WAKE UP! (Race Relations Faithfulness)
THIS IS 2020?!?! • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsSecond Sermon in continued faithfulness in 2020 series
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Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.
INTRO—
So, here it comes…It’s time for us to wake up! My concern for us, Christians, in our day and in our nation facing another specific challenge to us being truly awake (woke to knowing and living the truth)
Everything exposed by the light is made visible, for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
…can be embodied in a controversial context.
Question: What is your first thought—your first reaction—when you hear, “Black lives matter” …? Let me challenge you with the claim that if your first response is anything other than “Yes,” then you are in the wrong biblically.
Now, that I’ve got your attention…let me work through some of the finer points of what I am getting at. My concern is with being able to affirm the truth claim of the statement. The simple question is, “Do black lives matter?” What is your answer to the question. It’s a simple Yes or No question...
BUT!!!....what about? If that is your default/first reaction, I ask you why? When a house is on fire we are moved to appreciate the singular focus of those attempting to rescue the family of that house…because that family matters. The focus of attention in the moment is not a commentary on the rest of the residents on that street…that neighborhood…that city… AND, in our nation we have a whole community, people group, who are experiencing significant anguish…and it didn’t just begin back in May with the death of George Floyd (I know it seems like longer ago…is it any wonder then that feelings of many in the black community are still raw?
I know this issue is complicated. Some ‘solutions’ which have been suggested are simply not helpful. Work on this issue will take time. We must fight the temptation to become fatigued in the pursuit of racial justice in our nation.
I must also answer another “BUT,” and say that affirming the truth of the fact that we must advocate that “black lives matter” must never be construed—insofar as I am concerned—as affirming or advocating the organization known as Black Lives Matter. That organization’s platform advocates things which are definitively contrary to biblical truth and world view…but we cannot refuse to say ‘black lives matter’ simply because a group with whom we disagree also says it.
So, for TODAY, I think we should (must?) focus on the biblical reasons showing us why we are right to…in fact must...be on the front lines of racial reconciliation (race relations) as Christians.
EVERYONE’S VALUE: Imago Dei
The foundation and validity of the truth that all people, every ethnicity, are of significant value comes from God’s creation of us all...
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.
Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed, for God made humans in his image.
This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind.
ANYONE’S SALVATION: Everyone Who Believes
As we’ve also noted previously, Jesus sets no ethnic parameters for salvation...
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
EVERYBODY’S EXAMPLE: Made Both Groups One
Christians are to be the model of racial harmony...
After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
CONCL—
We must also never lose sight of this important truth: Lasting change regarding this sin issue (racism/injustice) will only ever be found in the life-transforming work Jesus does on lives of people who repent and trust Him as their Savior and Lord. This is a Gospel issue…on so many levels.
But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.
After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. I will even pour out my Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days. I will display wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the Lord promised, among the survivors the Lord calls.
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the Lord promised, among the survivors the Lord calls.