Sermon Tone Analysis

Love Your Enemies

Matthew 5:43-48   |   Shaun LePage   |   July 16, 2006

 

 

I.

Special Guests: International Friends

A.   We have some special guests with us this morning—Len & Mary Andyshak.

Len is going to come up in just a minute and tell us about an organization called International Friends.

B.    Before he does so, I want to remind you of something I’ve shared with you before.

In January, when your elder board went on a retreat together, one of the things we specifically prayed about was our desire to reach out to the international students at KU.

One of the greatest missions opportunities available to the American church is the hundreds of thousands of students who come to the United States from all over the world and spend 4-8 years on our college campuses.

According to the Institute of International Education, there were 565,000 international students enrolled in institutions of higher education in 2005.

It’s a tremendous opportunity.

Our prayer—specifically—was that God would lead some people to this congregation who would show us how we can participate in reaching international students for Christ.

Immediately, God brought two couples into our midst.

Warren and Lynda Heikes—who have served as missionaries to Poland in the past—now have a ministry to international students here in Lawrence.

We hope to have them share with us soon about their ministry.

But the amazing thing to me is they visited CBC the very next Sunday after our retreat.

Andrea Senf has been involved with International Friends and recently introduced me to this work.

She—along with her husband, Alex—began attending CBC a week or two before the retreat.

God answered our prayer before we prayed it!

They had to be out of town this weekend, but we’re going to have Andrea come in a couple weeks and share some of her experiences with International Friends.

C.   I share all this because I’m convinced God has spoken.

He has answered that prayer that we as a board prayed back in January.

God has provided, and now we need to act.

We need to let these couples lead us in reaching out to international students.

And, I think you’ll find that this is a beautiful ministry opportunity mainly because of its simplicity.

D.   I recently sat down and visited with Len.

I trusted Andrea that International Friends was a good organization, but I still felt it was wise to meet the leader of International Friends before I gave any kind of public support for it.

I felt I should at least make sure it wasn’t a bunch of Mormons or Moonies.

Len /is /a Presbyterian, but I’ve decided that’s something we can overlook.

E.    Len is a wonderful, Christian brother and I’m excited to welcome him to Community Bible Church this morning.

Please come, Len, and introduce us to International Friends.

II.

Len Andyshak

III.

Prayer for International Friends and Sermon

IV.Sermon Introduction

A.   If you have been following world events this week, you know that the Middle East has blown up again.

This should heighten the relevance of what we’re studying together.

In the place where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount there is revenge and retaliation taking place this morning.

There is hatred and war and death in the region where Jesus said…[recite Matthew 5:43-48]

B.    Review:

1.     Obviously this passage is closely related to the verses that come before it—which we looked at last week.

We saw that Jesus instructed His disciples not to retaliate for personal insults.

He wasn’t addressing the issue of self-defense.

He was talking about insults.

He wasn’t talking about war or capital punishment.

He was talking about having great restraint in personal relationships.

2.     Is it always wrong to “resist an evil person”?

No.

In fact, there are times when we must—if we are to be obedient to Scripture.

But when it comes to personal insults, we are to be extremely patient.

Jesus holds His disciples to a higher standard—a standard that should make us uncomfortable.

A standard that in one way is impossible.

3.     Matthew 5:43-48 raises that standard even higher.

V.   Body: Matthew 5:43-48.

A.   I.

“*You have heard*…” (v.43)

1.     *43 **“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”*

a)    “*You shall love your neighbor*…” is biblical.

(i)   Leviticus 19:18 reads, “*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*.”

(ii) This is repeated no less than six times in the New Testament.

In Mark 12:30-31 as well as Luke 10, Jesus said the second greatest commandment was to “…*love your neighbor as yourself*.’

*There is no other commandment greater than these*.”

Jesus said this summarized the entire Old Testament teaching on how we are to relate to our fellow human beings.

b)    The second half of this teaching, “…*and hate your enemy*” is not biblical.

(i)   It was the distortion of the scribes and Pharisees.

In fact, it was apparently one of the most important theological debates of the day.

You see, many had twisted the Scriptures to try to justify their hatred.

They limited the word “*neighbor*” to Israelite, so they could justify their hatred for non-Israelites.

(ii)  We see biblical evidence of this in Luke 10.

Listen to Luke 10:25-29.

“*Who is my neighbor?*”

Jesus answered by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.

Jews “hated” the Samaritans.

They considered them enemies.

But Jesus told a story about a Samaritan who “*showed mercy toward*” a Jew! Worse yet, two of their own kind—a priest and a Levite—didn’t “*show mercy*.”

They walked on by.

Look at vs. 36-37.

Jesus destroyed their shallow and wicked Scripture twisting.

c)    The Lie: Hatred can be justified.

B.    *“But I say to you…”*

1.     *44 **“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”*

a)    Jesus said that our righteousness—as His disciples—must “*surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees*.”

This kind of righteousness should make us very uncomfortable.

Kingdom-minded disciples of Jesus Christ must have a love that can only exist as the result of the grace of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

(i)   On our own—without the Spirit—we produce this kind of fruit according to Galatians 5:19-21: “…*immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these*…”

(ii) But with the Spirit indwelling us and when we are walking in the Spirit—that is, following His lead—we can produce a very different kind of fruit.

Notice what is at the beginning of the list—according to Galatians 5:22-23: “*But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control*…” The point is obvious: With Christ and the Holy Spirit who comes when we put our complete trust in Christ, we can do this!

We can love our enemies.

Without Christ we cannot.

So maybe you’re sitting here say, “I can’t love like that.”

Well, apart from Christ you’re right.

You can’t.

But in Christ, you can.

(iii)    A.

Love with supernatural power.

b)    Jesus’ command here assumes we have “*enemies*.”

(i)   The word “*enemy*” is echthros which means “to hate.”

It refers to those who hate us, are hostile toward us or oppose us (It should go without saying that we should not have enemies by our choice—those we hate).

So it’s very general.