WEBVTT 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:07.139 Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity 00:00:07.139 --> 00:00:09.599 Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:12.279 series, Summer on the Mount, where we are diving 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:15.859 deep into Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon 00:00:15.859 --> 00:00:19.239 on the Mount is a collection of Jesus' most challenging 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:23.000 teachings that teach us to turn the other cheek, 00:00:23.140 --> 00:00:26.920 to go the extra mile, and perhaps most challengingly, 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:31.460 to love our enemies. But is loving our enemies 00:00:31.460 --> 00:00:34.659 even possible? And does Jesus really have my 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:38.500 enemies in mind? These are just some of the questions 00:00:38.500 --> 00:00:40.520 that we're going to unpack as we think about 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:42.960 this really challenging command and how we can 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:51.200 live it out today. Today's reading is from the 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:55.399 Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 43 to 48. 00:00:57.340 --> 00:01:00.700 You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:05.209 and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your 00:01:05.209 --> 00:01:08.209 enemies and pray for those who persecute you 00:01:08.209 --> 00:01:11.530 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. 00:01:12.329 --> 00:01:15.989 He causes his Son to rise on the evil and the 00:01:15.989 --> 00:01:19.170 good and sends rain on the righteous and the 00:01:19.170 --> 00:01:23.629 unrighteous. If you love those who love you, 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:27.650 what reward will you get? Are not even tax collectors 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:31.670 doing that? And if you greet only your own people, 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:34.980 what are you doing more than others? Do not even 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:39.780 pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your 00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:43.560 heavenly Father is perfect. The word of the Lord. 00:01:45.709 --> 00:01:47.609 I want to share a little bit of a story. It was 00:01:47.609 --> 00:01:51.730 in March of 2020 that it was right when the pandemic 00:01:51.730 --> 00:01:55.109 was getting kind of scary. Our family decided 00:01:55.109 --> 00:01:58.790 to take a trip to Europe. It was kind of a dumb 00:01:58.790 --> 00:02:01.730 idea, but we had planned this for months and 00:02:01.730 --> 00:02:05.489 we had tickets that weren't refundable. So we 00:02:05.489 --> 00:02:07.329 said, what the heck, we're just going to go for 00:02:07.329 --> 00:02:10.669 it. And so began our European pandemic holiday. 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:14.370 And it was actually scary at points. There were 00:02:14.370 --> 00:02:16.909 moments. when we nearly got ourselves into trouble. 00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:20.750 But the good part about the trip was that there 00:02:20.750 --> 00:02:23.229 was, like, nobody else there. So all the hot 00:02:23.229 --> 00:02:26.909 tourist destinations were, like, empty, and we 00:02:26.909 --> 00:02:29.129 had a place to ourselves we felt over and over 00:02:29.129 --> 00:02:33.330 again. The highlight for me for that trip, though, 00:02:33.430 --> 00:02:36.389 was when we spent a few days in Switzerland, 00:02:36.569 --> 00:02:39.969 and we were at this town called Interlaken, and 00:02:39.969 --> 00:02:42.650 there is a big mountain there. And the mountain 00:02:42.650 --> 00:02:47.620 is called Jungfrau. And it's called, well, it's 00:02:47.620 --> 00:02:49.719 one of the highest mountains in Europe. It's 00:02:49.719 --> 00:02:53.520 called the top of Europe, this mountain. And 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:58.280 we decided to take the trip to the top of this 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:01.780 mountain. Now, to get to the top, you have to 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:03.719 take these special trains. They're not ordinary 00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:06.740 trains. They're called cogwheel trains. So they 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:08.819 have these like little clickety, clickety, clickety 00:03:08.819 --> 00:03:11.259 things that kind of help them go up the tracks 00:03:11.259 --> 00:03:14.699 because it's so steep, right? And I have to say 00:03:14.699 --> 00:03:16.719 that on most of these trains, we were like the 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:19.759 only people in the car, right? There was nobody 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:22.860 else. Very few people were taking this trip. 00:03:22.979 --> 00:03:25.219 And this little map here kind of shows you, you 00:03:25.219 --> 00:03:28.840 have to actually take four trains to get to the 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:32.259 top. So one, you can get off and do a little 00:03:32.259 --> 00:03:35.259 touring, get off and get back on until you get 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:38.599 right to that saddle right at the top of the 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:41.569 mountain. Now, we did get out at some of those 00:03:41.569 --> 00:03:44.030 other towns and look at some of the cheese shops 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:47.370 and visit around. But for me, the real goal was 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:51.139 to get to the top. was to get to the summit and 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:54.680 take that last train. The last train is called 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:58.960 the Jungfrau Railway. And it is the steepest 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:01.259 of all the trains. And you know it's that way 00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:02.900 because if you've ever ridden like a roller coaster 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:04.379 at Canada's Wonderland, you know when you're 00:04:04.379 --> 00:04:07.800 going up the hill, you hear that as you're getting 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:09.960 to the top of the hill. Well, imagine that for 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:13.219 like 30 or 40 minutes. It's just going up and 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:16.560 up and up and up until you get to this, what 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:21.519 looks like a moon base. on the top, and you could 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:24.779 tour the observation center when you were there, 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:28.980 and you could go outside, and we went outside, 00:04:29.100 --> 00:04:32.899 and we had our family photo taken by this Swiss 00:04:32.899 --> 00:04:37.800 flag. The air was like so, so thin, but the view 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:42.500 was absolutely amazing. And perhaps the sweetest 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:45.819 part of all is that at the top, there is this 00:04:45.819 --> 00:04:51.000 lint store, right? And it's full of lindors. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.220 Like, I've never seen so many lindors in my life. 00:04:53.259 --> 00:04:57.240 So we loaded up on the lindors, and we headed 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:01.399 back down four trains to civilization. Which 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:06.649 leads me to saying this statement. The summit 00:05:06.649 --> 00:05:10.269 is the hardest part of the journey, for sure. 00:05:10.589 --> 00:05:15.269 But it is also the sweetest part. It's the most 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:19.829 difficult part to climb, but the view, I mean, 00:05:19.829 --> 00:05:22.550 it gives you the absolute best view from the 00:05:22.550 --> 00:05:27.129 top. Today, we are in this teaching series called... 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:29.759 Summer on the Mount where we're looking at the 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.000 greatest teaching ever, Jesus' Sermon on the 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.379 Mount, by the greatest teacher ever, Jesus of 00:05:35.379 --> 00:05:38.240 Nazareth. And we're working our way up the mountain. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:40.680 And in some ways you could say we've already 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:44.439 taken three trains. We started three weeks ago, 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:47.500 Matthew 5, 1 to 12, the Beatitudes. That first 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:51.019 train got us started and showed us how to enter 00:05:51.019 --> 00:05:55.259 into the kingdom of God, how to enter into this 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:58.439 new way of life. That Jesus has for us. And then 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.279 the second train. That's when Pete Blundell was 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:03.920 here. He was speaking to us. No. Was I doing 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:05.540 the second week? Or did he do the second week? 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:10.000 He did. What happened? I'm confused. Anyways, 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:14.819 no, he did Matthew 5, 13 to 16. Yes, he did how 00:06:14.819 --> 00:06:17.339 we're supposed to be salty. And as followers 00:06:17.339 --> 00:06:20.339 of Jesus, we're supposed to add flavor and healing 00:06:20.339 --> 00:06:22.860 to our world. And then last week, yeah, last 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:26.439 week I talked to you about how this third train 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:28.680 that we take up is all about Jesus teaching on 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:31.079 adultery and divorce and, you know, oaths and 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:33.019 all this stuff, which wasn't just a bunch of 00:06:33.019 --> 00:06:34.980 new rules for us to follow. It was actually Jesus 00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:38.019 calling us to be a new kind of person. But anyways. 00:06:38.189 --> 00:06:41.310 That brings us to today. Guys, today is the fourth 00:06:41.310 --> 00:06:43.990 train. There's going to be more trains. We got 00:06:43.990 --> 00:06:46.029 to get around the mountain and back down. But 00:06:46.029 --> 00:06:51.689 today is the Jungfrau Railway. It is the summit. 00:06:51.730 --> 00:06:55.290 It is the steepest train. This one today is the 00:06:55.290 --> 00:06:58.569 one that takes us right to the top. It's the 00:06:58.569 --> 00:07:01.290 hardest part of the whole journey. I would say 00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:04.029 it's the hardest teaching you are ever going 00:07:04.029 --> 00:07:06.389 to come across. This is what I mean. Jesus says. 00:07:06.990 --> 00:07:21.449 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with 00:07:21.449 --> 00:07:24.529 them two miles. Jesus then goes on to say, he 00:07:24.529 --> 00:07:38.689 says, But Jesus says, your enemies. Now that 00:07:38.689 --> 00:07:41.230 is the hardest teaching you're ever going to 00:07:41.230 --> 00:07:44.129 come across. In fact, John Stott says that nowhere 00:07:44.129 --> 00:07:49.050 is the challenge of the sermon greater than in 00:07:49.050 --> 00:07:51.629 this command to love our enemies. This is the 00:07:51.629 --> 00:07:55.970 supreme demand. It is the summit of the sermon 00:07:55.970 --> 00:07:59.329 on the mountain. So today we're going to take 00:07:59.329 --> 00:08:01.610 the Jungfrau railway. We are going to take the 00:08:01.610 --> 00:08:04.230 fourth train and we are going to go right to 00:08:04.230 --> 00:08:07.860 the top. and see what we can learn about loving 00:08:07.860 --> 00:08:10.300 our enemies. I'm going to do this in kind of 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:13.399 three steps. First, we're going to consider the 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:15.560 climb. We're going to take a look at this imposing 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:17.699 mountain in front of us and see why this is so 00:08:17.699 --> 00:08:20.199 hard. Then we're going to get on board. We're 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:22.540 going to try to get on board with Jesus' teaching. 00:08:22.860 --> 00:08:26.079 And then thirdly, we're going to reach the summit 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:29.240 and we're going to see how sweet. And how beautiful 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:32.000 it is. Now, there are sermon notes here that 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:33.700 you can follow along. And actually, today we're 00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:35.740 introducing something new. If you have the Church 00:08:35.740 --> 00:08:39.620 Center app, you can access fillable online sermon 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:42.120 notes, especially for those who are viewing at 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:44.320 home. We'd encourage you to go to the app, click 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.080 on Other. You'll find sermon notes as an option 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:50.120 there, and you can follow along at home as well. 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:53.360 But let's begin. By considering the climb. I 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:55.340 remember when we were getting on that very first 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:57.480 train in Switzerland. You were waiting at the 00:08:57.480 --> 00:08:59.279 platform. You were just looking up at that mountain. 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:02.080 You were like, there is no way. There is no way 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.399 we are going to end up up there. It just seemed 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:08.100 impossible. Seemed insurmountable. That's what 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:11.740 loving our enemies feels like. It feels impossible. 00:09:12.299 --> 00:09:15.419 It feels impossible. It feels impossible in your 00:09:15.419 --> 00:09:18.059 personal relationships. When you hear Jesus say, 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.710 turn the other cheek. Or love your enemies. Maybe 00:09:21.710 --> 00:09:24.950 someone comes to mind, right? A friend who betrayed 00:09:24.950 --> 00:09:30.289 you. A colleague who used you. A family member 00:09:30.289 --> 00:09:33.169 who abandoned you and you say, no, no, Jesus, 00:09:33.330 --> 00:09:36.710 I will not be loving my enemies anytime soon. 00:09:36.830 --> 00:09:39.309 I'm quite happy hating my enemies. I want to 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:41.990 make my enemies pay for what they did to me. 00:09:42.009 --> 00:09:43.870 Do you know what they did to me, Jesus? And so 00:09:43.870 --> 00:09:47.830 we cling to that pain and we just say, I cannot 00:09:47.830 --> 00:09:50.669 climb that mountain. I cannot love that person. 00:09:50.710 --> 00:09:53.190 R .T. France says, loving our enemies cuts across 00:09:53.190 --> 00:09:56.169 all instinct. It is a standard which, humanly 00:09:56.169 --> 00:10:02.620 speaking, is... But step back from that and take 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:05.840 a look at the international conflict that goes 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:09.120 on around us. Geopolitical conflict. Gaza, Israel, 00:10:09.340 --> 00:10:12.519 Ukraine, Russia. Now it's Thailand and Cambodia, 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:16.720 right? These old tensions. New violence. I mean, 00:10:16.740 --> 00:10:19.679 how can we possibly get to this place where we 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:22.600 love our enemies when we can't? agree to get 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:26.039 aid in to innocent people, when we can't agree 00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:28.799 to release hostages, right? When we can't get 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:32.559 ceasefires to even hold, right? Instead of turning 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:35.340 cheeks, we turn to missiles. Instead of going 00:10:35.340 --> 00:10:38.779 the extra mile, we go in with extra drones, right? 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:43.639 Loving your enemy seems absurd. It seems impossible. 00:10:44.669 --> 00:10:47.669 Again, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died in a Nazi 00:10:47.669 --> 00:10:49.970 concentration camp in World War II, he struggled 00:10:49.970 --> 00:10:52.929 with enemy love. This commandment, he said, is 00:10:52.929 --> 00:10:56.269 the most difficult one of all. Yet, he said, 00:10:56.309 --> 00:11:00.049 it's the climax of discipleship. Who can get 00:11:00.049 --> 00:11:04.629 up there? Enemy love, yeah, it's been difficult 00:11:04.629 --> 00:11:07.149 out there in the world, but the saddest part 00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:10.210 is it's been difficult in here, right here in 00:11:10.210 --> 00:11:12.409 the church. That's the hardest truth, I think, 00:11:12.409 --> 00:11:16.159 to admit. Christians themselves have excluded 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:22.120 and persecuted. And yes, even killed other Christians. 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:27.820 In the 16th century, Anabaptist Christians decided 00:11:27.820 --> 00:11:29.500 they wanted to live out the Sermon on the Mount. 00:11:29.580 --> 00:11:32.919 They said, yes, let's love our enemies. And Catholics 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:35.120 and Protestants were so upset about that that 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:38.840 they responded by drowning and burning and beheading 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:42.970 them. Christians killing other Christians. Or 00:11:42.970 --> 00:11:46.129 how about this one? On August 9th in 1945, a 00:11:46.129 --> 00:11:50.649 B -29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. 00:11:51.690 --> 00:11:54.610 75 ,000 people died instantly. Another 75 ,000 00:11:54.610 --> 00:11:56.690 people died in the weeks that followed. But what 00:11:56.690 --> 00:11:59.129 most people don't realize is, you know, Japan 00:11:59.129 --> 00:12:01.149 was not a very Christian nation. But the most 00:12:01.149 --> 00:12:05.090 Christian city in all of Japan was Nagasaki. 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:10.179 And ground zero for that bomb was the Catholic 00:12:10.179 --> 00:12:13.279 cathedral filled with worshipers in Nagasaki. 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:16.600 And when the bomb exploded, it instantly wiped 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:20.000 out 10 ,000 Christians. It instantly wiped out 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:25.200 four orders of Catholic nuns. But the bomber 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:28.919 was a practicing Catholic. And the chaplain gave 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:33.279 communion to the bomber and the crew right before 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:37.460 their mission. Man, when Christians bomb other 00:12:37.460 --> 00:12:40.379 Christians, well, forget even the bombs. When 00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:42.460 we can't figure out how to live at peace with 00:12:42.460 --> 00:12:45.379 ourselves, even in churches, man, that summit 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:50.320 seems so out of reach. But Jesus' teaching doesn't 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:52.940 just sound impossible to us. It was even more 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:56.460 impossible in Jesus' day. Jesus, I want you to 00:12:56.460 --> 00:12:58.759 imagine for a moment, you're there, you're living 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:02.129 in Galilee. It's the first century. You're just 00:13:02.129 --> 00:13:04.350 trying to get by. Food, there's not much food. 00:13:04.370 --> 00:13:06.669 It's scarce. Taxes are sky high. The Romans take 00:13:06.669 --> 00:13:09.769 80 or 90 % of what you earn. There are soldiers 00:13:09.769 --> 00:13:12.490 patrolling the streets, patrolling the marketplaces, 00:13:12.509 --> 00:13:14.950 on every road. Your family's land, by the way, 00:13:15.009 --> 00:13:17.429 has been stolen, mostly, again, by the elites. 00:13:18.009 --> 00:13:21.549 And your people, they are humiliated and degraded. 00:13:21.549 --> 00:13:25.169 And they are abused. And your people are crucified. 00:13:25.870 --> 00:13:29.129 Literally, every few decades, a messiah would 00:13:29.129 --> 00:13:31.590 rise up and try to rally people, an army. They 00:13:31.590 --> 00:13:33.610 would go to war against the Romans. And they 00:13:33.610 --> 00:13:36.580 would be crushed. By the Romans. And you're sitting 00:13:36.580 --> 00:13:39.139 there 2 ,000 years ago. And you're remembering 00:13:39.139 --> 00:13:43.740 the last time Rome crucified 6 ,000 of your fellow 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:47.200 Jews along that road leading right into Jerusalem. 00:13:48.019 --> 00:13:50.919 And then, oh, you hear one day there's a new 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:53.019 teacher. Oh, some people are saying that maybe 00:13:53.019 --> 00:13:57.080 he's the Messiah. This guy, Jesus of Nazareth. 00:13:57.279 --> 00:13:59.820 And you show up. There's thousands of people 00:13:59.820 --> 00:14:02.139 there. He's up. He's preaching on some mountaintop. 00:14:02.220 --> 00:14:06.049 And he's teaching. And you listen in and you 00:14:06.049 --> 00:14:12.169 hear him say, love your enemies. And you are 00:14:12.169 --> 00:14:17.370 like flabbergasted and so confused. John Stott 00:14:17.370 --> 00:14:21.269 says, in the context of a people under brutal 00:14:21.269 --> 00:14:25.889 Roman occupation, to love one's enemies was a 00:14:25.889 --> 00:14:30.169 demand that must have sounded ludicrous, if not 00:14:30.169 --> 00:14:35.500 traitorous. What this guy was asking, was a path 00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:39.720 that they could not walk. It was a mountain that 00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:43.899 they could not climb. So there you have these 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:47.559 four really... Difficult problems when it comes 00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:49.159 to enemy love. I should say that actually some 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:51.000 of us think, oh, Jesus actually wasn't talking 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.320 about all these, Rob. He was only talking about 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:55.679 love in the church, not in the world. Or he was 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:57.539 only talking about 2 ,000 years ago. He wasn't 00:14:57.539 --> 00:14:59.519 talking about today. Or he was only talking about 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:02.179 personal relationships and not loving our enemies 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:04.840 in a geopolitical sense. And so what we do is 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:07.940 we try to avoid the steep climb that Jesus offers 00:15:07.940 --> 00:15:11.580 us by trying to reduce Jesus' teaching into a 00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:14.980 category that we feel comfortable with. But I 00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:16.820 don't think Jesus... lets us off the hook and 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:22.519 in verse 43 jesus says you have heard hate your 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:25.720 enemy now that's singular but then jesus replies 00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:31.519 but i say to you love your enemies plural not 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:34.960 just one all of them not just one type all of 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:39.899 them all of them enemy love is the whole enchilada 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:44.009 it stretches from that person who hurt you to 00:15:44.009 --> 00:15:47.789 the politician who enrages you, to the foreign 00:15:47.789 --> 00:15:51.769 nation that you've been taught to fear, even 00:15:51.769 --> 00:15:55.750 to your fellow Christians that you disagree with. 00:15:56.350 --> 00:15:58.309 Which again, I know I keep throwing a lot of 00:15:58.309 --> 00:16:01.590 quotes up here, but Jesus' command to love enemies 00:16:01.590 --> 00:16:05.909 has been recognized from the very beginning as 00:16:05.909 --> 00:16:08.250 one of the most radical and unrealistic demands 00:16:08.250 --> 00:16:13.470 of his teaching. That's why the trains. going 00:16:13.470 --> 00:16:21.590 to the top, are empty. Now, before we walk away 00:16:21.590 --> 00:16:25.690 from the platform, let's just listen in a little 00:16:25.690 --> 00:16:28.889 bit, right? Let's listen in to what Jesus is 00:16:28.889 --> 00:16:31.029 actually saying, line by line, a few of these 00:16:31.029 --> 00:16:35.929 verses. And we may yet be able to get on board 00:16:35.929 --> 00:16:38.750 with Jesus' teaching. We may be able to begin 00:16:38.750 --> 00:16:42.460 to ascend this mountain after all. Now, I've 00:16:42.460 --> 00:16:44.039 tried to kind of summarize what I think Jesus' 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:46.159 main argument is here. It's a paragraph. It's 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:48.259 got about five sentences. Let's look at what 00:16:48.259 --> 00:16:51.279 he says. First sentence, Jesus says this. Jesus 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:54.519 points out, the Bible never says hate your enemy, 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.039 right? When Jesus says, you have heard it said, 00:16:57.220 --> 00:16:58.820 you are to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 00:17:00.809 --> 00:17:03.190 One of those is biblical and the other is not. 00:17:03.250 --> 00:17:05.069 Love your neighbor, of course. Everyone who's 00:17:05.069 --> 00:17:06.990 hearing them would have said, yeah, that's biblical. 00:17:07.269 --> 00:17:10.349 But hate your enemy. That is nowhere to be found 00:17:10.349 --> 00:17:12.130 in the Bible. You can search your Bibles from 00:17:12.130 --> 00:17:13.970 beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation. 00:17:14.250 --> 00:17:16.150 You will not. Or Genesis to Malachi. You will 00:17:16.150 --> 00:17:19.470 not find it. It's not there. Now, a leading theory 00:17:19.470 --> 00:17:21.670 is that this had just become some kind of phrase. 00:17:21.849 --> 00:17:24.069 It had entered into, you know, first century 00:17:24.069 --> 00:17:26.490 chit -chat. You know what they say. You should, 00:17:26.609 --> 00:17:28.430 you know, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 00:17:28.730 --> 00:17:31.109 And I think we can relate. to that a bit too 00:17:31.109 --> 00:17:34.549 because in some ways that's in our own kind of 00:17:34.549 --> 00:17:37.529 language too. If somebody wrongs you, you've 00:17:37.529 --> 00:17:39.349 got permission to retaliate against them. You've 00:17:39.349 --> 00:17:41.250 got permission to hate them. You've got permission 00:17:41.250 --> 00:17:44.230 to cancel them. But the first thing Jesus says 00:17:44.230 --> 00:17:49.869 is error, error. He is exposing this falsehood. 00:17:49.890 --> 00:17:55.750 It is not biblical to hate your enemy. And then 00:17:55.750 --> 00:17:58.529 in the same breath, Jesus reminds us what is 00:17:58.529 --> 00:18:01.869 the biblical part? He says, right, the Bible 00:18:01.869 --> 00:18:04.150 never says hate your enemy. But he says it does 00:18:04.150 --> 00:18:06.450 say love your neighbor. And most of his Jewish 00:18:06.450 --> 00:18:09.930 listeners would say 100 % Jesus. That's in the 00:18:09.930 --> 00:18:13.630 Bible. Leviticus 19 .18 says you shall love your 00:18:13.630 --> 00:18:15.650 neighbor as yourself. This was one of Jesus' 00:18:15.869 --> 00:18:18.690 favorite teachings in all his ministry. In fact, 00:18:18.730 --> 00:18:20.630 you remember many times Jesus would go around 00:18:20.630 --> 00:18:23.269 and he would say, these are the two great commandments. 00:18:23.410 --> 00:18:25.829 You're to love the Lord your God with what? All 00:18:25.829 --> 00:18:30.089 your heart and mind and soul and strength. And 00:18:30.089 --> 00:18:31.809 that's the first commandment. And the second 00:18:31.809 --> 00:18:34.940 commandment is like, you are to love your neighbor 00:18:34.940 --> 00:18:37.619 as yourself. Jesus quoting from the Bible, from 00:18:37.619 --> 00:18:42.160 Leviticus 19, 18. So Jesus' argument, I think 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:45.319 so far, everyone would probably agree, yes, it's 00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:47.000 true, Jesus. The Bible doesn't actually say we 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.420 should hate our enemies. And the Bible does say 00:18:50.420 --> 00:18:52.279 that we should love our neighbors. But here's 00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:54.420 the problem. Here's the problem. In Jesus' day, 00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:59.319 neighbor was very narrowly defined. And it was 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:01.680 really just interpreted as your fellow Jewish 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.880 brother or sister. A neighbor was someone in 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.299 your tribe, in your group. Someone who thought 00:19:07.299 --> 00:19:09.420 like you, who looked like you. Someone who lived 00:19:09.420 --> 00:19:14.099 near you. But, and this is where the train is 00:19:14.099 --> 00:19:15.960 going to start to go clickety -clickety -click 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:18.960 because it's getting really steep. Jesus is going 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:24.140 to expand the definition of neighbor. For Jesus, 00:19:24.359 --> 00:19:29.579 neighbors include neighbors. enemies. He says, 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:34.559 listen, your neighbors are not just the insiders, 00:19:34.599 --> 00:19:37.440 they're the outsiders too. They aren't just people 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:40.539 like you, people very different from you. They 00:19:40.539 --> 00:19:42.059 might not just be people that you like, it might 00:19:42.059 --> 00:19:45.339 be people that you don't like. And neighbors 00:19:45.339 --> 00:19:48.960 actually are not just your friends, but your 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:53.359 neighbors include your enemies. Wait, wait, wait, 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:58.720 Jesus, Jesus. So I am supposed to love my neighbors. 00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:04.619 Yes, Jesus says. But you're saying my enemies 00:20:04.619 --> 00:20:10.539 are my neighbors. Yes, Jesus says. So ergo, you 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:15.519 are saying I have to love my enemies too? Boom, 00:20:15.740 --> 00:20:19.589 you got it, Jesus says. And do you remember that 00:20:19.589 --> 00:20:23.369 really infuriating parable Jesus told once? Where 00:20:23.369 --> 00:20:25.789 it was called the Good Samaritan. Where he makes 00:20:25.789 --> 00:20:29.109 this bad guy the hero. Where he makes the enemy 00:20:29.109 --> 00:20:32.369 into the neighbor. And Jesus says, look, you 00:20:32.369 --> 00:20:35.630 guys want to follow the law of Moses properly? 00:20:35.730 --> 00:20:37.809 You want to truly live out what the Bible means 00:20:37.809 --> 00:20:39.829 when it says love your neighbor? Don't you? Yes, 00:20:39.829 --> 00:20:42.009 Jesus, we do. We do. Well, I'm just telling you 00:20:42.009 --> 00:20:45.410 that by definition, by my definition, your neighbors 00:20:45.410 --> 00:20:50.400 include... Outsiders, adversaries, and even your 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:55.720 enemies. That is a major reinterpretation that 00:20:55.720 --> 00:20:58.299 Jesus adds to this. But he's not done there. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:01.819 Jesus doesn't just talk about any kind of love 00:21:01.819 --> 00:21:04.539 with which we are supposed to love our neighbors. 00:21:04.900 --> 00:21:07.900 He speaks about a specific kind of love, which 00:21:07.900 --> 00:21:13.660 in Greek is agape love. Agape love, it's not 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:16.460 just feelings. It's certainly not romantic love. 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:19.680 It's not even friendship love. It's not even 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:26.259 family love. It is a rugged love. It is a sacrificial, 00:21:26.339 --> 00:21:32.039 stubborn love. It is a cogwheel train kind of 00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:36.279 love that refuses to give up. Click, click, click. 00:21:36.759 --> 00:21:39.500 Click, keeps going forward. It doesn't mean you 00:21:39.500 --> 00:21:41.700 feel affection for this person. It just means 00:21:41.700 --> 00:21:43.880 that you are going to continue, click, click, 00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:49.319 click, to will that person's good, even when 00:21:49.319 --> 00:21:52.660 it hurts. Now again, just to be clear, agape 00:21:52.660 --> 00:21:55.640 love does not mean approving of evil. It doesn't 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:58.420 mean tolerating abuse. It doesn't mean denying 00:21:58.420 --> 00:22:01.400 justice or it doesn't mean staying in a dangerous 00:22:01.400 --> 00:22:04.079 situation. To love someone this way does not 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:06.519 mean you let them hurt you over and over and 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:08.700 over and over again. Agape love actually might 00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:11.400 involve boundaries. It might involve tough conversations. 00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:14.539 It might involve confrontations of sorts. But 00:22:14.539 --> 00:22:18.559 always without hatred. And always without revenge. 00:22:18.980 --> 00:22:23.130 And I would say always without violence. always 00:22:23.130 --> 00:22:25.789 instead with a desire, even if it's just a silent 00:22:25.789 --> 00:22:29.470 prayer under your breath for their good and for 00:22:29.470 --> 00:22:32.670 their redemption. And that brings us to the final 00:22:32.670 --> 00:22:34.869 part of Jesus' argument. This is the icing on 00:22:34.869 --> 00:22:37.529 the cake. The Bible never says hate your enemy. 00:22:37.829 --> 00:22:40.690 It says love your neighbor. And really, neighbors 00:22:40.690 --> 00:22:43.029 include our enemies, and we're called to love 00:22:43.029 --> 00:22:46.009 those neighbors with this agape love. Why? Because 00:22:46.009 --> 00:22:50.410 that's how God loves them. God loves them just 00:22:50.410 --> 00:22:53.420 like that. We love our enemies because God loves 00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:58.740 our enemies. In verse 45, Jesus says, God causes 00:22:58.740 --> 00:23:02.220 his son to rise on the evil and the good. He 00:23:02.220 --> 00:23:05.559 sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:08.480 In other words, if God doesn't withhold goodness 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:12.559 from bad people, why should you? And if God doesn't 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:15.559 discriminate, how can we? We're supposed to be 00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:18.809 children. of our Father in heaven. We're supposed 00:23:18.809 --> 00:23:21.269 to reflect his character. And if that's so, then 00:23:21.269 --> 00:23:24.849 we will show the same love to our enemies as 00:23:24.849 --> 00:23:30.390 God does. Do you see how every part... of Jesus' 00:23:30.609 --> 00:23:33.910 argument draws us higher and higher and higher 00:23:33.910 --> 00:23:36.750 toward the summit. The Bible doesn't say, hate 00:23:36.750 --> 00:23:38.750 your enemies. Oh, it says, love your neighbors. 00:23:38.849 --> 00:23:41.269 Right. And neighbors include enemies. Really? 00:23:41.390 --> 00:23:44.410 And the love we're supposed to show is agape 00:23:44.410 --> 00:23:48.950 love. Wow. And see how God loves all of us, including 00:23:48.950 --> 00:23:53.750 your enemies? True. True. Now, if we can track 00:23:53.750 --> 00:23:58.150 with Jesus up that mountainside, then I want 00:23:58.150 --> 00:24:01.579 to say, Take a deep breath and look around you. 00:24:02.019 --> 00:24:04.619 Because you're not standing at the base anymore. 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:07.880 You are near the top. And the air is a lot thinner 00:24:07.880 --> 00:24:11.400 up here. And it is a lot riskier up here. But 00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:15.160 the view is way more beautiful. And if you want 00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:17.740 to see what it looks like to live life on the 00:24:17.740 --> 00:24:20.700 summit, then Jesus tells us, and he actually 00:24:20.700 --> 00:24:23.319 shows us, I want to just end by giving you four 00:24:23.319 --> 00:24:25.779 ways that you can put this kind of teaching into 00:24:25.779 --> 00:24:28.339 practice in your own life. in your own prayer 00:24:28.339 --> 00:24:34.539 life. First, apply enemy love to your relationships. 00:24:35.660 --> 00:24:38.779 Sometimes it's so much easier to talk about global 00:24:38.779 --> 00:24:41.599 conflicts and geopolitics when we're talking 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.420 about enemy love and war and activism. But Jesus 00:24:45.420 --> 00:24:48.059 doesn't let us off that easy. We've got to start 00:24:48.059 --> 00:24:51.980 with our enemies closer to home. That estranged 00:24:51.980 --> 00:24:55.880 sibling of yours who refused to apologize. That 00:24:55.880 --> 00:25:01.319 church member who wounded you, that ex of yours 00:25:01.319 --> 00:25:05.519 who still makes life difficult, the person in 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:11.039 your small group who talks too much. Thinking 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:15.680 too big about this can actually be a subtle form 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:19.440 of avoidance. John Mark Comer, he says, you can 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:21.839 advocate for world peace all day long, but if 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:23.500 you're still harboring bitterness toward your 00:25:23.500 --> 00:25:28.170 mom or your sister or your friend, or your workmates, 00:25:28.410 --> 00:25:32.809 you haven't yet learned love. Jesus always wants 00:25:32.809 --> 00:25:35.470 to draw us into the personal before the political. 00:25:35.869 --> 00:25:38.430 We start where we are. And if we can't practice 00:25:38.430 --> 00:25:41.089 enemy love with the people in our own lives, 00:25:41.190 --> 00:25:43.049 we will never be able to embody it in the wider 00:25:43.049 --> 00:25:46.730 world. So, question, who's your enemy? Could 00:25:46.730 --> 00:25:48.869 the next step maybe be just to pray for them? 00:25:49.509 --> 00:25:52.809 To bless them somehow? Maybe it's to set a healthy 00:25:52.809 --> 00:25:55.910 boundary with them, but also to wish them well 00:25:55.910 --> 00:26:00.130 somehow. That's one step. Another step I would 00:26:00.130 --> 00:26:05.269 like to suggest to you is that we should begin 00:26:05.269 --> 00:26:08.690 to practice and promote what is known as creative 00:26:08.690 --> 00:26:11.650 nonviolence. Now, nonviolence isn't weakness. 00:26:11.950 --> 00:26:14.250 It's actually a spiritual form of power. It's 00:26:14.250 --> 00:26:17.150 what theologians call a third way. It's not violent 00:26:17.150 --> 00:26:21.130 retaliation. And it's not cowardly retreat. But 00:26:21.130 --> 00:26:25.910 it's a bold, loving confrontation with someone. 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:30.339 that doesn't involve hate, right? Jesus wasn't 00:26:30.339 --> 00:26:33.099 saying we all ought to be doormats. He was actually 00:26:33.099 --> 00:26:36.259 showing us this new way to be strong. That's 00:26:36.259 --> 00:26:37.920 why when Jesus says, when someone strikes you 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:40.940 on one cheek, you go and you turn the other cheek 00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:43.079 to them, not so that they can just beat you to 00:26:43.079 --> 00:26:46.480 a pulp, but by doing that, you actually disrupt 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:50.559 the whole cycle of retaliation. You force them 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:54.940 to confront their own violence. That is creative. 00:26:55.850 --> 00:27:00.630 non -violence. Walter Wink said, Jesus' teaching 00:27:00.630 --> 00:27:03.569 on non -violence is not non -resistance. It's 00:27:03.569 --> 00:27:07.130 actually active non -violent resistance to evil. 00:27:07.210 --> 00:27:09.089 Jesus isn't telling us to submit to evil, but 00:27:09.089 --> 00:27:14.569 to outwit evil through creative resistance. Now, 00:27:14.609 --> 00:27:17.289 I know there's so many questions with this. What 00:27:17.289 --> 00:27:20.809 about Hitler, right? What about abuse? What about 00:27:20.809 --> 00:27:23.710 self -defense? There are definitely hard questions. 00:27:26.219 --> 00:27:28.279 But, hypothetically speaking, let's say Jesus 00:27:28.279 --> 00:27:32.220 did want us to be people of nonviolence. What 00:27:32.220 --> 00:27:35.799 more could he have said to tell us that? He says, 00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:37.680 love your enemies. He says, turn the other cheek. 00:27:37.900 --> 00:27:40.420 He says, go the second mile. He says, don't return 00:27:40.420 --> 00:27:44.000 evil for evil. It's a difficult teaching, but 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.200 I don't think it's unclear. Jesus seems pretty 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:50.720 clear about it, and he gets really clear, not 00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:53.180 just through his teaching, but by what he says. 00:27:54.819 --> 00:27:56.880 This Sermon on the Mount, it's not theoretical. 00:27:57.099 --> 00:28:01.539 It is autobiographical for Jesus. This is what 00:28:01.539 --> 00:28:03.980 Jesus did. He didn't just talk about enemy love. 00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:08.039 He embodied it. He healed the servant of the 00:28:08.039 --> 00:28:12.380 Roman centurion. He ate dinner with Judas even 00:28:12.380 --> 00:28:14.279 when he knew he was going to betray him. He called 00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:18.299 him a friend. And he prayed for the people who 00:28:18.299 --> 00:28:20.619 were nailing him to the cross, saying, Father, 00:28:20.779 --> 00:28:26.369 forgive them. While we were still enemies, Paul 00:28:26.369 --> 00:28:29.390 says, Christ died for us. Yes, Jesus practiced 00:28:29.390 --> 00:28:32.250 what he preached. He went all the way to the 00:28:32.250 --> 00:28:37.329 cross loving his enemies. And in so doing, Jesus 00:28:37.329 --> 00:28:42.210 shows us not how to use the sword, but how to 00:28:42.210 --> 00:28:45.809 refuse the sword. And Jesus shows us not how 00:28:45.809 --> 00:28:49.809 to fight well, but actually how to die well. 00:28:50.950 --> 00:28:55.410 And how do we do that? Jesus died with love in 00:28:55.410 --> 00:28:57.369 his heart, prayer on his lips, and forgiveness 00:28:57.369 --> 00:29:01.369 in his eyes. This is the summit of divine love. 00:29:02.890 --> 00:29:04.589 To summit this mountain, you're gonna have to 00:29:04.589 --> 00:29:06.970 follow in the footsteps of Jesus and ride that 00:29:06.970 --> 00:29:09.890 train all the way to the top. And if we do, let's 00:29:09.890 --> 00:29:13.289 just end with this. Man, what a view that would 00:29:13.289 --> 00:29:18.349 be. Imagine what the world would look like if 00:29:18.349 --> 00:29:22.269 all, even just Christians, practiced. Enemy love. 00:29:22.390 --> 00:29:26.769 If agape love really took hold within the church, 00:29:27.029 --> 00:29:30.809 right? And there was no more bloodshed. And imagine 00:29:30.809 --> 00:29:33.369 a world with no more drones or no more hate speech 00:29:33.369 --> 00:29:36.109 or no more revenge. I told you before, the summit 00:29:36.109 --> 00:29:39.250 is the hardest part of the journey, but it is 00:29:39.250 --> 00:29:42.789 the sweetest part, the part with the best view. 00:29:45.109 --> 00:29:49.250 Enemy love is the beating heart of the kingdom. 00:29:50.190 --> 00:29:53.470 It's what makes us different. It's the revolution 00:29:53.470 --> 00:29:57.190 Jesus launched one act of forgiveness at a time. 00:29:58.309 --> 00:30:01.529 The Bible promises that one day we will all reach 00:30:01.529 --> 00:30:04.309 the summit of that mountain. One day all our 00:30:04.309 --> 00:30:06.410 enemies will be neighbors and all our neighbors 00:30:06.410 --> 00:30:12.109 will be friends. That's the view. Until then, 00:30:12.210 --> 00:30:16.470 let's get on board and let's take this journey 00:30:16.470 --> 00:30:21.539 together. Thanks be to God. Amen.