On the third Monday of January each year, Americans enjoy a national holiday honoring those who helped shape the late 20th century and our nation's history. Martin Luther King Jr.'s contributions to American life were so important that he was one of only three people to have a holiday in his honor, the other two being George・Washington and Christopher Columbus.
Today, Americans will be inundated with stories like this: Dr. king.You won't hear much about pastor The book that fueled King's life, and that of his father, is the Bible.
Dr. King was not that kind of doctor, so he never operated on patients. He is a medical doctor in an academic field and received his Ph.D. He received his doctorate in theology from Boston University in 1955. This is a really fancy way of saying that he studied the Bible well. He previously earned a bachelor's degree in theology from Crozer Theological Seminary.
Dr. King understood early on that the greatest affliction of humanity yesterday, today, and tomorrow is spiritual in nature. Our biggest enemy is the person who looks at us in the mirror. And that our greatest struggle is with our own hearts and minds, demons and angels.
What we don't often hear when we celebrate Dr. King's life are stories about his childhood and his father, Martin Luther King Sr., who studied the Bible. Senior King received his bachelor's degree in theology in 1931 and Ebenezer of Atlanta as pastor of the Baptist church he led for 40 years.
You're probably never going to hear the story of Martin Luther King Jr.'s name and its origin. His birth name was Michael, the same as his father. In 1934, King Sr. changed his first name to Martin after a trip to Germany, the birthplace of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. He also changed his son's name. His son was 5 years old at the time.
You won't hear anything about Martin Luther King Jr.'s first job as pastor of Dexter Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. After preaching there for six years, King Jr. served until his death as an associate pastor at his father's church in Atlanta, which he called home until his assassination.
You won't hear countless references to the Bible and God in Dr. King's best sermons and speeches. One is a grand sermon called “.Knock in the middle of the night”, first distributed in February 1962 and adapted over the years, focused on Jesus Christ's parable of the midnight friend found in Luke 11:5-6.
So he said to them, “If you have a friend among you, go to him at midnight and say, “Friend, lend me three loaves.'''' For the journey My friend inside came to me and I have nothing to prepare before him?
Why did Dr. King begin his sermon with a parable of Christ? What relevance could such an old story have in the mid-20th century? Mr. King wasted no time in explaining it. did.
This parable is about the power of persistent prayer, but it may also serve as a basis for our thinking about many of the problems of our time and the role of the church in addressing them. In the parable, it is midnight. It's midnight in our world, too, and the darkness is so deep that you can hardly tell which way to turn.
King was just getting started. He went on to talk not only about the miracles of modern science, but also about its limitations. “But unfortunately, science cannot save us now, because even scientists are lost in the terrifying midnight of our time,” Dr. King said. Later, he took a stand against moral relativism.
Moral principles have lost their uniqueness. For modern people, absolute right and wrong is a matter of what the majority is doing. Good and bad are relative to likes, dislikes, and customs of a particular community. Unconsciously, we have applied Einstein's theory of relativity, which adequately describes the physical universe, to the moral and ethical realm. This way of thinking results in a tragic collapse of moral standards and deepens the midnight hours of moral decadence.
Although Dr. King was tough on the technology and science crowd, he did not leave the church unscathed.
When the man in the parable knocks on his friend's door and asks for three loaves of bread, he receives an impatient reply: Now the door is closed and the kids are in bed with me. I can't stand up and give you anything. ” How many times has a man experienced similar disappointment when he knocks on a church door in the middle of the night?
Dr. King was referring to the white churches of the South, which did little to end the injustice of racism and did much to perpetuate it. Dr. King also understood that sin and believers who sinned against God was not new, but as old as the Old Testament.
He concluded his sermon with this:
Dawn will come. Disappointment, sadness, and despair are born in the middle of the night, but then comes the morning. The psalmist says: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” This faith suspends desperate meetings and brings new light into the dark rooms of pessimism.
You probably won't hear the words of that sermon anywhere else today, but you can find it with a quick Google search.
Here's another sermon from Dr. King that you've probably never heard. He delivered it at his father's home church in 1967. This time we started with a story from the Old Testament.
There was a time when many of the Israelites were enslaved in Babylon. There was a king of Babylon named Nebuchadnezzar. He was a powerful king. When he gave orders, he meant business. Then Nebuchadnezzar issued a command. He made a golden image and commanded that all who were under his royal rule should bow down before that golden image and worship it. However, there were three young people there. One's name was Shadrach, another's name was Meshach, and the other's name was Abednego. And they answered—and I read from the Scriptures—and said unto the king: If so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, and will deliver us from your hand, O King. ”
Then Dr. King did what all great pastors do, connecting ancient scripture to real-life applications.
Friends, this morning I want to tell you that history moves forward and great moments often occur. That's because in every era and every generation, there were people who were willing to say this. Law. “These people were saying, “In order to obey the king, you must rebel against him.'' And those who frequently criticize those of us who have come to a moment when we must practice civil disobedience, even here in the United States, believe that in order to free ourselves from the oppression and colonialism of the British Empire, we must practice civil disobedience. I never remember our country practicing civil disobedience. Disobedience.
King wasn't done yet.
What could be more representative of civil disobedience than the Boston Tea Party? And never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. Everything Hitler did to the Jews was legal. It was a German law, promulgated by Hitler himself, that it was wrong and illegal to aid or comfort Jews in Hitler's Germany. But let me tell you, if I lived in Hitler's Germany with this attitude, I would openly break his laws. I would have practiced civil disobedience.
Therefore, it is important to understand that man-made laws may not be in harmony with the moral laws of the universe, and human laws may not be in harmony with the eternal laws of God. And when that happens, you have an obligation to break it. And by breaking it, I am glad that I have good company. There is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I have Jesus and Socrates. And I have all the early Christians who refused to bow down.
Dr. King ended this remarkable address by returning to his starting point, addressing the three Old Testament men who challenged the ancient kings.
Now, the second interesting thing is that these people never doubted God and His power. In doing what they did, they made it clear that they knew God had the power to save them. They said to the king: “We realized that the God we worship will save us.” And that came from their experience. They knew God, experienced God in nature, and knew God as the Creator. And they saw God in history. And they must have seen God in their personal lives. They never doubted God's saving power.
Dr. King understood why tyrants and totalitarians throughout history hate Christians. This is because Christians believe that there is a source of power greater than humans or nations. This is why the secular media, especially secular liberals and progressives, don't really care about Christians. Because they believe that the solution to many of our problems is in Christ, not government.
Of the many speeches we won't hear or see in the coming days, Dr. King's final speech, delivered in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 3, 1968, may be the most prophetic. unknown. There are over a dozen references to his Bible, and in ending his affairs he also spoke of his own death.
Like everyone, I want to live a long life. There are good reasons for longevity. But I don't care about that now. I just want to do God's will. …So, I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not afraid of any man! My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
Dr. King never expected these to be his last words in public. His life ended the next day by an assassin's bullet on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Hotel.
You won't hear that today. There are no good reasons, and there are many bad reasons. Indifference, ignorance, or worse, antipathy toward Dr. King's faith. Removing the Bible and Jesus Christ from Dr. King's life is like removing basketball from Michael Jordan's life or hamburgers from Ray Kroc's life.
The truth is, one of the most influential people of the 20th century was inspired to take action by a book written thousands of years ago. That book continues to be relevant today for the more than 200 million Americans who call themselves Christians and the millions of Americans who call themselves Jews. Because it all expresses eternal, timeless truths about humans and the God they serve.
Like the politicians who led the anti-slavery movement in America, Dr. King's desire to serve the God he loved forever transformed the country he loved.
That is a truth that cannot be changed or erased no matter how hard the media tries.
