Rev. David Holwick ZI The Quest for the Real Jesus, #9
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 2, 2008
Matthew 22:16-22
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I. Pundits and pulpits.
A. This election feels like Roosevelt and Hoover in 1932.
1) Worldwide economic crisis, multiple wars, old vs. young.
2) This week I received a handwritten letter that seriously
suggested one of the candidates might be the Antichrist.
a) His popularity unnerves her.
B. Pastors have been endorsing candidates from their pulpits.
1) They are challenging the IRS restrictions on political
speech from tax-exempt churches.
2) They see it as a First Amendment issue.
3) The IRS says they can have the First Amendment and endorse
candidates, but their churches will have to pay taxes.
a) Tax exemption is a privilege, not a legal right.
C. Jesus was also dragged into politics.
1) His opponents knew it would be a good way to trip him up.
a) Notice the flowery language they use to address him.
b) They are buttering him up for the kill.
2) Two issues lay behind their question:
a) Should we obey Caesar, a foreign leader?
b) Should we pay taxes to a foreign government?
3) Jesus' answer tells us a lot about how Christians should
approach government and elections.
II. Jesus lived in a radical time.
A. Many other Jews were trying to start revolts against Rome.
1) Often, they claimed to be the Messiah, or heaven-sent king.
2) Some of them were remarkably successful - for a time.
a) Bar Kokhba and his army destroyed an entire Roman legion.
B. In the end, all these movements were brutally crushed.
1) For Bar Kokhba, the Romans committed 12 legions, or over a
third of their worldwide forces.
2) As in AD 70, Jerusalem was burned, torn down, and then
rebuilt as a pagan city. Jews could not live there.
3) Most Jews stopped looking for a messiah.
a) The Jews changed his name from Bar Kokhba (Son of the
Star) to Bar Kozeba (Son of the Lie).
III. Jesus was not your typical radical.
A. He was not a revolutionary in the traditional sense.
1) He discouraged people from honoring him like a king,
except at the end.
2) He did not preach against Rome or raise an army.
B. Yet Jesus did not disavow the political angle.
1) He talks about his government all the time.
a) He called it the "kingdom of God."
b) We treat "kingdom" as a quaint word, but it really
means a government.
2) Jesus is a king of a kingdom, but this kingdom is not
worldly, as he told Pilate. John 18:36
a) His kingdom's leaders are not going to lord it over
people.
b) His kingdom's people will not rely on violence.
3) His kingdom has a secret quality about it.
a) It is already present in the world.
b) It exists where people honor him as their king.
IV. Jesus accepted the validity of the current political system.
A. His ingenious reply to his opponents.
1) Give God was is God's and Caesar what is Caesar's.
2) Somewhat ambiguous - what is God's, or Caesar's?
a) In the context, he is obviously talking about taxes.
b) Elsewhere, Jesus tells his disciples to pay taxes.
1> And miraculously supplied it! (Gov. Corzine, take note)
B. Overall principle: two spheres of authority, sacred and secular.
1) Both are under God's control.
a) Avoid the danger of a secular/religious dichotomy.
1> Religion is personal and private, secular is public.
b) We must have an integrated worldview.
2) He has given secular government some specific tasks.
a) In the Old Testament, this includes maintaining justice,
helping the poor, and defending society from attack.
b) Old Testament prophets even ordered pagan nations to
enforce these rules.
C. Our government is not like Israel.
1) Israel was a theocracy (God ruled), we are not.
a) Only a theocracy should be governed by the Bible.
b) In the New Testament, the theocracy is the church.
2) Government should be ruled by natural moral law.
a) God has revealed basic principles to all people.
b) The last half of the Ten Commandments is a good summary.
1> Most societies accept these principles.
3) Christians should not try to legislate God's kingdom.
a) Laws alone cannot produce moral people.
b) Laws give boundaries, but don't produce character.
V. How political should Christians be?
A. We should have as much involvement as anyone else.
1) Religious people have a long history in American politics.
a) Abolition movement in 1850s.
b) Prohibition at the turn of the century.
c) Civil Rights in 1960s.
d) Abortion in 1980s.
e) Homosexual marriage in 1990s.
2) Sometimes we have made it personal.
a) Christians opposed Thomas Jefferson for being an infidel.
1> That's really the term they used back then!
b) Even John F. Kennedy got flack from Baptists.
B. Shouldn't there be a wall of separation?
1) Original idea was that government would not sponsor a
favorite religion, like England does to this day.
2) Also includes idea that religion will not control gov't,
such as through a religious test for office.
a) Any American can run for office, no matter what faith.
b) They may have no chance of getting elected, but they
can run. And you can vote for them.
VI. No government can produce God's kingdom.
A. Only conversion can make God's citizens.
1) We are changed by God's Spirit to be more like Christ.
2) Government can't make us, and it can't stop us.
B. Christian spirit must be personally chosen, not legislated.
Philip Yancey was once part of a panel discussion at a large
conference.
The gathering focused on the culture wars that had been stoked
by Christian groups like the Moral Majority.
Lots of Hollywood moguls were there, and a strong minority of
Jews.
When Yancey's turn came to speak, he said that the man he
followed, a Palestinian Jew from the first century, had
also been involved in a culture war.
He went up against a rigid religious establishment and a pagan
empire.
The two powers, often at odds, conspired together to eliminate
him.
Jesus' response?
Not to fight, but to give his life for these his enemies, and
to point to that gift as proof of his love.
Among the last words he said before death were, "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do."
After the panel, a television celebrity came up to Yancey whose
name everyone would recognize. (though he doesn't give it)
He said, "I've got to tell you, what you said stabbed me right
in the heart.
I was prepared to dislike you because I dislike all right-wing
Christians, and I assumed you were one.
I don't follow Jesus -- I'm a Jew.
But when you told about Jesus forgiving his enemies, I realized
how far from that spirit I am.
I fight my enemies, especially the right-wingers.
I don't forgive them.
I have much to learn from the spirit of Jesus."
#3805
C. Who will Jesus vote for?
1) It has been a long and sometimes bitter campaign.
a) Both candidates profess to be Christians.
b) Both want to instill their version of Christian morality
into our government and its decisions.
2) But neither will get Jesus' vote, because Jesus is voting
for himself.
a) He is the Rock that will shatter every other government
and establish an eternal rule. Daniel l2:34-35
b) Even America will one day be dust. Only God's kingdom
will last.
3) Who will YOU vote for?
a) Is Jesus your savior?
b) Have you asked him to rule over your life?
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
#3805 "Unwrapping Jesus," by Philip Yancey, Online Christianity Today
(America Online), June 17, 1996, p. 29.
This and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Study Notes:
J.P. Moreland
I. Religious tensions in political campaigns.
A. They should be separate.
B. Religion (Jesus) should trump everything else.
II. Jesus and politics.
A. He is above party politics.
B. But his teachings should figure into politics, morality, culture.
1) We cannot support a rigid secular/sacred dichotomy.
III. Three principles:
A. Be careful in how you apply Old Testament teachings.
1) Israel was theocratic and we are not.
a) Applications apply to the church rather than the state.
2) Universal moral principles still apply.
3) Moral obligations on pagan nations apply. Amos 1 & 2
B. Consider what Jesus explicitly asserts about the state.
C. His apostles' teaching is also valuable.
IV. Four conclusions:
A. Jesus says church and state have separate spheres of authority.
1) A Christian can be a soldier of the state but not the church.
2) The church should do some jobs - compassion?
B. The state must subject itself to natural moral law.
1) Natural moral law objective moral norms that God reveals in
creation and don't require a Bible to figure out.
a) Amos bases his condemnation of pagan nations' sin on
moral truths they did not need a Bible to figure out.
b) The American Declaration of Independence does the same
thing.
2) Only Israel (and the church) are to be guided by Scripture.
C. The state is to protect negative rights and not to provide
positive rights.
1) A positive right is a right to have something given to the
right-holder.
2) A negative right is to be protected from harm while seeking
a right on our own.
D. The state must protect human life, liberty, property, and family.
1) These principles are applied by Old Testament prophets to
pagan nations.
2) The second half of the Ten Commandments is often considered
part of the natural moral law.
a) These obligations are duties of the state.
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Robert Stein on Luke 20:20-26
I. After flattery, his opponents try to fix him on horns of dilemma.
A. He had done the same to them. Lk 20:3-4
B. His wise answer undoes them.
II. Interpretations:
A. Jesus is really teaching a Zealot-like refusal to pay any taxes.
1) God is the only true ruler of Israel.
a) Taxes should not be paid to Caesar.
2) However, Jesus associated with government figures (i.e.,
tax collectors).
B. He is teaching two separate kingdoms, sacred and secular.
1) Problem of dualism, making God and Caesar co-equal.
2) But it is evident that Jesus sees a divine role for
human government.
a) It is also evident that God takes precedence in conflicts.
b) Sacred and secular are both subdivisions of God's
creation.
III. The division between sacred and government/secular is not always
clear.
A. "We must obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29
B. But Christians must submit in those areas where government has
a legitimate role.
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