Love your Enemies

Introduction: There was a song that came out about 15 years ago by a band called Jonathan and the Long Road to love. It was a satirical song about a guy who visited church for the first time in a long time.

And based on the first verse I think that pastor was preaching on the same passage I am reading today .

[Verse 1] I haven't been to church since I don't remember when Things were going great 'til they fell apart again So I listened to the preacher as he told me what to do He said, "You can't go hatin' others who have done wrong to you Sometimes we get angry, but we must not condemn Let the good Lord do His job and you just pray for them"

And even verse 2 he seems to get it.

[Verse 2] I'm really glad I found my way to church 'Cause I'm already feelin' better and I thank God for the words Yeah, I'm gonna take the high road And do what the preacher told me to do You keep messin' up and I'll keep prayin' for you

As pastors we love it when people are inspired to follow God’s word and live it out. Because living it out is what changes the world.

Now I am well aware that sometimes people take away application from my sermons that I did not intend, but this goes overboard.

You see he got the basic idea that he is supposed to pray for his enemies, in this case an ex girlfriend. But I think he missed the spirit of the sermon that morning.

This is how he prayed in the chorus. [Chorus] I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill And knocks you in the head like I'd like to I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls I pray all your dreams never come true Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you and then the bridge.

[Bridge] I pray your tire blows out at a hundred and ten I pray you pass out drunk with your best friend And wake up with his and her tattoos

He was so close. So let me clarify today, when I say to pray for your enemies. Use this as an example of what not to do.

Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 5:43-47. We are continuing our study of the Sermon on the Mount and we come to a really tough part of this.

Jesus has been expanding our understanding of the Law, not be nullifying it, but by telling us that even if we think we are keeping the law, there is so much more to it.

Jesus has expanded our understanding of murder and hatred of people. And all the way back in vs. 21, we learned that we shouldn’t hate anyone but should seek to be at peace with everyone.

He expands our understanding of lust and desire.

He expands our understanding of marriage and what it means to be committed to the truth.

Last week we learned to pursue peace and offer mercy and grace when we are wronged.

Today we come to our final “You have heard it said…but I say to you.”

And with this we learn.

Introduce:

Big Idea: God’s LOVE has no BOUNDS so neither should OURS.

Read: Matthew 5:43-47

Matthew 5:43–47 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?

Big Idea: God’s LOVE has no BOUNDS so neither should OURS.

Now to start there is an immediate question that arises.

Why do you have enemies in the first place?

This is more than a rival. But an enemy, as Jesus states, represents someone you hate.

And again, we’ve already established from vs. 21, to hate anyone is to be guilty of murder in your hearts.

So what does Jesus want from us?

1. Love your ENEMY as your NEIGHBOR. (Matthew 5:43-44)

Explanation: Matthew 5:43-44

Matthew 5:43–44 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,

Again, Jesus quote directly from Leviticus 19:18.

Leviticus 19:18 ESV

18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

In other words, in the kingdom of God, you should have no enemies. Everyone is your neighbor regardless of how they treat you.

Respond to hate with love. We learned this last week from Romans 12:20-21. Paul again quotes this same passage.

Romans 12:19 ESV

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Romans 12:20–21 ESV

20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Overcome evil with good. Where did Paul get this counter cultural idea? From Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Illustration: I think many of us may struggle with the idea of what it means to be a good neighbor because neighbor doesn’t have an inherent positive idea in our day.

Many of us do not know our neighbors. And others if we do, it’s because we don’t like them. They are loud, their dogs bark at all hours of the night, don’t cut their grass, they park in front of our house when the front of their house is wide open.

We squabble about shared fences.

To some of us, our neighbors are our enemies.

But Jesus had a very specific idea when He talked about what it means to be a neighbor. And it’s more than just living next door.

It involves an intimate nearness that borders on family. And for many of them, their closest neighbors were their own family.

And for many of us even family is a struggle to love them.

The best way to define family to let Jesus do it with His famous parable.

Luke 10:25–37 ESV

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Application: You see Jesus has a very specific way in which He means neighbor. It’s about compassion, mercy and grace.

To the Jewish people, the Samaritans were enemies and they hated them.

And in His own way, Jesus stated very clearly with a jarring example. You should have no enemies.

And even today, we should have no enemies.

Do you have enemies? Let the Holy Spirit rebuke you.

And this week commit to loving them in tangible ways. Pray for them. And pray for opportunities to show them love in ways that will heap those burning coals on their heads.

And there is a big reason for this…We need to…

2. See OTHERS the way GOD does. (Matthew 5:45)

Explanation: Matthew 5:45

Matthew 5:45 ESV

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.

This idea goes back to what we talked about in January when we talked about hatred and murder. Every single person, regardless of the way we see them is created in the image of God and therefore have inherent value.

To hate anyone, even an enemy, is to hate the image of God in them.

Hatred is the work of satan. Love is the work of God in us.

Because God sees people in 2 ways, those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ.

And 2 Peter 3:9

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

And that is how we need to see people. As needing love and a need to repent of their sins.

Illustration: But we love making people the enemies. We have an almost insatiable need to be in competition with someone. It motivates us. But hatred goes too far.

Rather we need

Application: One of the things that we fail to see is our participation in God sending rain and sunshine on the unjust.

You see when we love our enemies who don’t deserve it and pray for them when they don’t deserve it, we are bringing some Spiritual rain and sunshine on them.

But our prayer needs to always be for their repentance and salvation.

3. REMEMBER to be DIFFERENT. (Matthew 5:46-47)

Explanation:

So much of the Bible is a call for God’s people to be different from the world.

To act in a moral way when the world is immoral and wicked.

I’ve been doing my Bible reading plan for the year and just made it through Leviticus.

And when you read all of those laws that often don’t make sense to us, I started to wonder if that’s not the point.

God wants His people to be radically different from the world in how they act. What they eat and drink, the clothes they wear and even how they worship.

From the world’s point of view we are all a little weird. And that’s kinda the point.

Because in a world full of comparisons, we are always in comparison with others.

With other religions and even with Atheists.

Jesus uses 2 examples of how citizens in His kingdom are to be different. And one of the biggest differences is that we are to love our enemies. We are to have compassion on those who hate us. We are to bless those who curse us.

Jesus provides us 2 people groups citizens are to be different from.

Tax collectors and gentiles. These are strategic choices here for one very important reason.

Both Tax collectors and Gentiles were thought to be “the enemy” to the Jewish people. By invoking these people, Jesus call us to be different from those we see as enemies. And even those who see us as enemies.

This was Jesus’ marching orders throughout be different from the world.

Matthew 20:25–28 ESV

25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Can we relate to this today? Now in a sense all of us are gentiles here today by the very nature that we aren’t Jewish.

But Jesus was talking to Jewish people and gentiles was the opposite of them. And to be fair, the Gentiles hadn’t been brought into the faith yet so they were very much pagan by default.

Today the comparison would be believers and unbelievers. As Christians we are called to be different.

We are called to radical humility.

Illustration: Since we have kids in here today I want you to look around at the kids. Jesus wants you to be like them.

Matthew 18:2–5 ESV

2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

Application: You are expected to be different which means

Radical grace and mercy

Radical generosity.

Radical humility.

Radical joy.

Radical love.

Response: Do you LOVE like God LOVES?

Summation:

Big Idea: God’s LOVE has no BOUNDS so neither should OURS.

1. Love your ENEMY as your NEIGHBOR. (Matthew 5:43-44)

2. See OTHERS the way GOD does. (Matthew 5:45)

3. REMEMBER to be DIFFERENT. (Matthew 5:46-47)

Closing Illustration: To many people, they feel like they have to fix themselves before they come to church.

And in many ways the church has failed to be a welcoming place for the sinner and the broken person.

But even Jesus said Mark 2:17

Mark 2:17 ESV

17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

We tend to even look at outsiders with suspicion. But it should be so with us.

All are welcome to come to Jesus regardless.

Even dare I say the children.

Let’s pray.