Well, many of you know the story of Corey Tenboom. Corey and her family were Dutch Christians living in the Netherlands around the time of the Holocaust. And as you may know, the Tenboom family was responsible for saving. It has been estimated over 800 Jews who were fleeing persecution from the Gestapo, from these Nazi police that were hunting down Jews ruthlessly to carry them off to concentration camps. Well, if you know anything about Corey and her family, they were at one point betrayed by a fellow Dutch family, and they themselves were taken off to the concentration camps. And they themselves ruthlessly suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Corey's father, an elderly man, very quickly passed away. He was killed because of the inhumane conditions in these concentration camps. Corey and her sister Betsy were taken away to Ravensbrook and notorious concentration camp where they were beaten. They were humiliated and they suffered at the ruthless hands of these Germans. Just 12 days before Corey and her sister Betsy would have been released, Betsy passed away from the cruel treatment. Corey alone was released, and after the war, despite the tragedy, despite all of the grief she suffered, she turned her misery into a ministry, and she went around in war-torn Europe after the war, preaching a message of forgiveness, a message of loving her enemies. But even Corey, 10 Boom, this beacon of hope, this beacon of love and forgiveness, even she realized that forgiveness is much harder than we think. Let me resume an excerpt from the hiding place. This is her autobiography, telling about one such time very difficult circumstances to forgive. Corey writes, it was in a church in Munich that I saw him. A balding, heavy set man in a gray overcoat and a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeat it at Germany with a message that God forgives. And that's where I saw him. Looking his way forward against the others one moment, I saw the overcoat and brown hat. The next, a blue uniform and visored cap with its skull and crawl spoons. This vision of the concentration camp came back to me with a rush. The huge room with its harsh overhead lights. The pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment, skin, the Betsy how thin you were. You mentioned Ravensbrook in your talk. He said to me, I was a guard there, I could tell he didn't remember me. But since that time he went on, I'd become a Christian. And I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there. But I would like to hear it from your lips as well, Royline, his hand held out. Will you forgive me? And I stood there, I, whose sins had every day to be forgiven, and I could not. I could not. Betsy had died in that place. Could he erase her slow, terrible death simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out. But to me, it seemed like hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I ever had to do. Well, Corey's story represents the difficulty of the task which we're going to talk about today, forgiving our enemies. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount continues to lay it on quite hard to his disciples, telling them what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And as hard as this message is forgiving enemies, loving those who persecute you, he continues to make these demands on his disciples. And that's what we're going to look at today. We're going to start out by reading a passage in Exodus, chapter 23, if you would turn there, Exodus 23, verses 4 and 5, and then we're going to flip over to Matthew 5 as we continue the passage on the Sermon on the Mount. Exodus 23, 4 through 5, Moses writes, if you meet your enemies' ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of the one who hates you, lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving with it, you shall rescue it with him. And now Jesus talks to his disciples and us today in Matthew 5, starting in verse 38. Please follow along as I read out loud. You've heard it was said, and I for an eye on a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you. Do not resist one who is evil. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Get to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. And then Jesus continues, you have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for. He makes the son to rise on the evil and the good he sends rain on the just and the unjust. Or if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. We're going to look at this command to treat our enemies as Christ would treat his enemies. And we're going to look at three things specifically and you look at the bullets and there's a short outline for you. First of all, we're going to look at what not to do, then what to do, and then why to do it. We're going to start out, first of all, looking at what not to do and what not to do. According to Jesus, is we are not to hold on to our rights, not hold on to our rights. Jesus uses this eye for an eye, this tooth for a tooth. This phrase that is commonly thrown out, and what he's doing is he's citing an Old Testament law, which was meant to help governors rule justly, protecting them from overdoing it in the consequences and punishments they dull out. But the punishment must fit the crime, the eye for an eye tooth for a tooth says. However, this law could have been misused in a personal application for the common man who would seek retaliation, seek blood if they've been offended. Jesus says, you have heard that and folks have told you that it's okay to seek vengeance, but I say to you. I want you to give up your rights, Jesus says. If you're walking down the road and your enemy comes to you and you know there's a conflict and he is anger and he comes to you with great offense and slaps you across the face, what do you do? And that is, do you escalate the situation, do you slap them back or you turn the other cheek and just move on because whatever offense he has against you, this is just not that important. What if, in anger, as your enemy tries to pester you and frustrate you, he goes and says, hey, give me your tunic. If you don't, I will sue you and take you before the judge, give me your tunic. Well, the tunic is like an under shirt. I can't you imagine someone coming up to you and asking for your under shirt, but that's what a tunic was. And so Jesus is saying to his disciples, if you have an enemy coming to you with the audacious statement that he wants your undercoat, then look at him and say, okay, if you need it that badly, here's my undercoat and while I'm at it, why don't I give you my cloak? As well, the cloak was the outer garment, the coat much more valuable, much more important. Jesus says, look, it's really not that important. If he's demanding your tunic, give him your cloak as well. If Jesus continues with these very practical examples for this time, he says, if you're walking down the road and you have a Roman soldier come up to you and grab you, and take you aside and said, I've got a job for you. You may be on your way to work, but this Roman soldier says, I've got a message. And he hands you a scroll and says, I want you to go to the other side of town and give this to the shopkeeper, forcing you, commandeering you to walk a mile. That's what is being alluded to here. Jesus says, well, rather than arguing and refiding and inciting his wrath, why don't you ask him if he has any other errands for you to run? Now, why would Jesus say this? This seems odd for all of us. But I think what Jesus is getting at, if you take this little passage in the greater context of the terminal amount, what Jesus is trying to do is teach His disciples what it means to be disciples, what it means to be followers of Christ. And as followers of Christ, they have a mission. It's a kingdom, mission. It's a mission of life or death. It's a mission of hell or heaven. It's a mission of misery, slavery, helping people in this condition come out of slavery into new life. It's a mission where His disciples are ambassadors of life to a dark world. Bringing life to those who are dying, those who are on the verge of hell rescuing them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the mission which Christ brings to His disciples and to us today. And I think one of Christ's points is we need to not let these petty squabbles, these petty conflicts, these small offenses derail us from the greater mission that we have, which is worshiping our Lord, loving our Lord and taking this love to a world that is dying. Imagine this story, it's a made-up story. You have two brothers and a sister, a young sister, and they're out by a lake. The two brothers are older and they're fishing with a little stick with a rope tied around it and a little hook and a worm. Nothing fancy, there's out there fishing. The daughter, the sister, is playing by herself at the edge of the lake. And as the two boys are fishing, trying to catch a fish with their makeshift fishing pole, the daughter, the sister, plays to close the edge and tumbles in. And splashing around she can't swim and so she's crying out for help, she's bobbing up and down. The brother who's holding the fishing pole looks to see his sister fall in the lake and while he's looking, the other brother snags this fishing pole. And he says, this is mine, it's my turn. Well, the brother gets angry, the one who had the fishing pole snatched out of his hands, he gets angry and he grabs it and all of a sudden there's a wrestling match. And they're rolling on the ground kicking and biting and punching while the sister is drowning. The sister is crying out for help and the brothers are too busy fighting to save her. Now imagine the father coming upon this scene, watching this. Imagine the father, first of all, of course rushing to his daughter's aid, lifting her out, carrying her to safety. And once he sees that she's okay, can you imagine what happens next? The father looks at his boy, I'll tell you what I would do. All right, I take that little makeshift fishing pole and I snap it in anger. What are you doing fighting over a stick? Your sister was drowning. This is a stick, it's not important. Sleming it down on the ground. We have to look at what's really important. Do you see the connection? So often our petty offenses, it's a fishing pole, it's a stick. It's not that important and yet it allows us, we allow it to derail us from the mission that God's given us to a dark and dying world. People are dying. Why are we so bent out of shape over these petty offenses that we can't forgive? We're not willing to forgive. It chains us. It keeps us from following Christ in this mission that he calls us to. We have to let go of our offenses. Don't hold on to your rights, but Jesus continues. So what are we to do positively? Well, we are to love our enemies and pray for those who first use you. Verse 43 says, as you have heard it said that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. It doesn't say that anywhere. People maybe misused Old Testament texts to suggest that it would be appropriate to hate your enemy, but nowhere in the Old Testament are Israelites commanded to hate their enemy. But skewing biblical commands, people came up with this cultural truth that you would love your enemy, hate your neighbor. Jesus says, though, you were to love and pray for those who first use you. Love in our world, it has very little meaning often, the way we use it. It's like a vapor. It's an emotional world that's fleeting here a second and then gone. It's not an action. It's not robust. Love a hallmark, greeting card, cheesy cliche that doesn't get down into the depths of our lives. But when the Bible talks about love, it's very different. Bible love is action, love. So if you're going to love your wife, you're going to action love her by serving her, by caring for her, by treating her the way you want to be treated with actions. Why, as if you're to love your spouse. You're going to do the same if you're going to parents love your children then you're going to action love them with practical steps. Friends, if you're going to love one another, then you are going to do things showing them love practically. And Jesus here is challenging us. If we are to love our enemies, then we are going to seek their good will. We're going to seek to serve them in practical ways, seek not to tear them down, but to build them up. We might say to me, but David, you don't know my enemies. You don't know what offenses I have suffered in my life. You're right, I don't. But I know what offenses, the disciples, were going to suffer as Jesus prepared them for this life of loving enemies and here it goes. Disciples, when your enemies break into your homes and drag you out of your homes and throw you in these dark jails, binding your arms, waiting the day that they rip you out of these chains, drag you across the street, make a public spectacle of you and then pick up boulders and throw these boulders upon you until you're dead. During that whole process, I want you to love your enemies. As you're being persecuted, humiliated, rejected, mocked, beaten, tortured, crucified. As that happens to you, I want you to love your enemies. Perhaps you know better story than we see aside from Christ himself. Is in the Old Testament there's this story of this servant girl who's been captured by the Assyrian army. You see, the Assyrian army came in and they just ravaged the nation of Israel. They destroyed putting men, women, and children to death running through them with their swords and spears blood shed everywhere. And the Assyrian army comes in and carries off men and women to be slaves, to be abused and used. And there's a servant girl who has been captured taken from Israel from her home, from her family, very likely her family themselves were put to death and she was put into the service of the commander of this Assyrian army, named Naman. Now, Naman orchestrated this attack ravaging the city. And one day, this servant girl dwelling in the home of Naman hears a rumor that Naman has come down with leprosy. Now, can you imagine that the very man who was responsible for putting your family to death, your friends to death, the very man who called your city to burn. Now, I was struck with a deadly disease. Where would your heart go? I'll confess to you what I think my heart would do. With a poisonous joy, I think I would smirk and be glad and think he got exactly what he deserved. How dare he come in and annihilate this people, leading an army to butcher my people? I hope not. Is there not a part of you that would respond that way? It's not how the servant girl responded. The servant girl heard of his master's leprosy, goes to his master and says, master, I think I know someone who can help me. And so she tells him of Elisha, the great miracle working prophet who lives still in Israel. Naman goes and is healed. We're called to love our enemies with a bold, radical, counter-cultural action love that seeks their good. Jesus continues and gives us three reasons why we're to do it. This is the last point. Why are we to do this? Why are we to love our enemies? Verse 47. And if you greet only your brothers but not your enemies, it states implicitly, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You see, Jesus has just been teaching his disciples that they are to be different, radically different as salt and light. They are to be distinct from everyone else in the world. But Jesus points out, if all you do is love your friends, if all you do is love your family, if all you do is love those who love you back, how are you different? You're not. Because everyone does that. But Jesus says, I, and he says to us today, I am calling you to live differently. If this sounds crazy, if it sounds odd, if it sounds like it just doesn't fit in your cognitive scheme, it's because it is different. And it's hard. Jesus says, you were to be perfect as my Heavenly Father is perfect. This is not a light task. This is a radically different way of living. And yet it's what Jesus calls us to. Why would we do this because we are called to be different? Why would we do this verse 46? For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Jesus tells us, the Bible tells us that there are rewards for our action. Now let's be clear on a couple things. We as Christians do not do good works to get rewards. That's not our main motivation. Our main motivation is God has poured out His love for us, His grace in Christ. How could we not go and live a life that's pleasing to Him? We're not doing it to get rewards, but Jesus does say, but rewards are a reality. And future rewards in glory do exist. We are not saved by our works. We don't have salvation by our works as a free gift of grace and as Christians as we live this life. If we do not load in the righteous of Christ there are rewards in heaven. We don't know exactly what that looks like, but God promises us that there are rewards and there's this eternal weight of glory. It is an amazing gift, an amazing reward that awaits us. If I tell my kids that I've got this reward waiting for them at the end of the day and they're excited, for this reward at the end of the day. And it turns out that I've cooked them a broccoli casserole. And that's the reward. Note my kids don't really like broccoli casserole. Then I am being cruel to them. I am twisting the truth. I'm not being true to my word. So when God tells us that He has a good reward for us in heaven, then we can believe it. But God says, Jesus says here, that He rewards actions that are to be rewarded. Actions that are worthy of being rewarded. And if we love only our friends and family than that, that is not deserving of rewards. Because even tax collectors, these hated despised outcasts would do the same. Last reason, why were to do this? Verse 45, the last part of verse 44, let me start with this. Love your enemies and pray for those who first get you. So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. Why are we to love our enemies? Because that is exactly what God does. That's what God did. That's what Jesus did. Jesus says, for God makes the sun to rise on the good and the bad and the waters, the rains on the just and unjust. Imagine this. Imagine a cruel taskmaster who beats his slaves. And drives him into the ground with hatred and evil heart. Right next to him lives these slaves who are oppressed but faithful. And they cry out to God. When God sends the sun to bless the crops, he's blessing both the good and the bad. When God sends rain to water, the crops, he's blessing both the good and the bad, both the good and the evil. And so Jesus is commanding us, reminding us that God does this. God loves his enemies and he blesses even the wicked with common grace blessings in this work. There will be a day of accounting, a day of judgment. And for all of us, we must be found in Christ, clothed in Christ, trusting him alone to escape the wrath of God, which the Bible talks about. But on this earth, we receive these common grace blessings. And if God is willing to bless even the wicked, now how can we not, how can we not also love those who offend us?
We say, well, I don't like that. I like, there are certain times where I just, I like the justice of God. I like the wrath of God because there are people out there who need to be smited. And if you read the news reports, there are. There are people who need justice. There is evil in this world and we do trust that God is just and will judge all actions, but here's the problem. Justice is the two-edged sword and it cuts both ways. It can cut those whom we want to be judged, but in the meantime, it also cuts us. Because if we're asking for God to judge the oppressors, then he looks at us as well. If we're asking God to judge the liars, then he looks at us as well, because this is what we do and this is wrong. We look at our lives and we weigh ourselves against others that may have a more outward scandalous sin. And we say, well, I am not scandalous in my behavior, the way this person is, and so I'm okay. At the end of my life, I will be good. Jesus says your heart is scandal. Your heart is dark and evil and wicked.
And I love you and I bless you through the blood of Jesus Christ. And it's only for tasting this grace that we can go and bless others. Let me read you how this story of Corrie 10 Boom-N. Standing there waiting feels like hours. As this man has his arm stretched out, waiting for forgiveness from the woman that he crushed and persecuted and harassed and offended throughout her whole time in Ravensburg. And she says this was the most difficult thing I ever had to do for I had to do it. I knew that the message that God forgives has a prior condition that we forgive those who have injured us. If you do not forgive men, their trespasses, Jesus says, neither will your father and heaven forgive you, and still I stood there with coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion. I knew that too, forgiveness is an act of the will and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. Jesus helped me, I prayed silently. I can lift my hand. I know I can do that much. You must supply the feeling. And so wouldn't leave mechanically. I thrust my hand into the one outstretched to me. And as I did an incredible thing took place, the current started like an electric current in my shoulder, raised down my arm, sprang to our joint hands. And then this warm feeling seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. I forgive you, brother. I cried with all my heart for a long moment. We grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then. There's only one way you can do this. There's only one way anyone can do. Know the grace of Christ as He's ripped your sins out of your heart and give you His righteousness. Such love comes on you so that you can love others. Heavenly Father, we love you. And we thank you for the gift of your son, the gift of your grace. We thank you for the way that you forgive us, despite our offenses to you, despite our sins. Jesus hanging on the cross was willing to say of His oppressors around them and by implication to us to forgive them, Father, but they know not what they do. I thank you for your forgiveness and ask that you would lead us to trust in Christ more dearly and it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. As we prepare for.