Sermon Transcript
From Micah chapter 4. Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore, but they shall sit, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted. And the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off a strong nation. And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.
And you, O tower of the walk, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come; the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem. Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion! But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hooves bronze. You shall beat in pieces many peoples and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.
Well, hey, this is our 4th of 6 weeks where we are identifying 6 conversations that our friends, neighbors, colleagues are already having in which we can enter into and share that Jesus is a better story. Again, our primary purpose during these 6 weeks is to discover very tangible ways that we can share our faith naturally. We hope during these 6 weeks to make sharing our faith as minimally awkward as possible so that you will actually do it. I don’t wanna give you something that you won’t use, and I realize for a lot of us, us, talking about our faith in Christ makes us feel kind of exposed, makes us feel kind of different, so we don’t want to do it. And I understand.
I’m there with you, actually. Anytime I ever heard a preacher say something like, don’t worry about being different as a Christian because Christians are supposed to be different, I always thought, like, that might be true. That is true. But it sure seems like there must be a way to thoughtfully engage with people who we really care about and share with them the greatest treasure in the universe without sounding like we’re from another planet. Right?
Without pushing them away. Without ruining a relationship. Without making them think, oh no, here comes that Christian again. Like, there’s got to be a way. So that’s what we’re hoping to outline over these 6 weeks.
These are the 6 conversations that we’ve identified which we can enter into to show that Jesus is a better story. As a reminder, are the power, the vulnerable, purpose, justice, friendship, and self-worth. And again, review from previous weeks, in any of these conversations we are not giving you a script script of what to say. It’s not like you’re a telemarketer trying to sell toner and this is your training. That’s not what we’re doing.
Instead, we are thoughtfully engaging those around us on topics that apparently matter to them because very often, at least, they are the ones who bring them up. So that’s our primary goal, share Christ thoughtfully, naturally. Meaning our life group discussions must talk about how to share Christ in the context of these conversations. I know it’s tempting, but don’t waste your life group time trying to convince others your opinions on power, the vulnerable, purpose, etc., and fail to push each other toward how to share Christ. Christ in the midst of those conversations.
Okay, I know it’s tempting, but don’t do it, because our primary goal is not to debate the fine points of these topics. Our primary goal is how to enter into those topics and then talk about Christ. We got to get to that because it’s primary. Our secondary goal is to deepen or even begin our own faith, because the more and more that we see Jesus for who he the more compelling he becomes, and then the more we gravitate toward him, and the more our lives end up looking like his. So primary goal, how to share Christ.
Secondary goal, deepen or even begin our own faith. Today we’re looking at conversations involving the theme of justice, which of course is currently a pretty hot topic. All kinds of people are crying out for justice. There’s talk about social justice or injustices. Less seriously, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman are part of the Justice League.
When I was little, they were called Super Friends. Anybody else watch Super Friends? But they rebranded for some reason. We are swimming in conversations about justice. So today we’re going to look at our scripture passage and study what the Bible has to say on the topic.
And as we do, we’ll see a definition for justice, the need for a judge, and finally the goodness of the judge. A definition of justice, a need for a judge, and the goodness of that judge. So first, a definition of justice. Justice. Justice is setting right what has gone wrong.
That’s it. Something’s wrong, we’re going to set it right. That’s justice. But setting it right involves at least 3 different components that we will see from our passage. There are probably really more than 3 components, but only 3 in this passage.
So, one, penalty for wrongdoer. We’ll see that down in verses 11 through 13. We’ll take these one at a time. A minute. 2, returning what was taken.
See that in verse 8. And 3, restoring complete harmony, what the Bible calls shalom. See that in verses 3 and 4. So, um, we’re going to look through these pretty quickly because we still need to get to a need for a judge and the goodness of the judge. So first component of justice, penalty for the wrongdoer, verse 11 through 13.
The metaphor is those who have hurt others are gathered and and they are threshed like wheat. It’s not meant to be vengeance, but there has to be some kind of consequence for the person who did wrong. Imagine there is a victim of some kind of serious abuse and the courts know who did it. They have the offender, but they decide not to punish the offender, and instead the offender can just go on on, maintain life normal as if nothing had happened.
That would, for the victim, that would almost be a second blow, right? It would deepen the wound for the victim because the wrongdoer needs to be punished. It’s part of what justice is. Without that, justice has fallen short. So, then second component of justice, returning what has been taken.
Verse 8, the former dominion shall come, is what it says. They will get back what was lost. So for us, someone steals your car, you are the victim of injustice. Until a car of equal value is returned to you, right, full justice has not been done. Even if the thief is in jail, you are still suffering the effects of injustice.
So we haven’t made it right yet, right? Something is still wrong. And if, and if justice is setting right what has gone wrong, then justice hasn’t been done until you get back what was taken from you. Lastly, 3rd component of justice: restoring complete harmony, which is what the Bible calls shalom. Verses 3 and 4, the image is that weapons that were used for war are now used for farming.
And every person sits under his own vine. Every person has shade, provision, peace. It’s shalom. Shalom is when all relationships are harmonious, all nations are harmonious, people and God are harmonious. It’s the Garden of Eden.
Everything is as it should be. Nothing wrong needs to be set right because everything is right. It’s shalom. And until we get there, more justice needs to be done because justice is setting wrongs right. And if something’s off, if something’s messed up, it needs to be brought to the point of shalom, and that is doing justice.
So for instance, one of Beth and I’s favorite couples, it’s really the couple, the husband and wife who mentored Beth all through her high school years. He was in sales and she was a teacher, but then he felt a strong call to go into ministry. So he left his lucrative sales job and they followed where God led, and God led them to youth ministry in rural South Georgia, which they found extremely difficult. Because of the culture they encountered. Poor, rural South.
Schools are bad, not many jobs, drug use is high, and one generation after another, the cycle just repeats. It seems like kids follow in the pattern of their parents who followed in the pattern of their parents. On and on it goes. And they found people seemed suspicious against education or success. So, if a kid wanted to achieve, they were criticized by the whole community, like, why would you try to make something of yourself?
Do you think you’re better than us? Therefore, kids felt like they were doing something wrong, and these people, our friends who are in youth ministry, kids felt like they were doing something wrong if they achieved. So, our friends, of course, who were new to the area said, this is messed up. It needs to be fixed. But it’s not really like we can pin fault on any one person, right?
Like, if schools are bad, who do you point to and say, it’s that guy’s fault that schools are bad? It’s not like that. It’s not like there’s a someone who needs to be punished. It’s more like there’s something wrong with the entire culture or the whole system. That’s why we call it a systemic problem.
It’s built in. It’s everywhere. Like, it’s in the water. It’s the culture. It’s no one’s fault.
And at the same time, looking at it from a different way, it’s kind of everyone’s fault. I mean, even the kid partially. When the kid grows up, the kid needs to recognize how messed up the community is and say, I’m not going to repeat the same pattern, right? But undeniably, it is a problem. It needs to be fixed.
It’s not shalom. Kids born into that system will have a much harder time than kids born elsewhere. And we don’t want anyone in a messed-up environment. We want everyone to have shalom. And until everyone does, justice still needs to be done because something is still wrong.
And justice is setting wrongs right. So that’s biblical justice, penalizing the wrongdoer, returning what was taken, and restoring complete societal, relational, personal shalom. That’s justice. Got it? Okay.
Next, the need for a judge, the need for a judge. We don’t often want a judge. We don’t think we want a judge. ‘Cause for many of us, judgment carries a negative connotation, and of course, none of us want to be judged. So we think having a judge is bad, judge is bad.
But actually, we need a judge, because if we don’t have one, who is it that determines right from wrong? I realize this is a big concept, so we’ll come at it several different ways. If we don’t have a judge, who says what is right right and what is wrong. Like our friends who moved to rural South Georgia, they thought the community was messed up, but the community didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. So who is to say?
How do you choose? Like, if you’re going to do justice, if you are going to set right what has gone wrong, then you need some standard to declare what is right and what is wrong. You need a judge. Judge, or it’s just free-for-all, everyone has their own opinion. This passage recognizes God as the judge between nations, verse 3.
One nation says it’s right, another nation claims it is right, but who is actually right and who decides? So, for instance, women’s rights in the Middle East versus Western ideals of women’s They are not the same. So, who is actually right? Do you think the US should go over to the Middle East and tell them they are doing it wrong? I do, if we’re voting.
But isn’t that just cultural elitism? Aren’t we just forcing our Western values on them? I mean, if you think they are wrong, like objectively wrong, wrong, like you have the real truth that everyone needs to follow. How do you prove that you have the real truth that everyone needs to follow? What standard do you appeal to?
Is there some universally recognized authority that governs all of us that says how we all must behave? Is there one? If so, what is it? Think about this. Unless there is a God to whom we are all accountable, there is no such It’s just my opinion versus yours.
There is no way to prove who has real truth because there is no real truth. We said this in the video if you’re in a small group, but people often try to prove they are right. Really, what they’re doing is by appealing to the majority. They will say something like, everyone knows you can’t treat women that way. Everyone knows that’s wrong.
Like, you know, as if everyone knows it, that would be enough proof. But first, not everyone knows it. Not everyone agrees. There are at least a billion people in this world who would disagree with your Western ideals about the proper way to treat women. So, it’s not everyone.
It might be the majority. It probably is. But let’s say it is the majority. Are you saying then that majority rules? Whatever the majority says, that is how we will determine real right from real wrong?
Is that what you want to do? Really? I mean, okay, we can do that, but you know what that means? It means by definition the minority is always wrong, always. Is that what you want to say?
Is that how you want to judge between nations? One nation says something is good, another nation says something is bad, you want the world to vote to determine what is actually bad? Imagine it’s the year 1780. The transatlantic slave trade is at its peak, and so far only Vermont has abolished slavery. All the other colonies, the U.S. federal government, Britain, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, France, they all think chattel slavery is great.
You think it’s wrong. It is wrong. The Bible says it’s wrong, 1 Timothy 1:10, or in the Old Testament, it was punishable by death. That’s pretty serious. But how do you convince anyone outside the state of Vermont that it’s wrong?
You can’t say, everyone knows it’s wrong. In fact, they would use that argument against you. They would say, everyone knows slavery is okay. The world has always had slaves. The world always will have slaves.
It’s okay. And you’re like, you can’t treat people that way! And they would say, okay, why not? Everyone else thinks it’s okay. We’ve always done it.
Why can’t we treat people that way? Way. What is it that you point to? How do you prove it’s wrong? See, there’s nothing there.
There’s nothing to point to unless there is a God to whom we are all accountable. There is no judge between nations. It’s just my opinion versus yours, my very strong opinion, but just an opinion. So, we need a judge. We need one.
Without one, there is no real justice. Now, as we’ve said all along, our goal is to find ways to fold kind of gigantic concepts into regular conversations. And you might be thinking, you know, Dan, I never have conversations about how problematic relative morality is. I’m not on a debate team. Fair.
Me neither. Okay, however, we bump up against this all the time. People cry foul about human rights violations pretty frequently, workers’ rights in other countries. Or I had a conversation with someone who traveled to India for business, and he saw really for the first time the caste system still in effect, which the caste— officially the caste system is abolished, but really it’s still there, kind of like racism in our country. It’s illegal, legal, but it’s still around, right?
There’s like lingering suspicions and judgments and superiorities, and it plays itself out all the time. So my friend goes to India and he sees extreme wealth right next to extreme poverty. Literally, he’s sitting in the fancy hotel eating his fancy food, looking out the window at literally third-world poverty. And it bothered him, and he’s telling me about it. And I said, it bothers me too.
That’s messed up. And we talk about it a little bit. Then I say, but for them, at least for millennia, they looked at that exact same poverty that you’re looking at, but instead of calling it unjust like you and I do, they called it just and good and fair. If you were in one of the lower classes, you were an untouchable, a pariah. That meant that you had failed in a previous life and now you were being punished.
So your poverty was really justice being done. You deserved it. So we don’t need to help you. We don’t need to give you rights. In fact, if we did, we would be messing up like the system of justice in the universe.
That’s what they believed for millennia. And unofficially, it’s still very much in effect today. My friend says, that’s wrong. They are wrong about that. You can’t treat people that way.
I say, I know. I agree. And it’s deeper than just we feel that it’s wrong, right? We believe that it’s really wrong. It doesn’t— it’s deeper than feelings.
It doesn’t matter what their culture says, it’s still wrong. And my friend says, absolutely.
Okay, big step here. I’d say there is no way to prove another culture is really wrong more than just we feel they are wrong unless there is some law that applies to all cultures, unless there is a lawgiver who sets what is ethical for everyone regardless of their feelings, regardless of their traditions. There’s no way to do it unless there is a God. A little bit of pushback from my friend, and I’m like, you know, I know you know that I’m a Christian and you probably think I’m just trying to convince you of that, but even atheists— I say even atheists are saying this today. Like, I gave you all the William Provine quote last week.
There is no ultimate foundation for ethics. No ultimate meaning in life. Or even Richard Dawkins says there is no way to have absolute morals without religion. He thinks relative are okay, but that’s a different story. There is no judge.
Unless there is a judge of all nations, there is no basis to call something really wrong. It’s just my opinion. It’s just my feelings. And other people have different opinions. And different feelings, and theirs aren’t any more or less valid than ours.
So, I tell my friend, you must choose. Do you want your atheism or do you want your justice?
You can’t have both. And hey, plenty of atheists out there right now saying, to stay consistent with our beliefs, there is no real morality. Reality. There is no real justice. They’re owning it, which I applaud.
So if you want to go that way, good for you, but don’t get too upset if someone bribes your supervisor to get the promotion over you because bribery is acceptable in some cultures. And don’t get too upset if someone doesn’t treat your daughter with dignity Because that’s acceptable in many cultures. Don’t get too upset because you’ve chosen. There is no real morality, no real justice. It’s just feelings.
And those people over there think it’s okay. And I have no more right to claim my feelings are real and apply to everyone else than they do.
Okay, so to have real justice, there needs to be a judge. Has to be. That’s the need for a judge.
And hallelujah, there is one, and he’s good. So let’s talk about the goodness of a judge, of our judge, of the real judge. He brings redemption. He brings redemption. The God of the Bible doesn’t only condemn evil.
Although He does condemn evil. Again, that’s verses 11 through 13. He tramples it as wheat on the threshing floor. And the God of the Bible doesn’t only give back what was lost, although He does that too, verse 4, verse 8, but more than those things, the God of the Bible redeems what is evil. He takes what was meant for evil and repurposes it for good.
In these verses again, weapons are transformed into farming tools, verse 3. They are repurposed. It’s the same piece of metal, but instead of being used for destruction, it is now used for cultivation. And people who were excluded because they were lame, verse 6, are now included for the exact same reason, verse 7. The lame become the remnant.
They have the same characteristic as they did before, but now that characteristic is an asset instead of a liability. Jesus, of course, was drawn to people with physical needs. Then he heals them and he restores them so they experience Jesus in a way they never would have if they never had a need. What was meant to hurt them was turned to aid them. Evil is forced to serve us for our good.
This is what God always does. Romans 8:28, he uses all things for our good, including things that were intended intended as evil toward us. 2 examples from Jesus’ life that show the same principle: the cross and his scars. The cross and his scars. When Jesus was crucified, everything about that was evil.
It’s a terrible injustice. Totally innocent man executed by people who lied and created a sham of a trial. He was whipped. He was tortured, all unjustly. It was all evil, all of it.
When the disciples were looking at it, they thought this is the worst event in the history of the world, and it probably was. But what was God doing in that? God was saving the world through it. Jesus’ conspirators meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Think about this.
God forced sin to defeat sin It’s like sin took aim at Jesus, had Him in His— had it in its sights, and then when they pulled the trigger, it turned back and blew up in their own face. God used sinful actions of men to free the world from sin because the sinful actions put Jesus on the cross where Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. Again, if justice is to be served, the wrongdoer must be penalized, but Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, thus freeing us from it and reconciling us to God. Evil was forced to accomplish good. Evil just wasn’t stopped, which it was, it was turned on its head and it was forced to accomplish the opposite from what it intended.
After Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples completely flipped their understanding of the crucifixion. What they once thought was horrific, they now sang about with joy. And it’s not like they sang about it because, like, the crucifixion’s kind of slowly faded from their mind. It’s not some kind of, like, time heals all wounds. It’s not that.
That’s not how God heals. Instead, tragedies and traumas are redeemed so that eventually they are used for our good. Meaning, everything we once grieved, we will one day celebrate. Just like the disciples did with the crucifixion.
I know for some of you that seems impossible because the tragedies in your life are so deep or so painful or so ongoing, you think there is no way you could ever sing about them with joy. In fact, even me proposing the idea that you will one day sing about it with joy, that seems disgusting to you. Like, no way I could ever rejoice about that.
I get it.
I wouldn’t dare guess how God will redeem your trauma, and I can’t tell you when God will redeem it. Jesus was in the grave 3 days. The part of your past that God will redeem might feel like it’s in the grave for 30 years. Before God transforms it. You may not sing about it with joy until you are with Jesus in eternity.
And you certainly are not doing anything wrong if you are still grieving it right now. Grieve away. Absolutely. It is not on you to force yourself to stop grieving. Grieving is part of your healing.
Go for it. But there will come There will come a day when God will so restore what was taken from you that you will celebrate the day that it was broken.
If he can do that with the tragedy of the cross, if the disciples could rejoice about the crucifixion, he can do it with your tragedy. He makes all things new. He uses all things for our good. He redeems. He restores.
That’s the kind of judge he is.
Second example from Jesus, the scars in his hands. You ever wonder why Jesus still has scars in his hands from the crucifixion even after his resurrection? Because aren’t we supposed to be totally healed when we get to eternity? If so, why wasn’t Jesus totally healed? Why does Jesus still have scars?
Because those scars are a source of celebration. Those scars mean the redemption of his people. Every time he looks at those scars, it deepens his joy and everyone else’s. Scars from our past don’t disappear. Again, it’s not like when God restores, all the tragedy from our lives, like, fade from our memory.
That’s not it. Instead, scars are at the forefront of our memory, but they have been turned to a source of celebration.
There’s actually one other place in Scripture where it mentions something is permanently visible on Jesus’ hands. It’s Isaiah 49:16. It says, the names of all the redeemed are engraved on his hands. All of our names who have trusted in him for the forgiveness of our sins are engraved on his hands. And I wonder, are maybe the engraved names and the scars from the cross one and the same?
Does Jesus look at His scars and say, this wound is Todd. This wound is Fritz. This wound is Stan. These are our elders, by the way. This wound is Mark.
This wound is Nikolai. This wound is Brad. This wound is John. This wound is Al. Wound is Mel?
I wonder.
But whether the scars and the engraved names are one and the same or not, Jesus looks at the scars and He rejoices. He celebrates His scars. And one day, Christian, you will celebrate yours. That’s God’s justice. That is the extent to which God sets wrongs right.
That’s a pretty good story, isn’t it? Now, if you’re sharing that with other people, this is just one suggestion. Hopefully, you’ve got other ideas from your life group, but one idea for when someone notices something is wrong and then they make some kind of hopeless statement like, the world will never be the same. Or right now, right? The situation in Ukraine and Russia.
I’ve said this, like, I don’t see any way we can get out of this, right? How do we reverse back, right? It’s a hopeless statement. Like, the world will never be the same. We can’t back out now.
Or people will look at a kid with crazy parents or no parents and they will say, that kid is going to be messed up. Up forever, right? Or my friends who are in rural Georgia. It’s the same thing with people working in a lot of inner-city environments. They say something like, this is impossible to fix, right?
It’s some kind of hopeless statement. People make those. It’s like throw your hands up in frustration because we can’t make it right. People say those kind of things. When they do, you, one, grieve with them.
You should have been doing that already. 2, you do everything you possibly can to fix it. You should have been doing that already. But then 3, you say something like, this really shows us how much the world needs a Redeemer, doesn’t it?
Things like this really show us how much the world needs a Redeemer, don’t they? Try as we might, might, and we should, and we will try. That’s not an option. But we can’t make it truly whole again. We can’t.
It needs to be whole again. I want it to be whole again, but we can’t get there. And that ache in our soul that we can’t make it right points us to the one who will make it right. You can say that. Your friend might say, that’s a nice fairy I wish I could believe that some magic man in the sky will make all this better someday.
And you say, it is a nice story, but it’s more than a story. I know the Redeemer is real because He is redeeming me. He picked me up out of my sin, He forgave me, and He’s fixing me, kind of despite my efforts to resist Him. He’s still fixing me for some reason. He’s He’s real, and He says He’s going to redeem the world, bring shalom to the world, so I believe Him, ’cause He’s already started with me.
Do you think the world needs a Redeemer? Do you think you need a Redeemer? It does, and you do, and His name is Jesus. Pray to Him. Ask Him for forgiveness.
Join Him in putting this world back together. Let’s pray. Jesus, thank you for being a redeemer. Thank you for putting justice in our hearts that we want what is wrong to be set right. I pray, Lord, that we would see what was wrong, admit what was wrong around us, see all the injustices that are happening in our world, in our country, in our community, among our friends, and that we would have the courage to work to set them right.
Lord, may we want shalom, and may we not stop until we have achieved it alongside of you, Lord. Thank you for inviting us to partner with you to put this world back together. Give us strength to do it. We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
