Sermon Transcript:

We continue our journey through the gospel of Matthew and we are still in what is known as the sermon on the mount. Jesus is preaching to his followers about the Kingdom of God and what a citizen of that kingdom looks and lives like. He does this primarily by contrasting true faith and righteousness with the false religion of the scribes and pharisees. The key verse of His sermon is found in chapter 5, verse 20 where He says that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

That is the main point that feeds into the rest of what He teaches, including our passage today. Jesus says righteousness is not external only. The people of God do not live according to the letter of the law only, but the spirit of the law as well. They are a people with hearts transformed by faith. They are meek and merciful, humble, and they hunger and thirst for righteousness. They seek to honor God both in their thoughts and motivations as well as their actions because by Grace His law is written on their hearts.

Jesus contrasts this with the self-righteous and prideful false holiness of the scribes and pharisees. Point by point Jesus shows their piety and holiness to be empty and last week, we heard Jesus address their greed and covetousness. In our passage this morning, He shifts His attention to anxiety. We live in an age saturated with worry. Through various media we are fed endless streams of bad news and crushed by an avalanche of unrealistic expectations.

In the 50’s we were warned that urgent action was needed to combat climate change. They were concerned about global cooling. In the ‘60s there was grave concern about a population explosion and mass starvation. In the 70's we were told that in 20 years the world would exhaust its supply of industrial metals and oil. In the 80’s nuclear war was imminent and the 90’s brought us the expected downfall of civilization, the Y2K glitch crashing all the computers. 

All of this is in addition to the personal pressures of living up to constantly shifting standards and keeping up with others. No wonder people are stressed out. Technology may be making it worse, but anxiety is nothing new. It is part of the fallen human condition. All of us struggle with worry at some point in our lives. Some suffer greatly with this on a regular basis. Jesus says the answer is to trust in God’s promises. That is our main point: 

Jesus teaches believers to combat anxiety with confidence in God’s care.

Jesus shows us that anxiety has a spiritual component. There may be physical and psychological factors that contribute to it, but anxiety is also a spiritual affliction that gets its strength from sin. But Jesus does not expose the weakness of our faith to discourage us or to weigh us down with guilt, but to instruct us and to care for us. He teaches us how to resist anxiety by exchanging one set of affections for another. Jesus cleanses the wound of sin by exposing the spiritual roots of anxiety and then He applies the balm of God’s healing promises. Jesus says,

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

In the previous verses Jesus was talking about greed and covetousness. We looked at that last week. He warns us not to spend our lives pursuing earthly luxuries, but rather to pursue heavenly treasure. Now He shifts from luxury to necessities like food and clothing, but notice the transition. He begins with the word therefore, which means what He is saying now is connected to what came before. This teaching on anxiety is the logical result of what he has just said about greed and covetousness.

If we back up a verse, we see that the last point He made was that nobody can serve both God and money. We cannot serve two masters. Greed and covetousness are the byproducts of worshiping money rather than God. Money is an idol and the point Jesus made was that ultimately, the false god of money will disappoint us whereas worshiping the true God leads to eternal blessings.

Now Jesus says, “therefore”, meaning in light of that… do not be anxious. When we set our hearts on luxury and comfort or any kind of earthly possessions, we will be anxious because idols never deliver what they promise. They cannot provide security, they cannot guarantee tomorrow, and they cannot give peace. The more we cling to them, the more fearful we become of losing them. Jesus is telling us greed and worry come from the same root. Both of them come from trusting in the things of this world rather than God.

We often do not think of anxiety as a sin. It is an example of what Navigators bible teacher Jerry Bridges calls a “respectable” sin. It isn’t one of those big scandalous sins that shock us. It is the kind of common ordinary sin that we tolerate and get comfortable with because the danger in it doesn’t seem as obvious to us. But Jesus says that anxiety is a sin and it is dangerous because it takes our eyes off of the goodness of God and replaces our confidence and joy with fear. That is why in verse 30 Jesus refers to those who are worrying as those of “little faith”.

Jesus doesn’t call out our lack of faith to humiliate us, but to humble us. His rebuke is not to shame, but to shepherd us back to trust. He uncovers our self-reliance and exposes our doubt so that we can see it for what it is and exchange it for something better. To be anxious is to believe the devil's lie that God will not take care of us. It is to believe the old serpent’s lie that God does not love us. Jesus is admonishing us to trust God and to rest in His love and promise to provide for us. 

He shows us that worry is both useless and foolish for a child of God. He says,

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Jesus calls our attention to the birds to remind us how tender the Father’s care really is. God never made a covenant with birds, yet they don’t worry and God provides food for them. How much more then will He provide for us? This doesn’t mean that we are to be reckless or unwise. The birds do go out to find food. It means that we do not need to be anxious. Just as the birds rely on God daily to provide for them, so too we can trust Him for what we need. 

This is the lesson of the manna that God provided to feed His people as they wandered in the desert after leaving Egypt. They couldn’t store it, they had to gather each day what they needed. God was giving us a picture of living by faith and trusting Him for daily bread. Jesus isn’t saying we shouldn’t have any food stored, but He is saying our confidence must not be in our storehouses, but in the God who provides for us. He says,

27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Jesus points out the foolishness of worry because our worrying cannot accomplish anything. I have found that most of the things I worry about never happen and even if they do happen, my worrying has not made anything better. For a child of God to worry really doesn’t make any sense. If it is within our power to address the concern, then rather than worry, we should do something about it. If not, then what good is it to worry? Rather than worry, we should take the matter to the Lord.

My wife Beth has a sign in our bedroom that says “worry less, pray more.” That is a good reminder. Even when I am helpless and concerned, I can trust that God loves me and He is in control. We can go in prayer to our Heavenly Father knowing He will hear us. Jesus tells us to look at how much care God displays even for things of little value, do we not think He will care for us?

Did you know there is a cactus called the Queen of the Night that blooms only once a year, for a single night. It looks plain until that night when its white petals open in amazing beauty only to vanish by morning. If God clothes such a fleeting flower with such splendid glory, will He not clothe His children, bought with Christ’s blood?

Believers, every hair on our heads is numbered. He knit us together in our mothers womb. He is working all things together for our good.  Does it make sense that He would deny our basic needs? If you struggle with anxiety, write down a list of God’s promises and begin each day reflecting on them. Do that multiple times a day if necessary. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I know Jesus has promised to never abandon us. I am not sure what challenges we will face in the coming days, but I know how the story ends and every believer will be raised in glory to be in the presence of the Lord forever.

Jesus says,

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

We don’t want to live like those who have no hope, like Gentiles outside the family of God. We want to live as children who trust their Father. Not chasing after luxuries, but confident that He will provide what we truly need. This kind of faith doesn’t grow in fear; it grows in the warmth of a loving relationship with God. And it rests not on our circumstances, but on His promises.

I heard a story about an art class at a Christian college where the professor asked the students to paint a picture that captured the idea of peace. Most of the students painted pictures of sunsets or beaches or snuggled babies sleeping but there was an older retired man who was auditing the class and his painting was quite different. He painted a tremendous thunderstorm with ominous clouds, lightning, and crashing waves. 

When the students displayed their paintings his picture caused a bit of confusion until he pointed out that down in the corner was a little bird hidden in the cleft of the rocks who was singing. He said that after many decades of walking with Christ, the greatest lesson he had learned about peace was that it did not come from what was going on around him, but from knowing that He was in the hand of God.

Jesus does not call us to ignore our circumstances and He does not condemn us for recognizing our basic needs. Rather, He calls on us to depend upon Him and to trust Him. Bad things do happen in this world. We must often endure the storm. Jesus does not give us an excuse to be irresponsible, but He reminds us that God Has promised to be with us through the storm. 

We know He will keep that promise because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. His resurrection is God’s proof that His Word never fails. But before we can rejoice in the solution, we have to be honest about our problem. We have all sinned. Not just in the big ways we like to point out in others, but in the quiet ways that expose our unbelief. We are all guilty of the sin of anxiety, failing to trust God as we should, and many other sins as well. Left to ourselves, we deserve only His judgment.

But the good news is Jesus Christ came to bear that judgment in our place. He lived the life of perfect trust in the Father for us. He died the death that our sins deserved. And He rose again to secure forgiveness and eternal life for all who believe. In Him, our guilt is removed, our sins are forgiven, and we stand before God clothed in His righteousness. To receive this promise, all that we need to do is to believe. To repent of our own wisdom and works and trust instead in Him and what He has done. Outside of Jesus, every fear will one day come true. But if we have Him, even if we endure hardship for a time, we have the certainty of eternal joy and peace. A peace even death cannot overcome, because we too will be raised in glory. Jesus says,

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Having laid the theological foundation for why we shouldn’t worry, which is that God is our Father and loves us, and having shown how to shift our attention away from worry by replacing our concerns with meditation on God’s meticulous care of His creation and His promises to us, Jesus adds a practical observation. There are an endless number of things we need to be concerned about each day, so why would we pull forward tomorrow's concerns when we can’t do anything about them anyway?

In 1 Corinthians 10:13 , the apostle Paul says,

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

One of the keys to resisting temptation is confidence in the faithfulness of God. This is true for the temptation to be anxious too. God provides grace when we face temptation so we may endure, but look carefully at what Paul says. The way of escape comes with the temptation. God gives us what we need for the situation we are in.

Do you see what we do to ourselves if we try to tackle temptations that have not yet come? We take on concerns for which we may not have yet received grace to handle because rather than trusting God, we are trying to manage the future ourselves. Spiritually speaking, we outkick our coverage. 

I remember one time I was running late and concerned I was going to miss my flight home. I was stressed out and walking as fast as I could. On the way to the transfer shuttle, I passed a man in a pilot’s uniform, but he caught up to me as we were getting on the bus. As I stood there huffing and puffing he asked me where I was going and what time the flight was. I told him and with a smile he said, “relax, I’m the one flying the plane, they can’t leave without us.” Friends there is no benefit from running to get ahead of God. We can relax, He has it under control.

It is a sin, a weakness of faith to lack confidence in God and yet even the most faithful believers struggle with worry at times. We don’t like to hear that we are weak or guilty of doubt, but accepting our weakness is the first step in overcoming anxiety. Contrary to what the world tells us, the answer is not greater self-confidence, but the opposite. It is only when we die to self and put our confidence in Christ that we can truly be delivered from anxiety. It is only when we stop pretending to have perfect faith and rely instead on the perfect faith of Jesus that we will find lasting peace.

In Mark’s Gospel Jesus encounters a man whose son has an unclean Spirit and the man comes to Jesus and says, “if you can do anything please help”. And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” and Mark 9:24 records,

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 

Brothers and sisters, I cannot tell you how thankful I am to God for this man and for the Holy Spirit including this verse in my Bible. This is me every day. “Lord, I believe; help me to believe more!” When we are tempted to worry, let us be like this man and run to Jesus for the strength to believe. 

“Lord, I trust you for this issue at my work, I believe, help me believe more!”

“Lord, I trust you for this problem in my family or my finances. I believe, help me believe more!”

“Lord, I trust you for what I need, for my security, for our church, for our country, for the future. I believe, help me believe more!”

“Lord, I see how you care for your creation. I have seen you provide for your people over and over. I see your heart for me in sending Jesus to die for me and I see your power to save in His resurrection. I believe, help me to believe more!”

Jesus promises to save all who put their faith in Him, not just those with great faith, but all those with authentic faith. I like the way puritan pastor Thomas Watson said it,

“Even a weak faith can lay hold on a strong Christ.”

Jesus said faith, even the size of a tiny mustard seed, would be able to move mountains. Google hasn’t had to update any maps recently. Friends, do not be discouraged, it is not the strength of our faith, but the strength of the savior that is ultimately responsible for our confidence in the future. Jesus doesn’t expose the weakness of our faith to make us feel guilty. He has already paid for that sin. 

He exposes our weakness to protect us from chasing after idols. He shows us our continuing need so that we will run to Him and find rest and peace. Jesus teaches us to combat anxiety with confidence in God’s love and care. The religion of the pagans and the legalism of the Pharisees all lead to us looking to our own works to be assured that God is pleased with us. It leads only to blindness and spiritual exhaustion. False religion lies, telling us if we do more and try harder we will overcome the sin that weighs us down but Jesus causes us come and find rest in His finished work. In Matthew 11:28–29 Jesus says,

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

In Christ we can stop striving and rejoice that Jesus has done what we could never do. We no longer pursue holiness as a means of overcoming sin. We have been set free to grow in holiness without fear that we aren’t living up. To pursue holiness in joy and freedom because we want to be like Jesus and know that we are already loved and accepted, not because we were good enough but because He is. 

What comes with that is the settled assurance that there is a day coming when everything we are tempted to worry about will be gone and there will be no more pain or death. If you have put your trust in Jesus, you already have that guarantee. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Whatever you are trading for this peace and assurance, I guarantee it won’t be worth it in the end.

The truth will set us free from the worries and anxieties that weigh us down. You can replace those concerns with a confidence in what God has done for you in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These gospel truths are not just for the unbeliever as if we no longer need them once we receive Jesus. They are the truths that sustain us in our walk of faith. They are the truths that transform our minds and change our thinking about the cares and concerns of this world. They equip us to walk in this world with an eternal perspective that is God glorifying, Christ exalting, and anxiety killing.

I am primarily focused on the spiritual component of worry, but there can also be physical and psychological aspects that contribute to it. So, if you are struggling, there are several things you should be thinking about. 

Our bodies and our minds are linked in complex ways. It is important that you are getting good rest and regular physical exercise. Things like diet and exercise do impact how we feel and think. Sometimes I think we may be too quick to jump to spiritual or psychological counseling when really the person just needs to care for their body. 

There can also be various medical issues that can result in increased anxiety. While I think the medical and psychological community is too quick to jump to prescriptions and ignore the other factors, there really are times when medical intervention is a common grace blessing and is helpful. That is never the only solution, but it can be a valid part of the process of helping someone.

In many cases, however, those who worry would be greatly helped by a better grasp of God’s promises, a more meaningful fellowship with others who care for them in the Lord and will remind them of those things, and a deeper dependence on the power of Christ to help them through prayer. Not just prayer for them, but their praying for others as well. It is often helpful for us to realize that we are not alone in navigating challenges and there are few things more helpful to our own souls than to care for those of others.

As we finish, I want us to be reminded again that Jesus tells us that the antidote to worry is to trust in God’s care for us. There is no greater proof of that than Jesus Himself. There can be no greater proof that God loves us than the cross. That means we can trust Him to help us, even in our temptation to worry. Hebrews 4:15–16 says,

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Isn’t this the answer right here? The more we live in light of this truth, the more we pray in light of the reality of who we are and what we have in Jesus, the more our fear will be replaced with faith and trust. There is no shame and no condemnation, we can come with confidence before God in prayer, knowing that He loves us and will help us.

Puritan pastor Thomas Goodwin captured the power of this verse in his meditation upon it. I’ve put it into modern words so its impact isn’t lost in the older language. He says, 

“This passage, more than any other, reveals the very heart of Christ. It shows how He thinks and feels toward sinners so clearly that it is as if Scripture takes our hands, places them on Christ’s chest, and lets us feel His heartbeat and His deep compassion for us, even now, as He reigns in glory.”

Jesus died to purchase eternity for us. He came from heaven so that we could receive eternal joy and be delivered from every idol and enemy that would keep us from the incomparable joy of being with Him in the presence of the Father. His care for us didn’t stop when He ascended. His is in Heaven now, still advocating for us and inviting us to bring our concerns to Him. He does not want us to worry. There is no need for us to do so because He is still with us. This week, when worry rises, let it be our cue to pray, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”

Let’s finish with the words of the apostle Peter as He reflects on this same truth. 1 Peter 5:6–7

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.