Reborn Without Prejudice

Well, good afternoon, everyone! That was a great video. So much energy in there, in use, and such a great message. But thank you for your prayers.

It's been gone five weeks, two and a half weeks, in West and Central Africa. It's a world apart. It's really just stunning. And in a few weeks, I'll share some photos. I don't have time today. I want stuff to sort of gather up and so forth.

But I'm hoping that we can build some connections to our brethren in that part of the world. I've already spoken to the group in Bordeaux about creating sort of a Twin Cities concept, you know, sort of a partnership between the churches there and the churches in Ivory Coast. And here for Oakland, I'm hoping that we could build something with our brethren in Coltonu, Bena, which is even hard to pronounce. And most people don't know where it is on the map, but we'll look at that and build some connections.

So, but had a very, very good trip, was safe, avoided major illness, which was a baseline. I don't know if that would happen every time, but every day it's sort of, you know, you look at the meal you're going to eat and you wonder if that's going to be the meal. Because some of the things that I ate were a little unusual. Ate a lot of roots. That seems to be a very common food there. So, you know, we think about roots, we think about carrots, right, or things like that. But there's all sorts of roots out there that you've never heard of that people eat.

So, ate a lot of roots, ate a lot of french fries, ate a lot of chicken. No vegetables, because you can't really trust that the vegetables have been washed in water. So, eating vegetables was a great thing to come back to. So, anyway, thank you very much for your prayers. And like I said, I look forward to sharing some photos here at another time. I also appreciate the sermonette and examples of prayer. So, thank you for that, Mr. Bates, New York. Appreciate those examples. Today, I want to talk about a subject that can be sensitive and been gone for five and a half weeks.

Hopefully you remember me. I'm still a pastor here. I can still talk about sensitive topics with you, but hopefully there are topics that get us thinking, because that's really what Jesus is looking for, right? He's looking for a transformation, and you can't really transform unless you examine carefully your own ways of thinking as it comes out.

The famous American journalist Edward R. Murrow, famous American journalist, famous during World War II, famous during the 1950s, really a pioneering television journalist with CBS, once said, everyone is a prisoner of his own experience. No one can eliminate prejudices, just recognize them. And so, this concept that we are prisoners of our own experience, that is to say that the way we think, the way we see things, the way we reason, is really just a product of our experiences.

Who we've met, what we've read, where we've been, the environment and culture that we've grown up in, and therefore we are constrained in some way by that. It's a powerful statement about prejudice in our modern world, that we are indeed constrained, that we may think in a certain way and not realize that that way might be prejudiced in some way towards an idea, towards a group of people, and towards something. In the book of John chapter 3, we see an example here, if you want to turn to John 3, we see an example of a man, an intellectual, a political leader, a religious leader of his day, a man who was considered wise by the society around him, come face to face with a bias, a prejudice regarding a fundamental teaching of Jesus Christ.

John chapter 3, and starting in verse 1, it says there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And Nicodemus was on the council, the council of the Jews at that time was called the Sanhedrin. And this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.

And that's a pretty powerful statement because he used the word we. So it wasn't just him, there were others on the council, there were others within the ruling class and the elite that understood that Jesus had actually a very special message. And he came by night, and many people would say that that was an indication that he came in secret.

Very likely he did come in secret. He had a lot to lose by this encounter. And in terms of how he heard about Jesus, we can look in just a couple verses up in chapter, excuse me, in verse 23, where it talks about, many believed in his name when they saw the signs, which he did. And so perhaps Nicodemus had seen some of the things that Jesus was doing, and he began to talk with some of his colleagues. And so he came to Jesus, really with an open spirit, an open attitude.

And this is probably a condensed conversation, because in verse three, we have sort of an abrupt change to things where there's really, it says Jesus answered, and yet there really wasn't a question, but Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Unless one is born again. Now, you know, the beginning of that phrase starts with most assuredly, and most assuredly, if you look in the Greek, the word most assuredly is the word amen, amen. We typically say amen at the end of a prayer, don't we? And because what that means is, most assuredly, or I attest, or that's true. But Jesus is saying at the beginning of the phrase to add a weight to it, that I'm going to tell you something really important right now, and that is that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus responds in verse four by saying, How can a man be born when he is old? Now, we look at this at the outset, and we might say, that's kind of a silly thing to say. I mean, obviously, Jesus is speaking metaphorically, and he's taking it literally, can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born. But really, it's actually a fairly profound question, because here is Jesus, this great healer, this great rabbi, this man of faith, this man who is revealing God the Father, and now he's saying something that just doesn't make sense. That is to say, yes, clearly, a person is not born again physically, but how can somebody who's old change their thinking? How can you completely change your thinking? So, when you're old, what happens is you've accumulated a set of experiences, right? You've learned how the world operates, right? Sometimes we call that street smarts, right? And somebody comes along and says, no, you're going to have to start all over again. You're going to have to unlearn everything you've learned, because it was not right. And you're going to have to be born again, and you're going to have to relearn something completely different than what you've learned before. And so Nicodemus is saying, how can this be? How can you unlearn? How can an old man be born again and then go through this new process that's being described?

And so this is actually a very legitimate question. Whether we're in our teens, 20s, or all the way through to our 80s, our mental and emotional makeup defines who we are and what we believe to be right or wrong based upon our experiences. And how do we restart that? How do we rewire that? How do we unlearn what we've learned before? Before we were called, our way of thinking was defined by what we knew to that point, what our parents taught us, what we learned as we went through school, we learned on the job, as I said, perhaps what we learned on the streets, kind of popular culture in movies and television. If we grew up in the church, then our thoughts have already incorporated some thinking from the church in some way, but maybe we haven't committed to that yet, or maybe we have just committed to it and we're beginning to really understand what it means. The fact is that unless something happens, we tend to just sort of move along on a certain path. Charlie Jones, an interesting commentator, captured this concept very well when he said, you will be the same person in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read. Because see, that's changing, that's somehow disrupting our field of vision, that's somehow disrupting the things that we would typically do. So Nicodemus' life, as we will see, was going to change forever based on this very special person that he met.

He met Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ literally blew his mind. How can this be? How can somebody's old be born again? I don't understand what you're saying. And so when we accept Jesus Christ as His word and we commit ourselves to His way of life, the way of life that He role model based upon the Father, our thinking must change and our life experiences will change.

And as the Apostle Paul said, we are literally going to become a new creation.

My question to start out is, are you a new creation?

Are you a new creation? Look at Romans 6, verse 4.

Romans 6, verse 4 gets to this. Paul says in Romans 6, verse 4, Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death. We've died.

That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Are we walking in newness of life? Has our thinking, our behavior, and our goals changed because of baptism, because of the laying on of hands, and because of what Christ did for us?

Arcing back to Charlie Jones, are we being refined day by day based on the insights that we read in the Bible and the people we meet with God's Spirit? Now, this is a pretty big topic.

It can be pretty abstract, but I want to bring it down to a very real level. Today, I want to challenge you to consider whether your thoughts have been changed and your goals refined, and whether you are different than you were five years ago, whether you can see it and whether you can feel it. But what do I mean by change thoughts and different goals? What I want to discuss today is prejudice. That's what I started out with a quote from Edward R. Murrow. Prejudice. Now, you might say prejudice. I'm not prejudiced, but as we explore this topic, I think we'll see that, like Nicodemus, like society in the 1950s of Edward R. Murrow's time, we are influenced by our life experiences in the society around us. And the examples and topics that I'm going to go through, there's about five or so that we're going to go through, I think are going to challenge us a little bit and maybe even make us feel a little uncomfortable. So, if you feel uncomfortable, just kind of just be uncomfortable a little bit. Just kind of experience it. Like, I'm uncomfortable now. And let's see where God's Spirit leads us in this discussion, because the transformation begins often with discomfort. Let's go back to John 3. Now, let's continue in verse 5 where we left off.

John 3 in verse 5, Nicodemus has posed this question, how can somebody who's old be born again?

How can somebody change their way of thinking? Jesus answered and said, most assuredly, there it is again, amen, amen. I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. It has to be born of water and the Spirit. And the context in here, and we won't go through it here, but just after this, John the Baptist is continuing to baptize.

Jesus is obviously baptized by John the Baptist, we know that. And so there's that water element, that burial that we read about in Romans. And then there's that spirit, that spirit, laying on of hands and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. There's something that happens when that laying on of hands takes place in a process that begins. Look over in Ezekiel 36 verse 24, because this is what's going to happen to the entire world.

Ezekiel 36, and you can keep your place in John 3 because we're going to go back there, but if you look in Ezekiel 36 and in verse 24, it says, For I will take you from among the nations, Gather you out of all the countries, and bring you into your own land. And then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Nicodemus likely knew of the scripture, and he would think he would have gone back to that. He would have gone back to Jeremiah 33. He would have gone back to Ezekiel 36, where it talks about water and cleanliness and a new spirit and so forth, because this is where Jesus is drawing a lot of this from. He's drawing it from these examples. And yet, if you go back to John 3, John 3 verse 6, just go back there, Jesus continues, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit, He's talking about being born of a new spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes. Now, some people might say, why are you talking about wind all of a sudden? Well, the word in Greek for wind is the same word as for spirit. And it doesn't work in English, right? So you do spirit and wind, but it's the same Greek word. So the encounter, if it was in Greek, would have been very clear. If it was an Aramaic, it also is the same word. So whether it was an Aramaic or whether it was in Greek, the same sort of flow of thought in terms of the spirit goes in. So the spirit blows or the wind blows from where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. That is to say, you can't see the spirit, but you can feel it. You know it's there and you don't know where you're going to be led. And you don't know perhaps the beginning of the story and where you fit in the movie as that goes along. But there's a plan and it begins and you're part of it and it's going to take you someplace that you may not know. And Nicodemus in verse 9 answered and said to him, how can these things be? Right? It's so condensed. You can imagine, he probably said so much more, but John is capturing sort of the essence and flow of this conversation. Again, Nicodemus, his mind is being blown here. Like, what are you talking about? How can these things be? And wind and where it goes and the spirit and how it's born and so forth. And Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and you do not know these things? Now, the you here is singular. It's a familiar you. It's referring to Nicodemus. You, Nicodemus, you're a teacher. You're on the Sanhedrin. You're a priest. You're a part of the ruling class. You're an educated person. Remember, you know, we take for granted here that people go to school and they learn to read. But that wasn't the case there. Not everybody knew how to read at that time. He knew how to read. Not only do I read, he had read and he probably had memorized whole slots of the Old Testament. And yet he did not get this. But then Jesus says in verse 11, most assuredly, again, a third time, Amen, Amen. I say to you, we. Now, that's interesting because he switches. He says we. He's not talking now about I. He says we. We speak what we know and testify what we have seen. And you, the you here now is plural. You can't see it in the English, but from the Greek, it's a plural. You, that is you, the Sanhedrin, you, the ruling class, you, the people who stand up there in front of all the others and say that you know what is right and what is wrong. All of you do not receive our witness. And it's a little unclear. The we is the we like John and his Jesus and his disciples, or is the we Jesus and John. If you have a new King James, the interpreters here, the translators use the we to mean Jesus Christ and God, the Father, which is why the we is capitalized the second time and why ours capitalized. So it's referring to we, that is God the Father, my Father, and we are doing these things. It's a little unclear, but just to be, it could mean a variety of things. But the point is that he's speaking very clearly that we speak of what we know and testify. So you better listen. Verse 12, if I had told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

So here we have Nicodemus trying to get his brain around this teaching and what it meant.

And we look at this and say, it's not that. Right? I mean, we look at this. Do you have a lot of sympathy for Nicodemus? I don't know. I sometimes don't have sympathy for Nicodemus. I think, well, you know, he just was a blinded person. I want you to have some sympathy for Nicodemus. Okay?

You don't want to put this in the terms of, as I said, prejudice. Now, why prejudice? So Nicodemus is trying to get his brain around this and so forth. The next time we hear about Nicodemus is in John 7, verse 50. Look over in John 7, verse 50. We don't know kind of how that encounter finished that evening. But obviously Nicodemus went away with his head filled with all sorts of ideas about what he had heard from this great rabbi. And in John 7, verse 50, at this point, he is now before this council. Let's pick it up in verse 45. Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, Why have you not brought him? And the officers answered, No man ever spoke like this man. We didn't bring him because basically, you know, we were just basically stunned by what he was saying. Then the Pharisees answered them, Are you also deceived? Has he beguiled you as well?

48. Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. And then verse 50, Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them, said to them, Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? See, so now Nicodemus has clearly been taken a little bit by this, and so he is actually taking Jesus' side here against his colleagues, saying, Hey, hold on. Before you start making judgments, let's go ahead and hear what he has to say. Now, what is their response to Nicodemus? And they answered and said to him, Are you also from Galilee?

Okay, that's a put down if you didn't pick that up. That's something very negative. They're basically saying, Galileans are idiots. Galileans don't know what they're talking about. They're uneducated. This man is from Galilee. Are you a Galilean now? Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. So they're not even going to listen to what Jesus said, because he's a Galilean, and Galileans have no status in Jerusalem. Interesting. Here it is, a prejudice right here. The Sanhedrin is not going to listen to Jesus because he's from Galilee.

I mean, you could substitute all sorts of things. I'm not going to listen to him because he didn't go to Ivy League school. I'm not going to listen to him because of the color of his skin. I'm not going to listen to him because of his accent. I'm not going to listen to him because, and you fill in the blank some sort of racial or prejudicial bias. That's how the leaders of his time look to Jesus. They weren't even going to listen to him. Now, there's different examples of prejudice in the Bible. Probably the most obvious one is in James 2, verse 1. James, the half-brother of Jesus, gives an example of bias or prejudice when he writes. And it's interesting that he would have to write this, but at that time, wealth, there was no middle class. There were the halves and the have-nots, and there was nobody between. And so James gives an example here of prejudice or bias. He says, My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality, with bias, with prejudice. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man and filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, You sit there, or sit here at my footstool, have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts. So somebody comes in dressed very nicely. That isn't a reason to treat that person better than somebody who comes in not dressed well. We should be treating people equally, regardless of their economic status. Message in here. Now most of this room would say that, you know, well, we wouldn't do that. And, you know, we're not biased or prejudiced in some way. Let's just go through a few examples here of things that we might have been influenced by our culture. Maybe, maybe not. Do the men in this room have certain prejudices against women and their abilities? Sarah, Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, Abigail, Esther, Lydia, Phoebe, Priscilla, Mary, and Martha. Were all women of faith who, no doubt, will hold significant roles in the kingdom of God? Do we respect the unique capabilities that men and women play in the family, church, in education, and industry? Now, I won't take the time to turn there, but in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 34, Paul makes it clear that women do not fulfill an ecclesiastical role in the church.

You can take a look at that. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 34 to 35. But that doesn't mean that women are not able to fill other leadership roles. As men, do we have some sort of unconscious bias that, because a woman is not going to come up here and speak or lead songs, that somehow she's not capable of leading in a great way? As a church, I think this is an area that we can grow in. I think more study, more discussion, more prayer is needed to better grasp how men and women work together and lead together. Let's look over at 1 Peter 3 verse 7. We're pretty close there. So, 1 Peter 3 verse 7. This is a scripture that some men will go to. And again, this is in the context of marriage between husbands and wives. It says, Likewise, you husbands dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be rendered. Now, there's something interesting there because it says, heirs together of the grace of life. So, men and women are heirs together. They are equal in that sense. And that was pretty radical at the time because women were essentially property in the first century. And so, now suddenly we have scriptures elevating women to an equal status spiritually with men. But this weaker vessel concept, this gets used a lot. Oh, well, women are weaker. Okay, well, how are women weaker? Are they weaker emotionally?

Are they weaker physically? Are they weaker spiritually? How is this weaker? What is this weaker part? Well, if you've been in the church for a while, you've probably heard the discussion of this, that actually when you're talking about vessels, the vessel here is referring to essentially your pots and your pans, your dishes. A pot could hold water. A pot could hold wine. A pot could hold your stew for dinner. That's a vessel. Okay, and a weaker vessel. What is a weaker vessel? Well, a weaker vessel, is that like the old ragged stuff that's kind of like about to break? Is that what he's, you know, women are just old ragged pots? No, that's not, that's not what he's talking about. A weaker vessel was a receptacle that was actually fairly refined. We can think of it in terms today of fine china. So, when you are at home and you're serving dinner and you don't have guests, you probably have a set of dishes that you use.

And that, that those dishes are, you know, they have to be used all the time. So, they have to be a little bit more sturdy. But if you're going to have special guests over and you, you have the means, you might have some special plates that you bring out only occasionally. And you want to be careful with them because they're a little bit more fine. They're a little bit more fragile.

The reason they're more fragile is because they're beautiful and, and they're special and they've been made for beauty. They've been made to show off. They've been made for special occasions. And so, they're just a little bit more fragile, just a little bit weaker in that sense because they weren't made to be thrown around, you know, at, at, at dinner time by the kids, right? You know, you got to be careful. If you have kids, you're going to wash China because chances are they're going to break that China. So, so the analogy here is of vessels. Your vessels that are used for every day and those that are used in a very special occasion because they're very fine. They're very, very special. And so here, this is not referring to some sort of weaker emotionally, weaker physically. Although sometimes women can be weaker than men. If you look at that in sports, women tend to have, you know, they don't tend to be weightlifting at the same level, right?

They don't tend to have the same times in terms of certain races, though there are certain physical differences. But the point here is really that you have a very special, special object that is in your home and you need to treat that object with respect, giving honor to them as to the weaker vessel. That is, as to that very fine, very fine China that you would have when you have guests over. So this is not about weaker, right? So we can't go there. How about Isaiah 3 verse 12?

That's another one that men can go to. Isaiah 3 verse 12. And again, you have to really start scrambling for these things. Isaiah 3 verse 12 says, As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. There you go. So, sign of the end time, women rule over them. That's obviously a terrible thing. The problem is, somebody should have told Deborah that, because Deborah ruled over Israel. And in fact, the generals took their direction from Deborah. And God blessed that time when Deborah was a judge over Israel. You can look at, by the way, I won't turn there, but you can look in Judges 4 verses 6 and 8 to see how General Barak took his direction from Deborah. So what's being referred to here?

What's the context? In Isaiah 3, it says, For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Isaiah 3 verse 1, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judea, the stock and the store, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, the counselor, and the skillful artisan, and the expert enchanter. I will give children, and children here is kind of a reference to those who are not of full age or mature, to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed. So what's being described here is that Israel lacks leadership. It's being, it's all of its princes and all of its great judges and prophets have been taken away. There's a lack of leadership in the land, and the people are going to suffer for that lack of leadership. They're going to be given immature people or people who are not of full age to lead, and the people are going to be oppressed. And that's reiterated here as well. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. Now, the context is a lack of leadership. So what does this women refer to? Well, one view is that it's referring to the women that are described in verse 16. Verse 16 says, Moreover, the Lord says, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk without stretched necks, and wot in eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet. And so it's describing a haughtiness, a vanity. It's describing women who are just taken with themselves and are focused on themselves and not on others. So it could be referring to a certain type of woman who does not have the best interest of the nation in mind, but instead has her own self-interest in mind. That's one interpretation of it. Another interpretation is that women here is, for better or worse, during ancient times, a derogatory comment towards a man. And we get a little bit of that today when we say, oh, in baseball, you know, he throws like a girl. Okay, that's a phrase sometimes we'd say. Well, that's not a very nice phrase, but sometimes you'd say, well, yeah, he throws like a girl. Well, that's something they would say back then. Well, yeah, he's a man, but really, he's a man like a woman. Basically, he's, you know, he doesn't have sort of the guts to go out and do what he needs to do. So this could be referring to men who have feminine characteristics, and it's an insult.

It's not right. It's just an insult. It's not a good thing or a bad thing. It's just the thing that existed at the time. A third interpretation of this verse is that actually it's not referring to women at all. The word women in Hebrew, if you go back to the Septuagid, is the same word for extortioner without the vowels. Now, I think just a brief review of that. So basically, Hebrew had no vowels for a very long time. It just had consonants, and you had to fill in the vowels to know what the word meant. If you look at this verse in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, which was translated before the time of Christ, this verse reads, Oh, my people, your extractors strip you and extortioners rule over you. So in the Septuagint version, it doesn't even refer to women. So there's three different versions of interpretations here of what this could mean. One version could be that it does refer to women. Good, strong, capable women ruling over cause terrible problems for Israel. That is an interpretation, but it is one of four.

So before men go to this verse to say that women cannot have positions of authority or leadership, we need to look more carefully at the context. If we look in the Bible, I already mentioned Judges 4, verses 6 and 8 regarding Deborah judging Israel. Let's look at 2 Kings 22, verse 8, to see an example where Josiah carried out the instructions of the prophetess, Hoda, 2 Kings 22, 2 Kings 22, verse 8.

Then, Halkiah the high priest said to Shabbon the scribe, I have found the book of the law and the house of the Lord, and Halkiah gave the book of Dushopan, and he read it.

So now they're just trying to figure out what they're going to do with it. In verse 14, it says, Halkiah the priest, Ahicham, Akbar, Shabbon, and Isaiah went to Hoda, the prophetess, the wife of Sholom, the son of Teva, the son of Haras, the keeper of the wardrobe, and she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter, and they spoke with her. Then she said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, tell the man who sent you to me, and now she's going to give a prophecy. She's going to tell Josiah what to do. They went to a prophetess. Clearly, this woman had an important role. Now, I could go through many more examples, but my point here is we should not confound the teaching of preaching in church or the role of men and women within a husband and wife relationship with women in general and their capabilities to lead. Men and women have distinct roles in the church, and that's an entire sermon in and of itself. I'm just bringing up that maybe men may be walking around with certain prejudices about women based on their life experiences.

Some men have had life experiences where their commanding officer in the army is a general, and she's a woman. Some men have had life experiences where they've worked for women managers for years and years, women who have had thousands of people working for them, and so they're very used to seeing women in leadership roles. Other men have never worked for a woman. Other men have never had those life experiences, and so there may be biases around that in terms of what women are capable of doing. Again, I just raise the point that maybe we need to think whether or not we have been biased in some way by our life experiences in terms of the role of men and women and what women are capable of. Second example in this country is that we have a history of racial injustice towards African Americans. As men and women of Asian or European descent, are we in God's Church impacted by racial stereotypes against Black men and women?

This is a raging issue in this country. Black Lives Matter is a major topic of discussion in this country, and I've shared in the past how much I learned from a former member of this congregation, Arthur Patterson. People who remember Mr. Patterson. About 12 years ago, I had my first trip to Africa. I visited Ghana, and I gave a presentation, maybe some of you might remember over here in the room, about the Almena slave castle, where they would round up the slaves, they'd put them in this castle, and the ships would come in, and they would take them out on this gangplank, and they'd take them from the castle into the ships, and the ships would go to Brazil, they would go to the United States, they would go to the Caribbean, and there was a sign above the door that said, point of no return. Because that was the moment when that person, who had been kidnapped from their village, taken to the slave castle, maybe they survived, and now they're going to get on this boat, and they're never going to see their family again. They're never going to again be reunited in their homeland, and they're going to spend the rest of their lives on the other side of the ocean, assuming they can survive the passage. It was a very moving thing to see, and afterwards Arthur Patterson pulled me aside, and he shared with me just how much he hated white men, and how he has spent his entire life overcoming his deep, deep, abiding hatred for white men, because he saw, as a child, he saw a black man lynched, in the south. He saw what men were capable of doing to black men, and he struggled his whole life with that. And he confided, and that sort of kicked off a relationship that I felt very blessed to have had with Mr. Patterson, as he shared with me his life experiences. And it's a great discussion, if you have a chance. We can talk more about that later. I remember one story he told about how he went into, he wanted to go into a restaurant to have a cafe, and the guy said don't go in there. They don't like black people. And he said, I'm going in. He went in, and then later he bought the whole building. And that's where he did his TV repair, right? I mean, he was a very interesting man. The fact is the percentage of African-American tech workers in Northern California is ridiculously low. The Reverend Jesse Jackson brought that to light for 15 years, and it hasn't changed at all. And yet, at the same time, the percentage of African-Americans in jail is crazy high. How do we look at statistics like that? How do we think about statistics like that in the church? Because you see, at a very superficial level, you say, oh well, you know, it's intelligence.

Well, that's what people say. That's what racial, that's what that's what bigots and prejudice, racially motivated, inappropriate comments, that's what people say. But the fact is that these statistics, through the lens of our society, reflect a very complex historical fact of what African-American families have suffered through the impacts of slavery, social injustice, destruction of the family, access to education, and opportunity. And I think that unless we have experienced it, we can't possibly imagine the challenges that different groups face.

Look at Colossians 3 in verse 9. Colossians 3 in verse 9.

It's interesting that in the church of the New Testament, that Paul had to go out of his way to say this, and he said this twice. He said this once in Galatians, but in Colossians, he adds in an ethnic and racial element to this as well. In Colossians 3 and verse 9, Paul says, sorry, 3 verse 9 through 11, says, do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. That is to say, we are all created in God's image, regardless of our background, our skin color, our ethnicity, and so forth. In verse 11, he says, then, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

You know, after spending two and a half weeks in West and Central Africa, it's hard not to have been impacted by the visuals of $1.96 per day, which is the minimum wage in most of these countries. That's $1.96 per day. That's not per hour. You know, the food insecurity, the poverty, and what people have to do to just make ends meet in a society where $1.96 is the minimum wage, is beyond any of us to even comprehend. I spent two weeks there. I've been there before. I'm going to go there again, God willing, and I don't think I will ever understand it. I don't think that in my life experience, I will ever understand what it means to live on $1.96 a day. The six-hour flight from Duola Cameron to Paris spans two different worlds.

The sky is blue here. The sky is not blue in those countries because the pollution, whether it's from burning trash or whether it's from industry or whatever might be, causes the sky to be typically not blue. The streets are clean here. People are lucky to have streets. The street in front of our church hall in Cameroon is not passable. You cannot drive a car on that street. There are ruts that are deeper than I am tall. If you fall on that rut, you could die.

Okay, I mean, you cannot drive a car. And they've tried to repair it, but it's just too, you know, it's just the infrastructure isn't there. People with jobs, you know, there are no jobs. People just don't have jobs. And you know, when a man doesn't have work to do, it's very hard. And so you make ends meet as best you can by selling vegetables in the market or whatever it might be.

When I asked consistently, and I share this in my message in my email, what's the biggest issue you face? It's being worried about food the next day. You know, and there's no rhythm. What gives us rhythm in life? Work. Well, what happens if there's no work? Eating. Well, what happens if there's no food? Seasons. Well, what happens if there's no seasons because you're on the equator?

So how do you get rhythm to your life? How does that work? It has to work differently.

But one thing remains constant, despite the economic contrast, is that we are all created in God's image. Just like it says here in Galatians, we're all created in God's image, which means that we all have the same desires. We all want to be loved. We all want to have a relationship with somebody special in our lives. We want to get married. We want to have children. We want to have a future. We want our children to have a future. We all are the same in that way.

No one in this room is responsible for being born in the United States. No one in this room is responsible for being born white or Latino or black or Asian. Nobody got that choice in life. It just came to us. And just like the people in Benin and Coltenew, they didn't choose to be born in a country where $1.96 is the minimum wage per day. And yet God has called us in California, and He's called us in Benin, to the same hope to be firstfruits to work side by side, regardless of our economic, racial, ethnic, whatever status you're going to bring up, to work side by side. Equal. Co-heirs. Christ died for all. Do we have racial stereotypes?

Perhaps we do. Look at Acts 13 verse 1.

Acts 13 verse 1 provides a list of some of the leaders in Antioch.

And, you know, it's easy to pass over because we tend to get to sort of some of the spiritual elements, but there are physical things in here. It says Acts 13 verse 1, now in the church that was in Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers. These were the leaders of the congregation. Barnabas. Yeah, we know him. Very famous.

Simeon, who was called Niger. Simeon, who was called Niger. Now, the word Niger, in Latin, means black. There's a country of Niger. There's a country of Nigeria. And it's where we get the pejorative term Negro or Niger. Niger. Now, that means black. So the question is, was Simeon black? Well, a lot of debate has gone on around whether he was black or not. There's different theories about who this Simeon was. Let's look at one theory.

Look over at Mark 15 verse 20.

Mark 15 and verse 20.

This is Mark describing the event leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 21, Mark 15 and in verse, we'll start in verse 20. And when they had mocked him, they took the purple off him and put his own clothes on him and led him out to crucify him. And now they compelled a certain man, Simeon, a serenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by to bear his cross.

Now again, we tend to rush over these things, but Simeon, a serenian, a serenian was a person who came from Serena, which is in Libya. It's in Africa. Now, most of us don't know where things are here. I had to look this up. People have heard of Benghazi. Everybody's heard of Benghazi now, right? It's about 150 miles northeast of Benghazi in Libya. That's where this person came from. This person is African. Was this person black? A lot of debate about whether this person was black or not. They were from Libya. Egypt was this person a Jew. Well, as it turned out, that community was actually a huge Jewish community established around 600 BC or so. So there had been a huge Jewish community in that area. So one theory is that this person was black and that this is the same person in Acts 13 verse 1 because the name Simon and Simeon are basically the same name. This Simon who came from Libya is also the same Simeon who was called Niger. So that's one theory that those two people are connected. Interestingly enough, Mark goes out of his way to point out who this person's children were. This person was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Now look over in Romans 16 and we'll see that Rufus is actually called out by Paul as living in Rome. And again, we're just trying to get some... just imagine what the context might be. You have one of the great leaders in Antioch who is African, a black man, in Romans 16 in verse 13 that says, "'Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine.'" So Simeon's wife and Simeon's son Rufus were living in Rome here at the time the book of Romans was written. So this would have been about 20 years later. We don't know what happened to Simeon. Was Simeon in Antioch? Had Simeon died by that point? We don't know. But this family continued as a church family. So this person who was minding their own business, who was conscripted to carry the cross, ended up... his family ended up being in the church. And his children ended up living in Rome and being greeted and called out here. And part of the reason why people believe that Mark wrote what he wrote was because these people were known at the time. Let's look at Acts 8 verse 26.

Acts 8 and verse 26. And we see an example here of the first Gentile convert to Christianity.

This is before Peter had a vision. This is before there was a broad effort to preach the Gentiles. The absolute first Gentile convert was an Ethiopian man. A black man. Verse 26. Now, an angel, the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go towards the south along the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. And he arose and went, and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch, a great authority under Candace, the queen of Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot. He was reading Isaiah the prophet. So here is a man of great stature, a black man of great stature, who had great responsibility in the government. And we're going to see the story of how he asked Philip to interpret this. But first, God's Spirit led Philip to the chariot.

And overtook it. And eventually, the man was baptized.

And if you look in commentaries and other scholars, what they'll point out is that this is showing that God extended his grace to everybody. Because again, under Jewish religion, you didn't have contact with Gentiles. It didn't matter their color. You didn't have contact with Gentiles. And this is showing that from the farthest reaches, even as far as Ethiopia, God was going to do a great work with people. God is not a respecter of persons. He does not care about our race. He does not care about our ethnicity. He is very interested in bringing many sons to glory. We have to ask ourselves, have we been affected? I know I have. When I met Arthur Patterson, that's when I first realized that I was affected by that. I had no idea the tension and the difficulty in this country. I had been not exposed to it. Let's go to another example. Oh, by the way, before I leave there, just one other note. One speculation, and this comes from Aranais. Aranais was supposedly a disciple of polycarp. That's actually quite tenuous. He makes reference to the fact he saw a polycarp anyway. Aranais wrote in AD 180, one of the early Catholic writers, that Aranais claims that this Ethiopian is actually the man in Acts 13. There's all sorts of different theories about who these people are, but I'll leave that final point there. All right, let's go to the next one here. What are our views on migrants from countries that have Islamic majorities? How do we feel about that? That's in the news all over here as well, right? Should we allow those people into this country or not?

Now, this is a raging debate in this country about whether we should do that or not, and it's a difficult question. It's a difficult question because historically Islam conquered huge swaths of Europe, and there's concerns about the impact of Islam here in the United States and in Western countries in general. In the eighth century, Islam came to the gates of Paris, and it would have conquered Paris if it wasn't for a man named Charles Martel, who was the grandfather of Charlemagne, who eventually set up the ruling monarchy of that time. They were pushed back at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD. Now, the issue with Islam is it's not mentioned in Scripture, so we can't talk about Islam in that sense because it's not in Scripture.

It came into existence about 500 years later, but let's go to 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, because when I sense in the world, in society, and I think it can rub off on us in the Church, and I've had specific conversations with people who have admitted it directly to me, that there's a lot of fear about Islam. A lot of fear. 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 says, For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind, except when discussing Islam, because then fear is okay, because there are legitimate concerns. No, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. You know when I was in France, and it seemed like every day there was a terrorist attack.

It was a terrorist attack in London, and there was one in Stockholm, and then there was one in the Champs-D'Alise, the day I got back from Africa. It's constant. It's on the news.

Every day, if you're in Europe, you're hearing about terrorism every single day. It is a serious worry. It is a serious concern, and we in God's church can have that fear rub off on us. We are not here to fear. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind, and we are to put our lives in God's hands and not fear. Look at 1 John 4 verse 18.

1 John 4 verse 18 says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, except dealing with Muslims in our communities. No. No. It counts for that, too, because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love. There's no caveat. We are to love our neighbor as ourself.

That's what Christ commanded in Luke 10 verse 27, and there's no exclusions for Muslims.

The Islamic faith is not excluded from Luke 10 verse 27, and with this love, our fear should be cast out. In God's church, at a minimum, we should not live in fear of terrorism or Muslims. Now, we're aware of the prophecies regarding the King of the North and the King of the South and how this is going to be pushed together and so forth, and we know that God is going to allow a great force. He's going to allow this force to be unleashed, which is going to lead to terrible events occurring in Europe, but those of the Islamic faith are not our enemy.

The spirit world is our enemy. Fear is our enemy.

Let's talk about a fourth one here. Prejudice from old people to young people, young people to old people. Let's look in 1 Timothy 4 verse 12.

Old to young and young to old.

It's interesting that this has actually come out. 1 Timothy 4 verse 12.

Let no one despise your youth. Wow! Paul actually had to say that.

You imagine these letters were read in the churches. Imagine somebody gets up, and I'm reading it. I'm reading. Paul says, Timothy, let no one despise your youth. How would you guys feel in the congregation?

That's kind of a little bit of, maybe you guys are despising me a little bit because I'm young.

Interestingly enough, Paul does not say to the congregation, don't behave badly towards Timothy. He puts it on Timothy. That's an interesting lesson if you're young. He puts it on young people to not allow old people to despise your youth.

Now, in this case, he's talking to the ministry. But, you know, sometimes it's easy for things to happen. If we get a little bit older, we look at a young person and go, piss, piss, piss, they'll learn. It can be a little condescending. If you're a young person, you can feel that condescension. I'm feeling really condescended. I know I'm not the smartest person. I know I haven't been around for 30 years like you have, but I know some things.

So it's easy to feel that condescension if you're a young person. And it's easy, as an older person, to fall into that sort of tis-tis kind of viewpoint towards younger people. But Timothy, or Paul is instructing Timothy, don't let people despise your youth. Be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

So he encourages Timothy to not be bothered, but to pay attention that the older people in the church actually how they view him. So as young people, we should be paying attention to how older people might view us and not give them occasion to despise our youth. That's something that comes out of the Bible. So that's how young people might consider this. Now, let's look at 1 Peter 5, verse 1 to 5, because this actually is a definitive instruction regarding leadership within the church. 1 Peter 5, verse 1, says, The elders who are among you I exhort, so the elders, this would be people who are older, kind of how that works, I, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by constraint, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

So he's giving instructions now to elders or leaders in the church, saying, don't lord it over people, you know, don't do this because, oh, I have to do this, I've been in this congregation, I guess I've got to step up and do something, okay, I guess I'll be in charge of this, right? No, do it willingly and do it with this glad heart. And verse 4, And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

Verse 5, Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders, yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but give grace to the humble. So if we're younger, we are to submit to authority, and if we're in authority, we are to exercise that authority in a gracious way, as is described here, not constrained, but willingly, and not for some sort of gain, but eagerly, and not to lord it over anyone. So those young people in our congregation and in the church, I hope that you are willing to step up and serve, and that you're not going to stay on the sidelines and allow older folks to constantly be the one doing things. There's a great deal of experience in this hall and many years of wisdom to be respected, but that doesn't mean that people who are doing the work as older people don't need a hand. So don't feel like you have to be tapped on the shoulder. Go ahead, and in a gracious and kind way, we're expecting verse 5, respecting your elders and being submissive, say, hey, could I help you? Is there anything I could help you with? That would be a very nice thing to do. Likely, those of age and wisdom should know when it's time to step aside, as well. We might be doing things for a while, and you know, at a certain time, maybe it's time to step aside and allow a younger person to step in. And maybe you can begin mentoring, and maybe when the younger person makes a mistake, you'll realize that you made a mistake. In fact, you made lots of mistakes when you were their age doing the same thing, so you'll be patient.

And so, unfortunately, I think that as young people in the church, I'm not a young person anymore, but as young people in the church, we may have a bias against those who are a little bit older, and as an older person in the church, we may have some bias against people who are young.

The younger generation, they don't understand. This is how it goes.

Malachi 4, verse 6, we won't turn there, but it speaks of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. It's interesting that that would have to be put in Scripture, because generational divides, I think, have always existed, it seems, throughout time.

The final point I want to bring out in this sermon about biases and prejudices is that sometimes we can have prejudice against people because of the way they used to be. Prejudice against people because of the way they used to be. That is, we don't let people grow. We freeze them in a box.

We hold things against them, and we won't let them change.

Each of us must be born again and live in a newness of life, and that means that we're transforming ourselves. We're changing. We should not be the same person five years from now that we are today. And if we're not the same person, that means whatever issues we might have had with anger or pride or frustration or vanity or you name it, we've got it all. That five years from now we should be a little bit better, which means that those people around us should give us a benefit and not keep us in that same box that we were in before.

Let's look over at 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1.

1 Corinthians 5 verse 1 describes a terrible sin that was going on in Corinth that they allowed to happen. It says it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1. And such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife. So this man was living with his stepmom, and the Corinthian church was allowing it to happen. Paul meant no words here. Verse 5, He says, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put him out of the church.

This is unacceptable. If he's going to live this way, he's going to be out of the church.

That was his message. Look over in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 5. I think you know where I'm going with this. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 5.

Now time has gone by. This man has repented. This man is separated. This man has changed.

This is a different man. This is the time that goes along, and we are transformed. We are born again. How can an old person become born again? This is what is being described. Verse 5, But if anyone has caused grief, that's the man. He caused a lot of grief before. He has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent, not to be too severe. This punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, is sufficient for such a man. He was punished. He was put out of the church.

He was called out for his sin, and he had been punished. And that punishment is sufficient for him, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him. He's talking about that same man who was sleeping with his stepmother. That's true. Grieve and comfort. Right? Forgive. Lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.

This person could actually become very, very depressed, very down, such that they could really be swallowed up and sorrow. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end, I also wrote that I might put you to the test whether you are obedient in all things. Now, whom you forgive, anything I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ. Lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. One of the devices of Satan is that he would influence us that we would not forgive. You know, I've had people share with me that in God's church sometimes they feel they can't be themselves, themselves. Because maybe they've got some sort of issue and if they were to actually share what that issue was, they would be branded. Branded, big stamp, you know, like the letter A, you know, or here, or where, on your arm or something. And they would never, ever be able to live it down.

They could be in the church for 25 years after that, they would be labeled as the person who was this way or that way. That's not the kind of environment we want to be in. We need to allow people the opportunity to grow and we need to forgive them and move on and let them be that new person that they were. A lack of forgiveness is a device of Satan. That's what Paul says. A lack of forgiveness is a device of Satan. Look at Matthew 6 verse 14.

This was briefly touched on in the sermonette, but we will talk about a positive example of prayer. Matthew 6, 14. Matthew 6, 14. In the in this sample prayer that Jesus gives, he specifically points out in verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And he says it again in verse 14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. So God forgives us. God, through Christ's sacrifice, blots out our sins. It's that Sharpie analogy I've shared with you before. He's taken a Sharpie and he's just blotted out what it was. He said, you can't even read it. You'd have to focus on it. What was written there before? I forgot because I can't read it. God does that for us. Are we ready to do that with our fellow church members, our neighbor, those around us? So that we can't even remember what that was. We've allowed that person to move on. God has forgiven us and we should forgive others. I pray that God's church is a safe place to deal honestly with our issues and start the healing process. We've known each other in this congregation for a long time. I first came here in 1996. That's coming up 21 years. It's amazing. And yet, that's not a long time for many of you. Many of you have known each other for 30, 40 years. But if someone behaved in a manner towards us five years ago or 10 years or 15 years ago, I ask that you be open to allow that other person a chance to be themselves and not judge them by what they did years ago. Don't keep them in a 15-year-old box. Trust in the power of God's Spirit to change them. Just as in marriage, the husband and wife have to reinvent themselves. You have to keep that fresh. You keep that freshness going. So also, I think a congregation has to work on itself as well to allow people to forgive and forget and to let those past perceptions go.

If God gives us a chance to repent and change, let's give each other a chance also.

You know, Andrew, excuse me, Andre Gidd once said, Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

And that's what Jesus Christ was trying to get across in Nicodemus. You can't go back.

You have to be born again. It's not like you go back to when you were a child before all these bad things happened to you and you start from there. No, you start all the way back at the very beginning with no consciousness of where you were before. You are a new creation. You are living in newness of life. You have to let go of what that shore looked like to discover that new ocean, that something else. And as much as I respect the work of Edward R. Murrow, I wish to take exception with his quotation. Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. That is true. But no one can eliminate prejudices, perhaps. Just recognize them. But I think that in God's church, and I think that in John 3, that's what Jesus Christ was getting across in Nicodemus. I think Nicodemus was like Edward R. Murrow. Like, hey, this is just how the world works. I know how it works. And you can't have an old person be born again because their life experiences are their life experiences. And they're going to carry those with them and do and behave based on those life experiences, based on those biases, those prejudices, based on all the stereotypes that they've grown up with. Jesus Christ was saying to Nicodemus, no, that's not how the kingdom of God works. So we have to go beyond our prejudices.

We have to not just identify them. We have to overcome them. And when we overcome them, we will sit with Jesus on his throne. That's what it means to overcome. Sometimes we think, oh, I'm going to overcome. I've got this or that. But we've got to overcome our fear. We've got to overcome our biases. We've got to overcome our views about other people. And it's a very hard thing to do because so often we think our perceptions are truth, like in Nicodemus.

And it's hard to consider something we've been feeling or thinking for years could actually be wrong. And what happens is we tend to dig in our heels. We tend to go out and find people who agree with us. I looked at Google over here and I found out this and see, look, right? We tend to find things that will reinforce our way of looking at things. And that's how our society is built now.

Any view you have, you can go on the internet and you can find somebody else who's got that same view. That doesn't mean that it's right. It just means other people have that same view.

Love your neighbor as yourself. That's what Jesus said. And there's no exceptions to any of that.

Male, female, or Scythian, or Greek, or Jew, or slave, or free. That's what Paul said. There's no difference. Perfect love casts out fear. That's the new beginning. That's that new creation. That's what Jesus was trying to get across in Nicodemus. I don't know if you had sympathy for Nicodemus before, but I hope you have sympathy for him now. Because that's what we have to eliminate.

We have to be born again. We have to eliminate those biases.