Christians and Politics
September 25, 2008
(For a version of this devotion that is easier to print, follow this link.)
What is the relationship of the Christian to politics?
As we move towards November’s election, what should role should Christians play?
As a church, we explicitly say in our vision and values statement: “We are not tied to any political party. We value speaking biblical truth to the issues that confront our society, regardless of what parties might be made uncomfortable by the proclamation of that truth.” Over the course of the next several weeks I will address issues facing us this election. My goal is to do just that: to bring out the ways that biblical truth sheds light on the issues discussed in this election.
But prior to looking at specific issues, we need to understand our fundamental role. To that end, consider some key biblical texts:
Peter addresses his readers as “elect exiles” (ESV), or “God’s elect, strangers in the world” (1 Peter 1:1 NIV). He later refers to them as “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11); similarly, the author of Hebrews commends Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah for realizing that they were “strangers and exiles on the earth.”
The point: This world is not our home. This country is not our homeland. Instead, we are “fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:19 NIV). We are united with Christ; He defines who we are. We are truly united with all His people. Our loyalty is to Him above all. Our home, our country, ultimately is in His presence. For all our time in this world, we are ambassadors from a distant country, representing our Sovereign, proclaiming His message.
Our situation, therefore, is similar to the Jewish exiles in Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The great city of Babylon was not their home. Indeed, the Babylonian army had destroyed Jerusalem, had torn down the temple. But God had a purpose in sending them to Babylon, and He instructed them through the prophet Jeremiah: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). So Daniel and his friends served Nebuchadnezzar faithfully, advancing in the civil service, doing all the king asked – up to the point where there was a conflict between loyalty to God and loyalty to the king. At that point, they disobeyed the king.
How do these scriptural principles apply to our role in the election?
We too should “seek the welfare of the city” where God has sent us. We too should participate in ways that will improve the lives of others in this country. Thus we should pray for this country and its leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2); we should inform ourselves of the issues, analyzing them from a Christian worldview; we should vote wisely. We may choose to campaign; we may choose to run for office.
But our hope is not in any political candidate. Our security does not rest in any political state. We know that “the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:32). We know that nations rise and fall, and that should Jesus delay His return, the United States, like other great world powers, will fall from its preeminent position.
So register to vote, if you have not yet done so. Invest some time in understanding the issues. Vote in such a way that you are seeking the welfare of this country, this state, this city.
But do not despair if your candidate loses. And do not entertain particularly high hopes if your candidate wins. God is sovereign. He is in control. He is our King. We are citizens of His country. So our hope is in Him.
Filled with the Spirit
September 19, 2008
(For a version of this devotion that is easier to print, follow this link.)
How can you live the Christian life? How can you fulfill the purpose of your creation through glorifying God? How can you resist temptation and obey the command to rejoice in the Lord always?
The message of the Bible is: You can’t. That is, in your own power, through your own resolution, by means of your concentrated effort, you can’t.
But you can – by the power of God.
Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). But that same verse implies that with Him, when you are connected to Him, leaning on Him, depending on Him, you can live to His glory: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. . . . By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:5, 8).
God gives us power for living the Christian life through filling us with the Holy Spirit. Next month, as we consider Acts 2 for three or four sermons, I’ll have much more to say about the different images that Scripture gives of the activity of the Spirit within Christians. For today, consider these different passages that discuss the filling of the Spirit.
Why does God fill His people with His Spirit?
For glorifying God through craftsmanship
Exodus 35:30-33 “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.
For glorifying God through effective leadership
Deuteronomy 34:9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
For glorifying God through preaching to sinners
Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
Acts 4:8-10 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead–by him this man is standing before you well.
For glorifying God through pronouncing blessing on another servant of God
Luke 1:41-42 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
For glorifying God through ministry to the physical needs of others in the church
Acts 6:3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
For glorifying God through persevering and rejoicing in the midst of persecution
Acts 7:55 But [Stephen, while being stoned to death], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
For glorifying God through living the Christian life in our closest relationships
Ephesians 5:18: Be filled with the Spirit. [This expresses itself partly in our] 21: submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. [Paul then explains how we submit to one another in our most intimate relationships]:
- Wives to husbands: 5:24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
- Husbands to wives: 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
- Children to parents: 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
- Parents to children: 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- Employees to employers: 6:7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,
- Employers to employees 6:9 do the same [referring back to verse 7] to [your employees], and stop your threatening
We live the Christian life through dependence on His power. Apply these truths to yourself – and ask God to fill you with His Spirit, to His glory.
Seven Years On
September 13, 2008
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This week marks seven years. Seven years since the towers fell. Seven years since terrorists hijacked four planes, aiming to kill tens of thousands of innocent people. Seven years since they succeeded in killing almost 3,000. Seven years.
In God’s providence, the Bible reading plan I developed eight years ago schedules for the 11th reading in September Jeremiah 39 and 52 – the accounts of the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. In the following days I read the Psalms that look back on that event – Psalms 74, 79, and 94 – as well as the book of Lamentations. On September 11, 2001, I read of Jerusalem’s fall without much feeling in the morning; that evening, knowing of the attack and the destruction of the towers, I reread the account, and continued to read these psalms and Lamentations – and wept.
Today, much of our visceral reaction to that attack has faded from memory. Newspapers this year used more ink talking about lipstick on pit bulls and pigs than they devoted to remembering 9/11.
But we must remember. We must remember.
What must we remember?
First: The crime is horrendous, and justice demands that it be recompensed. As the psalmists say:
They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.” (Psalm 94:5-7)
How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them! . . . Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day! Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually! (Psalm 74:10-11, 22-23)
O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! (Psalm 94:1-2)
This is not vindictiveness. This is a righteous call for justice. Those who planned and carried out the brutality of the destruction of Jerusalem, those who scoffed at God as they did it, deserve to experience His wrath. Those who planned and carried out the brutality of the destruction of the World Trade Center likewise scoffed at God and likewise deserve His wrath. God is just. We are right to call upon Him to exercise that justice.
Second: Our sins are horrendous, and justice demands that they be recompensed. Again, consider what these same psalmists say:
Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! (Psalm 79:8-9)
The psalmist is not saying that the sins of the Jews are morally equivalent to the sins of the invaders. He’s not comparing sin to sin. Instead, he is confessing that the people sinned – and they did, horribly, turning their backs on God and His prophets, mocking His messengers who called them to repentance. The psalmist knows that the Jews too deserve God’s wrath, that God has brought this destruction upon them, and that unless He atones for their sins, they have no hope. Furthermore, he knows that the only basis for that atonement will be God’s glory, His name’s sake.
We too have sinned. We too must acknowledge that we deserve His wrath. We too have hope only on the basis of God providing atonement through the blood of His Son, our Savior, Jesus.
Third: God is sovereign, and He alone is our hope.
Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams. Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter. (Psalm 74:12-17)
God has always controlled all forces. All times and all powers are in His hands. Nothing is hidden in the night from His sight; He limits the waters, the night, the seasons – and He similarly limits evil men. Perpetrators of evil are responsible and deserve wrath; yet God is fully able to stop any sinful act by any man.
Acknowledging God as sovereign provides neither an excuse for sin (“God didn’t stop me, so it’s really His fault!”) nor a rationale for being lackadaisical (“Since God is sovereign, we need not capture the terrorists or improve airport security.”) Instead, God’s sovereign goodness provides us reason for hope in the midst of disaster and carnage. He is just. He is good. He is gracious and merciful. He is completing His plan of redemption. His Son will rule for all eternity; He will right all wrongs. His blood covers the sins of all who come to Him, weary and heavy laden, of all who come to Him with broken and contrite hearts.
So on this seventh anniversary, let us remember:
- There is terrible evil in this world, but God will judge it.
- There is terrible sin inside each of us, but God’s Son will cover it, if we have faith in Him.
- There is tremendous mercy, grace, and sovereign power in our Lord and God, and He will shower all that on His people. We will respond by praising Him forever: “We your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise” (Psalm 79:13).
The Acts of Jesus Christ
September 5, 2008
(For a version of this devotion that is easier to print, follow this link.)
What is the main point, the central message of the book of Acts?
This Sunday we begin a sermon series on this great book that chronicles events during the first thirty years of Christ’s church. Most Bibles entitle this book “The Acts of the Apostles.” That’s not an accurate summary of the book, however (and that title was not assigned to the book until about 100 years after it was written). The eleven disciples who remain after the death of Judas are listed in Acts 1:13; of these, only three are mentioned again in the book: Peter, whose actions dominate most of the first twelve chapters; John, who accompanies Peter in the events recorded in chapters 3, 4, and 8; and James, whose death is recorded in chapter 12. The other eight do not appear again. The activities of Paul – the apostle “abnormally born” (1 Corinthians 15:8 NIV) – dominate chapters 13 through 28.
Given that focus primarily on only two apostles, should we entitle this book “The Acts of Peter and Paul”?
No. The main purpose of the book is not to provide us with a history of the church, much less biographical accounts of Peter and Paul.
What then is the central message of the book?
The author, Luke the physician, the traveling companion of the Apostle Paul, gives us a significant clue in his opening words:
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up.
The “first book” is the Gospel of Luke. The book of Acts is the sequel to that Gospel. If the Gospel records what Jesus began to do and teach during the entirety of his life on earth, what is the book of Acts about? It must concern what Jesus continued to do after His ascension.
Thus, Luke records Jesus’ ascension both at the end of his Gospel, and at the beginning of Acts. In the Gospel, Jesus rose from the dead, proving the truth of all He taught while on earth, and displaying God’s acceptance of His offering for sin; in Acts, Jesus commissions His disciples, promises them power to fulfill the commission, and ascends on high – from where He continues to act in and through His church.
The book of Acts records the continuing acts of Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit empowers the Apostles and opens the eyes of those in Jerusalem, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
As Gresham Machen wrote,
The real actor in the book of The Acts is the Holy Spirit. Read the book all together, or read it in great stretches, and you obtain an irresistible impression of the Spirit’s power. Jews and Gentiles, rulers and kings, the sea and its tempests – all are powerless before the march of the gospel. Joyous, abundant, irresistible power – that is the keynote of the book. The triumphant progress of the Church of God! (As quoted on p. 40 of Peter Jeffery, Stepping Stones, Banner of Truth, 1991.)
Consider a few incidents:
- Chapter 2: The Holy Spirit falls on the disciples, and saves 3000 people.
- Chapters 3 and 4: Peter heals a lame beggar by the power of God, leading to an opportunity to witness, an arrest, and a bold confession of Jesus before the authorities; then the Holy Spirit fills all the disciples, and they all speak with boldness, despite the threats.
- Chapter 5: The Holy Spirit frees the arrested apostles from prison.
- Chapters 6 and 7: Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, speaks persuasively about Jesus, boldly proclaims these truths to his accusers, and dies praying for them.
- Chapter 8: The Spirit directs Philip out to the desert to proclaim the Gospel to an Ethiopian, saves that man, then translates Philip immediately dozens of miles away where he preaches to others.
- Chapter 9: The Holy Spirit miraculously saves the primary persecutor of the church, who becomes the Apostle Paul.
- Chapters 10 and 11: The Holy Spirit gives visions to a Roman centurion and the Apostle Peter, then clearly and powerfully brings the centurion and his household to faith at Peter’s preaching.
- Chapter 12: After the first apostle is martyred, the Holy Spirit leads Peter out of prison, and strikes down the political ruler who had James killed.
- Chapter 13: The Holy Spirit calls Barnabas and Paul to go out as missionaries.
We could continue through the entire book. God is at work. He is bringing about His purposes. No power can stand against Him. He ensures that His church grows, expands, stays pure, and spreads to every ethnic group. He is at work.
Luke records this not to make sure that we know the history, but to make sure that we know God, so that we know that this risen Christ is still at work, reaching every nation, spreading His Gospel to all peoples. He is still overcoming all resistance, and orchestrating all events to magnify the glory of His Name. We His people still have that commission – and He will accomplish it, through our lives and through our deaths.
The Book of Acts is the book of the Acts of Jesus Christ. And those acts continue even today. The book is not finished; however, God could complete it during our lifetimes. And this series preaching through this book – along with thousands of other pastors around the world preaching through this book – can be another occasion where God exercises His might and power, strengthens His people, emboldens His church, and thereby completes His work. May it be so. May it be so.
Join us – and, together with our brothers and sisters around the world, may we complete the Acts of Jesus Christ.
