Luke, directed and inspired by the Spirit of God, has been teaching us that after the Fall of Man, and the Ruination of the Human Race, after many centuries, the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah, the Son of David and the Son of God, the unique God-Man, entered the world to rescue dying humanity! His coming was accompanied by great angelic announcements, and by prophetic utterances made by Jewish holy men and women. A great prophet, John the Immerser, was sent by God to prepare the Jewish people for His coming, and to announce His arrival. At His baptism, God the Father declared God’s approval of His Son. The Spirit of God anointed and empowered Messiah in a very special way.

Empowered by the Spirit of God, the young Rabbi from Nazareth went into the wilderness, and for 40 days faced the deadly leader of the fallen angels, and resisted every temptation. And, for the rest of His life, Messiah pass every test, and resisted every temptation. In this regard, He succeeded where every other has failed.

Empowered by the Spirit of God, Yeshua was doing great miracles – healing many of the Jewish people of all kinds of physical illnesses, and freeing us from demonic control.

Empowered by the Spirit of God, Yeshua was powerfully teaching the people the Word of God line no one else ever had.

Yeshua’s powerful healing and teaching ministry foreshadowed His ultimate healing and teaching of the entire world, and His recreation of humanity.

The young Rabbi from Nazareth was making a powerful impact on the entire nation of Israel, and even beyond Israel’s borders. Many were coming to Him from everywhere. He had more and more disciples and followers. From His many disciples, He chose His key leaders.

But not everyone loved and approved of Rabbi Yeshua. Most of the leaders rejected Him. They did not accept His claims to be the Messiah and the Son of God. They would not accept His corrections of their errors in their understanding of the Torah. Their opposition was intensifying against Him.

We need to understand that with the coming of the Son of God, something radically new happened to the world! Immanuel made full and final salvation possible for all those who know Him and trust Him. He is in the process of creating a new community of men and women, the New Israel of Messianic Jews, and Gentiles from all of the nations, who know Him and will live forever ever with Him!

Yeshua’s disciples need to be prepared for these new realities. This new humanity needs to function differently from any other group of people that came before. Messiah’s followers need new values, new goals and new priorities. Yeshua’s powerful teaching will equip them for these new realities.

Next Luke gives us some of Rabbi Yeshua’s powerful, anointed, God-inspired teaching for His community. The main themes of Yeshua’s teaching: the need to embrace godly values and reject a corrupted world with corrupted values; love for others as opposed to selfishness and living for self; living for Heaven and eternal life, not living for material things on a doomed Earth.

Last week we considered that the poor, the hungry, the sad are blessed, better off, more advantaged than the rich, the well-fed and the fun-seekers because the world is corrupt, failing, perishing, dying, far from God, far from the real meaning of life, empty, and those who remain part of it are corrupt, failing, perishing, dying, far from God, far from the real meaning of life, and will die along with the world. Human beings need to be in the world, but must not remain part of the world – willing participants in a corrupt and dying system with its corrupt and deadening values.

The poor, the hungry, the sad are more advantaged than the rich, the well-fed and the fun-seekers because they tend to be less satisfied and less comfortable in this corrupt world. Because they are less at home in the world, they are less attached to the world and its values, and are more open to seek another world – God’s world, the better world, the lasting world. They are more willing to hear about the true riches – the treasures that await the rejectors of this world – the Sons and Daughters of God in the New Jerusalem.

The poor, the hungry, the sad may be more receptive to the Good News about God’s kingdom, where they will find real and lasting satisfaction and all their needs met and gain unending happiness and eternal laughter!

People are are blessed, better off and more advantaged if they are hated and insulted and ostracized because they believe in and are identified with the Son of Man and everything He represents – God, truth, righteousness, rejection of the world. So, if the world hates you, and makes fun of you for the right reasons, you are blessed! It means that you are no longer part of this dying world. You will not share its destiny of destruction.

Wow, this is very good news because it means that we don’t need to be rich, well-feed, have lots of fun to have a genuinely meaningful and successful life. We can be poor, hungry, sad and ostracized. We can do that! That’s within our reach! That’s great!

The first part of this great sermon taught us that Yeshua’s values, ethics, goals and priorities, the things He considers important, and the things He wants us to embrace are diametrically opposed to the values, ethics and goals of the world, and the things the world thinks is important.

This next part teaches us the need to love others as opposed to being selfish and living for self; being generous and forgiving; living for Heaven and eternal life, not living for material things on a doomed planet.

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

By nature we are not like this and we do not do this. We do not love our enemies. We do not do good to those who hate us. We do not bless those who curse us. If we pray for those who mistreat us, our prayers are prayers that God would punish and hurt them.

We are fallen creatures. Our nature has been corrupted. It is no longer good and loving like God’s nature. God is good. God is love. He is generous and kind and giving and helping others so that they will be elevated and raised up. Human nature is no longer good. Instead our nature is more like the demonic – disobedient to God, cruel, selfish, sinful, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

We do not love our enemies. We hate our enemies and want to see them punished, even killed. We do not want to do good to those who hate us. We want to have bad things happen to them. We do not want to bless those who curse us. We want to curse them and see them harmed. We do not want to pray that good things will come to those who mistreat us. We want to see them punished, not blessed.

Rabbi Yeshua, Supreme Teacher that He is, gave some examples to help us understand this hard-to-understand and hard-to-implement teaching; to help us understand what loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us, praying for those who mistreat us, looks like:

Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Be very patient and forgiving with people. Don’t take vengeance on others. Be very generous with your resources.

Now, Rabbi Yeshua summarizes in a few words what He has been teaching His followers: Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. How do we want others to treat us?

When we are in need, to help us.

To be very understanding of us.

To forgive us quickly and fully when we make a mistake.

To be tolerant, merciful, gracious and patient with us.

To be kind to us.

Don’t love and do good only for the lovable and good! Love and do good things to those who are unlovely and bad – like God does with us! If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

Don’t be generous and lend to only those who have good credit. Be generous with everybody! After all, money and riches are not that important – people are, and helping them find God and salvation and spiritual rebirth and transformation and eternal life. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.

Don’t be selfish and cruel and small and vindictive. Be big and generous and loving and merciful like God Himself! But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; you will be like the great Creator God. You will be imitating His good nature, as good sons imitate a good father; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. “Do not judge” does not mean that we are to suspend our determinations that something is good or bad, truthful or in error. It does not mean that all teachers and teachings are equally valid and beneficial.  It does not mean that we are not allowed to tell others that they are in error. It does not mean that we can’t tell a person that if he does not turn to God and Messiah, he will go to Hell.

It means that life is full of hurts and offenses. People will hurt you. Human beings will offend you and sin against you. You may have a legitimate right to make sure that person is arrested and tried and judged and punished for their offense, their sin, their crime against you. “Do not judge, condemn, and instead pardon” means consider not pressing charges against them – even if you have the right to, in the hope that through your mercy they will find redemption.

What goes around comes around. What you sow, you will reap. If you pardon others for their crimes against you, and are generous to others with your resources, the good and generous Creator who providentially controls everything, will make sure you experience the same thing, and even more – if not in this life, then certainly on the Day of Judgment! Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return. You want more things? Be more generous! You want atonement, mercy and forgiveness? You take the initiative and be very forgiving with others.

This world is chaotic, confused and confusing. People are far from God, from truth, from salvation. Darkness covers the Earth, and deep darkness the peoples. Even the Chosen People are often confused, and stumbling in the darkness. So, make sure that you get the Right Teacher, a God-ordained, God-empowered teacher! It is so very very important and beneficial if you do, and so terribly destructive if you don’t!

And He also spoke a parable to them: A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? There are many religions and philosophies; there are many teachers; there are many spiritual guides in this confused and chaotic world. Make sure you get a religious teacher whose spiritual eyes are really open, so that he clearly sees through the darkness and sees the light of God and understands the Word of God and is able to tell you the way of salvation. That is so important!

Rabbi Yeshua is the Supreme Teacher, and He sends His community human beings who are reliable teachers, like the Apostles and others who have come after them. Make sure you find one!

A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher. “The disciple of a rabbi dedicates himself to his master’s teaching and way of life. Thus he cannot be expected to be different from, or better than, his master” (Walter Liefeld). Choose Rabbi Yeshua as your teacher! Stay within the teachings and boundaries that the Greatest Teacher Of All has taught you!

If you want to teach others, examine your own life first, and make sure that your life lines up with what is right. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

All of us are sinners. All of us have been corrupted by the Fall. All of us have areas of weakness in which we fall short. It is not always easy to see our own blind spots. It’s generally much easier to see the areas of weakness in others than see them in ourselves.

And, it is part of our fallen human nature to excuse ourselves and our weaknesses, and magnify the weaknesses of others, and criticize them while tolerating our own shortcomings. Focus on your own problems and be patient with the problem areas that others are having. Choose a teacher who is mature and whose life is consistent with the truth.

When determining if someone is a good teacher, and worth listening to, pay attention not only to the purity of his teaching, but to the quality of his life. Is his life producing good results? For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

If a person can’t stay within moral and monetary and sexual boundaries, he probably won’t be able to stay within theological boundaries. Things go with things. Look for consistency in what a person says and does – especially a teacher. They are held to higher standards.

And, examine your own life. Are you consistent in word and deed? Do your actions match your claims and both line up with the truth and with what God teaches us is right? If so, good. If not, it is time to become consistent by turning from your sins, and your bad goals and priorities, and the things that are unproductive and will not last.

Make sure your teacher’s life and your life, your words and deeds and his words and deeds, are consistent with the Supreme Teacher, the Lord Yeshua. Why do you call Me, “Lord, Lord” and do not do what I say? It is easy to claim that you believe in God, that Yeshua is your Messiah, your Lord and Savior, that you are saved and born-again and headed for Heaven. You had better prove those claims with obedience to the Person and teachings of the Lord Yeshua, or one day, when it is too late, you may discover that you have completely blown it. You will have missed it and you will forfeit eternal life!

You are wise and will be blessed and live forever if you do believe in and are loyal to Supreme Rabbi Lord Yeshua and His supremely wise and beneficial and true teachings. Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

You are foolish and disobedience and will suffer loss of eternal life if you aren’t obedient to the Person and teachings of the Lord. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

It is not easy to live this very generous, very loving way, very kind and patient and merciful way, but it is possible! It is not easy to live according to the truth, but it too is possible! His grace for these things will be sufficient for us! To live this way, we need to be convinced that God is real, that Yeshua is the Messiah, risen from the dead, and the only Savior and the Supreme Teacher; that Heaven is a reality. We need to have a sure hope of living forever. We need an inner transformation that comes from the indwelling of the Spirit of Messiah living in us and transforming us from within. May the Three-In-One God make these things very real to each one of us! If you are not sure of these things, make an appointment to meet and talk with me, and we will work on these things together until they become realities in your life!