Justice vs Mercy? - Baptism

Manuscript Template

Title:  Justice vs Mercy?

How should we balance our desire for justice with Jesus’ call to be merciful?

Focus Statement:  

Function Statement:  

Tweetable Phrase:  

Main Text:  Jonah 1-4

Supporting Text:  Psalm 145:8-9, Matthew 5:1-12, James 2:13, Matthew 23:23, 2 Peter 3:9, Micah 6:8, Matthew 18:22

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  James 2:13

Benediction:  Micah 6:8

Questions to Review

Is the bottom line clear? Main point should be able to be said in a single sentence.

What’s the opening line? Not hello, start with a question or something to grab attention.

Is the transition from the introduction to main point clear?

What’s my main point? Make it short and memorable

Does it matter? Is the topic relevant to the congregation?

Where is the power in the text? What word or phrase highlights the tension?

How am I moving toward application?

What is my main to-do (application)? Be specific.

What does it matter? The WHY creates urgency.

How am I closing? Have a plan.

Baptism

Timothy, in keeping with the example of Jesus, you have presented yourself this day that you might receive the sacrament of baptism. Baptism is not itself the door to salvation, but rather is an outward sign of the new birth which God has wrought in your heart. It proclaims to all the world that you have taken Christ Jesus as the Lord of your life, and that it is your purpose always to obey Him.

It is at this time that Timothy would like to share his testimony.

Before I baptize you, so we may know that you understand the significance of the step you are taking, we want to ask you a few questions:

Do you believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?

That Jesus Christ the Son suffered in your place on the cross, that He died but rose again, that He now sits at the Father’s right hand until He returns to judge all people at the last day?

And do you believe in the Holy Scriptures as the inspired Word of God?

That by the grace of God every person has the ability and responsibility to choose between right and wrong, and that those who repent of their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified by faith?

Answer: All this I steadfastly believe.

Do you intend by this act to testify to all the world that you are a Christian and that you will be a loyal follower of Christ?

Answer: I do.

Timothy Cloutman, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Congregation...Luke 15:10 states

Luke 15:10 “10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””

Let’s Join the Angels in celebrating the decision Timothy has made today. [clapping, cheering, etc]

To honor the step of faith of everyone who received the sacrament of Baptism moving forward, we’re going to have everyone who is baptized sign a water drop with their name and date of their baptism and hang it from the baptismal.

[Timothy hang his water droplet and take picture]

My prayer is that The Light KC can be a church that lives out Luke 19:10 seeking and to saving the lost, and very soon we can cover this baptismal in reminders of the amazing work God has done in our community.

Let’s give Timothy one more round of applause for the decision he’s made today. [clapping, cheering, etc]

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

As we start, close your eyes and imagine with me.

You’re still a child. You live in a small village known for it’s wine almost 800 years before Christ. Your village is so small, everyone in your village knows each other.

But…every night you go to sleep scared. You live in an area where the neighboring nation is violent and regularly attack villages like yours. You’re village has been safe, SO FAR, but every day you wonder if today’s the day that your village is going to be conquered.

To make matters worse, the neighboring nation doesn’t just attack villages to claim territory, they are monsters. They were known for cutting out people’s tongues, smashing people to death, and even publicly cutting people up and feeding them to their dogs. But worse than that they mutilate people; cutting off limbs, but leaving them alive to serve as walking warnings to everyone not to think about starting an uprising.

Literally all day, every day, you are afraid for you life, the lives of your family, and the lives of everyone you know in your village.

NOW...imagine you start praying to God to save your village from this terrible people group. And instead of getting the answer you want God to give you, something like “I will fight for you and wipe this nation from the earth”, God instead tells you to go to the capital city of this terrible people group, tell them about God, tell them everything they’re doing is wrong, and tell them that they need to stop it so God can forgive them.

WE - Tension

This is a group of people that you have lived your whole life scared of. These people have done unspeakable things. No one would fault you for thinking the world would be better off without this nation.

Yet… this is the same group of people you are being called to confront, preach to, and facilitate their forgiveness by God. And by association forgive yourself.

Could you do it?

Could you risk your life to help someone who in your eyes does not deserve it?

Could you forgive someone who has cost you a lifetime of restful sleep?

Could you forgive someone who has done worse things than you can imagine? and maybe even done them to people you know?

Could you do what God asks?

Some of you may have put the pieces together and figured out this was the story of Jonah from the Bible.

Today as we continue our series “HOT ONE’s” were going to look to Jonah to help us answer the questions of the day, “How should we balance our desire for justice with Jesus’ call to be merciful?”

This is week 2 in our 6 week series, where we’re holding no punches, but directly answering your toughest spiritual questions with the truth from Scripture. Our heat level is still at a green (someone showed me how to change the stage lights!!!). But...it’s going to quickly ramp up in the coming weeks.

If you missed last week, we looked at the story of Balaam to answer the questions, “When should the church adapt to the changing culture and when should the church stand apart?”.

If you missed the previous messages, please feel free go to our website, TheLightKC.org, to catch up.

As we begin, please turn with me to [Jonah 1:1]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND... if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Let's dive in.

GOD - Text

As we eluded to earlier, Jonah was born in the mid-700 BCs in the town of Gath-Hepher. A small town in northern Israel known for it’s wine. The name Gath-Hepher actually means “wine-press of shame”. Symbolically this name is appropriate as a winepress is regularly used in the bible as a metaphor for judgement, as in one getting crushed by judgement. The shame part of the name has historically been interpreted as a public judgement.

Jonah lived during a time of judgement from God. This was the time in Israel’s history when God used Assyria to enact judgement on Israel for their failure to live up to God’s covenant law. 100 years before Jonah, King Shalmaneser II of Assyria has defeated a combined army of Syria, Ammon, Aryad, Arabia, and Israel. Jonah probably grew up with stories from that war, people who knew people who were mutilated / missing limbs. The wounds Assyria inflicted upon Israel were fresh in the collective conscious of Israel.

Yet, when we meet Jonah in the Bible, God calls him to minister to the very people that had caused great pain to his people.

Let’s start in Jonah 1:1.

Jonah 1:1–2 NIV

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

Jonah was confronted with a choice.

The same choice we face every day.

To obey God (even if it doesn’t make sense to us), or to disobey (doing what we feel is right independent of what God calls us to).

Continuing in the next verse, let’s see how Jonah responds to God’s call.

Jonah 1:3 NIV

3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

To put that in context, Jonah lived in Gath-Hepher. Nineveh was 550 miles northeast from Jonah.

Jonah didn’t just disobey God, he went as far away from God as he could. Jonah got on a boat and sailed for Tarshish, 2,500 miles from Jonah’s hometown.

[map of Jonah’s travels]

If anything this speaks to Jonah’s faulty theology - you can’t run away from God. He is not a local deity. God is everyone and loves us enough to follow us whenever we try to run. We follow a God that wants the best for us and pursues us when we get led astray.

Do we every do this?

Do we feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit, calling us to act and run from that calling?

Jonah wasn’t just running from Nineveh because he was scared. Jonah was running because God wanted him to go preach to the Assyrians.

Jonah didn’t want the people of Nineveh, the people who had done all those terrible things to Israel, to have a chance at forgiveness.

He didn’t want them to have a chance at receiving God’s mercy. Jonah wanted judgement from God to come down on these people.

Are there people in your life that fall in this category?

Are there people that you know that you feel don’t deserve to be forgiveness? don’t deserve God’s mercy? That you want to experience God’s judgement?

Most of us have heard how the story proceeds. On the ship to Tarshish, there is a great storm that nearly sinks the boat. Jonah, knowing God is causing the storm tells the crew to throw him overboard to stop the storm and save the ship and crew. They reluctantly do so. A whale (or large fish) swallows Jonah. For 3 days and 3 nights Jonah prays. The whale throws Jonah up on the beach and reluctantly Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches the message God told him to preach. Jonah acts like the child told by their parent to say “I’m sorry”. He does the minimum to preach the message God gave him, but the Assyrians repent, they turn from their ways, and God spares them. God shows them mercy and forgives them of their past atrocities.

In fact, it has been said that Jonah is the most successful prophet with the least amount of effort.

We pick up the story in Jonah 4:1 with Jonah’s response to God’s mercy. Which says.

Jonah 4:1–5 NIV

1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.

I think there are times when we’re all confronted with moments like this.

We think we know what “SHOULD” happen, yet God has something else in mind.

What do we do when our idea of what’s right conflicts with what God knows is right?

How do you respond to the reality that God’s ways do not always align with your wants?

Well, on the hill, watching the city, God had a lesson in store for Jonah.

Let’s continue in Jonah 4:6.

Jonah 4:6–11 NIV

6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” 10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Jonah was focused on the realities of what the Assyrians did in the past. God knew that they didn’t know better, were never taught right from wrong, and needed someone to help them learn how to live a life in alignment with God’s ways.

YOU - Takeaway

I don’t know about you, but I get far to focused on the one or two small details that affect me. I think these details are so important that they SHOULD be important to everyone. Like Jonah, I get frustrated when nobody else cares about the things I care about, or even worse disagrees with me about how important these things are.

I get trapped thinking that my small view of the world is the only one that matters and the rest of the world (and maybe even God) should agree with me...because I KNOW I’M RIGHT.

Does anyone else join me in this?

Are there things that you know you ARE RIGHT about?

Have you ever gotten trapped in thinking the world (and maybe God) SHOULD agree with you on these topics?

Have you gotten frustrated or even angry (like Jonah) when confronted with the reality that others don’t agree with you?

Have you found yourself at the fork in the road between FORGIVENESS and MERCY, like Jonah did struggling to understand why God acted as He did?

[Fork in road picture]

Well, it is comforting (at least to me) that we’re not alone. Jonah struggled with it.

If you remember in Matthew 18:21, Peter asks Jesus the same question.

Matthew 18:21 NIV

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Peter here was entering in a debated topic of the day. The question of how often a person could sin, repent, and be forgiven of the same sin was debated by Jewish rabbis. They were concerned with the genuineness of the repentance. The rabbis generally agreed that three times was the maximum number of times a person could sin, repent, and be forgiven of the same offense. Thus Peter’s suggested answer of seven times, must have seemed very generous to everyone listening.

Yet Jesus had a different answer.

Matthew 18:22 NIV

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.

Yet, Jesus comes back with 70x7. The implication here is that there is no number. We’re not going to count to 490 infractions and bring the hammer down on the 491st.

Jesus calls us to forgive without limit.

Jesus repeats this call to withhold judgement and show mercy through forgiveness throughout the Gospels.

In the Beatitudes, the 8 statements Jesus uses to outline the characteristics of those who are blessed by God. Mercy takes center stage.

Matthew 5:7 NIV

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

But here, there is a quid-pro-quo, nature to Jesus’ statement.

We will only receive from God the mercy that we extend to others.

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

And this concept is repeated throughout the Bible.

In James, a book written to show believers how to live out their faith, James writes.

James 2:13 NIV

13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

This speaks to the very character of God.

We talked about this last Wednesday at our Rooted discipleship study, but “Who is God to you?”

Is God a judge that is watching your every move waiting to swing the gavel and pronounce judgement on your every wrong move?

Is God indifferent to what you do, uninterested, unwilling to judge for forgive us?

Or is God a loving God, one who as Psalms 145:8-9 put it...

Psalm 145:8–9 NIV

8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. 9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

But if this is who God says He is in His inspired word, WHY?

Why does God withhold judgement?

Why does God forgive things that we see as unforgivable?

Why does God call us to follow Him in forgiving those who have done unthinkable things to us?

Peter answer that for us.

2 Peter 3:9 NIV

9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Gospel Presentation

God wants to give every one of us, everyone He’s lovingly created every possible chance to repent. God wants all of us to see the Truth; that He loves us, that we broke our end of the deal and sin, that we deserve nothing from Him because of that sin, but that because of His love, He sent His Son Jesus to live a perfect life, die on the cross, taking the consequences of all our sins upon Himself, and raising from the dead on the third day giving all of us the chance to spend eternity with Him in heaven...if we believe.

So what are we to do?

How do we balance our desire for justice with God’s call to be merciful?

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:4-5...

1 Corinthians 4:4–5 NIV

4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

Paul councils us to Judge no one. To leave judgement to Jesus after He comes back. Because only Jesus knows that motivation of the hearts behind the actions. We can see the actions. But we don’t know the motivation. We don’t know what’s going on behind the actions. We don’t have a broad enough picture to judge fairly, we need to leave all judgement to Jesus.

Until Jesus comes back, we are called to be Patient, show Mercy, and join God in Praying that everyone comes to repentance.

So if I was to answer today’s question, “How should we balance our desire for justice with Jesus’ call to be merciful?”, as succinctly as I can this would be my answer.

We should humbly leave all judgement to God to be carried out when Jesus returns. In the meantime, we should follow God’s lead and show mercy to everyone, forgiving freely and repeatedly, praying that everyone repents from their past sins and find faith in Jesus Christ.

It’s not an easy answer, but I believe it is what we are all called to.

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

Micah 6:8 NIV

8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

This week...let’s take an inventory of our hearts an actions, making sure that in all things we are acting in accordance with God’s will.

At the same time, let’s be generous with the mercy that we show others, humbly accepting that we do not know enough to rightly judge them for what they’re doing.

Let’s pray for our everyone who wrongs us, asking God to soften their hearts, and give them the grace to repent and put their faith in the only one who can save, Jesus.

These week, let’s leave with the humbling reminder that God will use the same measure to judge us that we use to judge others, and God will show us the same level of mercy as we show to others.

Quick reminder...

Rooted Wednesday at 6 PM. Everyone welcome, even if you missed last week.

Youth Movie Night - This Friday the 13th at 7 PM in the student room.

Picnic at Strang Park June 29th after service. The church is proving the hamburgers and hotdogs. Everyone else can bring a side.

If you’re new, please stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

How can we actively demonstrate mercy in our daily interactions despite a desire for justice?

What personal experiences can you reflect on where you struggled to forgive someone, and how does Jonah's story relate to your situation?

In what ways do you think God encourages us to confront our biases against those we consider undeserving of mercy?

How can understanding God’s patience and mercy influence our approach to forgiveness?

Why is it important to look at God's perspective when we are faced with the decision of offering mercy versus seeking justice?

How can you show mercy in your school or community, especially towards those who have hurt you?

In moments of conflict with friends, how can you balance your feelings of wanting justice with the call to be merciful?

How does the story of Jonah inspire you to forgive someone in your life right now?

Have you ever felt like Jonah, being called to forgive someone who has hurt you? How did you respond?

What steps can you take this week to put mercy into action in your relationships?