A Living Sacrifice To God
Part 8
Scriptures: Romans 12:14, 17-21; Luke 6:12-16; Galatians 6:1-2
This is part eight of my series “A Living Sacrifice to God.” This morning we will be examining verses fourteen and seventeen through twenty-one as these verses all have a common theme. Next week I will conclude the series with verses fifteen and sixteen.
Romans 12:14, 17-21 says, “Bless them who persecute you: bless, and curse not……Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Before we look at these verses more closely, I want to first give you a reference point as an example of how these verses should be lived out in our lives. The reference point that I want you to think about is the relationship between Jesus and Judas. How many of you remember the stories about the apostle who betrayed Jesus? Let’s read a few Scriptures pertaining to Judas so we can refresh our memories on just who he was prior to his betraying Jesus.
Luke 6:12-16 records the following, “And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called unto him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles; Simon, (whom He also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also was the traitor.”
John 12:1-6 records, “Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then said one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him, ‘Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?’ This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bore what was put therein.”
Matthew 26:14-16 records, “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, ‘What will you give me, and I will deliver Him unto you?’ And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.”
Luke 22:47-48 records, “And while He yet spoke, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betray you the Son of man with a kiss?”
We are not told why Judas wanted to be a disciple of Jesus, but here is what we do know. When it came time for Jesus to select the twelve men who would make up His inner circle, He prayed all night the night before. We can assume that at some point He prayed about who He was to select as His twelve apostles. The next morning He chose the twelve with Judas being one of them. Jesus selected the men according to the will of God so we know that He did not make a mistake in choosing a man who would later betray Him. While we have always assumed that Jesus knew it would be Judas, could it be that He only knew that one of the twelve would? For the purposes of this message, let’s assume that Jesus did know when He chose Judas that Judas would one day choose to betray Him. I am intentionally using the word choose because prior to Judas actually doing it, he could have always changed his mind.
Jesus chooses Judas to be one of the chosen twelve and after being selected, Judas walked with Christ for three and a half years performing the same miracles that all of the other disciples performed when Jesus sent them out. He was fully operating in the ministry even though part of his heart was not fully aligned with Jesus. We saw this when we read the account in John of Mary taking costly ointment and anointing Jesus’ feet with it. Judas complained about her doing it saying that it was a waste as the ointment could have been sold for a lot of money and given to the poor. The book of John says he raised this complaint not because he cared about the poor but because he was the one managing the money for the ministry; in fact he was stealing money from the ministry. The book of Matthew records that when Judas negotiated with the high priests to betray Jesus he settled on 30 pieces of silver and his last interaction with Jesus he betrayed Him with a kiss. When we read through the prophecies in the Old Testament we find that the prophecies relating to what Judas did never mentioned him by name. Even when Jesus speaks of His future betrayal, up until the night Judas betrayed Him, Jesus never specifically states that it would be Judas. This is important because although the betrayal would definitely take place, it did not mean that it had to be Judas who did it. I mention this because Jesus kept the door open for Judas to be restored until Judas in his final act closed it permanently. Have you ever thought about the possible reasons why Jesus never addressed Judas directly or told the other disciples what Judas would eventually do?
Now I want you to hear me on this one. I do not believe when Judas joined Jesus’ team that he joined with the intention of betraying Him. I believe that initially Judas was as dedicated and focused as the other disciples were on the ministry even though his heart still needed change. However, something changed for Judas as he walked with Jesus in ministry that opened the door for Satan to use him to betray Jesus. Somewhere along the line he fell out of communion with Jesus. He did not see Jesus in the same light as he did when he first joined the ministry. Maybe he felt that Jesus was not fulfilling the role in the way that he thought Jesus should be doing it. In short, something changed within him and he became disillusioned with Jesus which made it easier for him to betray Him. When Judas made the decision to betray Jesus, he did not know that the Jewish leaders would condemn Him to death. I do not believe it was his intention that Jesus be executed so the question remains why did he do it? Maybe his betrayal of Jesus was not about Jesus at all but maybe he was trying to force Jesus into establishing His kingdom immediately and he would be elevated to an even higher position than just be the ministry treasurer.
Regardless of the reason Judas chose to betray Jesus, we know that Jesus chose the twelve disciples knowing the prophecies that one of them would betray Him. Understanding this information, Jesus loved each of them and treated them the same. He empowered them the same. He taught them the same. His actions towards all of His disciples were the same. When they did well He congratulated them; likewise, when they messed up as we saw on several occasions, He quickly pointed out their failure so that they could learn from their mistakes. This He did consistently with all of His disciples. Throughout all of Jesus interactions with His disciples Jesus never called Judas out as His betrayer and none of the disciples ever realized a betrayal was in the works. My point is this, up until the time he kissed Jesus to betray Him Judas could have stopped the process. He could have changed His mind. He could have had a change of heart. This was because Jesus never closed the door to his restoration. Even though Jesus knew He would be betrayed, Jesus never changed how He treated the disciples. Once Jesus knew it was Judas, Jesus did not change His response towards Judas. He kept the door open.
Jesus showed us how we are to respond to people in our lives who begin to work against us. Maybe it’s someone on your job; a family member; or a friend who has fallen out with you. Whatever the situation, we will have people who will eventually turn against us and we have to understand how we should respond. Our response should be restorative versus eliminating. We should keep the doors open to restoration versus closing them and eliminating the person from our lives. This is what Paul spoke to in Romans 12:14, 17-21.
In verse fourteen he wrote, “Bless them who persecute you: bless, and curse not.” It is very easy to bless people who bless you and make you happy, but that is not the case when someone is persecuting you; when someone is actually fighting against you. The word “bless” is the Greek word, eulogia. This word means to “say good or positive things about someone.” This word is also where we get the word “eulogy,” the sermons preached at funerals when a person died. This is the time when good words are spoken in remembrance of the person who died. So when Paul tells us to “bless those that persecute us” he is literally telling us that we are always to return a blessing for a curse, speaking only good words about those who wish to harm us. This is extremely hard for us to do in our flesh and I will tell you that I have failed at this on numerous occasions. This is not a once and done, we are to continually speak good about the person repeatedly. Paul says we are to bless and not curse. The word “curse” is the Greek word that means to verbally curse. At the time that Paul wrote this it was believed that when a person spoke good words about someone else, those words conveyed a blessing on the other person’s life. Conversely, people believed that when someone spoke curses (negative things) over another person, his very words would cause those curses to come to past in the person’s life. This belief in the power of words is borne out in Scripture as recorded in Proverbs 18:21 which says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” So Paul was telling us that instead of getting upset with the person persecuting us, we should speak blessing upon them versus speaking evil of them. This is very hard to do when someone you trust turns on you, but this is something that we have been empowered through the Holy Spirit to do. Let’s continue.
Romans 12:17-21 says, “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’ Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
In these verses Paul speaks directly to our inward desires of getting revenge and/or setting the record straight when someone is attacking us. Every one of us at some point in our lives has wanted to get even with someone for something they did to us. Maybe you actually did get even with the person. That desire can be extremely strong, offering a feeling of justification when you actually fulfill it. However I want you to know that this is not how we are to respond. Remember, Jesus kept the door open for Judas to be restored, Judas just never walked through the opened door. When we get even we close doors. God wants us to keep the doors open for restoration. In verse seventeen Paul tells us to not “Recompense to no man evil for evil…” The word “recompense” in the Greek means “give back or pay back.” It carries the idea of returning something to someone. They give it to you, you give it right back. We often see this when two people are arguing. The louder one gets the other gets just as loud. One person hits first and then the second person hits back. Some even brag about giving more than they got. This word in the Greek gives the idea of a person who wishes to retaliate or to get revenge. They want to do to the other person what they did to them. It carries the idea of “You lie on me, I will lie on you.” Tit for tat thinking.
The word “evil” in the Greek means an “action that is armful, hurtful, or injurious, or something done with an evil intent.” Have you ever told someone something just to hurt their feelings because they had said something that hurt yours? These are the actions of a person who intentionally acts to cause some kind of damage in another person’s life. Paul made it clear that we are not to give evil for evil. We are the ones who are supposed to rise above it. Our flesh loves to retaliate and take revenge against those who wronged us but this is not the way Jesus teaches us to respond. Think about how Jesus treated Judas, even when He knew that it was Judas who would betray Him. Instead of retaliating we must seek to walk in peace and maintain pure hearts before God. This is what Paul captures in verse eighteen when he said we should live peaceably with all men.
I want you to see something because you need to know that you are not a doorstep to be walked on. In verse eighteen Paul says, “If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.” The word “if” in this verse demonstrates that there can be times when we run into a situation where it is not possible to have peace with all men. You may know someone that because of their behavior you just cannot get along with them. When you think of this person, they could be thinking the same thing of you. What I want to stress here is that we should never be the person that others cannot live peaceably with. It could happen, but the reason should not be us. In this verse Paul lets us know that we are to give it our best shot at establishing peace. Christians own the responsibility of maintaining peace and having a good attitude, not the person we find offensive.
Finally, the word “possible” in this verse comes from a Greek word that expresses something that is potentially difficult to do but nonetheless is doable. In other words, we do not get to stop doing our part because it is hard and the other person will not cooperate. When Paul uses the phrase “as much as lies within you” he was saying “as far as it depends on you.” Again, the responsibility for maintaining peace and having a good attitude lies on us, not the person who is causing the offense. This is the one area where we as Christians fall short. We run out of patience with people who do not act the way we do. We have no patience for those who don’t believe as we do. And when we encounter someone we know is out to do us harm, we respond in kind. Instead of walking in peace towards them and doing our part, we slam the door shut and cut them out of our lives. We forgive the first time only if it was a mistake. However, if someone intentionally harms us, then we intentionally do not forgive or give them the opportunity to do it again. That is just the way we operate in this world, despite what the Bible says.
At the close of this chapter, Paul gives us an example of what it means to walk in this manner when dealing with people who desire to harm us. He says in verses 19-21, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’ Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is how we walk in perfect peace. When someone is coming after us or secretly doing and saying things to diminish us in the eyes of others, we do not have to get even. We do not have to give an answer. Yes people may take your response as weakness, but in reality you are the one who is demonstrating spiritual maturity. As we grow in Christ, we learn that God truly has our backs and He will deal with those who are truly persecuting us. Vengeance belongs to God and He will take care of every situation. We may not be there to witness it or know when it is happening, but truly God will take care of it. When people are planning our demise and we continue to walk in peace and love towards them, our actions are like pouring coals of fire upon their heads. The term "coals of fire" was common among the Arabs and Hebrews to denote an intense pain. If there be any sensitiveness left in an enemy, they will be severely punished by deeds of kindness. This is why many people will choose to separate themselves from someone they have intentionally hurt when the person they have hurt does not respond in kind. We must learn that our human methods of punishment are for the most part repressive and not remedial (helpful, curative); divine methods are intended to be remedial. When we start living as children of the Most High God, our actions will line up with His nature and character, not our own.
At one of my former companies I had a representative who worked for me that was a true thorn in my side. Everyone saw how this person acted towards me for she was transparent to others of her thoughts on me as a person and my management style. I had the power to get even but it would have been an abuse of my power and position. One day I was having a conversation with another team member and this person told me that maybe God allowed this person to be in my life so that He could work something out in both of us. This person spoke wisdom in that statement. When Jesus chose Judas, Judas may not have known what was in store for him. As I said earlier, I do not believe Judas joined Jesus’ ministry with the intention of betraying Him. No something changed. But we do have to wonder why Jesus allowed him to stay in His inner circle when it became obvious that it was Judas who was going to betray Him. Maybe Jesus allowed him to remain in hope that Judas would repent and be saved and the task would fall on someone else to fulfill. I believe Jesus wanted to give Judas a chance to change. He wanted to restore Judas. He held out hope until Judas mind was made up.
As I close this morning I want you to see something. Galatians 6:1-2 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” In these verses we see why Jesus treated Judas the way that He did and why we should be doing the same. We are supposed to be the ones who take the place of Jesus and provide restoration to the person who has fallen in sin, even those who have harmed us personally. We are the ones who should be focused on restoration, in meekness, not with a hammer to further destroy the person. We are the ones that should be the first to forgive and restore.
If God told Jesus to bring a “Judas” into His ministry circle maybe it’s possible that God is going to tell us to bring someone like this into our circle. I believe that God gave Judas an opportunity to repent and I believe the same will happen to us. If our responses line up with God’s character then we will always have a door open to those who persecute us. When it comes to people in our lives there will be times when God will clearly tell us to let a person who may betray us into our lives so that we may minister to that person in hope of changing a life that may be headed to hell. We become God’s hand of restoration as He loves them so much that He refuses to give up on them. So if you have someone in your life that is planning your demise; talking behind your back; sowing seeds against you and looking for you to fail, just know that God has you. God will handle the situation. Your response should be the same as Jesus’ response to Judas. Walk in peace towards them and keep the door open for restoration. I will conclude this series on next Sunday.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
