When Government Turns A Deaf Ear To Blind Justice

[Not looking for a chance to preach on today’s topic… Wanting to explain the text, apply it, and see Jesus in it]

Read Acts 25.

Blind justice called for freedom for the innocent.

Justice is blind (no respecter of persons). Festus was proud of Roman Justice (v.16)

Paul was innocent. (vv. 7-8, 18, 25a, 26-7)

Both Felix and Festus had been respecters of persons in Paul’s case. Felix kept his eye open for a bribe from Paul (24:26), and Festus wanted to win popularity among the Jewish leaders (25:9)

After over 2 years of captivity, Paul still waited for justice, yet it never came.

Paul responded to injustice with loving truth.

He could have subverted the system to achieve justice (by escaping).

Instead, he worked within the system. (vv. 10-11)

This was consistent with 2 things: his conscience (Romans 13:1 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” ) and his understanding of God’s plan (Acts 23:11 “The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”)

Blind justice still calls for freedom for the innocent.

Shock and disappointment on morning of November 6

Justice regarding a woman’s rights:

She may do with her body as she chooses.

She may not destroy someone else’s body.

Women’s rights begin w/the right for women to be born.

Justice is no respecter of persons. Leviticus 19:15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” Just because the unborn have no voice does not mean that they have inferior rights.

History of abortion in Missouri

Outlawed in Missouri in 1825, 4 years after statehood

Legalized 148 years later by Roe v. Wade in 1973

49 years later left up to states by US Supreme Court June 24, 2022

Banned in Missouri moments after Supreme Court decision, first state in the nation to ban abortion after the Supreme Court decision

Legalized by constitutional amendment on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, first state whose voters ended an abortion ban following overturn of Roe v. Wade

Abortion as worship

Children are a gift. (Psalm 127:3–4 “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.”) (Proverbs 17:6 “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged...”)

Idolatry in OT, Molech (Jeremiah 32:31 “This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight… They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination...”

What false gods are being served by abortion today?

[something more important to people than the lives of their children]

Demons are behind more that what we know (1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons”)

What evil has led abortion advocate Emily Wales to say to the Kansas City Star, “Missourians’ lives are at risk,” meaning that we must hurry to reinstitute abortion in Missouri in order to save lives?

Concerning the lives at risk, let’s take a look at the scale of this injustice. On September 11, 2001, foreign terrorists hijacked American planes and weaponized them in an attack that killed 2,997 people. The nation is still recovering from the shock. How many babies were aborted in America in 2001? According to the CDC, 853,485 (not all states reporting). The Guttmacher Institute estimates the actual number to be 1,303,000.

We should respond to injustice with loving truth.

People who love the unborn may be tempted to subvert the system to achieve justice (violence toward clinics, hostility toward opponents).

Instead, we must work lovingly within the system

An amendment put us in this position, and it can get us out.

Notice that in Paul’s case politicians were the source of injustice; in our case it is common people.

Winning hearts is more important than changing laws. (Abortion illegal v. unthinkable)

How to win hearts:

Be eager to help those who chose life.

Offer truth in love to those who have supported (and chosen) abortion.

Know how to explain the case for life.

Case for life: SLED

Size

Level of development

Environment

Degree of dependency

Where is God in this issue?

God is sovereign. Isaiah 46:10 God is the One who declares “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

God is pro-life.

Psalm 139:13–16a “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance...”

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

God is the one who saves and restores.

He saves and restores those who have blood on their hands. Luke 7:47–48 “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much...” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

He knows how to renew everything that is broken and bring justice to every wrong. Revelation 21:3–5a “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

[Pray.]

Lord’s Supper

[A day of grief, a heavy day, but not absent of joyful hope. So is the Lord’s supper—solemn, yet deeply joyful.]

John Piper wrote of the Lord’s Supper this way: “There is a solemnity with explosive joy, and there is sweet cheerfulness whose eyes are brimming with tears.

The Lord’s Supper is a commemoration and an emblematic demonstration of the most painful, the most sinful, the most sorrowful act in the history of the world. And it is aiming to produce in us a kind of joy in the gospel and in Christ that is greater than any joy in the world, but that joy is not chipper, it’s not glib, it’s not superficial, it’s not silly, it’s not bouncy.”

[Share instructions: Who can participate? How will we do this?]

[Congregation steps forward.]

Jesus carried His cross. It was a burden that He didn’t deserve but chose willingly. Once He was nailed to that cross, He was crushed under an even greater burden, the Father’s righteous anger toward our sin. You realize that no amount of suffering from us could satisfy justice for our sin against our infinitely great God. How is it that you and I do not have to live under the weight of our sin forever? It is because an infinitely pure and valuable sacrifice took upon Himself our punishment.

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Did you catch what Jesus did just before He broke the break, demonstrating the breaking of His body? He gave thanks. He gave thanks to the Father, who would, in a few hours, crush Him.

[ Eat bread. Pray in thanks for God’s demonstration of His love.]

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

[Drink from the cup. Pray.]