Law & Grace - Matthew 6:25-34 Don't worry about it!
Matthew 6:25-34 · Vern Peterman · Jul 31, 2011
Law & Grace, No. 29
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926242441359

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. I just want to tell you, if you're taking a look at the handout, do not worry about this morning's handout. OK? It's a bit much, I realize, but there's reason for it all. And we'll step through it one piece at a time here. And we will explain what Rabbi Jesus is talking about with all these people. Right? OK. You have on the front page, it's basically the same passage that Randy just read for you in a poetic pattern. Some of the primary reasons for putting it that way is you get to see some of the things that are repeated or stated similarly.

And of course we have, do not be worried, or similar to that, do not worry, and then do not worry. And interestingly, between those is your Heavenly Father. put in a pattern there. So your Heavenly Father is referenced between each of the do not worries and as we'll find out that's not by accident. So let's step into it. Jesus says don't worry or some very similar term in the start, in the middle, and in the end of the passage. So it sounds like do not worry, right? In between those, he explains the why not and talks about their central focus of their tendency to worry. Now, he focuses on material things. What are you going to eat? What are you going to drink? What are you going to wear? Those things.

And there's a reason why he does that. I think you probably noticed in your own life and observing others, people worry about other things too, don't they? Lots of things. As a matter of fact, some folks have such a tendency to worry that if they don't have those things to worry about, they'll most certainly find something else to worry about, right? But he, in this passage, talks mostly about physical things, the physical provisions, and there's a reason why. We'll see in a minute. One of the main things we want to take note of here, Jesus says that he centers this worry a topic on physical provisions, the basic things of food and clothing, and there's a reason, and we'll see here in a minute.

First of all, he spoke to Israelites. He was speaking to Israelites in the land of Israel. He was there at the northwest quarter of the Sea of Galilee. speaking entirely to Israelites, speaking at the northern portion of the land of Israel. He spoke to them with a view to his reigning as their king, as the king of the Jews, the king of Israel, in the coming kingdom.

This coming kingdom would have Jesus titled the King of Israel, And the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and that title, by the way, is King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the Gentile nations. It's a separate title from the King of Israel. Okay, so it's two separate peoples. You're either in the biblical viewpoint Jewish, in which case King of Israel is the title, or you're non-Jews, the Gentiles, and that's the title, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the Gentile nations. All the physical and earthly ways that they were inclined to worry about had to do with not being blessed physically. Not being blessed physically. That was their center of concern here.

You see, according to Deuteronomy 28, chapter 28, verse 14 verses, if a Jew Israelite, was obedient to the entire law of Moses, all 613 laws, he would be blessed in earthly ways. And the worry then for provision wouldn't be there. So when he tells them, don't worry about what you'll eat or drink or what you'll wear, or those kinds of things, he says, if you pay attention to the law, you'll be automatically blessed in these ways. So you won't need to worry. That's what he's telling them.

Here's the first six verses in Deuteronomy 28. It'll give you a kind of a sampling. Now, it shall be, and this is Moses speaking to the Israelites before they're entering the promised land, if you diligently obey. So this is, if you obey, these blessings will come. If you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations, nations translate Gentiles, non-Jews, of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and will overtake you. Imagine being overtaken with blessings. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if, here's that word if again, if you obey the Lord your God.

And then he starts off with a series of blessed, blessed, blessed. So verse 3, blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beast, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

Earthly ways, right? Bless shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. And I guess even if you have problems with gluten, maybe there won't be a problem. I don't know. But bless shall be your basket and kneading bowl. Bless shall be you when you come in and bless shall be you when you go out. And it continues on through verse 13. And all the descriptions is earthly blessings. That's the way this chapter goes.

In that same passage, In the land is twice, because which land are we talking about? This is the Israelites in the land of Israel. So the Lord, this is verse 8, the Lord will command the blessing upon you and your barns and all that you put your hand to, He will bless you in the land that the Lord gives you. So let's have a little thought here. If He's going to bless them in the land, what happens when they're not in the land? because he says it not just once but twice. Verse 11, the Lord will make you abound in prosperity in the offspring of your body and the offspring of your beast and the produce of the ground in the land which the Lord swore your fathers to give to you. It is in the land of Israel where they would be blessed. Blessing under the law of Moses is in the land. That's the context. in the entire land of Israel.

Chapter 28 isn't the only place where it talks about this. We won't go through all the detail, but here's other passages in Deuteronomy. It lists more and more and more blessings with all those passages. I'll leave it to you to look those up. And there are also additional passages spelling out the curses.

Here is one for individual Jews, Deuteronomy 29-21. reads this way, then the Lord will single out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel according to the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law. That is, if an individual Jew did not obey the law, the Lord will single out that one for adversity. So blessings conditionally if you obey, curses if you don't. It's all if, conditional.

Aside from the law, these Israelites that Jesus was talking to had actually lots of reasons to be worried about their circumstances. So when he said, don't worry, don't worry, a lot of them were saying, wow, how do I not? Let's look at them. Many of the Israelites were inclined to worry about their physical provisions, because not only did they have to pay for the usual temple services, and the synagogues and the taxes.

They had to have one-tenth of everything that they grew on the crops and of all the animals. Everything was a tithe that would go to the Levites who did not have their own tribal land. Everybody else did, but not them. So one-tenth of everything had to go to them. That's part one. All of the sacrifices that they had to pay for. So they were going to the temple and buying animals for different sacrifices. And it didn't happen just once in a lifetime, it happened repeatedly.

In addition to that, they had synagogues in the various towns and cities. And people would contribute to the synagogue. There's the one at Capernaum, which is right nearby where Jesus is saying these words on the Sermon on the Mount. There were synagogues in various places around Israel. In fact, the one in, you heard of Mary Magdalene? She was from the town of Magdala, which is on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, and that synagogue was just within recent years discovered and excavated.

In addition to that, you may recall the account of Jesus and Peter talking, because they approached Peter and said, does your master pay the temple tax? They had a half shekel tax for each Jew. It was, interestingly enough, voluntary. And so Jesus has Peter go and catch a fish, and the fish would have a coin in its mouth that would pay the tax for both Peter and Jesus. But that was another tax they had to pay, and that was to help pay for the temple. There were taxes to the Romans and taxes to Herod the Great, who wasn't all that great, and his descendants who reigned after him who built things and built things and built things, and they volunteered the Jews to pay for many things. I'll give you just a sampling. The Jews paid for their own oppression.

Here is the temple, the one that Jesus was in. This was one that Herod the Great started in 20 B.C. It was under construction during the entire life of Christ and afterwards. From 20 B.C. to 63 A.D. and only seven years later the Romans ruined it. But it was under construction all during this time, and Herod made them pay for it all. It was very, very nice. It was also very, very expensive. And the Jews paid for it. Oh, one that won't have a slide here, I think I mentioned last week, Herod the Great had the Jews pay for the Olympics in 12 BC.

All around the outside perimeter of this temple area, was a colonnade like you see in this one. The temple courtyard was about the size of six football fields. Okay, soccer fields if you can handle that. And it had a colonnade all the way around it that looked like this on the inside. It was underneath these colonnades that Jesus would frequently find himself teaching when he was at the temple and having discussions with some of the other Jewish leaders.

And as you can tell, it's very nicely constructed. and very expensive, and the Jews had to pay for it all. Herod also, just a few miles away from Bethlehem, decided to carve the top off of a mountain and put a military fortress on the top of it. It also turns out, discovered just a couple of years ago, that he was buried on the side of this mountain where he had the top cut off. And so that was an expensive project that the Jews paid for. This is the coastal city of Caesarea that was initially constructed under Herod the Great, and there was subsequent construction in the amphitheater. Interestingly, as they were going through and excavating that, they found a stone that had Pontius Pilate's name engraved on the side of the stone there. So here is this very substantial port city that was all constructed and the Jews paid for that. But Herod the Great was really not all that great and neither were his descendants. But his descendants also built things and wanted the Jews to pay for that.

Here is Nazareth, where Jesus was raised, and where Joseph, no doubt, taught him about carpentry. Which, by the way, we think carpentry and we think wood. Carpentry in those days included wood, and it also included logging, because there was no Nazareth lumberyard, right? And it also included masonry, and that also meant getting the stone. So it was a very broad occupation.

Just north of that was the city of Sepphoris, which was being built during the time when Jesus was growing up. And right nearby, Tiberias, which was also being constructed. And the Jews had to pay for that. Here is Sepphoris. One of the Jews writing said, this is the Jewel of Galilee. I'm not sure it looks that way now, but he said it was. Here's Tiberius looking towards the east across the Sea of Galilee. And this was another one that was under construction during the time of Christ, during the time of the ministry.

And in case anyone got discouraged about taxes, oh, they had people ready to help encourage you with paying your taxes. Oh, they were just the best cheerleaders. Well, maybe not that great. But at any rate, people were very motivated by these cheerleaders. And so that would make sure that you'd pay the taxes. So anyway, when you start seeing all the expenses that these people had, it was really amazing. So Jesus tries to give them some understanding. Look, the Lord will take care of you.

He compares. That's looking at what's similar, right? He compares the care of God for the birds and the flowers to the care of God for the Israelites. Right? The care of God for the Israelites is to be compared for how the Lord cares for things in nature. And aren't these things attractive? Aren't they adorned well? He says that's an example. He contrasts in this passage the Gentiles' pursuit of earthly needs with what the Israelites ought to pursue.

What are they pursuing? They worship the God of money. Mammon is the term that's used. And what ought they to pursue instead? His kingdom and His righteousness, as we'll soon see. Now, let's take a look at a point here in verses 26 through 33. God's provision in human pursuit.

Jesus tells the Israelites that they are to trust God for the physical provision they most certainly need And God knows their needs. That's one thing I think is critical. God knows what we need, doesn't he? Even when we pray, are we informing God? Not really. He knows it all. He knows what we need. Their greatest need is to trust God and what he has already told them.

So Jesus talks in 6th 33 about his kingdom and his righteousness the Israelites who were baptized into Moses now you may be thinking what? What's baptized in Moses? They were spiritually placed into Moses and you have this item here on your handout I Believe it's a page page 3 here.

And the reason for placing that there is not do we go into all the detail but what you'll see is a very parallel pattern between Israel and what they went through as they left Egypt and had their their first Passover and went out and received the law and from their first Passover to the giving of the law was 50 days and very similar in pattern when Christ and his disciples celebrate the Passover feast, sometimes called the Last Supper. It was from there to the Day of Pentecost, also 50 days. So I'll let you look at the details. We presented this the first Sunday of this year in more detail. If you'd like to pick that up, the audio is available on the website. And you can download the handout there as well or ask for a paper copy.

But the point being, God was doing something similar but different when he introduced the law and when he introduced grace to the church. All the Israelites were placed under the law of Moses, all 613 of those laws, the individual laws, make up the law of Moses. They were all placed under all of those laws, not just 10, People say, well, 10's all I can remember. Well, that's too bad. It's 613 laws, every single one. They had to remember all of them.

Oh, here's something interesting. The men would have a prayer. They would thank God that they were born male because they were subject to more laws than the women. How about that? And so the more laws you are subject to, the better. That was their viewpoint. Their hope was in the coming kingdom reign of Messiah, the Hebrew Hamashiach. Messiah was to be their king and they were to seek that kingdom. That was the mindset that they were brought up in. And we bring up again the title, Jesus will have the title the King of Israel and he'll be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over those Gentile nations. Those very same Israelites were to seek the kind of righteousness that is defined by the law of Moses.

All 613 laws. Including, as we've made mention, do not eat a piece of fruit with a worm in it. That's one of the laws. Okay. Jesus has used the word righteousness as defined by the law now five times here in the Sermon on the Mount. That is Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And this is the fifth and last time that he's going to use it.

Now, in verses 25 through 34, one of the things that he makes clear, material things are not to be sought as life's fulfillment. He said to the Jews, if you want to be blessed with material things, then obey all the laws. But don't seek after the material things. See the difference there? If you want the material things, he was telling them, then follow the law, but don't seek directly after the material things. The Gentiles directly pursue physical provisions. They even worship the God of wealth.

We saw that in Matthew there, Matthew 6.24. This is also a clue that he's speaking directly to the Israelites because he talks to the Gentiles as a people apart. They do that. You Israelites do this. See that? The Jews, of course, they all need physical provisions just like we do. The big question is not if we need those. We do and they do.

But what is the goal of this life? What are we aiming towards while we walk this planet? If I've got all the physical things, is that good? Have I arrived? Have I achieved what life is really all about? If I've got all the physical stuff? I've got food, clothing, housing, you know, bills are all paid, money in the bank, is that what defines satisfaction and fulfillment in life?

And Jesus is saying, No, it is not. Now, let me give to you a general principle, and you know what I mean by a general principle, right? Okay, I'm going to give you a general principle here. As we've seen in this passage, it was spoken by Jesus to Israelites.

They were baptized differently. 1 Corinthians 10, 1 and 2 says they were baptized into Moses. We're baptized into Christ. That's on your big chart there is Romans chapter 6 and Galatians chapter 3. So they were baptized differently. They're blessed differently. They're blessed in physical ways if they obey. We are blessed heavenly not based on any condition. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3.

So they're blessed differently They hoped differently. They said, boy, I sure hope the Messiah comes and drives out these Romans. They're driving us crazy. Right? And they viewed Christ differently. They're saying, if you're here to drive out the Romans, we're all for you. But one thing that was very clear, worry was not God's will for them. Oh, so does that mean it's God's will for us?

Well, not so fast. We're not Israelites, but we likewise aren't to worry. Even though our perspective on why we're not to worry is different. Isn't that interesting? It is God's will for you not to worry, and same as it was for the Israelites, but for different reasons. For different reasons.

Just like we saw a few weeks ago, is it God's will for the Israelites to forgive? Yes. Right after what's called the Lord's Prayer. If you want to be forgiven, then forgive. But if you don't forgive, the Israelites were told, by Christ himself. If you don't forgive, then you won't be.

But Paul, Ephesians 4.32 says, Forgive because you've been forgiven.

That's the grace principle. Likewise, we are not to worry but on a different basis. God is the same God and our need is the same as Israel's. That doesn't change. Here we have some passages coming out of the New Testament. I think will give insight for us here in the church.

Here's be anxious for nothing. Be anxious for a few things. No, no, no. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So isn't be anxious for nothing a very similar message to do not worry? Yeah, I think so. Paul's alternative to anxiety is to do what? Is to pray. That prayer even means making requests and thanksgiving.

Why the thanksgiving? Because the thanksgiving recognizes God as the giver. God is the gracious one. Paul adds thanksgiving as a response to God's grace. It is the reigning principle under which we live. It's very interesting when you put verse 6 and verse 7 together. It's grace and peace. It's funny, that seems to be the way Paul starts a lot of his letters, doesn't he? Grace and peace.

Now, let's look at the advantages of worrying. I think it's very important when we go through these, get the advantages of worrying down. You must get these memorized by heart. Okay? So, just what are the advantages of worrying about things in our life? You need to know these now. Why is it that worry seems to have such a universal appeal? Now we come right down to it. Jesus and Paul are telling us that the advantages of worrying are an illusion. There aren't any. So you don't have to worry about memorizing them. There won't even be a test when you go out. And don't worry about that either, by the way.

Worry is a primary way of worshiping the idol of stuff and that idol's brother, circumstances. Stuff and circumstances. That's what we worry about, isn't it? Stuff and circumstances. It is, as Jesus put it in the previous passage, another master. Can you trust God and worry at the same time? I don't think so. I don't think so. Worry is an activity of the sin nature.

Now, each of us is to understand clearly just what we are responsible for. We're not responsible to take on things that aren't ours to take on. Now, you might be saying, what does he mean by that? When we worry, we take on a responsibility that's not ours. God doesn't want you to worry because it means you're taking on responsibilities that are not yours to take on. For a believer, to worry is to attempt to serve two masters and to have two gods. So we talked about the idol of wealth, the false god of wealth. Real close to that is a false god of worry. Worship at the idol of worry, right? So, another question comes up out of this passage.

Should we make any plans? He says, take no thought for tomorrow. So, should we make any plans? Should we take all those things out of the bulletin that have to do with things we're doing after today? Well, the reality is that both Jesus and Paul made plans, and they even expressed that in things that they wrote and said, and considering what will happen next. We are indeed to make plans and anticipate what will or could happen next. Nancy and I even have some insurance policies, right? But our greatest need is to trust God. Our greatest need is to trust God. There is no insurance policy that I can buy that will replace that. James 4, 13 through 15 puts it this way.

Now, you who say today or tomorrow we go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Sounds like a business plan. Brief, but a business plan, right? Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Instead, we ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this and that. What's the difference here? The reality is we can and ought to go ahead and make plans. That's fine. but always keeping in mind that the Lord is doing something in our lives that has to do with eternity. And He may bring things into our lives that aren't a part of our plan. Why? He is in the process of conforming us. Philippians 4, 11-13 This is an interesting perspective on the material needs.

Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances. Does he say, I have learned to worry in whatever circumstances I am? No. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. And in any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. So that's why you'll see me out in the parking lot after the service lifting cars, right? No. What does this mean? It means that He takes me through both abundance and want by His strength. I can do all things, go through all those, both times when I have plenty and times when there is a deficiency through His strength. He doesn't say that if you just obey the law you'll be blessed all the time. No. Reason. God is doing something different here in the body of Christ.

And we'll finish here with Romans 8.28 and 29. God causes all things to work together for good for those who love the Lord, who love God, those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the images of his Son."

The most important thing, do you realize that the Lord didn't write, didn't have Paul write, you've been predestined to always have a full stomach and always have plenty of clothing and gas in the tank. He didn't write that, did he? But you have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, and sometimes that happens through a lack of things. You don't know where the next thing's coming from.

The Lord might use that. And that could be exactly what God has in mind. Because what He's predestined you to is to be conformed to the image of His Son. And that's the process that He has in mind for all of us. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank You as we look at this passage. We see how you had Christ address the Jews with the principle of law that they operated under. We also thank you that as we look at this we can see the principle of grace and then in fact you are being glorified by different things. And just as some of the passages we read through a minute ago say, we do come before you and Do give you thanks and we just come before you asking for you to provide for our needs, every single one of them. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.