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Preaching Conference Part 2 By David Cook

Other Talks on preaching can be found at SMBC bibletalks

Okay are we about right? Okay let's move through we've got the first point James and John ask Jesus to do whatever they ask verse 35 Would somebody like to give us the next point that you have there?
Point two
Jesus explains what's the problem with their request Right so Jesus explains what now I would, thanks Don, I would even be more  specific Jesus answers what do you want me to do for you?
Okay I'd actually try and use as much as possible the words without interpretation but Jesus certainly wants them to know the implications of their request Okay now the next one
We actually got the whole verse 38 to 40 and just said you don't know what you're asking and it's not for me Right okay
But I mean it's interesting that you say try and use the words because are you trying to use the words that you're summarising or are you
Because you're not using all the words that's all, what you're trying to do, you're trying to summarise but you're trying also not to make an interpretation
And the more you use your own words the more likely you are to interpret
Yeah we tend to read it interpretively yes
Wouldn't it be an idea David that we ask people to give the whole of their
Yes that's a good idea
Okay
Would you like to give all your points there Gavin?
Alright number one is, I'll just keep going from where I left off
Yeah go from one, just run through them all
Number one James and John asked Jesus to sit in his right hand in the morning
Alright
So you don't know what you're asking and it's not for me but yeah it's for me
Number three, the ten are cranky with James and John all absolute
Number four, my disciples will not act like Gentile leaders do
Number five, Jesus leaders or my leaders are servants
And number six, we still have ground time
Yeah okay and I'm among you as a servant and I give my life thanks, that's good
Peter would you like to give us, are you and Don working together there?
Oh yes
Would you like to run us through your
Okay
Well what we came up with was number one the ambition of the son of the servant is 35 to 37
Number two, Jesus explains what's involved in this request, 38
Number three, the disciples' confidence, verse 39a
Number four, Jesus predicts their suffering, verse 39b
Five, Jesus declines their request, verse 40
Number six, the other disciples become indignant, verse 41
And seven, the secret of true greatness kind of sums up 42 to 45
We ran out of time
Yeah I press myself to be more what's actually being said, that's all
Catherine Ruth do you want to read through yours?
Alright and we have slightly different ones, we do have one like at the beginning that James and John,
James and John ask Jesus to do whatever they ask, that's because 35
35 yeah
Yes, the next one, Jesus asks them what their question is
Yep
Jesus and John ask to sit at his right and left hand in glory, verse 37
Jesus, how am I, Jesus asks whether they think they can suffer as he will
And I suppose he does, but that's all that it is in the same context
Yep
Verse 37, Charles and John say they can, verse 39
Jesus confirms yes I will and then says it's not for me to grant Jesus your request, verse 40
The other, the other disciples become indignant and then Jesus, my disciples,
move through the people, not loaning over them, follow my example
Okay thank you, right so remember all your verse references there, so that's followed this pretty much
Thanks for all that, now just running through then, there's the eight points,
James and John ask Jesus to do whatever they ask, one of the values of this is getting it into your head in some structured form
James and John ask Jesus to do whatever they ask, 35
Jesus answers what do you want me to do for you, verse 36
They want the place on his right and left in glory, verse 37
Jesus asks can they be baptised or drink his cup, they say we can, verse 37, 38
He says they will not be allocated those places, it's not his prerogative, verse 39 to 41
The ten are indignant, verse 41, seven Jesus says don't rule like the Gentiles, you must serve and be slave, 42 to 44
Eight, the son of man came to serve his great service to give his life a ransom for many, verse 45
So you're trying to use, you're certainly trying to summarise that you're trying to get the main flow of it
and you're trying to use as much as possible the first person wording the conversation as much as you can
Now that follows pretty well, the request which is indicative of verse 1 and 2
the response, the indignation and the tend
and so that would mean, sorry and then Jesus teaches
and that would mean probably I'll put there that it's probably a four point structure of a sermon
so when you come to expound the passage you're probably going to have four points to your structure
so where there's conversations like this back and forth, he said, they said, he said, they said
you probably don't have as distinct movements
Now just work together, again work through the text and ask yourself
are any pictures being used here, what pictures are actually being used in the text
and then we'll have a look at the dominant picture because there's a few pictures being used here
in the text, so just read through together and just note down the picture language used
Okay, so what have we got, the sort of pictures you've got
Any suggestions of pictures?
Right, right and left hand side in heaven, places of honour, what else?
What's the picture there?
The disciples are in heaven and Jesus telling them what they're going to receive
or the ark that they're going to receive
I'm not sure how the picture emerges, that's all
So you've got this right left hand side, what else have you got?
Right, drinking a cup, being baptised with the baptism, what else?
Right, pressing down, oppressive leadership, etcetera, greatest servant
So what I've put here is the prerequisite of honour is suffering, that is baptism cup,
drinking the cup, the foaming cup of God's wrath, Old Testament background
Gentile rule is oppressive, literally it presses down
By contrast the Christian serves, so the greatest among you is he who is served or who serves
The greatest among you is you've got the contrast there, the paradox, the greatest is the servant
That leads me then to talk about kingdom leadership
I think the subject here is kingdom leadership, the complement is honour comes via suffering
The great are the servants, our king is a servant who gives his life as a ransom for many
So our Lord primarily is a servant
Therefore the sort of questions I'd ask, why did Jesus come?
He came to give his life for ransom for many
What is leadership? How to lead? Where is the model leader? What does leadership mean?
And really you choose the question which you think the passage is answering
and to do that you need to put the passage into its context
What is Mark wanting this section to be answering?
It's the Gospel, it's the revelation of the Saviour, it's the second half of the Gospel
What it means for Jesus to be the Son of God
So you are the Christ, the Son of the living God
Well what does it mean for him to be the Son of God?
It means that he's going to offer his life as a ransom for many
So it seems to me therefore what does leadership mean?
Jesus says what I'm about to do for you is indicative of how you are to lead
Now I've put down application at the foot of a page there
but we'll come back and have a look at that later
So let's now move on to the passage which we want to focus on this morning
and that is Matthew chapter 5 verse 43 to 48
What I want to do is we're going to work on a pyramid on this section
and then having completed our pyramid I'm going to preach the passage
Matthew chapter 5 reading from verse 43 to 48
Yes I do
Matthew 5 verse 43 to 48
You have heard that it was said love your neighbour and hate your enemy
but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
that you may be sons of your father in heaven
He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous
If you love those who love you what reward would you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your brothers what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect
Now I'll just put up what I think are the main movements there
Now this is my writing okay there's an architect with the other nice neat stuff so this is mine
Now I think the main movements in this section if you just follow in the Bible there
is you've heard that it was said but I say to you
and you've heard that it was said love your neighbour and hate your enemy
but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
and the reason is because you'll show yourself to be children
the sons of your heavenly father who loves without discrimination
and the summary is therefore be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect
So what I think you've got there is a statement
the reason to back the statement up and a closing exhortation
Now therefore there'd be three movements in that passage
and therefore there's probably going to be three points in the sermon
You've heard that it was said but I say this is the reason now here's the summary
Right now if you could try just work again in your pairs
and see how you go with your summary this point and try and again summarise it
without adding any interpretive detail yourself
Right now how about Russell and you and Dale give us your summary
if you just want to run us through it and if we all follow our summary there
That was Jesus' contract what people say with love your enemies
Right
This is what it normally says
Yep
That's verse 43 with first reference
OK
This one?
Well Jesus said this is what I say, love your enemies
and I say to those service people the third you may show you
that was Jesus' father verse 44
Yeah
And the third point was his father is good to all
that's 45
Yep
For the indeed you fill out those who love you 46, 47
With that word that's all you need to do
and you're saved everyone
The last one?
6
Point 6
The person who's the father
Right so it's hard to say that in any other way is it?
Rightio let's look then OK you've heard that it was said
so I've just got said love your neighbour hate your enemy verse 43
Point 2 love your enemies and pray for your persecutors
but I say to you verse 44 love your enemy and pray for your persecutor
Point 3 you will thereby show that you're children of your father
who loves without discrimination
that is he sends the sun he sends the rain without discrimination
verse 45
Point 4 if you love and greet only your friends
what reward will you get verse 46 and 47
and point 5 be perfect as God is perfect
verse 48
Now I have here a three point movement
you've said you've heard that it was said
that is point 1 but I say to you point 2
the reason point 3 and 4
so that you'll show yourself to be children of your father in heaven
who loves without discrimination
and that's the sort of love you to show to your enemies
and the summary is be perfect as God is perfect
Now with regard to context
there's just a couple of things I'd want to say
first of all I want to recognise that this in the bible
is a gospel
and it's a gospel therefore showing
in this first gospel the culture of the kingdom of heaven
and that is certainly what the Sermon on the Mount is
that Jesus is expounding the culture of his kingdom
the book itself, Matthew, is the gospel which traditionally
has been written by a Jew for primarily a Jewish audience
and in this section of Matthew's gospel
Jesus is showing the nature of the redeemed life
so John Stott's commentary for example
in the bible speaks today
on the Sermon on the Mount
is God's counterculture or something like that
the idea that this is the culture of the redeemed
now that's important to notice the context here
that Jesus isn't saying
if you do this you will be redeemed
but the fruit of redemption is that this is the way
those who are in the kingdom are to live their lives
not in order to get into the kingdom
but because we are part of this kingdom
because we are God's children
this is how we are to live
now what do you think, just talk to your neighbour there
what do you think is the dominant picture in this passage?
what is it?
throw it around a bit
is there any obvious picture here?
if there's no obvious picture, talk about it
get yourself thinking about the dominant picture
okay, let's stop
you guys, what are you talking about?
what are you talking about here?
I think in the last conversation we thought
that fatherhood was probably the main image
and then we got to talking about whether
fatherhood is an image or if it's a context
for one of us it was
perhaps more of a
lots of images for one of us
so you're at the reason
and you do this
the main point is not
the main point is the exhortation
but the reason for the exhortation is what you're focusing on
so you show yourself to be
children of your father, this is what he's like
therefore you love your enemies
and you'll show yourself to be children of your father
so you're talking about fatherhood, what else are you talking about?
we started to talk about
the danger of using
fatherly images
right, okay
so the picture you've got is fatherhood here
right, okay, so someone else
you guys up there, what have you got?
we started with
I said our family values
we've got family values
okay so here's a picture
family values in this family
what?
David came up with the idea of
this is father-son
like father-son
right
someone with friends
and I'm actually in a picture here
and he's talking about pictures
I've seen a picture on the internet
where a dad is off to do some sort of
handyman job
and he's settled in his friends in a similar way
and he's got a little
a little display with all the background
just like he's standing right behind him
so here's a great picture
that's what you might throw up on the
on the overhead
okay like father like son
yep, so you've taken the same one
anybody else, anybody else got another picture?
I just throw up, they're excellent ones
I just got here
apart from the fatherhood issue
the unlikely combinations
the unnatural companions
we don't often put enemy
together with love
persecutor, prey
it's just unnatural
I could do something in this kingdom
it's a kingdom of paradoxes
it's a kingdom where enemies
are loved
it's a kingdom where great ones
are the servants
it's paradoxical
but I think that's a better one
that the issue is you're like father like son
okay now what do you think the subject is?
what do you think is the subject of this passage?
43 to 48
one word, two words, three words?
magnificent reversal
magnificent reversal
something else?
treatment of enemies
sorry, treatment of enemies, right that just gets in
three words, treatment of enemies
is there a wider subject here of which
treatment of enemies is a part?
what about verse 48?
could that be a wider context
that's humane subject
so be perfect as your father is perfect
so it may well be maturity
okay so I would say maturity
especially in relation to enemies
so let's just work on the fact that
let's say that the subject is maturity
what is verse 43 to 48
teaching us about maturity?
can you get a statement?
just write down something together there
that says this is what the passage is
teaching us about maturity
so be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect
the word is mature, complete
so can you get a statement that says
what this passage is teaching you
about maturity?
work on it together
okay so what have we got there?
what do you reckon?
what does the passage teach us about maturity?
loving the enemy
right loving the enemy
loving the unlovely
something else?
loving unconditionally
loving unconditionally like our father
is there anything else there?
not reacting to negative actions
it's finding prey
right so not reacting as you'd expect
that's right
so surprising responses
love your enemies, praying for your persecutors
showing that you're children of your father in heaven
being like God
so maturity is to be like God
love and pray for your enemies
so be mature as God is mature
so just as God loves his enemies
that is us
so we are to love our enemies
and so be mature as God is mature
now that would lead me then
to the question, the big question
what maturity looks like
how to be mature
who is mature?
what maturity looks like
how to be mature
who is mature?
and I think I probably would go with the how to be mature
the how to questions are always
the easier ones to preach on
but you can't always have how to questions
every Sunday
there's a sameness about it
now when it comes to application
we're going to look much more at application this afternoon
what do you think the passage teaches us about God?
and what does the passage teach us about people?
you want to just write down a few things
just work your way through the passage
and write down a few attributes of God
and then a few characteristics of people
and what I like to do with the us one
is we'll look at this afternoon
is the HDF
it's an American concept, the HDF
the human depravity factor
okay
you can just imagine that
the human depravity factor
that is
can you see any evidence in this passage
of the human depravity factor?
okay
so that's what you're looking for
us, the HDF and God
the characteristics of God
so talk about that as well
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Okay
What's some feedback about
what does it teach us about God?
Generous to all
Generous to all
His love doesn't depend on the beloved
Right
His love is unconditional
doesn't depend on our loveliness
something else
Naturally love, I guess on the last verse 48 that he is the standard of maturity or perfection
be perfect as God is perfect. Okay so indiscriminate generosity, perfection, etc.
What does it teach us about us? Do you see any evidence of human depravity here?
Discriminating.
Right, it is discriminating. You've heard someone was saying
love your neighbour but hate your enemy. Anything else? Yes?
We experience God's goodness in life.
Right, we do experience God's generous unconditional goodness. Anything else?
Further down, 46, 47?
Except that there are enemies.
There are enemies, yep.
Even on the levels in love, it's not a good thing.
Yeah, that's right. So there's nothing in loving lovable people and greeting your friends.
Even the tax collectors do that. Okay, so that shows us therefore a number of issues there.
We do discriminate. We hedge love. There's no reward.
It's interesting in the Sermon on the Mount how often Jesus talks about reward.
Now we haven't looked at this but just try your hand.
What do you think is the necessary application of the passage?
That is, if you were to apply this in your Bible study group,
how do you think it applies to everybody no matter who they are in whatever state they are in?
All of God's people. How would you apply it?
Then secondly, apply it to yourself.
And then thirdly, what do you think is the impossible application of the passage?
So just have a talk about that together.
So you should have your necessary application.
So go on now to your possible if you could please. That's more personal.
Those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
He causes his Son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward would you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect.
I was in the Angus and Robertson bookstore in Sydney and I saw as I was walking along looking at the books,
I saw a book called The 100, a ranking of the most influential people in history.
It attracted me and I thought that would be good to have in our college library.
The author Michael Hart says in compiling that book that he is very careful to explain
that he's not providing a list of the best or the greatest of the 100 people in world history
but those whom he believes has had the most influence on the history of the world.
When I got home I opened up to see who was the number one most influential person
in the history of the world according to Michael Hart.
And it turned out to be Mohammed.
Number two, the second most influential person according to Michael Hart,
Isaac Newton, the father of modern science.
I was getting a bit frustrated and I turned over and number three, there he was, Jesus.
And I was ready to argue with Michael Hart but in his introduction Michael Hart anticipated my argument.
And this is what he said,
I'm neither a Muslim nor a Christian.
But from my observation Mohammed has far more influence in the lives of Muslims
than Jesus has in the lives of Christians.
And that got me thinking.
I was going to prepare a series of 13 sermons for principals there at college
because we have 13 weeks in a semester.
And I thought what I'd like to do is work through a Gospel, I chose Matthew's Gospel,
and just read through and see if there are 13 swabs of teaching from Jesus
which believers, not unbelievers, but believers basically pay no attention to.
And by the time I got to Matthew 28 I had more than 13 sections to preach on, on the unheeded Christ.
But this is the first one and I want you to have a look at this section.
And interestingly enough it is the example which Michael Hart himself uses
as the primary reason he puts Jesus at number 3 and not at number 1.
Let's look at verse 48.
The Lord Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
And really that is a summary statement of his sermon thus far.
The idea of perfect is to be mature.
It is to be complete.
It is to be around it, something that is working perfectly.
That's the concept of maturity.
We are to be mature or perfect as God is mature or perfect.
And of course Jesus is talking for people who are part of God's kingdom.
Now it's interesting that Jesus here therefore is showing us the way of maturity.
Remember when I first went out with my wife we went out to a musical, we went out to a movie.
And in one scene of this movie you have a man, and this is maturity according to Hollywood,
who has a 16 year old boy.
He comes to an institution, he knocks on the door, he says to the person who answers the knock,
I give you the boy, you give me back the man.
Now what is it according to Hollywood that is going to turn a boy or a girl
into a mature man or mature woman?
Well according to Hollywood he was standing outside a saloon bar with a bottle inside.
What is going to make this boy a man?
Illicit sex, whiskey and cigars.
That's the answer according to Hollywood and how perverse it is.
Because look at what the Lord Jesus says, what is the way of maturity, what is the way of perfection?
Well let's look at what he has said so far.
Go back to verse 21 in chapter 5.
And he says here in verse 21, don't murder, anger or slander your brother by calling him a fool.
It's so confronting isn't it? You think oh well, a word of slander here, a little bit of hatred there.
No Jesus says, maturity is the way of reconciliation and communication.
Well look down at verse 27, adultery he says, there is to be no adultery in thought or in deed.
You say come on, you can't escape it.
I mean it can't be wrong, it's all around us.
There is appeal to adultery in the way we think.
Jesus says the way of maturity is that you will resist lust like death.
Look at verse 31, he talks about divorce and it is no right, it is on very limited grounds.
But even then it is not a right.
It's so common these days.
My wife and I have been house hunting.
What has struck us as incredible in Sydney is not the number of deceased estates we're finding,
but the number of houses that have to be sold because of separation within the marriage, because of divorce.
We find them everywhere every Saturday.
And yet here the Lord Jesus is saying we are to resist unfaithfulness.
It is so common that love should be at the mercy of our feelings leading to divorce.
No Jesus says the way of maturity is the way of faithfulness.
And then he goes on in verse 33 and he says what about the way you give an oath?
Let your yes be yes and your no be no.
It's so common isn't it to break your word.
I said to my dad a few years ago, what's it like doing business in Sydney today
compared with doing business in Sydney in the 50s?
I've either said in the 50s you could shake on it and the deal was done.
There's no good today, you need to get it in triplicate, signed, witnesses, etc.
And then the deal's done. In the 50s a man's word was his bond.
And Jesus says that's the way of maturity.
What kind of man, Psalm 15, can live in the world where God lives?
One who will swear to his hurt but abide by his promise.
And then finally in the section just before this one, see what he says, verse 38.
There is to be no revenge, there is to be no defensiveness about this.
Where litigation is a right, it is a way of life.
There is to be no personal retribution, Jesus says.
You're not to go that way.
And then finally he culminates, the way of maturity, what Martin Lloyd-Jones says
is the most unique of the Christian commandments
that you are to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.
Now notice here the contrast because Jesus says you have heard that it was said.
It's probably quite common.
And we know that the scribes in the days of Jesus were making this sort of discriminant remark.
Love was to be limited to neighbour and your neighbour was your fellow Jew.
So that passage, that law in Exodus that says you come along and find an ox fallen in the mud
and belongs to your neighbour, pull the ox out of the mud.
But the Jew, Jewish scribes would say well that means that it belongs to your fellow Jew.
If it doesn't belong to your fellow Jew then leave the ox in the mud.
The Jews would make that sort of discrimination.
But notice what Jesus says, but I tell you, verse 44, in other words
we're not to put a fence around love, a racial, political, ethnic, religious, economic fence.
No, that's why the parable of the Good Samaritan was so revolutionary.
He loved without respect to colour, race, creed, whatever.
And Jesus says, that's what I'm telling you, don't put a fence around love.
And here is his command and it seems to me this is the core of what he's saying in this section.
You want to be mature like God? Well love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.
You say well who are my enemies? Well your enemy may be your persecutor.
It may be your political or national enemy.
It may be that person that you just have difficulty in relating to.
It may be a person who holds you as an enemy.
A person you just don't get along with.
You see, look back to verse 38 and you'll see that there Jesus says this is what you are not to do.
There is to be no retaliation, getting back at your enemy for what your enemy has done to you.
But then the positive equivalent of that comes in verse 43.
You are actually to do good, to love and pray for them.
And the reason, he tells us, is in verse 45.
So that the fact that we are God's children is obvious, like father, like children.
Because he is indiscriminately generous to all humanity.
Our first parish was in the country, it was in the northwest of NSW at a place called Wee War.
In that community of Wee War, cotton community, there were farms which were owned by Christians
and there were farms which were owned by non-Christians.
When it rained it rained on the Christian farms and the non-Christian farms.
When the sun rose it shone on the Christian farms and the non-Christian farms. Why?
Because God is commonly generous without discrimination.
That's what Jesus says here in verse 45.
He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good.
He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Is today a beautiful day in Newcastle? Yes.
If you're a believer it's a beautiful day, if you're not a believer it's a beautiful day.
Because God is commonly generous. God loves without discrimination.
What chaos it would be if the sun only shone on the Christian farms, if the rain only fell on the Christian farms.
What chaos therefore in the personal arena if Christians only love one another
and ignore and hate their persecutors and their enemies.
God loves because he is love, not because we are lovable.
It's not a deserved love, it's a gracious love.
And Jesus says your enemies don't deserve your love.
But if you're going to walk the path of maturity then you will love your enemy and pray for your persecutor.
I want exceptions, you don't know what my enemy has done to me.
Jesus gives us no exceptions.
Surely if we are to press beyond the ideal here then we must attach ourselves from ourselves.
That I must respond in love and goodwill no matter how you treat me.
That's so hard because when you treat me badly I want to get back at you.
And yet I cannot allow my response to be compromised by your attitude to me.
And we need to learn to thank God for our friends as well as our enemies.
Because our enemies give us opportunity in our responses to show our true nature.
Is there anyone in your congregation that you would rather not have in your congregation?
Well you think about that person and give thanks to God for them.
Because they're building grace in you and they're giving you opportunities to show
that you are sons and daughters of your Heavenly Father in response.
Now look at what Jesus says here carefully.
He says in verse 44, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.
It may well be that you can only pray like Stephen prayed,
Father don't hold this sin against them.
Jesus prayed, Father forgive them for they don't know what they do.
But very often we will have more opportunities than just praying for them.
We'll be able to love them as well.
And you say well wait on, that all depends what love is.
There's a lovely case study in Jay Adams' book on the Christian Counsellors Manual
in which he says here is the pastor sitting down and a husband and wife from the congregation
come to their pastor in order to tell their pastor that they've decided to get a divorce.
And of course they're telling their pastor so that he can give his seal of approval.
And they say well we're getting a divorce and the pastor says well why are you getting a divorce?
And the husband says because we don't love one another anymore and the pastor says
well I'm sorry to hear that, you need to repent of that and learn to love one another all over again.
In which the couple respond and say listen we're not hypocrites,
you can't get us to love one another again if there's no love there, there's no love there, that's that.
And then the counsellor focuses attention on the husband.
He says the scripture says that you are to love your neighbour, that you are to love your wife,
that you are to love your enemies, however you categorise this woman, you are to love her.
And that is quite right, that love is not feeling first, it is obedient living.
Now look in your Bible there, keep your finger there in Matthew 5 and flip over if you would to Revelation chapter 2.
In Revelation chapter 2 remember that Jesus speaks to the church at Ephesus which has lost its first love.
And immediately he says in Revelation chapter 2 I have this against you, you have forsaken your first love.
All the things that he said about them which are so impressive now seem so empty.
Now what does he advise them, what does he counsel them to do in the face of losing love?
Verse 5, remember the hype from which you have fallen, repent and do the things you did at first.
He doesn't say well now come on engender warm feelings towards me again.
He says repent and do the things you did at first.
And the feeling of love may well and probably will follow but repent and do the things you did at first.
Now go back if you would to Romans chapter 12 verse 14 and 15
because there's a very close parallel between what the Apostle Paul says here
and what the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 5.
Notice in verse 14 and 15 of this general section on exhortation
that the Apostle Paul says bless those, verse 14 of Romans 12, bless those who persecute you.
Bless them, that is literally give them a eulogy and don't curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.
Now when my enemy rejoices I have a tendency to mourn
and when my enemy is mourning I have a tendency to rejoice.
I do exactly the opposite of what Paul the Apostle exhorts us here.
That is he says that I am to bless in the face of cursing,
I am to rejoice with my enemy as he rejoices at his success
and I am to mourn alongside my enemy as my enemy mourns as he faces life.
And that is what I'm to do.
Now here the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul seem to be saying therefore
that we are to act in love in creative ways, we are to be surprising people
and seek to pray that God will open up creative ways for me to show love for my enemies.
Now I have enemies.
I'm speaking to you right now from a very oppressive time in the history of our college.
Whenever we seek to build a building at our college our neighbours become very active
and they have never been more active than they are right now.
They've formed a committee that's called Enough is Enough
and it's a committee to oppose the Sydney Missionary and Bible College
rebuilding of our married quarters.
I find it very oppressive.
The last building we put up and opened in 1998 I can remember we had late night phone calls
and people would come on the phone and say I'm going to fight you with my dying breath
I want you to know that whatever you do I'm going to oppose you.
It is irrational, we are sensitive, we are good neighbours
it's a Bible college after all, it's amazing
and yet I find that it's very oppressive in that the opposition we receive.
I was away at Katoomba, my wife grows a nice garden, nice passion fruit
they come out in January, I come home from Katoomba Convention
and Maxine's often pick the passion fruit, put them in the freezer
and while I watch the one day cricket I just carve the passion fruit up, scoop it out
it's beautiful, it's cool.
I came home this time, I went to the freezer, there's no passion fruit.
I went to the passion fruit vine, there's no passion fruit.
I said to Maxine where are the passion fruit?
She said I picked them and I took them down the street and gave them to the neighbours.
I said you didn't go to Numbah so and so so and so did you and give them to that bloke?
She said I went there first and I gave him a nice packet of passion fruit
and I invited him to the church mission.
I said what my passion fruit should have been in the freezer?
You're giving away to my enemies but it's entirely appropriate isn't it?
You're to look for opportunities of responding to your enemy in a surprising way
and we have one enemy in our street who just lives there the whole time.
He's a man who's younger than me but is too stressed to go to work
and whenever we get a building application he just explodes.
We sort of nicknamed him Mount Vesuvius, he just explodes over it
and I'm lying in bed the other day and I'm telling Maxine about this.
She said why don't you offer him a job?
I said don't come on, offer him a job, come on.
I said that's not a bad idea is it?
Offering a voluntary position, we've got lots of volunteers, lovely people who are retired, gracious, gentle people.
Wouldn't he be good in that group?
Up in our library, working away at the books, getting to know the other side of the student life.
What a precious idea, what a generous idea, what a great idea.
I went down and I offered him the job, tears filled his eyes.
He said you know you people are lovely neighbours, there's no problem of parking in the street.
I thought isn't this an incredible thing?
To respond in ways that are so contrary to really what you want to do.
Jesus said the best way of turning an enemy into a friend is by loving the enemy and getting rid of his enmity.
Now this is the way of true revolution.
See what Jesus says in verses 46 and 47, you know what it's like at university.
When you're at university if you're not a socialist, at 20 you've got no heart,
if you're not a capitalist, at 30 you've got no head, you know the idea.
And when you grow up you realise that all this political business is all the same isn't it?
Politics is built on division.
You identify your enemy and you divide, enemy and friend.
You can still go on and call your friends or enemies comrades or whatever
but it basically is built on the fact that you divide people off into two categories.
You love one and you hate the other.
You love your comrades and you hate those who are above you in the class struggle.
And Jesus said it's also typical.
Look at what he says in verse 46.
If you love those who are part of the party, what reward would you get?
The tax collectors are doing that and if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than anyone else?
The pagan does that.
If you want to be true revolutionaries therefore you are to be indiscriminate in the way you love.
Listen to what Ed Dobson said who's the pastor of a large church in the United States.
He said our church is to be part of the whole political movement, moral majority.
But he said then we came as leaders of our church to recognise that politics demands
that you identify the enemy and you polarise the electorate.
And then he says this and I quote,
our congregation were determined that we are out of the politics business.
We don't even go marching for Jesus anymore.
We are surrounded by homosexual communities
and we determined that we would authentically speak the truth to those communities
accompanied by radical acts of love and compassion.
Truth, redemptive truth accompanied by radical acts of love and compassion.
That is the way ahead.
And that Jesus said is how authentic discipleship is seen.
The highest test of the integrity of my affirmation that I am a child, a son of the living God
is how I treat those who hate me and how I treat those who dislike me.
To return evil for evil is human.
To do good back to good is human.
To do evil in the face of good is devilish.
But to do good in response to evil is actually divine.
And Dietrich Bonhoeffer who died as a martyr under Adolf Hitler in Germany said
the cross is the great differential of the Christian faith that Christ died for sinners.
Powerless, ungodly enemies.
And that must drive everything we do at the heart of Christianity therefore
is the death of God's innocent son for his undeserving people.
Listen to how Michael Hart sums up his introduction.
He says these ideas of Jesus to love your enemies
are surely among the most remarkable and original ethical ideas ever presented
If they were widely followed I would have had no hesitation in placing Jesus first in this book.
But the truth is that they are not followed at all.
In fact they are not even generally accepted.
Most Christians consider the injunction to love your enemy
as at most an ideal which might be realised in some perfect world
but one which is not a reasonable guide to conduct in the actual world we live in.
We don't normally practice love of enemies.
We don't expect others to practice it and we don't teach our children to practice it.
Jesus' most distinctive teaching therefore remains an intriguing but basically untried suggestion.
And when I read that I thought I'd love Michael Hart to meet Gary Lynch.
Gary Lynch whose daughter Anita Colby was tortured to death,
sexually interfered with with those six men at Blacktown railway station.
They were put away in prison and the judge had ordered that they would never be released
such was the dreadful, horrible, terrible things that they'd inflicted on Gary Lynch's daughter
Anita Colby back in 1989.
And when I spoke to Gary Lynch I said how do you feel about those men, your beautiful daughter?
He said I pray for those men every day.
That's all I can do.
I seek to forgive them for what they've done to my wife and I and my daughter from my heart
but they are in the right place, the correct place but I pray for their eternal salvation every day.
I'd like Michael Hart to meet Gary Lynch
and then I'd like Michael Hart to meet Gladys Staines
whose husband Graham and sons Phillip and Timothy
were burnt to death by that crowd in India in 1999.
And having buried her husband and two sons
she returns to the leprosy mission which they founded in 1965
with her only daughter to continue that work.
I'd like Michael Hart to meet Gladys Staines.
Our Lord Jesus says in a most confronting way
if you have enemies, and surely we do, love them.
And when you're praying for the persecuted church
don't neglect to pray for its persecutor as well.
In this way we show that we are running according to the differential of the cross of our Lord Jesus.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father we thank you for these words that come to us
in the culture in which we live
and tell us about the culture of which we are ultimately apart.
We pray our Father therefore that you would give us the fullness of your Holy Spirit
and reserves of grace and goodwill
to respond to those who are against us
in a way which honours you
and says something to them about the nature of your kingdom
and of our relationship to it.
We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus.
Amen.