author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 6. Luke 6. We are going to continue looking at Jesus' "Sermon on the plain" today. We'll be covering verses 27-36.
One of the most entertaining books that I ever read was the true World War 2 story in the book "Unbroken."
The book tells the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic Runner who became an officer on a bomber in the Pacific Theatre of World War 2.
He didn't see much action. His crew was flying the plane across the ocean when they had a mechanical malfunction and they ended up spending something like 40 days in a life raft.
Finally, they were "rescued" by the Japanese and put into one of the worst POW camps in history. They were literally starved and worked to death. They would work for 12 hours a day on a diet of 600 calories.
Because of Zamperini's olympic fame, he was singled out for mistreatment. He faced daily abuse and beatings from an incredibly cruel and sadistic prison warden named Mutsuhiro Watanabe - who they all called "the bird." This man became the object of Louis Zamperini's hate, and when the war was over, Zamperini had recurring nightmares and PTSD about "the bird" which drove him to drunkenness.
That is, until Zamperini accepted Christ at a Billy Graham crusade. He became a new man. He spent the rest of his life running a Christian camp and being involved in missionary work.
My favorite part of the book, and the part I didn't expect at all, was when Zamperini went back to Japan. At this point, his tormenters were in prison for what they had done. Zamperini went to the prison not to gloat, but to show them love. To tell them they were forgiven and to preach Christ to them.
Where does that come from? How can someone bury their pain and hurt and show such forgiveness and love to people who have hurt them?
Last week, in the cantata, we saw another story of this. The judge forgiving and even helping the man who killed his son in a drunk driving accident.
Before we even read the text this morning, I want to tell you what I'm trying to say today:
Christians are called to love others with supernatural and counterintuitive love, which is how God loves us through Christ.
This is what Louis Zamperini showed when he went to the japanese prison to pray with his tormentors. This is what the judge showed when he forgave and helped the man who killed his son. Supernatural love.
It isn't supernatural in a "superman" kind of sense. We aren't talking comic books here. It is supernatural in the sense that it is against and above our nature to act like this. It's against our nature as people, but it is in our nature as the children of God - because God loves like this.
Let's read the whole text and then I think as we consider it you will understand what I am saying:
[!bible] Luke 6:27-36 - KJV 27. But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. 30. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. 32. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 33. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
I believe this text is calling us to a life of supernatural love. Love that isn't natural and that will test everything in us. The way I'm going to cover this today is by talking about t
- the what,
- the who,
- the when,
- the where
- and the why of supernatural love.
Let's pray and we'll jump right into that.
1. The what of supernatural love
Look at verse 27 again:
[!bible] Luke 6:27 - KJV 27. But I say unto you which hear, Love
Let's stop there. The first word that is given to us here is the word "love." We are commanded to love.
Now, in Greek, there were something like 5 different words for love, each with it's own meaning.
- There was a word for erotic love
- There was a word for familial love
- There was a word from brotherly love
But here, the word is agape - a word that most of the time refers to the kind of love God gives.
And I want you to notice something else in this verse: I want you to notice that we are commanded to love with this agape love.
We are used to talking about love as a feeling. Something you just "fall" in and out of. But that isn't scriptural love. Scriptural love is something you do. It is an act of the will. Something you decide to do.
So what we are commanded to do here is to love like God loves. Don't wait for a feeling, just do it.
Well, let's talk about the
2. The who of supernatural love
Again, look at verse 27:
[!bible] Luke 6:27 - KJV 27. But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies
We are commanded to love our enemies. Not just those who love us and care about us and what to treat us well, but those who hate us and persecute us and want to mistreat us.
By the way: I think this indicates a hard truth. If you are living as a Christian you will have enemies. If you are living like Christ, there will be people who oppose you.
We are to love our enemies, and I think that means we are to love everyone. After all, if we are to love those who are the least likely candidates of our love - certainly that includes everyone else.
So we've talked about the what we are called to here - love The who - we are to love our enemies.
Now let's get into the nuts and bolts and talk about:
3. The how of supernatural love
Jesus didn't just tell us "love your enemies" and then leave it at that. He didn't give us a nebulous, hard to define command. He told us what love looks like and gave us three specific examples.
The first is in verse 27:
[!bible] Luke 6:27 - KJV 27. But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
We are to do good to those who hate us. There are going to be people who hate us, and our job as Christians is to do good to them. That's how we show love.
What does it mean to do good? Well, how do we do good to those we care about?
- We serve them.
- We are kind to them.
- We encourage them.
- We give them gifts.
- We help them when they are in need.
Believers are called to do good to those who hate us.
A second example is found in the first part of verse 28
[!bible] Luke 6:28 - KJV 28. Bless them that curse you
Ever had someone say something nasty about you? Ever had someone try to tear down your name?
What should be your reaction as a Christian? You refuse to respond in kind, and instead, you bless them. You say good things about them.
The third example is at the end of this verse:
[!bible] Luke 6:28 - KJV 28. ...pray for them which despitefully use you.
The words "despitefully use" are one word in greek, and when you look it up it covers a whole range of abuses:
- insult
- treat abusively
- revile
- accuse falsely
- threaten
When people are out to get you and acting nasty to you - how do you respond? Well, God wants us to pray for them.
So look, none of these things are easy. In fact, they are some of the hardest things to put into practice in the world. But they are our calling as Christians.
I think the key idea here is that when we are harmed, we don't respond with retaliation. Vengeance belongs to God. We respond with doing good, giving blessing and prayer.
Why? Because that is what it means to love our enemies.
So we've talked about the what of supernatural love, we have talked about the who of supernatural love and now the how of supernatural love.
Let's move on the to fourth question:
4. The when of supernatural love
In other words, when do we show this love to others?
Jesus answers that here in our text with three concrete examples and one overarching principle.
When do we show love to our enemies - three concrete examples.
The first example is found in verse 29.
[!bible] Luke 6:29 - KJV 29. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other;
This is the famous "turn the other cheek" verse. One interesting thing I learned when I studied this this week is that "smiting someone on the cheek" was a common expression for insulting someone.
Most likely, Jesus isn't saying that if someone literally comes and punches us on face we need to let him hit the other side. He is saying that is someone insults us badly, we don't retaliate. We just stand there and take it.
The second example Jesus gives is in the second part of the verse:
[!bible] Luke 6:29 - KJV 29. ...and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.
At the time, the cloke was your outer garment. Like a jacket. Your "coat" was what you wore close. It was actually in the law that you couldn't take a mans "coat" in a lawsuit. You were not able to sue "the clothes off their back."
But Jesus said you should be willing to give even the clothes off your back to people who are going after you.
The third example is in verse 30:
[!bible] Luke 6:30 - KJV 30. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
If someone is trying to ask of you or steal from you - you give it.
This is love in action. We are called to be self-sacrificially generous to others. Even if they are showing no concern for us and our needs.
Now, how can we do that? How can we do any of this? We can do it because we have a real God, and He is really watching out for us and caring for us.
Now, I want to say one thing before we move onto the general principle that Jesus gave here:
This is a dangerous command to obey literally and constantly. I don't think that was Jesus' intention. If we did this, then we would all be a bunch of paupers. This is best understood as an overarching principle, not as a bunch of literal commands to follow.
Philippians 1:9 tells us we need to abound in love in all judgment. That means that our love needs be practiced freely - (that's what abound means) but also with discretion (judgment.).
So those are the specific examples Jesus gave of when we show love to our enemies. But then Jesus gave us an overarching principle:
When do we show love to our enemies - one overarching principle.
Look at verse 31:
[!bible] Luke 6:31 - KJV 31. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
This is called "The Golden Rule." Do to others as you would have them do to you.
It wasn't new. Lots of people had said this before Jesus. But Jesus was the first person to put it positively. Not "Don't do to others what you don't want them do to you." But "do (positively) to others what you want them to do to you."
This is the guiding principle of our godlike love.
- Notice it doesn't say "Do to those who like you as men should do to you."
- It certainly doesn't say "do to others as they have done to you."
- But do to others as you want them to do for you.
This is how we show the love of God to our enemies in every situation. We ask "how would I want to be treated" and do that.
So we've talked about the what, who, how, and when of supernatural love - and that only leaves one more thing:
5. The why of supernatural love
Jesus gave us this command - love our enemies and showed us how and when and where we are to do it.
But why? Why would anyone act this way? There are two reasons:
We love with supernatural love because we are different.
That is what Jesus is getting at in verses 32-34.
[!bible] Luke 6:32-34 - KJV 32. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 33. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
This isn't the same kind of love that the world practices. Everyone loves their own kids. Everyone loves those who can help them. Everyone does good to those who are doing good to them.
But Jesus calls us to live higher than that. To love in a way where we cannot personally benefit from it. To truly love sacrificially. I think the reason we can do that is because we aren't the same as "the sinners" that Jesus is referencing. We have been made different.
We are what Jesus talks about in verse 35 - Children of the highest.
Look at that verse:
[!bible] Luke 6:35 - KJV 35. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest:
If we have been born again, we can love differently. We can love sacrificially. We know our heavenly father is going to take care of us and we know we are His children.
So we should love supernaturally because we are different. That is the first reason.
But the second reason is found in the end of verse 35 and verse 36:
[!bible] Luke 6:35-36 - KJV 35. ...ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Why should we love with supernatural love?
We love with supernatural love because we are the recipients of supernatural love.
God loves us, even though we were His enemies. Let me read a passage to you:
[!bible] Romans 5:6-10 - KJV 6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
God loved us when we were yet sinners. God loved us when we were His enemies.
If you are born again today, it is because God loved you when you were hurting and persecuting Him.
Jesus is the greatest example of God's supernatural love.
[!bible] Isaiah 53:4-6 - KJV 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Jesus took our sins on himself. He was bruised for Our Transgressions.
And so He is the greatest example of this supernatural love. And the idea here is "if you have been shown God's amazing mercy - show God's amazing mercy to others."
Conclusion
I started with the story of Louis Zamperini, I want to close with another amazing story of Christian love.
In 1990, after the fall of the USSR - there wasn't a person in Germany who was more despised than the former communist dictator. A man named Erich Honecher.
Honecher didn't just lose his job after the fall of East Germany. He lost his house. He lost everything. He and his wife who had once lived like kings were now destitute.
What was worse was He was dying of cancer.
Do you know what happened? A Christian pastor from Berlin named Uwe Holmer took this dying communist dictator into his home, fed him, housed him and cared for him and his wife.
The Holmers had been persecuted by this man. Their life had been made miserable by this man. The Holmers had ten children. Because of their faith, their kids were barred from college.
Yet, they housed them, cared for them and loved them.
author: Ryan Hayden
Two questions and I'm done.
For the Christians: Who is persecuting you? Who is your enemy today? How might you show them the love of Christ? Maybe you should leave today and think of some practical way to love someone who has been out to get you - but don't just think about it. Do it.
But I also want to ask you - have you experienced God's mercy yourself? Do you know for sure you are a Christian.
In a moment we are going to sing Just as I am. As we do, if you want to talk to someone about salvation - why not slip out the back and meet a counselor.
Let's stand for prayer.
