Why the Father is Particular about What is Done in Secret

“Be careful not to practice your acts of righteousness 

in front of others to be seen by them." 

[Matthew 6.1]

Photo by Jordan Seott on Unsplash.

Don't practice your righteousness "to be seen" in public. No less than Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, urges, emphasizes and COMMANDS it. When we say "righteousness" (that's what it says in the Greek) it includes everything we do for God, like ministry. Ministry, any part of it, is an act of righteousness. It's not just giving alms to the poor. Anyway, the Greek uses "dikaiosynen" which is "righteousness," so it's not just giving to the poor but all we do for God. 

Here's another way Jesus put it:

“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. [Matthew 23]

Ministry is a collection of services we do for God in righteousness plus the kind of life we live. Ministry is acts of righteousness. Anything we do for GOD should not be done with the intention of being "seen by men." They must be done in secret to get God's attention. When we do something for God and he looks into our hearts, he wants to see nothing but the right motive there--which is NOT "to be seen" in public. 

Done in Secret

Jesus is revealing something about the Father here, especially what he is so particular about when it comes to things we do for him. He likes things to be done in private or in secret. And since God is a jealous God, he wants what we do to be exclusively for his eyes--to please him alone. Remember, our relationship with God is an intimate love relationship, and he is jealous. His name is Jealous [Exodus 34.14].

If we do things "to be seen by men," it triggers his jealousy and he refuses to even glance at what we're doing--since we're doing it not for him alone but for others, too. We're a two-timer, somewhat in love with God but also flirting with our heart idol--which is people we aim to please. Jesus would not have taught about this if this wasn't important. We need to make sure our righteous acts are done in private.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God. 

Deuteronomy 29.29

Jesus never loved standing somewhere he is seen by all and doing ministry. 

He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets. [Isaiah 42.2]

Church people who still love to be seen in public with their righteous acts, who love to be seen standing in street corners or in synagogues praying (or love to be seen leading in prayer in church), and who love to showoff their fasting and sacrifices for God or ministry, do not understand the apostolic teachings of Jesus. Believers in Acts devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings (you see the words, "DEVOTED THEMSELVES"? It means apostolic is serious), and foremost of these were the things Jesus taught in the Gospel, and especially in the Beatitudes. And a big part of that is God's privacy policy. All of the Beatitudes are the foundation of genuine apostolic teachings.

If you are genuinely apostolic and prophetic in the priesthood or order of Melchizedek as Jesus is, you do things for GOD in private, 
foremost of which is privately in your heart.

I don't know where to place the practice of evangelical churches, promoting themselves in public and displaying their good deeds to attract people to up their membership. They say the promotions are "for God's glory." How can that be when the Father wants all our righteous acts to be done in private? How can we oppose God's Word and still glorify him? People pursued after Jesus and made his ministry look public, but he didn't invite them and he never meant to show what he did in public. His ministry was promoted by the Holy Spirit, never by himself. That is among solid apostolic teachings. 

The Sermon on the Mount is the solid and pure apostolic teachings of Jesus the Apostle whom we confess. Sadly, not even "apostolic" churches understand Jesus' apostolic teachings and evangelical churches are worse. For one, you see apostolic churches also displaying their ministry (righteous acts) all over the Net. They promote their conferences and announce their coming. Even before the Net came, they've always been fond of doing churchy things in public to be seen by men. Churches in general love to be seen standing in the synagogue (or their church altars) or at street corners during outdoor ministries. They announce their fasting and prayer meetings. They say they do it "for God's glory." 

They break God's commandments to keep their traditions and programs, like the Pharisees did. They do this because they don't know the apostolic teachings of Jesus. It has not been revealed to them. 

And they love long prayers. They scorn short ones and think you're not spiritual if you just utter quick, simple, unimpressive and prosaic prayers. These are signs they are not apostolic. And if Jesus wants prayers to be in secret and non demonstrative, so with worship, because prayer and worship always go together as seen in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. Worship should be in secret, too.

Jesus Doing Things in Secret

No wonder we see Jesus going to lonely places while it was still dark to pray. He preached in remote places, hillsides and by the lake where few people frequented. The Sermon on the Mount was given to his disciples on a mountain side, and Jesus didn't mean it for the multitudes. It was meant for his disciples but the multitude followed without being invited. Watch the account:

25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. [Matthew 4]

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. [Matthew 5]

Imagine--this was his major teaching, his intro to vital and powerful Kingdom principles and interpretation of the Scripture, and yet look at him, simply sitting down with his disciples on a mountainside. We would have done it in a huge, comfortable auditorium with a lot of fanfare, preparations, teams, equipment, programs, money, and whatnot. But not Jesus. He just sat there. He intended it to be a small group meeting alone in the wilds where people were less likely to be found.

But the crowds followed. 

When Jesus saw the crowds he went up the mountainside and sat with his disciples. Clearly, the event was privately for his followers, and he began teaching "them," referring to the disciples, not the crowds. He had no intention of teaching the crowd, but the crowd came anyway to listen. And since Jesus will not cast you away if you come to him [John 6.37], he allowed the crowds to be there. 

But Jesus intended the bible study to be away from the public and exclusively for true followers. When Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me," he wasn't addressing the crowd but his disciples only. The multitude didn't have that kind of commitment to Jesus so they were not susceptible to persecutions. It was not applicable to them. From this, we see that Jesus didn't invite them over. 

Here's another:

“You are the light of the world."

This didn't apply to the multitudes but only to Jesus' disciples. You cannot be a mere spectator of Jesus, just waiting for the free meal of bread and fish, and then be "light of the world." The Sermon was meant for the disciples and this meeting was meant to be private and hidden from the populace. But, well, the curious multitudes were nosy and followed, hoping to get some more benefits from Jesus. And we're like that--we follow in hopes of getting answered prayers. Nothing more. We pursue after the blessings, not the radical apostolic teachings of Jesus the Apostle.

Private Meetings

Even during temple scenes, Jesus intended to meet people mostly in private, although there were instances when he did appear and talk in public, but not intentionally. He was mostly doing things in private and not showing off righteous deeds. Jesus didn't preach at the Sheep Gate, for instance, but simply talked with the paralytic who was invalid for 38 years. It was a private meeting and a private conversation. 

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” [John 5]

It was a private talk. Jesus healed him and simply "slipped away into the crowd that was there." He just left and quietly disappeared from view. There was no great commotion or announcement, and this tells us that everything was done without attracting attention. It was a simple conversation in some corner at the pool. But after some time, the religious leaders saw the man carrying his mat and questioned him. That started the disturbance. Some time after, Jesus again saw him and had a private talk again with him. 

Great miracles can happen in quiet, ordinary private talks.

Man Born Blind

Another healing intended privately was that of a man born blind. This time, only Jesus and his disciples were talking. It was not a big public meeting or crusade. It may have been in a public place but the conversation was just among him and his disciples. The disciples had a query and Jesus answered with an actual miraculous demonstration. It was done, not to attract attention, but only among themselves, without showing off to the crowds. Here's how it went:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” [John 9]

The private conversation is clear. It's like, you and two of your friends meet inside a mall where people are strolling or shopping, but the three of you are somewhere a bit private and having an almost quiet conversation. You're not making a scene or calling attention to yourselves or making a grand scenario. Then Jesus, without talking to the blind guy or asking if he wanted healing, just straightway applied mud mixed with his saliva on the blind man's eyes and then said, privately, not in a loud, announcing voice:

“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Everything so far was semi-private. Nothing was dramatic. They were in a public place but the conversations were private, just between them, until the neighbors started getting nosy about the healing, after Jesus had left, and brought the man to the Pharisees who made a disturbance on the issue. Later, Jesus met the man once more who had been blind but now was healed and talked with him in private, again. Jesus, as we have seen in both examples above, did things privately. No programs, fanfare, gimmicks, noise, announcements, preparations or what-have-you. That's true apostolic.

We would have been loud about it, making sure people around heard and saw, because we're fond of saying that announcing everything in public is for God's glory (and yet no real miracles happen). We would have made a scene or a well planned programmed for it to make sure we do a great presentation. Again, for God's glory. We don't believe in doing our righteous acts in secret, or that the Father who sees what is done in secret will reward our secret deed. We think nothing will happen to our ministries if we keep things in private. We don't trust what Jesus said. So we glamorize like showbiz.

There are a lot more examples of Jesus doing his righteous acts in secret, but sometimes made "public" only because people rushed to him in droves and made a public spectacle of them. Like Lazarus' coming to life again. Jesus stayed outside town, probably again to avoid publicity and crowds, and went to the tomb with Mary, Martha and some mourners from the funeral. These folks were not invited to see a miracle or create fanfare and attract people to Jesus to add to his membership, but they came to accompany Mary to the tomb, not knowing Jesus would be there.

Jesus performed the miracle despite this crowd because it was God's time for the miracle, not because it was an opportunity to be seen by men and become popular and "glorify God." To be sure, Jesus never did anything "to be seen by people" but did things as private as possible. He will not contradict his teachings. In the instances when crowds began to gather anyway despite his privacy policy, he didn't "perform" to impress people and lure them to his membership. In fact, he seemed to intentionally piss them off each time, to discourage them from following him for the wrong reasons the Father will not approve of. 

At one time, he found himself amid a crowd that liked him a lot. Jesus seemed uncomfortable with crowds that liked him, so he said something to offend them. Watch this:

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. [Luke 4]

We would have loved it so much if we got this kind of reaction from people. We crave for public acceptance and applause not knowing it's a demonic stronghold. Anything that feeds the ego is demonic. But pissing off people who are beginning to love us would be the last thing in our agenda. But not Jesus. He said something that irked them so much they wanted to throw him off a cliff. This was probably Jesus' way of doing his righteous acts NOT "to be seen by men" or NOT to impress them, so he pissed them off. He hinted how God had favored some gentiles more than he did the Jews, who were supposed to be people of God. 

“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

Haha. No pastor today will do this. They'd say it's bad preaching. Or, it's judgmental or legalistic or out of context. They'd even think it's a sin to turn away a crowd that's beginning to like God's Word and turn to him. But Jesus didn't have any second thoughts. He just outright pissed them off. That's another apostolic teaching: If the crowd likes you because of your "gracious" words, try telling them things that irritate their ears and upset their ego and you're going to reveal their true hearts.

And doing that (displeasing the crowd that seems to like us) prevents us from performing our righteous acts "to be seen by men." If you find yourself in a crowd that seems to like you, say something off and that makes you do your righteous acts NOT to be seen by men. That's Jesus' apostolic way.

Continued in the links below:

Private Meeting with Nicodemus 

Triumphal Entry to Jerusalem was Supposed to be Private

Peter and John Went Privately to the Temple Gate Called Beautiful

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SURRENDERING TO JESUS 

Ask for forgiveness and repent of your sins. Believe God's forgiveness. It is promised in the bible. Receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your sole Savior and Lord. Then be assured of heaven, not because of anything you have or do (not your good deeds or religion or church), but because of God's grace and mercy through what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

In Jesus alone is salvation. 

Jesus is: 

‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4] 

Surrender to Him by intently studying the bible daily (ask guidance from the Holy Spirit) and applying in life everything you learn. And then pray that God lead you to the right person who'd disciple you, one who is totally surrendered to Jesus and living His Word in the bible.

Men and Places GOD Chooses

"And so John the Baptist appeared," Mark says in the Gospel he wrote, though we don't find this phrase in the original Greek. But the point is John "appeared" or "came" as the forerunner of this exciting Good News about the Christ, and he did the work in (of all places) the wilderness. It was the only reason why he was there--a voice in the wilderness--as a sent messenger to prepare Jesus' coming.

Photo by Juli Kosolapova on Unsplash.

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.

Watch this. His life career was to do ministry in this discomfort zone. Nice church buildings with superb facilities, air conditioning and sound systems are good, so are modern big meeting or conference venues--and we ought to use them because they're part of God's provisions. But God provides us with all sorts of stuff, not so we can use them indiscriminately but to train us to make wise choices. 

To see if we finally get the point.

Look at John. He was the son of Zechariah, who was a priest, and John could have just decided to follow in his dad's footstep and do the ministry more conveniently as such--a priest--with all the nice and ample provisions that go with the job. Nope, John opted out and chose to be in the discomforts of the wilderness--the hot sun, terrible humidity and burning desert floor plus the dangers of wild animals and bandits. You could hardly attract people to your ministry with that (that's what our human understanding would tell us) and our mindsets bent on attracting people with nice buildings, altars, music and facilities would think that John was wrong to choose the wilderness as a ministry venue. 

Doesn't make ministry sense.

Preaching on repentance is in itself already too uncomfortable for people, let alone making them come to you in the wilderness. We would have it quite differently. We'd have it in a posh auditorium or at least in an air-conditioned church building where the seats are soft and inviting and the preacher is trained and titled to be entertaining--anything to make repentance palatable. We always cover repentance with sweet icing to make it marketable to our consumers.

This is why church often ends up with spoiled brats, lukewarm and carnal, hardly experiencing any spiritual depth so they'd rather discuss human theology, hermeneutics, denominational doctrines, religion and Sunday school lessons. They seldom deepen in faith--attaining to the measure of Jesus or John, being the least--because going deep is painful and uncomfortable, like the wilderness. It's where you lose all to gain Christ.

But don't get me wrong. Wilderness is not a guarantee for spiritual depth. The Israelites in Moses' time went to the wilderness but their hearts were still in love with Egypt. They all died. Yet, wilderness is an important phase which many Christians avoid. Many went to John in the wilderness for baptism but I wonder how many of them were part of the crucifixion lobby against Jesus? Wilderness is supposed to be where you die to self, the world and sin, preparing your heart to be radical for Jesus.

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And that's where we miss the point about John's ministry as a forerunner-messenger. There's definitely a divine purpose why God would put John in a very unlikely place to do ministry to preach a hated message on repentance---and why God would also put Jesus in a notorious place like Nazareth (and often stay in "remote" unimpressive places) and choose apostles that most people would find repugnant, so ordinary and uninteresting. And the reason or purpose is quite the opposite of what churches today prioritize and find indispensable.

God wants to place his most valuable treasure in places the human flesh would be uncomfortable in. And he chooses servants who would most likely be rejected by the same. Unappealing message by an unappealing servant of God. That's God's formula. You see this Kingdom pattern everywhere in Scripture. However, this is the pattern the modern church keeps contradicting or working against. 

The only thing in our minds today is how the world will like us and our message. We fear being disliked and are at a loss how we can count it all joy brethren when we face various trials like rejection or being ignored like trash---especially if no one cares if we're there or not. We tremble with that. We crave attention and big crowds gathered in our meetings more than we crave being persecuted or rejected or crucified with Christ.

How did the ministry of John fare even without fanfare, promotion or gimmicks?

"5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him."

People "went out to him" from all over, even with all the extreme, intolerable conditions. Why? Because it was genuinely God's work. God did everything. Church MUST go back to this--go back to GOD.

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SURRENDERING TO JESUS 

Ask forgiveness and repent of your sins. Believe God's forgiveness. It is promised in the bible. Receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your sole Savior and Lord. Then be assured of heaven, not because of anything you have or do (not your good deeds or religion or church), but because of God's grace and mercy through what Jesus Christ did on the cross. 

In Jesus alone is salvation. 

Jesus is: ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4] 

Surrender to Him by intently studying the bible daily (ask guidance from the Holy Spirit) and applying in life everything you learn. And then pray that God lead you to the right person who'd disciple you, one who is totally surrendered to Jesus and living His Word in the bible.

Traits of a Path Maker

Previously

Path makers sent ahead by God obviously possess the traits of the One whose path they are sent to prepare. Though an imperfect reflection, God's glorious presence remains discernible in their lives and ministries. Moreover, they resemble the path maker sent way ahead of them---the path-maker model---that is, John the Baptist. He made straight the way, raising up every valley and making low every mountain and hill. 

Why do I say this?

Photo by Lili Popper on Unsplash.

Because God will not take the trouble to describe John in the Gospel if this were not so. And Mark 1 says the good news about the Messiah begins with the ministry of John, showing how it was prophesied in the Old Testament and painstakingly described in the Gospel. If that's not important, I don't know what is.

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”[C] —
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”[D]

- Mark 1 

If you and your ministry claim to be sent by God (or are from God) and a herald or precursor of Christ's second coming, don't forget to stay close to how your predecessors looked like--John and Jesus--if not look exactly like them. They looked alike and we should blend in the appearance. This was how people saw Jesus' ministry:

Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” [Matthew 16]

See that? They looked alike. One look and people could tell how they were closely related. We cannot afford to look differently from how people saw the prophets and John and Jesus. Thus, we should emphasize the traits of a prophetic path maker and an apostolic Messiah. Aside from being sent by God, path makers must be:

• A voice. Not "the voice" but merely a voice. You're just one among many others. You're nothing special, merely chosen by grace. Although Jesus and John were highly esteemed in the spirit realms (Jesus pleased the Father so well and John was the greatest among those born of women), Jesus emptied himself and John didn't think himself worthy to untie Jesus' sandals.
  
  God's path makers are nobodies. Faceless. Extremely low profile. They never put themselves forward but are called and wait for God's move and timing like eagles. Thus, John saw himself only as a voice. You wonder what this makes of people so eager to have titles and degrees, positions, mega ministries, influence and popularity. Remember the Kingdom standard---the least is the greatest.
  
  
• In the wilderness. John was a voice in the wilderness and Jesus often stayed in remote places, preferring the company of the marginalized, tax collectors (the rejected) and sinners (sinners curious about God). They frequented the small corners of the marginalized and despised, not the halls and corridors of palaces.
  
  Jesus once hinted what real men of God are most UNLIKELY to be wearing and where they're most UNLIKELY to be found: "What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces," [Matthew 11.8]. This connotes extreme simplicity in status and lifestyle (the life of a non-joiner). Yet, most church leaders are keen on wearing particularly fine clothes to gain entry in kings' palaces. God's path makers are radically low-profile and settled in places of rejection, disapproval and discomfort.
  
  Path makers, in fact, are tasked with paving a straight "highway" in the desert for God [Isaiah 40.3]. It's not the highway (or broad way) to destruction that Jesus warned about but an extensive offer to anyone who wants to deny self and carry Jesus' cross daily, to repent and redirect to the right path less traveled and be found in places where no want wants to be. An offer to be a non-joiner like Jesus.
  
  
• Promoting Kingdom values. God's path makers follow and promote Kingdom reversed principles where the least is the greatest and the greatest the least. They are never impressed by what greatness this world makes possible because their God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Their God intently looks for the despised and rejected, those seen by the world as weak and scorned.

Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low. [Isaiah 40.4]

This should be more pronounced in church where the body parts that are less presentable should get more help, attention and honor (today, mega churches get all the honor and glory and small churches are belittled and looked down on). This is why Jesus chose ordinary people to be his apostles.

22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body (probably why the church is divided into denominations because of wrong values system), but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

[1 Corinthians 12.21-26].

Many church ministries have deviated too far from this Kingdom paradigm, which Jesus and John exemplified. They have gone after the ways and standards of the world which they deem more effective because they draw or lure lots more people to church and produce more members and church income. If they do not subscribe to the ways of the Sender, who, then, sent them?

[Continued here]

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SURRENDERING TO JESUS 

Ask forgiveness and repent of your sins. Believe God's forgiveness. It is promised in the bible. Receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your sole Savior and Lord. Then be assured of heaven, not because of anything you have or do (not your good deeds or religion or church), but because of God's grace and mercy through what Jesus Christ did on the cross. 

In Jesus alone is salvation. 

Jesus is: ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4] 

Surrender to Him by intently studying the bible daily (ask guidance from the Holy Spirit) and applying in life everything you learn. And then pray that God lead you to the right person who'd disciple you, one who is totally surrendered to Jesus and living His Word in the bible.