Jesus taught his disciples to love one another as friends who would lay down their lives for each other. This dream is one that we all need to protect and promote, especially in times of great uncertainly and unrest. Local churches can make a big difference in our divided and troubled world. When people of very different backgrounds live together as the family of God then there is great blessing, healing and hope.
The recent murder of George Floyd by American police in broad day light has ignited a firestorm of anger and hate. Understandably emotions have run high, deep wounds have opened up and many inequalities have been brutally exposed. To all our black brothers and sisters, especially those in King’s Church International: we love you, we highly value you, we cry with you and we stand with you. You are not alone. We are one in Christ. We will not be moved in our unity. And we shall overcome.
But the big question is: how will we overcome hate and injustice? That very much depends on how each individual person chooses to act and react. There is only one way that we can overcome and that is through the love of Jesus who gave his life to save all people. Jesus Christ was the most loving person who ever walked this earth. He taught us to love one another but he was treated in the worst possible way. He was physically and verbally abused. He was stripped and beaten without mercy. He was wrongly accused and unjustly sentenced to death.
For hours he struggled to breath as he was slowly crucified. But as he was dying, he prayed for his enemies ‘father forgive them for they know not what they do.’ In his life and death and resurrection Jesus showed that love can overcome evil.
Martin Luther King Junior, whilst being a social and political activist who took every practical action he could to change racism and injustice, was in no doubt that the love of Jesus in human hearts and lives was the real key to change.
He said: ‘there is the danger that those of us who have lived so long under the yoke of oppression, those of us who have been exploited and trampled over, those of us who have had to stand amid the tragic midnight of injustice and indignities will enter the new age with hate and bitterness.
We must blot out the hate and injustice of the old age with the love and justice of the new.
We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization. There is still a voice crying out in terms that echo across the generations, saying: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you, that you may be the children of your Father in Heaven.’
Jesus was the reason that Martin Luther King Junior could say these words. Today, against a background of pain and rage all Christians have this 'glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.’
Only the love and the blood of Jesus can remove from human hearts the related evils of deep rooted racism, tribalism, nationalism and anti-Semitism. Politics undoubtedly has its part to play in helping to shape a just society for all, but it is only through Jesus Christ that we can be cleansed from the ugliness of sin in its many forms and be reconciled to God and one another. And it is only by the work of the Spirit of God that we can be empowered to live as free born again sons and daughters of God.
At this moment when there is such an outpouring of hate, we need a great and new outpouring of the love of God. And that means, as we saw last week on Pentecost Sunday, that we need the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. When individuals and churches are filled with the Spirit, there can be:
1. No race discrimination*
*further points to come in preaches over the coming weeks.
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Just as Smith Wigglesworth experienced when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, has 'a burning love for everybody filled [your] soul’? If you are not full of this burning love for everybody then you need this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, bitterness and hatred has to go. For God loves all people and the Holy Spirit can be experienced by all people (Acts 2:17). This means that as a true Christian and Spirit filled church there can be no race discrimination. When Peter understood the Holy Spirit was for all people, he said in Acts 10:34: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts people from every nation." The coming of the Holy Spirit always confronts institutional and traditional religion that has so often has supported racism and promoted prejudice.
Throughout the history of King’s Church International, all people have been welcome. The church’s founder, Pastor Billy Richards, a former Welsh coalminer, an outsider himself, was quick to welcome immigrants who began arriving in Slough in the late 1950s and 60’s and to rebuke all forms of racism and prejudice. KCI became the spiritual home for families from the West Indies and elsewhere, and this legacy has been continued and promoted by Pastor Wes Richards. Over the past 45 years as Senior Pastor, he has always preached and tried to show that the gospel of Jesus is for all people and that in the Christian community every ungodly barrier must be broken down. Today KCI has over 50 nationalities represented in our church family and KCI in both the UK and South Africa is an international church for all people.
The Christian church should be the greatest model of God’s big multi-racial society. We always have to unite against the viciousness of racism and the kind of violent talk and actions that divides and destroys countries and communities. We have to be Christ’s shining light of love to the world.
Be honest today: do you have anger or bitterness or even hatred in your heart? Do you judge others? Do you harbour any racial or nationalistic prejudices? Are you anti-black, anti-white, anti-Hispanic? Are you anti-British, anti-French, anti-American? Are you anti-Semitic with a hatred of Jews and Israel? Are you prejudiced against Arabs or Palestinians? Are you anti Muslim? Anti-Hindu? Anti-Sikh? Are you anti- any people group? No true follower of Jesus can hate anyone no matter how different they are or what they do. Change in the world starts when our own hearts change. Today God wants to come and take out deep roots of racism, rejection, and anger. When you are truly Christian and have the Holy Spirit there can be no discrimination.
Jesus also wants to come and clean out the deep wounds in your soul and spirit that have become infected. He wants to pour in his healing love so that you can live with full dignity and a confident identity as a child of God. He wants to baptise you with his love. Today is the time to love and stop the hate.
Come and kneel down at the Cross of Christ and take time to ask the Holy Spirit to fill and change your heart. For
• All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory
• All of us need to be forgiven
• All of us need to forgive
• All of us need the Holy Spirit to help us.
Today take time in prayer to repent, to receive forgiveness, to forgive others and to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and help you.
