SPEAKER_01: Hello, my name is Adam.
SPEAKER_01: The Old Testament reading is found in Deuteronomy chapter 13, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if a prophet or a dream interpreter appears among you and performs a sign or wonder for you, and the sign or wonder that was spoken actually occurs, if he says, Come on, we should follow other gods, ones you haven't experienced, and we should worship them.
SPEAKER_01: You must not listen to the prophet's or dream interpreter's words.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Lord your God is testing you to see if you love the Lord your God with all your mind and all your being.
SPEAKER_01: You must follow the Lord your God alone.
SPEAKER_01: Revere Him.
SPEAKER_01: Follow His commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Obey His voice.
SPEAKER_01: Worship Him.
SPEAKER_01: Cling to Him.
SPEAKER_01: No other.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Eddie.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament reading is found in Acts chapter four, verses one through four.
SPEAKER_00: While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain, of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them.
SPEAKER_00: They were incensed that the past the apostles were teaching the people and announcing that the resurrection of the dead was happening because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They seized Peter and John and put them in prison till the next day.
SPEAKER_00: It was already evening.
SPEAKER_00: Many who heard the word became believers, and their numbers grew to about five thousand.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: My name is Greg.
SPEAKER_03: The lesson today is from Matthew 26, 3 through 5.
SPEAKER_03: Then the chief priests and elders of the people gathered in the courtyard of Caiaphas, the high priest.
SPEAKER_03: They were plotting to arrest Jesus by cunning tricks and to kill him.
SPEAKER_03: But they agreed it shouldn't happen during the feast, so there wouldn't be an uproar among the people.
SPEAKER_03: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And would you not only just work in us and form us, but work through us for the sake of our city and our world?
SPEAKER_02: We pray all this in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning, saints.
SPEAKER_02: Happy Eastertide.
SPEAKER_02: Stephanie says it's the second Sunday in the 50-day feast celebrating resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Jason.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_02: Again, if you're new or newer, we want to welcome you.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_02: And hello to everybody that's watching online or watching the recording later.
SPEAKER_02: We're having some troubles with the screens.
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, we'll get those figured out.
SPEAKER_02: It has been a morning.
SPEAKER_02: So we want to thank our production team, our worship team, our staff, our setup team.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna have to call at 6:30 this morning that the elevator was broken again.
SPEAKER_02: And about half to two-thirds of our uh materials we use every Sunday are right below me.
SPEAKER_02: Um and so we were carrying it all up through this little cubby hole uh right here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: And then we had baptisms on top of that.
SPEAKER_02: So it was uh uh a whirlwind.
SPEAKER_02: So another reminder to keep praying for a permanent facility uh for us to call home.
SPEAKER_02: I hope to give you an update on that next Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Um we're gonna have like a brief family meeting right after service, update you on a couple things for the summer uh and hopefully for the future as well.
SPEAKER_02: So please just keep praying uh from there.
SPEAKER_02: But if you have a Bible, please turn with me to Acts chapter four.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna dive right in today, uh, resuming that series uh through the book of Acts called Kingdom Movement as a way of reminder.
SPEAKER_02: Acts is part two of a two-volume work uh by a writer named Luke.
SPEAKER_02: In the first volume, which was referred to as the Gospel of Luke, Luke recounts everything that Jesus did and taught in his physical body by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: So it gives us the story of Jesus' life and ministry and death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: And then in the book of Acts, the second volume, Acts recounts everything Jesus continues to do and continues to teach through his body, the church, empowered by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: So what Luke is doing between these two volumes is he's emphasizing the continuity between the ministry of Jesus before his ascension to heaven and the ministry of Jesus in and through the church after Pentecost, after the coming of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And so it's a way to help us clue in that the ministry of Jesus is supposed to be the model for the church.
SPEAKER_02: That the way that Jesus lived his life is now how we, as the followers of Jesus, are called to live.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus spent his time proclaiming the arrival of God's kingdom, saying that God's future reign was now available in the present.
SPEAKER_02: And the church does the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: We proclaim that the kingdom is here.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus goes about demonstrating the arrival of the kingdom in healing and deliverance and praying for people and they're healed and delivering people and they're set free.
SPEAKER_02: And so now the church engages in that same activity in the ministries of healing and deliverance.
SPEAKER_02: These are signs in the presence of the kingdom that is coming and already, in some ways, here.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus goes around calling people to repent and to follow him, to turn their lives in a different direction and to learn to live in a new way.
SPEAKER_02: And so the church, too, invites people to become apprentices or students, learners of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus taught his students then how to live in God's kingdom, how to live as if we're going as we're going to live in the future, to live in right relationship with God and others in ways that reflect God's character and nature.
SPEAKER_02: And so the church continues to disciple people in the way of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: What we'll see today is that what ultimately happened to Jesus also begins to happen to the church.
SPEAKER_02: That as Jesus was proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom, the availability of the reign of God in the world, this led to a conflict between Jesus and the powers of his day, between the local Jewish authorities and the Roman governors.
SPEAKER_02: And so we'll see in Acts that the church's proclamation and demonstration of the kingdom leads to a conflict between the church and those very same ruling powers.
SPEAKER_02: This first conflict occurs in Acts chapter 4, where we are today.
SPEAKER_02: In the previous chapter, which Pastor Brock talked about a few weeks ago, we see Peter and John going up toward the temple, and they come in through the temple gate called the gate called beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: And there is a man who is now in his 40s and he's lived with a disability since birth.
SPEAKER_02: And every day someone is carrying him from his home to this gate where he can sit and ask for money.
SPEAKER_02: And as they come into the gate, the man is there and he cries out to Peter and John asking for help.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter spoke to him, but he spoke to him and said, Silver and gold have I none, but in the name of Jesus, stand up and walk.
SPEAKER_02: And the man did.
SPEAKER_02: He was healed.
SPEAKER_02: He stood up and he walked and he ran toward the disciples and he clutched them.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter and everyone was, or everyone saw this was happening, and people began to rush toward the scene.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what is happening here?
SPEAKER_02: And they see this man, who they've seen day after day after day after day, every time they come in through that gate, now standing and they're in awe.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter begins to tell them about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And we see that they're then proclaiming the gospel, and then this happens in Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_02: While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees, which was a religious group that was associated with the temple at the time, confronted them.
SPEAKER_02: They were incensed.
SPEAKER_02: They were angry, they were furious that the apostles were doing this, that they were teaching people and announcing the resurrection of the dead, and announcing specifically that the resurrection of the dead was already happening because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And so they seized Peter and John and they put them in prison until the next day, because it was already evening by the time that they arrested them.
SPEAKER_02: As this story goes on in Acts 4, we see that they then interrogated them.
SPEAKER_02: They're asking them, by what power or what authority in what name are you doing this?
SPEAKER_02: It's probably connected to that Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy chapter 13, where they're supposed to test, like, in what name, in what power, by what authority are you doing this?
SPEAKER_02: And are you going to ask us to worship other gods?
SPEAKER_02: But instead, the disciples respond first by saying, Are we really in trouble for doing good?
SPEAKER_02: Like, is that really what this is all about?
SPEAKER_02: This man was healed, and now we're in trouble.
SPEAKER_02: Said my kids, never in trouble for doing good.
SPEAKER_02: No, that's not why you're in trouble today.
SPEAKER_02: But here the disciples then boldly proclaim that they did this in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And they're specifically earlier in the chapter and elsewhere connecting Jesus to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the God of Israel, to the God known as Yahweh.
SPEAKER_02: And they're saying, Jesus is the one that God has glorified.
SPEAKER_02: We're not doing this in anyone else's name than in the name of the God that you claim to serve, the very same Jesus that you also killed.
SPEAKER_02: But God has now raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: And so all of these authorities are taken aback by these seemingly common people speaking to them with such eloquence and boldness, and they just don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: And so they send Peter and John out of the room, and they begin to have a discussion amongst themselves.
SPEAKER_02: They have to decide what are we going to do with these rabble rousers?
SPEAKER_02: And then their discussion, they're like, well, we can't deny what happened.
SPEAKER_02: It's clear this man is walking.
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't walking before.
SPEAKER_02: We can't deny that.
SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, we don't want this to spread.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want this to go viral.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want this on Instagram.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want this in any of those places.
SPEAKER_02: We've got to get this to stop.
SPEAKER_02: Because for them, the proclamation of the gospel that Jesus has been raised from the dead posed a clear and present danger to their power, to their authority, to their position.
SPEAKER_02: That if Jesus is really doing this, if God is really doing this now in and through Jesus, then what it means is everything is changing, and that's scary to them.
SPEAKER_02: Well, they didn't have the grounds at this point to punish the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: They called them back in and they threatened them.
SPEAKER_02: And they called this uh verse 18 now, when they called Peter and John back, they demanded that they stop speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So you have to stop.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter and John responded, Well, it's up to you to determine whether it's right before God to obey you rather than God.
SPEAKER_02: As for us, we can't stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.
SPEAKER_02: And so then the authorities they double down and they threatened them further.
SPEAKER_02: You know, this is not just gonna be a timeout, you're gonna lose your, you know, screen time or something.
SPEAKER_02: They're threatening them, but then they ultimately release them.
SPEAKER_02: And they have to release them because the public support for Peter and John, they just couldn't find a way to punish them at that time.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is the first instance of something like this happening, but it is going to continue throughout the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: And what we'll see is as the book of Acts continues, this just gets greater and greater and greater.
SPEAKER_02: That the apostles, the followers of Jesus, will suffer like, and they will suffer because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: In the next chapter, they're arrested again, and they're interrogated, and then they get led out of prison by an angel.
SPEAKER_02: That's a different story, so they get arrested again, interrogated again.
SPEAKER_02: This time they're beaten before they are released.
SPEAKER_02: In the following chapter, in Acts chapter 6, Stephen, one from their number, is now executed, legally killed for his faith in Jesus, in the same way that Jesus was legally killed.
SPEAKER_02: This wasn't just some you know drive-by situation.
SPEAKER_02: This was not considered a criminal act against Jesus or against Stephen.
SPEAKER_02: This was legally authorized.
SPEAKER_02: They had cause and permission and authority, and they executed Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Now Stephen is executed.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll see as the book of Acts goes on that there just continues to increase.
SPEAKER_02: That there is a systematic oppression by, particularly at this point in Acts, by the Jewish religious leaders who have some state-granted powers.
SPEAKER_02: They have authority to arrest and to execute and to um to uh act in a uh in a legal sort of manner within uh Judea.
SPEAKER_02: They've got these powers.
SPEAKER_02: And then we'll see as the book continues that that's gonna move beyond those Jewish leaders into the full civil government with Rome and its king, its emperor, its governor, etc.
SPEAKER_02: That we're gonna see this conflict escalate.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, this doesn't just end when the book of Acts ends.
SPEAKER_02: This continues throughout church history and continues into today.
SPEAKER_02: For those of you who are aware of what some of our brothers and sisters around the world face for their faith in Jesus, many of them are ostracized, they're disowned, they lose jobs, they lose families, they lose access to all kinds of resources because of their faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Many are imprisoned, and many are even killed because of doing things like this: gathering, teaching, talking, uh praying, reading the scriptures together.
SPEAKER_02: And so we find that in the book of Acts that there is something that begins to develop that we have to talk about and sort of wrestle through.
SPEAKER_02: Because especially, I think, for us, in the place that we find ourselves in, in the time that we find ourselves in, it maybe is a little bit more difficult to unravel, can be a little bit harder, more confusing, and a greater amount of tension, maybe than what our brothers and sisters might face in places where there is just all out persecution.
SPEAKER_02: But that is what really is the relationship between Christians or the church and the state or government?
SPEAKER_02: How do we navigate those kinds of relationships?
SPEAKER_02: And the scriptures oftentimes give us uh some guidelines, but sometimes those guidelines often can even add to the tension for us.
SPEAKER_02: For example, in Romans chapter 13, we read this from Paul.
SPEAKER_02: He says, every person should place themselves under the authority of the government.
SPEAKER_02: There isn't any authority unless it comes from God.
SPEAKER_02: And the authorities that are there, they've been put in place by God.
SPEAKER_02: And so anyone who opposes the authority is standing against what God has established.
SPEAKER_02: And he goes on for several more verses to talk about how the authority, the government, the state, whatever word we want to use, is really supposed to be God's servant to restrain evil in the world and to promote the common good.
SPEAKER_02: And that followers of Jesus are supposed to get behind that effort of restraining evil and promoting good.
SPEAKER_02: A couple of the uh years ago, about two years ago now in the fall, we did a political discipleship course with our friends at International Anglican Church.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that we said in the middle of that course was this that when we're thinking as kingdom people, as those who are caught up in the kingdom of God, what we believe is this is the church is for us, for Christians, the primary political community, our primary sense of involvement through which God is renewing creation.
SPEAKER_02: And we believe that God has started something beautiful in Jesus in the church, filled with the Spirit, bringing about renewal and resurrection into the world now as a force taste of what's to come.
SPEAKER_02: And then governments are a secondary political community or secondary political communities through which God is preserving creation, keeping it from tumbling into chaos and to evil, preserving it in many ways through its promotion of just and good laws and uh protection of life and property and all of those kind of things.
SPEAKER_02: And so the church is the movement of renewal and healing and hope in the world, and governments play this role as well.
SPEAKER_02: Hence, in that idea, Christians are then called to honor and to pray for and to submit to the authority that has been ordained by God.
SPEAKER_02: But we know, of course, that there are times that the church fails at its mission.
SPEAKER_02: The church fails to be all that God intended it to be.
SPEAKER_02: And then in those moments, the church must be confronted and corrected and reformed as an act of love, as an act of commitment.
SPEAKER_02: Say, we believe in this thing.
SPEAKER_02: We want, well, we believe what God has set it up to be, but what's happening here right now is wrong.
SPEAKER_02: And there are times that governments too fail at their mission, and they must be confronted and corrected as an act of love.
SPEAKER_02: Now, these words that Paul wrote in Romans chapter 13, they're written by him to the church in Rome, probably in the late 50s, not the 1950s, but like the 5050s.
SPEAKER_02: Um, way early on.
SPEAKER_02: What's really interesting is at the time that Paul's writing that letter, it's early on, probably in the reign of the Emperor Nero, uh, the guy from the little Caesars boxes.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know if that's the one, but just there's a picture, there's a picture for you.
SPEAKER_02: Um so it's early on in the reign of Nero.
SPEAKER_02: And at that time, kind of in the late, mid to late 50s, Christianity was seen as sort of a sect or a movement within Judaism.
SPEAKER_02: And it enjoyed a kind of legally protected status within Rome.
SPEAKER_02: So the church's early conflict really is kind of between Christians and the Jewish governing authorities.
SPEAKER_02: But within Rome, they kind of just say, like Jews and Christians, they're the same.
SPEAKER_02: And so they have this protected legal status.
SPEAKER_02: But then what happens in the mid-60s is there's this great fire in Rome.
SPEAKER_02: It's an absolutely catastrophic event.
SPEAKER_02: And then a rumor begins to spread that Nero cost it so that he could clear out some space for his new building project.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, probably not true, but Nero and any side didn't like what this did to his public opinion.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so he needed to find someone else to blame for what happened.
SPEAKER_02: And so the scapegoat for Nero became the Christians.
SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden the hostilities began to increase.
SPEAKER_02: And that protected status they had as a sect of Judaism, they now suddenly were seen as an illegal, superstitious sort of movement.
SPEAKER_02: And the distance between Jews and Christians became quite great during that time as well.
SPEAKER_02: And so a few years after this, Paul, who wrote those very words about um the government being God's servant, is arrested and beheaded in Rome.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're already going, like, oh, there's tension here.
SPEAKER_02: And that tension then sort of pushes us into maybe one of the other passages that is oftentimes talked about in Christian thinking about government, is probably more akin to the setting after the fire in Rome than before the fire in Rome.
SPEAKER_02: We see this drastically different passage in Revelation chapter 13.
SPEAKER_02: So Romans 13, and now we get Revelation 13.
SPEAKER_02: Revelation 13, it's using some sort of you know cryptic and apocalyptic language.
SPEAKER_02: It says, I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, and it had 10.
SPEAKER_02: Horns and seven heads, and each of its horns was decorated with a royal crown.
SPEAKER_02: So what he's talking about here is he's talking about governments.
SPEAKER_02: And on its head were blasphemous names.
SPEAKER_02: And the beast I saw was like a leopard, and its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.
SPEAKER_02: And the dragon, the great enemy of God, gave this beast its power, its throne, and its great authority.
SPEAKER_02: So now all of a sudden we see a different passage where the government, which was intended to be God's servant, is now an instrument of God's enemies.
SPEAKER_02: And not only that, it's become inhuman.
SPEAKER_02: It's acting inhumanely, so it's described in beastly sort of terminology and imagery.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, it's now participating in evil.
SPEAKER_02: And the posture shifts from one of submission and obedience and support to resistance and to disobedience.
SPEAKER_02: This letter was probably written in the mid-90s.
SPEAKER_02: Again, not the 1990s, the regular 90s.
SPEAKER_02: And this was under the persecution of another emperor named Domitian, who's calling for his own worship.
SPEAKER_02: Worship me.
SPEAKER_02: And Christians are resisting that.
SPEAKER_02: It's written by John as he's exiled on the island of Patmos.
SPEAKER_02: So here's where I think it gets really tricky is that we have Romans 13 and we have Revelation 13, and they're two opposing poles.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: They give us kind of the two extremes of what this can look like.
SPEAKER_02: And what can happen for us is that we can quickly fall into either or thinking.
SPEAKER_02: The government is either God's servant or it's the beast.
SPEAKER_02: And if it's beastly, if it's moving in that direction, then the church is called to uh what people have called civil disobedience.
SPEAKER_02: What John Lewis, the late senator or congressman and uh civil rights leader called good and necessary trouble.
SPEAKER_02: That the church is called to engage in that.
SPEAKER_02: And we see this throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_02: We think of the Hebrew midwives Shifra and Puah, who are defying the Egyptian Pharaoh and not doing what he's commanded them to do.
SPEAKER_02: Or Shadrach, Meshach, Abendigo, and Daniel defying the Babylonian kings, or the early church defying Rome and not worshiping the emperor, or people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or the community of Le Shambong, who are resisting Nazism and Hitler.
SPEAKER_02: Or we think of the civil rights movement in the United States or the underground church around the world who are gathering illegally in order to worship the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And so if it's beastly, then yes, you know, resist.
SPEAKER_02: But if it's God's servant, then it should be submitted to and supported and got behind.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's a lot easier to sort of navigate when that government is a democracy, where there is some say and support and involvement of people as opposed to a dictatorship.
SPEAKER_02: And certainly maybe easier when we're uh looking at the origin of that government, and we can see that uh the origin of that government has some Christian values or Christian adjacent values and origins and things that we can get behind, and we can find ourselves going, like, oh, I'm so grateful for a government that's based on the idea that people are made in the image of God and should be treated as such.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm so grateful for this, and I'm so grateful for that, especially when we consider the alternatives.
SPEAKER_02: So grateful for a place where there's freedom of religion and freedom of speech, and we can think about the options on the other side and go, oh man, I don't want to have anything to do with that.
SPEAKER_02: But what can be a little bit challenging is that gratitude can move in some places into a kind of an unquestioning loyalty, where there's a sort of demand, either subtly or consciously or unconsciously, to give ultimate allegiance to a nation or to a person or to a party.
SPEAKER_02: And then that allegiance becomes a moral or faith litmus test.
SPEAKER_02: That if there is unquestioned sort of, you know, loyalty and support, then that's proof of faith.
SPEAKER_02: And if there's not, then all of a sudden faith or morals become in question.
SPEAKER_02: This, of course, plays out most of the time in social media and other short-form communications, which are just really not helpful most of the time.
SPEAKER_02: But it ends up kind of presenting to us black and white, either or, for and against, patriot or traitor, Christian or not.
SPEAKER_02: As if there's no subtleties or nuances in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_02: But the truth is that most government entities at every level, from your homeowners association and school board to the city, the county, the state, and the federal, they don't fit neatly into one of those two categories.
SPEAKER_02: It's not either all Romans 13 or all Revelation 13.
SPEAKER_02: There's a mix.
SPEAKER_02: There's a mix of justice and righteous and good policies and ones that are unjust or unrighteous or unhelpful ones.
SPEAKER_02: There's a mix of uh of policies being all around the board.
SPEAKER_02: And even the best policies oftentimes have weaknesses to them.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes even their implementation of those policies don't reflect the spirit that the policy was made.
SPEAKER_02: And so we end up in these kind of nuances where, like, well, yeah, I agree with the policy, but the way that it's being applied, I don't like that.
SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden, there's a tension there for us.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's a mix of wise leaders who seem to be filled with character and trying to make the best decisions, and those who are foolish or worse, those that have good motives, and those whose motives seem to be entirely selfish.
SPEAKER_02: And even in situations where we have great leaders, sometimes the best leaders make mistakes.
SPEAKER_02: They err, they misjudge, they have regrets.
SPEAKER_02: And how they respond in those moments tell us a lot about their character and whether or not they can be trusted.
SPEAKER_02: So when we wrestle with this, we have to sort of honestly and really humbly admit that there is a dynamic tension that is difficult to navigate.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a complication that's really hard to understand all of the time, to know all of the details that we run into our own limits of understanding, our own limits of perspective.
SPEAKER_02: And what happens is then sometimes it just gets really hard to even engage in the conversation because we feel so far behind, or we're just worried about what the response is going to be.
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, how do we navigate this?
SPEAKER_02: I even just personally just feel like all weekend I was like, oh, I'm gonna talk about this, and my stomach was bothering me all weekend.
SPEAKER_02: But to be formed as a community of disciples, to be formed together as a community for the common good, we have to wrestle with these things.
SPEAKER_02: We have to have some conversations.
SPEAKER_02: And so I want to just throw out a couple of perspectives and practices that I think that are essential for us to hold together as we talk to one another.
SPEAKER_02: These are very basic, they're very introductory, they will not capture all of the nuance and complications of the conversation by any means.
SPEAKER_02: They in themselves will be limited.
SPEAKER_02: But my hope is that they just are good reminders to us and they help us start conversations.
SPEAKER_02: I've said before, I think the best sermons are the sermons that start conversations.
SPEAKER_02: Those that start a conversation between us and God in prayer and us with one another as we discern how to follow Jesus in the day and time we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_02: I think the first one is simply this is that our first allegiance as followers of Jesus is to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's so important for us to remember that as Christians, our primary citizenship is in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's what's signified by baptism.
SPEAKER_02: By baptism, baptism, we're beginning a new life in God's new world, and we're we're saying He is our king, and we are giving our fidelity to him.
SPEAKER_02: And so the scriptures, especially the New Testament, describe often that Christians are those who now live as exiles in the land that they were born in, because we now belong to a different world, and we are now ambassadors, representatives of the kingdom of God in a strange land that we've always lived in.
SPEAKER_02: Because our citizenship has shifted.
SPEAKER_02: But our primary citizenship and allegiance is to the king and his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: As such, this is what we see in Acts that we see them wrestling with this, that our primary allegiance and ultimate submission, our ultimate obedience belongs to him.
SPEAKER_02: Hence the apostles saying, We're going to obey God, even though you've told us to stop.
SPEAKER_02: And so, whenever the laws and values and practices and mores of any authority within our world align with the words and the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Both the words and the way.
SPEAKER_02: They both matter.
SPEAKER_02: We can add our strength and add our support and add our prayers and say, yes, this is great.
SPEAKER_02: And whenever they conflict with either the words or the way of Jesus, we must remember there's a greater king and a higher law that demands our first allegiance.
SPEAKER_02: And we say, sorry, no.
SPEAKER_02: And whenever it's not clear or it's complicated, which is most of the time, especially for us, we practice discernment, which means we study the scriptures, we pray, we seek to understand, we ask a lot of questions rather than making accusations.
SPEAKER_02: We try to understand different perspectives, we try to put ourselves in different people's shoes.
SPEAKER_02: We seek wisdom by asking experts and saying, okay, what are you thinking about this?
SPEAKER_02: We engage in conversation so that we can discern.
SPEAKER_02: And discernment for Christians is primarily a communal one that we engage in together, not just one that we do on our own.
SPEAKER_02: So the first one is that that Jesus is our first allegiance.
SPEAKER_02: The second is this our ultimate hope is in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We talked about this a lot last week, um, about resurrection hope, a hope anchored in the world to come.
SPEAKER_02: We have a lot of hopes.
SPEAKER_02: We have a lot of desires, a lot of things that we want, particularly as we think about any sort of ruling authority, whether that's related to safety or economy or uh laws, or particularly the way that law embodies our values.
SPEAKER_02: There's things that we want to be true, there's changes that we want to see in society, and we recognize that God has established government to prepare to play a very critical role in that.
SPEAKER_02: We always have to remember what its primary role is, and then its primary role is somewhat limited.
SPEAKER_02: It is there to restrain evil, to establish justice, to protect life and property.
SPEAKER_02: But the renewal and restoration and healing and ultimate sort of defeat of evil, the recreation of all things, that's the role of the church to engage in.
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, it's the reign of Jesus that will bring those things about.
SPEAKER_02: Resurrection and new creation don't come about through human governments.
SPEAKER_02: Resurrection and new creation only come about through Jesus working in and through his people by the Spirit, and ultimately when he returns and establishes that for good.
SPEAKER_02: But our temptation is to overly associate our hope with a nation, with a person, with a platform, with a party, whatever, and said, look, well, if this just happens, then everything will be okay.
SPEAKER_02: We have to recognize not everything will be okay until Jesus comes back.
SPEAKER_02: That's where our hope is.
SPEAKER_02: And we live out of that.
SPEAKER_02: Third thing is this that Jesus calls us to love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: That's our call, to love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: So our engagement in civic life, in our schools and our neighborhoods, and our city, our nation, our world, all of that engagement that we get into, that engagement should be guided by our call to love others.
SPEAKER_02: To do what Jeremiah said, to seek the shalom, to seek the peace, to seek the flourishing of the city that we've been sent into in exile, to seek the common good of all, and particularly to seek the good of the vulnerable, those who are most at risk in any society.
SPEAKER_02: And not simply to seek after our own interests, but to love others, which requires proximity, being in relationship, and involves action, doing stuff within our limits, knowing we can't be experts on every sort of field, we won't have an idea of how to engage in every sort of situation, but to say, okay, with what I do have and where I am passionate and how God has wired me, how do I get involved?
SPEAKER_02: Some of that may be through volunteering, some of that may be through a vocation.
SPEAKER_02: I know a number of you are engaged in government vocation, teaching in our schools, serving in our law enforcement, working in our political system, serving as lawyers, coming alongside, working in utilities, or serving on school boards, or finding all kinds of ways to get involved and to say, okay, I want to serve and support and help the best I can.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason that we are there is to love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: And even we think about our vote or our voice, all of that is done of how do I honor God and love others?
SPEAKER_02: How do I keep my first allegiance to the king and the kingdom and love others with the power or opportunity that God has given me?
SPEAKER_02: How do I use whatever I've been given in service to others?
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus is our model.
SPEAKER_02: He is the suffering servant whose reign is marked by a cross.
SPEAKER_02: So our involvement is not marked by a desire to gain can gain power for the sake of control.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what the cross is about.
SPEAKER_02: But the cross reminds us of we're supposed to use whatever strength we've been given to lay it down in service to others for the sake of love.
SPEAKER_02: That's our call.
SPEAKER_02: And then last point as we get ready to come to the table is this is that Jesus calls us to prophetic witness.
SPEAKER_02: Prophecy in the scriptures is not primarily about predicting the future.
SPEAKER_02: Those are parts of it.
SPEAKER_02: It's about proclaiming the truth, about speaking the truth to power when it needs to be spoken.
SPEAKER_02: This is one of the roles of the Old Testament prophets.
SPEAKER_02: And what's interesting is that a primary audience is not the sort of pagan kingdoms around them, but the prophets are primarily speaking to the people of God on behalf of God.
SPEAKER_02: They're speaking to Israel, they're speaking to Israel's kings and Israel's leaders.
SPEAKER_02: They're speaking to those who've been appointed and anointed by God.
SPEAKER_02: Speaking to those that we would say, yes, God put them in that place.
SPEAKER_02: And now it's the prophet's responsibility to hold them accountable to that.
SPEAKER_02: So when they failed in their duties, when they violated God's law, when they led people astray from worshiping the one true king, then those kings and leaders became subject to the prophet's rebuke, judgment, and critique.
SPEAKER_02: They became subject to that.
SPEAKER_02: So if and when any power starts to become beastly in any way, starts leaning in that Revelation 13 direction.
SPEAKER_02: When we see of injustice, when we hear of injustice, when we encounter suffering and evil, then we're supposed to use that same strength that we primarily use to support and to serve those who are doing what it is that they're called and ordained and appointed by God to do.
SPEAKER_02: But we're supposed to use that same strength to call out, to say, that doesn't work, that is not right, that is evil, you must stop, and to oppose and to use our strength in that way.
SPEAKER_02: And so we use our volunteering and our vocation and our void and our vote and our voice to cause good trouble.
SPEAKER_02: To say, that's not the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And we do so as an act of love, recognizing there may be consequences for that.
SPEAKER_02: The way that that is best done is usually in the most personal means possible.
SPEAKER_02: And when we know people in those situations, we build on those relationships and we have conversations, which again requires some proximity.
SPEAKER_02: And we do that, we want to do so avoiding demonizing or dehumanizing anybody as best as we possibly can.
SPEAKER_02: To talk about what's going on and to do so in the way of love that models Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So as Evan, Stephanie, I can't remember who's leading us to the table today, is Evan and Micah, and everybody comes forward.
SPEAKER_02: Because we just take a moment to pray together.
SPEAKER_02: I went a little long today.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for bearing with me this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, our kids are okay in kids' ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Give extra love to your kids' ministry volunteers.
SPEAKER_02: Um today.
SPEAKER_02: This is this is hard.
SPEAKER_02: I think, especially in situations where uh like we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's important and it's critical for us to kind of think through this.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Jesus, when we come to the table here, we're reminding ourselves that our allegiance, our first allegiance is to you and our hope is is in you.
SPEAKER_02: So we're reminding ourselves in baptism and in the table that we are first and foremost citizens of your kingdom, first and foremost your sons and daughters, first and foremost ambassadors of your new world and those who are called to live in your new way.
SPEAKER_02: And to do so in a way that is an act of love and service and support to our world around us, and to take whatever strength that you've given us and to use it in service to one another and to our world.
SPEAKER_02: And we ask that you would help us to do that.
SPEAKER_02: Help us to be people that are proximate and engaged and looking for ways to love and help us to know where those opportunities are and to know our limits and to know our strengths and to recognize that this is really only possible when it's the whole church, global and historic, doing this together and not just individuals.
SPEAKER_02: Help us to know individually where what are you calling us to?
SPEAKER_02: How can we engage?
SPEAKER_02: And would you help all of our engagement to be done so in love as a way to love you and to love others?
SPEAKER_02: And in places where our strength is meant, instead of to pull alongside, but to push against things that are antagonistic to you and to your words and to your way.
SPEAKER_02: Would you give us the strength and the courage and the boldness to be a prophetic witness, and even to do that in love, acknowledging the humanity, the dignity of all people made in your image.
SPEAKER_02: Help us, we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And all God's people said, Amen.