Luke 6:20-36

Discussion Questions

1. “And He lifted his eyes on His disciples and said…” (Luke 6:20)
   How does knowing that Jesus was talking to His disciples change how you look at Luke 6:20-36? Do you assume that all following Jesus at that time believed He was the Messiah?
2. As a disciple today, how do you balance the comforts we enjoy in the West with Jesus’ words to be careful with earthly riches and rewards?
3. When you hear that we should “love our enemies (v.27),” who does God bring to mind? Name some practical ways you can love someone who you consider an enemy.
4. Eternity with God is our promise…are you living with an eternal perspective? How does this look in your day-to-day life?
5. Ryan emphasized that the well-known idea of “turn the other cheek” (v.29) does NOT refer to accepting physical abuse. It refers to allowing an insult without taking revenge. Have you been confused by this passage in the past, thinking that it means allowing abusive behavior?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at TVC, and this Sunday is no different. So, if you would like a copy of a Bible, feel free to raise your hand and someone will come around to hand one out to you. Today we will be continuing our study in the gospel of Luke, and we’ll be in Luke, Chapter 6, verses 20 to 36. And the title of my message is called “Bearing the Family Image.” Now, for those of you who don’t know, I grew up the youngest of with older brothers. Anyone else in here the baby of the family? Anybody else? Isn’t it awesome being the favorite? Isn’t that fun, right? Now, I don’t know what everyone’s experience was like with siblings, but I had brothers and growing up I had a love-hate relationship with them. There were times when my brothers and I were best friends, and we were inseparable. And then there were times when my brothers and I were mortal enemies, and we couldn’t help but fight when we were in the room together.

But though I would never admit this to their faces, I looked up to my older brothers a lot because I wanted to be like them. Both of them played soccer in high school, so I played soccer in high school. They played tennis and then not too long after I started playing tennis. They both are huge Lord of the Rings and Star Wars nerds, and so I’m a huge Lord of the Rings and Star Wars nerd. And for the most part, my brothers tread a really good path for me to follow. Except that wasn’t always the case, because one thing that my brothers loved to do growing up was watch horror movies. Anybody like watching horror movies? I’m going to pray for you, all of you individually. Now, I wasn’t very good at watching horror movies because, like I said, I was trying to fit in with my brothers, and so I wanted to protect this image.

So, as I watched these movies, I would pretend like I wasn’t scared, but internally, these movies really freaked me out. And if I’m being honest, they caused me to have a lot of unnecessary fear in my life. But in a very practical sense, this meant I was an easy target if you have a lot of fun scaring people. And so, one day, as I was putting away some clothes in my room, my brother Dylan, the middle brother, snuck up behind me. And he had on this really creepy mask that he’d gotten for Halloween, and he tapped me on the shoulder. And as I turned, it was like every fear about horror movies became a reality. And it was in that moment that my body kicked into fight or flight mode. And so, I was in the corner of my room, so that meant I had nowhere to run. There was only one option left. Without thinking about it, I unloaded one of the most fear-filled punches of my life right on the face of my brother.

And not only was I punching, but I let out this super embarrassing, high-pitched scream, which only made the moment more weird and awkward and definitely didn’t help the image of me being a tough guy. Now, thankfully, my brother laughed it off with me, and it’s a funny memory we bring up sometimes. But here’s why I tell this story, because every decision I made in the moment of seeing my brother with a mask on was the result of poorly interpreting what was in front of me. In my head, the scary villain from the horror movie was real. And in that moment, he was there to get me. But in reality, it was just my brother who loved me, just trying to play a prank on me. If I had stopped and considered and the moment for what it truly was, I would’ve responded in a much different and much more appropriate way.

I say all of this because today we are going to read a text out of the scriptures that, at first glance, may seem really scary and difficult to understand. But I think that when we, as a church, stop and consider and truly see what Jesus is teaching us in this passage, it will actually lead us into the kind of life that you and I have always dreamt of having. Now before we read, let me set up the context of all that’s happened so far in chapter six. The chapter starts with the Pharisees arguing with Jesus about how to obey the Sabbath. And Jesus tells them He is the lord of the Sabbath, which is a big mic drop moment in the ministry of Jesus. And then on the following Sabbath, Jesus heals a man with a shriveled hand, which only causes the tension with the religious leaders to continue to grow even worse.

And then after this, it says that Jesus goes up to be alone with God on a mountain. And then after He descends, He chooses the 12 disciples who would be His most intimate friends as He lived His ministry here on Earth. And then lastly, we are told that Jesus is approached by a crowd of people, and many of them are seeking to be healed. This is the scene that is taking place as Jesus begins to teach what we’re going to read today called the Sermon on the Plain. Now, the Sermon on the Plain has a lot of overlap with the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew, Chapters 5 through 7, but this is most likely another time in the ministry of Jesus where He’s teaching something similar, but to a different group of people.

So now that we understand what’s going on, let’s go ahead and read the text. We’re going to read verses 20 through 26 of Luke, Chapter 6. “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

“’Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.’” And that’s where we’re going to pause. So, at the beginning of the text that we just read is a very small, but incredibly important, detail that changes the entire way that we hear this sermon from Jesus. If we were to miss this detail, we would be in danger of misreading and misapplying all that Jesus is going to teach us for the rest of this chapter. We are told in verse 20 that Jesus lifted up His eyes on who? His disciples. This means that Jesus wasn’t preaching a sermon about how to become one of his disciples.

Instead, it means that Jesus is teaching what it looks like to already be one of his disciples. Sadly, many have understood this text and the Sermon on the Mount as a list of demands that Jesus makes in order to be saved by God. But that’s not the point of what Jesus is saying in this sermon. Jesus isn’t telling us what we must do to be saved. He’s telling us what it means to live as someone who has already been saved by the mercy of God. Rather than reading this sermon as a list of qualifications, we should instead read it as our grateful response to the saving grace of God in our lives. So now that we have that cleared up, we can begin to ask the question: What does a happy life under the lordship of Jesus look like?

Let me ask you this, if someone were to ask you what you needed in order to live a happy life, how would you answer that question? I think many of us would quickly jump to people in our lives. In order to live a happy life, you must have someone to share your life with. Perhaps if you were brutally honest, you would say that you need to have a lot of money in your bank account. Nobody grows up dreaming of being poor. We all fantasize about the day that we will never have to worry about finances again. Man, if we just had a little bit more money in our bank account, then we would have all that we need in order to live a happy and satisfied life. But maybe money isn’t what does it for you. Maybe it’s fame and popularity. We live in a world where it seems like everyone has a YouTube channel or a podcast. Our culture is obsessed with celebrity, and we think that if everyone just knew who we were and they loved us, well, then finally we would have the life that we wanted. Here’s my point. One thing every person in this room has in common is that each of us has a vision of what a happy life looks like in our head. So, what does Jesus say a happy life in His kingdom looks like? Well, his answer in verses 20 through 26 couldn’t be more shocking to the system.

It’s like Jesus is pouring a bucket of cold water on all the things that we thought would make us happy, because Jesus says that the ones in His kingdom who are blessed, which that word blessed can be translated as happy, so the ones who are happy in His kingdom are those who are poor, hungry, weeping and rejected. Those are the ones Jesus considers to be blessed. Now, I don’t know about you, but those are four specific things that I purposely try to avoid being in my life. If someone you knew were to describe you to someone else using these four words, how would you feel? Would that make you feel good? So, what is Jesus saying to us? Does He mean that if you’re poor or hungry, that automatically means that you will live a blessed life? That all you need to do is give away all of your money, and then the second you have $0 in your bank account, well then you’ll finally start to experience happiness.

Well, not necessarily. Because remember, Jesus isn’t teaching this sermon to everyone. He’s preaching to those who are called disciples. So, what Jesus is saying is that for those who are followers of Jesus who happen to be economically poor, or for those who are following Jesus who have lost all of their money because they follow Jesus, what He’s saying to them is that they are actually blessed because though they don’t have much now, what they will receive in Christ will be far greater than they ever imagined. He’s telling those who are his followers who happen to be hungry, whether that be hungry for physical food or spiritual hunger for God, that though their body and soul aches for more, one day they will have all they need in the kingdom of heaven in the next life. For those of his followers who are weeping, and they believe that the fog in their life will never lift, they believe they’ll never not cry again, Jesus says, “One day you will laugh more than you ever thought possible.” For the ones who have followed Him and as a result of living in obedience to Him have received pain and rejection from loved ones or employers or government officials. They can rejoice because that’s how they treated the faithful Old Testament prophets too.

You see, at first glance, it can seem like the Beatitudes describe the worst life you could possibly think of. But once we see what Jesus is really saying, I think it’s one of the most hope-filled teachings He gives us in the gospels on the Christian life. John Calvin says this about the Beatitudes. “In the Beatitudes, Christ promises a blessed life to those who are utterly destitute of all human advantages and comforts so that they may rely wholly upon the mercy of God.” Here is what Jesus is teaching His disciples. For those who are faithfully following Jesus, but the circumstances of your life are less than ideal, there is a great reward that will far outweigh all of the suffering you are experiencing in this life.

And this is really good news because how many of us have believed that the circumstances of our lives are a direct result of what God feels about us? We tend to think things like, “Well, if God really loved me, wouldn’t I have more money? If God truly loved me, well, why didn’t I get that promotion? If God was pleased, well, shouldn’t I be treated better by others?” We tend to think that when life is hard, it means that we must not be following Jesus the right way, because if we were, then shouldn’t life be easier? I mean, I thought that when I followed Jesus, He would be pleased with me and then everything in life would start to subtly tilt in my favor. But listen, that’s never what Jesus taught His followers to believe about life.

Jesus teaches us that the life of a citizen of Heaven is blessed or happy no matter what you may be experiencing because the promises of the future kingdom are to have a real effect on our present lives. And this is where we as Christians must have a different mindset from the world. The happy life in the kingdom of Heaven is not based on instant gratification. It is about a faithful endurance that holds out because we know that if Christ promised, it will be true. It will be true. So, the one who is poor can be happy because one day, without a shadow of a doubt, he will inherit the kingdom of God. He will. The one who is hungry, lamenting or rejected can still experience hope and happiness because one day God is going to make every sad thing untrue.

And though we suffer now, we can do so with great hope that our future in Christ is secure as long as we are united with Him through grace, by faith. We can take that check of hope to the bank, and it will cash every time. Every time. But what if we decide that we don’t like this way of life? We don’t want to wait for any kind of future blessing. We’d rather have the instant comfort and momentary relief that this world has on offer. I don’t want to wait. I want to live it up right now. Well, what’s the result of that life, of giving into the temptations of the world? Well, we don’t have to guess what that kind of life will look like because Jesus tells us about it in verses 24 through 26. And in this section, Jesus pronounces four woes on people who have chosen to live for something that is not Him. But when Jesus says woe to you, it’s important to note that this is a term of regret and compassion rather than a threat. So, Jesus isn’t screaming at these kinds of people in anger. He’s pleading with them in love to turn from what they are seeking and to seek Christ instead.

He tells us that for those who have put their hope in wealth, they have already received the prize for their way of life. Notice here that Jesus doesn’t say that you’ll be miserable at first. Instead, He tells us that the feeling you get from having a lot of money may be a good feeling, but that’s the best it’s going to get. The feeling of being wealthy is the cheap prize waiting at the finish line of a person who has lived their life for money. In 2005, there was an interview done by 60 Minutes with Tom Brady after he had just won his third Super Bowl, which had already cemented his legacy as one of, if not, the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. And there’s a moment during the interview where he’s talking about what life looks like after accomplishing something that he’s always dreamt of. And this is what he says to the reporter, I’m actually going to have the words up here on the screen. This is what Tom Brady says. He says, “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what it is.’

I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think God: it’s got to be more than this. I mean this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean, I’ve done it. I’m 27 and what else is there for me?” And the interviewer says, “What’s the answer?” And Tom Brady almost with tear-filled eyes says, “I wish I knew. I wish I knew.” I think this is an example of what Jesus is talking about. That for those who are rich and successful, they will one day realize that what they thought would make them happy ended up being nothing but vanity. Now, just to over clarify here, Jesus is not saying that being rich is a sin. Who He is addressing here is the kind of person who in their pursuit of money has rejected Christ. That’s who He’s addressing.

But money isn’t the only idol that we can replace Jesus with, because He goes on to say, “Woe to you who are full now for you shall be hungry.” The specific situation He’s talking about here is the kind of person who has become complacent towards God. They believe they already have all that they will ever need. And the deep irony is that for people who are full now, it will be the very reason that they go hungry. To convince yourself that you are in a place that you don’t need God is to subject yourself to the fate of those who decide to live life apart from Christ. These kinds of people have spent their life chasing every whiff of desire only to ignore Christ, who is the only one who can fill the eternity-sized longing in our hearts.

In a similar way, Jesus addresses those who live in ignorance to the suffering of this world. Jesus wasn’t condemning all laughing altogether, though some Christians love to live as if that’s true, but the kind of person Jesus is addressing here is the individual who turns a blind eye to the cruelty and suffering of this world. Rather than dealing with the real needs of real people in their community or the real needs in their own heart, they live in a little bubble in which they trick themselves into believing that life is all about surface-level interactions and little pleasantries. Jesus tells us that this kind of person may be laughing now, but one day they will not be laughing anymore.

And then lastly, Jesus tells us about the kind of person who seeks nothing but fame and popularity. And is this not one of the most relatable idols in our world today? We live in a culture in which everyone is desperately seeking to be the center of attention, and they will do, and they will say whatever they need to be in order to be liked and seen by others. And we have become so busy about chasing the spotlight that the moment we get it, we have no idea what to say. And so, we just reflect back what the world says because we aren’t people of substance ourselves. The example Jesus gives us for the kind of person who is a crowd-pleaser, is a false prophet. Rather than tell the people what they need to hear, they only share what the people want to hear.

They don’t care about truth; they don’t care about you. They just care about being liked. And for those who live like this, they receive the approval of the world at the cost of living a life that is pleasing to God. So, to summarize, the blessed or happy life is exactly the opposite of what most people think it is. There is greater, longer-lasting happiness with Jesus plus nothing than with everything minus Jesus. The happiness of everything minus Jesus. It’s only temporary. The joy of Jesus plus nothing is eternal. So, it’s here that Jesus gives us two choices of how we are going to live in this world. Will we seek our satisfaction in Christ alone or will we look to the cheap comforts of this world to provide momentary relief?

It really comes down to what we value most. Because what we value is what we will ultimately live for. But Jesus isn’t just concerned with what we value. He’s also concerned with what, who and how we are to love too. So, let’s keep reading to see what Jesus says next in the sermon. So, starting in verse 27, going through verse 36, “But I say to you who hear, 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 one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you do so to them.

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. 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 is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” So, in the section we just read, Jesus talks a lot about the idea of how we as disciples of Christ are to love those around us.

And I think we need this teaching of Jesus desperately in our day, because the concept of love is amongst some of the most popular topics in our world. In our culture, love has been reduced down to a warm and fuzzy affection that we feel for another individual. This is how we get the idea of falling in love or falling out of love with someone. That’s how that became so popular. But many things in our life, Jesus comes in and flips what we think we know to be true completely on its head because what He teaches us about love may be one of the most surprising and difficult commands He gives to His disciples. In this section, the Lord calls His disciples to live a life of love in two surprising ways. The first surprise concerns who we are to love.

Look with me at verse 27, “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies.” Hatred for your enemies feels like the most natural thing in the world. It almost seems as if your enemies were made for your hatred, right? They harm us and we at the very least harden our hearts toward them. At the worst, we respond with something greater than what they did to us because we tell ourselves that retaliation’s only right. They had it coming, didn’t they? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It’s only fair. But heaven’s morality differs from what feels natural to us because Jesus does not say give your enemies what they deserve. He says something much harder. He says to love your enemies, but then He takes it a step further.

Don’t you love how Jesus does that? He says something really hard and then He just takes it way further than the hard thing that He already addressed. Because in verses 32 through 34, Jesus calls out people who think they’re really good at loving others, but in reality, their love is no greater than the love of a sinner who doesn’t know God. When you only love people who are exactly like you, it does nothing to distinguish you from people who do not know God because there exists a kind of cheap love that comes completely natural to a fallen world. Jesus says even sinners love their friends and family. Even sinners will lend money if they truly believe they will receive their money back in full.

But if we love only those who love us back, only do good to those who do good to us, lend to those who we know can repay, then we’re really acting out of self-interest rather than love because our love isn’t about the other person. It’s ultimately about us and what we will receive from the transaction. Put another way, if we find that our love is only reserved for people like us, say our skin color, our education level, or our political party, then that may only be a love for self that is disguised as kindness and generosity towards others. However, the love of God couldn’t be more different because the love of God is not self-interested but selfless. It’s sacrificial, it’s supernatural.

Godlike love includes our enemies who wrong us and harm us, and this is how Christian love surpasses the love of a sinner because Christian love extends even to those or even seeks to do good for those who seek to do us harm. The Christian loves the other not because of what they can receive from them, but because they love God and seek to be obedient to his word. To love our enemies is not about experiencing warm and fuzzy feelings about them. It’s about giving them grace when they don’t deserve it because God gave us grace when we didn’t deserve it. CS Lewis on the idea of love says, “Love is not an affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

The second surprise Jesus teaches us on love is how far we are to love our enemies. If love is less of a feeling and more of an act we do in spite of our feelings, the question then becomes what does it look like to love our enemies? This is the question Jesus answers for us in verses 27 through 31, because in these verses we begin to see a progression taking place. To do good to those who hate you is to love people with our actions. To bless those who curse is to love people with our speech, using gentle words of grace even when people speak in anger to us. To pray for those who abuse is to love with our hearts, asking God to rescue from sin the people who hurt us. To the one who strikes us, we are called to turn the other cheek, which is to forsake our right for revenge in the name of love.

Now, to be clear, the phrase strike someone on the cheek has to do more with insulting someone rather than physical abuse because I want to make this really clear. These verses in no way, shape or form, excuse abuse or teach that if you are in an abusive situation you must remain in it. In fact, one of the greatest ways that you can love someone is by helping them escape an abusive situation, so that the abuser and the victim can receive the proper care, help and justice needed for the situation. Nor does this text teach us that we must give money to every person in need that we encounter. Now listen, it’s certainly not wrong to do that. But what Jesus is talking about here is a disposition of our heart towards the poor that responds in actively caring for the individual.

One of the most important assurances we have in the Christian life is how we love and care for those on the margins of society. In James, we’re told that our love must be active. It’s not enough just to have our love be wishful thinking. We must be doers of the Word, not just hearers of it. But here is what I want us all to see. When we become obedient to what Jesus is telling us here, our words, actions, prayers in service form a powerful response to the hatred of our enemies. Rather than giving in to their evil and becoming the very thing that we hate, we can triumph over evil with good. And when this kind of love is lived out, it creates a ripple effect that is noticeable. If we, as The Village Chapel, lived like this, we would be the light on a hill that Jesus describes in Matthew, Chapter five.

This kind of life would set us, as the people of God, apart from those who don’t follow God. I mean, Kim mentioned it earlier, but could you imagine going into November, if we would be people who showed grace to those who voted differently than us? If instead of joining the digital warfare happening online every day, we instead spent that time getting to know our neighbors and having others over for dinner? What if instead of uttering curses towards the supposed enemy, we prayed for their well-being and that their hearts would come to know Christ? Or what if instead of engaging in gossip at the office, we were people who sought to honor our co-workers and bosses despite their treatment towards us?

Students in the room, what would it look like in your school if when someone said something mean or rude to you, you responded with grace and kindness, rather than returning the harsh word like everyone’s expecting you to do in that moment? Church don’t miss the opportunity this kind of love can have on our witness to Nashville. We need to preach the Gospel, but we also need to live the Gospel by how we love our enemies. And the way we love our enemies is by serving them even when they seek to do us harm. All right, deep breath in. There’s a lot we covered today, but what I want to do now is boil all we’ve discussed down to a few practical points that we can walk away with. And here’s the central question that I think Jesus seeks to answer in this text today.

Here’s the question. What does it look like to be a disciple of Jesus? And in this sermon or the first half of this sermon, I think Jesus gives us three characteristics of what a disciple looks like in His kingdom. First, a disciple of Jesus lives with an eternal perspective. One of the greatest gifts that we receive when we come to put our faith in Christ is that we have a greater future than we could ever imagine. Our future is so great that the Scriptures tell us that it should have a present effect on the way that we feel and live in the world today. And in case you don’t know what that future glorious hope is, I wanted to read Revelation 21:1-4 for us. And I want you to hear these words as our future as a church body together.

It says this, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.'” Listen to this, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

As Christians, we cannot read these verses with a fingers-crossed posture thinking, “Man, I hope this is true.” No. Instead, we need to read it as the sure hope that we know for a fact is true. Because of our God’s glorious resurrection, we can know, without of shadow of a doubt, that He will make good on this promise. But the hope of eternal life isn’t just a promise that comforts us in death. It also comforts us as we seek to endure the hardships of our lives today. This gives us unbelievable confidence because no matter how dark and discouraging it gets in this life; we can know that the sun is about to break over the horizon because our eternal destiny is secure in Christ.

I don’t know what kind of weight was on your shoulders as you walked into church today. Perhaps you have been in a season where all you know is sadness, mourning and tears; and you’re wondering if the pain is ever going to lift. Or maybe on the flip end, life has been going great, but you have hit head-on with the vanity of your way of life, and you are desperately searching for something more. If that’s you in this room, I want you to hear the words of Jesus this morning as if they’re being spoken to you directly. For those of you who are poor, yours is the kingdom. For those who are hungry for either physical food or spiritual food, your hunger for more will be satisfied. To those of you who are crying for whatever reason, you will laugh again one day in glory, and you are not alone in your rejection if you have been rejected in the name of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, continue to hold on through the rough seas of this world as we set our sails for the promised land. As you suffer and as you endure and as we long for home, I want you to pray this prayer that Paul prays in Philippians 3:13 and 14 when he says, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” As disciples living in a fallen world, we must live with an eternal perspective. And Jonathan Edwards says it like this, “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.” Let it be so of this church. Let it be so of me.

Next, a disciple of Jesus reflects the heart of God. One of the greatest ways that we let our eternal perspective have a real effect on our life is by the way that we love others around us. But the question is, why should we seek to love others around us? What’s the point? Why would God call us to do something that at first glance seems so ridiculous? But look with me at verses 35 and 36 if you still have your Scriptures open. This is so important. The basis of God’s command to love our enemies is that because God loves those who were once set against him, we should now love those who are presently set against us. That’s why we love others. In Romans 5:10, it’s the first half of the verse, Paul says this, “For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.” Because our heavenly Father has a love for us who were once his enemies, we as his children should love in the same way because that’s what it means to be in the family of God.

All the way back in the opening pages of Genesis, we are told that God created humans to reflect His image in the world they live in. That we were made to be walking displays of the creator in his goodness. So, this means that when we follow this command, and we love like our Father loves, we are beginning to experience what we were designed to do. To reflect our Father’s love. And as we as Jesus’s disciples reflect the love of God to the world around us, we will be a powerful witness to the good news of the Gospel, not just in word but in deed. Martin Lloyd Jones says, “The world is watching, and it needs to see something of the character of God in the people who claim to belong to Him.” But I want to make this really practical for us this morning. In what ways might God be calling you to love someone who you would consider an enemy? Maybe what you need to do after the service today or… I won’t be offended. You need to get up and leave right now to take care of this. You need to call someone and ask for forgiveness, or you need to extend forgiveness to someone that you have had a grudge on for years.

Tim Keller in his book, Forgive, which is a book I highly recommend, says this, “Forgiveness is often, or perhaps usually, granted before it’s felt inside. When you forgive somebody, you’re not saying, ‘All my anger is gone.’ What you’re saying when you forgive is, ‘I’m now going to treat you the way God treated me. I remember your sins no more.'” Maybe for some of us, a family member, a friend or a co-worker has offended you to the point that all your imagination is filled with is how to get even with them. You’ve been plotting revenge. They’re going to hurt as badly as you’ve been hurt. If that’s you, perhaps God is calling you this morning to lay down your right to get even with them for the sake of love and forgiveness.

If I could get really personal, maybe your marriage has gotten so bad that when I mention the word enemy, the first person that comes to your mind is your spouse. What if today you decided to serve and love them, even if you didn’t feel like it, even if they didn’t deserve it? What if you made that step in faith today? Maybe the challenge to you this morning is less about holding anger in your heart and more about actively seeking to love those around you. Could it be true that you’ve been so lulled to sleep by the comforts of this world that you’ve forgotten to actively care for the needs in your community? Whatever specific way God might be calling you to extend love to an enemy, my deepest prayer is that you would be obedient to His Word and follow through today.

Do it when you feel like God is nudging you, because I promise you, if you wait a day, it’s probably not going to be there anymore. This leads me to my last point. The disciple of Jesus must receive God’s love for themselves. My guess is that for some of you here today, you’ve been listening to this sermon, and you are filled with discouragement because you are wondering how in the world you could ever continue to press on or forgive someone who has hurt you so badly. Maybe you’ve tried so hard to forgive, but you are never really able to do it. You’ve attempted to love others, but in the moment when the love was supposed to come out, nothing but hate and judgment spewed out instead.

To be honest with you, we don’t have the kind of love in us to follow this command. No matter how hard we try, we always come up short. So how is it possible for us to follow a command that seems impossible? Well, like I said, this is where it comes into play that a disciple of Jesus must receive God’s love for themselves. This is by far the most important point today because if this isn’t true, the first two points will be impossible for you to live out. The Sermon on the Plain is not about you rolling up your sleeves and trying harder. The Sermon is rooted in the fact that because you have been saved by grace, these things can now be true of you.

When we receive the love of Christ for ourselves, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, which gives us the ability to love others in a Christ-like supernatural way. Here is the truth of the Christian life that so many people seem to forget: You cannot give what you do not have. And what I mean by this is that only those who have understood how much they have been forgiven by Christ can be the kinds of people who forgive others when they’ve offended them. Only those who know how much God has loved them when they were enemies can be the kind of people who now go and love their enemies. Only those who know how much grace we had received, as we stood before God impoverished because of our sin, will have a heart of grace towards those who are physically impoverished in our community.

Friends, you and I do not have the strength required to live this kind of life Jesus is calling us to live. The only way we can live as a true disciple of Christ who lives with an eternal mindset and loves our enemies is if we first receive the kind of love He’s calling us to show the world. John Piper says, “The key to Christian living is not our perfection, but the forgiveness of our imperfections.” That’s why Christ died. Have you received the love of God in your own life? Or have you been trying to obey Christ in your own strength? To quote Tim Keller again, sorry, I’m on a big Tim Keller kick, he says this, “What is it that enables us to forgive others so radically by giving us the inner resources of supernatural humility, confidence, love, and joy? It is the atoning death of Christ on the cross.”

If you have found that your love for others has grown cold, the only way to rekindle the fire in your heart is not by trying harder, but by setting your gaze on the radiant love of Christ for you. It’s by seeing Christ in all His glory on the cross as He cries out to God in prayer on behalf of those who are crucifying Him. When He says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” You see, once we comprehend this kind of love that Jesus has for us, we who were enemies, we will never be the same again. So, if you were here this morning and you haven’t received that love and you’ve never put your faith in Christ, please hear me. There’s grace on offer for you today.

There’s grace on offer for you. You need only receive it. But for those of you who have received it, and I pray that we would be a church that truly experiences the power of God that comes through being fully forgiven, I pray that we would set our gaze on eternity and love those in a way that makes Nashville different. Church, let me pray: Jesus, thank You so much for this day. God, I thank You for these friends. God, I thank You that Your love is true. God, that we who were enemies of God have been reconciled through the death and resurrection of Your Son, and now we can go from enemies to being sons and daughters of God.

But God, I pray that as we live into our sonship and daughter-ship, that we would reflect the heart of our Father to this world. God, that we would be people who show mercy because our heavenly Father is merciful. That we would be people who, when we are discouraged by the circumstances of our lives, we would know without a shadow of our doubt that glory is coming, and we can be happy in this life and supremely happy in the next. Father, we love You, and we praise You for this time to worship You this morning. In Your name I pray, amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“Almost Home“ by Matt Boswell, Matt Papa and Lauren Papa
“Come People Of The Risen King“ by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, and Stuart Townend
“We Will Feast In The House Of Zion“ by Sandra McCracken and Joshua Moore
“Be Thou My Vision“ by Mary Byrne, Eleanor Henrietta Hull
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #200369

Call To Worship: Congregational Prayer

Lord, fill our hearts with reverence for You. Make us hunger for Your Word and passionately desire to walk in Your ways. Forgive us our sins, for they are many. Give us a greater glimpse of Your glory as we offer You this praise and worship. We thank You for the way You have rescued us over and over, through many difficult things. Come now and help us in this: to place our trust, hope, and confidence in You. May Your name be honored in our conduct. May Your kingdom be made visible in our relationships. May Your will be done in our hearts and minds. This we pray in the Name above all names, Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs all glory, forever and ever, amen!

Confession: The Glory of God and Everlasting Life

LEADER: How can we glorify God?
PEOPLE: We glorify God by enjoying him, loving him, trusting him, and by obeying his will, commands, and law.

LEADER: What is idolatry?
PEOPLE: Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.

LEADER: What hope does everlasting life hold for us?
PEOPLE: It reminds us that this present fallen world is not all there is; soon we will live with and enjoy God forever in the new city, in the new heaven and the new earth, where we will be fully and forever freed from all sin and will inhabit renewed, resurrection bodies in a renewed, restored creation.

New City Catechism, Questions 6, 17, 52

Classic Prayer: Dallas Willard, 1935-2013

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, we are so thankful that you have said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” We are thankful for the ease with which you walked upon this earth, the generosity and kindness you showed to people, the devotion with which you cared for those who were out of the way and in trouble, the extent to which you even loved your enemies and laid down your life for them. We are so thankful to believe that this is a life for us, a life without lack; a life of sufficiency. It’s so clear in you, the sufficiency of your Father and the fullness of life that was poured through you, and we’re so thankful that you have promised the same love, the same life, the same joy, and the same power for us. Lord, slip up on us today. Get past our defenses, our worries, our concerns. Gently open our souls and speak your word into them. We believe you want to do it, and we wait for you to do it now.

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