WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.480 Now, we're going to go back to the passage that Kirsty just read for us in Matthew chapter 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.279 12. 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:15.679 And Thomas last week looked at Matthew chapter 11, and these two chapters, 11 and 12, are 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:23.120 squashed in between two sections that deal with the teaching of Jesus. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:26.760 So there's teaching, and then there's kind of more practical section, and then there's 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:28.199 more teaching. 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:39.479 And in these two chapters, we really find that Matthew is unfolding for us some of the 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:43.840 people who rejected Jesus or were doubting Jesus. 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:48.560 Thomas last week looked at John the Baptist and his disciples who were doubting whether 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:50.759 Jesus was the real Jesus. 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:56.000 And this week, the Pharisees in the passage we read were questioning Jesus and trying to 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.119 find fault with him. 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:08.719 And really Matthew is recording and recalling things beginning to go sour for Jesus, not 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:16.039 just the crowds who were rejecting him, but here he focuses on individuals and on different 00:01:16.039 --> 00:01:18.439 groups of people. 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:24.200 And that rejection, which is highlighted in these chapters, it ferments a question in 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:27.040 our minds, I think. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:28.400 Why would people reject Jesus? 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:30.879 I mean, why would you? 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:34.079 Jesus is perfect. 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:35.920 Jesus is just. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:37.439 Jesus is loving. 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:39.640 He's kind. 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:41.920 Jesus is innocent. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:51.560 And I mean that in the deepest and most theological definition of that word, without sin. 00:01:51.560 --> 00:02:02.200 It's profound, isn't it, that people would reject the only sinless man who ever lived? 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:09.080 And that kind of introduces a paradox into our own lives if we're Christians. 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:14.800 And even if you're not a Christian today, it's a fascinating thought that begins to 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:18.080 unfold in the Gospels. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:23.160 Because it particularly us as Christians, we have sworn our lives. 00:02:23.160 --> 00:02:31.800 We've entrusted our eternal hope and our hope in this world also to one who is a reject, 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:39.240 to an outsider, someone who is oppressed, who is despised, whose life was marked by 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:47.920 sadness and opposition and prejudice, who suffered great injustice as we go on to recognize 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:59.719 on the cross, and unspeakable isolation, not just from all of his enemies and his friends, 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:03.799 but even from his father on the cross. 00:03:03.799 --> 00:03:09.279 He's the strangest hero. 00:03:09.279 --> 00:03:12.560 He's no party animal, that's for sure. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:22.240 And there's not much record of celebration in his life, and there's many reasons for 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:26.319 that. 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:34.240 But we hear a great deal today about the gospel dance, about the victory, about the joy of 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:39.560 the gospel and the peace of Christ, and of blessing and of abundance. 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:44.080 These are all great, these are all magnificent and central and important things, and we will 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.599 come to that. 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:54.879 But I wonder if we've forgotten how to lament, if we've forgotten how to grieve sin, if 00:03:54.879 --> 00:04:02.640 we've tied up our gospel into a neat, beautifully wrapped gift, but forgotten the nails, the 00:04:02.640 --> 00:04:06.560 darkness, and the cry of dereliction. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:15.360 And we're living in many ways in grievous days, dark times, the virus which we all know about, 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:21.120 and we've all experienced the fallout of that in our lives, especially in these last couple 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:27.399 of weeks, the racial injustices that have been exposed in the killing of George Floyd, 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:39.439 and the systemic problems that have exposed or have brought a worldwide backlash. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:45.239 The institutional unpopular hate, the violence that seems to have stalked the corridors of 00:04:45.239 --> 00:04:52.199 social media, the conspiracy theories, the spare, seems to be coming at us from all angles, 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:55.560 from nature, from circumstance, and from humanity itself. 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:59.240 And maybe we say, well, where is the gospel dance? 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:01.399 Where is the joy? 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:07.160 And I have to say, in these last two or three weeks, I have mourned. 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:15.959 I've been in despair, I've been confused and conflicted as a human being and as a Christian. 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:19.920 What is our response as believers into all that's been happening? 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:29.520 Well, I think we find helpful indicators in this passage, in this, certainly part of this 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:33.960 passage, where darkness smolders against Jesus. 00:05:33.960 --> 00:05:37.439 These pages, darkness is smoldering against Jesus. 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:45.120 And I want to particularly look at verses 18 to 21, this prophecy from Isaiah, this remarkable 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:49.560 prophecy from Isaiah 42, 1 to 4. 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:54.920 And remind ourselves that they rejected Jesus. 00:05:54.920 --> 00:06:01.120 They rejected Jesus as king and he is God. 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:06.720 And although he's rejected here, we recognize him and Isaiah recognized him and God through 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:15.319 Isaiah prophesied of him that he would be the hope for the nations until the last verse 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:21.599 that he brings justice to victory and in his name the Gentiles will hope, or the nations 00:06:21.599 --> 00:06:25.719 sometimes translated will hope. 00:06:25.719 --> 00:06:28.920 And he will proclaim verse 18 justice to the nations. 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.839 Jesus is God's hope for the nations. 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:36.800 And yet he's a divine outsider. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:42.959 He's a king with no money and with no fame who went silently to his slaughter. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:48.159 And yet what we see from this and from further prophecies in Isaiah written hundreds of years 00:06:48.159 --> 00:06:51.959 before Jesus, but this was God's plan. 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:58.519 This is God in person as Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:03.079 Look at this, look at these verses, read them, soak yourself into them. 00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:08.679 Open your Bible today if you can and have them opened at Matthew chapter 12 at verse 00:07:08.679 --> 00:07:10.000 18. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:17.000 Because what we have in this section which is broken into poetic form as you can see 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:24.560 it on the page is a summary of God's purpose and God's plan. 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:30.879 It's always been God's plan that Jesus would be the hope of the nations, that here is the 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:37.680 Trinitarian God's plan, the score for the gospel dance. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:45.280 And this Old Testament prophecy drips with the approval and wisdom of the one God, Father, 00:07:45.280 --> 00:07:52.560 Son and Holy Spirit, singing in harmony as this prophecy is made of Jesus. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:57.160 So you've got the, you know, because it's the fathers who's speaking here, Isaiah has 00:07:57.160 --> 00:08:02.680 been given this message from God about the coming Messiah. 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:10.360 And so God the Father is speaking here who sends his Son, Jesus, because he's speaking 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:16.879 about Jesus who comes in the flesh, our representative. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.480 Jesus the Son who denies all his divine rights. 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:28.280 And God the Father loves him, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased, my servant whom 00:08:28.280 --> 00:08:30.759 I've chosen. 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:35.840 God the Father loves Jesus in the process of him being revealed in these chapters as 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:39.519 being one who is hated and nobody. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:44.480 The Father delights in him while Jesus is becoming despised. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:50.279 And God the Spirit dwells in him, I will put my spirit upon him, he will proclaim justice 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:52.360 to the Gentiles. 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:59.679 The Spirit revealing God's wisdom through Jesus Christ to a lost humanity. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:11.479 And justice which he proclaims and mercy which is his belong to him, come from him and through 00:09:11.479 --> 00:09:18.519 him victory over sin and death in the grave is won. 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:20.639 That's where the celebration comes in. 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:25.639 It's a costly celebration, but it's what brings us hope this morning. 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:30.840 However, it does raise questions about God, doesn't it? 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:35.159 The nature of God, the character of God and our relationship with him. 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:44.399 Why God had to make this plan to send his Son who would be rejected and who would die 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:51.120 and yet speaking of justice and mercy to a broken and fallen world. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:54.120 It does raise questions. 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:57.159 So there's a couple of things that I want to say. 00:09:57.159 --> 00:10:04.440 First is that God is the one through Jesus Christ who proclaims justice. 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:08.799 We see that in these verses, I will put my spirit on him, he will proclaim justice to 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:14.960 the nations and then in verse 20 he will bring justice to victory. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:18.440 In other words, he is the standard of justice. 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:26.640 He is the judge of the living and the dead and the Bible is full of his calls for humanity 00:10:26.640 --> 00:10:28.680 to act justly. 00:10:28.680 --> 00:10:33.200 These great words of Proverbs 31, speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:35.560 for the rights of all who are destitute. 00:10:35.560 --> 00:10:37.240 Speak up and judge fairly. 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:40.200 Defend the rights of the poor and the needy. 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:45.000 And then these great words from Jeremiah 22, this is what the Lord sees, do what is just 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:46.000 and right. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:49.399 Rescue from the hand of the oppressor, the one who has been robbed. 00:10:49.399 --> 00:10:53.000 Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless of the widow. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:58.600 Do not shed innocent blood in this place. 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:03.600 Or Psalm 146, he upholds the cause of the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.639 The Lord sets the prisoners free. 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:08.919 The Lord gives sights to the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down. 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:10.879 The Lord loves the righteous. 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:15.279 He watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless in the widow, but he frustrates 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:18.159 the way of the wicked. 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:27.120 Great verses, verses you could announce anywhere in this world in many ways as they marry the 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:32.159 thinking of many today in their cry for justice. 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:39.639 But what we see is all these cries of injustice stem in humanity from a people who are made 00:11:39.639 --> 00:11:47.639 in God's image who is just, that we are moral and accountable beings, that justice isn't 00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:52.759 molecular, it isn't materialistic, it hasn't just evolved from nothing. 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:58.360 This sense that we have against oppression and greed and slavery and racism and prejudice, 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:01.559 it comes from God. 00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:08.279 And we recognize and we can see that as we live our lives as believers and see justice 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:11.000 and people's cry for justice. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.480 But you know there's more, isn't there? 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:19.839 The problem is that he is the just one, and yet he is forsaken. 00:12:19.839 --> 00:12:22.799 Jesus is Christ. 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:28.159 Christ experienced all the injustice and all the oppression and all the prejudice and infinitely 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:31.959 more at the hands of humanity. 00:12:31.959 --> 00:12:36.679 It was humanity's sins, your sins and mine that drove them to the cross. 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:46.079 The ugly sins, which means that in our cry for justice we are denied the right simply 00:12:46.079 --> 00:12:49.759 to be outraged at other people. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:57.799 We must go further and we must let God's gaze land on our own hearts. 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:07.319 And His standard of perfect love for Him and for others leaves not just humanity out there 00:13:07.319 --> 00:13:11.399 guilty but ourselves and me. 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:15.399 His diagnosis is that I'm damned without Him. 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:23.319 And this prophecy from the Old Testament reminds us of this justice and this salvation, this 00:13:23.319 --> 00:13:26.000 Messiah who is coming to put things right. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:33.080 And that means I'm in conflict when I read about Jesus and when I live in this world. 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:36.960 Because I look around and hear the cry of injustice from what has happened to George 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:40.559 Floyd who says, I can't breathe. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:44.440 I cry, I cry, how long Lord? 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:51.720 We see the inhumanity and we see sin destroying communities and countries all over the world, 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:57.240 whether it's in America or in Hong Kong or whether it's with modern slavery or whether 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:05.040 it's the voiceless cry of the unborn child, the greed and the violence. 00:14:05.040 --> 00:14:09.160 Long for justice. 00:14:09.160 --> 00:14:16.399 But when I stand in the searing light of His gaze, I'm conflicted. 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:19.920 Why? 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:30.319 Because before God, I see my knee on my brother's neck. 00:14:30.319 --> 00:14:37.719 It might not be blatant and obvious before others but before God's gaze, my selfish 00:14:37.719 --> 00:14:43.240 heart, I know harbours lovelessness to others. 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:51.919 And so every racist, proud, prejudiced, judgmental, selfish, arrogant, lustful, dark, sanctimonious, 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:59.720 vengeful, hating, lying, greedy, gossiping thought that never saw the light of day but 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:05.799 that colours your and my vision. 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.039 Leaves us guilty before God's justice. 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:15.199 And that's without even touching our disdain for God's glory, for worshiping God, for giving 00:15:15.199 --> 00:15:21.199 Him first place in our lives and for loving Him. 00:15:21.199 --> 00:15:26.120 See, I think there's a great danger for us in the Christian community. 00:15:26.120 --> 00:15:33.879 Yeah, we've heard a lot in these days about chlorinated chicken but I'm much more concerned, 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:40.639 although that is a concern, a much more concerned about a chlorinated Christ who we have washed 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:49.080 clean of any dirty stain of my sin, a nice, gentle, inoffensive Jesus who sits beside me 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:55.240 with all my good works and allows me to blame others and even to blame God as long as I'm 00:15:55.240 --> 00:15:58.360 kept out of the frame. 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:07.759 But His justice won't allow for that, without Jesus Christ we stand condemned as hell and 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:11.759 it will out there is a judgment day. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:14.320 So His justice is searing. 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:21.960 His justice is something that we mirror even in a broken way but it must point us to His 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:24.680 perfection and our need. 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:30.519 And that brings me to the second point is that as He proclaims justice, He embodies 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:32.120 mercy towards us. 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:34.319 That is the gospel, isn't it? 00:16:34.319 --> 00:16:38.000 It's not just that He is just. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:43.319 It is that He is also merciful and that's where the cross and the gospel come beautifully 00:16:43.319 --> 00:16:51.879 together where righteousness and justice and peace and mercy come together and kiss beautifully. 00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:58.559 And we have, going back to not just the prophecy that we have here but what Jesus says in verse 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:04.000 7 where He is exposing the hypocrisy and the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.400 We haven't really had time to look at this and we can't today. 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:19.319 But He takes another prophecy from Hosea chapter 6 and verse 6 which was given in the context 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:24.000 of the same kind of self-righteous hypocrisy and He says, look, I'm not so interested in 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:25.759 all your religiosity in your works. 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:30.279 He says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:32.399 He says, I don't want your blood. 00:17:32.399 --> 00:17:37.000 I don't want your works to try and earn favor with me. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:39.159 My blood is sufficient. 00:17:39.159 --> 00:17:42.720 I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:50.559 And the mercy of God is what transforms our whole outlook to the troubles and difficulties 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:59.360 of today but also to everything in life because He transforms us and He transforms our perspective 00:17:59.360 --> 00:18:00.480 because of His mercy. 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:07.559 So in this prophecy of Isaiah that speaks about the Messiah and His justice and His victory 00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:14.279 and His message to the world, He says He is the one who didn't quarrel or cry aloud. 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:18.720 You'll not hear His voice in the streets and He went to the slaughter silently. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.919 But a bruised rude, He says He will not break. 00:18:21.919 --> 00:18:23.559 A smoldering wick, He will not quench. 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:27.399 I wish I had more time to preach on this and spend more time with it. 00:18:27.399 --> 00:18:30.679 But this is the Savior that He is. 00:18:30.679 --> 00:18:35.319 He takes my conflict that I feel the despair, the helplessness and the guilt and He dies 00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:36.319 for it. 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:42.079 He dies for my sin and my shame and my failure and for the dark night of my soul. 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:44.639 My failure to love Him and love others perfectly. 00:18:44.639 --> 00:18:45.639 He paid the price. 00:18:45.639 --> 00:18:46.839 He took the punishment. 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:54.039 He served the sentence because He loves me and He loves you and He is full of mercy and 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:56.559 He knows exactly in all His justice. 00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:03.079 He knows what we're like and He invites us to Himself and He asks us to entrust ourselves 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:07.240 to Him and to His salvation and to His finished work for us. 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:13.319 And He then protects us and strengthens us and notices us. 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:14.679 And He sees that we are nobody. 00:19:14.679 --> 00:19:20.740 You know, who notices the bruised, rude at the side of the river or the tiny little small 00:19:20.740 --> 00:19:23.559 bit of candle that's burning out? 00:19:23.559 --> 00:19:24.559 Nobody sees that. 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:27.199 Nobody's interested in keeping that little flame alive. 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:36.160 But here's this great picture of Jesus Christ who notices and who protects and who redeems 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:41.120 and who saves the nobodies. 00:19:41.120 --> 00:19:48.000 And our perspective is that we therefore open our arms to the bruised reeds in justice 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.120 and in love and in mercy one at a time. 00:19:50.120 --> 00:19:51.400 We empathize. 00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:58.040 We show mercy because we've received mercy and we live mercy. 00:19:58.040 --> 00:19:59.800 It transforms. 00:19:59.800 --> 00:20:04.320 Because we've received mercy, it transforms our whole perspective on the world and the 00:20:04.320 --> 00:20:07.480 way we think and the way we respond. 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:13.000 But it transforms not just our perspective but also our action. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.440 I desire mercy, not sacrifices, He says. 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:25.039 In other words, mercy motivates our longings and our actions so that justice does matter 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:33.400 because we serve a just God, a just God who is merciful and who on the cross satisfied 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:42.200 His divine justice against us and our guilt and also His love and mercy in becoming our 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:47.720 substitute and the one who is punished in our place. 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:52.039 But that speaks of the reality that every sin will be paid for. 00:20:52.039 --> 00:20:57.960 There is a judgment seat and therefore we can't be indifferent either to our own sin 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:04.559 or the injustices and the oppression in the world in which we live because of the cross. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:08.480 But we must show mercy in our call for justice. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:17.599 We must be humble in all our understanding of the world in which we live. 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:23.640 We realize other people will fail and our call for justice must seek to be redemptive 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:27.720 and restorative, offering people a way back. 00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:33.920 We can't justify or go along with the violence and the self-righteousness and the expunging 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:43.800 of history and the self-destructive bitterness that is marking so often these cries for justice. 00:21:43.800 --> 00:21:50.400 So it transforms our action because we are motivated by mercy and it also transforms 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:55.039 our hope, our hope. 00:21:55.039 --> 00:22:00.400 Verse 21, and in His name the Gentiles will hope. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:05.880 He seemed to be, at least I find them very hopeless days. 00:22:05.880 --> 00:22:08.759 And we ask where is our hope coming from? 00:22:08.759 --> 00:22:10.160 He is God. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:13.640 Our hope is in Him, in Jesus Christ and what He's in. 00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:16.320 There is a purpose. 00:22:16.320 --> 00:22:18.920 He is not slow in keeping His promise. 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:21.280 He will bring justice to bear. 00:22:21.280 --> 00:22:27.759 Every wrongdoing will be accounted for and paid for either on Himself on the cross in 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:33.720 our place or on that last great day, that great asides. 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:36.400 Every wrong will be righted. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:46.279 Gee, God says in this prophecy that He speaks of His Son about in glorious terms, He says, 00:22:46.279 --> 00:22:50.160 I have a dream. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:51.400 I have a dream. 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:59.200 It's a dream that's sealed in the blood of His Son and guaranteed in His resurrection that 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:02.320 we thought about with the children. 00:23:02.320 --> 00:23:09.000 And His dream is expressed in these great words of 2 Peter 3, but in keeping with His 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:17.480 promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:23.360 For even greater words of Revelation 21, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 00:23:23.360 --> 00:23:30.360 There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things 00:23:30.360 --> 00:23:32.880 has passed away. 00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:36.839 That is our hope. 00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:39.680 That is our dream that we recognize. 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:51.039 Not a wish fulfillment dream, not a pie in the sky dream, but the reality of the prophesied 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:56.200 living work of Jesus, His death, His resurrection and His ascension to the right hand of the 00:23:56.200 --> 00:23:57.200 Father. 00:23:57.200 --> 00:23:58.759 That is our hope. 00:23:58.759 --> 00:24:09.560 And we are to live in such a way that incarnates that hope by how we live with our neighbor, 00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:16.720 how we look at them and how we think about them and how we protect the oppressed and 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:23.240 the marginalized and how we deal with our own prejudices and with racism and with all the 00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:34.039 injustice that we see and recognize, but as we begin with our neighbor. 00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:41.920 So today, I hope we stand with the black community at this juncture in history because of the 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:50.639 deep seated and institutional racism that's been highlighted, we can do nothing else. 00:24:50.639 --> 00:24:59.279 But we do so with mercy and we do so under the gaze of God's eye, recognizing His own 00:24:59.279 --> 00:25:11.879 amazing grace to us who are guilty before Him and pleased that He gives us the power 00:25:11.879 --> 00:25:21.399 and the life and the strength to love Him as we are born again, entrusting our lives 00:25:21.399 --> 00:25:26.079 and our hope to Him and our sins being forgiven, that we see Him differently. 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:31.480 We love Him for what He's done and for who He is in Himself and therefore we love our 00:25:31.480 --> 00:25:38.279 neighbor as ourselves and we also love our enemy. 00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:42.679 And that stops us from being crushed. 00:25:42.679 --> 00:25:48.000 And I leave you with these great words from the Old Testament, the Minor Prophet Micah. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:55.480 He's shown you, oh mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you to act justly, 00:25:55.480 --> 00:26:04.319 to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:16.440 Father God, as we come to terms with the awesome, huge reality of the Trinitarian God, Father, 00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:22.720 Son and Holy Spirit, God the Son incarnate. 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:28.039 God the Son in all His perfection nailed to a cross. 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:36.559 As we consider the marvel of salvation and the reality and the genesis of justice and 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:43.920 mercy, we are awestruck and we are awed by your glory and by your beauty and your majesty, 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:51.960 by your mercy, by your transcendence, by your closeness and above all by the hope that the 00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:54.000 gospel brings into our lives. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:04.079 In these days that do seem bereft of hope, we do indeed have the reality of celebration 00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:10.240 deep in our soul and that gospel dance and that peace and that joy that comes. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:16.480 But it's not flippant and it's not cheap and it's not easy. 00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:24.400 But it comes from an honesty and a searing honesty about our own failings, not only in 00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:32.599 our own eyes and in the eyes of others, but before God, but also the great mercy of God 00:27:32.599 --> 00:27:39.360 that He accepts us because He has paid the price for our failure. 00:27:39.360 --> 00:27:43.640 Today I rejoice in that truth. 00:27:43.640 --> 00:27:47.720 Amen.