Perfection
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Well, good morning. Shabbat shalom to everybody. So when I was a kid, you know, back with Moses, when I was growing up in elementary school and our teachers began to talk about the Constitution of the United States, I was taught that it was a sacred document and that it was a great thing that unlike any other human documents for government and politics that ever been created. And then as I got older and really most recently, we begin to hear a different interpretation. The Second Amendment, which was given to be a stopgap to make sure our government doesn't go tyrannical.
Suddenly the interpretation of the Second Amendment was, well, this was just to guarantee your right to go hunting. And I went, uh, and then I would, you know, I grew up hearing about a nation that was founded by people who, who wanted to have the freedom to worship. And, and that the Constitution was there to guarantee that the government would not impose itself on our freedom of religion. And then somehow that interpretation got changed from the freedom of religion to the freedom from religion.
And I thought, uh, it was supposed to keep the government out of our religion, not the religion out of our government.
Now, if you're here today, and those new interpretations are a source of frustration for you, can you imagine how Yeshua must have felt when he comes to Earth and he finds a generation of scribes and Pharisees, religious and political experts, and people controlling and, and they are supposed to be the ones giving the correct interpretation of the law that he gave Israel on Mount Sinai.
Can you imagine growing up and in his early days, before he was to begin his ministry, even as a child, at 12 years old, sitting in the temple with all of these religious leaders around him, going, uh, for it is written, I have had the experience of having things that I said misconstrued. One day I was preaching on Romans seven years ago, where Paul uses the illustration that just like a marriage covenant, if one of the marriage parties dies, then that person is free to enter into a new covenant. He's trying to help us understand how we can justify moving from an old covenant to a new covenant. There's been a death. I had a family in that church whose big issue, I mean the big hill they wanted to die on every week was, can elders be divorced?
And so after trying to explain what Paul was saying in Romans 7, I looked up and I saw their heads just going back and forth with a scowl on their face. And I thought, what in the world did they just hear me say? And one of them came up to me and we were good friends, and he came up to me at the back door, you know, we used to shake him out and everything. And he said, I can't agree with that, Brent, not at all. And I said, brother, what did you hear me say?
Well, you can't just divorce anyone you want and remarry. What?
You know, sometimes we hear what we want to hear and sometimes we interpret things incorrectly. I don't think we fully understand. I know I don't. The ramifications of the sermon on the Kingdom, the Torah of the Kingdom that Yeshua was teaching on the, on the Mount, that. That day.
Because we don't really feel the impact, the ground moving out from underneath us as the people who were there, who were hearing him speak and give interpretations that contradicted the very people they had trusted their entire lives. I don't think we understand the emotional impact of that moment. Now, don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that Jesus didn't say things that rattle our cage today as well. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, if you've heard all your life, we're saved by faith through grace in Jesus and there's nothing ever that you ever have to do.
And then you read that, you're like, what?
But if you think that is kind of soul shaking, listen to how Jesus final words of chapter five. Of course, he didn't have chapter five when he stood there and preached, but it's the end of chapter five for us in chapter five, verse 48, when he says, therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And all God's people said, oh, Messiah says what? You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And the first words that come out of our mouth, and I want you to understand, I've said in myself, that's not possible.
You ever said that. Congratulations, you are a Pharisee. You are giving a false interpretation. Why do I say that? Because Yeshua doesn't dangle a spiritual carrot in front of us that's impossible for us to achieve.
So maybe the problem is not in what Jesus said, but in how we understand and interpret what he said. Because Jesus doesn't lie to his people. And all God people said amen.
When he speaks, we can trust him. The Apostle Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, in the knowledge of Jesus. If he already knows that the Lord will not give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, why would he Say that. You see, when I we come to this moment, we're going to get there in just a couple seconds where I invite you to pray for you to receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him in this moment. We have to believe that he can give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Yeshua in this moment.
Because if you don't, well, you're misinterpreting the heart and the intentions of not only Jesus, but Paul and what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives.
So today, would you give those words a correct interpretation as I invite you to pray with me that the Lord in this time, would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we can look at his words and understand what he meant and not how somebody else interpreted them or how our fallen flesh corrupts them. Will you pray with me, Abba? Father, we come to you. B'shem Yeshua Hamashiach. In the name of Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, the Creator, the Redeemer, our friend, the one who poured forth the Holy Spirit, that he might be our.
Not only our comfort, but also our Teacher. And so, Lord, I pray today, believing in perfect faith, that there are going to be things that are said here today that you are going to help our hearts and minds understand in ways we have not understood them before. I believe that because I know you are true to your word. So come now, Lord, and speak through me. Let anything that is not of you fall away like chaff, and only the wheat of your word remain within us.
I pray this in Yeshua's name and for his glory. Amen. So, you know, I've been around here long enough, and I've said this numerous times, but I have a favorite Greek word you want me to telos you. Yes, that's exactly right. Brent's favorite word is telos.
I love that word. And I, quite honestly, I never get tired of that little joke. I'm old, so I can just keep repeating them and. You know, the reason I love this word is that it brings so much clarity to and clarification to so many passages of Scripture. Romans 10:4 was one of those passages that this word helped me reinterpret correctly.
For Christ is the end of the law. I grew up understanding that to mean it was the. When I hear the word end, I hear the cessation of something, something that was functioning, stops functioning. But that's not what telos means. In fact, telos means the exact opposite of that.
Telos means that it comes to a state of completion and perfection so that it can actually begin to do and be that which it was created for. It's not cessation, it's culmination of everything that God has poured into us to bring us to that end. It's not termination, it's completion. In Matthew 5:48, the end adjective form of that word, telos, is used to describe how we are to pursue God's character, which is described as perfection. He says, let us be telos brought to that place where he always intended us to be.
Now does that sound a little different than going out and trying to be perfect and thinking the minute you fail, you're out? No, perfection or telos is when we begin to live our lives seeking and pursuing his righteousness in our lives so that we can come to that place, that culmination, where finally the kingdom of heaven is working within me. Our works of righteousness are pursued not to earn or merit his love, but as a manifestation of our love for him and our desire, desire to be complete in Him. That's why he said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Now this morning I started at the end of chapter five, but that verse, chapter five, verse 48 is a therefore.
So I jumped all, I jumped over all those things that led us to that. Therefore. Now we've got to go back and understand what it was, what those things are. Last Saturday we began our study of kingdom character in Matthew 5:33 and we looked at integrity. Remember, every topic Jesus addresses in his tour of the kingdom does two things.
It explains God's commandments and instructions in righteousness. He gives the fulfilled interpretation. At the same time, if you are putting forth that which is the truth, you are exposing that which is not what the scribes and Pharisees have been teaching. Now one last thing before we dive into this. How important is this study?
Jesus said, unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
What makes their interpretations and their holocaust rulings so dangerous? If their interpretations are as wrong as Jesus points out, then if we follow them, we are in danger of two things. One is that we might imitate their narcissistic way of interpreting Scripture. The danger is that we adopt the very same self centered approach to interpreting what is said. And guess what, we can do it even to the words of Jesus.
They were doing it to the revelation of the Torah that was given them, the Old Testament passages and prophets. But we can turn around and we run the Risk of allowing our self centeredness to begin to interpret things. Well, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And our narcissism kicks in, our self preservation kicks in and says that isn't possible. And we've given an interpretation, we've taken a page right out of the playbook to the Pharisees, and a lot of times we don't even realize we've done it.
The second thing is the reality that if we live by their faulty way of understanding God's word, we will never come to that culmination point to that end to which we were created. We will not walk in or pursue the goal of righteousness the way God intended when he created us. One of the first things that God had to reinterpret for me was, what is righteousness? Because growing up, righteousness for me meant not cussing sexual purity. Do better Christianity, Try harder.
Brent, how's that working out for you? That's not what he's talking about. Righteousness is the act of charity. It's the act of giving grace and justice. Last week we looked at their interpretations of yes, yes, and no, no.
The difference was, for them it was, ah, yes, yes, and no. No. But yes can mean no, and no can be yes. And Jesus says no. Your yes is your yes and your no is your no.
He took their interpretation, the very verbiage of their interpretation, and turned it on its head. So let's move on to the next one. And remember, in case you're bored or in case you're distracted, these things that Jesus is trying to teach us are the things we have to learn so that our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees. And if it doesn't, we don't go into where? The kingdom of heaven.
So just in case you're, you know, got something else on your mind, now would be a good time to focus. Matthew 5:38. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Man, I love it when I take groups to Israel and we're sitting on the Mount of Beatitudes and we come to this verse, and I always ask this question, how many of you believe that an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth is still a valid law for Christians. And they put their hands in their pockets and they look down because by this point they know that Brent's set them up for a trap.
But most of them will say no. And then I ask the question, how many of you have car insurance? And those who are of legal age to drive, all raise their hands and I say, so you do believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Remember, the vows and the oaths that Jesus first spoke about were about taking legally binding obligations and finding a way to not fulfill them. It was a court issue.
Now he addresses another area of Torah righteousness in which Israel was always legally bound to implement. Please hear this in the context of, of the court. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was a legal standard that the courts of Israel were supposed to implement, not a law of vengeance. So if someone made you mad or whatever, you went and gouged their eye out. Can you imagine what a culture like that?
If they took this literally and applied to everyone for himself? I mean, what would they all look like? Oh, those are the chosen people of God over there. How can you tell? Well, they're all maimed and you know, it always amazes me when I see believers quote Gandhi.
Are you kidding me? You want to talk about a false interpretation? Gandhi said, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. And people of faith repost that like, yeah, that's right. That's that old way of thinking.
They couldn't have been more wrong. Gandhi didn't understand or appreciate the fact that this is in the context of the law. So far, almost every topic Jesus has addressed in the Sermon of the Kingdom has had something that ends up taking us back to the court. Why does he do that? Because that's where judgment is rendered.
But you don't get to the court unless you have had some kind of violation or interaction with people. And the Sermon on the Kingdom is trying to teach us not to be in that place. If you let things get that far, you're in trouble. Murder, divorce, vows and oaths, all of these invoked a legal court context related to the Kingdom. Jesus, Kingdom, Torah was to live out our righteousness in a way that kept the Israelites out of the court system and living together in righteousness.
Neighbors loving their neighbors, people caring about people to such a degree all the laws of the Torah were, hey, if you wrong somebody, you have to give just compensation. But how have we interpreted it? How did Gandhi interpret it? He interpreted it as the right or the law of vengeance. But God has already said, vengeance is his, he says, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
Now he can't in one breath say, vengeance is his, and then turn around and say, vengeance is yours. Did you see how one little misinterpretation can completely disconnect us from what Messiah? Yeshua, is trying to teach us.
This law is the basis for all Western civilization's laws, which are called tort laws. Now, a tort is not a. It's not a Danish, okay? It's not a pastry. You can tell where my brain goes.
A tort is a civil or wrong or a wrongful act that causes someone else harm or injury to another person's body or property or reputation, whether it's done intentionally or unintentionally. And again, remember, Jesus has already talked about how we deal with our word and our integrity in covenantal relationships. Tort law is the basis of the appropriate remedy or recompense for a wrong suffered. Meaning if somebody wrongs you, intentionally or otherwise, they. They are obligated to pay you for that.
Well, how do you determine what they should owe you? That's a tort law. That's a civil suit. That is for the court to decide. God established for.
God established the courts for Israel so that the just sentence could be imposed, so that people who had suffered loss could be fairly and justly provided for. The courts of Israel did not condone gouging people's eyes out in the first season of the Chosen. And I know there are those who like it and those who hate it, but one of the episodes showed an interaction with Jesus and a boy who had gotten into a kerfuffle with some other boy and shoved him to the ground. And the boy's reaction to Jesus was, well, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And I don't know who was in the background talking to the producers of the Chosen.
But this one they got absolutely right because they have Jesus respond, that is not for you to do. It is for the courts of Israel. And I came out of my chair just screaming for joy. Finally, someone's going to tell the truth.
So how did they determine how to compensate the loss? Now, this is where Jewish interpretation does things that most of us would not even think about doing. Because quite frankly, some of these things are just weird. All right? They're unknown to us.
One of those methods was. Was to look at a word, a Hebrew word, and look at the letters after. If you've got three letters in a word, they would say, okay, well, if I look at those three letters in the word, what is the next letter that would follow that first letter in the Alphabet? How many of you did that this morning in your morning devotion? Oh, he said love.
Well, the next letter after L is M. And then this is not something we do. It's something they Do. And it is. There are those who thought that the.
Remember the 2001 Space Odyssey movie, one of the early sci fi films. Do you remember the name of the computer? The name of the computer on board the ship was hal. In English, hal. And if you do to that word, hal, what they do, if you looked at the letter after each one, after H, after A, after L, guess what it spells.
IBM.
At the time, the largest computer company in the world. And so they thought, oh, this is kind of a underhanded dig at IBM. So what interpretation did Israel come up with? Well, they took the word for I in Hebrew and they looked at the letter after each one of the letters that spell I in Hebrew. And guess what it spells?
Keseth, which means money. When people take you to civil court. Where's Michael? Am I right about this? They're looking for money because that's how.
Because you can't replace an I. You can't replace an amputated limb. You can't replace the death of a loved one. Jesus goes on. He says, you have heard this said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, do not resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other cheek to him. Also, if anyone wants to sue you, take your and take your shirt. Let him have your coat. Also notice the two things that contextualize his comments.
First of all, in this case, the injury is intentional. The person is coming after you. Secondly, Jesus puts our thinking immediately into the courtroom because he follows up with, if anyone wants to sue you. So what is Jesus telling us? Three things.
One, do not resist an evil person. The Greek here says it's very powerful. It says, do not set yourself against them. Don't posture yourself as a believer in Jesus. Our posture with the people in this world is not to set ourselves up to do evil to them as they have set themselves up to do evil to us.
Is that understandable?
Don't give in to their irrational intentions and emotions. Don't react the way they react. Like I said, this is an illustration that Jesus used of intentional harm. It's easy to be gracious to someone who unintentionally harms you. But that's not the context.
Because. Because this is a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees. He says, when you know they have set themselves up against you, don't follow in kind.
This is one of these messages that I know as we go through some of these, you're gonna think, oh, that's Kind of where I'm at right now. That's okay. That's why Jesus is teaching us.
So here we go again. What is he really telling us to do? Do righteousness. The action of righteousness always involves some form of giving, but it also sometimes includes not giving something to someone even though they deserve it. It's the why I oughta, but I'm not going to.
I'm not going to give in. Because Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers for they will be shown mercy. I don't want to be the person who has received mercy and then turn around and be the person who won't show mercy.
After the tornadoes a few years ago, we lost a property and then due to my foolishness, we lost $40,000 to a person I thought was a Christian contractor.
I decided it was better to be a $40,000 victim than a $40,000 thief. And I let him go because I know what it feels like to have been forgiven much. I don't want to be that guy who preaches about grace, who preaches about forgiveness and then doesn't turn around and give it to somebody else. He gives three examples. First he says, turn the other cheek.
Righteousness always gives. If they insult you, turn the other cheek. Next time someone says something really mean to you, look at them and say, come on, you can do better than that. I mean, really give it to me. I mean, tell me what you really think.
Turn the other cheek. Now remember, this is not, this is an insult. This is not a life threatening action.
Turning the other cheek doesn't mean allowing someone to take your life. I have a wife. I have a covenantal responsibility to protect my life for her benefit. But I can take an insult.
Jesus says, don't respond in kind. Don't set yourself against them the way they have set themselves against you. Thirdly, he says, give them your cloak as well.
Again, not a life threatening result. They want to sue you. Give them more than what they are asking for. Why? Because that's righteousness.
Oh, Brent, I mean, come on, let's be honest, that's hard.
Give them my cloak as well. If I do that, isn't that kind of tantamount to saying that they're right and I was wrong? No. It means in that moment, the doing of righteousness is more important to you than the one being identified as right. And see, the problem is most of us are so convicted, we are so passionate about the idolatry of being right.
When Jesus is calling us to be righteous. And they're not always the same Thing. And why does he say that? Because that is the perfection. That looks like how our Heavenly Father treats us.
How many of you in here today are thankful that God has not spoken and lashed out against you the way you have spoken ill and lashed out against him? Come on, have some courage. I mean, how many times have you had to back away from an emotional outburst and say we try to convince him we didn't mean it. Just joking, God.
We give the other cheek to those who insult us because God gives grace even to those who insult and strike him. We give more than they deserve because God gives us more than we deserve. His loving kindness and covenant loyalty to those who, like petulant teenagers, sometimes rage at God. You're ruining my life.
And like a good parent, you just grinned. I know. I love you anyway and I'm going to keep ruining it.
You see a person who claims to know Jesus, who lives their life and never allows their minds, their heart or their mouth to be conformed to the image of God. My friends, I'm not your judge, but I'm just telling you that's incomplete. That is not culmination, that's termination. When we set our hearts against somebody else, we have terminated our movement towards Christ. When we make everything about us and being right instead of being righteous.
Well there is a termination there. Now I want you to understand that as I stand up here, this is kind of an intimidating thing to do given the fact that most of Jesus sermon is about the false interpretations of what he has previously said. And it's fairly obvious he's not overly fond of that. And now here I stand in front of you to interpret the words he gave to show their false interpretation, knowing that I bear the responsibility and the potential of, of doing what they did and misinterpreting Jesus words. I wanna know that I'm saying to you what is right.
And thankfully in this occasion I know I'm right. Not because of narcissism, but because of what two other men who struggled with these issues said on the matter. The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 9, do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but on the contrary, repay evil with bless because. Because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. You know, Peter who oftentimes, you know, let his emotions get ahead of his common sense.
And I nothing against Peter because someday I'm going to see him and I don't want to get punched by him in heaven. And we preachers, we like to talk about old dumb Peter. Well Old dumb Peter was chosen by the Lamb of God. So I think I'll just try to show a little respect. But the story is true and it's honest.
And Peter had some times when his flesh got ahead of his spirit and his mouth said things he shouldn't have said. But look at this. Here is this man who had the tendency to speak first and think later and listen to what he's writing. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but on the contrary, repay evil with blood. Do you think that Peter finally understood what Jesus said on the mountainside that day?
Do you remember last week when we talked about how Jacob, at a place in his letter, says, above all, make no oaths. You see, that's the evidence of culmination happening in a person's life. When that which Jesus has said takes root in us and we begin to live it out, we see that in Peter there was a so that in the book of James. Here's a so that in the book in James it was so that you will not fall under judgment. Here it's so that we may inherit a blessing.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I don't know about you, but I want that blessing. But it is reserved for the people who allow the Lord's spirit within us to bring us to culmination, to bring us to completion, to bring us to perfection. In that we have continued to pursue righteousness.
Paul, he made a few mistakes along the way. Listen to what he writes in Romans 12:17. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men if possible. As far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men and never take your own revenge.
Paul was a Pharisee. He didn't grow up hearing Jesus interpretation of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, did he?
He says, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in doing so you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not become. Do not overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good. Here's a man who has the only thing that got terminated in his life was the false narcissistic interpretations he used to live by.
I think Peter and Paul understood what was going on. Jesus doesn't stop there. Matthew 5:41. Whoever forces you to go a mile, go with him too. The context of this instruction is how to respond to a Roman soldier who, as part of the occupying force in those days, had the legal right of what is called impressment.
They had a pack that could weigh up to £100 and they could impress somebody. They could grab somebody and tell them to carry the load. Remember Simon of Cyrene? They grabbed him out of the crowd and said, carry the cross. They had that authority, even though the Romans had a limit on this.
The Roman Empire was pretty good about not trying to inflame the tensions of the religious or the tensions of the regions they occupied. So they could only go one mile. And Jesus says, go to.
You know, you will know when you're doing this, when someone looks at you and says, what are you doing?
You could have stopped here, but you kept going. That's when you know you're on the road to perfection. Culmination.
Jesus gives us a new law, a different kind of impressment. You know, I think about when I was growing up how many times I wanted to impress people. It's pretty much everything you think about from the time you get in sixth grade to the time you graduate. And then the joy of getting old is you just don't care anymore. And kids think it's cool to be a kid now.
I'll tell you what's cool, is when you get to that place where you can dress like your parents and just not care.
Things don't have to match.
Jesus gives us a law of impressment. If you want to impress the world and show them that you know the righteousness of God, go for an extra mile, Turn the other cheek. Give them your cloak as well. You see, Jesus, if you understand there is a law of justice, a standard by which it is employed, then you have to understand there is a standard of mercy. Go the extra mile, turn the other cheek.
Give them. This is the standard that we live by.
And by the way, it is those moments when we do those things that we impress people with how transformed we are by the grace we have been given, the spirit that dwells within us.
Jesus says, don't set yourself against the world. Set your hearts on righteousness. Just a little sidebar next time you go out for lunch and the waiter or waitress just isn't really that good. Instead of writing a tacky note on the ticket, double bless them. The minute you find someone who doesn't deserve something from you, that's your moment of righteousness.
That's your opportunity to go the extra mile.
Some people will say, well, Brent, this sounds like you're trying to work your Way into the kingdom of heaven. And that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying this is the evidence that the kingdom of heaven is working in us. And this is what Jesus calls us to. And this is what.
Why are these manifestations of righteousness so important? Two reasons, because that is how your heavenly Father behaves. And secondly, because it is when we are walking in that path, when we are choosing to do righteousness, this is when the Holy Spirit shows up and we have those moments, those memorable encounters, those divine appointments that serve us the rest of our life. So when you're sitting around the campfire and someone starts saying, let me tell you how God did this and how it completely freaked me out, and you can go around the circle and every time, I promise you it'll happen in a way that righteousness was in play. How many of you want to have divine appointments with the Lord?
Those are kingdom moments. Do righteousness. Well, that never happens to me. Maybe you're the person who doesn't leave a tip.
Do righteousness and see what happens. Verse 42, Give to him who asked, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. So I'm just supposed to give money to everybody that asks? No, he doesn't say, enable bad behavior.
But listen to this.
If we can't even do righteousness, meaning give something to someone they need, when they need it, with the promise that it will be returned to us. If we can't even give righteousness, knowing it's in the context that that which we gave will return, how are we ever going to do righteousness? Know full well it's not coming back. Because that's how Jesus did righteousness for you. He gave you life, he gave you forgiveness.
He gave you something you could never pay back, and he gave his life for you. How offensive it must be to him when he looks at people who pat themselves on the back not for what they have given, but for what they have refused to give. And I have known people like this. Oh, I never loan money. Never.
Verse 43 through 45, you have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that everybody say so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Jesus says, if my Father gives to those who don't deserve it, you should too.
Is that too hard to understand. You realize that rain out there is watering the gardens of the wicked.
Go and do likewise.
Love your enemies, Pray for those who persecute you.
Jesus says, if you only love people who love you back, that's not righteousness, that's selfishness.
The Torah says in Leviticus 19:18, you shall not take vengeance nor hold any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord, I have spoken.
But where did they hear, hate your enemy? Well, there's two possibilities. One is that the Pharisees added the line loosing people from their obligation to just. To just only loving other Jews, only loving the people of God. But in application they wouldn't even do that.
If they were walking down the road and you weren't a part of their sect of Phariseeism. They wouldn't say, shalom aleichem, peace be unto you. I've seen it in modern day. I walk past people in Israel ready to smile and wish them a good morning and they won't even look at me. That's not all of them, but we can be that way.
They had turned what the Bible had said into a justification for hating the Samaritans.
They almost taught it as a moral obligation. Jesus said, I didn't say that. I said, don't take vengeance and love your enemies.
To really understand the level of their failure, all we have to do is remember their explanations for why the temple was destroyed. The Jewish sages record that the first temple was restored, was destroyed because of idolatry, but that idolatry did not exist in the temple in the days of Yeshua. So what explanation did they give? And the. And the explanation is self condemning, unjust hatred.
Four different groups, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes, the Zealots, all vying for power, all saying, me first, me first.
They even admit the hatred that had grown within their culture. How could that hatred for one another grow within a culture that had the scriptures that say, love your enemies, love your neighbors.
Somebody was giving a false interpretation.
Let me just say this. And we're getting ready to close worship team, you can return.
Jesus is beginning to. We're getting close to the section of the sermon where he's going to teach us to pray. And I ask that you would hear this sentence because I do believe it's for someone in the room today. We will never learn to love our, love our enemies until we learn to begin to pray for them and not about them. Do you understand?
The difference? Lord, should I call down fire from heaven? No, no, no, no. That's when they didn't get it. But until we get to the place where we can start praying for our neighbors and for our enemies and for those people who give interpretations of the constitution that are wrong, until we can pray for them and not just about them, we have stopped our path towards righteousness so that we can be the sons and daughters of our Father who is in heaven.
That's a big so that, isn't it? So that we will inherit the kingdom and all that is promised. Matthew 5, 46 and 47. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have for not? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others do? Not even the Gentiles do the same. Jesus says, really, your standard of love is the pagans.
The scribes and the Pharisees had been teaching they wouldn't give their greeting to those they deemed unworthy.
But Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God so that you will be sons of your Father in heaven.
I hope and I pray that I have correctly interpreted the words of the Master today, because this much I know, he didn't call me to something I could not attain. And the perfection he called me to was to allow his spirit to culminate in me and bring to completion his original design for my life, not so that it comes to an end, but so that I can finally begin to walk in this world as a manifestation of the grace and righteousness that he has given to me now flowing from me and through me in the way I treat other people. And if you don't think that doesn't impress people. It is life changing. It is those moments when we give grace when we could have given judgment.
It is those moments when we go the extra mile and pay more than is necessary. It is those moments that people are so impressed with the grace of God bearing down on this that they come to us and say, why are you like this?
Because I met a man named Jesus who taught me the true path to righteousness. It's not about taking, it's about giving. So there it is, Church. That's the path. In a few moments, we're gonna sing or pray.
We're gonna get up, we're gonna eat, we're gonna leave. And somebody out there needs to be impressed by you. Not because you know so many Bible verses, not because you are perfect in every way, but because you know when to do grace? When do you know when to give righteousness? Because I promise you, it will catch them so off guard.
And the Lord will use you to set another person on the path to the kingdom of heaven. Go and do righteousness.