, they loved money—and the Bible continues to say that they also “heard all these things and they derided Him.” That is, they derided Jesus Christ Himself. “And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” That’s Luke 16 verses 14 and 15.
It’s amazing today that many people have this in reverse. They get what Jesus is saying here backwards. There are many people today who think that the more show there is to religion, the more godly it is. Jesus says it’s just the reverse. What men think is highly esteemed is actually an abomination. It’s disgusting. It is sickening in the sight of God. He’s not talking about politics here. He’s not talking about the world of entertainment. He’s talking about religion. He’s talking about religious pretension and religious shows.
Now that’s what the scribes and the Pharisees were doing in the first century and it’s sad that we have people almost 2, 000 years later who haven’t learned anything from this. So let’s look at John chapter 12. John chapter 12. The Bible says in verse 42, “Nevertheless, even among the rulers, many believed in Him,” that is, among the rulers of the Jews there were many who believed in Jesus Christ, “but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.”
So these rulers of the synagogues had some influence, but the Pharisees had even more influence with the Jews. And the Bible says that there were many, not just a few, but there were many of these rulers of synagogues who did believe in Jesus Christ, but they were afraid of the Pharisees, and they would not confess Him.
By the way, this shows that it takes more than just believing in Jesus to be right with God. These Jews believed in Him, but they would not confess Him. That’s John 12, verse 42. Now, what does the Bible say about confession? Jesus said if you will confess Me before men, I will confess you before My Father which is in heaven. But if you deny Me before men, I will deny you before My Father which is in heaven.” So confessing Jesus is necessary to salvation. And yet these Jews believed in Him but would not confess Him. Therefore they were not right in God’s sight. They were not saved. And what was the motivation? Popularity. The fear of losing their appeal to people.
He goes on to say here in John chapter 12, verse 43, “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” That describes too many religious people today, and that was certainly true of these scribes and Pharisees in the first century.
So, let’s go back to Matthew chapter 6. And let’s read the Sermon on the Mount with that backdrop in mind, because it helps us to understand this so much better if we remember the kind of situation that Jesus was living in and addressing in the Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew chapter 6 we find three examples that Jesus gives. These are examples of having the right motivation to do the right thing. Example number one is in verses one through four. This is the example of alms, giving alms, doing good deeds for other people. The New King James Version says “charitable deeds.”
The second example is praying. That’s in verses five through fifteen. We have to have the right motivation when we pray. The third example is fasting. That’s verses 16 through 18. So this whole section, 18 verses, talks about the fact that we must have the right motivation when we do what we do for the Lord.
Alright, let’s look at the first one then. That is giving alms. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. This would be doing something good for somebody else. It would be doing a kind act for someone. It would be giving something, giving money or giving food or giving clothes or anything else to someone.
It’s doing good. That’s why the New King James calls this charitable deeds. So helping the poor and helping the needy is a great thing. The Bible talks about that. Jesus is not criticizing that at all. Jesus taught that we’re to do that. As a matter of fact, Paul quoted the words of Jesus in Acts chapter 20, verse 35, where He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” And in that verse, Paul said that we’re to help the poor and to remember those words of Jesus.
Here, Jesus says, do your charitable deeds, but don’t do those things so that people will see you. Don’t brag about those things. Don’t put on a show. Don’t expect that somebody will congratulate you for that good deed. Don’t do it for that reason. He says, otherwise, you don’t have any reward from your Father in heaven. So, He says, when you do one of these charitable deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before you like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory from men.
Here is a good example of what we’ve talked about several times in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. We have said that you have to remember that the Sermon on the Mount has a lot of figures of speech. One of those figures of speech is called a hyperbole. That means a deliberate, intentional exaggeration. And that’s used for emphasis’ sake. When He says in Matthew chapter 6 verse 2, “Do not sound a trumpet,” He’s using that figure of speech. He’s using a hyperbole. These Jews wouldn’t use a trumpet. Even the Jews that He’s criticizing here didn’t have a literal trumpet in their hand. He’s saying they did this by their actions. They did this by showing off and drawing attention to themselves. Jesus said don’t do that.
And notice where He says these hypocrites were acting like this. They were putting on this show. He said that they sounded this trumpet in a figurative sense in the synagogues. Now a synagogue was an assembling place. This is where the Jews assembled to worship God. And one of the things that they did when they came together in this assembly called the synagogue is to take up an offering for the poor. That was a normal part of the synagogue activities. So some of these Jews would come to a synagogue service. They would give and they would give for the reason of being seen. They wanted people to see them giving maybe even to see how much they were giving and to say, “What a godly Jew he is. What a good son of Abraham that man is.”
So there was nothing wrong with them giving in the synagogue. It was not what they did that made it wrong. It was why they were doing it. So they did it in a setting or in a situation where you had a lot of religious activities taking place in the synagogues, but they also did it out in public. They wanted people to see them give in public so they might give to a poor man or to a crippled man or to anybody else so that people would see them.
He says that they did this in the streets and they didn’t do it discreetly. Jesus says they did it for a show. They sounded a trumpet. They wanted to make sure that people would see them so that, as He says, they may have glory from men. Assuredly,” He says, “I say to you, they have their reward.” But Jesus said, “When you do a charitable deed”—when you give alms, when you do a good deed for somebody, or when you give to somebody—”do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”
Now there is another hyperbole. There’s another intentional exaggeration. So it’s the same kind of figure of speech that you see in Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus says to cut off your right hand, to pluck out your right eye, when He says in Matthew chapter 5, 38 through 42, to turn the other cheek, when He just said in Matthew chapter 6, verse 2, don’t sound a trumpet.
Now He’s saying don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. I think that most people get that point. I’ve heard people quote those words in reference to things that are not even religious. It’s amazing how that the language of the Bible has become so much a part of the United States of America in history that people use these expressions in the Sermon on the Mount in reference to politics and business and many other things in life. There’s a sad part to that. But the encouraging thing is that that comes from a rich background of people being taught the Bible. The sad part of it is, is that they have totally missed the meaning in our present age about what these things mean. But at any rate, what we see is that Jesus is saying your charitable deeds need to be done in secret and your Father will reward you.
So regardless of who sees it, God will reward you. We don’t do things as Christians to be seen. We don’t do things as Christians so that other people will say, “Hey, What a good Christian he is” or “What a good Christian she is.” We don’t do it for that reason. Now, if that happens, then that’s great. That’s good. There’s nothing wrong with other people knowing about it. And we need to remember what Jesus already said about this in Matthew five, verse 16: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” So there needs to be a balance here—a balance of being aware of how much influence we can have on other people, but also being careful about our motive and the reason why we’re doing good. And that should never be to be seen by other people.
So let’s look at verse 5 where He goes into the second example here. He says, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. What were they doing? Well, the Bible says Jesus explains “for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men.” Notice that Jesus again talks about these two different settings. One of them is the synagogue, a specifically religious situation that is in the synagogues.
Now, was there anything wrong with praying at the synagogue service? Absolutely not. That was a usual, that was a regular part of the synagogue service. Jesus is not saying when you go to the synagogue, don’t pray. Because that’s what they were there for. They were there to read the Bible, they were there to pray, and to do other things in that synagogue worship service.
But Jesus says, don’t do it just to be seen. That’s his point here. Some of the Jews went to the synagogue service not so much because they were there to glorify God as to glorify themselves. And one of the ways that they did that,was to offer a prayer to God and to do that in a way that it would draw attention to themselves.
They would position themselves or they would speak loudly enough or they would speak in a certain way so that people’s attention would be drawn to them so that people would praise them, so that people’s minds would be on the speaker of that prayer rather than being on the One that we’re praying to.
Jesus said don’t do that. That’s what the hypocrites do. You’re not to do that. And then He says, they also do this on the corners of the street. So they did it out in public. Now He’s not condemning praying in public. Jesus himself prayed in public. He also prayed in private and there needs to be a good balance of both in our lives.
We need to pray publicly. We need to pray privately. Jesus did. The Bible says in Luke chapter 6 and in John chapter 6 that He went out into a mountain and He was there alone and He prayed. In Mark chapter 1 verse 35 the Bible says that Jesus rose up early in the morning, a great while before it was daylight, and He went out into a solitary place and there He prayed.
So yes, sometimes we need to pray to God alone. But there are times when we need to pray to God in church, as an assembly, as a group, and there are times when we need to pray in the presence of other people in public. It would be a great thing if more Christians would pray to God before they eat their meal at a restaurant. There’s nothing wrong about that. That’s a good thing to do. As long as we have the right motive for praying to God, we can pray to God anywhere. Sometimes I think that people use this as an excuse: “Well, I don’t pray before I eat in front of everybody else because I don’t want them to think that I’m doing it because I want their attention.”
Jesus is not saying to use this as an excuse for not praying. He’s saying, go ahead and pray, but do it for the right reason. Jesus said that people that pray just to be seen have their own reward. That is, their reward is just the fact that they get the attention of men. And that doesn’t mean much, and it doesn’t last very long.
He says instead in verse 6, “But you, when you pray, go into your room.” The King James version uses the word closet, but you go into your room and “when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” You have again here a figure of speech. Jesus is not saying that the only place where you can pray is in a private setting in your own home in one single room, closet or anything else. That can’t be what Jesus means because Jesus himself, as we said, prayed in the presence of other people. Yes, he prayed in private (Mark 1:35). But Jesus also prayed in the presence of other people and with His disciples.
You find in Luke chapter 11 verse 1 that Jesus was praying in a certain place and when He had finished His disciples came to him and they said, “Teach us to pray Lord” and “like John taught his disciples” to pray. So He was not praying so much with the disciples. He was praying, the disciples saw Him, and then they asked Him this question. And then, of course, He led prayer. He said these prayers that you read about in Mark chapter 14 and in other places before the disciples. So Jesus is not saying that the only place that you can pray is in this private place. He’s using this by way of contrast. These people called the scribes and the Pharisees had gone to one extreme and what you find Jesus doing so many times in the Sermon on the Mount is trying to pull these people back to the place where they need to be.
And in order to do that, He has to use this extreme language that we call figures of speech or hyperboles. So, notice what Jesus says in verse 7 about praying. He says, when you pray, “Do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Here is something that is somewhat unusual in the Sermon on the Mount, because the Sermon on the Mount is spoken to Jews, about Jews, with a Jewish environment in mind.
There’s no doubt about that, we’ve talked about that, and I think that we have seen that. But here, he draws an example from the Gentiles. He says, the Gentiles pray. And of course, when they prayed, they didn’t even pray to God. Many times they prayed to idols. But as they prayed, he said that they used vain repetitions.
And here are two great examples that serve as commentaries on what Jesus is talking about when he warns about using vain repetitions. The first one is in 1 Kings chapter 18. This is where Elijah, the prophet of God, met with the false prophets of Baal. And the Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 26, “So they,” that is, the false prophets of Baal, “took the bull, which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, ‘O Baal, hear us.’”
Now that’s an example of vain repetitions. The other one is in the New Testament in Acts chapter 19. The Apostle Paul is in the city of Ephesus. The Ephesians worshipped a god known as Diana. When Paul preached the gospel, and he preached the one true and living God, that upset many of these people. The Ephesians made a lot of money by building silver shrines as replicas to the temple of Diana. So, the Bible says that there was a great commotion over this. And in Acts chapter 19, verse 34, the Bible says when they found out that he was a Jew, “All with one voice cried out for about two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” So for about two hours, they just shouted out, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians,” “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”
Now, these Jews that Jesus was talking about would not be guilty of praying to Baal. They wouldn’t worship Diana. But Jesus said even when you’re praying to the true God, don’t use vain repetitions. He doesn’t just say repetitions. He says vain repetitions, that is empty repetitions, where a person will just keep on saying the same thing over and over and over again, without any meaning, without any thought, without his heart really being into what he’s saying.
Prayer is not just saying a set of words. Prayer comes from the heart, and if it doesn’t come from the heart and involve the heart, then it’s not really praying. It’s just saying the words. And Jesus said, those are empty repetitions. That’s an empty prayer. And Jesus said, don’t be like these heathen because they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Prayer is not based on how many words you say. It’s based on the content of your words. It’s based on the heart that’s behind those words. It’s based on the meaning of those words, not how many words you use in a prayer. And of course, we need to read the words very carefully here in Matthew chapter 6 so that we don’t misunderstand and misapply what Jesus is talking about.
Jesus said that we’re not to use vain repetitions. He didn’t say that we can’t use any repetition in prayer. He didn’t say that it’s wrong necessarily to repeat ourselves in prayer. As a matter of fact, if our heart is really into our prayers, sometimes we will repeat what we say in a single prayer. If you read the book of Psalms, you’re going to find David praying for the same things oftentimes. You’re going to find Job praying for the same things. You’re going to find in Daniel chapter 9 that Daniel prayed for basically the same things. He repeated himself in those prayers. And when you read the New Testament, you’re going to find that Jesus was not against praying to God over and over again.
What he’s saying in Matthew chapter 6 is don’t use vain or empty repetitions. But Jesus did teach us is—and this is very important for us as Christians to remember—to be persistent in prayer. That’s what He taught in Luke chapter 11 beginning in verse 5 and going through down verse 13. He tells the story that illustrates the fact that we need to be, as He says, persistent.
And then He says these words in verse 9. “So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.” But don’t just ask one time. Don’t just pray one time. Don’t just knock or seek one time.
Be persistent. Be continual. In Luke chapter 18, beginning in verse 1, the Bible says, “Then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” And then He told the story of this widow that kept going to a judge and kept going to him and kept coming back to him. And even though the judge was not afraid of her, he really didn’t want to deal with her. The Bible says that he said to himself: I don’t fear God. I don’t regard man. Yet “because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.” And Jesus uses that as an example or an illustration to tell us that we need to keep praying to Him and not lose heart.
Now as we continue in Matthew chapter 6, we come to an amazing verse. In Matthew 6 verse 8, Jesus said, “Therefore do not be like them.” He’s talking about these Gentiles who use these empty or vain repetitions. He says: Don’t be like them. “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” God already knows your situation. He knows every detail of your life.
He knows your heart. He knows your problems. He knows your needs a lot better than you do. Sometimes we think that we really know what we need in life, and we don’t know at all. God not only knows your situation now, but He also knows your future. He sees the future. We don’t. So when we pray to God, we need to be humble about this.
So this is the second example that Jesus uses here to show us that we’re not to pray or do anything else in religion to draw attention to ourselves so that people will brag on us and people will praise us instead of praising God. Then just after verse 8 in verses 9 through 15 Jesus gives what many people call the Lord’s Prayer or the Lord’s Model Prayer. Now we’re going to skip over that today because we don’t have time to cover that and explain it and apply it in detail so we’ll discuss that in the next lesson. So for now I want to go down to verse 16 and look at the third example that Jesus gives. This is another case where the Scribes and the Pharisees were showing off with their religion.
Instead of doing something because they had faith in God and wanted to please Him and better themselves, they were trying to draw attention to themselves. So let’s look at verses 16 through 18. Here, the example of fasting is given. Jesus said, “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” with a reward openly.
Fasting, or going without eating, is talked about in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and there were different reasons why people would fast. Sometimes it was because of a crisis. Sometimes it was because of sickness. Sometimes, in fact, many times, it was because of grief. And you can already see that fasting is somewhat of a natural response to some of these situations in life. When you’re in a severe crisis, you’re really not in the mood to eat things and to please your body. You may have to eat or you may eat because you feel like that you need to, but it’s not as enjoyable as it is at other times. And when we’re in severe grief, we just don’t want to eat. When there’s a death of a loved one, oftentimes we just don’t want to eat. There’s nothing wrong with that for a while. And that is a form of fasting. We may not call it that, but that’s what it is. Sometimes in the Bible, people didn’t eat because they were just too poor to eat. They fasted out of poverty. Sometimes people didn’t eat because of being busy. A few times in the Bible, fasting was commanded. You’ll read about that in Leviticus 16 and Jonah chapter 3 in the case of Nineveh.
When you turn to the New Testament, you’ll find that fasting is not specifically commanded, but it is authorized in the New Testament, and there are indications that there are definite spiritual benefits to fasting. It’s more of a voluntary, chosen, individual activity. And what you find in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 5 is that Paul tells husbands and wives that there is a time for fasting and praying in their marriage. In Acts chapter 13 verses 2 and 3, the Bible says that when Paul and Barnabas were sent out on the first missionary journey that they fasted and prayed with them. Jesus talks about his disciples, later after his death, fasting in Matthew chapter 9 verse 15.
So there appear to be two extremes when it comes to the subject of fasting today. There are some people that look at fasting as being some kind of silly Jewish custom. And I’m talking about even Christians who look at it as something that’s so outdated and a little bit odd and strange that they just simply make a joke out of it. On the other hand, you have the extreme of people today fasting so that people will see them. Fasting is some kind of game, especially among young people in some church programs. The Bible says that this is an individual activity.
And Jesus said that the scribes and Pharisees were wrong because they were fasting just to be seen. In verse 16, Jesus said that they disfigure their faces. That means that they would intentionally put on a sad look. They would deliberately change the look on their face. And they did that not just so that people would feel sorry for them. They did that so that people would look at them and say, “He must be fasting. He is a very religious man.” That’s what these scribes and Pharisees especially were doing.
Do you remember the story of the two men that went up to the temple to pray in Luke chapter 18? One of them was a Pharisee. Do you remember that the Pharisee just boasted or bragged to God in his prayer? Here’s one of the things that he said to God in Luke 18 verse 12: “I fast twice a week.” But Jesus said to do just the opposite. He said, “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to men to be fasting.” And that way, He said, “Your Father who is in heaven will reward you openly.”
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