Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: When we confess to God that we are sinners and we ask for his grace and forgiveness and we believe in Jesus Christ, that's what it means to come into a personal relationship with him.

JP Jones: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives.

Voiceover: Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University.

Voiceover: Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Read the Red. Let's listen as JP gives us part one of Luke 6:17-49.

JP Jones: If you have your Bibles, would you open to Luke chapter 6? We're in a series we're calling Read the Red, where we're going through the teachings of Jesus. In some Bible translations, they are called Red Letter Editions, and so the words of Jesus are highlighted in red.

And we're looking at the teaching discourses of Jesus, developing them chronologically from the beginning to the final teaching of Jesus, really trying to understand what did Jesus teach? What does it mean to be in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? How do we experience Christ in us? How do we live out our lives as followers of Jesus Christ?

The passage that we have before us this morning in Luke chapter 6 is a condensed version of what's known as the Sermon on the Mount. The extended version is in the Gospel of Matthew, his account in Matthew 5, 6 and 7.

Some people debate whether this is Luke kind of just giving us the highlights of that sermon or whether this is actually a separate message that Jesus gave with a similar content. And that certainly could be the case because there are some truths that are worth repeating over and over again. This takes place on what's called a plain, so some people have called this the Sermon on the Plain as opposed to the Sermon on the Mount.

I've had the privilege of being there, it's right over the Sea of Galilee. There is a mount there, but then there's a level place where it is believed that Jesus stood and gave this message. I just stood there with a group of people and read Luke chapter 6. It took about 20 minutes to think these were words that changed the world spoken by Jesus Christ. It's in red in our Bibles.

And in this message, it is a message of counter-cultural Christianity. In other words, what Jesus teaches is in juxtaposition to what the world teaches. It's not just the way of the world, it's the way of the kingdom. It's what does it mean to be a Christ follower with Christ at the center of your thinking, the center of your values, the center of your relationships.

And what Jesus has to say is counter-cultural to what our world tells us. He calls us to a new life, a new experience, new relationships. What Jesus says here, we're told in Luke 6, he says to an audience of two groups of people.

Primarily, he's speaking to his disciples. He says he stood up on the plain and his disciples gathered around him. So he's speaking to people who are already his followers. But it also says that there was a crowd, those who had come to be healed by Jesus and to be set free from demonic oppression, and they were also listening to the words of Jesus.

And so the way I picture this is Jesus is speaking to his followers. They're his primary audience. He's teaching them, what does it mean to be a disciple? What does it mean to live in union with me, in relationship with me? But listening in are the crowd, the people who are interested, the people who are seekers, the people who are wondering, is it possible to know God?

And so what Jesus is saying is this is what it looks like to live in the kingdom. This is what it looks like to live as one of my followers.

You know, using a sports metaphor, it's like the beginning of football season, high school football. A coach will have a team meeting with all the returning players, prospective players, their parents, everybody's invited. And in that meeting, the coach goes over, this is what is going to happen on our football team this year. This is what it means to be a part of this football program. Goes through the schedule, talks about the practice requirements, talks about all the time commitment, talks about the attitude, talks about the goals.

And and really lays out what it's going to mean to be on that football team over that season. Now, if a parent or a player were to leave that team meeting and think, I've got to meet all these requirements in order to be on this team, they've misunderstood what was taking place at that meeting.

Because high school football is a no-cut sport. You try out, you come out, you're on the team. But what the coach is explaining is what does it mean to be on this team? What does it look like to be on this team? What are the values of the people who are on this team? What are the priorities of the people who are on this team? What is the the commitment of those who are on this team?

And so in Luke chapter 6, Jesus is not giving us the entrance requirements to come into a relationship with God. That's spelled out in many places in the Bible. It's by grace through faith. In Romans chapter 10, the Apostle Paul says, if we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.

When we confess to God that we're sinners and we ask for his grace and forgiveness and we believe in Jesus Christ, that's that's what it means to come into a personal relationship with him. But in Luke chapter 6, Jesus is describing how we're supposed to live as those people who've come into a personal relationship with him. He's speaking to his disciples, but for those who are seeking, who are looking in, he's laying it out open to them saying, now, when you commit yourself to me and you become one of my followers, this is the life I'm calling you to. And it's counter-cultural.

Luke chapter 6, starting at verse 17. He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured and the people all tried to touch him because of the power that was coming from him and healing them all.

And looking at his disciples, he said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and they reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for this is how their fathers treated the false prophets." I'll stop there.

Here's my first observation. Jesus is teaching Luke chapter 6. He's teaching his disciples. The crowds are listening in. He's talking about the way of discipleship, the way of following Christ, the way of living in his kingdom. His first observation is this, don't accept the world's definition of the good life.

Don't accept the world's definition of the good life. You see, our culture and every culture presents a message of what the good life is. But as followers of Jesus Christ, we are not to accept that message and that definition. As followers of Jesus Christ, we're to let Jesus define what life is all about.

We are to allow Jesus to interpret to us what we are to pursue. We are to have Jesus be the one who shares with us what it means to live life and experience fullness of life. Don't accept the world's definition of the good life. And the way Jesus does this is he pronounces certain blessings and certain woes or statements of judgment.

And you can almost put these on a scale. This is what it means to be blessed and this is what it means to say woe. And when you look at what Jesus says, it's completely different than what the world says. In fact, it's upside down. It's counter-cultural.

This past weekend, in the past 24 hours, I've actually experienced three cultural experiences. I spoke at a men's retreat up in the Santa Ynez Valley outside of Santa Barbara, Solvang. There's a whole culture up there. It's beautiful. It's it's green and there's ranches and the good life is getting away from the rat race, getting some land and ranch and have some animals and just kind of slow down.

Last night, I was at a party in Hollywood. And the good life is glitz and glamour and, you know, all the trappings of what the media says. And then I come back to South Orange County and we have our own culture, right? And the good life is defined for us here.

In each of those three subcultures, there's a good life being presented and what Jesus says is counter-cultural. It's not like any of those three. Because Jesus pronounces certain blessings and Jesus pronounces certain woes and Jesus says, "Don't let the world define for you what life is all about. Let me define that for you."

You see, the world will present to us a model and it will we'll get so used to it, we think that's what it is and we'll pursue it. And then we'll become followers of Jesus Christ and just baptize our pursuits with some Christian jargon, but we're still seeking the world's definition of the good life.

When I was in college ministry, I I don't know how many times I had conversations with college students that went something like this. "Oh, what are you studying here?" "Oh, I'm a business econ major." "Really? What what do you hope to do with that?" "Well, I want to graduate." "That's that's great. Why why do you want to graduate?" "Well, I want to get a good job." "Well, why do you want to get a good job?" "Well, I want to make a lot of money." "Why do you want to make a lot of money?" "Well, I want to be able to get married and, you know, buy a house and settle down and have a family."

"Well, why do you want to be able to get married and buy a house and settle down and have a family?" "Well, well, I want to be secure and and be able to retire someday." "Well, why do you want to be able to be secure and retire someday?" "Well, I want to be happy." So you're a business econ major because you want to be happy.

Now, think about that that same person I had that conversation with. If I could step away from the conversation and and ask them to kind of suspend kind of how they're involved in their own drama, and I asked them, honestly, "Are you telling me that being a business econ major is the secret to happiness?" What do you think they would say? No.

If I said, "Are you telling me what we should do is partner with the United Nations and worldwide have a program to try to get everybody in the world become business econ majors, because then everybody in the world could be happy?" No. But you see, that conversation revealed that student had bought into the good life of what the culture was saying.

And we just change business econ for something else. They do it up in the Santa Ynez for something else. They do it in Hollywood for something else. Down here in South Orange County, we do it with something else. We change the name, but the the see the issue is the same. We've bought into the world's definition of the good life.

And here's the bottom line. Whatever world definition you've bought into, it's based on something that's temporary and something that's external. The world's definition of the good life is temporary and external. It may be what zip code you live in, or it may be how much square footage you have, or it may be how many letters you have after your name, or it may be how much money's in your bank account, or it may be the kind of spouse that you have, or it may be the college that your kids are able to get into.

I mean, it's something that is temporary and it's something that's external. What Jesus says in his blessings and in his statements of woe is this: the good life is based on what's eternal and what's internal. Eternal and internal. Eternal will last forever, you take it with you into heaven.

If you can't take with you into heaven what you're counting on as the good life, it's not the good life according to Jesus. And if it's based on something that's just external, Jesus says one day this world is going to burn up. So if it's just external, that's not really the good life according to what Jesus says. No, that which is of the true good life is eternal and internal.

It's internal life change in us. It's internal life change in the people that we love. It's it's transformation, you see. Personal, spiritual, whole personality transformation for me and the people I care about and love and even for all my enemies, Jesus is going to go on to say. That counts forever. That lasts forever. That's from the inside out. That's the good life.

Don't let the world define for you what is the good life. Well, you say, well, that's counter-cultural. That's what Jesus is teaching. You say, well, do I have to make this complete shift of paradigm in my thinking before I can become a follower of Jesus? No, this isn't the entrance requirements for the kingdom.

This is once you've come into the kingdom, what Jesus does in your life to reorient you, to change you and what it means to be one of his followers. Jesus continues with this teaching, verse 27, he says, "But I tell you, 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 of you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others you'd have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is it 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 the wicked. Be merciful as your Father is merciful." Here's a second observation. Counter-cultural Christianity. Don't let the world tell you who is worthy of love.

Don't let the world tell you who is worthy of love, because I'm going to warn you, you may not be on their list. Jesus is teaching on how we are to love our enemies. And he uses in this discussion the term sinners. Now, Jesus is not using this term as a pejorative, it's not a negative, shame-filled term.

He's basically saying, which we all know, we're all sinners, every one of us. Every person here is is a sinner. We fall short of God's standards. But Jesus is using this term by way of contrast. He's speaking to his disciples, those who have embraced him, followed him, believed in him, trusted in him, come into a relationship with him.

And then there are those who are not his disciples. There are people that have no relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus is not the center of their life and thinking and orientation. They're not trusting in Christ to forgive their sins and be their savior. They're not actively pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ. They're outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And that's who he's calling sinners. See, it's it's the term he's trying to use for people who are not following after Jesus. And what does he say? He basically says, well, even sinners love those who love them. He he's not saying that's wrong, by the way. He's not saying that's that's a wrong kind of love, there's something defective about that love.

He's basically saying, "You're my followers. I'm calling you to a different kind of love, not just the kind of love that everybody has. Everybody loves their mom who loves them. Everybody loves their wife or husband who loves them. Everybody loves their best friend who loves them. Anybody can love somebody who loves them."

That's not what I mean when I call you to love one another, to love your neighbor. No, what I call you to is love your enemy. See, he's saying love the unlovable. Because what Jesus is really contrasting here, because all of his teaching by way is a contrast because it's counter-cultural. There's the way of the world and there's the way of following after Jesus Christ.

The way of the world with respect to love is there is a self-interest in love. We may not think about it that way. And Jesus is not condemning this, he's just saying it like it is. When you love someone who loves you, there's a self-interest in it. You're getting something out of the relationship.

You're getting something back. So when you love your spouse and they return that love back to you, you get something out of it. When you love your child and they love you back, you're getting something out of it. You love your best friend and they love you back, you're getting something out of it. He's not saying that's wrong. He's just saying that's the way it is.

There's a self-interest component in the world's understanding, definition and description of love. So Jesus is talking about contrasts. He's talking about the way of the kingdom, the way of discipleship, the way of following him, and he's saying even sinners love sinners. Because in the world's understanding, definition and description of love, there's self-interest that's involved.

But he says, "For my followers, for my followers, it's selfless. We don't love people who can just love us back, but we we love with a self-sacrificing expression." That's what Jesus says. See, in the world, the way this plays out, just think about the way it plays out. Let's talk about marriage. In the world's understanding, we hear a lot about it's 50/50.

You do your 50%, your spouse does their 50%. That's the way it's supposed to go. It's a 50/50 arrangement. But here's the problem I've discovered. Nobody ever thinks their spouse is doing 50%. They think they're carrying the lion's share. So they think it's more like 60/40. I'm doing 60 and you're doing 40. And then so what the natural tendency is, I'm doing 60, you're doing 40, forget it. I'm going to drop down to 40.

Boom, I drop down to 40. Then they the other person goes, "You're not you're not doing 40, you're doing 30." So I'm going to drop down to 30. "Oh, you're doing 30, you're only doing 10." I'm doing 10. And then you have these people just fighting with each other all the time, pointing the finger, "You're not doing your part. It's all it's all your fault." And then they just bicker back and forth.

And it's all based upon a faulty assumption that it's a 50/50 arrangement. Well, in the way of the kingdom, following after Jesus Christ, look at a passage like Ephesians chapter 5, says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church." That's a total 100% commitment, you see. It's 100%, 100%. Because the way of love in following after Jesus Christ is different from the way of love in the world.

Now, Jesus is not saying that loving those who love you back is wrong. He's just saying the love I call you to as one of my followers is even a higher, it's a self-sacrificing kind of love. Take, give you another example. In terms of the world's understanding of the way we love.

How we treat those that are on the fringe, who are disenfranchised, the needy, the poor. However we understand that. Within the world, is there a value for charity? Yes, there is. But see, it's still driven by this self-interest. So in the world, it's I will help you and I'll even serve you and I'll even give you some money.

But I want a return on my investment. So I want to give you money and see that you've taken that and you've bettered your life, you've gotten a job and now you're self-sustaining. But if you just take that and squander it, forget it. I'm not giving you any more. See, if I if I serve you in love, then I want to see some redemption out of that.

I want to see how my effort produced a positive change. And if I don't see that, you're not getting any more, I'm cutting you off. You see, it's based on that return of investment idea, based on a self-interest idea. It's still based on this paradigm that you love those who love you back.

And if you don't love them back, then I'm cutting off the love. Now, Jesus isn't saying that's wrong. What he's saying is the love I call you to is a different kind of love. In fact, it's the kind of love where you love your enemies.

Voiceover: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives. 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

Voiceover: For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, *Facing Goliath*. Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series called Read the Red. We're examining the actual teachings of Jesus Christ in the four Gospels. Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived, and he taught us how to know God. He taught us how to live as disciples. And in this section that we're looking at, it's in Luke chapter 6, it's it's what some people say is a condensed version of the Sermon on the Mount. It's it's known as the Sermon on the Plain.

It's where Jesus highlights the teachings that are so popular in the Sermon on the Mount, and he condenses them for us in terms of what practical Christianity looks like. And he tells us that there is a counter-cultural call that God has on our life. In other words, living as disciples of Jesus Christ means we're going to live differently from the teaching of the world and even differently from the teaching of traditional Christianity.

Following Jesus Christ is radical. It means that we live a blessed life because we pursue those things that really matter, the things that count for eternity. And when we do, God blesses our lives. And it means we love out of our hearts. We not only love those who love us back, but we even love our enemies.

You see, Jesus Christ calls us to a new life as his disciples, and it's counter-cultural. Have you considered that the call of Jesus Christ on your life calls you to radical Christianity, calls you to put Jesus first and others first before yourself, calls you to love out of your heart, seeking first his kingdom. That's the call that Jesus has on your life, and that's what it means to follow the master. If that's your heart's desire, would you join with me in asking God to make that a reality?

Father, thank you that you've called us to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And following Jesus as the Lord of our lives means we live a counter-cultural life. We live differently because we follow Jesus. And we ask for the power to do that in Jesus name. Amen.

Voiceover: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.