Overcoming Evil by the Gospel

The scripture reading comes from Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Please follow along on the screen, the bulletin, or your own Bible.

Starting in verse 1, we read,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,

that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Then in verse 14, we read,

Bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God,

for it is written,

Vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord.

To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink,

for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is the word of God.

Thank you, Celeste.

Well, good morning once again.

It was good to meet some of you, maybe for the first time,

and some that haven't been back at Watermark for a while.

It's great to have you with us again this morning.

Now, we've been working through Romans chapter 12 for the last six weeks or so,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

and today is the last sermon in the series.

And next week we start a series called Gender, Sex, Relationships, and God.

And we're going to be looking at all things in that category for four or five weeks.

But today is our last series in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And one of the things that Romans 12 has been teaching us and showing us

is that the gospel is not just something that should be theoretical.

It actually has real implications for our lives.

One of the charges that I constantly hear and we constantly hear against Christianity

is that sometimes people feel like Christianity, for all that it says and promises,

doesn't seem to make that much difference in people's lives.

I mean, what difference does Jesus really make?

Maybe you're here this morning and you're not a Christian.

Maybe you're still on a spiritual journey.

Maybe that's one of your questions.

You think you look at those that claim to be followers of Jesus,

you look at those that aren't Christians,

and you say, I don't see any difference in their lives.

Their lives look the same.

What difference does Jesus and the gospel actually make

to the nitty-gritty realities of our lives?

And one of the things that Romans 12 has been showing us

is that the gospel has radical implications for the way that we live our lives.

And today, the passage is going to talk to us about how the central thesis of Christianity,

that Jesus Christ came to earth in order to die for people like us,

how that central thesis has real traction and relevance

to some of the most painful and intimate and nitty-gritty areas of our lives.

And that is how the gospel speaks to the areas of our lives

when people treat us less than we'd want to be treated,

when people are cruel or mean towards us,

when people use and abuse us or sin against us.

And so the question that this passage asks us today is,

how do we respond in these situations?

All of us have encountered difficult people from time to time.

It could be a colleague that sabotages your deal in order to steal your client, right?

It could be your boss that just shouts vitriolic things at you

and tells you you're rubbish and you're useless and they threaten to fire you all the time.

It could be a neighbor or family member, a sibling, a parent that belittles you.

It could be a spouse.

But all of us have had these encounters, and how do we respond to such situations?

Well, I think there's a couple of natural responses, right?

The one way that we can respond is we respond like for like.

We respond in kind.

So someone slanders you and you think, you just wait, I'm going to get back at you, right?

Somebody curses you and you curse them back.

I remember a few years ago, I was reminded of this this week,

when I lived in South Africa, I'm ashamed to say I was a pastor at this stage,

and I had a colleague who I felt like he was pressurizing me into a corner,

kind of forcing my hand, and I was getting a bit agitated.

And remember, he sent me an email, and I can still picture where I was on Seapoint Main Road.

I wrote this email back.

I said, if you're going to play hardball with me, buddy, I'm going to play just as hard back to you.

And that's how our hearts often want to respond, right?

You like that to me?

Just wait until I get back at you.

That's a kind of very Western way of handling things.

Another way of handling things is we like to save face, right?

So we nod our heads and say, yes, yes, it's all okay, it's all okay.

But inside, we're seething with anger, right?

So we nod our heads, but inside, we're thinking, stuff you.

I'm going to find a way to let you know who's boss.

Well, I guess the third way is the way of passive-aggressive, right?

We just become experts in just that look or dropping that comment or just in the boardroom setting.

We just drop that very witty little line that lets everybody know how you feel without really attacking the person directly.

And so all these ways of responding.

Well, our passage today tells us that there's another way.

And it actually reveals to us the problem with all of these, and it shows us the beauty of another way.

And so look at what Paul says.

Let's read it again together.

Paul starts off, and remember, all this is under Romans 12, verse 1, where he says,

Romans 12:1

Appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, by the kindness of God,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, in other words, all of life, holy and acceptable, pleasing to God.

This is your spiritual act of worship.

And then he says, remember, don't be conformed to the ways of this world,

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, by thinking new thoughts along the lines of the gospel.

Be transformed.

And then look at what he says in verse 14.

He says, bless those that persecute you.

Bless them and do not curse them.

Verse 17, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all men.

Verse 19, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but on the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he's thirsty, give him something to drink.

Paul hits us in the face, in the solar plexus, with this radical, shocking, counter-cultural, counter-intuitive idea.

Paul's saying that contrary to the way we want to handle these kind of situations, there's another way.

And it's not what comes to any of us naturally, but it is the way of Christ and it's the way of the gospel.

Now, in the Bible, to bless somebody doesn't just mean to pat them on the back and say, bless you, brother, or say good morning to someone.

In the scripture, to bless somebody is to invoke God's favor and blessing upon them.

It's to go before God in prayer on behalf of that person.

To pray for God to rain down his favor and his blessing upon them.

And that's what Paul says we should do.

Which is exactly, actually, if you remember, what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5, Jesus says,

And that's what Paul says here.

He says,

And in verse 15, he actually goes further.

And look at what he says in verse 15.

He says,

Martin O'Jones points out,

It's easy to weep with those who weep.

Anyone that's got an ounce of compassion in their hearts.

You hear of somebody that's suffering and you can extend some compassion to them.

But to rejoice at somebody else's success, that takes a unique kind of humility.

But remember the context here.

The verse before says,

Bless those that curse you.

Paul's not just talking about your family member or your friend.

He's talking about the colleague that's out to get you.

When hardship falls upon them, find some way to sympathize with the person that's out to curse you.

When the colleague that's out to sabotage your deal, when they get promotion,

find some way in your hearts to even be glad and rejoice with them.

Oh my goodness.

Are you serious, Paul?

Well, look at the final verse with me.

Look at verse 21.

Verse 21 gives us a kind of summary statement of Paul's thinking.

He says,

Do not be overcome by evil,

but rather overcome evil with good.

When all this is going on,

when you're being cursed and persecuted,

when you're being sidelined and maligned,

when others are fighting with you,

when you're being unfairly treated and belittled,

don't be overcome by evil,

but find a way to overcome evil with good.

Now, the word overcome here is actually a military word.

It's a word that's used for the army,

and it's in the context of when a battle is raging,

the one that overcomes is obviously the victim,

the one that wins the battle.

And what Paul is saying here is that much of the Christian life is actually a battle.

There's a battle that's going on in the Christian life.

But the battle, Paul says,

is not between myself and my colleague,

or myself and my family member.

There's another kind of battle that's going on.

The battle that Paul is talking about

is not played out in the corridors of the workplace or the boardroom.

It's played out in the contours of my own heart.

You see that?

And he's saying there's this battle,

and whatever happens,

make sure that you win this battle.

In Genesis 4, God says the same thing.

You might remember,

it's a beautiful poetic language.

Cain and Abel,

the two sons of Adam and Eve,

and Cain is angry with his brother.

He's jealous of his brother,

and he's angry with him.

And he's seething in his heart.

And God comes to him and says,

Cain,

sin is crouching at the door,

and its desire is to overcome you,

is for you.

But you must rule over it.

He talks about sin as being this kind of crouching tiger

that's just outside the door,

and it's waiting for you to drop your guard.

It's licking its lips,

and it's waiting to eat your life.

But he says,

but Cain,

there's a way for you to be victorious

over this thing.

Don't let it rule over you.

You must rule over it.

And that's the same thing that Paul says here.

Don't be overcome by evil.

Make sure that you overcome evil.

What Paul is telling us here

is that it's possible

to win the argument,

or to win the kind of tussle with your colleague,

and yet lose the battle.

It's possible that you think you've won the battle

because you get back at them,

and then you put that person in their place,

but actually,

you've lost the battle for your soul

because you've become overcome by evil in the process.

It's kind of like,

I'm sure many of us know this,

if you have a disagreement with your spouse, right,

and you and your spouse are,

there's some argument that's going on,

and let's say you are a lawyer,

and you've got the gift of the gab,

and you know how to argue,

and you can argue your case,

and you can out-argue your spouse,

and you argue them into a corner,

and you put them in their place,

and you make them feel like it's all their fault,

and you're the innocent victim,

and you get them to pretty much,

you argue them into a corner.

What's happened?

You've won the argument,

but you've lost the relationship, right?

You might have won the argument,

but actually, you've lost.

The way to win marital conflict

is when you both come to the place

where you say,

hey, this sucks.

I'm sorry.

No, no, I'm sorry.

Hey, let's reconcile.

That's what winning looks like,

and that's the problem

with the whole victim mentality of our day.

When we feel victimized,

when we feel like somebody else's evil

entitles me to either act evilly,

or to think evil thoughts in my mind,

and think I'm justified because of their evil.

But what happens is that

we let evil win in the end.

And as we all know,

evil only begets more evil.

Wickedness only gives birth to more wickedness.

And so Paul's contention here

is that the gospel gives us another way.

It's a way that not only allows us

to not be overcome by evil,

but actually to overcome it.

And that is, he says,

to pray for,

to bless,

to serve,

to find a way

to extend good

to those that do wrong to us.

Now, there are hundreds of stories of this,

and I heard one story this week,

and it's a very old story,

but it captures it so well.

One of my heroes

is a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon.

He lived 150 years ago.

He was this preacher in London

in the late 19th century.

And he tells a story of,

he led this wonderful church,

but he also oversaw many organizations,

orphanages,

and many, many charities.

And there was,

one of the organizations he was leading,

there was a decision that he made,

and there was another person

that was convinced

it was the wrong decision.

And Spurgeon said,

okay, I hear you out,

but I'm still going to go with my decision.

And this man was angry and furious.

He said, you can't do that.

That's wrong of you,

and was very angry with him.

And so this man said,

if you go ahead with your decision,

I'm going to write a pamphlet,

I'm going to get it printed,

and I'm going to expose you.

I'm going to distribute it all over London

so that everyone will know what you're like.

That's like the ancient version

of writing a blog post.

They didn't have blogs in those days.

So he said,

I'm going to write this thing,

I'm going to expose you,

and everyone's going to know about it.

And Spurgeon says,

really?

He says,

that's going to cost you a lot of money.

You really want to pay for the printing

and then pay for someone to distribute it?

And then he said,

I don't care what it costs,

I'm going to do it.

So Spurgeon said,

I'll tell you what,

I'll pay for the printing.

And then he said,

and if the story becomes a sensation

and you're able to sell it,

sell it to newspapers

and make some money from it,

you keep all the profit.

And Spurgeon ends the story saying like this,

he says,

I never heard any more about that pamphlet,

and that man is now

an exceedingly good friend of mine,

and I hope he always will remain so.

You see what happened?

It wasn't just that he got his way

and the pamphlet died,

you know,

fell in the wayside.

That's one part of the story.

But actually,

it wasn't just that he wasn't overcome.

He overcame this

and was able to establish reconciliation.

The man who was once his enemy

actually became his friend.

To repay evil with evil,

whether in thought or in action,

is actually to be overcome by evil.

But on the other hand,

to repay evil with good

is to overcome it

and to defeat it.

Now,

in this passage,

Paul's going to give us

a couple of other reasons

why this is good.

And so let's look at those reasons.

I want to give us three reasons,

extra motivations,

for why this is the way

of the Christian.

If you follow Jesus this morning,

why God calls us

this radical,

counterintuitive,

countercultural way of life.

And the first reason is this.

Because God alone

is supremely faithful

and perfectly just.

God alone is supremely faithful

and perfectly just.

One of the reasons

why I think we are so tempted

when somebody belittles us

or maligns us

or treats us wrongly,

one of the reasons

why I think we're so tempted

to hit back at them

or to repay kind for kind

is because often we think

if I don't do it,

who's going to do it?

Right?

It's not like you can

call the police

when your colleague

sends you a nasty email.

Right?

It's like,

if I don't do something about it,

I'm just going to be trampled on.

Who's going to ever

put this thing right?

There's a sense of injustice

in our hearts

that feels like

this thing is not right

and somebody's got to

stand up for this.

But look at what Paul says

in verse 19

in our passage.

Paul says,

let's read it together.

He says,

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.

Now,

what does Paul mean here?

What's he saying?

Is Paul saying,

listen,

don't take matters

into your own hands

because you're just

small potato, right?

Leave it to God.

He'll bring in the big guns

and then he'll really

nuke the guy.

You know, right?

Is that what he's saying?

No,

that's not really

what Paul's saying.

What Paul is saying here

is he's saying

that when we take matters

into our own hands,

because we ourselves

are fallen

and we are finite,

we don't have

perfect perspective,

the chances are

we're going to just

perpetuate evil

as much as evil

has been done to us.

Because we don't have

perfect perspective,

we don't know

the whole story,

we're not perfectly just,

our own hearts

are deceptive

and broken and crooked,

chances are

that we're going to

do evil back

and then the cycle

just continues.

And Paul is saying

that we tend to

perpetuate evil

rather than

bringing about justice.

I think that's the point

of verse 16 and 17.

Look at what he says here.

He says,

don't be haughty.

In other words,

don't think of yourself

more highly than you ought to.

Never be wise

in your own sight.

The problem with pride

is that it blinds us

to who we really are.

It blinds us to reality

and it blinds us

to handling things well.

Miroslav Wulf says this.

He says,

forgiveness flounders,

in other words,

it doesn't flourish

because when I exclude

my enemy

from the community

of humans

and I exclude myself

from the community

of sinners.

See what he's saying there?

When there's somebody

that's out to get me,

I think of this person

as less than human

and I somehow

think of myself

as more than

everyone else.

I've got perfect perspective.

They're all sinners

but I know how to handle

the situation.

And Paul's contention here

is that there is one

who has perfect perspective.

There is one

who sees down deep

into the reality

of the human heart

and he sees perfectly.

And there is one

who is perfectly just.

And he is faithful.

And you can leave it

in his hands

and you can trust

that he will handle

it perfectly.

His justice

is never thwarted.

His justice

is never too harsh

or too soft.

God's justice

and God's mercy

are not mutually exclusive

but they are perfectly

married together.

When we take things

into our own hands,

we are sometimes

too harsh,

other times too soft.

But God knows

how to handle things

perfectly.

Friends,

when humanity

has tried to

play God,

it always ends

disastrously.

Let God be God.

Let you be you

and leave matters

in his hands.

Your life, friends,

is not in your hands.

Do you know that your life

is in God's hands?

Do you know, friends,

that there is not

a single door

that God wants to open

that anyone can shut.

And if God wants

to shut the door,

there is no one

that can open it.

Your life is in his hands.

Commit your ways

to the Lord.

He will look after

your steps.

And the problem is

when we try and take

things in our own hands,

we tend to mess it up.

Friends,

for those of us

that are parents,

can I urge us,

let's teach our children

this,

that their life

is not in their hands.

They don't need

to hustle their way

through life

to get to the top.

Those who get to the top

still don't necessarily win.

Jesus said,

you can own the whole world

and yet still lose

your soul.

So friends,

let's teach our children,

let's teach our own hearts.

There is a God in heaven.

He really does hear

the cry of every broken heart.

He really is supremely faithful.

He really is sovereignly majestic.

He really is perfectly just.

Okay?

So first reason,

God is supremely faithful

and he's perfectly just.

Second reason is this,

because blessing those who curse

is always,

or did not say always,

is usually redemptive.

Redemptive.

Look at verse 20 with me.

Verse 19,

Paul says,

beloved,

never avenge yourselves,

leave it to God.

Verse 20,

to the contrary,

if your enemy is hungry,

feed him.

If he's thirsty,

give him something to drink.

For by doing so,

you will heap burning coals

on his head.

Now here again,

we have the same situation.

What's going on here?

Is Paul saying,

listen,

you know,

when someone's unkind to you,

you be kind back to them

and you'll cause fire and brimstone

to fall out on them, right?

Fire,

thunder and lightning

to fall on the head

and to smite them dead.

No,

that's not what Paul is saying at all.

What he's saying here is that

when we respond with kindness to cruelty,

there should be some kind of,

the hope is that

that arrests the person

and causes them to sit up

and think,

what's going on here?

It should arrest their action

and cause them to stop doing

what they're doing

and to give thought to their actions.

If you ever have a burning coal on you

or an ember from a fire on you,

let's say you're barbecuing

and you stoke the fire

and the sparks fly

and embers fly out

and an ember lands on you,

you don't just carry on doing

what you're doing,

talking to your mate, right?

You quickly stop

and you stop doing what you're doing.

Paul is saying the same thing.

When we respond with kindness

to cruelty,

that should cause like a knife wound,

a stabbing,

to say,

hey,

what's going on here?

And to cause the person

to stop and reflect

and possibly to redeem the situation

or the relationship.

One of the greatest stories,

examples of this

is a fictional story,

but it's awesome.

I don't know if you guys know

the story of Les Miserables.

Anyone know that story?

If you don't know the story,

it's one of the greatest stories

in Western literature

the last 500 years,

written by Victor Hugo,

this French guy,

and set in,

I think,

17th or 18th century France.

And so the story of this guy

called Jean Valjean,

and he doesn't have

a whole lot of money,

and one day he steals

a loaf of bread,

and he's caught,

and he's sentenced

to 12 years in prison.

And he tries to escape

a few times,

so he delays it,

delays it,

eventually 19 years in prison

for stealing a loaf of bread.

And he's eventually

released from prison,

but he's branded

a criminal forever,

he's got to report

to his parole officer

all the time,

he can't get a job,

there's no jobs in France,

he can't find anything to eat,

and the whole system

is stacked against him.

And so life just goes

from bad to worse,

and eventually one day

he's sleeping on the street

outside of a church,

and he hasn't had

anything to eat in days,

his clothes are torn,

and the vicar of the church,

the priest,

sees him outside there,

and he says,

listen,

you can't sleep here,

come on inside.

And he gives him

some new clothes,

and he gives him

a hot warm meal,

first good meal

he's had in days,

and he gives him

a bed to sleep on,

and he says,

listen,

sleep here tonight,

and tomorrow

we'll fix you up

on your way.

And so he comes in,

and he's tatty,

and he's ragged,

but while he's eating

this meal,

his eyes fall

upon all the silverware

in the dining room

of the church house,

right?

And all the cutlery

is this amazing

polished silver,

and he's thinking

to himself,

these guys have got

more money than I've

seen in my entire lifetime.

And so later that night,

the priest goes to bed,

the house is quiet,

and Jean Valjean,

and he gets up,

and he goes downstairs,

and he steals

all the silverware,

puts in his bag,

and he flees

into the night,

and he runs away.

But he doesn't get

very far

before he's found.

And some police officers

catch him,

and they see he's looking

a bit scraggy,

and they look inside

his bag,

and there's all

the silverware,

and I don't know

if it's stamped

with the church,

you know,

emblem or something,

and they realize

what's happened,

and so they take him

back to the church.

And so in the early

hours of the morning,

they knock on the church

door,

and they say,

Vicar,

look what we found,

this man with all

your silverware,

and he claims

that you gave it to him

as a gift,

but we've returned him

to you along

with your silver.

And the priest looks

at Jean Valjean,

and he says,

Jean Valjean,

what have you done?

He says,

you left these behind,

and he goes back

into the church,

and he gets these

two massive

silver candlesticks,

and he says,

here you are,

you left in such a hurry,

you must have forgotten,

I gave these to you

as well.

And he puts them

in his hands,

and he says

to the police officer,

release this man,

this is my gift to him.

And the officers

look at each other,

they don't know

what's going on,

they can't believe it,

they know what's going on,

but they can't believe it,

and they trunnel

from the dark,

and the priest

turns to Jean Valjean,

and he says this,

he says,

you must use the silver

to become an honest man.

God has raised you

out of darkness,

I have redeemed

your soul

for God.

And this act

of kindness

releases this firestorm

of an explosion

in Jean Valjean's heart.

He doesn't know

what to do,

he's this bitter,

angry,

scoundrel,

thieving man

who's hated the world,

and suddenly

this act of kindness

blows his world apart,

and it completely

transforms him,

and revolutionizes

his life

into a whole new man.

Listen to what he says,

this is from the play,

he says,

I had come to hate

the world,

this world

that always hated me,

take an eye for an eye,

turn your heart

into stone,

that's all I've ever lived for,

that's all I've ever known,

and one word

from that man,

the priest,

and I would have been back,

beneath the lash,

my hands upon the rack,

instead,

he's offered me

my freedom,

I feel my shame

inside me

like a knife,

he's talking about

the coals on his head,

right,

and he goes on to say,

Jean Valjean is dead,

a new life

has been born,

and if you know

the rest of the story,

Jean Valjean

is a new man,

he spends the rest

of his life,

rather than bitter

and angry

and hating the world,

he spends the rest

of his life

pouring himself out

for the marginalized

and the poor

and the vulnerable

and those that cannot

look after themselves,

and that's what

Paul's saying here,

Paul's saying that

if we will allow

the gospel

to soak into our hearts

and to transform us

and to humble us

of our pride

that wants to get back,

if we allow the gospel

to so transform us,

not only will we

possibly win back

our enemy,

it'll change us

from the inside out

and it'll change those

that malign us

and belittle us

and curse us.

Friends,

the gospel,

this gospel power

is redemptive,

it changes people's lives.

But there's another reason,

a far more profound reason

why Christians

are called to live lives

of radical generosity

and grace.

And if you've been

part of Watermark,

I think you'll know why.

And the reason is

because this is how

God in Christ

has treated us.

Friends,

remember the night

before Jesus dies,

where is he?

He's celebrating

the Passover meal

and the Passover meal

is the greatest celebration

in Israel, right?

It's like the family

reunion meal

at Lunar New Year.

People travel

from miles away,

they come

and they celebrate

and they're at

this Passover meal

and who's there with him?

His disciples,

including Judas Iscariot

and Jesus knows

that Judas is there,

right?

He says,

one of you is going

to betray me.

But Jesus celebrates

with his disciples

and at one point,

Judas sneaks off

from the meal

and while Judas is there,

he's busy plotting

and scheming

how he can betray Jesus

and he goes off,

he sneaks off at one point

and goes down to the temple

and goes to religious leaders

and he says,

listen,

I'll sell him to you

for 30 silver coins.

They make a deal,

shake hands on it,

it's a deal.

And Judas says,

listen,

later tonight

he's going to go

to the Mount of Olives

and to Gethsemane

and go arrest him there.

So they make this deal,

he hands over the coins.

Later that night,

Jesus goes with his disciples

to the Mount of Olives

and he goes to Gethsemane

and he's praying there.

And Jesus' heart

is in agony.

He's in agony

because he knows

in a few hours' time

he's going to be arrested.

He knows that he's going

to be put through

a sham trial.

He knows he's going

to be beaten

and mocked

and scorned

and spat upon.

But more than that,

Jesus knows

that the entire weight

of God's wrath

for the sins

of those who will come

to trust in him

is going to be poured

out upon him.

Jesus is in such agony

that the blood cells

or whatever it is,

under his skin,

burst,

and he literally

starts to perspire blood.

The agony of his soul

as he anticipates

the cross.

And while Jesus is there

and he's on his knees

and he's crying out

to his Father

in prayer,

over the hill

he hears

this sound,

this clanging

of clubs

and swords

and shields.

And he hears

this rumbling noise

and he sees lights

coming over the hill

and there's a mob

coming his way.

And there at the front

of the mob

is Judas.

And Judas walks up

to him

and he gives him

a kiss on the cheek

and he says,

greetings, Rabbi.

And the word for greeting

is the word

be glad, rejoice.

It's like Judas is saying,

it's good to see you,

my Rabbi.

And Jesus looks him

in the eye

and he says,

friend,

do what you've come to do.

Friend,

do what you've come to do.

And Peter

quickly realizes

what's happening.

Peter grabs his sword

and he starts lashing out

and he cuts off

the ear

of one of the soldiers.

And Jesus says,

Peter,

put your sword away.

And he reaches out

and he puts his hand

on the ear

of the man

who has just been

slashed with the sword

and he instantly

heals him.

And they drag Jesus

off down the hill,

down into Jerusalem

and they take him

to that house

of the high priest.

And there in his house,

they are accusing him

of things

and bringing up accusations

and they're spitting on him

and they're pointing

their finger

and they're bringing up

all these things

and the high priest says,

this man is guilty.

And they say,

we've got to take him

to Pilate.

And so in the morning light,

they take him to Pilate

and they say,

Pilate,

this man is causing

an insurrection.

He's causing a riot here.

He says that he is king,

not you,

not Caesar.

He's causing trouble here

and he's causing insurrection.

Pilate,

you've got to deal

with this man

and they bring in

some false witnesses

and they lie

and they tell their story.

And Pilate is caught up

in this

because he knows

that Jesus is innocent

but his job

is on the line.

If he lets Jesus go,

then Caesar's going

to come down on him.

And so Pilate

wants to let him go

but he doesn't want

to lose his job

and so he says,

Pilate says,

well,

well,

what must I do

with him?

Well,

what should I do

with this man

called Jesus?

And they say,

crucify him.

Pilate says,

crucify him?

What has he done?

And they don't even

answer his question.

They just say,

crucify him.

And so Pilate realizes

it's either my job,

my head,

or this man.

So he washes his hands

and he says,

okay, fine,

take him away

and crucify him.

And they take Jesus

into barracks

and they beat him

and they whip him

bits of bone

on the end of the whip.

They rip his flesh

that you cannot even

recognize.

It's a human body.

And all the while

that this is going on,

Jesus is thinking,

I'm doing this for you.

The very people

that are doing this,

I'm doing this for you.

And eventually

they get him up

to Calvary.

They lay the cross

on the floor.

They lay him down.

They tie his hands.

They smash these nails

through his hands.

He's nailed to the cross.

They hoist up the cross

and while they're there,

they're laughing at him.

The soldiers are

bringing out some dice

and they gamble

for his clothing.

The passers by

are mocking him,

saying,

what an idiot,

what a scumbag.

He said he could save people.

Look at him now.

And the two criminals

on either side of him

are mocking him

and laughing at him.

And while this is going on,

Jesus is suffocating

because he cannot breathe

and he finds some air

and he cries out,

Father, forgive them.

They know not what they're doing.

Friends, after all that,

Jesus cries out,

Father, forgive them.

And Romans chapter 5

Romans 5 · chapter mention

says this,

while we were still weak,

in other words,

trapped in sin,

Christ died for the ungodly.

Scarcely will anyone

die for a righteous man,

perhaps for a very good man,

someone might be willing to.

But God shows his love for us

that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

While we were his enemies,

we were reconciled to God

through the death of his son.

Friends, the natural state

of every human heart,

no matter what your nationality

or your culture

or your background,

the natural state

of every human heart

is that we are self-seeking

and self-serving.

And that means

that we always tend

towards enmity with others,

but not only that,

enmity with God.

The God who made us

and loved us,

who breathed his life into us,

that we might know him,

our hearts by nature

are at enmity with him.

We want to be our own king.

We want to be our own God.

And friends,

if you and I were in the crowd

on that fateful day,

the chances are

we would be shouting,

crucify him.

We would be throwing

our fists of rage as well.

Say, do away with this man.

And Jesus doesn't repay us with good

because we were good to him.

Jesus doesn't look at our hearts

and say, oh, you know,

they love me so much,

I guess I'll be good to him.

While we were his enemies,

while we were sinners,

while we were throwing our fists

at Christ and rebelling against him,

Jesus went to the cross,

allowed himself to be nailed there

for you and for me

and for the brokenness of this world.

Friends, are you a Christian this morning?

If you're a follower of Jesus,

you follow one who died for his enemies.

Friends, every one of us here this morning

that are followers of Jesus,

you're only a Christian

because Christ went to the cross

for his enemies.

Jesus laid down his life

for you and for I.

None of us would be Christians

if Christ had not loved his enemies to death.

Friends, are you not a Christian this morning?

Are you still on some kind of journey?

I want to tell you today

that Jesus literally loved you to death.

He went to the cross for you

and he drank to the very bottom

the cup of God's wrath

that you wouldn't have to.

And if you don't ever come to Jesus,

you will die in your sin

and you will face judgment.

But if you come to him

and surrender your life,

if you hand over your life to him,

Jesus takes that judgment

that we deserve upon himself.

Friends, if you come and surrender to him,

you'll find that Jesus will overcome

the evil in your heart

and Jesus will transform you.

And the radical thing is

he'll make you an agent for good in this world.

Friends, come to Jesus.

Don't go another day living your own way.

Don't go another day being your own king and master.

Come and surrender and bow down to King Jesus,

the one who is Lord of all,

but the one who loved you to death.

Friends, what difference does Christianity

and the gospel make?

What difference does Jesus actually make

in anyone's life?

He makes every difference in every way.

If only we'll come to him

and allow his gospel to wash our hearts

and to transform us from the inside out.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus Christ, sovereign God,

awesome Father,

tender and gracious Holy Spirit.

Father, when we read these words

throughout the New Testament,

Jesus, your words,

and the Apostle Paul's words,

and others,

God, our natural inclination is to say,

how can that be?

It's impossible.

How can anybody respond to evil with good?

But Jesus, when we contemplate

your profound love for us,

your profound goodness to us,

God, we see a glimpse of hope.

We see a glimmer of possibility

that, God, you really can change us

from the inside out

and that we really can experience

heaven on earth.

God, I want to pray,

won't you make us this kind of community,

won't you make us this kind of church, Lord?

Won't you so get the gospel in our hearts

that we become those

that live like you

and act like you

and think like you

and behave like you.

And Father, I want to pray,

especially for those of us maybe that,

for whom this isn't just

a theoretical idea,

that are really in the reality of this,

that there's relational tension,

there's hardship,

there's those that are treating us

cruelly and wrongly.

God, won't you help us, I pray.

Won't you give us grace.

Won't you help us to take

the one first step on the journey.

We pray this in your wonderful

and your gracious name.

Amen.