WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.700 Amen. 00:00:01.700 --> 00:00:10.080 So, I invite you tonight to go on a thought experiment with me. 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:15.060 Let's imagine that there is, this is a weird way to start a sermon, but let's imagine there's 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:16.719 no God. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:23.760 Let's imagine there's no intelligent design, there's no beautiful mind behind all of reality. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:28.080 Now, if that's the case, then humans can't be made in the image of God because there's 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:31.199 no God to image. 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:36.200 Instead then humans would have had to have evolved, merely evolved by chance from some 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:41.200 clump of cells with me so far. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:45.320 It's not that far fetched for many, many people. 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:54.759 Now, in this thought experiment, if we believe that, let me ask, how do human beings have 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:58.280 value and dignity? 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:02.839 Where does their value and dignity come from? 00:01:02.839 --> 00:01:10.359 Well, at bottom, we would just be another kind of beast, right? 00:01:10.359 --> 00:01:18.280 We would just be another more highly evolved animal with more capabilities for rationality, 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.680 etc. 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:30.000 In that worldview, society inevitably must, to be logically consistent, degrade into the 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:41.640 claim that human value and dignity is based on really just two things, capacity and function. 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:44.840 Where would that leave us? 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:50.640 If human value is based on capacity and function, what do we do with humans that have low capacity? 00:01:50.640 --> 00:02:01.040 Humans without certain mental capabilities, physical capabilities, humans who are inconvenient 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:06.159 to the rest of us, they have no rights because they have no value anymore. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:11.840 They have no inherent value, no inherent dignity, only the strong, the capable, the 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:16.080 useful, those people would have rights. 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:25.280 But the unborn, the mentally disabled, the learning disadvantaged, those with dementia, 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:27.080 etc. 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:31.860 What would happen to their rights, their values? 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:38.840 At rock bottom, I'm not trying to be reductionistic, but that would be a consistent end to the 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:42.040 beginning of that premise, right? 00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:48.479 G.K. Chesterton said about this idea, he said, as a politician, the secular person will 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:54.039 cry out that all war is a waste of life, and then as a philosopher admit that all life 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.039 is a waste of time. 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:59.799 The secular person goes first to a political meeting where he complains the natives are 00:02:59.799 --> 00:03:02.399 being treated as if they were beasts. 00:03:02.399 --> 00:03:06.079 Then he goes to a scientific meeting where he proves that all human beings are actually 00:03:06.079 --> 00:03:09.799 beasts. 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:19.400 The secular worldview gives us no basis for justice, no basis for human rights. 00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:29.439 But let's be fair, right now in this world, if you look into the secular society, you 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:33.439 will see a lot of those thoughts, but you'll find out that a lot of the younger generations 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:41.319 especially have this deep-rooted passion for justice and human rights, don't they? 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:43.960 They're marked by compassion. 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.359 It's actually quite beautiful. 00:03:47.359 --> 00:03:52.000 But there's a sense of confusion in the air. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:58.800 There's not a consistency with the way they work out their worldview. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:03:59.800 Take for instance, J.K. 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:01.800 Rowling, right? 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:06.480 She's praised and loved one minute, and the next minute she's just thrown under the bus, 00:04:06.480 --> 00:04:10.400 because she said a man should be a man and a woman should be a woman, and so she's called 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:14.439 transphobic and she's canceled. 00:04:14.439 --> 00:04:18.319 There's a sense of confusion in the air. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:21.759 Society tells us that we should... 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.840 Society says abortion is healthcare. 00:04:24.840 --> 00:04:31.759 And then how do the other side of their mouth advocates proudly for the rights of the overlooked 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:33.360 in society? 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:36.159 Do you see the inconsistencies? 00:04:36.159 --> 00:04:39.639 I mean, which will it be? 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:43.599 You can't have it both ways. 00:04:43.599 --> 00:04:45.199 Doesn't it make you want a better way? 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:50.759 Doesn't it make you want something that makes sense of it all, a truth that brings this 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:58.599 together, that gives those impulses that we have for justice, for generosity, for compassion, 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:02.920 that grounds them in the truth that we're created. 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:08.360 Now, for the last few weeks, we've been looking at this doctrine, this teaching on the image 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:15.879 of God found in Genesis 1 and then again where we read it in Genesis 9. 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:16.879 The image of God. 00:05:16.879 --> 00:05:20.560 So the image of God and justice is what we're talking about tonight. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:24.879 Martin Luther King, Jr. summed up the implications of this teaching nicely. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:29.519 He said, there are no gradations in the image of God. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:36.120 Every person from a treble white to a base black is significant on God's keyboard, precisely 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:42.339 because every man is made in the image of God. 00:05:42.339 --> 00:05:46.439 So what I want to show you tonight is how the truth that humans were made in God's image 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:51.519 radically shaped justice and human rights for God's people in the Old Testament. 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:58.359 I want to show you that the Imago dei, the image of God teaching raised the bar on justice. 00:05:58.359 --> 00:06:02.719 As an example, let me talk about the ox that gores people. 00:06:02.719 --> 00:06:04.359 This is a weird Old Testament text. 00:06:04.359 --> 00:06:06.000 Maybe you've read this. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.959 So the Old Testament, in one portion of the Old Testament says, if you've got this ox 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:16.359 that gores somebody, right, it accidentally kills somebody, here's what to do in that 00:06:16.359 --> 00:06:20.159 scenario gives this law code for how to handle that. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:23.760 Now there's another ancient law code that we've discovered years back called the Code 00:06:23.760 --> 00:06:26.800 of Hammurabi, which you've probably heard about. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:32.640 And the Code of Hammurabi has the same example and gives its law code for that as well. 00:06:32.640 --> 00:06:40.520 So the Code of Hammurabi says, if an ox accidentally gores a person, let's just say, sorry, it's 00:06:40.520 --> 00:06:42.800 no consequence. 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:46.020 The Old Testament, it says you kill the ox, right? 00:06:46.020 --> 00:06:47.240 Man is made in the image of God. 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:51.800 So like Genesis 9 said, there will be a reckoning for the lifeblood of man. 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:53.879 So Hammurabi, the ox is free. 00:06:53.879 --> 00:06:56.400 Old Testament, the ox dies. 00:06:56.400 --> 00:06:59.600 But what if that ox is in the habit of goering people? 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:03.079 What if this is its 11th time? 00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:08.519 The Code of Hammurabi says, we'll find them, you know, 50 quid or something, right? 00:07:08.519 --> 00:07:10.120 It's a modest fine. 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:15.920 The Old Testament says the ox and the owner must die. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:16.920 That's serious, right? 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:19.840 It might sound harsh, but do you see what has happened? 00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:30.439 God has raised the bar on justice because the image of God raises the bar on human value. 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:36.800 So I want to show us this evening how the gospel transforms us into people who practice 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:43.400 the image of God by pursuing justice because being made in the image of God is something 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:47.519 we are and it's something we do. 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:49.560 So we're going to focus on both of those aspects tonight. 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:50.679 To do that, three points. 00:07:50.679 --> 00:07:57.919 The shape of biblical justice, the surprising mission of Jesus and the power of God at work. 00:07:57.919 --> 00:08:00.279 So number one, the shape of biblical justice. 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:03.879 Now there are two basic kinds of justice in the Old Testament at least. 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:05.959 There's the retributive justice, right? 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:09.839 If this happens, how do you kind of get revenge almost? 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:11.479 It's not revenge, but you know what I mean, right? 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:15.400 Like the goring of the ox would be an example. 00:08:15.400 --> 00:08:21.240 Then there's restorative justice and restorative justice is what the bulk of the Old Testament 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:23.560 talks about when it talks about justice. 00:08:23.560 --> 00:08:26.160 And so that's what we're going to focus on tonight. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:31.000 And we can sum up restorative justice, I think with just three little words. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.840 Lift the lowly. 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:36.039 Lift the lowly. 00:08:36.039 --> 00:08:41.120 Now when God executes this restorative justice, he humbles the self-exalted. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:44.240 So people who raise themselves up, he lowers them. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:48.240 But the lowly and oppressed, he lifts up. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.840 And then God invites us to seek restorative justice. 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:57.840 He continually tells us to be lifters of the lowly, to be a voice for the voiceless defenders 00:08:57.840 --> 00:08:58.840 of the weak. 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:04.879 So let's look at Proverbs 31, 8, 9 again, and that's where we're going to work out of 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:07.480 for the next little while. 00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:12.220 Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 00:09:12.220 --> 00:09:14.000 Open your mouth, judge righteously. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:18.000 Defend the rights of the poor and needy. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.920 Now, this portion of Proverbs was written by King Lemuel. 00:09:22.920 --> 00:09:27.320 I don't really know very much about him other than that his mom taught him these Proverbs. 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:29.720 That's how the beginning of Proverbs 31 starts. 00:09:29.720 --> 00:09:35.659 So if you know a mother in the United States today's Mother's Day, that's my Mother's Day 00:09:35.659 --> 00:09:38.279 nod for the U.S. 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:42.079 And King Lemuel makes it clear that what he's saying here is about justice. 00:09:42.079 --> 00:09:45.120 Do you see the words in verse 9, judge righteously? 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:46.480 In other words, open your mouth. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:50.319 That is to say, judge righteously. 00:09:50.319 --> 00:09:54.799 When he's talking about being a voice for the voiceless, for defending the rights of 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:59.480 the poor and needy, he says, what's at stake here is justice. 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:03.600 This is what biblical justice is. 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:08.639 So let's look at verse 8, the first verse on the screen there, those first two parallel 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:09.639 lines. 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:12.600 Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:18.279 Now a more literal reading of the Hebrew might say, for the rights of the sons of the past 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:20.440 over. 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:25.040 The sons of the past over. 00:10:25.040 --> 00:10:26.920 That's true, isn't it? 00:10:26.920 --> 00:10:31.600 The past over, the overlooked, the destitute, they have no voice. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:37.759 I was in a seminar recently on poverty for church workers and ministers. 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:42.440 And in that seminar, the person leading the seminar asked all of us participants, he said, 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:45.600 how would you define poverty? 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:50.639 And there were lots of good answers, like not having enough resources to meet the demands 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:53.960 that you face and so on. 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:57.240 But then it was almost a trick question, because then he said, we actually asked people who 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:01.639 are in poverty how they define poverty, and do you know what they said? 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:04.480 They said, we have no voice. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:09.720 We are unrepresented in the world. 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:13.039 No representation in the public square. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:16.360 No ability to stand up and defend themselves. 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.840 That's what it means to be poor. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:25.480 Biblical justice says the overlooked and the destitute are precious. 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:27.560 They're valuable citizens. 00:11:27.560 --> 00:11:31.039 They're valuable because they're made in the image of God. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:36.200 And they don't have a voice, so you be their voice. 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:42.960 They are not represented in the public square, so you stand up for them in the public square. 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:46.399 Look at verse nine. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:49.320 Open your mouth. 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:50.879 Judge righteously. 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:54.159 Defend the rights of the poor and needy. 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:57.120 Defend the rights of the poor and needy. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:02.799 That was a foreign idea in the time of the Old Testament. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:07.360 All these other ancient law codes, the way that the other cultures around Israel treated 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:12.399 their poor and needy, it was, if you were a wealthy person, if you were a landowner, 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:14.879 if you were a freeman, you had rights. 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:16.559 You had tons of rights. 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:21.720 If you were poor, nothing. 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:32.120 Do you see human value for them was based on capacity and function, just like in our 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:34.800 thought experiment. 00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:40.840 But the Old Testament, God, in his word, he gives laws to his people, and in his law, 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:45.960 he says, actually, the poor and needy have the same rights as the wealthy. 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.639 That was radical. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:55.960 We have no category for how otherworldly and countercultural that would have been in the 00:12:55.960 --> 00:12:58.120 time of the Old Testament. 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:03.439 God even built into Israel's laws some radical kind of social justice projects to defend 00:13:03.439 --> 00:13:05.199 the rights of the poor and needy. 00:13:05.199 --> 00:13:08.399 So for instance, you guys are familiar with the Gleaners' Law, right? 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:13.439 If you have a field and you pass through it and kind of glean your harvest, God says, 00:13:13.439 --> 00:13:15.759 don't go through it twice to pick up all the scraps. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:16.759 Leave it. 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:21.039 You're not the poor in your community who could really use those, right? 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:23.319 So the Gleaners' Rights. 00:13:23.319 --> 00:13:25.000 Another one would be the Year of Jubilee. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:32.000 Every 50 years, all the Israelites who had gone into slavery because of debt are freed 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.919 with no conditions. 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:38.639 And everything they've ever lost, all their ancestral land is returned to them. 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:39.819 All debts are wiped. 00:13:39.819 --> 00:13:45.200 Can you imagine every 50 years having all of your student loans and credit card debt just 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:47.280 wiped clean? 00:13:47.280 --> 00:13:49.200 Unbelievable. 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:54.920 That existed to teach us something about the nature of the kingdom of God, but to lift 00:13:54.920 --> 00:14:02.280 the lowly, to create a land where oppression was against the grain, not going with the 00:14:02.280 --> 00:14:04.340 grain. 00:14:04.340 --> 00:14:10.600 So God is teaching us through the proverb of King Lemuel's mom that biblical justice 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:20.120 is giving the poor and voiceless their due as image-bearers of God by speaking for them, 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:23.240 defending their rights. 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:28.360 If this seems new to you, if you associate the word justice in the Old Testament more 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:36.120 with wrath, anger, and judgment like punishment, there is that side of it. 00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:37.879 But this is the overwhelming majority. 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:41.919 Let me give you just a few examples that have this same flavor. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:50.200 Isaiah 1, God says, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:55.879 bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. 00:14:55.879 --> 00:15:00.320 Micah 6, He has told you, oh man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:08.080 but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:14.680 Jeremiah 22, thus says the Lord, do justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand 00:15:14.680 --> 00:15:20.040 of the oppressor, him who has been robbed, and do no wrong or violence to the resident 00:15:20.040 --> 00:15:27.920 alien, the fatherless and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:30.519 It's everywhere in the Old Testament. 00:15:30.519 --> 00:15:33.240 It's marvelous because God made us in His image. 00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:34.599 So we all have value. 00:15:34.599 --> 00:15:36.240 We all have dignity. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:42.199 And He wants us all to practice being in His image by lifting the lowly, giving voice 00:15:42.199 --> 00:15:47.199 to the voiceless, freeing the oppressed. 00:15:47.199 --> 00:15:52.839 So we're all, in Martin Luther King Jr.'s words, significant notes on God's keyboard. 00:15:52.839 --> 00:15:56.559 And God wants to play a beautiful melody in this world through the way that we treat 00:15:56.559 --> 00:15:59.119 each other. 00:15:59.119 --> 00:16:04.359 But the Old Testament is a story of how God gave His people the sheet music and they played 00:16:04.359 --> 00:16:09.639 the wrong tune over and over again. 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:11.159 God gave them the law. 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:13.039 It was a wonderful law. 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:18.239 It raised the bar so high on how people are to treat each other. 00:16:18.239 --> 00:16:19.319 Amazing. 00:16:19.319 --> 00:16:22.579 It showed something of the character and goodness of God. 00:16:22.580 --> 00:16:30.120 And they just disregarded it time and again. 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:34.639 Israel and Judah failed to do justice. 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:39.240 And so, of course, most of these passages about justice are actually located in the 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:44.040 prophets, in the books of the prophets, the part of the Old Testament where God's prophets 00:16:44.040 --> 00:16:49.160 are sent to confront Israel and Judah, to confront God's people with God's word and 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:53.199 say, you're not worshiping God. 00:16:53.199 --> 00:16:55.519 You're not. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:17:01.159 They did not move in the direction of beautifully imaging God by being the voice of the voiceless. 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:03.559 Instead they looked like all the other nations. 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:09.599 All the law codes that were based on capacity and function. 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.139 They were oppressors rather than liberators. 00:17:12.139 --> 00:17:17.359 They were the overlookers instead of the defenders of the overlooked. 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.799 The self-exalting rather than the lifters of the lowly. 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:25.439 And isn't that just like us humans? 00:17:25.439 --> 00:17:30.919 Israel's story isn't recorded for us to point and say, ah, they were so bad at this, but 00:17:30.919 --> 00:17:33.519 we've got our stuff together. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:34.519 It's a mirror. 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:38.199 We're supposed to see our own failures in their failures. 00:17:38.199 --> 00:17:43.559 Now usually when God spoke to his people and confronted them about justice, he said something 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:44.559 like this. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:49.960 The guys are way off track, but listen, I don't want your sacrifices. 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:55.240 I just want you to do justice. 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:58.000 Do you see what Israel was doing? 00:17:58.000 --> 00:17:59.799 It's what we all tend to do. 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:05.159 We replace justice with religiosity. 00:18:05.159 --> 00:18:08.919 We think, you're right God, I have not done a good job of doing justice. 00:18:08.919 --> 00:18:10.240 I've not loved my neighbor well. 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:18.039 I've not been doing mercy in the world around me, but I'll go to church more often and I'll 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:20.079 have more quiet times. 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:25.960 I'll pray more fervently. 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:32.079 In Isaiah chapter one, God actually says that when we try to replace doing justice with 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:39.480 sacrifice and worship and religiosity, well, here's what he says starting in verse 14, 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:42.200 your new moons and your appointed feasts, this is God speaking. 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:46.640 He says, your new moons, your appointed feasts, my soul hates. 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:49.400 They have become a burden to me. 00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:52.559 I am weary of bearing them. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:57.160 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. 00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:59.839 That's terrifying. 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:03.759 Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:10.119 Your hands are full of blood. 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:21.079 When we replace doing what God has told us to do with trying to do the religious song 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:27.079 and dance, God detests it. 00:19:27.079 --> 00:19:30.319 I mean, don't you see why? 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:39.359 This is serious indictment with serious consequences, but that leads us to point two, the surprising 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:40.720 mission of Jesus. 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:46.759 So Israel had this terrible track record of doing justice, but there was one moment in 00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:54.240 history, one pivot point, one little just minute where the pursuit of justice and human 00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:59.159 rights just exploded onto the scene and it never stopped. 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:04.320 And that moment was, it all started one day when Jesus was in the synagogue as he was 00:20:04.320 --> 00:20:08.600 prone to do, and someone handed him the scroll and asked him to read. 00:20:08.600 --> 00:20:15.040 So he unrolled the scroll to the book of Isaiah and he read this, the spirit of the Lord is 00:20:15.040 --> 00:20:21.640 upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:28.000 He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:33.559 to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 00:20:33.559 --> 00:20:43.200 And then he just sits down like a mic drop from Jesus because he's saying, that's me. 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:48.000 And that day is today, that year of the Lord's favor is this moment where the kingdom of God 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:51.880 breaks in to the world. 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:54.759 It's the year of Jubilee. 00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:58.319 And that's how Jesus understood his own mission. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:03.200 If you were to ask him, you know, 2000 years ago, hey, Jesus of Nazareth, what's the reason 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:04.759 why you're here? 00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:08.079 He would have said that. 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:13.799 To bring good news to the poor. 00:21:13.799 --> 00:21:17.879 The poor get good news, the captives get set free, the blind get their sight back, the 00:21:17.879 --> 00:21:22.240 oppressed are liberated, and it's the year of Jubilee. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:24.640 Now let's notice something about this though. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:31.040 When Jesus is quoting this from Isaiah about himself, that passage does not treat us like 00:21:31.040 --> 00:21:32.040 rebels. 00:21:32.040 --> 00:21:41.160 Jesus doesn't center his mission on the fact that we've rebelled against his rule. 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:46.800 He doesn't treat us as rebels, he treats us as the poor and the needy and the oppressed. 00:21:46.800 --> 00:21:51.240 And isn't that kind? 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:57.839 He looks at us and he sees broken mirrors reflecting a warped picture of God back to 00:21:57.839 --> 00:21:59.640 the broken world. 00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:03.680 And his mission is to renovate us. 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:10.240 He looks at us and sees slaves in debt, bent double under heavy burdens. 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:17.319 And he says, Matthew 11, 28, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will 00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:21.639 give you rest. 00:22:21.639 --> 00:22:30.559 Jesus's life and mission was the penultimate expression of justice, true justice. 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:36.519 Because the only rightfully exalted person in the whole universe humbled himself to 00:22:36.519 --> 00:22:39.480 lift the lowly and undeserving. 00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:41.879 That's what God calls justice. 00:22:41.879 --> 00:22:47.200 That's Jesus dying for our sins, paying for our debts. 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:51.600 We are the recipients of God's justice. 00:22:51.600 --> 00:22:56.920 We'll never begin to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our God in this world 00:22:56.920 --> 00:23:03.120 until we get that we've received God's justice. 00:23:03.120 --> 00:23:07.799 And the gospel is, you know, when people, especially in the United States, we talk about 00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:11.840 kind of the social justice idea, we talk about redistribution of wealth, right? 00:23:11.840 --> 00:23:13.920 This is not a political statement I'm about to make. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:21.480 The gospel is the ultimate example of redistribution of wealth, because the one who has everything, 00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:27.840 the richest person in the world, in the universe, became poor and made you an inheritor of his 00:23:27.840 --> 00:23:30.360 kingdom. 00:23:30.360 --> 00:23:32.400 How's that for a redistribution? 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:37.840 And he bore our sins so that we could stand in his righteousness. 00:23:37.840 --> 00:23:38.840 And that's the gospel. 00:23:38.839 --> 00:23:46.000 And that's what Paul calls, Paul says the gospel is the power of God, power of God, 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:49.879 which leads us to the final point, because I said I wanted to talk about how the gospel 00:23:49.879 --> 00:23:54.599 transforms us into being able to practice the image of God. 00:23:54.599 --> 00:23:59.980 And for that transformation, we need power. 00:23:59.980 --> 00:24:07.079 It was the gospel at work in the early church that changed everything for justice and human 00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:08.679 rights. 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:14.920 If the doctrine of the image of God is the sheet music to God's song of justice, then 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:20.440 the gospel is the moment when the divine maestro sits down at the keyboard to play. 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:23.360 And he plays the right tune. 00:24:23.360 --> 00:24:25.400 So let's think about another image. 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:30.680 Imagine a lamp, like just a floor lamp, and it's not plugged in. 00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:33.160 That lamp is the doctrine of the image of God. 00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:34.600 The image of God is like a lamp. 00:24:34.600 --> 00:24:38.320 The gospel is plugging that lamp into the wall. 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:42.559 It's the thing that makes it be able to do what it was made to do. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:44.319 Maybe that image, where the lamp. 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:45.480 You get my point, right? 00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:52.599 The only way we can shine and practice glorifying God by imaging him in this world is if we 00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:58.559 are plugged into that source of power, that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:04.460 So the gospel is the power of God surging through the people of God by the spirit of 00:25:04.460 --> 00:25:07.399 God for the glory of God. 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:12.200 That's what this is about. 00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:17.680 Let's take a brief tour then through history, post-resurrection of Jesus to see what I'm 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:18.680 talking about. 00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:23.280 So in the time of Jesus, in the Roman Empire, here's what things were like. 00:25:23.280 --> 00:25:25.480 It was dismal. 00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:31.840 The husbands and wives had a miserable relationship. 00:25:31.840 --> 00:25:35.759 Husbands were allowed to sleep with whomever they wanted, and wives had to remain faithful 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:42.720 to their husbands because women had very little value in society. 00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:48.000 Because men were more valued than women, it was incredibly common, disgustingly common, 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.799 that if you were pregnant and you had a baby and it was a girl that you would abandon this 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:57.519 baby girl to die in the elements. 00:25:57.519 --> 00:25:59.440 Brutal abortions were commonplace. 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:01.319 Sex trafficking was rampant. 00:26:01.319 --> 00:26:06.559 If you were a widow or an orphan and had no family to care for you, you were just destined 00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:09.399 to die quickly. 00:26:09.399 --> 00:26:14.119 And if you were poor, you were likely to end up in slavery just to survive. 00:26:14.119 --> 00:26:20.960 Slavery for the rest of your life, no jubilee to get out of that one. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:24.240 But here's what the gospel did to that culture. 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:26.039 The gospel came, and let's think about women. 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:32.319 The gospel gave unbelievable value to women, unbelievable value. 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:36.079 So Jesus shows this in all four of the gospels. 00:26:36.079 --> 00:26:39.519 It's women who get to be the first witnesses of his resurrection. 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:41.359 I was just thinking about this today. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:47.279 In the Gospel of John chapter 20, there's a brief moment where the church on earth is 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:48.279 Mary Magdalene. 00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:50.319 Do you ever think of that? 00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:57.079 The whole church, the whole church who has encountered the risen Christ is one woman. 00:26:57.079 --> 00:27:02.919 And she was given the great privilege by Jesus to go and evangelize the apostles. 00:27:02.919 --> 00:27:14.200 That is incredibly, no Roman untransformed by the gospel of Jesus would ever write that. 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:19.240 The early church vehemently opposed abortion, and not just in principle they did something 00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:20.240 about it. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:24.559 They were known, churches all over the Roman Empire were known for going to places that 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:29.359 babies tend to be exposed and rescuing them. 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:33.120 They adopted orphans. 00:27:33.120 --> 00:27:36.640 One of the noblest charges of the apostles to the early church, we see this in James, 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:37.640 right? 00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:41.759 He says, true religion is this, care for the widows and the orphans. 00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:45.960 No other religion was saying that. 00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:49.559 The church took upon itself the role of feeding and caring for the poor. 00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:51.279 There was no welfare. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:55.240 There was no government aid at all. 00:27:55.240 --> 00:27:56.919 It was only the church's job. 00:27:56.919 --> 00:28:01.399 You can see that in Acts chapter 6, they talk about the distribution. 00:28:01.399 --> 00:28:06.799 Because as the church community began to grow in Jerusalem, the poor and the needy realized, 00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:09.359 here's one place that we can go. 00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:14.799 And because of what they believe, they want to help us. 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:16.119 This is unbelievable. 00:28:16.119 --> 00:28:19.759 The church was the only source of caring for the poor and needy. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:24.559 And government assistance for the poor was only institutionalized when Emperor Constantine 00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:29.000 of Rome became a Christian. 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:35.719 The first hospitals that cared for any and all sick were based on Christian principles 00:28:35.719 --> 00:28:40.279 because humans are made in the image of God and all have value, dignity and a right to 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:42.759 life. 00:28:42.759 --> 00:28:50.119 Universities based on Christian principles because image-bearers of God should have the 00:28:50.119 --> 00:28:53.879 privilege and opportunity to learn, to be educated. 00:28:53.879 --> 00:28:58.799 The British slave trade was abolished because William Wilberforce believed in the doctrine 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:03.640 of the image of God and was transformed by the gospel to do something about it that all 00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:05.640 humans had dignity and value. 00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:10.319 And the American civil rights movement was absolutely founded on and driven by this 00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:14.639 doctrine and this gospel. 00:29:14.639 --> 00:29:18.519 That's just a taster. 00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:26.039 For centuries, these precious words from the prophet Amos has been the church's prayer. 00:29:26.039 --> 00:29:37.480 Amos 524, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:43.839 I hope you see that this beautiful melody, this song of justice, can only be played in 00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:47.360 this world by the power of God. 00:29:47.360 --> 00:29:53.360 So Jesus, the perfect image of God, the one who is and does the image of God perfectly, 00:29:53.360 --> 00:29:59.360 invites us to become made more and more in his image as we practice the image of God 00:29:59.360 --> 00:30:05.400 by the power of God, seeking justice for those around us. 00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:09.720 Where can you lift the lowly in your life? 00:30:09.720 --> 00:30:15.400 Who do you know who's unrepresented, who doesn't have a voice? 00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:25.120 Now, there's kind of two things I want to say just in brief and closing. 00:30:25.120 --> 00:30:31.120 There are a lot of movements of justice in the world around us today. 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:37.159 Everybody is calling for justice all over the place, loudly. 00:30:37.159 --> 00:30:38.719 And they really are movements. 00:30:38.719 --> 00:30:46.819 But here's what I want to say to the church is you need not join the movements to still 00:30:46.819 --> 00:30:56.479 be seeking biblical justice, but you must not dismiss them because that impulse is from 00:30:56.479 --> 00:30:58.319 God. 00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:02.240 And it doesn't mean it's consistent and logical and it doesn't mean it's carried out perfectly 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:07.039 or right and it doesn't mean you need to jump on board with their method of achieving justice, 00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:08.839 but we can't be dismissive. 00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:12.439 We can't roll our eyes. 00:31:12.439 --> 00:31:15.439 Justice is God's idea. 00:31:15.439 --> 00:31:18.079 And it's at the very heart of the gospel. 00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:21.639 We are the lowly who have been lifted by Christ. 00:31:21.639 --> 00:31:26.079 Now, the last thing I want to say is this. 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:31.359 Justice is not just sending us out on a mission of justice while he kind of sits in the back 00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:32.359 directing. 00:31:32.359 --> 00:31:34.960 Jesus himself is on a mission of justice. 00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:40.720 He is actively ruling and reigning his universe right now from the throne and everything is 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:42.199 going his way. 00:31:42.199 --> 00:31:46.439 So he is inviting us not to go out and do his work, but to go out and join him in the 00:31:46.439 --> 00:31:55.039 work he's already doing, which when facing the uphill kind of battle in front of us, 00:31:55.039 --> 00:32:00.399 how difficult it can seem to pursue justice in this broken world, that's a comfort that 00:32:00.399 --> 00:32:01.399 we need. 00:32:01.399 --> 00:32:05.879 In the Great Commission, Jesus begins by saying, all authority in heaven and earth has been 00:32:05.879 --> 00:32:12.619 given to me and ends by saying, behold, I will be with you always. 00:32:12.619 --> 00:32:17.039 We need the presence of God to do his work and his way. 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:22.079 So he's already doing the work and justice has begun to roll down like water. 00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:28.240 One day it will flow like a mighty river into eternity. 00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:32.759 All wrongs will be righted, no more oppression, no more injustice. 00:32:32.759 --> 00:32:39.039 And every one of us, those of us who have hurt people and been hurt by people, those 00:32:39.039 --> 00:32:45.879 of us who have been the oppressor in some way or who have been pushed down and silenced 00:32:45.879 --> 00:32:47.720 all of our lives. 00:32:47.720 --> 00:32:54.519 Every one of us will look at the risen Jesus with the holes from the nails that held him 00:32:54.519 --> 00:33:01.680 to the cross in his hand, and we will be looking at the face of justice and we will say, I 00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:04.559 am satisfied. 00:33:04.559 --> 00:33:06.799 Justice has been done. 00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:12.319 May God help us to live like that's true. 00:33:12.319 --> 00:33:20.200 Let me pray for us. 00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:27.399 Lord Jesus, we praise you. 00:33:27.399 --> 00:33:37.480 We love you for what you've done for us when we just did nothing to deserve it. 00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:47.839 The distance you had to come from eternal Son of God enjoying the love and unity and 00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:54.559 fellowship within the Godhead for all eternity down into human flesh to suffer. 00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:02.839 And not just to suffer physically, but to bear the weight of the world's sins on that 00:34:02.839 --> 00:34:12.960 cross bearing the wrath of God for us, it staggers our minds, but not enough. 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:22.519 Lord, would you set our hearts on fire with love for you because of what you've done 00:34:22.519 --> 00:34:28.679 for us and because of how just you are? 00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:36.079 And help us not to equate justice with kind of cheap fairness, but to realize that we've 00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:38.879 received something that we did not deserve. 00:34:38.879 --> 00:34:41.719 And we are eternally grateful for that. 00:34:41.719 --> 00:34:46.679 Now please help us image you well, help us glorify you, shine out the beauty of your 00:34:46.679 --> 00:34:54.679 holiness in this broken world by giving voice to the voiceless, defending the poor and needy, 00:34:54.679 --> 00:34:59.480 loving mercy, walking humbly with you. 00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:02.319 We thank you for this challenging word. 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:28.320 Amen.