DISTINCTLY LUTHERAN | Two Kingdoms | Ben Anderson

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Redeemer. If we haven't had a chance to connect before, my name is Ben Anderson, and I'm one of the pastors here. It's so great to spend a little time with you this morning. Hey, before I forget, if you are a first-time guest with us this morning, I just want to extend a special welcome to you. And I want you to know this. I know it's a big deal to walk into a new place, uh, try out a new church, meet new people, engage with a new pastor. And I want you to know that I'm so glad you took the risk, and I hope you have a great experience, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you. But like Lauren said on the video, we do have a great experience coming up in a couple weeks. Septemberfest is a great opportunity for you to take that risk and to invite somebody. In fact, it's actually the easiest invite that you will get all year. Because did you hear how many times the word free was used? I mean, guys, this is just a great opportunity for you to invite for a free petting zoo, free food, and plus, I will have a great new, fresh and free sermon series available for everyone that week. And so it's gonna be really, really fun, and I hope that you take the risk, invite a friend. In fact, here's my challenge to you. I know that every single one of you, you have a neighbor to your right and to your left, whether you live in an apartment or you live in a house, even if you live on a farm or something like that, I mean they're they're there, they're just really far away. Invite the one on the right and the one on the left, and let's just see what God can do with that invitation. Because I know this. If people say yes to that invitation and walk in here and ultimately say yes to the biggest invitation that they can say yes to, which is an opportunity to have a relationship with Christ, it will change their life and it will change their eternity. And isn't that something that you want to be a part of? Well, speaking of getting connected not only to Christ but to one another, I think fellowship is such a big deal. Community is such a big deal, and that's why we have free coffee and donuts after church. If you didn't know that, good news. Free coffee and donuts after church. But this is what I hope that you do during that time is get to know somebody. For example, I got to meet uh my wonderful new friend Monica this morning for the first time, and so I'm excited to uh engage with her, and she's here joining us. And I hope that you meet somebody new too. In fact, if you're kind of shy and you're wondering, well, what do we talk about? Well, right now, guys, I don't know if you turn on the news at all. The state fair is going on. So why don't you share your favorite state fair food? Or maybe your least favorite state fair food, depending on your experience, right? Just make those connections. I would love for you to get to know somebody. Well, today we are going to step into our latest sermon series called Distinctly Lutheran. We are on part three of four, and what we've been doing is taking a deep dive into the Lutheran stream that exists within our church. And basically, what I've been doing is I have been giving you guys a seminary education over four different topics by the time that we are done with this. But here's the problem. I studied them for a semester. You get to hear about them for 30 minutes, which means we are talking fast, we are moving fast, and there are plenty of scraps on the floor. So if you ever leave thinking, I I wish there was more, I wish we could have addressed more, talked about more, that's just the nature of it. But here's my hope, and this is actually intentional by design. I want this to kind of be like a sampler platter for you. If you guys ever gone to Buffalo Wild Wings and gotten like the ultimate sampler platter, there's a little bit of everything on there. You might have like three mozzarella sticks and like four onion rings, some chips and salsa. And of course, you got some boneless wings on there, like six of them. And if you have good taste, you get mango habanier with blue cheese. Right, that's what you get at Buffalo Wild Wings. But here's the problem with the sampler. If you get the sampler, it's never quite enough, is it? It just kind of teases you a little bit. Oh, here I had my onion ring, but now I want more, right? And that's the idea of this series is I want to give you just a little sample uh of some of these conversations that happen within Lutheran churches and really Lutheran theology that I believe can truly, truly, truly set you free. So already on our sampler platter, this is what we have. We have the five solos, that was week one. And then when last week we got into law and gospel, and of course we have something new for you today. But if right now you're thinking this is my first time here, I'm in the middle of a series. I mean, I I missed out. Can can I get access to those? Of course you can. On our website, we have access to every single one of those conversations. In fact, if you missed one, you were on vacation, you were traveling, you could have had sports, getting that last second cabin stretch in there. I get it, I understand it. Uh please take some time this week and go back and listen because I don't want you to miss out on anything. But as we've gone on this journey together, I actually not only have been teaching you some theology, but I've been telling you a little bit about my life. And I've been leaving you with these cliffhangers. Like the first week I said, I went to a Lutheran university, not because I was Lutheran, but because I wanted to go there to get my master's degree, to coach baseball, and to save the Lutherans. When I showed up, they saved me, right? There's a whole thing that we unpacked last week. But then I left you with this. I went from questioning Lutheran theology and wondering, having big questions about it, to finding freedom in it and ultimately teaching it. In fact, my my first gig out of that university was teaching a large confirmation class. That was what I did. So I went from questioning it to learning it to internalizing it to teaching it. And I always think that's funny. And the reason I think that's funny, I have never attended a confirmation class in my entire life. But I have taught hundreds of confirmation classes at this point in time in my life. But this is what I learned from my Lutheran friends growing up. They would always tell me how boring they thought confirmation was. And so when I became a confirmation teacher, I thought, well, I'm gonna make sure it is not boring. But here's another thing I saw in them. I saw that for some reason it was up here, right? They knew the stuff, but it didn't get here and it wasn't lived out in their life. And so, really, my goals were twofold. I want it to be exciting and interesting and applicable. I want it to you them to use it in their life, and the same is true today. I'm hoping that the conversation that we have today is interesting, fun, entertaining, but challenging, and hopefully moves you in a fresh direction as you walk in the way of the Redeemer. So, today, the conversation we are gonna have is all around this idea of two kingdoms. Now, I'm just gonna warn you. This is going to be an incredibly challenging topic for today. Not because I don't think you're smart enough to handle it, it's because it will poke you right here. And the reason I know it's gonna poke you right here is because guess what? It poked me right here. And so hang on with me. We are going to get into it. But here is the thing, when it comes to following Christ, when you become a follower of Christ, something happens. You become a citizen of heaven, which means whether you realize it or not, as a follower of Christ, you have likely dual citizenship. Right? For most of us, we are citizens of the United States, and we are citizens of heaven. And there's a little bit of a tension there. What do we do with that? I mean, we have that, we have this, and you would think it makes sense that as soon as we became a citizen of heaven, we would we would go to our home, but that's not what happens. God leaves us here on mission. In fact, for some of you, this maybe is the most important thing I'll say today, is that you are here for a reason.

unknown 8:03

Right?

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Whatever you're wrestling with and wondering why am I still here, whatever that is, God has you here for a reason. There's something for you to do. And your life is worth living. Your life has a point, and I'm telling you, when God wants to call you back home, he will not hesitate to call you back home when your mission is done. But while we wait, here we are. This dual citizenship. And what do we do with that? I mean, do we just focus on one and ignore the other? Do we try to rule over the one with the other, or do we try to cross them over the top and try to make some hybrid? This is the tension that we live in as Christians. In fact, this is a tension that all Christians live in, not just Americans. I mean, the same tension is felt for the people who live in France, Cuba, China, Russia, fill in the blank. This has been going on for all time. In fact, it was going on during Christ's day. In fact, look at these words recorded in Matthew 22, where we see this. It says, Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. Teacher, they said, We know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax. They brought him a denaris, and he asked them, Whose image is on it and whose inscription? Caesar's, they replied, but then he said to them, So give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. One is Caesar's, or the earthly kingdom, and one is God's, or the spiritual kingdom. And traditionally, Lutherans actually have been very, very good at navigating this. In fact, it's written in this big book called The Book of Concord. If you don't know what that is, it's truly, it's truly this. I'm not exaggerating. It is this big, it's sitting on my shelf. It's a collection of all of Lutheran doctrines that were taught internalized, and all these distinctives that we have been wrestling with are in there. So if you're feeling like the sampler platter is not enough, that's the main course if you're really, really bored, and you're going to need a very, very, very, very big cup of coffee to get through that thing. But tucked in there is the Augsburg Confession. And this is what Luther and his contemporaries wrote in the 20th article. It says, consequently, the powers of church and civil government must not be mixed. The power of the church possesses its own command to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments, it should not usurp the other's duty. Transfer earthly kingdoms, abrogate the laws of magistrates, abolish lawful obedience, interfere with judgments concerning any civil ordinances or contracts, prescribe to magistrates law concerning the form of government that should be established. In this way, our people, so he's talking about Lutherans, right? Our people distinguish the duties of the two powers, and they command that both be held in honor, acknowledged as a gift and blessing of God. So just like Jesus, there is this line: the two kingdoms. There is the earthly kingdom, and there is the spiritual kingdom. And both have their roles, and both are used by God. So we're going to unpack those today. We're going to start with the earthly kingdom first. And I'm going to bring you to 1 Timothy. And if you have a physical Bible with you today, I'm just going to tell you, we'll be here a couple times, so you can just kind of set a bookmark in there, and we'll navigate this together. But we're going to start in verse one. It says this I urge you then, first of all, that all petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live in peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God, our Savior. So this section of Scripture is written by the Apostle Paul. It's actually written in 65 A.D. And this is going to be very, very important as we unpack this together. So make a mental note. 65 A.D. Okay? Everyone's got that? 65 A.D. But what does Paul write here? He says, We should pray for all people. And I think when Paul says that, and when he writes that, when those people read it for the first time, everyone's like, yeah, makes sense. Pray for my family members, right? Pray for my neighbors, pray for the person I drove past on the street, they were holding that cardboard sign, they're in need, I'll pray for them. We kind of pick and choose. We we know we should pray for people, but if we're honest, we don't want to pray for all people. In fact, Paul goes on, what does he say? He says, You should pray for the kings and all those in authority. Which, by the way, is a lot harder, isn't it? That means what Paul is saying here, translate into America is this. They should be praying for your leaders no matter what letter is next to their name. So if you struggle when you see that R next to the name, you're still called to pray for them. Or you struggle when you see that D next to the name, you still pray for them. If you voted for somebody and they made a bunch of promises to you, and you were certain they were going to fulfill them, and instead, you have received zero benefit. What is Paul saying? You should still pray for them. Now, if we were sitting down with the Apostle Paul, we might say something like this, Paul, but you don't get it. Like if you lived in 2026, or if you lived the last 15 years and the political climate that we've lived and the choices that were made and how it's impacted me, Paul, you would take off this verse. I shouldn't have to pray for them. I mean, look at what they've done. And if we talk to Paul that way, I think he would probably have a big smile come over his face and say, You don't think I understand? I don't think you understand. Because remember, what year did Paul write this letter? 65 A.D. And in 64 A.D., a year before this, Emperor Nero had made a proclamation that Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire. And because of that, in different sections of the Roman Empire, Christians were being killed. They were put on crosses, they were burned alive, they were eaten by wild animals for sport. This is the context that Paul is writing these things. But despite that, he says, pray for those in authority who are doing those things to you. Here's a way to internalize it today. Pray for the leaders that you like and the leaders you don't like. Or maybe I'll say it in a more aggressive way. Pray for the leaders that you love and pray for the leaders that you hate. Let's be honest. We've all got some, right? We've all got some that really, really bother us. See, every two to four years, uh, as a nation, and sometimes even more special elections along the way, we have quite an opportunity. We get to pick who our leaders are, which means we can read about their views, we can study them, we can pray for discernment, we can talk to people we trust, we can come down and say, this is the candidate that I'm I'm gonna vote for. We we go to the voting booth, we we put our little mark next to them, and then we sit on the TV and we wait to see who's gonna win.

unknown 16:12

Right?

SPEAKER_00 16:12

It's actually quite phenomenal. In fact, if we told Paul about this, if we told the first century church about this, they would be blown away because they had no freedom to choose. They got Nero or they got Nero, right? That's kind of how that worked. They had no choice whatsoever. In fact, I have to imagine that if we sat down with them and it would be me, I would say, Well, I didn't vote this year because I just didn't get around to it, or the issues weren't as important as I thought they were. I mean, I think they would say, What? I mean, you get the choice and you didn't take part in that, I mean, it would it would blow them away. You see, they felt like they had zero, zero control. I think that's why Paul even more said, do what? Pray. Because when you have no control, one of the best things you can do is pray. Pray for your leaders, because in the end, who has control? God has ultimate control. I mean, think about this. If you pray for that leader, that government official who's doing things that you have hated, has bothered you, has affected your neighbors, your family, your friends, and you just watching the news bothers you. What if you prayed for them and God changed their heart? What if you prayed for them and God changed their mind? What if you prayed for them and God changed the way that they spoke? It would change the world. But praying for people that we don't like is really, really hard. And that's why we should do it. Because when you pray for somebody that you don't like, when you pray for somebody that really frustrates you, guess what happens? Well, it possibly changes their life, but it always, always, always, every time, it changes yours. Let's keep going. We're gonna be in Romans 13. It goes on and says this let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. You see, we we should pray, we should study, we should vote, we we should do everything that God calls us to. In fact, maybe some of us should even run, right? That's all part of it, all part of what we are allowed to do in our nation. And those are very, very good things. But one thing we shouldn't do is get confused by who's ultimately in control. It is not the mass majority who vote in a specific direction. The person who's ultimately in control is God. You see, this is a hard truth to swall sometimes, but if God didn't want somebody in leadership, they would not be in leadership. Now, what I'm not saying is every single politician has God's hand upon them and saying, Oh, everything you do is great, I approve it. Of course that's not the case. In fact, it wouldn't take us two seconds to read through some of their views that we'd know that's not the case, right? Because they don't align with God's views. But what I am saying, if God didn't want them there, he wouldn't allow them there. And he uses leaders all throughout the world to do what he wants them to do with his will. And ultimately, what he uses governments for is to create order. That's the primary purpose of how he uses the earthly kingdom. And this is the reason that when you drove here this morning, even though it's driving car is crazy, we talked about this last week. When you stop and think about driving a car, it is crazy that we do this. But we have all these rules by the government that keep us safe. You have to get a license, you have to stay in line, you have to turn your blinker on to turn, right? All these types of things, right? It keeps us safe. This is why you can sit in this room and you're not having anxiety that someone is at your house picking luck and making it their home, right? There's there's rules that the government gives us for our safety. Here's a way to think about this, though, because there is a tension here, there is something we need to wrestle with, that we are called to follow the rules until we can't. You see, in almost every single nation on the planet, there are rules that are given for the benefit of the people. Even in the first century, there were rules on the books that would benefit the people from the Roman government who's doing all of these evil things. So we are called to follow them when we can. In fact, Christians, we should be the best citizens on the planet until we can't. Because in the end, our ultimate allegiance is where? It's with King Jesus. And if King Jesus teaches something or says something that is not in alignment and the government is forcing us to do that or behave in that way, that we break that law. Which is why in the first century church they were told that it was illegal to be a Christian, but what do they choose to do anyways? To follow King Jesus, to be burned alive, to be eaten by wild animals, to be pinned to a cross, because sometimes we just can't listen because one kingdom is always more important than the other. You see, the only thing that the government can do is compel us to behave while they're watching. But actually that's a great gift from God typically because we are sinful people, we do bad stuff all the time, and those rules keep order for us. But we're not done. Because there's something so much better, and that's the spiritual kingdom. Let's go back to 1 Timothy, it goes on and says these talking about God. It says, God who wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man, Christ Jesus. Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. And for this purpose, I was appointed a herald and an apostle. I'm teaching the truth, telling the truth, and I'm not lying, and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles. You see, God uses the government in this life, but he's actually worried about something far more important. A kingdom where the government does not have to exist, because rules will no longer be necessary in that place. But sometimes we get this confused a little bit. But Jesus never got it confused. In fact, think about that time when he was standing in front of Pilate. What does he say? Well, in John, it says this my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place. Pilate says, You are a king then. Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. You see, when Jesus showed up, people wanted an earthly king. They wanted Jesus to sit on the throne and they were trying to push him in that direction, but he wasn't worried about that throne. In fact, to sit on Nero's throne would have been a massive downgrade for Jesus. Think about this. To sit in the White House as the president for Jesus would be a massive downgrade for Jesus. I mean, this is the king of heaven. But there is a throne that he does want to sit on. And that's the throne of your heart. In fact, remember the first week as we unpacked the five solos, what did we learn? That we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, as revealed through Scripture alone, for God's glory alone. Everything about that statement is invitational. It's all about opportunity. That God wants to invite you into a relationship with Him. He wants you to say, sit on the throne of my heart and lead my life. You see, the government, or if you want to impress your theology teacher, the left hand. The left hand holds a sword. They have rules and they have punishments, and that's how they control you. But in the right hand is the heavenly kingdom. And it sits open like this. And Christ says, Come grab my hand and be a part of what I want to offer. So don't miss this. Let's not put Jesus on a small throne. And let's not put Jesus on the wrong throne. Now, if I haven't got you kind of worked up yet, hang with me. I'm about to for sure. But stick with me. Because there's some real truth in the statement I'm about to make, even though I know it's going to ding you a little bit. God did not send Jesus to produce a Christian nation. He sent Jesus to produce Christians who live within nations. And this difference is incredibly important. You see, there's this false idea, and you can be a Christian, you can be a non-Christian, it doesn't really matter. You can be a secular humanist. There's this idea that if we can just get the right rules and the right systems and the right leaders, then everything will be good. No more poverty, no more housing crisis, right? No more food insecurity. If we can just get all the right systems and all the right places, we'll get rid of racism and we can do the whole thing. But the problem is that's not true. Because in the end, we're dealing with sinful man who needs to be impacted here. You see, rules don't change the heart. Only Christ changes the heart. Rules have limitations. They have their part to play, but in the end, all that will do to most people is I will find ways around the rules. But if Christ can change your heart, that will change absolutely everything. As many of you know, I grew up in a very conservative town. And in the 90s, everyone in my town went to church. This is not a joke, not hyperbole. Everyone went to church. There was so much pressure in that town that you would go to church that if you didn't go to church, I mean, people would let you hear about it. So everyone went to church. It didn't matter if you believed in Jesus, didn't believe in Jesus, thought it was boring, thought it was amazing, right? If it was life-giving or life-terraining, you went to church. That's what people did. In fact, it was to such an extreme that my church that I went to, we had multiple services, kind of like here, and I would go to the early service, get in there, check my box, get out. And then I would go home and I wanted to shoot baskets outside in my front yard in the driveway. And my mom would not let me because she was so paranoid that someone see me shooting baskets and think, what? Ben didn't go to church, or probably more importantly, Ben's mom didn't make him go to church. You see, rules have their part. But Jesus did not come to compel action through force. He came to invite you into something better. He came to invite you into a changed heart, and that changes everything. Because when you have a changed heart, the Bible says it this way that now the law is written on your heart, in fact, you know what to do before you walk into that situation. If your heart changes, your marriage changes. If your heart changes, the way you navigate your kids changes, the way you navigate work changes, the way you navigate your team changes. If he can get a hold of your heart, absolutely everything changes. But compelled Christianity, it does not work. You can't force somebody into a relationship with God. In fact, this is why this Bible verse exists in Matthew. It says these words, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy your name, and in your name drive out demons, and in your name perform any miracles? And then Jesus will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoer. You see, this is a person who on the outside, something compelled them to behave. Maybe it was power, maybe it was authority, maybe it was just an intrigue into the Christian faith. Maybe they just wanted to, bottom line, look good. Maybe they're the person who they show up in church and they stand in the front row and they raise their hands, not because they want to, but because they know there's 25 rows behind them staring at them. The person who on the outside, they they talk about all the things they, I mean, I read my Bible. I'm praying all the time. I'll pray for you. We have a Christian bumper sticker on our car, which is the epitome of Christian knees, right? We've made it. If you have one, I'm not making fun of you, I'm just saying. Well, on the outside they look good, but on the inside, there's nothing there. There's no beating hearts for Christ. Christ is not sitting on their throne. Here's my hope for us as a church, as a community of faith. My hope is this. I hope that we can be a people who are very real. Can we be real? Because I want to be a people who, when you walk in here with your doubts, we're not gonna shame you or question your faith. Let's wrestle with those things together. When you walk in here with your addictions, let's talk about it. Let's help you find freedom. Let's give you the help that you need. When your marriage is blowing up all around you, I mean, you you were in the minivan before you walked in here and it was like, ah. And then you hit that button and the sliding door came out and everything went quiet, and you walked in with a big fake smile on your face. Let's be a church that's real. Because I I would rather you be good than look good. And a lot of people, unfortunately, they look good, but they aren't good in here. You see, Jesus wants to call you to a different kingdom. Not a kingdom that compels you to behave because it has the right rules and peer pressure, but a kingdom that invites you into something so much different. Well, I've got one more cliffhanger for you guys. We have made our way through the journey of Ben grew up wanting to save the Lutherans. Then he was saved by the Lutherans. Then he taught the Lutherans, at least they're little kids. And then, somewhere along the way, some crazy Lutheran pastor tapped him on the shoulder and said, You know what you should do for the rest of your life? You should do word and sacrament ministry just like me. And I was just crazy enough to say yes. But more on that next time. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for these moments. Moments where we encounter your word and your truth, and it challenges us, Lord. And for some of us, this is just an affirmation of like, hey, we I'm walking on the right path, continue on that path. For others, Lord, it is a moment of recalibration. I need to get this right. I need to see this right. Maybe for some of us, it's just the encouragement to pray for the people that we have tension with, to change our hearts towards them, and hopefully, God loving them enough that hoping hope that you change their heart. Or Lord, maybe it was just right away at the beginning of the sermon today. And we were reminded that, hey, if we are still here, you have something for us to do. And God, I hope we figure that out. Make it clear to us what you have for us to do until you call us home to your heavenly kingdom. Praise us all in Christ's mighty name. Amen.