The sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. If it had not been for my work, his would have been much more difficult. We demanded integration almost from the beginning of our meetings in the South.

I think that laid a groundwork. Now, today, it's almost impossible for present—this is still Graham talking—almost impossible for the present generation to imagine what it took to be that way and how many threatening letters we got and how many threats against my family as a result of the stand we took at that time to demand the Crusades be integrated.

And one biographer wrote, "He held Crusades in Little Rock in 1859 and in Birmingham, Alabama in 1964, not long after the racial tensions erupted there. And Howard Jones recalls King telling Graham, 'Your Crusades have done more to help race relations than anything else I know.'" Now, here are a couple observations that I would draw out as perhaps implications for our situation.

Two things accompanied Graham's simple, straightforward, powerful, decisive, confrontive gospel message about sin, salvation, and faith. One was that he absolutely refused to hold a crusade that was not integrated. This he did across the South. This was simply unheard of in those days. The church I grew up in at that time—this is 1960, '61, '62—didn't even allow blacks in the services to our great shame.

So that's the first thing. He took a decisive stand on a particularly pressing indignity, and that accompanied his simple gospel preaching. The second thing that accompanied this simple gospel message was that punctuating his message time after time, regularly, in this explosive season—and you can find him online and see more than once how he says the almost identical words, eyeball to eyeball, looking into the camera, "Jesus was not a white man." And this is a direct quote from a YouTube clip, okay?

"Jesus was not a white man. He was not a black man. He came from that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe. Christianity is not a white man's religion. It's not a black man's religion. Let nobody, never let anybody tell you that it's white or black.

Christ belongs to all people. He belongs to the whole world." Now, that note he struck, just very briefly—it took him a minute, say, to say that, or two minutes if he expanded it—he struck that note in the midst of his simple gospel message again and again into a very explosive situation, because that message is part of the New Testament global relevance of Jesus for all the peoples.

That's not an extraneous thing tacked on to the gospel, if you read the New Testament, and its global definition of Christ's purpose in the cross. In the context of the 1950s, that message, combined with the integration of his crusades, could get his family killed. He said in an interview with Harvey, "I don't think of myself any longer as an American citizen," and he added, quietly, "only." That's good.

That's true. "I think of myself as a world citizen. I've traveled all over the world a great deal, and I feel that I am part of a great mosaic of the human race that God has created, each made in his image, each needing the gospel of Christ, each having the same basic problems and desires and longings, and I'm part of this mosaic." Now, I'm assuming, Tony, that virtually everybody who listens to APJ—I'm sure there are exceptions, but most people who listen to Pastor John love the gospel of Jesus Christ, love Christ-exalting ethnic diversity in the body of Christ, love true justice in all of society, love God's grace that goes beyond justice, love the truth of God's Word, love the power of the Holy Spirit that conquers sin in our lives, and loves the global glory of Jesus Christ.

And it's that last note that I want to trumpet on this Martin Luther King Day. The global glory—you could call it the pan-ethnic glory of Jesus. The note that both MLK—most people don't realize how international MLK's vision was—and Billy Graham, they both struck this. Jesus does not belong to America but to the world.

Therefore, to belong to Jesus is also to belong to the world. The more Billy Graham walked with Jesus among the peoples of the world, the less distinctly American he felt, the less decisively defined he was by his nation and his ethnicity or his race—a spirit of confined, narrow, limited parochialism that has no glad heart, no biblical heart for the thousands of peoples of the world is going to be missing one of the great healing impulses for ethnic challenges in our day here in America or wherever you live around the world.

Let's let Martin Luther King Day give us an impulse for what Billy Graham called "the great mosaic of the human race." It will make a great difference in our lives and in our ministries. Amen. Wonderful reflection on two lives. Thank you, Pastor John. Here's that clip from Billy Graham's sermon in Chicago in 1971.

We'll close with it. Here he is. Anyone that can see Jesus on that cross and not be touched has a heart of stone. They first took off his clothes, then they took long leather thongs with steel pellets or lead pellets on the end and beat him across the back until he could hardly stand up.

Then they put a crown of thorns on his brow and his face was bleeding. And they laughed at him and they spit on him and they mocked him. And with one snap of his finger, 72,000 angels had already drawn their swords ready to come to his rescue and wipe this planet out of existence in the universe.

And Jesus said, "No, to this end was I born." And he dragged and lifted and hauled that cross. And don't you black people ever forget one thing. The man that helped Jesus carry that cross was a black man. And don't ever forget another thing. Jesus belongs to Africa as much as he does to Europe and Asia.

He was born in that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe. And Jesus was not a white man like me. Nor was he as black as some of you. We don't know what the color of his skin, but it must have been a dark color like the people of his day because he was a man like them.

Don't ever say it's a white man's religion or a black man's religion. It's a world religion. He belongs to the world. Powerful. That is a powerful clip. We will see you on Wednesday. I'm Tony Reinke. You're listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast. We'll see you next time.