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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] today's scripture reading is taken from matthew chapter 5 verses 33 to 48 again you have heard that it was said to the people long ago do not break your oath but fulfill to the lord the vows you have made but i tell you do not swear an oath at all either by heaven for it is god's throne or by the earth for it is his footstool or by jerusalem for it is the city of the great king and do not swear by your head for you cannot make even one hair white or black all you need to say is simply yes or no anything beyond this
00:00:54 comes from the evil one you have heard that it was said eye for eye and tooth for tooth but i tell you do not resist an evil person if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to them the other cheek also and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt hand over your coat as well if anyone forces you to go one mile go with them two miles give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you you have heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy
00:01:30 but i tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your father in heaven he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous if you love those who love you what reward will you get are not even the tax collectors doing that and if you greet only your own people what are you doing more than others do not even pagans do that be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect this is the word of god
00:02:20 good morning because it's not 12 o'clock yet but good afternoon also to fbc and it's great to see all of you there are like 64 people right now and counting can i have a show of hands uh you know that you're there and it's not just a wall paper you know and for those who are you know uh haven't turned on their videos i know you're a bit shy you know uh but turn on la you know hopefully you're not in your jammies still you know uh put on a good smile and turn the video on so that we can see you and
00:02:53 so that i can also see you and when i'm preaching then there's responses as well so a very warm welcome and greetings in the name of our lord jesus thank you so much to pastor leon payan and sister sarah for that for for bush for the time of worship that porter leon led and the word that is read to us that prepares us for the word today today we're going to learn about transforming love it is a continuation of the the series on the sermon on the mount that we are really deep diving right in the famous fairy tale
00:03:34 of beauty and the beast all of us are familiar with the enchantress cursed a cruel and selfish prince transforming him into a beast and his servants into household objects she cast a spell on the rose and wants the prince that if he can learn to love another and be loved in return before the last petal falls the spell will be broken otherwise he will be doomed to remain a beast for the remainder of his days many years later the father maurice and the daughter bell got themselves entangled in this
00:04:09 beast castle bell saved the father in exchange for imprisonment by the beast as the story unfolds with many twists of good versus evil love versus hatred bell and the beast falls in love with each other during the battle between the jealous gaston and the evil is he evil cohort and the beast the beast dies as the last rose battle falls but as the bell as but as belle tearfully professes her love for the beast the curse was undone restoring the beast transforming him back into his human form and delivered happily ever
00:04:48 it's of course sister was only a fairy tale but even in that disney story we learned so much about personal relationships and the stark ironies of love that is stronger than hate good triumphing over evil inner beauty winning over outer beauty the bible reminds us that people look at the outward appearance but the lord looks at the heart and that's the heart of what we are we will be learning today in the passages that was there was there were read to us that we look we're looking today as we continue the
00:05:24 studies with sermon on the mount we will learn and also unlearn from the transformative and the redemptive power of god's love as we continue to hunger and thirst for god's righteousness as the beatitudes have taught us in our relate in our personal relationships hence uh i've entitled the message today as transforming love a christian's righteousness in redeeming personal relationships before that let's pray in us that his spirit speak powerfully into our hearts our loving heavenly father we come humbly
00:06:00 before you today asking that you may speak into each of our hearts as we learn from your word which is active and alive sharper than any double-aged thought and able to judge the thoughts and the attitudes of our hearts may the words from my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight o lord our rock and redeemer amen there's lots to unpack in these three rather familiar and often quoted passages in the seminal amount oath or vows retaliation or revenge and living our enemies we have read this
00:06:37 some point of our in our lives before right this is the last three of six examples of what jesus demands in matthew chapter 5 verse 20 which was preached on a couple of weeks ago that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the pharisees we will not enter the kingdom of heaven it's very serious the first tree was you know anger about about lust or adultery and divorce and last three it's about oath retaliation and living our enemies and we've learned in the earlier verses that jesus said he has come not to
00:07:09 abolish the law but to fulfill them so not not surprisingly in each of the examples there is a pattern of you have heard that he was said followed by but i tell you always correcting what the pharisees and the scribes had misleadingly interpreted and enforced as the law he's not he's not saying that the ot laws are now obsoleted it has to be or replaced or amended to an ot law 2.0 no he's but rather jesus is explaining the true meaning of these laws and reinstating the expectations of true righteousness something that is
00:07:50 radically different deeper more authentic something that requires the transformation of our hearts he is resetting that bar and that standards are high i've themed the three passages under the motivation of transforming love because that is the pinnacle of chapter five transforming love does not compromise but rejoices with the truth secondly transforming love does not seek revenge but overcomes evil with good and thirdly finally transforming love does not hate but actively seeks the interests of
00:08:28 others even our enemies so firstly transforming love does not compromise but rejoices with the truth this is the passage regarding oath and vows do not break your oath but fulfill to the lord the vows you have made these were borrowed from old testament verses in the in the torah from from exodus all the way to deuteronomy is repeated right so for example in numbers 30 verse 2 when a man makes a vow to the lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge he must not break his word but must do
00:09:04 everything he said how have the pharisees misinterpreted and perverted these oath laws they have placed oh sorry just a minute this back to here sorry the the ot valves are strictly speaking oath in which the speaker calls upon god to witness his vow and to punish him if he breaks it right but how have the pharisees misinterpreted or perverted these oath laws they have placed so much emphasis on profanity which is the profane use of the divine name this is where all your swear words wrong wrong
00:09:47 swearing comes from every time you say oh my god for the love of christ for christ's sake this is really profanity because you're using god's name in vain versus perjury which is the dishonest pledging of one's word which was what the oath were meant to discourage so what the pharisees did was to they added very elaborate rules and formula which made the vows binding so one need not be too particular if the divine name is not been used example this example is stated very clearly in matthew 23 if anyone swears by the temple it means
00:10:28 nothing but if anyone swears by the goal of the temple is bound by oath and the pharisees also say if anyone swears by the altar it means nothing but if anyone swears by the gift of on the author is bound by that oath it's it's like saying if you swear by you know modern day example this church building is nothing but you swear by the pulpit yeah it means something is you're bound by oath if you swear by this by the stage it's nothing you swear by the expensive drum sets on top of it it means everything and you're bound by
00:11:01 oath jesus says blind fools in blind man which is which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred even that sequence they got wrong but that's beside the point it's not about it's not about swearing by one thing if you're bound by oath and sparing by another you're not there is an artificial fixation about this vowel formula which is irrelevant what is the what is the modern day example today so i've listed this song and let's test who who knows this song if you're not too old and you're not too young you
00:11:39 may recognize this song who knows what this song is can i have a show of hands oh rally mathias because about my era you know my era and i swear by the moon and the stars in the sky and then it goes on actually this is a mix of of a wedding vow in there as well for better of words to death as do part was one of the most popular songs during my time in college okay sorry so if you are too young you may not may not even know this song right too old so you know no no song okay so this is the reason why
00:12:16 modern day today we have wedding vows dr dr peter spoke about this last week that people now write their own vows you know it's a trend it's a trend thing you know don't go by the traditional vowel write your own thing and you can say whatever you want right and this is the reason why today we also stand in when we stand as a witness in court you have to take the oath i swear by the almighty god and the evidence i gave the duh shall be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth this is also the reason why
00:12:46 all kinds of contracts and agreements exist today right prenuptial agreement you contract your i.t contracts whatever tenancy agreements and you sign your name on it in front of businesses uh on commission of oath you know in some cases so if you break any terms and conditions you can be sued and you have to pay for damages but what does jesus say just say do not swear by anything when it's heaven or earth or jerusalem not even by your head because you can't even make one hair white or black all you need to say is simply yes
00:13:27 or no not yes but you know that's not what i meant you know in some cases it could be a no or no but no buts right it's unconditional right jesus goes on to say that anything more or less is likely coming from the evil one either the evil of our hearts of our deceitful heart in jeremiah 17 verse 9 the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure who can understand it or coming from the devil who is the father of lies we know in john chapter 8 verse 44 when he lies he speaks his native language
00:14:06 for he is a liar and a father of lies remember the story in the garden of eden where the serpent cast doubt into eve's mind did god really say you can't eat from any tree well we can but but not the one in the middle no no no no surely not for your eyes will be open and you'll be wise won't you want to have the knowledge of good and evil maybe god didn't put all the fine prints in there you sure are you sure maybe you're right maybe you're right let's just add some clauses okay for free trial you know you know
00:14:50 and then that's the that's the the that's the original sin jesus is judging the attitudes of the heart not the action of taking oath i'm sure eve would have made lots of promises to god i won't touch that tree in the middle although i could eat any other trees right it is the attitudes of the heart is about keeping our promises some however took this a little bit too literally to the other extreme the anabaptists for example and the quakers the anabaptists are one of the earliest radical reformers and the quickest was
00:15:23 some religious society of friends founded by george fox some refused to take oath in court they declined to swear an affidavit in front of the commissioner of oath jesus is not advocating refusal to take oath if is required by some external authorities the late am hunter who was once a prominent professor of new testament and an author of many biblical commentaries said this oaths arise because men are so often liars both arise because men are so often liars and how true is that right the heart of the issue that jesus is
00:16:05 addressing is truthfulness trustworthiness it's all about it's about keeping our promises my son is a is a great negotiator and i'm sure some of you as parents can identify with me can relate to this so we gave him the ipad the school requires it he's really young he's six seven years old but his ipad already right obviously we need to control his screen time so we will set a limit okay after the limit is reached uh it needs to be approved by either myself or my wife okay so the lowest the lowest
00:16:41 denominator is 15 minutes and then and then it goes one hour and then the whole day right so every time you set the limit to say just half an hour okay after the half an hour you gotta stop all right but he might but but my my son has the classic 15 more minutes promise 15 more minutes 30 15 more minutes please approve and the puppy face start coming out you know 15 more minutes okay okay last one last one no more and i'll prove it and after 15 minutes guess what it's a never-ending cycle even at such a young age you can see how
00:17:19 such temptations make it difficult for us to keep our promises contracts and agreements have become a way of life for for all of us recently i rented out a place uh i had to deal with a tenancy agreement and we didn't want to allow pets actually but the standard agreement didn't have no pads allowed or whatever in in the class but we had verbally told the one of the potential uh tenant no pets okay we prefer no pets and and you know they didn't see anything until at the 11th hour when we were about to
00:17:59 sign the contract um the potential tenant asks can i can i just can i bring my cat in i can't believe him a cat in the in the old apartment come on be you know uh uh you know be gracious but unfortunately that was that was our preference and it was the deal was off and i and i had to add the pet clause into the agreement for the next the next tenant in my line of work i had to deal a lot with i.t contracts right i'm not a lawyer but i've spent enough time with the legal department reviewing and closing
00:18:35 contracts with vendors this is the dreaded phase in sourcing and procurement the contract negotiation one of the most difficult contract we've ever had to close was one that has the phrase it's coming out here commercially reasonable endeavors commercially reasonable endeavors what is that even right i don't know i'm not a lawyer but i think lawyers will know that this is this is a clause that will protect themselves from failing to meet its obligations and service levels it's almost bulletproof
00:19:10 there's no way you can take them to court because of the subjectiveness of that that phrase reasonable endeavors so what happens is they promise the minimum to get away with the maximum this is the reason why contract negotiations take so long to close there's a fundamental trust issues between two parties anything it gets more complicated when the number of parties increases the biggest example of uh you know when when promises are not kept and when contracts are broken is an example of the enron scandal
00:19:49 the biggest bankruptcy in american history the leadership the two ceos kenley jeff stilling and even including the cfo andy festo full regulators with fake holdings and off the books accounting practices which they call mark to market mtm this is they use special purpose vehicles or special purpose entities to hide its mountains of debt and toxic assets from investors and creditors even enron's accounting firm arthur anderson offered stamp of approval signing off corporate reports for years many promises were made to customers
00:20:32 to shareholders and employees alike but lies after lies led to the biggest fraud in history the story continues jeff skilling is now out of prison and he has resurfaced into the american marketplace i think for us it sounds like a scandal closer to home but jesus says god says love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth love always wants to speak the truth how do we maintain rather than compromise our integrity how do we always speak the truth in love how do we apply this you know in our
00:21:20 family in husband and wife relationships parent-child relationships are we truthful honest in keeping to our words with our spouses and our children when you when you promise to not check your phone while driving do we keep it i'm completely guilty of that and vice versa sons and daughters are you honest and truthful to your parents when they are not when they are not looking when you promise not to watch certain things in the middle of the night do you honor your word in our workplace in businesses do we
00:21:57 keep to our word or own up to our mistakes with our colleagues bosses with the company or do we allow some rules to be banned in contracts dealing with accounts do we use fine prints to go unnoticed or hide an important truth that we don't want to to to be known when we file our income taxes are we honest by the way those who have not not done it you've got you've got you've got five more days to do this end of april do we hide any dishonest gains in society and in everyday running of errands how do we practice this you are going to
00:22:36 empire mall and you are in a rush the parking is full but you find a narrow spot a slot that you might just be able to squeeze in because it's the closest to the door and you do the quick cornering and as you do the quick cornering you hear the dreaded crack and you come down you come down and you check okay slight scratch not so noticeable also noticeable and you you take out your handkerchief and you rub a little bit maybe it will go away the stain might go away and just just hope you'll go away please but no
00:23:16 it's it's there it's you you can't you can't unsee it it's there do you close one eye and walk away or do you write a note with your contact to apologize and offer compensation not saying some of you you know run into that often but but you know what if you were the victim i'm sure some of you i have i have had my car scratched for no reason when i when i go shopping and i come back and i and i see scratches everywhere right i don't know who who did it but you know you we could be one we could you could you know we could be
00:23:50 victim as well so put put ourselves into the shoe of uh of of that person and then you go and then you go shop for groceries in gyre grocer after paying your bills you and you go through it and you notice a few items we missed out do you do you happily walk away calculating how much you have saved or turn back and straighten it out my wife always reminds me this famous phrase is your integrity worth that mucha you know right in our church when we say we will pray for others is that only lip service
00:24:35 or do we spend time really sincerely praying for the person we promise to pray to pray for transforming love does not compromise but rejoices with the truth moving on to the second point transforming love does not seek revenge but overcomes evil with good this is the famous passage on eye for an eye and truth for tooth it was taken straight off the mosaic laws what is known as the lex talionis principle of exact retribution retribution it is the modern day tit for that okay so for example in in leviticus 24 19 if anyone in
00:25:22 who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner fracture for fracture eye for eye truth for truth few qualifying points to make here the mosaic laws during the old testament times are civil ceremonial and moral because there wasn't a legal system at that time it's equivalent to today's civil law sharia law and your moral education your punditical moral all in one you know as it relates to to civil law there are instructions to the judges of israel and it forms the foundation of justice
00:26:06 that has the double effect of one defining justice and two re restraining revenge contrary to encouraging event it is to restrain it not to promote it now whether or not they this was actually literally executed when the laws are broken it's a different debate altogether but it's irrelevant here but by jesus time these laws have been replaced in in jewish legal practice they have a system in place already and you you can claim you know money penalties and damages just based on that right the scribes and the pharisees have
00:26:45 extended these laws from the civil courts where it belonged to personal relationships where it does not belong this retribution principle was used to justify the very thing that it was meant to abolish namely personal revenge it is tantamount to taking the law into our own hands you know using it as an excuse to say for retaliation this is clearly prohibited throughout the old testament even in levitical laws where these were taken obviously you know the pharisees didn't do any homework look in leviticus 19 for example it says
00:27:24 do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself retaliation and seeking revenge has become so prevalent in our times it is almost second nature to us is and it's um you know it's innocently portrayed by by children by kids my two boys you know and and again parents would relate to this fighting over toys you grab my toy i will grab yours you hit me i'll hit you back twice as hard lately there's a new new type of fight in showering together right so aaron
00:28:09 prefers very very hot shower very hot like like burning hot okay and ryan prefers lukewarm cold showers you know almost cold shower and even i don't have to go in there right but what happens when you put two and two of them together needless to say this happens in every fabric of personal relationships whether be it husband and wife amongst colleagues at work friends in school even in church the movies that we watch are full of it revenge revenge of the sith star wars transformers revenge of the fallen from cartoons to action
00:28:57 sci-fi movies this tv series these are all being applauded as glorified endings that's why they call it sweet revenge what is today's example what is today's you know modern day example one classic malaysian example and this is borrowing from pastor leon's double parking example you're parked at taipan's busiest street in front of barry's cake house it's one of the busiest street and when you when you've done your pastry shopping you come out and it's a car blocking you and there's there's no contact uh given
00:29:39 here um you so what do you do first thing you do is to get angry and honk and it goes on for minutes and nobody turns up nobody turns up nobody turns up so what happens what happens when nobody's looking and you go and you're fed up you're fed up you take your car keys one that is quite sharp i mean no one is looking you go scratch and depending on how big your your your grudges and your in your in your revenge is you can go all the way from the front of the car through the front door scratch through the back door and way
00:30:22 all the way to the trunk i'm even out of the scene now right so that that's what happens sometimes right revenge i want to make the person pay the more bizarre example in malaysia recently as i heard from dr peter a lawyer uh paul raj was diagnosed with kidney cancer right by he was diagnosed by kidney cancer but three hospitals okay but he thought he should get a fourth opinion and at the fourth opinion who did when he did the biopsy there turns out the biopsy revealed that the tumor was actually benign the man this man
00:31:06 happened to be a lawyer too bad the man is now suing three hospitals eight doctors 45 million for 45 million over wrong cancer diagnosis and this is what he said in his own words i'm suing it because of a tremendous untold mental and emotional sufferings psychological distress hypertension and restlessness that was caused is the extent to how to how much people would would repay evil for evil right you get even more bizarre and frivolous in america right a woman in in in austin texas was awarded 80 000
00:31:51 because uh he tripped she she tripped over a toddler in a furniture store she was shopping in so uh she she she sued the furniture side store and she she was awarded and the the store owners were surprised by this verdict because the toddler running in the store was the woman's son how ridiculous can that be but this is the extent to the human heart but jesus said do not resist an evil person do not resist resist here means to oppose to withstand to set oneself against the evil person here does not mean evil
00:32:35 we are told to resist the devil remember we are told not to resist god his will his truth and his authority but we are not to resist evil in general but here jesus says do not resist an evil person those who wrong you personally in case that is not clear jesus went on to give four illustrations of the extent to which we should resist retaliation or revenge first if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to them the other cheek also this is the famous idiom english idiom turned the other cheek
00:33:14 being prepared to take another blow second illustration was if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt hand over your coat as well you would rather be be wrong than to enter into litigation and this was mentioned in first corinthians chapter six and thirdly if anyone forces you to go one mile go with them two miles what is this we we might not be too familiar with this but this is in in roman in you know during the romans time uh times there's a practice of commandeering civilians for example the romans can call a
00:33:51 civilian to go carry a luggage for a prescribed distance so jesus is saying if if they ask you to go one mile go to two miles do more than what was us and finally give to the one who asked you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you if you look at this these four illustrations i know what you're thinking your mind this is this is chapshi situation sorry for those who don't understand cantonese chapshi is like it's it's a loose situation right picking up you know things that
00:34:26 people don't want right um it's a loose win situation we are familiar with the win-win situation this seems to be a loose win situation the other party is getting all the benefit but what about me you know this downright unfair notice notice the loose win situation increases as you go down the examples you know from passive resistance to actually giving more and more and more to active giving in each of these d.a carson who is the professor of new testament uh summarizes our christian response in
00:35:00 this way it is he says it is about giving up our humanistic rights and instincts not not your basic human right our humanistic instincts to always want to retaliate it's giving it up in a self-sacrificial way it is giving up our rights to to retaliate to to wreak vengeance it is giving up or withholding our rights to possessions to legal rights which we you know the examples we saw earlier people love to sue people as a form of retaliation of getting back the person finally and it's the hardest for some of us is
00:35:39 withholding our rights to time and money this is why why should i you know do more than is what is expected the point is not to be so preoccupied with the exercising of your rights such that it robs you from the opportunity to practice christian charity and love some cautions that i would like to bring out what the passage is not because you know it can be quite easily misunderstood or there's a myth around this this passage as well it is not it's not becoming being dormant and let letting people
00:36:16 step all over you yes you're a weakling and you're like whatever whatever goes i'm not gonna do anything it is not standing by and doing nothing when when ourselves and others are being hurt for example if there's domestic violence at home if there are bullies in school these need to be there needs to be a plan of action to to respond and not simply react so jesus is not saying that in this passage it is not withholding self-defense if someone is trying to hurt you it is not not defending yourself it is
00:36:52 not being irresponsible turning a blind eye to and which which encourage which encourages injustice dishonesty or vice if your house is broken in two you make a police report and you catch the perpetrator it is finally not absolute prohibition of the use of all force including the police and the army the so-called anarchy or even pacifism ideals so an example of this is um leo tolstoy leotosta is was a russian was a russian writer regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time who whose writing influenced gandhi
00:37:38 a lot both gandhi and leo and toast toy drew inspiration from the sermon on the mount they really really they probably studied someone around more than any one of us they took it very literally but gandhi took the non-violence principle into his satyagraha or truth force policy right it was his attempt to win his opponents by the power of truth and by the example of suffering willingly endured right so hopefully by doing so hearts will be changed and non-violence will be curbed sorry violence will be curved although
00:38:16 his humility and sincerity of purposes were admirable during the time of british occupation in india but put gandhi in in russia of the 1920s or germany 1930s or china anytime he would have been arrested immediately and nothing more would be heard of him so there is a separation there's a difference between the duties and the function of the state that is to maintain justice it's quite different from the individual even in romans 13 verse 4 the bible says for the one in authority is god's servant for your good but if
00:38:58 you do wrong be afraid for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason they are god's servants agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrong duel the authorities the state is sanctioned by god to to control justice now whether or not certain governments actually execute justice in a fair manner it's a different different matter altogether contrary to weakness resisting the evil one is everything about strength and resiliency charles spurgeon the english baptist preacher used this analogy he used he says he
00:39:40 says resisting the evil one is like the anvil we are like the anvil when batman are the hammers but no matter how hard you hit the anvil it would not break it would not buckle start john stott gave another picture of of a strong he's a muscular man full of control of himself and his love is for others are so strong and powerful that he rejects absolutely every conceivable form of retaliation that is the portrait of resisting the evil person love is ultimately the motivation in romans 12 12 reminds us do not repay
00:40:26 anyone evil for evil leave at peace with everyone do not take revenge leave room for god's wrath do not overcome do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good this is love that is prompted by mercy not justice this is love that renounces retaliation because it is god's prerogative to avenge it is love that is governed never by a desire to harm but always by the determination to serve their highest good in a tumultuous time the reverend dr martin luther king jr some of you all have heard of him
00:41:14 the the african american baptist minister and social activist in the u.s led a civil rights movement that focused on non-violence protests king's vision of equality and civil disobedience changed the world for his children and the children of all oppressed people he changed the lives of african americans in his time in subsequent decades at his funeral this was the excerpt of the eulogy from a doctor benjamin mays it was king's spiritual mentor and a distinguished atlanta educator he says this in his
00:41:54 eulogy if any man knew the meaning of suffering king knew house bombed living day by day for 13 years under constant threats of death maliciously accused of being a communist falsely accused of being insincere stabbed by a member of his own race in in the hotel lobby jailed over 20 times and occasionally deeply hurt because his friends betrayed him and yet this man had no bitterness in his heart no ranker in his soul no revenge in his mind and he went up and down the length and breath of this world
00:42:38 preaching non-violence and a redemptive power of love dear brothers and sisters we may not come close to the injustices that martin luther king suffered but many of us have experienced or even in the midst of experiencing injustices of people of people with ill intent who have who repeatedly want to harm or hurt us even at home husband and wife when we claim our rights it could cause fights unforgiveness for wrongs commit committed in our workplace many injustices could happen greek by supervisors your us bosses
00:43:26 stabbing back by colleagues it could cause us to to want to retaliate and seek revenge that's sometimes second nature to us at school in college so many opportunities where where um hurt is caused so many of this of of occasions where you know one hurt the other one betrays the other this is an opportunity to practice forbearance and non-retaliation that this non-intelligent love that doesn't seek revenge or harbor hard feelings even at church relationships among among church members can get messy and heated at times and members
00:44:09 do get hurt do we do we practice meekness forgiveness serving one another and washing each other's feet following christ's example transforming love does not seek revenge but overcomes evil with good and lastly last but not least transforming love does not hate but actively seeks the interest of others even our enemies the final example follows quite closely from the previous where jesus take the definition of love to the highest degree it's it's one thing to not retaliate or seek revenge but it's it's another to to love them
00:44:54 you have heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy wait a minute there's something wrong with this this phrase right because this this was taken from from from leviticus 19 for example right um where he says do not hate a fellow israelite in your heart rebuke your neighbor frankly do not seek revenge which we saw earlier but love your neighbor as yourself i am the lord surely something had been taken out of context right the pharisees and the scribes have blatantly taken this out of context
00:45:32 d.a carson has this way of saying this he says a text without a context is a pretext of a proof text a text without a context is a pretext of a proof text right so if you take a text and you take out the context it can be a pretext for anything that you want to say so an example that was given with this someone who wants to gain inspiration the bible turns to one passage of the bible and he reads judas hangs himself and he says god speak to me again and he goes in terms of another passage and the
00:46:11 pastor says go and do likewise so that's that's uh that's really of course it's a it's a funny example of taking things out of context but really what jesus is rebuking here is that that phrase love your neighbor and hate your enemy is taken out of context there are there are four at least four reasons how this this old testament law had has been perverted first there is they have taken out the word as yourself just love your neighbor hate your enemies right if only the pharisees and the scribes
00:46:49 loved as they love themselves although ironically they only love they only love themselves right secondly the scope of neighbor here has been reduced to okay sorry i'm using this this this cantonese phrase again or a chinese phrase it means own people right fellow jews own kith and kin same race same religion same status etc the list goes on in verse 46 and 47 jesus says if you if you love if you only love those who love you what reward will you get even tax collectors do that if you greet only own people
00:47:30 what what more are you doing even pagans do that what about in you know in the other parts of leviticus 19 do not go over your your vineyard a second time or pick up grapes that have fallen leave them leave them for the poor and the foreigner obviously the you know the foreigners are treated as as the enemies of uh of the israelites as well leave them for the poor and the foreigner don't hate them this is far from from hatred thirdly the law has been perverted because um obviously the pharisees have chosen to
00:48:09 turn the blind eye to other commandments on how we should treat our enemies in proverbs 25 for example it says and this was re-quoted by paul in romans 12. if your enemy is hungry give him food to eat if he's thirsty give him water to drink this is far from hatred and finally the phrase hit your enemy was was actually never found in the old testament if you read it carefully it was actually the reverse it was the reverse where the enemies we have enemies that hate us fiercely and and and and assam says for no reason
00:48:49 sometimes right so spurgeon says this was likely a phrase that was parasitically added you know it's a parasitical growth added by the pharisees and the scribes who interpret it that way who who may read the psalms that way there are psalms what we call the imprecatory psalms the imprecatory psalms are those that talks about judgment of calamity or curses upon those perceived as enemies of god psalm 69 and psalms 109 for example but this these are all they're all from a different context right so those psalms are talking about god's
00:49:27 enemies right those who disobey god willfully and sin against god i know this sounds oxymoronic but there's such a thing as perfect hatred as opposed to personal hatred perfect hatred in the same way as there's such a thing as righteous anger right it is it is the hatred for god's enemies not your own personal enemies and your personal vendettas that's where the phrase hate the sin and not the sinner come from this was never found so what does jesus say jesus had to repackage this old testament testament
00:50:07 law in in in the following manner love your enemies and not just love your enemies but pray for those who persecute you in a peril passage in luke that talks about the beatit the discernment on the mount it is extended to doing good to those who hate you to bless those who curse you love here is the unconditional love of god the agape love right in first john 4 8 says god is love himself and we are told to to love in the way that he has loved it is not like your enemies you don't like them but you have to love them that
00:50:51 is what is what jesus is saying here the questions that are certainly on our minds are who are our neighbors why why must we love our enemies they're so cruel to us it's so unkind to us why and and finally how even if you understand who and why how it's extremely difficult it is not natural for us to love our enemies are we to love them first who are our neighbors who could potentially be our enemies in the same chapter jesus revealed that this could be verse 39 evil and unrighteous people who defy
00:51:34 god's laws in verse 44 this may include people who persecute or oppose you or hurt you on account of christ we saw that in the beatitudes this could this this this is not your not only your own people your kakilang it is not birds of a feather that flock together it includes those of the other races and religions as well those not of our kind a parable that best describes what jesus means here by our by who our neighbors are is the parable of the good samaritan the man who is likely a jew traveling from
00:52:15 jerusalem to jericho is attacked by robbers who beat him and left him half dead the priest came along and walked past the levite came along and walked past as well but it was the samaritan who rescued the man and took care of him you must understand that the samaritans are hated foreigners they are viewed as half breeds by the jews they practice bitter and open hostility towards the jews and vice versa so here in this parable even the samaritan whom jews and the jews consider as enemies are more loving and showed more
00:52:56 kindness than the priest and the but levite but there's an irony to the question that that that was asked here the teacher of the law started asking um jesus who is our neighbor you can imagine almost a smirk on his face jesus who is who then is our neighbor you know almost sounding like who deserve to be loved since they are so self-righteous and after telling the parable if you notice jesus turned the question around is it is who proved to be a good neighbor not not who is our neighbor who who
00:53:37 proved to be a good neighbor and a teacher of law got caught you know he yeah it is the one who did good and he didn't want to say the word samaritans so it's not it's not so much who our neighbors are because it will include everyone and anyone rather what matters is whether we we ourselves become loving neighbors to others including our enemies secondly why do we love our neighbours and that may include our enemies i can think of four reasons there may be more first and foremost gratitude and gratefulness romans
00:54:17 chapter 5 verse 10 says god saved us while we were once enemies while we were once sinners god died for us remember where you have come from be grateful that god saved you god forgot so loved the world he gave his only begotten son his love is universal secondly fruitfulness in verse 45 jesus love your enemies and pray for them so that you may be children of your father in heaven john chapter 13 verse 34 says a new commandment are given to you love one another as christ has loved us by this everyone will know that you are
00:54:55 my disciples the fruit of of loving one another is that we are shown to be children of god the disciple of christ and in galatians 5 verses 20 22 the fruit of the spirit is love thirdly why do we love our neighbors and enemies treasures in heaven you remember in matthew chapter 5 verse verses 11 to 12 in the beatitudes blessed are you when people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven and later in matthew 6 it says for where
00:55:36 your treasure is there your heart will be also john piper puts it in a in in a in a different way he says loving your enemies doesn't earn you the reward in heaven treasuring the reward of heaven empowers you to love your enemy loving your enemy doesn't earn you the reward of heaven it's more about the more i love the more you want to get in heaven but treasuring the reward of heaven empowers you to love your enemies it's about getting our perspective heavenly perspective right that drives us that motivates us to want to
00:56:16 love our neighbors and our enemies finally and probably the most important why is that there is redemptive power to save there is love has a redemptive power to save in romans 12 20 which we read briefly just now if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink in doing this you will keep burning coals on his head this last phrase here might sound a bit strange to us those of you have read this verse before you know it's asking the question what does this mean why is it that when we feed our
00:56:59 enemy and we give him something to drink why would why would we hit burning coals on his head the phrase keeping hit burning coals on someone's head was really an old testament reserved for the wicked right it's a form of a punishment in psalms 140 for example right what is what does jesus mean here here instead of retaliation revenge violence that is that and you know uh that heaps burning codes on his head it is kindness and love that is hurting him in returning good for evil and being kind to the enemy
00:57:33 it will eventually cause him to repent or change and hence be saved can't say this better than the late martin luth the late uh uh king martin luther king he says this now there is a final reason i think jesus says love your enemies it is this that love has within it a redemptive power and there is there is power there that eventually transforms individuals just keep being friendly to that person just keep loving them and they can't stand it too long oh they may react in many ways in the beginning
00:58:16 they react with guilt feelings and sometimes they'll hate you for a little more at that transitional period but just keep loving them and by the power of your love they will break down under the load that's love you see it is redemptive and that is why jesus says love there's something about love that builds up and is creative there's something about hate that tears down and is destructive so love your enemies finally how how do we love our neighbors and enemies you can think of at least four ways
00:58:55 choose choose to bless choose to bless with words not curse not not wishing upon their downfall but calling down heaven's blessings upon them not just in words but in good deeds and action our motto for for our cia live group is taken from first john chapter 3 verse 18 that says dear children let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth john stott puts it this way true love is not sentiment so much as service practical humble sacrificial service let me give you an example of how this can be practiced during the
00:59:43 lebanese civil war that lasted that lasted about 15 years ending about some 30 years back many perished many died lebanon and and syria continues to be enemies but a pastor whose father was killed by the by the syrians has a church that reaches out to thousands of syrian families one time he invited a syrian refugee to the front so that he could wash his feet in front of the whole congregation and he did this to remind the congregation what it meant to love and to forgive his church as a result has grown from 60
01:00:29 to 900 then this was this was many years back by now it would have grown even more and two-thirds of them are refugees another similar example a lebanese woman who was persecuted at gunpoint by the syrians was part of a church that cared for 500 displaced syrian families she has her own families that she that she visits every week she has tea with them it is possible to love our and our neighbors and our enemies by our words by our deeds and our actions thirdly we are we can pray for them we can't pray for
01:01:08 and our even our enemies bonhoeffer calls this a prayer of love right there's a prayer for the salvation and the redemption from their sin and from evil when ronald reagan and saint john paul the great saint john paul the great were shot 44 days apart they were not killed but they were shot in 1981 both immediately began praying for the man who pulled the trigger john paul met with met with and blessed the train as assassin who tried to kill him it was a turkish assassin by the name of mehmed ali akka
01:01:49 who couldn't fathom why his direct hits hadn't killed the pope and due to the the prayers that was done by ronald reagan and saint john paul arka eventually fully repented and became catholic a believer last but not least we can learn and we must learn to forgive the example i would like to give is the famous example of jim elliot and elizabeth elliot they were missionaries to the to the alka indians in ecuador jim was martyred alongside four other missionaries during operation alca on january january 8 1956
01:02:36 after her husband's death elizabeth went to go live among the tribe that killed her husband with a three-year-old daughter valerie and having chosen to forgive the tribe who killed who killed the husband continued to share the truth of the gospel and the love of christ with them and as a result many of the uh the orca tribe became christians and the legacy lives on today where many missionaries continue to minister to that tribe and to the people surrounding it the stoning of stephen in acts chapter 7
01:03:16 is another example of how forgiveness is possible while the people the perpetrators were stoning him stephen prayed lord jesus receive my spirit and he fell on his knees and cried out lord do not hold this sin against them the ultimate forgiveness was obviously portrayed by jesus at the cross against his perpetrators his enemies when he prayed father forgive them for they know not what they do finally jesus ended by saying in verse 48 be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect it means we're not there yet we're not
01:04:07 we're nowhere near perfection the perfection that the father expects of us it is a transformative process in romans 12 in romans 12 verse 2 we are reminded not to conform the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind then we will be able to test and prove what god's will is his good pleasing and perfect will let's recap the three main points of the message today and how it draws peril to another passage that talks about love in action romans 12 verses 9 to 21. first transforming love does not compromise
01:04:53 but rejoices with the truth let our yes be yes and i'll know be no it is unconditional it is uncompromising let us always speak the truth in love clinging to what is good and being sincere about every word that proceeded from our mouth every promise that we make secondly transforming love does not seek revenge but overcomes evil with good do not repay evil for evil but overcome evil with good it is restraining revenge because there is a greater good that needs to be achieved it is not being preoccupied
01:05:34 with be seeking revenge by being preoccupied about doing what is right doing what is good lastly transforming love does not hate but actively seeks the interests of others even of our enemies there is a redemptive power of love to save even the worst of our enemies be patient in affliction faithful in prayer practice hospitality bless those who persecute you and you say i can't do this i can't i can't do this this is mission impossible indeed it would be impossible is by our own strength the bible says not by might nor by power
01:06:23 but by the spirit says the lord when we replace transforming love with christ and the cross for god is love we find comfort and hope jesus who authored the law of love fulfilled himself throughout his ministry on earth that ultimately led to the cross where roth and mercy met he was pet at he was blindfolded and struck and mocked and flocked he was crowned with thorns and ultimately died the most extreme most excruciating death by being crucified on the cross yet he never wavered from the truth he
01:07:11 never retaliated but loved even those who crucified him and even at the point of death he pleaded to the father to forgive in hebrews chapter 4 15 we are reminded for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet he did not sin brothers and sisters may we by the power of his transforming love of christ transforming love and his spirit be able to deny ourselves to withhold our humanistic rights to take up the cross
01:07:55 and to follow him let us close in prayer our loving heavenly father thank you for showing us how to love we acknowledge our weaknesses our self self-indulgence our self-centeredness our lack of love even hatred to our neighbors let alone those whom we regard as our enemies forgive us lord help us to love one another as you have loved us for that is the new commandment you've given to us grant lord that by the power of your love we may be transformed to be more like christ whose name we pray and for his
01:08:38 namesake amen i trust that the lord has spoken to youth spoken to us through his word today and if you feel moved if you if you if you feel convicted by the spirit and you and you say lord hi i need help i really can't do this on my own i've tried to to really love my enemies i have i have tried to love those who have maliciously tried to harm me or hurt me repeatedly i've i failed to do so there's a lot of hatred in me and if you're if you're feeling that way and you're feeling that you need someone to pray
01:09:19 with you need someone to just pray with you just just type pray at the zoom chat the word p-r-a-y pray and and i just want to re re um uh you know remind you that this is a private chat whatever you type it gets sent to a private uh group okay it's not it would not be be be publicized to every to anyone in the zoom call here so type at prey zoom chat right and someone will come and pray with you right and um if you are if you're new if you're new uh uh if you join us for the first time today or if you're
01:10:00 if you're a seeker wanting to follow jesus scan this qr code if you'd like to join alpha to learn more about the bible and christianity scan the qr code as well if you'd like to join a live group because you do not already belong to one scan the qr code and if you have any other prayer requests scan the qr code so i'll give you a few seconds to take a snapshot of this right and and then we'll get on with our song of response
