Wednesday Night, September 23, 2020 PM

Open your Bibles and turn with me to Luke chapter 6. We'll be reading verses 32 through 38 tonight. Luke chapter 6, verses 32 through 38. We're going to talk about the ways and the wages of mercy tonight.

The Ways and Wages of Mercy in Luke 6:32-38

The ways and wages of mercy. Luke chapter 6, verses 32 through 38. That's what Jesus says. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive 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 himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged.

Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

For by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. So we've been talking about the way that Christ calls for his followers to take. He sets before them blessing and cursing, life and death.

He takes on that role as the fulfillment of Moses. He's come down from the mountain. He's declaring to his followers the kingdom. These are the ways it's going to be. And as they follow Christ, here's what that looks like.

And he has been emphasizing not only at the beginning a focus on the true blessings and rewards of following Christ, so that even the most disadvantaged kind of people in the here and now, if they have Christ, they are the most blessed people in all the world.

And so he begins there. And then he begins to talk about how it is that we are to relate to one another mercifully, specifically how we are to treat enemies. And this is really the topic he is continuing on with.

From verse 27, he says, 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 mistreat you. And he goes through and he really gives, under the heading of enemies, seven signals that someone's your enemy.

Now, some would say, well, I don't need anyone to tell me who my enemies are. I mean, that's pretty obvious. But actually, we have discovered that, yes, we do. It's helpful for Jesus to define for us what an enemy is, especially if we live in a culture where people think someone who speaks truth to them is their enemy.

That's not the deed of an enemy. It's probably the deed of a friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. So it's helpful to have a definition of what an enemy is.

And Jesus gives that to us. He also says, love your enemies. And he does not leave it up to us to fill in the blank about what does love look like, what does love mean. He gives us a seven-fold description of what that looks like.

So it's very practical and very helpful, we've looked at so far. The very same theme continues. And I think it's important to remember, again, keeping things in context, Jesus is not giving instructions for how it is that a police force is to respond to crime, okay, or how a king, perhaps, is to respond to threats against his nation, and so on.

He's talking about how do you, personally, as you follow Jesus Christ, when someone proves to be your enemy, how are you to respond? This can be very, very important, as we're going to talk about tonight, for Christ's objectives for his followers.

He's been preaching the gospel of the kingdom. This was repeated time and again, the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom. And he has already begun to show that the borders of this kingdom are not the same borders that the Israelites are hoping for.

It's going to be a lot bigger, including a whole lot more people, than what they grew up anticipating, okay? So that's going to be important to keep in mind. Now, in verses 32 through 34, Jesus is clarifying something.

Notice, in verse 31, it says, treat others the same way you want them to treat you. Well, of course, you could take that aphorism and apply it very narrowly and ineffectively. And so Jesus clarifies what he means.

In verses 32 through 34, he clarifies that he doesn't mean by that, fair is fair. That's not what he means. He's not saying, from verse 31, as long as everybody's treating each other nice, you treat them nice, if they treat you poor, then treat them poor.

He's not saying, live by the motto, fair is fair. He says, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. Somebody have a different translation for credit?

Three times it's in the text. Benefit, okay, anybody else? Anybody got the King James? What thank have ye? Yeah, thank, benefit, credit, it's the Greek word for grace, charis. You know that old expression that we don't really have around anymore?

Say grace, who will say grace? Okay, what do we say now before we eat the meal? Who will give thanks? It's the exact same expression because it comes out of the very same Greek word, charis, which is used in terms of giving thanks.

It's also the word of grace, it has the idea of bestowment of favor. And so what is Jesus saying here? On the one hand, it's clear that he's saying, what evidence of grace is there in your life if you simply love those who love you?

Sinners do that. What evidence of grace is there in your life if you just do good to those who do good to you and lend to those who lend to you and keep everything fair is fair? That's no big deal at all, he's saying.

And nobody's going to say, wow, what an amazing life you live being nice to people. People who are nice to you, that's not impressive, there's no signal. Jesus is intending for his followers to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, a city set on a hill.

We don't get there by simply playing fair is fair. That's not how it works. Especially since Jesus has already specified we're to love our enemies, so definitely we're not playing fair is fair. We're doing something differently, aren't we?

There's something different about followers of Jesus Christ. Okay, so what does the point seem to be? What is Jesus' point in pushing his followers past the fair is fair interpretation of verse 31? Now he says credit or benefit or thank, he says that three times.

He's got another word that he repeats three times as well. What word is that? Yeah, they're in the first verse, you got me on there, it's the three. But alongside the idea of thanks or credit is the idea of sinners.

You see that? Where is Jesus' focus? His focus is on where the gospel has got to go. Where does the gospel have to go? Who are the people with whom his followers are going to be dealing? Because he knows his followers are going to go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth and they're going to be encountering all kinds of ruffians, aren't they?

All kinds of sinners. Now in the perspective of these followers who have been brought up in Second Temple Judaism, who were the sinners? And who are the enemies? We've had several verses talking about enemies and these verses are about sinners.

Who are the sinners? Who are the enemies? Everybody but the Jews. And then there's even more division within Jews. Tax collectors and prostitutes, right? Tax collectors and prostitutes are equated with sinners.

They're kind of listed all over and over in the gospels, read the gospels. It says, Jesus ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. You know, and so those were the specific listing of sinners, but they were always listed there too.

There's an interesting passage as well in John chapter 7 where the religious leaders are kicking somebody out of the temple. And they refer to the rabble. They refer to the masses that are unlearned in the law, that they don't really care about keeping the law, and so on and so forth.

So in their minds, there's all sorts of people who are sinners. Yes, the Gentiles, definitely the Gentiles. Yes, the Samaritans, definitely the Samaritans. Also the tax collectors, also the prostitutes, also all those who just don't measure up.

Now for everybody else, there was Second Temple Judaism. You got to go to the temple and you got to do your thing. But for everybody else, there wasn't anything. So Jesus is saying, okay, you have to change your perspective here.

Change your perspective here. Remember how often he emphasized how you come into the kingdom as a what? Not as a professional, but as what? A little child. Why? They had nothing to offer. Nothing to offer.

So this is how you come into the kingdom, as a little child. Not the people who were professionals and could do well at it, but the people who didn't have anything to offer. And so we can't live a life based on fair is fair.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the kingdom, informs how we are to live. And so we get to think about this. The gospel goes out through the gospelizers. That's the followers of Jesus, right?

Everybody who follows Jesus is a gospelizer. So we're going to be telling others the good news of Jesus Christ, who he is in his saving and sovereign role. And the gospel has to be preached to everyone.

That means enemies and sinners. And there's going to be interaction with these enemies and with these sinners. So there needs to be an understanding up front, we can't live a life that's just fair is fair.

Because then you're just never going to find any sinners or enemies to preach the gospel to. It's just never going to work. Especially in the previous few verses that we looked at, you can't live a life always looking to take revenge for every personal wrong that comes your way.

You can't, you got to follow Christ, and we've already talked about all of that. So moving on, fair is fair, no, that's not how we live. Actually, we should live like father like children, verses 35 and 36.

Living Like Father and Children: Mercy Toward Enemies

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 himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful just as your father is merciful.

So, be merciful just as your father is merciful. In what ways is God kind and merciful to ungrateful and evil men? The rain falls on the just and the unjust. In talking about God's providential care, he makes sure that even the unjust and the wicked can grow food, and eat food, and have enough to live day after day after day.

Think of the evil king Manasseh, 52 years of filling Jerusalem up with blood from one end to the other. Why did God give him such a long and lasting rule, questions that we, it's like, I don't know. So, providence.

In what other ways is God kind and merciful to ungrateful and to evil people? Time, leads, yeah, he saves them. He saves them, he saves us. God saves evil people, sinners, wicked, awful people, ungrateful, evil people are the kinds of people that God saves.

He's merciful, isn't he? Merciful. He also gave him life in the first place. He made all things, he knit us together in our mother's wombs. Look how merciful, we didn't deserve that. And even if, even if ungrateful and evil men are not saved, even if they do not come to know Christ.

He is merciful in bringing them to live in the light of Christ. Yeah, there's a marked difference. I was talking to someone, it was this last Sunday night. There is a very sharp difference living in the light of Muhammad versus the light of Christ.

It is a universe of difference. Cultures are not equal. There is a marked difference, even if you don't come to know Christ. If you live under the light of Christ, even if it's dim, you have been shown a great mercy by God, a great mercy by God.

God has shown his mercy in so many different ways. And we notice in what capacity God has shown this kindness and mercy. He has done so as the most high, as the most high. As the one who has all power, all authority, is in charge of everything.

And so we are to love our enemies. We are to show mercy. We are to do the things that are accompanying love and mercy because we are living like father like children. We are exhibiting the same kinds of mercy that our father shows.

We are doing the very same things in the pattern of how he operates. And we are free to do this. Remember, he is the most high, so he can provide everything we need to live this way, and we don't have to take vengeance into our own hands.

The most high has got it solidly in his hands, so he'll make everything right. So we're relieved of that burden, so we get to show mercy. Mercy looks like not giving people what they do deserve. Not giving people what they do deserve.

In other words, mercy is the opposite of justice. Mercy is the opposite of justice. And there's verses 37 through 38 about generous mercy. Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned.

Pardon and you will be pardoned. Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure. Press down, shaken together, and running over. By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return.

Generous Mercy, Judgment, and Forgiveness

So, is Jesus telling us to refrain from ever making value judgments? Is he telling us to never confront sin? It'd be very hard to keep that up, to keep that interpretation of the text. Unless you, if you keep reading, you see that Jesus talks about, by their fruit you shall know them.

What does that mean? It means that you're going to have to make judgment calls. You're going to have to make value judgments and you're going to have to say, hey, that's sin or that's a lie or that's truth and that's good.

So, Jesus is not saying, don't make value judgments and don't confront sin. What does he mean here when he says, do not judge and you will not be judged, do not condemn and you will not be condemned? Well, what's he talking about?

He's been talking, he's been pressing forward his methodology of mercy, his instruction on love. Sinners and enemies give us many, many opportunities to judge and condemn, right? That's just, that's the fact.

They're doing things that are worthy of condemnation, worthy of judgment. Now, as much as it depends upon us, we're going to live at peace with all men. And so, what are we to do? We are to respond with mercy.

Love your enemy, show mercy to those. And again, it's not about whether they don't deserve it, right? You understand that? And in contrast to mercy is the getting justice, right? Judge, do not judge and you will not be judged.

And so, Jesus is saying in opposition to getting justice is what? Showing mercy. He's talking about this on a personal level, okay? The language, do not condemn. That's a word that talks about guilt. It's about assigning guilt, is the Greek word, okay?

He says, when you're confronted with those that you understand, they are your enemies, that they are sinners, how are you to respond? He says, respond with mercy, which means that you're not seeking personally for justice, and you're not trying to promote guilt and assign guilt.

That's one way making everything fair is fair. That way, the opposite is mercy. And in agreement with mercy is forgiveness and generosity. Pardon and you will be pardoned, give and it will be given to you.

The world's way is judging and guilt pushing. Christ's way of advancing his kingdom, the way we follow Christ, is forgiving those who ask of it, being generous, showing mercy, showing love. And Christ does not want a sparing kingdom, so we are not to sow sparingly, right?

And so, and this is just some practical wisdom, and he's talking about the marketplace. Imagine you were, he's given an illustration for the marketplace. Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure, press down, shaking together and running over.

By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. There's the idea, if you live mercifully and loving to your neighbors, even though they've been proving your enemies, and maybe they're a bunch of sinners and so on, but you just show them mercy time and again.

You personally have this kind of approach. When you go, say you go to their place in the market and you're gonna buy some barley flour or something. They know who you are, right? You've made an impact in their life, they know who you are.

So when you guys are, I need a, whatever, a peck of barley flour. Well, they're gonna weigh it out, and they're gonna make sure there's plenty in there. They're not gonna just pour it in there, and there's all sorts of air in there, and they sit it down, they get it down there.

They crack it in there, and then they overflow the thing, and then just give you extra. And that's the illustration Jesus is giving. And he's showing that this is the way that we should be toward others and that we should expect this in return, not necessarily from everybody.

But again, he's identified our reward is ultimately from the Lord. And so Jesus is saying the way forward is mercy, mercy. Of course, we know what the alternative is. The alternative is living, is identifying enemies and identifying sinners and living in hatred and in vengeful mode, ready to strike, ready to lash out at every given moment.

And I think we see that that cannot be sustained, right? That kind of life cannot be sustained. I mean, that kind of approach is burning down cities in our nation, right? As I was mentioning from Sunday night, critical theory marks every single wrong down and never forgets and always takes vengeance, right?

Cuz it's a matter of hate. The other side is a matter of love and mercy and forgiveness. Okay, any questions or thoughts about our passage from Luke? Yes, I think it's, Jesus knows our frame. When he says, love your enemies, he gives us the practical things we can do, right?

It's not about feeling, it's about committing yourself to someone's good, even at your own expense. Okay, well, let's take some prayer requests tonight.