Loving Those Who Are Difficult

I was reading the New Testament one day when I noticed something really interesting in the Gospels, and that is that Jesus was over and over again asking people questions. And of course, Jesus would teach a lot, right? He would help people think better and practice life better. But why is it that over and over again in the Gospels, we see Jesus asking people these challenging questions? For instance, in Mark chapter 8, this is a funny one to me. Jesus and His disciples were on the Sea of Galilee whenever this furious storm came in. And the disciples looked at Jesus and they said, Master, don't you care that we drown? And listen to what Jesus said back. He said, you have little faith. Why are you so afraid? Now, if I were them, I would feel totally justified in saying, because the next time I go to a funeral, I want to go as a guest and not a guest of honor. That's why I'm afraid, because Jesus, it looks like I'm going to die right now. But Jesus knew there was something more important than that they had to answer in their hearts. And that is, are you going to be able, after I go to heaven, to handle the storms that are right before you? And are you going to go through your storms into the supernatural blessing that God wants to bring you into? And I've noticed in my life many times when God wanted me to see something that I was seeing partially, but I needed to see it more fully, when God wanted to sober my thinking about something that He didn't think quite the same way that I was thinking, that God would start by asking me questions on the inside of my heart. And I think the purpose is that God wanted to make sure I didn't just get it up here, but I owned the truth and what that truth could mean to me down on the inside. side of my heart. So when I was reading my Bible, I decided to Google how many different questions did Jesus ask in the four gospels. And the answer really shocked me. Scholars say there were 307 different questions that Jesus asked people in the Bible. And scholars say the purpose in asking those questions were, first of all, Jesus would ask questions to build relationships. And when we ask people questions and we find answers together, it kind of bonds us together and it helps us build together, right? And then Jesus would ask questions to deflect challenges, especially from his critics. So many times someone would ask Jesus a question, and Jesus would ask another question to show what was wrong with the motivation in their heart whenever they asked that question. And then Jesus would also ask questions to engage people's thought processes, because again, sometimes it's not that we don't see things, it's just that we don't see them clearly enough, we aren't thinking soberly enough. And unless we do, we're not going to step into what God is trying to lead us into in life. Now, today, we're going to study one of the most challenging questions that Jesus asked his disciples in the New Testament. And I'm going to start at the end of the passage that we'll study because it's where Jesus asked the questions. And he asked his disciples, 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? I want you to be perfect because your Father, who's up in heaven, is perfect. Now, why did Jesus tell us that he wanted us to love like the Father? Well, it's because love is what causes there to be a massive wave of redemption that's set off in the lives of people who are around us. And whenever we read this, you know, I've been doing in my study lately, anytime I read the gospels, I study the chronology of Jesus' ministry as I'm reading the passage about what Jesus is talking about. And part of why I'm doing this is because the gospel writers didn't write their stories chronologically. And I want to know what season of ministry Jesus was in whenever He was saying or doing what He was doing in that season. And the passage that I read you today, Jesus was in about His ninth month in public ministry, and He had gathered His disciples together. And I want you just to think with me just a minute, did you know Jesus his staff before he ever preached his first sermon. And when I read that, I thought, Lord, that's a lot of faith because staff are expensive. They all like to eat. How many of you know what I'm talking about? And Jesus had so much faith in the word of God's ability to capture people's hearts once he taught the law and the prophets well. And once they started understanding that God's word was sent to heal them and to deliver them from the destruction that sin was bringing into lives, Jesus said, you know what? I'm gonna hire my staff first and then I'll start preaching the gospel because I know something powerful is getting ready to get set off. And then just nine months in, because Jesus knew that the leaders couldn't be the body of Christ. They couldn't be the church He envisioned around the world. So Jesus raised up leaders, and then He began to speak to His followers. And first He gave them the nine core values of the kingdom. They're called the Beatitudes. And then after that, Jesus, you know, He talked to them about prayer, that He was going to redefine prayer, It wasn't going to be repetitious and meaningless to people, but He wanted people to learn to experience the Father the same way Jesus experienced the Father, so that the blessing and the protection that God brought into people's lives would begin to capture all kind of hearts because of God's goodness. And then Jesus began to talk to them about He called His church to love differently than they were trained to love. And so he started this way. He said, you've heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, I want you to love your enemies, and I want you to pray for the people who persecute you. Now, who had told them and where had they heard that they were to love their neighbors and hate their enemies? Well, that was the spirit of Jewish religion whenever Jesus came on the scene. They had taught to people that you're to love, you know, the people living for God, but the tax collectors, the sinners, people of different ethnicities and beliefs, you don't need to love them. You need to protect yourself from those kinds of people. And Jesus said, I want you to rethink that if you're going to be a part of my church. And Charles Spurgeon, who was the Prince of Preachers, wrote something very interested in his exposition of this verse. He said, in this case, a command of Scripture had a human antithesis that was fitted onto it by depraved minds. So he was talking about the Jewish leaders who taught them that, listen, you love people who are in the church, but people on the outside, that should be enough for them to realize that they need to respond to the love of God. And Jesus said, no, I'm going to ask more of you than that, and I'm going to ask that you love your neighbor. You say, why? Well, we're going to see from Scripture But first, let me help us see it in a story. A few Wednesday nights ago, I was in the place I always am until I go home after everybody left. And Gloria Kecker came up to me. Pastor Tony had just taught a wonderful message on forgiveness that Wednesday night. And she came over and said, Pastor, I have to tell you a story. She said, years ago, when we were still in the gematorium at the airport, she said, you taught a message on forgiveness. And she said, the Holy Spirit started dealing with my heart because I was really bitter at my brother-in-law. He had damaged my sister's life. He'd done such horrible things to her. And then he divorced her even though she had given the best years of her adult life, the formative years to this man. And Gloria was so bitter about it, but God began to deal with her heart. And so she began to find him. She learned he was in hospice and she went to see him in hospice. And she walked in and she said, you probably know our whole family's bitter at you over what happened. But I want to make sure you don't just understand why we're bitter. I want to make sure you understand the love of Jesus Christ. And she took that time and she shared with him that all of us are sinners and people could be bitter at all of us. But you know what? Jesus came and he didn't come to get revenge. How many of you know he came to bring redemption to everybody who was willing to have him save and forgive their lives. And it's so powerful, guys. Whenever we began to love like that. We set off redemption. And in that hospice room, Gloria had the privilege of leading her brother-in-law. She was bitter at, now he's going to be in heaven because he received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. And that's what Jesus was getting at when he said, so what reward is your bitterness going to bring you? Is that really the way that you want to treat people who are enemies against you? And then he began to talk about three things. And we're going to talk about it this morning. And that is, why is it our best choice to love our enemies? And here's the first reason. When we love our enemies, it begins to reverse sin's work in people's lives. And man, I prayed a lot over this weekend because this is a tough message to preach. And I know a lot of you have been betrayed by people that pledged their life to you. I know many of you have been wounded very deeply within by your father and your mother and your siblings and spouses. And so everything inside of you, it feels like you're going to love yourself whenever you protect yourself. But here's what I want you to see, that whenever we decide to take revenge, it's like throwing a boomerang at another person. And you know what happens? That boomerang comes right back at us. Only we learn it's not a boomerang, it's a machete, and it ends up hurting our lives. And that's why Jesus wants us to learn to love our enemy. I'll share a story with you in the Bible. It's a story of Jacob and his daughter, Dinah. And Dinah was a really beautiful girl, and the person from a neighboring kingdom had a son named Shechem who decided he wanted Dinah for himself. So he raped Dinah, and she came home crying to her dad and to her brothers. And then Shechem's father came to Jacob, her father, and said, Listen, I'm so sorry for what my son has done. Here's what I want us to do. Let's make a treaty between our people, and your people can trade and do business with my people, and we'll let our people intermarry, and maybe we'll overcome what just happened. Jacob said, that sounds good to me, but he said, there's only one stipulation. As God's people, we're not allowed to live in community with anybody who's not circumcised. So if that's going to happen, all your adult males are going to have to get circumcised. Now, that's how you can know that this dude had a dictatorship, not a democracy, because all the guys ended up getting circumcised. And the Bible says on the third day, they were laying there in pain whenever Judah and Simeon, two of the brothers, said, let's go kill them all. And they did. I mean, they killed every single. If you think the Bible's boring, you've never read the Bible. Trust me, all right? So they killed them all. And then Jacob said to his sons, what have you done? Don't you realize that you just set off a war that we don't want to fight as a family? And that's really what bitterness and revenge do, is it sets off a war that you really don't want to fight. That's why Jesus, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Bible says that in that state, the Romans came to capture Jesus. And when they arrested him, it says one of his companions, who another gospel tells us was Peter, he took out his sword, he drew it, and he struck the servant of the high priest, and he cut off his ear. Now, most people believe he was aiming right here, and the guy moved his head, and he cut off his ear. But he was mad because it was the high priest who was responsible for getting the Romans to arrest Jesus. They said he was an insurrectionist and a threat to the Roman Empire. So Jesus was mad. And you know what Jesus said to Peter? I want you to listen closely. He said, Peter, put your sword back in its place. And here's why all who draw the sword are going to die by the sword. I want you to say that with me. All who draw the sword are going to die by the sword. If we set revenge in motion, what we're going to do is we're going to cause sin to do more than what it came to do. We're not going to cause it to do less. But when we choose to love, what we do is we give God the power to reverse sin's curse. Now, don't get me wrong. God is for the middle military. That's clear in the Bible. And the military has a role to play to keep peace. But here's what you'll find in the history of the world, that when militaries are strong and they protect the common good among people, militaries are loved. But if that ever shifts, and if militaries start doing things for their own good at the expense of other people, suddenly the favor ends up being gone from that military. So God isn't against military. It's important to keep peace through strength. But God's against against the spirit of vengeance that just causes more hostility and destruction to happen in the world. I'll never forget when I was a football player, I was a wide receiver, and I made a move, came across the middle, quarterback threw it perfect, and this linebacker cheap-shotted me and could have hurt my knee. Well, I got up to fight him because that's just kind of how I was at that point in my life, and this dude was a lot stronger than I was, and he looked at me, And he said, do you think you can finish what you're starting? And I didn't say anything, but I thought, no way. And I ran back to the huddle because it wouldn't have done a bit of good for me to get in that fight. And that's what Jesus is saying, that we have to be careful when we feel revenge because yes, we've been hurt deeply. And yes, somebody chose to sin. And yes, it's very painful in our life. But how many of you are glad that we don't have to get in the game of the end? enemy, but we can trust God that in all things He'll work for our good if we love Him. Can you say amen? So Jesus first made this hard challenge to encourage us. Listen, if you want to reverse sin, love's the way. Here's the second reason. He said it reflects God's image. He continued, and He said, Listen, 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 the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. So we all see this, right? Because you're here and you're a good person and you're godly. When you wake up and, you know, the sun shines and the rain comes, and if we were all farmers like most people were in that day, our crops are growing good. Listen, that's a good day, right? But it doesn't like rain on your property and the sun doesn't shine on your property. And then you go next door to this guy that, you know, you're struggling to like because he's doing bad stuff. And while you're getting sunshine, man, he's getting lightning bolts over there on his property, right? That's not the way God is. And they call it common grace theologically. And what that means is God is good to people. And you know why God is good to people, even people who aren't good? God is good because He wants it to be very clear to people that it's sin that's punishing people. Even if you find pleasure in sin, that sin is going to punish people. And down the road, you're going to regret that sin because of how it punished good people when you engaged in it. And God wants to make it so clear. He said, I don't punish because I want people to know that Sin is what punishes people. I'm a God who redeems people's life. Listen to what Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:24. He said, The sins of some people are obvious, and they reach the place of judgment ahead of them, and the sins of others trail behind them. I don't know if you ever read the story where a guy got an inheritance and the father died, and this one conniving brother took too much of the inheritance and he figured a way to finagle his brother out of the whole inheritance. And he looked at Jesus and he said, Tell this brother to split the inheritance with me. And you would have thought that Jesus would have said, Yeah, dude, do right, get it back to him. But you know what Jesus said? He said, What's that to me? He said, I didn't come into the world this time to judge it. I came into the world to save it. And whatever people do to me, I'm going to tell you something I've decided. Until somebody treats me worse than Jesus Christ was treated when he was on the cross, I'm going to forgive them no matter what they do to me. And can I tell you something? I've learned that is so freeing in my heart because when people sin against me, it's not me they're really hurting, they're hurting Himselves. Can you say amen? And Jesus wants us to understand that. Don't make it like a boomerang where you think you're going to hurt people and it comes back and it hurts you worse. But realize whenever you have enemies, love them because that is what gives God the best chance to reverse sin. That's what reflects God's image the best. And I love Romans chapter 1, and I can get so mad when I read Romans 1, because it explains why once godly nations lose their godly heritage. And you know why it happens? Because people become entitled, and they think they can just live for their own happiness regardless of what God's commands say. And God said they do it to the point where now they start calling evil good and they start calling good evil. And their souls get all messed up. And when Paul gets done talking about that, which is the place we're in America today, where people are calling evil good and they're calling good evil. And if you look at anybody and you tell them that's sin, they say, well, I can choose any, I can make any choice I want to make for my own happiness. And you say, not according to the Bible, you can't do that. And they become an enemy. to people. They become a damager of people. And Paul goes through and explains exactly why that happens. But then listen to what he writes to start chapter 2. He says this. He says, so when a mere human being, you, passes judgment on someone else, and yet you do the same things, do you think you're going to escape God's judgment? In other words, even though you're mad at somebody else who sinned, if God punished everybody who sinned, what makes you think that you would somehow be excused if God punished everybody who sinned? And then Paul says this, he says, If you judge people and you're harsh, you show contempt for the riches of God's kindness, His forbearance and patience, because you don't realize that God's kindness is what is intended to bring repentance God wants people to understand sin punishes people. It's not God who's punishing people. Now, I think we see one of the most beautiful pictures of a person practicing this in Acts chapter seven. It's when Stephen, who was the first deacon of the early church, is being martyred. And Stephen looks at the Pharisees, and I want you to listen to what he said. Some of you are gonna be really happy I preached this this morning, okay? He looks at them, he says, You stiff-necked people. You're resisting the Holy Spirit. So you notice he called out sin. When I tell you to be kind, I'm not telling you can't call out sin. Adultery is adultery. Murder is murder. Lying is lying. Cheating is cheating. Stephen had no problem calling out their sin. And I think in this age, whenever Christians have heard for too long that being nice is being godly, there are a lot of Christians who are sitting in their seats and they're saying, I'm tired of you telling me to be nice. We need an anointing to get rid of the godlessness that's cursing our generation. So pastor, we got to preach the truth. And I would say amen to you about that. But I would also say to you that the reason that the early Christians overcame the Jewish religious establishment that had so much more power than they did. The reason they overcame the Roman Empire, for goodness sake, how do you overcome the Roman Empire? Well, Paul tells us in Romans 12, verse 19, he said, don't take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it's written. It's mine to avenge. It's mine to repay, says the Lord. Have any of y'all ever said, But can't I help just a little bit, man? I want to lay hands on somebody so they don't recover, Lord. Am I the only one who's felt that way? And Paul said, No. He said, Listen, on the contrary, if your enemy's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. And in doing this, you'll heap burning coals on his head. Don't be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. And that's what Stephen did. He called out their sin, But then it says, While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' He fell on his knees and cried, 'Lord, don't hold this sin against them.' And when he said this, he fell asleep and he went to heaven. And there was probably the biggest enemy of the church, Saul, who was watching this. And what Stephen did when he chose to love his enemies, He ended up starting what became the greatest movement in the first century of Christianity. Why? Because whenever we love our enemies, it starts to reverse sin's curse. Whenever we love our enemies, we reflect the true image of God. And here's what I want to close with this morning, that whenever we love our enemies, we do what's going to reward us most in life. That's why Jesus closed with the question that He did. He said, If you love those who love you, what reward are you gonna get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you create only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Don't even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, because your Father in heaven is perfect. So I wanna close today with three questions I want you to ask yourself whenever you get mad, okay? And here's the first question that I want you to ask yourself whenever you start getting mad. Question #1 is this. Will my action inspire anger or affection? Am I just going to set the boomerang in motion or am I going to set redemption in motion? Here's the second question. Is this conflict making me more like Jesus Christ? In other words, if our goal is to be like Jesus, is this conflict making me more like Jesus? And here's a third question to ask yourself. Will my actions feel good for five minutes or is it gonna feel good forever? How many of you know what Gloria Kecker did is gonna feel good forever because she led her brother-in-law to Christ? And how many of you are glad to worship with people who decide to live with that kind of heart, right? Is it gonna feel good for five minutes? Listen, there's a lot of things that feel good for five minutes that aren't good for us. And I wanna live a life where when I look Jesus in the eye, He knows that I don't wanna have one regret for how I treated something. I may not even, it might be really hard for me to love a person, but I wanna love Him enough that if He asks me to love people, He knows that I'm gonna love them. And I'm gonna close with this story that might help you like it helped me. When I was in college, our chaplain was married to the personal assistant of Corey Ten Boom. And so I got to meet Corey Ten Boom's personal assistant. In fact, I even spent time in the home with the chaplain and Corey Ten Boom's personal assistant. And if you don't know who Corey Ten Boom is, you can watch the movie Hiding Place, if what I say kind of stirs your curiosity. But the hiding place is about Corrie ten Boom, whose father was a very devout Christian and a Dutch watchmaker. And her mother died before World War II. But during World War II, her father and And Corrie ten Boom and her sister, who was called Betsy, they would rescue Jewish people who were going to be put in concentration camps during the Holocaust. And they were part of the underground railway system that would get them to freedom. Well, they were caught in the midst of it all. And her father was taken to prison. He died of spinal tuberculosis in about two weeks in, I'm sorry, in a hospital. She and her sister, Betsy, were taken to a concentration camp, and it was so cruel. It was so horrible. And there was one guard in particular that was the most horrible of all. And Corey, somehow there was this clerical error, and she ended up getting released from the concentration camp from a clerical error. And just a week later, all the ladies who were her age were taken to the gas chamber and executed. So she knew that God spared her life. In fact, her sister Betsy was not only treated cruelly in that concentration camp, she was executed in that concentration camp. And so Corrie felt this just this sense that I have to do something for Jesus. And she started a rehabilitation camp for people that went through concentration camps. She ended up becoming a sought-after speaker within local churches. And one service after she spoke, she looked, and this man started walking towards her. She knew instantly it was this cruel guard that had done such horrible things to her sister and to her and everybody in the concentration camp. He came up to her and he smiled. And he said to her, I know Jesus has forgiven me. Will you forgive me? And she looked at him and she said, Nothing in me wanted to forgive this guy. But she said, When I lifted up my hand, to say yes, because I knew the Bible required that of me. She said, I felt liquid fire come into my soul. And she said, I got so free by the love of God. Here's what I'm saying to you, church. Don't choose revenge. I know you've been hurt. I know people damage you. I know sin talks people into doing things that betray you, and you look back and think, how could somebody do that to the best years of my life? I wish it didn't happen. But listen, one day, this whole life is just going to be a memory. And I'm going to tell you this, when we stand before Jesus, let's not be known for the revenge we brought. How many of you want to be known for the redemption that we brought all over the earth? Amen.