Kingdom Dwellers Freedom
Kingdom instructions for kingdom living • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 29:17
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Righteous Responses
Righteous Responses
When we become a Christian we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. It is after that, that we learn about being a Christian, to learn to know His commands, keep His commands and grow to the fulness of Christ. We continue to learn about being a kingdom dweller here as well as for heaven. Sometimes the freedom we have in Christ comes it not easy to take. Today we are looking at how we are to respond to evil and how to treat our enemies.
Christian freedom in our passage today is displayed personally when:
It elevates others above one’s self (Mt5:39, 43-45)
It elevates personalities above material things (Mt5:40-42)
It elevates behavior over bargaining (Mt5:46-47)
Responding to evil
Responding to evil
Jesus has taken many of the Laws of Moses and the interpretation that the scribes and the Pharisee’s have applied and added to the spirit of them. How we respond to evil or mistreatment is a reflection of the king and the kingdom.
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 “Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
So, kingdom dwellers, how do we react when we are mistreated? Do we repay evil for evil? Or a eye for an eye, life for a life as is written (Deu19:21; Exo21:24-25)?
21 “Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
“But I say. . .” slide here (already saved on computer)
But notice again, what Jesus says, taking what was written under the law of Moses and adds by His authority “but I say.” We have seen that before when we have previously looked at what Jesus said about
Murder and anger (Mt5:21-26)
Adultery (Mt5:27-30)
Divorce (Mt5:31-32)
Swearing oaths (Mt5:33-37)
You can see the eye for the eye also here
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Jesus about eye for an eye starting from (Deu19:21; Exo21:24-25)
Jesus about civil justice starting from (Deau19:15-21; Exo21:22-23)
Jesus about personal vengeance (Lev19:18; Pro20:22; Rom12:19)
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24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
But Jesus says give the other cheek when slapped. First, not an easy thing to do when first response would be retaliate or to run so you don’t retaliate.
Warren Wiersbe says it like this
“In order to turn the other check you have to stay where you are and not run away; demanding faith and love.” -W. Wiersbe
Jesus goes on to discuss social justice, or civil justice
40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 “Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
15 “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. 16 “If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing,
17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 “The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely,
19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 20 “The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.
Guidelines they, under the Law were to follow in regards to civil justice. Jesus calls for us to give, be willing to suffer to shine the light on the kingdom for we need to remember
Jesus then speaks of personal vengeance. starring from LEv19:18; Pro20:22
18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
and add
22 Do not say, “I will repay evil”; Wait for the Lord, and He will save you.
and the N.T. principle
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
It was never left up to man to take vengeance. Look at a couple of things that Jesus proclaims in our passage.
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Do not resist an evil person (v.39)
Respond to evil by doing good (v.39-42)
Some biblical examples
Joseph forgiving brothers (Gen45;4-15; Gen50:20)
David in sparing Saul’s life (1Sam24:8-15)
Stephen when being stoned (Act7:59-60)
Jesus example (1Pt2:20-23)
Paul’s teaching (Rom12:19-21)
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Do not resist an evil person (v.39)
Respond to evil by doing good (v.39-42)
Some biblical examples
Joseph forgiving brothers (Gen45:4-15; Gen50:20)
Joseph see’s his brothers and reveals himself to them; he does not take vengeance
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come closer to me.” And they came closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 “Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
7 “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.
and the end result
20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
David in sparing Saul’s life (1Sam24:8-15)
David was urged by his men to take vengeance against Saul; but David refused
10 “Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord had given you today into my hand in the cave, and some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you; and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’
David gave all judgment to God
12 “May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you.
Stephen when being stoned (Act7:59-60)
59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.
Jesus example (1Pt2:20-23)
20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. 21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
22 who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; 23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
Paul’s teaching (Rom12:19-21)
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is all against our nature isn’t it? But we are invited to share in the divine nature of God (2Pt1:4)
So may we reflect on how we act or react to others as kingdom dwellers! For then this leads us to another difficult topic, how we deal with those we would consider our enemies.
Kingdom dwellers reflecting the King!
Kingdom dwellers reflecting the King!
Mt5:14 says you are a light and a light reflects doesn’t it? We as kingdom dwellers are to reflect the light source (Jn8:12); In our section here we see how Jesus speaks of dealing with those we may consider our enemies. What we do, how we respond is a direct reflection or our light source.
Since I mentioned those scriptures I should give them to you
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
And Jesus tells us He is the light
12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
He had just previously told us how not to resist the evil person (Mt5:39); to respond to evil by doing good (Mt5:39-42); now this brings us to how we treat of our enemies
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, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father 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 have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Again, we see the “but i say. . .” by Jesus, but in reality the law does not say hate your enemy (Lev19:18); that was added until later and was added because it did not say to love your enemies. (again man adding to God’s word, claiming it is from God and it is not).
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Law does not say hate your enemy; but commands to love neighbor (Lev19:18;
The Law says to show kindness (Exo23:4-5; Pro25:21-22)
Jesus says love you enemy, bless your enemy (Mt5:44)
Jesus says to do good to your enemy and pray for them (Mt5:44)
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18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
Notice it does say love your neighbor, and to the Jew it would be other Jews. It would exclude Samaritans and Gentiles.
The Law says to show kindness (Exo23:4-5; Pro25:21-22)
4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. 5 “If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him.
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the Lord will reward you.
so we are to show kindness, show love, in spite of how they treat us.
Jesus says love you enemy, bless your enemy (Mt5:44)
They speak evil, they speak lies, you speak kindness
Jesus says to do good to your enemy and pray for them (Mt5:44)
You do good regardless again what they do, what they say, and we are to pray for them. Of course, pray for the souls most importantly!
So when we link these passages together we see
Don’t seek vengeance
Don’t resist and evil person
Instead, react with a display, a manifestation of love which will be a reflection of God’s love through us.
More reasons to react this way:
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More reasons why we as kingdom dwellers should react this way:
That you may display that you are sons of your Father who is in heaven (Mt5:45); He blesses both the righteous and the unrighteous
He is kind to the unthankful and evil (Lk6:35-36)
Most of all, He offered His Son while we were still enemies (Rom5:8-10)
He loved before we loved Him (1Jn4:10) and we are called by Paul to imitate Him Eph4:31-5:2)
We are to be perfect as the Father is perfect
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That you may display that you are sons of your Father who is in heaven (Mt5:45); He blesses both the righteous and the unrighteous
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
He is kind to the unthankful and evil (Lk6:35-36)
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 Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. 36 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Most of all, He offered His Son while we were still enemies (Rom5:8-10)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
He loved before we loved Him (1Jn4:10) and we are called by Paul to imitate Him Eph4:31-5:2)
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
and add to that
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
We are to be perfect as the Father is perfect
This perfection is not sinless perfection; but in perfection in Christ, grown to the maturity, fullness of Christ.
May we be loving and merciful like the Father who is in heaven displaying His love to the evil and unthankful
(encouragement slide) encouragement
May our life reflect the freedom we have in the kingdom because of the example of the king. May our freedom lead to others to have the same freedom that is available to all.
let us pray - change to (encouragement slide 2) prayer (exit slide)