Independence Day 2021

Good morning.

Today's reading is from First Timothy chapter two, verses one to six.

Paul writes, First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

Happy Independence Day.

And there's a couple of reasons that we're doing that.

One is uh we figured that this service would be a relatively small service, uh, and we didn't want too many folks to miss out on where we are in Ephesians so that we can stay together as a church through that letter.

Uh and secondly, I thought it would, this is a Sunday on the 4th of July.

So our heads are kind of thinking in terms of Independence Day.

So I thought it would be good to speak directly to that and give us a bit of a description that Scripture gives us on how to relate to the nation that we are a part of.

Uh how is it that Scripture calls us to uh uh live into that particular relationship, which is in our lives, how we relate to the nation that we're a part of.

And so since it's on our heads, I thought we better rush in there and get a biblical understanding of that.

Uh because uh for the rest of the day, you're gonna be flooded with just all sorts of other narratives.

So we've got to move fast so that we can think about this biblically.

Now, uh so with that introduction, I haven't prayed.

So with that introduction, let's go ahead and pray, and uh then we'll move into our text for today.

Holy Father, we praise you for this time to gather together as your church, that once a week we are able to come and hear your word, worship you together as one body.

As we're brought together from all the different places that we were throughout the week, we come together this morning in unity, Lord, to worship you.

We pray that your name would be glorified above all names in our lives, and that your word would affect our hearts.

Lord, we pray that we would see a movement of your word and your gospel out into our neighborhood here where we meet in Berkeley.

Lord, out into our city, our nation, and the world, Lord.

You've promised that that will happen, so we confidently ask for it.

Lord, lift us up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, the Bible is not silent regarding our relationship to the state.

In fact, throughout Scripture, we see over and over again that nations are spoken of as real things.

So that means like to God, nations are real.

We see throughout Scripture, God speaks in terms of nations, you know, sort of like how marriage is a real thing.

You can't see it, you can't touch it, but there's a real thing that is marriage that God sees as real.

And from that relationship, families form.

And that familial reality, that's a real thing in the world, like gravity or wind.

Likewise, the nation is a real thing.

And we see throughout scripture, it's typical for God to speak in terms of nations.

We see woes pronounced against nations and cities.

We see blessings uh given to particular nations.

In fact, we even see something like an angelic representation of particular nations.

Uh for example, in Daniel, when uh Daniel is praying, uh he he prays and intercedes for the nation of Israel, which is all scattered at that point in exile.

And the angel that comes to grant David, excuse me, Daniel, this vision uh in response to his prayer, says that he is delayed for three weeks from coming to visit Daniel because the prince of the kingdoms of Persia was interfering with him.

Now, that phrase, the prince of the kingdoms of Persia, is actually a reference to an angel, uh, some some being in the angelic realm which prevented the angel that was sent to come to Daniel from speaking to Daniel for three weeks.

And uh that was referred to as the prince of the kingdoms of Persia.

There's a there's a national type of reality that's represented even in the heavenlies.

Now, good news.

Uh, when that particular angel was delayed for three weeks, Michael, the archangel, stepped in and advocated for the angel that was going to Daniel.

Um, and that certainly raises more questions than it answers.

But here's the point that I'm wanting to make it's that there is a reality of nations.

We might expect that when the Bible speaks about nations, that it would speak in just arbitrary terms.

These are just temporal realities of arbitrary human constructions that should be ignored.

In fact, we should just think in more spiritual terms.

But even when we go to a more spiritual reality, even in an angelic realm, we see that there is such a thing as a national identity.

There's a reality to the nation.

And so, because that is a reality in the world, and it's something that we really do participate in, then it's important for us to understand how we relate to this reality.

How do we relate to our nation?

Today it's on the forefront of our minds, but how do we relate to the United States?

This place that we call home.

Well, like the other relationships in your life, being involved in this relationship means that there are particular obligations required of you.

And the one that we are looking at today that is most clearly demonstrated in how Christians are called to relate to their nation, the most pressing obligation on your life towards your nation is prayer.

Prayer.

The primary aspect of your relationship to our nation, to where we are, is prayer.

We are called specifically in this text to pray for all people, but then Paul narrows in and he says, especially for kings, and well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

What we're gonna look at today in this obligation to pray for our nation, and I hope that this is received as just like an exhortation, that we are inspired to pray for the country that we're a part of.

Um, we're going to look at the type of prayer that we're called to show for our country.

We're we're gonna see the outcome of that prayer, and then we're gonna see the motive behind that prayer.

So, 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 2.

This is the type of prayer.

Paul writes, first of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

So, first of all, this call to prayer is universal.

Paul is saying you need to pray for all people.

All people are to be interceded for.

This is it making no distinction among us.

But then he zeros in and it says, particularly for kings and all who are in high positions, which means we don't pray for all people the same.

We pray for kings, not just like they're the rest of us, but we actually pray for kings as kings.

We pray for leaders as leaders.

You know, we'd pray for a senator as a senator, or for a president as a president.

And the reason for that is because by definition of being in those roles, they have a disproportionate impact on our lives and on more people than another person would.

And so when we pray for them, that's not something to be neglected, but that's something that we should pray for them as.

We pray for these leaders as the leaders that they are.

And this type of prayer he describes in four different terms: supplication, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving.

So here's how we're supposed to pray for our country.

First, supplication.

Supplication is asking for particular needs.

So we're called to pray for the leaders of our country, the leaders of our nation.

We're to ask for particular needs.

So that means we would imagine what would it be like to be a president or a senator or a council person, a city council person?

Uh what would what would that be like?

Well, I would need an inordinate amount of wisdom.

I would need to have a just heart.

I would need to be a person who loves peace, who loves righteousness.

I would need to have a solidness in my heart so I'm not battered around by the constant winds of change.

You know, we we should be praying for these things in our leaders.

We should be imagining what what type of character would this type of leader need to be in this position?

And then we should be actively praying for those things and then celebrating when we do see them.

So, supplication, we're asking for particular things, sober-mindedness, justice, patience, discernment.

Let's pray these things for our leaders.

The next is just the word prayer.

And what that shows is that we're not just asking, we're presenting these things to the Lord.

We're asking God for these particular things.

And so that means when we're praying for justice, we're not just praying for whatever pop cultural definition of justice happens to be moving through the world at this given time.

We're praying for God's justice to be demonstrated.

We often have a concept of God and his justice, which is that there is justice over here as a category, and this is something that we all know, we all understand, and we all intuitively grasp.

And then there is God, and the good news is that God happens to adhere to this value of justice.

But the biblical picture is not that there is justice and there is God, it is that there is fundamental to our reality the existence of God.

And from the very heart of God, one of the features that flows out is justice.

So to be praying for justice outside of a conformity to who God is is to not actually be praying for justice.

So we don't pray for justice in secular terms.

We don't have a separation of church and state in our prayer, right?

We have we are praying that the very justice of God might be demonstrated in our nation.

And that these leaders might be able to have this.

That's why we're not uh just wishing arbitrarily for these things, we're praying to the Lord, we're presenting these requests to the Lord.

Next is intercession.

Intercession is to boldly appeal on behalf of someone.

And so intercession means that we are taking a position of identification with the nation that we are a part of.

And we're we're saying, Lord, we this nation here, it may not be appealing for itself, but I am appealing for it.

We see a beautiful picture of this in Daniel when he prays for the nation of Israel, and his prayer says, Lord, it is not that we are righteous and that we deserve your mercy, but we appeal to you because of the richness of your mercy.

And so Daniel stands and intercedes on this nation that isn't interceding for itself, but he stands in between an identification with it and then intercedes for it.

So that is a posture of intercession.

It requires this type of identification.

And then next, finally, he says, give thanks for all people.

And then to move directly into leaders, we can presume that he's saying, give thanks particularly for leaders and good leaders.

JJ, everybody.

Yeah.

Give thanks particularly for our leaders.

Okay, can you believe that?

When was the last have we even noticed a good leader?

Do we have that capacity to give thanks for a good leader?

It's not even in our vocabulary.

You know, it's it we don't we don't even have that, it's just not in our minds at all.

But think think how much uh God is rich in mercy and he's incredibly gracious.

Okay, but what does he withhold because we don't give thanks for it?

This is to come from a spirit of gratitude.

You know, the there's a there's an incredible lack of a spirit of gratitude for for just the benefits that we receive, for for even the fractured and and difficult type of political reality that we live in now.

And yet here we are gathering in public freely to proclaim this.

And this points directly towards the outcome of the prayer that we're aiming at.

This is the second part of uh the second verse.

It says that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Why do we pray for our leaders uniquely as leaders?

It's because we're aiming at a peaceful and quiet life for the church, that we may be godly and dignified in every way.

Notice Paul has every reason to be to try and coax a revolutionary spirit into the church in their prayer.

They they're being oppressed by Rome.

Paul is imprisoned by the Roman authorities that are actively uh attacking the church.

Paul is, Paul will be beheaded by these leaders that he's calling us to pray for.

And yet he doesn't uh try and uh try and uh create a revolutionary spirit in their prayer or a revolutionary aim, saying, Look, one day if you pray like this, we will be the ones who are in charge and vengeance will be ours, and it will not be us who are beheaded, but it will be those crazy secularists who are beheaded.

No, he prays no such thing.

He prays for what is the outcome of the prayer for our leaders?

It is that we would have a peaceful and quiet existence, that the church might be able to live and thrive un you know, whatever would be a good word to say there.

Uninterrupted or something.

Like, like, do you know do you know who in the government knows we're meeting right now?

No one.

That's this working, right?

There's no uh we're just able to just gather, just peacefully.

We're we're the envy of so much of Christendom because we can just gather peacefully.

As we gather peacefully, let's remember deeply our brothers and sisters who can't, who are doing this in a in a terrible hiding, fearful of identification with Christ.

We have no such fear.

That is the outcome that we're aiming at.

It is peaceful, it is quiet, it is dignified, it is godly.

It's a beautiful picture.

The type of government that Paul seeks to enable for his people is one that that uh allows space for the church to move as the church.

That is a miraculous thing to see.

And it's a miraculous benefit to the church.

We can often develop this sort of martyr complex where we almost start to desire for the culture or the leaders of the government to be more and more oppositional towards the church because we think then we'll be really living for the church, and then we'll be able to have a pure church, and we'll be able to burn off all this chaff, which we did this morning because it's 4th of July, and look, it's all wheat.

But we're uh uh so we develop this sort of martyr complex, but scripture says, no, no, no, you you don't want to aim towards things devolving around you in the nation that you're a part of.

You want to aim towards a nation, pray for a nation with leaders that enable peacefulness and quiet and dignity and godliness.

This should be our hope.

This should be what we advocate for and pray for for our church.

And look, Paul just slices and dices that sort of um desire for martyrdom, sort of romanticizing of that type of martyr complex, uh where he says, this is good, and verses three through four, this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

God is pleased by a peaceful society that allows Christians to lead quiet, dignified, godly lives.

This is something that is pleasing to the Lord.

And why is it pleasing to the Lord?

Because God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now, this means that part of the benefit of a peaceful society that allows for the church to move forward without any obtrusion is the spread of the gospel.

Is that this is a feature of the world, the best possible position for a nation to take that enables the spread of this good news which maps perfectly onto God's desire, which is that all people would be saved.

Now, of course, this raises questions: what does it mean that all people will be saved?

If God desires that all people will be saved, why aren't all people saved?

We can talk about that uh afterwards, but we want to not neglect the heart of God here, which is that he desires for his gospel to spread throughout the world, and that one of the factors that we can pray for to enable this spread is that we have leaders that enable a nation that is just and peaceful and good.

So the outcome of this is that we may lead a peaceful, quiet, godly, and dignified lives in every way.

And this is good, which is the points us to this bigger outcome, which that type of society allows the spread of the gospel.

Listen to this.

Here we get this amazing motive for our prayer in verses five through six.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Okay, so we see here that we are what a peaceful society does that we ought to pray for, it enables us to point towards in an unobstructed way the true king, the Christ, Jesus, the ruler of all, of all authority in heaven and on earth.

It has been given to him so that his name might be spread through all nations.

Now, why is his name spread through all nations?

Because he is the only mediator between God and man, and he himself gave himself as a ransom for all people, so that we might be brought in no matter your nationality, no matter your speech, no matter your tribe, no matter your race.

We are all united in Christ.

And so, what does a peaceful nation do?

It enables the spread of the gospel, which points towards the ultimate king of all creation, who is Christ.

So we don't pray for our nation in lieu of the mission of Christ, as though it can somehow act as a substitute.

We pray for our nation because we understand the mission of Christ.

We pray for wise and good leaders so that the spread of the gospel might be able to go forth unobstructed.

That's a glorious picture that we're being called to.

So we see that what's fundamental to the motive for our prayer is the same feature that was fundamental to Christ, who identified with us sinners, and then gave himself as a ransom for us.

It is love.

What motivates us to pray for our country, the place that we live, it is love for our country.

We are called to love it.

We're called to love our nation.

Now, one of my favorite people who speaks to this is G.K.

Chesterton.

And I'm gonna need some help pronouncing this place in London.

Pimlico?

Really?

Okay.

So he talks about this place uh in London called Pimlico.

And he uh is it is at least when he's writing is not a very nice place.

I think it's got regenerated.

It's a bit like him, maybe it's got regenerated.

Okay, cool.

So when Chesterton's writing about it, he's like, this place is not it's not a good place.

It's boring, it's there's nothing interesting about it.

Uh just some random suburb of suburb of London.

He says, so what are our options here for a place like Pimlico?

Well, we could disapprove of it.

And if we disapprove of it, well then what will we do?

He says, we'll just slit our throats and move to Chelsea, which must be a British expression.

All right.

Our one British person says it's not.

So that's what would happen if we disapproved of it.

Now look, there's there's plenty of disapproval of the United States right now.

Oh, just heard a new Toby Keith song.

It made me want to quit listening to country music.

It was like the most depressing thing I've ever heard.

So then what do we do?

Do we approve of it?

Well, if we approve of it, then we just leave things as they are.

So those aren't the answers to help a place.

You don't just disapprove of it and you don't approve of it.

What he says is in order for Pimlico to become wonderful, you must love it.

You must love it.

Here's what he says.

He says, People first paid honor to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it.

Men did not love Rome because she was great.

She was great because they had loved her.

He says, You don't uh uh you you love your nation.

In a sense, it's it's almost necessary that that love is arbitrary.

Why do you love it?

Well, because it happens to be where you live.

And so you that this is the place that you're called to love in this way and to intercede for these particular leaders who happen to be over you.

It's the same reason that you love your child.

Why do you love your child?

Well, they happen to be your child.

And so you love them.

And you don't, as Chesterton says, you don't put a blue bow tie on your son because you think to hide how hideous he is.

You you put a blue bow tie on your son because he already looks cute and you want to adorn him.

You don't buy your wife a necklace so that you can hide her neck.

No, it's because you think she's beautiful, and so you adorn that which you love.

So you make a place beautiful by loving that place.

It is not just that you love a place because it is lovely, you love a place and it becomes lovely.

And is that not the picture of the gospel that we see in Jesus Christ who gives himself for us as a ransom?

Not because we were lovely, but because he loved us.

And in loving us, he makes us like him.

He makes us become lovely.

And so, what is the best way that we can do that on a day like today, where the nation is at the forefront of our of our minds and fireworks and hot dogs and stuff?

Early Toby Keith.

This is one of those places in scripture where it's simple.

You can know it's pray.

Pray for this place that we call home.

Just for that reason.

This is where you've been placed.

So pray for it.

Pray for our leaders.

Pray for where we live.

Love where we are, with not an approval or a disapproval.

That's a different category.

Love.

That's what Christ calls us to for this place that we call home.

So let's pray.

And uh then we'll take communion.

Holy Father.

We ask that you grant our leaders and those uh who are in positions of power in our nation, Lord.

We ask that you would grant them your wisdom.

Lord, we pray that you would see to it that uh the church is enabled to lead a peaceful, quiet, dignified existence.

Lord, that this might support the spread of your gospel in our nation.

That as your gospel is proclaimed, that it might take root, and Lord, that we might see even a transformation that could move throughout the whole world because you are the king of everything, all nations.

So, Lord, we pray that we would consider you as the height of all glory.

And with that in mind, we would pray for our nation to support that end.

Lord, we thank you for the ability to gather.

And Lord, we pray that you would call to mind those who who suffer such hostility because of the lack of peace they are able to experience as Christians in the nation that they are a part of.

Lord, let us remember them and let even that fill our hearts with gratitude and a sense of uh uh encouragement and strengthen our hearts to proclaim your gospel here, knowing that those limitations and difficulties we we don't share because of just your mercy.

Lord, we praise you for the heart of love that you showed us in Christ.

We ask that we might rest in that and in that we might be inspired to love this place that you have put us just the same.

We pray that your love might be demonstrated through the church.

Father, we lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In 1 Corinthians 11, beginning at verse 23, Paul wrote, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

We remember this morning that Christ gave himself as a ransom, and that in his self-giving we might participate in that, and we might claim his victory on the cross, his victory over death, as we participate in this feast together.

A feast which one day will have people from all tribes, all nations, all tongues, not arbitrarily washed out, but probably them coming together as those nations.

And as we participate in this today, we remember his sacrifice for us and the love that that demonstrates towards us, that he loved us while we weren't lovely, so that in him we might become lovely.

Let that transform our hearts and give us a new sort of posture towards our community that we've been placed in.

Okay.

Holy Father, we pray that you would bless this time.

Lord, that you would bless this time of fellowship and this meal that we are partaken together.

We praise you for the sacrifice that you have made.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.