Friends, let us pray. Father, may we experience
today in a very special way the love you have
now lavished on us through Jesus so that we can
be your children. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
When I was at Bible College, we became good friends
with a couple whose children went to the same
school as our boys. They weren't at Bible College
with us. but we did end up seeing a fair bit
of one another during those three years and still
keep in touch today. He, the dad, the father
of the family, happened to be the pastor of Newtown
Baptist Church. They had five children, four
boys and a girl. Now, one of their boys, Saul,
who would have been about 16 years old, which
is basically the main highway that goes through
the suburb Newtown, taking you to the centre
of Sydney. And whilst in that shop, a rough -looking
guy, no doubt just looking for a fight, walked
past him and said, what are you looking at, mate?
You got a problem? Now, their son hadn't encountered
this sort of thing before. They were new at Newtown,
just as we were. Come to think of it, there were
many things we hadn't encountered before. Until
we lived in Newtown. Things most of us here would
probably never encounter. Anyway, their son Saul
didn't know what to really do. So carefully and
quickly, after buying what he needed, he got
out of that shop and started the short walk home.
But so did this other character. This other character
started following him to the point where Saul
started running to try and get home before this
guy might grab him and punch into him. Now, although
this was broad daylight, and King Street is a
very busy street with both people and cars, no
one intervened. And so Saul found himself running
faster, and faster. Fortunately, he made it to
his home, the Baptist manse, and went through
the side gate into the safety of their backyard.
Wow, close one, he thought. But guess what? This
guy who just wanted to pick on him for the sake
of it climbed over the fence and into their backyard.
and started laying into him. Fortunately, because
the Baptist church hall was also formed part
of their backyard, someone in the hall heard
him screaming and came out of the church hall
to help. And so this guy bolted. But by then,
Saul had been hit quite a few times, and so it
was a bit black and blue and bleeding. Just after
that happened, I think the very next day, I was
talking to a few mates at Bible College about
it all, asking them to pray for him and his family.
And so we all stopped and prayed for them. As
you hear this story for the first time, how do
you think you'd respond to something like that?
If that happened to your son or a friend of yours?
Besides obviously reporting it to the police,
which they did, and the guy was arrested, he
was apparently well known by the police, what
else would you do? Yes, how might you pray for
such a family? That the police would catch this
guy and lock him up? That Saul would quickly
recover from his injuries? That the Lord would
help this family feel safe in a place where they
already didn't feel that safe, let alone after
this? For example, a friend of this family told
them that this was a spiritual attack on them
and the work they were doing there. And also
told them how a previous Baptist pastor's wife,
when she answered the door one day, was bashed
and killed right there on the spot, on the doorstep
of Newtown Baptist Church, where they were actually
living. And so that friend suggested they needed
to pray over the actual property. Hmm. How would
you respond to something like that if that happened
to your child in your own backyard after going
up to the local IGA store to get some milk for
you? It's worth asking yourself how you'd respond.
For what it's worth, what did Saul become? He
became a policeman. And for what it's worth,
is his dad still a Baptist pastor? No. He's still
a very committed man to the Lord, but he became
a policeman too. Interesting. Well, today's reading,
I believe, tells us how to respond to such a
circumstance if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.
If you're not yet a disciple of Jesus Christ,
please still listen so that you understand what
God expects of those who are now his children.
Hopefully because one day you too will be. So
please reopen your Bibles now to Matthew 5, 43
to 48. If you're using one of our church -provided
Bibles, we're on page 1473. 1473. Or you could
just look at your bulletin. I'll read verses
43 to 44 now. After reading these verses, please
keep your Bibles open as we'll shortly come back
to the remaining verses. Jesus said to his disciples
in a large crowd that had followed them, You
have heard that it was said, Love your neighbour
and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Flowing on from the previous verses that spoke
about the personal abuse one might receive and
the response of a true disciple of Jesus Christ
to it, self -sacrifice, Jesus now talks about
what naturally flows on from that, the much broader
question, therefore, of hatred and love. The
people had heard that it was said, love your
neighbour and hate your enemy. But again, like
the previous examples over these past weeks that
we've now looked at, they were hearing falsely.
Yes, the Old Testament scripture says love your
neighbour, as we heard in our other Bible reading
from Leviticus 19 .18. But nowhere does God actually
say you must hate your enemy. Now, although I
could show you some verses that speak about despising
evil people, And God does too. In certain contexts,
example Psalms 5 and Psalm 15, that is not what
God commands us to do. It's amazing how we like
to twist what God says to suit our circumstances.
We find a verse somewhere, anywhere to suit our
context or we find simply something more comfortable.
And that's what God's people were obviously doing
with the Old Testament scriptures. Hence, on
these occasions, Jesus can say, you've heard
that it was said, but I tell you. And so, you
see, some Jews took the word neighbour, where
God says love your neighbour, to mean only one's
very own people. And if that is so, it's okay
to hate those who are different from you. those
who you didn't regard as your neighbours. And
so the expression used by many back then was,
love the brothers, hate the outsider. And so
this issue of understanding who in fact was one's
neighbour was very much misunderstood, falsely
taught. Hence Jesus at another point in his ministry
tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke
10, to point out that one's neighbour is in fact
anyone, friend or foe. And so Jesus says here,
love not just your friends, but also your foes,
your enemies. And how? Well, I think here he
says to pray for them. And he's talking about
not just people who you don't get on with or
don't like, although they are obviously included.
He's talking about enemies with a capital E,
the ones who persecute you. You are to love them
by at least praying for them. Remembering the
Jews were under the Romans back then. Wow. And
in this context here, remembering the Beatitudes
at the beginning of this chapter where Jesus
mentions those who persecute you, those who seriously
give you a very hard time. He means those who
persecute you. And why do that? Because of righteousness.
That is because of living for Jesus. Matthew
5, 10 to 12. We are to love such people, such
enemies, by praying for them. Sue and I have
some enemies, and so much so that I've had to
stay off Facebook, something the police some
years ago told me to do. We've also had to block
certain people from communicating very awful
messages to us on our mobile phones. And why?
Simply because of righteousness. Simply because
we try to remain faithful to God's word and therefore
faithful to Jesus and the righteous life that
he desires. And so when I read these two verses,
I'm reminded what I should be doing in response
to those who seek to personally hurt us and threaten
us. I am, we are to love them by at least praying
for them. Well, before we look at the main point
in these verses as to why God wants us to love
our enemies, I want us to consider something
that is so obvious that maybe we've missed it
so far. In this sermon series. We see it here
and we also see it in the previous examples.
It is this. We see here the divine authority
of Jesus. Yes, we see here the divine authority
of Jesus. Or in other words, the very authority
of God himself. In Jesus. Shown by what he actually
says. Yes, Jesus' authority is one of the most
dominant features in this chapter. Not only does
he tell us that he himself is the fulfilment
of everything the law required and everything
the prophets had spoken about, and not only does
he tell us who will be the least and who will
be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven to come,
but he also tells us at least probably eight
times in this chapter, what God's word really
and truly says. Think about it. Where do the
Old Testament scriptures actually get their authority
from? Their authority comes from God. And because
their authority comes from God, only one with
the same authority could ever interpret the scriptures
and define implicitly what the scriptures really
mean. and truly mean and that's what jesus repeatedly
does he therefore is revealing his divine authority
yes simply put only someone with the authority
of god himself can truly say but i tell you when
referring to the holy scriptures a prophet might
speak the words of god and therefore say thus
says the lord but only someone with the f very
authority of God himself, can repeatedly say,
I tell you. I tell you the truth. But I tell
you. It's no wonder that the great Hindu leader,
Mahatma Gandhi, believed Jesus' teachings on
the Sermon on the Mount to be the greatest teaching
ever given on planet Earth. But sadly, I don't
believe Gandhi saw what Jesus was really saying.
and therefore claiming when he repeatedly says,
but I tell you. So Jesus has just said, you've
heard that it was said, love your neighbour and
hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you. Now Jesus
didn't actually finish his sentence there. He
says a few more words to explain why we are to
love one's enemy. Now please have a look at why.
Have a look at verse 45. Why? The NLV, New International
Version, 2011 says that you may be children of
your Father in heaven. That's why. I've summed
it up like this and the next three verses spell
it out in more detail. Not only do we see here
and... all through this chapter, the divine authority
of Jesus, we also see here what is expected of
those who belong to the Father. So basically
we are to love our enemies because that's how
a child of God, how someone who belongs to our
Father in heaven, should love. Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you. And why?
Because that's how sons and daughters of our
heavenly Father are to live. Anything less than
that is simply not worthy of a place in the kingdom
of heaven where our Father is. Anything less
than that is simply not worthy of being a child
of God. So we therefore mustn't limit our love
to certain people. Yet that is what Jesus is
saying here. If you're a child of God, a son
or daughter of your Father in heaven, and you
limit your love to only those you get along with,
you can't expect your Father in Heaven to say,
good on you. No. Anyone can do that. Anyone can
love those who love them. Even tax collectors
do that. Verse 46. I want you to love like me.
I want you to even love your enemies. Friends,
when you look at the life of Jesus, did Jesus
show us this kind of love or was he all talk?
Did Jesus just show and claim divine authority
in what he said? Or did he also back it up in
what he did? Well, I suppose the greatest test
to practice what one preaches is when one faces
the greatest test. And when did Jesus face one
of his greatest tests? Well, surely it would
have been on the cross. Yep, on the cross, on
that very first good for us, but ghastly for
him, Friday. How did he respond to his enemies
who had their way and whipped him to an inch
of death, stripped him of his clothing, then
nailed him to a cross? to further publicly humiliate
him, spat on him and hurled insults at him? Like,
how did he respond to his enemies with a capital
E? Well, he certainly did practise what he preached.
And much more than that, he exemplified it. He
said just before he took his last breath whilst
hanging on that rugged cross... Father, forgive
them for they do not know what they are doing.
Wow. Yes, what a magnificent author and perfecter
of our faith. Perhaps he was divine. As a follower,
as his follower, as a son or daughter of the
Father, we must not limit our love to those who
love us. The second example is found in verse
47. Please look at it with me, please. Verse
47, and if you greet only your own people, what
are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans,
in our context here today, unbelievers, do that.
Friends, a warm greeting or welcome can say a
lot, just as the absence of a warm greeting or
welcome can say a lot too. Who you greet, who
you welcome speaks a lot. If certain people are
carefully ignored and those only close to us
receive our sincere good wishes, Jesus is saying
here that you are no different to the rest of
society because that's how they act. In other
words, a son or daughter of the Heavenly Father
or child of God must not... any longer stoop
to the low standard of society. He or she must
scale to the high standard of unworthy of the
kingdom of heaven and not limit our greeting
or welcome to certain people. That's what this
verse is basically saying. We also mustn't limit
our welcome to certain people. Crunch time! Do
you limit your welcome to certain people? Do
we limit our welcome to certain people in our
street? Do we limit our welcome to certain people
of our own colour or nation? Do we limit our
welcome to certain people in our workplace? Do
we limit our welcome to certain people at school
or at university? Do we limit our welcome to
people who are good citizens and behave themselves?
Or what about this one? Do we limit our welcome
and greeting to certain people at church? To
those you get along with. to those in your circle,
to those of your age, to those who are much easier
to talk to. Well, what Jesus says here has implications
in all areas of life, including how we greet
one another at church and who we greet and therefore
who we talk to afterwards, say over morning tea.
Dare I say that if you feel that someone here
almost falls in the category of an enemy for
you at the moment, or quite different, I want
to make a special effort to greet them and talk
to them afterwards. Well, in his day, Jesus once
again practiced what he preached in this area.
But I tell you, there were two groups of people
back then that most people in society avoided
greeting or welcoming. They basically avoided
going anywhere near these two groups of people.
But Jesus said, sorry, Jesus did. He always reflected
his father. He truly was the father's son in
more ways than one. And so much so that he earned
a reputation of greeting and even hanging out
with those that society didn't like. And the
writer. The writer of this gospel was one of
them. From Matthew 11, 19, he welcomes tax collectors.
Matthew's name was Levi. He was a tax collector.
And sinners. Yes, that is what was said of Jesus.
In a sense, when it comes to loving one's enemies,
to say that they are an enemy is a misnomer at
one level. Sometimes they are simply people worse
off than you or people who have made more obvious
mistakes in life than you or just different from
you. And if you think that this last point of
not limiting one's welcome to certain people
was crunch time for you, well, for us, baby,
we just ain't seen nothing yet. Have a look at
verse 48. Jesus concludes all of this by saying,
Be perfect. Therefore, as your heavenly Father
is perfect. Easy peasy. That's what I like about
being a Christian. When you come to Jesus, it's
all easy peasy. Not. Friends, we see here in
this verse the demand to be like our Father in
heaven. Well, obviously to... be perfect like
our Father in heaven and like Jesus, who not
only spoke with divine authority but also lived
divinely because he practised everything he preached,
involves, you could say, more than just loving
one's enemies, as spelled out in these six verses.
But in saying that, I think there is a very important
reason why Jesus says these words, straight after
specifically talking about... loving one's enemies
and therefore not hating them and what is the
reason why does jesus say to be perfect straight
after talking about loving loving one's enemies
i think because what is central to the very character
of god what is at the very core of god's being
is his love for his enemies His love for us.
He is so rich in love that he has poured out
his love on all people as demonstrated in all
its fullness on the cross. This is your favourite
verse, Brendan. Whilst we were still his enemies,
his son died for us. Romans 5 .8. That's true
love. And when one pours out such love on all
people, for example, in forgiveness and in welcoming,
especially on people who are most undeserving
of such love, such love is called what? It's
called mercy. Yes, it's called mercy. When one
of the other gospel writers, Dr. Luke, yes, God
loves tax collectors and doctors. When Dr. Luke
records Jesus' teaching on this very matter,
he doesn't say, be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect. He says, be merciful
as your Father is merciful, Luke 6 .36. Loving
one's enemies is all about mercy. And as God
is love, he is rich in mercy. Ephesians 2 .4.
And when we are rich in mercy, we are most like
our Father in heaven and therefore becoming more
like him. Perfect. So who do you need to show
mercy to? Who do you need to be more like our
Father in Heaven to? You know, when our friend
Saul was bashed up that day and my mates and
I were praying for him and his family, one of
my mates prayed in a way that I'll never forget.
We prayed for Saul to recover. We prayed for
his family. We prayed... Also for justice to
be delivered. We gave thanks that there were
people in the hall who heard what was happening
and therefore ran out to help. My wife Sue was
one of them. But one of my mates prayed very
differently to all of us. He prayed for the character
who bashed up Saul. He prayed that the Lord would
convict this guy. of the serious wrong that he's
done and changed his life. He prayed that the
Lord would have mercy on him. And he prayed that
Saul and his family would forgive this guy. Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.
Amen.