Good morning. It's good to see you all. I want to give a special thanks for those who showed up to
our workday yesterday. We had a great time of fellowship and lots of wonderful things around
the church were done. So, thank you for showing up. When I moved schools in fifth grade, there was a
boy named Ken. He was my nemesis. On the playground, he always found the opportunity to give me a little
extra kick when we played soccer, an extra elbow when we played football or basketball. In the
classroom, there was always an extra snarky comment, scorn and shame. For whatever reason, Ken had decided
that he didn't like me. He was my enemy. I wonder this morning, if I asked you, who is your enemy,
what would you say? Someone who wants not good but harm for you.
When I ask you that question, what popped up in your mind, there might be lots of different categories
that could fill this role. We live in a world where enemies pursue conflict and war and geopolitical
struggles. So, there are nations at war with one another and see each other as enemies.
And at times, those people are neighbors who once lived next to each other but now find themselves
in conflict. We live in a political world today where candidates on both sides are saying the other
is the enemy of that which is good and right. We live in a world where culture wars, where we see others
with differing beliefs and convictions and values as the enemies of what is good.
But it's not just out there in the media, in the conversations. It's also in our personal lives,
isn't it? Whether it be playground bullies, mean girls at school, overbearing bosses, and mean girls,
that's not a gender, that's just a movie reference, okay? Overbearing bosses, difficult neighbors,
and even in our own homes, where we find ourselves feeling like the people that we live with,
our parents, our spouse, our siblings, feel like enemies. Sometimes it's perception, and sometimes
it's reality. How do we treat those who are our enemies in thought, if not in deed?
You know, in our world today, we seem to have been losing our ability to deal with things well.
We live in a culture of polarization, and I think we tend to look at our enemies in one of two ways.
One is, some of us who hate conflict just want to minimize it. We paper over real threats and
conflicts. We try to see only the good and potential good and excuse all sorts of evil. We relativize or
trivialize where there is true ill will towards another and a desire to harm, and we naively hope
that things will simply get better.
Or we demonize our enemies, and we see them as evil incarnate and hate them with passion.
We create an us-them dynamic, call them the other, and then justify horrific treatment again in our
minds, if not in our actions. We embrace hatred and even violence towards them as right and good,
and we make them out to be less than human and treat them as such.
Friends, these paths do not lead anywhere good. They perpetuate evil and hatred in our world.
Is there another way?
This leads us to our passage today in Matthew. We're in chapter 5, verses 43 through 48. If you want to
look in the Pew Bible, that's page 761. And in it, Jesus says there is another way, another path,
a way of His kingdom that He is bringing. And remember, we're in the Sermon on the Mount,
and if you haven't been here, let me just remind you of what Jesus is doing in this section. It's a
section of teaching where Jesus is explaining to His disciples and to the crowds what kind of kingdom
He is going to bring as He is bringing the kingdom of God that He's declaring is at hand. And at the
center of it, as we've seen in verses 19 and 20, He is calling a people of God to live by a new
standard with Him at the center and marked by internal transformation, not merely external
conformity. So His kingdom is a distinctly Christ-centered, Christ-like, and Christ-displaying
kingdom. And from verse 20 on to our passage now, Jesus has laid out six contrasts.
You have heard it said, but I say to you, six ways in which the people that He was preaching to
might normally think was right and good. And Jesus is saying, my kingdom is different than that.
And let me explain to you how it is different. And so we come to the last of those six
this morning, verses 43 through 48. Let's go ahead and read that together, and then we'll pray for
God's help as we listen to His Word. Matthew 5, 43. You have heard that 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 His Son rise on
the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For 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. Please pray with me. Oh, Lord, we ask for Your help this
morning. Lord, as we look at this Word, as we listen to it, I pray that You would give us humble hearts
and soft hearts to receive this Word. Lord, it is a challenge to the way that we typically live and
think in this world, and I pray for Your help this morning. Lord, I pray that You would help me to speak
as I should, and I pray for all of us that we would receive Your Word, and that we would obey it,
and that we would follow it. And Lord, we pray that You would be our help in that, and we pray
these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus shows us a way forward in the midst of enemies and hatred,
and it is the way simply of love. And so my outline is very simple for those of you who
are taking notes. First, Jesus calls us to love our enemies. That's what He calls us to. That's what
this passage is about. And the second point will be the foundation of our love for our enemies,
how it is that we can actually do this. So let's first explore for a little bit in verses 43 and 44,
Jesus called to love our enemies. We've seen this pattern before. Again, this is the sixth one.
You have heard that it was said, but I say to you. Now listen, if you went back and you looked
through the whole Old Testament, you won't find the verse, you should hate your enemy. It's not
actually there. But by the first century, it was a rabbinical half-step from the truths that are in
Scripture, where there was a lot of emphasis on the special treatment of the Jewish people.
There was a, in the Old Testament, a national nature that had implications for how the people
of God interacted with other people and other nations around them. And there was a pattern that
others were to be distinguished from the Jewish people, and that the idolatry of the nations around
them was something to be resisted and to be despised by the people of God. And you see these things in
the Old Testament. And so from these attitudes, there was in the first century, it seems, a half-step into
it's okay for you to hate your enemies. In fact, it might even be seen by some as a call.
To love your own is to hate the other. Jesus says, this is not the kingdom that I am here to bring.
The distinctive of love in my kingdom is that you will love even your enemies. And look, this love here,
it's not a feeling, right? It's not the swoon that comes over you when you see that cute guy or girl
across the room and think, ah, I'm in love with it. It's not this unbidden feeling that rises up in the
romantic well of our heart. No. What here love means is a disposition. It is a combination, and it does have
feeling for it, but it is more than that. It is also a will and a choice and a thought to pursue the good of
others to cherish their well-being and to seek to do them good. If you were here last week, Pastor Nick
preached on verses 33 through 38 talking about not retaliating. And if you remember, there were some
specifics there about blessing and not cursing, about turning the other cheek, about going this extra mile,
about giving another cloak. This is a heart disposition towards another to say,
though you are my enemy, I will not choose to do you harm, but instead I will choose to do you good.
D.A. Carson, one of the commentators who writes on this passage, says, defines it this way,
this love is a generous, warm, costly self-sacrifice for another's good. And if you see, Jesus goes on,
he says, you know what the first application of this is? To pray for them. To see the other person
in view of God and to want God's good for them. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever tried
to pray for someone who has or is doing harm to you? Have you ever prayed for someone who can only show
scorn and hatred? Commentator John Stott says, it's impossible to pray for someone without loving him.
And it is impossible to go on praying for him without discovering that our love for him grows
and matures. When we pray for someone, we begin to see them through God's eyes.
And that means we see them differently.
In verses 46 and 47 of our passage, Jesus says, this is distinctive because even the tax collectors
who were the worst of the worst, they were viewed as the moral reprobates, they were rebels, they were
unscrupulous, they had nothing good to recommend them. Even they, right? Even they love those who love them.
Don't we love people who love us? That's a great plan. Jesus says,
my call to love is greater than that. Verse 47, he says, even the Gentiles, that is those who don't
even know God at all and have no reason to think that they should treat someone else differently
because of God, don't they also greet people in the street who greet them? People within their tribe,
people within their group?
So Jesus says we are to love and to pray for those who are our enemies and who seek to persecute us.
What might this look like? I've got a whole range here. We're going to give examples for a little bit.
And maybe we can ask the Lord to help us see where maybe this might be applicable to us.
We're going to start with the easy ones, and then we'll move to the harder ones. So,
it might be sharing your study guide with a fellow student who doesn't want to do the work,
but who desperately wants to do better than you.
It might be showing kindness and serving a family member, even when they have been rude or selfish,
even when they have hurt you.
It might be working hard for your lab supervisor when you know that all they're going to do is take
credit for it, and when they take advantage of you in the process.
It might mean going out at the first snowfall of this year and shoveling the sidewalk not only in
front of your house, but in front of your neighbor's house, the neighbor that complains about your kids
who are too loud and who always leaves the trash out and who always plays music late at night
and who just seems like they have it out for you to go shovel their sidewalk as well.
It's election season.
How do we love those who seem to be our opponents in the political sphere?
We can reject demeaning, cruel, and offensive language.
We can treat those who are opponents with a different point of view rather than seeing them
as someone to scorn or despise.
We can work to move dialogue in substantive interaction rather than name-calling.
We need to see others, even those who deeply disagree with us, through the eyes of God.
Friends, consider some of us may have enemies where the harm that has been done or is being done
is much deeper.
Consider the biblical example of Joseph.
You know Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob?
He was the favored son, and his brothers envied him for it.
In fact, they'd envied him for it so much that they captured him.
They were going to kill him, but then they decided to change their mind and sold him into slavery instead.
You can read the rest of Genesis 37 through 50 to find out what happened to Joseph,
but it turns out in the end that Joseph, by God's grace,
is promoted to a position of power and influence in Egypt,
and a famine comes, and Joseph's brothers and family were starving in a famine.
And they go to Egypt because it was the only place to get grain,
and they show up, and there the man who has the keys to their survival
is the very brother that they had hated.
And he has some fun little tricks along the way,
but at the end of the day, he does them good.
He blesses them,
and he embraces them.
Here's another more extreme case.
If you're familiar with the story of Corrie Ten Boom,
she was a Holocaust survivor.
She was a follower of Jesus.
After the war, she taught about God's grace and faithfulness,
about forgiveness.
And she tells this story.
It's a little long, but I think it's worth it.
So, it was in a church service in Munich
that I saw him, a former SS man,
who had stood guard at the shower room door
in the processing center at Ravensbrück.
He was the first of our actual jailers
that I had seen since that time,
and suddenly it was all there,
the room full of mocking men,
the heaps of clothing,
Betsy's pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying,
beaming and bowing.
How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein, he said,
to think that, as you say,
he has washed my sin away.
His hand was thrust out to shake mine,
and I, who had preached so often
to the people of Blomendal,
the need to forgive,
kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts
boiled through me,
I saw the sin in them.
And Jesus Christ had died for this man.
Was I going to ask for more?
Lord Jesus, I prayed,
forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile.
I struggled to raise my hand.
I could not.
I felt nothing,
not the slightest spark of warmth or charity.
And so again, I breathed a silent prayer.
Jesus, I prayed,
I cannot forgive him.
Give me your forgiveness.
And as I took his hand,
the most incredible thing happened.
From my shoulder, along my arm,
and through my hand,
a current seemed to pass from me to him
while into my heart
sprang a love for this stranger
that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it was not
on our forgiveness anymore
than on our goodness
that the world's healing hinges,
but on his, that is on God's,
when he tells us to love our enemies,
he gives, along with the command,
the love itself.
And I'll tell you, friends,
not every transformation happens in a moment
like it happens with Corey.
Sometimes it's by repeated acts of kindness.
When we don't want to be kind,
that our hearts change.
Sometimes it's daily determining
to do good to another
where transformation happens,
and it doesn't happen all at once.
But when we started,
we felt only anger,
only hatred,
only desire for revenge.
Slowly, as we do good
and think rightly,
God changes our hearts,
and we are able to,
as she did,
forgive
and love
even our enemies.
And friends,
if this kind of love is possible
in these extreme cases,
how much more
in our everyday lives?
Jesus calls us to love our enemies.
Now,
I do want to give a few pastoral reflections
because,
and I want to do this carefully
because I don't want to
unburden you.
We all sit under a burden
of this passage right now, right?
This is hard.
But I do want to make sure
that I clarify
because this has sometimes been used
in ways that are unhelpful.
First,
love here does not simply mean
cultural values of tolerance
without discernment.
Loving our enemies
doesn't mean that we call sin good.
We still need to call sin sin.
Love does not mean
that we don't appropriately address evil.
If you are in an abusive situation,
it is right for you
to remove yourself from that
rather than staying.
Right?
It doesn't mean you don't love them
if you remove yourself
from the abuse.
That's on a personal level.
On a civil rights level.
It is good and right
to work for societal change,
for laws to change.
It is good to advocate
for that which is better.
That's not
hating your enemy
to advocate for those kinds of change.
But recognize that the best
of the civil rights movement
had to do with
loving our enemies
in the midst of it.
Maybe this is repeating
what I just said.
Loving your enemies
does not mean avoiding conflict.
Sometimes it means
speaking painful truths.
Sometimes it does mean
standing up for yourself.
Sometimes it does mean
pursuing that which is right.
but it is always
in a spirit
of loving the other
in the process.
It is always
in the spirit
of wanting to
desire to do good,
not to punish,
not to condemn,
not to do harm.
And finally,
I won't say a lot about this,
but it doesn't remove
governments and institutions
from their right place
of doing justice
in the world,
which even may mean
prosecuting war.
Pastor Nick talked more
about that last week.
If you have more questions
about that.
But I want you to recognize
that loving your enemies
doesn't simply mean
being a doormat
and letting anything
happen to you
no matter what.
But it does mean
a fundamental
perspective shift
where even those
who wish to do you harm,
you look at them
and you see them
through the eyes of God.
And therefore,
you are able to love them
not because they are lovable,
but because
of who God is.
And this, of course,
leads us to our second point.
There is a key
in the middle of this,
verse 45,
that we need to look at
for a minute.
I'm going to start
and read 44 and 45 again
just so we remember this.
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 His Son
rise on the evil
and on the good
and sends rain
on the just
and on the unjust.
The reason that we are able
to love our enemy
is because God
shows this love
for His enemies as well.
God looks at the world
and He shows
this common grace
of the sun
rising every morning.
He sends rain
so that the fields
will grow
and the crops
will be produced
and people won't starve.
He gives basic necessities
in these ways.
Knowing that the world
that He looks at
hates Him,
does not honor Him,
rejects Him,
and yet God does this.
He perfectly knows
and judges all things.
He knows the thoughts
of our hearts,
let alone the actions.
He's not blind.
He's not foolish.
But He is a God
who blesses
the just
and the unjust.
And Jesus says
this is the core
of how we
can love our enemies.
Now,
some of you
are like me
and you're thinking,
alright,
Pastor Matt,
that just sounds
a little too easy.
And not just easy
because like,
it's easy,
but the Bible
is more complicated,
isn't it?
It is.
So,
Psalm 5,
verses 4-6.
Josh,
if we can get that
up on the screen.
The psalmist says this
about God,
for you are not a God
who delights in wickedness.
Evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful
shall not stand
before your eyes.
You hate all evildoers.
You destroy those
who speak lies.
The Lord abhors
the bloodthirsty
and the deceitful man.
So,
this is one of the most
clear places,
but we know this.
God sees evil.
God judges evil.
He judges people.
And He has this recognition.
So,
how do we,
how do we bring this
all together?
How do we understand this?
Well,
it's really helpful.
And maybe you remember this
because we talked about it before,
I think sometime this summer.
D.A. Carson has written a book
called The Difficult Doctrine
of the Love of God.
And if you haven't read it,
it's a very wonderful book
because what it does
is it says,
God is love,
but the way God loves
is actually more complex
and nuanced
than we tend to think of it.
He distinguishes a number
of different kinds of loves.
He says,
God has a providential love
over all that He has made.
That's the kind of love
that Jesus is particularly
referring to here.
The sun rises,
the rain falls,
He sustains the world
so it doesn't fall apart.
He goes on,
He says,
God also has a love
that is a salvific stance
towards His fallen world.
So the famous verse,
John 3, 16,
for God so loved the world.
And when John says world,
he means the world
in rebellion against Him.
He means the world
that's rejecting Him right now.
God so loved the world
that He sent His only Son
so that whoever believes in Him
would not perish
but gain eternal life.
So His heart is for salvation
even as He recognizes
that there is judgment
and death
for those who don't receive Jesus.
Right?
There is also in the Bible
a particular love
that God has for His people.
As Carson says it,
a particular effective
selecting love
towards His elect.
And then He goes on,
He says,
and it certainly is clear
that there are places
in Scripture
where God loves
obedient believers,
those who follow His commands,
in a particular way
that He doesn't love
the disobedience in us
without upending
the other kinds of love
that we have.
And look,
we know this.
If you're a parent,
you know this.
You love your child
but you hate
what they do sometimes.
Right?
We do,
and it's the same thing
with our friends.
We all have this nuance
in our love
where,
hey,
I'm for you
but man,
this drives me crazy
or this isn't right.
And God has that kind of love.
So when we go back
to thinking about
how is it
that God loves,
how then is God's disposition
towards His enemies?
And it's true that then
God both loves
and hates His enemies
in some ways
because He loves them
in this providential love
for all people.
He loves them
in this desire,
this heart stance
for salvation for them.
But He hates them
because of their
insistent rebellion
and ongoing
rejection of Him.
Right?
God's love
that brings this
providential care
doesn't mean that everyone,
He saves everyone.
God loves the world.
So we need to think
carefully about
what it means
when we say
God loves the world
and when we think about
what it means for us
to love our enemies.
enemies.
But our love for enemies
should imitate His,
desiring to do them good,
seeking to show them
the Father in heaven
who is providing for them
and who has provided
most of all
Jesus for them.
And of course,
this is the kind
of sonship then
that God calls us to.
You see this in verse 46
where He says,
do this so that
you may be sons.
And sons here
is a family term
saying you're going to
bear the resemblance
of those that you come from.
Right?
So,
He's saying that
if we have a love
for our enemies,
we are showing
that this is like
the God that we serve.
Right?
And look,
we need to recognize
how distinctive this is
because there are
secular reconciliation
people out there.
And you know what?
They're doing good work.
I don't want to despise them
or say that it's bad.
But,
they will resort
to principles
of human dignity
and mutual respect.
Things that we would agree on
based on
this is how we ought
to treat one another
because God created us
all in His image.
Right?
And so,
this is a good principle
that's out there
that gives a basis
for loving
even our enemies.
This is at the basis
of some of the
reconciliation processes
that happen
in some of the most
war-torn parts
of the world.
It's also what happens
in marriage counseling
and everywhere
in between.
But,
at the end of the day,
if that's all you have,
what you're bringing
to the table
is a pursuit
of reconciliation
that says along lines of,
don't you want
to treat them
the way you want
them to treat you?
And that's a good principle.
But the Christian call
is deeper than that.
To be like God
in the way
that He loves the world
is greater than this.
And by the way,
this is what verse 48 means.
Verse 48 does not mean
we're meant to be
morally perfect
in every way.
It does not mean
that we're suddenly set
to this new standard
of complete perfection.
The word there is,
if you know it,
telos.
It's complete
to be fulfilled
in what we were meant
to be.
And what Jesus
is saying here is,
as we love our enemies,
we are moving into
and closer to
what God's original
creation intent was,
what His redemptive plan
is for us,
and what we will look like
in heaven.
And so,
this is why we do this.
The true power,
though,
is in the gospel.
Bonnie read
from Romans earlier,
but I'm going to read it again
because this is where
we as Christians
understand
how it is
that we can love
our enemies
the way God
loves our enemies.
Romans 5,
verse 6,
says this,
For while we were still weak
at the right time,
Christ died
for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die
for a righteous person,
though perhaps
for a good person
one would dare
even to die.
But God shows
His love for us
in that while we were
still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Since, therefore,
we have now been justified
by His blood,
much more
shall we be saved
by Him
from the wrath of God.
for if we were enemies,
if while we were enemies
we were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son,
much more now
that we are reconciled
shall we be saved
by His life.
More than that,
we also rejoice in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ
through whom
we have now received
reconciliation.
Friends,
this is really simple
and really hard.
the gospel tells us
that we
were and are
the enemies of God
in our sin
and deserve nothing
but judgment
for that sin.
Until we remember
that in our sin
we are rebels
and haters of God,
we will never understand
what He has done for us.
We will never have
the humility
that we need
in order to love
our enemies.
Because friends,
it was not because
of our goodness
that God loved us.
The problem that we have
is that we think
our enemies are really bad
and we're not as bad
as they are.
And they deserve
something worse
than we do.
But God says
and the gospel says
while we were His enemies,
Christ died for us.
While you were His enemy,
Christ died for you.
And He did it
because He loves you.
He did it
to pay the penalty
for your sin.
He did it
by bearing
what we deserve.
The judgment
and the despising
and the rejection
and the scorn
that we want
to inflict
on our enemies
that God rightly
would inflict on us
because of our sin,
Jesus bore that
for us
on the cross
so that we might
be loved
undeservingly.
So that we might
be accepted
and embraced
and cherished
by God.
God.
And if God
loves us
like that,
then
we can begin
to understand
what it might
look like
for us
to love
our enemies
the way
God does.
Friends,
this is the good news
of the gospel
that we have been
loved like this
and not only loved
but given
a new life
in Christ
where Christ
himself,
the lover
of our souls
indwells us
so that
we might
love
with the love
that we have
been loved.
A love
even for
our enemies.
We're going to
close in a minute
with a great hymn
and can it be.
I'm going to read
the first verse
and then we'll go
to prayer
and then we'll
sing this.
And can it be
that I should
gain
an interest
in the Savior's
blood?
Died he
for me
who caused
his pain
for me
who him
to death
pursued?
Amazing love,
how can it be
that thou,
my God,
shouldst die
for me?
Let's pray.
O Lord,
we pray this
morning
for help
for Lord,
our hearts
do not
easily move
in these ways.
Lord,
we want to
have revenge.
We want to
strike back
when we are
struck.
We want to
treat our
enemies with
hatred,
with scorn.
Lord,
we confess
this to
you.
And Lord,
even if we
don't want to
do those
things,
Lord,
we desire
just distance
and ignoring
them.
But Lord,
you have
called us
to love
even our
enemies.
Help us,
Lord.
Help us
to know
your gospel
deeply
enough
to understand
how this
could be
so.
And by
your Spirit,
fill us
with the
knowledge
of your
love for
us
so that
we might
love others,
even our
enemies,
in your
name.
We pray
this in
Jesus' name.
Amen.