Matthew pt. 12 - Oaths, Retaliation, and Love Your Enemies

So you're going to Matthew Chapter 5 next week.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

When I change it up on you, we're going to say Matthew

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Chapter 6, Matthew Chapter 5. I told you when we started this

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

series that this next year or however long it takes us to get

through, it's going to be powerful.

It's going to be impactful. It's going to be transformative.

A lot of times it's, it's exciting as a pastor when you're

studying the scriptures and you're saying I'm I'm fired up

for this, I'm fired up for that. And and then sometimes, you

know, you can kind of let people down.

She's like this next series is going to be the best one you've

ever heard or this next series is going to be the best one

you've ever heard. But I am, I am serious.

And I'm confident that as we continue to go through the word

of God, it is going to be life changing.

It's going to be transformative going through the scriptures.

You know, we do different kinds of sermons.

We do a lot of verse by verse teaching.

It's called expository preaching, is the the technical

name for it. There's also topical preaching.

There's different ways to approach the scriptures.

We've done both. So we did the Apostles Creed

series that was taking something that's not a verse by verse

analysis of Scripture, but we still use something to guide us.

We did that through the ecstatically married series as

well. We're still going to the

scriptures, but we're taking a topic and then zooming in on it.

But with this, we're going verse by verse through a book of the

Bible. This is good for multiple

reasons. This is good because it doesn't

allow a minister to skip over anything that maybe is difficult

or that maybe is challenging. It doesn't allow a church to

bypass something. I don't know what that means.

We're moving on. Well, we still, there still may

be some mystery around some passages.

We still may have some questions when we're finished, but we're

going to have more clarity. Also, it forces us to face

doctrinal things that may not be in perfect alignment with with

our perspective. We may say, hey, well, the other

camp uses that or the other denomination kind of this is

kind of their verse. So we always kind of avoid this.

We don't have to be afraid of any of the scriptures.

We love all of God's word. There's nothing in it to

apologize for. There's nothing in it to avoid.

They're the only things in it to enjoy.

There are rich treasures. So we come to the scriptures

hungry and thirsty. And of course, as we go through

the Gospel of Matthew we've continued to see who Matthew

was. And and now as he's walking us

through the life of Christ, Matthew is a great historian,

did a great job for us tracking all that.

But the book of Matthew we've already seen is wildly

practical. There's been much that we've

seen even in the genealogy of Jesus.

We saw how, man, what does this mean for us?

How's this practical for us? The same thing is going to

happen today. Jesus still speaking, still

going to continue to bring you clarity, bring you some very

specific things you're going to be able to apply today.

Some things are going to make a difference this afternoon.

Some things are going to change the way you live this week.

So yes, I'm excited for this series.

I'm excited for all of the Scripture, of course.

But I want you to have your hopes up.

I want you to have your expectation high.

The temptation, I think whenever when you do expository preaching

is sometimes people go, OK, like there's not a new angle, there's

not a new exciting pitch, you know, like this week, Hey

everybody, here's the title. I don't have an incredible title

for you, but we do have an incredible word of God.

So you can get your hopes up there and have great

expectation. We're in Matthew 5.

We're going to read from verse 33, and we're going to read

through the end of the chapter. Jesus is still going here in the

Sermon on the Mount. Again, you have heard it said to

those of old you shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform

to the Lord what you have sworn. So Jesus taking the law, he

said. You've heard that said, he said.

But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven,

for it's the throne of God, or by earth, for it is his

footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great King.

Do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one

hair white or black. Let what you say be simply, yes

or no. Anything more than this comes

from evil. You have heard it said you, you

have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for

a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist

the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right

cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have

your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go

one mile, go with him 2 miles. Give to the one who begs from

you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

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 to rise on the evil and on the good.

He sends the 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?

She's kind of funny. Matthew's got to listen to this.

That's the former tax collector like Jesus always putting the

Barb in there for Matthew. 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.

Therefore you must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is

perfect God. This is your word.

We receive it with gratitude and with humility.

I ask that you would bring clarity, that you would bring

wisdom, and that you would bring powerful application so that we

would walk more in obedience to you.

That we would not be crushed by the Sermon on the Mount, but

that we would be put on top of it with clarity, with wisdom,

with understanding, and with joy.

So that we would see exactly who you've made us to be.

That we would see that these are the good works that you have

prepared for us in Christ. We thank you for it in Jesus

name. Amen.

So I'll say it again. It's important to understand the

context of the sermon on the Mount.

You do not read the sermon on the Mount as a I've got to do

these things to become a Christian.

But you read the sermon on the Mount as a a sermon where Jesus

is coming to you to preach and he's saying this is this is how

a Christian lives. This is what the way the Kingdom

is like. You won't know what the Kingdom

of heaven is like. You won't know what the the rule

of the king is. This is what it is.

This is what it looks like. By the way, I'm just bringing

the fuller revelation of what was in the Old Testament.

I'm not saying you've heard the Old Testament get rid of that

stuff. I'm giving you something

different. That's not what he's doing.

He's saying you've heard the Old Testament.

You've heard it misapplied. I'm going to bring you the full

revelation of what was always intended.

I'm going to bring you the fulfilment of it all.

That's what's happening here. So we understand, as we said,

that the Pharisees and that the religious leaders and just the

leaders of Israel for hundreds of years had put all these coats

of paint on top of the beautiful raw wood of the law.

It was beautiful. The Lord prepared it exactly as

he intended to. But then they said, let's put a

coat of paint on that, let's put another coat of paint on that.

And it's their interpretations, their limitations.

Sometimes they go farther, sometimes they don't go nearly

far enough. And Jesus saying, we're I'm

going to take all the paint off, I'm not going to chip the wood,

and I'm going to show you this is the Lord's intention, the

Lord's will again for his people.

So he's been laying out, you've heard it said this way.

Sometimes he will quote one of the Pharisees or some poor

teaching. Sometimes he quotes the law

directly. But then he says, but I say he

gives, the higher he gives the best.

This passage that we're looking at today is often

misinterpreted. It's one of the most widely

misunderstood passages of Scripture, I think, for the

Sermon on the Mount, for sure. But even throughout all of

Scripture there's been there's been much, much misapplication.

Some of this is simply answered by saying again, that Jesus is

using the tool, the literary tool.

Is that the right way of putting it, called hyperbole?

It's exaggeration. I'm.

I'm going to an extreme to make a point, much like he did

moments earlier which probably even prompted a a little bit of

laughter from the audience. He's saying, hey, if your right

hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

OK, but you get the point, right?

The listener isn't going. Does he want us to cut off our

hands? They're going OK I see go go to

extreme measures to deal with your sin.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.

Oh, OK Well, I don't think he's actually telling us to gouge out

our eyes and cut off our hands. We know that he's not.

So in the same way, we have some of those things happen here.

So we're going to unpack all of that together, but we're going

to start with oaths and then we're going to, we're going to

connect this passage on really Retaliation and loving your

enemies together as well, because we've got three separate

sections here. But again, that's just a modern,

a modern doing. We put our own divisions in

here. Jesus was preaching it all at

once. This whole sermon was preached

in less than 20 minutes. He had the whole thing

delivered. So the whole spirit of the thing

came out with, whoa, this is different.

I encourage you, if you haven't read this yet, read it this

week. Each week, read the passage that

we're coming into. But in particular, go through

the Sermon on the Mount. Take your time.

Read it out loud to yourself and imagine the Lord preaching this

thing. You say that that's how it would

hit you. That's how it would feel.

You know, you read it slow. It's not even going to take you

20 minutes. You read it fast.

You know it's going to take you just a little over 10.

But we're looking at oaths. What's going on here with oaths?

Oaths were used frequently at this time.

And the problem beyond that is oaths were used casually, and

this is still done frequently today, right?

We say things like I swear I cross my heart.

God strike me dead if I'm lying or on my mama's grave.

You know, all kinds of things that people use.

The oath is supposed to guarantee that I'm telling you

the truth. That's what the oath is supposed

to do. Everything else I say is pretty

much like you never know if I'm lying to you or not, or if I'm

actually going to make good on my word.

But but now I'm going to add this extra superlative on top of

it. I'm going to put some weight on

it. That's the intention.

That's what I'm trying to do anyway.

So at the time it was thought that if someone would say

something like I swear to the Lord that they would have to

answer to God for their sin if they didn't follow through on

that. So what the Jews have begun to

do is they say, let me lessen the consequences for me.

I swear on Jerusalem, I swear on, you know, I swear on heaven,

I swear on this, these lesser things.

And again, they're still missing the point in practice what it

eventually happened they would let other oaths take hold.

And they're they're swearing by things and places.

That's why, he says don't swear by your head.

So I swear on my own head, like just making stuff up at this.

I swear by the chair. You know, who knows how far it

would have gone, But they're allowing themselves in their own

mind to have lesser consequences for just breaking their word.

So there's varying degrees of truth right in their

perspective. But that's not a thing.

That's not how truth works. So Jesus is revealing.

God expects his commandments to be taken much more seriously and

not to be used as tools for legalism or weapons for

hypocrisy. So there actually is a time and

a place for sacred vows, like at the wedding altar or something

like that. But Jesus is teaching.

He's teaching us, his disciples, that our integrity should should

be the thing that guarantees we're telling the truth, not the

extra words that we use or the things that we say.

Hey, I'll swear to you now. Hey, I've been lying to you up

until now. But now I swear it to you.

Our integrity is the guarantee that we're telling the truth.

What's our integrity built on? It's built on the past.

I've been telling you the truth in the past.

Can I put weight on it? Sure.

I guess I could grab you by the cheeks and look in your eyes and

say, hey, I mean it. I always mean it, and I really

mean it. Maybe the stakes are high in

this particular moment and you need to know that.

You know that. You know, the person who has

integrity in their word doesn't need to enhance what they're

saying in any way. I don't have to add anything to

it if I really am a man of integrity.

If you really are a woman of integrity, you don't have to add

anything else. She said it like I didn't need

her to, you know, and you might tell somebody else, Have you

ever done that you're confident in a person that you have a

relationship with and then you're speaking to someone else

about it? You said, well, they said this

and but now the third party's going, whoa, how do you know for

sure? Like they told me this.

It's good like this, This third party, they don't have the

confidence that you do because you've got history with this

person. You've got to tell you, like, if

he said it, it's it's done. If she told me that that's how

it's going to be, Well, they told me they'd give it to me for

this price. But, you know, well, you might

show up there tomorrow and they change it.

Like they're not going to do that.

How do you know? Well, because I know him.

Like that's all there is to it. Did they promise you?

I didn't. Oh, that makes all the

difference in sales, right? They promised or they, they

guaranteed it. Well, just saying it is

sufficient. So what are we supposed to take

away from this? Be known for your word.

You shouldn't have different levels of truth, and you

shouldn't have different levels of trust.

There's just truth. There's just trust.

Don't use sacred or strong language casually.

So you keep your word to your spouse, you keep your word to

your customers, you keep your word to your kids.

Ultimately, this is about keeping your word, even to

yourself. Keeping my word to myself.

It's in the simple things. It's in the little things where

I say I go to the gym Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It really doesn't impact anybody else too directly if I if I

don't go, but you know, you know who it chips away at a little

bit within his, within himself, within his own integrity, Well,

you don't have to go to the gym. No, I don't have to.

But the fact is, I said I would. The fact is, and so I'm not, I'm

not in bondage to the gym. That's not the lesson here.

The lesson is I am secured into my own word to myself.

So if there's exceptions and things come up, that's no big

deal. We move on.

But if it's I don't know if I'm going to go, like that's that's

where you're getting in danger. And it and then it begins the

death by 1000 cuts like, well, I I don't even trust me anymore.

You know, my alarm clock goes off, but that really doesn't

mean anything. I'm going to snooze it 15 times

or you know, I said I'm going to be there on at on time, but I'm

not. So I I I lose even my own

confidence in myself over time. So my yes is my yes, my no is my

no. And if I'm undecided, that's

fair enough too. If you're undecided, you can say

you're undecided. You don't owe everybody and

answer it every moment. You can simply tell people I

have to get back with you on that.

So this is fine, practical language, but it's important

that we keep our word. There's a lot of a temptation

people have to please other people, but it's wild how we

will even be tempted to tell people something that they just

want to hear, knowing good and well, we're not going to do it.

This is a common thing among people where I know you're going

to be disappointed if I tell you no, and I don't want to deal

with that relational discomfort. So I'm actually going to tell

you yes. And then at the last minute, I'm

going to do some weird text message to get out of it and

say, Oh, my goodness, I can't believe it, I'm so sorry, All

because of my cowardice early on to not deal with the conflict,

to not deal with the, hey, man, I'm not going to be there.

You know what? I'm.

I'm just not. And I and say I love you.

This doesn't change anything about us.

But I'm not going to be there. So Dylan wants you at the chili

cook off, right? Don't tell him you're going to

be there if you're not going to be there.

And if he's like, are you going to be there?

If you know the answer, you can just say, hey, man, I'm not

going to make it, but you'll have a good time.

And he's going to say, all right, man, I love you.

Have a good. Have a good day anyway.

Or or he's going to hold a grudge for the rest of your

life. I don't know.

That's Dylan. We can sort that out.

We'll put Dylan under church discipline later.

Since he's not in the room at the moment.

You leave the room, you're going to get breached about.

Maybe that's the that's the lesson here.

So keep your word. Jesus says anything more than

this comes from evil. Some translations say anything

more than this comes from the Evil 1, the evil one, Satan.

He's also called what? The Father of lies.

So Jesus saying yes is yes, no is no, and anything more than

that, you're getting into variations of truth, which is

not something that our Heavenly Father really considers.

Again, can we mark the moment? That's why our wedding is so

sacred. But we're not like, doubling

down. We're not saying, do you do this

and this and this. What do they answer with?

I do. Right.

I do. We don't make them say.

Swear on your Mama. Swear on your daddy.

Swear on your head. Swear on heaven.

Do you or don't you? I do.

Do we wait the moment? We do.

Why? How?

With witnesses. We we honor it before the Lord.

So there's other ways that we bring significance and value to

it. But my yes is to be yes.

My no is to be no. Anything more than that is

getting into Satan's jurisdiction.

If this is from the Evil 1. So there is a time and a place

for sacred vows like the marriage altar that making sense

to you about oaths, bringing you some help around oaths.

So we're not swearing. We're just telling the truth.

And someone's like, do you swear?

And you can just simply go. I'm telling you the truth.

I'm, I'm, I'm giving you the the honest perspective on it.

I I don't need to swear. There's no, there's no way for

me to add truth to the statement I just made to you.

And you can begin to change that in your own life and in your own

own heart if that's a habit that you have.

Verse 38 Now continuing. You have heard that it was said

an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if

anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other

also. And if anyone would sue you and

take your tunic, leave him, let him have your cloak as well.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him 2 miles

Give to the one who begs from you.

Do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

All of these verses that we've just read have their fulfillment

and in full development in the following verses, verses 43 to

48. What's the point?

What's the purpose? What's the what's the lesson

that Jesus making about the Kingdom?

The Kingdom is about loving God and loving others.

The Pharisees, religious leaders and Jews in general had said I I

need to love God. I need to love my neighbor

because the law commanded that you loved your neighbor but they

stopped there. So Jesus said the the point of

love your neighbor was not literally just your next door

neighbor and your Jewish brother.

The point of love, your neighbor was love everybody.

So now we're seeing this is what's being taught.

This is what's being walked out really.

All theologians agree that this passage, verse 38 on when he's

talking about the the, the slap on the face, the suing for your

tunic, and all these other examples, this is a reference

actually to retaliation, the context.

It is widely believed throughout church history that the context

here is not anything having to do with self-defense, but this

has everything to do with retaliation and personal ego and

disrespect and vendettas. So that's the context that the

body of Christ at large agrees on that Jesus is talking about

here. So now let's get into the law of

what he's saying. You've heard it said an eye for

an eye and a tooth for a tooth. So that is literally Old

Testament scripture. However, if you don't actually

read all of Leviticus, which many people haven't done, if you

don't actually read all of Deuteronomy, if you don't

actually read all of Genesis, and actually if you don't read

everything and see the full context there, and you just go

eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, that's in the Bible.

Well, it is, but it doesn't mean what it sounds like at face

value, because that's not the application that even the Old

Testament makes for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

So he says eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

And then he says, for example, if you strike your servant and

they lose their vision, you were to release your servant.

It doesn't say now we're going to punch you in the eye until

you lose your vision. If you strike your servant and

they lose a tooth, you were to release your servant.

It doesn't say. Now we're going to grab one of

your molars and and yank on the thing.

Well, why I thought aye. For an eye tooth for a tooth.

Well, the Lord gave the full application.

And throughout the Old Testament law it's it's it's shown over

and over that his his point is with with an eye.

For an eye tooth for a tooth. The point was the punishment

should fit the crime. The payment should match what

what had taken place. So this was, this is not if your

neighbor cuts down a tree and it falls on your fence.

Now we're going to cut down a tree in your yard and make sure

it falls on their fence. Is that what you would want in

that circumstance? No.

You would just want your neighbor to pay for your fence.

Right. Hey, Hey.

Oh, man, that's a bummer. Oh, man, I'm so sorry.

I'm going to pay for it. Yeah, you'll pay for it.

And that's the appropriate thing that should happen.

They don't need to go to prison. They just.

Now, if someone was hurt now the stakes become much higher, but

we don't kill your our neighbor. And so if the tree falls on me

and I die, I'm not going to sue them because I'm dead.

But like the family then doesn't go after them and say you have

to go to prison for the rest of your life or or we're not going

to kill you. But in the case of murder we do

kill. But again the we is very

important. Jesus is is not teaching about

the law of the land. He's talking about personal

interactions with others. So he is not removing the sword

from the state. The state has been given the

sword by the Lord for the punishment of evil doers.

So an evildoer it is right and just if if the courts decide and

if they weigh and measure. You don't always have to kill

somebody, but you certainly have the right in the legal system.

But the Jews had made all of the the, the laws that were given to

them as a nation. They had taken them and made

them personal. I can fulfill this vendetta as

opposed to the higher courts as opposed to an objective third

party. So now I can fulfill my personal

vendetta against you. An eye for an eye and a tooth

for a tooth. You did this to me.

I can do this for you. Hang on a second.

Multiple contexts to consider here.

First of all, it wasn't as literal as you're implying it to

be. Second of all, this was the law

of the land for rulers and judges to make decisions on.

This was not the personal friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor,

or even friend to enemy. Interaction of I will satisfy

justice on my own. We've brought that up multiple

times here in the past few weeks.

Vengeance is who's it's the Lord's Vengeance is a thing, but

it's not ours. So Jesus is addressing vengeance

here. He's addressing retaliation.

So he goes on to say do not resist the one who is evil, but

if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other.

Also, a slap on the face is an extreme, extremely disrespectful

thing. Is it a life threatening thing?

No, no, it's not. Jesus is not referencing.

Two men are duking it out. You're walking home with your

wife from date night and somebody pulls a gun in the

alley and he shoots your wife and you should say shoot me as

well. This is not what's being taught

here. Jesus is not teaching an

ultimate pacifism, right? I think.

I think most of us already believe this, but I want you to

understand why you should have confidence in it.

So it's one thing to just kind of know that this is a

self-evident truth, which is good, that's the the natural law

of the Lord in our hearts. But it's also important to

understand what's going on here because some Christians have

used this passage to say the Lord forbids self-defense.

And there are Christians who would even go to extreme

measures and even famous preacher guys who go to extreme

measures and say under no circumstances is self-defense

ever OK. This guy is literally on the

record of saying if someone broke into my house and began to

do terrible things, it's kind of funny and ironic because he says

he would call the police, which begs the question, what do you

think the police will do when they arrive?

So you know, again it's but the point is it's not vengeance in

that moment. It is love.

It is because of my great love for my wife or my children that

I'm willing to take action. Not it's not even a hatred for a

particular person but it's it is a willingness to do violence.

Doesn't mean you always have to. And so when we're going back to

this point that Jesus making a slap on the face is a sign of

disrespect, more evidence that he's talking about a very

unlikely scenario. Also very likely hyperbole also

very likely would have even caused his disciples to laugh.

So if somebody slaps you on the face, give him the other cheek

to slap also. What's the point being made?

Cut off your hand, Gouge out your eye.

Let somebody slap you back and forth in the face.

The point is, OK, I see the point.

Y'all are so far over here. Like you've slighted me.

You've dishonored me. I challenge you to a duel.

We must, we must shoot one another fight to the death.

Now. Like, hey, how about you get

your ego in check? How about you?

Calm down. You're not the sovereign.

You're not the sovereign God. You've been disrespected.

It hurts. It stings, but also you're to be

like your father. You're to be perfect as your

father is perfect. Is this making sense for

contacts? Are you being persuaded?

Shake your head No. If you're like, I'm not buying

it, I'll go deeper. So the law did technically say

eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

But even in the application of Old Testament law, it wasn't

applied that way. The point of that phrase is to

make the punishment fit the crime.

So this is very, very much now taken out of context and used to

justify my own hard heartedness against others.

God's people, Israel, were always supposed to be the beacon

of light in the world, but they look just like the world in

their hard hearts and their personal vendettas.

And Jesus is removing this paint job that's been put on top of

God's law. So Leviticus 8/19/18 for

example, says do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against

anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord. So you see, even in the Old

Testament again, go read Leviticus.

You'll see plenty of places where the Lord addresses heart

things. Not just externals.

But he says, hey, like we said before, don't covet.

This is a command. One of the 10 commandments.

Don't. That's a heart issue that only

the Lord can, that only the Lord can see.

But Jesus is making it even more plain.

I am after your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Yes, that is my law. But guys, I wasn't limiting it

to your neighbor. Well, who's my neighbor?

That's the question that Jesus gets right.

Love your neighbor as yourself. And then he's asked, well, who

is my neighbor? They want to seeking to justify

themselves. How many people do I have to

treat this way? How many people have to be on

this list that I have to show this kind of love and devotion

to love your neighbor like you love yourself.

That sounds pretty extreme. I love myself a lot.

All right. I got to do pretty good to these

folks. Tell me who my neighbor is.

And Jesus says, I'm glad you asked.

Let me let me tell you who your neighbor is.

And then he begins to tell the story about the Jewish man

walking down the road. And he sees a man bruised and

bloodied on the side of the road.

But he crosses. He crosses the road and keeps on

walking. And then like, oh, that's tough.

And then he says, and then another Jewish man comes.

He does the same thing and they're like, oh, that's tough.

And he says, and then a Samaritan comes and they're

like, oh, the Jews are just like, I can't believe they're

super racist. They hate Samaritans.

And they're like, oh, I bet this guy's probably going to come

kill the poor guy on the side of the road.

And he says, and the Samaritan goes and cares for him, picks

him up, cleans up his womb. And the Jews, as their listeners

like, no, this is the worst storytelling I've ever heard.

They hate this movie right now as they're watching it.

They're like, this isn't the guy.

And he cares for him, loves him, shows him generosity, puts him

up in a in a essentially a hotel and pays for him to be cared

for. And Jesus finally asks them,

puts the question back on them. He says, who do you think was a

neighbor to? The man on the road.

Like, I hate when you do this Jesus.

I guess the guy who showed him great love.

He says, go and do likewise. Now you know who your neighbor

is. Oh, neighbors.

Like anybody. Yeah, anybody who's in need,

anybody who you have the opportunity to serve and bless

and help. Anybody who the Lord puts you

there and you're going there. It's me.

I'm the one here. This is my moment.

And the and the Christian always makes that assumption.

That's our default posture. We that's our default setting.

I'm the one he's already sent me.

He said, I Lord, it is you. It's you.

You're the one he's called. You're the one he's sent.

Well, I wonder if somebody else assumed that they are not.

You're the light of the world, remember?

You're the salt of the earth. If you don't do it, nobody's

going to. So you're the one who sent into

that circumstance. You see that car broken down in

the parking lot and you're like, this is me time, you know, You

see that other need that needs to be met, whatever it may be,

you go, clearly, this is me. Clearly I've got the means.

I've got the opportunity. Or maybe, maybe you don't have

much mechanical skills, so you can't help the car in the

parking lot. So you just hold the flashlight.

That's me. That's my jurisdiction.

But you can do something. Or you say, man, I maybe I maybe

I don't have a flashlight on me. But I can say, man, this is

clearly a difficult situation. I can see these folks are having

a difficult day. Now you got that extra cash in

your wallet. You're going.

The Lord has blessed me and I can bless them with it some way.

Somehow we can bring the Kingdom of God near.

Everybody is your neighbor. And this is what Jesus is

getting back to. This is what he's bringing their

point to. So if you're disrespected, you

know what you can survive. You can make it through this

slap for example. This is not a a life and death

thing. This is likely a verbal insult

like you're such a this and instead of defending or instead

of even worse retaliating, I can say what would that look like to

take the slap and then all for the other cheek.

You're such a this you go. I'm far worse than you think.

But for the grace of God through the blood of Jesus.

He has made me his child. And I've got a lot of growing to

do. That's that's what it looks

like. What have you just done to your

enemy? You have absorbed.

You have just swallowed up death with love.

You've swallowed up death with life.

You've swallowed up hatred with love.

Instead of. I'm going to defend, I'm going

to get back. Turn the other cheek and you can

say, hey, I'm really sorry about this sick circumstance.

A soft answer turns away wrath. Well, they dishonored me.

They disrespected me. I know, I know.

It's it's rough. No one has ever suffered like

you're suffering right now. No one ever.

I mean, it's like, they may as well just put you on the cross,

right? And hung you up there naked.

That's how badly they've treated you, isn't it?

No. But when we remember this, we

go, OK, if the Lord of Glory can humble himself, I think I can

withstand a little bit more. Matthew Henry's commentary on

this verse is helpful. He says suffer any injury that

can be born or that can be endured.

So he's saying, if you can endure it, you endure it.

What if you can't? Then you don't.

So again, like, this is not bad guy breaking in in the middle of

the night. That's a real short

conversation, that there's not much that's going to happen

there. There's not much dialogue.

Hey, what are you interested in? Not much has to happen there.

I think we already know that. But this is again with with

personal relational things going on.

Suffer any injury that can be born for the sake of peace,

committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping.

And the sum of all is that Christians must avoid disputing

and striving. If any say flesh and blood

cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember that flesh and

blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.

And those who act upon right principles will have most peace

and comfort. So you're saying, man, this is

difficult on the flesh? Exactly.

Jesus told us you're going to crucify your flesh.

And if we're not willing to pick up our cross and follow him,

then we're not, we're not worthy to be his disciple.

So this isn't He's. He's never does a bait and

switch on us. He was always point blank,

honest the whole time. This is super difficult.

Welcome to Christianity. It's almost like you have to be

a new person. Welcome to the point.

So this is simply a command to forego retaliation for personal

offenses. The Christian does not need to

avenge his own honor any longer. You ever been gossiped about?

Oh, they said that about me. Well, I bet you that I bet

nobody knows. Stop.

Stop. Don't say it.

Well, it's true. But don't say it.

Don't say it. Turn the other cheek and go.

Are they really saying that about me?

Yeah. OK.

Well, Jesus also told me what to do.

I need to reach out to them, and I need to seek peace with them.

Well, I didn't. I didn't do anything wrong.

Why should I have to do that? Jesus didn't say that you did

anything wrong. He said if they have anything

against you, you should seek to live at peace with everyone to

the degree that you're able. Well, I tried and they wouldn't.

Well, then you did what you could.

Did you do it with the right heart?

With the right spirit? No.

Then you should do it with the right heart.

The right spirit. And then you know you've

actually done what you could. The Lord is measuring.

The Lord weighs the heart. Nobody else does.

All I can judge is the outside. Now the outside typically, is

going to tell me quite a bit. You know it don't.

It don't mean nothing. I get some, I get some

information from looking at the outside.

But the Lord sees all the hidden things in my heart.

So I might satisfy you with my actions, but I really want to

satisfy the Lord because I love Him.

And that's the heart of love that Jesus keeps coming back to.

It's loving God. It's loving our enemies.

We're not cowards. We're not fearful.

This has to be done from a place of strength.

Jesus would apply this teaching about the slap in the face.

He would literally apply this to his trial.

He gets slapped in the face and he turns the other cheek.

He has his beard ripped out. He's being punched in the middle

of his trial. He's being mocked.

I mean, it's a complete sham. It's all false, none of it's

real. But Jesus, for his very purpose,

he has a very distinct purpose. To actually come and receive the

full wrath of the Father and to receive the full insult of

humanity, the King of Glory. If the King of Glory can take in

a literal slap in the face and remain silent before his

accusers, and even then, he doesn't just say I deserved it,

right, He says, I've done many good things for which do you

strike me? So even still, he's prompting

their own heart. Even still, he's saying, what

have I done to deserve the strike?

He didn't retaliate. He didn't say, how dare you?

He didn't say. You don't know who I am and what

I'm capable of, he said. Oh, how do you even justify what

you've just done? That soft answer turning away

wrath. It perplexes a person's own

heart. This is a it's a way to even

flank your enemy instead of going at a direct approach or an

argumentative approach. We know self-defense has a good

and appropriate place. This is even evidence, and we'll

get to this later in in Matthew. But Jesus tells his disciple to

disciples to buy a sword, or in specifically Luke 2236.

And just so you know, swords were not used to slice bread and

to spread butter. Swords were used for a

particular purpose and then self-defense was the actual

context there because they said, Lord, we have two swords and he

says, OK, that's enough, we're fine.

But offenses, A bruised ego, disrespect and dishonor is what

Jesus is directly pointing out. And by the way, that's where

most physical altercations come from.

Most physical issues are not the 2:00 AM break in.

It's not the bad guy seeking to do all the evil things.

Those people exist and they have to be dealt with in

self-defense. It's very important to

understand that. But this is not where most

physical altercations come from. Most physical altercations come

from a bruised ego that then leads to the physical

interaction. I am so deeply offended.

I can't believe you said that. Oh, I said it.

Oh, you did, huh? Oh yeah, I did.

And now the distance closes. Now we're face to face.

Now we do the practice, shove back and forth and we see who's

going to swing first. Well, I had to defend myself and

kill him. No you didn't.

About 7 minutes ago you could have actually had a soft answer

that turned away wrath. Well then everyone would have

thought, aha, the truth is revealed the ego.

Everyone would have thought instead of your Father in Heaven

thinking instead of being because what requires more

strength? What do you think Christ would

require of a man of a woman? The easier thing or the more

difficult thing He requires? The more difficult thing, and

the more difficult thing is to actually be humbled.

I've been humbled in front of everyone.

They had the perfect takedown. They slant verbally.

They nailed me. They won.

They won that exchange. Like they they totally owned me

and they filmed it and it's going to be on YouTube now.

What requires more restraint, What requires more strength to

actually be quiet and move on or to to begin to retaliate?

Man, I've got to get the upper hand now.

I've got to say, I know you are, but what am I?

We're called to a higher thing that actually I actually have

love for this person. I actually care about them.

I actually have a compassion and A and a desire for them to love

the Lord, to know the Lord, and to walk with the Lord.

So much so that if you're in prison for the cause of

following Christ, the the Lord might even open the doors of the

prison. And you'll love your jailer so

much that when he panics and he's getting ready to commit

suicide because he's going to be killed anyway for losing

prisoners, he's getting ready to kill himself.

You say stop, stop. We haven't left.

The Lord opened the cell doors, but but we haven't left.

That's what love does to its enemies instead of Lord.

Kill our jailer. Make the keys fall down over

here so we can get out of here instead.

The Lord's, the Lord opens the doors.

It's quite a test, isn't it? The Lord opens the doors and

they're going because they were praising the Lord.

They were praying in the night. And then of course the jailer

and his whole household get saved and baptized that very

night. While we're thinking about

something bigger, we think we're thinking about something much,

much bigger than ourselves. We're thinking about the Lord

and His Kingdom. This is the message of the king.

He's showing us what his Kingdom really looks like.

So even our self-defense, I'll just come back to that point.

Even our self-defense is not supposed to be retaliation.

We're not excited about hurting someone.

We're only willing and able if necessary.

So as disciples of Jesus, what we can absorb in love, we should

absorb in love. What we can absorb, we should

absorb. This is not, this is not a free

for all. So even though I've given you

the green light, and because I believe the Lord gives the green

light on self-defense, this is not me.

We're quick. It's not eagerness.

It's not I wish, but everything we do when we show restraint is

always to be done from a place of strength, not from a place of

weakness, not from a place of fear.

So even when we show restraint, it's not because I'm scared.

That's just a weak man doing weak man stuff, right?

And that's what we don't want to be seen as.

That's our concerns. I think that.

But they're going to think I'm a coward.

And the Lord says, I want you to be strong enough to not care

what they think because you're actually being cowardly by

caring what they think. I know you're not a coward of

the thing, but you are a coward in that you're worried about

them and their perspective of you.

So what we do is from a place of strength.

It is Christian strength. It is not weakness or people

think this or people think that and they're wrong.

People think this about Christians, people think that

about Christians, and we let them be wrong.

What we do is from a place of strength and from honor and from

love. It is not from fear.

This is shown perfectly in the in the example Jesus gives about

the extra mile. Just to throw out another point

here about hyperbole, Jesus saying if somebody sues you to

take your cloak and your let him have your tunic as well.

If you did that at this time, you would literally be naked.

So again, also very probably a comical thing he's saying.

The point is, we're quick to make peace.

We're quick to make amends. We're not egotistical.

We're not guarded about our own honor.

But he's not saying, hey, I want you.

All my disciples will walk around naked.

If someone has to borrow something like, there's a limit

to that, right? Yeah.

I would think even the person, if they wanted to take this

literacy was not hyperbole. It's OK.

I was just asking, Hey, man, can I borrow your phone?

And for like, a month. Can I borrow your house?

Can I borrow your car? I bet that guy gets off that

train at some point, don't you think?

Like, no, no, no, I thought. But if it's literal, exact, and

you're not supposed to refuse anyone who asks to borrow

something, then I I just get to keep asking.

You just keep saying yes, as long as it's not sinful.

I can't borrow your wife, but I borrow your house because Jesus

said right? Well, Jesus did say.

Just like eye for an eye says, tooth for a tooth says.

But what does the word teach? What does the word reveal?

So I don't want to confuse you because very often your pastor

stands in front of you and says it's right here.

It's in the book, it is written. But I but always challenge me

and always pay attention and always notice.

I always do that when it's explicitly plain.

So for example, in our ecstatically married series,

when I was emphasizing headship and submission of the roles of

men and women, I was doing it, but I wasn't doing it in one

spot. I was saying, we've got 7 places

here in the New Covenant that all make this very explicitly

plain, right? I wasn't just going.

Like I found one verse and I like it.

So that settles it. It's going.

You know, what does the word teach?

What does the word reveal? And we're doing the same thing

here. So wait, can I just read the

Bible? Isn't it safe?

Isn't it good? Yes, the word of God is safe.

It is good for you to pick up, read, and apply.

And yet there are times where you go if this seems wild and

impossible to obey. Difficult is one thing,

impossible to obey. Everyone who asks of me, I give

to them. So I'll run out of things to

give within like 24 hours. If you, if you become that

person, get known as that. Can I have your house?

Yeah. Can I have your clothes yet?

Can I have your underwear? Yeah, there's no limit because,

I mean, I'm just, let's just read the Bible, right?

So clearly that is a what's the ad?

Reductio. Somebody got the Latin for me.

Hey, hey. Nobody got it.

It's the it's where you take an argument and and you take it to

its you run it out you no you run you you run all the you run

all the possibilities Like I just did for you.

Can I borrow your phone. Can I borrow your house.

Can I borrow your clothes. Can I borrow your underwear.

Can I borrow. Oh you still have to Can I

borrow your watch. Can I borrow.

I'm just borrowing it But can I borrow it?

You have to tell me. Yes.

So we show the we see the absurdity of it there and it

reveals the hyperbole where Jesus going.

Hey, we're a generous people but this this is made plain.

Even more so when he's this point about we do these things

from strength, not from a place of weakness.

When he's talking about going the extra mile, that's a figure

of speech that's that lives in our culture now, right.

You know man I love they, they did a great job for us working

on the yard or working on the House.

They really went the extra mile. That means that there was the

thing that was expected and required.

The contract said that, which, by the way, legal contracts also

OK to use the legal the contract required this, but they they

went beyond that. They went the extra mile.

So at this time, again, remember, the Romans are ruling

over the Jews, letting them have their little Jew world.

The Romans, like, that's fine, we'll conquer everybody.

We'll still kind of let them have their religions and do

their things. But a Roman soldier could come

across you on the road and he said, hey, you have to carry my

armor. You have to carry my stuff for a

mile. They didn't use a mile, but the

translator said it's roughly a mile.

Was the distance that you had to go 8 stadia, for those of you

who care is about the distance that you had to go legally with

a Roman soldier or they could make you carry a message.

So you say, hey, you're going to carry this message for me.

You got to run this message for about a mile.

And then you have to find another runner and carry the

message and make sure it gets to so and so at this office or

whoever, wherever you're legally required to do that.

So I'm legally required to go one mile with you.

And the Jews hated this, by the way.

They hate the Romans. They hate their oppression.

You're minding your own business.

You got your things to do, You got your life to live.

And a Roman soldier goes, hey, you're like, oh man, I wish this

guy would just drop dead. Yeah, what's up?

Come here, Jew. Come carry my stuff for me like

I have to. I am required to.

I've got to carry his stuff for him.

And now, like, I'm like, I know exactly how many steps I have to

take. I'm take the last step and like,

drop his junk on the ground, you know, and move on.

What has just happened? He has extracted something from

me, hasn't he? He's extracted, he required it

of me and he extracted it from me.

But what happens if we get to the mile mark and the soldier

turns to me and and I keep on walking?

I got this. What's just happening?

I just turned the corner, didn't I?

He is gone from extracting something from me.

He can't take anything from me now.

Now he might say give me my gear.

And I'd say yes, Sir, but I've already won.

I've already poured hot holes on my enemy's head because he

thought he could force me to do something.

Like you didn't force me to do anything.

Why? Because I'm a free man and I

proved it because I'm free in Christ.

I'm freely loved by my father. So you can put me in a prison

cell. You can make me carry your gear.

I'll always be a free man because of Jesus, and there's

nothing you can do. You can insult me, you can mock

me. The whole room can laugh at me

and I'm still a free man because I'm secure in Christ, because

I'm loved by Christ. So you might have intended to

emasculate me in front of my wife and kids, making me carry

your stuff, or talking down to me like that.

I'm a free man because Christ loves me, because I know who I

am in him, and the Kingdom of heaven is different.

And I can actually love you even as my enemy.

I can have compassion for you. I can pity you, I can walk with

you. And on that second mile, the

Roman soldier might start to go. This has never happened before.

And maybe he mocks me even more. Hey, guys, look at this stupid

Jew carrying my stuff an extra mile.

But more than likely he's going to go.

What are you doing? You know you don't have to do

that. Why are you going farther?

I'll say because I care about you.

And I want to bring you some relief today.

You got to carry this all the time.

I've only got to carry it for a little bit and now I've got the

opportunity to share more of the love of God, which was always

the point of Israel. Israel was supposed to be the

light of the world. The whole world was supposed to

look at Israel and go, wow, sign us up for that.

And now the church is the are the people Jesus, people on

Jesus mission who the world should be able to look in and

go. Are you kidding me?

The church should be able to look into our marriages and go,

that's Christ in the church. Sign me up for that.

They ought to be able to look into the body of Christ and go.

That's the Kingdom of God. Sign me up for that.

Yes, please. There's nothing in that to go.

No thanks. It's only things to go.

Wow. Are you kidding?

That's amazing. So I was required to go one mile

with you. It was extracted from me.

But I'm actually going to give you out of my overflow because I

have much to spare. So that happens on the job site.

The contract requires you to do something, but now you can do

more. You go beyond the letter of the

legal documents. Why?

Because the law of God is written on my heart, which is

actually to love him and to love to love others.

And of course, you know, I didn't spend much time there, so

we'll we'll read it as we close. But verses 38 through 42 are

explained in verse 44, verse 44. But I say to you, love your

enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

I'll read this whole passage. Verse 43 On 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 sun to rise on

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

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 only greet your

brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Don't even Gentiles do the same. Therefore you must be perfect as

your heavenly Father is perfect. Another moment where the Sermon

on the Mount crushes you. Oh, I just have to be perfect.

Easy. Why didn't you say so?

You know, you could have saved yourself the whole sermon.

Who makes us perfect? Jesus does.

We get his perfect righteousness.

But we do have a literal direct application here.

As he's tying up this point. He's going.

He's talking about greeting. So you would never greet your

enemy in the street. You'd be like, you give them the

side eye, maybe, but you wouldn't say, hey, good morning.

How are you? Jesus saying?

Well, everybody greets the people that they love.

The Kingdom, people do it differently.

We're actually cultivating the love of God in our hearts.

It's been shed abroad already in our hearts.

So now I actually have something to spare.

Man, I don't like that person. It doesn't mean you have to want

to spend the weekend with them. It doesn't mean you invite them

onto your vacation, but it means you actually want God's best for

them now. So even Christians, we have

enemies. By the way.

You will have enemies. You'll continue to have enemies.

There will never not be a time in your life where you don't

have enemies, so don't misunderstand.

But you actually want God's best for that person now because you

love them. Well, I'm not there.

That just means you have been praying for them.

Because if you begin to pray for a person, you cannot maintain

hatred in your heart for them. It is a miracle and a gift of

God that he makes sure is an impossibility.

So whenever you got that in your heart, begin to pray for them.

And I don't mean just just the Lord.

I just actually would judge them and find them, you know, find

them lacking in your scales in Jesus name, but actually pray

for their good, pray for their salvation, pray for their

growth. Because this is who you are.

You are like your Father now because you've been made like

the Son. Amen.

God, thank you so much for changing us and making us

different. From this perspective of

bondage, where I'm always being extracted from outside of

Christ, everything's a demand, everything is a burden.

But in Christ, I put on his yoke and I wear his burden and it's

easy and it's light. I'm actually able to carry it.

And he makes all of life lighter as well.

All the attacks that come, they can fall off now.

Anything that would, anything that would try and attach it to

to us, it just rolls off of us. Just like water off of a duck.

We're in the world, but we're not of the world.

And we're sent to minister to the world as salt that preserves

as light that reveals fill us with strength to carry out this

high calling of being perfect, as our Father is perfect.

I pray, Lord, that as your word was preached, that it would be

lodged deep in our hearts and that you would make quick

adjustments to us. Today I pray for your Saints

right now and all those listening the temptation to

dismiss and go, Yep, I learned more and I know more.

But instead to say, well, what would you have me change?

What would you have me adjust? Am I, am I quick with my oaths?

Am I quick tempered with those who irritate or disrespect or

offend me? Do I love my enemies?

Show me the adjustments to make that glorify your name and that

make the Kingdom actually come on earth as it is in heaven.

Thank you for it all in Jesus name.

And now the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face shine down upon you and be gracious to

you. The Lord lift up His countenance

upon you and give you great peace in Jesus name.

Amen.