The Narrow Way, Part 1: Jesus and Politics

Good morning.

It's good to see everybody Good group here at the second hour, if you're watching online.

First of all, thank you for viewing online.

We're glad that you're out there, some of you from quite a distance away.

You watch every week and some of you are pretty local.

Just a little encouragement to you if you're local and you're able to.

We had a young lady who joined our church at the last hour and she's been exclusively almost watching online until now.

Now she's in the room with us and now she's getting into a life group with us and there's more for you here and we would love to have you come and be with us too.

We've got more room for you.

I tell you, y'all are looking good though.

A lot of folks here.

How are you doing in the balcony up there?

There you go?

Good to see you.

Thank y'all for adjusting and expanding yourselves.

We've got a group for you in the next hour or in the 8.15 time, and the tent is a great place to engage, to do that kind of.

We're all reorienting ourselves here today, right after Easter.

My name's Randy and I'm just so glad that you're here First time guest in the room too.

We're always so glad to have you, just if you will.

Only thing we ask you to do is just fill out one of those little cards.

There's probably a few rack in front of you.

Take it to the tent, get one tent, whatever.

Love to spend a minute just getting to know you and maybe even sharing how we can pray for you in the days ahead also.

So, in light of the subject that we're talking about today, I especially want to start us off with prayer, but also just want to kind of tell you I'm going to be relying a little bit more on notes today than I normally do, so I hope that's not distracting either.

Okay, tell you what?

Let's all stand together and pray because we're about to talk to Jesus here here.

Lord, you are Master, you are Savior.

All things are held together by you Romans 11.

It is because of you that we are who we are and aspire to be even better versions.

So, god, I pray for every heart, every mind in the room, as well as those viewing.

Will you give us this focus on you and your word, your truth today that will be transforming, and your word, your truth today that will be transforming.

That's what we're after to not just be like improved, but to be different people.

God, for those of us who need to make a next step decision spiritually today, do not let anyone or anything get in the way of that.

We'll give you the glory.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you have a seat.

We're in Romans 13, starting a new series called the Narrow Way.

We're doing pretty much a current event, societal issue or something we in our culture deal with almost every week nowadays for the next several weeks.

So I'm glad you're here.

For that Narrow Way comes from Matthew 7, which is the greatest sermon ever preached.

It's called Sermon on the Mount, right Toward the end of it.

Jesus says this in Matthew 7, 13 and 14, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is broad.

That leads to destruction and there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate?

And difficult the road that leads to life?

And few find it.

Narrow and difficult are two adjectives in the Greek that are very descriptive.

It means just what it says, but difficult actually comes from a root word that we get the word tribulation from, so that gives you a pretty good idea about he's just saying hey, it's going to be tough sometimes if you stay on path.

But here's my point True freedom is based on faith and it's based on truth.

In order to truly be free, you have to establish a bedrock of truth in your life.

That's why Jesus came and said if you know the Son, you're free.

Indeed, because the Son is what, the Word, which is the truth.

And this happens at any time.

So the narrow way and the difficult way is simply this Although it's not going to be a bed of roses, and although it's a little bit more constrictive and restrictive, it is more liberating because we don't have to debate the truth.

It's designed and engineered and laid out for us by who?

None other than our creator, who loves us.

So if God is choosing our path for us, all we got to do is follow it.

You can follow directions right, so the pressure's off.

That's the liberating part.

That's the freeing part.

We're not having to make those tough decisions.

A few years ago I think it was two presidential elections ago Sherry and I had just gotten out of the car.

We're walking across the parking lot.

We're going to vote.

We're going to do our civic duty right.

My phone rings.

I recognize who it is a friend of mine and I answered the phone.

I'm going to call him Jim.

That's not really his name.

His name really is Mike.

Okay, I said how you doing, jim?

And he said fine.

He said I'm about to save you a trip.

How's that?

You don't have to go vote because I just voted.

And I said really, jim who who?

And before I could ask him who he volunteered.

And he told me who he voted for and it was not who I was going to vote for.

I was surprised by that.

I thought, wow, I thought he was going to vote for who I was going to vote for.

So I said we talked for a minute and debated for a minute and then I said, you know, I appreciate that offer, but now I am especially going to vote Because I got to cancel you out and we're, you know, we're friends to this day and I think about that every time I go vote.

Now I'm just.

It made me grateful that day.

I'm still grateful for a couple of things.

I live in a nation that allows me the ability to not only vote but to know that my vote is being counted right.

That's a good thing, and not everybody has that.

Also, I live in a nation where I have religious freedom.

I live in a nation where I have religious freedom.

Nobody has restricted us here of whether to come or what to say or what to do.

That's two things that so many people throughout this world have neither, or they have one or the other right.

We should be grateful every single day for those two great freedoms.

We have civil freedoms and we have religious freedoms.

Today to do that.

Unlike, for instance can I just choose one Like Russia just had a big national election, didn't they?

Putin, surprise, surprise, he won again, didn't he Got 88% of the vote.

Can you imagine 88% of the vote?

It's shocking how so many of his opponents and detractors suddenly ran afoul of the law in the days ahead of the election and they couldn't vote.

They couldn't vote, but not so with us.

So freedom is based on truth and we're going to get into that.

So are you there?

Romans 13?

Can I give you some extra reading and thank y'all.

A lot of you have asked me to continue to give you some supplemental reading for devotions this week.

I would suggest 1 Peter 2 as another chapter when you get over into verses 13 through 17,.

It's going to sound like you're almost reading Romans 13 again, but another author this is Peter weighing in.

Paul wrote Romans, so you're going to compare and contrast those two.

But also this is a good thing too.

Read Romans 12 as well as Romans 13, all of both chapters.

Many theologians believe that Romans 12 and 13 were intended to be the same discussion, and you'll start to identify why once you read Romans 12.

Romans 12 is where we get into, like verses 17 through 21, where he says don't sink vengeance, leave that to me, I will repay, says the Lord.

He's dealing with injustice there, right.

And then he gets over into the authority of the civil powers, that be in 13.

And then he says repay evil with good.

Now Paul wrote thosehe wrote the book of Romans in the middle of the Roman Empire, which is as pagan as any that probably has ever lived.

The Roman Empire really tolerated about any god.

They had hundreds of them across their empire.

They had no real problem with that, as long as your religion doesn't get in the way of our government and our taxes and our ability to tell you what to do when that happens.

We got problems and you got to go.

So the one thing that Jesus detractors figured out and that we celebrated with the resurrection last week was if we can ever present Jesus as a political reactionary, a rabble, rouser a rabble they'll take care of our work for us and they'll eliminate Jesus.

And that's exactly what they thought they had done.

And that's when they would stamp out things.

When Israel got a little bit too defiant, the Roman Empire would come in and take care of business in a very, very cruel, violent way.

So let's get to work, shall we?

We're going to talk aboutI'm going to read the passages here, and then we'll just make a point about these two institutions of the government and the church.

The first one is submission to God requires submission to the government.

Have you ever thought of it in those terms?

If you submit to one, you got to submit to the other.

Let's read verse 1, romans 13, 1.

Everyone that means you and me must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by God.

How did those people get into office?

By the permission of God, maybe even the placement of God, even the people I didn't vote for, even the people you didn't vote for.

That's the hard truth of some of this.

So when we submit to the Lord.

We are to submit to the authorities over us because we got to see them as God-given authority.

Remember what Jesus said there is all authority has been given to me.

He says it in Matthew 28.

He basically tells Pilate that his authority has been given by his father to him.

Right, you would have no authority if it wasn't for my father giving it to you, and so we got to come to grips with that.

The role of the government basically is to provide and to protect.

The role of the government is limited and it works best when it is limited to its foundational mandates.

When it expands out, then there's more room for error and there's more room for bias, and there's more room for error and there's more room for bias and there's more room for corruption.

And that's the premise of how it's all.

Thewe do better when we stay in our lane.

Also, we all should be grateful because, by and large, by and large, the laws are set up and they get it right, we are protected and we are provided for, we have pretty decent roads, we have freedom, we have a supply chain that gets us our food and things like that.

Without a civil government, there would be anarchy, and it's been said by theologians and politicians that a bad government is better than the best anarchy right Now.

In truth, it's rare, if ever, that there has been a true anarchy in the history of our world, because about that time there's a void of leadership.

Someone is going to fill that void of leadership and take over, whether they're good or bad.

Maybe the closest thing we have to anarchy in this world right now is just south of us, in Haiti, with what's going on with the gangs in Port-au-Prince, the capital there.

It is disrupting everything.

The government is totally inept and nonexistent.

They are in charge.

The supply lines are breaking down, the inflation is astronomical and it's to the point that people are literally starving to death in that nation.

Matter of fact, we should be praying.

Would you just do me a favor and pray with me?

By the way, first, some of you are sponsoring school children in the little town that we sponsor.

They're okay, they're not missing any school, the faculty is in place, thankfully.

They're far enough north, they're in the mountainous region where the gangs don't go there, and so they're doing good and they're getting enough to eat, and your sponsorship is providing two meals for them each day.

So praise the Lord for that.

There are others, though, that are suffering.

There's an orphanage of 22 boys in Port-au-Prince, the capital, that the director is an American.

He's a friend of mine.

The Haitian director there on site also, I know, and they're going through some steps now, trying to be proactive to get those boys out of Port-au-Prince before they all starve to death, because that's going to be the outcome.

So can we pray about that?

Lord?

I lift up Wayne to you.

I lift up Jasper.

Physical safety for Jasper and the boys.

Present to them the right open doors.

May you open the doors that no man can shut to get those boys to safety, lord, whether it be to the town that has been mentioned, to the north, toward the border, where the food is affordable and able to be gotten.

Lord, keep them safe If they do try to move them systematically up there.

Give them what they need, lord, provide for them and protect them.

We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen, providence of God reaches over all of that.

1 Peter 2, 13,.

I mentioned 1 Peter 2.

That's basically what 1 Peter 2, verse 13 says.

1 Peter 2:13

He says submit yourself to the Lord's sake for every authority instituted among men, whether the king is the supreme authority.

We have an issue in our society today to where politics has been elevated to a place that some writers have called an idol, and I agree.

One writer in 2012, tim Keller, said this here's how you can tell if politics has gotten to be an idol, which is replacing sex, as the old one, or money, as the old one In our country.

Here's how you can know.

If your candidate loses and the other guy wins, it's the end of the world.

I'm moving to Canada, I'm going to Australia.

We've all heard that.

Right, it's over, it's over, we'll all be.

You know, china will own us next week.

That's not realistic.

Us next week that's not realistic.

The other is true too.

If your guy wins, happy days are here again.

We're back.

Baby Order has been restored.

You know those extremes.

That's when you realize it's a little idolatrous.

Or if your candidate is never wrong and he's always right, although everybody in the world knows he is deeply flawed and he's sometimes not even a good person, right, you just don't see that.

Or vice versa, if your opponent, who has some good qualities and maybe has some good ideas, not in your book, is vile evilness is all there is to it.

That's idolatry.

The answer is not in an idol called politics.

So hear me say this before we move on to the next point you submit to the Lord, you submit to the government.

Submission y'all does not mean we're accepting everything as it is.

Do you hear that?

Am I working here?

That does not mean that you accept everything as it is, because there are some things we just cannot live with, some things we cannot abide by.

So the second thing the state is God's choice to administer justice.

The state is God's choice to administer justice.

The state is God's choice, as he says here, to administer God's justice.

Let's read verse 2 through 4.

Consequently, he who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves, for rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.

Do you want to be free from fear the one in authority?

Then do what is right and he will commend you, for he is God's servant to do you good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing.

He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

So he's basically saying if you're a good, law-abiding citizen, you don't have to fear the government, but if you're breaking the law you should be a little bit afraid of the government, because they have the authority to exact some punishment or some direction on you one way or another.

So the state is really, like we've said, god's choice for administering justice here.

So the bottom line is a good Christ follower is called to be a good citizen of the law.

It's just you're not above and I'm not above the law, either Believe it or not.

In some sectors there is this I guess I'd call it a pride and an arrogance that comes from being a Christ follower.

That makes us think sometimes well, hey, I'm practically on a mission for God and the laws better not get in the way of that.

I know that sounds far out.

I've got a couple of friends who are law enforcement people and we've had some discussions, not here but in another town.

I was talking to one of my friends one day and I don't know how the subject came up, but it was about people that he's pulled over for violations or breaking the law and other matters and he says I'm not kidding.

He says there's one church here in town and I know, before I really start talking to them that they're involved with that church.

And I said how come?

He said because this is what I'll hear.

How dare you pull me over?

I'm one of God's anointed children.

You don't have any authority over me.

God is my authority.

So if you know what you're doing, you'll just kind of kindly let me get on with my mission here.

There's nowhere in the Scripture that says we're above the law, right?

Okay, well, then we can move on.

Then.

There's also no form of government.

That is spelled out in the Scripture.

That is what we should be.

I mean a republic, a democracy, communist, socialist.

Now, of course, we all have our aspect of what's best and freedom is.

A free government is.

But here's my point God works through and in spite of all of those forms of government, and he is in this world right now.

Matter of fact, I don't have time to debate this, but it appears to me some of the places God is working the hardest and the spirit is the most active is in the most restrictive governments on the face of the earth, like China, where it's illegal to go to church and have a Bible.

But it's just not in there.

Romans 12,.

I mentioned reading Romans 12.

Let me read Romans 12, 19 to you.

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave it for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord.

Don't overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good.

The third point the state promotes the civil life.

The church promotes spiritual life.

Again, we're back to if they stay in their lane, we stay in our lane.

That's good.

That's called the separation of church and state, and that was pretty much in the tenets of when this nation, I'm sorry, was founded.

By the way, when Adams and Jefferson and those guys did the draft of what we are based on today, all these years later, did you know that Jefferson sent the draft to a Baptist pastor in Virginia to proof it and to edit it?

He really did.

Leland was his last name, and he sent it back with a few marks on it and Jefferson adopted them.

Does that mean we're a Christian nation?

Nope, it means we're a nation that allows for Christianity though, and I am really glad of that.

I'm really grateful for that, but it was brilliant the way they spelled it out from the beginning.

You should have a freedom of religion, not from religion.

That means that if you want to practice the Jewish faith, then okay.

If you want to be a Hindu, then okay.

If Christianity is your thing, okay, we believe that we are the right ones, or we wouldn't be in this room, but we have the freedom to do that.

We are not subordinate just because we have to be, we should want to be.

So, randy, is there ever, never a time that we might have to rebel?

Well, I think the Scripture basically makes the case.

It's clear cut.

No, we have to follow the authorities over us until it is restrictive of our faith, because now they've gotten out of their lane and they're in our lane Following me.

Can you think of an example of that?

Yep, how about Daniel in the Old Testament?

Right Now, daniel's nice about it, he is respectful about it.

He said no, I'm not going to eat that stuff and I'm not going to bow before some statue.

And they said well then, I guess we got to throw you in the lion's den and God took care of there are other instances of that.

How about in Acts, chapter four, when Peter and John are brought in and they're warned hey, stop preaching Jesus on the streets, or it's not going to go well with you?

And they said basically well, so you've got a dilemma here.

Do we obey man or do we obey God?

And they chose to, of course, obey God.

Are there other times?

I think so.

I think so.

This is where, as a lot of things, y'all you've probably been around long enough to realize, it's not always a clean, black and white choice.

That's why God gave you a brain, and me a brain, to be thoughtful people.

This is when we object.

This is when we don't object.

It's not ever going to be right to object and to rebel just because we don't like the candidate, who may be one, but if the policies are so restrictive or egregious or anti-Christian, then we're compelled to rebel or to at least resist, right.

So here's the moral of this Submission does not always mean obedience.

Sometimes those are different things.

We saw Jesus do that.

Jesus was submissive, but he wasn't always obedient.

Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, but I'm not doing the pagan stuff and Paul was the same way, so I don't have time to debate it.

But let me stir some thinking in you though.

The American Revolution was it just or was it unjust from a Christian perspective?

Did we have freedom of religion?

It appears that basically they did, but we had a revolution and I think we're all thankful we did right.

So we'll save that one for another day.

Y'all can talk about that at lunch, a little bit.

Just to stir things up here, a Dutch-Canadian theologian by the name of Walters, al Walters, wrote a piece, and I thought it was really well done and really thoughtful.

Years ago.

He basically said regarding our culture he's talking about Canada, but it applies to us too.

He says regarding our culture, the baseline problem, the foundational problem, is when we substitute other issues for sin and then we blame that as the problem.

You following me?

I'll just pull one out of the air.

When global warming becomes the biggest evil in the world and it's not the sinful hearts of all of us what happens.

Therefore, the answer to this problem is not the gospel anymore, it's not the redemption of Christ.

It becomes whatever.

It becomes the right political mechanism, the right restrictions on emissions or whatever.

There's plenty of them we can pull out, but when other things than sin become the issue that we attack, we're in trouble as a society is what he's saying Because that removes grace.

When you remove grace, which is the only reason we're all saved now, you're in a society that is not led by some of the greater virtues, it's led by some bad virtues, and I think he's dead on.

Ff.

Bruce says the state must be resisted when it demands allegiance due God alone, and I think that's a great qualifier right there.

When they jump the lane and they're in my lane now as a Christ follower and now I can't be the Christ follower I'm supposed to be because of something that the civil authorities have put in front of me.

I got a decision to resist then, and I think you do too.

Can I give you some good news?

Here's a reminder Jesus goes to the cross and dies and is resurrected the greatest news in the history of the world.

We celebrated it last week in the middle of a very restrictive government that was as corrupt as it could be and wrong as it could be when it came to morality.

Right, would you agree with that?

They didn't really care what you did, whether it was sexuality.

You know they were doing everything that was corrupt sexually then.

So what's going on now is certainly nothing new.

They were as corrupt and as violent a government that's ever been around.

Their taxation was as unfair as ever.

We can go all the way around and we can look at all the ills of society.

In the middle of that, god picks that point to bring his son into that world to redeem all of us.

It's almost like, yeah, this is pretty bad.

Humans are getting pretty powerful and they're getting pretty corrupt.

But just so you'll understand who really is the boss, let me send him in now.

Isn't that good?

That's good news.

So there's a limit to everything.

But freedom is still based on truth.

So can I give you some wrap up points real quick?

You still with me, y'all still around, all right, wrap up points.

Number one every societal problem has a spiritual base.

I think we've talked about that.

Every societal problem.

It was even said in the New Testament.

One writer in the New Testament said hey look, it's not me, it's the sin in me.

That wasn't an excuse or a justification, but Paul's reminder is when I blow it, that's just an indictment on humanity and we're all part of the human race, right?

So sin is the root.

Everything else is a symptom or a vehicle.

Number two patriotism includes obeying the laws, and there are exceptions.

You good with that.

There's not many.

We have been very blessed.

We've been very blessed to have a free government and also a free expression of religion, free government and also a free expression of religion.

But when there is a conflict, hence in the days of Daniel or something like that, we're going to have to resist.

The third wrap-up government is limited, but Jesus is not.

So let's don't forget that right.

Let's don't forget that November, whatever that day is, when we vote and walk out of the polls, let's don't forget that in local, let's don't forget that in what we are hearing.

Please, in one application of that, please don't forget that.

When you get on social media, uh, we, you, all, you, including me, we all have the ability to express our opinions and our thoughts and our, our ideologies.

But first and foremost, you do it as a Christ follower and you can be right.

But if you don't communicate it as a Christ follower, you're wrong because you're keeping somebody from the kingdom rather than promoting the kingdom of God.

So we have to be concerned about the authority of Christ in our life as our creator and our redeemer.

The last takeaway I really like this Jesus' take on politics is I'm in charge here.

I'm in charge here.

We're going to see that next week, when it comes to Jesus on money, we're going to see it.

I believe in a couple of weeks.

When we talk about Jesus and other religions, what's the difference, what's the compare, what's what's contrasting with other major world religions?

Possibly and we're all going to also going to get Jesus take on sexuality as we go and maybe even a couple of other topics also.

But Jesus, last word on everything.

I'm in charge here and that's really what pushed.

That was the tipping point, as I said, in the first century, because Herod was seen as not only being in charge, but Herod was a God, a little g, a little God, right To the point that in Acts 12, verse 23,.

Acts 12:23

You can look it up now or later Acts 12, 23, herod of the day gives a speech.

Now, this is the same Herod who had James executed.

One of the twelve is the first one executed Later.

He wouldhe had just martyred, had him martyred, actually executed.

Herod gives a speech in Caesarea and the people are all standing and shouting by the end of his speech.

This is not a mortal, this is God speaking.

And Herod did nothing to put that down or to disclaim that.

And it says at that point let me just read it to you because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and he died.

They really didn't need to include that last phrase, did they?

If you're eaten by worms, you're pretty dead.

So there's our answer to does God ever remove the wrong guy when he goes too far?

Absolutely, he does too far.

Absolutely he does.

Now, to my judgment, not every time, but I'm not in charge, remember, he's in charge.

But when the disciples and Paul and others start speaking publicly and saying something that we think today is pretty innocent Jesus is Lord can you imagine how controversial that was, how anti-government that was, how rebellious that was?

Because everybody in the place is trained to say Herod is Lord, herod is Lord, herod is Lord.

And they come up and say, no, you're wrong, jesus is Lord.

Well, he's got to go then.

And in many cases, the thought was, you got to go too.

But let me remind you, and you can remind me, philippians 2.11.

You know what Philippians 2.11 is?

You know it.

Yes, one day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that who Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord.

I love history and I love reading what was going on behind the scenes, like in World War II.

We know in Germany that there was this group of pastors who had unified together to do what they could to resist the Third Reich.

One of the most famous was Bonhoeffer.

But one of Bonhoeffer's mentors was a guy.

His last name was Moltke, dr Moltke.

He was arrested also.

He was executed, also in 1945, just ahead of the end of the war.

He wrote a letter to his wife shortly before his execution.

I won't read the whole letter, but he basically said I stand before the court here as a Christian, and nothing else.

He said what the third right was so terrified of was the fact that Protestants and Catholics have come together and questions of the practical, ethical demands of Christianity are unified.

Do you hear what he's saying?

The one thing that terrifies the Third Reich is Christianity, and that's when they decided he's got to go and Bonhoeffer's got to go.

And they did so again.

I'm grateful to be here.

I'm grateful to be in a place I can study and learn and live by the truth of Jesus Christ, and I'm grateful for you too, if you are in the political, civic, legislative sector in any way.

Thank you for doing what you do.

If you're an honest-to-goodness Christ-following person, in those realms you need our prayers, and there are so many good, strong believers who are in that realm.

There was one sitting in our church at the last hour, and I'm grateful for all of you, whether you're out there or in here.

Eddie's going to come and lead us in a final worship time.

We call it an invitation time.

That means we would love to receive you down here to pray for you or to celebrate a decision you're making in some spiritual garden Next step decision to join the church or to renew your life, or to ask Christ to come into your life to be your Lord, as we have done too.

So why don't you stand?

Let me pray for you, father, thank you for your love and your grace.

When we substitute things that you did not design to be as they are, we supply solutions that are not part of your will, supply solutions that are not part of your will, and so let us be people who live by the truth and by grace and by our convictions, and let us be submissive to the people you've placed over us, but also ultimately understand.

Our job is to love you and to obey you first, and everything else falls into place after that.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.