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hen was the last time you prayed? Was it over a meal? The Mishnah provided
guidelines for giving “grace” at a meal. The exact words
of the prayer changed with the type of food to be eaten. There was a
different prayer for fruit, bread, vegetables, herbs, “greens,” and
dairy products. Women, slaves, and minors could not ask males to bless
their food. The Jews were required to recite the “Eighteen Benedictions” every
day, and they were required to pray to God three times a day. Prayer
was important to the Jews, but they missed the fact that God was a person.
Why do you pray? When do you pray, and how do you pray? Jesus wants to
talk to us about praying to His Father.
And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; . . . (NASB) Matthew 6:5-8 Religious Leaders. In Matt. 6:1-4, Jesus
has just told us that the Jewish leaders wanted the people to know that
they gave money. In most cases they gave money for wonderful purposes
- the poor and needy. Jesus, who sees into our hearts, said they did
it to gain honor from the people. We discovered that He encourages us
to give from our hearts, and not to seek honor. Have you ever give to
someone without any other person knowing?
Jesus was not just talking about some new person in the
church who is seeking to be noticed and respected. He was not talking
about some “wall-flower” who everyone ignored. For us today,
we could say that Jesus was talking about the pastors of churches, the
spiritual leadership of the church, the Sunday School teacher, or the
Awana leader who wanted you to think he/she is really very spiritual.
It is amazing that all of Jesus’ illustrations have started with
the spiritual leadership.
Look At Me. Jesus is after the “spiritual” leaders
again in verse 5-8. This time He is talking about prayer. Have you every
been at a prayer meeting where you were uncomfortable, but you decided
to pray anyway because it might look bad if you did not pray? Or, have
you ever struggled with what words to say in your prayer because you
feared looking badly and wanted others to think you did great? If your
answer is yes to anyone of these questions Jesus has some words for you,
And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (NASB) Matt. 6:5-6 Jesus’ words are unbelievable. He says these religious leaders
loved to pray in the synagogues and in the open streets (the literal
Greek) to “appear truly” to men. The Greek word for “appear” comes
from PHAINO which means “to shine,” “to appear,” or
to “light up.” The word is sometimes used to speak of the
shining sun. These men wanted to be seen by everyone. They wanted to
shine like the sun and to appear to be very righteous. |
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| Sermon on the Mount | |||||
