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Matthew 5:43-48 · Arrow Heights Students

• 0:00
  Speaker A: All right. Just straightforward. This is not going to be me here just sitting, teaching, and just this one way deal. So I value and desire conversation with each and every one of you. So there's going to be a lot of questions, a lot of, hey, I want some response. And so that's how we're going to go. Let me tell you a little bit about myself before we get started. Most of you know me as ez. Some of you remember me from last year at Kemp Region. Pretty fun time. I'm an old man, so I wanted to sleep, but I was like, man, if I was like, 19, 18, 17, this would be fun. I would enjoy this. 40 years old, no, don't work. But it was a fun time. So some things about me is I like evangelism. I like going out and spreading the gospel. So typically, Thursday nights, I go out with a guy named John Clouse. I don't know if any of y' all met John Clouse before.
• 1:06
  Speaker B: Fun.
• 1:07
  Speaker A: You have fun. Fun guy, right?
• 1:08
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. If you've never met John Klaus, you should do so, like, entertaining stories all the way around. But what we do is we go out. We go out to some of the. More, I guess, in the world would say undesirable parts of Tulsa would go to the Admiral Memorial. Leaven and Garnett. We go out there and we just give people the gospel. We're trying to get people off the streets and just, you know, just hoping to pierce hearts, right? And I enjoy it. I enjoy the conversations. I enjoy trying to give the gospel. Caleb here? Yeah, I got Caleb. He shows up Thursdays with us. He helps hand out the pizza. Okay, Caleb, be proud of that, man. You're helping the kingdom of God by handing out pizza.
• 1:51
  Speaker B: Place sells cafe.
• 1:55
  Speaker A: So that's some of the things I do. I'll tell you my salvation story because I think a salvation story is a good way to know somebody. So my salvation story, seventh grade, got baptized, came to Christ somewhat. I don't know what happened there. A lot of stuff happened. Found out the church I was going to was a very terrible church. Kind of ran away from church for a while. Got back into church again for all the wrong reasons. Time went on. One day I was watching this preacher. His name is Voddie Bauckham. Sermon the Was it the world, the devil and the flesh? And in this sermon, he comes across this part where he kind of just rallied off the gospel and started crying. Crying like a little baby. I was just bawling. I realized, like, oh, wow, I'm a Sinner and I need to be saved. That was the point where I cried out to God. And that was the point where I end up on this trajectory where I want to follow Christ and do all things for Christ. So that's a brief story of my salvation. All right, let's get into the subject today. We'll be in Matthew 5, 43, 48. Now, before we start reading, I want to tell a story. All right, so there was this kid. His name was Mike. Mike was a good student. He was quiet. He was a Christian. He just kind of kept to himself. Well, Mike got bullied by this other student. Other student, name was Austin. Austin was tall, probably a basketball player, red, curly hair. You know the type, right? We know the type. Right. Austin made Mike's life tough. Like, tough like we're talking, like, brought him to tears at times. Just brutal treatment. However, Austin ended up in trouble. He can't play basketball because, you know, he's fell in the class. Austin didn't pay attention. But Mike, the class that he was failing is what Mike was great at. Mike has this dilemma. What should he do? Let me ask you real quick. If you were Mike or for the sake of women, Michelle, if you were Mike or you were Michelle, and be honest. Let's be honest with this. Don't give me the cookie cutter response. What would you do in that situation? Anybody? Come on. Sorry. Give me your name.
• 5:00
  Speaker C: Lacey.
• 5:00
  Speaker A: Lacey. Thank you. Yes. What would you do?
• 5:03
  Speaker C: I'd probably get mad.
• 5:04
  Speaker A: Get mad? Yeah. Yeah. What about you? Yeah, right. Right there.
• 5:11
  Speaker B: I'd probably just like, why is this
• 5:13
  Speaker A: guy bullying me all the time?
• 5:14
  Speaker B: He's so stupid. I'm so sm.
• 5:18
  Speaker A: Anybody? I like that.
• 5:21
  Speaker B: I like that.
• 5:22
  Speaker A: Anybody else? Anybody else? Come on. I know you would do more, right? Probably make fun of him. Probably wouldn't help him. You're like, nope, you made your bed. You're gonna sleep in it. We will return back to that story later to see how Mike actually handled it. But we're going to now view it in how Christ will want us to handle. So who would like to read for me Matthew 5:43 to 48? Any volunteers? Oh, Asher. Okay. Yes. 43 to 48.
• 6:11
  Speaker B: 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 rise on the evil and on the resemblance. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do you even be taxable if those do the same? Dear brothers, what more are you doing than others. You therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father's purpose.
• 6:47
  Speaker A: Amen. All right, so we read that portion of Scripture. Now, we understand that this is part of a bigger picture, right? This is part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Have you guys been through part of the Sermon on the Mount yet? I would assume, can. Can some of y' all tell me some of the themes so far that you have ran across in the Sermon on the Mount? It's always the preacher's child. Yep. I. I figure anger. Anger. What? Give me. Tell me a little bit more about anger.
• 7:19
  Speaker B: So talk about how you shall not murder, but, like, even if you hate someone and are, like, mad at them, that's already murder in your heart.
• 7:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. Amen. Anger. Great. There's other themes. Somebody else, like, preferably on this side of the room, because I've been hearing from this side the whole time. Anybody else? Nobody. Nothing. Tough crowd, man. All right. All right. So other things he talked about was like the Beatitudes or the blessings, right? Talked about salt and light, right? That, you know, with your salt and your light, if you are not salt, you lose your flavor or whatever. You're useless.
• 8:02
  Speaker B: Right?
• 8:02
  Speaker A: We talk about how Christ came to fulfill the law, lust, divorce, oaths. The last one right before it was retaliation. So those are some of the things that is talked about in this text. So what we're going to do is we're going to walk through this text. I'm going to walk through verse by verse, just explain some things, ask some questions, and if you have any questions, raise your hand. I'm willing to stop in between to just dialogue. Like I said, I want the dialogue. I don't want to sit up here and be a boring teacher. Right. So let's start with verse 43. Right? Jesus says, you heard? You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Right? So, like, where does that come from? Right. Where does this saying come from? Right. Because portion of it is part of Scripture. You should love your neighbor is part of Scripture. But where does the hate your enemy come from?
• 9:07
  Speaker C: Not from Christ.
• 9:09
  Speaker A: Best answer. Not from Christ. Right. It is not part of the Word.
• 9:12
  Speaker B: Right.
• 9:13
  Speaker A: That is good, Lacey. Great answer. Great answer. I love that answer. It wasn't for Christ. Right. So just to understand what happened here, this came from pretty much. If you look back at the Qumran scrolls, it has what they call a community rule. And in that community rule, it says, love all sons of light and hate all sons of darkness. So this is something that the Pharisees adopted So they figured, well, since we love our neighbors, then the opposite should be true about our enemies, we should hate them. Wasn't in Scripture, but that was the conclusion that they came to. So that's where that particular deal comes from. And it's in their writing. So just to pan out, the Qumran scrolls, Those are scrolls that are found in 11 caves in Qumran. And what these scrolls, what was in these scrolls were biblical writings. But then there was also, like, writings like, hey, here's how we live. Here's what we do in such and such situations. And so when we found those scrolls, it gave us a good indication, like, hey, how did these Jews live and operate with the people around them? And there was a, hey, if you hate our God, we hate you in a sense. But that's not what Christ told them to. So ultimately, what they did was they twist God's word. They changed it. They made it fit what they wanted, right? It made it fit their evil hearts, right? So dis your servers as a reminder, don't take, don't add or take away from God's word. Let God's word be what God's words is now. So Jesus response to this, It's a simple no, you love your enemy. So someone tell me, how does love. What does love your enemy look like? All right, I might just stand you right here next to me and I just point to you at this. No, you're good. You're good. I'll just.
• 11:31
  Speaker C: Forgiving them even when they shouldn't be forgiven, in a sense.
• 11:34
  Speaker A: Yeah, forgiving them. That is a form of love. Caleb, what you got? Oh, you look like you had something.
• 11:42
  Speaker B: So you could, like. Even if, like, you hate someone you like, help them.
• 11:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, help them. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I agree. Right, so like, you know, let's say your sworn enemy of all time, Austin, right, He's on the side of the road, flat tire, you pull your car over and you go help him. Yeah, definitely. What about you, Asher?
• 12:09
  Speaker B: I don't know.
• 12:10
  Speaker A: You don't know nothing? All right, fair enough, man. Fair enough, boy. All right, so, yes, that's what you do. You help them. In Luke 6, 27:31, there's a parallel Scripture, right, that explains how interesting enough that Luke parallel Scripture is somewhat found in the earliest Scripture of retaliation. But I'll read to Luke 27:31, where it says here, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, to the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other. Awesome. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them too. So that's how you love your enemy, right? You do nice to them. You don't revile evil with evil. And also, this is not neutrality, right? You can't be like, okay, well, I don't hate you, but I'm not going to do anything to show any kind of love to you either. Jesus doesn't call for neutrality.
• 13:34
  Speaker B: Right?
• 13:36
  Speaker A: I'm curious. Do anybody have a story, like, of a time where you actually love someone that was, like, really hard to love? Anybody got any? No? Nobody? Nothing. Hmm. I'll give y' all a little bit of time to think on that. You lived, like, a whole life, didn't you? Like, you were great. I, I, I love her. She is awesome. All right, what, what do you have? What do you have?
• 14:13
  Speaker B: So you said, Mike, what was your question?
• 14:16
  Speaker A: Oh, give me just a time, A story of where, like, you love someone that was, like, really hard. Cool. Fair enough. I, I love elementary stories.
• 14:39
  Speaker C: So I made a game, and I put, like, my whole self in it and all this stuff. And then somebody came and took my idea and portrayed it as their own. So in my heart, I got angry, but I still played with them, and still. And, like, still played, even though they were saying it was their game when I played it.
• 15:05
  Speaker A: And,
• 15:07
  Speaker C: and one thing that I said was, even though you were, like, saying, this is your game, I know it's mine, but I'm not going to get
• 15:18
  Speaker B: mad at you for it. Oh.
• 15:20
  Speaker C: And we kept playing. I. There's still a grudge, but those are hard to get rid of.
• 15:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 15:27
  Speaker C: But I did not act out on my hate or my anger.
• 15:32
  Speaker A: All right, that's a good story. Thank you. Thank you for that. Wow. So, as you see, even in her situation, she wasn't neutral. She withhold her love. She actually extended it, even though she was rightfully angry.
• 15:54
  Speaker B: Right.
• 15:55
  Speaker A: So that's a good thing. Right? Now I want to make some distinctions about loving your enemy. Can somebody tell me what that doesn't mean? You're laughing so much, I'm wondering, like, so what? Loving your enemy doesn't mean? How can you take that too far? How can you move? Moving into where you're actually being sinful? All right, you. Yeah, let's get one. Come on, take a shot.
• 16:34
  Speaker B: Oh, like if they're like. Or something like that, or, like, be like. Or be like, oh, no, no, no. They're bully. They're bullying you, okay? And you're like, you know what? I'm your friend. I'll bully other people with you.
• 16:51
  Speaker A: There you go. So taking. Taking part in their sin. Yes. Right. That's a good one. I'm glad you're thinking it through, man. I'm glad you're thinking. That's all I ask. Just think it through. Right? So, yeah, partaking in their sin, affirming their sins, saying like, hey, you're. What you're doing is good. That's not how we love our enemies. We love them with the actual truth. We tell them the truth. Like, hey, what you're doing is wrong. Loving people can't be telling them the truth. I understand this world. You would get the hey, you got to affirm me the way I am. So if I identify as a furry unicorn with butterfly wings, you gotta be like, hey, yeah, I believe that. No, you don't. You tell them the truth. You say, hey, no, you're made in the image of God. You have worth because you're made in the image of God. You are a human boy or girl, whichever you're talking to at the moment, right? Tell them the truth. That's the loving thing. And so if we move into verse 45, you see where he says, so that you may be sons, right? So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. So he's giving you this reason why, right? That you're doing this because you want to imitate God the Father. You want to imitate who God is, right? That's what's being mentioned there, right? And it goes further to say, for. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and send rain on the just and the unjust. So our identity and what we're doing is rooted in who God is, right? So when he talks about the sun and the rain, would you all agree the sun and the rain is good? Not even a trick question like. Like, sun and rain is good, right? In that time, it was even more important, right? Because you gotta have sunlight, you know, for nurture plants and even to seed, you gotta have rain so you can have crops grow, right? Nowadays, y' all probably wouldn't even notice the sun was out. Like, you'd be on your phones. And only way you'll notice the sun was out, unless you got a notification on whichever social media page you're on, like, hey, the sun's out. You'd be like, what? Oh, it is out. So, yeah, I know. I took a dig at you guys.
• 19:24
  Speaker C: Kind of like checking the time after, like, being on for too long. And then you check the time and
• 19:29
  Speaker A: it's like, it's 3am and the sun's like, see? Exactly. You wouldn't even notice. You would not notice. But back then, they really needed the sun and water. So when they're hearing this, they understand, like, oh, God does make the sun shine on the just and the unjust. God lets the rain come for the good and the evil. So, like, both good and evil, just and unjust, all share in God's providence. They all share in what God provides. God is not just being like, hey, I'm only going to provide sun and rain for my people. And you know what? You people that hate me, you figure it out. He doesn't do that. So us, as, in like manner, we can't do that. We have to imitate our Father. So we have to love both the good and the wicked. Now, as we see that, we're going to move faster. Verse 46, he says, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not. Even the tax collectors do the same. What do you think Jesus is getting at here? Anybody? Anybody? Somebody? Yes. Yeah, it's easy to love someone who loves you back. Thought experiment. All right, give me somebody that is terrible, whether in history or current. Give me any name. Oh, oh, oh, yeah, bring them. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, come on. Asher.
• 21:08
  Speaker B: No, not you. Hitler.
• 21:10
  Speaker A: Hitler. Bam. Okay, say what? I don't even know who that is, but okay. Anybody else? Come on, give me. Give me some names. You say what?
• 21:25
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 21:25
  Speaker A: That's personal. Okay, that is all the way. Thank you for sharing, though. All right. Yeah, if you got more. Come on. You say what? Oh, okay, you're joking now. Come on. Come on, Epstein. Okay, give me anybody else. Anybody else.
• 21:45
  Speaker B: Wait, wait.
• 21:46
  Speaker A: What kind of people? Terrible people? Evil people? Like, yes, no, definitely not talking about good people.
• 21:58
  Speaker B: The inventor of school.
• 21:59
  Speaker A: The what?
• 22:00
  Speaker B: The inventor of school.
• 22:01
  Speaker A: The inventors of school. Okay, I can't. All right, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. Y' all are getting carried away. All right, so all those people you named Hitler,
• 22:14
  Speaker C: were there any other ones?
• 22:16
  Speaker A: Like, all the other ones, your friend or enemy? The girl at your school? All right, cool. What God is saying is that if you only love the people that love you, you're no better than Hitler when it comes to your love. You're no better than your enemy when it comes to love. You're no better than any of them. What are you doing that's so important and so special that they aren't doing? Hitler loved the people that loved him. Unless they were Jew. But that's a different story. Yeah, that's the question. That's the deal. It's like your love. Is it. Do you have a high call of love? That's the question. Is your love a high call of love to where you are loving your enemies, you're loving the people that don't love you. Are you willing to go that far? That is what Christ is pointing out here. Because, see, at the time of the Jews, right here's what they did. They were like, hey, Gentiles, no, we'll take the long way. We will go out of our way just not to be in your presence. That's what they did. And so Jesus is confronting this. In a sense. He's saying, hey, no, that's not what I called you to. I called you to be a light to the nations. How can you be a light to the nations if you don't go to the nations? So we continue. I'm going to read a quote from Charles Spurgeon. Anybody know who Charles Spurgeon is? I would hope so. I hope so, because that looked bad on Austin. So here's the quote. Love for love is man like, but love for hate is Christlike. Shall we not desire to act on our high calling? Think about that. Just because loving someone that loves you is easy, in fact, you're obligated to love the person that loves you. In fact, it's a benefit to love someone that loves you. There's no benefit in loving someone that hates you. You don't gain anything from that. But yet this is what Christ called us to do. And then, you see, in verse 46, it just kind of reiterates the same thing, right? You, you know, sorry, verse 47, it reiterates the same thing. If you greet your. If you only greet your brothers, what more are you doing than others don't do? Not even the Gentiles do the same. So, like, if you're just greeting people that you like. Here's another thing. When y' all came in today, right? Who did y' all greet? Yeah, you greeted the person that you knew. Comfortable with. Yeah, I'm comfortable with you. We're good. Yeah, we're good. That's what you did, right? You came in, you walked in, you was like, hey, I'm gonna go and greet the person. I know. Ask you another question. I mean, y' all greeted somebody that you didn't know. Anybody else? Who'd you greet that you didn't know?
• 26:06
  Speaker B: Jackson.
• 26:07
  Speaker A: Jackson. Okay, fair. Anybody else? No. Okay. So you greeted. Most of you greeted the people you knew. Jesus is saying, it's like, hey, you should also greet those that you don't know, that you don't like. The ones that you are like, man, I can't stand that person. I just wish, like, they fall off a cliff or something one day. Just saying, even that person, you should greet them. Here's the thing, right? When we were talking about love, Love is not this fuzzy, warm, gooey feeling. It's not like, oh, I just get butterflies when I see you. That's not love that comes and goes. Love is. It has action behind it. You can love someone and that can make you mad, and you can still decide to love them, right? You can love someone who has hurt you, and it's by your actions. You're not withholding something from them. Now, as we get to this last part, we get to verse 48, right? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. All right, what we're. Let's just start at the top, right? We're not talking about sinless perfection, right? Obviously there's context, and the context is talking about love, loving your enemies, this perfection, or to be perfect. In the Greek, this could mean to be mature or to be complete. So we're not talking about this quality of excellence that you just stay at. We're talking about this move towards a Christlike law. So we're talking about you moving towards it. For instance, in. In First John 4:12, he talks about. He says here, no one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. So we see this love is not you being perfect in it, but it perfects you. It makes you more like your Father in heaven. Now, what I want to say just going through this, you're not saved because you love people. You're saved because you place your faith in Christ. The love part, that's the result. That's the fruit of being saved. That's the fruit of being a new creation, that you have some desire to love. People who treat you like trash. I'll get you in a second. I'm getting close to wrapping up, so here's what I want to leave you with. Here's the deal. The crux of the matter. Christ calls us to love our Enemies doesn't call us to hate our enemies or be indifferent or neutral. Cause us to love them, to pray for them. Speak nice of them at times, not lying, but speak nice to them. You find a good characteristic trait. Yeah, you can say that to even help them. We're called to a high call of love. Why? Because God shows His common love for both sinner and saint. So who are you? Who are you saying, no, I get to withhold my love. Question is, are you better than God? Yeah, that hit me too, a little bit. I was thinking about somebody I need to really reconcile with. But are you following God? We see it in Christ, his salvific love, right? We see it there where Christ's atonement worked, his dying on the cross. He died for sinners. He died for people who hated him on the cross. Christ said, father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. He didn't curse them, he didn't get mad at them. And out of everybody in this room and all over the world, he's the only one that didn't do them wrong. So this should push us to love our enemies because we did not deserve the love of God and yet he gave it. So we should be willing to give our love even if they don't deserve it. That's the logical thought to that. Now I just want to say, if you don't know the love of Christ through salvation, one of the things I would say right now is I call you to come to Christ, call you to place your faith in Christ, to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. Experience the salvific love of Christ, this love that will transform you to a new creation, that gives you the ability to love your enemies. Because that is not a natural thing. It is something that you only see in sinners, but only the fruit. This is only the fruit that is produced by the redeemed, by those who have followed Christ. You've heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Christ says, love your enemy. And Christ says, be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for your everlasting love. Thank you for just your grace that you have bestowed upon us today. Thank you for giving us things that we did not deserve. Father, I ask you to search our hearts, to help our hearts, to help us love those who are unbearable, to help us love those who hate us. Father, I pray that you would do a work in us, cause us to want to reach our hand out and extend our hand out to those who are against us and just show the love of Christ to all people at all times. Father, we thank you for your atonement, your atoning work in Christ. We thank you for just your salvific love. We give you all the glory, all the praise, all the honor. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.