CELL NOTES 22/10/07

ICE BREAKER

When did you last think or say, “That’s not fair”?

THEME

Lock ‘em up and throw away the key

Reading ; Mat 5: 38 – 48

SERMON OUTLINE

1) When faced with awful acts, like the recent murder of the teenager in Burngreave, how can we find the Bible passage relevant?

2) We live in a world of pay-back – the desire for revenge when we have been abused, or favour for favour when somebody has been nice to us.

3) The comments from the Kilroy programme on Revenge.

4) Looking at the Bible passage :-

“Eye for an eye” etc was to guide legal judgements in the OT, not to govern our personal relationships. It was there to limit punishment, not encourage retaliation.

5) Jesus refers to various ways in which we may be abused

Direct insult

Loss of possessions

Loss of time and money

6) He was not encouraging His followers to be doormats, but to know and exercise a greater strength than the natural human instinct for revenge

Meet hostility with grace, abuse with blessing, insult with forgiveness.

7) The examples of Martin Luther King, and the woman on Kilroy.

8) The State is there to provide social order and security, and we need to support that. Our personal relations need to work in a different way, where forgiveness rules. E.g. Bishop Dequani-Tafti.

9) Bonhoeffer, “It looked as though evil had triumphed on the cross, but the real victory belonged to Christ......The cross is the only power in the world that proves that suffering can avenge and vanquish evil.”

QUESTIONS OF APPLICATION

1) When did you last feel like getting your own back?

2) When were you last on the receiving end of something similar to the situations referred to in the passage? What happened and how did you respond?

3) What is your initial reaction to v 48? What is the Lord saying to you through this passage as a whole?

4) What sort of behaviour towards you is most likely to make you angry? How may you practically apply the principles raised this week?