01.16.2011 The Sermon on the Mount 3 - When are we most like God?

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Lord, thank You for the opportunities You give us. Help us as we go to Honduras to be a testimony as we build a house for this widow. As we look at Your sermon – the best sermon ever preached – help us to learn to be like You – to follow this radical message You gave – extreme, but what You expect of us – how You lived and how You want us to live. We commit ourselves to learning to live this sermon as disciples of Your Kingdom. In Your name we pray.

There are 4 passages in this section where Jesus reinterprets the disciples, and those listening – their understanding of the Law.
Matt. 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you 45 in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more [than others]? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus starts this – the fifth time – you have heard it said – then he quotes a verse from the Old Testament – and then adds something to it to apply it to their lives – and then, But I say to you… - and gives the reinterpretation of what this Law is about. He focuses their attention on love. Love your neighbor. This is the Great Commandment – Love the Lord, Love your neighbor – if you do these two things – you do it all!
If you truly do this, you are accomplishing the whole of the Old Testament Law.
Love your neighbor as yourself – Leviticus 18:19
Hate your enemy – that is not to be found! That is not a verse he is quoting. He is revealing to the Jews a mistake they have made in their interpretation of the Law. The Jews – when they boiled down Leviticus 18:19 – it was boiled down to loving those who are like them – but Jesus said, what good is that? They thought it should mean others who are like me! …but who is my neighbor? The rich young ruler did this to justify himself. And Jesus tells the Story of the Good Samaritan. NO! Your neighbor is anyone in need whom God brings into your life.
Deut. 7: 2 and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3
The Jews read verses like this – and thought of God as a mean old ugly God.
Ps. 139:21 Do I not hate those who hate Thee, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against Thee? 22 I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies.
Psalm 5: 4 For Thou art not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with Thee. 5 The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity.
And they took these verses to mean that God wants us to hate our enemies. But Jesus says, Love your enemies.
This is the end of the story – the correct interpretation – nothing else needs to be said – pray for those who persecute you.
When we hear Love your enemies, we think – yeah, that’s right – we are Christians. But when they heard this the first time – it was radical and went against everything they believed. They didn’t even give love to Jewish people who were ostracized from the community – the Tax Collectors/sinners/etc.
You don’t understand Love – Jesus is telling them.
The verse right before this: Give to everyone who asks of you.
Your love needs to go to all the world. Everyone.
He goes on in the verse – 45
That you may be children of your father in heaven.
This doesn’t mean that by loving your enemy that you become a Christian. We know that we are saved by Grace – coming to Christ and by what He has done for us on the cross. Rather, the Children are to be like the Father. When you love your neighbor and your enemies – All of them – not just your singular enemy – when we love our enemies – we are most like God. That is what He is saying – this is the character of God. You shall be perfect like your heavenly father is perfect – we’re not even close – if you think you are close, you are probably further than anyone – but all of this is summed up – when you love your neighbor AND your enemies.
For these guys – they had enemies – the Romans – and they experienced religious persecution from them and from the Jews as well.
Some of us have real enemies. To my knowledge, I don’t think I do.
Second category – God wants us to love – those who may be antagonistic toward your faith. If you are a student, you probably know people who are antagonistic toward your faith – trying to get you to fail in the faith. Not that they are physical enemies.
For all of us, we may not have enemies, but unfriendly people – rude/crude individuals – people who just do stuff to make you mad! Hopefully they don’t live in the same household…. Often, they are at work or school. And God wants us to learn to love them.
Fourth – people who have wounded us – lied to us, cheated, ripped us off – abused. And God says – Love your enemy. Not that they are necessarily an enemy – but someone God calls you to love. People who are hard to love. And that is different for each of us. We are most like God when we love people who are hard to love.
What I am going to do to get practical with this – let’s look at Luke:
Luke 6: 27 "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you
3 practical way s- do deeds of kindness – acts of mercy – that could be many things – if you have someone at work who is hard to love – Jesus says – Do something good for that person – some act of kindness. That is radical! Really different!
Bless those who curse you – and I think this refers to our speech – one of the ways we show ourselves to be enemies is to gossip – to use our speech to get to people. You don’t usually get beaten up or beat others up – but I have used words, and others have used words against me… - sticks and stones…words can injure for life.
Speak well of them. And then pray. You can always pray for an enemy. You may not be able to do something good for them – or to wish them well – but you can pray for them.
29 "Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also;
You do not have the option to retaliate any more. Whether physically or in some other form.
and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.
30 "Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. 31 "And just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way.
Jesus gives 3 examples to clarify - If you love those who love you – what credit is that to you? If you do good to those who do good to you – and lend to those –
31 "And just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way. 32 "And if you love those who love you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 "And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 "And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is [that] to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same [amount.] 35 "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [men.]
Bring it down to the real world – how is it real in your life? If it doesn’t become real in your life and circumstances – we have not gone anywhere.
As a nation – we have some enemies – terrorists – even in an extreme circumstance like that – you can pray. Is there a prayer for the Czar? Yes, bless the czar and keep the czar as far away from here!
We can pray that God would speak to them and save them. That is what that enemy needs the most. Do you think a lot of Christians pray for terrorists that they would come to Christ? Do you ever pray for North Korea? Iran?
Getting more real – if there is someone in your own life – do you pray for him? Pray that God would do a work in their life so that they might have the blessing of knowing Him and living forever with Him.
Second – the Government. The Government is not your enemy – they have been appointed by God for our good – but the reality – sometimes a lot of Christians treat the government like the enemy. Pray for those in authority. President/governor/ and all – when is the last time you prayed for President Obama? Pray that God would give them wisdom and strength to lead this nation in a way that maintains peace.
We are to honor those in authority – bless! I urge you to stay away from all of the jokes. I have stopped listening to News Talk – and it has been so healthy – but it is a bunch of people speaking poorly of other people. I don’t know what is going on as much – but it is better that way. All the jokes about President Obama and Sarah Palin are not to be on our lips! Sarah Palin did nothing to you. Yes, we have freedom of speech and I have no problem with however you vote – but they are in authority and we should guard our tongues.
Work and school – you have people who are seeking their own interest – hard to get along with. Love, seek their good, speak well of them – don’t get involved in the gossip.. Think of being like your heavenly father. You know the work atmosphere – gossip and backstabbing often take place – and as a follower of Jesus – if you go in with the attitude of making others successful and not saying mean things – and helping and serving people – will they notice the difference? I think so.
The point of this – to be like our father in heaven. Our good works will be seen by people in such a way to give glory to God – and He tells how this is to happen. You do good to someone at work who has it in for you – and you show love – then you are like your father.
Hopefully you don’t have enemies here at church – but oftentimes, there are people who are hard to love – the gospel is about bringing in people who have nowhere else to go.
Imagine these poor disciples – it is almost like Jesus picked people who couldn’t get along and chose them to be together! When we come to church – we are to see ourselves as servants and to love those who are hard to love – that is the way God is with us. We think – we are easy to love. Before God rescued you – did you think you were pretty good – east for God to rescue you? But it was hard for God to love you – so hard that He had to shed His blood and die for you on a cross.
For us – to what length do we go for those who are hard to love? To love the difficult? It is honestly easy to just avoid. We don’t hate them – as Christians, we are better than that – but we avoid them – and I think that is the same as hating. James: if your brother is in need and you don’t do anything – you have not fulfilled the commandment to love.
Fifth – those who have injured/wounded us – God tells us to love them. We went into this a couple months back. So I won’t go into it – but it begins with forgiveness.
The end of Luke – is changed.
Matthew says – perfect as your heavenly father is perfect – this is a future thing
Luke: merciful as your father is merciful. – only used here and in James – but used in the Old Testament to demonstrate the character of God. You shall be merciful – because THAT IS THE QUALITY OF GOD.

Merciful – compassion – pity – the lamenting of regretting of a person’s misfortune or death.
When is the last time you lamented a person’s misfortune? And regretted? Do you know how it is when you regret something that happens in your own life and it eats at you? When has that feeling been in your toward someone else’s misfortune.
Metaphorically sympathy, pity – means to have compassion, to pity , in the sense both of a mere feeling
Mosses asked to see God’s glory – His holiness/person/all that He is – the core of His being.
Ex. 34: 6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave [the guilty] unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.
We are most like God when we are merciful to those who don’t deserve it. Who is God? Compassion. Gracious. Slow to anger. Abounding in lovingkindness
Lord, help us to love those who are hard to love – it will be different for all of us – someone who fits the bill is out there – whom you are calling us to love for Your glory – that the world might see that we are children of our Father who is in heaven – that we might demonstrate the character of God to the world.