Loving Like the Father

Tonight we're thinking about loving our enemies, loving like the Father.

So we'll read from Matthew 5 and from verse 43.

This is God's Word.

Ryan.

Well, you may have noticed that we actually are jumping backwards from where we were last week.

There was a little miscommunication with the worship night.

And so we had Thomas Davis preaching chapter 6 verses 1 through 4.

And so we've jumped back to chapter 5.

We will jump forward again next Sunday night.

But we are in the Sermon on the Mount.

And we're in those passages where Jesus, there's six of them, where Jesus has said,

You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.

And tonight we're again in one of the most familiar of all of the teachings of Jesus

when we're talking about loving your enemy.

Now, one of the things that if you know me very well, you probably know,

I have a big problem where I Google way too many things.

Something will come up and Kelly will just say,

Ryan, you don't have to Google that.

Okay.

Well, there has been a little bit of a cure to that problem as Christian.

And then Spencer introduced me to chat GPT.

So now it gets all of my questions.

And as I was trying to play with Microsoft's AI version called Copilot,

I just put in the question, what makes Jesus unique?

I just wanted to see what it would say.

What makes Jesus unique?

And this is what Copilot said.

While many philosophers emphasized ethical living, self-improvement, or societal structures,

Jesus introduced an unwavering focus on selfless love,

not only for friends or the deserving, but even for enemies,

an idea profoundly countercultural at the time.

So even AI, when you just put in something like what makes Jesus unique,

talks about our passage here tonight, which is about loving our enemies.

It is so foundational to the Christian life.

And in fact, it's probably so familiar to us if you've grown up in church,

that there's a little bit of a temptation to kind of just stop focusing and saying,

yeah, I've been there, done that.

What am I going to hear tonight that I've not heard before?

And the answer to that is probably nothing, but that is not the Christian life.

The Christian life is not just learning new things,

but many times learning how to apply in a fresh way what the Word of God says to us.

In fact, as I was preparing for this for a couple of weeks,

I was kind of diving into some of the minutiae

and some of the different things that the commentaries were saying,

and it just hit me like I'm getting lost in all of these details

when just such the basic teaching of Christianity is you must love even your enemies.

And so that's where we are tonight.

We're trying to ask this question,

how can we love our enemies?

There's something so simple about it, yet so profound in this passage,

and we must not gloss over it.

So we'll start in chapter 5, verse 43,

where Jesus says,

you've heard that it was said,

you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Now, the Old Testament law did tell us to love our neighbor.

And the question that came to my mind was,

did the scribes and Pharisees really teach,

love your neighbor, but hate your enemies?

Well, apparently so.

But if you think about it,

there are passages in the Old Testament

where you can kind of see where they get it from.

For instance, Psalm 97.10 says,

Oh, you who love the Lord, hate evil.

Or if you look at some of the Psalms,

they're calling curses down on the enemies of God's people.

If you're living in oppression like they are at this time,

you can see how it would be easy to say,

well, these people are evil,

therefore we must love our neighbor.

But it's okay to hate these people

because they are evil.

They are my enemies.

These are evil people who are against God and His people.

And so, also, they are not my neighbor.

The Pharisees taught that your neighbor were Israelites.

If you were not an Israelite, you were not my neighbor.

So I didn't have to love you.

And Jesus says, that's not what God teaches us.

Love your neighbor applies not just to Israelites,

but to even your enemies.

We do know that the Qumran community

that gave us the Dead Sea Scrolls,

we know that they did actively teach

that you are to love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

So it was a prevalent teaching at that time.

But before we just cast judgment on them,

we can convince ourselves of many things.

If we want it to be true,

we can even convince ourselves of that in Scripture.

I won't give any examples of that,

but you know what I'm talking about.

If we want it to be true,

a lot of times we will even find Scriptures

to try to prove our point.

And that's what the Pharisees and scribes would do.

You have heard 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.

Jesus said, love your enemies.

And the word their enemy means someone

that is opposed to you,

someone that is hostile toward you.

It's someone that you hate.

Now, some of you may read this or hear this and think,

well, when I think of enemies,

I don't really have any enemies.

And if you have no one,

on one side,

if you have no one that you can see

is like that person or those people oppose me,

you might not be standing on real convictions.

If no one is opposed to you,

you might be a people pleaser

and not living according to convictions.

On the other side,

if you're thinking,

okay, I can think of a lot of enemies,

then you might just be a jerk.

Neither one of those are good, okay?

But we can all think about people in our lives

that would be opposed to us.

Maybe it's not saying,

calling someone an enemy,

but we might say,

I have a really hard time loving this person.

Or those who oppose us that we're like,

I can't even stand to be around them.

Who are the people that push our buttons,

that set us off?

I mean, just to even pull out a little bit further,

think about the political leaders

that you're just eager to talk bad about.

Think about the very least,

those in the media,

when we're seeing like social media or something,

that just makes our blood boil.

Those would be our enemies.

Maybe it hits a little closer to home

and it's someone that has made fun of you

or mistreated you.

Maybe someone that bullied us.

Someone who actively mistreats others.

Maybe not us, but someone we love.

Who are those that we are most likely to avoid?

And this would even apply,

maybe you wouldn't call this person an enemy,

but that person that just annoys us.

Who are those people that come to your mind?

And Jesus says,

love your enemies.

Jesus doesn't just say,

don't retaliate.

He doesn't just tell us to avoid,

don't be mean or anything like that.

He tells us to actively love our enemies.

Now, love is obviously linked to showing kindness

in Luke 6,

in the same kind of passage.

We call Luke 6 the Sermon on the Plains.

It says he came down from a mountain.

Sermon on the Plains,

Sermon on the Mount

has some of the same things.

And in that passage,

he tells us to actively do good to our enemies.

But this,

when he says,

love your neighbor as yourself,

that would apply to this.

We are to love them.

And when Jesus says,

love your neighbor as yourself,

I mean,

we can think about it to the same extent

that I would try to feed myself

when I'm hungry.

that's the extent to which

I should love my enemies

to make sure they have food as well.

To make sure my needs are met,

that's the same extent

to which I should love my enemies

and make sure their needs are met.

This sounds kind of crazy.

Could we really actually live like this?

Paul says that love bears all things,

believes all things,

and hopes all things.

Can I really bear all things

for the sake of love

in regard to my enemy?

Can I really think the best of them

and hope that good things happen to my enemy?

Because that's what love does.

Love your enemies.

Can I really extend this kind of love,

the love that Jesus calls us to,

to my enemies.

And look what he says.

He says,

love your enemies

and pray for those who persecute you.

Pray for them.

Why does he say pray for them?

Dallas Willard,

who wrote a book called Divine Conspiracy,

which addresses the Sermon on the Mount,

he says that prayer

is the highest form of loving someone.

When you pray for someone,

you really are wishing for their good.

You want their good to happen.

So when he says pray for those who persecute you,

that is one of the highest forms

that we can have of loving someone.

Praying is also connected,

when we think about prayer,

we think about provision,

we think about prosperity for thriving.

Do we really pray for the thriving

of those who are actively against us?

This word persecute here,

it literally means active pursuit.

that someone who is chasing after you

in order to overtake and harm you.

Pray for those people.

The people who actively want bad things for you,

we are to pray for them,

to want their good,

and to even ask God to give them good things.

Like the change of heart?

Those who actively seek our harm.

Pray for those that persecute you.

And Jesus says,

do this so that you may be sons

of your Father who is in heaven.

This doesn't mean in order to become

sons of your Father who is in heaven.

It means because you are His sons.

Because you are God's children,

children,

love your enemies,

and pray for those who persecute you.

Demonstrate that you are a child

of your Father in heaven

by loving your enemies

and praying for those who persecute you.

How in the world

could we possibly do this?

This is exactly how the Father treated us.

Romans chapter 5,

Romans 5:8–10

verses 8 through 10,

says that God demonstrated His love for us

and while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

It goes down to verse 10 and says,

for if while we were enemies,

we were reconciled to God

by the death of His Son,

much more now that we are reconciled,

shall we be saved by His life.

We were enemies

when God pursued us.

That same word for enemy

is used in Colossians 1.21

that says we were hostile toward God.

Those who are without Christ

are actively opposed against God

just like we were.

This is how God treated us.

That while we were enemies,

He pursued us.

In order to overtake us

with His grace

and His mercy.

This is one of the clearest truths

of the Gospel.

That is,

it is love for His enemies

that brought Christ to earth

to die on the cross

for your sins.

And if you get nothing else

out of the sermon tonight,

let your heart just be full

of love and worship

for the Father,

that He would pursue you

while you were His active enemy.

And if you just get that,

if you just meditate on that

and get that at the deep down heart level,

all of a sudden,

God's love will then overflow

out of you

even to your enemies.

That's how we love

like the Father.

Father.

As we understand

that this is how He loved us.

That while we were His enemies,

He pursued us.

He loved us.

Now,

this teaching,

as

ChatGPT and Co-Pilot

would tell us,

this teaching

was unique

during the time.

Now,

there were some other teachings

that would basically

say stuff like

maybe avoid

your enemies,

maybe don't

try to do things

to disrupt things

with your enemies,

but nothing to go as far

as to say

love your enemy.

Pray for your enemy.

This was something

that was completely new,

completely unique,

and it has changed

our world.

It has changed our world

and it is even depicted

in our stories now.

You can look up,

I mean,

just do a Google search

if you want to,

shout out to Google still,

but just movies

that portray

loving your enemies,

books that portray

loving your enemies,

and just look at

all the list of things

that show up.

It has changed

the way we tell

our stories.

Now,

all of my kids

have loved

the Marvel movies,

the Avengers.

There's one movie

in the Avengers

that I particularly like

called the Black Panther,

and spoiler alert,

but if you haven't seen it,

it's your fault.

King T'Challa has been

defeated by Killmonger.

He is the Black Panther,

and he has lost the mantle

of the Black Panther.

He's left for dead.

He's nursed back to health,

and he has dreams and plans

of coming back

and taking back the throne,

taking back the mantle

of Black Panther.

and when he fights Killmonger,

he wins,

but instead of destroying him,

he has mercy on him

and even tries to save him

and offer him healing.

He even honors him

by taking him

to the top of the mountain

where he can look over

at the sunset,

setting over Wakanda,

kind of one of his last dreams.

This is a depiction

of loving even your enemy.

They get that from Jesus.

Maybe a little bit closer to home,

Joe Rowling happened to put this

in the Harry Potter series

as the villain,

like, you know,

well, not the main villain,

but one of the guys

that just drives you crazy

from the very beginning

of the book,

Draco Malfoy,

all the way through,

you can't stand the guy,

you really do have this

distaste, dislike.

He's awful, right?

But it's the end of the books.

Again, spoiler alert,

but if you haven't seen it,

it's your fault

or haven't read it.

It's been available

for a long time.

At the end,

they're in the room

of requirement.

You know what I'm talking about?

And Crab calls the fiend fire

or whatever it's called,

and it gets out of control.

They get brooms.

Harry and his friends

get brooms,

and they're flying out.

And they see Draco

hanging there.

They see him in trouble.

And Harry's friends

are like,

see ya.

Harry's like,

no, I gotta go back for him.

And all of a sudden,

we see this valor,

this courageous thing

where he risks his life

for his specific enemy.

And it changed everything.

It changed Harry's heart.

It changed Draco's heart.

And that's one of the things

that we see.

That when we love our enemies,

it changes things.

And at the very least,

it changes our own hearts

when we allow the love of God

to spill out to us,

even to our enemies.

it will certainly change you.

Verse 45 says,

for he makes his sun rise on the evil

and on the good,

and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

Now, don't miss the significance of this.

In an agrarian society,

having sun and rain

is completely,

it's so important for prosperity,

even for life.

Without sun and rain,

there is gonna be complete death.

Famine.

In an agrarian society,

sun and rain

are basic necessities

that they must have

in order to survive.

So if you think about the idolatry

of Israel

that they were tempted with

in the Old Testament,

think about some of the names.

The Baal,

Asherah,

Dagon,

Chemosh.

Baal was the storm god.

Asherah was the goddess of fertility.

Dagon,

grain and agriculture.

Chemosh,

fertility.

So much of it was linked

to just crying out to anything

that they thought would listen

so that they would get sun and rain

for their crops to grow,

for the society to flourish.

God sends His sun and rain

even on the enemies.

He knows that by sending sun and rain

to the pagans,

to those who actively oppose Him,

they are not gonna give Him credit for it,

but give these false idols,

these false gods credit

for sending the storms,

for sending the sun,

and for sending the rain.

If God were petty and spiteful,

He would withhold the sun and the rain

except for those who recognize Him

from exactly where it came from.

But He gives His sun and rain

even to those who don't recognize Him,

to His enemies,

those who actively oppose Him.

Now in modern times,

if you even think about it,

the sun rising and setting

is one of those things

that is foundational for why science works.

Science relies on the assumption

that the universe operates

according to consistent laws

that can be observed,

tested,

and predicted.

God's gift of sun

leads some to trust in science

instead of Him.

But that is the love of our Father,

that He sends His Son and His rain

even on His enemies,

on the evil and on the good.

When we love our enemies,

we are acting like children

of the Father in heaven.

Now, remember in the Sermon on the Mount

and these passages we've been talking about

that Jesus isn't just giving us

some rules to obey.

He's telling us how to become kingdom people

so that love overflows from our hearts

even towards our enemies.

Remember, He's getting to the heart of things.

You've heard that it was said,

you shall not murder,

but I say to you,

don't even be angry with your brother.

Anger, murder,

adultery, lust.

He's getting at the heart.

And with this passage,

He's helping us see

how love can overflow from our hearts

into the way that we live our lives

so that it even spills out

to our enemies.

And then in verse 46,

He says,

For if you love those who love you,

what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

For if you love those that love you,

He's starting to list

some of the enemies of these people.

Tax collectors.

They were like the ultimate betrayers of Israel.

One way that we would think about people,

the way that we think about terrorists

and racists and fascists,

awful people in our minds,

like that's the way they would think

of tax collectors.

And He's saying,

even those people love those who love them.

How different are you

if you only love people that love you?

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?

Now this idea of greeting someone,

it means to embrace

or to welcome,

to receive them.

It was often done in that culture

with a kiss on the cheek.

But it has this idea

of showing honor and respect.

So we're to greet people.

In other words,

we're to welcome, receive,

show honor to people

who are not just people

that we know and love,

but all people.

And one of the things

that we need to understand

from this passage

is that our treatment of people

must never depend on who they are,

but it depends on who we are.

We're children of our Father

who is in heaven.

And this Father in heaven

loves even His enemies.

This should transform our lives.

And then it says,

you know,

what reward have you?

He brings up the idea of reward.

He'll do it again in chapter 6.

This idea of reward,

to be kingdom people,

to be able to love our enemies,

we have to understand

that life is not just about

the here and now.

There's also a life

that is yet to come

that we are to live for,

living in light of eternity,

knowing that our time here

is a short time

before Jesus comes back

and will make all things new.

We are to live in light of that,

in light of eternity.

There is reward.

And when we think about that life,

when we think about

that this life on earth

is just a blip on the radar,

it allows us to understand

that, okay,

we can live differently

because there is a time

that is to come

where Jesus will make

all things new.

And I want even my enemies

to be there with me.

I want them to know

the love of the Father.

And if that's not our heart,

where we want our enemies

to come to know

the love of the Father,

we need to question

the love that is in us.

Because that's how

He taught us to love.

To want the world to know.

Even our enemies

to know the love of the Father.

Loving your enemy

is foundational

to the Christian life.

It is the most basic

teaching of Jesus.

But it's tough.

It's not easy

to love those

who annoy us.

It's not easy

to love those

who push our buttons.

Who set us off.

And even enjoy doing so.

How do we love those

who bully others

and mistreat others?

How do we love them?

Those people that have

come to our mind

tonight

while we've been

in this passage.

How do we love them?

We must meditate

on the love

of our Father

and what He did for us.

He loved us so much

that He sent Jesus

to die.

He sent Jesus

to fulfill

all righteousness

that we could not do.

To live the life

that we couldn't live.

And then He died

the death

that we deserved

to die.

His enemies.

And in doing so

He brought us

into the family

of God.

So now we have

a Father

who loves His enemies

and He's teaching us

and empowering us

by His Spirit

to do the same.

Love your enemies

and pray for those

who persecute you.

One final word.

This verse 48 here.

In my Bible

it's put with this

same paragraph.

You therefore

must be perfect

as your Heavenly Father

is perfect.

There are many

that will say

that this verse

is actually a summary

of everything

going back to verse 17.

All the passages

that are

you've heard

that it was said

but I say to you

all of those passages

that this verse

you therefore

must be perfect

as your Heavenly Father

is perfect

that it applies

to all of that.

It's a summary

of those kind of things.

In all of those things

Jesus is not just telling us

we have a new law

to obey.

He's not giving us

a new law.

He's helping us

get to the intent

the matters of the heart.

And in verse 20

He even says

that our righteousness

must surpass

that of the scribes

and the Pharisees.

He's basically saying

that the scribes

and the Pharisees

are all about

outward obedience.

I'm telling you

it goes to the heart.

So we get to verse 48.

You therefore

must be perfect

as your Heavenly Father

is perfect.

That word

therefore perfect

that might not be

the best English

translation of it.

There's one commentator

that makes a great case

and he's not alone

in this

but makes a great case

that this word

is often translated

as complete

or whole.

You must be whole

as your Heavenly Father

is whole.

This word

you may know

the Old Testament

was translated

into Greek

it's called

the Septuagint

and this word

that's used here

teleos

in the Old Testament

is sometimes

translated

shalom

it's replacing

the Hebrew word

shalom

completeness

wholeness

okay

you must be whole

as your Heavenly Father

is whole

and basically

what that would mean

is

it's this idea

that to be whole

your inside heart

attitudes

and motivations

must line up

with your outward

actions

and behaviors

to be whole

as God is whole

means

that your heart

and your actions

are aligned

to that

of the Heavenly Father

you must be perfect

or whole

as your Heavenly Father

is whole

Jesus cares

about our hearts

here

not just

an outward

obedience

he is going

for the heart

as we follow

Jesus

we're not

following a teaching

we're following

a person

and as we do

we become

more and more

like him

conforming our lives

to his word

it's about

becoming

kingdom people

and when we

love

like the Father

we learn

how to love

even

our enemies

and he empowers

us

to do so

we're called

to love

our neighbor

as ourself

that extends

to everyone

including

our enemies

so what

my challenge

for us

myself included

is tonight

is to

as we think

about who

those people

are

that we feel

like actively

oppose us

are those

people

that are

against us

who push

our buttons

who annoy us

who we try

to avoid

who we just

don't like

we can't even

stand to be

around them

whoever those

people are

we must learn

to meditate

on God's

love for us

and what he

has done

for us

as his enemies

what he did

for us

in Jesus

Christ

making us

enemies now

into his

family

his children

meditate on

that until

it gets us

deep down

so that we

can then

love

like our

heavenly

father

let us

pray

God we

thank you

that even

though we

were opposed

to you

we were not

giving you

the credit

you deserve

for everything

in our life

we were not

recognizing

that you

were the

giver

of all

good things

in fact

we didn't

even want

to give

up control

of our

lives

but yet

you

a loving

father

pursued us

that while

we were

enemies

you made

us your

children

through the

blood

of Jesus

Christ

thank you

for doing

that

may we

worship

you

may our

hearts

be turned

toward you

in complete

allegiance

in complete

loyalty

love

in a

fire

in a

passion

that we

would want

to love

as you

love

and may

that spill

over into

all of our

neighbors

including

our enemies

help us

to love

this world

to love

the people

around us

as you

love them

thank you

for giving us

your spirit

who applies

your word

to our lives

so that we

are empowered

as your

children

because we

have your

spirit

to love

like you

love

please help us

to do this

in Jesus

name

amen