Sermons of Jesus – Characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven (2)
Listening to the sermon spoken by our Lord Jesus is like feasting on a sumptuous meal.
In this sumptuous meal, there are dishes that are easy to swallow, but there are also some dishes that require us to chew very hard before we can swallow.
But no matter how difficult these dishes may be, we must eat them with gladness of heart and most importantly is to be able to digest them, ie. to do them.
Bible Passage: Matthew 6
The sermon that we are listening today consist of the following headings:
- Do good to please God (1 – 4)
- The model prayer (5 – 15)
- Fasting to be seen only by God (16 – 18)
- Lay up treasures in heaven (19 – 21)
- The lamp of the body (22 – 23)
- One cannot serve God and mammon (24)
- Do not worry (25 – 34)
I won’t be able to share my thoughts on all that Jesus had spoken in this chapter, so I hope you can also share yours so that all of us can be edified, and of course, let us all pursue to digest His Words so that we can DO them.
The first 3 headings in this sermon have a similar emphasis, and that is in doing good, saying prayers, and fasting must be done only to be seen by God and not others. (cf. v4, 6, 18)
It is necessary for us to do good, for if we refrain from doing good while we have the ability, it is a sin (ref. James 4:17), but while we do good, we have to be watchful of our intention.
Yes, we may gain the praises (reward) from man if we boast of our good works, but think again, is this kind of reward we are looking for? Do we do good for the sake of being rewarded by applause from man?
Our level of spirituality may be measured by our life of prayer. Then again, we must not boast of how prayerful we may be, or sometimes we may pretend to be very prayerful just to gain praises from man.
Fasting is another thing that may show the level of our spirituality. I have heard of some elderly members who have been fasting and praying regularly for the church, but this came to my knowledge not because they have boasted, but it was by chance that others came to know about their commitment in fasting for the growth of the church.
This is the kind of attitude and spirit in fasting that the Lord is pleased with, because this kind is only for the eyes of God and not for man.
Therefore, in the matters of doing good, in prayers and fasting, we must seek to gain the approval of God and not the applause from man.
It is truly meaningless and useless to gain rewards from man, because man’s reward can never last, but the rewards from God can last through eternity, and there is the place where we will be in the future when Christ comes again.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20
This ties in with the next heading, ‘Lay up treasures in heaven’.
Sometimes it is inevitable that we receive praises from man for our good deeds, prayerfulness, and constant fasting, but we must not be puffed up by all these “earthly treasures”, instead, realize for a fact that God is always watching over us, He sees all things that are going on.
So we MUST seek to please Him, and His pleasure is indeed the precious treasures that we can lay up in heaven.
The rest of the sermon boils down to the constant realization that God is always watching us, not to pick out our faults, but to guide us in our daily dealings, strengthening us whenever we reach out to Him.
On our part, we have to be diligent in our pursuit after holiness, allow the light of the Word of God to fill our hearts, so that can be watchful over our footsteps in our daily dealings with the world.
Serve our Master and not mammon, and not to be overwhelmed by our worldly cares, but be focused on the things above and to entrust everything in the hands of our Father.
Hope to hear your thoughts regarding this sermon of our Lord.
Shalom.