Review / Introduction:
Reality Check about Injustice:
- God Hates injustice. (Proverbs 20:23)
- God's people should Hate injustice, too. (Micah 6:8)
- Injustice exists Everywhere on Every level.
- Jesus will End all injustice when He returns. (Isaiah 9:7)
- We need to learn to Live With injustice until then.
Three Questions to Answer When Faced with Personal Injustice (Romans 12:17-21):
- Should I bring this injustice to Light? (Romans 12:17)
- Can I Trust God to bring justice? (Romans 12:19)
- How can I Bless those who are being unjust towards me? (Romans 12:20)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:35-00:38
Grab your Bibles and open them up to the book of Acts chapter 25.
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Acts chapter 25.
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While you're turning there, just to get us all caught up to speed, we're going verse by verse, chunk by chunk through the book of Acts.
00:53-00:54
Where are we in Acts chapter 25?
00:55-00:58
Well Paul is in custody in Caesarea.
00:58-01:03
He was falsely accused of bringing Greeks into the temple in Jerusalem.
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While the Roman governor Felix just stalled for two years and then he got replaced.
01:12-01:14
Didn't do anything with Paul, still in custody.
01:15-01:21
The new guy Festus, we saw was proactive, but he didn't know what to do because Paul was innocent.
01:23-01:26
But releasing Paul would have angered the Jewish leaders.
01:28-01:30
So Paul, we saw last week, he appealed to Caesar.
01:31-01:38
That was his right as a Roman citizen, saying, "I'm going to take this to the highest court." So Festus was like, "Great.
01:39-01:43
I'll pack your bags." And that's where we are.
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Acts 25, picking up in verse 13.
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It says, "Now when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus.
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And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, "There's a man left prisoner by Felix, and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him.
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I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone, before the the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him.
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So when they came together here, I made no delay.
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But on the next day, took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought.
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When the accuser stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed.
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Rather, they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.
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Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them.
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But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.
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Then Agrippa said to Festus, 'I would like to hear the man myself.' 'Tomorrow,' said he, 'you will hear him.'" All right, Agrippa is introduced.
03:42-03:43
Who is Agrippa?
03:43-03:59
He was actually the king who ruled the northern part of Palestine, and even though he wasn't over Judea, that wasn't his jurisdiction, he controlled the temple treasury and he appointed the high priest.
04:00-04:08
You're like, "Why are you telling us this?" Because he had a stake in Jewish affairs, and Agrippa was considered an expert in Jewish things.
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That sets the stage.
04:10-04:18
So Agrippa comes to town and Festus is like, "Great, I have a Jewish problem and you're an expert in Jewish things.
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So I need you to give me a Jewish solution here because I have no idea what to do." All right, so if you're a fan of family trees and lineage and tracing all this, get ready.
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Agrippa's father was Herod from Acts 12.
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You remember him?
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He's the one who killed James, imprisoned Peter.
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He dressed like a disco ball, was eaten by worms and he died.
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And interestingly, it happened in the same city that these events are taking place, Caesarea.
04:52-04:59
Now, the previous governor that Paul had trial under, Felix, remember he had a wife, Drusilla.
05:01-05:04
You're like, wait a minute, I was here for that sermon.
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Drusilla was also a disco balls kid too, right?
05:07-05:15
Yes, so Agrippa and Drusilla would be brother and sister, right?
05:16-05:23
But did you know Disco Ball had another kid and a daughter and her name was Bernice.
05:25-05:27
And you're like, wait a minute, Agrippa's Bernice.
05:28-05:30
Yeah, same one.
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You're like, so you're telling me that Bernice was his Wife and his sister?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Everybody say ooh.
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Okay, yeah.
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Scandalous to say the least, but yeah, wife and sister.
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And you know what?
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I don't even have time to get into it all this morning.
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Do a little biographical study of Bernice.
05:57-06:02
That woman was married her uncle and previously and everything else.
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I mean, she was, wow.
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So yeah, she was married to her brother at this point in history.
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Agrippa's great uncle was the one who killed John the Baptist, the one who put Jesus on trial.
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And for a little Christmas flair for you, here we go.
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Agrippa's great grandfather was Herod the Great.
06:25-06:30
And that was the one who ordered all the babies to be killed trying to catch Jesus when Jesus was born.
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Okay, so that's the family tree.
06:32-06:33
You got all that?
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You're like, "Yeah, I got the family treatment.
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It doesn't branch off a lot when it comes to Bernice." Yeah, I know, I know.
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That's just how it goes.
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So Agrippa came to pay respects to Festus.
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It was a political thing.
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Again, Festus was like, "Okay, I got a problem.
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This guy broke the Roman laws and the Jews hate him to death over some religious dispute, over some guy named Jesus.
06:58-07:00
And he appealed to Caesar.
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And I am so glad you're in town.
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can you please help us Agrippa?
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And Agrippa says, I can help you, absolutely.
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But first let's have a prom.
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And that's what we see in the next passage here.
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Look at verse 23.
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So in the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp.
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The Greek word for pomp is fantasia.
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Thought that was interesting.
07:28-07:35
They entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city.
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So can you get the picture in your mind?
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It's like a giant, just pageantry, just this big show.
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And here comes the king with the whole escort, the entourage, and do you have that picture in your head?
07:51-08:10
Okay, then it says, "Then at the command of Festus, "Paul was brought in." The Festus said, "King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.
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But I found that he had done nothing deserving death.
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And as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to go ahead and send him." Watch this.
08:23-08:24
Don't miss this.
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"But I have nothing definite to write to my Lord about him.
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Therefore, I have brought him here before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after we have examined him, I may have something to write.
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For it seems to me unreasonable in sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him." Okay, so did you see why they had this giant party?
08:56-08:56
Did you see it?
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It's right there in the text.
08:58-09:10
They had a giant party slash, it wasn't really a trial, you're gonna see that, but they had this big to-do over filling out the paperwork, right?
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Is that what your Bible says?
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They have this big, let's get everybody here because Festus is like, yeah, I gotta fill out the form here and I'm not quite sure where it goes in the blanks.
09:20-09:26
Can you please help me fill this out?" And that's why they had this big prom.
09:28-09:57
You know, when we get to this part of Acts, it gets a little frustrating, because at least to me reading it, when you kind of insert yourself in the story, because how many times did the law, did the Romans say, "Paul isn't guilty." We have seen it over and over and over in Jerusalem before Claudius Lysias and before Felix and before Festus and over and over, even in this passage today, "He's not guilty.
09:57-10:03
I find nothing wrong that he had done." How many times do we have to hear that?
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How many times do we have to see that?
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Today we're going to talk about injustice.
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So let's define the term, first of all.
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The simplest definition of justice is conforming to lawfulness.
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Conforming to lawfulness.
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Injustice is when what is lawful is not done.
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I need to take a couple of minutes to clarify something.
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I know we like to joke around and have fun and stuff a lot, but this is serious.
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Because this is a very hard truth.
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And I need you to listen to every word I say here.
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Because I don't want to be misunderstood.
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We often, myself included/especially, we often say or think, "That's not fair." the subject at hand has nothing to do with fairness or justice.
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Injustice is an objective fact thing, meaning what's not fair according to the laws and the rules that are established for everybody.
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That is different, please hear me, that is different than what we sometimes wrongly think.
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When we say that's not fair, when the truth is that's not an objective fact thing, that's a subjective opinion thing.
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And that has nothing to do with true fairness and injustice.
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Is everybody with me?
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I'm gonna give you an example.
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If you have kids, do you have nieces, nephews, do you know a kid, have you ever seen a kid?
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Just imagine this scenario.
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Okay?
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This kid comes to you and says, "I want a pony." And you say, "Well, you can't have a pony." And your kid says, "Well, that's not fair." that that's not an issue of fairness, right?
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The only way that would be an issue of fairness would be if the law says every single kid in the United States of America is entitled to and promised a pony from their parents.
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If that were the case, then that child saying, "That's not fair," would apply.
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But since that's not the case, that child saying, "That's not fair," doesn't apply, right?
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example, your teenager says, "I want to go to the party." You say, "You can't go to that party." And what does your teenager say? "That's not fair!" I know some teenagers are really gonna hate me over this. Send me nasty text messages with very angry emojis. I'm kidding. Look, it's because I love you that I have to to tell you this, but not being allowed to go to the party is not a matter of fairness because there's no law that says all kids must go to all parties.
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I hear some giggles of conviction, but here's the hard truth.
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We easily recognize this in children.
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I want a pony.
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We easily recognize this in our teenagers.
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I want to go to the party.
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But some of us never grow out of this.
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Some of us, even as adults, say things like, it's not fair that I'm sick.
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It's not fair that I don't have a father.
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It's not fair that my kids have a problem, and other people's kids don't have that problem.
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It's not fair.
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I am not minimizing the pain of such things.
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Do you hear me?
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I am not minimizing the pain of such things.
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Because I've been there.
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You know I have.
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And it is hard, and it is heartbreaking, but we can't just say that's not fair, when the real issue is that we have unbiblical or idealistic expectations.
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For example, let's talk about a husband.
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Specifically, let's talk about a group of ladies speaking on the subject.
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One lady might say, "It's not fair that I don't have a husband." But the next lady says, "It's not fair that my husband is sick." Then the next lady says, "It's not fair that my husband hasn't given me children." The next lady says, "It's not fair that my husband isn't taller." So the question is, if you're addressing this group of ladies, what would be fair?
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What would be fair?
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That you each have the husband who is perfect in every way?
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There's only one lady that has a perfect husband, and it is not her, not her.
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I said not her.
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Is it only fair if every lady has the absolute perfect husband?
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And you can switch that, make it wife.
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Why don't I have a wife?
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It's not fair I don't have a wife.
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It's not fair that my wife hasn't given me children.
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It's not fair that my wife, you know, isn't blonde instead of brunette or whatever.
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What's fair?
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What is fair?
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So do you see that this isn't an issue of fairness?
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You're like, why are you telling us all this?
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Here's why, because this is so important.
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Because when we say over matters like this, that's not fair, who are we accusing of unfairness exactly?
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Who are we accusing?
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Right, I see where some of you are pointing.
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You're accusing God.
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You're saying, God, this says that you're fair and you're just.
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But I'm gonna tell you something, God, you're not.
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Because you haven't been fair to me.
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You're accusing God of injustice.
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So look, I'm just saying, let's have a clarification of terms here.
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If you're struggling with the husband issue or the sickness issue or the children issue, whatever it is you're struggling with, you can say, "God, God, it's hard sometimes.
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"God, you know the pain I feel.
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"God, you understand." But something that we cannot ever rightly say about that is that's not fair.
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because we don't want to accuse God of injustice.
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So in our discussion of justice and fairness, let's be accurate in what applies.
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Reality check.
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Reality check about injustice.
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I'm gonna go through these quickly.
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Reality check about injustice.
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Number one, God hates injustice.
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God hates injustice.
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Proverbs 20, 23 says, "Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, "and false scales are not good." Unequal weight?
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Unequal weights are an abomination?
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Like why is God so fired up about unequal weights?
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It's the unfairness of it.
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You see, unequal weights, it's taking you to the marketplace where it says this costs $5 a pound, and you think you're buying a pound, but my scales are rigged so they read a pound, but you're only getting, you know, three quarters of a pound maybe or whatever, and I'm ripping you off.
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God hates that.
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God hates people being intentionally ripped off.
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And that verse draws to the bigger principle.
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We could spend so much time on so many other verses, but point is this, God hates injustice.
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Secondly, God's people should hate injustice too.
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God's people should hate injustice too.
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Has he told you, O man, what is good?
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And what does the Lord require of you but to, there it is, do justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.
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There's something in us, especially God's people, there's something in us that should rage against true injustice, racism or police brutality or sexual assault or abuse or false allegations for all of those things.
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There's something that should rage in our hearts against injustice because God himself hates injustice.
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Thirdly, injustice exists everywhere on every level.
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Whether it's national, governmental scale, to corporate scale, to personal scale, in courts and in sports, every arena of life, there's injustice.
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Okay, well if God hates it, and it's everywhere, why isn't He doing anything about it?
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Well, number four, Jesus will eliminate all injustice when He returns.
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Jesus will eliminate all injustice when He returns.
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Isaiah 9:7 "Of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end.
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On the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness, from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this." come a time when Christ returns and He sets up His kingdom on this earth.
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Justice will always be perfectly carried out everywhere at every time because the King of righteousness is going to make sure of that. Then fifthly, we need to learn, we need to learn to live with injustice until then. We need to learn to live with injustice until then.
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Kind of like what we talked about last week, content, right?
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Learn to be content.
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As we close here, with all this talk of injustice, the question is, what do you do when it lands on your lap?
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What do you do when injustice lands on your lap?
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For example, maybe it's your workplace.
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You work so hard.
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You work so hard and you toe the line and you keep the rules and you got this co-worker who's just constantly goofing off and always in late, out early, and promotion is coming, and your co-worker gets the promotion and you're passed over.
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How do you handle that?
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Or what about this completely hypothetical scenario?
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When you're in a whole line of cars and you're all speeding, but your car is the one that gets picked out and pulled over and you get a ticket.
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All right, maybe that one wasn't completely hypothetical.
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Like that one sounds like it's coming from a place of deep personal hurt, Pastor Jeff, it is.
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That's really not an issue of fairness, actually.
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Because I was, just because I was guilty with a group of guilty people doesn't mean I wasn't guilty.
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It took me a long time to learn that.
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But what do we do when injustice lands on our lap?
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Flip over a few pages.
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We're going to go through this very quickly as we close here.
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I could spend so much time on this, but I can't leave you without this to chew on.
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We need to learn to live with injustice until then.
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Romans 12, verses 17 through 21.
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Here's the same guy that dealt with all this injustice.
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Look what he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
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If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
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Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord.
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To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
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For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." So, as we close here, three questions to answer when you are faced with personal injustice.
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Three questions you have to answer.
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The first question is this, should I bring this injustice to light?
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Should I bring this injustice to light?
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You have to ask that one first.
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Because as much in our culture as we love to sue and we love to protest, the truth is not every injustice needs to be broadcast.
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But, everybody say but, but if people are being hurt or abused, including you.
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If laws are being broken, you have to make it known.
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In other cases, if it's just an unfairness inflicted upon you, I'll go to question two.
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Letter B, can I trust God to bring justice?
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Can I trust God to bring justice?
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Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, or leave room, or give place to the wrath of God.
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God wants justice even more than you do.
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And he has promised to bring it sooner or later, right?
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Sooner or later, he's going to bring justice.
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So if God says he is going to avenge, what place do we have to step in and try to do it for him?
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But this is a matter of faith.
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Either you take God and His Word, you trust God's Word, or you don't.
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But if you say you trust God's Word, you're going to have to trust that He will bring justice sooner or later.
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Can I trust God to bring justice?
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And finally, this is a hard truth, a hard question to ask yourself.
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How can I bless those who are being unjust towards me?
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How can I bless those who are being unjust towards me?
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So what do I do when I'm facing an injustice?
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It's not a matter of abuse or anything illegal, but it's just an unfair treatment at work or whatever.
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What do I do?
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What you do is you repay evil with good.
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And I've got to tell you as a young Christian, when I read this, I completely misunderstood it.
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It says that you will heap burning coals on their head.
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I had this picture of like modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.
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Like if I do good to somebody that does me bad, God's going to like rain hellfire down on their heads.
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Like, ah!
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And that was this picture I had in mind and that has nothing to do with that.
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I was kind of disappointed to find out, honestly.
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This is actually an Egyptian custom of repentance.
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that they would take an insulated pot and put burning coals in the pot and walk around with it on their heads, it was a sign of repentance.
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You know, sort of like the Jewish custom was sackcloth and ashes, that was the Egyptian custom.
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Burning coals on your head.
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Like, wait a second, you're telling me that I'm being treated unfairly, so I need to look for ways to bless those who are being unjust towards me.
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Yeah, that's exactly what God said.
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Because here's the alternative.
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You can become bitter and nasty and vocal and cantankerous about it, and everybody, including the person that's causing you the injustice, is going to look at you and say, oh, well, he obviously deserves to be treated like that.
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Look at how he's acting.
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Look at how she, listen to how she's talking.
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It's no wonder she got passed over for that.
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Listen how she's talking.
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But, but if you bless, everyone is going to see, you know, maybe she didn't deserve that.
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And such conduct may bring the person who is wronging you to repentance.
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You know, you can bring that person to repentance.
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You know what?
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I've really treated him like dirt and he's done nothing but do good to me.
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What am I doing?
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Why am I acting like this?
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You can bring somebody to repentance through such conduct.
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Hey, nobody likes injustice, especially when it hits home.
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But it's not going away until Christ returns.
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So church, let's handle it the way Jesus Christ did the first time while we wait for Him to come a second time to eliminate it.
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You with me?
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All right, let's pray.
28:00-28:04
Father in heaven, I pray that you would change our thinking.
28:04-28:06
Your word tells us that we have to renew our minds.
28:08-28:11
Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters here for two things especially today.
28:11-28:15
One, I pray, Father, that we would never accuse you of being unfair.
28:17-28:33
Sometimes, Father, we look at incredibly hard and painful circumstances and we say that's not fair Father, if there's anyone here who's stuck in that mindset, I pray that you would grant repentance today.
28:35-28:41
Father, I pray that you would grant me repentance for the times that I'm tempted that same mindset.
28:43-29:02
Father, I pray that we would be people who would, on the receiving end of injustice and the receiving end of unfairness, help us, Father, to be people who would to be a people who are proactive at blessing those who persecute, at doing good to the people who would do us wrong.
29:04-29:15
It goes against our natural, human, sinful, self-centered thinking, but it totally lines up with the kind of God that you are.
29:17-29:19
Transform our thinking today, Father.
29:20-29:30
Let us joyfully bear the weight of injustice until the King returns to set up perfect justice on this earth.
29:31-29:38
It is in that King's name, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the King of Kings, that we pray. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 25:13-27 and Romans 12:17-21
If God loves justice, why is there so much injustice in the world, on every level?
How do you know when to stand and speak out against injustice and when to bless those causing injustice?
What is your big takeaway from this passage / message?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!