"Kings & Kingdoms"

Hi, this is John O'Zanting, lead pastor of Evolve Church, and this is the Evolve Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Well, it is so good to see you today.

Well, technically I can't see you, but you can see me.

And I can imagine you.

But here's what I need you to do.

Uh, if you are a parent, a mama or a dad, go get your kids for me real quick.

I want make sure the kids are in the room.

Go and get them.

Come on, come on.

I'll give you uh give you four seconds to holler.

Seriously, Evolve Kids.

Come on, just give me two minutes of your time to all of our bigs and to our middles and our littles.

I want you to know in your online lesson today, both both our middles and lit and littles and our bigs, is a phenomenal lesson on gratitude, on being thankful.

And I really want you, whether it's sometime today or maybe later this week, get your mom or dad to print off that guide and just take some time and go through that lesson on gratitude.

You're gonna love it.

And I think the reason that it's on gratitude this weekend is because um south of Canada in the United States, they're celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.

So to all my American friends, happy Thanksgiving.

But kids, that's it, that's an incredible lesson.

I want you to take some time and go through it.

But I also wanted to ask you uh a question to all the kids watching.

Have you ever been jump scared by somebody?

Have you ever been like really scared by somebody?

Maybe in your home, maybe this is one of the games you like to play.

Do you ever like hide somewhere and wait for your mom and dad to come walking by and then you jump out and you scare them?

Or or maybe you're sitting quietly in your bedroom, you know, playing playing with Lego or reading your book, and you're just kind of in your room minding your own business, and then boom, your dad jumps out of the closet and scares you, right?

Have you have you ever been jump scared before?

I want to know.

If you've been scared like that before, maybe it's a game you play in your home, could you do me a favor and just um if you've got a device, just say something in the chats.

Give me a thumbs up emoji or have your mom and dad say, Yep, you know, my kids scare me all the time.

But what happens when you get scared?

Come on, kids.

What happens when you get scared?

Usually it's one of three things.

One of three things happens.

And I bet um you either get scared and run away, or you get scared and you collapse on the floor.

Or the third one is you get scared and then you like want to fight back.

And that's called um the flight, fight, or freeze response to when you're scared.

Those those three responses uh fight, flight, or freeze.

And I'm just curious, have you ever heard of that before?

The other day in our house, I was standing in um an upstairs room, and there's a door, and I kind of pulled the door open so that I was hiding behind it because I knew Riley was coming up the stairs behind me.

And this door and me hiding is right at the top of the stairs.

And so sure enough, I hear Riley come marching up the stairs, and he gets to the top of the stairs, and I just peek out from around the door, and I'm like, boom! And did I scare him good?

But I want to know, do you think Riley's response to being scared?

Do you think it's fight, flight, or freeze?

Come on, kids, I want to know.

And then I'll let you go.

And uh, you can either hang out with mom and dad for the rest of this talk uh or go watch your your lesson in your room or somewhere else in your home today.

But what do you think Riley's response to being scared is?

Is it is it fight, is it flight, or is it freeze?

Which one?

Type it in the comments for me.

One of those three words.

Is Riley a fight, a flight, or a freeze?

Well, if you guessed freeze, you were correct.

Because Riley dropped to the floor, curled up in a ball, and just started breathing real heavy.

Oh, you got me good, Dad.

You got me good.

He's his response is to freeze.

He kind of drops to the floor when he's scared.

Did you know that there's a fourth option?

There's another option that I want to teach you about today.

And kids, if you want to hear the rest of this talk, you're welcome to hang out with us.

Moms and dads, when you're scared, what's your default?

Are you fight, flight, or freeze?

Because there is a fourth way.

You can run away, you can drop to the ground, curl up in a ball, or you can get angry and want to fight, or listen to what Jesus teaches us in John 14, verse 27.

John 14:27

I leave the gift of peace with you.

My peace.

Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace.

Don't yield to fear.

Don't be troubled in your hearts, instead be courageous.

And so Jesus presents us with a fourth option for responding when we're scared.

And it's courageous peace.

And I want to talk to you today a message I'm calling Kings and Kingdoms about this courageous peace response.

Can we pray?

Father, in Jesus' name, I want to thank you for everybody watching, everybody tuning into this online experience.

Whether they're here with us live or whether they've kind of grabbed us as on demand or an audio podcast sometime later this week.

God, we just invite your Holy Spirit to bring a sense of your perfect peace.

Not the not the counterfeit peace that the world offers, but your perfect peace.

Jesus, today we just we just declare John 14 over us as a community, over our homes, over our workplaces, over our city today, that your perfect peace would give way to courage rather than giving way to fear and allowing our hearts to be troubled.

God, we ask for your perfect peace today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, Evolve Fam, it's been a week.

Come on.

Hasn't COVID-19 and the last nine, 10 months, felt like one constant jump scare?

Think about it.

Like what's gonna pop out next?

Really?

Like we've had a year, right?

And I just want to ask, because I can't help but wonder, how many of you, even this week, have been a little bit scared?

How many of you felt some fear in real time?

How many of you have wanted to like get in your car and just run away, go somewhere, find a cabin in the woods, jump on a plane to Mexico, just like get me out of here?

How many of you have collapsed, maybe literally collapsed on your living room floor, immobilized, broken, afraid?

How many of you have gotten angry and just felt like aggressively fighting back somehow this week?

I wonder in this fight flight freeze response, how are you doing right now?

After Premier Kenny's press conference on Tuesday afternoon, I've I've had a had a few foam a few moments this week, uh phone scrolling moments on social media.

And I've seen a lot of stuff, Instagram, Facebook, and a lot of it has looked like flight, fight, and freeze.

A lot of it.

I've seen a lot of very scared and afraid people.

I've I've spoken with them, I've heard from them, I've seen them put content out.

People who just want to quit, people who just want to run away, people who just want to curl up in a ball on the floor.

The fear is very real.

I've seen other incredibly scared people this week rant with rage.

Their fear has given way to this very real anger.

And uh, even the other day I heard somebody ranting, and the rant was so mad, it was like, This is my body.

You can't tell me what to do with my body.

You have no right to impose a rule over me that affects my body.

My choices affect me.

Who are you to tell me what to do?

At first, I thought maybe they were pro-choice and just defending abortion, because that's what it sounded like.

And then I realized they were just an anti-masker and didn't want to wear a mask, but they were so angry.

And it paused and I prayed, and I said, God, like there's something deeper in our hearts.

This response to feeling afraid, this response of flight or fight or freeze.

Is there another way?

Is there another way that Jesus leads us into?

Today I want to circle us back as a community of faith to this thought.

There are there are actually two kingdoms, active and at work in our lives.

Two kingdoms.

You were born into one of those kingdoms.

When you came out, you were born into the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of this earth, this earth we call home.

You were born into that.

And then eventually some of you chose a new kingdom, the other kingdom.

When you made the decision to trust and follow Jesus, when you made the decision to yield and surrender your life to Jesus as King, Jesus as Lord, you stepped into the kingdom of heaven as that kind of citizen where Jesus rules and reigns as king.

Two different kingdoms.

However, as citizens of heaven, we still live on planet Earth and we can't thrive in two kingdoms.

So how does this play out?

Well, I want to share a little uh history lesson, a little story time, give it some context.

Thousands of years ago, the people of Israel believed that God had called them to bless all nations, and that's true.

God had called the Israelites to be a blessing to every people group.

And the Israelites believed that this would happen in the form of a new world order, with themselves at the center of everything.

They believed one day a Messiah would come and that the Israelites would be right there in the middle, leading a new world order.

And the Jewish people called this new world order the kingdom of God.

In first century Palestine, when Jesus was alive, the climate that he was born into, this was a huge problem because the Israelites were nowhere close to ruling the world.

Not even close.

And they weren't even free, as a matter of fact.

They were being crushed under the thumb of the Roman Empire.

They weren't living as free people, they weren't being a blessing to all nations, they had been conquered and were living under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire.

Did you know that Jesus lived his entire life under the rule and oppression of a government that didn't always have his best interests in mind?

Our Jesus, our Savior, he lived all 33 of his years on planet Earth under a government that didn't have his best interests in mind.

Palestinian Jewish people believed that in order for the kingdom of God to come, the Roman Empire would need to be overthrown.

So Jesus shows up, launches his public ministry, and he declares this the kingdom of God is at hand.

Jesus started his public ministry with that statement.

And so if you were a Jewish person living in first century Palestine, and you heard about Jesus from Nazareth, a carpenter's son, who declared that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, the kingdom of God is at hand, that would have been perceived by you as a call to war, a call to pick up your sword and fight the Romans.

Our Messiah has come.

Our military freedom has arrived.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Jesus actually constantly references this fact, history lesson.

The written Bible accounts of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John regularly reference these themes of a coming conflict, this turmoil in Israel.

At one point in Jesus' life, right after he's fed thousands of people with this miracle of loaves and fish, a mob tries to force Jesus to be their king, and he has to escape.

John 6, verse 14 and 15, all the people were astounded as they saw this miracle with their own eyes, the incredible miracle that Jesus had performed.

John 6:14

They began to say among themselves, he really is the one, the true prophet we've been expecting.

So Jesus, knowing that they were about to take him and make him their king by force, quickly left and went up the mountainside alone.

In terms of a historical context and setting, Jesus is seemingly setting himself up to be a warrior Messiah who will lead his people into battle, destroy the forces of Rome, and usher in God's new world order, this kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, with Israel at the head.

Except Jesus knew another way.

Jesus had a different plan.

Jesus, through his life and through his death and through his resurrection, most certainly ushered in a new kingdom on this earth.

Absolutely.

The kingdom of heaven.

And if you read the account of Jesus, how many of his parables and lessons did he start with that statement?

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who goes out to a field and sows seed.

The kingdom of heaven is like a rich man who lost one's sheep.

The kingdom of heaven is like.

His whole teaching was rife with a heart for this new kingdom.

And Jesus, through his life, but through his death and resurrection, brought about a new world order, the kingdom of heaven.

It's just that Jesus' kingdom and leadership look and behave very different than what the Israelites expected, and very different than what the kingdom of this earth or darkness and its leadership behave like.

Here's a good example of what the Jewish people would have hoped or expected from Jesus versus what Jesus actually requires from us as citizens of heaven.

In Jesus' day and age, under Roman tyranny in Jesus' Palestine, the Romans had a practice of compulsory and often unpaid public service.

They could ask anybody at any time, when it was inconvenient, when it was unjust, when it was unfair, they could ask you to do them a favor by carrying a heavy load for them.

We read about it in Matthew 5.

Matthew 5, 38, Jesus is teaching.

He says, You've heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

But I say, don't resist an evil person.

Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of heaven.

This is what the earth says, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

Jesus goes on to say, if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer your other cheek also.

Contrary teaching.

Wait a second.

That seems weird.

And then he says this in verse 41 if you're sued in court and your shirt's taken, give your coat as well.

Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of heaven.

It's different than the kingdom we're used to.

And here it is, Jesus' reflection on this tyrannical practice of Rome asking him to do something that was unreasonable and unfair.

In verse 41, Jesus says, if a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it for two miles.

The message translation puts it this way: if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life.

This is the kingdom of heaven.

This is the way of Jesus.

Jesus says, You want to be a part of the kingdom of heaven?

It's going to be different than the kingdom of this earth.

And I'm like, wait a second, Jesus.

When the ruling government asks me to do something that feels unreasonable or unfair or even like they're taking advantage of me, you want me to do what?

You want me to practice the servant life?

You want me to go the extra mile?

In other words, you want me to do even more than what's being asked of me?

Welcome to the kingdom of heaven.

In his musings and commentary on this story, on this lesson from Jesus, there's an Australian priest and Bible scholar named John Noland.

And I want to read something that he wrote in response to this lesson from Matthew 5.41.

Here's what John writes.

We have no specific knowledge of the forms in which this was practiced in Roman Palestine, but since Persian times, impressing, in other words, forcing and demanding people without notice for temporary service to the authorities, it had been customary and legal.

The practice has been well documented, and it's understandable that the populace experienced this requirement as irksome, that they resented it, and that it was all too subject to abuse.

So in real time, Jesus and his peers, as Palestinian Jews living under Roman oppression, experienced this practice, this demand on their time to do something that was unfair and unjust and went against their schedule, and they had to do it.

They had to.

John goes on to say this the recommendation from Jesus is to a generous, generous and ungrudging compliance.

Let that sink in for a second.

In real-time 2020, have you been asked to do anything this year by your government that's felt unfair, unjust, unreasonable?

And has your response been generous and ungrudging compliance?

Presumably, such compliance has the power to turn an act of demanding into an act of genuine public service, generously given to a representative of the government who needs it.

And here's where it gets profound for us today.

John Nolan goes on to write this is not necessarily an endorsement of the Roman practice of impressment as such, but in a situation in which changing the rules was not possible, the proposed response would have the capacity of turning the nature of the transaction from one in which both parties felt worse to one in which human positive interaction might become possible.

So this is John Nolan's kind of musings and reflection, his commentary on this Roman practice and Jesus' teaching to us about going the extra mile.

I wonder, is it possible for us right now, as Jesus followers living in the kingdom of heaven, to ensure that every human interaction we have, in person or online, during this COVID 19 pandemic, is it a positive one?

Is it generous?

Is it ungrudging compliance?

Is it doing more than what we've been asked to do?

Matthew 5 41.

If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, take it two miles.

In the message translation, if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life.

And in the Passion translation, and should people in authority take advantage of you, do more than what they demand.

That's the way of Jesus.

That's kingdom living.

There are two kingdoms active and at work around us.

You were born into one of those kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of this earth.

And then you eventually, hopefully, maybe today, found your way to choosing the other kingdom when you made the decision to trust and follow Jesus, the kingdom of heaven.

And there's tension here.

We live as citizens of heaven on planet Earth.

We are subject to our king while we flesh out what it means to walk in honor to the authority in the government around us.

The kingdom of heaven, its ways are directly opposed to the ways of the kingdom of this earth.

When you're scared and the government is asking you to do something that feels unfair.

Fight, flight, or freeze.

Those are the normal kingdom of earth responses.

Fight, flight, freeze, but those aren't your only options.

Jesus presents a fourth, different kingdom response.

The kingdom of heaven response is this the way of Jesus invites us to do more than what's expected.

Turn an act of demanding into an act of genuine public service while you live courageously at peace.

The heart of Jesus as our king in the kingdom of heaven is not silent.

He's not quiet.

Jesus teaches about, describes in detail, models this kind of response, this kind of compassionate, generous, unbegrudging, courageously peaceful response.

He teaches it to us time and time again.

He wants us to know that his way and his kingdom are different than this world's kingdom.

Here's the great thing.

Jesus doesn't instigate violence or deliberate defiance against Rome, but he also doesn't just ignore the oppression happening around him and stay silent.

He teaches a higher way.

He teaches a different way.

Rather, he keeps calling his kingdom people, his church, back to what he sees as her true identity and the true source of her power.

And what is that power?

Well, it's this kind of creative, more than what's required, generously serving, courageously at peace response to our leaders, to our government, to our authority.

In Jesus' view, it is only through this kind of action that the kingdom of God will come to the kingdom on earth.

It's only through these kinds of Jesus-centric responses that the kingdom of heaven radiates her glory and her light and her impact and her love in this dark world.

Jesus' own followers struggled with this idea.

His twelve disciples were passionate Jewish Palestinian men, and they were hopeful that this Jesus was going to be their militant Messiah.

And we see that, you know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before Jesus is arrested and taken to the cross to be crucified.

What was Peter's first response to unfair governmental Roman authority?

What was his first response?

It was fight.

In John 18, he drew his sword and fought back, took off the ear of one of the soldiers.

Fight was his first response.

What was Peter's next response?

In John 18 and 19, Peter lies down, curls up in a ball, and denies his Savior.

Not once, not twice, three times.

He freezes and he flees.

And in the narrative of Peter, one of Jesus' followers, when it came to governmental authority, treating his Messiah unfairly, we see Peter fighting and freezing and fleeing.

But eventually Peter understands fully.

And Peter circles back to a kingdom of heaven response.

And then he writes this in 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

My divinely loved friends, since you are resident aliens and foreigners in this world, in other words, there's two kingdoms.

You belong to the kingdom of heaven.

You're a resident foreigner, you're an alien on planet Earth.

Peter says, I appeal to you to divorce yourselves from the evil desires that wage war within you.

Live honorable lives as you mix with unbelievers, even though they accuse you of being evildoers, for they will see your beautiful works and have a reason to glorify God in the day he visits us.

As citizens of heaven, our response to fear, our response to the weight of decisions being made that impact our hearts in real time, they might even feel unfair and unjust, but our response to that, as citizens of heaven, will be beautiful works and give people who don't know Jesus a reason to glorify God.

In order to honor the Lord, verse 13, Peter says, You must respect and defer to the authority of every human institution, whether it be the highest ruler or the governors he puts in place to punish lawbreakers and praise those who do what's right.

Verse 15, for it is God's will for you to silence the arrogance, sorry, silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing what is right.

It is God's will that as citizens of heaven we silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing what is right.

Not by speaking out what is right, but by living in a way that is a credit to the message of Jesus.

Pause.

Are you wondering right now what to do about COVID-19?

I just need to say to every single one of you watching who identify as being citizens of heaven's kingdom, it's God's will for us to silence the scared and the angry, ignorant, foolish people by doing what is right.

And doing what is right means respecting and deferring to the authority of our government.

I can't see it any other way.

Verse 16, as God's loving servants, you should live in complete freedom.

And he says this right after he says, respect your leaders.

I love this because here's the connection.

My freedom isn't dependent on what my government says towards me.

My freedom isn't attached to any rule.

Good, bad, unfair, fair.

My freedom is not attached to that.

Peter says, as God's loving servants, you should live in complete freedom, but never use your freedom as a cover-up for evil.

In other words, we can't declare that my freedom is being stripped away, so I'm gonna do these wrong things.

No.

As citizens of heaven, as followers of Jesus, our freedom flows from an inner place of calling Jesus our King.

So we, verse 17, recognize the value of every person and continually show love to every believer.

Live your lives with great reverence and in holy awe of God.

Honor your rulers.

This from the guy who drew his sword to fight?

This from the guy who denied Jesus.

I don't know him.

I was never with him.

Three times.

Listen to 1 Peter 2, 11 to 16 in the message translation.

Friends, this world's not your home.

So don't make yourselves cozy in it.

Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.

Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices.

Then they'll be won over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when Jesus comes back, when Jesus arrives.

Make the master proud of you, church, by being good citizens.

Respect the authorities, whatever their level.

They are God's emissaries for keeping order.

It is God's will that by doing good you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you're a danger to society.

Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules.

Treat everyone you meet with dignity.

Love your spiritual family.

Revere God.

Respect the government.

Today's big question.

Who's your king and what's your kingdom?

Who's your king and what's your kingdom?

Matthew 5, 41.

If a soldier demands you carry his gear, carry it two miles.

If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life.

Should people in authority take advantage of you do more than what they demand?

This Roman practice of making a demand, there's actually only one other time in Scripture that we read about this.

This Roman practice of making an inconvenient and unreasonable demand is mentioned just on one other occasion.

Mark 15, verse 21.

Mark 15:21

As they came out of the city, they stopped an African man named Simon, a native of Libya.

He was passing by, just coming in from the countryside with his two sons, Alexander and Rufus.

And the soldiers, the Roman soldiers, forced Simon to carry the heavy cross beam for Jesus.

On the Via Dola Rosa, on the road to the hill where Jesus was crucified.

Under the weight of his cross, Jesus collapsed.

And the heavy cross beam, the Roman soldiers said to Simon, Carry this for Jesus.

And Simon didn't have a choice.

If the Roman authority asked him to do it, he had to do it.

I love Luke's account.

Luke remembered it this way: as the guards led Jesus to be crucified, there was an African man in the crowd named Simon from Libya.

He had just arrived from a rural village to keep the feast of the Passover.

The guards laid Jesus' cross on Simon's shoulders and forced him to walk behind Jesus and carry his cross.

Jesus isn't silent.

On this day, at the time of this preaching, on November 29th, 2020, in light of all that we're experiencing in real time, our King, Jesus, said to his disciples and says to us today, if you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life.

And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways.

For if you choose self-sacrifice and lose your lives for my glory, you will continually discover true life.

In the kingdom of heaven, my personal rights yield to my self-sacrifice.

In the way of Jesus, my personal rights yield to self-sacrifice.

Maybe you've been wondering, what do we do now?

Maybe your business is threatened.

I see you.

How do I respond to this current set of guidelines?

My family's in crisis.

I'm scared, Pastor.

I hear you.

And the world says, you can flee, you can freeze, you can fight.

Do I lie down, curl up in a ball?

Do I do I run away and try and escape it all?

Do I believe the conspiracy theories?

Spend hours on Facebook, get angry, and start ranting?

Do I protest and wave a mask around in defiance?

Who are you to tell me what to do with my body?

Well, that depends.

Who's your king and what's your kingdom?

In the kingdom of heaven, my personal rights yield to self-sacrifice.

And so perhaps we, like Jesus, choose the path of courageous peace, a path that leads us to a response of yielding our rights, picking up our cross, and choosing self-sacrifice as we honor the leaders in authority over us by doing what's right, even more than what they ask of us.

Even more.

Can we pray together?

Holy Spirit, we um we need you more than ever.

We need you in our lives.

The day we chose to yield and submit and surrender our lives to the kingship, the leadership, the lordship of Jesus was the day the very Spirit of Christ filled us up.

And so in a moment in history, in a pause in our city of Edmonton, in a global pandemic, our brains are going a thousand different directions.

We're afraid, we're scared, we're fearful, we're angry, we're deeply impacted by what decisions being made around us and for us.

But what if we like Jesus could come to this sincere place and honest place of just inviting you, Holy Spirit, to remind us that we carry the perfect, courageous peace of Christ, not giving way to fear, not having trouble in our hearts.

And the way of Jesus today invites us to not focus on our personal rights so much as we focus on how to yield and live a life of self-sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

And that in our response and how we live, that's when people see the goodness of God.

That's when your church shines, that's when your love is made evident in this world.

It's who we want to be.

It's not easy, God, it's hard, but that's who we want to be.

And so today we choose you, Jesus, as our King.

And we make our allegiance with the kingdom of heaven as we wrestle out the tension of living in this earth.

And the way of Jesus invites us today to bring honor and respect to those in authority and government over us.

We choose that as we follow you.

Give us wisdom, give us one another, give us courage, give us peace, perfect peace.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, apply for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit the Vault Church.com.