what does jesus say about racial justice. Now before we jump into things, I just wanna be upfront and honest with you and share the limitations of this message First. You need to know that we're not going to solve all of the issues surrounding this topic. In a 30 minute talk second, I have to acknowledge the limitations of my expertise on this topic as a white male growing up here in America and Western civilization and having experienced things like white privilege and other things that I don't pretend to fully understand and identify what our african american brothers and sisters have gone through. But what I do want to do is that I want to address things from a historical perspective as our country and nation is walking through this topic right now each and every day and then I want to take a deeper dive and to see what is it that jesus actually has to say about this topic and then we're gonna land with some practical handles or just personal next steps that you can take right now in light of racial justice. So not so much wide sweeping system changes that our country needs to go through, but more so a personal, powerful and practical application directly from the message of jesus. So with everything going on, let me just pray for our country, our community and for you viewing this message right now, dear God we know that the topic of racial justice is a sensitive one. We know that there are landmines everywhere that there are loaded phrases and words that mean different things to different people. We know there are strong opinions, but God I pray that we can humbly come together, study your word and use your example, jesus as our example to follow. And so we give this message up to you and your sons. Then we pray amen if you're taking notes, I want you to write down the big idea for today's message and it's this, that racial justice is a gospel issue. You might be thinking yourself well, I'm not racist. This doesn't apply to me know, it applies to everyone because at its core racial justice and then injustice is really a matter of the gospel Ministry leader robert Linthicum in his book city of God city of satan right about the time that he first experienced and recognized that there was such a thing as systemic racism in America. He was leading a ministry in an inner city location and he saw an african american woman who came from a poor neighborhood, come to the ministry and get saved and start growing dramatically in her faith and robert was super encouraged by this. But when the summer was over, he had to go off to seminary, resumed classes and so he went off for about a year and when he came back, he searched for Eva this girl and was stunned to find that here she was now practicing prostitution. When he came across Eva, he asked her what happened, She told him that one day she was walking through the town and two men stopped her and said, if you don't go into prostitution, we are going to kill your father and your brother. And robert responded, why didn't you have faith in God? Why didn't you just go to the police, tell them what happened and then continue going to bible study like you were supposed to? And she responded, no robert, you don't get it. The two men that approached me and threatened me were cops. It was in that moment that robert Linthicum recognized that there were systemic problems within our country and I want us as a church. I know this can be seen as uncomfortable, but we have to acknowledge where we've come from and where we are currently as a society. You know, the biggest battle in war that our country ever faced was with each other over the topic of slavery. And then after that, our African American brothers and sisters experienced things like the jim crow laws or segregation and extreme racism that then played itself out through government programs like redlining where they actually wouldn't give loans or mortgages to people within certain neighborhoods. We've also seen things like economic gaps and education gaps and police brutality. one of the most interesting examples of systemic racism came from. An unlikely source. I did. I hadn't heard of this story until recently this week by a guy named Phil Vischer who posted the story and shared resources, but a guy by the name of, let me get his name here. His name is Martin Dillon's. He did research from 1952, and he studied the publications of time, Newsweek and Us News Report and there every time he saw the word poverty. In those three publications, he took note of the picture of the family that was supposed to depict poverty. Did you know that in 1967, right around the time that Martin Luther King was pushing for racial justice and speaking about having a dream and and and such incredible things happening in the middle of those protests in those marches, those magazines when every time they talked about poverty, they actually showed a urban black family. And those pictures made up 70% of the photos shown in publications anytime you heard the word or read the word poverty when statistically speaking, most of the poverty in our country at that time existed in the rural white communities. And so while the black urban community represented less than 30% of poverty in America. They were actually shown over 70% of the time. And then from 1970 all the way up to 1990, over 60% of the images shown in main publications about poverty depicted a black urban family. Meanwhile, the percentages were much less than that. So we see things that are systemic because we see regulations and rules put in place economic gaps, education gaps and even media gaps on how someone is covered. When I first said to you poverty. What picture came into your mind did you have an image of someone that you were thinking about? See these are the things that are described as potentially known as microaggressions. There was a guy by the name of Chester Pierce who in 1970 describe the term of microaggression, which is the idea of verbal and nonverbal, whether intentional unintentional actions that communicate hostility or prejudice to another minority group. And so there have been studies over the past several decades, decades of people who have expressed microaggressions or the way they said something or felt something or maybe a joke or a comment here or there that really disparaged a minority group of some kind. So there are many people who say, well john I'm not racist. And so this doesn't involve me. Yeah. But what comes to your mind? What do you think about when another race is brought up in a topic of conversation? Where does your mind go when you hear the words Black lives matter? Because just saying those words, people cringe and and go back and and they have just extreme point of views and there's extreme division over what that means and what are some next steps forward that our country can take. So let me just share a couple of thoughts here in light of our country just coming out of a very racist time? I'm not saying that our country is racist, but you have to recognize that we are only one generation removed from complete segregation and the civil rights movement. And so being that we are still in the same lifetime as people who have walked through extreme civil rights battles and now we are seeing more protests today. Let me just share four thoughts with you. The first one is that our country is growing more diverse. That's really just an acknowledgment of facts that our country is growing and that while white privilege is a thing, We have to acknowledge the fact that as a country, people are becoming more diverse. For example, in 1951, the US population was right around 151 million. Well now our population sits over 330 million. So in just over the last 70 years, our population in this country has more than doubled The boomer population. So anybody born roughly 1946 to 1964, only one in four people were born non white, Then you have the generation x generation. So born 1965 to 1981 And there's a little bit smaller population and then gave way to what's known as the millennial population. So people who were born 1982 to roughly 2000, Well back in 2015, the millennial population actually surpassed boomers as the largest generation currently within our country. And while boomers experience was one in four were nonwhite. So only 25% millennials, just one generation removed. So their grandkids now four and 10 are non white and this is the largest population currently in our country. So as a country we have to acknowledge that that we are growing more diverse and so as we grow more diverse, this issue of racial tension and justice is going to come to the forefront because there have been historic gaps economically educationally and systematically as well. Next stop here is that it is not us versus them. It is only us as soon as you characterize somebody else in the situation saying like that's their problem. That's not minor. I'm not the issue. What you've done is that you've compartmentalized yourself and ignored the corporate responsibility or the community of the people around you. We learned in scripture, in fact, in the very first book of the bible that mankind as we know it, the human race was created in God's image. So it doesn't matter your ethnicity, that every person has value because they were created in the image of God. Now some of you might be thinking, well john, I don't, I don't do this. I don't separate. I don't put it on other people. Well, here's what I found that when something good happens, we celebrate as a team like we all did it. So for example, when our country was the first country to land on the moon, everyone's celebrating. We said yes, we did it, we landed on the moon or if your favorite sports team wins the championship, you go around for the next month telling people we won, we did it. I remember how excited I was when the Chicago cubs finally won the World Series and I celebrated with my family and we were so excited that they won and I really felt like we won. But isn't it interesting that when something positive happens, we love to take credit for it and we love to be a part, but when something bad happens, we say, oh that's not me, that was them and we tried to push blame on someone else. And so what I want us to do and acknowledge as a country is that, wow, we don't feel the same way as say like somebody else that really it's all all we, it's all us. It doesn't matter if it's not your point of view is that you're on the same team, that person has the same value, the same blood running through their veins and that jesus christ died on the cross for that person just as he did for you. And so it's not just an individual issue, it's a corporate, a community and a national issue and it even goes global and so we have to pause and say it's not us versus them, it's only us. So that when one person is hurting, we all are hurting, Next thing I want to just point out is that we must empathize with other people's experience just because it's not your experience doesn't mean that we shouldn't validate somebody else's experience. And this is where I want to just humble myself and and just say I don't I understand fully of what it means to be african american in this country. I don't understand in the slightest really. I've never had the conversation with my parents of how to protect myself when interacting with a police officer. I didn't even think twice about you know having that conversation with my oldest son or I don't think twice about going out for a jog in my neighborhood. But you see for those who have experienced hurt it's personal. So just getting real right now, okay, just getting real. When the story came out that Jacob blake had been shot seven times in the back. There's a group of people, if I'm being honest myself included that immediately thought, you know there's more to the story and his facts have come out and think, well he was committing a crime and I think he was reaching for a weapon and was a police officer supposed to do, he was breaking the law, the police were called, he was potentially reaching into the car to grab a weapon like this isn't a race issue. Well as I start to think that I want to pause for a moment and let you know that, I didn't think in that moment, oh man, that could have been me, that could have been my neighbor, That could have been my father, my son or a coworker. Because hearing the shooting of Jacob blake was not a personal thing for me, but in the african american community when they saw that the story was, there's another one and it's personal. And I want to ask you watching right now when you heard that story and you get skeptical about it, did you ever stop and think what it meant to the community that was impacted by it and now protesting Now it seems like this guy had a criminal record. I don't know the exact details, but it seems that way based on the reports coming out. But I ask you if the person in this situation was white, would he have been shot? If it would have been shot, would have really been shot seven times in the back? And is this the first time we've heard of a situation like this? Or is this another one? In a line of many that has happened for decades? Again, we are only one generation removed from segregation in our country and in our community. The KKK is very much alive today. I'm not saying that it's growing, I'm not saying that it represents a large number of people in our country, but we have to at least acknowledge that it's real. And so are you willing to put aside your pretense or judgment or prejudice when you prejudge and take a moment to empathize how a given situation might be personal to someone who's experiencing that. In fact, we know in Philippians chapter two, paul writes talking about Jesus, the idea that he humbled himself and that he put others ahead of himself. Are you willing to put other people's experience ahead of your opinion? I'm not saying not to have one, but can you take a moment and empathize with a life lost? We need to do that as a country and as a church and just as a human being in general. Next thought I have about these situations is that we have to be careful to walk in wisdom Ephesians five, says be careful then how you walk to walk as wise and ultimately to redeem the time because the days are evil. I say that we have to be careful and to walk in wisdom because causes, even from personal places of experience are oftentimes, politicized, monetized and weaponized. I don't think it was a coincidence that some of these issues have come up during an election season. I want to encourage you to join us next week, as we talk about. What does jesus say about politics, but you should know that there are people that have agendas behind this. The news stations report on the left or the right, You do realize that they make money by your fear. Social media sells your information to advertisers, You're not the customer, you are in fact the product. And so the more fear that exists in our community, the more money there is to be made. And the more political agendas on one side or the next can be had. On one angle, black lives matter is a loaded phrase. You should take note of the fact that if you go to their website, the founders themselves willingly admit and call themselves trained Marxist and extreme cultural Marxism and socialism with their goal to take power away, to really take power away from really what's known as a traditional family value. And so there is a worldview behind that a framework and ideological framework that is behind the messaging of the phrase Black lives Matter. But some of you might be thinking john well, yes, but we're talking about justice here and I would agree with you that most people that say that phrase, I want justice for Black lives and that is a biblical concept. It really is. But see where this comes into play is that while you have the Black Lives Matter movement, as soon as somebody says, make America great again, that is another loaded phrase, I'm not gonna go into politics that's next week, but we just have to acknowledge the weight behind these phrases and try to connect with people on a personal level and see where the hurt is and where the need truly lies because there's politicized, there's monetized but there's also weaponized when you see all the violence on tv and on the news station. Those are people who have weaponized a cause. When there is looting and rioting and burning down of buildings, people are using a movement as an excuse to criminalize and to do acts of evil. And I want you to walk in wisdom and sometimes it's going to be like walking on a tightrope because it plays in on both sides. For example, is a cop shooting someone or killing George Floyd with his knee. Is that wrong? Yes, But does that represent all of the police force? No. In fact, a majority of the police force are people who are good people who risked and sacrificed their lives okay to protect and serve our communities. The only political statement I'm going to say here is that I want you to acknowledge the fact that when someone says defund the police, that is a loaded phrase, there are studies that say or show that where there is more police involvement, there's a safer community and when there's a safer community economics thrive and education thrives. So you could actually make an argument that it's not that we need to defund the police, but that we need more education and more support and we need reform and the people within that of how somebody is treated and that they are treated based on character or based on circumstances, not on the color of their skin. And so you can say, well the cop that killed George Floyd, that doesn't resent represent all cops. True. Well, the person who had the founders of the Black Lives movement or who made that comment or the looters in a particular city, that doesn't necessarily represent a majority of people who are trying to fight for justice over here. And so there are multiple viewpoints and there's a lot of messiness and landmines. And so all I want to do today is to have you acknowledge the fact that it is messy. So walk as wise and try to decipher where you are in the particular situation and how you can positively contribute to the conversation. Instead of standing on the side shouting at the other. I want to end this section of our message with a quote from Dr martin Luther King JR and he says injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The idea is that when someone is experiencing pain, it's not just simply acknowledging that there are lots of pain and illness is out there, but stepping in to see how can we help and solve this particular situation. And the reason this is important because church, while there is a history in our country of racial injustice, we have to acknowledge the fact that there has also been a history of racial injustice within church walls as well. There were people who kept all of the 10 commandments, but we're very racist and how they lived and how they treated people well. I am thankful that it's not just the bible alone, but it's the person of jesus, found in scripture that we can turn to, who gives us the solution to how we can respond to racial injustices in our community. And so what I want to do right now is, look, what did jesus do, What did jesus say? And then what did jesus show in terms of racial equality and racial justice? First, what did jesus actually do if we have jesus as our model? It was going to give us a framework that we can move forward and respond within our communities. First, he entered our mess. He didn't judge from afar, but it says in john 1 14, that word became flesh, that's known as the incarnation of jesus, that he entered into the situation, he didn't ignore the situation, He didn't judge it from afar, but instead he stepped into our lives to solve and fix the situation and that he stepped in to live incarnation and to give us an example of how we can move forward. So we entered our mess. 2ndly, he showed love. Now I just, I put all the scripture references up because in Mark Chapter four, he's in the middle of a boat in a storm. In John Chapter four, he's talking to a Samaritan woman in the middle of the day at a well, in john chapter six, he is feeding the 5000 and preaching the gospel to a massive crowd and then luke chapter 19 he has dinner with Zach kias who he first met him up in a tree and so whether you're in a boat at a well in a crowd or in a tree, jesus has time for you, Jesus showed love to everyone, all the different backgrounds and when you see who Jesus called to be his disciples, they had diverse backgrounds and that the gospel was meant for everyone. Next, we see that jesus washed the feet the night before he was crucified, he has dinner with his disciples and he does the unlikely thing. He doesn't say. Okay, here's my will, here is my list of commands that when I'm gone, I want you to do this. Okay, here's your positions, here's what you really need to do. You guys have it memorized. I'm gonna be gone for the house. I gave you the note. Okay, do you have the note? Do you know what you're supposed to do? Now, do you know what he told them or do you know what he showed them? I should say is that he got down on his knees and he washed their feet. That is something that was reserved for the lowest of low servants. And he even washed the feet of judas, a guy that was about to betray him and where we live in a culture that is ready to grab rocks to throw at the other side, jesus tells us to grab a towel and say it's time to wash some feet because at the end of this he goes on and he says love people the way that I have loved you and when you do that, the world will know that you're my disciples and then he died on the cross. Now there are mentions of Jesus dying on the cross In all four gospels, but I mentioned Luke chapter 23 because I want you to consider the fact of jesus last moments here on earth, he did things like he offered salvation to a thief that was on a cross next to him, he spoke out and said, God forgive them for they know not what they do. He looked down at his mother and said john I want you to take care of mary and so even on the cross in his last breath, he looks up to God, he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And ultimately he talks about this phrase, it is finished till estoy meaning paid in full. So when jesus was experiencing excruciating pain brought on by the very people he was sent there to save, he was forgiving people, he was offering salvation for people, he was providing for people and ultimately he gave his spirit up to God on behalf of you. It says in Romans eight that while we were still sinners Christ came down and died for us and so in his actions, the first thing Jesus did was he served and he loved and he gave now what did Jesus say simply put, he says love your neighbor. In Matthew 22 talks about how the greatest commandment is to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself and upon these two things all of the scripture hangs so he connects loving God with loving people. Mark chapter 12 says the same thing And then we see that also what I just mentioned to you in the gospel of John John chapter 13 to love one another as Jesus has loved us. Well, I highlight specifically Luke chapter 10 because somebody follows up when jesus says to love your neighbor and he says who is our neighbor and he tells the story of a good samaritan and how these religious guys saw somebody beat up on the side of the road and they just walked on by and then a samaritan who in that day was seen as the epitome of the racial or ethnic um adversity or person against the jewish people. And so he picked the extreme example, it was a samaritan who stopped and you know what he did, he didn't just stop, look at the guy on the side of the road and saying, well that is wrong, good thing, I didn't beat that guy up, I'm not a thief and then move forward. No, I saw somebody hurting and stepped into the situation and took care of that person and helped restore them to what that person was meant to be in the same way. If we are to love our neighbors, the way that jesus has loved us, it is not enough for us as a church not to be racist. The good samaritan didn't walk by and just say, well I'm not a thief. No, it's when you see injustice in the world, are you willing to step into that situation and bring with you the love of jesus? And so that you love people the way that he loved us and that we give and we share and that we invest with compassion and empathy and we look for positive ways forward. This is what it means To love people like Jesus. In fact, we can see the heart of Jesus in these two passages. First Romans, chapter three verse 23-26 for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. Now I learned that verse growing up talking about sin and says, you know sin is is missing the mark and falling short of God's glory. But have you ever kept reading that passage that says and all are justified, freely by his grace through the redemption that came by christ, jesus. God presented christ as a sacrifice of atonement. So he paid the penalty. He came down, loved us, paid the penalty to serve and meet the justice required through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed before unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in jesus, so God is both just and the justify their Another passage, I want to take a look at comes from 2nd Corinthians chapter five Paul writes to the church in Corinth for the love of christ controls us. This is our motivator. Okay, because we have concluded this, that the one who has died for all, therefore all have died and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves notice that phrase were not called to live for ourselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised from now on. Therefore we regard to one according to the flesh, sorry that we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded christ according to the flesh. In other words we once recorded um reflected to God and connected to God because of our sinful desires. So did other people, but we don't treat people in light of their sins, but how jesus treated sins and so we continue as we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away. Behold the new has come all. This is from God who through christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So he reconciled, he justified, he brought people to himself and then he gave us the ministry of reconciliation that we as a church or to continue doing today. This is why racial justice is a gospel issue and that is in christ God is reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for christ God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of christ be reconciled to God. For for our sake, he made himself to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There in that passage, you see another example of the fact that when jesus saw injustice, he stepped and stood in the gap, are we willing as a church to stand in the gap? I'm not saying that everyone is watching this is racist and I'm not even saying I know exactly how to systematically change our entire country, but what I want to do in closing is just give us four ways that we can start personally as individual followers of jesus to implement justice in our lives the way that jesus did and these four points actually spell out race. So the first thing that you can do is that you can repent individually and corporately of self righteousness, people like to think of justice, but when you take justice and you make it subjective, what you're really saying is that you can be self righteous and now we judge sins of other people way worse than we judge our own. And so what we must do is ask ourselves, is there any area in our life where we have micro aggressions or expressions of racism or have I treated someone differently because there are of a different ethnicity than myself or different gender or a different economic class? Because if that exists in your heart, you have to know that that's not from God, that's the human flesh talking to you and that we have to repent of that, but not just individually, but corporately. We have to repent of the sins that have come before us because it has brought us into our current situation until we acknowledge present pain. We are not going to see future purpose and Salvation come to people here in our community? So even if you haven't personally done something, are you willing to just pause and repent corporately of what people have had to go through because of the Brokenness and sin in our world today. So the first thing is repent. The second step you can take is acknowledge the hurt of others before we make a quick judgment. I'm not saying we can't have honest conversations and debates back and forth. But what I want to encourage you to do is to first acknowledge the hurts of others. It might not be your personal experience, but ask yourself has it been a personal experience for the person that you're talking to? And if that's the case acknowledged the pain and the hurt and the loss of life instead of focusing on the causes of the situation and how people tend to politicize things and monetize things and even weaponized situations. Are we willing to walk wisely through that and connect with someone one on one and have a conversation and acknowledge the hurt that someone might have experienced in the past. The first one's repent. The second one is acknowledged. The third piece is to commit to a posture of honor, compassion and service paul wrote in romans 12 10 to love one another with brotherly affection and try to outdo one another and honor. Imagine how our communities would change if we had a race to the back of the line. If we had a competition of who could honor the other person more. If we approached our relationships in a way that was how can I out honor and and bless someone, not because of what they can do for me, but because of what christ already did for me, imagine how our communities can change And so walk into every situation with a posture of compassion and honor and service and lastly elevate others when possible, you know, you might be a great person watching this right now and I'm grateful for you. In fact, it's the heartbeat of our church ministry that we believe that God is for you and therefore we are for you and that together we can be for our community. And while you might not be able to bring systematic change to our entire country, I bet you can bring change in one of your relationships when something is in front of you and you see it and it breaks your heart. Are you willing to elevate others? I talked earlier in the message about microaggressions when people verbally or nonverbally intentionally unintentionally bring hurt upon a minority group. What if we replaced microaggressions with micro expressions of God's love? How can you work the gospel into a conversation this week? How can you show honor and serve and metaphorically wash the feet of your neighbor? If you can do that in the name of jesus, you will be amazed at how our world can change. Did you know there are over 2000 references in the Bible to widows, orphans, the poor and aliens. If we are going to be the christian church, we have to recognize that it's not about being on the left, it's not about being on the right, it's about being a child of God and how everyone was created in his image and that if there's injustice for one of us that's a threat to justice for all of us and that together as a church, if we will love our neighbors, the way that Jesus loved us, we are well on our way to make a difference. So repent, repent of any self righteousness and your harder in your mind, acknowledge the hurt of others and recognize that their experience might not be your experience, commit to a posture of honor and compassion and service and look for ways to practically help those around you. And lastly, when you can elevate others because when you lift people up God's spirit comes working through in church, that's what I want to be. I know that this topic of racial justice is filled with loaded phrases and commentary and division and arguments. So what I'm asking you to do at the end of the day is recognize that racial justice is a gospel issue and that you and I together have been called to love everyone the way that jesus has loved us. Let's pray dear God, just I want to repent from got things that I may have done or unintentionally even done just with perceptions that I've seen in media and in my heart and and how I felt interacting with someone of a different race other than my own God, I repent of judgments that I've made in my mind, maybe careless comments that I have made in the presence of others or maybe even a sin of omission. God, that where I didn't take more action when more was required of me and God corporately as a community, as a church. I mean, we recognize that racial injustice is a sin issue and that it's only the gospel that's going to change things and may we bring the change to our country because we show what unity and love looks like here in our church family. We recognize that those who are hurting, we know this is just the start of a conversation. We pray for this to be a continued conversation. God, we commit our lives to having this posture of compassion and honor and service. And lastly, God, I pray that we can elevate the people around us. We not, we might not be able to change the world, but God, we could change somebody's world when we actively look to love our neighbors the way that you have loved us, We love you. It's in your sense then we pray amen Hey, if if you got some opinions or thoughts on this topic, I would love to hear from you. Um let me know. You can email me directly at jay Kriegel at Mission Grove church dot com. I love to set up and have this conversation because I wanna learn, I wanna listen. And I want to be a part of the conversation that our nation is having right now. I hope you do too. God bless, and we'll see you next week.