Luke 6: 20 – 36
The Sermon on the Plateau
20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “ Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. 24 “ But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. 27 “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 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. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. 32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 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. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for 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. 36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
Some teacher’s say that Luke just gives us the condensed version of the Sermon on the Mount which is highlighted in the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5 through 7. It could be a condensed version of the Sermon on the Mount, but this I believe is not so. I do want to point out a significant difference today. If we turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 we read this in verses 1 and 2, “1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying…” Now look again at verse 17 of chapter 6 of Luke, “17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases.” In Matthew we see our Lord go up and here in the Gospel of Luke we see Him coming down.
Our Lord had just picked His 12 men who would receive more teaching and insight than His other disciples. The level place was probably a plateau on the mountain. Here our Lord Is addressing both His disciples and the faithful believers.
20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “ Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
I use to believe that the word ‘Blessed’ meant ‘happy’. Consider you saying this, ‘Bless you!’ or if we adhered to the former definition we would then say to a person, ‘Happy you’, or ‘happy are you’. That doesn’t make sense does it?
I have come to understand that the word ‘Blessed’ is an inward condition of our hearts that everything is right. We might list this as contentment. So, when we give a remark – ‘May our Lord Bless you’, then we are saying that we hope our Wonderful Precious Holy Jehovah Elyon – our Lord Most High will give this person His Personal Peace no matter what circumstances they are going through which includes both good and bad times. We are hoping this person is content knowing that our Lord Is in Control of all things.
I do not know about you but I see things a little differently than the main established teachers. Let me give you one of my bizarre views. I believe that many times people cheapen ‘Salvation’. To me they are in some kind of contest to see how many people they can stamp on Heavenly Bank account as getting saved because of their action. Now don’t get me wrong, we are our Holy Lord’s representatives here and we should take this assignment very seriously. Sharing the ‘Good News’ of our Holy Lord Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice of His pouring out His Holy Blood for our forgiveness is priority number 1 in our daily lives.
I have watched some of these expert witnesses gather a whole bunch of people as claim that they are saved because the people prayed the sinners prayer with them. They are salespeople that sell the heavenly passport without also sharing the other side of the scale. This is what our Lord Jesus Is sharing with His disciples and the people who came out to hear Him teach. Read again what He says – ‘20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “ Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.’
Our Lord points out that identification with Him leads to rejection and hardship. Look at His words not mine;
. weep
. hate you
. exclude you
. revile you
Now doesn’t this sound a warm and fuzzy? In all seriousness – it doesn’t.
In these two opening verses we see some significant promises from our Lord if you are willing to follow Him;
1. Humility – ‘20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’ There are very few individuals who are rich in this world and also rich in spirit. You see our Kingdom is not here. We are waiting for our future home. We are not storing up treasure here on earth but what to store up greatly in Heaven.
2. Hunger – ‘21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.’ This is not for food but for righteousness. We hunger to be right with our Holy God - that things are okay between Him and us.
3. Hurt - ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.’ As we look around the world we see the hurt and evil done to men, women, and children. We yearn for the Prince of Peace to come and straighten things up the way it should be.
4. Hate - ‘22 Blessed are you when men hate you.’ If you want to be more like our Lord Jesus Christ, do not be surprised when people want to crucify you.
5. Humiliate - ‘and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. You will not be invited to the big dance or party. You will be singled our as some religious nut. You bother people just being around them. You give off the smell of death to all those perishing. You are an offense to them for just being.
So if you are experiencing all these situations this is what you should do;
23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
We read and are amazed at some of the great prophets of God – Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and others. Our Lord tells us this – ‘You are just like these prophets. In Heaven the angels look upon you for your faithfulness just as they had witnessed the great prophets represent our Great Adoni Yahweh, our Father God.
Being a God Who balances the scale for all there is a flip side for those who are phony Christians and who play the game of being a follower of our Lord Yeshua and one who wants their cake and eat it too with all the worlds goodies.
24 “ But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
The following dangers should be written down and reviewed daily to make sure we are not pursuing sinful selfish pursuits;
A. Materialism – ‘24 “ But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. A ‘Woe’ is a cry of pain that results from misfortune. We have to understand that we do not own anything. Our Holy El Shaddai owns all things. He just entrusts things in our lives in order to exist and help others. For those who do not take this serious will find out the hard truth in the future and they will sadly reap the consequences.
B. ‘Me, me, me’ or self sufficiency - 25 Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger.’ You got the big bank account. You got all that you need. Now you can kick back and just enjoy all these things for after all you earned all these things. If you believe these commercials then stayed tuned for the late news.
C. Merry – or the fun and pleasures of this world - ‘Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.’ Life is not all a bowl of cherries. If you think that you can just live for fun and parties, they will cease to satisfy your inner drive.
D. ‘Man of the year’ or popularity - 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.’ When you get all these ‘awards’ and ‘toasts’ to how great a person you are, it isn’t happening in Heaven. In fact, this is exactly what a believer does not want to happen to him or her. For all the “Glory” belongs to the One Who Is The Supreme Sovereign Ruler.
So, are you still willing to be a follower of the Lord of lords and King of kings. If so, then here is how we should react towards others;
27 “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 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. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. 32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 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. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for 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. 36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
Our Lord has set up for us which He lists here certain principles the first is His rule of ‘Return’. What you do will come back to you. Have you ever heard of the ‘Golden Rule’? Well here it is. 27 “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 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. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. 32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.’
The next principle is our Lord’s rule of ‘Rewards’. If you are investing in the things He wants us to invest in then we will receive from Him – ‘34 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. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for 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.
The next rule is His law of ‘Relationships – ‘36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.’
We need to remember that we are all adopted sons and daughters of our Precious Holy God. Our purpose in life is to represent our Loving Dad to the perishing world. May He give us all the strength and resources in order to accomplish His Will in our lives.
