Honest with the time, about 18 or so? 18 minutes tops? That could go a long time. We don't want to do that. Thank you for having me here. It's great to be here. I really am honored to be able to preach. This is not going to be a good example sermon for how to preach a sermon. This is a little messier because I really want to just share what the Lord has been teaching me. Church planning has been very invigorating for me theologically. We've spent the last six months working through philosophy of ministry with a core group, and it's just forcing me to, in some ways, think afresh about the Word, the power of the Word and Spirit to regenerate. And through all of that, of course, America is just a mess. And it's a mess all around the theme of justice. Every major headline, every major issue is about justice. The Senate race in Alabama was about justice, right? Is it right and fair to elect someone like this to the Senate? Every issue that comes up at the headline level, how should we care for a hurricane-stricken area? What should we do about this? What should we do about that? How should the church and state fit together, right? What are the rights of people who are lesbian or gay or bi? All of these questions pivot around justice. And so in the church, where we hold up scripture and say the Lord God brings justice, the Lord God has decreed justice and he will judge, I feel like I've needed a lot of instruction to think in some ways more clearly so that I can edify and encourage our own flock. and so that we can be a witness that cares about justice as God says justice exists. And so from Matthew 12, verse 15, and let's do this actually, jump to Isaiah 42. We're gonna read Isaiah and then we'll read Matthew's translation of Isaiah, just to kind of put it in relief. The first four verses of Isaiah 42. Reading the word of the Lord. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen and whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. Now Matthew, jumping over to chapter 12, Jesus has just confronted the Pharisees on the issue of Sabbath keeping. They wanna know what is just on the Sabbath, what's lawful, right? If justice is conformity to the law, their questions are principally about justice. So he's had two places where he says, all right, you need to desire mercy more than sacrifice, you need to do what's good on the Sabbath, and now we come to verse 15 where Matthew pauses on Jesus' ministry. Jesus, aware of this, which was their intention to destroy him, withdrew from there. And many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. And that language rings familiar, right? That's exactly what we heard when Christ was baptized. you know, in Matthew's account. You can almost see Matthew's translation of Isaiah in some ways synergizing here at this moment. It's not word for word with the Isaiah work, right? I will put my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. And in his name, the Gentiles will hope. So I come across this passage, and it is principally about justice, specifically the justice of Jesus Christ, the chosen servant. And Matthew, I think, is trying to draw us in to see how Jesus Christ both proclaimed justice to the Gentiles and how he brought justice to victory so that we can actually put our hope in someone besides another human being. to bring justice to this world, that we can actually put our hope in Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, the Son of God. And what struck me, though, is this question, how did Jesus proclaim justice to the Gentiles? I'm sort of asking this honest, sort of intellectual, really curious question, because Jesus doesn't use the word justice that often. And I think for us to think about it fairly, we start in Matthew, and we ask, well, what did Jesus talk about? Like, if you followed Jesus around, what would you hear him say? And of course, in Matthew, we have the whole Sermon on the Mount, which begins, if we jump over there, right to Matthew 5. In the Sermon on the Mount, right toward the beginning, he says, do not think, or 517, that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, and they haven't passed away, right? Not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. He goes on to say, whoever teaches and does these things will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And in the Sermon on the Mount, he takes, of course, much that was taught, and he takes it all the way inward. And I think, as you look at Matthew, and you walk through Matthew, what you see very clearly is that for Jesus to proclaim justice to the Gentiles, and in this case, it began with his own countrymen, right, to Israel, was specifically to teach the laws of love your God and love your neighbor so that men and women were driven to actually repent. He never backs off. There's a very strong continuity between the prophetic messages of Jesus and all the prophets who went before him. And in fact, when he's challenged in Matthew 22, in a not very sincere question, where it says that the lawyer asking him a question to test him, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? He said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and with, you know, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So Deuteronomy 6.5, Leviticus 19.18. He just, he quotes, he says, these are the two greatest laws. And everything hangs on them. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets, which he had specifically just said earlier he had come not to abolish but to fulfill. And here's where it really gets me. Our justice in America is built on the idea that you are born a human and you have inalienable rights. And so every issue of justice in America pivots around the theme of our rights, right? That's our jurisprudence, essentially. Justice in scripture doesn't build on that platform, does it? Justice in scripture builds on the command that I am to love Yahweh, the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, and I am to love my neighbor as myself. Now, out of love, you can get to rights. But out of rights, you won't necessarily get to love. Now, we benefit from a freedom in this country to pursue the commands to love, but the second we don't, We are called to stand for the justice of God, which says, we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we're to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we know we can't do this. So we're gonna get to how Jesus brings justice in a second. And we're gonna see how he brings it in a different way. But I wanna just let you appreciate the fact that if you follow Jesus around, you would hear him understand and interpret and apply the law through these two commandments, right? This is what the Sermon on the Mountain does. This is even why when a guy comes to him with an honest decision to render, right? Jesus, tell my brother to give me half of the estate. Jesus says, who makes me your law and arbiter, right? Instead, he tells him a story, and at the end he says, be rich toward God. He takes their issue of rights and justice and he pulls them right back in to the great commands and he says, do you want justice? Love the Lord your God. This is helpful, I think, because as you interact with and confront issues of justice in America, they're always gonna be posed as issues of rights. And you're gonna need to respond to them in teaching and in preaching and in counseling people in your own families, in your own mind, right? You know, where do I stand on these things? Who am I for, who am I not for? And for me, what's been very edifying is to say, well, first of all, I need to get the fact that our system of justice is innately flawed because it's not built on the foundation of God's justice. Therefore, it will be prone to corruption. Ezekiel says, I think it's in 5a, don't be surprised when you look out in the province and you see oppression. He says, this is what happens, and this is, of course, what every prophet came to tell Israel. You're idolatrous, i.e., you don't love the Lord your God, your Father. You trample the rights of people, i.e., you don't love your neighbor. But it was only Jesus who could actually go where every prophet went before and succeed because he comes and atones, which is why his message is repent and believe the kingdom of God. He brings us these things because this is always God's will. God wants, right, I forget where the verse is, God wills that everyone would bow before him. He's chosen the elect to do that. And so Christ comes and he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and strength. I'm the son, whoever receives me receives the father. Love your neighbor as yourself. He upbraids the Pharisees left and right for heaping all these laws on them, and he tells them, go and learn this. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Do good on the Sabbath. And then the woman in Luke 7 comes to him. He's in the home again of a Pharisee. She walks in weeping, presumably over the state of her own sin. and comes and anoints him with perfume, and she's washing his feet with her tears, and he says to the Pharisee, right, who loves more, the one forgiven a little or a lot? And the Pharisee says, well, of course, it's the one who's been forgiven more. And so he says, you know, and he essentially points to the depth of her love, and then he says at the end, your faith has saved you. And he tells her specifically, your sins, you are forgiven. And so what we see is the picture of, as we get a hold of justice, I think, and this is sort of church planner thinking here, so we're in a church that aspires not just to find people who already go to church and make them, you know, persuade them to come to our church, you know, give them better donuts at the end of the service or something, but actually wants to be about making new disciples. in Pleasant Hills, in Jefferson Hills. And I really believe the only way anyone comes to Jesus is when they're convicted of their absolute sin. And the only way they're gonna be convicted of their sin is when they see that God's justice is completely out of reach. Yet, it's also, in some really core way, the desire of their actual heart. When you have honest conversations with people, a lot of them wanna be good people. You know? They don't wanna rip their kid and shame their wife. They don't wanna be addicted to heroin or porn or whatever they're stuck on. They don't want that, but a number of them are stuck there. And yet, it's through the conviction of sin and the yearning for justice that Jesus comes in, right? Everyone wants justice. They want it their way. But that's why, even Romans 2, Paul points to the fact that the Gentiles have a knowledge of what's right and wrong. And we as ministers and gospel bearers come, and I think more and more we hold up the justice of Jesus In some ways, first, to say in an age that really doesn't believe in sin, but believes in injustice, right? We don't really hear much about sin, but we hear a lot about injustice, and I think that's the doorway in to conviction of sin, is to say, if you can agree with me that these are issues of injustice, well, I'm gonna show you what the Lord says is even greater injustice. And the way forward is not through trying harder, but it's through repentance. And so when Jesus comes again, and coming back to the text, how does he do this? He doesn't quarrel or cry aloud, a bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench. And I think that really speaks to the, in some ways, the ministry of gentleness that Christ has to preserve and keep the wounded and weak that walk with him, those he heals, And like, I feel this, I see my sin. It's not that I'm walking around being, I'm doing better, so follow me. I'm like, I need Jesus Christ. I'm 41 years old. I know where I fall. I know where I'm weak. And I know exactly where I'd screw up if God didn't preserve me and keep me. I'm a bruised reed. You don't do anything with a bruised reed except throw it out. But Jesus hasn't thrown me out. He has a call in my life to come and preach for him, right? And so the hope we have is not a utopian, hey, let's all go pursue this type of justice. It's that Jesus Christ has come for broods, reeds like us to actually bring justice to victory so that as Paul says, God can be both just and the one who justifies. Right, so that righteousness comes by faith in Christ. Yet, even Paul at the end of Romans can't help but come back. In Romans 11, he writes, owe no one anything except to love each other. Right, so even Romans 11, he's established justification by faith. He's established life in the spirit. And now he comes back to the law. but he comes back to it really just looking at it through the lens of love, where he always goes, 1 Corinthians 13, every epistle goes there. They always come back, John, James, every one of them, Peter, and he says, oh, no one anything except to the love of each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And so when we minister into our flock, we have to remember that their view of justice is shaped by America. And as they come and receive Christ and they're given his spirit, Christ summons them to actually pick up exactly where he left off. To give a foretaste of the kingdom, which is the reign of justice and righteousness. I love this psalm where it says, justice and righteousness are the foundations of his throne. Isn't that an amazing psalm? I mean, God's like, my very sovereignty and authority, these are the foundations of it. Justice and righteousness. And that's exactly what Jesus is coming to bring. He's coming to bring a kingdom where justice and righteousness reign. And we're the foretaste of that kingdom, so we really need to understand what is the justice of Jesus. And it is to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves, having repented and received the Spirit of God, so that as Paul says, we can pick this up, not in an effort to earn, but in delight, and in the pursuit of justice, and as people to stand up in our nation, and it gets unpopular quickly, right? Jesus stood up for justice, and within 10 verses, they were plotting to destroy him, you know? And figuring out that line is just, I think for each person, It can be overwhelming. As pastors, it can be overwhelming. Where do you start? Where do you begin? I think you start where your heart breaks. Because again, it's through the venue of love. Who do you love? Where do you love? What pain do you love into? You're going to move there with a little more action and passion. And I think that's a good thing. You know, none of us can do everything. But through it all, we always come. saying, right, essentially, here's the law, and that's why you need the grace. And when you've received the grace, come and live for the justice of God. Not to earn it, but to help, in some ways, show the world what it is to be a just community within an unjust world. I'm gonna close in prayer, I think I'm about time. But thank you, and I really, and I wanna just, this is, like if I came here in six months, this would sound different. I feel like I'm learning these things. So if you have some good feedback or thoughts or books that you want to encourage, I look at. A sermon's never done. You just have to preach it. And there's notes all over this. I guarantee if I came back in a week, there'd be more notes on this. And it would look a little different. So I would really, I do, I'm humble. I'm sure I said a few things that might have been wrong. I value your feedback. I think that's part of growing and learning. as a pastor and just maturing as a believer. But I just wanted to give you a little bit of what I feel like God's dropping into my heart. So let's pray. Lord God, I pray that we would have a passion for your name. Lord, we thank you that Christ is bringing justice to victory. Lord, he is bringing justice to victory. He is coming again to establish a kingdom where justice and righteousness aren't just the foundation of your throne, but they're the foundation of our hearts, Lord. And I pray that you do that work you need to do in us, Lord. Drive us to repentance. Give us a longing, a deep longing to love you and not our ministries, not our stuff. Lord, a longing to love our neighbor and not just our wife or our kids or our friends. Lord, give us a heart for justice. Help us to see, Lord, what it is and what it isn't. and give us a tremendous passion for your grace that brings us, Lord, repentantly before your throne, that we can, Lord, live for you in the power of your spirit. Father, I pray that we would always preach Christ, the bringer of justice. Lord, the one who has sinned for us, that we can live for you, adopted as your sons and daughters. Lord, may you bless these men and this woman here today. Father, give them great power in your spirit, knowledge and understanding, humility, battling against temptations in their own hearts, Lord, repentant and confessing spirits. In your name we pray, amen.