"How To Retaliate When You're Slapped With Humiliation"

10 April 2009

GOOD FRIDAY

U.S. Army Chaplain (MAJ) Ken Harris

Fortress Chapel

Contingency Operation Site (C.O.S.) Sykes

Tall-afar, Iraq

BIG IDEA: When Christians are slapped with humiliation, they should avoid retaliating and “turn the other cheek”.

REFERENCES: Job 14:1 (KJV) Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble; Leviticus 24:18-20 ESV (Preventing a person from taking the law into his own hand); Luke 6:27-38 ESV (Parallel to Matthew 38-42); Exodus 21:18-27 ESV (Laws about Slaves); Exodus 21:26-27 ESV (Laws about eye and tooth) When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye; If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth; Matthew 5:38-42 ESV (Retaliation); Matthew 5:38-39 (ESV) “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; John 18 ESV (Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus); John 18:19-24 ESV (The High Priest Questions Jesus); Acts 23 (Paul slapped before the Sanhedrin Council and unknowingly rebuked the high priest – “white washed wall” in other words: filth and dirt covered-over); Ephesians 4:26 ESV (Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil); Matthew 23:23 ESV (Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others; Amos 8:9 ESV (The coming Day of Bitter Mourning) “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight”.); Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19 (The Story of the Crucifixion is told in all of the Gospels); Ezekiel 16:42b ESV (I will be calm and will no more be angry);

I. ANNOUNCE THE PERICOPE: John 18:19-24 (ESV)

II. READ THE PERICOPE: John 18:19-24 (ESV)

III. READ THE TEXT: John 18:22 (ESV) When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?”

IV. PURPOSE: To inspire the hearers to do as Christ did, when they are slapped with humiliation, and turn the other cheek”.

V. SERMONIC THEME: “How to Retaliate when you’re Slapped with Humiliation”

VI. INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to all of our Contemporary Worship Service visitors. We are so glad you decided to join us on this evening that Many Christians, all over the world, commemorate and call Good Friday.

For it was on a Friday, over twenty-one hundred years ago, that our Savior – Jesus Christ – was put to death. What at first seemed to the disciples of Jesus to be a tragedy was recognized after the Resurrection as the source of salvation and hope for humanity.

In his first recorded evangelistic sermon after the Ascension, Peter presented Jesus’ crucifixion as something determined “by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge”. For it is through the Crucifixion, that we have been offered life, and believers who have put their trust in Christ have been forgiven for all of their sins. For the Good Book says in Romans 6:23 ESV The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, it doesn’t matter what sins we have committed. If we apologetically repent of our wrong doings to Christ and ask him to come into our lives; He is both loving and merciful enough to forgive us of our sins and then give us eternal life.

******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******

Move 1: Therefore, in our scripture, tonight we want to briefly explore “How to Retaliate when we are slapped with humiliation,” and some of the activities which led up to that Good Friday evening over twenty-one hundred years ago.

a. Now, my brothers and sisters, as professional Soldiers and civilians (working for the US Government) we are privileged to attend some of the best schools in the world.

b. And those of us that were professionals prior to coming into the military (or those of you whom maybe civilians …

c. … and became SME since coming into the military) have a wide range of experience, knowledge, and education.

d. We’ve graduated from the basic and advance courses of our branch; we’re matriculated at some of the world’s finest institution of higher education.

******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******