It can be discouraging to see racism embedding itself within the structures and systems of culture and individual hearts, but even more so, within the walls of the Church. Watch as Dr. Tony Evans shows us the role we each have to play in repairing racial divides.
one of the most daunting issues that
we’ve had to grapple with
as a country and as a culture is the
issue of
race the problem
of race has dominated us from beginning
to end
and every day in one form or another
it hits us in the face
and we wonder often is there ever going
to be a solution
to this problem that lives in infamy
in our minds in our hearts and in our
relationship
one of the things that has divided
people along political social
cultural and class lines
is the issue of race and the sin of
racism
i’ll never forget my first
confrontation with racism at about 10
years old when
my father was driving me in baltimore
passed a white tower restaurant
and i asked my dad about getting a
hamburger
and he informed me we couldn’t go in
there to eat because
they didn’t allow negroes as he would
say then
into the place confused i wanted to get
a little clarity on
on why and he began to give me my
basic orientation to the problem of race
to the problem of racism it became
more amplified growing up in baltimore
when i found out that there was some
quote-unquote evangelical churches that
we could not visit
or go in because of
segregation and
illegitimate divisiveness
and so that began a journey for me
to look at this subject not only
culturally
but bibliocentrically and theologically
the issue of race is not new or unique
to us
it was replete in biblical times as well
for example in numbers chapter 12
there was an interracial marriage
between moses and
african woman twice in verse one
she’s called the cushite the african
woman that moses married
this caused a sibling chaotic
abandonment of their brother and
spiritual leader
of the nation because of the interracial
marriage
to a black woman so incensed
was god at their racist
mentality at the institution of marriage
that he himself
had established that god came down and
he judged them particularly miriam his
sister
turning her skin white until she
repented
of her racism
what exactly is racism
racism is a conscious or unconscious
belief
in the security of one race over another
race
that manifests itself
in the use of power or influence or
resources
or communication used to reject
or oppress people of another ethnicity
and it has imbibed itself
not only in individual hearts but in
structural realities so that whether
it’s
economic or social structures or
political structures
or educational structures or medical
structures
they filter themselves through so that
whether known or unknown it becomes just
the way
people accept as normal ways to operate
what makes it worse
is when this attitude and or action
finds its way in the life
of god’s people and the reality is
that unless we can fix it
in the church house why would we expect
it to be transformational
in the culture so rather than
skip the issue since god doesn’t skip
the issue and since we are
continually in this mirage in this mix
of racial confusion and calamity
why don’t we appeal to the word of god
to understand how we are to relate to
one another
in the church house so that we can bring
transformation all the way up to the
white house
because when god’s people can get it
right
then we have something to offer the
culture
when writing to the church at ephesus
paul spends the first half of the
chapter talking about the magnificent
grace of god
he tells us we are saved by grace
through faith
he tells us that in the ages to come god
wants to
manifest his grace he comes in verse 10
and he says it’s because of this grace
that we are now
workers we need to get to work and get
the job done
now that we’ve been redeemed by jesus
christ
but curiously
when he finishes talking about grace
he goes to race he moves from grace to
race
and he says that the first work of saved
people
of people who named jesus christ ought
to be the work
of racial reconciliation he says that
the very first thing
because in verse 10 he tells us
about our work but then beginning in
verse 11
all the way through verse 22 he talks
about
race that grace should lead to fixing
the problems of race or to put it
another way
if you want if i’m not if we’re not
fixing the problem
of race it’s because we haven’t fully
understood the glory of grace
and he comes and he opens it up
to the biggest racial problem in the new
testament
it was the problem between the jews and
the gentiles
therefore based on the grace of god that
ought to produce the work
in the people of god remember that you
formerly the gentiles in the flesh
who are called uncircumcised by the
so-called circumcision
which is performed in the flesh by human
hands
the uncircumcised were the gentiles the
circumcised
were the jews and like the berlin wall
that separated nato from wall from
warsaw
there was a division not to be crossed
the jews rejected the gentiles they were
not
racially pure they were not religiously
acceptable
and there was a divide between the two
but now both were claiming the same
faith
paul speaks into this calamity and he
says now that you’re saved
you’ve got to fix this now that you’re
believers
you’ve got to solve this now that you
name the name of christ the
problem was even though they were on
their way to heaven they hadn’t yet
learned
can we all get along on earth it’s like
the saying goes
to live above with saints we love oh
that
would be glory but to dwell below
with saints we know that’s a whole
different story
because somehow the thought that we’re
going to do okay up there
doesn’t translate too well to us being
okay down here
and yet paul is not willing to wait for
us to get the glory
to fix this thing and to make it right
but the problem of race that leads to
racism and
other form and all of its form of
inequities
is because we bring our histories with
us
the gentiles only knew how to be
gentiles
and the jews only knew how to be jewish
but yet they find themselves sharing the
same
faith and now belonging to the same
church
but they brought their past with them
you and i know it’s not easy to let go
of yesterday
especially when you’re used to it or
maybe there’s pain
in it but yet now you’re this new
creature in christ and
how do we fix this rather than have it
go on year after year decade after
decade
century after century
reminds me of the story of the bear who
was in the 12-foot cage he was confined
to 12
square feet and he had lived in that
month after month year after year
so he only knew how to go 12 feet
because
he had been locked in to that reality
and existence
but one day he was transferred to a 36
square foot cage but when you know it
every time the bear walked 12 feet
it would stop turn around and go the
other way 12 feet
it would stop turn around and go the
other way it never took advantage of the
freedom it had
because it had gotten so used to living
in the confines of the past
that they couldn’t it couldn’t
press on to the future and so it was
that these jews and gentiles
or to put it in everyday language black
and white or
hispanic and black or whatever the group
is
yesterday can be so confining
to how you were raised what you were
taught
what you experienced that you live in
your racial cage
and you’re not released to be in this
new environment
in which you find yourself so paul is
not going to stutter
he’s not going to skip the issue it was
true then
and it’s true now
now it’s very interesting that in sports
people can work out together
across the color line play on a team
together across the
color line it’s interesting that
that people can can do drugs together
because of the common drug that they’re
taking
the bong or the pipe or the needle
it’s interesting that they can
do activities together but when it comes
to the family of god
we know how to split up quickly
and that is because there’s something we
do not understand
he says but
now verse 13
of ephesians 2. did you see that
but now now he’s previously said in
chapter 2 verse 4
but god he has talked about how bad off
we were apart from christ
and then he says but god he takes that
same
concept and now he says but now
in other words this is a whole new
situation
this is a whole new reality this is a
whole new
circumstance and if you don’t get that
straight if you don’t understand
this new thing that god has done you’ll
be trapped in your old racial cage
our problem today is we’ve got too many
christians trapped
in their old racial identity
because they’re trapped there they miss
but now
he says but now in christ jesus
you who formerly were far off have been
brought near
by the blood of christ for he himself
is our peace making both groups into
one and broke down the barrier of the
dividing wall
by abolishing it in his flesh
which is the law of commandments
contained
in ordinances so that in himself
he might make the two into one new man
thus establishing peace
now these are christians he’s writing
but they weren’t at peace
they were in conflict with one another
four times
between these verses up through verse 17
he uses the word peace
peace peace peace
and he says that this peace comes
with an understanding of what you are
now i do a lot of
marriage counseling the reason i do
marriage counseling is because couples
come to me
who in conflict there’s no peace in the
relationship
they’re at each other’s throat they are
talking about divorce
there’s anger misuse abuse insensitivity
and they come to me to help them sort
out their marital difficulties
i have discovered in the years that i
have done
marital counseling that the
problem is not rooted in what they are
bringing to me
what they are literally bringing to me
is a symptom
of something else but because the
symptom is in their face
they’re not able to deal with the root
that has produced the fruit
that brings them for marital counseling
you know what the problem is
they never understood marriage
let me say that again they never
understood what they got into
and because they brought their past with
them what their mamas and daddies taught
them
what their previous singlehood was like
they did not
understand that the two become one and
what that means
and how that looks and because they
never understood the root of marriage
they’re living in the fruit of conflict
because christians across the racial
line
color line culture line and class line
have not understood the root of what has
happened when you come
to jesus christ we bring all of that
stuff
and fight over it because we’re not
going back to the root
he says when you come to christ
god is not trying to fix something old
he’s trying to make something new he
calls it one
new man not fixing
two old racial people
he does not mean by this you lose your
identity
what he is saying is your previous
identity is no longer your point of
reference
let me say that again he’s not saying
jews aren’t jews and gentiles on
gentiles
because he talks about jews and gentiles
throughout all of his letters
what he is saying is that this new thing
this new relationship is your starting
point
for everything else in your experience
with one another and how you are to view
yourself
the moment that this new relationship in
christ
is not the starting point for your
racial identity
you will forever live in racial conflict
and confusion and debate and crisis
why because you’re starting at the wrong
place he says
he himself is our peace
in galatians 2 20 paul says i’m
crucified with christ
nevertheless i live yet not i christ
lives in me the life which i now live i
live by faith in the son of god
who loved me and gave himself for me you
know what paul is saying
i’m christian first that he is my
identity and he is my point of reference
now you know when he said that he said
that in the midst of a racial problem
because peter stopped eating with the
gentiles he found out that the gentiles
could cook
he started eating with the gentiles
because god said you got to cross the
railroad tracks
you got to learn how them them folk over
there know how to make the chitlins and
the neck bones and
and you need to learn how to eat some of
their food and so
he started eating with them until his
voice from the hood showed up
beginning in galatians 2 verse 11 when
the when
when his jewish brethren showed up he
left the gentiles because his jewish
brethren wouldn’t accept the gentiles
and he didn’t want to lose acceptance in
his own race and paul says when i saw
that he was not acting in concert with
the truth of the gospel
i confronted peter before them all
because he was embarrassing the cross
i don’t care what his background was i
don’t care what his
racial identity was he was messing with
jesus christ
what we have not discovered in our
racial conflict and confusion is that
we’re messing with jesus christ
because he is our peace he is our
point of reference he is the one who has
established
one new man or to put it in everyday
language
you are christian first
and your color your culture must adapt
to that
my color and culture i don’t lose it i
adapt it
i adapt it to my relationship with jesus
christ
which means he overrules it
when a couple gets married they’re
coming from different backgrounds
they’re coming from different
experiences but they’re coming into a
new relationship
and they’ve got to learn that that
relationship overrules that’s why you
leave mother and father
because mother and father are no longer
the last say so
i don’t care how much you love them how
loyal you are to them
how much investment they made in you
once you get married
that relationship no longer has final
authority
that’s why you can’t say first of all
i’m a black christian
or a white christian because then you
make black and white and adjective
you make christian a noun and it’s the
job of the adjective to modify the noun
so if you’ve got christianity in the
noun position and your color in the
adjectival position
you’ve got to keep adjusting the noun of
your humanity
to the noun of your faith to the
adjective of your humanity
you’ve got to put christianity in the
adjectival position
your color and your culture in the noun
position so if anything changes
it is the noun of your humanity and not
the adjective of your faith
until black christians white christians
asian christians
hispanic christians decide i am
christian first
and i must i don’t have to lose my
culture
i don’t have to give up my culture but i
must submit it
to the authority of christ when it comes
in conflict with him
until that kind of decision but you say
but we are so different i hear that in
so many marriages
we are so do when you were different
before you got married and you were
different before you got saved
and god welcomes that difference he
wants that difference
you say how can we all get along with
all of these differences
he says you know oil and water doesn’t
mix
all the water that make uh you can stare
till you blew in the face
oil and water are not going to get along
their makeup doesn’t allow them to
integrate
their makeup doesn’t allow them to unify
and as soon as you force them together
they’re going to go back to their own
political isles social lives you know
racialized personality owls
they’re going to separate because
they’re just not made to get along
well sometimes they are
whenever i eat a sandwich i want
mayonnaise
i’m not a mustard guy i’m a mayonnaise
guy
i love mayonnaise now mayonnaise is made
of oil and water
but there is a process for me to get
mayonnaise
that process is called emulsification
emulsification is the process of taking
things that
are disjointed and distinct
and adding an ingredient to bring them
together
so that they create something new water
is water
oil is oil but when you put egg in the
middle of the tube
egg will grab oil and egg will grab
water pull the two together so i can get
my mayonnaise oh yeah it does
i get mayonnaise because of
emulsification
that even though oil and water can’t get
along when i introduced the egg
i have created something new without oil
becoming less than oil
and water becoming less than water but
i’ve created something brand new
it is time for the church of jesus
christ to create something new
to create something that the world has
never seen
to create a brand new church under the
lordship of jesus christ
without us losing our uniqueness but
creating something new
because jesus is our peace
he is the one who establishes a whole
different way of operating so that
people from different backgrounds can
still sit next to each other
so that the phd and the ged can still
hang out together why
because they belong in their loyalty
to jesus christ and he sits in the seat
of their relationship and he can
overrule them see we’ve got
too many black christians jesus can’t
overrule
we’ve got too many white christians
jesus can’t overrule
we’ve got too many christians of every
hue that jesus can’t overrule and you
know it
because they will quickly go back to
their culture well
i think i feel i was raised this way and
now
they’ll revert back on you real quick
which means they don’t understand
jesus is creating something new one new
man and he uses this concept this truth
to let us know that verse 16
he might reconcile both in one body to
god
through the cross jesus christ
wants to reconcile these are two races
he wants to bring harmony
unity togetherness
and he wants to do it through the cross
see the cross
is not a 2 000 year old relic it is a
contemporary reality
why because the cross
was established watch this
to deal with sin did you hear that
we spent our time wanting to talk about
skin
the cross was established
to deal with sin but we want to spend
all of our time
talking about skin and if you spend all
of your time talking about skin
you’re going to miss sin because the
only reason that the problem with skin
is because we won’t address the sin you
don’t reconcile by simply saying let’s
all get along
let’s meet together let’s have a kumbaya
services together no
you must identify the sin apply the
cross
address the sin through repentance so
that the reconciling work of jesus
christ
can be ignited oh we
we mentioned the cross but the cross is
not the final
say so
and that’s why he says
having been built together he says in
verse 20
on the foundation of the apostles and
the prophets
christ jesus himself being
the cornerstone the cornerstone was the
alignment stone
that you lined up all the other stones
with it
it lined things up like a surveyor lines
things up the cornerstone
line things up and he says based on
watch this
the apostles and the prophets now the
apostles and the prophets
were set up
for the writing of the word of god so
when he talks about the prophets and the
apostles they’re not just people they
are biblical
authors so what is he saying
he is saying if you’re going to align
with christ you have to align with the
word of god
if you’re going to fix this race problem
the bible has got to overrule you
we got folk going to sociology books
before they go to the bible
we got folks studying critical race
theory before they go to the bible
we got folks reading white fragility
before they go to the bible
we got folk reading black history before
they go to the bible
no the bible sits on top
of all of those other things there may
be great legitimacy
to looking at this and seeing the
history and identifying the problems and
seeing how things are unfolding and
analyzing micro aggression and
looking into uh uh uh various other
implicit biases and
and there may be great benefit in
studying all of those reality as long as
the word of god sits on top of it and is
the point of reference for it
with jesus christ being the final
decision maker of it
but what we’ve got people doing
christians is going secular
and then have the audacity to judge the
sacred
the inherent errorless perfect
word of god by their secular university
or by their secular
the bible calls it human wisdom man’s
thoughts
no you don’t get to you don’t get to
have mans that’s why
all this all this education we got and
we still haven’t solved the racial
problem
you know why because we’re starting in
the wrong place
we’re not starting with what god says
about race black is beautiful
when it’s biblical white is only right
when it agrees with holy writ
and until you start there then you will
not be seeing the emulsification
of jesus christ and the power of the
cross to deal with the sin of racism
so that there can be bibliocentric
reconciliation
he says we’re reconciled through the
blood
in acts 17 verse 26 paul says there’s
only one race
many ethnicities but there’s only one
race
see we even got the concept of race all
mixed up
god expresses himself in a multiplicity
of ways
but he says unless you understand where
i am in this process
and that i have set this thing up for
there to be differences
so that the whole body can benefit from
the differences
you can argue your point somebody’s
gonna argue that point and you will
never have reconciliation
because you won’t create something new
you know uh
i don’t drink black coffee uh
too bitter bad coffee is better than me
i i put some cream in it
okay and i got a sweet cream at that
okay
i pour some sweet cream in my coffee
okay
now the sweet cream is white
so i got black coffee and i got
white sweet cream so those are distinct
colors
but when i pour my sweet cream into my
black coffee
i never got brown coffee i got a whole
different color
than what i started with i got black i
got white now i’m
enjoying brown because i’ve created
something new due to the mixture
and the new is quite acceptable to me
god is trying to create something new
and like
my cream and my coffee it’s now sweet
god can give us something sweet in the
body of christ so that we are a sweet
smelling savor of biblical
reconciliation
to the broader society
100 pianos that are tuned to the same
tuning fork
will intrinsically be tuned to one
another
see we got too many people playing their
own keys
and not operating under the reconciling
work of god
so so important
is this issue of reconciliation
so important the bible says in romans
chapter 16 verse 17
watch out for folk who bring division in
the church
not in accordance with the teaching of
christ
watch out for racists in the church
watch out for people we had a guy at our
church and he was upset that more and
more white people were coming to our
church
and he said well look we got we got too
many whites coming now
i said well you better keep winning
blacks to christ he said well i’m not
sure i can keep coming here i said bye
i didn’t have a word i didn’t have a
seminar a workshop i can’t get
we all get along class no because you
don’t come into the church of jesus
christ
and bring your secular rules you come
into the church of jesus christ to get
the teachings of christ
and to adjust to that
and the bangalore pastors would have
taken their stand
and say you don’t you know you don’t
bring white culture into the church
and deny people equal opportunity equal
access to worship the living god you
don’t get to do that
in the church of the living god now
maybe there were some problems maybe
there was some inequities
maybe there was some pain yes we must
show empathy
we must say i see you were hurt
i see you a struggle and we will walk
with you in
empathy but you don’t let empathy change
the rules
you don’t say because i’m being
empathetic christ no longer has the
final say so
we love you to the teachings of christ
he says watch those
who would divide the church why
because as the book of john chapter 17
verse 24
says perfect them in unity
so that they will see my glory you know
why the church isn’t seeing god’s glory
it’s because we’re illegitimately
racially divided
we’re not we we we use our culture and
our race
as an excuse not to reconcile
and as a result
the world doesn’t have a model to look
at so we’re fighting in here and they’re
fighting out there
we just sanctify our fight with a little
jesus on top
using christianese every christian
who names the name of jesus christ must
be actively
purposefully involved in reconciliation
because like a football team they’re
different races but it’s only one
uniform
different cultures but only one uniform
different backgrounds but only one
uniform
why because they all hit it toward one
goal line
one goal line we only headed toward one
goal line the exaltation of jesus christ
through his reconciled body
with the cross and the teachings of the
word of god
having the last word not what your mama
taught you not what your daddy taught
you
not what your culture taught you unless
it agrees with what god says
when we get radical believers who take
seriously the apostles and the prophets
and the teachings of jesus christ
i love the way the scripture puts it
the scripture says in colossians 1
verses 19
to 23 that if you want to see god you
better focus on reconciliation
because christ came to reconcile people
reconcile people vertically to him
reconcile people horizontally to one
another it’s time for racism to end
it is time for the racists to confess
their sins
it is time for those who refuse to
forgive
to confess the sin of unforgiveness
no justice no peace got that no
forgiveness no peace you better get that
both must be signed simultaneously true
for the one new man why
because of this scripture in second
corinthians chapter 5.
listen to what he says he says
beginning in verse 16 therefore from now
on
we recognize no one according to the
flesh
oh yeah he did you don’t judge people by
their earth suit you don’t judge people
by the color that’s getting their flesh
their physical humanity he says we know
no man
we don’t judge anybody by their
whiteness or blackness
or brownness we don’t we don’t well
that’s not where we start
we don’t look at people like that that
was the old life
that’s how hell looks at people first he
says
now that you know jesus christ that’s
never the starting point
he says but now he says
if people are in christ they are a new
creature now look at verse 18.
now all things are from god that’s our
new reference point
who reconciled us to himself
through christ and gave us here it is
the ministry of reconciliation
namely that god was in christ
reconciling the world to himself
not counting their trespasses against
them and he has committed to us
the word of reconciliation therefore we
are
ambassadors for christ you know what an
ambassador is an ambassador is somebody
who goes to another country on behalf of
their country
to represent their country on foreign
soil
he says you are an ambassador for heaven
you’re not an ambassador for hell and
you’re not even an ambassador for earth
you’re on earth that’s the foreign
country but you are an ambassador from
heaven
and what’s your ambassadorship about
the ministry of reconciliation so you
should be healing folk
black people should be healing black
people and and
and connecting them over here white
people should be healing white people
and then vice versa
everybody ought to be healing somebody
else through correcting the sin
and providing the opportunity for
forgiveness and embracing and then
serving together to make a difference
for the kingdom of god
in the olympics if you win a gold medal
they don’t ask you what’s your favorite
song
no they they play the song of your
national anthem
cause while you may be an individual
you’re part of something bigger
you represent your country so i don’t
care
how black you are how white you are you
represent another country
and don’t get so high and mighty that
you forget you’re an ambassador
for another country and you and i and we
should be agents and ministers of
reconciliation
they ought to be healing you ought to be
healing stuff wherever you go why
because christ forgave you so you got to
help folk forgive
each other so that we can addressing the
sin not skipping the sin
but going toward the reconciliation as
the goal
let me tell you something as we wind
down
did you know in heaven whatever race you
are now will be the race you are in
heaven did you did you know that
if you black man you’re going to be
black in heaven okay whatever you are
now
that’s what you’re going to be if you
white in heaven
if you’re white now you’ll be white in
heaven
so hanging out in the sun and all that
ain’t gonna change that
because uh john said in revelation
chapter seven verse nine
he looked up in heaven and guess what he
saw he saw people from every nation
every tribe every kindred and every
tongue and he said he saw him
so there were visual differences so
whatever you
are is what you forever are gonna be
so anybody who doesn’t like who they are
you have insulted god you don’t have the
right if you black to want to be white
and you don’t have the right of you
white to want to be black because you
are who he is and what you’re ever going
to be
because god has set it up for eternity
to operate that way
in the meantime you and i are supposed
to be
modeling what is going to be there
but how we’re working it out down here
thy kingdom come thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven folks you
see a little bit of reconciliation there
because forever we’re going to be
reconciled up there so let’s get it on
let’s get it on and let’s give the world
something to see that overrides racism
that overrides evil whether it’s
individual or structural
and that demonstrates what the kingdom
of god looks like when people are held
to that standard
which will fix the things that are wrong
in their lives
because now they’re not trying to please
another race they’re trying to please
the king of kings
and the lord of lords in movies
they show you previews of coming
attractions
these are the hot clips of the upcoming
show always the love scene the fight
scene or the chase scene
because those are always a hot clips
because they want you to tune in based
on the
previews now you may tune in and be a
terrible show but you never know about
the previews
because the previews are always the hot
clips
well one day there’s a big show coming
to town god is the producer the holy
spirit is the director
jesus is the superstar and it’s going to
be a worldwide production
but in the meantime he’s left you and me
here as
previews of coming attractions we’re
supposed to be the hot clips of the
upcoming show
people are supposed to see how we live
and how we relate to one another
as a clip of the kingdom that is to come
when they see how hot the clip is
through the church of jesus christ
across racial lines and cultural lines
when they say that clip is hot
that gathering is hot then they might
ask where can they buy a ticket to the
whole show
of course that’s when we can tell them
you don’t have to buy a ticket the price
has already been paid
and did you know the price for you has
already been paid
jesus died on the cross in your place
for your sins to pay the price
for your rebellion against him the price
has already been paid
and simply by acknowledging your
sinfulness to a holy god
and by placing your faith alone in
christ alone
as your substitute your sin bearer he
bore your sins on the cross and he will
exchange
his goodness for your evil his
righteousness for your sinfulness
he’ll do an exchange and make you
acceptable to a holy god yes he will
and he won’t charge you for it because
the price has already been paid
will you go to jesus christ right now
would you acknowledge your sinfulness
and your need for a savior and let the
lord know lord i’m a sinner and i choose
jesus christ
and his substitutionary death as payment
for my sin
thank you for forgiving me i now receive
the free gift
of eternal life and if you by faith will
accept him
he will give you salvation right now
and now father raise up an army of
people
who won’t skip the issue of race
but who won’t leave out the goal of
reconciliation
may that spirit consume your people
and cause us to follow christ our
eternal emulsifier
in jesus name amen
amen and amen