JESUS: THE REVOLUTIONARY

1. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’
2. “BUT I SAY TO YOU, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, BLESS THOSE WHO CURSE YOU, DO GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATE YOU, AND PRAY FOR THOSE WHO SPITEFULLY USE YOU AND PERSECUTE YOU,
3. “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
4. “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
5. “And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
6. “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."
   Matthew 5:43-48 (NKJV)

• Jesus came to teach us how to relate with God and our fellow human beings.
HIS teachings are revolutionary.

• There are things God permitted in the Old Testament that Jesus came to correct and tell us the actual mind of God on them.
• Jesus said God permitted Moses to tell them to give a bill of divorce to whoever they do not want to marry again—He said God did that because of the hardness of their hearts (Matthew 19:3-8).
• Old testament was a shadow of the reality; and the reality of what is foreshadowed is Jesus Christ who came to establish a better covenant based on better promises (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5-7).

"For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. AND CHRIST HIMSELF IS THAT REALITY."
Colossians 2:17 (NLT)

• Likewise Jesus corrected the notion of hating your enemies, that you should pray for those who hate you and persecute you.
• Jesus' teaching is a guide on how to live our Christian lives, relate with other people, and how to relate with God the Father.
• Whatever you read in the Old Testament that seems not to affirm, or agree with Jesus' teaching Or the Epistles, should not be accepted.
• Some of the things documented in the Old Testament are for corrections, we are not to copy them, that is, we are not to do the same.

1. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, FOR CORRECTION, for instruction in righteousness,
2. that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
   2 Timothy 3:16,17 (NKJV)

• If you took the Scripture that is meant for correction or reproof as a Scripture for instruction; you will be missing what God is saying.

• What somebody did in the Old Testament that was not Good enough should not be repeated, it is for correction, we have the record that we might not repeat the same mistake (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11).

"For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience [perseverance] and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."
Romans 15:4 (NKJV)

• In our text, Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus said we should love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us.
• A number of people, even those who claim to be born-again, have cast aspersions, made critical or unpleasant remarks on the Bible passage.
• Some pray that their enemies should die, and those who hate them should waste away.
• When you are offended or hated by someone, flesh would want you to fight back—speak against the person, wish the person evil, but Jesus said it should not be so.
• It was taught in the Old Testament that you should love your neighbour and hate your enemy (Matthew 5:43; Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 23:3-6).
• But Jesus said it should not be so, He came to give us standards by which we should live our lives as believers.
  IN other words, He was telling us that if we want to walk with God, what He told us is what we should do—to have a good rapport with God, because He came from the Father.
• Someone who came from the Father is above all, and what He says is more authentic than whatever anyone else says (John 1:18; 6:38,46; 3:34-36; Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22).

1. "FOR I [Jesus] HAVE COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
2. Not that anyone has seen the Father, EXCEPT HE WHO IS FROM GOD; He has seen the Father."
   John 6:38,46 (NKJV)

• So He who came from above, from the Father, says we should pray for our enemies, those who hate us.
• Pray that God should melt their hearts, touch their hearts, give them a change of heart—to do good and become an instrument in the hand of God, that they would no longer work for Satan and his kingdom.
• I want to believe that the prayer of Stephen when he was about to die was instrumental to the salvation, conversion of Paul.
  HE prayed that God would not charge those who persecuted him, those who killed him, with the sin (Acts 7:59,60).

1. “And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
2. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, DO NOT CHARGE THEM WITH THIS SIN.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”
   Acts 7:59,60 (NKJV)

• If he had prayed that God should destroy them, Paul who was among them would have been destroyed alongside with others; and he would not have been useful for God's Kingdom the way he was.
  WE probably would not have gotten about thirteen books of the New Testament written by Paul.
• Pray for the salvation of those who hate you, those who despitefully use you, and those who persecute you.

• Jesus also prayed for those who crucified Him (Luke 23:33,34).

• You should know that the devil is the main enemy of believers in Christ Jesus (Revelation 12:9,10).
• We are to resist the devil and he will flee, and bind the demons that may be assigned from the kingdom of darkness to perpetrate evil (James 4:7; Matthew 12:29; 18:18).
• Whoever hates you, rises against you, without a cause or reason, has the devil behind it.
  THE devil works in or through the children of disobedience to persecute believers (Ephesians 2:2,3; Revelation 12:17).

“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make WAR with the rest of her offspring, WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST.”
Revelation 12:17 (NKJV)

• The devil is at war with the people of God, those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ—those who maintain their testimony for Jesus.
• Deal with the demon that instigated or incited the person who hates you, to do what he or she is doing against you, however, pray for the salvation of the person's soul (Ezekiel 18:23,32; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

1. "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
2. "FOR I HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF ONE WHO DIES," says the Lord GOD. "THEREFORE TURN AND LIVE!"
   Ezekiel 18:23,32 (NKJV)

“who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
1 Timothy 2:4 (NKJV)

• Pray that God will touch his or her heart, give a repentant heart to them, and become an instrument for honour, sanctified and useful for the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:30,31).

1. “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
2. IN HUMILITY CORRECTING THOSE WHO ARE IN OPPOSITION, if God perhaps will grant them REPENTANCE, so that they may know the truth,
3. AND THAT THEY MAY COME TO THEIR SENSES AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken CAPTIVE by him to do his WILL."
   2 Timothy 2:24-26 (NKJV)

• You will not fail in Jesus’ name.
Peace!