Submit and Let Go
Notes
Transcript
I want to start today’s message by giving you a little history lesson.
Now, I had originally planned for us to be in the second week of a study on the Book of Jonah by this time in the new year, but the shameful and terrible events at the U.S. Capitol 11 days ago — and the fact that so many professed Christians were involved in them and have even praised them in the days since they took place — caused me to forego that plan last week.
You will recall that last week’s sermon was instead about the idolatry we demonstrate when we put our hope and our trust in political institutions, in politicians, in our nation itself or even in our nation’s Constitution.
As Christians, our hope is in Jesus Christ and Him alone.
But this week, it occurred to me that there are two sides to the coin when it comes to a Christian’s appropriate relationship to government, and it would be shortchanging you and doing a disservice to the full counsel of Scripture if I failed to present to you the other side of that coin.
So, this week, we’ll take a look at what the Bible says about a Christian’s appropriate relationship to government in light of our understanding that the governments of man offer so little real hope to mankind.
But first, as I said, we need to have a short history lesson.
By the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, Rome had transitioned from being a city-republic to a national republic encompassing all of Italy and portions of the nations surrounding it.
Beginning with Julius Caesar, whose assassination on March 15, 44 B.C., gave us the saying “Beware the Ides of March,” Roman emperors would become increasingly autocratic, relying less and less on the consent of the Senate in matters of the state.
After Julius Caesar’s assassination in the Senate, a struggle for power occurred between Marcus Antonius (we know him as Mark Antony), who was one of Caesar’s generals, and Octavius, who was a nephew of Julius Caesar.
Octavius defeated Marcus Antonius in a naval battle in 31 B.C., becoming the sole ruler of Rome and ushering in the period we know as the Roman Empire.
When he was crowned emperor of Rome, Octavius was named Caesar Augustus, and h was the caesar who decreed that a census should be taken in the Roman Empire, the census that would require Joseph and his pregnant wife, the virgin Mary, to go to Bethlehem, where she would deliver her child, Jesus, the Son of God.
Now, Rome was generally pretty accepting of the religions of those cities and nations it had conquered, but what it would not tolerate was sedition.
So by the middle of the first century A.D., thirty years or so after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and after his ascension into heaven, when many of those who had followed Jesus Christ in faith had fled to Rome to avoid persecution by the Jews in Judea, the city of Rome was primed for problems.
You see, the Roman emperor was considered by the people of this empire to be a god, and they were expected to be prepared to proclaim, “Caesar is Lord!” But these Christians had only one Lord, and that was Jesus Christ. Their failure to worship the caesar would be considered treason.
And to their treason could be added the fact that they were hated by those Jews who had transplanted themselves to Rome.
This was the social environment that existed for Christians in Rome when Nero came into power in 54 A.D., at the age of 16.
Nero, the great- great-grandson of Caesar Augustus, was known as an extravagant tyrant who was fascinated by the debauchery that was available to him as the most powerful man in the world at that time.
Early in his reign, he was guided, in part, by his mother, Agrrppina, but he became tired of her influence, and he had her killed five years after becoming the emperor.
He taxed the upper classes heavily to pay for extensive construction projects. And he provided theatres and athletic games — including the gladiator games that we know from the movies — for the entertainment of the lower classes.
On the night of July 18, AD 64, a fire broke out in a merchant district of Rome. It burned for a week, destroying or damaging nearly two-thirds of the city.
Most ancient historians were in agreement that the fire was started by Nero, and that he stood by and watched — and maybe even sang — as it burned for a week.
At the very least, archeology shows that he personally benefitted from the fire, since he took much of the prime property that had been laid to waste and used it to build a palace complex that included a 100-foot-tall statue of himself and spread across as much as 300 acres.
One of those historians, Cornelius Tacitus, who lived during the time of this fire and its aftermath, wrote that when Nero learned that many in the city suspected he had been behind the fire, he sought to find a scapegoat to blame.
He found that scapegoat in Rome’s Christian community, already mistrusted by the native Romans for failing to proclaim the deity of the emperor and for its unusual worship practices, and already hated by the city’s Jews for its connection to Jesus, whom they had rejected as their King.
So Nero blamed the Christians, and many were arrested. They were brutally executed by, as Tacitus wrote, “being thrown to the beasts, crucified, and being burned alive.”
I tell you all these things about Nero and about Rome in the middle of the first century AD, because I want you to understand that this unjust, corrupt, godless, and violent government is the one that ruled this city when the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Roman church.
It was Nero who ruled Rome when Peter wrote his first epistle.
And it was probably at the hands of Nero’s guards that both Peter and Paul would die.
So what these two apostles had to say about the appropriate relationship of a Christian to worldly government should be instructive.
Let’s take a look, first, at what Peter had to say about the matter. We’ll find his thoughts in 1 Peter 2, beginning in verse 11.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
Now, the first thing to note in this passage is how Peter addresses the recipients of his letter here. Do you see it in verse 11?
Aliens and strangers. He calls them “aliens and strangers.” Now this letter was written to the churches in Asia Minor, and there would surely have been some Christians refugees in those churches, but there were also Christians there who were native to that area.
So in what sense could Peter say that these people were aliens and strangers?
Well, it is likely that, by the time he wrote this letter sometime between 62 and 64 AD, Peter had had the chance to read a letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus, which was located in the same region to which Peter was writing.
Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians can be dated to about 60 AD, so it would likely have been in circulation for at least two years by the time Peter wrote his first letter.
And in Ephesians, we see Paul use much the same language about believers, but from the other side of the faith equation.
Paul said that believers had been strangers and aliens to God’s kingdom prior to having turned to Christ in faith. But now that they had put their faith in Jesus, he wrote, “you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.”
So what Peter seems to be doing here is extending upon Paul’s construction.
In other words, as citizens of God’s kingdom, as members of His household, they were now strangers and aliens in this world, and they should no longer be caught up in the things that tempt and corrupt those who are not citizens of God’s kingdom.
Now this is really important, because the Christian’s identity as a stranger and alien in this world is at the heart of how both Peter and Paul would argue they should conduct themselves here.
Verse 12
Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
In other words, do good and not evil, so that when people lie about you and twist your obedience to God into something evil, they will be forced to give Him glory for it before the judgment seat of Christ.
And there’s evidence that this life Peter was urging Christians to lead had the very effect he suggested it would. A second-century letter from an unknown author sought to describe for a Greek man named Diognetus how Christians lived among their pagan neighbors.
I want to read a passage from that letter to you. Listen to the way Christians are described in contrast to those in the pagan culture that surrounded them.
“They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like all other men and they beget children; but they do not cast away their offspring. They have their meals in common, but not their wives. They find themselves in the flesh, and yet they live not after the flesh. Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives. They love all men, and they are persecuted by all. They are ignored, and yet they are condemned. They are put to death, and yet they are endued with life. They are in beggary, and yet they make many rich. They are in want of all things, and yet they abound in all things. They are dishonoured, and yet they are glorified in their dishonour. They are evil spoken of, and yet they are vindicated. They are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and they respect. Doing good they are punished as evil-doers; being punished they rejoice, as if they were thereby quickened by life. War is waged against them as aliens by the Jews, and persecution is carried on against them by the Greeks, and yet those that hate them cannot tell the reason of their hostility. [Joseph Barber Lightfoot and J. R. Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers (London: Macmillan and Co., 1891), 506.]
“They bear their share in all things as citizens, and endure all hardships as strangers.”
That line really gets me. It means that they accepted their responsibilities as citizens of the nations where they lived, but they accepted persecution as if they had no rights as citizens.
Remember that as we continue through Peter’s argument here.
Verse 13
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
Now, this word “submit” comes from a Greek military term that meant “to arrange troop divisions in a military fashion under the command of a leader.” In non-military usage, it had the sense of “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden.”
So Peter is urging his readers — including us — to voluntarily cooperate and assume responsibility in whatever political situation we might find ourselves — whether to a king or to a governor or even, as in Peter’s case near the time that he wrote this letter, to the tyrannical, violent, godless, and evil Roman Emperor Nero.
But why would he encourage such blind obedience to evil political structures?
Verse 15
For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
“The world is totally in the dark when it comes to recognizing the hand of God at work.” [Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 1682.]
But as we who have followed Jesus Christ in faith — we who live as strangers and aliens in this world, even as we wait to see the kingdom of which we are true citizens — as we do good when evil is done to us and as we love all men when we are hated and persecuted by all men, we demonstrate the character of Jesus Christ, and we ensure that when our unrighteous persecutors stand before God, they will have no accusation to bring against us.
Now, Peter anticipates an objection: Having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross at Calvary, are we not free? Didn’t Jesus Himself say, “So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free”?
Look at verse 16.
Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.
Yes, we who follow Jesus Christ in faith are free men and women, but we must not use our freedom in Christ as an excuse to do evil things. Instead, we are to use it as bondslaves to God, as people who represent Him here on earth, as people who have been called to demonstrate His love and mercy and grace.
That means, as Peter sums up in verse 17, that we are to:
Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
Show high regard for all people. Love with a special love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Worship God. Show respect and high regard for the king, or the emperor or the president or the governor or whatever ruler has been put over you.
And Paul, writing in Romans, chapter 13, is explicit about WHY we must honor our governmental authorities, even when they are evil.
This is an important passage in terms of what it tells us about the appropriate relationship of the Christian to his or her government, but we’re going to pick out just a couple of verses, starting at verse 1.
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
Where does the authority to rule come from, according to Paul? From God. Who establishes governing authorities, according to Paul? God does.
Governing authorities are established by God. Does that make them all good? Of course not.
In fact, if we look at Satan’s temptation of Jesus when Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days, we can see that Satan actually has authority over the kingdoms of earth.
Listen to what he said to Jesus as they stood atop a high mountain and looked at “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.”
and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.”
Satan couldn’t promise what he did not have to give, and what he was offering Jesus there was a shortcut, a way to avoid His suffering and death and establish His kingdom on earth apart from the plan that would bring fallen mankind the opportunity for redemption.
And I think Satan has made a similar offer to the many evangelical Christians today who have turned away from Peter’s directions in today’s passage.
They have somehow got it in their heads that it is the church’s responsibility to establish the kingdom of God here on earth, and they have decided to do it through any means necessary.
You might recall that during the Advent season, we talked about what the Bible reveals about the end times. We talked about the rapture of the church and a little about the Great Tribulation and about the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ here on earth.
I didn’t use the word during those messages, but this view of the end times is called premillennialism. It’s the view that the church will be united with Christ BEFORE His millennial reign.
But there are a couple of other theories, one of which is called amillennialism. And that’s the view that there will be no rapture of the church.
In this view, there will also be no literal millennial reign of Christ. What amillennialists believe is that the church will make things better and better here on earth until one day Jesus returns and makes all things new.
And those who trumpet their Christianity as the reason for sedition and violent actions against the government are at least functional amillennialists. They are working to establish God’s kingdom here on earth.
They believe that if we can set up governments according to their interpretations of Scripture that things will be better here. But Satan has authority, at least for now, over the governments of earth, and we can easily see just how poorly our efforts at establishing God’s kingdom through earthly politics has worked out.
Not well, right?
We haven’t been called to establish God’s kingdom here on earth. Jesus will do that when He returns and reigns after the Great Tribulation. WE have been called to DISPLAY God’s kingdom, even in the midst of the corrupt and broken government systems that have been given authority over us here.
Amillennialists “work to make a Christian America. [Premillennialists] work for a truly free America.” [Norman L. Geisler, “A Premillennial View of Law and Government,” Bibliotheca Sacra 142 (1985): 260.] We work to make an America that takes care of the poor, of the orphan, and of the widow, an America where people are FREE to live godly lives and not compelled to do so.
So, in light of all this, what is to be the Christian relationship to governing authorities? Look at verse 7.
Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
In other words, pay your taxes, whether in the context of personal taxes or business customs. Obey the law and respect those who are charged with upholding it. And honor the government leaders whom God has established in authority.
Whether they are good or evil. Whether they are just or not. Whether you agree with them or not. Whether they are legitimate or not. Whether it brings you comfort or suffering to do so.
Now, there are times when Scripture suggests that the Christian can and should disobey government authorities, and we will talk about that next week, but let me just tell you now that, by and large, those conditions do not exist here in America at this time.
Right now, we are to submit.
What those people who carried Jesus flags into the capitol building 11 days ago were doing was just the opposite of submitting. We must not be like them.
We must not allow ourselves to get caught up by conspiracy theories and arguments about the legitimacy of the election. We must abstain from the passions that drive people to do what they did at the Capitol 11 days ago.
Those things are not our concern, anyway. We are aliens and strangers here. We are ambassadors here of the Kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in heaven, and our king is Jesus Christ. We MUST not bring dishonor to His name by allowing ourselves to become too entangled in the politics of this world.
We must live as people who demonstrate that their hope is not in governments or political parties or politicians. We must live as people who demonstrate that our hope is in Jesus Christ, the only one who gives any of us true hope.
As this nation prepares to inaugurate a new president on Wednesday, I encourage you to look at it differently than you may have in the past. Look at it as the alien — the outsider — that you are as a citizen of God’s kingdom. Let go of any anger or worry you may have as a result of events of the past few months and