This Sermon and Series based on sermon Series by Nelson Searcy and the Journey Church.
The Challenge of Radical Love
Slide
Good morning.
I hope everyone has been keeping up with the New Testament Challenge.
If you missed last week, it is not too late to jump in.
What the New Testament Challenge is, is a challenge to
1. Read through the New Testament over 9 weeks.
a. We just finished the first week, but if you start now, you can try to catch up or just finish a week later. Add a chapter a day and you will be caught up in a month
b. We have a reading plan on our website to help you keep on track.
c. We also have the mp3’s of each chapter of the New Testament on our website that you can download and listen to on your computer or ipod so you can even keep up as you are working out or cleaning the house.
2. Attend service over these next 8 weeks (now) where you will here some of the main teaching of the New Testament
3. Allow God to speak into your life through His word and the messages
4. Seek to take any steps, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord reveals to you during this challenge.
So if you would like to jump on and be committed to striving to do this, you can sign an acceptance slip and have your slip added to our New Testament Challenge wall.
Transition
This morning, we are going to be talking about one of the primary teachings of the New Testament and the challenge that it is.
And that is the Challenge of Radical Love.
Slide
Now love is a big topic and love carries with it a lot of shades of meaning in English.
If I say I love chocolate and then I tell you I love my wife, you would understand that those are not the same types of love.
In the Greek language, however, there are 4 words that are used that the English language would translate as love, but they carry different meanings.
“Philia” – Brotherly Love
First we have the word “philia”
That is where we get the word Philadelphia which is known as the city of “brotherly love”
“Philia” is a love that friends would have for one another.
It means to have affection for. It is something that most human being experience in their lives. They have friends that they love, in a friend manner.
This is not a radical love.
Many people, Christians or non Christians experience this type of love.
Two other words in Greek that are used to describe love, but are not found in the Bible are
Storge (store gay)– Familial Love
This is a familial type of love. It is strong, like the love of a mother for a child.
This is not a radical love either because most people who have ever had children experience this type of love.
Eros – Romantic love
A third Greek word that can be translated love is eros.
This is a romantic, passionate type of love. This too can be strong, but this is not a radical type of love.
Agape – Unconditional, selfless love
The last Greek word that is translated love is used in the Bible it is Agape.
This is an unconditional, selfless love like God has for us.
This is the love that God wants us to have for others.
Jesus tells us in
Slide
John 13:34-35
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The Greek word used in this passage is agape.
This is a radical love.
This is not a suggestion, it is a command. Jesus says a new command I give you.
Jesus shows us just how radical this love is when he showed his love by dying on the cross when we didn’t deserve it
Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is challenging because it calls us to love when there is every reason not to love.
Ok, we can understand that Jesus wants us to love this way, but practically speaking, how does the New Testament Challenge us to do this?
In this weeks readings we read through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.
This morning we are going to take a look at a few of the teachings of Jesus in theis Sermon to find a few specific things that will show us how we can love radically.
Turn with me to Matthew 5
P.684
Slide
This is known as the Sermon on the Mount because in Matthew 5:1 it says, “he went up on a mountainside and sat down...and he began to teach. All the things he says in Matthew 5-7 were given in that message.
As we go through some of the individual teachings to discern how this Radical love is lived, we need to understand first that Radical Love is
not a feeling we feel, or
something done in response to an emotion we have.
Radical love is a Choice we make
through the Actions we take
Slide
It’s a choice that you make through your actions.
It is not radical to say
to my wife I love you or
to my kids I love you.
It would be agape love, radical love, to show my wife I love her by putting her wants and desires ahead of my own after she has been complaining and nagging all day.
Or it would be radical love to show my husband I love him after he has been ignoring you watch football all day by putting his wants and needs ahead of your own.
Making the choice to take an action that expresses love when I feel I have every reason not to do it is radical.
It’s radical, because we are taught that we should only act in accordance with our emotions. You shouldn’t do what you don’t feel like doing.
Some of you are thinking right now,
Well, if I do that I am just enabling their bad behavior or their selfishness.
Why would I want to do that?
You want to do that because Jesus calls us to do that and
You want to do that because if we choose not to live a life of radical love, we will ultimately turn into bitter, uncaring people.
You see choosing not to love radically, actually means we are choosing apathy, choosing not to care. And once we choose not to care, that begins to spread into every area and every relationship of our life.
You may say, I wouldn’t choose to be apathetic.
And I think you are right.
I don’t think that is the conscious choice we make, but that is what choosing not to love radically leads to.
So our choice to love radically, our choice to take actions that express love even when we don’t feel like it, is a very important decision for our life if we don’t want to wind up bitter and apathetic and uncaring.
Ok, so let’s get practical. What does loving radically actually look like
First, we find that
A Radical love chooses to…
Respond to evil Peacefully
Slide
Look at Matthew 5:38-39 with me
38 "You have heard that it was said, ’Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Now, it is important to understand what Jesus is talking about here.
It is personal, not societal
This is a personal directive given to individuals, not to governments or societies.
Our governments and societies have every right and should administer justice fairly.
But Jesus is not calling us as individuals to live fair.
It would be fair to say, if you hurt me in this way, I get to hurt you in a similar way. That is fair.
It is insulting, not abusing
And when Jesus is talking about someone striking you on the right cheek, he is talking about someone insulting you not abusing you.
He is not saying if someone is physically abusing you, go ahead and let that continue.
He is saying that if an evil person insults you, does something harmful to you, do not try to get even.
Proverbs 12:16 - A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.
Choose to respond to evil, peacefully.
Make the choice to radically love them instead.
Two things can happen when we choose that.
First, God can use our actions to transform them. The Spirit of God may use this to bring conviction and help them see that there is another way.
Romans 12:17, 20-21
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Second, God uses that in our life to help us to be more like Christ and draw us into deeper relationship with Him and that is ultimately where all blessing is, close to Jesus.
But a radical love like Jesus had does not stop there. Not only does a radical love choose to respond to evil peacefully, but
A Radical love chooses to
Forgive wrongs Freely
Slide
Matthew 6:14-15
14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
We are told that those who have Christ in them, should not only act and respond peacefully to evil, but that we also need to be forgiving of those who sin against us.
This sounds all good, but in reality, this is very challenging.
How do we forgive when we have experienced such pain from someone?
We can only forgive wrongs freely by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.
It is impossible without experiencing God’s forgiveness of us, for us to forgive others like He did.
And I think it is hard, because we misunderstand forgiveness.
Forgiving someone does not mean that
what they did is ok
they don’t have consequences to their actions.
Forgiving someone does mean that you release them from repaying you personally for whatever way they have sinned against you.
Your wife sins against you, you release her from having to make it up to you.
Your husband sins against you, they don’t have to repay you for the wrong they have done before moving forward in relationship.
Two things to understand about this though.
Forgiveness does not equal trust.
Forgiving someone does not mean that you put yourself in the same situation immediately, or perhaps even ever, with that person again.
Proverbs 26:10 - Like an archer who wounds at random is he who hires a fool or any passer-by.
If someone has sinned over and over again, I would be foolish to put them in the position to do that again immediately unless that person got help or changed in some way.
Trust is something that happens over time. Forgiveness is something that can happen immediately.
Illustration
If your husband has beat you, forgiving them does not mean that
you return to a living environment where he can beat you again.
you don’t call the police if it is occurring. Ultimately that is probably the loving thing to do so he might recognize the seriousness of his actions and get help that he needs.
Forgiveness does mean that you don’t you aren’t requiring him to pay you back personally for what he has done.
It does mean that you are open to relationship being restored as they come and change and seek that forgiveness that you have already given.
Which leads to the second thing
What about for those who don’t come seeking forgiveness, those who are unrepentant?
Should we forgive them?
Yes.
We can forgive even an unrepentant person.
That does not mean, as we just said, that everything returns back to the way it was.
It doesn’t mean I trust that person.
It means that we have released them from repaying me for the way they have wronged me.
If someone damaged my reputation, I can forgive them immediately, even if they are unrepentant, and even if I don’t trust them with personal information about me.
We have examples throughout the Bible showing forgiveness even for those who have not yet or ever will repent.
In Luke 23:34, while Jesus is on the cross and they are killing him, he says,
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23:34
Stephen, one of the first deacons is another example. While he is being stoned by an angry crowd he says, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Acts 7:60
Joseph, before his brothers ever repented.
Genesis 45:4-5
"I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
Joseph had already forgiven his brothers for selling him into slavery, for the years he spent in prison, and all of this before they ever repented of it.
Colossians 3:13-14
13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love (agape), which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Forgive others and open yourself up to experiencing God’s forgiveness in even greater ways as you grow in the Lord.
Not only does a Radical love forgive freely, but
A Radical love chooses to
View others Graciously
Slide
Matthew 7:1-5
1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ’Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
This is even more challenging.
We may be able to forgive others, but we still personally judge them.
We apply to them selfish motives normally.
They did this because they are selfish or mean.
1 Corinthians 4:5
5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.
We need to be gracious in our view of people.
When we do things, our motives seem perfectly justifiable to us.
When others do things, especially if we have been hurt by it, we often apply motives that become intentional.
They did that on purpose just to hurt me.
They only care about themselves.
Instead, we need to make choices to view their actions graciously.
They probably did not even know that what they were doing was hurtful to me.
They probably would have done it different if they understood my feelings or understood the situation better.
View others graciously, even when you are the one who has been hurt by them.
Try and apply better motives and trust that the Lord is the one who will jusdge the motives of men’s hearts.
Now one small caveat before we move on.
This doesn’t mean that we can never judge people’s actions. This means we should withhold judgment of people’s motives.
There are some actions that are wrong regardless of circumstances and we need to as a church judge those actions.
It is not alright to commit adultery, regardless of how your wife is treating you.
It is not alright to steal, regardless of how bad the economy is.
But when an action is not inherently sin, we need to be gracious in our view of the other person, because with the measure we use to judge, we will be judged with the same measure.
Transition
Now as we get to the last point, I want us to see what Jesus has been doing.
Throughout the entire Sermon on the Mount, Jesus applies radical love to the way things existed and took them to a new level
For instance, he said,
“You have heard that is was said, do not murder…but I tell you do not be angry with your brother”
“You have heard that it was said do not commit adultery…but I tell you do not even look lustfully at a woman.”
“You have heard that it was said, eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you to turn the other cheek.”
He took the view of how righteousness was lived and took it to a new level, a level that required radical love.
Now throughout history and in many religious and law systems, there was the over arching theme of the laws that
You don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.
Now that is a good thing.
If I don’t want someone stealing from me, I shouldn’t steal from others.
Well, even though that is good, Jesus takes that thinking and applies radical love to it, and brings it to a new level.
He is basically saying that if you are going to be a follower of me, then it is no longer good enough just to not do to others what you don’t want done to you.
That just prevents negative things, but doesn’t promote positive love.
Instead Jesus says in
Matthew 7:12
12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
He is saying from now on, you can’t live your life with just the minimum expectations of civilized society.
Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t take revenge.
No, instead you are to radically love those around you, not just your friends, not just your family, but even your enemies, even those who sin against you.
You need to live your life sacrificially.
A Radical love chooses to
Live life Sacrificially
Slide
Wow. That is challenging.
But imagine for a moment, what your homelife would look like if every decision, every action, was done with the golden rule in mind.
Boy, its been a rough day. I know I would like it if I could just go home and relax. I wonder if Laura had a rough day. I bet she sure would like it if she could relax. I’ll see how she is feeling and how I might be a blessing to her.
You know those neighbors who always have the police at their house, I bet they have a lot of issues going on that I don’t know about or understand completely. Maybe I will shovel their driveway and be a blessing to them. I bet things are hard for them.
A radical love lives a life of sacrifice.
Now I want you to know that if these things seem impossible, they are from a human standpoint.
But there is good news. God has given those who receive Jesus as their Savior the Holy Spirit that now enables us and empowers us to love radically.
When we receive Jesus as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit who enables us to live this way.
It does not just come automatically however.
Once we receive the Spirit, we need to following Him
Galatians 5:25 - Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
As the Lord challenges us through this New Testament Challenge, we need to be willing to take the steps that He puts in front of us.
Illustration – Doug Nichols
There was a man named
Doug Nichols who went to India to be a missionary. While he was just starting to study the language he became infected with tuberculosis & had to be put in a sanitarium.
It was not a very good place to be. It was not very clean & conditions were difficult because there were so many sick people there. But Doug decided to do the best he could in that situation. So he took a bunch of Christian books & tracts & tried to witness to the other patients in the sanitarium.
But when he tried to pass out tracts, they were rejected. No one wanted them. He tried to hand out books, but no one would take them. He tried to witness, but he was handicapped because of his inability to communicate in their language, & he felt so discouraged.
Here he was. Because of his illness he would be there a long time. But it seemed like the work that he had been sent to do would not be done because no one would listen to him.
Because of his tuberculosis, every night at about 2 o’clock he would wake up with chronic coughing that wouldn’t quit. Then one night when he awoke he noticed across the aisle an old man trying to get out of bed. He said the man would roll himself up into a little ball & teeter back & forth trying to get up the momentum to get up & stand on his feet. But he just couldn’t do it. He was too weak.
Finally, after several attempts the old man laid back & wept. The next morning Doug understood why the man was weeping. He was trying to get up to go to the bathroom & didn’t have enough strength to do that. So his bed was a mess & there was a smell in the air.
The other patients made fun of the old man. The nurses came to clean up his bed & they weren’t kind to him, either. In fact, one of them even slapped him in the face. Doug said that the old man just laid there & cried.
Doug said, "That next night about 2 o’clock I started coughing again. I looked across the way & there was the old man trying to get out of bed once more. I really didn’t want to do it, but somehow I managed to get up & I walked across the aisle & I helped the old man stand up."
But he was too weak to walk, so Doug said, "I took him in my arms & carried him like a baby. He was so light that it wasn’t a difficult task. I took him into the bathroom, which was nothing more than a dirty hole in the floor, & I stood behind him & cradled him in my arms as he took care of himself."
"Then I carried him back to his bed & laid him down. As I turned to leave he reached up & grabbed my face & pulled me close & kissed me on the cheek & said what I think was `Thank you.’"
Doug said, "The next morning there were patients waiting when I awoke & they asked if they could read some of the books & tracts that I had brought. Others had questions about the God I worshiped & His only begotten Son who came into the world to die for their sins."
Doug Nichols says that in the next few weeks he gave out all the literature that he had brought, & many of the doctors & nurses & patients in that sanitarium came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior, too.
He said, "Now what did I do? I didn’t preach a sermon. I couldn’t even communicate in their language. I didn’t have a great lesson to teach them. I didn’t have wonderful things to offer. All I did was take an old man to the bathroom & anyone can do that."
Illustration from Melvin Newland – “The Most Excellent Way.” Accessed 1/13/09 at
http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=32363&Sermon%20The%20Most%20Excellent%20Way%20by%20MELVIN%20NEWLAND
Living a life of sacrifice
Accepting the challenge to Love radically.
How is the Lord leading you today to take a step toward radical love?
Salvation
Perhaps, the Spirit of God is drawing you to Him for salvation.
There is no salvation apart from believing in Jesus Christ as Savior, as God who came down and put on flesh and died for your sins and rose again.
Perhaps He is leading you to the point of confessing Him as your Savior
Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Forgiveness
Perhaps you need to forgive someone, maybe someone who has hurt you.
Do something tangible to express that you have forgiven them.
Bake them some brownies
Give them a call and see how things are going
Write them a note
Whatever it is, choose to take an action that expresses that forgiveness. It will be freeing for you.
Sacrifice
Perhaps you need to be living more sacrificial.
As we choose to live a life of radical love,
Whatever the Lord is leading you to today, ask for the strength required to, as Galatians 5:25 says, “keep in step with the Spirit.”
Let’s pray.
