There is a movie, Schindlers List, which is about Oskar Schindler-a doctor-and his endeavors to try to save the lives of as many of the Jews as he can-to prevent extermination. If he would have had space for more [Jews who were trying to escape], he would have taken more. Tomorrow, our country remembers Dr. King and his teachings, his life, his battle for equal rights for all races, how he sought to combat poverty, and we reflect upon those higher values we have as human beings. Were talking this morning in our series about prejudice, about discrimination, about exploitation, and how we need to oppose such things. This is one of those messages that is a little bit heavy, but its something that needs to be said and something that needs to be spoken and addressed because this is a spiritual matter. This is a part of the Gospel. I know some Christians, not us, but there are some Christians who will say, We need to just focus on telling people about Jesus. Let other organizations, activist groups and so forth take care of those concerns. But, this is a part of the Gospel. This is part of what Jesus came to bring an end to, so it is very much a part of the churchs responsibility to address those concerns. Turn in your Bibles this morning to the Book of Luke 4. Jesus is about to begin the onset of His earthly ministry. He has just gone through the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness, and now the time has come for Him to begin His ministry. He finds Himself in His hometown in a synagogue in Nazareth. Hes going to read from the scroll, from the prophet Isaiah. Were going to find that Scripture together in Verse 17 (page 1018 of pew Bibles). The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me… The word Christ or Messiah means anointed one, so it was understood by the Jews that this is a Messianic prophesy. These are the acts of the Messiah. This is what the Messiah will do when He comes. …He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners… I dont believe here Hes talking about people who have done dastardly deeds. I dont think Hes talking here about sending people who (should be out of the public) into the public. Hes not talking about sending murderers free and rapists free. I believe Hes talking about those who have been imprisoned wrongly or those who are imprisoned of spirit. …recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor. Then He stops right there, mid-verse, because the rest of the verse in Isaiah says, …and to proclaim the vengeance of our God, but He had not come for vengeance. He had not come for wrath. He had come to dispense grace and mercy. He stops right there. Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and He began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, I am the fulfillment of this Scripture. I am the Messiah. Of course, that didnt go over well. The text will go on to tell us that they tried to kill Him for saying those words. [He was] not reading from Isaiah, but attributing Isaiahs prophesy to Himself as the Messiah. This is a purpose statement; this is a mission statement. He says, Heres what Ive come to do. Notice, He doesnt say, Ive come for the kings; Ive come for the elite-the religious elite; Ive come to minister to the wealthy. Who was the target audience of Jesus? He said, Ive come to the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, and the oppressed. My goodness, if I didnt know any better, Id think that might be the speech of a civil rights leader, dont you [agree]? Does it sound like civil rights and human rights were important to the Lord Jesus? Absolutely. Thats what He read in His mission statement of why He had come. If its important to Jesus, its important to His church. Were going to talk about that this morning. He would live a life where He would break down racial barriers and gender barriers and proclaim the love of God for all people. Brooke is coming to sing about that invitation right now. Lets listen to Come Onto Me. You did a great job, but theyre really clapping because they want to hear more teaching. Thats why theyre clapping. Theyre excited, Oh! We get to hear more teaching! She did a great job! Lets open our Bibles up to Galatians 2. The series were on is called Hand me Another Clinker Brick. In case you dont know what that is, a clinker brick looks something like this (Pastor holds up a brick with a defect to show the congregation). The brick is otherwise fine, but its been damaged. Either its been manufactured [incorrectly] or somebody has dropped it, so this clinker brick has a defect. Builders would cast it aside because it was not good enough for the project. Just like clinker bricks, you and I have defects. We have areas where we have been wounded or hurt. We have attitudes and habits, behaviors that are not right, and theyre not pleasing to God. God says to get rid of those things. He doesnt want us to keep those things in our lives. At the same time, we know that until the day we die, were going to be clinker bricks. Were going to have flaws and problems, so we know in spite of those things, God uses us. He has a place for us in His kingdom; He has a place for us in His church. In fact, architects began to see the value of clinker bricks and sometimes would design a wall entirely consisting of clinker bricks. Sometimes [they would] design a whole building made [up of clinker bricks]. When theyre put together with all their defects and flaws, they make a beautiful aesthetic building. God can take us and, in spite of our weaknesses, use us to build a church that brings glory to His name. So our pattern is that we find a clinker brick in Scripture-we find a clinker brick in the history of the church-that maybe youre not aware of, and then we make application to our own lives and how God can use us in that topic. So this morning, were talking about Opposing Oppression. Were talking about the mission of Dr. King-and others like him-who sought to end discrimination and prejudice in the name of the Lord. In Galatians 2, we find a conflict that we would not imagine we would see. The conflict is between Peter and Paul, two brothers, two leaders, two men who love and respect each other but yet, there was a conflict. There was hypocrisy, and that hypocrisy had to be dealt with. There was prejudice, and that prejudice had to be removed. Verse 11 (of Galatians 2, page 1152 of pew Bibles) says, When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James… Now, let me clarify this: James was the leader and one of the Apostles of the church in Jerusalem. When he says, ….men came from James, he is not saying there are emissaries. Hes not saying that these men represent the views or opinions of James; hes simply saying theyre from Jerusalem. They were Jewish believers. They were of the party of circumcision. It says that Peter used to eat with the Gentiles. Gentiles were anyone who wasnt a Jew. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles… The word in the Greek means to hold yourself aloof. More than just pulling back, he was treating his Gentile brothers in a condescending manner, as inferior to him because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. Does that sound familiar to you? Do you ever remember Peter in a time of pressure taking the easy way out? Do you remember Peter, in a time of pressure, looking for self-preservation in his own interests instead of standing up for what was right? Remember that? I do. He denied Jesus three times when Jesus was about to be crucified. He said he never knew Him. So, Peter struggled in this area. Peter is a clinker brick. Remember we said that were painting a portrait right now. It doesnt look like much right now, but by the time Im through with it, its going to look like something. In fact, this painting might look so good by the time were done that you might want this in your home. You laugh, but Im as serious as a heart attack because youre going to see this picture become something desirable when were all through. There was darkness in Peters soul. Peter was acting in a discriminatory manner against his Gentile brothers. He pulled away from them when he should have stood with them. Peter knows better. Keep your place here in Galatians, and turn quickly to the Book of Acts 10. [Well have] a little history lesson. Im going to touch on this really quickly. Up to this point, the Gospel was contained within the Jewish community. Peter was a Jew, James, John, Paul-all of them Jews. The message was spread in Jerusalem, but it was basically spread to the Jews. One day, God calls Peter to minister to a man named Cornelius who is a Gentile. At first, he resists the vision, but when he finds out its from God, he goes. He preaches to Cornelius. Cornelius and his household are safe. They receive Christ; they are baptized; they receive the Holy Spirit. Peter comes back home, but instead of getting a heros welcome, hes greeted with hostility from the Jewish brothers. They confront Peter in Verse 3 (page 1090 of pew Bibles). You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. Whats the matter with you? Peter tells them the story. He said, God has a heart for the Gentiles. Weve been called to reach the Gentiles. They too received the Holy Spirit, just as we did. They seemed to relax; they seemed to be okay with the story, but thats not the end of it. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas have been ministering to Gentiles all over the region. When they get back to their home base-which is Antioch, thats the place where Christians were first called Christians, the church in Antioch which is in Syria-theyre confronted with the same problem. In says in Verse 1 [of Acts 15, page 1094), Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. So [in other words], You Gentiles-who are wanting to come into the church, you have to get snipped, or you arent coming in. This was not good news if you were a male Gentile of age. This was not good news. You have to go through this hoop. You have to get circumcised; you have to obey the Law of Moses, or you dont get in. In other words, its Jesus Christ plus this-your religious acts. These people were called the Judaizers. There are still Judaizers today. They live in our city. There are still the people that say Jesus isnt enough; Its Jesus Christ plus this; Jesus Christ plus church membership; Jesus Christ plus good works; Jesus Christ plus this hoop that you jump through. If you werent baptized as an infant or confirmed as a child, youre not getting into the Kingdom of Heaven. We add to the righteousness of Christ, and we dont need to do that. When Jesus says, It is finished, He declared It is done, that His bloodshed-His life-was enough to atone for sin. There is nothing you need to add to it and nothing you can take away from it. Paul was one of the Jesus Christ plus nothing school of salvation. There are things we do because we are believers, but we dont do those things to become believers. The only thing we do to be saved is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and fall upon the mercy and grace of a holy and loving God. [We] confess our sins, receive Him into our heart and life, and then He-through the Holy Spirit-begins to change our lives and change our acts and attitudes. So there are confrontation and conflict because Paul takes issue with their words. They decide, Lets let the big dogs settle it. Lets go to Jerusalem. Lets talk to Peter, James and John, the closest Apostles to the Lord. Lets see what they think about this issue of the Gentiles coming into the church. So, thats what they do. They meet, they gather in whats called the Jerusalem council-the first council in the history of the church. The Apostles are there; the elders of the church are there. Peter is there and [so are] James and John. Paul and Barnabas are there to make their case. The Jewish Christians, a certain sect of them called the Judaizers, are there to make their case. Verse 5 [of Acts 15], Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses. Thats what we believe. Basically they wanted to turn Christianity into a sect of Judaism. You can have Jesus-thats fine, but you still have to keep the law. You still have to be circumcised. The Apostles and elders met to consider this question and went to discuss it. In Verse 7, After much discussion, Peter… Who is it? Who? Peter. …got up and addressed them: Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the Gospel and believe. Thats a reference back to Acts 10 and Cornelius. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith. God is not a discriminating God. He loves us all the same, Peter says. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. So, Peter takes a stand and says, They are part of the church. They are one of us, and they came by the same way we came-by faith, not by works. Shortly after that, God calls Paul-it was called the Macedonian Call in Acts 16, and Paul begins to speak in places like Galatia. What were reading about in Galatians 2 happens after what we just read in Acts 15. What Paul is basically saying to Peter is Peter, you know better. Peter, youre the one that God sent to Cornelius. You started the conversion of Gentiles. Peter, you know better. Youre the one who stood up at the council in Jerusalem and gave the speech that said were all equal. Were all brothers. Peter! Paul says, Youre being a hypocrite. Thats what he told him. He said, Youre being a hypocrite. Youre showing prejudice. Youre showing favor against these Gentile brothers and for these Jewish brothers; and, Peter, thats wrong! Was Peter a good man? He was a good man. Peter was a clinker brick. There are some things in his spirit that werent right. Before you or I can get up on a soap box, we have to look in our lives to see is there prejudice in us? Is there prejudice? Sometimes, we can be blinded to our own prejudice. It comes in many different shapes, sizes and forms. The first thing you have to do before you speak up is you have to look inside. Thats what I had to do, look inside my life. You have to look inside your life before you can speak. I want to tell you about a man named Bartolomé De Las Casas. He was born shortly after Columbus discovered the Americas. In fact, his family was a friend of Columbus. His father and uncle sailed on an expedition with Columbus. He was friends with Columbus son. He grew up in Spain with a very spiritual desire, a desire to know the Lord and to study [Him]. At the age of 18, he came to an island called Hispaniola. It is what are now Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Upon arrival there, there was something going on called the encomienda system. The encomienda system was basically organized slavery. The indigenous people, the Indians, were forced to work in slave labor camps to mine for gold for the people of Spain. The Spaniards put their flag in the sand and said, This belongs to us, and were going to get rich off your gold, and youre going to find it for us. They were subjected to cruel, inhumane conditions that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of the Natives in Hispaniola. They did so in the name of greed. They did so because it was making a nation rich. De Las Casas watched this. He was indignant toward it. He watched Indians be killed, and it broke his heart. Five years later, he returned home to study for the ministry. He developed a love for the people of Hispaniola and eventually came back as the first ordained minister to the Latinos. He came back to love them and to tell them the good news of the Gospel. One day, he heard a sermon. A friar was preaching-a priest was preaching-and he was preaching against the encomienda system. He was saying it was wrong. It was inhumane. It was based upon greed and it was evil. He said it needed to be done away with because it was against the law of Christ. The people got mad. His parishioners did not like that message. They complained to the Spanish government. The Spanish government said, Youre going to clean up your act. Youre going to preach a better sermon next Sunday. Youre going to get up, and youre going to apologize to these fine men because theyre making Spain rich. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, they blessed these men. [They said], Dont call them criminals. Dont say theyre against the law of God. You get up there next Sunday, and you set the record straight. The next Sunday, the monk got up to preach, and he laid into them even harder than he did the Sunday before. He said, I understand that some of you take issue with what I said last week. The truth is I didnt lay it down hard enough. Not only is this wrong-this is a damnable sin. This is a mortal sin. You should be excommunicated from the church if you own these slaves. Your soul is sentenced to damnation if you live out this lifestyle. Wow! Who was in the audience that day was Bartolomé De Las Casas, and he was convicted. This man who had loved those people had slaves. He and his father owned some land, and they had slaves who mined for gold for them. Though he treated his men with kindness, he did not lead by oppression. He was a part of the system. To get rid of it would mean he would lose his gold; he would go against his father and his uncle; he would go against his king and queen; he would turn his back in his own nation, but he would be pleasing God. De Las Casas made a decision to renounce his land, to denounce the encomienda system, to declare it a mortal sin, and began a life-long quest to rid the country of its plight-and he did. Before he died, because of laws that were passed, because of favor with the pope, because of favor now with King Ferdinand for Isabella had died, he was able to secure the freedom of the indigenous people of Hispaniola. Until the day he died, he fought for freedom. He began to evangelize the Indians using their culture, their language. Hed loved them into the Kingdom. He apologized for the treatment of his race. As good of man as De Las Casas was, he was a clinker brick. There was some darkness in his soul. There was some greed there that needed to be removed. As soon as that removed, he could fight the fight. Historians say the Spain he closed his eyes on in death was a very different one from the Spain he opened his eyes on. Might that be said of us-that the world we close our eyes on is different from the world we open [our eyes on]-that weve done our best to combat bigotry, hate, and oppression where it exists. De Las Casas was a great man. He took his anger, and he channeled it. He didnt act like a raving lunatic. He worked through the laws. He went over the hearts of the leaders of the people. He preached from his pulpit, and he won their hearts. He preached the truth, and the truth brought freedom to the people of Hispaniola. Just before he died, he was focusing-I believe-on the Peruvian Indians in South America and setting them free as well. So you channel that anger. If you encounter prejudice and discrimination, oppression, exploitation, it will make you mad. If you read about, if you hear it, you hear somebody talking about it, it will set you off, or it should. But what do you do? You channel that anger in a constructive way. Thats what Paul did. He comes to Peter and it says in Verse 11 [of Galatians 2], I opposed him to his face. Verse 14, When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? Peter who normally is very talkative, normally has all the right things to say, is silent according to the Scriptures. Bold, foot-in-mouth Peter becomes red-faced, bashful, ashamed, head-down Peter because he knows hes wrong. He knows better. God had showed him differently. He remembered the words of the council. He took Pauls rebuke to heart. Paul held him accountable. It didnt matter who he was. Peter was basically the head of the church, and Paul confronted him. How about Bono from U2? Bono meets with heads of states, presidents, kings, prime ministers. Somebody said, Hey, Bono, you know youre a rock star? You could just retire and live a life of luxury. Why do you do it? He said, Because theres a need. Because children are dying from hunger. Because disease is spreading, and we have the cures. Its wrong. Well, are you intimidated? they asked him. He said, No, Im not intimidated. Im angry. I am the voice for those who have no voice. I am the voice for the people who are too weak, that have no power, who cant stand before presently. I stand for them. I speak for them and their anger. It drives out any fear that I have. Bono talks about the problem. He talks about the solution, and he said, Now how much can I put your government down for? He recently left the white house with a smile on his face. They asked, Did you tell the President off? He said, No. I shook his hand because they tripled the relief to AIDS for Africa, so I shook his hand. I leave a happy man today. Bono addressed his anger in a constructive way. Paul addressed his anger in a constructive way. Dr. King and his wife took that anger and addressed it in a positive way for society. They serve as examples for us to follow. I was looking at a magazine, a tribute to those who lost their lives in 2006. Theres a picture of Coretta Scott King. Shes just a beautiful woman. Shes very young in this photo. She passed away last year at age 78. Theres a quote from Andrew Young. It says, She walked five miles to school being passed by buses carrying white children. It made her strong. Im sure it also made her angry, but she took that anger and she spoke out against the injustice. Will you do that? My wife recently encountered some prejudice from somebody who is close to us, somebody very important to us. My wife just didnt sit idly by and listen to it. She spoke up, and she spoke out and made the person know in no uncertain terms that their thinking was wrong. Pastor Jerrys daughter, Tara, is learning about Islam. One of the things she learned is in certain countries, there is discrimination done to women in the name of Islam. Im not saying all Muslims believe that, but in certain countries, women are denied the right to even experience an education, much less to vote. She wrote a paper and she presented it to her class this week. She stood up against discrimination. Standing up against racial discrimination, religious discrimination, exploitation of children… One of the families in our church, Jim and Lita Powers, has a son named Todd. Todd was at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2003. God called him from that church of Pastor Billy Joe Daughtrys. He had a great job, a good income, a beautiful home, and God called them to minister to the children of Thailand. God called them to minister in the 1040 Window, so he left America and the comforts of home. He left his family. He went to Thailand where children were being sold to slave laborers, and some were sold into sex trade. He led an orphanage there. The stories he would hear would make him angry, but he channeled that anger in a positive direction to be a blessing to the children of Thailand. Countries like Pakistan, where there is religious discrimination, you cant name the name of Christ there without fear of persecution or the loss of your life. They had just finished conducting a crusade there that he and others touched thousands of lives for the Gospel of Christ. They were proclaiming freedom, having God do miracles in their sight. He stood up against [discrimination]. He went to that country in the midst of that religious oppression and spoke out the truth. Thats what Paul did. He spoke the truth into Peters life. Todd spoke the truth to the people of Pakistan. Terra spoke the truth to her classmates. My wife spoke the truth to her loved one. Were called to speak the truth. Remember we talked last week about looking evil in the eye? What are we going to do? Are we just going to turn away, are we going to ignore it, or are we going to face it and speak up? I hope that well speak up. I hope that theyll be pockets of resistance from this body when we encounter. I hope certain ones of our body will hear this message and take hold of it, run with it, and become a leader in that area. For people who watch this on television or listen on the computer, [my hope is] theyll realize that we need to do something to make this world a better place from [the time] when we opened our eyes to the when we close them. Lets pray: Father, we thank You for the men of God like Paul, who stood up against injustice even if it was coming from somebody he loved and respected. We thank you for men like De Las Casas and like Peter. They were clinker bricks. They did many good things, yet there were flaws in them. They had to work on them. They had to come to terms with that. Lord, the way we oppose oppression is through the truth. Its to take that anger we feel and channel it in a constructive manner. Help us to have the courage to do that. By the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Lord-to follow Your example as You proclaimed in Luke 4 as You started Your ministry, that You were about bringing freedom-spiritual and otherwise, to all people. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.