Sermon on the Mount

Matthew chapter 6 verses 16 to 18. For 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 that you are fasting.

But only to your father, who is unseen. And your father who sees what is done in secret we'll reward you. Chris? Thank you thank you, Ben, and good evening from me. My name is Chris Tilly.

I'm 1 of the elders here at Cornerstone Church. A very warm welcome if you're new with us. There's a few unfamiliar faces to me at least. So you are you are more than welcome here this evening. Let's pray as we start.

Father do help us now. Give us give us clarity of thought. Give us clarity of mind. Open our hearts help us to be challenged by what we what we are about to to look at. As Jesus preaches these words in this most famous of sermons, and and we we have to apply this to our lives Help us to do that now, father, amen.

Why do you do the things you do? And how do you do the things you do? That's the question that we've been dealing with. That's what Jesus has been tackling over the past couple of weeks. As we've been going through the sermon on the mount, as we've been looking at various different things, the question that comes up time and time and time again is why do you do the things that you do?

The thing that he's really going after is religious hypocrisy. That's the big thing that Jesus is tackling here. And he's done that in a range of ways as as we've seen, he's looked at things like adultery and divorce and anger and oaths and revenge and he's looked at the way that the law talks about those things and then how the pharisees or the hypocrite as he's just started referring to. He don't even call them pharisees anymore. He just calls them Hyper He started referring to them in that way.

The way that they minimize the law, so that they only have to do the minimum amount to be compliant with it. So I don't murder anyone, but I can be as angry as I like. I can hate people. I can say hateful things, but I'm not a murderer. Jesus says, no, I'm sorry.

That's not good enough. You are a murderer. And in fact, if you're not a peacemaker, then you're a murderer. And he's been doing this in a range of different ways. 2 weeks ago, Paul was looking at the issue of giving and how that can become hypocritical.

Last week, Steve was looking at the issue of prayer and how that can become hypocritical. And this week, we're looking at the issue of fast and and that's where our problems begin because I don't know about any of you. But giving us something we do, prayer is something we we do. I've never fasted. Just put it out there right now.

I've never fasted and I'm probably fairly confident in saying that not many of you have either. Maybe some of you have but I'm fairly confident in saying not many of you probably have. So it poses us a bit of an issue. What what on earth is this and how do we apply this to ourselves? And and I think that's a good opportunity for us to look at this problem tonight.

Now when I came to this passage, I thought, Oh my goodness. I don't want to talk about fasting. I just don't want to talk about fasting. I've never done it. I don't know anything about it.

What I do wanna talk about is religious hypocrisy, but the problem is the context of the religious hypocrisy is the fasting, and we need to understand what fasting actually is if we're going to really understand more deeply what religious hypocrisy is. And so we're going to have to go there. And as I've been reading and as I've been researching for this, it's it's been a journey. So I I hope you stick with me. Now In all of this as a disclaimer, if you get lost, if you get confused, as I did many times, go back to Isaiah 58, and you won't go far wrong.

If you get confused or lost after this sermon about what fasting is go back to Isaiah 58, and you won't go far wrong. So without further ado, what exactly is fasting? What is Jesus talking about here? What is fasting? I think I mean, it comes as no surprise to us that it's it's food related.

And the vast majority of examples throughout the bible are to do with giving up food or some kind of food for a limited time for a specific reason. Now the and this is everywhere. This is in the new testament and the old testament. The origins of fasting are tricky to pin down to say the least. No 1 really seems to know where the practice started, but it's prevalent in pretty much every single Middle Eastern society going back as far as as records go.

So we don't really know. Some theologians tie it all the way back to the Garden of Eden. And they say that when Adam and Eve took this fruit, they stopped relying on God and they somehow broke a farm. In order to do this and since then we have this issue with food, we have an uneasy relationship with food. You can know this in our world today.

Maybe maybe not. I'm not sure. The other thing that we see is that it's never commanded actually. There's never a command to fast apart from 1 time, on 1 occasion very specifically on the day of atonement. Now if you know what the day of atonement is about, it's in leviticus chapter 16.

And the day of atonement is the day that the Lord sets aside for the priests to make sacrifice on behalf of the people. So that the people's sins can be forgiven for the high priest to do that. Now if you If you know how that reaches its fulfillment, it reaches its fulfillment at the crucifixion. It reaches its fulfillment in Christ as he becomes the sacrifice. As he makes atonement on behalf of the people.

And so you could say, oh, great. Well, the only time it's prescribed It's been been fulfilled in Christ. The problem is people carry on fasting off the Christ and pull up holds it. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7. Sorry, actually, just to go back quickly.

It's interesting about the day of atonement because it doesn't seem to limit it to just food. Important that we do cover this bit. It says deny yourselves. You ought to deny yourselves. You ought to hold a holy fast And it doesn't appear to be limited to just food.

It appears to be food. It appears to be drink, but it also appears to broaden out. As we read in Isaiah 58 we had that bit about the sabbath at the end. It's it's to deny yourselves from doing work. It's to deny yourselves from sexual activity.

It's a day wholly devoted to the sacrifice that makes atonement on behalf of the people. DEN yourselves So that seems to broaden things out for us in the in the definition slightly. Paul upholds that in 1 Corinthians 7, because he applies it in the context of marriage. He he applies it in a marriage where he says abstain from sex but only for a time to devote yourselves to prayer by mutual consent, by mutual agreements, and then come back together otherwise you might be tempted. So he seems to apply the principle in that way.

What we do see time and time again is that devotion to prayer or worship always goes hand in hand with fasting. You can't disassociate fasting from prayer and worship. It's the reason you fast is to do that. You fast to feast. In other words, if that's a helpful way of putting putting it.

It's the physical symbol of a spiritual reality. Now the the the times that people fast, the reasons people fast to help us to sharpen it a little bit more. So it's worth looking at them. Now, predominantly fasting was done as a response to morning. And I think we just know this, don't we?

If you're grieving, if you've ever grieved someone deeply, if you've ever been in pain at the loss of someone, you just don't wanna eat. And often people go for quite a time. It affects your diet. You don't eat. And you see time and time again in the bible, people are mourning and they're fasting.

You get it even outside of the sort of death environment in Esther chapter 4 when the Jews hear of Hammond's evil edicts to try and exterminate them They mourn, and they fast, and they pray, and they worship God. You also see it in times of petition. So it's used as a way of petitioning God. You see this in David pleading for his son's life in 2 Samuel, the son that he had illegitimate with bathsheba is dying. And he petitions God and he mourns deeply.

And he he prays to God You see it in times of commission. So before a specific mission is gonna take place, before a specific ministry, takes place. And you see this in acts 13 in the church in Antioch, before they send out Paul and Barnambus, they fasted and they prayed. And you also see this in times of repentance, which is closely linked with mourning. And you see that clearly in in nineveh, as 1 example when Jonah preaches the the impending doom that's coming their way and they they they fast and they put on sackcloth and ashes.

Then we have 2, what I would say are ultimate examples. The 2 real ultimate examples of fasting in the bible, you get 1 in the old world, you get 2 in the old testament, both the same person and 1 in the new. In the old testament in Exodus 24, you get Moses fasting. And it's the first recorded fast in the bible and it's I mean, it's a funny 1. Because I don't think he intended to do it.

He just ended up doing it. But they're both notable for their length and their intensity. So what you've got in Exodus 24 is that the Israelites have come up out of Egypt. God has done wonderful things for them. He's shown his faithfulness time and time and time again and the Israelites are still grumbling as they do.

And so Moses goes up onto Mount Sinai. God leads him up onto Mount Sinai. And he ends up being up there for 40 days And in those 40 days, he neither eats nor drinks. So what we've got here is a supernatural fast. There is something supernatural going on here because In that environment, you're not even you haven't got 3 days without water.

You're talking 2 days if you're lucky. Instead, what Moses is feasting on is God's word. He's been given the law. God is imparting the law to Moses and that communion sustains him completely. In the meantime, down below, What are the people doing?

Well, they've got bored of waiting. They don't even know if Moses is coming back. Maybe he died. Who knows? So they melt down all their gold and they make an or and they start worshiping that instead, they're completely faithless.

Whilst God is being faithful to them. Moving on to The new testament, we also see this in Jesus, and you can compare and contrast these 2. Jesus likewise, in Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4, doesn't eat or drink for 40 days. He's out in the desert like Moses. He's being tempted like the Israelites were tempted, except unlike the Israelites, he doesn't give in.

He holds fast. He answers the temptation by applying God's word. Moses received the law, Jesus applies it. Moses received God's word, the law Jesus fulfills it and puts it into practice an action and resists the temptations. And he's sustained and attended to by the angels.

So when you draw all of that together as an opening salvo on fasting. And by the way, that's by no means exhaustive. There is so much that you could read on that. That's just the distillation. When you draw all of those threads together, what are we left with?

What do we have? Well, we can see that fasting, I think at its core, is denying a basic human need to rely on God. I think if you really want to simplify it, you can go there and specifically so that you can seek his instruction on a range of situations. So so as we face trials and hardships as we seek his guidance and approval of or disapproval of our plans. As we're tempted, as we're broken by our sin when it's exposed and we humble ourselves before him in forgiveness.

Those are all times for fasting. Fasting seems to be designed to intensify. Our reliance on God. And I think that's where food is the picture, as the main picture we're presented with time and time again. Really comes into play.

Because you take away food, you've taken away 1 of the most basic things a human needs to survive. I mean, it's funny. We're on a walking group yesterday and as we're on the walking group, I was planning my dinner and and seriously, you're always planning what you're gonna eat next. That's my sister. And it's true.

I am largely. I'm I I thought earlier after this service, I'm gonna eat a burger and we've already got them defrosting. We're obsessed with food. We we like we do love food. I think most of us love food.

Take it away. My goodness, you're gonna hunger pretty quickly. It seems to be that it provokes some kind of spiritual hunger. As you feel the hunger in your belly, you wanna be filled You feel the hunger in your spirit and you wanna be satisfied and you hunger after God. I think that's why it starts there.

I think that's probably the origins of it and the thought behind it. And as Jesus says right at the beginning of the sermon on the mountain back in chapter 5, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because they will be satisfied. They will be satisfied. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And this hunger for righteousness provokes Godly action in this world or at least it's supposed to.

And that's what we see in Isaiah 58. Because that I think is where it drives to and that's what true fasting really is. I mean, it was even entitled true fasting. True fasting, I think, is an Isaiah 58 life. True fasting is, in essence, forsaking reliance on worldly provision, on worldly sustenance.

Am relying instead on God. It's what Adam and Eve didn't do. They took the worldly sustenance. They took the worldly goods. And they forsook God.

It was the reversal. Fasting is forsaking this world and feasting on God because ultimately he's all we need and we see that in the examples of Moses and Jesus. All they had was God and His Word. Do we believe that? Do we believe that when you strip everything away, The only thing we need in essence is God's word.

Nothing is more important than that. Do we believe that? Because if that's not our default default position, then we're always friends gonna rely on worldly provision. If your fasting is just about fasting. If your fasting is just a thing, it's just a ritual, religious thing, then you're not about God's word.

And what I mean by your fasting if your life lived for god and for other people is just about going through the motions. You're not about God's word. You're about yourself and you're about the praise of others, and that's what we see here. But if your fasting is about a life of righteousness, you're gonna have to rely on God's word to be able to do that. You're not gonna be able to do it without it.

So that's a quick overview of fasting with its conclusions. How does it apply to what we read here in Matthew chapter 6. How do we take that context and begin to apply it into that situation there and how do we take that situation there and apply it into our lives 2000 years later? How does that work? How does that all fit together?

Well, It moves us on to our second point. Actually, if you could click on the PowerPoint. And again, And again. There you go. Do not look somber.

Or if you read the SV, it says gloomy. Do not look like I look fergly. We don't look gloomy as the hypocrites do. For they disfigure their faces to show others that they are far thing. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

So the situation that Jesus is dealing with Back into our passage, the situation that he's dealing with is the pharisees and what they've done with fasting. Now remember that fasting was only ever sanctioned or or commanded or subscribed to once. Day of atonement. That's it. What Israel had done with it and this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

By the way, they had then made other days for fasting. All sorts of other days when the rain didn't come in the autumn, they would fast. Not a bad reason to fast by the way. At New Year, they would fast as they as they commission the new year in, not necessarily a bad thing. The problem with all of it is that over time it had all become ritualized and it had all lost its meaning and it all lost its point And what the pharisees, what the hypocrites are doing here is they're fasting twice a week.

They're fasting twice a week religiously. They don't even know why. Why are they fasting twice a week? What's it for? What's the point of it?

All they're doing is abstaining from food. Essentially, all they're doing is they're just saying, well, look at how devoted we are. Look at how committed we are. We will go without food for the lord. But what does that prove about anything apart from the fact that you can control yourself and not eat?

It doesn't say anything. There's nothing of Isiah 58 in that. The thing that we see and I think this is Jesus is driving at over all of these examples is that almost anything that is supposed to serve as an outward sign of an inward attitude can be cheapened by this sort of hypocrisy and hypocritical piety. Almost anything that we do. Why are you here now?

Are you here just to be seen? Because it's good be seen at church, you're worried if you don't attend that people might think where are they? Why aren't they here? Is that is that what it's about? Because if that's your reason for being here, it's actually better that you're not here.

If you're not here to engage with God's word and to commune with God's people. Why do we do the things we do? It gets under the skin, doesn't it? It gets us asking the question. Why do I do what I do?

What's the point of it? And how do I do what I do? Well, don't be don't be gloomy. Don't be gloomy. It's it's a it's a funny 1, isn't it?

Don't be gloomy. I think really what it's saying is don't wear a mask. Don't put this mask on where you just figure your face So the other people go, are you okay? And and you go, just do what? I'm so busy.

I'm just I'm just through the roof busy. I'm doing this ministry and I'm doing that ministry and things are crazy here and crazy. We love this in our society, don't we? It's like every time I say it every time someone asks me how I'm doing, I go, I'm so busy. Seriously, I'm so busy.

And I guess the hope is that they go, wow. They're doing so much. How good that is? And they think the better of you for it and you gain their praise. Well, there's your reward.

And that's all you're gonna get. That's all you're gonna get. It stops there at that moment. It's done. It's over.

Kiss goodbye to anything else. Don't wear a mask. Don't put on a show. Don't be a hypocrite. A Hippocrit is just the Greek word for actor.

Drop the act. This is a call to take a hard look at our behavior and question why and how we do the things we do. And normally when we talk about wearing a mask or putting on show is because we're covering something up, isn't it? But this is like the reversal of that. This is we're wearing a mask and putting on a show to highlight something and to draw people's attention to something and for praise and adoration and and all the rest of it and it's so easy to go down that line and it it's insidious.

It gets into everything. I don't know if I'm I'm almost hesitant to use this illustration, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Many of you have probably been in churches, you probably grew up in a church like this I did. This is how the church that I grew up in worked. We would go to the Sunday service and everyone would sit down and, you know, there's someone tinkling away on a piano or, you know, violin in the corner.

And everyone's chatting away. And then suddenly the music goes down and it gets quiet and the tension builds. And everyone's the attention's palpable in the room, and everyone's on the on the edge of their seats, and then a door, but the front opens Full view of the whole church and out files what I can only describe as the suit elite. These men, these serious men, the elders and the minister of the church file out with the serious look on their faces, They're serious. They're almost gloomy.

And look, I would just want to say, this isn't a pop at these guys because I I I think in all fairness, they were doing this as a mark of respect. You know, they dressed in their Sunday finest as a mark of respect. I get all of that. But you see the danger. The danger is that you can put these guys on a pedestal.

And what do they do the rest of the week when they're not wearing their super gear? Are they still superheroes then? Are they still holy or are they wearing their special clothes on a special day for a special task? I don't know, but there's the danger, isn't there? Anything can go that way.

We've got to be careful. Like I said, I'm not having a pop at those guys. I'm really not. Please don't hear me say that, but we've got to keep checking ourselves. We've got to keep asking, why do I do the things that I do?

Am I being hypocritical here? Am I just doing it to show others that I'm doing it? Is that what's going on? Next slide, please. That's the negative part.

This is the positive side. So that was the negative thing. Here's the positive, but when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face. In other words, in your life of devotion to God, in your fasting, in your Isaiah 58 life. Just do do it as you normally do it.

And notice here that Jesus takes it a hundred percent for granted that you will be utterly devoted in a life of righteous us in God's eyes. He says when you fast. He doesn't say if you fast. He says when? He takes it for granted.

That's probably the most challenging thing about this. He takes it for granted that you will serve the poor lowly in destitute if you're his follower. He takes it for granted that you will choose other people ahead of yourself. He takes it for granted that you will not rely on the provision of this world and all of its goodies. He takes it for granted that you will not go out of your way and that you will go out of your way at cost to yourself.

To follow God, to honor him. This passage isn't about encouraging you to live a life like that. Jesus expects you to live a life like that. He takes it for granted that you are That is a challenge when you fast. And when you do it, make it look like the most natural thing in the world.

As though you've not gone out of your way at all, it's no thing. I think this is this is wonderful news. This is encouraging because it means that anyone can do this. Anyone can live in Isaiah 58 life for God. Anyone can live a holy fast.

Anyone can do those things insofar as they're able. It's great news. And then finally, next next slide, please, Dave. Finally, the reason why, why? Why do it this way?

Well, so did it won't be obvious to others. But only to your father, who is unseen, and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. This this Friday rooted, Rory was taking us. We've been doing heroes of the faith every couple of weeks we've been looking at a particular person from history and we looked at Eric Little. If you know who Eric Little is or if you don't know who Eric Little is, he was the Scottish athlete earlier in the twentieth century.

He was incredibly fast. He was the he was the child of missionary parents in China. He was so good. He was on the Olympics team. So around comes the time.

He's also a devout Christian. Around comes the time of the Paris 19 24 Olympics. And he's basically a dead sir. I mean, he he smashed the hundred meters in 9.7 seconds. That's unheard of back then.

He's a dead cert for gold, dead cert. But what day is the final on? You guessed it, Sunday. Now Eric had a choice to make, and he chose to stick to his principles to abide by his conscience to honor God. And he said, I'm sorry, I can't do it.

And he was reviled. People hated him. He got hate letters He was called unpatriotic and all sorts of things. And then they said, okay, well this is a big problem, you know, you're like 1 of the best stars we've had in ages. Guess what?

The 400 meters. Not on on Sunday, you could do that. Now I don't know if any of you know anything about athletics, but there's world of difference between a hundred and 400 meters. It's a very different type of athletes and it's a very different skill set. But he says yeah, fine.

No worries. He just washes his face, oil on his head, gets on with it. It's no thing. What does he do? Annihilates it, wins gold.

Wins the 400 meters. Now at that moment, Eric Liddle had the world in a palm of his hand. He could have taken all the glory. He could have taken all the praise. He could have had his 15 minutes.

He could have taken and relied on on the world's provisions. He could have gone down that road. His head could have become so huge. He could never run again because it was so massive. All of those things could have happened.

What does he do? He packs his bags, and he heads to China for a life of poverty as a missionary. Shortly after the Japanese, if you know that part of history invade China. Take over vast swathes of it, and he ends up in an internment camp. While he's in the internment camp, he could have just sacked it all off.

But he lives in Isaiah 58 life. So he goes around and witnesses to the people in there. He gets bible studies on the go. He starts to the sports teams and gets everyone up and motivated and so many people say the only reason I got through that time was because of Eric. They called him uncle Eric.

He was the only reason. A guy was walking around with no shoes. He gives him the shoes that he won the race in. Doesn't care. It's such a worldly thing.

Who cares about those shoes? He gets a brain tumor, and he dies in that camp. Before he died, he had the opportunity to leave. There was a dispensation. Now as the story goes, we don't know if this is true.

But he gave up his place for a pregnant lady to leave in his in his place. Even if it's not true, I think that's probably the sort of guy Eric is. It seems consistent with his character. Certainly consistent with an Isaiah 58 life. Eric Little didn't really get much earthly fame.

You could say he's infamous. More than famous for giving up the hundred meters and his opportunity to have his fame. But what he's gained instead is an eternal reward. Your father who sees what's done in secret will reward you, He's gained an eternal reward. Many people became Christians because of him.

Many went on to be missionaries. He's in heaven now. And he's enjoying those relationships. I have no doubts. He's receiving his reward and his reward gets better and better and better and better.

This is with his father in heaven and in communion with these people whose lives he touched because he put them ahead of himself. Honored his father in heaven. Friends, this this life that we live is ultimately between us and our father. And what pleases him most is when we pour out our lives for other people. What he rewards most is a holy fast in which we deny ourselves in favor of others.

And we see this most in the life of Jesus. Nowhere else, is is that more evident. Nowhere else do we see that taken to its full limits and unpacked as well as it can be unpacked. And applied to the maximum. Not the minimum, but the hypocrites, applied to the maximum.

Jesus is the sermon on the mount in action. He's the walking, living, breathing, sermon on the mount being applied to anyone he comes into contact with and just enriching lives and building the kingdom. We've been looking at John 17 in in the morning services recently, and we've seen just how totally devoted Jesus is to his father in heaven through his prayers and to his followers on earth. So devoted immediately after that, he goes to the cross to undo the damage done by humans. In this world.

He's about to reverse that rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden. It's woven sin just into this world in every way imaginable. You could say where eve encourages Adam to break the fast, to take and eat of the world. Jesus says to his disciples at the last supper, take and eat of me. Feast on me.

Don't rely on this world rely on me. Follow me. I'll show you all way through. Where Adam and Eve take from the only tree that they're banned from taking from. For good reason, Jesus lets himself be nailed to a tree.

To undo the yoke and burden of oppression that afflicts humanity in the world. Bothers and sisters, in the face of a God who's denied himself for every turn, who's lived as hard and devoted. A life as any that's ever been lived. Who had compassion on those who were lost and confused and downtrodden, the heartbroken, the weary, the abused, those who who came he came to humble and draw to him, the proud and the self righteous. To calm down and reform the violent as we were hearing about this morning, who allowed himself to be tortured and to die in the place of his enemies.

Brothers and sisters, when we're faced with Jesus, how can we do anything other? Than forsake this world as secondary. A throwing off its empty promises of provision rely on him entirely. And when you do that, do it as if it were no thing at all. This life is short and probably quite painful, mostly.

Attorney is long and glorious. And we this is a guarantee we will soon go on. Our time here is short. We will follow those who have gone ahead of us. We'll cross over Jordan.

We'll go into the promised land. Our time here is short while we're here. Live Isaiah 58. Go in the footsteps of Christ. DENy yourself.

Deny yourself and live a holy fast straining ahead towards the finish line. Into our father's loving arms, and then you can enjoy the rewards. And I fully anticipate enjoying them right next to you on that day. Let's pray. Father, these are these are challenging words that go through everything we do and question why we act the way we act.

Father, please help us to examine our our lives. We're all different. We will do different things. We all have different motivations for things. We all have different requirements on us, but ultimate father draw up are seeking a provision back to you, you are where we gain our sustenance.

Jesus is our forgiveness. Jesus is our savior. He is the 1 who's gone ahead of us. Let us rely on him and forsake all else. Ah, man.