Sermon on the Mount: Love Your Enemies - Matthew 5:43-48, Pastor Daniel Reese

If you have your Bibles will be in Matthew chapter

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

5 this morning. The plan is to finish chapter

5 and move on to chapter 6 next week. I would

always encourage you If you have a Bible available

to grab it and follow along as we do this, pull

out your phone, follow as we read God's Word

together, take notes as you feel led, as the

Lord reveals things to you. I've found in my

own personal life that the more you do that,

if you do that consistently, you will soon begin

to understand and you will soon begin to believe

what the Bible says about itself, that it is

living and active. that as you read these passages

over and over again he will continue to reveal

things to you. So please follow along as we read

here in just a minute. There were once two men

who went to a small rural church and they got

into a terrible dispute that they could not seem

to resolve on their own. It just kept going on

and on and on and it was affecting their lives

a great amount. So they decided to talk to who

they considered was the wisest man in the church.

The first man went to the old wise man's house

one night, and he told his version of the story.

He told everything that had happened. And when

he had finished, the wise man looked at him and

said, you are absolutely right. The next night,

the second man came and told his side of the

story about his experience with the situation.

The old man responded by looking at him and saying,

you're absolutely right. After the second man

left, the old man's wife scolded her husband.

She says, those men told you two different stories,

and you told them both that they were absolutely

right. That's impossible. You can't have two

different stories and they can't possibly both

be absolutely right. The old man turned to his

wife, looked deep in her eyes and said, you're

absolutely right. That old man was wiser than

maybe any of us believe. He knew that there are

rarely any winners when it comes to human conflict.

There were probably elements of right and wrong

on both accounts, but neither of them would have

ever been convinced of their own wrongdoing.

So there's no point in entering into the fray.

So why is it that we are so prone to conflict?

We all deal with it in almost every area of our

lives. We have conflict in our homes. We have

conflict at school. We have conflict at work.

We humans just seem to have a knack for not getting

along and making enemies over sometimes stupid

things that we just can't let go of. I mean,

people will argue about anything. Pick your favorite

reality TV show. Doesn't matter which one. And

I would be willing to bet that if you picked

any reality TV show... and picked any episode

out of that series that you would find a segment

in that episode where people are just fighting

about stupid things. And we love it. We eat that

stuff up. They will argue about anything. And

so with that in mind, I did some research. And

I did a quick search about stupid things that

people fight over. Here's some of my favorites.

The first one said that when I was 13 years old,

My parents got into an hour -long shouting match

and almost got divorced. The topic was whether

or not the nation of Iraq had a coastline. This

other one lost a friendship because they couldn't

agree on how their name was supposed to be spelled.

A woman quit her job because her boss made the

entire office watch a solar eclipse on TV. She

claimed it was unsafe to make them do that. You

can't be staring directly at the sun. This last

one was a couple that got into a shouting match

over which friend's wedding they would attend

if they both happened to be on the same day.

The problem was that neither couple was engaged

at the time. Now each of us handles conflict

differently. Some take it head on, while others

like to put as much distance as they can. But

I think all of us, if we are pushed hard enough,

every one of us will come out swinging. The problem

is that's the attitude of the world coming out

in us. As followers of Christ, we have to remember

that we are not of this world, that we have a

higher standard that Jesus calls us to live by.

And so today we're going to look at some of the

words from Jesus to understand his teachings

on dealing with conflict and dealing with our

personal enemies. So this morning I'm going to,

we're going to finish chapter five by reading

verses 43 through 48. I'm going to invite Rachel

up here to come read our passage this morning.

I told the first service, let's see if she'll

do it now. Rachel's an amazing singer, if you

didn't know that. And I've asked her to sing

the passage today. No, still not. If you would

stand as we honor the Lord's word together. You

have heard that 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, so that you may be sons of your father who

is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the

evil and on the good and sends rain on the just

and on the unjust. For if you love those who

love you, what reward do you have? 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?

You therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly

Father is perfect. Amen. Let's pray. Father,

thank you for Rachel. Thank you for just the

gifts that you've given her and how you're using

her. And we just thank you for her willingness

to read your word in this place. We pray right

now, Father, that you will send your Holy Spirit

to enlighten this text to us, that we will walk

out of here with a better understanding of how

we can live like you. So I pray you bless us.

We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks, Rachel. Now, as per usual, if we look

at the first verse of this passage, we see Jesus

recognizing what has been taught, and he's about

to address the issue that he's about to correct.

He starts off by saying, you have heard that

it was said, you shall love your neighbor and

hate your enemy. So he's addressing what has

been taught. That's the rabbinic tradition of

Jesus' day. That's what the religious people,

the religious leaders were teaching the people

of Israel. This is what they are teaching, that

they encourage the people of Israel to love their

neighbor and hate their enemy. But of course,

their definition of neighbor was very narrow.

It left out anybody that wasn't a Jew. And for

the scribes and Pharisees, it left out almost

all people that were just common people. So that

narrowed things down pretty small when you're

considering who your neighbor is. A neighbor

in their definition was somebody that agreed

with them. A neighbor was someone who acted like

them. Their neighbor was somebody who had the

same standards as they had. What's really interesting

about this particular text that Jesus is addressing

is how they perverted the Old Testament teaching

in Leviticus chapter 19. In verse 18, the Bible

Leviticus 19 · chapter mention

reads that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

That command is repeated throughout the scripture.

But look at what the scribes and the Pharisees

have done. First of all, they've left something

out, right? That part that says as yourself That

must have sounded absurd to them These were the

staunchest religious people who there's no way

they could comprehend loving somebody else as

much as they love themselves They were the standard

that everybody else needed to get to they had

this religious Supremacy, and so they couldn't

fathom what it meant To love somebody as much

as you love yourself. So they just let that little

part out. Let's just ignore that part. But look

what else they did. They added something. They

didn't just leave something off. They added something

to God's teaching. They added that little phrase,

hate your enemy. That goes against everything.

In the heart of God, in the word of God. In Proverbs

25, it reads, if your enemy is hungry, give him

something to eat. If he is thirsty, give him

some water to drink. Nowhere in the Bible does

God tell us to hate anybody, including our enemy.

So the rabbis, they tinkered around with God's

teaching and came up with an alternative standard

that just suited them better, that made it easier

to live a righteous life in their mind. They

found it much easier and much more satisfying

to love the people they were closest to, to love

the people they agreed with, to love the people

that had the same standards, and hate basically

everybody else. Love your neighbor, hate your

enemy. In the Jewish mindset, hate was easier

than love. I think we can all relate to that.

When we have those moments when we're in our

flesh, I think we can relate to that. Hating

is easier. Avoiding it is easier. It just works.

There was a definition of friendships and relationships

that left itself wide open to conflict and problems.

And when you think about it, their standard of

relationship sounds a lot like that of the world

today, does it not? Is that not the same standard

that we are taught in our world today? Love your

friends and hate your enemies. Love this group

of people and avoid everybody else. Love the

Republicans, hate the Democrats. Love the Democrats,

hate the Republicans. I mean, that's the world

we live in. And sadly, so many Christians have

bought into that philosophy. Just like everybody

else, we love as followers to make enemies. We

like to go on the attack. Why sometimes we even

turn on each other and attack each other in the

church. Fighting and making enemies over misunderstandings

and fighting and making enemies over selfish

issues. Thank goodness. that we have Jesus. Thank

goodness that he comes and gets into the fray

here. He laid out the teaching of the rabbis,

the teaching that the disciples had heard so

many times, that they have heard since they were

growing up as little boys, this teaching of love

your neighbor, hate your enemy. So he does that,

but he follows it up with these four incredible

words as he's done several times throughout this

passage. But I tell you. This is what you've

been taught. This is what you've been taught

to believe. This is your understanding, but that's

wrong. So let me tell you he's telling his followers

to Forget what they have been taught forget how

you naturally feel when it comes to your enemies.

I Mean, how hard is that? You know our human

tendency is to base our love on the desirability

of the object of our love We love beautiful people

We love fun hobbies. We love sports. We love

pretty houses. We like sporty cars. Things that

appeal to our sight, we're all for. We're all

for those things. Love in our culture is so superficial.

It's based merely on an attitude or a feeling.

But real love isn't based on what it says or

how it looks. Real love is based on what it...

does. Real love is based on the action that it

takes. That isn't how we view love in our culture.

We use the word love for all kinds of things.

I love my wife, and I love my dog. Very different

types of love. I love my children, and I love

a good steak. But those things are very different.

That word that Jesus uses when he tells us to

love our enemies is the word agape. Agape means

selfless love, sacrificial love. It's not an

emotion. It's not an attraction. It's not a wooing.

It's not a recognition of beauty. It is a decision

that we make in obedience to the Lord. It's not

easy. Let's not pretend that it is. It is incredibly

hard to be kind to people who are not kind to

you. What Jesus is saying is for us as followers

of Jesus to rise to the level where God has the

control of our lives that allows you to minister

in His name to all people. Jesus tells us to

love the bad guys, to love our enemies. Love

people with the same sacrificial love that God

has given to you, because even your enemies,

even those you don't agree with, even those who

have different standards, even those who think

differently than you, are still made in the image

of God. Now, this is a different culture. This

is a different context than what the Jews were

experiencing in this moment when Jesus was teaching.

Their enemies, if you remember, were the Romans.

The Romans were oppressing them. The Romans could

force them to carry all their gear for a mile.

That's when Jesus comes in and says, not only

do you carry it a mile, you carry it two miles.

Not just what was required by law, but you go

above and beyond. That is who their enemies are.

That is the context in which they're living.

We live in Iowa. Conditions are much different,

are they not? Culture is much different. And

so when Jesus is telling us to love our enemies,

it was much more difficult for the disciples

who were hearing it for the first time. So, if

the expectation is on them to love their enemies

in that context, in that culture, in those conditions,

the same is expected of us today. But not only

does he tell us to love our enemies, he tells

us to pray for those who persecute us. I hope

you see the genius of this command. It's hard

to hate someone you're praying for. Now, understand

that Jesus is telling us to pray good prayers

for those who persecute us. He's not talking

about praying that God would knock someone down.

He's not talking about praying that God would

send something tragic into their lives to get

their attention. Jesus is talking about genuinely.

going to God on behalf of the people who persecute

you. Pray for those that lie about you. Pray

for those that betray you. Pray for those people

that hurt you. Pray for those people who make

your life miserable. And I can honestly tell

you that this has worked so many times in my

life. I've been persecuted, I've been talked

about, I've been lied about, and despite my natural

inclination to strike back, I have prayed for

the people who have persecuted me. And it has

made all the difference in the world for me.

Charles Spurgeon once said that prayer is the

forerunner of mercy. Prayer is the forerunner

of mercy. And he was absolutely right. It's hard

to hate when you pray for someone your prayer

enables God To turn your hate into love not not

worldly love not oh I can I can be in the same

room as them type of love but Christian love

it becomes love that does something love that

lets things go a love that forgives a love that

reaches back and offers an act of kindness in

response to an act of hate. Love the bad guys

in your life. Jesus continues in verse 45. He

says, so that you may be sons of your father

who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on

the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on

the just and on the unjust. For if you love those

who love you, what reward do you have? 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? Jesus just keeps pouring it on here. Just

keeps pouring it on. First we need to love our

enemies. Then we need to pray for our enemies.

And here he continues to develop this contrast

between the actions of a godly person and the

actions of an ungodly person. Anybody can hate.

Anybody can be bitter. Anybody can lash out and

attack. The world does that. But as sons, as

children of the Father, we need to remember the

heart of God. He loves us all. He causes the

sun to rise over all of us, both the good and

the evil. He sends rain to the righteous and

the unrighteous. God loves us without condition.

And he's calling us to do the same. So a life

of self -giving love, a life of love without

retaliation, brings honor and glory to God. It

sets us apart from the rest of the world. It

makes a statement to the world when they see

how we love people and see how we handle conflict.

It's a statement to the world that says we follow

God, that we love Jesus. that God is our Father.

And so our response should be, no matter how

you treat me, no matter what you say about me,

no matter how miserable you make me, I'm going

to love you anyway. Jesus tells us in this text,

he says, don't be basic. We need to exceed the

expectations of the world. Now you need to understand

who was listening to this. It was the disciples,

but the scribes and the Pharisees were there.

And if they were certain of anything else in

the world, it was the fact that they were better

than anybody else they knew. They walked around

in an arrogance that we can only imagine. But

look at what Jesus tells them. He says, you are

no better than the tax collectors. You're no

better than the pagans. You're no better than

the sinners. They love their friends. How in

the world are you any different than them? Jesus

made sure they understood that their standards

of relationships and behavior were no better

than those of the lowliest sinners, their worst

and most hated enemies. So what does that mean

to us? It means that we cannot just blend in.

We have to be different. We have to stand out

against the standard of the world when it comes

to our relationships and when it comes to conflict

as Followers of Jesus Christ. We have to love

our enemies We have to pray for our enemies And

show that we follow Jesus that there's something

different about us That's what he expects of

us That is the witness that we must have in the

world Now to be basic according to my daughter

and probably every other teenager here Means

to look the same to act the same to blend in

to go with a majority and Jesus is telling his

disciples to be different If you have conflict

at work rise above it and don't join in If you're

having difficulty in your marriage, be different.

Don't throw on the towel because everybody else

is. Don't just continue to live in misery like

everybody else does. We are called to be different.

We are called to a higher standard. We are called

to love our enemies. And just real honest with

you, sometimes our enemies are our spouses. Sometimes

our enemies are our children. Sometimes our enemies

are other people in the church. But we are called

to love them in those seasons and in those moments

with a sacrificial selfless love. A love that

doesn't expect the love to be returned. A love

that just does it because that is what we are

called to do. The difference between us as followers

and the rest of the world is that we as followers

of Christ, we have the Spirit of God living in

all of us. True love only takes place in the

spiritual realm. True love can only manifest

itself in the spirit. Ephesians 2 tells us that

we were dead in our trespasses and sins. That

we were following the course of the world. But

God made us alive in Christ and saved us. If

you are not a Christian, If you have not surrendered

your life to Him, you are spiritually dead. Your

body is alive, but spiritually you are dead.

And if you are spiritually dead, then you are

not capable of having agape love. You may love

physically, you may love emotionally and mentally,

but you cannot do it spiritually. Until the Spirit

of God saves you. Until the Spirit of God redeems

you and makes you alive in Him, this type of

love will be impossible. Because without the

Lord's help, it's too difficult. It's too hard

to love people we don't like. It's too hard to

love our enemies. That is why Jesus challenges

us in the last verse to be perfect as God is

perfect. Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is

perfect. This is the sum of all that Jesus teaches

in the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, it is the

total of all that He teaches in the Scripture.

The purpose of salvation, the goal of God's gospel,

the great yearning of the heart of God is that

we all seek to be like Him. Where to be like

the goat? Now, you can tell Adlai helped me with

my notes this week. Now, when it comes to basketball,

we can argue about whether or not Michael Jordan

or LeBron James is the greatest of all time.

When it comes to boy bands, we can make the argument

that NSYNC is the greatest of all time. When

it comes to fine cuisine some will argue that

tofu is the greatest of all time And the reality

is you and I could sit in this room for the rest

of the day and argue about each and every one

of those Every single one of those is debatable,

but when it comes to love there is absolutely

no argument God, the Father, Son, and Spirit

is the greatest of all time. We are instructed

to be perfect, just like our Father in heaven

is perfect. But that is absolutely impossible

in our own power. The Bible tells us in Matthew

19, with God, all things are possible. You see,

as we yield of ourselves, as we submit our will,

and our desires to the will of God, He enables

us to be like Him. He enables us to love our

enemies. He enables us to pray for those who

persecute us. He enables us to live lives that

reflect the relationship that we have with Christ

and to exceed the expectations for behavior that

exists in a dark and lost world. He enables us

to grow and become more and more like Him. We

can't do it on our own. But with God, all things

are possible. Surviving conflict with our fellow

man is never easy. We cannot do it on our own.

God has given us specific instruction on how

we must relate to and act towards others. The

question is, for all of us, will we lay ourselves

and our own will down? Will we throw down our

weapons of retaliation and do what Jesus has

taught us to do? Now in 1567 the Duke of Alba,

probably saying that wrong, was ruling the lower

part of Spain. He was a bitter enemy towards

Christians and he formed what became known as

the Council of Blood. And the Council of Blood

ordered the slaughter of thousands of Protestants.

These Protestants were accused of rebellion.

They were accused of heresy, of going against

the church and the government. Thousands and

thousands of Christians were slaughtered. One

man who was sentenced to die for his biblical

faith managed to escape in the dead of winter.

He was being chased by a lone soldier and he

came to a lake that was just covered in a thin

sheet of ice. He had nowhere else to go. He somehow

managed to get across, but as soon as he got

to the other side of the lake, he heard the soldier

screaming. The man had fallen through the ice

and was going to drown. So at the risk of being

captured, at the risk of being tortured or even

killed, or potentially even drowning himself

in the cracked ice, the man went back across

the lake and saved his enemy. He did it because

of the love he had for Christ. He knew that as

a follower of Jesus, he had no other choice if

he was going to remain faithful to the Lord.

Now we could go, I could tell you countless stories.

Countless stories very similar to that that show

what it means to really love our enemies. You

and I are called to love our enemies like we

love ourselves. If you were on the verge of death

by falling into a lake through a thin sheet of

ice, how would you have wanted that man to respond?

Let you sink down until all of your breath was

gone? Or would you want him to rescue you? Now

I don't know how that story ends. I don't know

if the soldier killed him anyway. But I would

guess that soldier had a different attitude about

that Christian than he did before he was chasing

him. I'd be willing to bet that love changed

things in that situation. How do you want to

be treated? How do you want to be loved? How

do you want to be talked about? Jesus is saying,

whatever the answer is, do that to others. Do

that to others who you don't like. Do that to

others that have hurt your feelings. Do that

to others that you disagree with. We are called

to live different than the rest of the world.

And the hard part, the hard part for us as Christians,

if you're a believer here, the hard part is is

as Christians we know this. Like this is not

an unfamiliar text to most of us, right? We know

this. But we don't follow the Lord's commands

when it comes to doing it. We look just like

the rest of the world. We gossip just like everyone

else in the world. We don't pray like we should

for those we don't like. Divorce rates aren't

any much better inside the church than they are

outside the church. Conflict inside the church

is handled similar many times than the same way

it is outside the church. We argue over stupid

things that are really not going to matter in

the end. We need to be better and understand

that Jesus meant what He said in this text. So

how are we going to respond? I'm assuming that

when we're talking about enemies, we're not...

I don't think any of us are thinking about people

chasing us with a sword. I don't think any of

us are thinking about people that are making

us carry their stuff around for miles at a time.

Assuming that somebody's in your mind when we're

talking about our enemies. People that we don't

like. People that we disagree with. People that

have hurt our feelings. My encouragement to you

this morning is to follow the Lord's command.

How can you love them? Maybe spend a few minutes

this morning just praying for them. Not praying

that they get hit by a bus. but praying for God's

perfect will for their life. The song about the

worship team up here as they lead us in one more

song. And as we close our service this morning,

my prayer as always is that the Spirit of God

will convict us, challenge us, save us. that

will experience his closeness. Because the reality

is if we got this inside the church, if we like

really understood it and applied it, it would

change every aspect of every relationship that

we have. We truly would be a beacon of hope and

light in the world around us. So that's my prayer

for all of us. So as we sing, as we... you know,

respond however you feel led. But my hope is

that you will just pray. Pray for those who persecute

you. Ask God to reveal how you can love your

enemies well. That you will pursue perfection

when it comes to love just like our Heavenly

Father. And God will give us the ability to do

that. Let's pray. Father, I pray right now that

as we close our service, I pray, Father, that

you will just reveal to us those that we need

to pray for. those that we need to love. I pray

Father that you will bring conviction to our

life. Help us remember that we are your children

and we are called to a different standard, a

higher standard than those in the world around

us. And so, Father, we ask that Your Spirit to

just move in this place as we sing and as we

declare Your name is powerful. We pray, God,

that Your will be done in this place. In Jesus'

name, I pray. Amen.