Sermon Tone Analysis

Different Giftings, Same Ethics Pt.2

Different Giftings, Same Ethics Pt.2

There is a fable that Satan’s agents were failing in their various attempts to draw into sin a holy man who lived as a hermit in the desert of northern Africa.

Every attempt had met with failure; so Satan, angered with the incompetence of his subordinates, became personally involved in the case.

He said, “The reason you have failed is that your methods are too crude for one such as this.

Watch this.”

He then approached the holy man with great care and whispered softly in his ear, “Your brother has just been made Bishop of Alexandria.”

Instantly the holy man’s face showed that Satan had been successful: a great scowl formed over his mouth and his eyes tightened up.

“Envy,” said Satan, “is often our best weapon against those who seek live their lives for the Son of God.”

There is a fable that Satan’s agents were failing in their various attempts to draw into sin a holy man who lived as a hermit in the desert of northern Africa.

Every attempt had met with failure; so Satan, angered with the incompetence of his subordinates, became personally involved in the case.

He said, “The reason you have failed is that your methods are too crude for one such as this.

Watch this.”

He then approached the holy man with great care and whispered softly in his ear, “Your brother has just been made Bishop of Alexandria.”

Instantly the holy man’s face showed that Satan had been successful: a great scowl formed over his mouth and his eyes tightened up.

“Envy,” said Satan, “is often our best weapon against those who seek live their lives for the Son of God.”

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- The Psalmist wrote a Psalm that deals with the struggle a godly person has with those who prosper in the world, yet get there by doing wrong

For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

- As we seek to honour God with our lives, we are going to witness those who care nothing for God, but who do prosper very nicely

- Of course, this raises the question in our minds, “why does God let this happen”?

- those who despise Him, prosper

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- The OT answer lies in the fate of the ungodly

7 —16 When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my sight 17 Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end.

—21 When my heart was embittered And I was pierced within, 22 Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.

—27 For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

—27 For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

—27 For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

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- As we come to the NT & our passage today, we can reflect on the ethic that Paul desires all Christians to have – the ethic of love, as defined by God

- Part of the same ethic that we all have is how we treat outsiders

- Outsiders who may be hostile to us

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- This passage deals with a wider scope & not just the Christian community

- Notice the word “anyone” in v.17

- It deals not only with how we treat one another as the Christian community, but also how we treat others outside of our Christian community

- It starts with something that may appear contrary to how we feel & that is in blessing those who persecute us & it finishes with feeding your enemy when he is hungry & giving him a drink when he is thirsty

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- One of the first things to consider is this: “who is my enemy”?

- There's a saying: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”

- It means that there may be a person who is disliked who becomes your “friend” because you both have a common enemy

- A great example of this is Herod & Pilate

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- It was the very day that Jesus was arrested & was being mocked & badly treated

- He was being toyed with & shuffled around between Herod & Pilate – each one trying the find a satisfying way to get rid of Jesus

- But then, we see this crop up in the text...

—12 Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.

- The enemy of my enemy is my friend

- The world unites around opposing Jesus

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- Even today, you'll see people uniting around opposing the church of Jesus

- Opposing the church is opposing Jesus

Q.

How did Jesus respond to the evil persecution of Herod & Pilate?

—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;

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- Our reading today is about how we can show the love of Christ to the world but I think, more importantly, is how we show the world what our future is like

- The world operates under the fallen powers of this age – Satan, demonic forces push people to act in a way contrary to God's will

- He teaches them that might is right & that popularity is truth

- Whereas the Christian who belongs to the new age of God has a diametrically opposed position

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- When I am weak, I am strong, says Paul

- Instead of the independent streak that sinful man cannot shake off, we have the Christian who, instead, relies & trusts upon a faithful God

—26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God.

- We meet the scorn & hatred of the those outside of Christ with the future reality that we have in Christ

- Our future is on display as we act in likeness to our true character & true destiny

1. Love Seeks Good, Not Self

1. Love Seeks Good, Not Self

- I imagine some might say, “That a strange title David, for I would have thought that it be better read, “Love seeks Good, not Evil”

- Whilst that is a fair enough title, I don't think it hits the ground as well as pitting love against “self”

- The one reason we don't love is because self competes for your love

- After all, self likes to be number one – true?

Of course's it's true

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- That's not all bad, because it is quite natural to look after yourself

- We feed & cloth ourselves, preen ourselves in front of a mirror – we do pretty good with loving ourselves

- We run aground when we lose sight of that grandest act of love known to Man

- That Jesus came into the world to give His life that we may live ours & live it eternally

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- It will start & finish with trusting God with our own life

- If we trust Him, that He will take care of us, it will be a whole lot easier to then give care to other people

- This will require us to dig pretty deep

- The usual human response to someone hurting us is to hurt them back

- We can do that in any number of ways, because it stems from a deep anger & resentment

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- It, tragically, sneaks up on a Christian & grabs them like this strangler vine

- Here's a thought – we don't like the way the people of the world respond when they are resentful & angry

- Then, consider what we do with our responses

—32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same.

- I find the teaching of Jesus to be so right & good & yet often it seems so difficult to do

- But if you ask me, this sort of teaching is other-worldly

- There is a ring of the divine to it

- It is so true – you are no better than someone else if you criticise them for the very thing you do yourself or pay them back for the very thing you do yourself

or pay them back for the very thing you do yourself

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- Here Paul begins by saying, “bless those who persecute you, bless & do not curse”

- “To bless” is to seek good for someone, while to curse is to seek harm against that person

- Please understand that the curses you read in the Bible are not people using foul language – that's usually what is thought when you hear someone cursing & swearing

- But a “curse” & to “swear” is a formal & binding pronouncement

- An example of this is when you swear on the Bible when making your oath to tell the truth

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- God cursed the ground because of man's sin – it's fruitfulness was restrained

- He cursed the serpent to crawl on his belly all his days

- The fig tree that Jesus cursed, withered

- When Peter denied Jesus, the third time, we read that he began to curse & swear

- Again, not using foul language, but announcing something like this: “should I be lying about knowing Jesus, may a curse come upon me”

—71 But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!”

- This truly makes his denial so complete, but he did this in desperation to save his own skin

- It was a critical moment in Peter's life & it revealed to him a deep flaw in his faith

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- To swear an oath binds you to a course of action or outcome & if you fail in that course, you reap a curse