The Church and Politics, Part 2

Four absolutes. Quick review. We live in two kingdoms that are in conflict; every one of us that are followers of Jesus, what do we have? We have dual citizenship. So what’s the role of the government? The role of the government is to restrain evil. What’s the role of the Church? Is to make disciples, internal transformation. The government is external control.

Next question, simply put, is this: How do you move from a theological framework to the specific application of these principles in real life?

And I’m going to suggest there are three principles that flow out of these four absolutes.

And here’s the key: If you understand the role and the responsibility of the Church, and when I say “the Church,” gathered, the role and the responsibility of government, and the role and the responsibility of us as individual Christians, when you clarify that from those four absolutes all of a sudden you will be able to make the kind of decisions, in all the specific areas about anything from voting, personally, to what the Church should do, what the government could do, and what we should do.

So with that let’s talk about first the role of the Church.

Principle number one: Let the Church be the Church. The Church’s highest calling, the Church’s purpose for living, is to fulfill the spiritual, eternal, invisible kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Church’s goal is to exalt Christ and to preach, teach, and model the message of redemption, over and above, and more important, than anything else.

That’s the goal of the Church. So let the Church be the Church. Well what’s that look like?

How does the Church be the Church when it comes to the area of politics?

Three specific ways Scripture says.

First way, are you ready for this? Is to pray. The Church, when we’re gathered together, is to pray.

I Timothy 2:1 says, “I urge you, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and those in authority that we may live,” notice the purpose for the prayers for political powers and people that be, “that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases our God and Savior who wants all men to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

See the Church’s first priority is we pray for the government, not so the economy gets better. We pray for the government, and for candidates, not so our lives are happier or easier. We pray, first and foremost, for those in authority so that there would be peace in the land so the gospel could go forth by what we, not just say, but the freedom to live in a way that people could see the reality of Christ.

Now I’m going to have a little experiment here, are you ready? Put your pencil down just for a second.

I want you to think of the candidate, that if you were pressed for this next presidential campaign, that you’re most excited about and let that name pop into your mind. Okay.

Now I want you to think of the candidate, in this next presidential election that you have the most distaste for. I’d like you to have that person come to your mind. Have you got it?

Now what I can tell you, in Christians all across America, those would be two different faces.

With that said, are you ready for this? For every time, let’s go to the person that you distaste, that you think is the wrong person, that you’re very, very concerned about, could become the next president.

For every time that you have spoken, criticized, written, or said something negative about this person to another believer or someone else at work or in your community, how often have you prayed for that person?

Just flat out convicting, isn’t it?

What the Bible says is that person, whoever they’re going to be, will be established by God. And that the requirement of the Church gathered and for individual believers is to pray for them. Christians tend to be often the most negative, critical people who blog, and email, and send little things to one another that you open with these little ads toward one another on both directions.

And I just wonder what would happen if we prayed, and cared about the souls of those people, and asked ourselves, first and foremost, if there’s a kingdom of heaven that’s spiritual and eternal and my allegiance is first to Christ, maybe that ought to be my priority first and foremost.

Especially, as we’re gathered together.

The second priority, when the Church is gathered, let the Church be the Church, is to preach and teach the truth of God’s Word, so that God’s people would be informed and have a biblical worldview about His values.

I have news for you! God is not looking for a democratic vote or a republican vote. In fact, I have news for you! God is neither a Democrat or a Republican. Shocking. And when He wants you to vote a little bit later on and we talk about your individual responsibility, He’s not looking for you to say, “Well this is the, my republican or my democratic…” He’s looking for a kingdom vote.

He’s looking for the children of God, who understand these worlds will always be in conflict, and you have dual citizenship and the government doesn’t have the power to change the world but only restrain evil. But you have the power, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to make a difference.

Oh, God, I am your child. I am your son or your daughter before I’m a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent. What do You want me to do, what do You want me to say, and how do You want me to vote on these issues and these people that would honor You?

So how can Christians know what those issues are unless we teach? That’s the role of the Church gathered.

Did you notice when Jesus was talking to Pilate He said what? “Everyone who listens to the truth listens to Me.”
You notice when they came to catch Jesus and what He says, “We know you’re a man of integrity because You live according to the truth.”

So the question is, is there absolute or relative truth? What’s the truth about human sexuality? What’s the truth about homosexuality? What’s the truth about abortion? What’s the truth about the environment?

That’s the job of the Church gathered. After we pray, this our best understanding of the truth.

Now we’re going to learn in just a minute you have a moral responsibility to participate, to know the facts, to examine, and say, “I want to be a kingdom voter. And my first allegiance is first and foremost not to what I think will make life more comfortable. Not even do I think it’s going to have more or less impact depending on what I do. But it’s to be faithful to God.”

And so prayer is number one, preaching and teaching, and the third is modeling. The Church is to model truth, and justice, and righteousness.

The world changed because of the Acts 2 verses 40 through 47. That picture of those people, how did they live? They lived in a corrupt culture, with a corrupt government, where there was tremendous injustice, amazing immorality, and all kind of gods and they came together and they loved each other and they followed Jesus and they made sacrifices and they met the deepest needs in the community.

So that’s what we do. You help runaway teens, and you figure ministry is to help sex trafficking, and help people that are HIV positive, regardless of how they got it. You don’t judge. You care. You feed the poor. You live in community. You don’t talk negatively. You don’t gossip.

When Christians live like Christians you’re the most winsome, powerful group on the face of the earth.

Second principle: Don’t expect the government to achieve what only the Church can accomplish.

See that’s, so often, it’s subtle. If we could just get the right guy in the office, whoever “we” is. By the way, the “we” when we say “Christian” could be very, very different politically. Very, very broad.

This is another “a-ha.” I think God, since He’s not a Republican or a Democrat, is absolutely committed to having born again, kingdom-minded servants of His in both parties.

And that they’re commitment to the King would superimpose any shallower commitments to their political parties. And yet, over time, we’ve thought somehow, it’s a subtle presupposition, “If we could just get the right guy and then the Senate, and then the Congress, and then the Supreme Court justices, and then the governors, and…”

We unconsciously believe that the political process has the power to change the culture and to change people’s hearts and make, quote, the world the way many Christians believe the world ought to be.

That’s a deeply held view. The Bible says the government doesn’t have that power. So it has the power to restrain evil. Now when you make certain laws that punish unrighteous things, God says the, what’s the foundation of God’s throne? Justice and righteousness.

What exalts a people? What exalts a nation? Righteousness. Governments can’t create righteousness. Only individual people can.

Well then you should be asking, “Well then where is our hope?” The role of the Church: Pray, preach and teach the truth, model and live this out in radical ways.

Principle number three: Don’t expect the Church to accomplish what only individual believers can achieve.

See what a lot of people want to do is say, “If you would do this, if you preach on this, if we do that, if we interview candidates, if we do that, if we take a stand on proposition 1, 4, 7, 9, 2, 13, if we have flyers, if we have voting guides, if we do…”

Don’t ask the Church to accomplish what only an individual believer can achieve. All those things are too low and too small a priority of the overarching message of exalting Christ and the message of redemption, when we’re gathered.

However, the Scripture is clear, believers have dual citizenship and we’ll be held accountable before God for faithfulness in both arenas. Separation is not the answer. Activism in the Church gathered is not the answer. The answer is one word. Are you ready for this?

At the end of the day, we want the government to change things, we want the Church gathered to change things, and here’s what Jesus would say: “You are the light. You are the salt. And you are the leaven.”

Changing in laws, changing in Boards of Education, changings in values, changing in the greatest needs, that’s not the Church gathered, that’s you and me, individually, saying, “You know what? I’m going to be informed. You know what? I’m going to vote. You know what? I’m going to find a calling on my life to meet the deepest needs and I’m going to engage. I’m going to get off of talk radio and blogging about stuff and I’m going to get out and do stuff that brings about real, concrete change in hurting people’s lives, in laws that need to be changed.

“I’m not going to ask the Church to do that. I’m not going to just be a mouth that talks about, ‘We ought to do this and we ought to do that and can you believe how terrible things are?’”

I love what my friend, Tony Evans, he wrote a tiny, little book called How Should Christians Vote? And he has one chapter, I loved it, it’s on, “Is God a Democrat or a Republican?” Classic.

And what he says in this is probably different than you could ever imagine. It’s very insightful.

Tony writes, “The Scripture clearly states the role of the believer, in the midst of society,” and then he quotes a very famous authority on what our role in society, individually, should be.

“You are the salt of the earth but if the salt becomes tasteless how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under-foot by men. You are the light of the world. You are a city set on a hill, a city that can’t be hidden. Nor does anyone take a light or a lamp and put it under a basket but they put it on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. “So let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Does anyone recognize that authority? It’s Jesus. He’s quoting Matthew 5. And then I love the paragraph: “Our job as Christians is to infiltrate where the bacteria of unrighteousness and darkness have permeated and made themselves at home. It is our job to act as salt and light in both parties and offer the kingdom’s point of view. One way you do that in a constitutional republic is through your vote.”

See at the end of the day I think what’s happened is that many of us want someone else to accomplish what God says is your job. My job. What’s your calling?

Now for all of us – informed. All of us – registered to vote and vote. Are you ready for this?

The research I did on very specific propositions, on very specific judges, on very specific candidates, often the swing of who wins is by a few hundred or a few thousand votes. Two thirds of all the people say, “I love Jesus with all my heart,” and listen to talk radio, and probably blog about how terrible things are. Two thirds of them don’t participate. See, I think you’ll be held personally accountable, and I’ll be held personally accountable.

Now, if I was in Communist China I don’t get to vote. I get to be a citizen, I get to live out my faith, and the moment they tell me I can’t do something that God says I have to do, then I exercise civil disobedience.

So I might be a Daniel and say, “You know, I’m sorry, you know something? You can tell me I can’t pray. I’m going to pray. You put me in jail, you put me in jail.”

But there’s a role for participation. And then there’s a calling. There are some people in this room that you ought to be on a Board of Education. There are people in this room that you ought to be leading the precinct in your party.

There are people in this room that are probably younger, you should be asking yourself, “Does God want me to be the governor of this state?” For some of your kids you ought to be training them saying, “You know what? We’re going to need a godly, Christian president someday.” And maybe one of your sons or one of your daughters…

We’ve retreated and we’ve said, “The government solves the problems or get the Church to be a big political bully.” Both of those are wrong. The government can restrain evil and the Church can make disciples and we are the salt and the light and the leaven.

I have a word to the separatist. Do not ask others to do the work that God has called you to do. Okay? You have dual citizenship. Don’t you say, “Well I don’t want any involvement in politics in any way, someone else take care of that.” Sorry. That’s not one of the options.

And my word to the activist: Please don’t demand that your personal calling and your personal passion in your views, politically, become one that all of us have to share and be promoted from the Church gathered.

They’ll know us, according to Jesus, by our love, not our political activity. Should you have political activity? Absolutely. But that’s your personal calling. Do what God shows you to do. Don’t demand that when we’re gathered that that becomes the agenda.