Everybody else please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 verses 38 through 48 We're continuing in our series on the Sermon of the Mount the most famous Sermon ever preached preached from the lips of Jesus himself And it's very humbling to come back as a as a pastor a created pastor preaching from the uncreated Some of the living gods message himself here, but he says this Matthew chapter 5 verses 38 through 48 here God's word You have heard it that it was said I for an eye and tooth for tooth, but I tell you do not resist an evil person If someone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic Let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you You have heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your father in heaven He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous If you love those that love you what reward will you get are not even a tax collectors doing that and if you greet only your brothers What are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect. Therefore as your heavenly father is perfect This is God's word One day many years ago, Lauren, I were driving around the car and as we often are in the case We had a bunch of our kids in the car with this and as we were driving around I feel it what the exact context was but somehow we were talking about the importance of loving your enemies And I think Laura remember this too at some so at one point she tells the kids in the back seat and And all of them are you know like six years younger than they are now currently says you know the Bible tells us that we're supposed to love our enemies And Riley's back there in the back and and and she she pipes up and says well I love my two Emily's Emily Wheatley and Emily Bell Two friends of her that she had had remembered That were sounded a lot like enemy but weren't to her and it was a little cute moment at the time But it's a reminder to me That who our enemy is is often a mystery Now I were to ask you right now who are your enemies? Who are the people that come to your mind? Once you give me some hypothetical Examples so who would be some enemies that we might have that come to our mind today? Speaking hypothetically don't give me your neighbor's specific name. Yeah People at work. Okay co-workers. Maybe a boss Smiles I'm sorry
Neighbors could be neighbors
Some other examples In laws hypothetically Yes The devil are good IRS to the season. Yes
This side. Come on. Help me out of this side. You got more people. What?
Bin Laden. Okay Anybody else People at school your friends maybe at school. Yeah or not your friends at school
Driver's on the road. Yes Okay, so we can kind of unpack it a little bit What about friends camp friends become enemies sometimes Maybe the worst kind of enemy One that used to be a friend. What about we talked about in laws a little bit. What about your immediate family? Parents what about it when your teenager feels like an enemy or teenagers when your parents feel like an enemy What about spouses when you look at your spouse or rather not look at your spouse but you feel like That's an enemy The message here and I'll be honest with you This is one of the hardest ones I've had to really work on and really come and present what I really believe Jesus is saying in this passage about how to love our enemies But I think it's extremely important Because we live in a world today where enemies come in all shapes and sizes and some of them are easily identifiable and some of them are not And some of them will eventually betray you Well as we look at that there are a couple key principles that I want to start off before we even look at this text Because if you don't if you miss this groundwork Which has been set up in the sermon on the mount and in Jesus others to other teachings You will miss something important and here's a key principle and I think you have a an outline or at least a blank page in your Bulletin you can take notes This will be worth writing down the key principle number one The key to loving your enemies is experiencing God's dealing with his enemies The key to loving your enemies is experiencing God's dealing with his enemies Now I've chosen the word experiencing them on purpose Because you might think that's good think of other words well secret is seeing how God deals with his enemies or observing how God deals with his enemies No the key to loving your enemies is experiencing God's dealing with his enemies A couple of things there preliminary again here who is God's enemy and how did he treat his enemies Well, let's look at Colossians a different texture listen to who God's enemy is You the Apostle Paul says were his enemies Separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions yet now he has brought you back as his friends He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body as a result He has brought you into the very presence of God and you are holy and blameless and you stand before him without a single fault So who is God's enemy or who was
what's that What the unbelievers are and we those of us who claim to be believers we were his enemies
That's why the word experiencing is so important If you come here today Or are sitting out here this morning and realizing and thinking well this whole enemy thing is pretty far into me I've got I got several enemies I can think of to me, but I don't I don't treat you body bad I'm a pretty good guy pretty good lady for for other folks nobody would perceive me as a real enemy to them I try to I try to do the right thing all the time you And me were God's primary enemy and those of us who do not have faith in Jesus Christ This is not often preached we still are If you do not have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior this morning have not embraced him You are still an enemy of God and how'd be doing you a disjustice this morning to tell you anything different But for all of us who are Christians who do believe in Jesus Christ as God's sons sent to die in the cross to pay our sins With some point that we remember that we were his enemy Former enemies of the kingdom here's the second preliminary principle are now ambassadors of the kingdom Listen to that former enemies of the kingdom are now ambassadors Listen to what second Corinthians 517 through 20 says Says what this means is that those who became Christians became new persons They are not the same anymore for the old life has gone a new life has begun All this newness of life is from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ did and God has given us the task Let me repeat this We'll know what God wants for your life for those of us who in Christ God has given us the task of reconciling people to him For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself no longer counting people sins against them This is the wonderful message. He has given us to tell others We are gods Who knows Ambassadors we are gods ambassadors and God is using us to speak to you We urge you as the Christ himself. We're here pleading with you Because he is through us Be reconciled to God Jesus voice here on earth still in 2007 his proclamation his call to a lost world to be reconciled is still Being proclaimed or is to be proclaimed and how and who through us through the church We who are once enemies of the kingdom are now ambassadors of the kingdom think of the possible himself who shouldn't know He wrote both these two texts Inspired by the Holy Spirit He was the one that was persecuting the church. He was the one saying Jesus is not the Christ. Don't follow him He was going off persecuting and killing Christians who did believe in Jesus until the day When Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and said why are you persecuting me And he blinded him And he brought someone along to come and tell him the good news of who Jesus was He met Paul and Paul's life was transformed and the one who was the persecutor of the kingdom Becomes the ambassador for the kingdom It's an amazing transformation that happens there True citizens of the kingdom demonstrate this by not so much words I'm a Christian But by action I live like Christ lived Think about acts chapter 16 the flippy and jaylor Paul and Silas are told where they're beaten severely that they are flogged remember Jesus was flog You get the picture remember how Jesus was flog Paul and Silas are flogged And they're shackled and left in a prison dungeon jail and around midnight The jailer hears him singing praises to God There's song going on and this jailer knows they've just been flogged He knows they've just been beaten he's one that shackled him in there Then there's an earthquake or the ground crumbles and the and the shackles fall off and the jaylor who Would typically lose his life for an escape prisoner goes to try to take his own life And Paul and Silas stop and say hey, hey, don't bother. We haven't gone anywhere. We're still here
And Paul Demonstrates that he is an ambassador of Christ He comes and he speaks the truth because the jaylor comes in and as I'm so amazed he says what must I do to be saved And salvation comes we're told to the jaylor's household because of that It's amazing that we are to demonstrate That we are members of the kingdom by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ by loving our enemies The jaylor was the one that held them in bondage And Paul and Silas could have said hey, God said us free. Let's get out of here But they stayed They were ambassadors to bring the message of Christ and of faith the jaylor believed And the jaylor who probably thought he was going to be dead by sunrise when the authorities came And instead is greeted by a message saying that the authorities have said to release them And his life is sustained And more importantly, he has found eternal life For a time longer, God is offering the blessings of entrance into his kingdom by the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ One of the things that in some of us Jason and Daniel and in 89 We got a chance to go to a seminar this week talking about the kingdom dr. Richard Pratt But speaking just a small group of us But he had said something that was very profound and was a good reminder to me that I think fits the context here He reminded us that We are living in a day and age where Jesus Christ came and in the scripture say that he came and he brought his kingdom And the armies of God we don't know exactly when but are sitting at bay Waiting to come back in Jesus' second coming And let me if you haven't read Revelation a while his second coming is a little bit different than his first There's no manger and straw There's no crying baby There's a mighty warrior riding on a horse Called faithful and true With the all the hosts and the armies of heaven and I believe with us joining as a part of those armies of heaven not just the angels But the redeemed the lost those that had gone to Christ He's coming back and he's returning and if you've seen pictures and some of the old war movies and And different battles and things that happened on often what would happen is when a when a big army was coming up against the city It was about to conquer it Often a delegation would be sent from the conquering kingdom that's surrounding the city into The city and ambassador would go and say look here the terms you can either surrender. We can make this thing easy And my king will be merciful to some degree whatever that might be might be our slaves for the rest of your lives But you'll be alive you'll have something to eat you'll have a place to sleep Or you can resist and the kings and a come and his armies will come and destroy you your choice So you the ambassador was sent back out saying hey good news They're surrendering or maybe with the group of people that had escaped the city that was surrendering or Some I would send out the ambassador's head on a platter which would be a clear indicator to the coming army that your offer was rejected It could be different things, but that's a picture of what really is happening here when God says we are his ambassadors There is a season that God is offering a peace to this world
But as sure as God is a loving just God And We often look at the side of the coin that just shows his loving kindness and his mercy how he is slow to anger He is also a just God. He is a God who's righteous and holy you cannot have sin in his presence He's a God who has sent his son. He has offered terms of peace To the kingdom that's his the earth In his office for all those who will come and he sent us his church as ambassadors into civilization Into the six billion plus people around this world to offer terms of peace And we don't go in waving around our swords now We will in Jesus' second coming We come in No swords, but with the message of the kings that he's offering peace And the message is to you and if you receive his offer of peace You will join the kingdom of the righteous king the kingdom of light and you'll become a friend of his But if you reject it you will remain an enemy of his And God tells us to love our enemies, but we're part of a different kingdom Now that might sound like a sermon right there and maybe it is there But you don't have that understanding you'll miss what's being said here Jesus says here that he lets the sun rise He lets the rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous But the book of Revelation tells us that the sun will one day be darkened And the sun will one day burn up those under its presence The scriptures tell us that that rain that water will one day be poisonous But one day be this illustration of judgment coming on the earth God's offer of peace and prosperity and salvation is temporary And we are his ambassadors So having said that let me give you just a few points from this text Number one trade revenge for reconciliation Trade revenge for reconciliation Because remember you are an ambassador of the king Every good ambassador must separate themselves from their personal views and desires and hold higher those of their king Can you imagine if the ambassador the US ambassador to Iraq Which I'm not sure exactly what his role or or or involvement is at this point But can you imagine what if he just started acting out on his own what have you said forget George W. Bush Forget what the the United States Senate and Congress have decided I've got my own ideas of how how to do how to fix things up here If he started acting on his own how long will he last as an ambassador
As long as the plane trip was coming back to the United States. That's it. He'd be back He'd be done and he would not be an ambassador ever again for the United States and ambassador speaks for Acts for and represents the king God's called us to speak for and represent him the king As Christians it's not about us But it's about the king and and right here Jesus gives some examples He gives some examples of where where people like you and me his followers will be tempted And will struggle when they are being mistreated by people who they could call their enemies And he gives us three examples here one he gives us an example in the social arena He says if you see if someone strikes you on the right she turned him to the other also And this is and this is a an example of one who gives an insult This is not somebody hits you in the cheek Although that can maybe apply to this is one one who insults you in public He tells us to not come up and to retaliate in that the question is not how should how you should receive an insult But the question is how does your king receive an insult When you come and you live your life as an ambassador of Jesus Christ people's insults If you understand that your identity is an ambassador You're representing the king so the question is not how do you receive an insult the question is how does your king
If somebody complains to a US ambassador in any country around the world the ambassador doesn't go well wait a minute I'm offended. I'm offended that you feel that we personally Are not being as gracious and as kind to you economically as you think we should be The ambassador goes home and he sleeps well that night He picks up a phone or sends an email and he talks back and reports back to the US and says look Here's the situation. What do you want me to say? What do you want me to do? He imagines if every ambassador took everything personally about them personally They would never be able to focus on what the job was but an ambassador doesn't he realizes the one who he represents Jesus was not concerned for his own personal glory, but that of his fathers in heaven Look at the example of Jesus if you go back and study with him He rarely ever addresses issues or insults that were directed at him unless the insult Move towards his father or towards the Holy Spirit Do you remember one time he was the Pharisees came and said hey the way you heal people the way you cast out demons is by the power of the demons themselves In Jesus a hey hold on now He questioned he stopped them on that when they were really Casting an insult that God the father and God the spirit and he cracks them and rebukes them there Jesus knew the one he was representing the one he was to defend And that's why when you see him in the in the context of the crucifixion he hardly says a word because the insults that were cast at him He did not own But only the comments that were made against the Holy Spirit or against the father in heaven primarily the father that he speak against Well, we're told not only the social arena. We're also told in the judicial arena What if someone Swants to see you and take your tunic? Let him have your cloak as well The question is not how should you respond to the to the demands of injustice when somebody unjustly comes against you But the question is how does your king How did Jesus suffer unjustly on our behalf Well, not just the judicial arena we're told even the authority arena says if someone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles It was common in that day for military member Israel was invaded by and was possessed and ruled by Roman the time that a Roman soldier could come alongside and you any any Any is right he could say hey carry my stuff and the law was that you'd have to carry it for up to a mile And after a mile your obligation was done Jesus is saying look Don't just carry a mile carry it two miles with them The question is not how should you honor those in oppressive authority over you But how does your king how did Jesus honor those who are no oppressive authority? Over him bobberbs 25 verses 21 through 22 says this says if your enemy is hungry What's what are you to do Give them food to eat if he is thirsty what are you to do Give him a drink and doing this you will heat burning coals on his head and the Lord will reward you We are told to have a totally different response
When we are persecuted the world around us when our enemies act against us Because we are ambassadors and because we were once an enemy to God And if you miss that paradigm you're going to miss all this you're going to think this is just a pacifist lesson here But let me tell you Jesus in his second coming is not a pacifist Jesus is coming to wipe out any rebellion against God himself and to restore a new heavens and a new earth
God is not anti-war God is offering a season of peace to this world And God will not share his glory his word tells us As we look at this we must understand that we must trade revenge As we're told here for reconciliation because we're ambassadors number two. We must trade greed for generosity Verse 42 says this Give to the one who asked you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you Every good ambassador knows that he or she is a steward of the king Everyone knows Who's a good ambassador When an ambassador comes and speaks to a country and offers the aid of the United States of America He's not dependent on his pocketbook. Well, let's see We're going to be able to offer you guys. Oh my goodness. You guys take credit You know, he's not offering that he's coming. He is speaking with the resources of the United States of America to offer terms of Financial aid or economic aid whatever it might be his resources are from the king and all that he has that he can offer belongs to the king In church all that we have everything your health Your physical strength The money that's in your bank account the possessions that are parked in your driveway or inside your house Everything that we have in own belongs to God It's all his and if we understand that we are ambassadors we understand that we are stewards of all that we have If not though if we don't understand that we will be at best greedy Which is what this is speaking against will hold it to ourselves And will be it will be um actually will be at worst greedy. I'm sorry, but we'll be at best self-righteously generous self-righteously generous And there are many people who say well, I'm not greedy I give But they're self-righteously generous They give to be seen by others giving and we're gonna talk in a few weeks here about how God encourages us to give Not letting your left hand know what your right is doing They come giving simply because It's a benevolent nice thing to do for the and many of us are many thought about giving the last month because it was a tax break But it wasn't because of God's generosity towards them second Corinthians 9 7 and verses 10 through 11 says this Every man should give what he has decided in his heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion For God loves a cheerful giver Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread For food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness And you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion And through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God God say he has made us to be ambassadors and he has generously given us righteousness And we're told he's given us the things that we need Here on earth And we're told that he's given us even things additional than we need as resources so we can be a blessing and be generous to others If you want to know one of the true marks of Christianity it truly is not just one who seeks reconciliation over revenge But one who is generous who is truly generous Well third Not only should we trade Revenge for reconciliation to trade greed for generosity. We should trade selfishness for sonship Selfishness for sonship first look at verses 43 through 45 You have heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you why That you may be sons of your father in heaven He causes his sunrise on the evil on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous as well Love your enemies are showed them unconditional love. We're told to do here The love of the king is displayed in that he is called his once enemies now children and citizens of his kingdom Number you me those of us who believe in Jesus Christ the apostle Paul was in this category We had once been enemies persecutors of God and his righteousness We're now brought in and we're not just brought in a slaves. We're brought in as sons and as daughters and we're given an inheritance The right to be errors to the kingdom the new heavens the new earth He offers that every enemy you have is a potential future brother or sister in Christ on the new earth and the next door neighbor for eternity if you thought about that Every enemy you have right now Whether it's inside the four walls of your house or outside Is a future potential brother or sister in Christ on the new earth? That revelation talks about and they're a future next door neighbor for eternity You need to let that sink in sometimes especially when we are can be as Denominational churches really stiff and and Barely tolerant of other denominations in the faith And we can think gosh, they're really are a little bit different You know, are they really veer off and believe things slightly different in some of these minor areas and we can get all uncomfortable We can get away. We're spending eternity With anybody who's a genuine follower of Jesus Christ We should think about that in anybody your worst enemy now Could be your next door neighbor for eternity What an opportunity God tells us to love our enemies He tells us to basically Give up selflessness and to give up selfishness For selflessness to serve them. That's what Jesus did And he tells us that was an indicator that we are sons the we are daughters. He tells us to pray for your enemies I don't know much about your prayer life, but I do know this you only pray about the things that are close to your heart You only spend time praying for things that you think are important And you only really pray if you're desperately passionately seeking the rescue of God in a specific era of your life Then you really pray And the diagnosis comes as you have cancer When the word comes as you've lost your job When a letter on the table says that your spouse isn't coming home that night Or next week or ever again Then you find a moment and you find where your source of rescue is the one you're looking to And we're told to pray for our enemies And you will not pray for your enemies until you understand That you're an ambassador and that you are once an enemy of God
And Jesus prayed for us And John chapter 17 he prays for all those who will believe in him That means that before you were a Christian Jesus two thousand years ago had already prayed for you Hebrews tells us that he continues to live to make intercession for us. What is Jesus doing in heaven? Is he is he just listening to the harps playing? No, he is interceding for us If for all those who will believe It's amazing Even those are still his enemies Who he's drawing to himself who will become his friends And he calls us to do that as well. It's amazing In conclusion How we treat our enemies is a better indicator of our faith in God than how we treat our friends How we treat our enemies is a better indicator of our faith in God than how we treat our friends In fact the text ends with Jesus talking about that. What's the big deal if you love those that love you What is different about you than your Muslim neighbor? What is different about you than your hedonistic neighbor who's out partying and wild all the time or you're you're relative What's any different? But we'll make us different as we have a love like Jesus had for our enemies Where are you at this morning in your transition to becoming an ambassador to the king? something that's really the issue here Where are you at and becoming an ambassador to the king? Notice that notice the last verse which is terrifying be Perfect therefore as your father in heaven is perfect There's one that you represent There's one that your life is to be being molded and modeled after the life of Jesus Christ This word perfect could also be translated complete be complete be moving to completion be moving into the who you are in Christ Just as God is perfect and completed He calls us to do that Statistics tell us that the tenants in church all across America is dropping Oh their mega churches being formed, but for every mega church that is formed I don't know a hundred smaller churches are closing their doors Every year the deck is just being shuffled around The evangelical church the people who actually truly would say, hey, I believe God. This is God's word I believe Jesus Christ really came here to earth and you know you have to have a personal invitation with personal relationship with them That's what we invite evangelical those people that numb those numbers are not right on the rise Based on the population of our country. They're on the fall
God's calling us and he's calling us right here in East Rolanda at Christ kingdom church to be ambassadors That will come that are trading Revenge that are come that are trading greed That come that are trading as well too our selfishness So we join me as we close here in prayer as we move to the Lord's table Which is an indicator of what God has done for us and is indicator of where our life is found in him When you come to this morning of the Lord's table we realize That you once were the enemy and as an enemy Jesus said I Will become an ambassador of the father and I will bring his call of peace to you and my body Will be broken by my enemy As Jesus did and Jesus said my blood will be poured out for my enemy so that you might become my friend Don't come to this table this morning without sending God Transform me with a love for my enemies like you had for me Let's pray God will you come and we meet with us this morning we come and bring your spirit of reconciliation and let it be alive and Active God in our hearts God will you come when you convict us we show us we show us specifically people that are enemies and our hearts and minds this morning That you're calling us to love to pray for