WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.560 Now I want to go back, I will go back shortly to the reading that Esther had from Matthew's 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:15.240 Gospel. But if you are visiting with us today, maybe for the first time, this is part, as 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:21.679 I mentioned, of a series that we're doing. Last week it's called Unbelievable, and that's 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:29.879 the graphic. Last week we looked at, is Jesus real, and are you hurting in our evening worship? 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:37.399 So today we're looking at, is Jesus a bigot? And in the evening, are you empty? Some of 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:43.519 the questions. And then next Sunday morning, which is Easter Sunday, is Jesus good? And 00:00:43.519 --> 00:00:47.879 then the question, are you hopeless? So we're looking at it kind of from different angles 00:00:47.879 --> 00:00:55.439 over the next kind of around Easter time. And so that's really where we are and where 00:00:55.439 --> 00:01:04.560 we're at. And we, I kind of geared it as something for those who maybe are questioning or wondering 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:12.479 or skeptical about the Christian faith. Because the reality is, I'll go on to the next slide 00:01:12.479 --> 00:01:21.759 if I, yeah, a lot of you will have maybe been aware of that poster series that came out. 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:31.800 Many people who think of Jesus, but if not Jesus, certainly Christians, as bigots. And 00:01:31.800 --> 00:01:38.240 that is probably a common theme that's in our society in many ways today. And so I'm 00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:44.680 looking at that, I hope I'm looking, I'm going to look at that head on a little bit. By looking 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:51.880 at the life and claims of Jesus Himself, I think sometimes the greatest opposition comes 00:01:51.880 --> 00:01:58.040 from those who have made a lot of assumptions about Jesus and maybe Christians as well, 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:05.120 or have had bad experiences maybe of Christians, but who maybe haven't looked quite so much 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:09.680 or listened quite so much to the claims of Jesus Himself. And that's a challenge then 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:18.599 for us all to listen and to respect those who may be different from us. But this police 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:27.840 campaign and government campaign, I think, was generally quite controversial. I wouldn't 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:35.400 doubt the motives behind it at all. But the statement that went public, dear bigots, you 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:42.280 can't spread your religious hate here end of sermon was pretty powerful. It was a very 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:51.319 broad brushed dismissal, really in many ways, of all faiths and of all sermons. So tough 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:59.319 today. It was promoting potentially in some ways a rather stereotypical view, and it was 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:08.159 at some levels challenged itself on grounds of inciting hate. It's a tad bigoted in 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:14.879 some ways. And it seems that it's fighting hate with hate rather than dialogue. And that's 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:19.840 never a good thing. It's always an important thing not just to throw out sound bites or 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:26.639 something that we can add to social media and to our memes, but to genuinely enter into 00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:33.279 dialogue where there's disagreement. But it's a very interesting point that is made there, 00:03:33.279 --> 00:03:36.039 and so I'm going to look at that for a few minutes this morning, and ask the question, 00:03:36.039 --> 00:03:44.279 is Jesus a bigot? The Cambridge definition of a bigot, Cambridge dictionary, definition 00:03:44.279 --> 00:03:49.759 of a bigot, is a person who has strong unreasonable beliefs and who does not like other people 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:56.279 who have different beliefs or a different way of life. Okay? So that's a bigot. And 00:03:56.280 --> 00:04:01.960 that is, I would imagine that's the kind of definition we all recognize as being a bigot. 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:07.360 So we're going to look at one or two things about Jesus in the Bible and try and unpack 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:14.879 whether he fits into that category of being a bigot. He certainly had strong beliefs. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:21.240 He definitely had strong beliefs, and particularly he had strong beliefs. Most clearly in the 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:28.800 Gospels, the strongest beliefs he had were against religious hypocrisy. That was where 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:39.240 Jesus' passion in many ways really spilled over when he was in public. Not just to be 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:44.319 honest, not just religious hypocrisy, but any kind of hypocrisy. He really hated any 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:53.480 kind of hypocrisy. And we read that, and Esther read that for us. It's an amazing chapter, 00:04:53.480 --> 00:05:01.039 Matthew chapter 23, it's called The Seven Wows of Jesus, where he almost expresses 00:05:01.039 --> 00:05:08.519 judgment in seven different ways to the religious leaders of his day who were plotting to have 00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:17.639 him crucified. And what was enraging him about them, because Jesus, and we haven't looked 00:05:17.639 --> 00:05:21.399 into the claims of Jesus being the Son of God and being divine, but we're taking that 00:05:21.399 --> 00:05:26.959 at the moment for granted, he understood them and knew what was in their hearts. And what 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:31.719 he knew about them was that they were taking Old Testament teaching and they were twisting 00:05:31.719 --> 00:05:36.879 it and changing it so that they could wield political power and so they could feel good 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:43.920 about themselves and judge other people. They used the misinterpreted Scripture teaching 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:49.680 of the Old Testament to feed their own pride, and he was absolutely brutal. He was brutal 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:54.920 in his assessment of them. And we read that in the different verses that we read from 00:05:54.920 --> 00:06:04.279 Matthew 23. He refers to them as uncaring and hypocritical, that they made all kinds 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:08.759 of demands of everyone else, but never helped anyone in any way whatsoever to meet these 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:15.759 demands that they were making, and that they themselves were, by making such demands, denying 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:21.479 their own need of a Savior. He called them in verse 13, blind, well he didn't call them 00:06:21.479 --> 00:06:29.439 this, but he expressed that they were blind gatekeepers. He says to them, you know, you 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:34.680 shut the kingdom of heaven and men's faces, people's faces, but you neither enter yourselves 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:41.519 nor allow anyone else to enter. He could see that they didn't accept or believe God's 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:46.839 verdict on their own hearts and on their own need, and they even then misdirected other 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:52.800 people so that they wouldn't come to know God and to see his forgiveness. They were 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:58.079 really, in other words, they were kind of proud moralists, and their argument to each 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:02.079 other and to others was, well, we're so good, we're so good, other people will accept, other 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:07.959 people might not accept, but God will have to accept me because I do so many good things, 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:12.639 I go to church, I give money to the church, I keep the commands of God and blah, blah, 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:21.039 blah, blah, so they went on, and so they believed that therefore God had a duty to accept them 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:29.640 as worthy and then into heaven when they died. It was a radical inversion of the Bible teaching 00:07:29.640 --> 00:07:35.800 and of what Jesus came to do, completely the opposite of what Jesus came to do and what 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:47.600 he came to be involved in. And they've provided a foundation for a miserable alternative to 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:54.280 the gospel ever since, that we don't really need Jesus, we just need to do our best and 00:07:54.280 --> 00:08:02.280 that's all that matters. But he goes beyond that and he calls them hellish fanatics in 00:08:02.280 --> 00:08:08.240 verse 15. It must have been absolutely outrageous to have been there and to have heard these 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.680 people who were morally upright and religious and the kind of foundational leaders of the 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:20.240 day when he says that they go over land and sea to win a single proselyte and when they 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:27.079 do you make them twice as much a son of hell as you are. That's pretty strong words, isn't 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:33.960 it? Is it strong enough for us? It's really great stuff because he saw that their teaching 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:41.120 and their actions actually gave way to division and to hatred and to ugliness. That's why 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:47.560 he was so strong in what he was saying because in effect he's exposing their bigotry and 00:08:47.560 --> 00:08:55.560 he's exposing their dangerous teaching because it led to division and it led to pride and 00:08:55.560 --> 00:09:03.200 it led to a separation of people one from another. So definition of bigot that we looked 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:09.960 at, strong beliefs, yes, he did have strong beliefs, absolutely, especially against religious 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:17.440 and other kinds of hypocrisy. Unreasonable? No, because he could see it was leading to 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:24.800 division and to hatred and to separation within society. It wasn't unreasonable. Does he not 00:09:24.800 --> 00:09:31.600 like others because in that definition it speaks about not liking others for their beliefs 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:38.920 and for being different? No, that's not the case either because if you look at the last 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:45.000 verse of this chapter that we just read a few verses of it, but at the last part of 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:53.000 that chapter we've got this remarkable picture of Jesus saying, pleading and crying, he says, 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:57.039 oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and there he was speaking about all the people that he had 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:02.879 been damning in some ways by his language, the religious leaders of the day, he said, 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:08.000 the city that kills the prophets and stones those who sent it, how often would I have 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:13.080 gathered your children together as a hen gathers the brood under her wings and you were not 00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:25.159 willing? He's pleading with compassion and with a great love for them and a great sorrow 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:31.600 that they don't see and understand and know who God was and why Jesus had come and that 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:39.480 they were intent on taking him all the way to the cross. So at that level you can never 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:46.200 accuse Jesus of being a bigot. He opposes them, opposes them strongly because he believes 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:51.440 it's damaging what they're doing, but he has a great love for them and he wishes to take 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:56.720 them in a kind of fatherly, motherly way under his wings and they would accept what he's 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:05.240 saying, but yet he will not stand down from what he believes and knows to be the truth. 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:09.720 So that's the first thing we see about the Jesus of the Bible and that's just a very 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:17.360 small snippet into who he is, but he also does make many exclusive claims and we can't 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:23.480 forget that and I think this is where maybe the claim of bigotry comes in for people when 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:27.360 they think about Jesus and what he claims. Jesus answered and he said, I am the way, 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:33.960 the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. This is very shortly 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:40.639 before the passage that Esther read was very shortly before the crucifixion, which is what 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:46.720 we remember the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus at this time of year. And this is 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:51.960 kind of a pointer towards what he's come to do because many people will argue that crucifixion 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:58.320 was just a, you know, it was a, a bearant mistake that it shouldn't have happened, it was just 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:03.240 the way it happened. And the leaders all of Jesus or the followers of Jesus after that 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:08.480 twisted it around and made it something that was meant to happen and it was good. But Jesus 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:19.240 always had this clear move towards Calvary, towards what was happening. He went willingly 00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:25.240 and yet he was opposed all the way. And, but he made this exclusive claim that he says, 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:30.039 I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, Father God except through 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:36.960 me. And that's unique in the world of claims, in the history of anyone's claims. It's not 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:43.279 that he taught the way that he said, I can teach you the way. It's not that he claimed 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:48.879 to know the truth or that he had some kind of secret of life. He's making the claims 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:55.759 for himself. He's saying, I am the way, the truth and the life. He's an incarnation of 00:12:55.759 --> 00:13:00.799 these things in a sense that the only way that we can get to the Father, to God, to 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:06.320 heaven is through Jesus Christ. That's what he taught. That's what he showed himself to 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:12.120 be and that's what he came to do through his death on the cross and his resurrection. 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:19.080 So he makes a really exclusive claim here for humanity, not just for religious people 00:13:19.080 --> 00:13:26.399 but for humanity. And he makes exclusive claims right through his ministry. I'm going to look 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:32.279 very quickly at three. The first is in his greatest sermon. His greatest sermon that's 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:38.720 recorded in the gospel is a sermon on the Mount and we know a lot of people who maybe 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:42.840 don't know a lot about Christianity will know about the sermon on the Mount and the ethical 00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:49.360 teaching of Jesus that comes from it. But the interesting thing about his greatest sermon 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:54.279 is the theme of it is our hearts. He says, blessed are the pure in heart for they will 00:13:54.279 --> 00:14:00.000 see God. And it's an interesting thing because nobody can be pure in heart. And he's beginning 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:06.360 already in that sermon to point to our need of him and what he can do to transform our 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:13.440 heart. In other words, the theme of the sermon, it kind of is ethical, but it also isn't ethical. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:18.519 It's much deeper and much more spiritual. If you could summarize it, you could probably 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:23.759 say that the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. That's what he's exposing in 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:29.960 the sermon on the Mount for everyone he says. And he's, you know, no one comes, he says, 00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:34.320 to the Father except through me. Now, what he says there, that's the most exclusive, 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:40.040 that's the most inclusive statement ever. They talk about the gospel being exclusive, 00:14:40.040 --> 00:14:44.360 well that's right, but it's also the most inclusive statement that has ever been made. 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:49.879 It's the ultimate leveler, in other words. And he spoke the whole of his ministry about 00:14:49.879 --> 00:14:56.480 the need of humanity, not about certain people being worse than others or greater sinners 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:03.640 than others. He said that the whole of the human race had only one way to get back to 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:08.960 God and to the Father, and that was through Jesus Christ. He says it's a universal heart 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:14.120 problem that we have, that we evolve by nature, turned away from the living God, the author 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:20.199 of life and of love, and therefore we pay the consequences for that. And the sermon, 00:15:20.199 --> 00:15:26.000 the sermon is a really uncomfortable place to go, the sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 and 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:31.759 some of the other references in the gospels, because he takes us, he takes us to the dark 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:39.879 places of our hearts, before him, before his purity and his perfection, he exposes really 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:48.559 for us our guilt, our brokenness, our lostness, and how limited we are spiritually. He takes 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:56.120 us to the places nobody sees, nobody else sees in our lives. You know, but sometimes 00:15:56.120 --> 00:16:06.600 you spill out into maybe greed or lies or unfaithfulness or pride or selfishness. He 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:16.919 kind of exposes that intangible ugliness that polite company doesn't speak about. That's 00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:25.480 really what he does for us. All the intangible ugliness of which we have both been victims 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:30.120 and perpetrators in our lives, if we are going to be brutally honest, quite often speak 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:35.399 about the Bible as a mirror, because it is a mirror often into, if we are willing to 00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:44.720 let it into the hurt and the pain and sometimes the guilt that nobody wants to speak about 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:55.399 but we recognize as being there. And he exposes the myth that all that matters is just if 00:16:55.399 --> 00:17:03.519 we just try our best or be true to ourselves or be religious and do nice things and good 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:11.600 things. And that sermon kind of says, look, it doesn't cut it with the living God who 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:17.639 wants purity of heart. It doesn't deal with the forsakenness that we have before God. 00:17:17.639 --> 00:17:25.000 He's simply not interested in our comparative goodness to other people. And we may be, you 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:30.639 know, we may be really good as we compare ourselves to other people. And he's much better 00:17:30.639 --> 00:17:36.039 than them. Absolutely, we might be much better than the next person. But he says, I'm simply 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:41.399 not interested in that. And the great definition of that is what he said to the Pharisees. 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:48.200 They were the most morally upright and good and very commas people in the world, in the 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:52.759 ancient era, in the world which he lived. But he says, he actually calls them, at one 00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:56.600 point he calls them whitewashed tombs. You know, they're named nice and clean on the 00:17:56.600 --> 00:18:02.160 outside, but they hadn't dealt with their hearts and with the pride and the greed and 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:09.680 the selfishness. So there's a great leveler there in the all, it's just equally bad news 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:19.360 for everybody. And he also highlights that in his greatest parable. He's a great storyteller 00:18:19.360 --> 00:18:24.519 and he tells, well, I think it's his greatest parable, it might not be according to other 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:31.080 people, but the prodigal son where he tells the story of a son who leaves his father, 00:18:31.080 --> 00:18:36.160 but who demands his inheritance from his father and spends it all on wild living and then 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:39.800 he has nothing left and he ends up wanting to eat the food that he's feeding the pigs 00:18:39.800 --> 00:18:45.880 with and he says, I'll go back and be a servant for my dad. And when he goes back, his dad's 00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:49.880 running towards him with open arms and says, oh, you are dead, but now you're alive again, 00:18:49.880 --> 00:18:55.600 you were lost and found. It's tremendous and a beautiful story. And again, it's, but what 00:18:55.600 --> 00:19:03.600 it does do is he's exposing that in his description, he's exposing our condition that we are like 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:09.679 thankless children who take all the good gifts from our Father in heaven, but ignore them 00:19:09.679 --> 00:19:15.599 and don't give thanks and don't respond to him, but take the life that he offers and 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:20.799 the pleasures that we get from life and spend all ourselves, but have no reference to our 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:29.319 Father until we see our need and we turn back to Him. It's a hugely significant story. Living 00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:35.119 without reference to His love as our Father, taking all we can get as if it's ours by right 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:42.039 and then finding ourselves in a mess at the end of it, needing to get back to our Heavenly 00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:49.919 Father. And then of course, in terms of his exclusive claims, not just in the sermon and 00:19:49.919 --> 00:19:54.200 in that parable, but in his greatest action, greatest sermon, greatest parable, greatest 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:59.440 action, probably the most famous verse in the Bible for God so loved the world that 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:05.000 He gave His only, one and only Son, whoever bleeds them shall not perish, but have eternal 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:13.600 life. And so his greatest action is in response to all that, in response to the bad news of 00:20:13.600 --> 00:20:19.960 the gospel, the bad news, I guess, of the diagnosis that Jesus Christ says and reminds 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:25.000 us that He's the only way back. He's the only way back because He gives Himself, God, the 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:30.160 Son in His death and resurrection. That's what He says. That's why, you know, it seems 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:33.720 a strange thing to do, doesn't it, to sing about someone's death from a long time ago? 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:38.039 It's a bizarre kind of thing that we do. We take it for granted. I bet none of the Christians 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:41.960 here thought anything of singing these songs today. But maybe if you're not a Christian 00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:46.360 or you don't normally go to church or you don't think about these things, what a really 00:20:46.359 --> 00:20:52.839 bizarre thing to do, be singing about someone who died 2,000 years ago on a cross. So out 00:20:52.839 --> 00:20:59.359 of our comfort zone, it's unbelievable. And yet, that's because everything revolves around 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:08.439 that in terms of the gospel. It revolves around Jesus giving Himself on the cross in our place. 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:16.640 As His answer, it's His only answer. As God, the Son, is the only answer as He gives it 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:23.120 to our sin and our separation from Him. He bears the cost of our sin and our rebellion 00:21:23.120 --> 00:21:29.559 against God, which is death. He takes the guilt on Himself. He pays the price. He satisfies 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:36.279 divine justice. He's the substitute. He does it because He loves us. He does it because 00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:44.720 there isn't another way. If there was another way, we would have found it. Absolutely. In 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:49.519 fact, just before He goes to the cross, Jesus pleads with the Father and He says, if there 00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:54.480 is another way, can we do it? But He says, not my will, but yours be done, because He 00:21:54.480 --> 00:22:00.639 knows that this is the only way to satisfy divine justice and also divine love. So these 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:06.480 are some claims, aren't they? I didn't make them up. I don't know why any of His followers 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:14.360 would have made them up. They didn't bring power or wealth or status or influence on 00:22:14.360 --> 00:22:19.080 any of the founders of the church. Mainly, martyrdom was what they got for believing 00:22:19.080 --> 00:22:24.960 that. And I think generally, not as the Christian faith understood by most people as offering 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:31.160 anything except a life of humility, often rejection, self-denial, accusations of bigotry 00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:38.079 and ridicule. There has to be something else that would make us follow Jesus, surely, if 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:40.920 it's none of these things. And if it's not power, and if it's not wealth, and if it's 00:22:40.920 --> 00:22:49.680 not popularity necessarily, what is it? Well, let's just finish with revisiting the bigotry 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:54.680 question. Where does it leave us with the bigotry question? Because that's what sort 00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:57.799 of foundation of many people's rejection of the gospel, isn't it? Aren't Christians 00:22:57.799 --> 00:23:03.279 and Jesus Christ maybe not so much Christ but certainly Christians? Aren't those who 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:09.200 don't accept homosexuals or reject the LGBT community and say no to anything that's fun 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:14.759 and criticise women's rights and resist abortion and are horribly moralistic and judgmental? 00:23:14.759 --> 00:23:18.680 That would be the prevailing view of many people, wouldn't it? Christianity, and maybe sometimes 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:28.840 we feed into that with our arrogance or our wrong understanding and thinking. But is Christ 00:23:28.840 --> 00:23:37.200 and our followers bigoted, prejudiced, racist? Well, if we're serious about our understanding 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:41.799 of Christ and the gospel, we need to recognise that all humanity is equal. All humanity is 00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:47.560 equal. All of us are made in the image of God. That is fundamental Bible teaching that 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:52.559 gives value to every single life and respect to every single person and that we are all 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:58.159 spiritually in the same condition without Jesus Christ. No place for pride, no place 00:23:58.159 --> 00:24:06.879 for judgment, no place for lording over anyone else. All Christians are called to a life 00:24:06.879 --> 00:24:15.079 of love. And maybe I'm speaking now to the Christians here, more particularly. We've 00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:21.039 come to recognise we need saved, we need redemption because we are not pure in heart and we've 00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:27.919 broken God's laws, all of them, even thoughtward indeed. And these laws are laws of love, love 00:24:27.919 --> 00:24:35.199 God and love your neighbour. And in fact, as believers, we've come to receive His love 00:24:35.199 --> 00:24:42.439 in our hearts so that we can love Him, we can love one another, but even more so, we 00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:49.120 can love our enemies. That's the radical teaching of the New Testament and that's the most 00:24:49.120 --> 00:24:56.320 radical teaching in the universe that we are called to love whoever we meet with, whoever 00:24:56.320 --> 00:24:59.920 we know, however different they are from us, whether they believe or disbelieve, even 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:06.600 whether they are violently opposed to what we believe and what we teach. We are to love 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:13.480 them in word and in deed. But as we do so, as we love Jesus first and love other people 00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:20.240 next, fundamental differences and disagreements will be exposed and that's for sure. And there 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:27.919 will be times when we need to ask for forgiveness, for being hypocrites or for hating people 00:25:27.919 --> 00:25:35.319 in the name of Christ, no place for that whatsoever in his life or teaching or in us as followers. 00:25:35.319 --> 00:25:38.599 So there may be times when we just have to say sorry for our attitude or say sorry for 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:46.159 the attitude of people in the past. But as Christians, we also believe in society, we 00:25:46.159 --> 00:25:51.159 believe in respect and the protection of rights and freedoms and diversity and compromise. 00:25:51.159 --> 00:25:58.240 We don't believe biblically for oppression or enforced censorship or intolerance or 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:04.599 prejudice. Interestingly, not easy to say today, but interestingly, I think there's 00:26:04.599 --> 00:26:13.719 more evidence of bigotry and of intolerance in our secular society than there was previously. 00:26:13.719 --> 00:26:17.799 Evelyn Beatrice Hall, who I know nothing about, I don't know who she was other than 00:26:17.799 --> 00:26:23.000 she was speaking about the right of free speech back at the beginning of the twentieth century, 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:27.599 she says, I disapprove of what you say but I defend to the death you're right to say 00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:33.480 it. And we believe in that and we should believe in that as Christians. It may be that we can 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:38.759 have voiced as approval, but we believe absolutely in the freedom and the right of people to 00:26:38.759 --> 00:26:45.920 say. There's no place for hatred, self-righteousness, moral superiority, bigotry, homophobia or 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:51.799 transphobia or any other phobias that are on the go. It doesn't mean that we agree with 00:26:51.799 --> 00:27:01.000 people and that we think the same way. It must be that we encourage debate and dialogue 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:06.640 and recognition of differences both morally and philosophically, but in the context of 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:12.480 respect and love. Hugely significant in the society in which we live. For the Christian, 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:19.359 though, Christ is Lord. We have come to see Him and our need for Him and our relationship 00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:26.680 we have with Him. We believe His love has captivated our hearts and changed our perspective 00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:33.680 and our understanding of what true freedom is and of what truth is and what life is. 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:40.880 That is what we have, because He is, we have, by faith we've come to believe in His forgiveness 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:46.160 and in the transforming power of His love in our hearts. 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:54.440 So I finish with this. What I regard as the, by a long stretch, the most powerful apologetic 00:27:54.440 --> 00:27:59.080 for the gospel. And I think in the society in which we live, it needs to be one that 00:27:59.080 --> 00:28:15.759 we express far more so as Christians and understand. In other words, I'm not sure how easily people 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:20.480 are persuaded by argument. I think argument is important and I'll make an argument. It's 00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:26.799 very important and it must be part of what we do when we share our faith. But we also 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:33.279 need to recognize fundamentally that it's a spiritual problem that we have all had and 00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:42.000 we all have, and that it's only love that changes that spiritual problem. The only perspective 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:50.599 that will change a sinner's heart is the love of Christ. It needs that strength. It needs 00:28:50.599 --> 00:28:55.720 to be something as powerful as that. It's the only thing that will capture your heart 00:28:55.720 --> 00:29:04.079 if you're not a Christian. Argument will have its place. Truth, as it's laid out before 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:09.400 you, will have its absolute significant place. But the reality is it's not a question of 00:29:09.400 --> 00:29:17.400 evidence. It's not a question of philosophical and moral argument. Ultimately, it's a spiritual 00:29:17.400 --> 00:29:24.080 problem that we have a rebellion against God. And the only thing that can change that is 00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:33.000 when we understand and see the price He paid to deal with that rebellion. So it will capture 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:40.440 your heart if you're not a Christian. You're made in His image. He loves you. He wants 00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:45.680 you to come home. It's that picture of the prodigal. Home to Himself and to that relationship 00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:53.440 with you that is the most fundamental reality of every one of our lives. And I can only 00:29:53.440 --> 00:30:00.519 point you to the author of that love. It's the beauty of that love. It's quite hard sometimes 00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:05.960 for a bloke to speak about that. But it's the beauty of His love which captivates us, 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:12.839 which changes us, which holds us, which becomes our identity. That's the gospel that I have 00:30:12.839 --> 00:30:21.000 come to see, the courage, strength, compassion, tenderness, extravagance, and forgiveness, 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:27.920 and healing, and cost, and commitment of God's love for me in Christ that's made me able 00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:33.320 to see things differently in the world in which I live. And that's the same for every 00:30:33.320 --> 00:30:42.039 believer. If we come home, we belong. He is Lord. And therefore, that is what will change 00:30:42.039 --> 00:30:47.120 our thinking about our rights, about our life, our priorities, our image, our sexuality, 00:30:47.120 --> 00:30:54.200 our pleasures, our ambitions. They will all look different when we realize that love has 00:30:54.200 --> 00:31:01.120 come to town and love changes everything for us. So I hope you'll consider that if you're 00:31:01.120 --> 00:31:05.759 not a Christian today. And we have tea and coffee afterwards. And I'll be very happy 00:31:05.759 --> 00:31:09.680 to speak to anyone or you speak to anyone around you who you think is part of the church 00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:14.920 here. We'll be very happy to do so. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to sing. 00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:29.160 Father, we thank you for the gospel. We know it's for many people it's that horrible reality 00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:40.120 of honesty, which makes it bad news, but not bad news, full stop. Rather, a diagnosis which 00:31:40.119 --> 00:31:49.399 is humbling and exposing, but absolutely honest and real and points us towards the great 00:31:49.399 --> 00:31:56.959 love of Christ who took on all that guilt on himself on the cross to pay the price. 00:31:56.959 --> 00:32:05.679 And his resurrection to life is the guarantee of our resurrection with him. Forgive me, 00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:12.240 Lord, for not telling all the story, not enough time in the short while we're together, but 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:19.080 pray that it would have maybe triggered an interest or further thoughts in people's minds 00:32:19.080 --> 00:32:26.799 today if they are maybe questioning or skeptical of truth. And we ask that you would be working 00:32:26.799 --> 00:32:32.640 in their hearts and touching them with your love and with the great purpose, therefore, 00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:37.080 of life that we find in you. Amen.