22 March 2015
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Luke 6:27-36
Luke 6:27-36 (NIV)
27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do
good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat
you.
29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the
other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your
tunic.
30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what
belongs to you, do not demand it back.
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that
to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them.
33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what
credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be
repaid in full.
35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them
without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you
will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
-- this
week we celebrated St. Patrick's Day -- and, for most of us, this day has
become nothing more than a day we go about wearing green and celebrating our
Irish heritage -- if you were a stranger in this country and were to go to the
city of Savannah on St. Patrick's Day and see the Savannah River dyed green and
the crowds of people drinking and partying on River Street, you would have no
idea this day was actually set aside to honor a great Christian man and the
work he did for Christ in Ireland
-- it is a
shame that we give such little consideration to St. Patrick on the very day
that bears his name -- and it's a shame that the church has forgotten just what
a great man of Christ he was
-- St.
Patrick has become a man of legend, shrouded in myth -- we remember him as the
patron saint of Ireland who drove the snakes out of the country and used the
three-leaf clover to spread the gospel -- but when you cut through the mists of
myth and know the true story of Patrick, you will see why he is so revered by
the people of God and of Ireland today -- and why we should remember his
example of Christian charity as we seek to live out our lives for Christ today
-- Patrick
was born in Britain in the fourth century -- he was the son of a local
community leader and the grandson of a priest -- this was a time of chaos and
decline in Britain as the Roman Empire was beginning to crumble -- the Roman
forces had withdrawn from Britain back to Italy to protect the seat of their
power -- which left Britain without military support and vulnerable to attacks from the Picts and
the Irish and the other tribes in that area that had previously warred with the
native Britons
-- in the
power void left by the Romans, these other tribes began raiding the countryside
of Britain -- attacking and pillaging towns and villages and taking young men
and women captive for slaves -- it was in such an attack that Patrick was
captured and carried to Ireland as a slave when he was just 16 years old
-- for six
years, Patrick served as a shepherd in Ireland -- living as a slave in a pagan
land ruled by local chieftains who constantly warred with each other -- it was
here Patrick was first introduced to the religion of the Druids, and realized
how the Druids kept the nation dominated by requiring strict adherence to their
religious practices -- still, Patrick maintained his faith in Christ and spent
his time in the countryside praying and reciting scripture
-- Patrick
wrote in his Confessions that after
he had been in Ireland for six years, he heard a voice telling him that he
would soon go home -- a few months later, the voice spoke again, saying that
his ship was ready -- and Patrick fled from his slave master, made his way to
the coast, where he caught a ship back to Britain and to freedom
-- while in
Britain, Patrick's faith continued to grow and he began to serve in the church,
as his father and grandfather had done -- one day, Patrick had a vision of a
group of Irish men crying out to him, "We appeal to you, holy servant boy,
to come and walk among us again"
-- Patrick
realized that God was calling him to leave his homeland and to return to Ireland -- to
minister to his enemies -- to the people who had taken him captive and
destroyed his home -- to live the rest of his life in the land where he once
had been a slave
-- Patrick
had a choice to make -- he could stay in Britain and serve God in the church
there -- ministering to his own people in his own land -- or he could follow
the message of the vision and carry the gospel to the pagans of Ireland --
opposing the established Druid religion and sharing the love of Christ with
those who had previously enslaved him and brutally attacked his homeland
-- to go to
Ireland meant certain death -- to go to Ireland meant that he would face
persecution and trials and troubles, not only from the chieftains and the Irish
people, but especially from the Druids who had enslaved the island with their
superstitious religion -- still, Christ bid him to go and tell the Irish about
the good news of the cross -- and Patrick went -- facing his fears and the
trials ahead -- and carried the light of Christ to a people living in darkness
-- Patrick's
ministry in Ireland was extremely fruitful -- in his Confessions, he says that he baptized thousands of people -- he
ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities -- and he founded
hundreds of churches throughout Ireland -- almost single-handedly, Patrick led
Ireland from pagan superstition to belief in Christianity -- and it is because
of this that we celebrate his name every year on March 17th
II. Loving Your Enemies
-- but how
was he able to do so much? -- why was Patrick's ministry so successful? -- I
don't think it was because Patrick was a gifted orator or an anointed preacher
-- I don't think it's because he had a special blessing from God -- I think he
was so successful because of one thing -- Patrick was a man who truly found a
way to love his enemies and care for them with his whole heart and that made
all the difference
-- this
morning we're going to look at this passage from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus
commands us to love our enemies -- now when I read that, I find it easy to say
that it really doesn't apply to me -- I don't have any real enemies in my life
-- I can't say that there are people in my life who are actively working
against me or trying to destroy my life like the people Patrick faced
-- but as
we look closer at this message from Christ and consider the principles He is
giving us in this passage, I do think we need to acknowledge there are many
people in our lives, who may not be enemies, but who are just hard to get along
with
-- they may
be family -- they may be friends -- they may be people we don't even know --
but, truth be told, they really get our goat -- they try our patience -- they
make us angry
-- it's
like what a friend of mine posted on Facebook yesterday -- someone I consider a
true man of faith -- he wrote: "there are some people in this world who seem
to have the sole purpose of testing my patience -- My guess is that I'm
supposed to learn a lesson from their actions, but I have to say that when
someone upsets either my wife or either of my daughters, I don't take that very
well at all."
-- some
people are just unloveable -- they may not be our "enemies," but we
just don't like them -- they just make us angry and they try our patience and
they test our faith -- I have to be honest and tell you, there's been many days
I've come back from a trip to town and said, "I just don't like
people"
-- as the
great poet of our time, Taylor Swift, says "Haters gonna hate, hate, hate,
hate, hate..." -- and it seems like these are the people we keep running
across in our lives
-- so what
do we do with people that just aren't nice? -- with people that are just
difficult and that seem to revel in causing chaos and disruption? -- with
people who just don't seem to care about anyone else and who just make us mad
by what they do?
-- what do
we do with them? -- how do we live with them? -- how do we respond?
-- well, to
be honest, I'm afraid that you're probably not going to like the answer --
because what Jesus is telling us to do in this passage seems wrong and it seems
impossible and it goes against our human nature -- but, as Christians, it is
what we are supposed to do
III. Scripture Lesson (Luke 6:27-36)
-- so let's
look now at this passage from Luke 6 and see what Jesus tells us to do about
our enemies and about those people in our lives who just make us angry
-- look
back with me at verse 27-36
Luke 6:27-36 (NIV)
27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do
good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat
you.
29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the
other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your
tunic.
30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what
belongs to you, do not demand it back.
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that
to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them.
33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what
credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be
repaid in full.
35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them
without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you
will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
-- you've
got to be kidding me -- we all know this commandment -- we've heard it before
-- "love your enemies" -- but surely Jesus didn't mean that, did He?
-- how do
we love somebody that doesn't love us? -- heck, how can we even be nice to
someone who treats us like they do? -- Jesus can't mean what He's saying here,
right? -- when He says to love our enemies, He's probably just talking about in
a broad, general sense -- like Christians are supposed to love one another --
not actual "loving" them and doing things for them, right?
-- Wrong!
-- Jesus is pretty emphatic about this -- the Greek word He uses here for love
is the word agape -- you guessed
that, didn't you? -- agape love --
unconditional love -- the love of God that reaches out to us and loves us in
spite of who we are and what we've done
-- when Jesus
tells us to agape our enemies, He's
saying to love them with our heart and with our hands and with our feet -- agape love is not only a noun -- it's
also a verb -- it means actively loving someone else -- in this case, someone
who hates us
-- reaching
out to them and caring for them and doing for them, even though they might be
the most unloveable and difficult person on earth
-- Jesus
gives us three specific actions in these verses to define what He means by
loving our enemies
-- first,
He says to do good to those who hate you -- that's an action -- Jesus is
telling us to go out and do good things for them
-- I read
this story about a lady whose chickens got out of her pen one day -- they went
over to the neighbor's yard and destroyed his garden -- pulling out all the
plants and eating them and scratching up the other plants -- he was so angry he
killed those chickens and carried them over to the woman's house and threw them
on the porch
-- do you
know what she did? -- she took those chickens and cleaned them and cooked them
into a pot pie and then carried that pot pie back to her neighbor, apologizing
for what her chickens had done and telling him she hoped this gift made up for
it
-- that's
what Jesus is talking about -- do good to those who hate you -- when someone
makes you just so angry you want to spit, Jesus says, "do something good
for them" -- it goes against our nature, but that's the point
-- as
Christians we are a new creation and we live in a new kingdom with a new code
of behavior -- a code that says "do good to those who hate you"
-- the next
thing He tells us is to bless those who curse you -- that means we don't
respond in kind -- I can tell you, the last thing I want to do when someone
curses at me and abuses me verbally or belittles me in a meeting is to bless
them -- but Jesus says that's what we're supposed to do
-- our
human nature tells us that we have to win -- we have to get them back -- if
they yell at us, then we're supposed to yell back -- if they put us down, then
we're supposed to do the same thing back to them -- the world says its a
competition and you have to win and the other person has to lose
-- but
Jesus tells us to take the fall -- to choose to lose -- to choose to die to
self so we might live for Him
-- rather
than yelling back at someone or angrily responding, Jesus says to bless them
with your words -- respond with kindness -- speak words of grace -- or, if you
can't do anything more, just don't respond
-- finally,
Jesus tells us to pray for those who mistreat us -- this reminds us of what
Paul taught in Ephesians Chapter 6 -- our struggle is not against flesh and
blood -- our enemies
-- these
people who are mistreating us and hurting us and making us mad and irritated
are doing this for a reason -- they're doing it because this is all they know
-- this is what they have been taught to do by the world
-- we come
into this world as selfish creatures and if we don't get our own way, we start
life by throwing baby fits -- and a lot of people keep doing it their whole
life -- it's all they know
-- Jesus
says, "Pray for them -- pray that they would come to a saving knowledge of
the truth -- pray that they would come into the Kingdom of God
-- pray that their hearts would be softened by the presence of God and that
they would come to the cross for forgiveness and life and love -- Pray for
them, because they need it"
-- Jesus
goes on in the rest of this passage and gives examples on what loving our
enemies should look like -- if someone strikes you on your cheek, love them
anyway -- if they take your cloak -- if they take things that don't belong to
them -- love them anyway -- if they come to you and want more and more and
more, don't turn them away but love them anyway
-- in each
of these examples, Jesus is emphasizing a principle -- love is more important
than self -- this passage is about our attitude towards ourselves and the
things we possess
-- what is
more important? -- our honor or the eternity of the one who just slapped us on
the cheek? -- what is more important? -- material possessions or a spiritual
inheritance?
-- when
considering how to love our enemies and how to relate to those around us, we
must remember the command of Christ to take up our cross, die to self, and
follow Him
-- we can
only love our enemies when we stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking
about them and their true needs -- we can only love our enemies when we stop
thinking about ourselves and start thinking about Christ
IV. CLOSING
-- I read a
devotional by D.J. Pollay that really sums Jesus' message up for us and shows
us how to live it out in our lives today
-- Pollay
writes about the day he was in a taxi and they got cut off by another driver --
he just missed them by inches and Pollay's cabdriver had to slam on brakes to
keep from hitting them -- and then, to make things worse, the guy who cut them
off started yelling at them like they were the ones at fault
-- the taxi
driver just smiled and waved at the guy like they were best friends -- so
Pollay asked him, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car
and sent us to the hospital!’ -- that's when the taxi driver taught him the
‘The Law of the Trash Truck.’
-- He said
a lot of people are like trash trucks -- they run around full of garbage -- full
of frustration -- full of anger -- and full of disappointment -- As their
garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it -- and sometimes they dump it on
you
-- Don’t
take it personally, he said -- Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on --
don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on
the streets.
-- The
bottom line is that successful people do not let trash trucks take over their
day
-- when
this happens to you -- and it will -- just say to yourself, "Trash truck!"
-- and let it go -- "Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with
regrets"1
-- so do
what Jesus tells you to do in this passage:
-- love the
people who treat you right -- and love the people who don't
-- do good
for them -- show them a different way -- be for them the hands and feet of
Christ -- take the garbage out for them so maybe it won't pile up anymore
-- bless them
when they curse you -- speak words of kindness to those who don't deserve it --
remember how Christ died for you when you didn't deserve it -- and speak God's
favor on them as those who really need it
-- and pray
for those who mistreat you -- they act this way because it's all they know --
pray that they will come to know a better way -- pray that they will trade in
their trash truck for a chariot to heaven
-- love
your enemies and do to others as you would have them do to you
-- let us
pray
1 Modified from "The Law of the Garbage Truck" by
D.J. Pollay -http://www.simpletoremember.com/jewish/blog/garbage-truck/
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