Race and Reconciliation (Sermon Only, Dr. Tony Evans)

one of the most daunting issues that we've had to grapple with as a country and as a culture is the issue of race the problem of race has dominated us from beginning to end and every day in one form or another it hits us in the face and we wonder often is there ever going to be a solution to this problem that lives in infamy in our minds in our hearts and in our relationship one of the things that has divided people along political social cultural and class lines is the issue of race and the sin of racism i'll never forget my first confrontation with racism at about 10 years old when my father was driving me in baltimore passed a white tower restaurant and i asked my dad about getting a hamburger and he informed me we couldn't go in there to eat because they didn't allow negroes as he would say then into the place confused i wanted to get a little clarity on on why and he began to give me my basic orientation to the problem of race to the problem of racism it became more amplified growing up in baltimore when i found out that there was some quote-unquote evangelical churches that we could not visit or go in because of segregation and illegitimate divisiveness and so that began a journey for me to look at this subject not only culturally but bibliocentrically and theologically the issue of race is not new or unique to us it was replete in biblical times as well for example in numbers chapter 12 there was an interracial marriage between moses and african woman twice in verse one she's called the cushite the african woman that moses married this caused a sibling chaotic abandonment of their brother and spiritual leader of the nation because of the interracial marriage to a black woman so incensed was god at their racist mentality at the institution of marriage that he himself had established that god came down and he judged them particularly miriam his sister turning her skin white until she repented of her racism what exactly is racism racism is a conscious or unconscious belief in the security of one race over another race that manifests itself in the use of power or influence or resources or communication used to reject or oppress people of another ethnicity and it has imbibed itself not only in individual hearts but in structural realities so that whether it's economic or social structures or political structures or educational structures or medical structures they filter themselves through so that whether known or unknown it becomes just the way people accept as normal ways to operate what makes it worse is when this attitude and or action finds its way in the life of god's people and the reality is that unless we can fix it in the church house why would we expect it to be transformational in the culture so rather than skip the issue since god doesn't skip the issue and since we are continually in this mirage in this mix of racial confusion and calamity why don't we appeal to the word of god to understand how we are to relate to one another in the church house so that we can bring transformation all the way up to the white house because when god's people can get it right then we have something to offer the culture when writing to the church at ephesus paul spends the first half of the chapter talking about the magnificent grace of god he tells us we are saved by grace through faith he tells us that in the ages to come god wants to manifest his grace he comes in verse 10 and he says it's because of this grace that we are now workers we need to get to work and get the job done now that we've been redeemed by jesus christ but curiously when he finishes talking about grace he goes to race he moves from grace to race and he says that the first work of saved people of people who named jesus christ ought to be the work of racial reconciliation he says that the very first thing because in verse 10 he tells us about our work but then beginning in verse 11 all the way through verse 22 he talks about race that grace should lead to fixing the problems of race or to put it another way if you want if i'm not if we're not fixing the problem of race it's because we haven't fully understood the glory of grace and he comes and he opens it up to the biggest racial problem in the new testament it was the problem between the jews and the gentiles therefore based on the grace of god that ought to produce the work in the people of god remember that you formerly the gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands the uncircumcised were the gentiles the circumcised were the jews and like the berlin wall that separated nato from wall from warsaw there was a division not to be crossed the jews rejected the gentiles they were not racially pure they were not religiously acceptable and there was a divide between the two but now both were claiming the same faith paul speaks into this calamity and he says now that you're saved you've got to fix this now that you're believers you've got to solve this now that you name the name of christ the problem was even though they were on their way to heaven they hadn't yet learned can we all get along on earth it's like the saying goes to live above with saints we love oh that would be glory but to dwell below with saints we know that's a whole different story because somehow the thought that we're going to do okay up there doesn't translate too well to us being okay down here and yet paul is not willing to wait for us to get the glory to fix this thing and to make it right but the problem of race that leads to racism and other form and all of its form of inequities is because we bring our histories with us the gentiles only knew how to be gentiles and the jews only knew how to be jewish but yet they find themselves sharing the same faith and now belonging to the same church but they brought their past with them you and i know it's not easy to let go of yesterday especially when you're used to it or maybe there's pain in it but yet now you're this new creature in christ and how do we fix this rather than have it go on year after year decade after decade century after century reminds me of the story of the bear who was in the 12-foot cage he was confined to 12 square feet and he had lived in that month after month year after year so he only knew how to go 12 feet because he had been locked in to that reality and existence but one day he was transferred to a 36 square foot cage but when you know it every time the bear walked 12 feet it would stop turn around and go the other way 12 feet it would stop turn around and go the other way it never took advantage of the freedom it had because it had gotten so used to living in the confines of the past that they couldn't it couldn't press on to the future and so it was that these jews and gentiles or to put it in everyday language black and white or hispanic and black or whatever the group is yesterday can be so confining to how you were raised what you were taught what you experienced that you live in your racial cage and you're not released to be in this new environment in which you find yourself so paul is not going to stutter he's not going to skip the issue it was true then and it's true now now it's very interesting that in sports people can work out together across the color line play on a team together across the color line it's interesting that that people can can do drugs together because of the common drug that they're taking the bong or the pipe or the needle it's interesting that they can do activities together but when it comes to the family of god we know how to split up quickly and that is because there's something we do not understand he says but now verse 13 of ephesians 2. did you see that but now now he's previously said in chapter 2 verse 4 but god he has talked about how bad off we were apart from christ and then he says but god he takes that same concept and now he says but now in other words this is a whole new situation this is a whole new reality this is a whole new circumstance and if you don't get that straight if you don't understand this new thing that god has done you'll be trapped in your old racial cage our problem today is we've got too many christians trapped in their old racial identity because they're trapped there they miss but now he says but now in christ jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of christ for he himself is our peace making both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing it in his flesh which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man thus establishing peace now these are christians he's writing but they weren't at peace they were in conflict with one another four times between these verses up through verse 17 he uses the word peace peace peace peace and he says that this peace comes with an understanding of what you are now i do a lot of marriage counseling the reason i do marriage counseling is because couples come to me who in conflict there's no peace in the relationship they're at each other's throat they are talking about divorce there's anger misuse abuse insensitivity and they come to me to help them sort out their marital difficulties i have discovered in the years that i have done marital counseling that the problem is not rooted in what they are bringing to me what they are literally bringing to me is a symptom of something else but because the symptom is in their face they're not able to deal with the root that has produced the fruit that brings them for marital counseling you know what the problem is they never understood marriage let me say that again they never understood what they got into and because they brought their past with them what their mamas and daddies taught them what their previous singlehood was like they did not understand that the two become one and what that means and how that looks and because they never understood the root of marriage they're living in the fruit of conflict because christians across the racial line color line culture line and class line have not understood the root of what has happened when you come to jesus christ we bring all of that stuff and fight over it because we're not going back to the root he says when you come to christ god is not trying to fix something old he's trying to make something new he calls it one new man not fixing two old racial people he does not mean by this you lose your identity what he is saying is your previous identity is no longer your point of reference let me say that again he's not saying jews aren't jews and gentiles on gentiles because he talks about jews and gentiles throughout all of his letters what he is saying is that this new thing this new relationship is your starting point for everything else in your experience with one another and how you are to view yourself the moment that this new relationship in christ is not the starting point for your racial identity you will forever live in racial conflict and confusion and debate and crisis why because you're starting at the wrong place he says he himself is our peace in galatians 2 20 paul says i'm crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i christ lives in me the life which i now live i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me you know what paul is saying i'm christian first that he is my identity and he is my point of reference now you know when he said that he said that in the midst of a racial problem because peter stopped eating with the gentiles he found out that the gentiles could cook he started eating with the gentiles because god said you got to cross the railroad tracks you got to learn how them them folk over there know how to make the chitlins and the neck bones and and you need to learn how to eat some of their food and so he started eating with them until his voice from the hood showed up beginning in galatians 2 verse 11 when the when when his jewish brethren showed up he left the gentiles because his jewish brethren wouldn't accept the gentiles and he didn't want to lose acceptance in his own race and paul says when i saw that he was not acting in concert with the truth of the gospel i confronted peter before them all because he was embarrassing the cross i don't care what his background was i don't care what his racial identity was he was messing with jesus christ what we have not discovered in our racial conflict and confusion is that we're messing with jesus christ because he is our peace he is our point of reference he is the one who has established one new man or to put it in everyday language you are christian first and your color your culture must adapt to that my color and culture i don't lose it i adapt it i adapt it to my relationship with jesus christ which means he overrules it when a couple gets married they're coming from different backgrounds they're coming from different experiences but they're coming into a new relationship and they've got to learn that that relationship overrules that's why you leave mother and father because mother and father are no longer the last say so i don't care how much you love them how loyal you are to them how much investment they made in you once you get married that relationship no longer has final authority that's why you can't say first of all i'm a black christian or a white christian because then you make black and white and adjective you make christian a noun and it's the job of the adjective to modify the noun so if you've got christianity in the noun position and your color in the adjectival position you've got to keep adjusting the noun of your humanity to the noun of your faith to the adjective of your humanity you've got to put christianity in the adjectival position your color and your culture in the noun position so if anything changes it is the noun of your humanity and not the adjective of your faith until black christians white christians asian christians hispanic christians decide i am christian first and i must i don't have to lose my culture i don't have to give up my culture but i must submit it to the authority of christ when it comes in conflict with him until that kind of decision but you say but we are so different i hear that in so many marriages we are so do when you were different before you got married and you were different before you got saved and god welcomes that difference he wants that difference you say how can we all get along with all of these differences he says you know oil and water doesn't mix all the water that make uh you can stare till you blew in the face oil and water are not going to get along their makeup doesn't allow them to integrate their makeup doesn't allow them to unify and as soon as you force them together they're going to go back to their own political isles social lives you know racialized personality owls they're going to separate because they're just not made to get along well sometimes they are whenever i eat a sandwich i want mayonnaise i'm not a mustard guy i'm a mayonnaise guy i love mayonnaise now mayonnaise is made of oil and water but there is a process for me to get mayonnaise that process is called emulsification emulsification is the process of taking things that are disjointed and distinct and adding an ingredient to bring them together so that they create something new water is water oil is oil but when you put egg in the middle of the tube egg will grab oil and egg will grab water pull the two together so i can get my mayonnaise oh yeah it does i get mayonnaise because of emulsification that even though oil and water can't get along when i introduced the egg i have created something new without oil becoming less than oil and water becoming less than water but i've created something brand new it is time for the church of jesus christ to create something new to create something that the world has never seen to create a brand new church under the lordship of jesus christ without us losing our uniqueness but creating something new because jesus is our peace he is the one who establishes a whole different way of operating so that people from different backgrounds can still sit next to each other so that the phd and the ged can still hang out together why because they belong in their loyalty to jesus christ and he sits in the seat of their relationship and he can overrule them see we've got too many black christians jesus can't overrule we've got too many white christians jesus can't overrule we've got too many christians of every hue that jesus can't overrule and you know it because they will quickly go back to their culture well i think i feel i was raised this way and now they'll revert back on you real quick which means they don't understand jesus is creating something new one new man and he uses this concept this truth to let us know that verse 16 he might reconcile both in one body to god through the cross jesus christ wants to reconcile these are two races he wants to bring harmony unity togetherness and he wants to do it through the cross see the cross is not a 2 000 year old relic it is a contemporary reality why because the cross was established watch this to deal with sin did you hear that we spent our time wanting to talk about skin the cross was established to deal with sin but we want to spend all of our time talking about skin and if you spend all of your time talking about skin you're going to miss sin because the only reason that the problem with skin is because we won't address the sin you don't reconcile by simply saying let's all get along let's meet together let's have a kumbaya services together no you must identify the sin apply the cross address the sin through repentance so that the reconciling work of jesus christ can be ignited oh we we mentioned the cross but the cross is not the final say so and that's why he says having been built together he says in verse 20 on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets christ jesus himself being the cornerstone the cornerstone was the alignment stone that you lined up all the other stones with it it lined things up like a surveyor lines things up the cornerstone line things up and he says based on watch this the apostles and the prophets now the apostles and the prophets were set up for the writing of the word of god so when he talks about the prophets and the apostles they're not just people they are biblical authors so what is he saying he is saying if you're going to align with christ you have to align with the word of god if you're going to fix this race problem the bible has got to overrule you we got folk going to sociology books before they go to the bible we got folks studying critical race theory before they go to the bible we got folks reading white fragility before they go to the bible we got folk reading black history before they go to the bible no the bible sits on top of all of those other things there may be great legitimacy to looking at this and seeing the history and identifying the problems and seeing how things are unfolding and analyzing micro aggression and looking into uh uh uh various other implicit biases and and there may be great benefit in studying all of those reality as long as the word of god sits on top of it and is the point of reference for it with jesus christ being the final decision maker of it but what we've got people doing christians is going secular and then have the audacity to judge the sacred the inherent errorless perfect word of god by their secular university or by their secular the bible calls it human wisdom man's thoughts no you don't get to you don't get to have mans that's why all this all this education we got and we still haven't solved the racial problem you know why because we're starting in the wrong place we're not starting with what god says about race black is beautiful when it's biblical white is only right when it agrees with holy writ and until you start there then you will not be seeing the emulsification of jesus christ and the power of the cross to deal with the sin of racism so that there can be bibliocentric reconciliation he says we're reconciled through the blood in acts 17 verse 26 paul says there's only one race many ethnicities but there's only one race see we even got the concept of race all mixed up god expresses himself in a multiplicity of ways but he says unless you understand where i am in this process and that i have set this thing up for there to be differences so that the whole body can benefit from the differences you can argue your point somebody's gonna argue that point and you will never have reconciliation because you won't create something new you know uh i don't drink black coffee uh too bitter bad coffee is better than me i i put some cream in it okay and i got a sweet cream at that okay i pour some sweet cream in my coffee okay now the sweet cream is white so i got black coffee and i got white sweet cream so those are distinct colors but when i pour my sweet cream into my black coffee i never got brown coffee i got a whole different color than what i started with i got black i got white now i'm enjoying brown because i've created something new due to the mixture and the new is quite acceptable to me god is trying to create something new and like my cream and my coffee it's now sweet god can give us something sweet in the body of christ so that we are a sweet smelling savor of biblical reconciliation to the broader society 100 pianos that are tuned to the same tuning fork will intrinsically be tuned to one another see we got too many people playing their own keys and not operating under the reconciling work of god so so important is this issue of reconciliation so important the bible says in romans chapter 16 verse 17 watch out for folk who bring division in the church not in accordance with the teaching of christ watch out for racists in the church watch out for people we had a guy at our church and he was upset that more and more white people were coming to our church and he said well look we got we got too many whites coming now i said well you better keep winning blacks to christ he said well i'm not sure i can keep coming here i said bye i didn't have a word i didn't have a seminar a workshop i can't get we all get along class no because you don't come into the church of jesus christ and bring your secular rules you come into the church of jesus christ to get the teachings of christ and to adjust to that and the bangalore pastors would have taken their stand and say you don't you know you don't bring white culture into the church and deny people equal opportunity equal access to worship the living god you don't get to do that in the church of the living god now maybe there were some problems maybe there was some inequities maybe there was some pain yes we must show empathy we must say i see you were hurt i see you a struggle and we will walk with you in empathy but you don't let empathy change the rules you don't say because i'm being empathetic christ no longer has the final say so we love you to the teachings of christ he says watch those who would divide the church why because as the book of john chapter 17 verse 24 says perfect them in unity so that they will see my glory you know why the church isn't seeing god's glory it's because we're illegitimately racially divided we're not we we we use our culture and our race as an excuse not to reconcile and as a result the world doesn't have a model to look at so we're fighting in here and they're fighting out there we just sanctify our fight with a little jesus on top using christianese every christian who names the name of jesus christ must be actively purposefully involved in reconciliation because like a football team they're different races but it's only one uniform different cultures but only one uniform different backgrounds but only one uniform why because they all hit it toward one goal line one goal line we only headed toward one goal line the exaltation of jesus christ through his reconciled body with the cross and the teachings of the word of god having the last word not what your mama taught you not what your daddy taught you not what your culture taught you unless it agrees with what god says when we get radical believers who take seriously the apostles and the prophets and the teachings of jesus christ i love the way the scripture puts it the scripture says in colossians 1 verses 19 to 23 that if you want to see god you better focus on reconciliation because christ came to reconcile people reconcile people vertically to him reconcile people horizontally to one another it's time for racism to end it is time for the racists to confess their sins it is time for those who refuse to forgive to confess the sin of unforgiveness no justice no peace got that no forgiveness no peace you better get that both must be signed simultaneously true for the one new man why because of this scripture in second corinthians chapter 5. listen to what he says he says beginning in verse 16 therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh oh yeah he did you don't judge people by their earth suit you don't judge people by the color that's getting their flesh their physical humanity he says we know no man we don't judge anybody by their whiteness or blackness or brownness we don't we don't well that's not where we start we don't look at people like that that was the old life that's how hell looks at people first he says now that you know jesus christ that's never the starting point he says but now he says if people are in christ they are a new creature now look at verse 18. now all things are from god that's our new reference point who reconciled us to himself through christ and gave us here it is the ministry of reconciliation namely that god was in christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for christ you know what an ambassador is an ambassador is somebody who goes to another country on behalf of their country to represent their country on foreign soil he says you are an ambassador for heaven you're not an ambassador for hell and you're not even an ambassador for earth you're on earth that's the foreign country but you are an ambassador from heaven and what's your ambassadorship about the ministry of reconciliation so you should be healing folk black people should be healing black people and and and connecting them over here white people should be healing white people and then vice versa everybody ought to be healing somebody else through correcting the sin and providing the opportunity for forgiveness and embracing and then serving together to make a difference for the kingdom of god in the olympics if you win a gold medal they don't ask you what's your favorite song no they they play the song of your national anthem cause while you may be an individual you're part of something bigger you represent your country so i don't care how black you are how white you are you represent another country and don't get so high and mighty that you forget you're an ambassador for another country and you and i and we should be agents and ministers of reconciliation they ought to be healing you ought to be healing stuff wherever you go why because christ forgave you so you got to help folk forgive each other so that we can addressing the sin not skipping the sin but going toward the reconciliation as the goal let me tell you something as we wind down did you know in heaven whatever race you are now will be the race you are in heaven did you did you know that if you black man you're going to be black in heaven okay whatever you are now that's what you're going to be if you white in heaven if you're white now you'll be white in heaven so hanging out in the sun and all that ain't gonna change that because uh john said in revelation chapter seven verse nine he looked up in heaven and guess what he saw he saw people from every nation every tribe every kindred and every tongue and he said he saw him so there were visual differences so whatever you are is what you forever are gonna be so anybody who doesn't like who they are you have insulted god you don't have the right if you black to want to be white and you don't have the right of you white to want to be black because you are who he is and what you're ever going to be because god has set it up for eternity to operate that way in the meantime you and i are supposed to be modeling what is going to be there but how we're working it out down here thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven folks you see a little bit of reconciliation there because forever we're going to be reconciled up there so let's get it on let's get it on and let's give the world something to see that overrides racism that overrides evil whether it's individual or structural and that demonstrates what the kingdom of god looks like when people are held to that standard which will fix the things that are wrong in their lives because now they're not trying to please another race they're trying to please the king of kings and the lord of lords in movies they show you previews of coming attractions these are the hot clips of the upcoming show always the love scene the fight scene or the chase scene because those are always a hot clips because they want you to tune in based on the previews now you may tune in and be a terrible show but you never know about the previews because the previews are always the hot clips well one day there's a big show coming to town god is the producer the holy spirit is the director jesus is the superstar and it's going to be a worldwide production but in the meantime he's left you and me here as previews of coming attractions we're supposed to be the hot clips of the upcoming show people are supposed to see how we live and how we relate to one another as a clip of the kingdom that is to come when they see how hot the clip is through the church of jesus christ across racial lines and cultural lines when they say that clip is hot that gathering is hot then they might ask where can they buy a ticket to the whole show of course that's when we can tell them you don't have to buy a ticket the price has already been paid and did you know the price for you has already been paid jesus died on the cross in your place for your sins to pay the price for your rebellion against him the price has already been paid and simply by acknowledging your sinfulness to a holy god and by placing your faith alone in christ alone as your substitute your sin bearer he bore your sins on the cross and he will exchange his goodness for your evil his righteousness for your sinfulness he'll do an exchange and make you acceptable to a holy god yes he will and he won't charge you for it because the price has already been paid will you go to jesus christ right now would you acknowledge your sinfulness and your need for a savior and let the lord know lord i'm a sinner and i choose jesus christ and his substitutionary death as payment for my sin thank you for forgiving me i now receive the free gift of eternal life and if you by faith will accept him he will give you salvation right now and now father raise up an army of people who won't skip the issue of race but who won't leave out the goal of reconciliation may that spirit consume your people and cause us to follow christ our eternal emulsifier in jesus name amen amen and amen

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 91,960

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Id: kW9LxQ33nZE

Length: 42min 43sec (2563 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020