At
the church where I serve, we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled
Jesus uncut. During this series, we are spending
our time together looking at perhaps the most famous sermon that Jesus ever
preached, which is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. During this series,
we are going to see Jesus reveal to the crowds listening to His sermon, and to
us here today, the true nature of what God demands of humanity in order to
experience a right relationship with Him and what it truly means to obey the
message and teachings of the letters that make up the Bible.
And during this series, as we see
Jesus uncut, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the
Holy Spirit in a way that enables us to wrap our heads, hearts, and hands
around the lifestyle that Jesus calls us to live as one who is living in a
right relationship with Him. This week I
would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we jump into
the next section of this famous sermon that Jesus preached that is recorded for
us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of
Matthew, we are going to discover another timeless truth from Jesus uncut. So,
let’s discover that timeless truth together, beginning in Matthew 6:25:
"For this
reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your
body, as to what you will put
on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
As Matthew continues to give us a front
row seat to this famous sermon that Jesus preached, we see Jesus
command those listening to His sermon, and humanity throughout history, to do
not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will
drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Now when Jesus
uses the word worried here, this word literally means to be anxious or
apprehensive in a way that results in one being unduly concerned about
something. So, Jesus is commanding the crowds listening to Him to not become
overly concerned about the day to day aspects of life here on earth so as to be
consumed by apprehension and anxiety.
Jesus then reinforced His command by asking a
rhetorical question: “Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing?” Now the reason why this question is rhetorical was due to the fact
that the answer to this question should be so obvious that it did not require
an answer. After all, as we have talked about throughout this series, the whole
point of Jesus sermon has been about how one is able to enter and be a part of
the Kingdom of Heaven. Throughout this sermon, Jesus
has hammered home that being right with God involves moving past external rules
and regulations to having the heart and character of God that is revealed in us
as we live a life that is lived in obedience to God by doing the right thing.
Throughout this sermon Jesus has repeatedly pointed to the reality that the
Kingdom of Heaven transcends what we tend to focus on when it comes to being
right with God. So, the answer to this question, based on all that Jesus has
said so far in this sermon, should be obvious, shouldn’t it?
But is it obvious? I mean, if we are brutally honest,
when we look at how we often live our life, it often seems like the answer to
this question is not obvious. If we are
brutally honest, what we spend our time, talent, treasure, and thoughts on
often seems to reveal that the answer to this question is not obvious?
While we may intellectually agree that life is more
than food, and the body more than clothing, emotionally we still can find
ourselves in a place where we become overly concerned about the day to day
aspects of life here on earth so as to be consumed by apprehension and anxiety.
We can still find ourselves in a place where our behavior betrays what we say
we believe when it comes to this issue of worry.
Or maybe you are wondering why Jesus would make such a
command. Maybe you are wondering why Jesus would command people to not become
overly concerned about the day to day aspects of life here on earth so as to be
consumed by apprehension and anxiety. I mean, in the grand scheme of all the
things that Jesus could focus on and command people to do when it comes to
having a right relationship with God, why would He focus on the issue of worry?
If you that question is running through your mind, I
want to let you know that you are asking a great question. And the answer to
that question is found in the phrase “for this reason”. You see, when Jesus uses the phrase “for this
reason”, He is pointing the crowds listening back to what He had just said.
Last week, in Matthew 6:24, we looked on as Jesus made it clear that we cannot serve two masters. Jesus pointed
to the reality that we cannot be totally committed to two differing options.
We talked about the
reality that Jesus talked so much about money, possessions, and treasure because
of the reality that we follow what we are focused on. And we cannot serve God
and money because we will serve what we are devoted to. We talked about the
reality that God and money, possessions, and treasure compete with God for our
total devotion. And because of that reality, we will either be totally devoted
to God, or we will be totally devoted to money, possessions, and treasure. And God
uses money to reveal who we love and trust more.
Jesus here is
connecting the issue of money and worry to reveal the reality that worry
distracts our devotion from God to something other than God. What we become
overly concerned about so as to be consumed by apprehension and anxiety about
is what we end up becoming devoted to. Worry distracts our devotion from God to something other than God. After
asking this rhetorical question, Jesus then provides an illustration to the
crowds listening.
Tomorrow, we will look
at that illustration…
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