JSM | Uprightness .8 | Love Your Enemies .1 (10/13/2024)

 JSM | Uprightness.8 | Love Your Enemies.1

By Rev. Nicholas Sybrowsky

Invocation:

Holy Father, your instructions indicate that if we’re at the altar and recognize that someone here on earth has something against us, Your Word says, that we are to first go and be reconciled to that person then come and offer our gift at the altar.

You LORD don’t desire that we offer ourselves or anything to you for your divine purposes without peaceable relationships with our fellow man and creature here on earth.  Help us to understand what it means according to your perfect will; what it means to make peace personally and interpersonally.

We now enter into a time of song and expressive worship of you and for you that you may hear our love, adoration, confessions, thanksgiving and we invite your mighty supplication.  Have your way in the saints assembled here today and anyone tuned in online today.

Opening Word & Reading for Worship:

{Led by Teresa Arthur See LIVE Stream}

Vengeance Belongs to God.

Intro:

We have nearly reached the end of our verse by verse in chapter five of Matthew in JSM.  Three weeks from now I think we’ll be returning to the Beatitudes because verse 48 leads me back there.  Next week, Lord willing, I’ll continue in today’s topic.  For eight weeks we have observed five teachings:  Anger, Adultery, Divorce, Vows and Revenge. These teachings of Jesus that very well reflect if not perfectly mirror the Torah and the Prophets of which Jesus declares he has come to fulfill not destroy.  In these teachings, Jesus is showing us the greater righteousness or as I would have it, Greater Uprightness.  In this sixth teaching Jesus flips the script on everyone by telling us to Love our Enemies.  Let’s get into our main text and hear it from the Lord Jesus Christ ourselves.

 Main Text:

[Mat 5:43-48 ESV] 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Corelating Verses:

[Luk 6:27-28 ESV] 27 "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."

 [Luk 6:32-36 ESV] 32 "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

Let me remind you that in our message about revenge we are being called to stand up for a greater righteousness.  A sacrificial kind of love that flips the script or causes pyramids to be flipped upside down.  Have you ever had someone love you so much it caused you to question your understanding of real love?

   

1.  Instead of retaliating, turn the matter over to God.

:44 “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (KJV HBP Cite 2) 

Luke’s rendering of this teaching is...

Lk 6:27 “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, :28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”  (KJV HBP Cite 2)

So, someone strikes me I am to not strike back?  No.  Strike back but not with the same tactics.  Turn to God for supplication.  That’s what’s being shared here.  

Let me Remind you of the illustrations in the previous verses about revenge.  The context and culture are most appropriate for the audience of that time and place.  Not to suggest there isn’t any value for us to extract and apply here in our era today.  Valuing peace more than getting even.  Jesus suggests a non-violent approach that can open the door to peace and justice.  

Our desire to enact wrath upon someone who has done us wrong is to be surrendered to God whom owns vengeance.  No matter how many times you submit, this opportunity to get back as long as feelings of entitlement and indignation filled emotions are present, giving it over to the LORD will have a sense of disorientation or upside-down sense to it.  It seems especially illogical without close connection to the moral law and tested confidence to trust in God. 

Illustrations In action:  Having been back hand slapped on the right cheek, if you give them your left cheek the person who is aiming to make themselves look dominant will have to slap with an open right hand on your left cheek.  This levels the escalation and forces the assailant to recognize you as an equal.  When in the heat of this moment they see that you’re not afraid of them and that you can tolerate the slapping it disorients the attacker.

In case you're thinking ambidextrously. (If you’re standing in an octagon turning the other cheek won’t work because you’ve agreed to combat fighting.  Your opponent is going to use the back side of the left hand having ambidextrous skills.)  We’re discussing a non-violent approach here.

Again, remind you of the cloak and tunic.  It was unlawful during Roman occupation to take a poor person’s cloak, but you might be able to circumvent the law by taking the tunic.  Instead of making a scene publicly physically fighting over the tunic the poor person could give the thief their cloak too, which will expose the injustice and the crowds will witness the circumventive crime.

Going the extra mile after being forced to go one mile by oppressive law demonstrates your humanity and promotes the law of compensation.  These are just a few illustrations that subvert or interrupt the power games of our world.

If these creative illustrations don’t help you then pray to the Creator for creativity.  Turn the retribution over to God.

2.  God is faithful to provide.

Remind you our actions here on earth in this teaching are more about the reward in heaven than the rewards here on earth.

:45 “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” 

 His promises are for us here on earth but how we behave on earth as His representatives is important.  There is a reward in heaven for us that learn to apply these principles overcoming the evil one.

:44 “…pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” 

 As I know many of you could testify that the evil details and/or injustices aren’t always as straight forward as the 3 illustrations Jesus used for his audience as he sat on the mount.  In those case details, you may be facing now or have memory of facing such adversity as a Christian in the past; Jesus provides timeless truth that is helpful to them then and us now.  “Pray”.  The disciples put this into action and were empowered to disorient the adversary in their day.

As soon as you choose to retaliate by striking back using the same strategy as the adversary which is to lie, kill, steal and/or destroy, you then become predator instead of protector.  It’s much easier to "prey" upon your attacker than it is to "pray" for your attacker.  Seeing them as they see you, as “prey” prevents God from acting on your behalf as your protector.  Protectors don’t prey upon they protect and provide for.  When we provide and protect the adversary will be overwhelmed by the very love that God so loved us with.  The power of God will always be greater than the power of Satan.

Let’s look at a few examples of the earliest disciples of Jesus overpowering Satan and his minions.  Let us begin with the first example demonstrated by our Lord Jesus himself.  

Lk 23:34, Hanging upon the cross beside two other, “malefactors” (rebels, criminals) with Him during their crucifixion death, Jesus is quoted by Luke practicing this teaching amid the ultimate sacrifice.  

:34 “Then said Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them:  for they know not what they do.’  And they parted his raiment [(clothes)], and cast lots.” (KJV HBP Cite 2)

Acts 7:60,  In this chapter Stephen being called, answers his accusers, and they stone him to death.  What does Stephen do in :60? 

“And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.  And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”  (KJV HBP Cite 2)

This stoning of Stephen, Paul formally known as Saul “consented unto [Stephen’s] death” (Acts 8:1 KJV according to Lk).

1 Co. 4:12, 13, Paul formally known as Saul the persecutor now a missionary agent for the Lord to the church (Do you see the flipped script? See note 1 below) in the wealthy port city of Corinth responds to the churches letter How to account of Christ’s ministers. To a self-sufficient vanity Paul opposes his own afflicted state goes on describing apostleship being made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.  I pick up at :12 

“And labour, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it;13 Being defamed, we entreat:  we are made as the filth of the world, and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day. ~1 Co. 4:12, 13 (KJV HBP Cite 2)

Paul goes on to explain that he is warning them not shaming them as his disciples.  :15 reflects that in their church they were being misled by a different gospel that was being watered down by new philosophies common in their environment.  They were being driven away from the truth.  Paul describes himself as a Father of their young faith reminding them of the true rewards being of a divine purpose and nature not the more commonly pursuits of the surrounding wealth and riches of this world dominated by the adversary.

As American’s in this 21st century we are experiencing a wealthy environment unlike most nations in the world.  Our nation is very young when considering human history, 1776 is only a mere 248 years ago.  On the basis of the promised 120 years of human longevity (Gen. 6:3, See Note 2 below) that’s only 2.06 generations ago.  We’re due for a revival of national faith.  If we can only remember the roots of our founding Fathers.  I don’t mean to endorse their practice of slave trade.  Just look at the results of our Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  They had a better worldview in mind because of their biblical worldview.  The worldwide impact is profound and since the fall in the garden social justice is potentially better now than it has ever been in human history.  I don’t have tested confidence in that, but I do want to suggest to you that despite the popular opinions of some collectively, our Nation is the most just, hence very many people desire to live here.  Again, God is faithful to provide.

3.  More money, more problems

Like the port of Corinth, we have a certain wealth that can cause us to lose retention of our core values and core religion.  With the liberty to learn comes the danger of history repeating itself and large sums of people ignoring the patterns of human history.  We must guard our knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from new philosophies that would lead us away from Christian values.  And this teaching from Jesus to Love Your Enemies is to value peace over revenge.

  

Human conflict is inevitable with a population of 8.2 billion people worldwide.  To some what I’m about to share may seem grandiose.  But I believe it’s true.  World peace is only plausible when we worship the one true God (follow link for related scripture).  

In my opinion, Jesus Christ is actively seated beside the one true God; the Creator of the universes.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit who can move through all things for all things created.  With more wealth comes more problems, but our God is the designer of the planet and all the stars throughout and beyond this galaxy.  Therefore, our Awesome God is the perfect engineer.  

In other words, God is the one with the solution to all our human problems (see Note 3).  If we’re to survive and thrive as a nation we need to remember that our abundance comes from the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the God of the era of Judges, the God of Esther, the God of the prophet Samuel, King Saul and David.  The God of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Deity of our Christian faith.  The Lord represents one person in the Trinity.  

We must guard ourselves from tricks and false gospels MORE today than in the day of the Corinthians.  It’s no surprise that our American Nation is in a struggle for its identity.  Many of the voters and producers of information aren’t Christian, hence they don’t value the Constitution we have.  I’m not suggesting we need a national religion.  I am only pointing out that at our American roots we are nominally or perhaps customarily of the Christian religion.  In a few weeks we get to examine true religion as practiced and taught by Jesus the Christ himself.  For now, we take an intermission in this topic of revenge.  With more wealth comes more problems and more problems constitutes greater dependence upon the one true God.  My prayer in the coming days, months and years is that our country remains true to its roots.  Please get out and vote for Christian virtues & values!

God is our redeemer.  God is alive and our God lives within us.

4. More on the Topic of Loving Your Enemies next Sunday.  

We can return to this section in :44 next week, so long as the Lord tarries in His second coming. 

Conclusion:

Vengeance belongs to God.  As a child of God submission to this principle is God’s will.  Seek justice, love mercy & walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

Exhortation:

Value peace more than getting even, “so that you may be sons [& daughters ]of your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:45) Blessed [are] the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons & [daughters] of God. [Mat 5:9 NKJV] 

Altar Call to Action   

Take some time during this song to surrender any grudges, anger, rage or bitterness that might be present within you.  Let it go by forgiving and setting your will to forgive in the future any old wounds and any new wounds.

Prayer for our denominational governing body

"Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of coming before your throne with boldness.  As you have called us, a royal priesthood and a chosen generation, we come before you to ask for your favor to be placed upon the leaders of our denomination.

We pray for rest, spiritually and physically.  Help our leaders avoid taking illegal ownership of ministry.  Remind them it is not their ministry, but yours.  You are the author and finisher of all things, and any assignment upon our lives is from the one who has ordered our footsteps.  Help them to be good followers, as well as good leaders.  Help them to know servanthood; to know the closer they get to you the better leaders they become.

Help them to lead in such a way that those following would “…Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7 ESV).  Let their leadership be defined by Ps. 19:14 ESV: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.”  Help them to obey the advice found in Pr. 4:23 NIV “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Father, we pray that our leadership would never be conformed “to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [their] mind.  Then [they] will be able to test and approve what [your] will is—[your] good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2 NIV).

Finally, we ask for protection.  Keep each one from the wiles of the devil, who will seek in any way to disrupt their homes, families, marriages, and responsibilities.  Help them, after doing all to stand, to stand firm (Eph. 6:13-14).  May each one mature in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Grant them peace and joy in the Lord.  We ask [these supplications] in the name that shakes the nations, [Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior], Amen."  (Cite 3)

Benediction:

[Num 6:24-26 NKJV] 24 "The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; 26 The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace." '

Citations, Notes & Credits:

1. Translations ESV, KJV and NKJV found within the Blue Letter Bible. 

2. KJV HBP King James Version as published by Heirloom Bible Publishers (HBP)

3. Breaking Through the Upper Crust | Prayer Guide Day 13 Submitted by: Rev. Frank Potter, Warrenton, VA, District Superintendent, Potomac Ministry Network of the Assemblies of God. VIVID Women’s Ministries info@potomacag.org

Note:

1. Of subvert results because of the event on the Roman road to Damascus.  The risen Christ sabotaged the purposes of Saul.  This interruption empowered the Gospel to further expand to the Gentiles worldwide flipping the script on the adversary
2. On the basis of the promised 120 years of human longevity (Gen. 6:3, See Note 2 below) see also Ps. 90:10 and Gen. 1-5. Reminder that theologically death is supernatural therefore early life described in the beginning is too)
3. "There is one true God. https://ag.org/Beliefs/Statement-of-Fundamental-Truths#2 There is one true God.  He has revealed himself as having always existed without any outside cause or agent brining Him into Being (Is. 43:10).  He is the Creator of heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1) and the One who redeems, saves, and rescues humankind from sin and its painful consequences (Is. 43:11).  God has further revealed himself as a single Being (Deut. 6:4) consisting of three interrelated persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19; Lk 3:22).  This concept of one God or Being of three persons is called the Trinity."  ~Assemblies of God Doctrine

Next week: