Jesus' Revolutionary Ethics

1. 0:00 I will be reading from Matthew, chapter 7, verse 12 through 14, the Golden Rule. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law of the prophets.
2. 0:16 Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy. That leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard.
3. 0:32 That leads to life, and those who find it are few. Thank you. All right.
4. 0:49 Good morning, everyone. How are you? My name is Jeff Sullivan, and I'm a pastor at Granada Presbyterian Church. Just long-time friends of the Drakes, and I'm always happy to be able to come and share this moment with you. I enjoy just how much joy and family atmosphere and connection there is here.
5. 1:11 So I'm glad. I'm so glad I get to be here. And I want to thank you. You allowed me to accomplish one of my life goals last month when I was able to come and preach. So I moved to Miami in 1998, and when I moved here, I said, I'm going to become bilingual, and I'm going to be able to preach in English and Spanish.
6. 1:29 All right. Now, it's 20-something years later, 27 years later, and my Spanish still isn't that great, except at a restaurant. Cuando tengo hambre, puedo hablar español. But after that, once I place the order, I'm out, right?
7. 1:48 But my last sermon, I saw it on YouTube in Spanish, and it was beautiful. I thought it was me talking. I was like, how did I speak in tongues? This is amazing. And so thank you very much. You have now made me bilingual, and I preached my first sermon in Spanish.
8. 2:05 And so thank you for that gift to me. I could check that off my list as done. I feel like a better man. Now, I do have, I guess, how many of you have this scenario happen to you?
9. 2:21 All right. So you're in one of those long lines of traffic, okay? And then there's usually this right turn lane. Maybe it's about to get on an exit, or maybe it has a right turn lane. And someone will come shooting down that lane all the way down until the crisis point, and then jump in in front of you.
10. 2:37 How many of you like seeing that? Yeah, that's me, okay? I'm just letting you know. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be honest. I do it all the time. Because I work from this ethic of, look, I'm not trying to be in my car all day.
11. 2:53 I'm going to work smarter, not harder. And so if I can use this free lane, and then at the end, somebody's not paying attention, you know they're going to leave this three, four car length because they're reading a book, or texting, or FaceTiming. People do crazy stuff while they drive.
12. 3:09 I'm going to just dive right in there and save myself, I don't know, 20 seconds. But it feels good to me. Now, working from that mindset of, I'm going to work smarter, not harder. I'm going to cut time out of this as much as I can.
13. 3:24 And on the flip side, if I'm in that lane, and you come down that right lane, you're not getting in front of me. I'm sorry. My bumper is going to be right next to that next car. You're not getting in.
14. 3:39 I'm like, sorry, you made a bad decision back there somewhere. You're going to end up behind me. I don't care once it's behind me, but you're not going to end up in front of me. I'm going to make sure of that. I don't know what it is about traffic that brings the worst out in me. But I am a very aggressive driver, and I hope you don't meet me on the street somewhere and say, hey, I remember that guy.
15. 4:00 He's a jerk, you know. But I don't know. It brings out the worst. Because I work from this. There's this different ethical mindset when I'm on the road of, I want to get there fast. I want to be faster. I want to get ahead. And it's crazy, because if I was in a coffee line with you, and if you were just a somewhat decent, nice person, I would be like, hey, sure, go right ahead.
16. 4:20 I don't mind. You know, just skip right in. Jump in. It's no big deal. But if it's on the street, I'm just a different person. You see, we have these ethical rules that really guide how we make decisions. And when we choose to do whether it's right or wrong.
17. 4:37 And those ethics change. And in the passage that we just read, Jesus presents a new ethical way of living. A new way where you decide what you do and what you won't do. It says, do to others what you wish they did for you.
18. 4:57 So now it's saying, you're going to go first in modeling and living out the behavior that you wish other people did. He's setting a new ethic. He's setting a new process for how we think about what should we do and what's right and wrong.
19. 5:13 And so for me, that changes it from my mindset of, hey, I'm going to work smarter, not harder. I'm going to get myself first. I'm going to get what I need to get done first. Now, Jesus is challenging me here to work humble, not harder.
20. 5:29 He's changing this dynamic from a self-centered, I need to go first, I need to get what's mine, now to this humility mindset. To work humble, not harder. And so there's a great definition that I've heard for years and years, and maybe you already know it, but I want to repeat it because I think it's the best way to describe the definition of humility.
21. 5:51 Okay? Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it's thinking of yourself less. So a little play on words to make us think about that. Humility is not thinking less of yourself.
22. 6:07 Oftentimes we think humility means that, that all, I'll always just kind of be sad, or I'll always have a negative outlook on myself, or I'll just speak bad of myself. And if you try to compliment me, I'm going to be like, no, no, no, I'm really bad. And we're always just kind of have this negativity around us, where we just don't see the things that God's put in us, the gifts he's given to us.
23. 6:28 It'll always be a downplay. And we think, well, that's humility. But often that's really a false humility. That's just trying to look at yourself in a bad way, or to look at yourself in a negative light. But true humility is that, one, I'm not even going to focus it on myself.
24. 6:44 I'm not going to be the center of this conversation or this room. And so we often walk into a room, and immediately when we walk into a room or a space, we kind of wonder, like, where am I going to fit in? What do they think of me? What do I look like? And because we're really just thinking in our own mindset.
25. 7:01 But if we're thinking of ourself less, then when we walk into that same place, we're really looking at who's here? What do they need? What's going on in their life? How can I be the encouragement in this space?
26. 7:17 How can I serve the people who are here already? How can I turn that conversation to be something that builds them up, and not as just focused on me? We move from just saying, hey, it's me, to what about you? How do we change that mindset?
27. 7:34 And Jesus says, we begin with this idea of humility, is thinking of yourself less. Now, for a couple minutes, I'm going to talk a little bit about ethics. How many of you took an ethics class? Probably in college.
28. 7:49 If you took a business degree, or a psychology degree, anything along that lines, or maybe every general degree, you have ethics class, right? You guys, do you guys do that? Okay, good. So, I'm going to talk about a little bit through this ethics, because it's going to lead us to a place where we understand what Jesus is doing here.
29. 8:08 Because the Sermon on the Mount, it changes the ethics of what a Christian is. And it makes it way harder to be a Christian than what we would make for ourselves.
30. 8:24 Now, an ethic is simply this. Ethic is a rule of how you determine right and wrong. So, one form of ethics is utilitarianism, right? You do whatever is the most good for the most people. And that's how you decide what's right and wrong.
31. 8:41 Whoever gets the most value of it, that's the best way to do it. So, that would be a utilitarian ethic. Now, an egocentric ethic is like this. It says, well, I have my rights, and I can do whatever is within my rights, as long as it doesn't harm someone else.
32. 8:59 In which case, we then need to negotiate which one of us has the right to harm. Right? And so, it's now me-centric. I have the right to do anything I want, as long as it doesn't hurt you. A lot of times, we function that way.
33. 9:14 It's a very general ethic that's prominent in our society. Now, another ethic would be relativism. Relativism says, like, hey, there's not a true right and wrong in anything. Everything has to be weighed out in the situation. Because you can't say lying's always wrong, because there's some times that it might be good to lie.
34. 9:33 You can't say that anything is always right, because sometimes it's not right in the right situation. So, now everything becomes relative to the story, the situation, the people in that position. And so, now, my ethic is relativism, where I choose in each situation what I think is right and wrong.
35. 9:51 All of these are very common ethical foundations that we live in and that we figure out what we're going to do. Now, I'm going to ask you to take a little ethics quiz with me, okay? I've got three scenarios that I want you, you don't have to yell them out because it might be a complex long answer.
36. 10:12 But I want you to try to make a decision on these three things, okay? The first one is this. A friend of yours is breaking a rule. I don't know, maybe they're cheating on something or stealing or, you know. But they ask you to stay loyal and not say a thing.
37. 10:33 Do you report them or do you stay quiet? Think of that. This begins to challenge your ethics, right? Is your ethics, hey, right is right and wrong is wrong. I'm going to tell them.
38. 10:50 I've got to get the truth out. I can't keep this up. Or some of us are saying, hey, you know, family's family. We protect our family. This isn't a big deal. Nobody got killed or anything. I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and I'm going to keep that relationship secure and I'm going to stay quiet.
39. 11:06 You see, you have to make an ethical decision, right? Both of those you can logically kind of come up with a way that you would decide your action. But each of those actions have much different consequences. Let's take this one, maybe. Let's say your wife asks you this expensive new outfit that she just purchased, that she just loves.
40. 11:28 But you think it looks terrible. She says, what do you think? Now, you could tell a lie. Or you could tell the truth of what you think. Now you have an ethical decision, right?
41. 11:44 Oh, man. You could say, hey, I always speak my mind. I want her to know what I think. And in the long run, it's better. That way she knows that this is what I feel. And then she'll choose something else and she'll be happier in the long run. You say, okay, that's an ethical decision. Or you might say, hey, you know what?
42. 12:00 This is something she cared about and she loved. Even if I don't like it, I could just say I do and learn to like it because she likes it. So why cause trouble over something so silly? I'm going to choose the ethical decision of not getting into that, right? Both choices.
43. 12:16 They seem valid. They seem like either one you went, you might be okay. You might be. This isn't marriage advice, okay? This is the ethical quiz. So what would you choose? Now the next one might get a little harder.
44. 12:32 Okay, so a boat is sinking. There's only one lifeboat. And everyone piles into that lifeboat, but it's full. And then there's other people who grab on to the sides of the lifeboat. But if they stay holding on to the sides of the lifeboat, it's going to sink and everyone's going to drown.
45. 12:52 So you as the captain here have to make a decision. Do you force the people holding on to let go? And they will drown. Or do you let the entire boat sink? Put everyone at risk.
46. 13:09 Now, if you're in that leadership position, now your ethics are really being challenged over something that's huge. How do we make this decision? How do I know? Like, do I have the authority to push someone? And what guilt would I have if I was the one who pushed people off?
47. 13:27 And I had to see that and know it was my action. It was my decision that did that. But what if I don't? What if I do nothing and it costs everybody? And now, because I was too afraid to decide or to act, now there's loss to everyone. You're in an ethical dilemma.
48. 13:43 And there's such a difficult choice of how we do that. You see, each of these examples, some might be just funny. Some might have big consequences and some might have huge. But you're making ethical decisions all the time in your family, in your work, in your school, in your relationships.
49. 14:05 You're constantly running in behind, just choosing this, not this, this, not this. Say this, don't say this. And you're making these ethical choices. And they're creating these outcomes. They're guiding these relationships. And in how they end up.
50. 14:21 Some of them are very hard. Now, the reason I bring you kind of on this ethical journey is because I think it's important for us to see that what Jesus is challenging is a way of living. And a way of living is simply your ethical choices.
51. 14:39 How you choose right and wrong of what you would do. So when he says the golden rule. Do first to others what you wish they would do to you. You are now facing choices in your relationships.
52. 14:56 Think about it. If you were to take that rule and then to apply it. Maybe at your work, someone is very hostile or mean. And you want to respond the same way. You want to give back what they're giving to you.
53. 15:13 You want to show the same strength and aggression that they're showing to you. Let them know who's in charge here. But here you might realize that, but what about kindness? Does that become, if I want this atmosphere to change from anger to kindness, I have to be the first kind one here.
54. 15:35 Maybe you're in a relationship that's isolated or contentious because there's things that aren't forgiven and aren't talked about. So what happens? Someone has to be the first to forgive, right? And sometimes that feels like a real injustice and a real sacrifice.
55. 15:58 Well, why would it be me? They're more wrong. And we have all kinds of ethical reasons of why it shouldn't be me to forgive first. But Jesus challenges us. What you wish they would do for you, you do it first.
56. 16:18 So we step out and we forgive. Now, these are hard things. To give advice to you on your life and some of your things. To say that this is the way you should behave. It's hard advice. And so I don't mean to know any of your situations or what exactly it is.
57. 16:38 And so if this is something that you're really struggling with, have a close friend or a pastor or a companion that you talk through these things. Let them guide you into that. Because what Jesus challenges us to do is very self-sacrificing. And it causes loss.
58. 16:54 Now, a great story that anyone who is an army chaplain, you know, your pastor James Drake, he's one. I know he got this training. I'm also an army reserve chaplain as well. And so about a year and a half after he went through training, I go through the same training.
59. 17:14 But in Fort Jackson in South Carolina, all the chaplains go through the same training. And there's this building that's named after the four chaplains. I don't know if Drake has told you this story. But it's what they pattern what chaplaincy is about in the U.S.
60. 17:30 Army. Because in 1942, a ship was sunk. It was called the Dorchester. And the German submarines had hit this ship and it was going down. And on that ship were four chaplains. A rabbi, a Catholic priest, and two Protestant pastors.
61. 17:47 And as the ship was sinking, these four men went around and they would sing and they would pray and they would encourage the men. And they would try to be with them during their last moments. And there was only a certain number of life vests. And so it was certain that some would die.
62. 18:04 And these chaplains took their life vests and they would give them away to another soldier to ensure that their life would go on. And so they lived and embodied this example of what it means to do for others what you wish would be done for you.
63. 18:20 That they lived what humility was. That you would esteem others better than yourself. That it wouldn't be that I look down on myself. That it would be that I lift someone else up. And so they were willing to sacrifice their life in a way that would save others.
64. 18:36 Now they lived that in the ultimate sacrifice. Which I think you and I probably never will come into a situation where you would trade your own life for someone else. That's rare, right? They're beautiful stories to see.
65. 18:52 And they highlight the greatest loss that could possibly be to be willing to give your own life for someone. But maybe what's even harder is to give your own life for other people day after day after day after day.
66. 19:09 You see, for us in our lives, it's not one big decision on one day where you just said, You know what? Today, I'm giving it all up. No, what happens is that it's Monday and then it's Tuesday and then it's Wednesday. And you're having to learn this practice, this difficult practice of the ethics of Jesus to constantly esteem others better than yourself.
67. 19:36 What about my goals? What about my needs? What about how fast I want to get to work? What about the goals that I have? What about, and we're constantly falling back into that. But I need to take care of me first.
68. 19:52 But Jesus is trying to teach us a different way. Now. And this Thursday, I had the opportunity to go to a lunch with John Maxwell.
69. 20:07 John Maxwell is a long, legendary Christian teacher. And I got to see Pastor Kent was there, and Panos was there, and a bunch of other pastors and leaders. And we got to have a lunch with John Maxwell. And he taught a story that I've heard a thousand times, but he said it in such a different way that I was like, man, I want to bring that here because it really embodies what this golden rule is about.
70. 20:33 And it reminds me that when Jesus taught this golden rule, this idea of humility, he didn't teach it just once, over and over and over again. You've heard the story of the Good Samaritan, right? Think of the Good Samaritan.
71. 20:50 Again, Jesus said, this is how you know if you love your neighbor, because you act like this. Now, in the Good Samaritan, there's three characters that exist. First, there was a Jew who was walking down the street, and robbers came and beat him and took everything he had.
72. 21:07 So, the ethics of those thieves was this. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine. If I'm strong enough to take it, I'll take it.
73. 21:22 If I can get it, then it belongs to me. And so, they had this mindset that because we have more people, we can overrun this guy, and we can take anything he has. And whatever they used to justify that, whether they thought he didn't deserve it, whether they thought they deserved it because something happened to them when they were young, whether they thought, well, I have kids to feed, and I need to do that.
74. 21:44 And somehow, they justified in their mind that what is yours is mine. And out of aggression, they robbed him and took everything. Now, I would guess, you're good people. That's probably not something you do very often.
75. 21:59 Maybe occasionally, we have that kind of rage or anger where we act out in such a way that we would take from people, or we would manipulate someone to get our own way in such a way. I mean, it does happen, but I would hope in your life that's rare, right?
76. 22:15 Now, on that same road came what is described as a priest and Levi. These are very religious men. These are the examples of what is right and wrong, the examples of doing what is good. And as they walked, they saw the man beaten and laying on the side of the road, moaning and groaning in pain.
77. 22:33 And Jesus says, they came to their side of the road and walked without helping. Ignored it. They said, what's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours.
78. 22:48 You see, that guy has problems. Those are his problems. But I got problems, too. And I got to keep, I got to take care of myself. I got places to go. I can't stop and do this kind of thing.
79. 23:04 I have limited resources. I can't be giving. What's mine is mine. What's yours is yours. But what's mine is mine. See, I find this ethical value probably much more common for us. I would say it's probably, it's more common for me, and if you're like me, you would say, yeah, I function a lot that way.
80. 23:25 That I need to look out for me. Everybody else has got problems. But so do I. And I got to take care of me first. Then, with what's left over, I'll take care of someone else.
81. 23:40 You know, that's taught to us very often through our psychology and through our help, is that you've got to take care of you first. And I understand them. I understand that ethic. It makes a lot of sense. You know, those guys, as they walked on the other side, hey, you know what?
82. 23:59 He wasn't their responsibility. He didn't tell that guy to go get robbed. They didn't say you need to be here. They don't need to own what happened. But Jesus is highlighting that, yeah, but they don't love their neighbor either.
83. 24:16 And then he says there was a Samaritan who came. And he used the Samaritan because a Samaritan would have been less appealing to his audience. Because they would have had a racial bias to him. They would have not liked him. As a character.
84. 24:31 But it says he went. And he saw the man in the ditch. He bandaged him. He picked him up. He took him to the inn. And then he says, anything he needs, put it on my tab. So he said, what's mine is yours.
85. 24:47 He looked at his time, his resources. He looked at himself. And he said, I need to give it. I'm sure he had plans that day. It couldn't have been just a day to waste. It couldn't have been, I don't care.
86. 25:02 I got all this money. I don't know what to do with. I have time. I'm bored just walking around the streets. No, if someone's that successful and someone is that provided for, then they've got things to do. But he said, because I love my neighbor, I need to stop what's going on with me and do for him what I would want done for me.
87. 25:25 See, that's the ethic that Jesus teaches. And it's extreme, isn't it? That's not natural. Like, it wouldn't even be fair for me to tell you in everything you do, hey, give up you, put you second. You're like, you would say, you don't understand my situation.
88. 25:42 I was like, I don't. I don't. So I'm not giving you advice. I'm just asking you to look at this scripture and let the Holy Spirit guide you on how that would be. Because Jesus does this over and over. Especially, you guys have been doing a series on the Sermon on the Mount, right? The Sermon on the Mount, he says, look, I know murder's bad, but what about your anger?
89. 26:02 I know adultery's wrong, but what about lust? I know when someone wrongs you, you want revenge. But have you tried submission? He says, if someone takes something from you, offer them more?
90. 26:21 None of that makes ethical sense to us, does it? All of that feels like an injustice to me and my way. And so when Jesus says now, what you wish was done for you, you go first.
91. 26:38 You do it for them. That feels like a burden even greater than the law. And so Jesus is setting out a whole new ethic here.
92. 26:54 The reason I know it's so much harder is because of the two verses following. It says, enter by the narrow gate for the gate. The gate is wide and easy that leads to destruction. So your natural human inclination, your basic society ethics, that's wide and easy, but it leads to destruction.
93. 27:17 He says, but the way of Jesus, that's so narrow. It's difficult and it's narrow, but it is what leads to true life. Jesus gave us this example of the way of life.
94. 27:39 He preached it in this sermon. Then he lived it in his life. And so when we read the life of Jesus, we read him giving when people are taking. We read him forgiving when people are wronging him.
95. 27:57 And we see him sacrificing when it wasn't his wrong in the first place. The example of Jesus is that he is the way. So John 14, it says this.
96. 28:12 He says, the way you know. And Thomas says, how do we know? We don't know where you're going. How do we know the way? And Jesus says, I am the way. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
97. 28:30 No one comes to the Father except through me. So when we read how Jesus teaches us these very difficult challenges of how to live with others. To go first in forgiving. To be the first to give.
98. 28:47 To put yourself behind the needs of others. God's not challenging you to do that as a law. As something that you have to do in your own power. You see, the Jesus ethic is that love is greater than the law.
99. 29:05 And greater love has known in this that someone would lay down his life for his friends. And Jesus demonstrated that love for us. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The love and forgiveness that God has shown you and shown me.
100. 29:25 Is that he goes first. And he has already done that for you. No matter what your life history may be. No matter what experiences you've had. Good or bad. We all needed Christ to go first.
101. 29:41 And he did that. He did that by giving his life on the cross. So that you and I would have complete forgiveness of our sins. I love how the Bible tells us. Who could condemn you? No one. Jesus has already taken it.
102. 29:59 I love how the Bible tells us. I love how the Bible tells us. I love how the Bible tells us. So we read this, you need to, this ethic of Jesus saying, go farther. That's not to condemn you that you haven't done enough, that you can't do enough, that you need to sacrifice yourself more and more. It's not a condemnation. It's Jesus teaching us that as you surrender to me, guess what's going to happen?
103. 30:20 The more you surrender those areas of your life to Jesus, that love of Christ is going to flow into them. That Holy Spirit is going to guide you to know, when do I go first? When do I take that loss or that hurt without retaliating?
104. 30:39 How do I know God's going to guide me and protect me in this? That's your walk with him. That's your walk with him because Jesus is the way and the ethic of Jesus is love is greater than the law.
105. 30:54 Let's pray. God, thank you for the clarity of your word. If you hadn't said it so beautifully and so well, we could never really believe it. It seems unfair to be called to be a Christian, to put others first, to lay down our lives.
106. 31:16 But God, you have shown us what that means. Because you love, you gave that whoever believes has life. God, that's us.
107. 31:32 We ask you to take our life. We ask you to teach us these hard lessons. Lord, free us from our own desires. Help us to reflect you in all we do. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.

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