Justice and Mercy: How the Gospel Changes Our Communities

The following message by Pastor Randy Thornton was influenced by “Gospel in Life” (published by Zondervan), a book by Timothy J. Keller. Shown in the photo is Randy Thornton, senior pastor at Grace Church in Southern Pines (in Moore County), N.C., as he delivered the message summarized below.

Moore County, North Carolina, has some of the highest and lowest incomes in N.C., according to Randy Thornton, senior pastor of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C.

“We have the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’” Thornton, 55, said during a recent Sunday message he preached to the  Grace Church congregation.

He said that 90 percent of the children in Robbins Elementary School in the northern section of Moore County “don’t have backpacks.” Grace Church took on a project: to buy, and fill with supplies, 518 backpacks (one for each child in that school).

Thornton said God has given Grace Church a mission: “Take The City.”

“How are we going to do this?” he asked, adding that there are three ways:

Love God.

Love Others.

Serve Your World.

“We need justice and mercy in our communities to change our communities,” Thornton said.

Persecution sent first-century Christians out of Jerusalem and to other cities, such as Antioch, a pagan Greek city, he said. At Antioch, Jewish immigrant Christians began sharing the Gospel with Greeks. The non-believing community in Antioch began calling followers of Christ a name: “Christians.”

“The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26).

“Changed people change people,” Thornton said. “The hope of our nation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Changed people are called Christians. Is your life different enough that others want and admire the thing that makes you different?

God wants to impact cities.

“He [God] loves cities,” Thornton said. “He loves people. Many of the books in the New Testament are named for cities. God wants to bless the cities, so he can bless you.”

When Jewish people suffered exile from Israel, God spoke through Jeremiah, saying, “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7).

The U.S. was founded on biblical principles and the early American school system was modeled after a Sunday school system, Thornton said.

“We need to become ‘change agents,’” he said. “God wants ‘city transformation.’ He takes a group of people . . . it starts with praying . . . then involvement, government, education, the poor.”

He read Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Thornton noted that God was saying to the Israelites, “You have walked with me, but you’ve departed. You’ve offered sacrifices as a ‘form’ – not out of your heart.”

Mankind is religious.

Man is naturally religious, Thornton said.

“There are people – I was one of them – who know him here [he pointed to his head], not here [he pointed to his heart],” he said. “The revelation of Jesus changed my life. I want to be a ‘change agent’ to the world.”

Thornton discussed Micah 6:8 and read Micah 6:9a: “Listen! The Lord is calling to the city.”

“What is good?” Thornton asked. “What does the Lord require of you? . . . To do justly. To love mercy. To walk humbly with your God.”

He said that “during Jesus’ day” [Jesus’ earthly ministry] the 10 commandments had grown to over 500 rules. Jesus said to some very religious people, “You white-washed tombs, your hearts are far from God.”

“Do you have a religion, or do you have a relationship [with Jesus]?” Thornton asked.

God wants to bless his people so they can bless others.

“What does God require?” Thornton asked. “Faith – faith motivated out of a heart ‘for’ him.”

Jesus gave two commandments: love God and love others.

Matthew 22:36-39 NIV: The first commandment (verse 37) is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” The second commandment (verse 39) is “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“God hates your sacrifice if it’s not motivated out of a love for him,” Thornton said. God wants our hearts. What is ‘to do justly’? It means to render to everyone his due, to see your neighbor as yourself . . . do justly to God; do justly to man (neighbor); do justly to ourselves. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit – don’t do things that defile it. (That means your mind, too.)”

God has to punish sin, but “God sent Jesus because he loves people,” Thornton said.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“We deserve justice, but God showed mercy,” Thornton said. “We like to receive mercy, but when people have wronged us, we want judgment!”

We need to show mercy, kindness, charity and benevolence, he said.

“As a parent, you have to ‘do’ justice and show mercy, too,” Thornton said.

Humility (walk humbly)

“Moses was the most humble man in all the earth,” Thornton said. “Humility is saying, ‘All I have and all I receive comes from God.’”

Jesus humbled himself – being fully God – to become “man.”

“Sometimes it [humility] is ‘placing the needs of other people above your own – not because they earned it or deserve it, sometimes,” Thornton said. 

How can we, as a people, change our cities, he asked.

“Jesus loved cities; Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness,” Thornton said. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” (Matthew 9:35-38).

“Jesus went town to town, preaching the ‘good new,’” Thornton continued. “Change people; change lives; change families; change communities!”

Experience God’s love for yourself.

Jesus had an encounter with a needy woman.

“A woman, a woman of the night, probably a prostitute,” Thornton said. “Jesus was eating a meal. She comes. Jesus’ feet – she cries over his feet and wipes them with her hair.”

To the guests at the table, Jesus said about that woman: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47).

“She realized God had forgiven her,” Thornton said. “She was forgiven much; she loved much. . . . Sin is sin; sin would put you in hell. She appreciated what God did for her. She had the Master change her heart and change her life. She didn’t care what others thought.”

Let God’s love become what controls our lives, he said.

Ask God To Open Your Heart.

“A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’” (Mark 1:40-41).

“Lepers had to cry out, ‘unclean!’” Thornton said. “What Jesus does is he kind of breaks all those rules. He said, ‘I am willing; be clean.’ As a good Jew, you should never touch the unclean. Jesus made him feel loved and accepted.”

Every person we encounter is either a victim to exploit, a problem to avoid, or a person to be loved; do something about it, he advised.

Open your life to the needs of others.

Luke 10:30-37 NIV:

“In reply Jesus said: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

“‘A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

“‘But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

“The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’

“Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”

“His [the Samaritan’s] heart was moved with compassion for a man he’d never met,” Thornton said. “If you’re here and you want to receive Christ as your Savior, raise your hand.”

He paused and waited for responses.

“Thank you, Sir . . . Ma’am,” he said.  

Thornton led those who wanted to “receive Christ as Savior” in a “sinner’s prayer. He asked them to repeat this prayer as he prayed:

“Heavenly Father, I believe you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins. . . . I ask you, today, to come into my heart. . . . I, by faith, receive your forgiveness for everything I’ve ever done. In Jesus’ name, amen.”