David Asscherick GOD? 06 Is There Justice on Earth?- SecondComing.org

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] our first presentation here is actually going to pick up exactly where we left off yesterday um i'm i'm semi tempted to sort of review everything that we've learned up to this point but i'm going to i'm going to resist that temptation and just remind us of what we sort of ended with last night we were asking the question why do innocent children suffer and we made the the point not just innocent children but why does anyone suffer why is there not only suffering in the world but so much suffering in the world we made the point that while we do not have every answer to every possible i mean some of the situations that you hear about are so discouraging so terrible so so heartbreaking that it's impossible to give anything like an actual explanation but while we cannot give an actual data-based explanation we do know that the answer lies certainly within the fact that that god himself is not distant from our suffering he is not aloof from our pain but according to what we learned yesterday god is with us in our suffering he is with us in our pain now i just want to say one little word on that a bit of an extension about what we talked about last night because it's going to segue really nicely into what we're going to talk about today which is will there ever be justice on earth and this is a great question frankly it's a question that that most people who are observing the world want to know i mean even the situations that we're in right now with what's happening on the global scene with syria and other things it's it's very difficult to even have a sense of what is the right thing in this is this the right thing is this the right thing or is something else entirely different the right thing and because we live in a world that is so often devoid of justice it's creating an increasing welling within us for real justice not the artificial political sort of temporary kinds of justice solutions that we get but real justice a real longing for a society and a culture and a world in which justice is not just the exception but the the rule and i believe that jesus is the center of all possible hope for justice that we could ever have on this earth and the earth to come and let me just sort of try and illustrate that um c.s lewis the the christian scholar and author and philosopher makes a very interesting point now this is dealing with the issue of suffering but it's going to tie in with justice he basically says and i'll paraphrase here imagine that you're in a dentist waiting are there any dentists here okay um i'm sorry if i don't want to offend any dentists but imagine that you're in the waiting room of a dentist and you have a ah ah your tooth is bothering you have a toothache okay and so you can just imagine you're sitting there in the waiting room and you have a toothache and we'll say that the value of that toothache is x whatever the pain that you are experiencing is x pain right and let's say it's a really really bad toothache so it's x is worth a lot of pain maybe on a scale of one to ten it's like an eight and a half or a uh nine just need to see the dentist okay now louis just points a very interesting one he says now imagine that there's somebody else also sitting in the um waiting room wanting to see the dentist because they ah they also have a toothache okay now don't miss this a very subtle but very significant point he says you might say that the total pain in the waiting room is 2x right because you have you're sitting there with ah pain x and somebody else is sitting there ah also with pain x and you can even say there's four or five or six people all sitting there with a toothache pain you could say the total pain in the room mathematically if we were going to make a mathematical equation for it we would say it's 2x if there's two people or three or four 5x so far so good but here's the point no one person is experiencing anything more than x right you could say the sum total of pain in the room is 2x 3x4 x but no individual person is experiencing more pain than they can experience now the brilliant part about this is that god has built us with the capacity to engage only so much pain only so much suffering only so much hurt and so when we have reached the sum total of what a one human being can feel in terms of pain or suffering or despair that's a terrible thing but it's what only one person can suffer adding a hundred or a thousand or even a million sufferers to that does not increase the pain that any one person can feel with one exception according to scripture and this is remarkable according to scripture and you can go look at isaiah 53 and there are other passages jesus as both man and god that's one of the things that we've been talking about is the center theme of scripture the the the fulcrum upon which scripture hinges is that god in keeping covenant with man became a man himself and so jesus possesses a supernatural ability to experience suffering his shoulders are infinitely broad unlike say my shoulders or your shoulders which can only bear up under so much pain so much suffering so much trauma that eventually the physical system just gives out the human body can only endure so much which is why terrible and torturous and demonic men throughout ages have invented pain that is the most protracted the most terrible that keeps you alive for as long as possible before you die so for example like crucifixion the purpose of crucifixion was to cause as much physical pain but in increments slow enough and long enough and intervals protracted enough that you suffered the longest ultimately dying of despair and asphyxiation but jesus didn't die of physical death jesus died a much more terrible much more horrific death jesus died what the bible actually calls the second death and i'm not going to get into that here but the point is this where you and i can experience only our own pain only our own ah that toothache is hurting you'll never feel someone else's toothache you will never feel someone else's heartbreak you can only feel what you are capable of feeling now of course you can empathize you can sympathize but still it's you that's feeling it if you're empathizing with another person but god in flesh was able to feel everyone's pain everyone's hurt everyone's heartbreak everyone's despair and that's exactly what it says in isaiah 53 when describing the coming messiah he has borne our griefs our pains the chastisement of our peace was upon him and so here in christ we see both god and man able to endure not just his own pain not just his own suffering not just his own heartbreak from sin but he felt it for all humanity the depth the quantity and the quality of his suffering is perfectly incalculable in fact it's infinite his ability to suffer is infinite because he is god and and sin and and pain and death are infinitely painful to him much more so than you or i we are calloused to sin we are calloused to pain we are callous to these things but god being perfectly holy perfectly pure and perfectly loving his his recoiling from sin his hatred and revulsion for self-centeredness his capacity for suffering is infinitely greater than yours or mine and so what we see in christ on the cross in many ways is the hinge to the question of justice here is someone who is actually capable of understanding and apprehending what real suffering is and what real pain is and so when he sees the the woman who's been abused or when he sees the country that's been racked by genocide or when he sees the the country that's that's suffering from a lack of food and other resources jesus can empathize not just with every individual situation because he really was a human being jesus can empathize with all situations and on the cross event he took it upon himself okay with that sort of in mind i want to talk to you today about how that justice that that that the messiah longs to achieve that he longs to bring to the earth how will it happen and will it ever happen on this earth and that's the title of our presentation jesus is at the center of this jesus is at the center of all scripture we've made that point repeatedly here but particularly when we start talking about issues of suffering and pain and justice and righteousness on earth jesus is right at the center of it his person and his crucifixion will there ever be justice on earth is what we want to talk about now and i want to start by sort of introducing you to a story a story that's so amazing so compelling actually i think i've got a quotation before i actually get right into that story here um can you help me out there guys there we go great here's a really nice quotation one that i just love in my heart of hearts from an evangelical theologian named gregory boyd he writes every exorcism and every healing two activities that most characterize jesus ministry marked an advance mark to what and event so here's jesus and he's casting out demons here and he's healing people here he's going into towns and villages in fact many scholars have noted that he spent more time healing and and and restoring physically than he did actually preaching and so here what what what boyd says is every exorcism and every healing activities that the two activities that most characterize jesus ministry marked an advance toward establishing the what kingdom of god over and against the kingdom of satan consequently in contrast with the view that would suggest that disease and demonization somehow serve a divine purpose jesus never treated such phenomenon as anything other than the work of the enemy he consistently treated diseased and demonized people as what are those next three words there as casualties of war furthermore rather than accepting their circumstances as somehow mysteriously fitting into god's sovereign plan no jesus revolted against them as something that god did not and and that god did not will and something that ought to be vanquished by god's power this is gregory boyd in his book satan and the problem of evil now don't miss that what we see in much of the new testament is jesus establishing justice on earth but he's doing it not by a political uh process he's doing it not by lobbying congress as it were or petitioning caesar or trying to establish just lost and by the way there is a place for that but what jesus was doing is in one case at a time one individual at a time he's he's bringing the kingdom of god into into direct conflict with the kingdom of the enemy the kingdom of satan we mentioned that just briefly in our last presentation when we talked about the field of wheat jesus said that a man planted wheat but all of a sudden what came to be seen among the wheat what was it there was weeds and when jesus was questioned about this this is in matthew chapter 13. hey where did the weeds come from what was his response i mean it was it was an unequivocal response it was an unmistakable response what did he say five words an enemy has done this how much responsibility did jesus take for the presence and the existence of these weeds none an enemy has done this he laid all of the responsibilities somewhere else and so what we see in matthew mark luke and john is this marvelous advance and i think dr boyd uses exactly the right word here this advance where the kingdom of christ is coming into direct conflict direct combat with the kingdom of satan and in one situation one diseased person healed one a person living a life of sin redeemed one demonized person exercised as jesus here is reclaiming individuals one person at a time he is establishing the kingdom of god on earth and he's bringing justice he's bringing justice to that situation to that situation to that situation to that person to that person to that home to that home in fact let me just show you one instance of this it's in luke chapter 13. it's one of the most remarkable instances in all of the gospel accounts and uh it's remarkable for a number of reasons one of which is jesus is finding himself here in direct confrontation not just with demonic powers but actually this is astonishing with the religious leaders of his day who to some degree are sympathetic whether they themselves know it with the demonic powers and so in luke chapter 13 verse 10 look at this story i mean what an amazing story it says now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath that was his custom verse 11. and behold there was a woman there who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up right verse 12 but when jesus saw her he called her to him and he said woman you are loosed from your infirmity and he laid his hands on her there's that personal touch i love that and immediately she was what she was she was made straight and she thanked god she glorified god right so jesus here not in a show an act of showmanship not in an act of miraculous pulling the rabbit out of the hat no jesus heart is genuinely pained and and hurt as he sees this woman in this deformed and and and in this in this diseased condition and so he calls her to himself and he says woman you're loosed from your infirmity and if if we have the rest of jesus teachings how he did this was not a again an act of showmanship in some sort of performance it was often done on the sly very quietly and very tell no man and so here in the synagogue jesus heart is so moved that he heals this woman she stands up straight but this is a remarkable thing that's happened so attention is called to it verse 14 but the ruler of the synagogue who must have noticed what had happened answered with indignation because jesus had healed on the sabbath and he said to the crowd there are six days on which men ought to work therefore come and be healed on them and not on the sabbath then the lord answered him and said hypocrite which is just another way of saying you're an actor you're a performer are you kidding you're a religious person hypocrite does not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it now look at verse 16. here's the critical phrase so ought not this woman being a daughter of abraham whom satan has bound think of it these 18 years be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day now hold on to those four words whom satan has bound if you take those four words and you put them in juxtaposition with the five words that we encountered earlier an enemy has done this we have a basic biblical picture in nine words of why there is injustice why there is suffering and why there is pain on earth god takes jesus rather takes no responsibility for the existence of the weeds in the garden jesus takes no responsibility for the woman's infirmed condition but he does take full responsibility for her regenerate condition and his response and two phrases is an enemy has done this whom satan has bound and it is right here and this is boyd's amazing point and it's the it's it's matthew mark luke and john's point as well that jesus is going about village by village city by city town by town family by family household by household and he is establishing forgiveness and righteousness and justice on an individual basis he is literally as it were reclaiming god's territory and this is this is what we see in much of the new testament is this this radical conflict between the kingdom of god and the kingdom of satan the kingdom of darkness coming into direct conflict but at every turn in jesus case the kingdom of god is victorious justice is established healing is brought and the messiah is at the center of it all he will take that justice just to sort of bring the earlier point that we were making full circle he will take that justice and that longing for healing and righteousness to such a degree that he himself at the cross will eventually bear all of the world's infirmities all of its rebellions all of its sin on his infinitely broad shoulders and he will die a death that he does not deserve and which we cannot understand he will experience a depth of suffering that is perfectly inexplicable and it's here while we may not have the answer to every circumstance every situation we can point to any suffering person who's experiencing ah pain x whatever that is and we can say god understands your pain god he knows exactly what it's like because he did not remain aloof you know safely ensconced in the in the uh halls of heaven looking down on our loathing and pitying us from afar oh no no no the story of the new testament is that god is with us god is in the midst of us and in fact even more to the point god is us he becomes one of us to experience our experience to live our life and to feel the depth of our own pain and suffering well maybe more than many stories is this particular story that i've come across recently and it's the story of the slave ship la amistad and it's it's a terrible story and in 1839 la amistad sailed it was a slave ship with about 53 slaves i think 53 or 54 slaves according to the ship's manifest on board and they sailed from havana cuba now let me just give you a little bit of background here at this particular time and it was a terrible dark time in in earth's history with regards to slavery in this particular time you could buy and sell slaves as property and it's just astonishing to think that people thought you could actually do that with human beings but that's we're not going to get into that right now for our purposes but only if those slaves had been born on a plantation right in other words if a slave family or a child or whatever had been born on a plantation they were considered sort of slaves and they could be bought and sold etc it was illegal at this time to go say to western africa which was the primary area from which slaves were gathered and just go kidnap people randomly from their villages and take them and then put them into the slave trade and so la amistad becomes a very interesting case because it was claimed by the slave handlers and by the owners of the slaves that in fact all of these slaves had been born in havana cuba and now they were being transported to some place um when in fact actually a very interesting thing happened a man by the name of joseph cinque led a rebellion and a revolt against the slave handlers on the ship and the slaves eventually got free from their shackles free from their from their confinement and they killed all of the slave handlers on board like a dozen of them and they left two alive they left the captain and the navigator alive and they said take us back to our home now their home wasn't havana cuba they had not been born there they had been illegally obtained from the west coast of africa and though there was a huge language barrier there the two slave handlers being portuguese that were remained alive and the the the west africans on completely unable to speak their language they just basically pointed to the direction of where the the sun was rising and said you take us there we know our home is that direction you take us well the navigator and the captain were of course afraid all of their companions had been killed and they were now on board with these 53 or 54 slaves and uh what they did do was was rather tricky rather than sailing east toward africa they began to sail north but they stayed far enough off the coast of the united states that the united states couldn't be seen so sort of sailing up the coast and and over time it didn't take very long for the slaves and others to figure out hey we're not going the right direction but eventually what ends up happening is a remarkable story it becomes one of the the most amazing stories in the history of the united states supreme court in in later in 1839 the ship actually comes ashore in long island new york and it was the ship was seen uh you know this like portuguese you know slave ship was seen by two u.s naval vessels and they sailed out and they you know what is this and they find you know a portuguese captain a portuguese navigator and then a bunch of african slaves on board who you know can't communicate can't talk etc and so they they basically steer them into harbor okay come with us into harvard well the slaves are are arrived they can't speak they can't communicate and so the united states government there in uh in new york uh they didn't know what to do and so they put them into into a jail they put them into prison well right here's where a very interesting thing happens there's lots of different claims on the this property of the slaves the portuguese are saying no these are our slaves they rightfully belong to us even the united states naval ships that located them said no based on marine law if we find them then they're ours and then the united states government said no there's we have a claim on them and then there were abolitionists that were saying no these people should be set free so you have these sort of you know multi-faceted claims on these people and here just imagine how unusual this would have been you know 53 slaves fresh from the west african coast have just landed in long island new york and what do we do with these people we can't talk the language we don't really know where they're from huge communication barrier and steven spielberg actually made a movie about this called named after the name of the ship la amistad which fascinatingly means friendship and as the sort of as the sort of court case begins to build particularly in the movie you just have this growing sense of frustration and injustice at what's happening it's you just you just almost want to yell at the at the television or you want to yell at the historical circumstance and say is there not any human being here who understands the basic principles of justice i mean can nobody see what the right thing to do is in this circumstance no but the united states court has to grind through its you know procedures and and of course all of the africans are sitting there in court they don't understand what's taking place they don't understand the language all they know is that they continue to be in shackles when they just want to be back in their homeland well in one particular scene in the movie and the movie was was shot by spielberg to be purposefully very historically accurate in one particular scene that just really in many ways is the climax of the sense of frustration at injustice the slaves are sitting in the courtroom and the proceedings are going on with the different claims being made very interestingly this case will eventually make it to the united states supreme court but at this point it's just being tried in a local court there in new york and one of the the slave one of the slaves in fact i think it was joseph sinke who had led the revolt in the first place he's been listening to enough english speaking and he's been sitting in on enough of these courtrooms that courtroom days that he's beginning to at least get the basics the rudiments of the english language and he he apprehends that what they're after is freedom right he gets that word that's the thing that's the word freedom and so here he is shackled in the courtroom with all of his other fellow slaves and he stands up in the middle of the proceedings and he begins to say give us free give us free here's the one voice of reason in the whole courtroom the one voice that is actually crying out for justice crying out for righteousness for what should be done in this situation but of course he's hi you're be held in contempt of court hush down but he just he doesn't understand what's being said to him all he knows he's in shackles he wants to be back in his home he was illegally and wrongfully taken give us free well he's not given his freedom and the court case sort of climbs its way up until it finally and 1841 makes its way to the united states supreme court again one of the most unusual court cases ever tried by the u.s supreme court and none other than john quincy adams the sixth president of the united states of america and the son of john adams tries the case try he actually takes the case of the slaves and you can actually go read uh at least some of the manuscript of what he said in that in his presentation before the supreme court and it's beautiful it is profoundly beautiful it's the voice of reason it's the voice of common sense it's the voice of freedom it's the voice of liberty frankly it's the voice of scripture it's god's own voice the thing that god would say and he essentially says it's not right it's it's not appropriate for one human being to control another human being to to to manipulate and to coerce and to sell no these people need to be given their freedom they need to be sent back it was basically proved uh by the ship's manifest that they were not born in havana cuba that those were illegitimate records that had been manufactured to make the transaction look legal whether it was legal it was never ethical at all but the point is is that it's shown to be an illegal transaction john quincy adams and the slaves win the case and they're eventually returned but after a long painful process that's just fraught with with delay after obstacle after injustice after injustice after injustice and this is simply one instance and i'll talk about another here in just a moment in which it seems like most of us as as ordinary human beings can just look at that and say the right thing is so clearly obvious the just thing the righteous thing the godly thing the virtuous thing is so obvious but if it's so obvious to so many of us why is there so little justice on earth and why do we find ourselves consistently frustrated with the level of injustice on earth both national and international god did not make us to control or be controlled he made us to communicate to connect and to create when in the garden of eden there god said let us make man in our image and father son and holy spirit as a god of what is this everyone a god of love who is himself a relational being father son and holy spirit made adam and eve and said to them make still others he as a relational entity made other relational entities that is to say the family as a family he made a family in his image and i just want to pause right here and say something it's not just any ordinary relationship that god has amongst himself father son and holy spirit it's a covenantal relationship this is actually very very important and in our opening presentation we ask the question what is the bible and we sort of walked through the seven chapters of the bible from pre-creation to creation to fall to covenant to church uh covenant to messiah to church and finally to re recreation but right at the center of those six chapters three on this side three on this side is the idea of covenant the whole the whole narrative of scripture is built around the idea of covenant now there's good reason for that because god in his nature is a covenantal relationship i want to say that again all of scripture is based around the idea of covenant mutual agreement because god is himself a covenant relationship the relationship between the father the son and the spirit is one in which their roles are not identical but they're complementary right the son has a role and his role is not the father's role or the spirit's role the spirit has a role within this covenantal relationship but his role is neither the fathers nor the sons and the father has a role but his role is not precisely identical to the sons of the fathers their roles are all complementary their identities are all consistent but each one of them has to be true to the covenant in order for the whole to work by the way this is very much like a marriage you might have picked up on that of course a marriage is a covenantal relationship where the man has his role the woman has her role and the children have their role and as long as each plays their role within the family unit then love prevails and goodness prevails and virtue prevails and happiness prevails so far so good everyone so when god as not just any ordinary relationship but as a covenantal relationship of respect and mutuality and trust when he makes something in his image he makes a covenant family relational unit in his image in which all are equal all are what did i say everyone all are equal fundamental equality by the way this is so intuitive that the founders of this country and others knew intuitively that we hold these truths to be what do they say we hold these truths to be self-evident in other words intuitively knowable self-evident that all men are created the funny thing is is that even as some of them were writing those lines they themselves had slaves so they were self-evident intellectually but in practice they still had to catch up their practices had to catch up with what they intellectually had consented to but our point is this it's it's within the marital unit within the the even within the godhead father son and holy spirit are equal in terms of their essential equality right but essential equality does not mean that there is not a differentiation of roles within this covenantal relationship makes sense right a man is not worth more than a woman and a woman is not worth more than a man they are worth the same but their roles are different the father is not more important to the plan of salvation than jesus is and jesus is not more important than the spirit each one plays a critically important role in the governing of the universe and in the actuating of the plan of salvation makes sense okay now here's the thing when mankind is then created in the image of this relational covenantal trusting family unit that is god he doesn't make man to control other men or to be controlled by other men no no no no god didn't make us to control or be controlled he made us to create to connect and to communicate which is in his own image we don't see control and coercion and manipulation within the godhead and so we shouldn't be seeing it if we are truly in his image in our own societies and in our own families let that be a practical familial lesson for some of you parents god has not called you to cr to control in the manipulative sense or in the coercive sense your children but to win your children to woo your children to attract your children do you hear the difference it's very important it's a crucially important distinction that many parents fail to understand because in our cases we were ruled by our parents right you do this well why should i do that because i said so and if we got out of line we were maybe beaten or spanked or or punished and there's i'm not saying there's no place for punishment and punitive measures in the family relation of course there is but but if we're really going to have our family units be in the image of god they won't be built around control or coercion or manipulation but around trust about mutual love and respect for one another and wooing people wooing individuals to covenant faithfulness do you feel that now back to la amistad a very interesting thing happened a number of years later in 1868 just to sort of pick up a story here this idea of control in 1868 the first vatican council was convened by pope pius the 10th on june 29th of 1868 and uh basically the first vatican council is known for a great many things in catholic theology and ecclesiology but the thing it is certainly best known for was the proposition of the doctrine of papal infallibility and basically in in catholic terms the doctrine of papal infallibility essentially says this it says that the pope when speaking ex-cathedra or out of the church is immune from even the possibility of making a mistake because he's filled with the spirit purportedly now the idea was is that when the pope was speaking in a certain way he literally could not make a mistake he was immune from even the possibility of making an error well very interesting this man here has a very long name but you might know him by a much shorter name his his full name is jonathan emmerich edward dahlberg acton right but you may just have heard the name lord acton well lord acton was an english catholic and a historian a politician and a writer and in 1870 in response to the proposition at the first vatican council of of of papal infallibility acton and other catholics said no way they resisted as faithful catholics they resisted even the notion or the idea that a human being could be immune from error or from a mistake and so lord acton traveled to rome in 1870 and he threw all of his considerable weight against this the adoption of what he perceived to be an absolutely ludicrous notion and that was this idea that someone could be immune even the pope under certain circumstances now he in a later a letter to a fellow scholar and friend wrote about his objection to this doctrine and i would imagine that if i began part of that quotation most of you in this room could finish it okay now i'm going to give you the full context of the quotation and now you know the context in which it was written which was against this doctrine that a man could possess absolute power and absolute infallibility so that he was even immune from the possibility of making a mistake this is what he wrote i cannot accept your canon that we are to judge pope and king unlike other men with a favorable presumption that they did no wrong if there is any presumption it is the other way against the holders of power increasing as the power increases power tends to corrupt now could you finish the rest of this many of you could why don't you say it with me and absolute power corrupts absolutely don't miss this point power has a tendency to corrupt us as human beings because we're fallen and absolute power he says corrupts absolutely now look at what he goes on to say great men are almost always bad men there is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it oh don't miss that the idea that if you're elected to an office whether a church office is an elder or a pastor or a deacon that you are suddenly holy by virtue of your office or you're elected as a president or a congressman or a senator or even a local representative that somehow the office makes you a different person he says there's no greater heresy if you were corrupt before you were elected you'll continue to be corrupt if you were dishonest before you were elected you'll continue to be dishonest nothing about the holding of the office makes you a sanctified person are we together everywhere now we're going to go somewhere with this that's absolutely amazing there is no worse heresy than the office sanctifies the holder of it i would hang them corrupt and murderous leaders higher than haman for reasons of quite obvious what justice now don't miss john emmerich edward dahlberg acton's point and the point is as you give people power and autonomy over other human beings they tend to exercise it too often in a totalitarian and controlling way now there's an amazing paradox here and rather than waiting to the end to kind of give you the punch line i'm going to give you the punch line right now the amazing paradox is this is true with again one glaring exception and the exception is god right you see in general as human beings become more and more powerful as entered as as beings like us become more and more powerful the tendency for corruption increases because hey we have i can do whatever i want i'm autonomous i i am in perfect uh uh control of this country or this situation or this whatever it might be shh but in god's case he truly is in control he truly possesses power and not just some conventional power that's been given to him by an electoral body he's god but his absolute power has not caused him to become absolutely corrupt but absolutely humble he didn't become humble he always was humble here we have a remarkable beautiful picture that the most powerful being in the universe is the most humble the most gracious the most giving and the most just in 1971 a series of experiments were conducted in the in the psych building of stanford university and these experiments have come to be so famous that they're simply called the stanford prison experiments and what took place was a man by the name of philip zimbardo who was a psych professor at stanford university um basically uh invited 24 students stanford university students to participate in a a an experiment and over the course of a long weekend at stanford university they took these 24 students and then they arbitrarily decided among them prisoner prisoner prisoner guard prisoner prisoner prisoner guard prisoner prisoner prisoner guard and they just went down the list and assigned everyone arbitrary roles not based on anything just one two three four one two three four one two three four you're the guards you're the prisoners and then they essentially just said okay we've got a long weekend today's thursday we'll be back and we'll be back in here on tuesday uh go ahead and act appropriately that was it those were the instructions act appropriately and in the words of one commentator in classic understatement the students took to their roles far beyond zimbardo's expectations what ends up happening is that within 48 hours the police are called and the whole experiment has to be shut down why why was the experiment shut down because of a fire in the building no because the guards began to manipulate begin to control and and and harass and even to some degree psychologically torture the prisoners but they weren't prisoners of course they were just their fellow students and they weren't guards of course they were just fellow students as well but what had happened was as soon as you assigned a role and you said there's no accountability there's no liability just just do what you want and you're given total autonomy total control over another human being they began to exercise that control and exercise that power in such a way that it became torturous and terrible and demonic and and it was amazing and the whole experiment had to be shut down fascinatingly zimbardo later wrote a book a book that i have in my library called listen to the title of the book the lucifer effect right and i think the subtitle is how good people turn bad and basically the fascinating thing is is that you and i might sit there and think man those students have lost their mind and pope pius the tenth what were they thinking and those slave holders on what were they thinking and zambardo's point and it's actually scripture's point is that the thing that makes everyone go bad everyone possesses if circumstances were such that you were placed in a situation where you had complete control and autonomy over another human being chances are you would exercise it in a terrible way study after study after study has shown it's not just bad people that do bad things it's ordinary people that do bad things when they're placed in a situation where the expectation is for them to do bad things we had another example in 2004 with the abu ghraib iraq prison scandal when individuals were basically told by their superiors their commanding officers hey look extract information intimidate harass and then you had otherwise normal people that began to do the most humiliating and and terrible uh uh acts to these prisoners why and the answer is because they could because they could because they were told to because they were allowed to and right here scripture identifies the germ of rebellion the germ of selfishness that is implanted in the human heart of every in in every human heart i'll just read you one particular very unflattering description of humanity by none other than the apostle paul he writes in romans chapter three there is none righteous no not one there is none who understands there is none who seeks after god they have all turned aside they have together become unprofitable i'm in verse 12. there is none who does good no not one their throat is an open tomb with their tongues they have practiced deceit the poison of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways in the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of god before their eyes and you might be tempted and i might be tempted to read that and think man what a bunch of rotten people oh who are these people and you know what paul's answer is do you know what the answer of history is you know what the answer of scientific experi of experience is it's you it's me we are fundamentally broken and this was acton's point when you give people who are fundamentally broken and fundamentally selfish power over others that power tends to corrupt but you give someone absolute power over another human being i mean how do dictatorships end up there never is a true benevolent dictatorship they always the idia means and the polpots and the maozai dungs of the world always go spiraling down into an increasing sense of their own superiority and power and that is true again in every single case with one glaring exception and that's god himself who has total power who has absolute sovereignty over the universe and yet as the most powerful being we see him hanging on a cross a roman device of torture why what's he doing there what is he doing down there he's exercising a totally different kind of power not a power of strength or a pew sensor of might but a power of character the power of love the power that doesn't win by force but woos by attraction who invites us to love him to believe in him this marvelous thing as we described last night you know god could destroy satan just as easily as i slide that clicker across the floor that's if it was if it just boiled down to an issue of might this thing is over but what god is doing he's wooing his rebellious creation back to him not by the strength of his nature but by the beauty of his character yeah and this god as you would expect gave a standard of conduct a standard as to how we should use our freedom and and this standard of conduct as to how we should use our freedom is is the law it's the law one of my favorite quotations from george mcdonald says this and it's an appropriate place to do it here being located so close to d.c he says it is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected because the best men do not want to govern their fellow men right we want the best men to govern us but it's not on the nature of politics that that should happen because the best of men don't want to govern their fellow men right this is why i'm just going to make a mild statement here it's not a political statement it's a factual statement but it has political implications this is why people who really understood this like thomas jefferson very perspicaciously and insightfully said things like this the government that really governs best does anyone know this governs least right the government that governs best governs least because it's not a government that's that's governing out of coercion and manipulation and even dependency it's a government that's that's governing out of hey let's all work together for the common good right a government of the people for the people and by the people it's a radical notion and frankly it's a biblical notion the idea that hey if i'm generally looking out for you and you're looking out for me and i'm and we're looking out for one another and our community is looking out for what then we don't really need people over us to coerce us and to cajole us into going into different directions because this is the way that we will go but the brokenness of humanity has made this virtually impossible god has given the church a law now whenever we talk about a law he's given the world a law too whenever we talk about a law instantaneously the ideas of duty and responsibility come to the forefront but i would like to suggest to you that in fact the primary issue with god's law is not obligation but opportunity i want to say that again that god's primary concern in giving a law and giving a standard of moral conduct is not an obligation you will abide by the following precepts no it's not that it's an opportunity to live the life that god has actually created you to live and at the core of that law and this should come as no surprise to us is the principle of love in fact i'll just read you since i'm here in romans i've been reading in romans 3 the apostle paul let me just read you in romans 13 what paul has to say about this idea of a law romans 13 verse 8 he says owe no one anything except to love one another for he who loves another has fulfilled the law he who he who loves has fulfilled the law for the commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness you shall not covet and if there is any other commandment all are summed up in this saying you shall love your neighbor as yourself verse 10 love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the very fulfillment of the law by the way this is exactly what jesus said in matthew chapter 22 you can turn there on your own time in matthew chapter 22 jesus was approached by an individual who said hey what's the great commandment in the law what's the big one because according to jewish rabbinical uh counting there's like 612 laws in the old testament so it's an appropriate question to say of the 612 or 613 i forget exactly how many it is what's the most important and jesus said oh come on this is a piece of cake right you shall love the lord your god with all your heart mind and soul and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself now think about that for just a moment what a strange commandment right the greatest commandment you'd better love right this is why the commandments are not primarily out of obligation they're opportunities they're opportunities to live that divine life that god has created us to live this is why jesus said if the son shall make you free you shall be what free indeed not free to live in harmony with the principles of the kingdom of darkness the kingdom of satan or even with your own selfish principles but when we are truly free what that means you're free to live the life that you were created to me to live true freedom comes not just in a wanton ability to do what you want when you want how you want to who you want that's not freedom that's actually damnation that's bondage to your own selfish desires true freedom comes when when when we are able and and made able and redeemed for the purpose of being able to live the life that god originally created us to live which at its most fundamental core is a life of love it's a life of connection it's it's a life of meaning i was recently asked to write an essay for a magazine what is the meaning of life well i thought this is a piece of cake i can write that essay in less than 100 words i was given 1500 of which i took every one but to write a question on what is the meaning of life is so easy it's to love and be loved we know that we know that intuitively to love and be loved that is the purpose of life it's the meaning of life it's what paul says oh all of this law thing it's fulfilled in love jesus said the greatest commandment to love the lord your god with all your heart mind and soul and to love your neighbors yourself and then he went on to say and on these two principles these two commands hang the law and the prophets so in the case of the ten commandments love for god is the first four commandments now i want you to see those first four commandments maybe in a new way here the first commandment this is from exodus chapter 20 is you shall have no other gods before me and and inside of that command is not merely an obligatory an obligatory requirement you won't have any other gods only me no no no what god is saying here he's inviting us as a lover he's inviting us as a friend he's inviting us as a father give me your affections give me your affections on april 4th 1999 when i married my own wife one of the things that the minister said to us is do you take this woman to have and to hold do you take this man to have and to hold what does that mean to have well it doesn't mean to possess in the property sense it means to to that they have your affections that there are no other women before this woman that there are no other men before this man give him give her your undivided affections you will have no other gods before me now look at the second commandment you will not bow down to any you know i am the lord your god you shall not bow down to any images or serve them for other lord like okay anyway i'm not going to quote the whole commandment here bowing down to or serving images what god is saying here is that's an illegitimate use of your body give me your body i gave you your body as a gift and you use your body to honor me now here's an e an even very interesting thing here when the commands begin with you shall not you shall not an actual better translation of this in the hebrew is you will not it's totally different you shall not has the issue of responsibility and duty and obligation when you will not sounds like a promise right you have been living that way but from this day forward you won't live that way anymore and it creates the sense that you won't live that way anymore because you don't want to and now you have the power to not live that way anymore you will not have any other gods before me oh thank you for that thank you for that promise right you will not bow down to other gods or serve them oh thank you for that opportunity to be free from the bondage of idolatry and slavery to idols the the third one is you will not take the lord's name in vain and with what is it that we take the name of god in vain it's our mouth saying one thing and doing another taking god's name in vain and so god says here give me your mouth give me your words in the fourth commandment remember the sabbath day to keep it holy what is god asking for here the sabbath is all about time in fact it's the most unusual commandment you just read through the ten commandments and say which one of these is kind of doing its own thing here it's clearly the sabbath i mean first of all it's much longer second of all it has tons of little details we're going to talk about the sabbath this afternoon in a for what will be for many of you a whole new way or at least it's new to me and um what god is asking for here is our time now this is very interesting the first commandment god says give me your affections the second commandment god says give me your body the third commandment god says give me your words and thoughts and the fourth commandment god says give me your time beloved that's relational language for those of you that have a husband or a wife or a boyfriend or a girlfriend if if you don't give any of those four things to your significant other you're having a relational breakdown right that is the that is the foundation those four things of which any relationship is built upon right if your spouse doesn't have your genuine affections or if you sense that you don't have the affections of your spouse you're gonna not have relational health you're going to have relational dysfunction true or false of course and if if you are oh i love you so much sweetie but my body is going to be in mississippi while your body is in california how's that going to work out by the way any husband or wife who would want to be away from their spouse's body i don't know i got issues with that um i kind of want to be as close to my wife's body as often probably a little more often than she likes should the truth be tall did i really just say that i think i did that's what you get with me i'm going to tell you what it is as it is so so god here is saying give give your you're i'm having really trouble recovering from that one okay okay i gotta shake it up let me get a drink of water my wife is probably just somewhere cowering in fear right now ready to absolutely slay me okay here we go you give your you give your partner your affections you give your partner your body you give your partner your words oh yeah yeah i love you and i like you i'm just never gonna tell you no it's not gonna work you give your words you oh you look good today sweetheart oh that looks really nice on you you are beautiful i am many daughters have feared virtuously but thou excellus them all you know any little cute compliment that you can come up with you know words am i right ladies right how many of you have read gary chapman's book the five love languages it's a great one it's a great one and one of my favorite things there is words of affirmation and it's amazing is you ask the men you know hey what's your love language men are like words of affirmation and physical touch yeah no-brainer and then you ask the ladies you know what what's your love language and it's usually um words of uh it's uh it's uh time and acts of service mow the lawn and spend some time with the family right anyway i could have written gary chapman's book in about 100 words or less but anyway that's beside the point and then finally all relationships are built around time right let's spend real time together i read an article several years ago that was a great one for me to read as a father and as a husband and the article was called the myth of quality time and the article basically said there is no such thing as quality time it's just quantity man you know your kids don't at the end of the day your kids aren't going to care with if they're at disneyland or if they're playing in a mud puddle down at the end of the road your kids just need your time they need to be with you your spouse you know it's one thing for you to take you know a week-long vacation hawaii and have a great time fine but far more important than those little you know itinerant oh and we'll do one vacation a week where we spend time together is the ongoing let's take a walk together let's spend am i right ladies let's spend time together and and what god is saying here is i have built you this way you see true freedom and true justice comes when we live a life in harmony with the principle of love because god is love and right in the ten commandments which many of us here the ten commandments commanded from sinai in a sonorous voice you will do this and you'll be happy no what god is saying is give me your affections give me your body give me your words and thoughts and give me your time and you will be happier for it your life will be better true freedom will come not from obeying someone who's more powerful from than you but actually by given the opportunity to obey someone who has wooed you to himself by his beautiful character the christian life i want to say is not a list of obligations it's it's the glory of opportunity it's not a list of do's and don't do's it's the opportunity to live the life that god created you to live a life of other centeredness a life of service a life of love a life of selflessness we are happiest when we are ministering to others we are happiest when our life is not built around us will there ever be justice on earth the answer is yes and that justice will proceed from the messiah but it will not come to this earth wholesale universally corporately it will come to the earth made new when righteousness rains down and when oh one of my favorite passages you can go read it is isaiah 42 in fact let me just do a quick speed reading course look at this as we wrap this up man isaiah 42 righteousness and justice will come but watch it all comes from the messiah isaiah 42 behold my servant whom i uphold my elect and whom my soul delights i have put my spirit upon him he will bring forth justice to the gentiles he will not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his voice to be heard in the street a bruised reed he will not break a smoking flax he will not quench he will bring forth justice for truth he will not fail nor be discouraged until he has established justice in the earth and the coastland shall wait for his law thus says the lord who created the heavens and who stretched them out who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it who gives breath to the people on it and the spirit to those who walk on it i the lord have called you in righteousness i will hold your hand i will keep you i will give you as a covenant to the people as a light to the gentiles god says my messiah my son jesus will establish justice on earth by the way he is the one uniquely qualified to do so because he has felt our pain he has endured our suffering the chastisement of our peace was upon him and so he knows not only what it is like to rule as sovereign god over the universe but he knows what it's like to be nailed to a tree who better to bring justice to the earth than the one who possesses absolute power but doesn't lord it over his subjects to coerce and even to obligate but to call to invite to woo not on the strength of his nature but on the beauty of his character

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Length: 58min 13sec (3493 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 08 2017