Loyal, OK

 
Pastor Leon Seaton

To Be Like Jesus--Kind and Gentle

Luke 6:27-38

"But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 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. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. "

John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn He appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus,

"Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do You say?"

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them,

"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her,

"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, Sir," she said.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Please go with me to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX. It is August 1957. You and I are in basic training. Like everyone else in our squadron, we are “Airman Basics,” which means we are as low a rank as you can be. In addition you are 19 years old and a long ways from home and somewhat homesick. Drill sergeants are well aware of our feelings and love to yell at us.

Somehow they believe that yelling makes you more efficient.

Every group has a smart aleck, and ours is no exception. Most of us stay out of the way of the drill sergeants, hoping we will not be noticed. But not Jack! No sir, he was always getting himself in trouble; often dragging the rest of us in trouble as well.

Today is a very hot day and we are under a shelter, taking a break, buying soft drinks and catching our breaths. It has to be 110 degrees!

Our friend Jack walks up to the sergeant and says, “Sir, I notice that your shirt pocket is unbuttoned, and so is your back pocket.”

Sergeant Smith gave Jack “that look” and said, “Airman, may I remind you that we are under shelter and that it is acceptable to have unbuttoned pockets?”

“Uh, yes, sir! Sorry, I forgot.”

“But,” said the DS, “since you brought it up, let’s take a look at your uniform.” He proceeds to check Jack out very carefully and we assume that he will check us out as well. Fortunately he passes on us, but finds 8 – 10 problems on Jack’s uniform - from his shoe shine to his stance to his attitude.

We want to laugh at Jack, but we aren’t going to take that chance….

I tell that story because that is where the Pharisees were that day in Jerusalem when they brought a woman “caught in the act of adultery” to Jesus. The scriptures teach us that while mankind looks at our outward acts, God looks on our heart. In other words, God knows our motive.

When our motive is right God calls us blameless even though we make mistakes – and sin. God knows our hearts and understands our struggles.

It is easy to visualize the Pharisees practically dragging the poor woman to Jesus… they left the man where he was, and it is impossible to be caught in the act of adultery all by yourself. So it was easy to judge their motive.

“Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such a person should be stoned. But what do you say?” They were not motivated by love, but hatred. They wanted to catch Jesus in an inconsistency so they could trap Him.

God knows our motives. God knows our hearts. And God always has our best interests at heart even when He is correcting us. Since Jesus was God in the flesh, we understand that God treats us just like Jesus treated the folk during His time on earth.

Jesus did not yell “Hypocrite” at them. He simply said nothing, stooped down and wrote something in the sand. No doubt they were trying to see what He was writing, but the scripture is silent on what he wrote.

That really fired them up! They kept demanding an answer, probably thinking that they had Him trapped. Finally Jesus raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

Can you imagine the stunned silence? As Jesus stooped down again – not protecting Himself at all – and began writing on the ground, the crowd, convicted by their own conscience began to wander off starting with the oldest. Finally everyone was gone except Jesus and the woman.

Looking at her with tender compassion Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

Knowing Jesus as we do, we know that He looked at her with loving, tender compassion. He understood her needs; He understood that Satan had tricked her into stooping to this level of sin. He wanted her as a spiritual sister.

One can only imagine what went on in her heart and mind as she realized that she was being forgiven and not condemned; that this wonderful Man did not look down on her. She must have caught her breath when He said these beautiful words, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”

Between now and Easter we are studying the life of Christ so that we will better understand who He is and how we can model our lives after His.

FIRST

Let’s look at our lives. Have we been living in adultery? Oh, I know you aren’t sleeping around and that you have a pure relationship with your spouse. However the scriptures teach us that when we put things ahead of God that is SPIRITUAL ADULTERY.

Have you gone to God, asking for forgiveness, and feeling a deep spiritual relief and healing when God said, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more?”

And, finally, has anyone been threatening to throw stones at you – or perhaps you have felt the sting of verbal stones because someone has criticized you. If so, forgive them and seek ways to restore your relationship with them.

Only people that are hurting seek ways to hurt others. If someone is hurting you, they need your ministry of love, starting with prayer.

SECOND

Let’s look at how we treat others. Have you been asking God to let you throw any stones lately? Do you pray to have the ministry of “Straightening other people out?” To my knowledge there is no such ministry, but I’ve known a few people laboring in that field!

THIRD

How can we develop our love for others so it compares with God’s love for others? I’ll be honest with you. I feel that love every morning when I wake up. I feel God’s love, Roberta’s love and a love for all mankind.

But then I get out of bed and that feeling of love starts going away! The newspaper is full of all kinds of hate stories and it stirs up the human nature. Then I go out the door and not everyone is as sweet as my dear wife, and my Irish temper gets a little excited sometimes.

The secret of success, of course, is in the prayer room – or wherever you pray, study the Word and meditate on God’s love. Failure there will mess up your entire day and the evening prayers may be more for forgiveness than for worship and praise.

I believe we all have role models – people we look to that do things right so that we will know how to act in similar situations. I took my wife out to El Charro’s yesterday. I stood at the curb while she talked to her sister-in-law, then I finally went inside to sit on the bench until she came in.

Like a good customer I went to the booth we were assigned. But I’m getting smarter. This time I had something to read while she visited with some friends at their booth.

After we had eaten I was teasing her about it. Actually everybody loves Roberta and I am super-proud to be her husband. There is nothing I would change about her if I could. However, I still tease her.

And what was her response? “I’m getting more and more like my dad, aren’t I?”

Then she added, “Who better could I want to be like?”

That’s exactly the point. She picked a wonderful man to use for a role model. She acts more and more like her dad.

When it comes to attitudes and motives and responses we need to use Jesus as our role model. In our story for today Jesus had every opportunity to be indignant. I told a friend that Jesus did not have an ounce of Irish temper in Him. It would be good for me to work on that!

Jesus loved the crowd enough not to condemn them. He let their conscience do that. He did not condemn the woman. His love covered her multitude of sin.

In the other teaching from the Sermon on the Mount – Luke 6:37-38 – we see that God sets a very high standard for us. It is a standard that absolutely goes against our human nature. Let’s read it again:

Luke 6:27-38

"But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 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. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. "

I don’t know about you, but this goes against my human nature! When I was ordained, the District Superintendent challenged us 1Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

My pastor friend Dan used to joke and say, “We give our beginning preachers a license to exhort. What I want is a license to rebuke!”

Yes, there is a time to rebuke someone, but most of us need love and exhortation… and acceptance. If that is true, then that is what people want from you and me… love, acceptance, and longsuffering!

As we ponder the impossibility of living just like Jesus did – and like He apparently expects us to live – please consider the following story:

Several years ago Charles Swindoll met a gentleman who served on one of Walt Disney's original advisory boards. What amazing stories he told!

Those early days were tough; but that remarkable, creative visionary refused to give up. I especially appreciated the man's sharing with me how Disney responded to disagreement.

He said that Walt would occasionally present some unbelievable, extensive dream he was entertaining. Almost without exception, the members of his board would gulp, blink, and stare back at him in disbelief, resisting even the thought of such a thing. But unless every member resisted the idea, Disney usually didn't pursue it.

Yes, you read that correctly. The challenge wasn't big enough to merit his time and creative energy unless they were unanimously in disagreement!  Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p.107. Found at www.sermonillustrations.com

So we close with God’s challenge for today. Will you and I determine to be like Jesus – kind and gentle – even though all the forces of human nature say that it can’t be done?

    January 20, 2008