How should Christians respond to humanitarian crises? What truth can the Bible bring to bear on refugees and the outcast? In this video, Pastor David Platt urges Christians to speak up because the gospel is poised to bring hope to an unbelieving and suffering world. We sacrifice for ourselves every day to further our own well-being. Pastor Platt exhorts listeners to exercise a similar love to strangers. Since Christ has severed the root of suffering—sin itself—the refugees and outcasts need to hear this message.
- Refugee Crisis
- Loving Others as We Love Ourselves
- Going to Others
The Global Refugee Crisis
I want to point you this morning and specifically to one of the greatest humanitarian crises in all of history, the global refugee crisis. 60 million people, never before in history of so many people been recorded as being displaced, put in danger or forced from their homes. Syria alone population of about 22, 23 million people, around half of them have either been displaced or killed. I fear that most people in our churches are paying little to no attention to this crisis.
Have you ever seen someone in need and sacrifice for everything they needed without question, without hesitation? I’m guessing you have. I’m guessing almost everybody in this room has done that for someone and that someone is ourselves. When you or I have not been well, we’ve done whatever it takes.
We go over the top to make sure that we’re cared and provided for. And so Jesus says, love strangers like that. We dare not sit back and spend all our time debating whether or not a few of them can come to us. Church of Jesus Christ, it’s time for a lot of us to go to them. This God is not distant from us. He’s not detached from the people we are and the pain we experience. No, God is present with us. He’s no stranger to our suffering. He’s familiar with our pain. He has not left the outcast and the oppressed alone in a world of sin and suffering.
Christians Cannot Stay Silent
He’s come to us and He has conquered for us. Jesus Christ, the son of God, has severed the root of suffering sin itself. He died in unjust death, falsely accused as a crucified criminal, and He rose from the dead. Now exalted as a conquering king, and for everyone who turns from their sin and puts their trust in Him, He will save and satisfy them forever. Oh, brothers and sisters, this is the greatest news in all the world and refugees need to hear it. The global refugee crisis is not an issue about which Christians can sit still or stay silent.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
