Foundations of Christian Justice

A Tale of 2 Farms

Just outside the city, are two farms. On one side is a very successful sheep farm called Franklin Farms and on the other is a small poor little hobby farm run by a man named Jake.

yeah not a very good neighbour… farms. On one side is a very successful sheep farm called Franklin Farms and on the other is a small poor little hobby farm run by a man named Jake.

Just outside the city, are two farms. On one side is a very successful sheep farm called Franklin Farms and on the other is a small poor little hobby farm run by a man named Jake.

Parable of the little lamb

one day Jake had gone into Brandon and with a small amount of cash he managed to scrounged up he had bought a little lamb from the Keystone Center Livestock Sale.

Jake loved this little lamb, from the moment he brought it home his kids played with it, it ate from his table scraps since he had very little money to buy proper feed. He even let the little lamb sleep in his arms on cold nights.

Meanwhile back on the Franklin Farms, Papa Franklin had just finished up a deal that would secure a new business client. This new client just happen to be of Jewish descendant and has been known for his devote religious views. So in order to ensure good relations with his new client Papa Franklin had did a little research and found out that one of the Jewish festivals was coming up. Wanting to please his new client, Papa had planned a huge gathering.

But Papa didn't want to use any of his hundreds of lambs for the upcoming feast so he called up one of his farm hands and told him to sneak over to the Jake Farm and “Borrow” his little lamb that had started to grow quite plump.

That night while the little lamb was sleeping on the deck the farm hand had took it and brought it back to the Franklin Farms and prepared it for the feast the next day.

Transition - How many of you were expecting this to be a nice ending?

The next day

We

yeah not a very good neighbor…

How dare Papa Franklin just take that poor helpless lamb… and to boot he had hundreds of lambs to choose from but he was too selfish to use any of his own he had to go out of his way to steal this poor guys little lamb that he loved like his own child.

If you were in Jake's shoes would you want justice? I don't care how successful Papa was, what he did was wrong and deserves to pay for what he did… Right?

What if I told you that Jake and Papa Franklin both go to the same Church and both confess to be true followers of Christ?

Lets say for a moment you happen to be driving by when this took place and you saw a strange man on Jake's porch taking the little lamb and then heard about how someone stole the lamb on church the next Sunday.

what would you do? does Papa Franklin who happens to be an elder of the Church and a very “Good man” deserve justice?

What do we do when a brother or sister in Christ wrongs or cheats us?

Transition - Turn with me to

I want justice!

God

1 - If any of you has a dispute against another, how dare you take it to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

2 - Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the trivial cases?

3 - Don’t you know that we will judge angels—how much more matters of this life?

4 - So if you have such matters, do you appoint as your judges those who have no standing in the church?

5 - I say this to your shame! Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between fellow believers?

6 - Instead, brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers!

7 - As it is, to have legal disputes against one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

Transition - Some strong words by Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth. But he does deal with an important foundation. The Foundation of Christian Justice.

How Christians Should Conduct Justice

How Christians should conduct justice

So, lets take a look today at “How Christians should conduct justice”

You cant help but notice that Paul in this part of the letter seems kind of stressed out.

The language can be hard to hear, it sounds angry and frustrated… But he does have a good reason for this. He had spent a good amount of time in Corinth setting up a church only to get reports back saying how they are no longer acting like Christians. This part of the letter Paul deals with Christian Justice.

Just like last week we had focused on one part of forgiveness, and this week is not much different we are going to explore an important growth point in our walk with Christ, for some this will be a refresher for others its another milestone to help you grow further in Christ.

I can be cool and calm when talking to others but when It comes to writing oh boy look out ha ha!

In a lot of ways I tend to be the same way. I can be cool and calm when talking to others but when It comes to writing oh boy look out!

Now, we as followers of Christ will at some point be faced with a situation that is going to cause us to first exercise our forgiveness and justice, since they are both really close relatives to each other its best that we learn “How we as Christians should conduct justice.”

Transition - Lets start first by looking at the problems this church faced and see how we can learn from their ways.

Transition - The first thing we learn about Christian Justice is that “Its Not About Revenge!”

The Problem - Verse 1 “If any of you has a dispute against another”

“If any of you has a dispute against another”

Last week covered the topic of forgiveness. And for anyone who missed last week or needs a quick refresher we learned that “We as Christians MUST forgive others when they come to you seeking forgiveness”

“ever since the fall of mankind we have this idea that every time someone offends us we have to take actions against the offender. We have this natural reaction to seek revenge in some form or fashion and most of the time we call it JUSTICE.”

WE have this mentality of “you hurt me, so I will look for a way to get back at you.”

But that is not the true natural way things should be done. since the fall of man until Jesus was born it has been like that. But when Jesus came his teaching says we are not to confuse justice with personal revenge such as insults, we are not to take justice in our own hands.

We are commanded by the Word of God to “Wait on the Lord, and He will rescue you.” Paul reinforces this in his letter to the Romans by saying:

“Friends, do no avenge yourselves; instead, leave room fro God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.”

As you can see we as Christians must first be willing to forgive others but we must also not seek out vengeance against anyone who wrongs us.

Notice how I didn't say Justice but I said vengeance, we are not to seek out revenge for any wrong doings but as Paul says in verse one of today’s text “if any of you has a dispute against another” at this level we can see that the Church in Corinth needs some maturing to do.

In-depth look at the problem

Actually there is a two part problem here, the first problem is that they failed to seek out anyone within the church itself to be the judge for them so they can settle the dispute.

Reminds me of this picture I got hanging my basement it says “Never tell anybody outside the family what you are thinking again.” - Veto

(Godfather Pic)

okay so this is not the Godfather we are talking about but...

Paul says “how dare you take it to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” and goes on to say that we as followers of Christ will, some day when Christ returns, stand with Him and judge the world. Paul also says that will judge angels.

Since we are destined to be the judge of such things why then would we as followers of Christ have people who are not followers of Christ be the judge over us to help us settle our own accounts.

What Paul is telling the Church here is that the unsaved people who live around these STRANGE Christians would say things like:

“Look at these followers of Christ. They preach a great message of forgiveness and justice but they come to us who they call “lost” and want us to be the judge for them? How can this Jesus be so powerful if his followers cant even work out small disputes?”

In Paul's mind when he hears about this he is mad. It makes the Christian faith look like a joke to those they are trying to reach with the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

So to correct this, Paul gives them a teaching that should help them figure out the disputes until they reach maturity. He commands them to seek out someone within the Church body that has the wisdom and maturity to work out the dispute. To be the neutral party so they can figure it out.

It kinds of reminds me of when I was a young boy. I would get into an argument with my older sister about the “Special Fork” the “Big Bird” fork that we use to fight over all the time. We would end up going to my mother to settle the dispute on who gets to have the fork.

My mother would work out a deal that each of us would get it. I would get it today and my sister tomorrow. Imagine if I had gone to the police over such a dispute?

Paul suggests that we as the church should appoint someone who is wise to help settle our disputes

(Picture of Child Christian)

But that leads to the second problem. the problem of maturity, as children its fine to go to our elders to settle disputes but we must continue to grow in Christ and put away childish things.

Paul covers this when he gets to Verse 7 “As it is, to have legal disputes against one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?”

This part of the letter goes to show that having a dispute should be taken care of by the church before it even gets to the legal courts. but what is more interesting about this problem is that it would even get that far in the first place.

Think about that for a moment. And sure, call me crazy… however, If we are Christians we shouldn't even have disputes with each other.

Crazy idea right!?

But, as we grow in Christ and we start to put to death the flesh we do have areas of our lives that still need transformation. So when disputes do happen we need to learn to reject our natural reaction of getting even and wanting justice for the wrong reasons.

Transition - Now here is where justice comes into play, we dont just give up and let people walk all over us and No we dont take the law into our own hands. But we do have some very good teaching to follow when a brother or sister commits an offence against you.

First of all it belongs to Christ we are only taking care of it for Him. So tell Him about it. Then let God take care of it.

By giving all of our problems when they come up to Christ first in prayer we demonstrate maturity. We might get angry but dont sin.

Transition - Now here is where justice comes into play, we dont just give up and let people walk all over us and No we dont take the law into our own hands. But we do have some very good teaching to follow when a brother or sister commits an offence against you.

If some cheats another person or wrongs another person then they have some serious growing to do.

The Truth of the Gospel

In Closing turn with me to . I want you all to see it with your own eyes. The best way to let this soak in is to slow down and read it as we go through the text. Let the Word of God soak into your spirits as we work through this last section.

If the other person wishes to demonstrate a Christ Like lifestyle they would rather be cheated or wronged for the sake of demonstrating a Christ-like lifestyle.

Be a Wise Judge

Its not about Revenge! (; ; )

That is right! We do not peruse justice for the sake of revenge.

We learn from the Word of God that we are not to seek out justice for evil on our own. That is called being a vigilante and that is what happens when you take justice and law into your own hands and do everything you can to judge, jury, and executioner all in one.

We are commanded by the Word of God to “Wait on the Lord, and He will rescue you.” Paul reinforces this in his letter to the Romans by saying:

“Friends, do no avenge yourselves; instead, leave room fro God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.”

oh I know its hard to let it go folks, last week we heard all about how difficult is really is to forgive someone but now we need to let God handle the rest.

and we need to take it one step further as well. As Christians even if we are wronged or offended in anyway we must do what is commanded of us in the scriptures. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.”

At first it might not feel good for doing that. First you wronged or cheated, now you must forgive them and not seek revenge but give them food and water?

Feel

Yes, after all our goal as Christians is to live a life that mirrors Jesus, How can we ever win brothers and sisters over if we are hurt by them then look for ways to get back at them, tell me then where is love in that?

Feel

Transition - That leads to the next point “Christian Justice, Its about love”

Do not seek revenge

Its about Love

Know

Let Love be two-faced. embrace evil; cling to what is bad. Hate one another deeply as enemies and in-laws. Outdo one another in showing selfishness. Be sure to lack zeal; be fake in the Spirit; serve thy self. Rejoice in hate; be impatient in suffering; be lacking in prayer. Dont share with the saints in their needs; pursue hostility. Curse those who persecute you; curse and do not bless. Mock those who rejoice; laugh at those who weep. Live in chaos with one another. Be extra proud; despise the humble. You are wise in your own estimation. Make sure to repay that evil jerk with evil. Give careful thought on how to look better in everyone’s eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, always look for ways to get back at others.

Feel

Be a Wise Judge

Know

know that we will be the judges of this world and of angels

Feel

Love not law (Matthew 18)

Love not law (Matthew 18)

We

15 If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.

Here is where maturity comes into action, someone has wronged you. Last week we learned that we MUST forgive anyone who offends you when they ask.

But here is what we do if a fellow Christian commits an offence toward you. You don’t smile and walk away carrying the hurt with you. But what we do is go to them in private and work out the dispute.

However before you do this!

The key here is not to say “Rob! you jerk you hurt me with that terrible comment you made!”

No! The goal is to win your brother back through LOVE. The goal is to demonstrate a Christ-like attitude. Love is the key.

16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.

again, the goal is not to hurt but to HEAL.

When you go back to your brother or sister you are not going with intentions to trap them by having a witness and say “HA! I got you now you little bugger” No, what you are going to do is show them that you love them enough to work out the dispute and reconcile them, and show them that you are willing forgive.

17a If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church.

again, do this to win back your brother or sister. The goal is love not law.

We should never call upon the Church to break someone down to gain “Justice”.

The Church is here if we ever need to call on the whole family to conduct an intervention and Lord willing we never need to go that far.

But like that old saying goes “it takes a village to raise a child”

17b If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.

17b If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.

by this point start to preach the good news of Jesus Christ and try to reach them as they are lost.

My Challenge to you this week is sit down the the Lord in prayer and start to ask what areas of your life do you still need to let go of. What disputes, what wrongs,

My Challenge to you this week is sit down the the Lord in prayer and start to ask what areas of your life do you still need to let go of. What disputes, what wrongs are you holding on too.

Has anyone cheated you?

Has anyone wronged you?

are you still seeking justice?

or are you seeking to win your brothers and sisters back?

My prayer is that each of you will seek to win your brothers and sisters back through love not law.

Lets Pray.

oops

Story of injustice

Ugh

I want Justice!

Aha

do you really?

Whee

matthew 18

Yeah!