Sermon Tone Analysis
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Have you had an injustice commited against you and either the law seemed to take a long time to bring justice or you never recieved justice?
Aaron hit my truck story -
Life can get very frustrating when justice is postponed or delayed.
Today we are going to talk about
How to Respond When Justice Is Slow.
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We will be looking at the story of when John the Baptist doubted Jesus as the Messiah or at the very least questioned it.
Now keep this in mind:
John was the cousin of Jesus
John Baptized Jesus
John recognized Jesus as the Messiah at Jesus’ baptism.
John told Jesus that he (John) should be baptized by Jesus, rather than Jesus being baptized by him.
John believed he was the forerunner of the coming Messiah.
John is in prison for calling out king Herod for all of his sins including his sexual sins.
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Matthew 11:1-
Ouch - This is John the Baptist doubting or questioning Jesus as Messiah.
And then look at what Jesus says at the end.
“God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.”
Jesus is challenging John’s doubt!
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So what is the deal?
Why is John questioning Jesus as the Messiah?
John has an idea of the Messiah in his mind and is likely thinking of
Mal 3:1-
John is setting in prison and wondering why Jesus has over turned the puppet government of Israel and beaten out the Romans.
I am righteous and I am setting in prison - Where is the justice of God for these evil doers?
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Jesus Responds -
Jesus is quoting a few passages of Isa back to John.
The point Jesus is making is – I am the one who is fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah.
I am who I say I am.
Now John would have had these prophesies memorized and he would have easily understood what Jesus was saying.
In each of the Isa prophesies there are two actions the Messiah takes:
The Judgment of evil - This is what John was looking for.
The restoration of the down trodden and the call to return to God’s Kingdom.
Jesus is telling John that he has it backwards.
Restoration and a call to repentance is first.
and only then comes Judgment.
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Judgment and Justice Will Come
Jesus is not saying - “God changed his mind.
No more justice!”
Jesus is telling John that his time table is not the time table of God
And God desires to give Israel a chance to turn back to Him.
But justice and judgment are coming.
Jesus makes this point clear just a few verses later.
Matt 11:20-
Jesus was the last chance for Israel and how they responded to him and His message of the Kingdom would decide their fate.
Their response as a nation was to reject Him and His message and to have him killed.
Judgment did come - AD 70 - Titus sacked Jerusalem and set it to blaze.
Judgment did come - AD 70 - Titus sacked Jerusalem and set it to blaze.
1.1 million died according the eye witness and historian Josephus.
The rest of the citizens became slaves to the Roman empire.
Rome itself was burned to the ground in AD 64 and finally collapsed as an Empire in 476 AD.
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Right after Jesus warns the cities of God’s judgment he says this:
Matt 11:
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Jesus demonstrates to us and showed John God’s incredible love and long suffering.
God cares about justice and making things right.
But he also cares about the people who practice injustice.
We can desire justice and for the world to be right.
But Jesus gives us the pattern of God and for us - Love and long suffering towards our enemies.
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Our desire for vengeance needs to be checked by God’s desire for repentance.
It is easy to get caught up in the same system that God will judge.
· We begin to see anyone not like us as enemies.
· We begin to imagine God hates the same people we hate.
· Our lack of mercy on others begins to be seen as righteous judgment.
· We begin to look forward to the judgment of our enemies rather than holding out hope for repentance and reconciliation.
· Before long we look and act just like the evil system God will judge.
But God calls us to a higher standard than the ways of this fallen world he calls us to the way of the Kingdom of God.
In a corrupt world with unimaginable amounts of injustice we can easily become a people of hatred.
But God’s slowness towards judgment is because of His love for even the evil doer.
He is slow to anger
He is long suffering
And he desires for all to come to a knowledge of Him through Jesus.
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When justice is slow we have two choices.
We can question God like John did.
Or we can recognize that God still has a work to do in the hearts of the people and we can choose to partner with Him.
Seek justice - Desire Justice - But Love your enemy too.
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