Matthew 6:5-8 ~ The Correct Understanding of Prayer Part 1

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Excerpt:

"I would say in the Christian life that prayer is one of the most important things to understand. Prayer is communication or talking with God. That is what prayer is. If you get the communication wrong, then your relationship is going to be wrong."

Transcript

 

We are in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 through 15. Remember that Matthew chapters 5 through 7 is all one sermon, The Sermon on the Mount. And the theme of the Lord’s message to the Jewish people is The Correct Understanding of the Things of God.

 

In case you have not noticed, we have a tendency as human beings to misunderstand the things of God even though we have the Scriptures. We have selective beliefs of what we prefer the truth to be about what God’s Word is saying. We even have, and what is a term that I used this week with someone, we customize Jesus for our own easiness to accept. And Jesus has a way of using the correct teachings of Scripture to present to us the truth, give us the correct understanding of the things of God.

 

In verses 1 through 18 of Matthew chapter 6 it is The Correct Understanding of Doing Righteousness. And to a Jew that would mean how you live out the law, how you do your religious practices. So this is called the tzedakah (tsedhāqāh) section, that is the Hebrew word for righteousness.

 

And as we shared with you last week, verse 1 is the command concerning doing righteousness. Be continually paying attention not to do your act of mercy in front of men, (with the motive) to be viewed by them. And if not, that is, you do not pay attention, you go ahead and do it anyway so that people recognize you and admire you for it, if indeed you do not have a reward from your Father Who is in Heaven.

 

And I shared with you last week, even Paul’s message in I Corinthians 9:16-17, how he said, “Even in ministry,” he says, “if I take a reward from you or get a reward in this human life I have nothing after this life.” He said, “I would prefer to minister the Word of God without charge so that I have a reward waiting for me when I come before the presence of Christ.” So the whole overall theme here is do not practice your religious practices with the motive to be seen by people, and to be admired by them, and recognized by them because that has nothing to do with the things of the Lord.  That is just ego and attention.

 

I was reminded this week. I was reading from a book, and it was interesting that a man would make the observation that we can take this sinful flesh, and instead of living a life of sin we can dress it up in religious trappings and practice religion the same way we practice the pagan life in the world. How true that is. Using religious practices to point to ourselves, and to uplift ourselves, rather than the things of the world. It is all sin. One of the great deceptions is to think that if we are fulfilling the desires of our ego but we are doing the things of the Lord that it is okay. And is not okay.

 

Offering names on plaques. There are churches that say, “If you give one hundred dollars or more we will put your name on a plaque and hang it out in the foyer so people can see your name on the plaque.” Or names on bricks that are put within the building if you give one thousand dollars or more.

 

Even what we call spiritual gifts. The teaching of spiritual gifts today is teaching people how they are special, and they have one special gift that God has given them, and they are to take it and they are to develop it and they are to practice it. So what do they do? They practice it in front of people so that people can see them, and they say, “It is my gift,” and that is not the gifts of the Spirit.  The focus is not on man, on the human, but rather the things of God.

 

I told you that in these eighteen verses there are what are called pattern markers. The pattern in verses 2 through 4 is, therefore whenever. It is the word whenever along with the doing of righteousness that he is talking about. Verses 2 through 4 that we saw last week, Whenever you should do an act of mercy, that is to say, you do a beneficial thing for somebody. It later came to mean in the church an act of giving money, and giving money and food to the poor and clothing to the poor, but also money to the church. It was an act of mercy and people would do it publicly so that people could see them and they would get recognition for it.

 

I pointed out to you that there are three characteristics of each one of these sections. The pattern marker is:

 

Verses 2 through 4, Whenever you should do your act of mercy.

 

Verses 5 through 15, Whenever you should pray.

 

Verses 16 through 18, Whenever you should fast, or go without eating for religious  purposes.

 

So all three sections are broken off with the word (hotan) with the word or practice that he is talking about. And yet there are three characteristics about each one of these sections that we found.

 

1)  Last week in verse 2, when he was talking about doing your act of mercy he said, first of all, the action that is involved, You should not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites are doing.

 

2)  So the second thing he is going to mention in each section is the hypocrites.  (hupokrisis) is the Greek word and it is literally the word for a theater term for an actor who responds or acts out according to the script. You learn the script. You take on the character. You talk and act like the person in the script. If a person is a good actor you forget that they are acting, you get caught up in the character. And so he is talking about religious people do that in the church. People learn the Bible. People learn the script. They learn how to act. They learn how to talk as a Christian, so that they can fit in with the other Christians. But they themselves are not saved. They are not Christians. And Jesus called the religious leaders and the religious practitioners, hypocrites. They are just responding and acting out according to the script but in their heart there is no life. So the second thing is, Do not do as the hypocrites are doing in the synagogues and in the streets. The motive being so that they might be glorified by men.

 

3)  The third characteristic is, Truly I am saying to you they are receiving their reward. That is in every section. If you do something to be recognized and admired by people, their admiration of you and their recognition of you is your reward. You get nothing from God. That is your payment. So while you are doing your act of mercy, Do not left you let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That is obviously a hyperbole. The consequence, So that your act of mercy might be in secret. And your Father the one seeing in secret will repay you in the open. That is to say, that is an eschatological term, that is the last days. He will openly, publicly, reward you for all the things that you did, because you did it for the Lord. And since it was for the Lord, and he sees in secret, then nobody else needs to know. If my motive is pure, and sometimes you can help other people see or other people knowing, but if the motive there is, “I want to do this to please the Lord,” and He is pleased, He will reward you openly.

 

Verses 5 to 15, The Correct Understanding of Prayer. I would say in the Christian life one of the most important things to understand because prayer is communication or talking with God. That is what prayer is. If you get the communication wrong, then your relationship is going to be totally wrong with the Lord. That is why we have so many books and teachings today on prayer that are so corrupt, so human centered, so ego centered; that it is to corrupt that whole communication system. So as we are studying through this section we want to get the thing straight.

 

Verses 5 to 15 is broken down into two sections: Versus 5 to 8 for today, The Motive for Prayer. And verses 9 through 15 The Manner of Prayer. The way it is to be done. The Motive for Prayer verses 5 to 8, Manner of Prayer 9 to 15.

 

And remember those three characteristics. We find the first one in verse five, And whenever you should pray. Interesting, He did not say, if you should pray, but whenever. The Lord is assuming that prayer is part of the life of the of the believer. Whenever you should pray, and again, that is communication and talking with the Lord.

 

Secondly, here is the second principle, You should not be as the hypocrites. So he is mentioning it again here. It is the second characteristic. The actor. Do not be like an actor.

 

And I do not know if you have ever run into these kinds of people, but I have in church; where they memorize prayers and they perfect praying so that when they get up and pray they give these beautiful prayers and all the people go, “Oh wow, that is great. Oh I so enjoyed your prayer.”

 

“Well, praise God, He has given me that ability to be so good in my prayer life.”

 

Do not be like the hypocrites. Do not be like the actors. Actors like to act out their righteousness and He is emphasizing that your righteousness should be in secret, because it is between you and God, not between you and other people. You should not be as the hypocrites. The reason why, Because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so that – and here is the purpose – so that they might be visible to men. The motive is to be seen by people. “I want people to see me pray,” is their motive, on the streets and in the synagogues. What is all that about? Well, you have to know a little bit of Jewish background.

 

The Jews have religious forms of prayer that even come from the Scriptures. The Shema which means to hear. It is the first word of Deuteronomy 6:4. The Jews recite the Shema twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening. Some of the more dedicated Jews not only quote Deuteronomy 6:4, but they also do verses 4 through 9; also chapter 11 verses 13 to 21; Numbers 15:37-41. They quote all of that in their prayer in the morning and in the evening.

 

And then there is what is called the Shemonah Esreh. The first one is the Shema. This is Shemonah Esreh which are 18 prayers by the Jews that cover all the various occasions that you could come across during the day. A devout Jew will pray the Shemonah Esreh – the 18 prayers for the 18 various occasions – will pray three times a day; what is the third hour, sixth hour, and ninth hour of the day, which is basically 9 in the morning, noon, and 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Three times a day. So you have the Shema twice a day, morning, and evening. You have the Shemonah Esreh that they pray, these 18 prayers that they pray three times a day.

 

Now if they are on their way to the synagogue, and the horn sounds that it is time for the noon prayers and you have not made it yet, some of them stop right there in the streets and do their praying rather than try to make it to the synagogue. Because it is 12 o’clock, it is late, you have to make your prayers, and they do it now. And they do it out in the open, so everybody can see them, and everybody can hear them. That is what Jesus is making reference to. Do not be like the actors. First of all, the Lord never told them to pray the Shema twice a day, nor the Shemonah Esreh three times a day. He never mentioned that at all. Prayer was supposed to be between them and God, a personal relationship of communication between them, but the Jews made it into religious form, so that is the basis behind it.

 

Jesus said, So that they might be visible to men, that is their motive for praying in public. Truly I say to you, and hear is your third characteristic, I say to you that they are receiving their reward. Whatever recognition, whatever admiration that is being given to them, that is their reward. You got recognized, and admired by man, and honored by people, that is your reward.  You get no reward from God because you are using it for yourself.

 

So He goes on to say, in the commands concerning prayer verses 6 and 7, Now you, whenever you should pray, first command, enter into the private room (the secret room) and after having shut your door pray to your Father Who is in secret. And your Father the One seeing in secret, will repay you in the open. Same teachings that He gave about acts of mercy, He is now talking about prayer. Go into the secret room. Go into your private room, shut the door so it is between you and God. That is what prayer is for. It is not between you and other people while you are praying to God. It is not for other people to see or other people to hear. It is between you and it is between God.

 

Now the word, the Greek word, for secret room or private room is actually the word for the storeroom. A storeroom that has no windows. It is actually where people put their valuable possessions in. No windows so people cannot see in, people cannot see what is in there. It is the storeroom, a secret room, a private room, to stay away from the public because valuable things are in there. So Jesus says, “That is the room you want to go in.” Where nobody can see you. It is a private secret place and there is where you want to pray to your Father who He Himself is in secret. He is hidden. And your Father, the one seeing in secret will repay you in the open.

 

Now this teaching is not about places to pray, it is not about places, it is about motive.  Jesus is not teaching that you cannot pray in public. He is teaching, instructing about praying in secret, but not about not praying in public.  Jesus Himself prayed in public:

 

He first all prayed in secret, Mark 1:35 said He went out early in the morning and went to a secluded place to pray. He always prayed on a personal basis in a secluded place.

 

But Jesus also prayed publicly. In Luke 11:1, in Matthew 14:19, and all through the Gospel of John, Jesus is praying and He says, “Father, I am not praying this for My sake, I am praying in public for their sake,” so that the disciples will hear what He is talking about with the father, what kind of relationship a person should have with the Father.

 

But also we are told that the believers gathered together for public prayer:

 

In I Timothy 2:1-4 Paul instructed that the men in the church should be doing the prayers, the public prayers during church service.

 

We see this true in Acts 1:24 where the 120 were gathered together waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit and they were praying in public.

 

Chapter 4 of the book of Acts verses 24 through 30 where the believers were gathered together in homes, and they would pray for the other believers.

 

So Jesus is not restricting the place where you pray. He is not talking about whether you are in public and you are asked to pray, like we do here. It is not in order to display in front of people and get their admiration and to get recognized by people, it is to lead the corporate group of believers in prayer as we stand before God and as we seek the Lord.

 

Now again, the place is not the emphasis here. Jesus in Mark 1:35 prayed in the desert.  In Matthew 14:23 He went up on a mountain. So it is not the place. It is the motive to be as secret as possible. This is a conversation between myself and the Lord. And it is between me and Him. It is not supposed to be a showoff for other people to recognize me as a spiritual man in my prayers.

 

Verse 7 says, Now while praying you should not speak vain repetitions as indeed the Gentiles do, (the heathen do). Explanation: For they presume that in much speaking they will be heard. And so interesting this term for vain repetitions, battal it is from an Aramaic word. Battal that means idle or useless. Useless language. From battal comes the word battos, which means to stutter or stammer. So you get the idea, you know somebody who stutters they repeat the same thing over and over again until somebody comes and slaps them on the back so they can keep going. But somebody who repeats the same words and same phrases over and over again and have no meaning to them unless it is connected with other words.

 

And what He is saying here is being involved in vain repetitions, just saying words that mean absolutely nothing. Reciting formal prayer, making up prayers, and just thinking that if I say these words and I say them long enough and often enough God is going to hear me. That is what the pagan religions taught, and even some of the Jewish leaders taught the Jewish people; that if you talk often enough and long enough God is eventually going to hear you and you are eventually going to get a response. But it is going to be because of your much speaking. It is going to be because you repeat the same prayer over and over again.

 

Now later on here, in a couple of weeks we are going to be studying in this section what is called The Lord’s Prayer. We all know it as The Lord’s Prayer. It is not the Lord’s prayer; it is the Disciple’s prayer. It is Jesus teaching the disciples to pray. But even the Lord’s prayer, the church people have taken that, and we recite it, many churches recite it every Sunday. They recite the Lord’s prayer together, over and over again. Thinking that reciting it, saying the words, repeating the words over and over again, that it has some validity before God. That is what Jesus is saying, “Do not speak vain repetitions over and over again. It is like chanting or thoughtless repetitions. Our English word to babble comes from battal the Aramaic word. Just to be babbling for the sake of making sounds is what it is.

 

Now I should emphasize to you that speaking vain repetitions applies to words, not requests. Using words in repetition to try to get a response from God rather than petitions. Because Jesus himself encouraged – Matthew 7:7 Jesus said, Ask, in fact it is in the present tense, Continually ask and you will receive. Continually knock and it will be open to you. Continually seek out and you are going to find. So Jesus encouraged, continue to pray often, continue to seek the Lord for the same thing if you have to. But even Jesus in Matthew 26:39- 44, three times in the garden of Gethsemane He repeated the same prayer as he was agonizing going to the cross. So repeating requests is not the problem. It is using words in forms and repetitions, thinking that by using them were going to get a response from God.

 

You should not speak vain repetitions as the pagans do, for they presume in much speaking they will be heard. That was the teaching. The longer the prayer and the more words you use over and over and over again, eventually you get God’s attention and eventually He will respond and answer your prayer. That was the pagan teaching. Jesus said that is false.

 

Verse 8, The Consequence of Prayer, Therefore do not become like to them. Now listen to this, one of the most important phrases in the Bible, For your Father knows of what things you have need before you ask Him.

 

First thing, prayer is not to inform God or to persuade Him of anything. That is very important. Prayer is not to inform Him because He already knows. He knows what I need before I even pray. It is like, “Well Lord, in case You were busy, I do not know if you knew what happened this morning, but….” He already knows. Prayer is not to inform or to persuade God about doing things.

 

Secondly, it does not matter how long you pray, or how short you pray, or how often you pray, or how much you do not pray. God knows everything. It is not dependent upon our prayers to bring information to God. He already knows. So it does not say that He answers without prayer. It says He already knows before we pray, but we are to pray.

 

In James 4:2-3 he says, The reason why you do not have is because you do not ask. And the reason why you do not have even when you do ask is because you ask with the wrong motive. You ask to spend it on your lust, your human desires. So we are to ask. We are to pray. But we have to understand that we are praying to a God who already knows. Not only does He know what we are going to pray about, but He already has the answer.

 

That should put into focus for us what were going to study next week, is what exactly is prayer? If God knows everything, why do I need to pray? I get that all the time. I have heard it for years. Why do I need to pray if God knows what I need anyway? That is like saying, “Why do I need to talk to my wife we are already married?” It is a relationship. And there is a purpose for prayer and that is what we are going to get into next week. What is the purpose for prayer? What are we supposed to be praying about? And what is prayer supposed to accomplish? If God knows everything, we are not telling Him anything new, then what is our communication with the Lord supposed to be? We will get into that next week.

 

Let’s close with prayer.