Christ's Call to Die to Self (Matthew 5:38-42) - Tim Conway

[Music] well the portion of scripture that we're going to look at this morning found in matthew 5 verse 38 through 42 the next section of the sermon on the mount you know i once heard their preacher was preaching and he began preaching i i think it was several nights of of some conference the guy was preaching he got up he began to preach he started preaching a young man would get up and walk out next night young man would be there again he'd start preaching the young man would get up and walk out and finally he was confronted and he said well he said i hear something that you preach on that i needed to take care of and i needed to go resolve and so i didn't figure there was any reason listening to more and he got up and he walked out i'm not asking any of you to get up and walk out but the reality is that man listened to the word of god with the intent of doing it and keeping it i am gonna listen this is the lord he's the creator he's god he's our lord he said in luke 6 why do you call me lord lord and do not do the things i say you know what happens at the end of this sermon on the mount he says there is a wise man he hears what i say and he does it now we're we are in the realm now where we're going to get into some some verses that honestly if these verses don't touch you it's because you're dancing around so that they miss you it's because you're not hearing these verses should they should do something to each one of us what we want listen this is sanctification sanctification is a process it's holification it's making us more and more separate more and more like christ we all need to change ruby and i have been listening to these these uh piper bios and actually i was driving somewhere one day when i didn't have ruby with me and piper said um he said he just could not figure out anybody who didn't want to change he said if you don't want to change you might as well be dead he said is that what we live for and that's exactly right as christians if there's anything is from the time we get saved until the time we die this is all about change change and that's what these words are supposed to do you know that's why we preach each week yes it's to it's to have bigger and bigger views of god but see even that's change you you recognize more and more you come to a greater knowledge a greater intimacy a greater revelation greater faith but it's change it's always change that we're looking for we gather for the preaching of the word because we don't want to stay the same if you want to stay the same if you're basically saying i'm good i'm content with where i'm at who can be in that place we're going to be challenged by these words now listen verse 38 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but i say to you do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you now there's two dangers when we deal with this one is absolutizing the text without due respect for the whole flow of thought here from what listen as i told you in the very beginning if you forget the beatitudes you're going to go wrong with this what we don't want is some unthinking literalism just some some wooden literal take on this without remembering the flow and what this is all about the the beatitudes were broad strokes blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are those who mourn blessed are the meek blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness you don't want to take this as as some detailed regulations about how to live your life that's not what these are these are basically four illustrations of a principle it's working out what peacemakers look like it's working out what what the purin heart are like it's this this is what we have here jesus is emphasizing the spirit of his people if you take this as just a rigid set of rules all you've done is you're just replacing moses with jesus and that's not what you want to do here that's not that's not the issue what these are if we've got eyes to see is not something that's universally going to apply to every single situation in your life but the spirit of what's here should apply to every single situation in your life that would be the first danger the first danger is just you take this as detailed regulations you apply some wooden literalism to it but the second danger is this it's to immediately say well because obviously there are exceptions i didn't use mentioned last week that we're not supposed to give to somebody that's not willing to work and see there's an exception right there we don't give to everybody that begs from us because if you're not willing to work scripture also says you shouldn't give to that person and so you know what you can do you can start becoming so obsessed with the exceptions that you don't hear what jesus is actually saying and i'll tell you what a danger is is when you read these and you get the person that immediately what they want to do is start thinking of every exception possible that's that's bad so don't become absorbed with all the exceptions to the point that you evade the force of what jesus saying here now i am going to deal with some of the exceptions because i want what here's the thing i want you to know i want all of us to recognize what this is not saying and so i am going to deal with what it's not saying before i deal with what it does say now look verse 38 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth now again i i keep coming back to this because jesus keeps saying this who's he talking about and he gets so many of the reformed guys they really want to press well he's not talking about moses here he's talking about you know the the way that the scribes and the pharisees perverted but here's the thing there's unquestionably he's dealing with an inferior surface external righteousness in the scribes and the pharisees they obviously were taking these verses and they were doing something with it but you know what he's doing here he is actually quoting moses and we don't want to we there's no reason to skirt that no matter who jesus has in mind when he says you've heard that it was said the fact is these words themselves come from moses in more than one place just listen to these don't turn to them exodus 21 if there is harm then you shall pay life for life eye for eye tooth for tooth there it is eye for eye tooth for tooth it's i mean it's verbatim folks hand for hand foot for foot burn for burn wound for wounds stripe for stripe that's exodus 21 23. 24 25 leviticus 24 19. if anyone injures his neighbor as he has done it shall be done to him fracture for fracture eye for eye tooth for tooth there it is again verbatim what's so whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him deuteronomy 19 21 it shall be life for life eye for eye tooth for tooth there it is exactly again hand for hand foot for foot there's at least three places in the old testament the pentateuch where you get this exact wording so when jesus is saying to these people well you've heard it said well where had they heard it you know whatever the scribes and the pharisees were saying moses said this now jesus said i know you've heard all that but i say to you don't resist the one who's evil if anyone slaps you on the right cheek then what if anybody slaps you on the cheek then what let me ask you something somebody slaps you on the cheek and you apply the rule eye for an eye what do you do you punch him right i mean you you strike back but jesus says not to apply that rule when he says apply a different rule turn your other cheek to them but wait here's the thing doesn't an eye for an eye seem fair doesn't that seem right i mean have you ever watched a tv show where somebody got wronged and then they got the person back then you feel good somewhat i mean there's i'll tell you this there is something built into us that appreciates revenge and that's not wrong because vengeance belongs to god you know vengeance is actually a good thing it's just where we're at right now we're not supposed to seek the vengeance but the thing about an eye for an eye is it seems fair i mean don't we want laws in our land that basically have some degree of equity and and impartial and don't we want that of course we do i mean can you imagine living in the land where it's excessive either way where it's not eye for an eye do you know what it was like in this country back in the 18th century does anybody know do you know how many laws were in the books you know how many crimes were capital offenses in this country do you know if you stole the handkerchief you could hang for it in 1810 there were 222 books on the law in england that you could hang for cutting a tree down killing a deer on the wrong land could cost you your life now see we don't want that but on the other hand do we want murders to murder and we just slap them on the wrist and turn the other cheek let them go murder somebody else we don't want that either i mean the reality is that well listen verse 39 when jesus says but i say to you do not resist the one who is evil what is jesus aiming at and saying this i mean listen we need to we need to recognize what this is not saying don't resist the evil one does the bible ever tell us to resist evil like resist the devil isn't the devil an evil one are we supposed to let him come up and slap us on the side and and with some temptation and then say well do it again obviously he's not talking that way listen what we need to recognize is this jesus is not speaking to parents resisting evil in their little people like that right there levi goodbye but he's obviously not speaking to parents and saying don't regard proverbs he's obviously not negating romans 13 that says that we've we've got governing civil authorities out there that have been committed with the sword they're expected to use the sword he's not he's not saying we don't resist evil in the church obviously there's just he would be negating what he preaches in the same book in matthew 18. if we're not supposed to deal with sin in the church he's obviously not talking about that kind of thing i mean do you recognize this there was a day when they struck jesus and he did not turn the other cheek in fact he challenged his persecutors do you remember that jesus answered him if what i said is wrong bear witness about the wrong but if that what i said is right why do you strike me see he wasn't just silent as much as jesus was silent often times when he was persecuted he was not there you see because he was before a court he was before the high priest and it's very interesting that even when paul remember they wanted to let him out of prison at philippi after they had wrongly beat him he didn't just turn the other cheek and say beat me again and then just release me and i'm not going to take issue you know what when it had to do with the fact that the courts the magistrate was doing wrong at a civil level both christ and paul challenge them very interesting so here's the thing if if we simply take these words coldly mechanically literally and and what we're going to what's going to happen is we're going to fail to see the spirit of what jesus is teaching here the key is this we want to look at the four different examples that he's given to us and we want to see the common thread that runs through each one of these so i'm going to tell you right up front i'm going to i'm going to tell you where we're headed this is nothing other than the teaching that jesus gives us very plainly in other places about dying to self that's listen what he's talking about is self he's not talking about you parenting he's not talking about the church government and how we handle sin in the church he's not talking about the civil authorities out here you know he's talking about you as an individual dying to self that's the issue here that's what's on the table this doesn't have to do with what you know whether we should have capital offense or not whether you should be on a jury or whether war is right he's so many people want to apply it to all these areas that is not what this has to do with at all he's not dealing with fair laws in the land not he's not at all speaking to the government he's not speaking to the to the court systems or church government or any he's you know he's not trying to bring reform to the civil government what he's doing is he's talking directly to his disciples and he's saying through four examples this is how i want you to die to self self your attitude towards yourself jesus jesus wants us to die this is one of the hardest things about being a christian this is this is what makes the way so narrow even the gate narrow it's because we've got to die we've got to die to self ourselves oh brethren we're our own gods we we worship ourselves and when we come to christ this is the very first step it's recognizing something about ourselves we're bad we deserve hell we can't save ourselves we can't figure this out we need help and there's a bowing and there's a surrendering but you know what just because we come that first day broken we come through that narrow gate the way is narrow too and we have such a tendency to want to retaliate to want to defend ourselves to protect ourselves to protect our stuff we are so me centered our tendency is to insist on our own rights demand retaliation if anybody offends us i mean look i'm not proud of this but i use it in his example there was a time my friend and i we had a slingshot and we were upstairs in his house and he had an open window and there were kids playing out there and we had these tiny little rocks and we took them in there and we banged we shot it out there and the children were playing and we we hit what was probably the oldest sister and it it probably felt like she got stung but she spun around and she just pushed her little brother because she thought he did it and that image is in my mind it's that's how we are that's how we are designed somebody does something and we want to strike back and that's why there's there's almost something satisfying when you watch a tv show where somebody gets that revenge even if it's somewhat but that's how men are are like that they're wired that way our natural instinct is to deify self to strike back if somebody wants to hurt us we see ourselves as being most important we get appalled we get shocked we get bent out of shape if somebody touches our stuff hurts our stuff insults our children if if somehow we are offended we're hurt we're insulted people encroach on our rights somebody parks in front of our house that's my spot out there and that's how it is here in this country in the u.s we all have driveways and we have garages and stuff here everybody's really protective of their parking places and they get bent out of shape but now listen this is the theme that christ is dealing with in these verses so let's look more closely now look go back to the text there in 38. you've heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth now one of the primary things to be said about that is this one of the texts that i read to you where this shows up is deuteronomy just listen this is the context in which eye for an eye and tooth for tooth is found if a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the lord before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days now see if you read the context there what you need to recognize is the law was not designated to be discharged by individuals who had a vendetta with their neighbor this law this this idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth applied to the civil authorities well they could they could be religious authorities but see there were judges there were priests that is the realm in which we want fair laws like this jesus is not addressing that the whole question in jesus day seems to have become this it's like the scribes and the pharisees were operating like well if somebody offends me how can i how can i vent my bitterness and my hatred and get revenge and still do it technically keeping the law that's that's how that's what had become of this it wasn't a civil issue anymore this was they were taking these words that were originally meant to be carried out in a court and they were applying them to themselves how can i get away as much as possible with what i want to get away with and still technically keep the law these guys sought they sought to justify their own bitterness and vengeance and malice and hatred do it under a cloak of this precise law keeping that was the issue jesus is not speaking to judges here he's speaking to christians and you need to recognize this he's not speaking to lost people to expect lost people to live like a christian that's he's not speaking to nations he's not speaking to lost he's not speaking to the world at large he's speaking to christians to his own disciples his teaching has nothing whatever to do with a man who's not a christian you need to recognize because a man that's not a christian will not be able to live this way a man who's not a christian is selfish and that's got to be broken it takes a savior to save us from self the lost man can't do this he's speaking to people that he's already described in the beatitudes the merciful and and to ask for christian conduct from someone who's not born again is just it's an impossibility dying to self if we're truly going to walk the christian path this is it this is the path dying death we must have a right attitude towards ourself and the thing is we we tend to be way overly sensitive when it comes to self spirit of self defense immediately rises and that's what jesus is wanting to kill here that spirit of self-defense the desire for revenge retaliation jesus wants to kill that thing in us it's how he's seeking to protect self so here it is first example let's look at it there are four examples here that really bring this whole thing to life now look this is certainly not an exhaustive list this is just four scenarios that if you will actually if you don't just sit back and hear this just as teaching that kind of goes by your head and you're half thinking about dinner this afternoon and you know getting some coffee and tea afterwards but if you really just ex if you'll put yourself in this place what you have is four scenarios that'll test us to this deeper principle of dying to self i say to you verse 39 do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also now i'm assuming that wherever you all are from you have an idea if somebody took a glove one one man took a glove and slapped another man across the face with it what happens hmm fight does it does nobody know the the glove across the face rule it's a challenge typically that would result in a duel in fact my understanding was this they they said that a night when before they kind of cultured it a little bit you know how the queen like taps a knight on the shoulder three times that in the olden days they would clunk him on the shoulder three times fairly hard and then slap him across the face the night like that was the last offense you can ever take without seeking your honor in other words any time anybody dishonors you from right from this point forward as a knight you've got to defend your right it was an insult you slapped some i mean you can imagine somebody slaps you across the face i mean you know how it is you can have somebody and they kind of come up do they start hitting you too hard in the face basically my understanding i got this from john stott he said that in the middle east in the near east that for to be hit across the cheek the right cheek with the back of somebody's hand was the insult see this is what jesus is talking about he's talking about you if somebody slaps you he's not talking about governments and not talking about juries he's not talking about war he's talking about you personally being offended and you know what we don't have to go exploring here you all have been hurt by somebody else you've all been offended by somebody else you've all been in the place even though you might be more subdued you were in the place where you wanted to take somebody's head off you you have been attacked you've been harmed you've been something has happened and this is this is the idea this is what we have here what's the natural disposition when somebody offends you like that they slap you across the face it's the immediate thing to turn to them the other side and allow them to keep going typically it's like that little girl you want to turn around and bang you want to push your little brother because he just did something it wasn't him and the fact is that's the insulting blow and then what what crops up a desire to defend self and you know what some people they're quick with a fist other people that quick with the tongue well you know i'm gonna that person did this i'm gonna shoot back with my tongue ready to come out swinging jesus is telling us right here that he wants us to be rid of this spirit of retaliation that desire to defend itself the desire to strike back inflict harm jesus you can see it jesus imagines you know a man or a woman come up to you and and unprovoked they strike you across the face i mean we see this in road rage what is road rage all about i don't know how much you guys have that here but i know that's people get all bent out of shape why well they feel like they've been encroached upon and you know you realize seriously hollywood loves to produce their films their movies one after another i mean that's that's basically the story line you you see a person and something horrible happens to them and the whole movie plays out for them getting revenge in the end and it's all it you know we wouldn't like it if they didn't get the revenge in the end if they tried and they tried and they tried it in the end they failed people aren't going to go watch movies like that because then you you leave and you you feel horrible about it love to just the spirit of self-defense the immediate instinct get them back you know it was very interesting that the japanese attacked pearl harbor back in 1941 because they felt like if they struck america and did do damage to their navy they knew america could not be conquered by them they recognized that but they thought if they did sufficient damage to our navy and then quickly struck back at midway what they really were trying to do is bring us to the bargaining table they felt like well americans would be you know they they would be uh discouraged and and humiliated and then they would go to the bargaining table that is so odd that a people that actually have a thing like saving face would actually even think that way that that was such a miscalculation about human nature do you know what americans did they lined up to enlist why they wanted revenge and it didn't matter how many midways and pearl harbors you had they wanted revenge and there could have been 10 of them but all that's going to do see that's how mankind is that's how we are man wants revenge and this is what jesus is trying to kill i mean christian we're to be all together new creations and old things are to pass away and he said you need to carry your cross and it's an instrument of death and he said i want you to die to self and you need to be people that when you're offended can i tell you something in the church the closer we get i've said this before the closer we get the more god uses the church the more we're involved in things together the more we involve ourselves in ministries together and minister one another the more time we spend with each other the more possibility we're gonna have of rubbing people wrong is and the reality is thin-skinned people are just a blemish on the church they are a massive blemish and you know what i mean my thin skin i'm talking about people that just get offended really easy they they receive this insult and somehow they've got to strike back and usually it's with the tongue and so you just speak evil and brethren this is the kind of thing that he's seeking to kill kill the spirit of retaliation you know what hudson taylor very interesting you know hudson taylor he he was the first among the british missionaries that went inland into china um maybe not the very first but in a day when not many were going in he he did and he began to dress like the chinese in fact you know what he so mimicked their way of dress and their hair and everything and it was really he said it was massively uncomfortable and yet he did it for the sake of the gospel well you know what happened he was at a riverside one time and he hailed the boat to take him across apparently the the man navigating the boat kind of ferrying people back and forth across this river knew him and they knew that's that's the british missionary and so they came the guy the kite came sailing over to where taylor was and right as he got there a wealthy chinese chinese man traveling for business or something came wanting a boat he the way the culture is over there or was he thought taylor was basically a lowly he's wealthy he came up and he shoved taylor and gave him such a blow that it knocked him over off his feet into the mud once he did that the man navigating the boat said no sir i can't take you he said this to his fellow countrymen he said i was hailed by the foreigner well now the guy's shocked because he did not realize he just did this to a foreigner taylor said nothing the guy navigating the boat said the boat's his and so taylor came and he got on and he invited the wealthy man to go across with him and then he was able to preach the gospel to him and he said that conversation they had going across that river left a deep impact upon that man you see this this is this is the issue and peter says to this you've been called you see brethren this is what we've been called to this is what jesus wants from his people why because this just like it is in taylor this is what turns the world upside down this kind of reaction to this you've been called because christ also suffered for you leaving you an example that means we need to imitate him so that you might follow in his steps he committed no sin deceit was not found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly and we can be insulted in many ways the lord desires to produce in us a spirit that does not easily take offense that's the issue doesn't defend itself death to self death to self-esteem and self-importance listen you remember what he said here unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees do you recognize thin-skinned people in the church are not exhibiting a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the pharisees easily offended people are exhibiting a righteousness that's just like theirs always trying to get back always wagging the tongue anybody that steps on your toes boy you're going to let them have it either you're going to let them know or what usually happens is you let someone else know you just degrade them you slander them you gossip about them that happens all the time in a church all the time somewhere i read the story i can't i can't place it it seems like something that came out of pensacola florida in the chapel library there i'm certain it is i read a story there was a woman she got married her husband had her father-in-law move he needed to be cared for he was old i think the mother-in-law had died so father-in-law is living there well her husband went off to work each day so it was father-in-law and the wife at home together each day this guy made her life miserable he was wicked he relentlessly provoked her and you know her husband it was his dad and he just didn't really do any she went with tears to the pastor and the pastor told her this every time he provokes you every time he does something wickedly respond with kindness she knew he had a favorite kind of cookie and so when he provoked her she would make him cookies and one of the times when she did it and she came and she after he'd done something really nasty to her she put down the cookies in front of him and he fell out of his chair on his face just weeping victory one i mean it worked god uses that not just with hudson taylor but this was a common woman now here's a second example second example verse 40. so the first one is somebody offends us we're willing to be offended again without striking back that's the example we have from jesus in fact they struck him they smote him they crowned him with thorns they stripped his clothes off of them they gambled them away cast lots for them they drove spikes through him and he prayed for them father they don't forgive them they don't know what they do last night i pulled up a documentary on the persecuted church there was a teacher muslim cartoon sudan he had a student in his class that was a christian he said anytime anything went wrong in the class they blamed it on the christian he said he admitted that christian kid was the humblest nicest guy in the class but it just provoked this teacher he got to the place where he just hated him and he said to the other muslims we're going to kill him and so they they hid it up in a tree along the way that they knew he walked going home and they waited for him and they jumped out of the tree on top of him and they beat him just shy of death and they left him thinking that he would die this muslim teacher became a christian his family disowned him his family had a funeral they actually got a casket they actually have a grave site where they buried the casket well he he was imprisoned i think he they imprisoned him for seven weeks in a basement where there were dead bodies and it was a horrible thing he couldn't lay down and anyway 25 years later he was teaching the gospel teaching biblical teaching i guess in cairo egypt and a man walked up to him and he said do you recognize me and he he did not recognize him it was that kid that they had so beat he said his arm was broke it never had healed right his leg was broke didn't heal right there was a scar he was blind in one eye all from the beating they gave him that night he said i have prayed for you for 25 years and he showed him his bible and in the front page of the bible he had this man's name written this man beat him this close to death and he spent the next 25 years of his life praying for this man and god heard him god saved this guy i mean a hateful muslim here's a second example if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well i mean we see the very same thread running through this verse our lord puts his finger on our tendency to want our rights because you know what suing is if somebody sues you for something it's because you think it belongs to you and they think it belongs to them and so they're taking you to court to get it oh how suing each other that kind of thing people's rights i mean this example portrays someone who believes they have a right to something and somebody else believes they have a right to that and i don't think they do have a right to it but they do think and so they take me to court that's why they're suing me and there's a tendency to always want to insist on our own rights you watch oh you just watch how men and women handle inheritances even christians professing christians i remember a brother over there in one of the churches just south of san antonio he told me that his his dad died and then his mother died when his mother died he went to his mom and dad's house only to see his sister's husband backed up to the garage or to the barn loading a bunch of tools in a welder that was his dad's tools but sister that was also her dad and so the husband felt like he had rights to it and they didn't wait to have i'll tell you inheritances brethren i can remember being challenged with this when my dad died my dad told me he he said we had a my great great great grandfather i believe simon had how many greats but he went out to the gold rush and he actually went through the the panama canal and he went around and he he had a revolver and my dad told me you know you're the first born and this is going to be given to you my brother took it and so here my dad dies my dad wanted me to preach the funeral and i'm thinking about my brother and you know he's up there and my brother said something crazy i was talking to him and he said you know tim the attorney told me that i can take everything and you can't do anything about it he's like why would he even say that it wasn't fighting him for anything but i sat down there at my desk that morning that i was going to go to the airport get on that plane and fly up to michigan and preach my dad's funeral and i came across the text in hebrews 13 and just the fact that i am never going to leave you or forsake you and that is in the context of brethren it's in the context of i mean you're just you're being freed from all of this i recognized i mean i i just felt this feeling come across me that it doesn't matter it's okay i mean my brother can take everything i have the lord i mean what's that compared and he's never going to leave me or forsake me and and i mean i had just such a sense of peace and i was able to go up there and i mean i've just not had any issues with my brother of that but you watch people over inheritances you want to say something to divide families you want to see something get people to sue each other oh you just mess with their inheritance it's got to rise out of paul when people suing each other you remember this brother goes to law against brother before unbelievers to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you why not rather suffer wrong why not rather be defrauded pastor she spelled hsi he was saved in the days of hudson taylor he was associated with the china inland mission they wrote a biography on him pastor xi he and his name actually was something like demon slayer in chinese that he had a real god-given gift to deal with demons but you know what happened the chinese especially and it's true today too they sue each other all the time and when she was saved and he was leading the christians and god was saving a bunch of the christians they basically determined among themselves all the christians they vowed we will never sue anybody ever again but guess what god put them to the test as soon as they vowed that you'd have a young believer he'd vow i'm never going to sue anybody again and you know what would happen inevitably the neighbor would move the fence and take some of his land and you know what she said he recognized that the young believers who sought to honor the lord by not suing that if the neighbor moved the fence and took some of the young believers property god would like cause their pigs to start dying or not able to breed and suddenly they'd recognize and and god usually worked it out with the young believers if they sought to honor the lord by not suing god gave him the property back god restored the thing god made the thing right but he said that the older believers typically it didn't work that way they didn't get back what was taken in other words their faith had been tested and tried and they were more mature and so god did not bring it back but that's just an interesting story that stands out in my mind suing each other third example 541 if anyone forces you to go one mile go them two miles now this has the least familiarity in in our culture in context but it's not hard to get the feel for self rising i mean you remember there is an example of this in scripture do you remember when jesus that was being led out to be crucified he had a certain guy come in from the country and they laid the cross on him anybody remember what his name was simon simon of cyrene now think about this you see you can read that story and you don't think much about it but then you come here i mean you you recognize what happened that basically the government had this right they had this power to commandeer a man to carry a load a mile and so this guy can you imagine he was what was he doing well he wasn't coming to town to carry the cross he was coming to town to do whatever he was doing can you imagine there's a roman soldier over there is hey you me yeah i want you to carry this way out there yeah that thing's heavy do it i mean start thinking put yourself in that position you've got your own thing you've got your own business you're busy about your own life and here they come along and coming yesterday i brought up that i actually looked the story up that hitler wanted to take the rochdale town hall back to germany and i actually found that it's uh it's well known the architecture of the rochdale town hall now i haven't seen it but they're saying it's one of the most impressive pieces of architecture in the country and you know what they actually believe that hitler lived over here in liverpool for a little bit of a season and that he may have actually visited it firsthand back in the before world war one and that's how he knew about it he said they might have known about it through surveillance but can you imagine if the nazis took over and you're out doing your job and they just they want you to start carrying bricks from rochdale town hall towards the coast because they're going to ship the whole building back i mean that's how it was the romans come i mean they were commandeering jews these these are the enemy can you imagine how you'd feel can you imagine i mean we we don't like it if our own government encroaches upon us we don't like it if they increase our taxes if they tell us we got to do this or that or the other thing can you imagine if it's the nazis can you imagine if it's the romans can you imagine if it's a conquering force and yet jesus says don't rebel against that listen you go the first mile cheerfully but you go the second mile cheerfully as well and you know what's going to happen then that roman soldier's going to say what's with this guy what's with you i had this i hope you all get to meet him one day some of you probably have but i was thinking of matt wilkinson with his big old smile and uh him going the second mile and just thinking i should i need to be like that anybody know matt no you don't know him that doesn't register with anybody no they said they were in our folks went to india and we got in a precarious situation at one point and the military was coming in and john seitzman told me that matt wilkinson was out there in that field with this big smile on his face and just melted all these military guys that were probably coming out to harass us but anyway this you see how all of these come back to self whether somebody strikes you on the face whether but somebody's suing you for your stuff or whether somebody suddenly commandeers you you know how self would rise it's like leave me alone i don't want to carry your baggage i don't want to carry that cross i got something to do don't you recognize i had a commitment over here i'm supposed to be over here who are you i'm the roman soldier and we've conquered you that's who i am but jesus jesus you see the attitude here's the here's the fourth example we're just about done so 5 42 give to the one who begs from you do not refuse the one who would borrow from you jesus puts his finger on this proneness to cling to it's mine what what right does that guy have you know there's a guy begging over there well i'm going to avoid him i'm going to walk around this way why he wants my money i don't want to give him my money now i know you might run through your head well you know i don't want to support that guy's drinking habit because but you know what i could probably run over to this mcdonald's and buy him a burger and if he really is hungry i could i could actually feed him but i don't want to do that i don't want to spend my time i don't want to spend my money somebody asked me for something somebody wants to borrow something something it's mine i work for it i mean who's he why doesn't he work and get his stuff for himself but you see what jesus is saying here give to the one who begs from you i'll tell you this the roots of our hearts they grow down deep into things and we want to protect them that's mine that's my phone that's my computer that's my house that's my car that's my bible that's my book that's my stuff that's my bank account that's my money in my pocket and see if they take it then i don't have it anymore god's gifts replace god and we i can't listen to the needs and the requests of others if i do i'll suffer i'll be the one going without i can't i've got to watch out for number one after all you know i i need that thing that's that's mine he's rebuking that spirit of those who are always considering themselves whether they're struck in the face whether they're getting their coat sued away from them getting compelled to carry the baggage or asked to give away their goods i mean you know what each example does here it reveals just our constant tendency to be watching out for self and for our self-interest to be always on the lookout for insults or attacks or injuries always in the defensive attitude always on edge you know so delicately just sensitively poised the slightest disturbance can just upset it all people encroach on me just leave me alone back off i don't want to carry your stuff and i don't want to give you anything stay away don't sue me that's mine i'll sue you don't slap me i'm going to slap you back i mean they were just so wired that way and jesus comes along and he emptied himself and he just left it all the glory behind and he came and he came to die and it came to empty and he said i could call down 12 legions i mean he had all this at his disposal and he said i did not come to be served i came to serve and i came to i came to pour my life out a ransom for many and he's saying to us come on follow me and listen it's all going to burn up our time here is short it's going to burn up you can't take any of it with you and i'll tell you this what jesus is basically describing as we've seen in some of these examples this you have to recognize that behind the going one mile and then going the second mile if you should feel behind this is an evangelistic thrust it's almost like jesus sees us in that capacity of reaching the world behind all of this when he talks about traveling that extra mile what's that going to accomplish i'll tell you what it's going to accomplish it's going to give you a testimony with the person who wants you to carry the stuff you're constantly showing forth a testimony well you say you're a follower of christ he came and he gave his life he gave his all he emptied himself what are you giving do we christians who are afraid to give oh we don't want to we don't want to be there the condition our lord is describing is one in which a man simply can't be hurt you see that somebody slapped me you didn't hurt me i'm going to glory the lord is mine i'm the most wealthy person imaginable do you recognize what you have an eternal weight of glory is before you you can't hurt me i mean if you if you want to borrow that or if if i need to give that to you if you want to sue that from me well i can throw the other thing on top i can give you twice as much it doesn't hurt me you want me to walk and go that exit second mile i can do that we see this oh this this this hits us right where we live folks right where we live no man can hope to live like jesus calls us unless they're born again i mean that's that's the reality here and what we've got to do is we've got to face this head on you know what we need to be honest with our hearts when there's demands put on us when people encroach upon our time our comfort our pleasure our stuff our money we need to ask honestly what's going on here you know it can be so easy to say oh the bible says that if you won't work you shouldn't eat and so we're very quick to run there anytime anybody wants anything but is that the attitude of jesus i find that jesus gave and gave and gave and gave and gave and he gave he gave to bad he hung out with sinners and he gave to them i mean we need the kind of self-examination that's essential at this point because when you get a rise in your own heart you really need to be asking yourself where is this coming from and i am consumed with some kind of self-greatness here i mean yes brethren this can be extremely painful why because dying is painful dying to self it's going to hurt and what but what this is self self self denial self we're so used to putting ourselves on the throne instead of god get bent out of shape we get frustrated we get angry we get stingy we want to strike out thinking about ourselves and instead of communing with god listen holiness is all about this it's deliverance from self if you really recognize jesus came to save us from us he came to save us from self worship self absorption because brethren our we are not worthy of worship but god is and when we find our all in him you're going to find the greatest satisfaction imaginable the weight of the deeper knowledge and intimacy with god is right here sometimes if you wonder why do i feel stagnated in my life my christian walk in my christian life you can come back right here because i tell you if if you go look at the life of some of these folks that like if you were to ask hudson taylor just being free to be pushed in the mud and then joyfully go across the river and preach the gospel to the guy i mean what freedom there is in that we just simply can't be hurt there's nothing i have to hold on to in this life that that that makes me vulnerable like this but if brethren there's a real connection here intimacy and fellowship and a deeper knowledge with god is had by traversing these paths these lonely valleys of soul poverty relinquishing renunciating everything jesus said it unless you didn't unless you forsake all that you have you can't be my disciples oh we read that we we have to watch our hearts because i guarantee you every one of us have a mount moriah that we need to take our isaacs to we all have those isaacs the things that the lord is challenging us and we need to be honest lord what is it show me bring me give us grace show us if we're holding on to anything too tightly show us sanctification is a process but i recognize this there's something in every one of your lives about self that's most ugly to god and most preventing you from having a fuller depth of intimacy with god find out what it is and kill it there's it's a process but we want to be people who are no longer slaves to the tyranny of stuff and things and inheritances and stuff we can be sued over and our rights and our our reputation and this me me christ promised to cleanse us from our idols and lord i'm gonna lord i ask you cleanse every one of us from our idols you know what they are i don't father i i i pray that you'd help us walk in those steps that's what peter said he left us an example we're supposed to follow in those steps lord i pray for the grace i pray lord for the grace of god to be upon us as a church to really make strides in this area lord please do it you promised to uproot the idols to deliver us and so we call upon you to uphold that promise of the new covenant we pray this in the name of our lord jesus christ amen you're dismissed

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 10,560

Rating: 4.9453554 out of 5

Keywords: retaliate, vengence, Matthew 5:38-42, sermon, mount, Hudson Taylor, Tim Conway, cheek, punch, revenge

Id: oA5I5DrW-BY

Length: 63min 40sec (3820 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 16 2021