Sermon Notes (1.9.22)

Jesus’ Prayer for Justice

Matthew 6:9-13

The Prayer 

Jesus instructs us to pray very differently. His prayer includes me, but it is so much bigger than me. Give us. All of us. I’m not just praying for what I need. My relationship with God isn’t just about me and my family. It’s about entering into the needs of others and imploring for all of us. I see my own self-centeredness…I see that my reluctance in prayer isn’t just about boredom or hunger or futility; it is also about my own unwillingness to acknowledge and respond to the needs of my brothers and sisters in this world. – Amy Julia Becker, White Picket Fences

Matthew 6:10 – Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 4:17 – From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

If all has been created good and all has been corrupted, then all must be redeemed. God isn’t content to save souls; God wants to save bodies too. God isn’t content to save human beings in their individual activities; God wants to save social systems and economic structures too. If the management/labor structure contains built in antagonism, then it needs to be redeemed. If the health care delivery system reaches only the well-to-do, then it needs to be reformed. The same goes for hostile relationships of race, gender, or class. Everything corrupt needs to be redeemed, and that includes the whole natural world, which both sings and groans. The whole natural world, in all its glory and pain, needs the redemption that will bring shalom. The world isn’t divided into a sacred realm and a secular realm, with redemptive activity confined to the sacred zone. The whole world belongs to God, the whole world has fallen, and so the whole world needs to be redeemed. – Cornelius Plantinga, Engaging God’s World

What does it look like for Jesus’ prayer to get answered?

Our Pursuits 

Amos 5:24 – But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.

Mishpat | justice

retributive and restorative

Psalm 146:7-9 – He executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, he lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves those who live justly. The LORD watches over the immigrant and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Mishpat is not optional, it is a God given right.

Deuteronomy 18:3-4 – And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 

Proverbs 31:8-9 – Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. 

Tzadeqah | righteousness 

When most modern people see the word “righteousness” in the Bible, they tend to think of it in terms of private morality, such as sexual chastity or diligence in prayer and Bible study. But in the Bible tzadeqah refers to day-to-day living in which a person conducts all relationships in family and society with fairness, generosity, and equity.  – Timothy Keller, Generous Justice

“Nothing has contributed to the progress of the superstition of the Christians as their charity to strangers . . . the impious Galileans provide not only for their own poor, but for ours as well. ” – Emperor Julian

Our Problem

Amos 5:18–23 – 18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD!
What will the day of the LORD be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.
19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion
only to have a bear confront him.
He goes home and rests his hand against the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20 Won’t the day of the LORD
be darkness rather than light,
even gloom without any brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise, your feasts!
I can’t stand the stench
of your solemn assemblies.
22 Even if you offer me
your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
I will have no regard
for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

What’s the issue? 

Amos 5:11 – Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

Amos 5:12 – For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates.

Will we repent or will we carry on with our religious charades?

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart…  – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Do you see your need for GRACE?

God’s Provision

Matthew 12:18-21

Here is my servant whom I have chosen, 

my beloved in whom I delight; 

I will put my Spirit on him, 

and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 

He will not argue or shout, 

and no one will hear his voice in the streets. 

He will not break a bruised reed, 

and he will not put out a smoldering wick, 

until he has led justice to victory. 

The nations will put their hope in his name.

Matthew 3:13-15 – Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me? ” Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 – Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

HOW WILL YOU RESPOND?

Confess.

Celebrate.

Commit.

A Prayer for Salvation

“Heavenly Father, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but through your Son Jesus I can be more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you that he lived the life I should have lived and paid the debt and punishment I owed. Receive me now for his sake. I turn from my sins and receive him as Savior. Amen.”