Be Different
Notes
Transcript
When I realized I was different
When I realized I was different
My grandfather was a preacher! That can be weird. He did most of his ministry before the internet existed, before veggietales, before really any Christian media that Christians could watch at home or in a church existed. When we take family videos at holidays we just use our phones and we’re good. For them, he had to get out a film camera, load it up with film, hand-crank it to keep it recording, develop the film, set up the projector and display the recording. Things were different.
He wanted to connect with children and teenagers - He did quite a bit of film work, but he also did story-telling. Plays, dramas, magic tricks, but also puppets! Hand puppets, marionette, etc.
When my family moved into the house they still live in when I was 4, my grandfather bought part of the house to live with us. He had a room of his own, the large bonus room. Guess what we called it? Grandpa’s office!
He kept his books, magic tricks, puppets, dolls in this bonus room in our house. He eventually moved out, but kept his stuff in this room. When I had friends over and they saw this room, they were speechless.
When I was finally in 7th grade one of my friends finally asked me WHY DO YOU HAVE A PUPPET STAGE AND DOLLS IN YOUR BONUS ROOM??? To me, it was basically all I had ever known. That’s when it dawned on me, this was weird. Normal people don’t have this stuff in their house. My grandfather, my parents, and me, we were different.
The Sermon on the Mount is about “being different”
The Sermon on the Mount is about “being different”
Today we’re going to look at a little section from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5. Jesus went up on the side of a mountain and began to preach to this large gathering of people that had come to hear from Him. One of the major themes from His “Sermon on the Mount” is this idea of “being different.”
There are several times when Jesus said, “You have heard it said...but I tell you…” When He said this, referring to the common teaching of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, essentially what He said was, “Your teachers have told you to do this...but I tell you to do this instead.” And what He taught was radically different from what everyone was used to hearing. Jesus was so backwards to His own culture that He wasn’t even accepted by the religious leaders. But the lost came to Him by the thousands.
It was a call to be different. Most of the time we just want to fit in. We don’t want to stand out from the crowd. But Jesus calls us as His disciples to be different from the world. Let’s read our Scripture and see what He means by this:
38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. 40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. 41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. 42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.
Jesus began here talking about the punishment of the law. An eye for eye and tooth for tooth. This was right out of Exodus 21:24. The law simply meant that if you cause a loss to me, I’m entitled to receive from you something equal to that loss. The punishment should meet the crime that’s committed. If you come to my house and steal my favorite coffee mug and you’re caught, you’re not going to receive the death penalty, because the punishment wouldn’t fit the crime. On the other side of that, if someone commits murder, they wouldn’t receive just a $10 fine. Eye for eye. Equal punishment for equal crime.
So, we have the “You have heard the law that says…” and now it’s time for Jesus to take it one step further. He said,
“But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too.” - Matthew 5:39-40 (NLT)
This wasn’t a slap to hurt someone. This was a slap to insult someone. When someone insults you or calls you a name, what do you want to do? You want to say something back at them!
What is Jesus saying here?
He’s telling us to
Be Different In Our Forgiveness.
Be Different In Our Forgiveness.
For us, Jesus isn’t at all suggesting that we upset the entire justice system or rewrite the law. But He is asking us to upset our own personal system of justice. Disciples of Jesus, you and I, should never be in the business of revenge.
What is revenge? Revenge is when we try to hurt someone back because of what they did to us. A moment ago, I mentioned what we want to do when someone insults us. We want to give it back to them. Someone lied about me, so I go and lie about them to someone else.
Jesus tells us that the better choice is to simply forgive.
What about those deep hurts that you’ve had to face since your childhood?
What about the times your brother or sister got you in trouble?
What about that friend who wounded you so deeply?
Surely Jesus doesn’t mean I have to let those go too, does He? Well, let’s talk about that for a minute.
What happens when we seek revenge? Do we feel better? Maybe. But what about that other person? Now, they feel wronged. So, back and forth this business of revenge goes. Each party feels wronged and feels the need to counter.
Revenge is a dead end
Revenge is a dead end
It only leads to more hurt. More pain. More drama. What’s done is done. It’s in the past. We can’t go back in time to prevent those hurts from happening; we only have now. So how do we deal with those hurts from the past? If revenge isn’t going to work, what is?
Forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a gift we give to ourselves. We give up the right to seek revenge. We give up the right to receive our justice.
“Well, what if the person who hurt me never admits to it or they never apologize?”
Forgive them. It’s a gift to yourself. Is it easy? No way. Does that mean I have to forget what they did to me? No. To forgive and to forget isn’t realistic and it sets us up for unhealthy relationships. Now, that relationship may change and you may have different boundaries set up, but we still need to forgive. But holding on to unforgiveness doesn’t hurt them, it only hurts you. I don’t know about you, but I need to hear about forgiving others on a regular basis. We all need more reminders about forgiveness.
Be different in your forgiveness.
Jesus went on:
If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow. - Matthew 6:41-42 (NLT)
During the time of Jesus, Rome was the world power. Israel was under Roman occupation, and the Jews absolutely hated to be under their rule. Roman influence was everywhere and with it: Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers could come to your home and ask for you to carry their loads for 1000 paces, and you were bound by Roman law to do it. And this was a constant reminder to the Jews that they were under Roman occupation. Most of the Jews thought the Messiah was going to come and demolish Rome and make Israel the world power once again, so you can imagine their reaction when Jesus said, “When a Roman soldier wants you to carry his pack for a mile, don’t resist, but go twice as far with him.”
That would have been an outrageous expectation for the Jews who heard this!
Not only did He tell them to obey the Romans, but He told them to go out of their way to serve the Romans when they weren’t required to do so!
One lesson I think we can learn from Jesus here is:
Be different in your relationships.
Be different in your relationships.
This whole section of Jesus’ sermon centers around our relationships with others. In particular, the relationships we have with people we may not necessarily get along with. But we can build bridges. Paul writes:
27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.
When you came to Christ, your citizenship in heaven started right then and there. We forget that heaven is now. The Kingdom of God exists right now, and we are a part of it. It’s our job to work within that Kingdom, doing the good work. Heaven isn’t some far-off place that will only matter to us when we die; it matters right now. The Kingdom of God will contain all the nations of the world!
We live in a country of great diversity with the world at our doorstep. What a great opportunity we have to spread the good news of Jesus to those who need him! How was Jesus generous with people different from Him? Let’s look at the example of Jesus in John 4. Jesus goes through Samaria. Jews in His time didn’t go through Samaria. They hated the Samaritans. Yet, Jesus continued to travel there.
6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
He went on to have a conversation with this woman about living water and how He wanted to meet her husband, knowing full well she didn’t have a husband. She was amazed at how much He knew about her and acknowledged that He was a prophet. Look at these next few verses:
26 Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
What was the reaction of the disciples? Shock! He was talking to a woman! Not just a woman; a Samaritan woman. Not just a Samaritan woman; a woman whose social standing was so poor she had to come out in the middle of the day to get water to avoid being ridiculed!
In Jesus’ world, men weren’t supposed to speak one-on-one with a woman. It was considered inappropriate. Jesus took every cultural expectation laid on Him and threw it in the garbage! This was a woman whom He loved, and He wanted her to know the truth. But notice the steps He took:
1) He took the time to talk to her as a person, as a daughter of the Most High God. He treated her with dignity and respect.
2) He built a relationship with her.
3) He shared with her some of the basic truths of Scripture by revealing to her who He was, the Messiah! In that revelation of His identity was the call to follow.
We try to do it backward. We try to nail people with the truth first, before we ever get the chance to even talk to them and know them. We skip the whole relationship-building part!
Think about Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Tax collectors were considered traitors to their country because they worked for Rome. Tax collectors often took way more money than they needed to, so people thought of them as thieves. Many people would have thought of Zacchaeus as a horrible, awful sinner. Did Jesus go up to him and say: “Zacchaeus! You’re a sinner for stealing money! You need to pay back all you took and then you’ll be forgiven!” No! He says in verse 5:
5 When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”
He went into a sinner’s home! We don’t know the conversation that took place within his home, but Zacchaeus repented and paid back people 4 times what he stole from them!
There are times when we treat people like the other people treated Zacchaeus. We think of them as sinners, or even worse, we think of them as our enemies!
We need to take a hard look at ourselves, overcome our own prejudices, and step out in love to connect these people to Jesus. Just because we love people doesn’t mean we are condoning the lives they’re currently living. It simply means we’re taking the time to build that relationship with them. Through our love, we build the opportunity to have a voice in their lives to tell them the truth. It’s exactly what Jesus did, and we need to follow His example.
Live in such a way that your life says: “Hey! I love you! And I know Jesus and I know He loves you! And I’m going to love you no matter what.”
Be different in your relationships.
[TEACHER’S NOTE: Here is a great place to conclude your story from the beginning of the message.]
When I was in 7th grade, I realized I was different. At the time, I hated it. When you’re 13 years old, the last thing you want to be is so different from everyone else and stand out. I didn’t hate my family or anything, but just knew, I probably should warn people about this room.
Jesus calls us to be different, not awkward puppet house 7th grade Rick, different, but different in how we live our lives! Different in how we forgive people! Different in how we build relationships with people! We stand out. People pay attention to us.
Look at something Jesus said a little earlier in His sermon:
14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Light pierces the darkness. It stands out. It’s different.
Jesus tells us to be different. Not to build a platform for ourselves. Not for people to pat us on the back for how good we are. Not so we will gain new friends, but because people see our good works. They see how we stand out against what is expected in our culture. We forgive the worst pains. We reach across difficult barriers to form relationships.
Why?
Because the Kingdom of God grows and ultimately, brings glory to God!
Let’s Be Different.
Let’s Be Different.