Combat Prayer, 3 of 3 | How to Fight and Win

Luke 6:27-49

Luke 6:27, many of Jesus’ sayings that are very well-known come from the Sermon on the Mount. You think about some of the idioms even recognized in our modern day. “The blind leading the blind.” “A tree and its fruit.” “Build your house on the rock and not on the sand.” All those sayings come from the Sermon on the Mount, but for all the familiarity we have, or our culture has with the Sermon on the Mount, we also need to recognize at the same time that there is really very little understanding of the Sermon on the Mount, its fundamental truths, its central dictums, its heart, its spirit. Very little understanding, especially as you look around at the wider culture.

But even, even in the church when you think also, too, about those who understand, there’s even less application of the Sermon on the Mount. People really don’t apply what we read here. If we just read it on the face of it and see what it says, we look long and hard to find those who actually put this into practice, even for those who claim to know and understand Jesus’ teaching, for many of them, they either misapply or, or just simply fail to do these commands and apply his words as a way of life.

For those of us who do attempt obedience, we have to admit we find ourselves falling so far short of putting this sermon into practice in our lives. At least, on a consistent and an intentional basis, I’d say even on an aggressive basis, we find it hard to put this into practice. We are, at the same time, cognizant and wary of what Jesus said, into, to his disciples in Luke 6:46 and keep in mind he’s saying this to disciples, professed Christians. Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” That provokes us, really, that word. It provokes us to pay close attention to what’s written here, to give heed to Jesus’ teaching.

In many cases we have failed, I have failed, to understand the depth of the Sermon on the Mount and what we have understood, we’ve applied inconsistently or half-heartedly or without intentionality. Often times we’re distracted by routines in our life, distracted by responsibilities. We lose sight of what’s written here, even though it is like a familiar friend as we come back to it over and over. We still don’t seem to perform this with intentionality, with, with aggressiveness, with boldness and that ought not to be for us as Christians.

This is our Lord’s manifesto, if I could put it that way. If Jesus were introducing this today as a political platform, you could say, this, this is it. This here is what he stands for. And all those who stand with him, if they stand with him, they stand on this platform. This is the foundation. We, who claim his name and profess to believe in Jesus Christ, we pursue consistency to these stated objectives of Jesus Christ.

And we have the opportunity to look through, to look at his teaching through fresh eyes, as it were, practice this in our church, in our homes, in our jobs, our lives and we do this, really, as a new lifestyle. This is the lifestyle of a believer, it’s a new way of living in this world and frankly, there is no better time than this to pursue it, because it’s nothing short of, really, in this culture especially, nothing short of revolutionary. This is God-glorifying and Christ-exalting stuff and it really is countercultural.

Amid all the muddled messaging coming from so many evangelical churches today, our world so desperately needs to hear and see a fresh witness that’s tied to the text, this text. They need to hear and see it, not from all of them out there, but they need to hear it from us. They need to see it in our lives, here where we are. We’re all watching this world tear itself apart, aren’t we?

Headlines are bleeding with hatred, acrimony, vitriol scroll across teleprompts, spew forth in public discourse, even from the highest platforms in our country. Language, it’s harsh, routinely acerbic, inflammatory, utterly disrespectful to human beings. The images we see, even more heart breaking, aren’t they, as we see a world that is enslaved to lust and greed and, frankly, even murder. But, beloved, we need to give heed to these words. We need to practice and pursue what Jesus is commanding here. It’s not that somehow, we, by the way we live, are going to stem the tide of corruption. We’ve read the end of the book. We know it just goes from bad to worse, to worse, to worse until Christ comes.

We’re not going to do this and thus, save the world. That’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re not trying to save politics in America or in any other country for that matter. We’re not trying to build nations. We’re not trying to win the White House. We’re not trying to legislate all this. You know what we’re trying to do? We’re trying to glorify Christ. That’s a higher goal. That’s something that we can pursue here and now in our individual lives.

By practicing the worldview espoused here, just remember, we don’t really win friends and influence people, do we? Remember that our Lord, by living this way, he was crucified. He was put to death. Before he was crucified, before he died, he was treated abusively. He was treated with scorn and ridicule. Do we, if our Lord went before us and actually lived this out perfectly, consistently, do we think that we’re going to get by with any less? The apostles, likewise, they were persecuted, put to death. We pursue this not to change the world, whatever that means. We pursue this because we love our Lord Jesus Christ. We pursue this because we love our God, and we want to see him put on display.

His compassion and mercy pour through this text. In fact, he says at one point, verse 36, “Be merciful even as your father is merciful.” We put on display the heart of mercy of our God who extends his hand to guilty sinners like us and offers escape from death, freedom from sin, relationship with him through Jesus Christ, eternal life, and everything in between. We long to see Christ rightly represented on this earth and not misrepresented.

Listen, if by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, if we’ll pursue obedience, prayerful pursuit of obedience, practical obedience to what Jesus says here, you know what? Because he cares about his own glory, because he cares about the honor of his own Son, because he cares about the power of his Holy Spirit being put on display in and through his people, you know what, he’s going to honor that prayer and that desire for obedience. We’re going to grow in faithfulness to his Word and consistency to it. We’ll be able to show what a, what a people committed to obeying the master, how they actually live their lives by his Word.

We long to do that, don’t we, to portray a clear witness to the world so they can see the glory of Jesus Christ, so they can see the wisdom and power of his saving Gospel. Like Paul, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, “Our speech, our message,” that is our, our Gospel message, our preaching, it comes “not in plausible words of wisdom.” That is to say, plausible to the world around us, acceptable to a God-hating, God-rejecting world, but rather, our speech and our message “comes in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” This has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with him and him working in and through us.

So with that in mind, I’d like to read through the main body of the sermon, hear afresh what Jesus actually said here in Luke 6. And after that, just to walk through Jesus’ sermon, getting a bit of an overview and that will provide us plenty of food for thought and reflection. So, follow along in your Bibles as I read and we’re gonna go past the Beatitudes and the Woes and we’ll go to verse 27. “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 abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from the one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

“If you love those who love you, what benefit 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 benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

“He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the speck that’s in your eye,” when you yourself do not see the log that’s in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take out the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

What is the first thing that you noticed as we read that sermon? We know in reading Matthew’s account that Jesus said a whole lot more on this occasion, didn’t he? Not just this. There’s more. In fact, I believe he spoke for a long time to these crowds because they didn’t come 50 plus miles to hear a sermonette. They came to hear meat. Besides, he’s a good preacher and all good preachers preach long sermons, okay. End of argument.

I want to mention a quick word about the comparison with Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount because no doubt if you’re familiar with the Bible at all, you’ve read both. A lot of times we read Luke’s account through what we’ve read in Matthew. We try to make the same notes of comparison. But I’ll just mention the fundamental issue is both Matthew and Luke were drawing on the same material, not including everything Jesus said. Neither of them included everything Jesus said on this occasion. But they took from it and they provided an account of the sermon for the purpose of their own gospel in reaching out to their respective audiences.

Matthew wrote to Jews and so he used a concentration of Jesus’ words that targeted Jewish issues. He confronted formalism, externalism, ritualism that had come to characterize the Jewish religion in that day. You can see that when you read Matthew’s account that Jesus is really deconstructing and correcting and proffering a new view of, well really an old view, of who God is. He is deconstructing, correcting the false world of Judaism, the false teaching of Judaism and its worldview and he’s putting forth what God taught from the very beginning. It’s that repeated refrain, “You’ve heard it said, but I say to you,” repeated throughout Matthew 5 and 6. Jesus is using his Messianic authority there to correct the aberrations and distortions of the contemporary Judaism. They lost sight of the spirit and the intent of the law.

So Jesus is bringing the Jews back to God’s original design in the law, his will in the law and he’s going to fulfill the true intent of the law in his own person, that intent is governed by the true love for God and true love for one’s neighbor. Matthew 7:12, Jesus said, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.” That’s a summary of the dictate of love. Love is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. That’s Matthew, though, writing to his fellow Jews, evangelizing them, reaching out to them.

Luke, though, he wrote to Gentiles. So instead of deconstructing a wrong view of a law code that they had not grown up with like the Jews did, Luke concentrates on the words of Jesus that target Gentile issues. He said both, as I mentioned before, said both on this occasion, targeting both Jews and Gentiles in his audience right in front of him. But as he targets Gentile issues, he’s confronting the heart of selfishness and greed, which really animates the entire unbelieving world. Opposite of love, especially, as we learn what true love is through Jesus Christ, we see what the real issue is. But with the Gentiles, there is no false system to deconstruct per se, but just simply the need to confront, expose and correct self-centeredness in the sinful heart. That’s the issue. Simply the need to command us to live by the dictates of divine love.

That brings us to one more observation. As a preacher, I think this probably stands out more to me than it may to you but notice how Jesus begins in verse 27 in the main body of the sermon. Notice how he commands his audience right from the beginning. Do you notice I don’t step up here in the very beginning and command you? In fact, I can’t think of one sermon by a faithful preacher that opens up with a tone of command. There’s a need for the rest of us preachers to instruct, to teach, to explain, and then to follow up with exhortation encouragement toward obedience, sometimes even to plead. But we’re pointing back to authoritative words. We are ourselves are not the authority, the Bible is.

When Jesus speaks, though, he opens up with command. He doesn’t stop commanding all the way through the sermon. He commands his audience all the way through the sermon from start to finish. In his direct address to the crowd, Jesus uses here in this main body, he uses about 37 verbs of address. There are other verbal forms like participles and things like that, but 37 verbs to either command or explain or to promise. The highest percentage of verbs in the main body of the sermon, verses 27 to 38, the highest percentage of verbs there are command verbs either in an imperative form or subjunctive form, but they’re commands. Sixteen verbs of command in these verses.

So I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, I think he wants us to do something after hearing these words. Don’t you? He’s preaching to make us change. He’s not intending on us staying as we are, none of us. Every single one of us is commanded by our Lord here to change and at the most fundamental level of our affections. He preaches here without apology, without qualification. He doesn’t start out and say, okay guys, I know this is going to be hard. You all come from really bad backgrounds, you’ve had dysfunctional families, and abuse in your background. I understand, so don’t take me as being, you know, holier than thou. No, he just jumps into it, doesn’t he? He dives right into command, as if he’s in charge.

You’re not going to hear any other faithful preacher of God’s Word preach in the exact tone or style as Jesus does. We’re going to mimic him in some ways, try to be faithful, but look, we realize we’re under shepherds. We realize we’re not like him. He’s God; we’re not. He’s Lord; we’re not. We’re slaves, servants, just like you. All of us are simply trying to explain his words to his people and to encourage and exhort people to obedience. So for all of us, now when I say, us, I really mean first person plural. I’m included. We need to listen carefully, don’t we? We need to listen with an ear, not just to hear and understand, but to do, to obey what he says.

So let’s really go back through this and listen to this sermon afresh. Let’s try, and as you can not to filter what Luke has recorded here through what we’ve read previously in Matthew. We’ll try to keep that out of it, okay? I mean it’s not that it’s not harmonizing or not, not faithful to do that. But just to get a fresh approach, we need to read this account from Luke in Luke’s own terms with his intent in mind, unpack the argument of Jesus’ sermon for us Gentiles so that we can get the message Jesus is conveying to us.

To do that, before diving down into the particulars of the text I’d just like to begin with an overview just to get the thirty-five-thousand-foot view. And this is going to help us get the flow of the sermon, his sermon, see the argument and the connections between each point he makes and I want to highlight, you know, a key observation, which I really hope will cause you to feel the weight of Jesus’ message. You know that saying, that familiarity breeds contempt? familiarity often causes us to take things for granted, to kind of, kind of smooth over what should be sharp to us. So I want you to hear this, the true gravity that’s here.

I want you to understand it that way and as we feel maybe some weight and some gravity of this sermon and our, our conscience is pricked a little bit, I hope that we can appreciate some comfort we find, also, as we consider Jesus’ intent in preaching this message to us. We find a lot of comfort and encouragement with that and consolation.

So just a brief overview for our edification. Notice I’ve broken down the sermon, Jesus’ sermon, into three main points. You’ve got the audience, verses 20-26; the message, verses 27-38; and then you could say the consequences or the implications, the application, you could say, verses 39-49. Among commentators, you’re going to find the same basic structure. Sometimes they put one verse in a previous section or change it up a little bit, but really, it’s basically the same structure. But what I found among commentators is how many commentators seem to interpret Luke’s account through the lens of Matthew’s account. It’s fascinating.

Many of them have done previous study in Matthew’s fuller account, so we understand why they do that. But, as I said, we hope to, hope to look at this through fresh eyes. Verse 20 tells us he’s teaching his disciples in particular and then after he pronounces woes upon the rich in verse 27, he turns back, focus again, back on his disciples. Notice there, “But I say to you who hear.” You who hear; he is commanding his disciples.

Just a footnote there, it’s not explicit in the text, but it is an implicit and necessary truth that that phrase, “I say to you who hear,” in contrast to those who don’t hear, “I say to you who hear,” this presupposes the prerequisite of regeneration. This presupposes that those who have ears to hear have been born again. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, they have already been the recipients of the Spirit’s power, causing them to be born again. They have received the gift of spiritual life, enabling them to repent of their sins, to understand and trust these words of Christ, to follow Christ in obedient faith wherever his voice leads them. That’s happened to those who hear.

There’s a whole group of people who do not hear, for whom these just seem like moral platitudes and clever sayings, something that goes on a Hallmark card or some kind of devotional poster. That’s how they hear it. But for those who hear, we hear through different ears because we have a different heart. That’s by God’s doing. So that’s the intended audience, regenerate disciples of Christ.

What is the main point we need to learn from Jesus’ sermon? Notice how the main body of Jesus’ message which I’m marking off from verse 27 to verse 38, it’s all about the virtue of love. Love, being one of the communicable attributes of God himself. It’s love which defines and prescribes and motivates the ethic that is to govern the way true disciples of Jesus Christ interact with others, not just with one another, all others.

This sermon, then, is about becoming disciples of divine love. This sermon is about becoming disciples of the love of God that was exemplified perfectly and completely in Jesus Christ. So let me say that again. Jesus’ sermon, is about us becoming disciples of divine love. It’s about us becoming disciples of the love of God that was exemplified or put on display perfectly, completely in Jesus Christ.