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October 15, 2026 | Bryan Howard opens a new series on the Sermon on the Mount with Jesus’ command to love our enemies in Matthew 5:43–48. He explains how radical love sets believers apart, why forgiveness is costly, and how the Holy Spirit empowers us to extend the grace God first showed us. The message also distinguishes forgiveness from restoring a relationship with someone who has caused harm.
Bellevue Baptist Church College Ministry
Well, guys, welcome to The View. I think there's a lot of new faces tonight. There's a lot of people I haven't gotten to meet personally yet. And so if I haven't gotten to meet you, I'd love to meet you after the service. Come find me or I'll come find you. And I want to know your name. I want to know what you're studying or where you're working. And I know it's fall break for a couple of schools. And so I know a few of our home students are home and, or you're just visiting. And I'm really glad you're here. Welcome to The View. This is my sixth View service with you guys, which is so fun. It's flying by, by the way. And I've come to the point where I'm starting to like crave Thursday nights. I really am. Like I need the singing and the preaching of God's word just as much as anyone else in this room. So these Thursday nights have been really life-giving to me. And we are starting a brand new series tonight on the Sermon on the Mount, which I'm very excited for. Sermon on the Mount is just one of the most powerful messages ever recorded in scripture. It is so rich and there's so much for us to pull out of it. And so for some of you in the room, you have heard the verses in Sermon on the Mount a thousand times before. And so let me just say, for the kid who grew up in church, the danger for you tonight would be to hear the words of Christ, to hear the words of the most powerful sermon ever recorded and think that there's nothing new to learn. And I'll just encourage you, if that's you in this room, if you would just approach tonight with fresh ears and a moldable heart and a curious mind, as we read these verses and we hear the words of Christ, that we would be thinking and asking questions and taking notes so that when you get into small groups later tonight, you'll have some good things to talk about. You'll have questions and you don't just have to agree with everything, you should test and approve what is good and pleasing to the Lord. And so write down good questions that you have so you have some stuff to talk about. I saw a video of Paul David Tripp. Anyone know Paul David Tripp? He's a great pastor and author and speaker in all the things. He's just a phenomenal human being. I've learned a lot from him. But he was talking about his journey in Sermon on the Mount. And in Sermon on the Mount, when he was younger, he used to read it as just a really long list of rules. Anyone else? Every time I've gone through the Sermon on the Mount, especially in my high school years and college years, it's three chapters, by the way. We're not gonna preach all three chapters tonight. But it's three chapters and it's a lot to take in. And he would talk about how when he read it, at first he really just saw a long list of rules to follow for Jesus to be happy with him. But as he matured and he grew in his faith and he studied this word, he saw more and more that it is no longer a list of rules, but he saw how kind God was to see us struggling in life on this side of heaven and to give us a better way. That's what the Sermon on the Mount is. It is a better way of life. It is life abundantly. That God sees how frustrating and how confusing life can be, that we're told from every direction that sin is going to satisfy us, it's gonna solve our problems, that loving the people we love or hating the people who hate us or getting revenge on the people who hurt us, that's gonna bring us peace. And Christ is here in this sermon saying that just couldn't be farther from the truth. I have a better way, a way of life and a way of life abundantly. And that's what he talks about here in this sermon. So we don't have enough weeks to cover everything in the Sermon on the Mount, but we've got five weeks and we're gonna do our best. Tonight we are starting kind of in the middle, at the end of chapter five. And so I always wanna give you guys a little bit of background of what Christ has said right before this passage. So the Sermon on the Mount overall, and Jesus is really trying to reveal what his disciples should look like. Not just the 12 disciples, but all his disciples. Anyone who wants to follow him, including you and me, this sermon is about what we should look like. These are the types of people who will inherit the kingdom of God. So in the first 12 verses, Jesus talks about, you can see it right there, Matthew chapter five, he talks about the beatitudes. And the beatitudes is this reversal of us defining what blessing is. It defines that Jesus is saying that blessing is no longer dependent on this external status that we have. It doesn't depend on our circumstances, the ebbs and flows of life, but it instead depends on this internal transformation that has happened in the Christian. And then a few verses later, he begins these six, you have heard that it was said statements. And our passage tonight is the sixth of those six statements. And I would say the hardest of them, which is why I chose it, because I think it's important to talk about. And so just as Jesus began this sermon, he is clarifying that those who are saved, they have to look different, not just on the outside, but also on the inside. That they are different, not just in mind, but also in heart, the things they long for, the things they do, not just outwardly, but inwardly. And then he starts to say these extreme and pretty striking statements, like anger in the heart is equally as damaged as the act of murder. It's pretty extreme. That lust in the heart is equally as damaging as adultery. That religious speech cannot outweigh internal integrity. That you don't need oaths, you don't need to swear on anyone's name. That your life should be of such a standard that you are always truthful, that people know that your yes is yes. That receiving mercy does not exclude us from giving mercy, that we shouldn't be concerned with retaliation or revenge, because we have been forgiven of our debts, which leads us to our passage tonight. Matthew chapter five at the very end, starting in verse 43. So if you would read it with me. Jesus says this, "'You have heard that it was said, "'you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. "'But I say to you, love your enemies "'and pray for those who persecute you, "'so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. "'For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good. "'He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. "'For if you love those who love you, "'what reward do you have? "'Do not even the tax collectors do the same? "'And if you greet only your brothers, "'what more are you doing than others? "'Do not even the Gentiles do the same? "'You, therefore, must be perfect "'as your heavenly father is perfect.'" I want you to notice the language Jesus uses as he introduces this statement. He says, you have heard that it was said. He doesn't say it was said. He's not quoting scripture here. There's a reason he said you have heard that it was said, because the Jewish people had taken a command from the Old Testament, and then they had assumed something and thought that assumption was truth. And so they're thinking of a command in the Old Testament, Leviticus 19, 18, it's up on the screen. And it'll say this, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So they're remembering that truth. But notice in that verse, there's nowhere on that verse that says anything about hating your enemy. It's not there. So somewhere between when Leviticus was written and when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, somewhere between the 15-ish hundred years that happened, the Jewish people veered off their path and they began to believe a lie, that they added something to this word, to the truth. They started to believe the culture's assumption that loving their neighbor meant that they could also hate their enemy. And that's nowhere to be found in scripture. And I highlight that point for us because I think really we fall into the same temptation. When I think about this, I think of how could so many people go so far off the path for so long? Like how could people miss the mark by that much? And it's because they added something to scripture that we too are just far too quick to believe what everyone else around us is believing. And I think we are far too slow to test and approve what is good and pleasing to the Lord. To bring truth back to scripture and test it against God's word. Guys, this is the only source of authority for us, the Bible. And what they did, the reason they veered off so far was because they took the truth in the Bible and then they twisted it to fit their wants, their longings, to give them really permission to sin. How dangerous is that? Like how reckless is that? And don't you know like that's how the devil works? He takes the truth of God and then he twists it just a little bit. He adds just a little bit to it where it's familiar enough to trust, but it's false. Friends, there's only one authority of truth in our lives and it is this book. Anything that is contrary to this is not God's word. And that is why Jesus in verse 44 says, But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. I mean, the Jewish people had fallen into the temptation to blend into the culture around them. And Jesus says that they did not look like sons of their father in heaven, verse 45. And they looked like the tax collectors and the Gentiles in verse 46 and 47 because they were falsely using scripture to justify hating the people they didn't like. And Jesus isn't having it. He says that my children will look like me, not the world.
which leads us to the first truth of our passage tonight, that radical love sets you apart. Radical love sets you apart. I want you to see what Christ is calling us to here. He's calling us to a love that is radically different from our culture, a love that is so against our nature that when we love like this, we stand out like a lamp in a dark room, like a light on a hill. And we have to understand the difference here between conditional love and unconditional love. You know conditional love. We all in this room know conditional love. Conditional love is based on what others can do for you, what you can get from people. And Jesus says that even the tax collectors and the Gentiles, even the corrupt and the lost people can have conditional love. It's nothing impressive. Anyone can do it. But here, Jesus calls us to something greater, something that will set us apart, something called unconditional love. And unconditional love is something that everything in our human nature tells us not to do. It is against our nature. The human nature, it is transactional. I'll do something for you if you do something for me. Human nature is self-centered. What can I get out of this? How can this benefit me? And here, Jesus shatters our natural instincts and he commands us to do the impossible, to love those who can give you nothing in return. He actually goes a step farther than that. And he says, love those who have hurt you, who have excluded you, who have slandered you. Love your enemies. This is unconditional love. This is radical love. And to understand that radical love, it is not possible out of human power. You and I do not have the capacity to have unconditional love. This is a supernatural and divine gift from God. And only through the power of God, through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, can this command be accomplished. The world can't do that. The world cannot give unconditional love. So when you radically love someone, when you selflessly serve someone who can give you nothing in return, that is an identifying marker that you belong to Jesus. That the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Jesus says in John 13, 35, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have what? Love. If you have a love for one another. Friends, radical love, it sets you apart. Radical love is a fruit of sanctification. It is evidence of salvation. It is the jersey of team Jesus. It shows that you belong to him. So radical love, it sets you apart. And secondly, radical love is costly. Radical love is costly. Man, to be set apart from something means that you had to leave something behind. And the thing we leave behind as Christians is ourselves. To love our enemies, we must die to ourselves. To put to death our selfishness, our transactional relationships, to put to death our longing for comfort, our exclusivity, all for the glory of God. And how you answer this next question is actually gonna determine how costly the radical love is. We all have to answer the question, who are your enemies? Who are the people in your life that it cost you something to love? I actually want everyone just to think of somebody, right now. Think of a name and picture their face and put it in your mind. Don't look at them if they're sitting next to you, okay? But think of a name. Think of a face that falls into the category of an enemy. Think of someone who's made fun of you, who has excluded you, who has mocked you, who has ignored you, who has hurt you, who has manipulated you. Does everyone have someone in your mind? I do. I'm not gonna say their name. I think the hard part for me is when I'm reading this passage, I realize that the person we're picturing in our head, if we are gonna do what Christ has called us to do here in Matthew 5, it is not possible until you and I forgive the person we're thinking of. The person in our mind that has hurt us so bad. And for some of us, that's just like unfathomable. It's based on the offense towards us. And some of us, our enemies, they are formed from pretty shallow offenses and they made fun of you, they didn't invite you to the game night, they kind of ignore you. And man, those things hurt, but those are cuts that are gonna heal without a scar. Like we're gonna get over it. We're gonna tough it out. But some of us have enemies that have caused us such deep cuts to our soul. And those cuts have left a mark on our life. They've defined who we are. These are people who have emotionally and physically and sexually abused you. These are people who have abused their power or abused their position. These are people who make you feel worthless, belittled, as if you are not an image bearer of God. And for those in the room who have an enemy like that, Jesus's command seems a little more undoable, doesn't it? It's hard. How on earth am I supposed to love someone like that? God, don't you know what they did to me? Friends, radical love is costly. It's costly. And to love our enemies, we must forgive our enemies. And I wanna be really sensitive here. I wanna be very clear with what I'm about to say. There is a big difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. That's very important to understand. There's a big difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, that Jesus does not demand relational restoration. Do you hear me? He doesn't demand relational restoration, but he does command forgiveness. He's not asking you to rekindle an old relationship with someone who has abused you in the past. He's not asking you to find some weekly dinner with this person who has hurt you this badly, but he is telling you to forgive them. Restoration, it's good and it's godly and it should be pursued, but it is not promised on this side of heaven. But one day, Christ will restore all things and he will make all the wrong relationships right again. But that doesn't mean all of our relationships on this side of heaven will be healed. Forgiveness, on the other hand, it's not an option. Now, I've heard it said like this, that harboring unforgiveness, it's like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It's only destructive to you. And God cares far too much for every single one of you in this room to allow you to hurt yourself by holding onto bitterness. There was this horrible story I heard in 2019, it was right around this time, actually I think in November was the court case, that there was this female police officer, she was my age, she's 31, and she was coming home from a late night shift. She got back to her apartment and she thought she was entering her apartment, but she was actually on the wrong floor. And so she went into this apartment who she thought it was hers, but it was actually the apartment of a young man. And she got in there and saw him and they both panicked and she pulled her weapon and she shot him thinking he was an intruder and he died. He was 26 years old, his name was Botham, and he had a little brother who was 18 at the time named Brandit. And obviously this is the most traumatic experience that Brandit, the little brother, had ever had. What a horrific accident to happen. And Brandit was talking to the news and he was talking about how he was trying to make peace with what had happened. And that the longer he held onto the hatred towards Amber, who was the police officer, the more it just poisoned his heart. So much so that the only way he felt like he could right the wrong that occurred was to take revenge on her and murder the woman who murdered his brother. And I want you to watch this video of this court case. This is the day that Amber was sentenced to prison. And I want you to remember, they gave the little brother, Brandit, a time to speak to Amber, the killer of her brother. And I want you to remember as you watch this video that a few days before this video was filmed, he was planning to take this woman's life. Let's watch the video. I can speak for myself. I forgive you. And I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. And I don't think anyone could say it. Again, I'm speaking for myself, not even bad for my family. But I love you just like anyone else. And I'm not gonna say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but.
I see, I personally want the best for you and I wasn't gonna ever say this in front of my family or anyone but I don't even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you because I know that's what that's exactly what both of them would want you to do and the best would be give your life to Christ. I'm not gonna say anything else. I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that both of them would want you to do. Again I love you as a person. I don't wish anything bad on you. I don't know if this is possible but can I give her a hug please? Please? Yes I remember watching that video years ago. I don't know if it was in 2019 when this happened but I remember that video went viral. Some of y'all in this room might have seen it but I didn't know this story behind it until I looked it up and and when I watched it I just could not understand like what on earth changed. Like what radical, unfathomable, illogical, supernatural thing changed in Brandon's heart to go from planning to murder Amber a few days ago to then pouring out grace upon grace upon grace to the woman who murdered his brother. What happened was that he forgave the unforgivable through the power of the Holy Spirit. Brandon forgave the unforgivable only through the power of the Holy Spirit. You know his mom wrote on Facebook the next day and put this post she said I'm so proud of my son Brandon. Your load is lighter. Walk with God always. Forgiveness is for the forgiver and it doesn't matter what the forgiven does with it. I mean his mom's words are so true. I love how she puts it that because Brandon forgave Amber his load is lighter. His heart is lighter. That forgiveness is for the forgiver and Jesus actually talks about this truth in verse 46. He says if you love those who love you what reward do you have? In other words that when you do love those who have hurt you, when you pray for those who have persecuted, when you forgive the unforgivable there is a reward to receive. And what is that reward? Well if we go back to verse 44 Jesus says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be what? Sons of your Father who is in heaven. In the word sons there it is a completely neutral gender. It can be translated as sons and daughters. It could also be translated as children. Children of the Father. So in other words the reward that you're receiving for loving the unlovable is Christ likeness. It's Christ likeness. It is the image of Christ being formed in you that you as a child of God is starting to resemble your Father. And Jesus says it again in verse 48. He says you therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. And when I used to read this part of Sermon on the Mount I was so defeated. I didn't understand the word perfect there and I thought he was saying I had to be sinless and I tried and I tried and I tried and I could not do it. But when you look it up and this is one of the verses that is misinterpreted in the Bible over and over and over. The word Jesus uses here for perfect it actually means complete. It means mature. It is actually used to describe something that has reached its intended purpose. That it is functioning as it was designed to function. So in other words Jesus is not calling you to moral perfection. He is calling you to spiritual maturity. To find wholeness in Christ. To do what you have been designed to do which is be an image bearer of God. What a gift. Like what a reward that we get to partake in the character of God. That we get to have Christ formed in us. What other reasons do we need? Love your enemy. It is life giving to them. It is life giving to you and it is pleasing to your Father. Now if you're still having a difficult time you got that person that we were picturing earlier on your head and you just you can't you can't get there. You need some more reasons of why you should forgive them. Let me give you one final piece of encouragement. It's found in verse 45. Jesus says this, for he the Father makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. If you remember God's love is unconditional. That he blesses the just and the unjust. The good and the evil and let us not forget where we came from. We were all once unjust. We were all once evil and if God in all of his righteousness and all of his holiness was gracious enough to love us as enemies of him, who do we think we are to not extend that grace to our enemies? Ephesians 4.32 says be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Why? As Christ or as God in Christ forgave you. Guys the secret to forgiving the unforgivable is remembering that that's what Christ did for you. That leads us to our third truth and the final truth of our passage that we love our enemies because God loved us as enemies. We love our enemies because God loved us as enemies. And Paul says it in Romans 5.10, for while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more now we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. Guys God did not wait for you to get your act together to start loving you. Knowing all of your sin and all of your rebellion and all of your brokenness, Jesus Christ loved you so much that he initiated the relationship, that he took your place on the cross and he gave the ultimate gift, his life for you, an enemy of God. 1st John 4.19 says for because we love because he first loved us. And you might be wrestling with that thought that person who just hurt you so badly and you just can't wrap your head around like they just don't deserve my forgiveness. They don't deserve it and you'd be exactly right. But guess what? Neither did you. Neither did I. And just as Christ gave to us what we did not deserve, we now give to others what they do not deserve. We love because he first loved us. We forgive because we have been forgiven. Some of us tonight we just need to sit back and say thank you to God for loving us as enemies of him, for initiating the relationship, for taking a step towards us and taking our spot on the cross. And for other people in the room maybe you're thinking through it and you're realizing that you maybe haven't taken that next step. Maybe you would fall into the category of an enemy of God. And being an enemy of God does not mean that God hates you. It just means that you're rebelling against him whether intentionally or unintentionally. But praise God that God does not treat his enemies like we do. And if you are an enemy of God, that if you are lost in worshiping anything and everything but Jesus, take heart because God loves his enemies. He loved you so much he sent his son to take your place. And tonight he's calling you home. He's calling you home. If that's you tonight, will you come find me at some point? There is no better or more important conversation you could have than talking about how Jesus Christ pursued you as an enemy and has offered you new life and life abundantly. I mean just a minute the band's gonna come up and continue leading us in worship. But before they do, I just want to introduce one new aspect of our worship services. So right here in the back there's that black box in this little table. This is our prayer box. And this is gonna be here for every single time we meet ever. And I want you guys to know that that box is for you. Either before the service, after the service, during worship, at any point you feel led that you need prayer
You could, there's note cards over there. If you could just drop your prayer request in that box. And for some of you in the room, you have some pretty heavy stuff you're dealing with and you don't really wanna put it down on a card. Well, you can keep it completely anonymous. You do not have to put your name down on there. But if you do put your name down on there, I promise you, we will pray for you by name. And the reason we're doing this is really twofold. Number one, we just wanna pray for you. We believe in the power of prayer. We know God listens to us. And we wanna be able to pray for every single one of you in this room. But number two, knowing what you're struggling with, knowing what you're addicted to, knowing what you're going through, knowing how life is treating you, knowing how to celebrate what God's doing in your life, that just helps us minister to you better. It helps me preach to you better. And so if you would, tonight and for the weeks to come, when you have something that God lays on your heart, good or bad, would you drop it in that box so we can come alongside you and pray for you? In just a moment, we're gonna take 120 seconds. For those who it's your first time, that's two minutes, that we're just gonna sit down. We've been talking so much about God. We wanna give you a time to talk to God. And you're gonna ask yourself two questions. Lord, what are you telling me? And what am I gonna do about it? Let's pray.