Today's scripture reading is from Matthew 5.43 through 48. It's page 837 in the
Bibles in the back of the pews. You have heard that it was said,
love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in
heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain
on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what
reward will you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same, and if you greet
only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don't even
the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is
perfect. This is God's word.
Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Laurie. A couple things just to acknowledge. One, I'm not
John. As I said earlier, church mom, church dad are off right now there in
Guam with Mike and a few other people there, serving one of our sister churches
over in Guam and caring for them, building a new roof. Pray for John. Pray that he
has enough AC. He really needs it. Just remember that this week, but they'll be
back next week. And two, acknowledge there is a lot of mothers in here, so
thank you, moms. If I haven't said it to you personally, just thank you so much
for everything that you've done, and this includes those who've acted like
moms. Maybe you're a biological mom. Maybe you've just shown up for somebody
and acted as that role. Thank you for that. We just want to appreciate that.
We would physically and literally and spiritually not be here, except if it was
for you. And my mom is here to hear this, so I'm really grateful for that. We are
talking about loving your enemies. So here's my joke. Hopefully we're not
talking about your mom tonight. For the past few weeks, John and I have been
trying to bring you back into Jesus' culture to understand his teaching. This
was really important to understand the attitudes Jesus was calling us to
exemplify. Last week, John explained that a right-handed slap across the left
cheek is different than a right-handed slap across the right cheek. It meant
something different. One was intimidation. It was demeaning. The other one was a
challenge to an equal. Well, today I'm not gonna be trying to bring you back into
Jesus' culture. I'm gonna do something different. It's a little uncomfortable for
me, so I'm just gonna recognize that up front. I want to try to unpack Jesus'
teaching about loving your enemies in light of our culture today. This
teaching to love enemies has gone around the world. It has left a deep mark, but
it's also caused a lot of imitations to show up that sound very similar to
Jesus, but are not the same thing. But Jesus' meaning and focus is
different from those, and we really need to hear everything that he is saying
this morning. So let's hear Jesus' words one more time. No matter how many times
I have read these things, they continue to shake me just a little bit, so I want
to make sure that they are fresh on your mind. You have heard that it was said,
love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in
heaven. Let's pray real quick. Father, I am scared to preach these words. These are,
these are tough, but I pray God that this morning your word would come alive
in our hearts, that you would look glorious because you are so giving and
you are so loving that you give us a perfect example of what it is to love
our enemies. God, I pray that you humble our hearts so that we would be able to
find ways that we are acting like enemies to people and that we would treat
our enemies in the same way that you've treated us. In Jesus' name, amen. So this
is it, this is the climax of Jesus' teaching, our series, how you have
heard. Jesus has been building up to this. All of the other statements get
culminated into this one command, hate, lust, divorce, promising, retaliation, all
fall here. Love your neighbor and love your enemy as yourself. The Old
Testament law I've referred to for loving your neighbor is from Leviticus
1918. It's probably the most famous verse in Leviticus because you all know a lot
of Leviticus verses. Here it is. Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against
members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. And a
little later in the chapter, the command is resided again but includes more
people. Leviticus 1934. You will regard the alien, the red, who resides with you as
the native born among you. You are to love him as yourself. For you,
railings in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. Jesus takes these
foundational commands and brings them to their fullness. You are to love your
neighbor as yourself even if your neighbor is your enemy. These words have
serious power if used correctly. They have the power to change the world and we
have seen it happen. That's my first point this morning. This teaching is
world-changing. For Jesus' day, the people would hear love the tax collector in
your town. They're the most despised person or love the Roman soldier that
is currently occupying your nation and oppressing you. For us, for you, we should
hear love that disrespectful person who demeans you. Love that person who
intimidates you and belittles you. Love the person who abuses your kindness in
your time. This idea has affected history and cultures around the world. And I'll
pause here. This is probably a good time in the sermon to explain what Jesus means
by love. What's that definition? Let's understand it, but it's a little tricky
because the meaning of the word changed because of Jesus. Let me explain what I
mean by that. In Greek, there are four different words that we would all
translate into English as love. Two of those words appear in our Bible, two of
them don't. The word here is a pretty famous word. It's agape. That's a
pretty famous Greek word. There has been a lot of sermons and teachings about
how agape is called really the highest form of love, the God love, the self
sacrificing love. But the authors of the Bible actually use agape more freely
than we would expect if that was the real definition. Agape is actually used
for sinful love several times, like the lustful love of a sibling or the love of
the world that makes somebody turn from Christ. Those people agape. There were
other examples of agape being used for sinful emotions too. So where do we get
this definition of agape that we know, this God sacrificing, self sacrificing,
God honoring love? Well it comes from Christians acting in such a way that
transformed the word around their community. Christians from the first and
second century so fully adopted the idea of self sacrificing enemy love that the
culture changed the definition of agape to match their actions. And as a
Christian spread the gospel around the world so did the teaching of enemy love,
which was aligned to agape love. So starting with Jesus and then his
followers and then spread around the world through the church, the world
changed. It only took 400 years from one guy preaching a gospel to all of the
Roman world adopting Christianity as a state religion. Not true Christianity
but just like as a state religion. 400 years. And we live in a world that's
been shaped by that teaching too. It's been spread around the world. But it's,
but that was a long time ago. So today love our enemy would probably be easily
accepted by a lot of people. If you said hey you should love your enemy you
should love those people. People like yeah that's a good ethic. That's probably
one of those teachings that people would say yeah Jesus is a good teacher right?
He has that one. And then like if you go back 12 verses and he has don't divorce
anybody we'll push that one to the side or have joy and persecution drop that
one completely like that's not gonna happen. But this one this one's a good
one to hold on to. So I found this teaching in the words of Gandhi, the
Dalai Lama, and even a Muslim teacher. And I found this YouTube video that we're
gonna watch and it is so shocking every single time I hear. So let's go ahead and
play this video. Can we Nate? So when I see someone who's been harming me, when I
see someone who has been trying hard to hurt me, yes I will defend myself in a
respectful respectable manner. But I will not do that which displeases Allah.
I'm a Muslim. I need to love for my enemies. What I love for myself. I need to
want the goodness for them too. I'm a Muslim. So if I have conveyed the message
of Islam to the enemies of Islam in a way that they do not turn to Islam but
they understand that Islam is a beautiful religion, I've achieved great success by
the help of Allah. We can pause it right there. Conversion, reversion. It goes on to
reiterate the same thing. So I want to be really clear. Just pause. This man is not
honoring the Lord. He worships a different God than we do. He does not worship the
God of the Bible. He does not recognize that Jesus is God. But he knows this
command. He's heard it. And here's my point. Here's my point. Repeating the
words of Jesus has lost its surprise factor. The way of his words is different
today not because they're less true. They are not less true than they were when
he said them. But a result of this teaching changing cultures around the
world, this idea has been co-opted. It's so powerful that people who don't even
follow Jesus have taken it, diluted it, distorted it. So we can't go around just
saying the words and expect people to be drawn in. We need to take the full
teaching of Jesus here and live it out. So I want to highlight two distinctives
found in these verses. First it'll be our motives and then it'll be our focus. Let's
talk about motivation. We must get our motivation correct if we are to fulfill
this command. If we start with the wrong motivation we will seek the wrong outcome
and then we will eventually fail to fulfill the command. Thankfully Jesus is
kind to us and he outlines the motivation very clearly. So reading from verse 44
but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Why? So
that you may be children of your father in heaven for he causes his son to rise
on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. The
state of motive is to be like children of our father in heaven and that's my
second point. Motivation must be being like our father. Our motivation must be
like, must be to be like and to glorify our father in heaven. Imaging him into
the world, bringing him into a visual representation into the world. And this is
the same motivation Jesus had. Here are just a few examples of the words on
Jesus's mouth. John 5 19 says, truly I tell you the son is not able to do
anything on his own but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the
father does the son likewise does these things. John 4 34 says, my food is to do
the will of him who sent me. John 6 38, for I have come down from heaven not to
do my own will but the will of him who sent me. Jesus makes it very clear. His
will, his desire, his aim, his goal is to be like his father in obedience and to
be imaging his father into the world. And Jesus acted according to this in
perfect obedience and we are just simply called to do the same thing by
becoming like our father in heaven or be becoming like our father in heaven.
Imitate our father who is perfect example of loving enemies and you will
become like him and you will love your enemies like him and you will make him
look amazing. Our motivation ties directly to the outcome we should expect
from our love which is not for the enemy to do something but for us to become
like God. Jesus doesn't give us a promise that the enemy is going to change. He
gives us the expectation that we are going to change to be like him. Verse 45
says it, so that you may be children of your father in heaven. And that be and
I've kind of stated this is the idea of be becoming. It's not like you have done
it, you're done. It is a progressive becoming, more loving, more godly. So
let's build this idea with an example. If you're on a walk later today and you
come across your enemy's donkey and it's stuck in a ditch, it's normal Sunday
activity. But this I am I'm using this example because it comes from Exodus,
okay? So this is pulled from Exodus 23 and I'm gonna pause, another pause. I
recognize that you're probably gonna spend about a quarter of the sermon
trying to figure out who your enemies are. Like that's just gonna be rolling
around in your brain. I get it. You have my permission. I've already spent that
time. So I know that that's happening. Okay, back to the example. So let's
imagine you come across this donkey and it's stuck in a ditch because it has a
broken leg and a heavy burden. It's never getting out. After hearing the sermon,
you are ready to perform some enemy love. Like let's do it and you jump into the
ditch and you help the donkey and you get it out and you get it home and then
you ask yourself, why did I why did I help? Was it to help the hurting animal?
Is that your answer? I'll give you a C. Just passing grade, sure. Or was it to
show your enemy that you are better than them? Or maybe to convince your enemy
that they should treat you better? I'm gonna be honest, both of those very
self-serving. So I'm gonna give you a D. Like you barely passed. But what is the
right response? I did it because I had an opportunity to obey the Lord and
imitate him and to love that person like he is already doing. This motivation
drives us to imagine how would God act? And then we do the same thing. This must
be our ultimate motivation and that's the key word ultimate motivation. Those
other things are good. They're not bad. The creation care is good. Carrying for
animals is good. Compassion to somebody and what their needs are. That's good. But
they aren't ultimate. And if I had time, I would go into an explanation of how the
rewards that we get by doing this is Jesus and that we get to be more like
him and then be more like him. We get more satisfaction but I don't have time
for that. So we're gonna keep going. You may feel like I'm
belaboring this point. Good it. Got it Nick. Let's keep moving. But it's really
easy to miss this in the everyday practice of love. Our culture agrees with
the idea of loving people but for a very different reason. Every humanist or
atheist or person who doesn't believe anything that we believe would say the
reason to love, which they agree that there is a reason, is because the people
are worth it. The person is your motivation. It is embedded in sayings like
just choose kindness or love not hate, which are really kitschy small phrases.
Let me give you a bad example of this because that's what apparently I'm doing
this morning. 15 years or so ago the Dalai Lama gave an interview where he was
asked how he could speak of loving enemies when his enemies had ruthlessly
killed his fellow worshipers and destroyed their temples. The Dalai Lama
just for anybody who doesn't know, he's Buddhist. He's not, he does not worship
Jesus. His response was to speak about how that other person, his enemy, seeks
happiness and avoids pain just like him. So the enemy is worth our compassion and
love because the enemy and the Dalai Lama both have human needs for happiness. Or
put it a little bit more brashly. You should love people including enemies
because their happiness is important. Your motivation should just breathe to
bring them joy. Again on the surface it sounds good but it goes against what
Jesus teaches. Jesus calls us to love and kindness in a particular way, a
distinctive way is the way that I'm trying to say it this morning. Love and
kindness that is motivated by imitating and glorifying our Father in heaven. And
we must choose love and kindness for the glory of our Father in heaven not because
of the happiness of another person. If we don't keep our motivation correct our
love will fall flat. It will fail and it will not last. It may look good at points.
It may make you feel good but it will not produce, it will only produce a
temporary effect and will miss the mark in the end. Doing this will be like the
sick and the lame who went to Jesus only for them to heal their pain but not
and then ignored his message. They showed up, I have a need, fulfill my need. And
Jesus did and then they ignored his message. They got their healing, they
had some joy but they missed eternal satisfaction. Let's go to our next
distinctive, our focus. We need to focus on loving enemies as an individual, not
in an amorphous group of people or the idea of people. And this is, might sound
weird but give me a moment to explain. And just as a reminder, my goal this morning
is to understand these verses in light of our current culture and attitudes. The
things that we experience every day that we are just baked into because we're
Americans in the 21st century. Our culture loves the idea of love. They
would disagree with Jesus' words as on the whole but there is two definitions
of love at work. In society, love is kind of like equal to this emotive force
that produces good into the world. Just love and good will come from it
eventually somewhere hopefully we don't know how long it'll last. There are
generations of pop songs that call this out. This one, what the world needs now
is love, sweet love. Thank you Kimberly. Or the Beatles, all you need is love. Love
is a common ideal today but it has this funny aspect. It isn't usually met for a
particular individual other than maybe a spouse but as a way to contribute to
mankind. Theodore Dostoyevsky was a Russian literary master and his last
book is called The Brothers Karmasov. In it, there is a doctor who is struggling
with his faith in God and love for people and this is how he explains
himself. It's a little bit longer quote but I want to read all of it. I love
humanity he said but I wonder at myself the more I love humanity in general the
less I love man in particular. In my dreams he said I have often come to
making enthusiastic schemes for the service of humanity and perhaps I might
actually have faced crucifixion if it had been suddenly necessary and yet I am
incapable of living in the same room with anyone for more than two days. As I
know by experience as soon as anyone is near me he restricts my freedom in the
24 hours I begin to hate the best of men one because he is too long over his
dinner another because he has a cold and keeps blowing his nose. I become hostile
to people the moment they come close to me but it has always happened that the
more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity. This
sounds like people I know today someone chewing the wrong way at dinner or
someone who invades your personal space a little too much this was a book written
150 years ago in Russia and I want you to get this point our society loves the
idea of loving humanity they will express the need for more donations to
the poor to stop war to stop violence don't do that over there to fight for
the oppressed group again all good things but as soon as you narrow in on one
person a flesh and blood human being things get really uncomfortable a person
has their own feelings a person can do things that annoy you they're not
morally wrong they're just not your flavor or maybe they do things better
than you when trying to love a group of people you don't have to be near them
you don't have to deal with their feelings or issues it is much easier to
enjoy the idea of loving people than actually stepping into someone's life
to love them the doctor I quoted had the same idea I detest men individually
oh but I ardently love humanity that's a common ethos this isn't this isn't far
off so we Christians need to be careful and intentional to not get sucked into
that not get sucked into those words we need to love intentionally towards a
person you know your enemies again you've probably been thinking about the
mall morning there are people they're individuals in your life they aren't some
theoretical fuzzy idea of a human like it maybe looks like 50 people stacked on
top of each other but I don't know which one I'm I'm dealing with like a sketch
artist or something no they have a body they breathe air they speak to you and
Jesus's command is to love that person the human being this is this is so
critical to understand just like the motivation point failing to love towards
a person will result in getting way off track the world has a lot of flowery
language for it too that sounds very Christian I just want you guys to hear
that they will sound Christian they will use our terminology though they'll
swap in our words that were commonly used but it's all smoke and mirrors
requiring no self-sacrifice no sacrifice of security no leaves plenty of wiggle
room to do exactly as they please they get to manufacture good feelings through
random acts of kindness that puff up their ego and don't require them to be
anymore like God but true enemy love who one that is directed at a person
despite their actions despite the way they keep treating you that type of love
changes people and changes the world I'm just gonna read that again enemy love
that is directed at a person despite their actions despite the way that they
keep on treating you it changes people and it changes the world so we're gonna
walk through an example of Elizabeth Elliott Jim and Elizabeth Elliott were
missionaries in Ecuador where they had a 10-month-old daughter Jim and four
other missionary men contacted who are a tribe this this unreached people group the
missionaries were seeking to spread the gospel to this tribe that's all they
wanted they just wanted them to hear about Jesus but instead were violently
speared to death during their second encounter with the tribe Elizabeth
Elliott and the other women were rightfully devastated they had now
become widows with children but Elizabeth had a simple prayer at this
time and whenever she tells the story she seems to always reference this prayer
Lord if you ever want to use me I am available in less than two years
Elizabeth made contact with two Hararin women and they stayed with her for
about a year this time Elizabeth used to learn language in the customs and then
these Hararin women invited Elizabeth and her daughter to travel with them to
the tribe in the jungle since they were returning home Elizabeth Elliott was
stunned it had been two years since her husband's death the people who killed
her husband are going to be there should she go into the jungle with her
thrilled to meet the tribe that killed her husband what would they do to her
what are they gonna do to her daughter Elizabeth felt the Lord calling her to
take this step of faith so she and her daughter packed up and then traveled into
the jungle with their guides and found the tribe the tribe warmly received
them they lived with the tribe for two and a half years translating the Bible
and preaching the gospel the men who killed her husband they remembered that
event it wasn't something that it was so distant for them they remembered it
they described it to Elizabeth they described the whole situation they heard
the gospel and they repented one of the men told Elizabeth I look forward to
dying so I can spend my days worshiping God and living at peace with the men I
killed
Elizabeth's love for her enemies made their salvation possible and and it was
her she showed up and she was able to explain some of the activities and
behaviors of the men to the tribe that they couldn't figure out since the time
they killed them so it wasn't just any missionary that showed up but her being
there brought more evidence to the love of Jesus think of what she had to go
through how could she process the grave how did she stay motivated seeking for
years to prepare herself to find and meet the people who killed her spouse
not to enact revenge but to share Christ Elizabeth could have gone to a
different tribe could have gone to a different country but that wouldn't have
allowed her to fulfill her calling to love her enemies as herself Elizabeth's
response and actions highlight something important that I really need you to
hear she chose to let go of her safety her security her sense of justice in an
effort to love the Haran tribe can you say that you are prepared to sacrifice
those things in your relationships are you ready to get rid of your security
your safety your justice our culture revolts at the idea that the offended
should be the offended party should just be forgiven but but but but they were
wrong they hurt me they abused me yeah Jesus agrees with you those things did
happen there are scars there is pain and he sees it and hates it more than you
ever do but he invites you to forego your security to forego your justice and
choose love toward them I'm not saying that there's no justice in enemy love
God is just and everyone will receive justice from the Lord and the wicked it
will be an eternal punishment but the point is you don't need vengeance right
now that's in the Lord's hands you don't need justice in your life because you
have Jesus Jesus should be your satisfaction that is how you can love
your enemies and when you love your enemies it will feel like they are
getting away with murder without any consequence and they may be for a time
but with the right motive with the right focus not on you and not on the person
but on the Father in heaven who is already loving that person you will be
able to keep choosing love and Jesus will be magnified if you want to make
your non-church friends angry tell them that you are struggling with an enemy
and that you are working to love them better you want to annoy people like
who just get get at them choose forgiveness in the face of repeated
offenses I'm not saying there's no recourse please please don't hear that
John John just preached a whole message last week about this topic of
retaliation and what needs to be done it's not about being a doormat it's
about creatively subverting their expectations so you can achieve a lot
so if you've got questions about that go and listen to that these things are
not not in tension with each other but your protection and safety are
important your mental health is important but when we are motivated by
glorifying the Lord and focused on loving individuals in imitation of Him the
sacrifice you make will have an effect and you can walk into the jungle with
your innocent daughter and expose yourself to mortal danger to share the
gospel with your greatest enemy
I'll land the plane here I read and studied looking for a way to bring this
text to life for you today I really want you to hear the words of Jesus and be
compelled to act on them I hope that eventually your motivations bring you to
this we need to strive to be like God so that he looks more and more glorious
and that you focus on your love on the individual that you seek very good that
you choose to love in the presence of suffering giving up from yourself so
many things because Christ did it already for you so that in all ways and at
all times you show that Christ is your treasure so whatever sacrifice or
discomfort is required that you would find yourself pursuing to become more
like Him and in the end you will become holy like he is holy and he may grant
you the opportunity to change somebody's life amen