Christians in Conflict (Romans 12:17-21)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:04.160 We're here. We are coming to the end of Romans Chapter Twelve, a 2 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:10.910 remarkable passage of scripture that has been building on so much, well, everything 3 00:00:11.070 --> 00:00:15.630 that Paul has written up to this point. If you want, if you're 4 00:00:15.630 --> 00:00:21.109 a note taker and you want the conclusion of this sermon, I'll tell you 5 00:00:21.190 --> 00:00:25.500 it right now. It's in Verse Twenty One. Do not be overcome by 6 00:00:25.660 --> 00:00:31.620 evil, but overcome evil with good. It's such a simple thing, but 7 00:00:31.739 --> 00:00:35.969 it's such a powerful statement, isn't it? These strong categories, as I 8 00:00:36.009 --> 00:00:40.450 mentioned earlier, evil versus good, right, and then this verb overcome. 9 00:00:42.049 --> 00:00:46.049 So a lot of strong verbs out there and this is certainly one of the 10 00:00:46.250 --> 00:00:52.719 one of them to overcome. First we hear don't be overcome, don't be 11 00:00:52.920 --> 00:01:00.039 overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. You all know what this 12 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:03.629 word means, I'm sure, to be overcome. When you're overcome by something, 13 00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:08.150 it can be good or bad. Usually I think of it as a 14 00:01:08.189 --> 00:01:12.150 bad thing. That's just my own proclivities, I guess. I remember one 15 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:15.670 time being in the ocean. It was one of my first times trying to 16 00:01:17.349 --> 00:01:22.659 surf and I was overcome by the waves. It's not a nice feeling. 17 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:29.379 You are enveloped. You're over overwhelmed, you don't know which way is up, 18 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:33.849 you don't know which way is down. You feel pressure all around you. 19 00:01:33.969 --> 00:01:42.810 It feels a really hopeless being overcome by something often means losing control, 20 00:01:44.290 --> 00:01:49.200 losing control of your life, because you're overcome by something else, something more 21 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:53.879 powerful, and that might be a wave, might be an emotion. We 22 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:01.030 talked about being overcome with rage, jealousy, but good things to love, 23 00:02:02.109 --> 00:02:08.990 peace. In a sense, it's something comes into us that controls the rest 24 00:02:09.030 --> 00:02:16.939 of us. We can be overcome by poverty, by illness, by death 25 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:23.379 and, as we see here too, it's possible even to be overcome by 26 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:30.569 evil. That is not a good feeling. To be overcome by evil, 27 00:02:30.650 --> 00:02:34.009 strikes me, is perhaps one of the most terrifying things that a person could 28 00:02:34.050 --> 00:02:39.289 experience. We've considered a few different times in Romans, chapter twelve and other 29 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:46.719 places in scripture, of course, persecution that Christian's face, sometimes even from 30 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:53.560 within the church and from without, out without, to have evil things over 31 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:59.909 come you, to lose control and feel entirely powerless at the force not of 32 00:03:00.110 --> 00:03:07.069 something that seems well, at the force of something that is bad. I 33 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:12.389 think it's all the more frightening things that are dark and wicked and black. 34 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:16.139 I think these things are even more frightening to us because they suggest to our 35 00:03:16.259 --> 00:03:24.020 minds that either God is not good or that he's not powerful. When we're 36 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:29.930 overcome not just by an emotion or by a circumstance, but by something that 37 00:03:30.050 --> 00:03:36.650 we might describe as evil, when we feel out of control, it's hard 38 00:03:36.969 --> 00:03:42.360 for us to understand who is in control, if it's certainly not us, 39 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:46.759 and if it is evil, well then where does God stand in this? 40 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:53.919 How could God let something evil overcome us these things? When things like this 41 00:03:53.960 --> 00:04:00.270 happen, it suggests to us that maybe the world lacks a positive direction. 42 00:04:00.750 --> 00:04:14.860 When we're overcome by evil, hope vanishes, zeal for fighting perhaps, but 43 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:19.699 the reality of being overcome by evil is not just expressed us. We're told 44 00:04:19.939 --> 00:04:25.009 do not be overcome by evil, and then given this second great phrase, 45 00:04:25.529 --> 00:04:30.209 but overcome evil with good. So in this one phrase we see the evil 46 00:04:30.290 --> 00:04:34.449 is very powerful, but at the same time we see that it can be 47 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:42.680 overcome. Even the greatest and most strongest forces of evil can be overcome with 48 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:47.439 good. Here is the promise that we face in the darkness, when we 49 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:53.750 face evil and we struggle not to be ruled by it. We are promised 50 00:04:53.790 --> 00:05:01.949 that good does overcome evil, good overpowers evil, good terrifies evil and makes 51 00:05:01.990 --> 00:05:09.300 it lose control, and that's wonderful. To be overcome, to be overpowered 52 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:14.819 in that kind of way as a wonderful thing. Have you ever been overcome 53 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:21.370 by, let's say, someone else's forgiveness or someone else's patience or love? 54 00:05:24.329 --> 00:05:29.970 If you ever been overcome by someone else's generosity, just hardly having the words 55 00:05:30.089 --> 00:05:36.319 to speak because of what has been given to you? Have you ever been 56 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:42.759 saved? Fortunately, I was able to kind of pull myself out of the 57 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.959 water and I had friends nearby, but have you ever been in a situation 58 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:53.350 where somebody actually rescued you? Somebody overcame the evil of your situation and brought 59 00:05:53.350 --> 00:05:58.509 you out? I know many of you were not born into Christian families, 60 00:06:00.870 --> 00:06:05.699 but somebody saved you. Jesus, of course, saved you, and he 61 00:06:05.779 --> 00:06:11.259 sent people to speak the Gospel into your lives, to tell you the good 62 00:06:11.379 --> 00:06:16.060 news, to tell you that in him good does overcome evil. And if 63 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:20.610 you weren't, if you didn't become a Christian as an adult, then as 64 00:06:20.649 --> 00:06:26.649 a child, your parents were telling you this from the very earliest days, 65 00:06:27.970 --> 00:06:31.610 that in God, who is good, through his son, who is good, 66 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:38.839 he has overcome evil, and this is great, great news to us 67 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:42.160 when we read this verse. Do not become or sorry, do not be 68 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:47.949 overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. It is possible, not 69 00:06:48.110 --> 00:06:54.110 in our own strength, as Paul has been saying all along, but in 70 00:06:54.189 --> 00:07:00.910 Christ's. Good and evil, therefore, are not sort of two equivalent forces 71 00:07:00.189 --> 00:07:05.379 that need to be balanced in some way. They're not a kind of black 72 00:07:05.420 --> 00:07:10.860 and a white this and of that, things that need to just sort of 73 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:15.889 be carefully coordinated and balanced in our lives. No, they are at war 74 00:07:15.209 --> 00:07:19.009 with one another and one is going to win and the other is going to 75 00:07:19.129 --> 00:07:26.290 lose, and the Bible tells us that good is going to win ultimately through 76 00:07:26.370 --> 00:07:30.279 what Jesus has done in coming into the world and crushing the head of the 77 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:34.800 serpent and dying on a cross to forgive the sins of the world. In 78 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:41.399 doing these things, Jesus has accomplished the ultimate good and promises to bring us 79 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:46.589 into a new heaven's and a new earth that are characterized only by good and 80 00:07:46.829 --> 00:07:50.589 have no presence of evil at all. That is what God has done in 81 00:07:50.629 --> 00:07:54.990 the world. That is the life into which we have been called. And 82 00:07:55.189 --> 00:07:58.779 so now there is this question that stands, or that each of us have 83 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:05.259 to answer, this question dealing which the in between times, the time after 84 00:08:05.300 --> 00:08:09.660 Christ is come and done this work, but the time before he has come 85 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:13.329 to bring all these things into consummation. What do you do when you're on 86 00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:16.810 the side of the great victory, when you're on the side of good and 87 00:08:16.970 --> 00:08:22.649 you have won all things through him? Do you give up? Of course 88 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:28.720 not. Do you fall back? Do you retreat? Do you let evil 89 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.840 simply win the day because it seems like it's too strong? No, everything 90 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:41.279 in scripture is testifying to us that God is more powerful than anything that is 91 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:46.950 evil. Even in the darkest times of that we see in people's lives, 92 00:08:46.029 --> 00:08:52.429 it's always under the sovereign control of God. Imagine, for example, the 93 00:08:52.509 --> 00:08:58.860 Joe of the evils. That job suffered the the loss of his family, 94 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:03.860 the loss of his wealth, the loss of his own physical body. They 95 00:09:05.139 --> 00:09:11.409 being dealing with plagues and disease and various things, great sorrows and all kinds 96 00:09:11.450 --> 00:09:16.889 of torments, and to remember also that all of this was being caused by 97 00:09:16.049 --> 00:09:22.769 Satan himself, the Great Evil One. What could be worse than to suffer 98 00:09:22.970 --> 00:09:31.639 all of these things directly by the great persecutor and tempter? His friends and 99 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:37.200 his own wife were hardly any help to him. He suffered great evil, 100 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:43.029 but Joe didn't give up because he understood that all the time there was something 101 00:09:43.070 --> 00:09:48.590 more powerful than all of the things that he was experiencing and seeing. By 102 00:09:48.750 --> 00:09:54.779 faith, he remembered that God was king and none of this could happen outside 103 00:09:54.779 --> 00:10:00.220 of his sovereign control. And that's absolutely true. We of course, know 104 00:10:00.379 --> 00:10:03.100 this from the very beginning of the story, because at the very beginning we 105 00:10:03.220 --> 00:10:07.889 see that Satan is not allowed to do any of these things except up by 106 00:10:07.889 --> 00:10:15.210 the permission and will of God. This has a way of characterizing and changing 107 00:10:15.450 --> 00:10:20.889 how we perceive the evils of this world, their strength, their power. 108 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:26.279 They're all subject to God. And so if that's true, again I ask, 109 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:31.159 how are we to live? We're to live like job. We sorrow, 110 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:37.629 when we cry and we mourn, but we don't lose hope. And 111 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:46.549 could give many other examples, but Paul takes us to some specific instructions and 112 00:10:46.830 --> 00:10:52.139 how we are to live in the midst of all of this conflict. How 113 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:56.460 are we to live when evil presses down on us, when bad things are 114 00:10:56.539 --> 00:11:01.740 in particular, bad people do bad things to us? And he gives us 115 00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:07.690 a couple instructions I want to not just point your attention to, but really 116 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:11.049 impress upon your hearts and call you. These are things that you must remember 117 00:11:11.090 --> 00:11:16.850 as Christians living in the light of God's grace and under the power of his 118 00:11:18.090 --> 00:11:24.320 kingdom. He gives us instructions for how we ought to live. So notice 119 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:31.200 what he says. First, in verse seventeen. We pay no one evil 120 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:35.429 for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of 121 00:11:35.509 --> 00:11:41.429 all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably 122 00:11:41.190 --> 00:11:48.659 with all. So this first command here, repay no one evil for evil. 123 00:11:48.700 --> 00:11:52.580 You might summarize it very simply this way and kind of the way children 124 00:11:52.740 --> 00:12:00.340 talk. No paybacks, right, no paybacks. When somebody does something evil 125 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:05.490 to you, you're not allowed to pay them back or return it with evil. 126 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:13.129 If someone steals your toy, you are not allowed to steal someone else's 127 00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:18.759 toy payback. You're not allowed to do an evil thing in response to an 128 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:24.639 evil thing. Does that make sense? It's a really simple thing, but 129 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.200 it is hard. Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's not easy to follow. 130 00:12:30.230 --> 00:12:33.269 We have phrases that remind us of this even outside of scripture. Two 131 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:37.350 wrongs don't make a right right. This is an argument for this. Don't 132 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:43.429 repay evil for evil, because what you have more evil. But what does 133 00:12:43.549 --> 00:12:48.620 God want? He gives us this sort of right action at the beginning of 134 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:52.659 verse seventeen, and then he gives us a reason for that. He says 135 00:12:52.019 --> 00:12:56.379 repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable 136 00:12:56.860 --> 00:13:01.090 in the sight of all. So this action is to be grounded in a 137 00:13:01.169 --> 00:13:07.450 certain mindset. We are to give thought or to give consideration to do what 138 00:13:07.649 --> 00:13:15.320 is honorable, or it could be translated simply good before everyone's eyes or in 139 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:20.080 the presence of all people. We are to be those who are concerned with 140 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:24.000 good. That, of course, makes sense right in light of what Jesus 141 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:28.350 has done, in light of his goodness and the goodness of his kingdom. 142 00:13:28.750 --> 00:13:33.629 If the Kingdom of God is good and if Jesus is good, does it 143 00:13:33.789 --> 00:13:41.659 make sense for his citizens to then repay evil with evil, to pile up 144 00:13:41.940 --> 00:13:46.940 wicked things? Of course not. Two wrongs don't make right. Evil Plus 145 00:13:48.059 --> 00:13:52.899 Evil doesn't make more good. And we are to be people. We are 146 00:13:52.940 --> 00:13:58.049 to be people, verse Seventeen says, who give thought or consideration or focus 147 00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:05.289 our minds to do what is good or honorable in the presence of all people. 148 00:14:05.289 --> 00:14:09.570 As we live our lives in this world and people are watching US and 149 00:14:09.690 --> 00:14:16.480 paying attention. How do the citizens of the Kingdom of God Act? We 150 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:28.710 are to do good. The second command that God gives here is a little 151 00:14:28.710 --> 00:14:31.870 bit, yeah, I would say even harder, at least a little bit 152 00:14:31.909 --> 00:14:37.190 harder to understand. We are to be living peaceably with all as much as 153 00:14:37.309 --> 00:14:41.980 possible, instead of piling up evil and all of these kinds of things. 154 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:46.820 But then we get we get to verse nineteen. It says, beloved, 155 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:52.809 never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. If we 156 00:14:54.009 --> 00:14:58.009 might describe the first one is no paybacks, we might decide the second one 157 00:14:58.769 --> 00:15:07.009 as no justice. Sometimes we're tempted to pay back evil for evil, and 158 00:15:07.090 --> 00:15:11.720 that sort of obviously bad. But what about when we're attempted to pay back 159 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:16.960 or receive what is just? That's a little bit harder. That feels fair 160 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:22.750 and it makes sense in a way to say that people made in the image 161 00:15:22.789 --> 00:15:31.230 of God should seek justice. Right, God is not evil, so it 162 00:15:31.309 --> 00:15:35.059 makes sense for us to seek good. But God is just. Why is 163 00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:43.940 Paul telling us not to avenge ourselves when we have been wronged? God is 164 00:15:43.220 --> 00:15:48.980 just, and even in the next chapter he's going to specifically state some ways 165 00:15:48.019 --> 00:15:52.769 in which we are to seek justice. He tells us that there that God 166 00:15:52.850 --> 00:16:00.529 has appointed governing authorities in the state that bear the sword for the very purpose 167 00:16:00.690 --> 00:16:04.799 of justice. So this command comes to us a little bit differently. The 168 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:08.679 first one tells us don't repay evil for evil, and we all say, 169 00:16:08.840 --> 00:16:12.200 well, the right of course evil is bad and God is not evil. 170 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:18.750 But what about when he says don't avenge yourselves when somebody has wronged you? 171 00:16:18.830 --> 00:16:26.590 You're not to seek justice, it says, how can we be told not 172 00:16:26.629 --> 00:16:30.429 to pursue it when we know that God himself is just and we know that 173 00:16:30.509 --> 00:16:34.419 they are are means for pursuing justice, as will get two in chapter thirteen. 174 00:16:37.940 --> 00:16:41.220 One Way to answer this question is to make a distinction between justice and 175 00:16:41.299 --> 00:16:47.370 vengeance, and there may be some truth to that, but ultimately God's vengeance 176 00:16:47.529 --> 00:16:52.169 is also good, and it's good because it's just. In other words, 177 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:56.250 we're not just talking about sort of cold hearted justice and mean hearted justice. 178 00:16:57.289 --> 00:17:03.519 God Avenges himself, he avenges his holy ones, he repays, he pours 179 00:17:03.640 --> 00:17:12.920 out fire, he is wrathful when he comes to condemn sin. So a 180 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:21.910 better answer is to remember that justice is good in its appropriate times, and 181 00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:25.349 this is true of a lot of things. This their good and appropriate perhaps 182 00:17:25.430 --> 00:17:30.339 in one situation, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're good and appropriate in 183 00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:34.220 all situations. It's good and for a husband and a wife to be intimate, 184 00:17:34.900 --> 00:17:41.180 but not in a grocery store. It's good to run and exercise, 185 00:17:41.420 --> 00:17:48.130 but not in a funeral home. And while it is good to achieve justice, 186 00:17:48.250 --> 00:17:51.970 to administer it, to seek it in the right ways and in the 187 00:17:52.049 --> 00:17:56.009 right times, that doesn't give us license to all be vigilantees. Might think 188 00:17:56.089 --> 00:18:02.400 of it that way. Justice is a good thing, justice is an appropriate 189 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:07.079 response to sin and to wrongdoing, but that doesn't give us the right to 190 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:11.519 seek it in whatever way we want. Now there as of course, takes 191 00:18:11.559 --> 00:18:19.509 a lot of wisdom. Not every situation is equally is easily decided. But 192 00:18:19.750 --> 00:18:25.390 here we have an important rule, and God gives us some instructions on how 193 00:18:25.430 --> 00:18:29.660 we are to understand this a perspective. Just as before, he gives us 194 00:18:29.700 --> 00:18:33.579 this right action and then he gives us a reason behind it. He says, 195 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:38.299 first of all, for he says, leave it to the wrath of 196 00:18:38.500 --> 00:18:45.009 God. This first point is important because he's not saying forget about justice, 197 00:18:45.329 --> 00:18:48.329 it's not important, God's not just, because that would be to say God's 198 00:18:48.369 --> 00:18:55.170 not good. No, instead, he says leave it to the wrath of 199 00:18:55.289 --> 00:18:59.799 God. This is how we are to pursue justice. We are to leave 200 00:18:59.880 --> 00:19:04.119 it in the hands of the Lord. And pulled grounds this by giving a 201 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:08.839 scriptural argument, from Deuteronomy, from the song of Moses. He says, 202 00:19:10.029 --> 00:19:15.390 for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay how appropriate it 203 00:19:15.589 --> 00:19:18.869 is to remember that this is from the song of Moses. After the Israelites 204 00:19:18.910 --> 00:19:23.579 have come out of Egypt, do you remember why they were in Egypt? 205 00:19:23.579 --> 00:19:30.220 Do you remember how God rescued them? Did the did the did the Israelites 206 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:34.099 escape in the middle of the night, secretly, when no one was watching, 207 00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:37.930 and the Egyptians woke up one morning and said, oh no, how 208 00:19:38.009 --> 00:19:42.009 did this happen? So that's not the story, is it? No, 209 00:19:42.490 --> 00:19:48.650 over and over again God told eat the told Pharaoh, you will obey my 210 00:19:48.890 --> 00:19:52.160 commands or you will suffer. Obey or you will suffer. Obey or you 211 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:56.960 will suffer, and he suffered greatly. Ten plagues fell upon Egypt and even 212 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:00.839 his own household. Eventually, as they crossed through the Red Sea, all 213 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:07.869 of Pharaoh and his chariots were drowned in the waters. Vengeance is mine, 214 00:20:07.869 --> 00:20:15.390 I will repay. The Lord does not forget his chosen ones. We are 215 00:20:15.430 --> 00:20:21.460 reminded of this over and over again in scripture. Even in revelation we have 216 00:20:21.819 --> 00:20:26.940 the martyred saints crying out to God, how long o Lord, and he 217 00:20:26.099 --> 00:20:33.299 promises them that he will repay. This should make every enemy of the Lord, 218 00:20:33.380 --> 00:20:38.410 every doer of evil, shake in their boots to know that God is 219 00:20:38.609 --> 00:20:42.730 on the side of goodness, is on the side of holiness, and promises 220 00:20:44.210 --> 00:20:49.519 constantly and continually, over and over and over again, that he will repay 221 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:56.680 that vengeance is mine. It belongs to him. It's not something that is 222 00:20:56.039 --> 00:21:00.599 even us, a sort of set apart from him or beside him. He 223 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:07.829 owns it and he will bring it to pass. You cannot live your life 224 00:21:08.150 --> 00:21:15.990 and neglect this truth, or your fool to neglect that true justice happens and 225 00:21:17.430 --> 00:21:22.380 always happens, even if not in this world, most certainly in the Great 226 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:26.980 Day of judgment to come, God will bring justice, and he's telling that 227 00:21:27.220 --> 00:21:33.170 to people now who are seeking justice. It's, of course, warning to 228 00:21:33.289 --> 00:21:37.170 those who think they will escape it, but here he means it as a 229 00:21:37.529 --> 00:21:45.769 as a comfort to us. I know I've heard stories, I've experienced things 230 00:21:45.809 --> 00:21:51.839 and I know you have to where justice isn't done people who have done terrible 231 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:56.640 things to you, to your family, to people you love and care for, 232 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:07.829 and nothing has happened. Nothing here is one of the great comforts the 233 00:22:07.990 --> 00:22:15.980 God gives us. God is good and something will happen. Justice always happens. 234 00:22:17.579 --> 00:22:22.099 Vengeance is mine, I will repay. So here he's reminding us, 235 00:22:22.099 --> 00:22:25.819 he's assuring us. You don't have to just sort of let it go or 236 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:30.569 give up, but you give it up to God, you give it to 237 00:22:30.650 --> 00:22:34.769 him and you let him take care of it. You say you don't pay 238 00:22:34.849 --> 00:22:41.730 them back with evil, you don't seek out vengeance or revenge or justice even 239 00:22:41.769 --> 00:22:45.839 in a way, but you leave it to God and his ways in his 240 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.440 times. Now out, of course, is at the very end and, 241 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:52.559 as will consider in chapter thirteen. That might also include the here and now, 242 00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:57.829 as we have a government, as we have a government to pursue these 243 00:22:57.869 --> 00:23:03.069 things, to achieve these goals at the right place and the right time. 244 00:23:04.349 --> 00:23:11.230 But even still, and especially when we are persecuted, Jesus calls us just 245 00:23:11.509 --> 00:23:18.259 hold back, to wait or, to put it even more strongly, to 246 00:23:18.460 --> 00:23:29.930 turn the other cheek. He gives a second reason, or you can mike, 247 00:23:30.009 --> 00:23:33.609 Think of it as the corollary. He says, if your enemy is 248 00:23:33.690 --> 00:23:41.920 hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. 249 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:48.400 When people do wrong to us and people do evil to us, it's 250 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:52.039 of course tempting to pay them back with evil, but perhaps a little more 251 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:55.950 evil, or a little more subtle, I meant to say, but maybe 252 00:23:55.990 --> 00:24:03.470 evil to a little more subtle is the kind of payback that happens in quieter 253 00:24:03.670 --> 00:24:10.220 ways. A person does evil to you and there you see them in their 254 00:24:10.299 --> 00:24:17.660 need and you simply pass by. Doesn't exactly look like payback. You haven't 255 00:24:18.019 --> 00:24:21.380 maybe done anything really wrong. You know, maybe it's their own fault that 256 00:24:21.460 --> 00:24:23.410 they're hungry, or maybe it's their own fault that they're thirsty. Their own 257 00:24:23.450 --> 00:24:27.650 evil ways put them in this mess. You might say, and if somehow 258 00:24:27.730 --> 00:24:33.289 it feels fair, it feels fair to leave them in their misery and feels 259 00:24:33.369 --> 00:24:37.009 fair to leave them in their suffering because, well, after all, look 260 00:24:37.009 --> 00:24:44.240 what they did to me. The Lord says, don't do this. He 261 00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:48.559 says instead, they have a need, especially your great need like this, 262 00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:55.750 fulfill it for and then he gives this a reason, for by doing so, 263 00:24:56.589 --> 00:25:02.349 you will keep burning coals on his head. This is a phrase that 264 00:25:02.430 --> 00:25:11.900 we don't use. Ever, it's about an English idiom that we use often, 265 00:25:11.740 --> 00:25:17.859 and in fact scripture, or commentators on scripture, kind of go back 266 00:25:17.940 --> 00:25:22.690 and forth on what exactly this means. It comes from proverbs, Chapter Twenty 267 00:25:22.769 --> 00:25:26.650 Five, Verse Twenty One, where basically the same thing as said, and 268 00:25:26.769 --> 00:25:30.369 to feed your enemy, to give drink, for by doing so you will 269 00:25:30.450 --> 00:25:36.480 heap burning coals on his head. And then proverbs twenty five includes a promise 270 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:40.960 for reward or a reward for this as well. What does this mean? 271 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:48.759 There's a couple possibilities one to one possibility is that you are in a way, 272 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:53.869 by doing a nice thing to a person, you are kind of furthering 273 00:25:55.029 --> 00:26:00.430 their condemnation. Right. So, with every act of love you are getting 274 00:26:00.509 --> 00:26:07.619 to put this sort of Memento of God's wrath on them. Right and and 275 00:26:07.819 --> 00:26:11.980 in so it and in a way, and in a way that scripture talks 276 00:26:11.980 --> 00:26:17.420 about people storing up wrath for themselves by going against God's word. Every time 277 00:26:17.539 --> 00:26:22.049 you are loving and their mean back they you are putting this coal on them 278 00:26:22.130 --> 00:26:27.289 head, or they are heaping up you are heaping up burning coals or wrath 279 00:26:27.569 --> 00:26:33.839 on them, perhaps now, in the moment, and most certainly at the 280 00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:40.160 Day of judgment to come. This interpretation is, of course, somewhat reasonable, 281 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:45.200 but it's difficult to square for one big reason. The whole motivation of 282 00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:49.029 this passage seems to be one of doing good, not seeking vengeance, and 283 00:26:51.190 --> 00:26:56.470 to have an idea that we're placing a burning coal on someone's head every time 284 00:26:56.470 --> 00:27:00.740 we're doing a loving thing seems to go against the very purpose of what God 285 00:27:00.900 --> 00:27:07.859 is saying here. To leave it to the Lord. Happily, though, 286 00:27:07.859 --> 00:27:11.859 there is another and I think better interpretation of this verse, and that's that 287 00:27:11.980 --> 00:27:18.289 there's an idiom being used here for repentance. And may not seem that way 288 00:27:18.329 --> 00:27:22.009 at first, but we have various examples of this phrase being used in the 289 00:27:22.049 --> 00:27:30.279 ancient Near East there's one story in particular about an Egyptian who, after stealing 290 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:34.119 a magic book from a great or something like that, he has an active 291 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:41.279 repentance for his sin, put burning coals or coals on his head and carried 292 00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:45.549 these in this way, probably in a bowl or something like that, the 293 00:27:45.630 --> 00:27:48.789 idea there being that it wasn't a judgment on him, but it was a 294 00:27:48.829 --> 00:27:53.349 way of him expressing this kind of repentance. It was a sort of an 295 00:27:53.390 --> 00:27:56.990 act, sort of like getting on your knees or something like that, or 296 00:27:57.109 --> 00:28:03.779 tearing your clothes or being in sackcloth and ashes, this burning coals on one's 297 00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:10.940 head as a sign of repentance, of a way of showing that of maybe 298 00:28:11.099 --> 00:28:19.170 affecting affecting humiliation in a positive in a positive way. This is how Augustine 299 00:28:19.210 --> 00:28:25.529 and also jerome interpreted this. The coals of fire referring, referring to the 300 00:28:26.009 --> 00:28:32.319 burning pains of shame. Now, those two ideas of shame and wrath or, 301 00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:36.960 of course, very linked. But the hope here is that there might 302 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:42.109 be repentance. That's the idea here, that by showing love and mercy to 303 00:28:42.269 --> 00:28:48.750 those who are doing wrong to you, you have the opportunity to bring about 304 00:28:48.309 --> 00:28:53.390 repentance in a person, to sort of keep up a shame in them that 305 00:28:53.589 --> 00:29:03.380 affects a reconciliation with them and God and maybe even with you. And then 306 00:29:03.420 --> 00:29:07.380 that brings us to verse Twenty One. Do not be overcome by evil, 307 00:29:07.460 --> 00:29:12.930 but overcome evil with good. Here we have imagined for us this, this 308 00:29:14.690 --> 00:29:19.210 conflict, this a Christian or US as Christians, and conflict with people attacking 309 00:29:19.369 --> 00:29:23.680 and hurting and harming. And instead it says, leave justice to God. 310 00:29:25.799 --> 00:29:33.319 Instead, show them mercy and perhaps good will come of this. There is, 311 00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:37.480 of course, the good of justice itself, but there's also a hope 312 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:45.589 for repentance and reconciliation as those who once sinned and now turn in their shame 313 00:29:45.789 --> 00:29:52.750 and guilt to Christ. This is what we see, for example, in 314 00:29:52.059 --> 00:29:56.740 the Apostle Paul on the Lord meets him on the road of Damascus, on 315 00:29:56.779 --> 00:30:00.700 the roads Damascus, and he says to him, why are you persecuting me? 316 00:30:02.019 --> 00:30:07.450 And he closes his eyes and he brings to him the the realization of 317 00:30:07.529 --> 00:30:12.210 his blindness, of his darkness, of his sin. Paul comes to life 318 00:30:12.569 --> 00:30:18.130 and look what great good he does as he experiences the salvation of God. 319 00:30:19.609 --> 00:30:25.519 He could there be any person who was more close and more connected and more 320 00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:30.720 in love with the people of God. After Paul was called to serve the 321 00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:37.230 Lord in this way, after the Holy Spirit changed him, it was hard 322 00:30:37.430 --> 00:30:42.269 for those early Christians to understand. I think it was probably very hard for 323 00:30:42.349 --> 00:30:48.630 them to obey, when the spirit told them, here this great persecutor your 324 00:30:48.630 --> 00:30:53.779 church, show him some hospitality, take care of his needs, feed him 325 00:30:55.740 --> 00:31:02.819 cloth and watch over him. But they did it and all were very blessed. 326 00:31:06.170 --> 00:31:11.130 If it's difficult to see how this good might be done, I think 327 00:31:11.250 --> 00:31:15.049 beyond the lives of the saints, it's very appropriate for us to look to 328 00:31:15.130 --> 00:31:21.880 Christ himself. It's more than appropriate, it's necessary, because this is the 329 00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:26.079 this is the person and the work and the things that God has done in 330 00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:32.480 which our actions are grounded and which they flow out of. No one has 331 00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:40.029 ever been more unjustly treated, more unfairly punished and attacked and persecuted then our 332 00:31:40.109 --> 00:31:45.549 King Jesus Christ. And yet no one was more readily willing to give up 333 00:31:45.589 --> 00:31:51.059 his life and to provide for the needs of others, even beyond food and 334 00:31:51.180 --> 00:31:56.460 drink in this life, to give the bread of life and the living waters 335 00:31:56.500 --> 00:32:06.289 of eternal life. That's what Jesus gave to you and to me when we 336 00:32:06.970 --> 00:32:10.410 persecuted him, when we did wrong to him, when we paid evil to 337 00:32:10.609 --> 00:32:21.400 him. If we have an opportunity to show this kind of grace and to 338 00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:25.359 do it in the name of Jesus, and especially for Jesus, if we're 339 00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:31.470 experiencing persecution for his namesake, to act in a way that corresponds with his 340 00:32:31.589 --> 00:32:37.549 own actions, to bear forth the fruit that comes from the seed that was 341 00:32:37.670 --> 00:32:46.259 born in our own lives is a great testimony to who Jesus is, to 342 00:32:46.420 --> 00:32:52.900 what he has done. It's an expression of thankfulness, it's an opportunity for 343 00:32:53.059 --> 00:33:02.170 hope and possible salvation of others, and it overcomes evil with good. What 344 00:33:02.250 --> 00:33:17.640 could be greater than that? Let's pray our father in heaven. We freely 345 00:33:17.720 --> 00:33:19.279 confess that