Sermon Title: Justice
Scripture Text: Isaiah 1:17; Micah 5:8
Gandhi was a practicing Hindu, but Christianity intrigued him. In his reading of the Gospels, Gandhi was impressed by Jesus whom Christians worshiped and followed. He wanted to know more about this Jesus that Christians referred to as “the Christ, the Messiah.”
This is a true story: One Sunday morning Gandhi decided that he would visit one of the Christian churches in Calcutta. Upon seeking entrance to the church sanctuary, he was stopped at the door by the ushers.
He was told he was not welcome, nor would he be permitted to attend this particular church as it was for high-caste Indians and whites only. He was neither high caste, nor was he white. Because of the rejection, the Mahatma turned his back on Christianity.
With this act, Gandhi rejected the Christian faith, never again to consider the claims of Christ. He was turned off by the legalistic Christian sin of segregation that was practiced by the church. It was due to this experience that Gandhi later declared, “I’d be a Christian if it were not for the Christians.”
Mahatma Gandhi was on his way to his daily prayer meeting in New Delhi when an assassin shot him on January 30, 1948
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Rev. King didn't want to be involve in a national movement. He was a Pastor of a thriving Baptist Church. The movement came to him as a group that was looking for a leader and they found one in him.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence.
On April 3, 1968 Rev. King gave his last sermon, saying, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
Just after 6 pm on April 4, 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers’ strike and was on his way to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. Rev. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital. He was 39 years old.
Now hear the reading of Gods Word.
Isaiah 1:17; Micah 5:8
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow's cause,” (Isaiah 1:17). “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
Justice, what is it anyway. Not a dictionary meaning but a meaning you would apply to this word. We have seen two examples of men that stood up for a peaceful, kind and loving way of life. Rev. King nonviolence saved many lives. He stood for Justice as he saw it from his God.
A lot of people stand up for justice that don’t die because of it. One example is when in Galatians 2 Paul confronts Peter while they were living with the Gentiles. Then certain of the legalistic Christian showed up that couldn't let go of their old religious rules causing trouble. The Bible says some of them were hired to cause trouble. They felt you had to do certain things and follow certain rules that were apart of the Jewish religion to be a Christian. They tried to impose it on Christians that believe by faith only. Believing by faith; faith in Jesus the Christ only with no other rules. Believing by Faith only is the main stay of the Apostle Paul teaching.
Peter left the Gentiles and Paul to associate with these legalistic Christian. Paul confronted Peter for this. Peter and Paul spent time together in Jerusalem. After this Peter went to the Jewish folks to teach them and Paul went to the Gentiles to teach them.
Justice is important to God. He talks about it all the time in His Word. If it’s important to God then it should be important to us.
Can we, well we and do we stand with God for His Justice for all as taught by Him in His Word? Do we show our stand to others by word and deed?
