The Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-49)

Luke 6:17-19 (The Setting) 17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

Luke 6:20-23 (Beatitudes) HAPPY 20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are HAPPY

Luke 6:20-23 (Beatitudes) 20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Luke 6:20-23 (Beatitudes) 20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Luke 6:24-26 (WOES) 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Luke 6:27 (THE CENTER)

Luke 6:27 (THE CENTER) 27 “But I say to you who hear, 

Luke 6:27 (THE CENTER) 27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies

Luke 6:27-31 (LOVE ENEMIES) 27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Luke 6:27-31 (LOVE ENEMIES) 27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Tallgrass Church’s Mission: Because God first loved us, we exist to love God, and love our neighbor.

Luke 6:37-49 (LOVE IN ACTION) 37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Luke 6:37-49 (LOVE IN ACTION) 39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 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.

Luke 6:37-49 (LOVE IN ACTION) 43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Luke 6:37-49 (LOVE IN ACTION) 46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Corrie ten Boom was imprisoned along with her two sisters, Betsie and Nollie, her brother Willem, and her father for having hidden Jews in their home during the Second World War. Her father died ten days after their arrest, and Nollie and Willem were released from prison shortly after their arrest. Betsie died much later after she and Corrie had spent some time in a concentration camp. Corrie was finally released because of a clerical error. Two years after the war ended, Corrie had just finished speaking at a meeting in Munich when she saw one of the terrible guards from her concentration camp standing in a line to meet her.

Immediately, her mind flashed back to an image of her sister Betsie walking past this man, stripped of all her clothes and dignity. Now, that same guard was standing in front of Corrie with his hand thrust out. “A fine message, Fräulein!” he said. “How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea.” Corrie had just spoken on the topic of forgiveness. But rather than taking the man’s hand, she fumbled with her pocketbook. The guard informed her that he had been a guard at Ravensbrück and added, “But since that time I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I

did there. But I would like to hear it from your lips as well did there. But I would like to hear it from your lips as well.” Again, his hand came out, “Fräulein, will you forgive me?” Corrie writes, “I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and I could not. Betsie had died in that place. Could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?” As Corrie stood there, she pondered a difficult choice. She knew, in her heart, that there was no question of not forgiving, for she understood that “the message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us.” In fact, she had just spoken of the necessity of forgiveness, of the need to forgive as God has forgiven

us in Christ. Corrie also knew that, after the war, “those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed bitterness remained invalids.” “And still,” says Corrie, “I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart.” Emotionally frozen, Corrie rea- soned that “forgiveness is not an emotion.” Instead, she reminded herself that forgiveness “is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” She silently prayed, “Jesus help me! I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the

feeling…. And so woodenly, mechanically, I stretched my hand to the one stretched out to me.” Just at that time something amazing happened. “The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.” Corrie cried out, “I forgive you, brother! With all my heart!” Corrie then writes about the incident: “For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I have never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.” We wrongly assume that we must feel

something before we can do it something before we can do it. We conclude that loving emotions must always precede loving actions. But psychologists tell us that while it is true that our emotions affect our actions, it is equally true that our actions affect our emotions. “We are not to sit and wait for loving feelings to come for some brother or sister; we are to do some loving action for them and the feelings will follow.” So Christian love is decisive love. And that often means loving when you don’t feel like doing so.

MY ENEMY IS __________

MY ENEMY IS __________ IS WHO I MUST LOVE