Amazing faith; Luke 7:1-10

As we continue in our ongoing study of the gospel of Luke, we are looking at an event today which I believe Luke providentially put in this exact location, as an illustration of the preceding message that Jesus had just finished preaching.  If you have been here for the last few weeks, then you know that we were looking in chapter 6 at a sermon Jesus preached which is sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain, which is distinguished from a very similar message in Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount.

But Luke is very strategic in his gospel.  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he has recorded this event immediately following the Sermon on the Plain, and I believe he has done so deliberately in order to illustrate the previous message of Jesus.  He indicates this by following up the previous message with the statement in vs. 1, “When He, (that is Jesus) had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.”  And immediately after His discourse, or sermon, the request comes from a centurion to heal his slave. This healing is not just the record of some random healing, but a miracle directly linked to the passage earlier which will help to illustrate the  message of Jesus.

Now let’s review what Jesus preaching about in the Sermon on the Plain. First of all, Jesus has been preaching a gospel of repentance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, much the same as His forerunner, John the Baptist had been preaching.  But as I have often said, the gospel was given progressively.  Jesus had not died on the cross yet, He had not risen from the dead yet, or ascended into heaven,  so the gospel is still somewhat veiled behind Old Testament curtains, and Jesus is revealing it’s content more and more to those who are following Him.

Many people were following Jesus.  There were large crowds, the multitudes, drawn by the fame of Jesus, coming in response to miracles or when Jesus fed them with the loaves and fishes.  But the faces in the great multitudes were always changing.  But from within this multitude we see Luke describe a sub group called disciples.  There were possibly hundreds of these people, and what disciples means is to be a student, a follower.  But even among this group we see them in a state of flux, coming and going, some growing closer and some falling away.  And then we also saw in chapter 6 another subgroup, even smaller,  known as the apostles.  There were just 12 of them, and they were privy to a fuller understanding of His teaching, because they walked closely with Christ on a day to day basis.

So it should be obvious that those that persevered in their discipleship were given a deeper understanding of the truth, and it should become more apparent as we go through this gospel that Christ will disclose more and more truth to those that persevere with Him and draw close to Him.  And to that end in this next passage we are going to see a very important new concept that is going to become introduced to the disciples that is an essential principle for admittance in the Kingdom of Heaven.
And let me add that this principle of perseverance is just as important today in the church as it was in the time of Jesus.  There is too much emphasis today on sound bite style Christian teaching instead of on the steadfast teaching  of sound doctrine.  It took God 66 books to present the gospel, and so it stands to reason that the full gospel of Christ is not going to be dispensed in a 15 minute homily. There is too much emphasis in the church today on entertainment rather than exegesis,  trying to outdo the special event the church down the street did which results in services that are all about style and have very little substance.  And there is too little perseverance and diligence among believers who come to church once a month seeking some epiphany, that they can then say “ah ha! Got it! Good to go!”  And then you don’t see them for another few weeks until they have another crisis.  If you want to know the truth, the whole saving truth of the gospel and not just a nice sounding sound bite, then you have to be diligent to be under the preaching of sound doctrine on a regular basis.  Listen, not every message is going to be a home run.  Some weeks, I have people come up and tell me that was the best message they ever heard.  The next week, no one says a word about the message.  I guess they didn’t like that one so much.  But I’ll bet you that they probably needed to hear the one that they didn’t like,  at least as much if not more than the one that they liked.

You need to follow a godly pastor, become a student of the word, become a disciple and then be obedient to the truth that God has revealed to you so far.  And if you do that, then God will reveal more.  If you aren’t obedient to what you have heard so far, then don’t expect God to just skip over that and go on to something more to your liking.  God is a strict schoolmaster and He will keep you in second grade until you learn what you need to learn in second grade.

Now, up to this point, Jesus’ teaching has been focused on certain elemental things, or foundational principles of the Kingdom.  He has laid a foundation that acceptance by God was not going to be on the basis of  inheritance, or nationality,  or self righteousness, but it was going to be on the basis of repentance, a recognition of your unworthiness and inability to keep the law or meet the standards of God’s righteousness, and instead acceptance in the kingdom was going to be based on God’s mercy and grace.  But today, we see Jesus introduce a new principle.  And that is the principle that salvation is by faith.  Jesus introduces faith in this healing of the centurion’s slave to more fully disclose the way into the Kingdom of Heaven.

On this side of the cross, we know how essential the doctrine of faith is.  We are familiar with texts such as Hebrews 11:6, which says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  Or  Romans 1:17, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”  But at this point in Jesus ministry, on the other side of the cross, the concept of faith has not really been established yet.  So this illustration is critical to the full disclosure of the gospel.

If we jump down a few verses to vs. 9, we see that Jesus was amazed at this man’s faith. “Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, "I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith."  So I think it would be very beneficial to consider what comprised this great faith that Jesus found amazing, that Jesus said no one else in Israel had.

But first of all, vs. 2 has some background information that we need to put this in historical context.  A centurion’s slave is sick and about to die.  Matthew tells us in his account some more information, that the slave was paralyzed and in torment.  He was on his death’s bed and it was apparent that without divine intervention he was die soon.

Additionally, the text tells us something amazing.  This slave was highly regarded by the centurion. Slaves in the Roman Empire were considered nothing but property that they were free to do whatever they wanted with.  For a slave to be highly regarded by this centurion was an amazing thing. Now a centurion was a Roman soldier.  They weren’t known for being the touchy feely type.  Not only was he a Roman soldier, but he was an officer, a centurion indicating that he had one hundred men under his authority.  It was a position of one who had climbed up the ranks the hard way, enduring many, many battles, hand to hand combat under the harshest conditions of warfare and had established himself to be a leader of men.

We know from the text, that not only was he a warrior, a leader, but he was a wealthy man.  He had built out of his own funds the Jewish synagogue in his community.  Another amazing thing is he was a friend of the Jews.  He may very well have been a proselyte, or a Gentile who had converted to Judaism.   Vs. 5, the Jewish elders said that he loved the nation of Israel.  Now would have been extremely uncommon.  The Jews hated the Romans, and the Romans generally returned the favor.    And finally, as you would expect from a leader of soldiers, he was a man with authority.  He said in vs. 8, “For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."  He wasn’t bragging, he was just stating fact.  Insubordination in the Roman army to your superior could cost you your life.  He was used to following orders and having orders carried out as he wished.

Now all of this is interesting, perhaps, but looked at independently it is not apparent why Jesus would find this man’s faith amazing.  But when you look at this man’s faith in relation to the message Jesus just preached then you start seeing some interesting similarities.  This centurion was an example of the kind of person that Jesus says will be part of the Kingdom.  He is an illustration of amazing faith which amounts to saving faith.  Let’s break down what that looks like in human form.

Do you remember how Jesus started his sermon back in chapter 6 vs. 20? Blessed are the poor, and meek, and the mourning, and the hungry. Those are all characteristics of humility.  So first of all, this man’s faith was characterized by  humility.  The religious leaders from Judaism told Jesus in chapter 7:4, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue."  See, their religion was based on a system of works, whereby God is obligated to do something for you because you have done something for Him.  It’s a religion of self worth.  But look at this centurion’s attitude of humility. Luke 7:6 “Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, " Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”

This centurion understood a fundamental principle of the gospel.  That as Romans 3:10 says, “there is none righteous, no not one.”  He understood Titus 3:5 which says,  it is “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”  The centurion’s recognition of his unworthiness revealed  true humility which is the first principle of faith that grants you entrance into the Kingdom, a recognition of your spiritual poverty and bankruptcy and your need for mercy.

Not only is this man’s faith an example of humility, but also he is also an example of repentance.  The centurion insists, “I am not worthy.”  Don’t come any closer to me.  This is reminiscent of what Peter said in Luke 5::8, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man,"  This is like the publican bowing his head in Luke 18 and beating his breast saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," and he won't even lift his eyes and look toward heaven he's so ashamed.  The centurion exhibited a repentance towards his sinfulness.

Next, not only is the centurion’s amazing faith an example of humility and repentance, but it’s also an example of amazing love.  This man’s love was amazing because it was not natural. But rather I think the text shows that his love is a result of a transformed heart.  He loved his slave in vs.2.  He loved the nation of Israel in vs. 5. He loved God, vs. 6, he calls Jesus “Lord”, which was reserved by Romans as a title of the Emperor.  He was willing to suffer the consequences according to chapter 6 vs. 22, the consequences of allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord, when men will ostracize you, and hate you and scorn you for the sake of the Son of Man.

The word "love" used to describe the centurion’s attitude is agapao, the highest and noblest and richest word for love in the Greek language. He loved with the highest and the best kind of love, the love of the will, the noblest love, not the love of passion and not the love of emotion, but the love of will, a love of putting the needs of others above your own.  A love of commitment.  Agape love is the kind of love with which Christ loved us so much that He died on the cross for us so that we might be saved.

Jesus said in his sermon in chapter 6 vs. 27, that those that are true disciples of Christ will love with the kind of love that God had for us, agape love, which is evidenced by loving your enemies.  This man loved his enemies.  The Jewish elders vouched for that love of the Jewish nation in vs. 5.

And as further confirmation of his transformed heart and illustrative of amazing faith, he showed his love by giving to others without concern for being paid back.  That is another characteristic Jesus presented in His message back in chapter 6 vs.35 "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”  This centurion showed his love by his generosity in building the Jews a synagogue out of his own means.

And that reveals yet another characteristic of this man’s amazing faith, he had a love and reverance for the word of God.  See, the synagogue was very similar to our modern day church. It wasn’t the Temple, it was a local community assembly hall which had as it’s principle purpose the teaching of the Word of God.  This man had a love for the Word of God. And so this is a man who had a love for the truth. This is a man who became a God-fearer, who rejected the polytheism of his Roman nation, turned from whatever gods his people worshiped in favor of the true God, he accepted the people of God, the Jewish people. He accepted the instruction of the Old Testament and even took his own money and built a synagogue. Amazing faith, he built a synagogue for the teaching of the Word of God and he understood the authority and power of the word of God as he expressed in vs.7, “but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  He understood that Christ’s word was God’s word, and as such it is authoritative and sufficient for his need.

What you see in this man is great love, not the normal kind, indicating God's work in his heart, a transformation, a new birth. What you see in this man is great generosity, characteristic of one who has the compassion and mercy of God. What you see in this man is great devotion to God and to the truth of God, as indicated by his connection with the synagogue.  And what you see is amazing humility and a willingness to repent and turn to the truth of God’s word.

So we see this man is an example of the type of person that Jesus was preaching about in the Sermon on the Plain.  The characteristics of those who will enter the kingdom will not be that they can somehow establish their worthiness.  They will not try to show their self righteousness. Jesus is establishing the principle of faith because if you don’t understand that salvation is by faith then you will just exchange the OT law for the Golden Rule.  And people will still think they can earn their way into heaven as a result of doing good deeds.  But what Jesus is revealing here is that the citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven will enter by faith not because of what they have done, but because of  what Christ has done for us.

 They will recognize their spiritual poverty and call upon the Lord for mercy.  And God in response to that cry of repentance, responds in grace.  But what the Holy Spirit is disclosing through this illustration, is that all of these characteristics are the hallmarks of an amazing faith, which is saving faith.  Faith in the provision of Jesus Christ on the cross as a substitute for the death we deserved.  Faith is believing that Jesus is God and that He is sovereign, that He has the power to command and the power over all of His creation.  Faith is believing that Jesus has the power to forgive sins.  Faith is believing that He has the power to give life, even eternal life.  Faith is believing that He has the power to transform our hearts and make us into sons of God.  Faith is believing all of that, and then willing to act upon that faith and follow Christ, obeying Christ, doing what Christ wants us to do regardless of the consequences.

So what was Christ’s response to this centurions’ faith?  Look at vs.9  “Now when Jesus heard this, [that is, He heard the centurion declare that he knew that Christ had the authority to command healing with just a word] He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, "I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith."  And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.  Jesus healed the centurion’s servant with just a word.

But please listen folks, let’s not get confused over this issue of faith.  There are so many false teachers out there today running around taking the concept of faith and twisting it into a way to manipulate God into doing what we want Him to do.  They tell you that if you have enough faith you can be healed, if you have enough faith you can be rich, if you have enough faith you can get all the things you desire out of this life.  Please understand the truth that the Holy Spirit is revealing here.  Faith is not getting God to do what we want, faith is accepting what God wants.  These actual historical events that are recorded for us in the gospel aren’t given to provide us a trampoline whereby we can bounce from a verse over here to another verse other there and  launch off into the prosperity doctrine, or a doctrine of self fulfillment, but they are intended to be used as an illustration of the doctrine of salvation.

Faith doesn’t put us in the place of Jesus, whereby we can accomplish all the things we want to do by some supernatural power that comes through conjuring up some fervent belief. Faith is not hoping really, really hard and then having that wish granted.  Faith is simply the means of salvation, by which we recognize it is not by our works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us. Romans 10:17 tells us, that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

Faith comes then through the Word of God, and that faith results in a supernatural transformation of our hearts.  Faith is giving our lives in obedience to the promises of that Word.  Just as Romans 4:3 says, "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS." It’s not making yourself worthy of God’s favor.  Faith is realizing your unworthiness, but believing God’s promises.

Jesus marveled at this centurion’s faith.  He said it was unrivaled in all of Israel.  And the reason that Christ said it was amazing faith was because it was founded in humility and repentance, and lived out in agape love and generosity for others, in obedience to the Word of God.  That kind of amazing faith is possible for us today as well.  It’s not a founded upon our worthiness, but upon Christ’s worthiness of our complete devotion and worship.

The blind leading the blind; Luke 6: 39-49

As we come to this passage again this week, we have been looking at a message that Jesus preached which is sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain.  It’s very similar to the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew, but I personally believe as many commentators do, that this is a different day, and a different audience, and as such it has some variation from the sermon recorded in Matthew.

But it’s important to note that Jesus is preaching.  He is going from town to town, region to region, preaching a message of repentance for entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.  Preaching is a dying art in the church today.  It’s not practiced too much anymore, because we think it is old fashioned, or obsolete.   But 1Cor 1:21 tells us that “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”  God has chosen the preaching of righteousness and repentance as the means by which He has revealed salvation to the world.

And to that end, God has called preachers to preach the Word.  The apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 to “Preach the Word.  Be ready in season and out of season.  Reprove, rebuke and exhort with all patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

What Paul is contrasting there is the preacher that has been called by God to preach the Word, and the false teacher that will rise up in the latter days who will tell people what they want to hear, and they will turn away from the life saving truth and will turn instead to myths and human philosophy and social discourse, a little self improvement mixed with the power of positive thinking.  But the end result will be that only the truth of God’s word has the power to save and any other teaching or doctrine will only lead you to destruction.

And that is exactly the contrast that Jesus is making in this last part of His message.  Jesus is contrasting the false teaching of the prevailing religious leaders of His day to His teaching..” And so what Jesus is saying here is you have leaders in your religion of Judaism, the Pharisees, scribes, priests  and you have Me and you have to choose between us. They are spiritually dead and I give life. That is clearly the closing argument of this sermon in verse 46, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like."

And the point Jesus makes in that following illustration is that you need to hear and obey Me, not them. If you hear and obey Me, you're like a house that stands when the judgment comes. If you follow them, you're like a house that is ruined when the judgment comes. You have to make a choice between My words which are life, and their teaching which leads to death.  Jesus is drawing a line in the sand and He is saying...You must turn from your false religious leaders and follow Me completely.

Jesus is talking to Jews that Luke calls disciples.  Now this wasn’t the 12 apostles, but hundreds or even thousands of disciples, or students, or followers of Christ.  And they were attracted to Him for a variety of reasons.  Some came for the bread and fish.  Some came for the miracles.  Some came for healing.  Some came because it was a popular thing to do at the time.  But not all of them were willing to follow His teaching completely.  Most of them wanted to hang on to the rudiments of Judaism so they wouldn’t be ostracized by the Jewish community, but also wanted the benefits of what Jesus had to offer.

And this is still the situation in the church today.  Far too many people in the world today, even many that profess to be Christians, want to take some of the teachings of Jesus but also want to keep some of the prevailing teaching of the world.  They are people that may know some things about Jesus, may feel warm feelings toward Jesus, who like certain things about His teaching or what they may think is beneficial about Christianity. That’s why sound teaching is so important.  Left to ourselves, we will often go for the low hanging fruit so to speak.  We will pick and choose which doctrines we like and avoid those we don’t. But Jesus is still giving the same message today that He gave 2000 years ago in the Sermon on the Plain, He’s saying...that's not enough, you must come to Me fully, totally, completely to the exclusion of all other religious teachers and all false doctrine.

As you may remember the subject of the sermon is true discipleship. Jesus is defining a true disciple. You remember, first of all, in verses 20 to 26 He defined a true disciple as one who repents, who grieves over their sin and turns away from it. Somebody who mourns over his sin and realizes he's spiritually bankrupt, alienated from God and hungry for true righteousness. Jesus explained that a true disciple of Christ is overwhelmed with his own sin, not overwhelmed with his own righteousness. So the first characteristic  of a true disciple is repentance.

The second characteristic we looked at in vs. 27 to 38  is love.  Love as defined by God is a supernatural ability to love enemies, to love those that hate you, to love those who persecute you. It’s the kind of love that God demonstrates towards us, and in response that a true disciple then demonstrates to the world. Repentance produces the transformation by God of the heart, and agape love demonstrates the work of God in the heart. First the Spirit of God produces repentance, and then when conversion comes, a new love is produced in the heart by the work of the Holy Spirit who changes our desires from being self centered to being God centered, from serving ourselves to serving others.

And today we come to the third characteristic that defines a true disciple, which is submission to the lordship of Christ. The true disciple makes a break from false teachers. Disciples repent of sin. Disciples love their enemies. And disciples, we're going to find out about here, are followers of the truth of Christ. And Jesus makes this point in a negative sense by showing the danger of false spiritual teachers. False teachers are anyone that subtracts or adds to the truth of God’s word or substitutes a worldly philosophy or puts anything in the place of the saving truth of the gospel.

Now there are four dangers in following a false teacher, four things that make them dangerous. Number one, they are blind.   They are blind to the truth as 2 Cor. 4:4 says, “the god of this world (the devil) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel.” Let's look at verse 39. "He also spoke a parable to them, a blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?"

The spiritual illustration is very simple. Follow a leader who doesn't know the way to God's Kingdom and you're not going to end up in the Kingdom either. In fact, you follow a blind guide, someone who doesn't know the truth, doesn't know the way to God, and doesn't know the path to salvation and you will end up in hell. That's the pit. You better choose very carefully what religious teacher you follow.

It’s obvious if you flip over to Matthew 15 that Jesus is talking about the religious leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees. Verse 14, Jesus said of the Pharisees, "Let them alone, they are blind guides of the blind and if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." There Jesus says it is the Pharisees who are the blind guides, the religious leaders.

In Matthew 23 verse 13, Jesus says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Because you shut off the Kingdom of heaven from men, for you do not enter in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." Their religious prescriptions do not accomplish salvation so neither enter into the Kingdom.  Verse 15 He says, " Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” Verse 24 He says, "You blind guides, woe to you scribes and Pharisees," verse 25. Verse 26, "You blind Pharisees..." Repeatedly He identifies the blind guides as the Judaisers, the religious leaders.  They are offering a religious solution that falls short of salvation.  And these Pharisees are illustrative of many religious leaders today that have a form of religion but deny the real power of salvation. (2 Tim. 3)

I think it’s important to remember something.  These Jewish leaders and their followers believed in the one true God of Israel.  They believed in the scriptures.  They believed in the law and went to great lengths to try to keep the law.  They attended synagogue (church) regularly. They fasted and prayed and gave tithes and sacrifices.  They were so close, yet so far away.  Because they were counting on their self righteousness, and God said no righteousness of our own is sufficient. Titus 3:5 says, it’s “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”  We needed a Savior, and Jesus came to be the Savior of those that would acknowledge their sin, repent of it and turn to follow Christ completely.

The Bible says the whole world was in darkness and blind and lost and so in Luke 4:18 Jesus preached  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”  He came to give sight to the blind, to proclaim the truth of the  gospel, that salvation had come through Him.

The second danger of false teachers is they rely on human wisdom. Not only do they lack godly wisdom, truth, they rely on earthly wisdom. And the illustration is made, back to Luke 6 vs. 40, "The pupil is not above his teacher but everyone after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher."

A pupil can't rise above his teacher. All you can know is what you've been told. You can't get above him. Where your teacher stops, you stop and whatever your teacher's limits are, those are your limits. And whatever your teacher's errors are, those become your errors. Unless you go to another teacher, you can't rise above the teacher you choose. If your teacher is earthy, worldly, human, if it's just human wisdom, if it's just man or demon inspired religion, philosophy, ethics and they don't know God, in the end you won't know Him either and it will just be earthly.

But Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes unto the Father except by Me.”  Jesus said again in John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”  He said, “I and the Father are one.”  He told Philip that if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.  So the word of Christ is a life giving truth because He is the giver of life.  He is the incarnate God in the flesh.

Thirdly, Jesus said there's a third danger; false teachers are hypocrites.  Vs. 41, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.”

Here's the problem false teachers have. They can't fix you because they can't fix themselves. They can't solve your problem because they've got a massive one of their own. And Jesus makes an exaggerated illustration to show the foolishness of these men’s doctrine. The word "speck," actually means a chip. This is not a tiny little piece of sand like you get in your eye, this would be like a wood chip, a serious problem in your eye. And along comes this spiritual leader, "Let me bring virtue into your life, let me bring understanding into your life, let me lead you to God." And he's going to look in there and find the little things that are wrong and take them out. The problem is, he's got a beam in his eye.  He uses a word to describe the main beam in a building.

Religious teachers, they'll say...we will show you morality and virtue, we want to bring goodness into your life, and let me here take a look at what's wrong in your life and let me fix you a little bit." But they can't do that. False religion can't fix itself much less anyone else.  Religious, moral people that haven’t been born again cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and so cannot help others either.

Turn to Matthew 23 again. In that same passage I read earlier, this issue of hypocrisy comes up again in verse 13, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Verse 14, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Fifteen, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." And it just keeps going. Verse 23, "Hypocrites" Verse 25, "Hypocrites" Verse 27, "Hypocrites." And then He defines hypocrisy, verse 25, "You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside are full of robbery and self-indulgence. First clean the inside of the cup and the dish so that the outside of it may become clean." Verse 27, For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.” In verse 28, "Inwardly full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."  All the world’s religions focus on cleaning the outside of the cup.  Only true salvation through Jesus Christ cleanses the inside.

And lastly, fourthly, the fourth danger of following the wrong spiritual teacher is that even though they seem outwardly good, inwardly they are actually evil. And He makes this clear in the next simple parable. Verse 43; "For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

The greatest evil is to set a stumbling block in front of others who are seeking to know the Lord.  We sometimes think that we need to be tolerant of religious leaders that are playing around on the edges of Christianity and mixing the world’s philosophy and human wisdom and substituting experiences and signs and wonders for sound doctrine.  But the truth is that we need to be warning people to get out from under the teaching of these men, because their doctrine is evil.  I Timothy 4:1 calls it a doctrine of demons that will cause men to fall away from the faith.  There has to be a true change of heart from evil to good that can only be accomplished through the supernatural transformation of salvation through Jesus Christ.

And finally now we come to the end of Christ’s sermon.  He has shown the contrast between His teaching and the teaching of the false religious leaders.  And now He is going to illustrate it one more time in a very dramatic fashion, leaving them and us with a choice to make.  And that choice will result in one of two kinds of lives; one that escapes judgment or one that will be swept away in judgment. Verse 46, "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord' and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts upon them, I'll show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock and when a flood rose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like the man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed and the ruin of that house was great."

Remember I said earlier that the Jews were close to entering the Kingdom, but not close enough?  How tragic it is to be sincere, to be religious, to even call Jesus Lord, Lord, to go to church, to try to keep the golden rule, to try to live a moral life, and yet in the judgment be told, “Depart from Me you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you.”

In Matthew’s version of the sermon on the mount, Jesus adds according to Matt.7:22, "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'  Listen to what Jesus is saying.  They prophesied in His name.  That means they were preachers, they were giving what was purported to be divine revelation, maybe they said they heard God speak to them, they saw a vision, they had a dream, and it sounded good to their ears and led people astray from the truth.

Notice that some of these false teachers will have supernatural power to cast out demons, and in the Lord’s name perform many miracles.  Don’t be deceived by so called faith healers and people running around supposedly doing miracles whose whole ministry is characterized by signs and wonders.  Remember Jesus said in the verse we looked at earlier in 1 Cor. 1:21 that the Jews looked for a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom and yet they were not a part of the kingdom of God.  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, we preach Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Jesus calls these people workers of iniquity; that is, in their self righteousness they can produce no righteousness before God.  They fail because their hearts are still in sin.  Only faith in Christ can produce a righteousness that meets God’s requirements.  And that can only happen because God transfers Christ’ righteousness to us, and our sins to Him.  2 Cor. 5:21, God made Jesus who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

So the illustration speaks for itself.  Those that build on that foundation in Jesus Christ will be like the house that stood against the torrent and did not fall.  The foundation is a new heart made righteous through Christ. God credits me with righteousness which is the foundation then for my life.  It is being born again by the supernatural act of mercy by God.  That transformation is my foundation.  And Jesus says those that have that foundation will never be shaken.

And then He contrasts one who built his house upon sand, upon the ground without a foundation.  He may have built a house with good intentions, with sincerity, with good works, yet he did not have a foundation of being born again by the power of salvation.  He never recognized his sin, never repented of his sin, but only tried to add some religion, some good works that he hoped would balance out the scale and perhaps God would permit him to enter into the kingdom.  But Jesus says though that man may have heard the truth, he didn’t act upon it appropriately.  And so when the judgment came, the ruin of that house was great.

Jesus finished his sermon with that illustration.  He drew a line in the sand so to speak that day.  And I would also draw a line upon the sand here today.  You are either in the kingdom of heaven or you are not.  False religion may have told you that all roads lead to heaven, that there is no hell.  That if you do good things and are sincere then a good God will let you in.  But folks, I am here to tell you what Jesus himself has told you, broad is the road that leads to destruction and many are going that way, and that narrow is the gate that leads to life, and few there be that find it.  I pray that you choose life.  Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.  Your own righteousness is not going to cut it.  You have to have the foundation of righteousness that only Christ can provide. And only that righteous foundation will stand  unshaken in the judgment.

Like Father like son, Luke 6:31-38

There seems to be a great fascination in our culture today with the idea of going back in time.  Back in the mid eighties a whole series of movies came out called “Back to the Future” starring Michael J. Fox.  And I’m sure those type of movies prompted many of us to speculate about how cool it might be to go back in time.  My daughter told me the other day that she would like to go back to the fifties. I think she would last about a half a day and be begging to come back. That’s the problem with movies.  They make the old days look so cool, but they weren’t really all that special.

While  it may be fun to imagine going back in time and having all this advanced knowledge of the future, the fact is that no one has been able to go back in time.  But there was one person that existed before time, outside of time, He existed from eternity, and yet He supernaturally came to earth 2000 years ago to a tiny country called Israel.  Of course, I’m talking about Jesus Christ.   John 1 says that “in the beginning was the Word (that is Jesus) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made which was made.”  Skipping down a few verses it then says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

But isn’t it interesting that the Creator of the universe comes to earth from outside of time and space, He knows the future and He knows the past, and yet in the 33 years He spent on earth He never tells us how to make penicillin.  He never explains how to design a car or an airplane or how to conduct electricity.  I mean, He made the Sun and hung it and all the stars in space and so making electricity would have been nothing for Him.  Just imagine how Jesus could have helped out all those millions of people that lived through the centuries since.  Millions of people could have been spared from disease if He had shared some knowledge of medicine.

Thinking in those terms then should provoke the question, then what did Jesus come to Earth to tell us?  If He didn’t come to share the secrets of medicine or technology, or science which might have alleviated the sufferings of millions of people, then what could have been more important?  In fact, why worship Him at all?  It seems He withheld vital information that could have benefited society.

Well, Luke is answering that question of why Jesus came in his gospel through a careful relation of specific events.   And what Luke is progressively revealing is that Jesus Christ came for one purpose;  to make it possible for man to be reconciled to God.  Because the reality of the situation on Earth was then and still is, that all it’s citizens are doomed to death.  Since the fall the whole planet has been  under the curse of sin and the Bible says that sin produced death.  Physical death comes to us all sooner or later, but even more importantly spiritual death has been passed from man to man, from generation to generation, so that all of mankind has been cut off from God and condemned to spiritual death which is the Lake of Fire.

In the beginning God made the world and all that is in it, and man was given a choice to choose between obeying God’s word or obeying Satan’s word.  And man chose Satan’s word.  And so Romans 5:12 says, that through Adam “sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

So Jesus came to Earth to be the antidote for sin.  He came to reconcile man back to God.  Paul says in 1 Tim. 1:18, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”

Now that concept is important to understand.  Because many people through the centuries have looked at the passage we have before us today in Luke and decided that Jesus was a nice guy, a great teacher, a Gandhi type of person who was teaching men how to live together, how to get along.  He came to live as an example of passivism and compassion, and if society can just model themselves after men like Jesus, then the world we be a better place.

But the Bible doesn’t teach that.  As I said earlier, Earth became a fallen world because of sin.  And all men are under the curse of sin and therefore separated from God.  Man was originally created to live eternally with God in His presence.  He wasn’t made to just live a few years and then die, having passed on the same genes, the same natural sin nature to his children, who will also die a premature death.  No, the reason that Jesus came to Earth was to show God’s love for the world, so that the world might be saved and given life.  John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but  have everlasting life.”

So in Luke 6, we have been looking at the sermon that Jesus preached which is sometimes called, “the Sermon on the Plain.”  It is the manifesto of the Kingdom of God.  God is declaring through Jesus Christ the truth that will accomplish this reconciliation of man to  God.  And folks, I have to tell you that the wisdom of God is a mystery.  It is a mystery to the natural man. It was a problem for the Jews listening to Jesus 2000 years ago, and it’s a problem for many of you here today.  We try to make sense of the things of God that Jesus is speaking of, and we can’t seem to really understand it correctly.  Because 1Cor. 2:14 says that the “natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”  In our natural wisdom, the wisdom of God is foolishness.  We can’t understand it.

And so as Christ is preaching this message, there is a certain degree to which these principles are going right over their heads.  Because until Christ had died on the cross and rose from the dead, even the Apostles didn’t understand completely what Jesus was talking about.  That’s why Jesus speaks so much in parables.  And why He would take the Apostles to the side and explain to them what they meant.  There was a mystery that was being revealed, but it wasn’t yet revealed perfectly, it was still veiled.

That’s why Jesus told the Apostles that it would be to their advantage for Him to go back to the Father, because then He would send them the Holy Spirit, whom He called the Helper.  And the Helper would teach them what Jesus was talking about.  And through the Apostles God gave us the epistles.  The epistles explain to us the gospels.  And the gospels explains to us the Old Testament.  The Bible is understood best  reading from the back to the front, and in like manner, Jesus teaching is understood better on this side of Calvary than on the other side.

So as we look at this message that Jesus is preaching, I would encourage you to think of it as a painting that He is painting of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus is presenting a picture of the Kingdom, but it’s like looking at a painting on a large canvas.  If you stand too close to it, then everything looks blurred and there doesn’t seem to be much definition.  But as you step back from it and look at the entire piece, then you can see the picture clearly.

Now I spent a lot of time introducing again this message today even though we began it last week, because I realize that many of you here today will hear the message and then in your own strength try to make an attempt to become a more loving person, or to be nicer to people that aren’t always nice to you.  But I don’t want you to lose sight of the main picture.  Remember what 1Cor. 2:14 said that I quoted earlier, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”  The overarching point that is being made by Jesus in this message is that man needs to be saved from that natural state.  In the natural state we are cursed, blind, spiritually poor and unable to attain righteousness.  We need to first be changed, transformed, and made spiritually alive in order to do what God requires.  And that is why Christ came, and that is the purpose behind the painting.

Because in our natural, sinful condition we can’t keep God’s law. The purpose of the law wasn’t to provide a stepladder to God, but to teach us that we all fall short of God’s standard for righteousness. Gal. 3:24 says that “the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” The Jews listening that day knew the law very well.  They were taught it from childhood.  They studied it in school.  But like so many people today, they thought that the way to heaven was gained by trying to keep the law.  And so Jesus is showing through the explanation of the law, first that it was much higher standard than what they had interpreted it to be, and secondly that they were unable to attain to that standard.  Therefore, the law teaches us that we need a Savior.  That we are unable to attain to the standard of God’s law.

We looked at Luke 10:27 last week and we saw that even the Jewish religious lawyers agreed with Jesus that all the laws in the Bible could be summarized in just two commandments;  "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

And so to illustrate man’s need for a Savior Jesus is taking the law of love and showing them what the actual standard of God is.  See, everyone in the world thinks that they know about love.  We hear about it in songs, we see it acted out in movies, we read about it in books.  We think we understand love.  It’s the most talked about, most desired principle in the world.  But when the natural man talks about love, he is more than likely talking about one of two types.  He is either talking about romantic love, or erotic love, which is from the Greek word eros,  or he is talking about family love, or brotherly love which is from the Greek word phileo. But Jesus is using a different word for love.  He is using the Greek word agape, which is the love of the will.  It is the highest form of love.  It’s a sacrificial kind of love that does for others without expecting a return. Agape love is the kind of love that God has for us.  It’s not an emotional response to a romantic or erotic love.  It’s not the brotherly love that we might have for others in our family or on our sports team or in our social clubs.  This love that God has, and that Jesus is establishing as the standard for our love, is not dependent upon affection, or upon likeability, or upon how someone may treat you, or upon how someone may look or dress or act, it is the love of will, of commitment.  And Jesus is establishing that nothing less than this standard of love will do for the kingdom of Heaven.

And to illustrate that kind of agape love that God has for us, Jesus says in vs. 27, “but I say unto you, love your enemies.” The world’s standard of love is to have a physical desire, or a physical attraction.  To love that which can love you back.  We think we love God because we conjure up some emotional response to some sort of crisis we find ourselves in.  We think we love our neighbor as long as they are likeable people, they are like us and we have something to gain by it.  We love our girlfriend because we are attracted to her appearance or because she is nice to us.  But God’s love is not dependent upon how we look, or what we can do for Him.  God’s love was manifested towards us when we were enemies of God.  And the Bible teaches that being sinners we were at enmity with God.  Yet He loved us enough to send His only Son to take our place on the cross, so that we might be reconciled to God.

Then in vs. 31, Jesus sums up that agape love for your enemy.  We have heard this verse called the Golden Rule. He says, “And just as you want men to treat you, treat them in the same way.”  See, the world view of that rule is called karma.  That is, if you do something good for someone it will come back to you, or if you do something bad to someone it will come back to you.  So therefore, you should not do something bad if you don’t want to have it come back on you.  That gives rise to the old adage: those that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks.

But God’s standard of love is so much higher than that.  He requires that we should do good things for people regardless of whether or not they can return the favor, or even because fate may somehow return the kindness.  God’s standard of how you treat other people is how you would like to be treated.  See, the Jews were familiar with the law that said you shall love your neighbor, but then they decided who would be considered a neighbor and excluded just about everyone in the process.  But God said love your neighbor as yourself.  We don’t have to be taught to love ourselves.  We naturally love ourselves.  It’ human nature.  But it’s a divine nature to love those that hate you with the same love that you have for yourself.

As sinners, we cannot accomplish that righteous standard of God.  The Bible says that all our righteousness is as filthy rags.  And what Jesus is teaching here is that in our naturally sinful state, all our love is selfishly motivated.

Look at the series of rhetorical questions that Jesus asks to illustrate that point.  Vs.32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.  If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same.”  That’s the sinful standard of love and that’s our natural standard of love and Jesus says that credits us nothing in regards to righteousness.

But look at God’s standard, vs. 35, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”

Now I want us to look at the remainder of these verses from two perspectives.  But the key to understanding them is the phrase, “you will be sons of the Most High.”  That’s the point of this whole exercise.  That is the reason that Jesus came to Earth.  To reconcile men to God.  To rescue men from the kingdom of darkness, and transfer them to the kingdom of God, so that they might be made sons of God.  But we already know that cannot be accomplished through keeping the law. Rom 3:20 tells us that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight.”

The first perspective to understanding this passage is the phrase in vs. 35, “For He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”  And that is where mercy comes in.  God in His love has had compassion on our plight, our inability to keep the law perfectly, and so He has provided a substitute, One who would keep it perfectly for us.  Jesus Christ became the substitute, keeping the law, living the perfect life, and through His death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins.  So that those who trust in His substitionary atonement can receive mercy - that is the kindness of God.

Romans 2:4 says that the “kindness of God leads you to repentance.”  This standard of God’s love is not designed to get us to hitch up our pants and try harder to be like Christ, or to turn over a new leaf, but it’s designed to bring us to our knees where we call out to God for mercy, repenting and weeping and mourning over our sinfulness.  That’s what the law is designed to do.  And that is what God has provided for.  Because the next verse, 36, says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Listen, God is merciful.  God’s love is a merciful love.  He is offering us a way of escape from the condemnation of the law and the punishment of death.  God is ready and willing to forgive those that are recognizant of the fact that they are a sinner, and willing to repent of that sin and ask for forgiveness.  God is merciful.  Mercy is not getting what we deserve.  God is mercifully willing to forgive us our sin and the punishment that comes with sin.  God’s mercy is illustrated in vs. 37, “"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.”  God is willing to not judge us when we deserved judgment.  He is willing to not condemn us when we are deserving of condemnation.  Instead of judgment and condemnation He is offering pardon.

But not only is God merciful, God is gracious.  Grace is different than mercy.  Mercy is not getting what we deserve.  But grace is getting what we don’t deserve.  And in vs.38 we see that illustrated. "Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

God in His love and grace will pour out his benefits into the heart of the one who comes to God as a repentant sinner seeking mercy and forgiveness.  And the first benefit we have already seen;  He will make us sons of the Most High.  We will become adopted into the family of God.  We will become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.  And His grace just keeps on pouring out blessing upon blessing, pressed down, shaken together and running over.  He gives us eternal life.  No more death.  This body will drop off one day, but we will receive a glorified body that will never grow old and live for eternity with the Lord.  And another benefit is the Holy Spirit, who is given as a deposit on our future glorified position with God, but also has an immediate benefit as well.

And that immediate benefit brings us to the second perspective.  The second perspective on this passage is that for those who accepted Jesus as their Savior, and have been born again into the family of God, they receive the Holy Spirit, who you will remember Jesus called the Helper. And the Helper lives inside of us, dwelling in temples not made with hands, but in our hearts.  And the Bible tells us in Hebrews  10:15 what the Helper will do for us.  “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM," He then says, "AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."

See, the Holy Spirit is going to do something that the old law written on tablets of stone could never do.  He is going to make it possible for us to keep the law.  And He makes that possible by rewriting the law of God upon our hearts.  That means we are supernaturally transformed from our sinful nature into the nature of Christ.  The Helper is able to change our attitudes, He is able to change our minds, He is able to change our nature, so that our desire is to serve God, not ourselves.  So that we might be able to be representatives of Jesus Christ to the world.

And that is the only way this law of God will be accomplished, folks.  First of all, we have to recognize we can’t do it, we fall short of the righteous standard of God.  But Christ was able to do it for us as our substitute.  By trusting in Him and repenting of our sins, God is willing to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  And then by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we have a new purpose, that is to be like Christ.  That is to be pleasing to God.  And so we lay down our old way of life at the cross, and we follow in the footsteps and example of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.  So that we might be a light to a dying world lost in darkness.

I read in the news last week of a town in Norway that sits so far down inside a ring of mountains that during the winter, from September to March, the town is in almost total darkness.  They don’t have the light of the sun. You can imagine that would be a depressing town to live in.  So the town fathers came up with this bright idea. (No pun intended.)  They had these giant mirrors made which they are installing on top of the mountains so that they can reflect the sun’s rays into the center of the town.  And so for the first time in history this town is looking forward this winter to having light beamed into the town square for several hours a day.

And I couldn’t help but think that was an apt illustration of what Christians as sons of God are supposed to be like.  We are not going to be perfect like Jesus was perfect while we are in this body and this world, but we can reflect the light of Jesus Christ to the world when we act as He would have us act.  As Christians we can love because He first loved us.  We can love our enemies because we too were once enemies.  We can do good to people who can’t return it because He was good to us when we couldn’t do anything good.  We can be merciful because He was merciful to us.  We can be gracious, because He showed grace to us.  We can give to others what He gave to us;  the message of the gospel, the good news; that Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am foremost of all.

You have heard the expression before; like father like son.  Well, Jesus, the Son of God has shown us the Father.  He accomplished His mission here on Earth.  And through His sacrifice He has made it possible for us to become sons of God.  Furthermore, the Holy Spirit has given us the power to act like sons of God.  And if we will do that, then the world will see Jesus.  That is our purpose here on Earth;  to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  It starts with being born all over again, born in the Spirit, having His laws written in our hearts, and then following in His footsteps by walking in the power of the Spirit.  That the world living in darkness might see the light of God reflected in our lives.

Love notes from God, Luke 6:27-30

Last week we began looking at the Sermon on the Plain, a message that Jesus Christ preached which is very similar to the Sermon on the Mount.  It’s been called the manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Christ came preaching, just as John the Baptist had, a message of the need for repentance in preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven which He would usher in.  He was the King prophesied from the lineage of David.  He was the promised Messiah.  But as He told Pilate, and  contrary to what the Jews were expecting, His kingdom was not of this world, but was a spiritual kingdom.

But though Jesus is the promised King of this spiritual Kingdom of Heaven, He is also a prophet, as Moses prophesied centuries earlier Duet. 18 that “the Lord your God would raise up a prophet like me from among you, and you shall listen to Him.”  And just as Moses related the law to the children of Israel prior to entering the promised land and pronounced a blessing and a curse to the law, so now Jesus, who is greater than Moses, who is God in the flesh, speaks to those entering the Kingdom of heaven and presents a series of blessings and curses, and then goes on to establish the principles for those who will be part of this kingdom.

Though Moses was a great prophet in the eyes of man, yet he could only recount the law as given to him by God on the mountain.  But Jesus is able to expound the law, to explain the intent of the law, because He is one with God.  He is able to take the law of God and extrapolate  it  in a way that Moses never could have.  It was customary for the rabbis to read a portion of the law and then try to teach it.  And Jesus is following that custom as well.  But they showed by their traditions in the Mishna and the Talmud that they never understood the law, and in fact had added and subtracted so much from it, that it had lost it’s original power and intent.  So now we see Jesus taking the law, the things of God, the standards of God and explaining them and applying them in ways that the Jews had never heard before.

See, the Jews understood the 10 commandments and the rest of the law in terms of the negative;  you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery, etc. The religious leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees and scribes and lawyers, had examined the law of God basically looking for loopholes.  Looking to figure out what the minimum requirement was to be able to say that you kept it.  But Jesus is not looking at the minimum standards, He is looking at the maximum implications God intended the law to provide.

Some people today in the Christian community think that Christ came to abolish the law and replace it with the law of love.  They consider the law and the Old Testament as legalistic, old fashioned and obsolete .  They believe that all the law was wiped out by the overriding principle or law of love in the New Testament.  While it is true that all the law of God can be summarized by love, love does not wipe out the standards of God, it merely articulates them.

But Jesus said in Matt. 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”  See, Jesus did not come to do away with the moral law of God, but to keep it to it’s fullest component.  And so now as Jesus delivers this manifesto of His kingdom He will show his disciples what God’s full intent of the law is and He will do so by showing what God’s standard for love is.

Now when Moses reiterated the law to the children of Israel, the first commandment he reminded them of was "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Duet. 6:5)  Also in Luke 10:27 there is the story of the lawyer who came to Jesus and asked him what was necessary to enter into eternal life.  And Jesus said, what does the law say? He answered, “"YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."  So all the commandments could be summarized by the command to love.  And so Jesus is explaining to the disciples what that love looks like.  What kind of behavior the laws of the kingdom were supposed to produce.

What this did for the people listening then was to make them aware of what the standard of God’s law really looked like.  If they thought the law was difficult before, they would understood it to be much more difficult now.  If entrance into eternal life, the kingdom of heaven depended on keeping even the first law, then Jesus was going to show them how impossible it was to do so in man’s natural state.  But Jesus did not come to make citizenship in the kingdom more difficult.  Jesus came to make it possible.

Now first of all, we need to be reminded that Jesus is speaking to His disciples.  These are people that are endeavoring to follow Christ, some for wrong reasons perhaps, but they are students of Jesus, watching and listening and learning from Him.  And He has started off presenting a series of blessings and woes, or curses, to delineate the difference between people who are relying upon their own goodness, or their own religious endeavors to gain approval with God.  He is establishing the fact that the entrance to the kingdom cannot be gained through self righteousness found in trying to keep the law, but is dependent upon God’s mercy and grace.

So Jesus said, if you want to be blessed, that is gain citizenship in the kingdom of God, then you must first recognize your spiritual poverty, that you are spiritually bankrupt and as a beggar would beg for mercy, ask God for mercy to save you.  Secondly, He said another characteristic is the need for repentance, a mourning over your sinful condition and asking God for mercy to forgive you. And thirdly, a characteristic of a citizen of the kingdom will be a hunger for righteousness.  A realization that our righteousness falls short of the kingdom, and we need the imputed righteousness given through the grace of God if we are to be able to enter.

So those were the requirements for citizenship in the kingdom of God.  All of them dependent upon our recognition that we need the mercy and grace of God.  And then Jesus changes gears from requirements for acceptance to manifestations of being a citizen.  If you are a citizen, then this is what you will be doing.  And the defining characteristic of a citizen of the kingdom of God is that of love.  Jesus said in John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." So Jesus is going to spend the next section of his message explaining love, not from man’s perspective, but from God’s.

As a young boy and even as I grew into adulthood, I often felt guilty about my love for God.  I was a preacher’s kid.  I literally grew up in church.  But I would hear other people talk and sing about loving God and I would know deep in my heart that I did not love God the way I should or the way I thought I should.  I knew that I loved Ralph, my dog.  I loved my parents.  I loved playing football.  I loved hunting.  But I couldn’t really truthfully say that I loved God the same way.  And it took me a long time to understand that a lot of the difficulty I had was because of a misunderstanding of the word we use for love.

And the principle reason for that misunderstanding comes from the fact that there are 3 primary words in the Greek used for love, but they all translate into one word in English.  The first  word will sound familiar, eros, which means erotic love, or romantic love. Next is phileo: family love, or brotherly love from which we get the word Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.  And the third is agape.  And this is the one used predominately in the New Testament.  It is the love that God has for us, and which we are required to have for one another.  It’s  not based on attractiveness or merit. It’s not based on natural attraction or an emotional response. And most importantly, agape love is not dependent upon a favorable reaction from the other person.   It’s given, whether or not it is possible to be reciprocated.

That’s the kind of love that we are required to have, because it’s the kind of love that God had for us. Rom. 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  A couple of verses later, Paul explains that being a sinner made us enemies of God, and yet He sent Christ to reconcile us to God.  Agape love is God loving us while we were yet enemies of God.

Now, note that in vs. 27, Jesus says, “but I say to you who hear…” and the implication there is that this is addressed to believers, those that are disciples who hear the word of God and obey it and have been reconciled to God by His mercy.  These are the true disciples, and as we follow Christ’s example, this agape love will be  the characteristic of true discipleship.

And Jesus gives a simple statement that sets the standard of God’s love.  It raises the bar far above romantic love or family love.  Jesus said, “But I say unto you, love your enemies…” Now a normal person may say that may be a simple statement, but it’s an oxymoron.  You can’t love your enemy or they wouldn’t be your enemy.  But the answer to that riddle is to go back to our definition of love.  Agape love doesn’t require that I like someone, that I have an affection for someone or want to get something from them, but that I give something to them.  Agape love requires that I do, not that I feel. To obey, whether I feel like it or not.

And that is exactly then what Jesus expounds next;  Do this, do that, do this and you will show God’s love to an unbelieving world.  Now we can debate until the cows come home whether each injunction Jesus gives is to be taken exactly literally or not.  But to debate each detail would be to lose sight of the forest for the trees.  The point is that loving God requires loving people and loving  people God’s way requires not getting, but giving.  Not requiring affection, but even loving them even when they are enemies.  Not looking for reciprocation but doing good even for those who hate you.

Vs. 27, “do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.  Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.”

Now let me show you how those standards of love are fleshed out.  Look at 1Pet.  2:21, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;  and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”

And consider Isaiah 53.  “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” “But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”   Did you get that?  God caused our iniquity, our sins, to fall upon the innocent Son of God.  God crushed Him for our transgressions, so that we might be made righteous.  See, love doesn’t mean that God stopped counting sins, but that God counted our sins upon Jesus.

So these exhortations of Jesus about loving your enemies are perfectly realized in Jesus Christ. Jesus was hated of men, but He died for them on the cross.  Jesus was cursed by men, yet He provided blessing for them through His death. Jesus was mistreated by men, yet He prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Jesus was struck in the face and body by men until He became a bloody pulp, yet He willingly offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus was stripped of His robe and hung naked on a cross by men, yet He offers His robe of righteousness to us.  Jesus gave up His life, so that we might have life abundantly.

As we consider the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made for us, we can know the measure of what God’s standard of love is. Jesus was the standard of righteousness in every respect.  And I hope that as you look at Jesus you say, I could never love like that.  I could never love God like that.  I cannot love my neighbor like that.  And that is where you need to start.  With your spiritual poverty.  With recognizing your inability to be able to attain to the standard of God’s righteousness.

Because God, having set the standard and knowing how far we fall short, provided a substitute for us, Jesus Christ, who would keep the law perfectly. And 2 Cor. 5:21 says that “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, that is He was perfect, to become sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  When a man comes to God in repentance and in desperation hungering for righteousness, then according to that faith, God transfers  our sin to Jesus Christ, and transfers His righteousness to us.  We become holy, righteous, sons of God by grace and mercy.

That supernatural transaction makes us holy.  It is totally by grace; a free gift from God in response to our faith and repentance.  And once we are made holy by grace, we are able to be reborn by the Spirit of God.  He indwells us, causing our spirit to be born again.  We enter the state of blessedness.  We have intimacy with God.  We become sons and daughters of God.  We become citizens of the kingdom of God.

And as citizens we become representatives of God.  We become ambassadors of God.  And we become slaves of God.  We forego our purposes in order to serve God’s purposes.  Now having been transformed, we are a testimony to the world through our lives that reflect Jesus Christ to the world.  We are different, not just because we look different or act differently, but because we have the mind of Christ dwelling in us, directing our paths and our response.  He writes His laws upon our minds and hearts.  His law now is our desire.

And that makes it possible for us to love the way God loves us.  Because we now have the mind of Christ, the Spirit of Christ to be our helper, we can love the way God intends us to love.  The love of God constrains us because we know how much God loved us. 1John 4:19 says,  “We love, because He first loved us.”

Now we can do what Peter said earlier, follow the example of Jesus Christ.  Before we could only look at the law and say, “that’s a nice ideal, but there is no way I can achieve that.”  But the Bible says that the law is supposed to be our tutor, to show us that we need a Savior.  And having been supernaturally endowed with the gift of love, that love of God having been poured out in our hearts causes an overflow of love to others as we realize that we weren’t worthy or deserving of God’s love.

The message of the gospel is a message of love and forgiveness.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) God loved us when we were ungodly.  When we were enemies of God.  He loves us even though we are sinners.  And He made it possible for us to be reconciled to Him.

For those that are reconciled, having been supernaturally made holy, righteous, adopted as sons of God, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are called to be ambassadors of God, representatives of Christ to the world, to live out God’s love in our lives so that the world might see Jesus.  But as we go out into the world proclaiming this gospel, we need to understand that we are shedding light in a dark world that loves darkness, that loves their sin, and aren’t necessarily going to like us.  Our transformed life is going to make enemies.  People are going to hate you, like they hated Christ. Revile you, like they reviled Christ.  Persecute you, like they persecuted Christ.

But we need to respond like Christ responded to us when we were enemies.  Remember vs. 22? "Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.”  That’s the secret to loving your enemies. You’re not suffering because you acted like a jerk. You’re not suffering because you retaliated against someone.  But when you are suffering for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of the Kingdom, then vs.23 says "Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.”

And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?  Are we seeking the Kingdom of Heaven?  If we are, then access is granted to those who realize their spiritual bankruptcy and calling in faith and repentance for mercy, God imputes righteousness to their account.  Having been made holy and righteous, God graciously gives them citizenship in heaven, and a spiritual deposit of the Holy Spirit who is our helper, so that we might be able to do the will of God.  We become transformed, by the renewing of our minds, that we might live out the perfect will of God.  And living out His will in our lives, others might see the truth of the gospel and be saved by our testimony to the transforming power of Jesus Christ, to save sinners.

The good news is that if you are seeking the kingdom of heaven, then God has prepared a way to be reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.  It’s a free gift from God.  Jesus said in Rev. 3:18 “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”