The Heart of a Kingdom Citizen

Our sermon text for today is Matthew 5:38-48

These are the very words of God

Matthew 5:38–48 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Let’s pray:

Father, as we come to this time to hear from you from your revealed Word, would you please grant us the honesty and self-awareness to examine our own lives according to your Word....

Introduction

Have you ever been wronged so deeply that everything in you wanted to strike back?

Your desire for revenge just swelled up within you.

Maybe a friend betrayed your confidence

or a co-worker took credit for your work

a family member wounded you with their words

something in us wants to make it right to even the score.

From an early age, we have this deep instinct for payback.

You don’t have to teach a child how to say, ‘that’s not fair!’

When someone steals the toy you’re using, you take it back and maybe grab one of theirs for good measure

If someone cuts you off in traffic, you gotta make sure they know it

When someone wrongs us, we want payback

we want them to feel it back.

And this is not just childish behavior—there’s a level to this that’s human nature.

We want justice when we’re hurt.

And justice is a good thing.

The problem is, when we’ve been personally wronged, the line between justice and revenge is easily blurred.

What we tend to call justice in our personal lives, is often nothing more than a personal vendetta.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount has been revealing what true righteousness looks like in his kingdom.

He very clearly explained in verses 17-20, that he came not to abolish but to fulfill the law

and one of the ways he is doing that is by correcting wrong views of the law

he’s been closing the loopholes of the Pharisee’s, the religious leaders who perverted the law for their own gain

and he’s going straight to the heart.

Now in verses 38-48, Jesus brings that same searching light of the law of God to our relationships.

He moves from our actions, to our reactions.

How do we respond when someone wrongs us? When we’re insulted, mistreated, or hated?

The passage we are about to look at is one that is often quoted, but rarely understood.

It’s been used by many to teach that violence in war is always unjustifiable, it’s been used to say that Christians should never defend themselves. Or it’s been overlooked as hyperbole.

And that’s because we often miss the context,

It’s misunderstood when we fail to let Scripture interpret Scripture.

When we examine the words of Jesus carefully

What we will see is that this passage is not ultimately about war and peace or calling us to pacifism,

nor is it ultimately about capital punishment

Jesus is dealing with something far more personal.

Here, he’s talking about the reaction of the Christian as an individual to the things that are done to him personally.

That’s what this is about:

it is about a man’s attitude toward himself.

Jesus has already given us 4 examples: anger, lust, divorce, oaths

And in these he has shown that his kingdom is marked by a righteousness greater than that of the scribes and pharisees.

Because his citizens rightly understand not just the letter of the law, but its spirit.

They don’t miss the forest for the trees.

And so now, with the final two examples, he is showing the true heart of his people

Hearts that respond to evil with grace, and to enemies with love.

Consider now, two points that describe the heart of the citizen in Christ’s kingdom:

1) The Self-Denying Heart of the Kingdom Citizen

2) The God-Imitating Heart of the Kingdom Citizen

1) The Self-Denying Heart of the Kingdom Citizen

Jesus begins this final section of chapter 5 with another one of those familiar phrases.

Matthew 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”

This phrase that Jesus is quoting is known as the—the law of retribution.

It’s found in three places in the Old Testament

Exodus 21:24

Leviticus 24:20

Deut. 19:21

Just like on the topic of divorce and oaths, it’s going to be helpful to separate out what the law was teaching versus what the Pharisees had skewed in their tradition.

The main purpose of this law was to prevent unnecessary retaliation.

It was to prevent excess punishment

It was given to restrain anger and limit revenge.

The context of these OT passages makes this clear

they were written for judges and communities, guiding how courts should respond to wrongdoing in a fair and measured way.

We are all aware of the inward desire to strike back in some way when we’ve been hurt or insulted.

We are all guilty of this

When harm is done to us, we want to get even, or maybe get more than even

And because humans have always been humans, the same thing was happening in the Israelite camp

Men and women were wanting to get even

and to prevent total chaos, the law of retribution guided how justice should be enacted.

Justice is a good thing

But in order for a judgment to be just it must be appropriate to the crime.

This is what the law of retribution did.

It prevented the courts from being too lenient or too harsh

so if someone stole a loaf of bread, you’re not going to cut off his hand and take his property

but the law did call for a form of justice to take place that was measured and equal to the crime: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Jesus is not opposing this law, but rather is correcting a misinterpretation of the law

It seems that this law was twisted to justify personal acts of vengeance.

The law was meant to limit vengeance, not license it.

But over time, the Pharisees had taken what was intended for the public justice system and brought it into private life.

They used it to justify personal payback—you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back

and I’m justified to do so

They failed to see the true meaning of the law

(first, because they took it out of its context of public justice and carried it into their private affairs)

and second they abused the law by pushing the limits and claiming they deserved revenge.

Obeying the law is not found in stretching the law to its limit

Jesus, speaks into this situation: Matthew 5:39 “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Does this mean that Jesus is forbidding all resistance of evil?

Is he saying Christians should never confront wrongdoing, never defend themselves, never stand up for justice?

Leo Tolstoy, a 19th century Russian novelist took the words of Jesus here and taught that this prohibited all physical violence, not only personal, but also on the part of the police, military and civil judges.

he went so far as to insist that you shouldn’t resist the murderer and the thief.

Is this what Jesus is teaching here?

No, I don’t think that’s what Jesus is teaching here for a few reasons.

Frequently in the NT, we are commanded to resist the Devil who is the ultimate embodiment of evil.

1 Peter 5:8–9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”

There are numerous examples in the NT, of Jesus and or his disciples resisting evil.

in Galatians 2, Paul resisted Peter to his face: publicly rebuking him for withdrawing fellowship from the Gentiles under pressure from the Jews

Jesus commands us to resist the evil in our brothers when he advocates for church discipline in Matthew 18

Furthermore, if we are going to understand what Jesus means— we need to remember who he is talking to

this passage is not for the nations or for the world

It’s for his disciples, those who are poor in spirit. It’s for citizens of the kingdom of heaven

Jesus isn’t given a new political philosophy or code of international ethics.

He’s describing the life of those who have been born again.

People who are not Christian often talk vaguely about Christ’s teaching here

And they say, we must not punish a child when he or she does wrong

or that we should not enact punishment on those who break the law

That misses who Jesus is talking to

For the world that doesn’t know Christ, the law of an eye for an eye still applies.

the law of justice is good

it restrains evil and preserves order in society.

It was God himself that ordained civil authorities, as Romans 13 teaches so that lawlessness might be restrained and crime kept in bounds.

So when Jesus says “Do not resist the one who is evil, he’s not dismantling the courts, the police, or systems of justice.

He’s not calling for all people to be door mats when a third party is involved.

If your neighbor, your spouse, your child, or someone who is weak and helpless is assaulted, we should go to their defense.

Jesus is not saying we stand idly by while others are being injured.

He is not forbidding us from opposing evil when it threatens our families or our society

So what is Jesus saying: Do not retaliate against those who oppose you; who cross you

He’s forbidding you from taking revenge for personal reasons

when you’re wronged and you feel your pride, your reputation, or your so called rights are at stake, you are not to seek vengeance

And at the core of his message is this: Self-denial

We are not to make our “rights” the basis for our relationships with others. We should be prepared to take a lowly position, as a humble servant

We need to be prepared to pay the price of imitating the example of Jesus

And it means dying to self. We see this in the examples Jesus gives

The first image comes at the end of v. 39

Jesus pictures a man being slapped on the right cheek.

Now, since most people are right handed, to get slapped on the right cheek means this is a back-handed slap.

this kind of slap is less about physical assault, and more about personal insult.

It was degrading to one’s honor.

the penalty for this kind of act according to Jewish tradition was twice that of physical assault.

This was about personal insult. This is about your pride and honor

Turning the other cheek then is not about putting yourself in grave danger or being a door-mat.

Since Jesus’s disciples are poor in spirit, they aren’t moved they are controlled by the insults of others.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “We are to be as the anvil when bad men are the hammers.”

By offering the other cheek, you show that you have no need for retaliation

why?

Because you believe your reputation is secure with God

Your identity as a child of God gives you the kind of security that no insult can damage.

You have no honor of your own to lose when you value God’s honor more than your own.

And you witness to the lost that your allegiance is to a greater kingdom; it’s not to your self

What matters is not your self and your dignity, but the honor of the Lord displayed through your actions as his child

you don’t react in kind, you respond with grace and humility.

But Jesus doesn’t stop with insults—he presses further into the issue of personal rights and possessions.

in v. 40 Jesus pictures a man sued for his tunic. And Jesus says you should give your cloak as well.

In the first century, a tunic was the inner garment—the basic layer everyone wore

the cloak was the outer garment, which also served as a person’s blanket at night.

And the cloak was very important.

So important that no one had the right to permanently take another’s cloak—it was essential to survival.

So what Jesus says here sounds radical.

Giving up something that’s valuable on top of what you’re being sued for.

What is Jesus teaching here—not that we should forgo clothes.

No, he’s getting to the heart of a disciple. it’s the same self-denying heart.

A heart that doesn’t stand on and insist one’s legal rights, but rather goes out of its way to seek reconciliation.

And what would happen if one gave away his cloak is that he would have to find a cheaper form of clothing.

And so Jesus says we should not cling so closely to our possessions and our rights.

A modern example of this might be if someone sued you after you hit their car, and instead of paying them, you gave them your car instead.

If you were to get in this kind of scuffle with someone, are you more concerned with your rights and property than showing the love of Christ.

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6 regarding lawsuits: “Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?”

It’s not that we don’t seek justice.

But the believer is so confident in his position in Christ, that even when sin abounds around him, he responds with grace.

When you know that you have everything in Christ, you are free to lay down anything for Christ.

Self-denial is the key to this.

The world says stand up for your rights. They praise retaliation. But Jesus says lay your rights down for the sake of love.

The next picture comes in Matthew 5:41 “And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

The Roman empire occupied Jewish territory.

Roman soldiers had the right to force people to assist them.

They could legally demand civilians to carry gear for one mile—a thousand paces.

Remember Simon of Cyrene—he was forced to carry Jesus's cross in the same way.

The Jews hated this practice

IT was humiliating

It reminded them that someone had control and authority over them.

We can easily imagine how this was not a pleasant ordeal.

But Jesus says, don’t just go one mile, go one more.

We don’t just do what is demanded of us, we are to go beyond it in the spirit of our Lord’s teaching here.

This doesn’t mean that if you’re taxed 20%, you say let’s shoot for 40!

But how quick are we to resent the demands of any authority placed over us. upon us.

when we face the demands of authority, government, employers, parents, we’re not to responds with bitterness or resentment

That’s the point of this:

If we lose our temper at every inconvenience,

if we grow grow resentful at demands placed on us, and laws that are over us, ultimately ordained by God, we show that our hearts are still ruled by self.

But the heart of a kingdom citizen is different

his allegiance is to a different kingdom

And so Jesus calls us not merely to endure burdens, but to embrace them

When the roman soldier forced you to carry his load, he reminded you that you were under Rome’s authority

But when you chose to go a second mile, you showed that you live under a higher authority— the Lord Jesus Christ

You were no longer acting as a slave to Rome, but as a servant of Christ.

You marched to the beat of a different drum.

Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God—a heart of cheerful obedience

a Word to students: this means that when your parents give you instructions

chores, homework, guidance and counsel

you should listen and obey, joyfully.— not begrudgingly

When you obey your parents cheerfully, even in small things, you are practicing the same self-denying, kingdom minded heart that Jesus calls all followers to have.

The last example Jesus gives comes in v.42

And at first glance, this verse could be easily misused.

We’re not called to recklessly and indiscriminately give handouts and ignore wisdom

we’re not commanded to help frauds or professional beggars. Elsewhere, Scripture encourages wisdom.

But what Jesus is correcting is a self-centered attitude that doesn’t help those in need

Disciples of Jesus Christ give generously. because they have died to self.

1 John 3:17–18 “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

If we see our brother in need, and turn away from showing compassion, we show that the love of God is not in us.

Pride, self-centeredness, being so concerned with yourself that you neglect others

demanding your own rights

this is not he way of God’s kingdom.

Jesus’ disciples have died to self, and so are freed to live unto him and to give cheerfully, and to suffer even joyfully.

Jesus is not giving a new set of laws for daily life

He is exposing the condition of the human heart.

He is showing how self-interest and a desire for revenge are at the root of so many of our conflicts and problems.

The kingdom life begins in the heart.

It doesn’t begin with trying to be a good person.

IT begins with dying to self.

And all of these actions can only flow from a humble heart that has surrendered to Christ.

It comes from the one who is described in the beatitudes: poor in spirit, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker.

So we can truly say in summary:

The Citizen of God’s Kingdom responds to personal injury with grace, not revenge because they have died to self.

And when we die to self, we are free to reflect the character of our Father, which brings us to our second point

2) The God-Imitating Heart of the Kingdom Citizen

The last example Jesus gives, follows the same familiar pattern.

He begins in v. 43

Matthew 5:43–44 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”

God’s people should be identified with love.

But it’s not just that we ought to love out friends, or those who are likable, we ought to love our enemies.

Jesus makes this very clear in Matthew 5:46–47 “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

It seems that the Pharisees had taken the OT law of loving one’s neighbor and shrunk it down to meaning only those who were Israelites.

Gentiles were excluded from this category of neighbor, and so they didn’t need to be loved.

Jesus illustrates this very clearly in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

But it wasn’t just that they restricted who was their neighbor.

They also added something: hating your enemies

They hated those who were not like them.

And they hated those who would cross them or offend them.

And in so doing they thought they were fulfilling the law.

Jesus corrects this distortion though.

The Christian is not to respond to his personal enemies with hate, but with love.

As Jesus points out, even the tax collectors

who were viewed as traitors to their own people, greedy sellouts

even they know how to love people who love them

even the unbeliever greets his friends

IT would be like saying today, “Even the corrupt official or gang member loves his own crew.’ Jesus chose the people everyone despised to make the point

there’s nothing supernatural about loving those who love you back.

If you only love those who love you, you’re no different from the lost person.

It’s not that we should not seek justice

Justice is a good thing

But the bar Jesus calls his followers to is a higher bar than this.

Jesus calls us to imitate God by how we love our enemies.

Instead of responding to our enemies with hate, we are to respond with love and prayer.

The principle that should guide the way you interact with all people is love.

Why?

v. 45 gives us the answer

Matthew 5:45 “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.”

Did you catch that?

We are to love our enemies because when we do this, we demonstrate that we really are who we say we are: children of God.

Nothing is more contrary to human nature than loving your enemies

and so, nothing will show the non-believer more vividly the love of God in you than when you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

And it’s because this is the character of God.

God makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, he sends the rain on the just and the unjust.

This is what is called common grace.

God doesn’t just bless the Christian farmer with sun and rain

He also waters the field of the unbelieving farmer. Why?

God doesn’t love us because of who we are, but because of who He is.

He loves out of his own eternal heart of love.

He’s not moved by us.

We certainly aren’t lovely or lovable, nor is anything else truly in this world.

HE loves us in spite of us.

And so this is the love we are to show to our enemies.

You love your enemies, not because they are lovable, but because God has set his love on you.

If you’ve trusted in Christ he has made you completely new

Because of that you now see everything differently.

you are no longer to be controlled by what other people do to you; reacting to their treatment of you.

no, something within you, something given to you is to control your actions.

your life must be governed not by others, but by love.

When the love of God captures you, then you will be able to see people in a different way.

We fail to love and pray for our enemies, because we think we are more deserving of love than they.

Friends, this is not the heart of God.

Let me ask you, how are you doing at this?

Who comes to mind when you think of your enemies?

How are you loving them?

Do you pray for people who persecute you?

Do you ask God to save the lost souls who hurt you, because you are so concerned about their eternal destination? more than how you feel.

Do you see past their treatment of you, and see them with the eyes of God?

Friends, it was the love of Christ that brought him to earth to the cross.

He was not concerned about Himself, but about us, his enemies. And we are to treat other people like that.

Maybe the reason, you fail to love your enemies is that you fail to see the love of God toward his enemies.

We are to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect.

And yet if we’re honest

that task is impossible.

We feel that the ten commandments are hard enough

but look at these statements we’ve been studying, Jesus goes further

not getting angry, not even looking with lust, acting faithfully toward our spouse, speaking the truth, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, and so on. There is nothing more discouraging than this, as it it seems utterly impossible. Who can live like that?

only one ever has....

Friends, it is only Jesus who perfectly fulfills all the demands of the Law.

You have broken God’s perfect law.

And because of that, you don’t deserve to be a son or daughter of God.

You deserve to be his enemy.

To be cast out for rebelling against your creator.

But Jesus Christ, Son of God, being truly God and truly man, fulfills the law.

He meets the laws demands.

He is perfect as his heavenly father is perfect; Never once did he sin

Think about the love of God for his enemies: He didn’t retaliate against those who persecuted him

He repaid evil with love.

Jesus went the extra mile for his enemies, walking the hill toward calvary.

He gave not just physical garments, but his cloak of righteousness to cover the sins of his people.

He didn’t just turn the other cheek, but gave his whole life

physically being hung with nails upon a Roman cross.

bearing insults, slaps, spits and humiliation from men.

But more than the mockery of men, without sinning he bore the wrath of God against sin.

Though He was perfect, completely innocent of any wrongdoing

yet he suffered.

Not for his friends, but for his enemies

He died for the very ones whose sin put him on the cross

And he joyfully, freely, fully forgives all those who would turn to him in repentance and faith, having poured himself out for us.

How can you not be moved by the love of God?

And if we truly are his children, this selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love ought to characterize our lives.

Because of what Christ has done

what once was impossible, is now possible.

So, what is a Christian?

What is at the heart of those who belong to the kingdom of God?

The Christian is not one who reads the Sermon on the Mount and says, “Now I am going to live like that, This is the life I am going to live and I shall do so by my willpower.”

Many have tried to do this. Mahatma Gandhi. Leo Tolstoy. and many Americans today. They have tried to follow the example of Jesus, but they weren’t Christians.

Trying to obey the law is not what makes one a Christian.

So what gives the believer the power to obey God’s commands?

How is he different?

The Christian is one who has been born again: He has become a child of God.

HE has a unique status and relationship to God.

That’s what sets him apart.

That’s what makes him special.

Did you catch what Jesus said,

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.....WHY?

SO THAT you may be SONS.

So that you be children of your Father who is in heaven.

The Christian has God as his Father.

God is not the Father to the non-Christian.

But he is the Father to the Christian

And because he is your Father

You now live differently.

You must therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

If God is your Father, He has gifted you his Holy Spirit so that you must be different than the world.

And so before we close, is this true of you?

Have you become a child of God?

If God is your Father, his love will shape you. You’ll begin to look like your FAther.

Like Father, like Son as the saying goes.

And if you’re not yet his child, that invitation is open to you.

Turn from your sins. Trust in Christ.

Be adopted into the family of God. Be born again

Then and only then will you be accepted into his kingdom and he will give you a new heart that can love like His.

Let’s pray.