WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.160 So, I want to go back this morning to Matthew chapter 5, really from verse 33, these three 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:13.759 paragraphs that are in the centre of the Sermon and the Mount. 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:21.879 And I wonder sometimes, I've prepared this before, they can have ramping up of the coronavirus 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:26.719 stuff, so it's not directly related in any way, but it is directly related because it's 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:34.280 God's Word and I hope that some of the application will be real and relevant today. 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:36.920 I hope that's true every week. 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:42.759 But I do wonder sometimes what we're looking for from God as Christians to inspire us in 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:44.239 our faith. 00:00:44.239 --> 00:00:48.399 You know, you hear a lot of different things, faith is kind of ordinary, and we want something 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:50.399 to inspire it and make it great. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:52.679 You know, we do signs and wonders, is that what we want? 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:56.600 Do you want to feel goosebumps when we worship? 00:00:56.600 --> 00:01:04.120 Do you want more evidence of His love in our day-to-day life, a better church experience, 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.439 more enjoyment, an easier walk? 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:12.640 There's lots of different things that we might want to, we think, inspire us in our Christian 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:14.719 lives. 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:23.519 But really, we have all the inspiration available to us in the voice of Jesus. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:29.879 That's really where our inspiration and our foundation and our strength and our development 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:31.480 should come from as Christians. 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:38.879 The risen, authoritative, committed, astounding voice of Jesus Christ, the significance of 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:45.679 what He says, His love, His example, and His redemptive, atoning power. 00:01:45.679 --> 00:01:50.560 It's quite the qualification, isn't it, to listen to? 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:51.840 And we have that. 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.879 We all have that in our relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:59.439 And that's why preaching from the Word is so central to us, whether that's one to one 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:04.799 or whether it's from a sermon or whether it's reading or hearing, that the Word of God 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:11.319 and the voice of Jesus Christ through His Word is hugely significance. 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:15.199 I know that sometimes we think it's just all on paper. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:16.680 But how do I know more? 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:17.680 How do I live? 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:19.879 How am I inspired by Him? 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:24.280 We do need to recall and remind ourselves that it is the inspired Word of God. 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:25.639 It's a living Word. 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:26.639 It's three-dimensional. 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:32.560 It comes off the page and meaning is brought to us through the Holy Spirit, applying it 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:35.960 to our lives. 00:02:35.960 --> 00:02:43.680 And I do believe the inspiration will come from putting our discipleship into practice 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:46.960 through obedience to Jesus Christ and His Word. 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:55.599 And by living out what His love looks like in our lives, it means losing our lives for 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:56.599 His sake. 00:02:56.599 --> 00:02:58.840 It means being crucified to self. 00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:00.960 And it means living for Christ. 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:09.280 So in today's circumstances, we remind ourselves that we are citizens of another kingdom and 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.439 we live accordingly. 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:18.439 Not carelessly and not piously and not selfishly, but we are citizens of Jesus Christ. 00:03:18.439 --> 00:03:22.600 And we are not to be conforming, you know, Romans 12 tells us that, we don't conform to 00:03:22.600 --> 00:03:23.600 the pattern of this world. 00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:29.200 We are to be salt of the earth in this circumstance and in every circumstance we find ourselves 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:30.200 in. 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:35.799 And so God, God speaking to us is incredibly practical always. 00:03:35.799 --> 00:03:44.239 It's never pious and distant and religious in kind of non-practical ways. 00:03:44.239 --> 00:03:51.439 It's responding to everyday life with extraordinary grace. 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:54.519 That's what living as a Christian means for all of us. 00:03:54.519 --> 00:03:55.519 That's what it starts. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:00.400 It always is going to start with you and it's going to start with me and with our heart and 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:08.960 with our relationship with God, recognizing God's profoundly impossible different standard 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:15.280 that He requires of us, that drive us to Him in faith and drive us to Him in radical Christian 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:16.480 living. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:20.240 And if you ask the question, well, why am I, why am I, why am I, why am I, why am I 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:25.480 in faith to feel more real, that's what it will feel more real, that's where it will become 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:33.840 more compelling, more beautiful, more courageous and more crystal clear when we are walking 00:04:33.840 --> 00:04:40.040 in the footsteps of the Savior rather than anything kind of happening to us from the 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:42.160 outside. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:48.480 So in this passage there's three big areas where it's easy to ignore Jesus. 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:56.240 You see, we often reimagine or we ignore or we reject how Jesus wants us to live. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:59.000 And that's what the religious leaders of Jesus' day were doing. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:04.879 They were taking Scripture and twisting it, turning it, making it easier to live without 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:07.319 reference to God in many ways. 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:13.960 And it's easy for us to do the same, is to take away the impossibility and the standards 00:05:13.960 --> 00:05:15.960 of grace in our lives. 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:23.359 And what I mean by that is every day, every day, I'm not speaking about high days or significant 00:05:23.359 --> 00:05:30.799 other days but in the daily grind taking grace and the application of grace into it. 00:05:30.799 --> 00:05:35.439 So there's three, there's three paragraphs, so there's three sections and I'm going to 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:40.759 use three words, truth and self and grace. 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:45.959 So these are the three words that apply as we consider this. 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:51.079 So the first section entitled in the Bible, our pulpit Bible, in the pew Bible, page 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:57.800 810 is oaths from verse 33 and that's 33 to 37. 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.079 And Jesus says again, you have heard it said to those who will do shall not swear falsely 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:03.719 but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. 00:06:03.719 --> 00:06:08.480 And there is quite a lot of stuff in the Old Testament particularly in Leviticus, Numbers 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:10.840 and Deuteronomy about oaths. 00:06:10.840 --> 00:06:16.520 So in Deuteronomy 23, hopefully that's, is that going to come up on the screen, Deuteronomy 00:06:16.520 --> 00:06:22.040 23, it says, if you make a vow to the Lord your God you shall not delay fulfilling it 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:25.400 for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, you be guilty of sin. 00:06:25.400 --> 00:06:29.560 But if you refrain from vowing you will not be guilty of sin, you shall be careful to 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:33.759 do what has passed your lips for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:35.640 you have promised with your mouth. 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:40.199 So there was precedent for vows and vowing before the Lord in the Old Testament. 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:44.439 But what was happening with the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day was they were, they were, they 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:46.479 were grading oaths. 00:06:46.479 --> 00:06:50.199 So they were saying some oaths you needed to keep depending on the words you used and 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:52.399 other little oaths you didn't need to keep. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:56.199 If you used God's name well you really needed to keep that oath but if you used the temple 00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:58.319 then you didn't need to use that oath. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:03.159 And God, they were giving more weight to some of their words than other words so that some 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:07.200 of their words actually couldn't be trusted and yet they were using oaths to give them 00:07:07.200 --> 00:07:12.120 a veneer of truthfulness and responsibility. 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:21.280 Jesus utterly and completely slams them in His, in His wows, the seven wows of Matthew 00:07:21.280 --> 00:07:22.280 23. 00:07:22.280 --> 00:07:28.440 What do you scribes and Pharisees, you swear by the gold of the temple and you say it can't 00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:35.079 be broken but then you swear by the, and He just annihilates the fact that they are hypocritical 00:07:35.079 --> 00:07:40.199 and that their words are not just, you know, to swear by the temple is nothing, to swear 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:42.160 by the gold of the temple is binding. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.439 They were speaking with fork tongue, in other words. 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:53.360 They were using oaths in a way to allow themselves to make promises or make vows they couldn't 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:54.360 keep. 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:56.079 And I'm just going to broaden that. 00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:00.839 I'm not going to go into detail into the different oaths and everything else that we could do 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:08.560 here, but the basic teaching of Jesus here is that to be a disciple of Jesus is to be 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:15.039 known, to be absolutely trustworthy and transparently honest. 00:08:15.039 --> 00:08:19.319 It's broadening out beyond simply the taking of oaths, you know, as it finishes there in 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:22.680 verse 37, let what you say simply be yes or no. 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:26.000 Anything beyond that comes from the evil one. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.240 And why is that? 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:31.639 That is because Jesus is the truth. 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:35.759 Jesus is the revelation of the truth. 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:37.799 Jesus holds the truth. 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:39.320 Jesus is the truth. 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:47.700 So if we are followers of Jesus' truth, as it's revealed in Him and in His revelation 00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:55.600 of what the world is but also particularly in salvation, our lives are to be based on 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:57.279 truth. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:02.720 You know from the very beginning that the problems arose with Satan's lies, and he's 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:04.080 called the father of lies. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:05.080 That's not insignificant. 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:09.560 It's the complete opposite of God, as God is truth and Satan is lies. 00:09:09.560 --> 00:09:13.279 And so we recognize Satan as the father of lies. 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:19.800 And ever since, lies have been damning and confusing and dividing and creating havoc 00:09:19.800 --> 00:09:23.160 in the world in which we live. 00:09:23.159 --> 00:09:29.000 Whether it's lies to gain popularity, lying on your CV, lying to get acceptance, hiding 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:34.679 who we are in order to gain wealth or to gain some kind of advantage. 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:40.199 At the very heart of your walk of faith and mine as Christians is that we are not liars, 00:09:40.199 --> 00:09:43.279 is that we tell the truth and that we live by the truth. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:47.360 And we all say, of course. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:50.779 That will impact how you live tomorrow and how I live tomorrow. 00:09:50.779 --> 00:09:55.120 We should be people who are known as people of the Word, people of our Word. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:56.720 Our Word is our bond. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:58.480 We can be trusted. 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:04.919 So parents, you go home and you don't make false promises to your kids in order to placate 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:10.199 them or promises you don't keep saying you'll be somewhere and not turning up. 00:10:10.199 --> 00:10:11.439 Be people of your Word. 00:10:11.439 --> 00:10:12.439 We'll make mistakes. 00:10:12.439 --> 00:10:14.519 Of course we'll make mistakes. 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:22.279 But be known, be apologetic, seek forgiveness when we fail to keep our promises in our 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:23.279 lives. 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:27.879 In our church relationships, there will only ever be Christian depth between us in our 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:33.439 Christian lives if there's a trust and a basic honesty between us. 00:10:33.439 --> 00:10:38.279 If you say one thing, if you speak with forked tongue in church, with other Christians, 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.480 if you say one thing but mean another, then you're hiding the reality. 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:49.120 If you talk behind people's backs and a smile to their faces, if you're saying you'll do 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:54.639 something or be somewhere for another Christian but you pull out easily and cheaply just because 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:58.759 we can't be bothered then, it's because truth doesn't matter to us. 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:04.560 And yet it's a truly fundamental part of our lives as Christians. 00:11:04.560 --> 00:11:09.200 Your workplace, what is your reputation in the workplace? 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:11.840 Or in the student body or in the school or in... 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:12.840 What is your reputation? 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:18.200 Do you have a reputation for being known as a truth teller who's honest, even sometimes 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:20.240 when it causes difficulties? 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:22.120 Sensitive, yes. 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:28.400 But truthful, honest, reliable, scrupulous. 00:11:28.400 --> 00:11:33.680 And when we say things, we don't need to swear on our granny's false teeth in order to be 00:11:33.680 --> 00:11:37.960 known to be saying something that we'll keep to. 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:42.160 We don't need to make oaths because our yeses are yes and our noes are no. 00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:44.280 We are people of integrity and honesty. 00:11:44.280 --> 00:11:53.840 That is the most practical outworking of grace in our lives and will bring our faith alive. 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:56.360 It's costly. 00:11:56.360 --> 00:11:59.080 We live in a society you would expected to lie. 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:01.400 It's absolutely natural. 00:12:01.400 --> 00:12:05.759 Expected to lie about your income, expected to lie in your tax return, expected to lie 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:07.600 to get customers off your back. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:09.759 It's completely natural to lie. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:19.080 Lie about your abilities, lie about your character to avoid conflict, to be popular, to progress 00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:20.159 in life. 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.879 We are citizens of another king. 00:12:23.879 --> 00:12:31.200 Our life and our behavior, accordingly by grace, is to be different. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:34.519 Sometimes we throw up our hands and say, I never have an opportunity to share my faith 00:12:34.519 --> 00:12:37.840 or to show that I'm a Christian. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:38.840 Guarantee. 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:44.600 As we live by Christ and the cost of living by Christ with regard to the truth, we will 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:46.879 have plenty of opportunities. 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:50.199 Say what you mean, mean what you say. 00:12:50.199 --> 00:12:58.559 Anything else is from the father of lies and the self-interest that goes with that. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:04.439 Grace loves truth and that is the reflection of the character and the person of Christ. 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:06.840 And then the second section is retaliation. 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:09.240 This is quite a radical section. 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:14.120 You've heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and so on. 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:16.120 An eye for an eye. 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:21.960 We've got Exodus 23 to 25. 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:23.560 That's the Old Testament law. 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:27.280 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand 00:13:27.280 --> 00:13:31.760 for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:35.279 Exodus 21, 23 to 25. 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:38.840 Now that was given by God in the context of the outworking of the Ten Commandments and 00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:46.360 it was given in the context of the civil law of Israel, that this was to be outworked in 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:47.360 the law courts. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.159 It was to be outworked in the society. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:59.519 It was to restrict and to ban personal unlimited revenge and individual retribution. 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:05.319 It was for this theocratic law court of the Old Testament and it's the principle in which 00:14:05.319 --> 00:14:07.919 many of our law courts are based. 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:10.960 Punishment is to fit the crime. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:16.159 Appropriate punishment for the appropriate crime or appropriate damages for punitive 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:18.960 damages for crimes committed. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:24.759 But Christ is taking it here into the realm of discipleship, into the realm of personal 00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:39.439 responsibility and reapplying it and restating it against the Pharisees who had taken it 00:14:39.439 --> 00:14:46.840 and misapplied it in every way because they took what was the truth of the Old Testament 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:52.480 and added to it of course in different ways. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:15:03.399 And so here we see Christ speaking about our attitude as individuals, presenting an individual 00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:12.200 Christian law of non-retaliation, the personal ethics for a believer. 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:21.200 Romans 12, 17 to 21, Paul restates it, repain no one evil for evil but give thought to what 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:25.440 is on and will say of all possible as far as live peaceably with all men. 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:29.400 Beloved, never avenge yourselves but leave it for the wrath of God for it is written, 00:15:29.400 --> 00:15:31.680 avenge its mind, I will repay. 00:15:31.680 --> 00:15:39.320 It's a recognition that we don't have the right to personal retaliation and revenge in 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:45.600 our Christian lives and he gives four different little cameos of what that means. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:50.240 He starts with them, do not resist the one who's evil but if anyone slaps you in the 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:54.159 right cheek, turn to him the other also. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:16:02.600 A tremendously challenging statement but reminding us that we are not to return violence 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:09.080 with violence, that we're not taking it beyond the image or the illustration, we're not 00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:13.600 also to return insult for insult. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.480 And Christ is a great example. 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:22.279 You don't return personal insults by slapping some more personal insults on people and as 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:32.360 much as possible also not to take personal vengeance of course and revenge on people. 00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:38.039 He then goes on to speak about if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have 00:16:38.039 --> 00:16:39.519 your cloak as well. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:46.439 I think that's in the context of being sued for something or the payment of a debt and 00:16:46.439 --> 00:16:51.960 I think the principle here is listen, be generous. 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:58.720 If you owe someone something, don't contest it on a technicality but be willing to give 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:05.119 back more than is expected of you and especially within a Christian church context where it 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:10.679 says in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 7, we have to be willing to be wronged. 00:17:10.679 --> 00:17:13.000 To have lawsuits with one another is already a defeat. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:14.519 Why not rather suffer wrong? 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:16.399 Why not rather be defrauded? 00:17:16.399 --> 00:17:20.000 And it reminds us of our attitude towards one another as Christians. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.079 Then the third little vignette he gives is if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:25.079 them two miles. 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:26.079 Well, what does that mean? 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:33.199 Well, it comes from the practice of the Roman soldiers who were able to compel particularly 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:37.160 peasants into service to carry their gear for them. 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:40.480 So they would ask us and they only had to carry it for one mile. 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:45.440 So you would carry the gear of a Roman soldier for one mile and that would be your duty under 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:46.920 Roman law. 00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:53.080 And here the idea is when we are compelled into service in whatever context, we're not 00:17:53.080 --> 00:17:58.799 going to be asked to carry someone's gear for a mile in the army or the air force as 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:00.319 they go on the streets. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:08.759 It's the whole idea of not just doing the minimum required, just grudgingly. 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:10.559 The idea, do more than what's expected. 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:12.399 Do more than the bare minimum. 00:18:12.399 --> 00:18:16.919 If you were a Christian peasant in the Roman times, if the Roman soldier actually do one, 00:18:16.919 --> 00:18:18.720 well, walk with them two miles as well. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:22.279 And whether you're there, speak to the guy and try and get to know him. 00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:27.240 And so there's this idea of being known as someone who is willing to serve and willing 00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:32.480 to go the extra mile, known as a, maybe in your rotten jobs, doing the rotten things 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:37.759 that no one else is willing to do and doing it well, not skiving and cheating, but working 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:41.640 and carrying a load for God's glory. 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:46.680 And not doing it well just when we're being watched, but when nobody is watching or when 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:52.000 we think nobody is watching, recognizing God in all of these things. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:56.279 And the last one is give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse from the one who 00:18:56.279 --> 00:19:00.480 will borrow from you in the whole context of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:06.039 And again, it's, I think it's just speaking about generosity, willing to lend out of love, 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:11.559 but not in a careless way, but just generally holding loosely to our possessions and our 00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:16.319 material goods and having a generous attitude towards others. 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:19.319 Because Jesus is the giver of all good gifts. 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:21.720 And because that is what He looks for us. 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:26.079 So I think there's a generous, if you've taken overarching thing, there's a generosity of spirit 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:33.039 here and our recognition that we will be wronged and that we will be treated badly. 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:36.879 It's the very opposite of the victim mentality in which we're living today. 00:19:36.879 --> 00:19:42.839 For everyone's a victim and it's a moving towards a much more generous, open, gracious 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:47.119 attitude to the world and to the lives we live. 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:49.319 Because that's the second area. 00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:52.319 The third area is the last one, love your enemies. 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:59.119 And this is the most obvious twisting of the Old Testament from the Pharisees of Jesus 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:05.159 Day where they said, you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. 00:20:05.159 --> 00:20:09.279 That was never the Old Testament requirement. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:15.359 Leviticus 19, verse 18, speaks of it says, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:18.960 against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself. 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:24.000 I'm you, Lord, I think, sorry, I think it goes on to say you shall also love your enemy. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:31.240 So Leviticus never adds that you should love your neighbour and hate your enemy. 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:39.120 That was an additional unbiblical emphasis of the religious leaders of your day. 00:20:39.120 --> 00:20:44.000 But Jesus says, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:53.440 So this is beyond even non-retaliatory love, it is positive action in our lives towards 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:57.759 our, not just our neighbours, but our enemies. 00:20:57.759 --> 00:20:58.960 So who's your neighbour? 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:03.079 Well, it's the person that's next to you. 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:07.240 Sometimes literally, but just in other words, whoever comes into your experience, whoever 00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:16.359 comes into your life, but we're to regard even our enemies with that same love, maybe 00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:25.359 those who persecute you in the workplace, those who hate you for who you are, I hope, 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:30.319 not for legitimate reasons of being hypocritical in our lives. 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:37.399 But we are to love and to offer the hand of friendship and grace towards our enemies. 00:21:37.399 --> 00:21:39.639 We're to pray for them. 00:21:39.639 --> 00:21:44.720 It's very difficult to pray for someone and then to treat them badly. 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:52.279 It should be if our prayers are genuinely concerned for their welfare. 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:56.439 The philosophy of the world is to love those who love you in return. 00:21:56.440 --> 00:22:01.160 Quid pro quo, I love them because they love me and because they can be good for me and 00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:03.480 that'll be good for them. 00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:07.120 And it's the whole, if we talked about the victim mentality of the world in which we 00:22:07.120 --> 00:22:12.200 live, this plays into the identity politics of the world in which we live, is we only 00:22:12.200 --> 00:22:16.759 associate those who agree with us and who think the same way as us. 00:22:16.759 --> 00:22:24.600 Absolutely not the case for the Christian is we are to show and live a life of love 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:27.519 without enemies. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:31.839 That is radically counter-intuitive. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:35.240 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? 00:22:35.240 --> 00:22:37.719 Even the Gentiles or the Pagans do the same. 00:22:37.719 --> 00:22:39.359 That's the way of the world. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:41.319 We can all do that. 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:45.959 And it's really sad when sometimes the way of the world comes into the church and the 00:22:45.959 --> 00:22:53.599 church acts more like an unbelieving world than it does look like that we are citizens 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:55.079 of another kingdom. 00:22:55.079 --> 00:23:00.079 And so there's much need for us in our lives for forgiveness. 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:03.879 And he says, you therefore must be perfect, your heavenly Father is perfect. 00:23:03.879 --> 00:23:10.559 Perfect here meaning come to that place where you, having attained the end or the purpose 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:13.679 of what you're doing. 00:23:13.679 --> 00:23:18.799 And that is a true understanding of grace when we live out grace like Jesus lives out 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:24.319 because the greatest example of loving your enemies is Christ on the cross. 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:28.440 While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:23:28.440 --> 00:23:35.240 The greatest example of generosity is Jesus Christ and his life and the death on the cross. 00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:41.519 The greatest example of truth is Jesus Christ and his life and death on the cross and all 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:44.319 that he does for us. 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:49.359 So we are to be children of our Father so that you may be sons of your Father who is 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:50.759 in heaven. 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:52.879 And that simply means that makes us like Him. 00:23:52.879 --> 00:23:59.919 You know, when children look like their parents, we are to look like our Father is who is in 00:23:59.919 --> 00:24:02.240 heaven. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:10.000 We recognize that the Father in heaven pours out gifts onto those who believe Him and those 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:11.000 who don't believe Him. 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:15.160 He gives life and He gives health and He gives laughter and He gives happiness to people 00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:19.960 who spend not one day in His company who do nothing but stick their fingers up at Him 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:24.000 and who aren't interested in the living God, who claim to be atheists and who mock and 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.299 deride the idea of God and of heaven. 00:24:26.299 --> 00:24:30.400 He pours out goodness to them day to day. 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:35.319 He sends His Son on the evil and on the righteous. 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:43.879 And we are to live with that same reflective grace. 00:24:43.879 --> 00:24:50.079 God is loving and patient and He is also just and one day His justice will be revealed. 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:56.759 But as we wait on Him, we are to remember the quote from Alfred Plummer which is a very 00:24:56.759 --> 00:25:03.919 good one, to return evil for good is devilish. 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:08.340 To return good for good is human. 00:25:08.340 --> 00:25:13.200 To return good for evil is divine. 00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:21.360 And that is impossible without Christ in our hearts. 00:25:21.360 --> 00:25:30.120 So the sermon in the mount speaks all the time of unnatural norms, I'm using that word 00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:35.159 guardedly, unnatural in the nature of the world in which we live. 00:25:35.159 --> 00:25:41.759 It speaks against society's norms because we belong to a different kingdom and we have 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:44.679 a different king and we are citizens. 00:25:44.679 --> 00:25:48.119 And the gospel is radical. 00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:56.079 I headlined this or themed this sermon, the grace ouch. 00:25:56.079 --> 00:26:05.720 This week you got grace, wow, this week you get grace ouch because the gospel has, can 00:26:05.720 --> 00:26:18.240 I say, the gospel, the grace's teeth, it's encouraging us to act in a powerful way. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:23.839 Dwayevsky says that love and action is much more terrible than loving dreams. 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:29.639 We often are just loving the gospel and Jesus and dreams, but going out and loving this 00:26:29.639 --> 00:26:35.919 way in the indiscriminate, selfless, loving the unlovely, those who don't love in return, 00:26:35.919 --> 00:26:45.240 it is impossible without Christ in our hearts because that is what He did to us. 00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:47.599 That is who we are. 00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:51.119 That is what we are like without His grace. 00:26:51.119 --> 00:27:00.399 How can we ever pass judgment on others when we know our own hearts? 00:27:00.399 --> 00:27:08.079 That I believe as we, in a life of repentance and faith every day, that's how we will begin 00:27:08.079 --> 00:27:10.519 to get a buzz from our faith. 00:27:10.519 --> 00:27:15.599 That's how we will become more real where we will get goosebumps because that's what 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:17.599 will change the world. 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:19.559 That's what is going to change this world. 00:27:19.559 --> 00:27:24.119 And that's what's going to transform your experience and my experience of faith. 00:27:24.119 --> 00:27:34.919 It's faith that's going to be tried and tested in the coface of day-to-day living. 00:27:34.919 --> 00:27:38.519 It's not in here that we become strong Christians. 00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:40.079 This is where we're equipped. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:45.319 It's when we live it, when we test it, when we try it and live Christ's way in the world 00:27:45.319 --> 00:27:47.359 in which we live. 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:53.279 So I would discourage you from looking for, from some kind of magic spiritual dust to 00:27:53.279 --> 00:28:03.079 make us feel the love as we walk in the Holy Spirit, an impossible dependence and obedience 00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:07.799 to Jesus' way, which is different from the world in which we live. 00:28:07.799 --> 00:28:14.759 And I think life changes for us and we will know God's love because we will be living 00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:25.039 God's love in all the grime and dirt and mud that is this world. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:32.599 Son-deserved love, and I don't think it's like any description of love we have naturally 00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:33.599 from within us. 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:37.160 It is absolutely divine and therefore we need Him. 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:45.560 And His grace to transform our brokenness and our sin and the reality of death in us. 00:28:45.560 --> 00:28:51.720 We need to be saved from that and redeemed and live as citizens of another kingdom. 00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:52.720 Amen. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:53.720 We pray. 00:28:53.720 --> 00:29:00.000 Father God, we ask for Your help to live this way. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:14.359 It may become relentlessly stark to live this way in the current situation. 00:29:14.359 --> 00:29:25.359 It may be impossibly powerful to act with grace and with love and restraint and commitment 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:33.799 and truthfulness when self-preservation seems to reign. 00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:40.439 We pray that we would remind ourselves of where our hope lies, like Paul and Plenty or 00:29:40.439 --> 00:29:51.879 a need that we are confident and we are able to be comfortable and rely on the living God 00:29:51.879 --> 00:29:55.079 and be content with what we have. 00:29:55.079 --> 00:30:01.439 We know that there is much wrestling in that and we don't say it and pray that we wouldn't 00:30:01.439 --> 00:30:12.240 say it to others or even to ourselves in a trite and in an uncaring way, but that we 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:22.199 would recognize that these days demand us to be extremely prayerful and extremely in 00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:28.400 connection with Jesus Christ and learning from His truth and living His truth. 00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:29.400 Help us. 00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:32.080 We pray to do so and help us to help each other to do so. 00:30:32.080 --> 00:30:39.400 I pray especially today for those who have burdens because of what's happening, have 00:30:39.400 --> 00:30:47.480 fears whose plans have been thrown up in the air, who can't visit loved ones either locally 00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:53.120 or internationally for the many we have in our congregation who are here from other parts 00:30:53.120 --> 00:31:00.279 of the world and for the challenges and complications it brings into their lives. 00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:06.880 We commit all of these to you and pray that we would love and support and care for one 00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:11.160 another very powerfully in these days. 00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:18.240 So help us to look out, help each of us to look with shepherd's eyes and care and protect 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:24.360 all those who we know and those also who we don't know. 00:31:24.359 --> 00:31:43.039 For Jesus' sake, amen.