Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Well, didn't we have a lovely Easter? Yeah, we had a brilliant, brilliant Easter. And thank you to all those who were involved over Easter in any way.
[00:00:18] The Good Friday service. Esther, the lamb was perfect.
[00:00:24] Anybody taste the lamb that Esther did for Good Friday? It was stunning. How many legs of lamb did we cook for that? Five.
[00:00:32] Five legs of lamb. That was a lot of lamb. Put your hands up if you had the lamb.
[00:00:38] Yeah, there's a few of you had the lamb.
[00:00:40] It was brilliant. If you want to turn to Luke, who's going to be in Luke 6 again today, we are, for those who are new to what we're doing at the moment, we are in the Gospel of Luke for this whole year and we are looking at the fullness of Christ.
[00:01:06] Our passion for us as a church, as we grow and as we are on mission and as we mature, is that we would reveal who Jesus Christ is. That is the goal, that in our service, in our ministry, that we reveal Jesus Christ. And so this year we want to take us through a whole year of just revealing who Jesus is, the fullness of who he is. We've seen at the beginning, haven't we, that there was this supernatural birth with Jesus, a wonderful birth to a Virgin Mary.
[00:01:46] And I want to remind us, because we have some new Christians in this place that remembered when Jesus came, he. He was not created then. Jesus has always existed. The Son of God, the Logos, the living word, has always existed. He did not become it come into existence when he came and walked upon the earth. That is a fundamental of the Christian faith. All right, so I'm just letting, letting it out there. So we saw the supernatural birth of Jesus. We also saw Jesus as a teenager. And what really struck me as we were going through Jesus as a teenager. Do you remember those, Remember that preach about Jesus being a teenager, being a young lad? And he disappeared and he went to the temple and his mum was absolutely like, ah, so, like, anxious about finding him as you would be. And Jesus simply turns around and he says this.
[00:02:44] Did you not know I had to be about my father's business?
[00:02:48] I love that. And my prayer and my passion is that our teenagers in this church would be known for saying, I just want to be about the Lord's business.
[00:03:00] I want to see that in my generation, in my time, for a load of teenagers coming up to say, I don't want to do what the world's doing. I want to do what Jesus is doing. I want to follow Jesus. And then we saw the temptations of Jesus, all right, in Luke 4. And this is where Jesus is led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit.
[00:03:26] He's led by the Holy Spirit and there he is tempted by Satan. We're introduced to Satan, right? And it reminds us that there is an enemy out there.
[00:03:39] There is an enemy out there and this is really important. I encourage you to go and reread over Luke. Just keep rereading because you'll find nuggets of gold you'll keep finding as we dig. You know, the treasure is for those who dig, who diligently search their scriptures. We will find things, but we have to dig. And so Jesus is there being tempted by the enemy. And what I found really aston astonishing about this is that the enemy said to Jesus, Satan said to Jesus, you can have all authority if you worship me. In other words, the enemy wanted Jesus to worship him, to bow down to him. The enemy is saying, hey, you can have it all. You can have all these material. I mean, imagine telling the creator of the world that you can have it all.
[00:04:36] Bit stupid really.
[00:04:40] But Satan said, oh, you can have it all, but I want you to worship me. And do you know Satan is doing that today?
[00:04:47] He wants God's people to worship Satan, to worship idols, to worship anything and anyone but Jesus.
[00:05:00] He's out for that. He wanted Jesus worship.
[00:05:07] And then we were taught how Jesus replied.
[00:05:11] And then we've seen some of the supernatural, the kingdom of God coming, the healings that we've seen already. We've seen a little bit of the healings, the kingdom of God breaking in to people's homes. We saw Peter's mother in law get well. So the kingdom of God coming and breaking in, not just on a Sunday morning. Wow.
[00:05:34] The kingdom of God can come in your home in the week. The kingdom of God can come in your street. The kingdom of God can come in your workplace in Deo Gloria.
[00:05:47] And we saw these things happen. And we saw and we were also introduced to opposition.
[00:05:53] The Pharisees, the religious rulers. They hated what Jesus was doing because they couldn't understand him. In fact, one of the first times early on, Jesus life was threatened. They said they took him to the cliff, wanting to push him over the edge and kill him.
[00:06:12] Let's not pass these things by. These were real things that happened to Jesus early on in his ministry.
[00:06:20] And so what's happening now in Luke we are moving. So we've kind of had the scene being set on who Jesus Christ is, the kingdom of God.
[00:06:31] But now there is a shift as we come into Luke 6 and it's looking at us, it's becoming more personal.
[00:06:42] It is practical in its teaching. And we are introduced to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. The Sermon on the Mount, I think it happens over about three chapters, if I'm right, five to seven. But here in Luke, the Sermon on the Mount is smaller, just in chapter six. And I won't go too much into it because Graham was on that last week. Right. But the first part of the Sermon on the Mount is all about Christ centered living things are turning around. Now.
[00:07:16] This Sermon on the Mount is all about how Jesus looks at life.
[00:07:22] And so it'd be good for us to listen up and in a moment we're going to read this. But this sermon, essentially the Sermon on the Mount, deals with relationships. This is where it gets a bit tricky. This morning I'm going to say some things about relationships.
[00:07:38] It looks at relationships between us, our relationship with ourselves. How do you view yourself this morning? I hope it's through the lens of Scripture.
[00:07:53] How do we look at others?
[00:07:56] I hope it's through the lens of Scripture and how do we view God?
[00:08:04] See how it all comes back to Scripture.
[00:08:07] And so three essential relationships that we have in life.
[00:08:12] The people gathered that day to listen to Jesus all had different needs.
[00:08:20] Some of the people were demon possessed. Some of the people were the disciples, the early disciples. They were there.
[00:08:28] Some of the people were sick and and had needs. Some people were ostracized.
[00:08:34] But all of them came to Jesus because they needed freedom, they needed wholeness, they needed an answer.
[00:08:46] But many people that day came to get a touch from Jesus but ignored the teachings of Jesus.
[00:08:57] And so often we can come and experience and encounter the goodness of God but neglect to follow the teachings of Jesus.
[00:09:11] But this sermon this morning, the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon in my opinion. It was a sermon from Jesus after all. Of course it's going to be the greatest sermon. It challenges and it changes the way we think as disciples, or it should do, because it completely goes against what the world thinks and the way the world does things. I think sometimes there's too much of the world that's got into our lives.
[00:09:47] One of my diary accounts two weeks ago I remember just getting before the Lord and I repented of how much I'd let the world seep into my home.
[00:10:00] You know, as you're going along in life, it's good to have a little check to see where you are in life. And if you can't see it yourself, get somebody else to say, hey, you know, when you come into my home. What do you think? What do you feel? What is the atmosphere like? What do you think about my life?
[00:10:17] And I just stood there with the Lord and I wrote it in my journal. I said, lord, I repent because there are certain things that are just too worldly that have got into our home. And I want them out because I don't like them.
[00:10:33] I want you, Jesus. So last week we looked at the Beatitudes.
[00:10:38] The Beatitudes are all about if you're hungry, if you're poor on account of Jesus, then you are happy.
[00:10:49] If you are hated, if you are unpopular on account of Jesus, then you are blessed.
[00:10:58] The world wouldn't say that.
[00:11:00] The world would say you're blessed by the size of your house, you're blessed by the look of your car, you're blessed by the clothes and the shoes that you wear.
[00:11:10] That's what the world would say. You're blessed with how many holidays you can go on. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, this is different. In my kingdom, you are blessed if you are persecuted on behalf of me.
[00:11:24] It's hard, isn't it? It's hard.
[00:11:28] It was never meant to be easy. I often think of the disciples, you know, and they were called in. They were called. And it's early on in Luke's gospel that they are here listening to this sermon.
[00:11:42] And they had secure homes, they had friends, they had secure jobs, a secure income. It was secure, as secure as it could be in the Roman Empire, but it was secure. It was great. And suddenly Jesus says, follow me.
[00:12:01] Everything changes.
[00:12:04] Suddenly they became unpopular. People started distancing themselves from them because they're hanging out with that freak Jesus.
[00:12:16] Sure, there was some glory, glory times when the crowds were there And Jesus fed 5,000 people and some.
[00:12:25] Oh, that was. That was a good time to be with Jesus.
[00:12:29] I'm a terrible dancer.
[00:12:32] That was a great time. And when the miracles happened. Yeah, we're with Jesus. We're with him. But then when Jesus starts talking about some hard stuff, suddenly, oh, gets a bit uncomfortable.
[00:12:51] Are you with me, New Christians this morning, I want to tell you, the baptisms were stunning. I was, ah, I was wrecked last week. It was stunning. The sun was out. Wasn't it a glorious evening?
[00:13:06] Baptizing these young people into new life in Christ. Stunning. But let me tell you, the hardships are going to come.
[00:13:21] The hardships are going to come because Satan absolutely hates it when people turn from his camp, from coming under his reign and filth and everything else and they step over into new life. And come under the lordship of Christ. Satan help hates it.
[00:13:48] When you give your life to Christ, and if you are baptized, there is a mark on your back and you will experience hardships. There will be loved ones who don't understand your yes to Jesus. And they will turn away people. Your work colleagues will say things and go, man, you've changed.
[00:14:09] People say that to you. Inside you smile. You go, yes. The power of the Holy Spirit is on the inside of me. I am changed. I am changing. I am becoming more like Christ.
[00:14:25] Amen.
[00:14:28] Brilliant.
[00:14:30] So today turn with me to Luke 6. We're going to read it. This deals with relationships. I'm going to be really honest with you this morning. And I want to be really honest. And it might hurt a little bit, but the reason I want to do this is because my desire for this church is to be so set apart in this region.
[00:14:54] And not because our band is great, and not because the posters are great.
[00:14:59] And not because Phil has a nice suntan.
[00:15:05] I'm only jealous because I'd love to go away, but because it's a church that is maturing.
[00:15:12] It is maturing. If we are not maturing, then there's only one way we go and it becomes more like the world. I want us to be like the world. I want us to mature. Anybody want to mature? As we grow in godliness and reflect who Jesus is. So let me read this this morning.
[00:15:31] Luke 6. And we're starting from verse 27. Better get my glasses.
[00:15:39] Okay, here we go.
[00:15:43] But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods, do not ask for them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return.
[00:17:05] Nothing in return. And your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High. For he is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful. Just as your Father also is merciful a little bit at the end. For he is kind.
[00:17:28] He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
[00:17:34] Wow. Yeah.
[00:17:36] So I've got some few thoughts this morning. Let me ask a few questions to us. I don't want you answering them, just think about them, alright? How is your relationship with people?
[00:17:49] How's your relationships with people?
[00:17:53] How is your relationship with people you love?
[00:17:59] How is your relationship with the people that love you?
[00:18:04] How is your relationship with people who are part of your tribe, your group, your community?
[00:18:12] You're in group if you like.
[00:18:15] How is your relationship with those who are difficult to love?
[00:18:20] How is your relationship with those who have upset you?
[00:18:26] How is your relationship with those who have offended you?
[00:18:33] How is your relationship and mine? I'm including me.
[00:18:38] With those who have mistreated you.
[00:18:42] How is your relationship with those that you find difficult to get along with?
[00:18:54] How much do we show care and concern for all the relationships that are in our world?
[00:19:04] Because that's what love is. It is care and concern.
[00:19:09] And here Jesus is talking about a deep care and concern. And these are important questions to think about because we know that in scripture it says that how we love people, and I mean all people here will determine how we love. The Lord will determine what level of commitment and dedication and surrender and devotion we have towards the Lord.
[00:19:38] Hard, isn't it?
[00:19:41] Because there are times in my life when I know somebody has mistreated me that I almost want to do it back.
[00:19:51] Unless it's just me. There is a natural carnal man in me that wants to go, well, they've ignored me. You know what? I'm going to ignore them.
[00:20:02] But that is not the Jesus way.
[00:20:06] And so we've got to turn this on its head because I believe it has crept subtly into the church.
[00:20:14] And I don't do too much on this because Lawson's coming next week and talking about how we criticize brothers and sisters. So I don't talk too much.
[00:20:23] But these are really important questions about in our relationships, how do we love the unlovely? How do we love those who mistreat us? You know, the world will look on and they are desperate to see a different kind of love being played out. Can you imagine us as a church in Newton Abbott, the spreading of a wild, stunning, beautiful kingdom, love that spreads like wildfire across this region.
[00:21:04] But how many of us would say, do you know what, Esther? I understand what you're saying. But it sure is easier to love those who love me.
[00:21:19] Oh, it's easier, Esther, to love people that, you know, are really generous towards me. Like, I find it so easy to love them. Like, I love my neighbour at number 42 because they're so kind and they. They turn up with flowers at Christmas, but number 13, they're as miserable as anything.
[00:21:40] You don't have a neighbour's life. No.
[00:21:45] It's easy, Esther, to love those that have got my back.
[00:21:49] It's easy to love those that I just love hanging out with.
[00:21:56] Surely there's not cliques in the church.
[00:22:02] Surely we don't come here on a Sunday and we just grab the people that we get on with and we ignore the rest. Surely we don't do that.
[00:22:15] And Jesus comes along and he teaches something completely different.
[00:22:22] He says, let me remind us, he says this in verse 32, but if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.
[00:22:52] I'm like, lord, how can we love and care, like, really love and care deeply for those who hurt us?
[00:23:04] And I want to say there's a context. I haven't got time to go into it this morning, but there is a context. You know, if we are abused physically, emotionally, Jesus isn't saying, just put up with it and stay put. This is not the context here for that. Okay? He's talking about people that mistreat us or are unkind to us, like in our neighbors, our work colleagues.
[00:23:28] But Lord, how. How can I deeply love and care for somebody that's mistreated me at work, for somebody or even in the church that has slandered me? How do I do that?
[00:23:43] How can I give love and not expect love in return?
[00:23:51] Yes, that's good.
[00:23:57] Can we do that?
[00:24:00] Can we love deeply, care for people without expecting anything in return?
[00:24:10] How many of us after giving something. Again, don't answer. How many of us after giving something, a secret, expecting something back?
[00:24:25] I was reading a story about a lady in the UK and she went out. She really felt just to go and love the unlovely. And so she would take the soup around at winter time. She would take a load of clothes to feed, to clothe people, and she would go out months and months and months, just looking after the unlovely. And as she was at a big conference one day, she was preaching about different things that she was doing on the streets. For the unlovely in society.
[00:24:57] And after she had done her talk, there was a group of women came to her, and they said to her, you know, you do all of this for people. You turn up, they throw glass bottles at you, they put out their cigarette stumps on your clothing.
[00:25:15] They just throw what you do back in your face.
[00:25:20] They said, how on earth. This is a Christian conference. How on earth do you put up with that?
[00:25:29] And she said, if you truly knew the love of Jesus and had experienced the forgiveness of God on your life, you would not be asking me that question.
[00:25:46] She says, I go out because of the love I've received from him, and I go out not expecting it to be reciprocated.
[00:25:57] I'm doing it expecting nothing in return.
[00:26:04] Wow. How many of us can really, really say I am serving without expecting to get anything in return?
[00:26:12] You know, we love celebrating our volunteers. We do it once a year. We've got another one coming up. We tried to do it in November. Do you remember? There was a big storm and we had to. All the roads were closed in Newton, Abbot. But every year we celebrate our volunteers. But imagine we never thanked you, and you just kept turning up and we never thanked you.
[00:26:35] Now, I'm not saying it's right, but how would we feel? And so she gave and gave and gave, expecting nothing in return. Because that's the Jesus way, that is his standards.
[00:26:52] Go out into all the world, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have taught. Not some of it, but teaching them to obey everything that I have said.
[00:27:11] Can we love and care for others without expecting anything in return? Can we love in such a way? I remember being at school, year seven. Year seven's a tough year. Oh, and I remember being in school and I wasn't a popular kid, although I was head girl.
[00:27:31] I don't know why, but anyway, I was head girl, but I wasn't popular. But I. Whatever. I didn't really hang out in the popular group. But one day, this girl, it was Christmas, all right, she was in my form group, and I didn't even talk to her. I was with some other friends, and she came on Christmas. She said, esther, I want to give you this gift, this Christmas present. And she'd wrapped it all up beautifully. And I didn't even talk to this girl at school. And I went home and I looked at this beautiful gift, and you know what I thought straight away?
[00:28:06] Guilt.
[00:28:09] I felt guilty. And as a 13 year old girl for receiving a gift, for not even showing this girl any attention or having ever spoken to her really in my life. And I got this gift. And you know what? Instead of enjoying the gift, I said to my mum, I need to go out and buy a gift for this girl in school.
[00:28:31] And the reason why I went out to buy this gift for this girl in school wasn't because I wanted to, it was out of guilt.
[00:28:41] It was simply out of guilt.
[00:28:43] But this girl was so much better because she was thinking, well, this Esther doesn't know me, but I really want to give her a gift. And she went to give that gift knowing that she probably wouldn't get anything in return. And actually when I went out to get this gift and I wrapped it up and I gave it her the next day at school, it meant nothing.
[00:29:04] It was so empty. It was like, oh, I've got you one back.
[00:29:11] Brownie points. Yeah, aren't I good?
[00:29:15] Not really. It just felt empty because it wasn't love, it was guilt that I was given.
[00:29:25] And Jesus comes along and he says, give because I'm a giver. Be generous because I'm a generous God. Love because even I love the unlovely. I love those that are unthankful. I love those who are evil. I want you to love. To love. I'm going to wrap up now.
[00:29:46] Let me just talk about church for a moment because I think sometimes our enemies, and I know that's a strong word, can actually be in our churches, as sad as that is.
[00:30:00] Okay?
[00:30:02] We can criticise each other easily or easier than we do those in our workplaces.
[00:30:13] We can, and we don't want us to.
[00:30:22] We want this to be a sincere church, a faithful church, a mature church, a church that actually practices what Jesus has told us to do.
[00:30:36] We had a couple in one of the churches we led a few years ago and Phil and I had offended them or we'd offended them.
[00:30:48] And we didn't know that we'd offended them because they came to tell us they'd offended us. We had to work it out.
[00:30:57] And this is what happened.
[00:31:00] And don't look at me as though, no, that didn't happen in church. It did and it does.
[00:31:07] And it's got to stop.
[00:31:09] Because Jesus is worthy of something greater in his church, his glorious church. And so this couple, they didn't tell us we'd offended them, but they showed it by their actions. And so they started on the front row at church because we know that's the holy row, right? We Know, this is like where the Pentecostal action all happens.
[00:31:30] I'm joking. You know I'm joking, right? And by week two, they started to sit on the back row. Now, there is nothing wrong with the back row. Give me a wave, back row, people. There is nothing wrong with the back row. All right? But I'm just saying if you've been a front row person for most of your life and then all of a sudden you become a back row person, it's like, okay, posture's changed. We noticed it. And we're like, okay. And then the next thing they did, they unfollowed us on social.
[00:32:05] Because we all get upset over that one, don't we? No.
[00:32:10] And then the next thing is, when I'm preaching or Phil was preaching, their head would be down.
[00:32:17] We're like, this is strange.
[00:32:20] And then the final one that ticked me off was during the preacher.
[00:32:31] I'm joking, but it was real.
[00:32:35] And so in the end, I went to Phil, I said, this couple, we need to go and see them because I feel like we're enemies.
[00:32:44] And so we made an appointment to go and see this couple. And when we sat with them, we said, listen, like, you're treating us a bit bad here. Have we done anything to upset you? And after a long conversation, it actually came round to them going, well, not really. And we're like, what do you mean, not really? Like you've taken all these steps to avoid us. And they said, well, and you know what? After a concert, they could not pinpoint what we had done.
[00:33:21] And it was such a strange situation. Some months later, we realized that their marriage was in a really tough place and what had happened. Instead of acknowledging where they were in themselves and what they were going through, they decided they would take it out on us.
[00:33:47] And what happens is, you see, when we mistreat others, when we mistreat people, it makes us feel better about ourselves. It does.
[00:34:01] If we are offended by somebody or we're upset with somebody, if we mistreat that person and we ignore them and we do whatever we can to kind of show them a little bit that we're annoyed with them, it seeks to put that person in their place while elevating us to make us feel a bit better about ourselves. Am I right?
[00:34:25] That's what mistreating other people does. And I have, after 40 odd years in church life, seen the stench and the mess of what happens when people do not do things biblically.
[00:34:42] If you have an offence with somebody, somebody over here has an offence with somebody over here. Or if you have an offence with us. And here's the thing about offence. We had no idea.
[00:34:55] We had no idea we'd offended somebody.
[00:34:59] No idea.
[00:35:01] If you have an offence, can I encourage you instead of mistreating somebody, because that's what the world does, go and eyeball somebody, go and sit with them and say, hey, I was a little bit upset over that. Can we just talk it through?
[00:35:21] And very often that person will go, you know what? I never even knew I'd upset you. Please forgive me.
[00:35:29] Please, can we put it right?
[00:35:31] I believe people don't need to leave churches.
[00:35:35] Leave a church if you're not growing. Leave a church if, like, they're preaching heresy.
[00:35:41] I don't think we need to leave churches. God has placed each and every one of us in this local church to reflect him, to see his name glorious. And the way we're going to do it is if we love one another deeply.
[00:35:57] I don't want us to be a church that says, you know what, I'm just going to love you because you love me back.
[00:36:03] I'm going to love the people that I find actually I don't get along with that well, but I'm going to try to love them the best I can, love them the best I can.
[00:36:16] We mistreat people. Here's some reasons why we mistreat people. We've stopped deeply caring for one another.
[00:36:24] I want to encourage you this week to pray over one another.
[00:36:29] You know, say Holy Spirit, who can I pray for in the Rediscover Church? Newton Abbot this week, and the Holy Spirit will lay somebody on your heart. Pray for them. Even if you haven't seen eye to eye with that person, pray for them and you will see over weeks and months, your relationship with them change for the better.
[00:36:50] So we mistreat people because we stop having any concern for those people. Second one, we feel at some point they've mistreated us.
[00:36:59] So we return with carnal, fleshy responses rather than doing what Jesus has called us to do.
[00:37:08] When love isn't reciprocated, I think what many of us do, we don't bother.
[00:37:17] If we do something good and it's not reciprocated, I think we give up and we go, well, stuff it.
[00:37:27] I can't be bothered.
[00:37:31] Is that just me?
[00:37:40] How do we become sons of the Most High?
[00:37:48] We love the unlovable because he loved us.
[00:37:55] We go further in our responses and in our relationships. I'm not saying this is easy. Jesus never said it was going to be a walk in the park. He never said it's going to be easy. But you know what? I believe in our relationships. Miracles will happen. Healing will take place.
[00:38:15] Honesty will reign in this place. Integrity, truthfulness. This is the kind of church that Jesus is looking for in these days. This is the fullness of Christ in his church.
[00:38:35] Will you just stand with me this morning? Just as we conclude, Just maybe close your eyes where you are. Or as we reflect over the message this morning. I hope it's challenged us. I hope it's poked us a little.
[00:39:08] I hope it will move us to put things right, to not give the enemy a foothold in our lives.
[00:39:27] Jesus, we love you, Jesus, Your way is the best way.
[00:39:39] We love you, Lord.
[00:39:48] We love you, Lord.
[00:39:50] Let's just focus on Jesus. Don't focus on relationships. You can do that later in the week. Let's just focus on Jesus.
[00:39:59] We want to see you glorified, Lord, in this town. We want to see you glorified in our families, in our homes, in our workplaces.
