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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: Luke's Perspective of Jesus: Ch. 6 Message Outlines (Include Audio)

Luke 6:20-49 (12)

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 5 Study # 12
December 16, 2007
Lincolnton, N.C.
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(402)

Thesis:   Do good to those who hate you.

Introduction:   In the Kingdom of God everyone will consider everyone else as more important than themselves and that will result in everyone seeking ways to do good to everyone else. But that Kingdom is not yet established in our experience. There are two things that have to happen before the establishment of that Kingdom on earth so that the will of God can be done here as it is in heaven. One of those prerequisites is that human beings have to be weaned from the wicked foolishness of their rebellion against Love. The other of those prerequisites is that those human beings who refuse to be weaned have to be eliminated from the sphere in which the Kingdom is to be established. The Bible tells us how both of these prerequisites will be achieved. During the era of "proclamation", men who are willing to continue to listen to Jesus (Luke 6:27) will be drawn along by His words to the point of being weaned from their rebellion against Love. Then will come the era of "condemnation" in which the wrath of the Lamb will be poured out and all of the rebels will be destroyed.

When Jesus came down from the mountain, it was to give instruction to "disciples" so that they could take an active part in their own growth away from their natural rebellion against Love. But, Jesus did not make it "easy". There will only be a few who actually discover the narrow gate and enter into eternal life. The broad way to Hell is filled with traffic; the boom boxes are blasting away with what these days is called "music"; and the ignorant are filling their ears with noise so that the words of Jesus cannot even be heard, let alone understood and believed and loved and embraced. So Jesus challenged those who came to get what they wanted from Him with words that absolutely demand that they do a 180 degree turn-around. He declared that the Kingdom of God is made of people who have embraced the values of that Kingdom and then questioned His audience with whether they were "still" listening.

For those few in that mode -- still listening -- He continued to teach them how different is the Kingdom of the only God there is: He said, "Love your enemies".

Last week we began to explore what that "looks like" in the real world. It is, admittedly, a very big idea and, for people who are used to looking at the world through eyes that only seek their own interests, it needs a lot of "explanation". This morning we are going to look into one form of that "explanation". It is found in the next command: "Do good to them who hate you."


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