The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E44 - Authority

Episode Date: June 22, 2020

Hey, church family. If you've got your Bibles, go to Romans chapter 13. One of the things I've heard in the past few weeks is are we as a church getting political? I never have any intentions of getting political. What we want to do is be biblical always. And as we teach the full counsel of God, there are many, many biblical issues that show up in the current events of our lives. And so as the Bible leads us to talk about these things as we talk about these things. And so the past few weeks, for sure, I've been leaning heavy into what the gospel says about, about justice and fighting for the oppressed. And so in order to teach the full counsel in line with what's going on in our world, I want to just look at Romans chapter 13. Now, if you want to hear like an hour sermon on it, you can go back to the Roman series where I taught on this, but this will be much, much shorter. Let me read these words. It says, let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resist the authorities resist what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. would you have no fear of the one who is in authority, then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For the authorities

are ministers of God. Attending to this very thing, pay to all that is owed to them. Taxes, to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed. Well, this is a doozy for Devo time, isn't it? But I felt led to go here, okay? A couple of things I want to say. First and foremost, just know this. We all bring ourselves to the scripture. And so whatever your experience and whatever your background is, you bring that to the reading of the scripture.

And I'm just going to be honest, when I read these scriptures with my experience and my background, I never try to use my platform for any kind of politics or whatever. But, you know, I'm a red-blooded America, gun-toting, Bible-believing, thin blue-line conservative. who I am, and that's how I come to this. But my experience and upbringing is not the authority in my life. Jesus Christ and His Word is my authority. And if you don't believe what I believe about certain things socially and politically, praise God. We're a movement for all people to discover

a deep in a relationship with Jesus Christ. But what we do have to agree on is the authority of the Word of God. And so God's word, Paul, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes, let every person and be subject to the governing authorities. And then at the end, he says that we should honor those authorities. We should respect those authorities. Now, I know there's all kind of unrest right now in our nation, and there's all kind of talks of reform. All of those things.

Praise God for all of that. But let me give you just a little background of when Paul is writing. You see, Paul's writing to the Christians in Rome. There was a Roman emperor named Claudius, and Christians, Jews who had become Christians, they began to say, not Caesar is Lord, but Jesus is Lord. And because of that, he kicked all of them out of Rome. And then after a while, they began to trickle back in, they began to move back in. And then Claudius, he kind of handed over his reign to Nero.

And the way he handed it over to him is that Nero's mom, a poison to Claudius. So you want to talk about some corrupt emperors. I mean, you want to talk about a corrupt system of government. And not only that, Nero was a sicko. Neero was the kind of emperor that would kill Christians. That it's reported by Tacitus, who was a Roman historian, that Nero would get the bodies of believing Christians, and he would put them on stakes and light them on fire and have a party. and the light from the burning bodies of Christians would be the light that provided was provided at the party. And even in that context, Paul says, all authority is from God. That Nero was so sick that he took thousands and thousands and thousands of Christians

and he would have them crucified along the roadways so that no one would stand up and revolt against them. In fact, this is how sick Nero is. Nero's wife got pregnant, and he was jealous of his pregnant wife because she was going to have a son he feared, and he knew that if it was a son, then maybe one day he would take over his throne, and so he kicked his wife to death. And after kicking his wife to death, he felt guilty,

and there was a young boy in the city that looked like his wife, and so he kidnapped that young. boy castrated him, dressed him like his wife, and called him by his dead wife's name in public and married. Pretty sick. That's the context that this is written in. You see, oftentimes when we read the scriptures, we can be self-absorbed that the first thing we do is we look at ourselves in this instead of looking at what God's word said. And even in that kind of context, Paul says let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instructed by God. Therefore whoever resist the authorities resist what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment.

Now basically what he's saying in this passage is there's four different groups. You fall, you and I fall into one of four different categories according to Romans 13. the large majority of us, hopefully, are law-abiding citizens that are good citizens in this world. And for those that are us, most of us, I would hope, that we are called by God to obey the law. And not just the laws that make sense to us, like don't murder, don't steal, those kind of things, but even the laws that we don't even love, like speed limits and tearing off the tag for the pillow, whatever that's about, okay?

And the reason is because God knows that at the core of the human heart is rebellion. And without authority, there will be anarchy. And anarchy is always the environment where tyranny rules and reigns, and that never goes good for anybody, including God's people. And so, for law-abiding citizens, we are to honor the authority that God has placed above us, and a part of the way we honor that is by honoring the laws of our lands, for sure. There's a second group that he talks about, okay?

So there are people under authority that are obeying the law. Then there are people in authority that God has established. So I just want to say a quick word to the police officers, to the first responders. Honestly, I think this includes like our military, I mean, almost anybody with a uniform and a badge that when problems happen, you run towards them and not away from it. I need you to hear this from the order of God and from me. I can't speak for everybody, but I'll speak for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for putting your life on the line. Thank you that you run towards danger and step up away from it.

That you, as a police officer, as a first responder, as a veteran, did you know that you have been ordained by God? even if you don't believe in God. I'm sure you do if you're listening to the Devo, but that you have been ordained by God, that you are an actor of the justice of God. I used to be the police chaplain for Jack's Beach PD. And when they would bring in a new class of cadets or whatever they call them, officers,

they would invite me to kind of give like a little mini sermon and pray over them. One of the things that I would always say, according to Romans 13, that I want to say to you is this, is that you literally are an answer to prayer. That somebody, somebody cries out because they are in great distress. They cry out, dear God, help me, because somebody is attacking them, they're robbing them, whatever it is.

And you know who God sins? God doesn't send a preacher. God doesn't send a priest. God doesn't send a deacon. God doesn't send an elder. You know who God sins? God sends you, you, the authority. And so if you are in a place of authority,

then you have a high and holy calling, and may you be a bright light, may you stand up for justice, may you be an incredible example of what it looks like to be a servant leader. You see, then there's a third category. In that category, verse three, for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? do what is good, and you will receive his approval. So there are subjects under authority that are obeying the law. There is authority appointed by God that is doing so in a just and righteous way. But then there are some people that find themselves in authority, and they abuse that authority. Basically what Romans says is this. If you abuse the authority given to you by God,

then you better heads up. You better repent, because God will abuse you. There is no place for that. and if there is an authority that is against the will and righteousness of God, then the subjects, what they do is they rise up to the higher authority, which is God himself. And then there is a final category. And that final category is the lawbreaker. And the Bible makes it very clear that if you do wrong, be afraid.

for he, the man and authority, the woman in authority, does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God and avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. And so, if you are that wrongdoer, then you are not hiding from the Lord. You should repent. You should change your ways right now. You should turn to Jesus, and Jesus will forgive you of all of your sins. He may not rescue you from the consequences of those sins. and so do we stand up against injustice? Yes, and amen. And if that injustice is happening with some organization or a government organization,

then praise God, by the way things work in this country, we can change those things, and we should, without a doubt. But the largest, the overwhelming majority of the people that are called into these lines of service are there to protect and service. are there to protect and serve. And to those men and women, once again, we say thank you. And there has been a huge lack in our society of respect and honor. Now here's the thing.

Respect is earned and honor is given. And the Bible says that we should give respect to those whom respect is owed and honor is owed. So Church of 1122, may we be a change agent in our society. May we be the kind of people that honor the men and women that serve and protect us and simultaneously, may we be the kind of people that respect and honor the men and women that feel oppressed in this society. May by the gospel of Jesus Christ, we live under the authority of our God in heaven. And may we be peacemakers, not just peacekeepers, but peacemakers. And I would challenge you this week. I would challenge you this week. When you see men and women in authority, when you see men and women, first responders,

policemen, firemen, rescue drivers, all these folks, when you see these folks, when you see them around, would you take just a second to say thank you? Would you just take a second and give them some honor? Would you just thank them for doing what they do so that we could live in the freedom that we get to live in. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father. God, we thank you for the men and women who have served our country for hundreds of years, Lord.

The men and women that have gone overseas to fight for our freedom, the men and women that have protected this great land, the men and women that ride the streets of America to serve and protect. Lord, we pray, that you would reveal those that are abusing the power given to them by you. And Lord, we pray that your justice would be swift. God, we pray for anyone, all the folks who have been oppressed by the

authority, even though it was instituted by you. God, I thank you that you are at work in all things for the good of those that love you and are called according to your purpose. And, God, you can use even people that abuse their authority to bring about your will see Pontius Pilate. And God, I Thank you for the men and women that serve, that serve in the military, that serve in the police departments, and that serve in the fire departments, Lord, the people that are literally an answer to our prayer,

that we pray to you and you send them. God, may we not take them for granted. And Lord, I pray that maybe you would use us as agents of encouragement this week to encourage those that you have placed in these people. positions. And God, I pray that they would not take these positions like them, that they would steward them well. We pray it in Jesus' name.