Perfect Like Our Heavenly Father

SERMON: 2007-07-08--sm0727--perfect-like-our-heavenly-father SOURCE DURATION: 00:30:53.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with the speaker introducing scripture (Matthew chapter five), which is sermon exposition. The spoken word content ends at segment [477], after which the sustained acoustic music interval takes over for a musical performance. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:26:59.560-00:30:52.800 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- This chapter, Matthew chapter five, ends with what I think is one of the most astonishing declarations in all of scripture. "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." The word "perfect" there is the Greek word "teleos." It can also be translated as "mature" or "complete." And so it can be translated, "Be mature or be complete as your Father in heaven is mature and complete." The context, of course, is that of loving your neighbor. Your neighbor not narrowly defined the way the Pharisees did it, your own type, the people that you can naturally get along with, but neighbors defined broadly as God does in scripture, including not only the stranger in your midst, but also even your enemy, which is why Jesus, of course, goes on to say, "But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those that persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. One of the characteristics of God the Father is that he is unconditional in his love towards his creation. It isn't just the good people that get blessed, and it isn't just the bad people that get cursed. No, he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the just, and his rain to fall on the righteous and on the unrighteous. And all through scripture, to be a child of God is to be a reflection of his character. And so when Jesus tells us here, "Be perfect, be mature, be complete," as your Father who is in heaven is perfect and mature and complete, he is challenging us, he is inviting us, through faith in Christ, to grow up to be like God, our heavenly Father, complete and mature in love. In the time that we have today, what I want to do with you is talk just a little bit, then, about what that love might look like. What does it mean to be perfect in love as God, our heavenly Father, is perfected in love? Well, it means, first of all, that our love is supernatural in nature. The word "super" means above, above nature, supernatural, is something above and beyond our natural ability. You don't have to be a Christian, of course, to love your neighbor. There are many non-Christians who sometimes put Christians to shame in terms of their relationship. There are non-Christian husbands who love their wives deeply and vice versa, non-Christian parents who are deeply devoted to their children and vice versa, non-Christian movements and organizations where people are totally sold out to each other. And the reason for that is that even in a fallen world, there remain vestiges of the image of God. Theologians often talk about a thing called "common grace," that is to say, the grace that God pours out over all of humanity, enabling them to live lives of love and relationships. And generally speaking, unless a person has been very deeply wounded or otherwise invaded by satanic power, most people grow up with a natural capacity to love and a natural capacity to do relationships. But there are limitations, of course, to that love and to those relationships. Typically, that kind of love is limited to your own kind, and that kind of love is limited in terms of what you get back. You look at the average person's relationships and the average person's life, then you discover that those relationships are defined by "I scratch you and you scratch me." There is a natural love whereby we love our own kind. And that's why Jesus goes on to say in this passage, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" And notice, very interestingly, the two categories of people that he identifies here, the first is the tax collectors and the second are the pagans. Now, you know enough about the New Testament and about Scripture to know that on the social ladder of righteousness in the days of Israel, the tax collectors and the pagans are at the bottom of the scale. What is Jesus saying? Well, he is saying that even the worst of the worst of humanity loves their own kind. And by extension, he says to you and to me, "If, as the disciples of Jesus, I only love those who are like me, who think like me, who have my background, who share my culture, who share my values, who share my, you know, my life, then I don't need to pat myself on the back and say, 'You know, you're really doing pretty well.' No, every pagan can do that. The kind of love that God is looking for in your life and in my life is a supernatural love, a love that is inspired by the power of God's Holy Spirit that enables us not only to love our own kind but also the stranger and even our enemy." Practically speaking, that means this. It means when you come to church and you hang out, you don't just hang out with your own friends. You especially hang out with those whom you don't know. Some churches have what they call a two-minute rule where after a service you're not allowed, so to speak, to talk to your own friends or to the people you know. You've got to find people you don't know to facilitate bridging that gap. Between those of us who know each other and those who are new to community. Means, too, that when you throw a party and you invite people over to your house, you don't just invite those who will make you look good or that you enjoy being around or that will help you climb the social ladder. No, you invite especially those who are strangers. You invite even your enemy. Jesus talks about that, you will recall, in Luke chapter 14 when he says, "When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, although they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." You see what he's getting at? Anybody can hang around and be in a loving relationship with those who are like them or who can give you something back. But the kind of love that Jesus talks about as being characteristic of God, our Father, and the kind of love, then, that he wants to reproduce in your life and in my life, is the kind of love that is much more inclusive than that. It's the kind of love that is supernatural because it's the love of Jesus Christ living in us. Very important for us to understand because most of the time we're, you know, likely to pat ourselves on the back if things are good at home and we get along with our friends and we get along with each other in church, and Jesus says, "That's a wonderful thing." But, you know, even the pagans can do that. Even the tax collectors. The real test of your faith and my faith is how do we respond in the face of accusation, blame, when an enemy is trying to take us down what lives in our heart? Do you understand why we need Jesus? This don't come naturally to you or to me. So that's one characteristic of God's love. Then another characteristic of God's love, of course, is that it's not only supernatural in nature, but it's also sacrificial in nature. And you've often heard me talk about this, but it bears repeating. Why did God the Father decide to create the world when He knew that we would turn against Him in rebellion and that ultimately it would cost Him His son? Well, I trust you know the answer. It's because God wanted to demonstrate the fullness of His love. And the example that I often use is, think of a couple. They're well-to-do. They have vast estates. They have hundreds of servants. They manage multi-million dollar corporations. They just are filled with everything that anybody in the world could ever want. But they're childless, and they have nobody to share it with. And so what do they do? They decide to beget a child. Not just so that they can draw life from the child or live through the child, but because they want an avenue for their love to come to expression. And so they get pregnant, and they have a child, and they raise this child, and they pour their love into that child. That's what God did in creating Adam and Eve originally. And that is an expression of God's love at the core of His being. And under those circumstances, that's as much love as God can show him, because that's the giving of Himself. But now suppose that child goes astray, and that child turns against its parents, squanders everything the father has given and has accomplished, and spits in his face. You'll recognize the story of the prodigal son. You'll recognize the story of our fallen to sin. What's the father going to do? Throw the kid away? Trample on him? Want nothing more to do with you? I'll beget another child? Or does he say, my heart cries out for my estranged son, and I want to do everything that I can to bring him back to myself? And so now, at great expense, and at the cost of his own well-being, he makes it possible for his child to return home and to again be restored to a position of splendor and glory. That's redemption in the Bible. And it's that demonstration of love why God allowed sin to take place so that the full depths of his love could be revealed to all of humanity and to all of the principalities and the powers. The Apostle Paul put it this way, writing to the Romans. He says, "God demonstrates his own love to us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." And John, in 1 John 4.9, says the same thing. "In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him." And you'll notice in both of those passages, the emphasis is on manifesting the love of God, demonstrating the love of God. God could not demonstrate the full nature of his sacrificial love without having to lay down his life. And in laying down his life, he has demonstrated to the nth degree how great his love is, because as Paul says earlier in that passage, "Perhaps for a good man you would want to die." But he says, "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners." And so the love of God, demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ, is always a self-sacrificial love. In New Testament language, they coined a special word for it, agape love. The kind of love that lays down its life and that seeks the well-being of the person who is being loved over against one's own well-being. It stands in opposition to eros, which is romantic or sexual love. It stands over against phileo, which is brotherly love. And again, most of us think we're doing pretty good if we have some sexual attraction towards our spouse or to a very special friend or if we share brotherly love with one another. And those are wonderfully great gifts that God gives us. But Jesus says, "What more are you than the Gentiles? Don't even the tax collectors do the same thing." Now, he says, "You want to be like me, then learn to lay down your life, not only for your friends, but especially for strangers, and even for your enemy." Practically speaking, that means this. You invest yourself in somebody's life. You share your time, talent, or your treasure out of obedience to the Holy Spirit. And you do it not because it makes you feel good or because you're going to get a reward. No, you do it even to the point of laying down your life for each other, expecting nothing in return. Sometimes when I launch into walking with people over the years, and we enter sort of into a covenant relationship, we always make it very clear up front. I'll demand or expect nothing from you in return, but such as you are willing to freely give out of your own heart, out of a commitment to this relationship. Because you see, the world's full of takers, and the temptation and the tendency in all of our lives is to enter into relationships with the question, "Why do I get out of it?" And there's nothing wrong in having relationships which are mutually satisfactory. There's nothing wrong in entering into relationships where we truly bless each other. But that's not the kind of love that God is talking about in this passage that Jesus is talking about when he says, "I want you to be perfect like your father in heaven is perfect." That's the kind of love whereby you pour yourself into somebody's life. Not because you're getting anything back, but simply because you are led and inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit. It means, too, when somebody treats you ill, and everything inside you wants to cut off the relationship, and you want to lash out and take your vengeance. It means you not only restrain that desire, but what you do more especially is you continue to pour out your soul and your life into that relationship, not because it makes you feel good, but because you're motivated by God's Holy Spirit to lay down your life. Scripture says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." And you can think of story upon story and illustration upon illustration of how that works in the real world. I'll never forget Richard Wurmbraun, who was a martyr for Christ in Romania for many years under the communist regime there, tells the story of a young boy whose mother had been imprisoned and killed under the communist authorities. And on the day of her birthday, he walked into the commandant's office with a flower, and he said, "You know, every year when her birthday would come around, I would present this flower to my mother, but she's not here any longer to receive it. And so I thought I would give it to you instead." That's returning good for evil. That's laying down your life, and that's what has characterized God's people throughout the course of history. That's not to say we're gonna feel that way always. Doesn't mean we're gonna live like that in every situation, but there will be those moments when inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit, we overcome evil with good. And the reason for that, just for the record, is that violence begets violence. And the temptation is to say, "Well, you know, the way of Jesus is nonsense. If you lay down your life for your enemy, you're just going to empower him." And humanly speaking, that's true. And then always the temptation is to say, "Well, we need violence and we need force to keep evil in check." And there is a place and there is a time when those who represent God's authority must exercise that power and that authority. But you know, just as readily as I do, that evil usually begets more evil. And the way to break the power of evil is to demonstrate the spirit of Jesus, so that ultimately we pile heaping coals on somebody's head, as Paul says in Romans chapter 12, because we're not taking vengeance, but we're leaving it in the hand of the Lord. And I was getting reminded of that cycle this past week. You've all heard that story in England of all these doctors that have been captured after planting these bombs. You've heard that story. Shook them up pretty badly. But did you know that the ringleader of this, one of the guys that was in that Jeep that tried to drive into the airport, his companion got very badly burned. But the guy that survives and has not been injured is the ringleader of this whole movement. And you know what's propelling him to try to build these car bombs and to blow people to smithereens? His family lost everything in the invasion in Iraq and filled with vengeance and anger and rebellion, he not only wants to die, but he wants to take as many with him as he can. God's love in Christ is not only supernatural in nature, it's also sacrificial in nature. And then of course, it always seeks redemption. Wonder if you've ever asked yourself the question, why is God so hyped up on loving even his enemies? Why doesn't God just use his power to destroy all of his enemies and to establish his kingdom? Well, the reason is that God doesn't wish that any should perish, that all should reach repentance. And the Bible says in Romans two, verse four, "Do you not know that God's kindness "is meant to lead you to repentance?" So why is God holding off on judgment? Why is God not, you know, don't you sometimes wish that God would get on with the program a little bit and where there is evil and where there's injustice, that he would just step into the picture and clear it all up and punish all the evildoers until you begin to realize that, you know, if God were to call us all to account, then we'd all fry and we'd all be in difficulty. And so the Bible says, God doesn't wish that any should perish, that all should reach repentance. He's not slowed towards his promises. He wants salvation to come to as many people as possible. And so the love that God has for his creation is always a love that reaches down into our lives and into our world with a view of lifting us up and bringing us into relationship with him. And while it's true, there comes a time in God's dealings with us individually and corporately where his patience runs out and his judgment comes, judgment always comes in scripture as a final resort because people have rejected the amazing grace of God in Christ. And so to be perfected in love, to be like our father who is in heaven in our relationships with one another and with all the world is to love redemptively. It's to believe that even the worst of the worst sinner by God's grace in Christ can be restored. I've been reading in my own devotions just lately through the book of Second Kings, the story of Manasseh, a king who reigned for what, 55 years or something like that, was wicked in the sight of God. And yet if you go on and read in the book of Chronicles, you discover that towards the end of his life, God's grace nevertheless caught up with him and brought him to repentance. Let me ask you, the people you don't like, the people that have hurt you or that you feel defrauded by or that have otherwise caused you pain, how would you feel if they come to faith in Christ, repent of their sin and become part of the community of believers? I've often talked about this with people that have been abused. And you know what a stretch of grace it is to come to a point where you say, "If God forgives you, then I forgive you." And instead of secretly hoping that, you know, God will get you and that you'll get what's coming to you, really in my heart of hearts, I'm hoping that even you could come to repentance and experience redemption and the faith of Jesus. Can you understand why the disciples were shaking their head? When Jesus says, "If you love those who love you, what more are you than the Gentiles? What more are you than tax collectors? If you're gonna be like your father who is in heaven, then here's the kind of love that I'm inviting you to, a love that's supernatural in nature, poured in our hearts by God's Holy Spirit. A love that reaches out and that in every way learns how to lay down its life, even for its enemies. And a love that ultimately seeks not people's destruction, not people's comeuppance, but that takes great joy in God reaching into somebody's life and bringing them to repentance and bringing them to faith. That's what it means to be perfect as our father who is in heaven is perfect. And that kind of love, I think you'll agree with me. Well, I don't know about you, but it sure does not grow in my heart by nature. I don't have trouble loving those who love me, although sometimes that's a stretch. And that's probably true for you too. But my enemy, I mean people who sometimes have a determined agenda whose hearts are not motivated and governed by love, but who just launch out there and shoot their mouths off without regard to accuracy or factuality, but in Christ, that's God's love that is poured out in our hearts. And tonight as we celebrate communion, want us to just lay hold of His grace. Confess those places where our love is just a natural love. Confess those places where we are limited by our own hurts and pains and likes and dislikes, and where we invite Him to pour His love into our hearts for the stranger in our midst, for those who we don't naturally like, those who don't speak our language, those who are just messy and they cost us dearly because we're pouring ourselves into their lives again and again and again. Jesus says by this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:26:59.560; remove through 00:30:53.000] (Piano [CUT] music) (piano music) (piano music) ♪ How deep the Father's love for us ♪ ♪ How vast beyond all measure ♪ ♪ That He should give His only Son ♪ ♪ To make a wretch His treasure ♪ ♪ How great the pain of searing loss ♪ ♪ The Father turns His face away ♪ ♪ As the bones rich by the Chosen One ♪ ♪ Bring many sons to glory ♪ (piano music) ♪ Behold a man upon a cross ♪ ♪ My sin upon His shoulders ♪ ♪ A shame, I hear my mocking voice ♪ ♪ Fall out among the scoffers ♪ ♪ It was my sin that held you back ♪ ♪ Until it was accomplished ♪ ♪ His dying breath has brought me back ♪ ♪ I know that it is finished ♪ (piano music) ♪ I will not boast in anything ♪ ♪ No gifts, no power, no wisdom ♪ ♪ But I will boast in Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ His death and resurrection ♪ ♪ Why should I gain from His reward ♪ ♪ I cannot give an answer ♪ ♪ But this I know with all my heart ♪ ♪ His rules have paid my ransom ♪ ♪ But this I know with all my heart ♪ ♪ His rules have paid my ransom ♪ [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:30:53.000; resume after this marked segment]