As has been mentioned, we have several of our members that are
missing today for whatever reason.
But we have a wonderful crowd because you're here and we
welcome you and we thank you for being here.
And it is my privilege, it is my pleasure to be able to speak
concerning the word of God today with you.
I hope that what we have to consider for a little while
would be edifying and encouraging to you as we
continue to learn at the feet of the master.
And that's Jesus as he preached that masterful sermon so long
ago. His masterpiece, The Sermon on
the Mount, Matthew 5-6 and seven, we've now in our sermon
in our series, have now come to the latter part of Matthew,
Chapter 7. We're on the last section, and
you remember in the last two sections I mentioned this last
time, the last two sections of Matthew, Chapter 5.
Jesus deals with our reaction and our behavior toward our
enemies. In the passages prior to these,
Jesus dealt with our reaction or he dealt with certain restraints
when it comes to our enemies. And he did so as we entitled our
remarks, as Jesus did when he talked about second mile
religion or going the second mile.
Now, in these passages that we're going to notice this
morning, Jesus is going to talk about in our position toward our
enemies, our actions, and he calls it loving.
Our enemies and we're. Going to talk about what that
actually means, What does it mean to actually love your
enemies? And there's so much here that
Jesus dealt with and we'll get into that in just a moment.
But let me just say before we begin and before we go any
further, when you put the last two sections of Matthew Chapter
5, you put them together and you can bind them.
As I said before, you have a perfect code of conduct.
I'm going to tell you something. Everybody struggles sometimes
with conduct or how we behave or how we respond.
But if you put the last two sections of Matthew Chapter 5
together, regardless of opposition, regardless of what
people would say to you by way of hostility or even your
enemies, you have a perfect code of conduct and it has tremendous
blessings and benefits. And we'll get into that.
Let's begin with our sermon Now, Matthew 5, beginning in verse
43, Jesus said you have heard that it was said you shall love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse
you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who
spitefully use you and persecute you.
This, in this passage, is the 6th and final contrast that
Jesus makes between the old law of Moses and the new law of
Jesus Christ. And in each of the others you
will find in the previous ones, Jesus either quoted or summed up
the old law. And then he gave new
authoritative law. In other words, he gave Mosaic
legislation, and then he gave new authoritative law.
He's giving things that would supersede it.
And that really is the point that I want to make here.
Jesus was not destroying the old law of Moses when he said that
he was saying You have heard that.
It was said this like you said, as it was commanded, you shall
not commit murder. But Jesus says, if you're angry
with your brother without a 'cause, you've committed murder
in your heart. In other words, he was giving
something. He was giving a principle that
was universal, that would supersede what the old law had
stipulated or stated. He wasn't destroying the old
law, he said. Also, you have heard that it was
said you shall not commit adultery.
But then Jesus says, but I say to you that whoever looks upon a
woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in
his heart. In other words, a principle that
supersedes what was told in the Old Testament.
OK, the same is true with our passage too.
He begins by saying this. You shall love your neighbour.
Couple things about neighbour Cohen taught on Love last Sunday
afternoon and he mentioned about a neighbor and he was right
about a neighbor. He said a neighbor is defined as
someone who lives next to you or nearby.
That's true. But then he says Jesus is going
to expand on that and we'll get to that in just a moment.
He was right about that too. But there's so much more.
Did you know this that God has always commanded that his people
would love their neighbor? It was nothing new.
It goes all the way back to the Old Testament.
They were to love their neighbor.
In fact, do you remember in Luke chapter 10, before Jesus gave
the masterful parable of the Good Samaritan that I mentioned
to you last time? The lawyer comes to Jesus in the
Bible, says that that lawyer comes, and he tries to test
Jesus and he says, tell me what must I do to inherit eternal
life? And Jesus turns it right back on
him. And Jesus says, all right, what
does the law say? And how do you read it?
He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.
And Jesus says you have said right.
Do likewise, he says, go and do, and you will live, in fact.
But then the man says, well, who's my neighbor?
And how many times have I said this?
I've even said, well, obviously the man didn't want to love his
neighbor, so he wanted Jesus to draw the parameters.
And that's true. But there's more.
Under the old law of Moses, there were parameters that were
drawn about who your neighbor actually was.
So when Jesus was speaking to that lawyer, he wants to know,
wait a minute, I understand history here.
So who really is my neighbor? And then he gave the masterful
parable of the Good Samaritan. So here's the question.
What was the concept of a neighbor in the context of Old
Testament scriptures? The only way we can answer that
is go to Old Testament scriptures.
Let's go to the book of Leviticus, chapter 19 and verse
18. You shall not take vengeance nor
bear any grudge against the children of your people.
Then it says immediately following.
But you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the Lord. So what's the point?
The point is the children of Israel under the law of Moses
had parameters drawn on who was their neighbor?
Who was that those of like nationality.
That was their neighbor. So when Jesus says you heard
that it was said you shall love your neighbor.
He's talking about this. You shall love those of your own
nation. You heard that was said of old.
Now in other words, your fellow Israelites.
Here's the point. As Cohen mentioned, as the scope
of the gospel goes out to the world in the Kingdom of Christ,
then therefore the Kingdom is now spread to the world.
It's not a nation. So somebody that's considered a
a neighbor becomes anyone that you come in contact with any
fellow man because the gospel goes out to the world.
Jesus is saying something's different.
Now I'm taking away the parameters of who your neighbor
is. I'm taking that away.
But then Jesus says this, and this is interesting because he
says, you heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor,
but then he says and hate your enemy.
Was there really a time when God wanted or Moses declared that
man would hate their enemies? The answer to that is yes, but
enemies in this context has to refer to what he's already
speaking about. He's talking about national
enemies because he's talking about who you love.
Your neighbor is your your those of your own country.
Now interesting, The Bible does not encourage prejudice, even in
the Old Testament. In fact, if somebody was coming
from another country, an individual, they were to be
treated with kindness. Notice Leviticus Chapter 9
beginning in verse 33. And if a stranger dwells with
you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.
The stranger who dwells among you, you shall be to you as one
born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.
For you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God. OK, so under Mosaic law, Israel
was commanded to hate their national enemies.
That attitude, by the way, brought about battles and
bloodshed. In fact, in Deuteronomy Chapter
7, the 1st 16 verses commanded the destruction of foreigners,
including the Ammonites and the Moabites.
Who were they? Just really briefly, the
Ammonites were the descendants of Ammon, the Moabites were the
descendants of Moab, and those two individuals were the sons of
Lot. From the incestuous relationship
with his daughters, those descendants were the Ammonites
and the Moabites and they were, and it was decreed for their
destruction. There were some exceptions
though, like the Egyptians. I'm going to give you two.
Number one is the Egyptians And why was that?
Because there was a time when God's people actually dwelt in
their land. You remember under Egyptian
bondage, the children of Israel were for over 400 years.
So they were off limits with that destruction.
There was another one, the Edomites.
The Edomites because they were related to the Israelites.
The Edomites were the descendants of Esau.
Esau was the brother of Jacob. Jacob bore had begat 12 sons.
Those 12 sons represented the 12 tribes of Israel.
So because of that relationship they were off limits.
However, Israel was to hate other nations and why was that?
They were to hate that because of the rationale behind the
command is because of the influence that idolatry had and
also mingling with the heathen and the terrible influence that
that had. Exodus chapter 34 Beginning in
verse 12, take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with
the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be
a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their
altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their
wooden images, for you shall worship no other God, For the
Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God.
So that's what the Jewish people would have known and understood.
And Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience in this
masterful sermon. But guess what happens in verse
44? He's coming with new
authoritative law, and this is what he says.
But I say to you, I know that you come from the idea of loving
your neighbor and hating your enemy.
But Jesus says, but I say to you, love your enemies.
I'm going to tell you what, that is really hard.
It is really hard to love your enemy.
This is in stark contrast to what they were all about under
the under the law of Moses and how they felt about their
enemies. But the Kingdom of Jesus Christ
is a Kingdom of peace. That's what it's about.
It's a Kingdom of peace. In fact, we don't repay evil for
evil. We don't overcome evil with
evil. And that's difficult.
You know why? Because what we want to do is we
want revenge sometimes, and we want to take it back.
We want to get ours. We want to repay what was has
come to us. And that's just our nature.
Sometimes we want to fight back. That's kind of what we do,
right? What's the Bible say about that?
And I got to tell you something. I want to tell you something.
I'm going to slip this in. I am learning more now.
Let me back up. I am being reminded more about
what it's really like to be a Christian in the study of
Matthew, Chapter 5 so far than any time in my life.
It is a tremendous reminder. You know why?
Because it takes away the human side, the human element.
It takes away our impulses and says no, wait a minute, the Lord
is saying no, wait a minute, I'm telling you this, you're going
to love your enemies. He's going to get specific on
how you do that too. But that's the point.
Look at Romans chapter 12. What Paul said.
Beloved, do not avenge yourself, but rather give place to wrath.
Do you know what it means to give place to wrath?
It means you give it to the one who will take vengeance.
And that's God. You give it to God, you take it
away from yourself. You give place to wrath, for it
is written. Vengeance is mine.
I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is
hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a
drink, for in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
And I got to tell you, I'm going to get back to coals of fire on
their head. And I have changed my position
on what that means after studying this.
Going to get back to that in just a minute though, What does
it mean for coals of fire on their head when you do something
good? Back to that in just a moment.
Obviously the words of Jesus sting the Jewish people because
they were living among their enemy, who was their national
enemy at the time. Obviously their national enemy
was wrong. They were living under the
oppressive thumb of of Roman domination and all they wanted
was please release it, relieve it from us, and remove it.
Even misunderstood, when Jesus would come to establish His
Kingdom, they thought it was going to be an earthly Kingdom
and going to finally get Rome off their back.
But here's my point. The Lord's words are
unmistakable. His followers have to love their
enemies. Whether those enemies are
personal, national, I'm going to say it political or even social.
And that's agape love, not filet O love, Not a love of feeling,
not the warm fuzzies. Because there's some people, as
you heard me say a million times, there's some people that
you love because you really feel that way.
And then there's other people that you love because God said
you had to. That's just the truth.
I'm not talking about feelings and fuzzies.
I'm talking about behaviour and action and words.
That's agape love. Even if someone oh, you mean I
got to talk nice to people that disagree with me politically?
I'm going to tell you something. You want to get people fired up.
You want to get 2 pretty tame, mild people fired up.
Just get two people together that disagree politically and
put them together in the same room and let them go at it.
And sometimes the ugliness that comes and how people take it
personally, because their political stand is different
than the political stand of someone else.
And I'm going to tell you something else, you know, where
it's really bad on social media. And you know me.
I'm not on social media. I don't.
I don't Facebook or Instagram or hashtag or whatever Tweet.
I don't. I don't do any of that.
I don't even know how, but I have seen stuff posted on
Facebook. They're absolutely absurd, The
hateful things back and forth because somebody disagrees with
your political stand. And may I just add something
else to If you're a Christian, be careful what you like on
Facebook. Make sure you read the whole
thing. You may agree with the
principle, but read the whole thing.
Read the fine print before you give her a like, because I'm
going to tell you something. Sometimes there's some trash on
there and you're giving her a like, don't do that.
Make sure you read the whole thing.
What does it mean to love those that are even our political
enemies? It is agape love.
It's the love that seeks the highest interest in others.
That's what that means. If you want to know about love,
and I want you to do this in your own time, don't do it
today. Don't do it now because I want
your attention. But later on at some point read
First Corinthians chapter 13. If you want to know about what
love is, that is agape love. It is a love that always behaves
itself in a proper way. It is the love also that's
always attributed to God in the most famous passage in all the
Bible that everybody knows is John 316.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
everlasting life. You know, the word so there has
does not mean an amount like I might say to somebody I love you
so much, meaning an amount. That's not what that means.
The word so in that passage means as demonstrated by what's
coming. In other words, God loved the
world in such a way that he demonstrated it with what he
did. He sent Jesus.
How do you describe the love of God?
He sent Jesus. That's agape love.
That's a love of sacrifice. It's not a feeling.
It is a love, by the way, too. That manifests itself in three
very radical ways. Here they are in blessing, in
doing good and in pray. First of all, what about
blessing? What does it mean to bless those
who curse you? So first he says this, you're
going to love your enemies. How you going to do that to got
a love? First thing you're going to do
is you're going to bless those that curse you.
What's that mean? Blessing somebody that curses
you means you return good words for evil words.
And that's hard by the way. Nobody's got it figured out.
Everybody misbehaves from time to time and sometimes we make
the wrong choice and say the wrong thing.
How many times have you said something and thought, man, I
wish I could reel her back in, but it's too late.
Me a lot. Because you know what?
In my life I've been one of those fast responding people.
I quickly respond that's wrong. Bible says don't do that.
So I'm working on that. I had to work on it my whole
life because I want to respond. I'm better than I used to be.
I'm not perfect, but I've always wanted to do that quickly.
It's better to sit back, think about it, take a deep breath.
My dad used to tell me all the time.
You know what? Instead of opening your big
mouth, he told me this all the time.
Just sit back, take a deep breath and swallow 1st and think
about what you want to say. A lot of truth to that.
You know why? Because when somebody speaks
words of evil to you, the way that you bless those that curse
you, showing agape love in the first radical thing, he says.
You're going to speak kindly back to them that speak those
ugly words to you. That is not natural.
It's very, very natural to speak good about people that you
admire and your friends. That is natural.
What Jesus is talking about is hard stuff.
That's why it's command. He's talking about things that
are unnatural, speaking kindness.
When something is being hurled at you negatively, it's the kind
of love that gives a soft answer.
In hopes of turning away wrath, I'm going to give you 2 passages
here. The wise man Solomon of old in
Proverbs 15 and one said this. A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger. And that's true.
He ever said something to someone in a soft tone.
When they've said something in a harsh tone and there's really
nothing for them to say in response.
What they may want to do is they want you to respond ugly so they
can justify their behavior and keep it coming.
But when you speak gently or you speak in a soft answer, it turns
away. Wrath.
Give me another passage. I said I was going to get back
to this. We'll spend a little bit of time
on this. Not too much.
Romans 12 and verse 20. Therefore, if your enemy is
hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a
drink, for in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head.
I'm going to tell you, I've read all kinds of commentaries and
scholars and there's all manner of interpretations of what it
means when you heap coals of fire on their head.
One interpretation was this, because God is the avenger, and
when you give place to to wrath, you give it to God and he's the
one that's the avenger. So what this means is when I'm
good to somebody that's rotten to me, it heaps coals of fire on
his head, meaning God is going to judge them and God will
punish them. Well, while it's true that God
does those things, is that really the context of this
passage? And is that really what the
ideal was? What Paul was saying when he was
describing the reasons why you would be good to somebody, Was
he really saying so that God gets them?
Come on, let me tell you what I used to think this means.
And by the way, there may be a little truth to each one, or
some merit. Oh, there's a better
explanation, I believe. I used to think what this means
is this. You see, what this means is if
I'm good to somebody that's bad to me or mean to me, it's going
to keep coals of fire on his head because it's going to
really irritate him, because really what he really wants is a
fight. Maybe.
But I think there's a better explanation.
Fire here. There's an illusion to fire
where they would fire or subject metals to flames of fire.
Do you know what happens when you put a fire?
You got a fire and you put metal to the fire.
You know what happens? You melt it.
What's the point? What was Paul actually saying?
He was saying this in Romans chapter 12 and verse 20.
It's about melting something. It's about melting with his
shame. You melt his hostility.
That's really the point. If I'm doing good to someone
that's doing rotten things to me, it heaps coals of fire on
his head with his shame because of his behavior, therefore it's
going to melt his hostility. Isn't that the whole point?
The point isn't I'm going to do this until he gets punished.
The point is that I'm going to do this and it really gets to
get really stick it to him. No, the point is, I want to melt
his hostility. It's the same thing as the
previous passage in Proverbs 15, and one where a soft answer
turns away wrath. OK.
But if you ever stop to consider also that the words of Jesus are
also very evangelistic, think about it.
If you're a Christian and somebody's your enemy and
they're treating you horribly, but you do good things for them
and they know the reason you do that is because you're a
Christian, because you have somebody that's greater than you
that you follow, that's Jesus. And being a Christian means you
are Christ, like in your behavior.
And that's what you're doing. You're acting like Jesus.
You know what happens? You may have an influence over
them someday without ever preaching the gospel to them.
You may have some sort of an influence in their life.
Don't you see it's all about being evangelistic.
How you going to ever have the influence to convert somebody
when you're hateful and horrible back to them?
You're just not. You're just not.
You open up doors of opportunity.
As one scholar said, chasms of hatred can only be bridged with
acts of love. I know this is challenging and I
know people looking at it from a worldly standpoint or a fleshly
standpoint. They can't understand.
How could it possibly be that goodness can thrive in the midst
of bitter hatred? I'm going to tell you how I can,
because chasms of hatred can only be bridged by acts of love.
OK, that's the second thing. That's the bless those that
curse you. Here's the second one.
Do good to those who hate you, as I said before about your
friends, from your friends and showing kindness to people that
are deserving, it's easy to do that, it's easy to sacrifice for
them. But it's quite a different story
to do that for somebody that hates us.
Remember, true love John says is linked together with works.
First John chapter seven or three in the beginning of verse
17. But whoever has this world's
goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from
him, how does the love of God abide in him?
My little children, let us not love in Word or in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. So the two ways that agape
manifests itself to radical way so far is blessing those that
curse you by returning good words for evil words and doing
good for those who hate you. But I want to spend some time on
the last one and pray for those who spitefully use you and
persecute you. Let me ask you this.
How many was the last time that we?
That's I'm not. I'm not going to put it on you.
Me too. When's the last time that we
prayed for someone like that? I mean, really prayed for him
with the right heart. I don't mean pray that God will
take care of their behavior. Straighten them out.
I mean, when's the last time that we have prayed for someone
that spitefully used us and persecuted us?
I will say this a very bold statement.
A Christian has reached a great level, a greater level of
maturity, when he prays for his enemies.
Now, I did not say this. I did not say that.
A Christian reaches a higher level of holiness.
And by the way, you don't. In fact, there's nothing more
off putting than somebody that walks around with a haughty
spirit or a holier than thou attitude that they get it and
you don't. There's nothing more off putting
than that. And I'm going to tell you
something else too, if that's the person's demeanor.
You have no influence. You have no influence on people
in the world. I'm going to say this from an
evangelistic, an evangelist viewpoint with people every day.
Do you know the kind of person that really has influence?
Talk about the kind of Christian that really has influence.
It's somebody that walks around with a humble spirit, somebody
that is a real genuine person that's not perfect and knows it
and people sometimes see it. And sometimes maybe somebody
made some mistakes in the past. Maybe they messed up.
Maybe they did some things that they regret and they know it,
but they recovered. And they're on this side of
those mistakes now, and they're the genuine article, the genuine
person. Maybe the world's kicked him
around a little, but now they've got the battle scars to be able
to relate to somebody else. You want to talk about
influence, be a genuine person. You never reach a higher level
of holiness. And if a person thinks that they
have come on down, If anybody could have been like that, it
was Jesus. But Jesus is the Bible describes
him. Jesus says Jesus himself.
I am meek and lowly in heart. That's what Jesus said and you
shall find rest unto your soul. For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light. When you pray for your enemies,
it indicates a couple things, folks.
It indicates that God number one is in control.
That's what you're saying. When you pray for your enemies
#2, you are also demonstrating to God that you want the very
best for your enemies. That's number two and #3, and
especially that you want them to be saved.
My question is this. What is the practical effect, or
what is the actual outcome of praying for your enemies?
Is God going to actually change their heart?
If God wants to, If it's his will, And if he says yes, then
he will. But there's no guarantee, so
what's the point? You might say.
Wait a minute. If I pray for my enemies, if I
pray for those that spitefully use me and persecute me, and
really there's no guarantee that it's going to work, why pray for
them? You're missing the point.
It's not about changing their heart.
It's about changing yours. It's about changing yours.
That's a guarantee. Can God providentially change
the heart of somebody? Yes.
And I pray all the time. If I know somebody with a
hardened heart, I pray that their hearts will be changed.
And I pray God will do something to change their heart.
And I pray that with everything I've got, there's no guarantee.
We pray in our time. God answers in his time
according to his will. God's going to make that
decision. God's going to make that choice.
So that's not a guarantee of changing their heart.
What is a guarantee is when I pray for those that spitefully
use me and persecute me, those that are enemies of mine, it's
going to for sure change my heart.
But let me give you 2 things that are 100% sure.
This is why it changed your heart.
Two things. When you pray for your enemy,
you relinquish anger, you really do.
You can't sincerely ask God's blessings upon your enemy if you
hate them. You can't.
Jesus, We're saying I'm not trying to tell you to go fix the
world. I'm telling you to fix you and
your behavior and your influence.
And by the way, all this works together also with personal
forgiveness. Give me 3 examples quickly.
How about Joseph? In the Old Testament, sold by
his brothers into slavery, terrible things happened to him.
He was later reconciled to his brothers, right?
We know the story has a happy ending down the road.
But before he was ever reconciled to his brothers,
before his brothers ever asked for forgiveness.
Do you know what Joseph did? The Bible says he named his
first born son Manasseh. And then it says what Manasseh
means right after that passage. God has made me to forget.
He didn't lose his memory. He made a choice.
God has made me to forget. Then it says Forget what?
All the trouble of my father's house.
What was Joseph doing? He was making a decision.
I'm not going to be negatively influenced by this anymore.
I make a choice. I don't let my brothers off the
hook. I let me off the hook.
I got a friend of mine. You already told me I'm working
on it. He's better.
Always better. I got a friend of mine told me
he has a list of all the people that have done bad to him.
I don't even want to know what you want to do with the list,
but he's got a list. He said he had a list.
After a couple years being friends and talking a lot about
this kind of stuff, he told me the other day.
He said I threw away the list. I said good for you, you know
why? Good for you?
Because you just let yourself off the hook.
You said I'm not going to be negatively influenced by that
guy anymore. And by the way, one little thing
I got to slip in. If somebody's done you wrong and
you have animosity toward him and you have you have built up
inside you and you're holding the grudge, let me tell you
something. Don't do that.
You know why? First of all, for the reasons
that we just said. But I'm going to give you
another reason. If somebody's wronged you,
you're boiling inside about what they did.
But they're going about their life, not even thinking about
you. They haven't thought of you
again at all. They just did their thing and
that's it. Don't give them that kind of
power to destroy you inside. Let it go.
You relinquish anger. Anger when you forgive.
Awesome. Give another one.
Stephen Acts Chapter 7. He's being stoned to death.
He looks up into the heavens. He says, behold, I see the
heavens open and I see Jesus standing on the right hand of
God. They were infuriated.
There ran on him and they stoned him to death.
What did Stephen say? Lord lay not this sin to their
charge, and God's the only forgiver and forgiveness only
comes from God with repentance. That's true.
But Stephen by his words shows that he forgave.
He did. And then the master one more is
Jesus when he's hanging on the cross dying for the sins of the
world, he says Father forgive them, for they know not what
they do. God has to be the forgiver of
sin only comes with repentance. But Jesus in a physical human
sense had forgiven and that he didn't pull the grudge against
what they were doing to him. You let yourself off the hook
when you forgive, whether a person is deserving or not.
Let me give you an example. Several years ago there were two
players that played for the same professional football team.
They played on a Sunday, went out Sunday night, did things
they shouldn't do. They were both intoxicated.
They got in a car. They drove really fast, went
around the corner and flipped the car.
The driver had minimal injuries. The passenger, his teammate and
good friend was killed. The driver was distraught beyond
belief, the guilt because he killed his friend because of a
bad choice. The next football game.
He was not dressed, but he was on the sidelines and the stadium
was booing to get him out of there with hatred.
It got so bad that the professional football team he
was playing for had him leave the field and not stand with his
teammates. Legal issues were coming.
All manner of things were coming.
He was so distraught and in tears, he talked to his friend's
mother, the mother of the boy that died.
He said Everybody hates me, he said.
And I hate myself for what I did.
I don't even know if I should come to the funeral because
there's so much animosity from the family to me.
Maybe it's best if I don't come. You know what The mother said
She said. Son, you come to that funeral.
You sit next to me because I forgive you.
She made the choice. I'm not going to be negatively
influenced by this, even though my heart is broken.
You want to relieve yourself. You want to release yourself.
You want to let yourself go do that.
He still had to deal with the law.
He still had other ramifications.
But in her heart, when we're going to bring her son back, she
said. I forgive you.
The first thing that happens when you pray for your enemies.
You relinquish anger #2. You take the focus off yourself
and you put your eyes on God. Anger is often multiplied when
we try to handle our enemies by ourself.
But when you turn your anger over to God, then God's love
overshadows hate. So the practical things that
happen when you pray for your enemies, you relinquish anger,
anger. And that's great.
You let yourself go and then you focus on God and take your focus
off yourself and your own personal feelings.
And just maybe when you pray, God may change their heart too.
Wow, I think Jesus knew what he was talking about.
The plan's perfect. This is hard to do.
In conclusion, Jesus then gives reasons and three verses.
I'm not going to comment on these verses.
I'm going to read what they are. And then we're going to sum it
up with one final verse beginning in verse 45, after he
said that said, you do all this. And then here's the here's the
What happens as a result? That you may be the sons of your
Father in heaven? For he makes his Son to rise on
the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on
the unjust. For if you love those who love
you, what reward of you? Do not even the tax collectors
do the same? And if you greet your brethren
only, what do you do more than others?
Do not even the tax collectors do so?
So then he says this, the final verse.
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is
perfect. Oh, you mean I got to be
perfect? What's that mean?
First of all, perfect here does not mean sinless perfection, and
it does not mean without a flaw. That's not what this means at
all. In fact, the word perfect has a
variety of connotations and the context must bear out or
determine its meaning. For example, the word perfect in
this passage is the same word perfect that's found in Second
Timothy 316 and 17, where the Bible says there about the word
of God that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be
perfect telios. The word telios thoroughly
equipped for every good work. What does that word mean?
In the connotation of the context that that is given, it
means complete. The man of God, the child of
God, is going to be complete with the word of God, and you
need nothing else. That's what that means.
But the same Greek word, teleos in this passage has a different
connotation to it, and the context has to bear it out.
What's the context? Loving your enemies, That's the
context. Got to stick with the context.
So the connotation of being perfect in this regard is really
the word mature. Now you know what?
I can't be perfect meaning flawless, but I can be mature.
I'm not very mature, but I can be mature when it comes to what
he just commanded to be to be mature.
But I can do that. You can sum it up like this.
Therefore you shall be mature just as your Father in heaven is
mature. The context is loving your
enemies. So how do we sum it up when we
are to follow God's example of having a mature love which will
always be demonstrated in action?
That's God's point. And that makes sense.
That makes sense. Jesus says you heard that it had
been said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies, That's agape love.
That's always demonstrated in action, in words, in deeds, in
behavior. And in example.
It's the love. It's always attributed to God.
I'm finished. Thank you so much for being such
a good listening audience. We never close a time that we
teach from God's word without extending an invitation.
It's the greatest invitation in the world.
You know what? It's not my invitation.
It's the Lord's invitation, the first thing we must do to be
saved. You got to hear the word of God.
Romans 10/17. So that faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. But the word of God produces
something. We have a choice to make.
We have to believe it with all of our heart.
Hebrews 11:00 and 6:00. But without faith it's
impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him. Jesus also said he that believes
and is baptized will be saved. Also.
We need to repent of our sins and all that means I got to make
a change. I've been going in this
direction. I don't want to do that anymore.
I'm going to change and go in that direction.
Change my mind, change my heart leads to a change of behavior,
change of action. And here's the best part.
It leads to a change in my relationship with Jesus.
Great stuff, truly these times of ignorance, God overlooked but
now commands all men everywhere to repent.
That's what Jesus said. Then we got to be willing to say
the best thing you'll ever say, confessed that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. Acts 837 Then Philip said, if
you believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. All these steps lead toward the
point of salvation, but the point of salvation is the next
one. It's being baptized for the
remission of sins. Mark 1616.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does
not believe will be condemned. If you've never taken those
steps of obedience, we would love to assist you in that.
Excuse me in that, if you will. Maybe you have.
Maybe there's something that's on your heart.
Maybe there's something on your mind.
Maybe there's something you'd like to get off of your mind,
Your heart. You'd like the prayers of the
congregation on your behalf, whatever that might be.
Be one of either class. Come forward while we stand,
while we say. We thank you for listening to
our podcast put on by The Church of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in
Bakersfield. If you would like.
Any additional information or you would like to receive a free
Bible correspondence course by mail?
Please e-mail us at info@churchofchristbakersfield.com.
Our service times are Sundays at 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM and
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.