Invisible Righteousness
By Pastor David M. Dennis
[Based on Matthew 6:1-18]
The following story is told by Ruthie Jacobsen:
Five college ministerial students visited London, thrilled at the opportunity of hearing some well-known preachers before their ordination into the ministry. The hot summer sun beat down on them as they waited for the doors to open to Spurgeon's Tabernacle, the church of one of the best-known preachers of that era. A stranger approached them and said, "While you are waiting, would you like to see the heating apparatus of the church?"
Seeing the heating apparatus on a boiling day in July was the last thing they had in mind, but they consented. They were led down some steps to a basement door. Their guide pushed open the door. "There is our heating apparatus," he whispered in hushed tones.
The young interns saw before them 700 people bowed in prayer asking for God's blessing on the service soon to be held in the tabernacle upstairs. Their unknown guide turned out to be Spurgeon himself.
Spurgeon's ministry was powerful because of prayer. In our lives and in our churches we have choices: Why use a pencil if you have access to a computer? Why walk if you can fly? Why stumble along without power when the potential is so great? As Spurgeon knew: "Whenever God wants to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray."1
The people praying in the basement of that church were unseen by most who came to the worship services. But it was the unseen power of those people in prayer which provided the powerful presence of the mighty God in heaven which gave Spurgeon’s meetings conviction and success.
We are accustomed to thinking that what gives success is the bright, the flashy, and the spectacular. In fact, several weeks ago, when I spoke on the topic of "perfection" we saw that when we talk of perfection we typically do so in terms of the visual. It follows that we have the ingrained idea that success comes by what people see.
We saw that perfection — by God’s standard of judgment — does not come by the visual. And today we shall see that success — as our Lord counts success — does not come by the flashy, bright, nor spectacular.
In our scripture lesson Jesus talked about three forms of worship:
In regard to these three acts of worship Jesus said in Matthew 6:1, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." Jesus is not against righteousness because earlier in His Sermon on the Mount He said, ". . . unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (see Matthew 5:20). Righteousness is a qualification for heaven. But Jesus is against righteousness which is done in order to be noticed. Jesus is telling us that success is not derived from the visual, the brilliant, the flashy and the spectacular.
In Matthew 6 Jesus speaks in a pattern regarding the three forms of worship. Jesus describes the Pharisees and how they use the acts of giving, praying, and fasting as vehicles to draw visual attention to themselves. The praise they received for their presentation is their only reward says Jesus. But if a person would like true success; if a person seeks an eternal reward: giving, praying, and fasting are good if they are done in secret. More specifically — giving, praying, and fasting need to be done from a motivation of humility. This is invisible righteousness.
Let us consider Jesus’ teaching on prayer for a moment. Jesus says the following:
"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. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way:
'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and power, and the glory, forever. Amen']
"For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions" (See Matthew 5:5-15).
Jesus is not against public prayer, but against prayer which would draw attention to the one doing the praying. Prayer should draw our attention to "Our Father who is in heaven." Jesus counsels that when we pray we should go to our "inner room" and shut the door. The word used by Matthew for this inner room is pronounced — TAMIE-ON. A TAMIE-ON was the designation given to a special room found in some ancient homes. A TAMIE-ON was a small room, but in this room were stored the valuables and special objects of the family. Especially kept in the TAMIE-ON were the items transferred for the marriage dowry. By telling us to pray in the inner room — in the TAMIE-ON — Jesus is placing a tremendous value upon prayer.
Jesus continues by letting us know that prayer should be short, and not filled with repetitive, and meaningless phrases. Flowery and puffed up language is not needed to speak to our Father in heaven. In fact, Jesus informs us that our Father knows what we need before we ask Him.
The logical question is: If our Father knows our most basic needs before we pray, then why pray? The answer to this question is found in Matthew 6:25-33. Let us read these verses.
"For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow Is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?' For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you."
In these verses Jesus speaks of our needs and how the Father is aware of them, especially our basic needs of food and clothing. We learn in these verses that we need to treat prayer as a precious possession because life is more than food and clothing. Food and clothing may be basic to our existence but prayer should be about more than our personal needs. In fact, as followers of Jesus we need to first learn how to seek first God’s kingdom, and His righteousness. The chief goal of prayer, and the reason it should be treated as a prized possession is that we stop looking at our own needs and look to the needs of others.
Occasionally I am asked a derivative of this question — How does one have a successful prayer life? I have learned to answer this question like this: I pray for many things. I have learned not judge success on the basis of answered prayers. God will make sure I have the things I and my family need. He will ensure that my church family has what they need. Success happens when I am called to enter any situation where the attitude and spirit of Christ are needed and God works through me to provide the necessary love and humility.
Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness is not primarily about finding ourselves in heaven but, like Christ, sacrificing ourselves so that others may find themselves in heaven. The precious value gained in prayer is learning to imitate the selfless character of Jesus. This imitation can only be learned well by spending time with Him. Prayer is successful, prayer is priceless because we learn to communicate with our Friend and Savior.
This idea is bolstered by what Jesus says about fasting. Jesus speaks of the Pharisees who have a "gloomy face" when they fasted. Jesus goes on to tell them to wash their face. The reason there is so much talk about the face is that when the Pharisees fasted they would put make-up on their faces. They would arrange the make-up in such a way as to make it look as though death was near. In other words, the outward appearance, the show was "Hey everybody, look at me. I’m fasting! Am I not a pious person?"
Jesus’ answer to this public display is for the Pharisees to wash their faces, and anoint their heads. Jesus is telling us that the value of fasting is not the fact others know we are fasting. Jesus adds the instruction that we are to anoint our heads. Anointing is the act of placing oil on the head. We have many examples of this in the Bible. The person who was anointed was called to serve whether it was Aaron as priest, Saul or David as king, or Elisha as prophet. Anointing was a call to service for the benefit of the people of God.
It just so happens that the word for anoint in Hebrew is Messiah, or in the Greek language of the New Testament is CHRISTOS. The value of fasting comes when we submit ourselves to be more like Him; the true Christ; the true Messiah. In fasting we learn the lesson that life is more than food and clothing because food is given up. Life is about becoming like the Anointed One and learning how to serve other people.
In twenty days we are going to be hosting the NET 99 Millennial Prophecy Seminar. George, myself, and a group of others are trying to plan in such a way that everything goes smoothly and the people are blessed by the presentation and spiritual seeds are successfully planted in hearts. But success will not come from the visual presentation. Success will come by prayer.
I would love to see this church like Spurgeon’s Tabernacle in my opening illustration. I believe that we have the ability and the desire to become a better praying church. We have the ability, through God’s grace to become a boiler room of hot, intense, fervent prayer.
I would suggest that we form ourselves into prayer groups of five or six people. Let us start today. Let us gather back here in the sanctuary after some time of fellowship in the foyer. If you would like gather in a Sabbath-School room, or in the fellowship hall.
When we pray let us pray for the power of God to renew our hearts and make us more like Christ. Let us pray for both the hearts that God is preparing to bring to our seminar, and let us also pray for our own hearts, characters, and attitudes — that we may be made more Christ-like.
When you are in your groups, and after you finish praying together decide when your group will meet next week. Perhaps you want to come to church earlier and meet then. Or plan to gather together after the worship service next week. I suggest that during the week that you call someone who is not here this week and invite them to join your prayer group.
Please, let us come together as a praying family of God where we receive the anointing — both the call and the motivation — to be true, loving, and caring representatives of His grace and truth.
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1 Ruthie Jacobsen, The Difference is Prayer, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1998, p.7.