Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

I’ve always loved limericks:

“There once were 2 cats from Kilkenny

Each thought there was one cat too many

They fought and they spit, and they clawed and they bit.

Till instead of two cats… there weren't any.” (Pulpit Helps)

Now that strikes us as funny because we can picture cats doing that.

Have you ever heard a couple cats going at it in the back yard or in the alley?

In fact, cats as so well known for this that when two women get in a fight, do know what it’s called?

(CAT FIGHT)

Cats are cats… and cats act like that.

But Christians … would we behave like that?

There’s a church in Ohio called the Bethlehem Church of Christ.

Their church building was built back around 1840 and in their history book (from the time of the Civil War) you could read this: “We had fighting right here at home.

The Democrats and Republicans were so bitter against one another, it broke the church up.”

On the same page in the booklet we’re told of a fist fight that took place on church property: “Two of our best men fought to a finish.

One wanted to know if the other had enough.

He said he had, so he let him up.”

(Tom Claibourne, Restoration Herald.

Sept. 07)

Unlike the two cats from Kilkenny… that’s not nearly as funny.

And why isn’t it funny?

Because Christians aren’t supposed to behave like that.

Christians are supposed to be a people of love and peace.

But too often Christians aren’t.

They aren’t always loving and peaceful.

According to Barna Research, 47% of Americans have not returned to church (or intend to return to church) after COVID.

An estimated 25% of American church will shut down by the end of 2022.

The reason?

I would say that is is because many Christians do not take to heart the teaching of Jesus here in his Sermon on the Mount (or much of the teaching of the Bible, period.

I was originally intending to expound this passage for 3 weeks.

But for the sake of time and so I can at least close out this chapter, I am summarizing it for you today.

I encourage you to look deeply on your own.

I once had a mentor remind me that church is not a democracy, it is a theocracy.

That means that how a church or a pastor is not based on popularity, mob-rule, or cultural norms of the day.

It is based on biblical principles and guidance.

A Different Kind of Love

When Jesus said, “Love you enemies,” he was using the word that is used to describe God’s love for us: Agape’.

Jesus is using the present, active, imperative of Agape to mean that we are actively, intentionally, and continuously loving people, whether they are like us, agree with us, think like us, look like us, share our politics, or behave the way we think we should behave.

There were several words for love in the Greek language.

Jesus did not here command storge, natural affection.

He did not command eros, romantic love.

He did not command philia, the love of friendship.

He demanded agapelove.

Such a love is not motivated by the merit of the one who is loved.

The other loves come quite naturally.

For example, you can fall into eros.

But agape love supersedes natural inclinations and often exists in spite of them.

It is a deliberate love, rooted in the will—a love by choice.

“Love [agape] is a deep, continuous, growing and ever-renewing activity of the will superintended by the Holy Spirit” (Mike Mason).

Agape love says, “I will love this person because, by God’s grace, I choose to love this person.”

This call to ascend to the unnatural heights of agape in loving our enemies is defined by Jesus’ commands in this passage.

• Unnatural deeds: “do good to those who hate you” (v.

27b).

Imagine someone who hates you—then think of doing something nice to him or her.

This is an unnatural exercise, to be sure, but it can and must be done.

• Unnatural words: “bless those who curse you” (v.

28a; cf.

Romans 12:14; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Peter 3:9).

This idea has no antecedents in Biblical literature.

The Essenes, in fact, were encouraged to curse those who did not join them (1 QS 2:2–17).

Incredible—someone pours vile abuse on you, and you respond with a heartfelt blessing!

• Unnatural prayers: “pray for those who mistreat you” (v.

28b).

Praise God—it is impossible to truly pray for someone and hate them at the same time.

The command to love our enemies is a call to unnatural deeds, unnatural words, unnatural prayer.

It is a command for supernatural love.

Is there any hope for us?

Can we possibly do this?

Now, replace your name where Paul had written love in these verses.

Does that describe you?

Look, there will be people who will cause you harm, offend, say words that are harsh, or make decisions that you do not agree with.

Jesus tells us that is it not our job to school them in your ways.

Jesus does not tells us to correct their faults.

He tells us to love them.

There are people in the world that are hostile to the gospel.

There are people who would love nothing more than Christianity to go away.

Jesus tells us that we are not to take up arms.

We are not to tear them to pieces with our words or deeds.

We are to humbly love.

As Luke will show us later in his Gospel, Jesus was hated.

He was hated by Judas, by the Pharisees, and by the people who demanded his crucifixion.

Jesus was cursed—cursed by the false witnesses who testified against him, the soldiers who mocked him, and the governor who sentenced him to die a God-forsaken death.

Jesus was abused.

He was abused by the priests who whipped him, the soldiers who hung him up to die, and all the people who swore at him while he was dying on the cross.

His enemies struck him on the cheek, and struck him again, insulting his true identity as the Son of God.

They took away both his cloak and his tunic, leaving him to die naked.

They stripped him of everything he had, down to his dignity.

What did Jesus demand from his enemies in return?

Nothing except the opportunity to give his life for their sins.

As he was dying on the cross, suffering at the hands of his enemies, Jesus was showing them his love—the very kind of love he called his disciples to show: “unselfish, disinterested, and uninfluenced by any hope of return.”

Jesus was doing good to those who hated him, suffering the punishment they deserved for their sins.

He was blessing those who cursed him, offering salvation to the thief on the cross.

He was praying for those who abused him, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

This is where we learn to love our enemies: at the cross, where we were the enemies that Jesus died to forgive.

Surely this is one of the reasons why Jesus gave us such a hard commandment.

It is not a commandment that we could ever keep out of the strength of our own love.

In order to keep it, we have to stay close to the cross, holding on to the love we know that Jesus showed us there.

God has called us to love our enemies so that we can see the sin of our own loveless hearts and learn the true power of the love that comes from him.

Jesus lived the love that he commanded, and now he gives the love that he lived.