Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: First of all, focus on God. God, make your name holy. God, may your kingdom come. God, may your will be done. Now, that's settled. God's holiness, God's kingdom, God's will. Now, God, this is the stuff that I need. Give me my daily bread. Give me the stuff I need for today.

Guest (Male): Not to us, but to your name be the glory. Yeah!

JP Jones: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California. And a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled The Religion of Jesus. Let's listen in as JP gives part two of Righteousness with God.

So Jesus, as he's doing his whole sermon on the mount, he is challenging us to a rigorous spiritual life, but it begins in the heart. But it does not just stay in the heart because there are practices of righteousness that need to be practiced. If we are going to grow in authentic righteousness, but even those practices have to be done from a pure heart.

So, what is the first practice Jesus takes? He takes on the whole idea of giving to the needy. He says, “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 men. I tell you the truth, 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.”

Jesus says we are to give to the needy. It is to be the practice of all true followers of Jesus Christ to give away the stuff they have. We are to be generous. We are to be compassionate to the needs of others. We are to identify with others' needs and not just say as James kind of mocks, be well fed, be warm, be filled, and then go on our way. We are to actually get involved.

And we are to get involved where it really hurts for some of us. We are to get involved financially. But we are not to be like the hypocrites who want to boast about all the projects they are supporting, who want to get glory from men by telling you all the people that they financially contributed to, who even as Jesus parallels here says they, they want to blow the trumpets when they are about to give their offering.

Certainly, he is using hyperbola and he is talking about letting everybody know what you are doing. But what he might have been playing off of was in the temple area in the ancient world, in the court area, where the offering was received, the offering receptacles were shaped kind of like trumpets. And they were made of metal.

And you could throw your coin in there in such a way that it would echo. So, Jesus might have been playing off some of these guys who had actually practiced the art of making that coin hit that edge so it goes, and everyone goes, oh, man, they are giving their gift.

Jesus is saying, “Do not be a hypocrite.” By the way, the word hypocrite in Greek sounds just like it does in English. It is the Greek word `hypokritos`. It was the word for an actor on the stage who would wear different masks. In the Greek world, actors would have various masks with expressions on them. You know, anger, sadness, laughter, and the expression was on the mask and the actor would hold the mask in front of his face and perform his part. That was a `hypokritos`.

Jesus said, “Do not be somebody who is wearing a mask and try to be spiritual when you are not.” He says, “Let your giving be done in secret.” And again, Jesus is using hyperbola, he says, “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” I, you know, I do not know how you can actually do that.

It is kind of like that scene in, you know, Bruce Almighty, how many fingers am I holding up? You know, I do not know how you can actually not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Well, the point of the illustration of Jesus is, it is to be secret in your heart.

Jesus, by the way, when you look at the balance of his teaching, is not condemning public giving because, if you remember, there was another example later on in the gospel where a poor widow came and put in just a mite, just a penny, and Jesus and the other disciples saw it, so it was done publicly, but what did Jesus say about the gift? He said, “Boy, she gave all she had. We all should give like her.” So he is not condemning public giving. He is condemning public giving for the purpose of promoting self.

See, the whole point of each of these illustrations is where is your heart? The issue is not on the external, it is on the internal. But we cannot say, well, then we should not do any external acts of righteousness. No, we should. We should give, we should pray, we should fast. But all of them should be done from a pure heart with God as the audience, with the desire to grow in personal righteousness.

So Jesus says, “Give, but do not be like the hypocrites.” And then Jesus says, “This is what is going to happen. You will be rewarded.” Wow, three times he talks about reward. And that is not just thrown in there, kind of after the fact.

Do you know all throughout the Bible, both Hebrew scriptures and New Testament, God is presented to us as a rewarder? It says in Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him.”

Jesus said in his teaching on discipleship later on in the Gospel of Matthew, he says, “If you, do you know that, if you just give a cold cup of cold water to someone in my name, you will not lose your reward.” The smallest act of righteousness done in the name of Jesus will be rewarded. God rewards. He rewards in this life.

Deuteronomy chapter 28, there is a whole passage, it is the blessings and cursings of obedience where God talks about all the blessings that come from living an obedient life. Passages like Psalm 1 and Jeremiah chapter 17 talks about blessed the man who trusts in the Lord, he will be like a tree with its leaf that flourishes. Psalm 1 says, you know, the person who meditates on God's law is like a tree firmly planted and yields its fruit in its season, whatever he does he prospers. So there are material blessings, there are personal spiritual blessings. There is the blessing here in the sermon on the mount that is specifically related to kingdom righteousness. There is the growth of kingdom righteousness in our life, but then there are future rewards.

Next week when we take on the next section, Jesus talks about storing up treasure in heaven. The Apostle Paul picks up on this idea in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and says, you know, that there is no foundation that can be laid other than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, but be careful how you build on that foundation. You can build with wood, hair, straw, you can build with gold, silver and precious stones. But the fire of God's judgment will test the quality of what each man has built. If it burns up, he will be saved, but barely through the fire, but if it remains, he will receive a reward. Wow.

There is a whole biblical doctrine on eternal rewards. So Jesus three times in relation to giving our money to the poor, to the needy, in relation to prayer and in relation to fasting, promises that when we do that out of a pure motive, out of really wanting to seek God, wanting to grow in internal righteousness, wanting to become a true disciple, there is a reward that we receive.

Remember Jesus said, “Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.” You want to be satisfied? I mean, you want that deep, personal satisfaction of life, knowing that you are right with God. Practice your righteousness out of a pure heart and you will receive your reward. So Jesus first takes on this issue of giving to the needy. Secondly, he talks about prayer.

And when you pray, so he is assuming we are going to pray. Disciples of Jesus need to be people of prayer. We need to pray. But we can pray in a way that blesses God and others and ourselves or we can pray in a way that is just self-deceiving and hypocritical. He says, “Do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”

Now, it had come to be in the progress of Judaism that the scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, they practice ritual prayers. They prayed at specific times. There is nothing wrong with that, by the way, if it is done from a pure heart to please God. But they had developed this down to such a science that at specific times throughout the day, they would pray and it would not matter where they were. In fact, some of them by design figured out, hey, this is when the prayer time is, so what I am going to be is I am going to be in the middle of the synagogue at that time. Or what I am going to be is I am going to be on the corner of the busiest street at that time.

And they said ritual prayers. In other words, they quoted prayers. In ancient Judaism and even in present day Judaism, there are certain prescribed prayers for certain situations. So they would, at the specific ritualistic time, be where they wanted to be, either in the middle of the synagogue or on a street corner, and then the time would come, oh, I see it is now time. And so then they would stand there and quote that prayer.

Jesus says if you do it that way, just following a routine and a ritual and just to be seen by men so that other people will think you are spiritual, you have your reward in full. But when you pray, verse 6, “Go into your room, close the door, 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 even before you ask him.”

Again, Jesus here is not condemning public prayer, because there were many occasions in Israel's history where they gathered together a sacred assembly and all prayed. In the early church, they gathered together and prayed for 10 days before the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. In Acts chapter 4, Peter comes back to report how God had released him and they gathered and prayed with one accord. So in in Acts chapter 13, the launching of the missionary ministry of Paul, they were all gathered together the elders and the leaders of the church, praying and worshipping and fasting.

So there is nothing unspiritual about praying in public. Again, it is the heart. And so Jesus uses hyperbola to speak about secret, the secret places of your heart with God as your audience, with your motive being to honor God and connect with God, not to be seen by men.

And Jesus says, “Not only should your prayer life not to be a public display for other people to impress other people,” he says, “you should not babble like the pagans.” The, the, the idea is if, if you remember in the, in the Old Testament story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings 18 is one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible.

Well, the prophets of Baal gathered together to call upon Baal to do a miracle and it says from morning to the evening offering, they danced around and they just repeated over and over again, “O Baal hear us, O Baal hear us, O Baal hear us, O Baal hear us.” Say that 10 times real fast. No, the point is, that is about all you are doing. He is saying, “If you are just babbling, saying something over and over and over and over again, or saying a lot of words, thinking that by repeating it enough times God is going to hear, or thinking that if you say enough words God is going to hear, you are just like the pagans. Because God knows what you need before you even ask him. God knows what you really need when you are asking for the wrong thing.”

It is not about how many words or how often we use the words. It is about the attitude of the heart. You shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. So Jesus says, “If you will seek me that way, you will receive your reward.”

And in fact, let me go into a little more detail on this one for you. Let me give you a model prayer. Let me give you something to hang your prayers on. Let me give you a prayer not to be repeated over and over again because then you would be just like the pagans. Nothing wrong with praying this prayer, but if you think, ah, if I pray this prayer over and over and over again, that will get me connected with God. No, that is exactly what Jesus said not to do. But here is a model prayer of the stuff you ought to pray about.

“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. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Jesus says in this model prayer, there are three requests centered on God and three requests centered on our personal needs. And God gets preeminence. Our focus is to be on God. Our attention is to be on God. Our thoughts are to be on God. His glory. And then what we pray for flows out of our sense of what will bring God the greatest glory. So we are to pray, hallowed be your name.

Make your name holy, God. Your kingdom come and your will be done. By the way, just because I think this is fascinating. The language of prayer in the New Testament is interesting because the, the New Testament grammar has much more specific aspects to it than English grammar.

There is a way of speaking about an action and its relationship to reality. If something is really happening, that is known as the indicative mood. If something may happen, it is known as the subjunctive mood. If something is being commanded to happen, it is known as the imperative mood. If you are asking for something to happen, it is known as the optative mood. So most of the prayers in the New Testament, you know, Paul has a prayer section of all of his letters. Those are written, the language, the verb mood is the optative mood. You are asking for something to happen.

Here Jesus teaches us about how to pray. And he gives us a model prayer. And each one of these statements is a request. So you would assume following that pattern, Jesus would use the optative mood because that is the mood of asking for something to happen. The relationship of the action to reality. Instead, Jesus uses the imperative mood.

Just want to let that sit there for a while for all of you who are still listening on what I am talking about in this discussion of grammar. In other words, here Jesus tells us how we ought to pray to the Father. Our Father who art in heaven. And he says, “Pray this way,” and everything that is said is in the imperative mood. What did I say an imperative is? It is a command.

You mean Jesus says I am to command the Father to do these things? Whoa. I am not, I am not touching that. Jesus uses the imperative mood to again, hyperbola, exaggeration, tell us how much God wants us to ask him for stuff. There is nothing unspiritual about asking God for stuff. In fact, Jesus commands us that we do it. And he commands us in a command form.

But he sets the priority. First of all, our focus on God. God, make your name holy. God, may your kingdom come. God, may your will be done. Now, that is settled. God's holiness, God's kingdom, God's will. Now, God, this is, this is the stuff that I need. Give me my, my daily bread. Give me the stuff I need for today.

And, and, and God, forgive me because I am a sinner who sins. I like to say that, by the way, when I am when I talk with people. You know, some people we all acknowledge that we are sinners. But some people acknowledge they are a sinner, but they do not really think they sin. I am a sinner who sins and I know it. So, give me my daily bread, the stuff I need for today, forgive my sins and, Lord, lead me not into temptation.

And he ties on there and deliver me from. It says evil in some translations. Again, just to bore you again so you can tune out, a little grammar. He does not say deliver from evil generic, but he uses the definite article. Deliver me from the evil. And when it is designated like that, there is a specific evil he has in mind and you supply the evil one. Who is the author of all evil?

Jesus in this, in this model prayer touches on all the stuff that we need physically and all the stuff that we need spiritually and all the stuff that we need to face the spiritual battle. He says, “We have to pray about it all, but start with God.” Start with God. And then Jesus says, “By the way, there is really an important issue here on this whole prayer gig. You better forgive other people. If you are asking God to forgive you, you better be forgiving other people too.”

Because disciples who have internalized forgiveness express forgiveness. That might be the price of this whole message, that one little line here, because there might be some of us here who have been really wronged by somebody. I am not robbing the truth. Maybe there has been one or more people who have really wronged us. We have been hurt. But we have got to forgive because if we do not forgive, our whole prayer life is going to be in jeopardy. Our whole spiritual life is going to be in jeopardy and we are going to be just like hypocrites, saying things that we are not really embracing.

And you have got to listen real fast. The last thing Jesus says in terms of authentic righteousness is fasting. “When you fast,” we should fast, “do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men their fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” In other words, do not go around, I am fasting. Yes, I am fasting. No!

The point is, that is between you and God. You do not even need to tell anybody that is what you are doing. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men 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. Here is what Jesus is talking about. Real, authentic righteousness. It is from the inside out. It is transformational. We are to practice our righteousness, but it is to be with God as the audience. It is to be expressed in specific disciplines like the giving of our money, like our prayer life and like fasting.

The goal is to connect with God and to grow in our righteousness. And the audience is God himself and our hearts are the most important part of this whole equation. And God lays out for us if we will do that, reward, reward, reward. You want God to reward you? Seek him with a pure heart.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we would like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We will send it your way for just $5. Or if you would like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives. 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That is 949-916-0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We are going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We are looking at Matthew chapter 6:1-18. This is a passage in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is the greatest message ever given by the greatest preacher who ever lived. Jesus is teaching us on what it means to be a kingdom disciple. And in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is talking about the way we practice our righteousness. He is explaining the fact that there is an external commitment to being a believer in Christ. We live that faith out. We let our light shine before men, but we are to do it with God as our audience. And so Jesus says that true kingdom righteousness is an inside-out proposition. We need a transformed heart, but a transformed heart expresses itself in righteous action.

Jesus says that is the difference between his teaching and the teaching of the Pharisees or the teaching of the religionists. Their whole focus was on external behavior, measuring their spirituality based on what they did or did not do. That is not the way it is as Christ's followers. Our spiritual litmus test is our hearts. Are our hearts right before God? Are we authentic in our relationship with him? Are we pure in our motives before him? Jesus says that when we practice our righteousness, when we live out the life of faith in financial stewardship, in prayer and in fasting, the key is keeping God our audience and keeping our hearts pure before him. The call of authentic Christianity, the call of being a kingdom disciple, the call of practicing our righteousness is making sure that we do it to please God. If that is your desire, I invite you to pray with me right now. Lord, I pray that you would give me a pure heart. I pray that my motives would be clean before you and I would seek to honor and glorify you. And so I pray that from my heart I would live a righteous life. I pray for that in Jesus name. Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives. 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.