DID JESUS REALLY SAY THAT? - Part 1 - Loving Our Enemies

good morning everyone and welcome to the well here at SC si I hope you're as excited as I am for this new series and hopefully you've been reading a little bit about it in our emails the series is called did Jesus really say that did Jesus really say that and just to kind of give everyone a background of how we came up with I know it's a bit of a weird title you might not be sure what that means exactly but how we came about that title I've been thinking to myself a lot how often is it that I open up my Bible and I read a teaching that you just gave and it's a really difficult teaching it almost seems impractical or impossible and then I think to myself you know what even if I don't do what consciously maybe subconsciously oh that's a really beautiful teaching I closed my Bible and you closed your Bible and you put it on to the side you don't even think twice about it but let me ask you something was that really the goal is that what Jesus had in mind when he taught did he think you know what I'm gonna teach people so that when they read this thousands of years from now they open it up and they just say oh that's a really nice teaching oh that's really nice well that's beautiful oh Jesus is so nice was that really the goal look I wish that we can all get away with that but as Christ followers we cannot get away with that as his disciples we cannot get away with that we are called to be the body of Christ were called to imitate Christ so all the teachings that Jesus gave no matter how difficult they may seem we have to practice those teachings and we have to be obedient to those teachings st. James says it this way he says for anyone for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was does that sound familiar kind of like the Bible illustration right I read my Bible oh that's a nice teaching clothes my Bible and I put it away immediately forgetting what I just read but he who looks into the perfect law of Liberty the law of freedom and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does you catch that there's a difference between just reading and closing out my Bible there's a difference between hearing the word and doing the word Jesus teachings are not meant to be just heard they're meant to be done they're meant to be obeyed no matter how difficult the teachings are so what we're going to talk about during this series is we're gonna look at four different teachings that Jesus gave that are pretty difficult some would say impractical maybe even impossible but Jesus what is in preaching theoretical knowledge he was teaching things that he expected us to do and to obey and I'll be honest with you some of them right off the bat you're gonna have your defense mechanisms up I'm gonna have my defense mechanisms up and we're just gonna have to put those guards down and approach it with an open heart we're not gonna settle for just being hears of the word but we're gonna want to be doers of the word set in another way we will not substitute knowledge for obedience we will not substitute knowledge for obedience the temptation throughout the series throughout anytime you read scripture is to substitute knowledge for obedience knowledge is great and without knowledge you can't really have obedience I can't obey something I don't know but there's a difference between knowledge and obedience knowledge I read something I know it I learned but that's not the same as obedience I can be very knowledgeable on humility it doesn't mean I'm humble I can be very knowledgeable on the importance of integrity doesn't mean I have integrity Christ calls us to be more than just hearers of the word but doers of the word no matter what the teaching is no matter how impractical or how radical it may seem and that was precisely the point when Jesus gave a lot of his teachings was that it was meant to be challenging and it was meant to challenge the status quo back then in their context but also for us today what we'll find out is that the teachings that seem so radical back then are still kind of radical today they're not universally practiced so with that okay so with that kind of backdrop in mind with that context in mind we're going to just jump right in to the very first passage that we're going to together and it's a famous passage it's from the Sermon on the Mount and it comes to us from the Gospel of st. Matthew okay so we're gonna go ahead and dive right in Jesus says you have heard that it was said I for eye tooth for tooth but I tell you do not resist an evil person if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to them the other cheek also and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt hand over your coat as well if anyone forces you to go one mile go with them two miles well right off the bat this is welcome to the well series part 1 we just picked one of the toughest passages probably one of the ones that changed the paradigm altogether turned everything upside down was this passage right here and I know what you're thinking before you even say it I know it because I'm thinking it because we've all fought it all the red flags come up right well does that mean Jesus just wants us to be pushovers is that what he wants he just wants me to be a pushover right no doesn't mean that doesn't mean that I'm just supposed to see social injustice ah's and evil in the world and just say it's okay just endure it you're fine just endure it just endure it just endure it is that what that means no it's not what that means in fact we see that Jesus himself went into the temple and cleansed the temple overturned that the the tables of the moneychangers because they were scammers they were you know taking advantage of the people so it wasn't right and he took action but here's gonna be our challenge throughout this series instead of dispelling all the things that the command isn't how about I take a more humble approach and say you know what I will not substitute knowledge for obedience you see the temptation with all of this is that we open up our Bibles we read the teachings of Christ and we say well what did Jesus really mean and give me you know this doesn't really apply it's not really relevant but no no no how about we take a more humble approach and we say Lord I don't want to just substitute knowledge for obedience I don't want to just be puffed up in knowledge as st. Paul says but I want to obey your words our natural inclination is to put our guards up me and you together to make excuses why it's not relevant and move on with our lives but instead what we ought to do is we say Lord humbly teach us how to obey your words I don't quite get it I don't quite see what you're saying teach me how to do this in my personal life today with that being said I do want to give context to this passage at least the first part of this passage an eye for an eye in the tooth for a tooth a lot of people will reference that from Scripture and it's a very common saying it comes to us from the book of Exodus and it's actually called the law of retaliation the law of retaliation on the surface it makes it sound like you know what this is how you should retaliate and that's actually how people started using it in their personal lives that is not at all what the law was meant to do okay so to give context to it early on in in the Jewish society in order to have justice within the community in order to have some sort of governing authority within the community God gave laws in order to protect the people from themselves and what this law of retaliation was all about is I don't want people to seek vengeance ridiculously like this is like let's let's make sure that everything makes sense from a government perspective like somebody gives me a paper cut now it's not within your right to go beat that person up and take all their possessions like those two things aren't even an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth was meant to keep things fair to keep things even from a justice standpoint within the community where that all got twisted is then people said well no that person insulted me I for an eye a tooth for a tooth I have to retaliate in my personal relationships I have to retaliate I have to get even I have to get back and she says whoa hold on that's not the point of the law the point of the law wasn't to give you an excuse to retaliate or you know what you have to retaliate but only up to this much no that's not the point of all that wasn't the spirit of the law they took the law that was supposed to keep peace and reversed it and made it a law of vengeance a law to retaliate personally on a personal level and Jesus what he's pointing out here is a heart issue and that's really that what he cares about and he wants hearts that desire love and peace revengeance that we strive to overcome evil with good and our personal relationships that we instead of immediately retaliate for every little insult that hurts our ego that we provide good instead we offer good instead we offer kindness we offered love instead said in another way instead of the starting point which was when their mindset being and to be honest it's kind of an our mindset somebody did X to me so I have to retaliate up to this much he said how about a different starting point always start with selfless love even when you are being you know insulted even when you're you're being hurt by the person in front of you all we start with selfless love again not at the cost of again social injustice or anything like that again let's not put up the guards and think of all the excuses but how do I practically apply that in my life today ask yourself the question like I ask myself the question someone insults me how do I react someone insults me how do I react someone back stabs me what's my first inclination well what am i tempted to do is it selfless love is it how do I overcome evil with good in this specific situation is that our natural reaction the bar has been raised a lot when Jesus came the bar was raised and and they took something that was in the law twisted it and he said I'm not gonna only untwist it but I'm gonna raise the bar instead of seeking vengeance that is disproportionate let your starting point be selfless love how do I overcome evil with good seek what the other person is in need of first the person that hurt you and this is a complete rewiring a recreating of how we think and act and relate to one another and this was a very difficult thing that you just gave if you've been following along with us in the in the book of Acts Acts chapter 21 okay so during the Apostles past we've been reading the book of Acts and at this point hopefully everyone has done but if not you can continue reading obviously Acts chapter 21 is become one of my favorite chapters in all the book of Acts and it's basically a story about how st. Paul is he goes back to Jerusalem meets with the Apostles the Apostles say hey just to settle everything down how about you go perform a ritual in Temple the cleansing ritual just so the the the Jewish believers who are really tight about the law they're just at ease in this situation and he says fine simple probably didn't even really neat think he needed to go but he was like okay fine I'll go to the temple and I'll do this ritual he goes to the temple mining his own business and all of a sudden a group of people attack him drive him out of the temple and beat him almost to death and the only reason they stopped the only reason they stopped is because Roman guards come and the commander comes and he heard that there's a riot here there's there's craziness happening so he comes and then they stop and as he stops as they stopped the Roman guards it says the soldiers had to pick him up because the violence was so devastating he couldn't even lift himself up he was on the brink of death fierce and Paul how do you act in that situation and this this is way beyond I was all about insults before this was physical violence that he received for the sake of the gospel how do you react how would I react the so pick up Saint Paul he licks at the commander and he says let me speak to the people let you speak to the people yeah of course I mean you're gonna give them the business you're gonna tell them the wrath of God you're gonna get you gonna give it to him and you should nobody would have even said anything you should st. Paul you you go do your thing then he continues to preach the gospel to them and how Jesus completely altered his way of thinking and how he was once one of those people who was involved in the violence against the church in the persecution against the church says this is why I'm not anymore when st. Paul was on the brink of death people beating him and they are basically happy that he's going to go away that he's gonna leave the commanders are gonna take him they're gonna drive him away and they say yet take him away fear st. Paul fom Saint Paul thank God the Roman soldiers rescued me thank God his response let me just give it one more time let me just give it one more chance I just won't speak to the people I want to proclaim the good news to them maybe they'll change their minds I always start with selfless love not retaliation not vengeance always start with selfless love and this gives us hope someone like Saint Paul who was on the opposite side of Christianity for a long time when he became part of the Christian movement this is what the Holy Spirit and God did in his life in his heart that he was able to endure such persecutions that he could preach to the people despite them insulting him that's an extreme example I don't know many of us that are going through something like that today but with that being said how do we react when people insult us when people hurt us is our inclination is I'm going to continue to love I'm gonna continue to show that person that you know what I'm gonna try to be good to you to be conscious to be compassionate to show you grace to show you love show you kindness what's our reaction and if that wasn't hard enough Jesus continues in the passage and he says the following you have heard that it was said again you have heard that it was said this is common saying love your neighbor and hate your enemies okay loving your neighbor is a good thing hate your enemies but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your father in heaven he causes his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous if you love those who love you what reward will you get are not even the tax collectors doing that and if you greet only your own people what are you doing more than others do not even pagans do that be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect well what are your guards this time we went through our you know our guards the first time what are your guards this time it's a nice saying and everything just tell you kind of what goes on in my head like I'm sure it goes on in your head but I mean I don't really have enemies like yeah Jesus speaking to the Jewish people at their time this isn't really a practical thing for me today is a difficult teaching for sure for them but I don't really have enemies are you sure let's talk about them first put them in context they had enemies everywhere they looked Romans exploited them at every turn violent towards them tax them too highly took advantage of them exploited them it was just miserable experience under the Romans they hated them Samaritans she gave a parable to get Samaritan to make a point the good saying a Good Samaritan was an oxymoron Jews and Samaritans hated each other too different than us believe different things tax collectors Romans are one thing they conquered us tax collectors they're a bunch of sellouts they sold us out they betrayed us in order to make money they literally sold us out they had no shortage of enemies but what about us I mean we don't certainly have people in our lives that we think are too controlling do we people in authority that we despise do we certainly we don't have people that have different ideologies like the Jews and Samaritans have different ideologies and beliefs we don't have that in our lives people have different ideologies and beliefs that only if they could see the world the way I see it we would be on better terms and certainly we don't have people that have betrayed us insulted us or took advantage of us right good have any enemies right what's an enemy an enemy is anyone that opposes it opposes you and opposes me in any way in any of the ways I listed are many other ways whether they are right or wrong in their position that's the definition of an enemy someone that opposes me and it is precisely that person the oppressor the betrayer the person who opposes me who I'm at odds with that Jesus is calling me to love another word you don't got to agree with them to love them even if you're mad with them you got to love them even if you don't like them you still have to love them and that is exactly the paradigm shift that Jesus was trying to ingrain in the minds of the people in his time but is also trying to do with us today we have to be honest with ourselves whenever we're going through these difficult teachings of Christ where he's raising the bar so high that we say you know what you're right I do have people that oppose me we just don't like the word enemy but that's what an enemy is you're right Lord I'm not good at taking insults that damage my ego my immediate inclination is to retaliate you're right in this situation we talked about always start with selfless love first set of retaliation in the first example that Jesus gave what about this one is there anything practically I can do to start loving my enemy like where do I even begin before I get to this next point you're gonna be tempted to tune me off once I show you the next slide don't this is actually the words of Jesus not mine this is what he tells us to do prayer is the remedy bitterness prayer is the remedy for opposition for hate whatever you want to call it prayer is the remedy for that and I know this may seem out of left field but I didn't make it up in fact it's Jesus himself who says and sometimes you skip over this part of the verse because we don't think about it love your enemies and you didn't stop there love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that seems like a strange command in the middle of a statement about love I get love your enemies okay kind of I get but pray for them what's prayer gonna do you see it's easy to pray for somebody you love for their goodness sincerely and genuinely it's easy for me to stand up and pray for family members to pray for you know church members and and people that I love that I adore but have you ever tried to pray for somebody that you're angry with have you ever tried to pray for someone that you're bitter at someone you haven't forgiven someone you completely disagree with and you find yourself always at odds with fighting against someone who from your stance from your vantage point seems to be pure evil have you ever tried to pray for that person and I know we already agreed that this is difficult that it's hard but again we will not substitute knowledge for obedience I can not you know from my from my mind I can say it's too difficult not practical agree it's difficult but it's actually very practical we just don't want to practice it God knows exactly what he's doing if you've ever come to me before in confession or sat with me and explained a situation or a relationship where you've been at odds with someone you'll be surprised at one of the first things I I tell you is you got to pray for that person and most people don't want to hear that you know most people are what's prayer have to do with any of this Pryor's a mystery and and prayer is something that transforms the hearts of others but also our own hearts prayer is our communication with God and putting everything before him and if praying for someone else the more I engage in an act of loving on someone through prayer praying for their good genuinely not like you know praying like that got spiked them or vengeance or any of that stuff but praying genuinely for their good the Holy Spirit works in my heart and in your heart and I know you you if you've done this you've experienced it when I have more grace so where's that person now you have more compassion towards that person you have more love towards that person because what you realized is what I realize when we stand out and say Lord I'm mad at so-and-so but got him I'm praying for that person Lord I'm so bitter at this person but I'm praying for their goodness for their whatever they're in need of Lord that you would provide for them and Lord teach me how to love them what you'll realize is that God the Father does the same thing with us every single day he's high he shines his son as the scripture says on both the righteous and the unrighteous the wicked and the merciful in God's eyes there are none that are holy except him so when I stand there before God and I ask for things and he provides me the things that I need he's providing it to someone who is wicked not holy so how can I pray for someone so they did this this and this what have you done before God are you perfect and you know I'm sure you're better than me but are you perfect and God still shows mercy and God still shows love and that is why Jesus equates this to imitating the Father that is the true sign of someone who imitates the father because that's the Father's love and that's how he pours out his love towards those who are righteous and unrighteous the wicked and the merciful prayer is nothing but anything but passive so sometimes people think like pryor well that's a passive thing to do that's not really an active thing to do far from it prayers active and prayer is hard prayers not easy is actually easier to do things than to pray so Jesus is challenge for us to pray for those who persecute us for those who oppose us that's a very active thing to do you want a practical you got it now it's on us to practice it to be obedient to it if you're really thinking to yourself these are really hard teachings and and you know look I get that these are the teachings of Christ I get I'm supposed to obey them you know I'm with you so far I get that we're not supposed to substitute knowledge for obedience but man these are hard like these might be even impossible like just can tell us a break Jesus these are hard teachings don't worry you're not on your own if you were on your own you have every right to be worried but you're not on your own you want to think that this is impossible that this can't be done I just told you an example about st. Paul and there's so many other examples in Scripture that show us that it can be done that we can do this when we're when we are letting God work in our lives sincerely eggs Andrus is it this way but perhaps you will object saying within yourself Christ was God but I'm a frail man you speak rightly for the mind of man easily slides into wrongdoing you're right the mind of man easily slides into wrongdoing next slide nevertheless I say the Lord has not left you destitute of his compassion and love he is by your side yes even within you by the Holy Spirit for we are his home and he lodges in the souls of them that love him he rests in souls of them that love him he gives you strength to bear nobly whatever may come and to courageously resist the attacks of temptations this isn't a random quote by sensing over you Alexander this is actually commentary on this specific passage and and he is making the point that hey I get that this seems impractical I get that this seems impossible that this seems too hard it seems too difficult God didn't ask you to do this on your own he lives within you by the power of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit God Himself lives in you and he will be the one that will guide you through it our temptation throughout this series including today will be to look at these difficult teachings and say oh yeah that's nice yeah I knew that already but that's not what Christ is going for or even you know what I'm gonna put my guards up here because I have this excuse to succeeds but what was really the context this really applied to me is it really relevant today that's not the point the point very simply was to obey and to change the whole world through this obedience Jesus wasn't given teachings just to give them he was giving teachings to establish this new upside-down kingdom that things worked counter-intuitively but they worked the way that he works he wanted us to imitate what he does will we choose the path of selfless love in the passage today always start with selfless love or will we choose with retaliation no what's mine is mine what's fair is fair and our personal relationships and our dealing with one another well we let things go well we forgive well we love well we give back well we look at people who opposed us and we'll we want to you know spite them want to hate them want to be bitter towards them what we pray for them pray for them sincerely and genuinely and see what God does through the mystery of prayer in our lives this path isn't an easy one this is challenging but as Christians that's what we're called to do we're called to live against the status quo we're not called to live the way that society expects us to behave we're called to rise above that and person chose this level of hate I show this level of love person shows this level of anger I showed this level of kindness and compassion and grace and we're not going to do it on our own we have no shot to do it on our own but God has promised us by the power of the Holy Spirit that he will help us to do that if we will just obey and listen and not substitute knowledge for obedience let's bow our heads for prayer name of the Father the Son and Holy Spirit one God amen Lord we thank you so much for allowing us to meditate on your words to know your words and to learn your words but more importantly Lord to be called to obey what you have taught us through your beautiful wonderful teachings that will truly change the world change us and change everyone around us teach us Lord what it means to truly live by myself las' love and not to retaliate and to truly love our enemies anyone that is opposing us Lord teach us Lord how to do that by the power and grace of your Holy Spirit who lives inside us we ask you Lord that you hear our prayers through the intercessions of all your saints ears as we pray thankfully our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil one in Christ Jesus our Lord finds a kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever amen thank you all so much hope everyone has a wonderful week and we'll see you all here next week [Music]

Channel: STSA Church

Views: 1,787

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: mEoHUjvI-8U

Length: 29min 47sec (1787 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 12 2020