Introduction:
Who Are My Enemies?
- My enemies are people With bad intentions .
- My enemies are Who I say they are .
Jesus's Example (Romans 5:8-11)
Romans 5:8,10-11 - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us... For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Titus 3:3-5 - For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy...
To Love My Enemies:
- I must prepare To be humiliated . (Luke 6:27b-30)
- I must see that Reciprocity is not love . (Luke 6:32-34)
- I must Intentionally love them the way God does . (Luke 6:31,35-36)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:15-01:18
Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 6.
01:19-01:23
We're gonna be looking at verses 27 through 36 this morning.
01:24-01:26
This is one of the hard teachings of Jesus.
01:27-01:35
He says, "Love your enemies." He's our master, we are his slaves, so we must obey his commandments.
01:36-01:39
And we're his friends when we keep his commands.
01:41-01:53
This one is tough, but we must love our enemies we don't, we slam the door on the gospel, we become a hindrance rather than a help to our enemy's salvation.
01:54-01:55
That's the sermon.
01:56-02:07
We must love our enemies because living out the gospel before them is more important than our pride, our reputation, and our drive for self-preservation.
02:09-02:11
But there's exceptions to every rule, right?
02:13-02:14
Right?
02:14-02:15
Nobody agreed?
02:15-02:16
There's exceptions to every rule.
02:17-02:20
So, let's pray.
02:22-02:30
Our gracious, loving Father, all this month, we are looking at how to love difficult people.
02:32-02:37
Perhaps none so difficult as those we believe to be our enemies.
02:40-02:42
Perhaps no one needs to hear this sermon more than me.
02:44-02:46
I am not a master of these things.
02:46-02:48
I have by no means arrived.
02:51-02:56
I am just the messenger this morning of your truth.
02:58-03:10
And I pray your people hear, not me, but we hear from you that your word brings deep conviction.
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and out of conviction, sorrow, and out of sorrow, repentance, and out of repentance, love, reconciliation, friendship, that our lives might be a living witness to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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Lord, it's in your name we ask that you do this.
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Luke 6.27, are you there?
03:49-03:55
This morning I don't have an amusing story or anecdote to start us off.
03:56-04:01
I don't think I have any clever or amusing illustrations to interject along the way.
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It seemed best to me to deal with this scripture straight up and not smooth it over or make you feel at ease with it.
04:11-04:15
I am aiming for conviction and not contentment.
04:17-04:21
The setting for our text is known as Jesus' Sermon on the Plain.
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He had spent the previous night in prayer on a mountain after which he appointed his 12 apostles.
04:28-04:41
And as he comes down from the mountain, he's met by a great crowd of disciples and a multitude of people, Jews and Gentiles from all over, from Jerusalem, Judea, and the seacoast cities of Tyre and Sidon.
04:42-04:48
They came to be healed of their diseases, to be delivered from their demons, but also to hear Him.
04:50-05:00
We pick up at verse 27 where Jesus says, "But I say to you who hear," let's stop there, what does He mean, "you who hear"?
05:00-05:49
It's like another phrase Jesus often used, "Let him who has ears to hear, hear." Jesus is pointing out that this next part is not going to be accepted by everybody, including his disciples. It's going to be so different, so difficult, that people are going to reject it. They're going to say, "He doesn't really mean that. It's something we should try to do, but Jesus doesn't really expect us to do this. Oh but he does. Jesus never says anything like, "I strongly encourage you to do this," or "Hey this is a key life hack for all of my disciples." No, Jesus means what he says and he says what he means. And what he is about to say is for those who are willing to hear.
05:51-06:53
It's going to be a difficult teaching and people, many people, are going to reject it. What about you? Are you going to have ears to hear this message? Are you willing to say right now, "I'm going to listen to every single thing that Jesus says in this passage." And what's the first thing that he says? "Love your enemies." Really? Really? Love my enemies? Notice he doesn't say, "Don't have enemies or try not to have enemies and he doesn't say love your enemy he says love your enemies enemies are a fact of life and we all have more than one and Jesus says we must love them let's break this down a little bit further we've looked at the definition of love already in this series this is a gap a love love that is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional.
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It's the highest form of love, the love that God has for His people.
07:00-07:02
And His love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13.
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It's a verb, an active, doing love.
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And who is it to be lavished on?
07:11-07:11
Your enemies.
07:13-07:27
Now you might be like the lawyer that we studied in Dan's sermon at the beginning of the month, who wanted to justify himself and said, "Who's my neighbor?" You may say, "Well, who are my enemies?" I don't think I have any enemies.
07:28-07:32
Since I don't have any enemies to love, I'm going to think about something else for a while this morning.
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But you do have enemies.
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Let's look at how we define them.
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First, my enemies are people with bad intentions.
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An enemy is someone who wants to harm you or hurt you.
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An enemy wants to take something from you.
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They may want to destroy you.
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Now, I need to insert a caveat here.
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The rule of law still applies.
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We have laws and police officers and judges in court.
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The whole counsel of God tells us that these authorities exist to deter and punish wrongdoers.
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You have a legal right to self-defense in our nation.
08:24-08:35
And to defend others from criminal acts, prevent grievous bodily harm, or to lay down your life for others demonstrates great love and mercy.
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So do not think I am saying you must roll over if someone is invading your home in the dead of night.
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or violently trying to harm you or another person.
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Why we have trained security here?
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To protect people.
08:57-09:07
But you know, despite sensational news stories and tragic events, the probability of those things happening especially where we live, is low.
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So our focus this morning is primarily on people who are enemies in our day-to-day relationships, and particularly because of our faith in Jesus.
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For example, the communist Chinese government is an enemy of Christians.
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They surveil them, they deprive them of jobs, and imprison them.
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Followers of other religions may be enemies.
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Try to preach the gospel or become a disciple of Jesus in an Islamic country and see what happened.
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In the last four years, we've seen pastors arrested for keeping their churches open.
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We've seen pro-life advocates arrested in nighttime SWAT raids for maximum shock effect and then prosecuted.
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We've seen Antifa openly attack Christians holding a public prayer service.
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We've seen Christian bakers and photographers relentlessly persecuted for their deeply held convictions.
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And if radical groups will assault Jews on college campuses, could we imagine they would not do the same to Christians?
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So yes, we do have real enemies in this world.
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Now again, statistically, few of us are going to face these sorts of bad actors.
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But at one time or another, we've faced bullies despise us. We encounter people who hate us because of our color, our religion, our ancestry, our economic situation, or our perceived privileges. And there are many ways an enemy can seek to destroy us with gossip and lies, rumor-mongering, backstabbing. Enemies can wreck your reputation. They sow seeds of mistrust.
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They may try to tear you down to your face or in front of others just to build themselves up.
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They may be so angry at you that they lash out verbally. They may smash or destroy your property. They may even assault you. But look, rather than me try to answer for all of us the question, "Who are my enemies?" A better indicator would be this, "My enemies are who I say they are.
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That's right.
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Your enemies are who you define them to be.
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They could be family members or former friends.
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They've stabbed you in the back or done something you consider unforgivable.
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They've lied about you.
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They've broken confidences and broken faith.
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You loan them something, and they never returned it.
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They're ungrateful.
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They take advantage of you.
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Your enemies can be anyone with whom you find fault.
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You don't like the things they say or the way they say them.
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Maybe they've called you out on something or told you what you needed to hear, and instead of humbly accepting that truth, you justify yourself instead and put them on your dirt list.
12:22-12:31
Your enemies are the politicians you despise, people who hold a different political viewpoint, and the people you rail against on social media.
12:33-12:39
Maybe you're angry or bewildered at such people, and you wonder, how can people be so hateful?
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The same people who rightly decry mass shootings one week are this week wailing, the assassin missed.
12:49-12:49
And you know what?
12:49-12:51
It's his own fault he got shot anyway.
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Well, you know, such hypocrisy, we can't let that go unchecked, can we?
12:59-13:03
All week there have been plenty of people jumping in and verbally thumping their enemies.
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Did you get your licks into maybe?
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Those people, those people, who do they think they are?
13:10-13:14
Their big egos and their boastful and hateful ideas.
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You despise their values and their positions on abortion and human sexuality and welfare and immigration or innumerable other subjects.
13:26-13:30
In your thinking and your imagination, they are all enemies.
13:34-13:38
Perhaps you've defined your enemies by what you've done to them.
13:40-13:56
Maybe you haven't returned what was owed or done what was right and found it more convenient to jettison the relationship and find fault with the other person than to confess and ask for forgiveness and seek reconciliation.
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Maybe you are the giver of unsolicited sage advice and it was rejected and pride has led you to reject and break off the relationship.
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You've been the gossip, the liar, the rumor monger, backstabber. You've spitefully used others, exchanged harsh words, or acted in your own self-interest. You haven't just burned the bridges, you've blown them to smithereens, and all your enemies are self-made.
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However you have come by your enemies, however you define them, Jesus says you You are to love them, love them sacrificially, unconditionally, selflessly.
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Does he really mean that?
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It would be good to look at Jesus' example, see if he really means what he says.
14:56-15:00
Let's look at Romans chapter 5, verses 8 and 10 and 11.
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God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
15:11-15:23
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life?
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More than that, we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." Think about that for a moment.
15:37-16:08
Before we repented and believed in Jesus, we were all enemies of God. We indulged in high-handed sin against him and against others. Titus chapter 3 verses 3 through 5 says that we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and other pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
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When the goodness and loving kindness of God appeared, our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.
16:23-16:27
That's a good description of people living as enemies of God and people, isn't it?
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Passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
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There's a great deal of malice and hate flying around right now.
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But God, but God, aren't those the best words?
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But God saved us and reconciled us to himself while we were his diehard enemies.
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Jesus did that out of great love and mercy for us.
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And what did that look like?
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What had to be done to destroy the hostility between us and God?
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Well it required the death of Jesus.
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It involved betrayal, a nighttime arrest with force, an abandonment and denial by his friends.
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The betrayal led to assaults, beatings, and an illegal trial by his enemies.
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And it led to the full force of an indifferent, cruel, but civilized world power that mercilessly flogged him and subjected him to a brutal and humiliating death a cross. Rome used the cross as the most agonizing and protracted method of punishment to humiliate the convict and to terrify others.
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We should not sentimentalize Jesus on the cross. Some churches will display an empty cross or a crucifix with Jesus bleeding a little bit and a cloth wrapped around his ways, but the reality is he hung up there naked and bloody in front of his mother, naked in front of the women who followed him, in front of the religious leaders who hated him, and for all the world to see.
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The Son of God, naked and humiliated and covered with shame for you when you were his enemy. Write this down in the margin of your notes. My Jesus.
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My Jesus naked and humiliated for me. Underline humiliated. It'll be a handy reference point for the rest of this message. You see, when Jesus says love your enemies, He knows the full measure of what it means and what it involves.
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So let's proceed and get the full extent of what Jesus wants us to do.
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Look at verses 27 through 30.
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Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from the one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back." I thought about the ways I could make this next point. To love my enemies, I must prepare to do the unexpected, or to love my enemies I must prepare to act contrary to my own self-interest.
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But those don't do justice to what Jesus is saying.
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To love my enemies I must prepare to be humiliated. Not just humbled, not just act with humility, but outright humiliation.
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Such an idea is so foreign and abhorrent to us that our response is almost immediately, "That can't be what Jesus meant." Although we have all been humiliated one or more times in our lives, it wasn't willingly.
20:28-20:39
Our drive for self-preservation rejects humiliation. When we're wronged, when someone does something bad to us, we want to strike back. We want revenge.
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but look at the examples that Jesus uses. Far from retaliation, Jesus says we're to do good to those who hate us. We're to bless in response to cursing. We're to pray for those who abuse us.
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Just like Jesus, naked and humiliated, said, "Father, forgive them.
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They don't know what they do." He says to offer your other cheek to the one who strikes you.
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Now, we aren't accustomed to getting slapped in the face all that often, I hope.
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But the picture here, it's a humiliating slap to the face in the ancient world, such as a master slapping a servant.
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But in our day, it might look something like this.
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A superior deliberately insulting a subordinate in front of others.
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It could be a snide remark or a sarcastic comment calculated to make you feel foolish or look small.
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It's a snub intended to cause you maximum embarrassment.
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Jesus says, "When that happens, don't retaliate." Allow yourself to be humiliated and bear the insult with self-control, and you will display a kind of dignity that is foreign to this world.
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Jesus says if someone takes away your cloak, don't withhold your tunic.
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Now in the first century, people would wear this loose linen garment next to their body as a tunic, be pinned or sewn at the shoulders, and then they might wear a cloak over top of that.
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You could compare it to the way we wear a jacket over a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
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Jesus says if someone takes away your cloak, either by force or to collect a debt, give them your tunic too.
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Go the extra measure, go the extra mile.
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Basically saying, be willing to strip down to your underwear.
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We all know how embarrassing or humiliating that might be, right?
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How many of us have had the dream of waking up, of going to school in your underwear?
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But seriously, what Jesus means here is this.
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Your willingness to be humiliated by your enemies will lay down a bright line between your behavior and theirs.
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While they're doing something wicked, you will be a living illustration of the gospel.
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We had a sermon a few weeks back on suffering because really this kind of response to our enemies is going to involve suffering.
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But in the passage from Philippians 1, Paul wrote that living a life worthy of the gospel is a clear sign to your opponents or your enemies of their destruction, but your salvation, and that from God.
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You see, it seems counterintuitive, but our willingness to suffer humiliation for the gospel can produce conviction in our enemies.
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For instance, when one of the Roman soldiers who threw dice for Jesus' tunic saw how he breathed his last, he said, "Truly, this man was the son of God." Last, Jesus says, "To everyone who begs from you "and from one who takes away your goods, "do not demand them back." We get mad when we loan stuff to people and they don't return it.
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Jesus goes a step further, says, "Don't ever ask for it back.
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"Don't demand back what people take from you." We see this with kids, right?
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Children playing with toys, a child grabs a toy from another, and the immediate response is, "Give that back!" And there's tussling and fighting and a big disturbance.
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In adult life, it could be something as simple as Someone takes away your parking place that you've been patiently waiting for.
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Someone grabs the last item off the store shelf, that item you wanted.
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Remember Black Friday?
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People cut in line, they take the job that you wanted.
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They get the bonus you deserve.
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They take the plum project you needed to get promoted.
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They take away your family and your friends.
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They seek to steal away those you love through slander and lies.
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When you respond to such injustices with patience and self-control, your behavior produces conviction, and it may very well lead to your enemy's salvation.
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We see this in Scripture with Paul, who approved of Stephen's stoning and heard him cry out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus made it clear to him that he wasn't persecuting believers. Paul was persecuting Jesus himself. We need to understand that when people attack us, especially for our faith in Jesus, they are in reality attacking him.
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Whether we are attacked for our faith, We're insulted or others take something from us, our response is to be the same.
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We are to give way for the sake of Christ. We live out the gospel by dying to our pride and our self-interest for the sake of our enemies.
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And we trust that God will make all things right on our behalf. We need to make room for God to redress the wrongs done to us and to not take matters into our own hands.
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Now you may be thinking to yourself, "This is crazy talk.
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This is not what I signed up for when I gave my heart to Jesus.
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This isn't what I agreed to when I made Jesus the Lord of my life." Well you're right.
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You think you have any ability to make the sovereign of the universe Lord of anything and that you can tell him which of his commands apply to you and which ones don't? You will misunderstand the gospel. While you may be listening, you're not hearing what Jesus is saying.
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You may instead be thinking, "Sprunk, you are out of your ever-loving mind if you think I'm ever going to stoop before my enemies.
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That's not the Christianity I signed up for.
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No, no, no, no.
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I believe in a robust, aggressive faith wrapped in patriotism and the flag.
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I want a religion that lets me fight back when my enemies insult me or my god.
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I want a religion that lets me bust my enemies' heads, unleash righteous reprisals on sinners and heretics.
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Plenty of those kinds of religions out there if you want them.
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And unfortunately, the church has a history of that kind of behavior too.
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But such behavior does not represent Jesus.
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And that's not what Jesus is teaching here.
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The one who hung naked and humiliated for you says we are to love our enemies.
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And if I'm going to love my enemies, I must see that reciprocity is not love.
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Let's look at verse 32, where Jesus points out that reciprocity in our relationship with others is a worldly standard.
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He says, "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?
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For even sinners love those who love them.
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And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?
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Even sinners do the same.
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If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?
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Even sinners lend to sinners and get back the same amount.
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So much of what we do in our lives is based on reciprocity.
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You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
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You do something good for me, I'll do something good for you, and we'll get along just fine.
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This isn't even love, really.
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It's just transactional living.
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It's just business, so to speak.
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How many of your relationships are purely transactional?
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Just reciprocal?
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Your marriage?
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Your family relationships?
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Your relationships here at Harvest?
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Jesus points out that reciprocity is not the same loving your enemies. As I said reciprocity doesn't even qualify as love because that's the way the world operates. It's what sinners do for other sinners. You do something good to those who have done you a good turn or you only do good because you hope they will do something good for you. Well, you're just like everybody else. And if we're only being kind and generous and forgiving with others who are kind and generous and forgiving with us? We look just like everybody else in the world. There's nothing in our lives or our testimony that makes us distinct from unbelievers. Jesus says there's no credit in reciprocity, no benefit whatsoever.
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He says if you lend to others expecting something in return, what credit is that? Now while we may think of someone loaning money to another expecting repayment the real sense here is we give things away we do things with an expectation of return.
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The real sense here is creating obligations. For example, I did you a favor now you owe me a favor in equal measure. I stuck up for you during that meeting I took your position I advocated for you now you owe me politicians and dealmakers do this all the time but Jesus says if that's how you operate you look just like the sinners who support other sinners as we'll see shortly Jesus calls us to a different and higher standard but before we get to that I'll briefly touch on reciprocity with our enemies Did you think I was talking about enemies?
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No, I was talking how we deal with each other.
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That's how we deal with friends.
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But we engage in reciprocity with our enemies too.
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See, while we engage in favorable reciprocal behavior with those we love and like, when it comes to our enemies, we tend to engage in aggressive or passive reciprocal behaviors.
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When someone wrongs us, as I said, we wanna fight back.
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We wanna respond in kind.
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We want to lash out and justify ourselves.
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We want eye for eye.
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We want tooth for tooth.
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We want to satisfy our pride and be able to say, "I showed him." And when we respond in kind, that person remains our enemy.
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And we've denied the gospel.
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We've closed the door to reconciliation.
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The other tendency is to step away and have no further dealings with people whom we consider to be our enemies.
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Of course, if someone is being physically or emotionally abusive, then yes, there absolutely needs to be physical distance from that person.
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But recall our earlier conversation about the reasons relationships break.
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Lies, pride, mistrust, selfishness, backstabbing, and so forth.
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When someone deals with us in such ways, we typically cut off all contact with that person.
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Rather than being guarded in our future dealings with such people, we think it better to write them off completely. And we typically don't stop there, do we?
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We want everyone to know what they did to us and what we think of them, So others will view my enemies as their enemies.
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I had two aunts, both professing believers in Jesus, who would get into loud and angry fights over petty things, and they would not speak to each other for months at a time, sometimes for a year or more. And they would belittle one another. They would belittle each other to other family members, seeking allies and approvals, and "oh you poor thing, of course you were right" justification. You can well imagine how such antics affected the rest of the family. And guess how many family members came to faith in Jesus Christ because of their example.
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What if Jesus had treated us reciprocally for our sin and rebellion instead of dying for us when we were his enemies? We would still be alone and without God in the world.
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We would be without hope. We would still be passing our days in malice and envy, being hated by others, and hating one another. We would still be subject to God's wrath.
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No, our Savior loved us while we were His enemies.
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And following Jesus' example and command and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are to intentionally love our enemies.
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If you're treating people the same way unbelievers treat one another, how do you prove you're a genuine Christian?
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Is there enough evidence to convict you of being a disciple of Jesus?
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of being a slave of Jesus Christ, would someone point to you and say, there goes another hypocritical Christian?
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Or would they say, she doesn't act like anything like my image of a stereotypical Christian.
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There is something really different about her.
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Well, let's turn next to what that difference must be.
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to love my enemies, I must intentionally love them the way God does.
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Jesus returns to where he began at verse 35.
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But love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return.
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And your reward will be great.
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And you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
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Be merciful, even as your father is merciful.
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Jesus calls us to a much, much higher standard.
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There is so much in these two verses that we don't want to do.
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You may have noticed I skipped a verse.
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I purposely saved it for now because it helpfully frames what Jesus commands in verses 35 and 36.
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Look back to verse 31.
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"As you wish what others would do to you, Do so for them.
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This sums up how we are to love our enemies.
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You probably know this is the golden rule.
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It's an idea expressed in other cultures and religions around the world from ancient times.
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But it was typically stated in the negative as, don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you.
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There's a difference between do to others and don't do to others.
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"To do to others you must act, "but don't do requires no effort at all, "and no engagement with people whatsoever." How do we share the gospel if we don't engage with people?
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If we only engage with people who have already heard the gospel, with people we like, we aren't loving our enemies.
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Paul said he made it his ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who've never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.
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Remember, unbelievers are living as enemies of God, no matter how moral and upright they may seem.
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Just as the Father sent Jesus, He sent His disciples, He sent Paul, He sends us.
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We're glad someone shared the gospel with us, are we not?
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And they did so because they obeyed Jesus' command to do to others.
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That was love.
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Whereas the negative form, don't do to others, puts us right back at reciprocal living.
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It's not love.
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Have you been practicing a don't do to others version of Christianity?
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You know who lived like this?
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The Pharisees.
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They acted like they were on the moral high ground, but they hated everyone who wasn't like them.
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Jesus said to them, "But woe, you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
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For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.
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For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in." Would Jesus say that of us?
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Would he say, "Instead of loving your enemies like I told you to, you treated them hatefully and shut the kingdom of heaven in their faces.
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Your behavior caused them to despise me and the gospel, because you behaved hypocritically." We must understand that Jesus' command to love our enemies obliterates living as we know it. We cannot continue to live the way we have been. You and I must intentionally love others, including our enemies. We are to affirmatively do to others what you would have them do to you, without being asked, without expectation of return. Indeed, you should not expect any kind of return from others. Now Jesus gives us some very practical ways to love our enemies by doing what we wish they would do for us. Look back at verses 27, 28, and 35.
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First he says, "Do good to those who hate you." Are you treating people with respect? Do you honor everyone?
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As Peter says we are to do in 1st Peter 2 .17.
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Are your interactions with unbelievers characterized by civility and kindness?
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Is there some good deed you could do for an enemy?
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Some yard work, a meal perhaps, contribute financially if he or she has need.
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And Jesus says, "Bless those who curse you." Do you respond to curses with curses?
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Or can you let it go?
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Are you responding in kind to hateful angry comments online or are you giving a soft answer that turns away wrath? Are you able to resist answering a fool according to his folly so that you don't become like him or her or yourself?
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Jesus says pray for those who abuse you. When was the last time you prayed for an enemy?
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This is both the easiest and hardest thing to do, and I confess I have seldom prayed for my enemies.
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But we can pray.
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We can pray for repentance that leads to salvation, for reconciliation, and for guidance from the Lord how we might change the relationship.
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Then Jesus says, "Lend, give stuff away, it's only stuff.
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You can't keep it, your kids don't want it, and ultimately it's all going to burn.
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But Jesus says you can make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth.
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Through generosity, you can make friends out of enemies.
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And through that open door lies the opportunity to share the gospel.
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Finally, Jesus says be merciful and extend forgiveness.
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Why?
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Why, because your heavenly Father is merciful forgiven you.
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Do you want others to grant you mercy and forgiveness?
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Of course you do.
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Forgive, even if your enemy hasn't asked for forgiveness.
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Why? Because it will set you free from bitterness. I have some personal experience with this.
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And if you've wronged someone and made them your enemy, seek forgiveness if it's possible to do so.
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Jesus says we should expect nothing in return, but also why we are to do these things.
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Because our reward will be great and we will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
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It should convict and astonish us that God has been merciful and kind to the evilest people who have ever walked the earth. He gave them breath and food and covering, senses to experience creation, and yet they spurned his great provision and did evil horrible things.
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We may get nothing from our enemies in response to loving them.
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They may remain ungrateful and evil, but we will have a reward from our Heavenly Father.
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And we will be sons of the Most High. Yes, ladies, you too.
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This is the greatest position anyone can have. Greater than president, greater than CEO.
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To be a son of God is to be esteemed by Him, to be embraced in His love and protection, and to enjoy all the temporary and eternal benefits bestowed by your heavenly Father.
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As the worship team returns to the stage, we're going to conclude where we began.
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We must love our enemies, because living out the gospel is more important than our pride, our reputation, and our drive for self-preservation. And remember, Jesus doesn't say, "Love Or, "Love your enemies, except when..." No, there's no exceptions to the command.
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When we intentionally love our enemies, we show that our salvation is not about us, but about Jesus' love for his enemies.
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In a sense, our salvation isn't even really for us, but rather for others.
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Certainly, we enjoy all the benefits of salvation, do we not?
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The love of our Abba Father, reconciliation with Him, adoption, joy, peace, rest, eternal life, and many more things. But if we just turn inward with our salvation and only love and do good to those who love us and are like us, we're missing the Great Commission and the point of salvation. We are saved to proclaim the gospel to the world, to our families, our friends, and to our enemies. Just as Jesus' love for us when we were his enemies led to his suffering and humiliation for our salvation, intentionally loving our enemies proclaims the gospel.
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It may lead to our suffering and humiliation, but it may also lead to our enemy's salvation.
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Hating our enemies does not lead to salvation, nor does reciprocal living.
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Only intentional love, selfless, sacrificial, humble to the point of humiliation can do that.
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That is how Jesus loves us. Now we must go and do likewise. Let's pray.
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Almighty, loving God and Father, we praise you and I pray, Father, you transform our hearts, transform our minds, transform our actions by your holy word.
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Move us, use us to love one another, to love our enemies, just as you do.
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We ask in your great name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 6:27-36
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are obstacles we face in loving our enemies?
Think of a time you were humiliated by someone – how were you wounded (physically, mentally, emotionally, or in your concept of self)? How is it different if we are humiliated for Christ (i.e., is there a greater purpose for our suffering)?
What are some ways you live reciprocally with others? What changes will you need to make to move beyond reciprocal living?
What can we do to love our enemies?
BONUS QUESTION: What is the reward for loving our enemies? Is that reward valuable to you?
Breakout
Pray for one another.