The Father s Mercy and Loving Our Enemies Luke 6:27-36 Abe Stratton, Pastor of Youth & Young Adults Sunday Morning, June 16, 2013

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1 The Father s Mercy and Loving Our Enemies Luke 6:27-36 Abe Stratton, Pastor of Youth & Young Adults Sunday Morning, June 16, 2013 Introduction Every year since 1942 The National Father s Day Committee presents the Father of the Year Awards. The National Father s Day Committee, an entity of the Father s Day/Mother s Day Council, each year confers Father of the Year Honors on contemporary lifestyle leaders of our culture whose lives are dedicated to family, citizenship, charity, civility, responsibility and reverence. The funds raised by our Annual Father of the Year Awards Presentation are directed to the support of worthwhile concerns affecting men, fathers, and families. The objective of our program is to enhance the meaning of Father s Day and encourage universal observance Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Mickey Mantle 1989 Dan Quayle 2005 Donald Trump 2012 Shaquille O Neal 2013 Bill Clinton So who decides what a father should be like? What or who is the standard? The message today is a Fathers Day message because it focuses on the great Father our heavenly Father. There is application for dads, but the message of our passage is really for all who are children of the heavenly Father. Luke 6:27-36 I. The Most High God is kind to ungrateful and evil people. (35) Who is this Most High? Why does Jesus use this title? A. The supreme God of the universe is kind. 1. God is supreme. Most High is a title used for the One who is preeminent, who stands above all and is over all and owns all. He is the great God, the God of all gods, the supreme God, the One beside whom all other pretenders shrink into nothingness. He is transcendent and terrifying in His awe-inspiring power. There is no other God beside Him; He stands alone. 2. God is kind. But the amazing and breath-taking truth which these Holy Scriptures communicate is that this God is not merely an incomparable and unapproachable and majestic Overlord. He condescends to interact with His creatures. He does not stand apart, reigning with a remote and uncaring hand. He comes down to wretched and warped pieces of dust and showers His bountiful provisions upon them. This sets Him apart from the gods of other religions (e.g. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism) who stand aloof from humanity and who demand a standard of performance and perfection from their followers. The great paradox is that the God who actually has the status and position to act in that way is the God who is gracious and merciful and kind to humanity. Pretenders stand aloof; the True One comes near! Who are the ones to whom the Most High is kind? B. All mankind are ungrateful and evil people. 1. Ungrateful 1

2 Unthankful; devoid of gratitude 2. Evil Morally worthless, wicked, vicious, degenerate Romans 1:18-21 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:28-32 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. These are the ones whom God is kind to. It is a great mystery that the very ones against whom God stores up His wrath are also some of the same ones to whom He shows His kindness. Matthew 9:12-13 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 12 But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. How is God kind to them? C. God s kindness to mankind takes many forms. 1. He provides daily care. a. Gifts of nature Matthew 5:45 He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. He causes His sun to rise on those who would use its light to direct planes into buildings, to slaughter millions of innocent victims, to sell young boys and girls in illegal traffic rings. He gives His rain to farmers so that their crops will grow, farmers who cursed His name the rainless weeks preceding. He sends His cool breeze on a summer evening when all the attendants at a wedding are sweating in the setting sun, and yet they never think of Him. b. Gifts of life Acts 17:25 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (1) He gives imagination and creativity to the writer who uses it to twist truth and portray barbaric and perverted narratives. (2) He provides the breath for comedians who weave together vile and lewd words for the entertainment of audiences who abuse His good gift of humor. (3) He pours out reason and logic on the one who will employ it to disprove His existence. 2

3 This God, who made us and on whom we are absolutely dependent, doesn t need us at all. He was here long before us, and He can exist without us. And yet He delights to pour out on us life and breath and everything. 2. He provides eternal salvation. But the apex, the pinnacle, the climax of His marvelous provision and kindness is the gift of His only Son so that vicious and degenerate people like us and people completely devoid of gratitude like us could be rescued from our wretched state. 1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? This God, this Most High, Supreme Being, does not merely condescend to pour out daily gifts of provision and care on His ungrateful and evil creatures, but He has given us His one and only Son, His beautiful and perfect Son, so that we could have eternal life! Not a wretched existence filled with the misery and bitterness of our ingratitude and the horrific, life-shattering consequences of our own wickedness. Not a mind-gnawing, body-wracking eternal death in fiery darkness where the suffering never ends. But life! Eternal, glorious, freeing, exulting life! Transition: But His kindness reaches beyond this gift of eternal life. II. Because of God s kindness through His Son, Jesus, we are now His sons. (35) A. We are sons instead of slaves. Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. If you have believed that Jesus died on the cross in your place taking your sin and giving you His perfect righteousness instead, then you are no longer confined to your sin; you are no longer identified by your sin. The prison door has been thrown open, and you are free! And you are not merely free to go your own way. You are free to run into the loving arms of a Father who loves you more than you will ever know, and you are free to call Him your dad. That s right. The Most High God, the Supreme Being of the universe, is now your dad. B. We are like our Father. 1 John 3:1-3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. If you are the Father s child, you are like Him. You ve been born again from a new dad. If I can put it this way, He has put His DNA in you, and you are no longer like the old you. Your DNA is no longer made up of ingratitude and wickedness; your DNA is now that of purity and holiness and joy and thankfulness. Application: Friends, salvation is not merely saying a prayer and believing some facts about a man who lived and died and rose again 2,000 years ago so that you can go to Heaven when you die. Salvation is a radical transformation; it is death to an old way of life and to an old father and his wretched 3

4 family; and it is a new birth from a new Father into a new family; it is an instantaneous creation more astounding than the creation of the universe. It is the beginning of a new life and the cessation of an old. It is supernatural, and it has life-changing effects. You cannot experience this regeneration and remain unchanged. Does your life reflect this supernatural transformation? Do you view yourself as being a new person, the son of a new Father, and the recipient of new life? Transition: How should my life look? How can I reflect this supernatural change? III. We live out our identity as sons of the Most High by loving our enemies. (27-35) The key point which reveals our likeness to our Father is that we love our enemies; this is Jesus point of emphasis. And in case we would not know how to do this, Jesus gives us three explanations to flesh out the command. A. Three explanations clarify the command. 1. Do good to those who detest you. 2. Speak well of those who slander you. 3. Pray for those who threaten and abuse you. Really, Jesus? I m supposed to do these things? They go against my logic and my feelings. The last three commands reveal that the command to love one s enemies does not appeal to the emotions but to the will. Jesus did not command his followers to feel in a certain way but to act in a certain way Often loving feelings follow loving actions much like a caboose follows an engine. Jesus commands, however, are addressed to the engine of the will and not the caboose of feelings (Robert H. Stein, 206-7). B. Four examples illustrate the command. 1. Offer the other cheek to someone who strikes you. 2. Don t refuse something from the person robbing you. 3. Give to everyone who begs from you. 4. Don t demand that your stolen goods be returned. I struggle with statements like these because I am a literalist. Jesus words mean something, and I don t want to minimize their meaning at all. But does He really mean that we aren t to defend ourselves or give to every beggar we see on the side of the road or let our embezzled goods go without any legal action to get them back? We have to take these statements within the context of the rest of Scripture. Sometimes Jesus made very bold and startling statements in order to get his audience s attention and in order to make a point. Jesus own example is helpful in this situation. When He was struck in the face at his trial, He did not literally turn the other cheek, but He confronted the offender (John 18:22-23). It is the spirit of the saying that is important. If Christians took this one absolutely literally there would soon be a class of saintly paupers, owning nothing, and another of prosperous idlers and thieves. It is not this that Jesus is seeking, but a readiness among his followers to give and give and give. The Christian should never refrain from giving out of a love for his possessions. Love must be ready to be deprived of everything if need be. Of course, in a given case it may not be the way of love to give. But it is love that must decide whether we give or withhold, not a regard for our possessions (Morris, 143). We, as an American audience, come to this passage with the idea that we have rights. We have legal rights; we have rights to regain stolen goods; we have rights to defend ourselves and our families. 4

5 But Jesus is saying that we have no rights. If we are truly children of the Father, then we must act in the same way in which He did loving those who were ungrateful and wicked to Him. C. Three questions intensify the command. 1. If you love those who love you If you do good to those who do good to you If you lend to those who will pay you back 2. What credit is that to you? What good does that do you? This behavior doesn t earn you any special favor with God. Nor does it set you apart or make you distinct in any way. 3. Sinners do that. Even sinners (in Matthew 5 these are tax collectors, who were held in great disdain and compared to harlots) give to those who have given to them. If you act in this way toward people, you are no different from the ungrateful and evil people around you the people you look down on. D. A promise of reward encourages obedience to the command. Instead of getting revenge on the one who assaulted you, instead of getting your stolen goods returned, instead of receiving your loan back with interest, you will receive a great reward. Those puny benefits are trivial and insignificant with the blessing and favor and joy that you will gain from your Father because you are living in obedience to Him and imitation of Him. Application 1. What is your identity? Are you a son or a sinner? Jesus contrasts the two here and shows that they live and respond in very different ways. What do the actions of your daily life show you to be? 2. Who are your enemies? How are you responding to them? Who are those who curse you? Are you commending them? Who are those who detest you? Are you doing good to them? Who abuses you? Who takes from you? 3. Dads, how are you modeling our Father s love? Do you stand aloof from your children and expect them to perform to a certain standard before you will draw near to them and interact with them? Our heavenly Father is not like that; He does not give the silent treatment because of misbehavior, ingratitude, or sinfulness. He takes the initiative; He engages sinful humanity; He offers the reconciliation and rescue which they need. Conclusion The Most High God is kind to ungrateful and evil people like us. Because of His kindness we are now His sons. We live out our identity as His sons by loving our enemies. Benediction Romans 1:7 To all of you who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 5