Goodness In A Coming King

It's good to be with you all this morning. My name is Jonathan. I've been with you all many times in the past, but if you're new, as Andy mentioned, I work as a college pastor here in Colorado Springs. I grew up here in Colorado Springs.

And I work mostly on Colorado College and University of Colorado Springs as a Presbyterian minister with the campus ministry wing of the Presbyterian Church. It's called Reformed University Fellowship.

It's always a treat to be with you. I hope you all had a happy new year. I hope you all had a happy Christmas, happy holidays.

Anyways, we are, first of all, welcome to all of you, particularly if you're new. Maybe you're stumbling in here with new year resolutions to come to church and you don't know exactly why you're here.

Particularly welcome to you. We're really, really glad that you're here. Coming to church can be a really intimidating thing, and we're glad you would spend your time with us.

There's a lot of other things you can do on a Sunday morning, so we hope that this is a safe and welcoming place for you.

Turn your Bibles to Judges chapter 19. Judges chapter 19. This is, I don't know if there's, there's no universe where this is a great sermon to start our New Year's off with.

Judges 19 · chapter mention Judges 19 · chapter mention

One of you came up and said to me while we were getting, while we were doing our greet time, and says, you have your work cut out for you.

This is a challenging passage that we are going to look at, and there's a reason why.

The last time I was with you, Matthew asked me to walk through evangelism, sharing our faith, sharing the Christian faith with our friends who do not know Jesus yet as their Savior, King, Lord, Priest.

And he says it was well received and asked me to continue this theme, asked me to do more of this.

And so today and next week, I'll be with you again, and we'll look at this same idea again, different passage.

But to continue the thread of how do we share our faith, or how is the Christian faith good news in 2026?

Maybe that's the only way I can think about a New Year's sermon is how do we share our faith?

The reality, here's the reality. There's two things that are happening in our world.

The good news is there is a deep spiritual searching happening in this country on a level that we haven't seen since most of us have been alive.

You can read pretty much any of the thought pieces, newspapers, anybody, even movies.

I just watched a movie last night that was radically different from a movie that you would have made 10 years ago about how it thinks about religion and the pasture and all these.

Something is happening. Something's in the air.

There is a deep spiritual searching.

The cows are coming home from secularism, this attempt to live our life apart from God, and it's not working.

So that's the good news.

The challenge is that our world, our friends, still have deep suspicion of organized religion and of the Christian faith in particular.

They still are not persuaded.

They still think Christianity is dangerous, is hard on minorities, is bad for our world.

And so evangelism is simultaneously more necessary than it's ever been and also very challenging.

And you've experienced this if you've ever tried to share your faith with someone who doesn't know Jesus yet.

Family members, kids who've walked away from the Lord, neighbors, coworkers.

It's just challenging.

You can go back and look at the YouTube channels on what I talked about last time.

We talked about this.

We're going to look at it again from another angle today.

And we're going to look at easily what I think is one of the most challenging passages in the Bible.

It is, this is a doozy.

I know that Matthew just finished preaching on the book of Judges.

And we're going to look at it again, but from an angle of how do we share our faith.

And if you're here today and you would say, I am not a Christian.

I don't know why I'm here.

I have deep questions of the Christian faith.

Then in particular, I would say this is for you.

I would ask you to wrestle rigorously with us as we think about what the Christian faith offers to our world.

What this is is a passage that shows us that when humans do terrible things, God still intervenes to save us.

That's what this passage is about.

When humans do terrible things, God still intervenes to save us.

I'm going to set the stage for a little bit and then we'll read it.

The background of Judges is that Israel had been in a covenantal relationship with God.

Israel is in a covenantal relationship with God, which is a lot like a marriage

where they promised to worship and love and obey God completely in the same way that we would vow fidelity to our spouse.

They would obey God.

And the tragedy is they never did it.

They never followed through fully on this promise.

And as a matter of fact, they consistently, repeatedly run away from God and reject his rule, reject his covenant,

and turn to pretty much anything else, power, money, other religions, anything else other than God.

And Judges, the book of Judges is, in a sense, it's the social and spiritual critique of their failure to worship God.

That's what Judges is.

It's turning the mirror on them and saying this is what happens to your hearts, to your society, to your world when you don't follow God.

And then the book is a slow deterioration.

It's a slow, the drain coming out and showing us how bad it can get.

And this is graphic, but if you are doing your dishes after, you know, a big meal,

you start washing the dishes in the sink, and the top water of the dirty dishwasher is not that bad.

You open up the drain, and all the bottom stuff starts circling to the bottom, right?

All this gross stuff.

That's what the book of Judges is, is the drain is circling, and all the bad stuff's at the bottom.

And here we are at the end of this book, and it's all the bad stuff.

It's the worst of the worst.

And so I'm going to read this for us.

I've written, I've chosen a long passage, so spare with us.

And I would also warn you that this is a very hard passage.

It does, I would say, this is a trigger warning.

This passage does involve assault, sexual assault, and rape.

And so please prepare yourself for that.

If you need to step out, there's no shame, no foul in that.

I'll try to deal with it as gently as I can, but I'll let you know that it's there.

Okay, so this is Judges 19.

This is God's word.

In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim,

who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

And his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah,

and was there for four months.

Then her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her and to bring her back.

He had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys, and she brought him into her father's house.

And when the girl's father saw him, he came with joy to meet him.

And his father-in-law, the girl's father, made him stay, and he remained with him three days.

So they ate and drank and spent the night there.

And on the fourth day they arose early in the morning, and he prepared to go.

But the girl's father said to his son-in-law,

Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and after that you may go.

So the two of them sat and ate and drank together.

And the girl's father said to the man,

Be pleased to spend the night, and let your heart be merry.

And when the man rose up to go, his father-in-law pressed him till he spent the night there again.

And on the fifth day he rose early in the morning to depart.

And the girl's father said, Strengthen your heart and wait until the day declines.

So they ate, both of them.

And when the man and his concubine and his servant rose up to depart, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him,

Behold, now the day has waned toward evening.

Please spend the night.

And behold, the day draws to its close.

Lodge here and let your heart be merry, and tomorrow you shall arise early in the morning for your journey and go home.

But the man would not spend the night.

He rose up and departed and arrived opposite Jabez, that is, Jerusalem.

He had with him a couple of saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him.

And when they were near Jebus, the day was nearly over, and the servants said to his master,

Come now, let us turn aside to the city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it.

And his master said to him, We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who do not belong to the people of Israel,

but we will pass on to Gibeah.

And he said to his young man, Come and let us draw near to one of the places and spend the night at Gibeah, or in Ramah.

So they passed on and went their way, and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.

And they turned aside there to go in and spend the night at Gibeah.

And he went in and sat down in the open square of the city, for no one took them into his house to spend the night.

Verse 16.

And behold, an old man was coming from his work in the field that evening.

The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was sojourning in Gibeah.

The men of the place were Benjamites.

And he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city.

And the old man said, Where are you going, and where do you come from?

And he said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem and Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come.

And I went to Bethlehem and Judah, and I am going to the house of the Lord.

But no one has taken me into his house.

We have straw and feed for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and your female servant, and the young man with your servants.

There is no lack of anything.

And the old man said, Peace be with you.

I will care for all your wants.

Only do not spend the night in the square.

So he brought him into his house and gave the donkeys feed.

And they washed their feet and ate and drank.

As they were making their hearts merry, behold, men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door.

And they said to the old man, the master of the house, Bring out the man who has come into your house, that we may know him.

And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them,

No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

Since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing.

Behold, here is my virgin daughter and her concubine.

Let me bring them out now.

Violate them and do to them what seems good to you.

But against this man, do not do this outrageous thing.

But the men would not listen to him.

So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to him.

And they knew her and abused her all night until morning.

And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.

And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was until it was light.

And the man rose up in the morning.

And when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.

He said to her, Get up.

Let us be going.

But there was no answer.

Then he put her on the donkey and the man rose up and went away to his home.

And when he entered his house, he took a knife and taking hold of his concubine, he divided her limb by limb into 12 pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.

And all who saw it said, Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day.

Consider it.

Take counsel and speak.

Take.

As far as God's word.

Let's pray.

Lord in heaven, we come now to your word and we need you to give us strength and your spirit.

Equip us now as we study it, that we would know you know your grace and love in Jesus.

And we would hope and we would bring that hope to others.

It's in Jesus name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So what has just happened in this passage?

I'll recap it briefly.

a man takes a sexual partner.

He goes with her, and she eventually leaves him,

spends five days to try and get her back,

and as he starts for home, they stop at a town,

and no one takes them in.

An old man says ominously, don't spend the night here.

At least come into my house.

And a group of, as while he's in his home,

a group of worthless fellows, the text says,

comes demanding to essentially have the man sexually.

And the man instead gives the concubine,

and they proceed to effectively abuse her to death.

And the original man takes her body

and sends it throughout the country.

And thus ends our passage.

It's incredibly disturbing.

It's incredibly unnerving.

And we are left asking,

what in the world do we do with a passage like this?

What do we do with this?

In fact, we read something like this,

and we say, everything's wrong here.

And in fact, we don't even know the half of everything that's wrong.

We could spend a whole sermon discussing layers upon layers upon layers

of things that have gone deeply wrong in this society.

Things like a concubine.

Things like a Levite.

Things like having a woman like this.

Things like sexual infidelity.

Irresponsible parting.

Inhospility to countrymen.

Homosexual lust.

Oppression of women.

Gang rape.

Human slaughter.

We didn't even read the part where we get to civil war and genocide.

It just spirals, and it's all woven together,

and the whole scene is brutal and horrible.

And we're left wondering, what do we make of this?

What do we make of this?

And actually, we're very used to thinking about,

we're actually quite, we're used to thinking about things like this.

There's a popular TV genre that most of us,

at least, watch something like this,

and these are these Vice shows that are very similar to this.

I'm thinking of shows like Breaking Bad or Ozark or Yellowstone,

and they put their character in a world that doesn't have restraints,

where they are free to let their vices run wild.

And they're basically asking, how bad can humanity get?

How bad can this character deteriorate?

How quickly can a vice destroy a society?

And these shows are fascinating to us.

It's kind of like when you drive past a car wreck.

You say you just want everybody to pass it,

but then as soon as you get to it, we're all looking at it too,

the same way.

We want to see, we know it's horrible, but we can't look away.

And it's stories like this, it's shows like this,

where they fix the camera on the philosophical

and existential questions of the human nature.

Don't flinch, don't look away,

and force us to ask, what is humanity?

What is wrong with our world?

And that is a place that is ripe for sharing our faith.

It is ripe for sharing our faith.

This text asks, what is wrong with our world?

And it shows us.

It shows us what is deeply wrong with our world.

Let me show you.

There's a phrase that was repeated at the very beginning of chapter 19,

but then it shows up several times throughout Judges.

You see at the very beginning of chapter 19, verse 1,

in those days there was no king in Israel.

In those days there was no king in Israel.

And it's actually repeated several times.

In chapter 17, verse 6, it says,

in those days there was no king in Israel.

Then it adds another line.

It says, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Same thing in chapter 18.

In those days there was no king in Israel.

And then as a sort of inclusio to end this whole story,

if we were to keep reading chapters 19 and 21,

we read the continued deterioration that ends, like I said,

in genocide and civil war.

The very last words of the book of Judges are,

in those days there was no king in Israel,

and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

So three, four times the text repeats this refrain,

and that repeated line is the interpretation.

It explains what is going wrong.

We're faced with this horrible, horrible situation

that just is gut-wrenching.

And the text tells us, what is wrong with this?

There's no king and everyone does what is right in his own eyes.

Judges tells us that what is wrong with our world,

what is wrong in this situation,

the oppression and the violence

that we see percolating, spreading out

throughout this story, throughout the human experience,

is that there is no king,

and everyone does what is right in his own eyes.

And in this, it points us back

to what we confessed in our confession of faith,

which is, what is sin?

Sin

is a declaration

of I would have no king

but myself.

I would do what is right

in my own eyes.

What did we confess?

Sin

is any

transgression

of the law

of God.

Anytime we look at God

and say,

you as king

have no authority

in my life,

I will do

and I will discern

what is right

for myself.

I will be

my own king.

This is what we confess

when we say,

what is sin?

It is the want of conformity unto

and transgression

of God's law.

It is looking at God

who is our creator

and king

and saying,

not you,

I will do

what I would do.

And this,

the text says here,

Judges 19,

Judges,

the whole book says,

the source

of the violence

and the abuse,

that gut sucker punch

that you feel

when you read this text

is the rejection

of God

and the claim

of this individual autonomy.

I will do

what is right

in my own eyes.

And this leads

to the pain

that we feel

as we read this story.

There's a great

theologian philosopher,

a guy named Christopher Walken,

he says this,

when every man

deciding for himself

what is good and evil

sets a high value

on himself

and demands

that everyone else

value him

in the same way,

then human beings

are in a perpetual

and unrelenting war

with each other.

Autonomy

and the ethic

of violence

are a natural fit

for one another.

Autonomy

and an ethic

of violence

are a natural fit

for one another.

And so Judges 19,

this passage

shows us

that the problem

for humanity

is autonomy,

rejection of God

and his rule.

The story

of the Bible

is exposing

our hearts

as deep

rebels

against God.

And the conclusion,

here's the conclusion,

is that unrestrained

sin,

that is unrestrained

autonomy,

leads inevitably

to total

societal breakdown.

Unrestrained

sin leads

to weak

parts of our world

being hurt.

when autonomy,

everyone doing

what is right

in his own eyes

runs its course,

then the most vulnerable

get the most hurt.

Now,

how in the world

does this begin

to apply

to sharing our faith?

Let me show you.

I've read this passage

many times

with non-Christians

and they will say

something like this,

see,

how can the Bible

have this passage

in it?

How does the Bible,

how can your God

possibly let this happen?

This is awful.

Don't you see?

This is what's wrong

with religion.

This is what's wrong.

This is why we,

this is why I'm not a Christian

is because this is

in the Bible.

Today's passage

is a lot of things

but you can't look at this

and accuse it

of shying away

from the darkest parts

of the human experience.

You cannot help

but feel outrage

and grief

and anger

at verse 28.

Oh my gosh.

going to her

he said,

get up

and be going

and there was

no answer.

That woman

alone,

abandoned,

in utter

soul torment

dies

and what we get

to do

is as we read

this with our

friends,

we say

that's exactly

what the Bible

wants you to feel

in this situation.

You get,

we must,

if you're here

and you're searching

and you feel

indignation,

how can this

be in the Bible?

The Bible

would say

exactly.

That's the point.

You are feeling

what you should feel.

You should be

outraged

by this.

You should be

furious

by this.

It challenges us

because it says

the outrage

that you feel,

the source of it

is sin.

Sin is the problem.

And frankly,

we live in the same

world as Judges 19

today.

We have a fancier

world for everyone

doing what is right

in their own eyes.

A famous sociologist,

a guy named Robert

Bella,

coined a term

called expressive

individualism,

which is a fancy

way of saying

everyone does

what is right

in his own eyes.

Which,

it means

that we live

in a world

where everyone

has the individual

right to express

their own

individuality,

express their

own feelings.

And in fact,

we are taught,

trained,

incentivized,

catechized,

to look within us,

to be our most

authentic self,

and then to live

that out on the

world as a stage.

And this starts

from as young

as childhood.

Think about

every single

Disney movie.

Every single

Disney movie.

I let my kids

watch Disney,

I grew up

watching Disney,

and this is

what we hear.

And it's

unavoidable.

Even if you don't

let your kids

watch Disney,

it is in the air

we breathe.

But every single

one is a sugar-coated

Broadway version

of everyone do

what is right

in your own eyes.

Think about

the movie Frozen.

What does Elsa

sing in Let It Go?

It is an expression.

It is a song

of self-expression.

Listen,

she says,

the fears that

once controlled me

can't get to me

at all.

It's time to see

what I can do

to test the limits

and break through.

No right,

no wrong,

no rules for me.

I'm free.

Let it go.

Let it go.

This is the

guiding vision

of the sexual

revolution

from 1968

to now.

This is how

we are trained

to think about

our money

in our economics.

This is the vision

of capitalism.

No one can tell me

how to spend my money.

I get to choose

what I do with it.

And we've created

a whole online

internet market system

that will have

your products

to let you

curate your own life

within eight hours

or less.

You can have

any product

you want

at your front door.

This is how

we treat our politics.

Michael Sandel,

who's a preeminent

political philosopher,

says that liberalism,

liberalism is the

political philosophy

that undergirds

how we,

the American

political experience,

the vision of democracy,

says this,

liberalism is a

plurality of persons,

each with his own

interests, aims,

and conceptions

of the good.

Liberalism and

democracy

maximize the

political,

social,

and economic

rights of the

individual

to live their

lives as they

choose.

In our world

today,

we have perfected

the art

of everyone

does what is

right in their

own eyes.

Robert Bella

says it this way,

in the absence

of any objective

criteria of right

or wrong,

good or evil,

the self

and its feelings

become its own

moral guide.

and there

each individual

is entitled

to his or

her own

bit of space

and is utterly

free with its

boundaries.

This is the world

we live in.

It's unavoidable.

And here's the

trick.

It's killing us.

And everyone

knows it.

This is why I say

we have more

opportunities to

share the gospel

than we have in

80 years.

Everyone looks

around us right

now and says,

whatever we're

doing right now

ain't working.

This ain't it.

If this is what

living life is,

I don't want to

be a part of it.

If this is what

society does,

I don't want a

piece of it.

It's killing us.

And like this

story,

it's particularly

hurting the

weakest members

of our world,

the poor,

women with

weaker bodies.

people with

dark skin.

It hurts them

most.

Many of you

know,

I was just

sitting in on

Scott Sage's

AI class.

Many of you

know there's

an AI tool

called Grok.

It's Twitter

and X's

AR platform.

It's a powerful

tool.

Last week I was

reading a story

about how it is

being used by

men to deep

fake women.

And so it can

take a single

picture of a

woman,

any woman,

and you can

essentially turn

any picture into

pornography.

And there's

nothing that we

can do about

it.

Women are

scrolling the

internet and

they will find a

picture of

themselves that

has been deep

faked into a

sexually explicit

image.

And they will

call the police

and say,

what will you

do about this?

And they'll say,

there's nothing

we can do.

Why?

Because we live

in a land where

the First Amendment,

I'm pro-First

Amendment, but this

is free speech and

there's nothing we

can do.

there is no

king in the

land and everyone

does what is right

in their own

eyes and the

most vulnerable

are hurt the

most.

And here's what's

true, our

non-Christian

friends know that

something is

desperately wrong.

They know it,

but they can't

explain why.

And we read

Judges 19 to

them and we

let it sink in

and we let them

feel outrage.

We let them feel

how terrible it

is and we say,

do you not see

this is the world

we live in?

And they say,

yes, I see it

and I hate it.

And we get to

say, you know

what the reason

is?

It's because of

sin.

It's because we

live in a world

where everyone

does what is

right in their

own eyes and

you know it's

killing us.

I know it's

killing us.

Don't you see

that listening to

your heart leads

to oppression and

abuse and

injustice?

this is where

we can reason

with our friends

and say,

would you agree

that our world

tells us to

listen to our

hearts, to

express our

individuality, to

use our freedoms

to make our own

name great, to

buy what we want

when we want, to

vote in a way

that makes my

life better?

Well, yes, I

would say that's

the way we live.

That's the world,

that's a good

world to live in.

But don't you

see that if

everyone does this

wholesale, the

result is

oppression.

Pain, abuse,

Judges 19, it's

unavoidable.

This is what we

live in.

And here's why

this passage, here's

why stories like

this are so

amazing.

People will read

this and say,

this is in the

Bible, this is

outrageous, how

can this be?

And the Bible

says exactly.

It shocks us, it

offends us, it

shows us how

threatening human

nature is separated

from God.

And we can

slingshot off of

this and say we

need someone to

save us.

you know that.

Let me show you

who he is.

Back to our

story.

It gets worse.

I wish I could

say it gets

better.

I won't read the

rest.

You can go read

it on your own.

The Levite

retrieves his

concubine.

He's not willing

to intercede on

his own, but he

sends her body

throughout the land

and shows what

has been done to

her.

And to us, this

feels extremely

hyperreactive.

At the time, it

was a version of

basically photo

journalism.

Photojournalists

would go to the

Vietnam War, take

pictures of what

was happening, and

send them back.

This is photo

journalism at its

most graphic.

And it incenses the

nation.

You read in

chapter 20, at the

end of the 20,

everyone says,

nothing like this

has ever been done

before.

What are we going

to do about it?

So the rest of the

Israelite nation

gathers a giant

army, 400,000

soldiers, and goes

and attacks the

Benjamites.

And there is a

multi-day civil war

between all the

11 tribes against

the Benjamites.

And eventually, the

Benjamites are

utterly obliterated.

All the men are

killed.

And effectively, a

tribe is almost

wiped out.

And the passage

ends with

essentially stealing

more women to

give to the

Benjamites who are

almost gone so

that they can still

be around.

And so the passage

ends, even worse,

civil war and

genocide, killing

an entire people

group.

And it ends

saying, there was

no king in the

land and everyone

does what is right

in his own eyes.

And the human

predicament apart

from God is cold,

nasty, brutish, and

short.

So what do we do

with this?

What do we do

with this?

Well, there's a few

things.

First, we have to

acknowledge that God

cares deeply about

this story.

God cares deeply

about it.

He does not approve

of this evil.

God is strikingly

quiet in this whole

story.

You don't see any

place where God is

approving or

condoning of any

of this.

The only time he

speaks is he just

sort of lets them

go and have this

civil war.

But nowhere does

God approve of

this violence or

abuse.

And in fact, if

that's part of your

story, which

statistically it is

in this room, hear

me say that

whatever has

happened to you,

God is as upset

with it as anyone.

And he cares

deeply for you.

And the good news

of the gospel is

that he has, is,

and will do

something about

that pain.

And we will

look at that

in a minute.

The God of the

Bible hates

injustice.

He hates

abuse.

Listen to what

Deuteronomy says.

In Deuteronomy 16,

God tells his

people, justice

and justice only

you shall, you

shall follow.

In the Psalms,

it's all over how

he cares about

justice.

And then it

tells us that God

is going to do

something.

The next book

in the Jewish

Bible, the next

words in the

Jewish Bible

after 2125 is

1 Samuel.

And 1 Samuel is

the story of God

beginning to

provide what?

A king.

Someone who

will come to

bring the

justice, the

vindication that

this story needs

so badly.

And it is not

just any king,

but it is the

king par

excellence.

David, the

king that Psalm

89 says,

righteousness and

justice are the

foundation of your

throne.

The low point of

Judges 19 rises

to a climax of

the best king in

Israel's history

where there's a

time of peace and

thriving and

justice.

But we know that

that's not even

enough because even

David would what?

Abuse a woman.

We need a better

king than even

King David.

David.

And Psalm 110

points to him and

says that there is

a son of David,

one who will come

as king, who will

be perfectly

righteous and bring

perfect justice

forever.

And later on in

Matthew 22, what

does Jesus say?

He says, Psalm 110,

David's great son,

the king that David

was supposed to be,

it's me.

I'm him, Jesus

says.

And Jesus says,

the time is at

hand.

The kingdom of

God is now at

hand.

Jesus comes and

says, everything

that was wrong in

Judges 19, this

king that you

needed, I am he.

I am the one who

will come and bring

justice.

The time that we

long for a king

where justice and

righteousness would

be integrated into

the very fabric of

our society, of our

world, Jesus says,

I will come and do

that.

And here's what's

amazing.

Jesus is the

antidote to the

sin problem.

How?

Jesus never did

what was right in

his own eyes.

He was sinless.

John tells us that

his only desire was

to do the will of

his father.

And yet, even

though he never

did what was right

in his own eyes,

what happens to

him, he suffers

the abuse of a

violent mob outside

the city.

What happens to the

concubine happens

to Jesus, brutally

murdered by a rage

filled crowd outside

of the city.

Jesus is the

sinless king who

would suffer the

abuse, the

violation, the

death at the

hands of an

abusive crowd.

How?

Why?

So that he could

crush abuse

forever.

Psalm, I mean,

Isaiah 9, we

read this for

Christmas.

Of the increase of

his government,

king, and peace,

there will be no

end.

And on the throne

of David and

over his kingdom

to establish it

and uphold it

with justice and

righteousness from

this time forth and

forevermore.

David's son, the

king, will bring

true justice, true

peace to a violent

and abusive world.

Judges tells us

that we are not

okay, that we need

help, that our

world is broken, and

God sees it, he

knows, and he will

do something about

it.

And this is what we

get to tell our

friends.

We make them want

it so badly, and

then we say, and

he has come to do

it.

There's three moves

as we share our

friends, share this

with our friends.

We agree with our

non-Christian friends

that the world is

broken.

Yes, I agree with

you.

Our world is deeply

broken.

You know it, I

know it.

And then we show a

better diagnosis of

the problem.

What do you think is

the problem?

And it doesn't go

deep enough.

Let me tell you what

the deepest problem

is.

Everyone does what

is right in their

own eyes.

It's sin.

But I have a

better solution.

It's the coming

king.

It's the gospel.

It's the king who

has come and who

will come again to

right every wrong.

Jesus is the king

who will bring

perfect justice.

Will you follow him

with me?

Jesus is the king

who suffered the

abuse to crush

abuse forever.

Will you follow him

with me?

Jesus suffered in

our place.

Never did what was

right in his own

eyes to fix a

broken world.

Will you follow

him with me?

This is what

evangelism is.

Slingshotting off

the pain of a

broken world and

showing them the

best and only

solution.

I'll close with

this.

Kurt Vonnegut

wrote a book

called Slaughterhouse

Five which is a

story processing

the trauma of

World War II.

It's particularly

the firebombing

of Dresden which

he describes in

the book.

He talks about a

man named Billy

Pilgrim who

becomes unstuck

in time and

can travel backwards

in time and he

sees life backwards

and he pictures

the firebombing of

Dresden backwards.

This is what he

says.

Seen backwards by

Billy the story

went like this.

American planes

full of holes and

wounded men and

corpses took off

backwards from an

airfield in

England.

Over France a few

German fighter planes

flew at them

backwards and

sucked bullets and

shell fragments from

some of the planes

and crewmen.

They did the same

for wrecked American

bombers on the

ground and those

planes flew home

backwards to join

the formation.

The formation flew

backwards over a

German city that

was on flames.

The bombers opened

their bomb bay

doors and exerted a

miraculous magnetism

which shrunk the

fires and gathered

them into cylindrical

steel tubes and

lifted these tubes

into the bellies of

the planes.

The containers were

stored neatly in

racks.

The Germans below

had miraculous

devices on their

own which were

long steel tubes.

They used them to

suck fragments from

the crewmen in the

planes.

But there were still

wounded Americans

though and some of

the bombers were in

bad repair.

Over France though

the German fighters

came up again and

made everything and

everybody as good as

new.

When the bombers got

back to base the

steel syndicals were

taken from their

racks and shipped

back to the United

States of America

where factories were

operating day and

night dismantling the

tubes and separating

the dangerous

components into

minerals.

Touchingly it was

mainly women who did

this work.

The minerals were

then shipped to

specialists in remote

areas.

It was their business

to put them deep in

the ground to hide

them cleverly so that

they could never hurt

anyone again.

The American pilots

turned in their

uniforms and became

high school kids and

Hitler was turned into

a baby Billy Pilgrim

supposed.

Billy Pilgrim saw that

everybody turned into a

baby and all humanity

without exception

conspired biologically to

produce two perfect

innocent people named

Adam and Eve he

supposed.

that's what our faith

promises.

To suck all of the

pain out of our

world.

All of the abuse.

The hell that is a

firebombing of a city

and to bury it deep in

the ground.

That's what we offer to

our friends.

God sucking all the

evil out of the world

through Jesus as bad

as it gets.

Judges 19 or firebombing

Jesus the king time

working backwards to

save us from ourselves.

We offer that to our

friends.

I offer that to you.

And I say would you

follow Jesus with me?

Would you pray with me?

Father in heaven thank

you that you have are

and will suck all the

pain and the abuse and

the evil out of this

world.

And you are doing it

soon.

We pray that you would

come soon and finish the

job.

Until then give us

grace.

Give us patience.

Give us endurance to

await the day when the

kingdom finally comes.

Give us the ability to

share this good news

faithfully and patiently

with our friends and be

glorified in it.

It's in Jesus name we

pray.

Amen.

slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide slide