There's a story told about a little girl during a thunderstorm, and I thought it might be
appropriate to start with that this evening, given the amount of thunderstorms have been
happening.
The father had just finished doing the nightly routine.
They were a Christian household.
As a father, he did his duty, reminding the little girl how much she was loved by God,
because she was a little bit frightened going to bed this night with the lightning flashing
across her bedroom window and the sound of thunder.
And he thought after an hour or so, he should go in and check on his daughter just to make
sure that things were okay, that she was settling down, that everything was going to be okay,
that they were going to have a peaceful night.
The thunderstorm was still raging.
The lightning was still flashing.
And as he opened the bedroom window, he saw his young daughter of four years old pressed
against her window, smiling.
And he says, what on earth are you doing?
Get back into bed.
Are you not frightened?
No, she says.
I think God's trying to take my picture.
A little girl who understood how loved she was by God, because her father had told her,
because she'd read it in the scriptures.
And one of the things that I think is so important, this is a tenuous link, shall we say, is that
when we come to passages like the Sermon on the Mount, and actually, as we come to the
scripture, very often we read it with our minds intact, but we do not read it with our
emotions intact.
We do not read it as the love letter that it is meant to be.
Especially when we come to something like the Sermon on the Mount.
There is these instructions that are contained within it, instructions for moral living.
So much so that Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by these words, as are many other leaders who
are not believers.
And if you come to the Sermon on the Mount like that, you will go away, perhaps with
a different moral value, but you won't go away knowing how loved you are by your Father
in heaven, who gives you these instructions to say, these are the kingdom values I want
you as Christians to model.
Because I think in these particular set of verses that Graham read to us, I don't know
about you, but this is how the conversations have often gone with me over some of these
verses.
I had a friend who was due to appear as a witness in court.
He was insistent after reading these verses that he would not take the oath as he stood on
the witness stand.
Because he was insistent that these verses told him that he mustn't take an oath.
I'm sure like me, you've had the conversations in churches as to whether it's right for a
Christian to serve in the armed forces or the police forces.
These verses from 38 to 42, I have had many conversations where people have used these
verses to defend that view.
I've also heard people use these verses to expound the view about not defending oneself against
an attacker because we're not meant to resist the evil person.
Or that Christians should never be rich because it says we should give away our cloak.
And I'm not saying there is complexities to some of these conversations.
You may well hold a pacifist view and believe that Christians shouldn't serve in the forces.
That's not the view I hold.
But you may well hold these views.
You may well hold the view that Christians shouldn't be rich.
But to take these verses and use that as your defense is actually to miss the point.
And in actual fact, it's to do what the people of Jesus' day were doing with the law.
Manipulating it to make a point.
Manipulating it to keep a certain group of people down or to keep control.
Manipulating it to keep control.
The people of Jesus' day were seeking to abuse and manipulate the law of God in order to serve their self-interests.
And unfortunately, we sometimes do the same as disciples of Christ.
And so as we make our way through these different sections of the Sermon on the Mount.
Be thinking about how does this help me as a disciple serve the other Christians around me.
And how does this as a disciple allow me to model to the world around me.
That I'm serving a different master.
That it's not just about moral duty or moral law.
But it's because we have a God in heaven who loves us so much.
That he leaves us with these instructions and these ways of living as kingdom people.
What are the kingdom values that we're meant to learn about here?
And so we have three different subjects tonight.
Jesus is showing the religious leaders and the people of the day the principles behind God's law.
And not the other hundred side clauses that they had created in order to manipulate and control.
So remember context is key.
The Sermon on the Mount is key teaching for those of us seeking to live out kingdom values.
That's the other point to have in your mind as we make through them.
So let's look at these under three headings then.
Because it conveniently, it gives us three headings really in a sense.
We have telling the truth.
We have turn the other cheek.
And we have tenderness for the enemy.
Do you see what I did there with TTT?
Yeah?
It's amazing what you can do when you type in something to a computer and then hover over it with a mouse.
And it gives you all these other letters.
It's a great tool.
Where would I be without Microsoft Word?
I do not know.
Two thousand years ago in Israel, the story goes something like this.
Telling the truth, verses 33 to 37.
Jack approaches Graham about an unpaid debt.
Look, Graham, I know I owe you money for that debt.
I can't pay it just now.
But I swear by Jerusalem that during lambing season this year, I will give you the choice of the best of my offspring once the Lord has his share.
Would that suffice to cover the debt, Graham?
Graham, being a reasonable fellow, agrees to that offer.
And then, after lambing season has passed, approaches Jack to collect on the debt.
Jack turns to Graham and says,
Now, I know that's exactly the kind of thing that was going on in Jerusalem at the time of the Sermon on the Mount.
The rabbis were allowing people to renege on their oaths.
The Bible says it's okay, actually, to take an oath.
God takes an oath.
The Apostle Paul talks about taking oaths all the time.
But they were saying,
Ah, that oath didn't count because I only swore by Jerusalem.
If I'd sworn toward Jerusalem, then I would have had to have paid up on the debt.
Or, I didn't swear by the temple, so I'm not legally bound to cover that debt.
That's just the rules, I'm afraid, because the rabbis have said so.
Because they've allowed all these clauses to go on.
You see, the issue in this particular part of verses 33 to 37 isn't the issue of oath at all.
The issue is one of truthfulness.
Can you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, be trusted that when you say you're going to do something,
that you're going to back it up with action?
So the people were really saying,
Well, I didn't actually take the oath before God.
So it doesn't count.
And Jesus comes and says,
Listen here.
Can you just kind of imagine that Jesus is just saying,
Listen up now.
You're saying that these oaths don't count because you've never sworn them by God or by the temple.
But he says,
Look, all oaths are taken before God.
Because who owns Jerusalem?
God the Father does.
Who owns the temple?
God the Father does.
Who owns the earth that you're very standing on?
God the Father does.
So if you take an oath,
whether you say it's by Jerusalem, to Jerusalem, by the temple,
it does not matter.
All oaths are taken before God.
So stop this nonsense about what does and doesn't count, Jesus is saying.
Stop trying to manipulate and squirm your way out of something.
It's simple, says Jesus.
When you say yes, mean it.
And when you say no, mean it.
Now, how does this then apply to us today?
Well, I will give you one of the, I think, one of the examples that is probably prevalent in most churches
and in most Christian conversations.
And I will admit that I too am guilty.
I too am guilty of doing this.
Have you ever been part of that or observed the conversation in church that goes something like this?
Thank you for sharing that with me, brother, sister.
I'm sure it's not been an easy time for you.
I will pray about it.
Or the other one.
Now, you turn to a Christian friend.
I'm sharing this with you, not for gossip, but for your prayers.
Jim told me the other day that him and Gene's marriage is in real trouble.
Now, you must promise me that you mustn't tell it to anybody.
I told him I wouldn't tell anybody.
But I'm just sharing with you, not as gossip, but it's a prayer point.
Will you promise to join me in prayer?
How often then, when you go away from that conversation having promised to pray, do you forget to do it?
I'm sure there are best intentions.
But I actually think the reality is, very often we just say these words because we don't know what else to say.
We're like Job's comforters.
We don't know what to say, so we just say the first thing that comes out.
I'll pray about that.
And then it gets us out of the conversation, and then we move on to something else.
And then before we've got to our car, we've had a row with the wife.
We've kicked the dog when we've got home.
And our prayer life is in a mess anyway.
And we've forgotten to pray about the very thing we promised we would.
Or we've betrayed a confidence.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no.
Here's a tip.
We can maybe talk about this afterwards in our discussion.
How do you stop just from rushing out those words, I'll pray about that?
Maybe the best thing to do is go, let's pray about it now.
Let's sit down at the front of this church now and pray about it now.
Or in the coffee house when your friend shares it with you.
I remember there's a great man in Ferny Hill, John Hannah.
I'm sure you know him here.
He's probably come and preached.
But when he says he's going to pray about it, he doesn't let you leave.
He sits you down wherever you are or stands you wherever you are,
and you have to pray with him even if it's in the middle of a crowded street.
Because he is worried he's going to go home and forget,
and he doesn't want to renege on a promise.
Because he says, let your yes be yes and your no be no.
Now that's just one example, but I think it's a very serious example.
Because if you promise to pray for somebody and you forget,
it's very, very dangerous.
I think it's very, very dangerous.
Because can you be trusted?
Ask yourself that question.
Can you be trusted?
Truthfulness is a kingdom value.
A Christian should be one whose word can be trusted.
My word is my bond and all that.
This isn't about how bad oaths are,
but how damaging telling lies are to the Christian witness.
Not living up to the promises.
So you conclude this little section with this question in your mind.
Can I be trusted?
Turn the other cheek then.
Now as I've said, this verse has been used as backup for Christians not being in the forces,
or that Christians can't defend oneself against an attacker.
You may have an opinion on these things,
but you can't use these verses as your sole text for that defense.
It is to take them out of context.
Let's briefly remind ourselves why this law existed.
The law eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
was created to reduce the blood feud principle that can so often occur.
I get beaten up.
It wouldn't work for me actually, because my brother's actually weakling.
But if I get beaten up and I send my brother to beat the guy who beat me up,
and then his brothers come and beat my brother up,
and then before you know it,
I mean, you see it.
Families at war.
I work in Gilmoreton.
We have two families at war.
That was what the stabbing was over a few weeks back.
Guns were involved at one point.
Two families who had been at war for years.
And it probably all started over something really, really silly.
What was happening with this law by Jesus' time
was that it was being used for the petty
and gaining limited retaliation and revenge,
and it was missing the purpose.
Sinclair Ferguson points out in his book,
The Sermon on the Mount,
the real fulfillment of the law
would be in the one who did not seek
personal retaliation or revenge.
And in order to back up that point,
Sinclair Ferguson uses divorce as his example.
The real fulfillment of the divorce law, he says,
was not stretching it to its limit,
but fulfillment was in lifelong marriage.
Not that you had a get-out clause.
And so the background to verse 39,
and that resisting, that word resisting,
the evil one,
it's a legal word that's being used.
The word resist is explicitly legal.
It's translated as take to court.
And I think I would agree with what Sinclair Ferguson
and Don Carson say about this verse here,
that they say, in other words,
Jesus is saying,
don't stand on your legal rights as Christians
in order to plead others of their resources.
The Christian should not make their legal rights
the basis of their relationships with others,
rather than use them to exclude Christians
from participating in certain employment.
And I think that's true when you look at the examples
that Jesus uses here.
Jesus is going to show them personally
what it looks like to surrender one's rights
on his journey to the cross.
He will show that in a great example of surrendering it.
He doesn't take his legal rights, does he?
He turns the other cheek
in perhaps the greatest example that we've ever witnessed.
But the images presented by Jesus here are powerful.
Turn the cheek.
To be slapped with the back of one's hand
in the Near East
is a gross insult even still today.
The average fine in this day
was a man's annual wage.
A bit like the defamation cases
you see coming much of today.
That's what it was like.
It was that kind of an insult.
So what is Jesus asking for
when he says turn the other cheek?
Is he saying willingly you should suffer?
No, Jesus is explaining in a figurative way.
He's not just saying just stand there and take it.
A physical beating for the sake of it.
He's pointing out that we should not seek revenge
for those who insult us as Christians.
Who will be impressed by the Christian
who seeks revenge and retaliation?
Children of God need to live in a different way.
Our reputation and our standing
come from being God's children.
Not from seeking out petty retaliation
which neither serve the kingdom of God
or display its principles.
So the first example is one of turning the cheek.
And the other is this idea of giving your coat.
It's figurative.
Remember how important the coat was
in this day and age.
If it was taken as a deposit toward a debt
or in guarantee of a debt
it had to be returned by nightfall.
That was the legal requirement of that day
because very often it was the only coat that was owned.
It was used as bedclothes too.
Jesus is making the point
about how the Christian stands up under persecution.
Don't just go to your legal rights.
Show like Jesus that you are willing to surrender
even your very coat.
Now I think this probably has much more meaning
in areas of the world
where people experience physical persecution.
We actually don't know how good we have it here.
I've been doing the New Christianity Explored DVDs
with a few people,
Discipleship Explored,
with a few people at our church.
And one of the things that the guy says at the beginning
is the guy who worked out in Eastern Europe.
And the very first video is him saying,
I pray for you Christians in the West
to receive persecution.
And it's like, whoa,
calm down a wee bit there, mate.
But he makes the point where he says,
only then will you learn to surrender
those rights that you hold so dear
and be willing to suffer for Christ.
That's what's being asked for here.
Go the extra mile.
If somebody asks you to walk a thousand miles,
a mile,
walk another mile,
says Jesus.
The Roman army had the right to commandeer people
to help them.
Easy to abuse,
hated by the Jews,
humiliating.
Humiliating.
But I actually think there's a
passive-aggressive thing at work here,
in some ways.
You were required to walk a thousand paces.
Well, says Jesus,
walk a thousand more.
What's happening there if you walk a thousand more?
Who has the power then?
You do,
because you do it voluntarily.
Imagine the shock on a Roman soldier's face
as an army of Christians
hoiked the soldier's backpacks on their back
and said,
no, I'm going to walk another,
I'm going to walk another thousand steps.
I only need you to walk a thousand.
I've got the power.
I serve a different master.
The Roman soldier in charge
who has seen the great leaders
suddenly seeing an army of Christians
whose leader is far greater,
who's allowing them to live
in a completely different way
and surrender their rights,
turn the other cheek,
walk not just one thousand yards
but another thousand more.
What power is at work in these Christians
that they willingly do that?
That's what would have been being asked.
And that's what's at stake here.
The last example is just another way
Jesus makes that point
of willingly giving to others.
It's a powerful Christian witness
when a Christian goes above
and beyond what is required.
And in fact,
we know it's one of the reasons
why Christianity exploded
in those early days.
When others looked on
at these Christians,
they saw they were different.
Burying not just their own dead
but the dead of Romans
who were just throwing their slaves
out in the street.
Sharing the wealth together.
Sharing of their possessions.
Why?
Because they served a different master.
So rather than take these verses
to explain why you're a pacifist,
and you may well be
and there's nothing wrong with that.
It's maybe a good thing to be.
Maybe I should be dealing
with a bit more pacifism in my life
but I'm a former rugby player
so it's difficult to be a pacifist
when you're on a rugby field.
Here's the question.
In the first section,
can I be trusted?
Second section,
am I willingly surrendering my rights
for the sake of the gospel?
Am I willingly surrendering my rights
for the sake of the gospel?
And finally and briefly,
tenderness for your enemies.
Who is my neighbor?
The question used to try and get Jesus
to give them a list of people
they could love.
They didn't really want to know
who their neighbor was.
They just wanted to know
who they could love.
And secondly,
a list of people they could hate.
The law only required
that you loved your neighbor.
And so what had happened was
they figured,
well, if the law only demands
we have to love our neighbor
then that means we can hate our enemy.
A distortion.
It's a bit like Peter
when he goes to Jesus
thinking he's all high and mighty.
How many times
should I forgive my brother?
Seven times?
I mean, the average
you're allowed to.
I mean, to go three times
was above and beyond
the call of duty.
Peter's doubled it
and added one.
He thinks he's amazing.
No.
Seventy-seven times
seven says Jesus.
What?
Not sure I'm ready
for that kind of forgiveness.
Who is my neighbor?
When Jesus is asked that question
he points out
that the Samaritan,
that country
that they wouldn't even
dirty their feet in,
that was their neighbor,
the good Samaritan.
Because
it's easy to love someone
we share something
in common with.
Jesus says
even the dirtiest
of sinners do that.
I worked
with former convicts
for a long time
and I worked in a rehabilitation
unit for 15 years.
There was members
of gangs in there,
members of drug gangs
in there.
There was genuine affection
and love between these guys
if you were in the same gang
as them.
Of course there was.
They had business interests
together.
They had money
to make together.
They had people
to extort money from.
They had people
to beat up.
They had a camaraderie.
They loved one another.
They didn't love
their other gang,
the opposition gangs though.
They killed them
in a heartbeat.
So Jesus makes the point
even these tax collectors,
well they love
other tax collectors.
They love each other.
it's easy to do that.
But tenderness for enemies,
love for enemies,
that's a different thing
altogether.
Jesus is asking us here
to be like God the Father
who while we were yet
sinners and enemies of God
sent his son into the world
to die.
You do realize that, right?
The love you have for God
right now is given to you
by him.
That he made the first move.
That you didn't make
the first move to God.
While you were his enemy
and had fallen short
of the mark,
he sent his son
not just into the world
to live
and teach us great things
on a Sermon on the Mount,
but to die on a cross
outside the city of Jerusalem.
And to be raised
three days later.
I have to tell you though,
in closing,
how difficult I have found
this love for enemies.
A few weeks ago
during the Women's World Cup,
I love sport
and I will watch any sport
and I will play any sport.
I got a message through
after the England women
had won against Cameroon
from a guy
who has been,
his children come
to our youth clubs.
He's a member
of a church.
I'm not sure
where he stands
before God,
but given what occurred
between the two of us,
it's been very,
very heartbreaking.
I'm not going to,
I guess,
it's not for me
to say where he stands
before God actually.
But I get a message through
about Phil Neville's
aftermatch comments.
Now as an Englishman
living in Scotland,
I know it maybe
doesn't sound like it,
but I've been here
for 30 years.
I have been subjected
to abuse,
not just banter,
but abuse.
I've seen my brother
beaten up for being English.
I've seen all sorts
of horrendous things
and heard horrendous things
and even in churches
I've heard horrendous things.
I'm very sensitive,
I guess,
probably too much so now.
Lots of people
don't realise I'm English
because I have a
kind of Scottish accent,
a kind of hybrid accent.
He took humbridge
to the fact that
England had won
and he wasn't happy
at some of the things
that Phil Neville had said.
I'm a Man United fan.
Phil Neville,
I grew up loving Phil Neville
because he was one
of the class
of our great team.
And I just simply said
back to him,
look,
I'm not going to agree
with you
on the basis
of the fact that
I don't agree with you
and I love Phil Neville
and I think what he said
was okay.
Within a second,
I had incredibly abusive
texts about how
English I was,
how I was an effing this
and an effing that,
how I was a clown
and how he was going
to block me
from all social media.
I have really struggled
with this
because his kids arrived
at the youth club
that I was leading
last week
and I was looking
at them thinking,
why should I give
of my time to you
when your dad's
sitting at home
cursing me
to the point
where I had to block him
from sending messages
to me?
Why should I give
of my best
to your children?
And then
I looked again
at the passage
I was meant
to share on tonight
and I was like,
I've got to go
and love this guy.
I've got to forgive
this guy.
I've got to show
tenderness.
I've got to show
tenderness to his children.
Give of my best
to them
and I will tell you
it has not been easy
and I'm not sure
where I am with it yet.
And I think
my story
is one
that you probably
all have at times.
Maybe not
the English side of it
but you'll be
amused by people.
You'll have been
cast aside.
You'll have enemies.
The kingdom value
that we are asked
is to love
our enemies
and that is
really,
really hard.
But I think
that when you do that
the power
that is in
genuine forgiveness
and surrender
of our rights
can be incredibly
powerful
as the world
looks on and says
wow,
these Christians
are different.
They serve
a different master.
Can I be trusted?
Am I willing
to surrender
my rights?
And I guess
in closing
am I willing
to show
that I'm serving
a different master?
Let me just pray.
Father,
we thank you
for your word.
Father,
we thank you
for all that it means
to us.
Father,
we pray that
in the moments
we find it difficult
to model
Christian living,
in the moments
we find it difficult
to be your disciple,
please give us
your Holy Spirit
to strengthen us,
to lead us.
in those moments
where we struggle
to forgive those
who abuse us,
those who seek
to harm us,
remind us
that our battle
is not against
flesh and blood
but against the powers
and principalities
and that you,
Lord Jesus,
will win the victory
and for that
we are truly grateful
and we surrender
our rights to you
and we ask,
Lord,
that you will help us
to take up our cross daily
and live out
these kingdom values
in your name.
Amen.