Alston Road Church of Christ Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

The question Jesus will answer in our text today is this: why do different people react so differently to the word of God? But let’s quickly set the context, because this parable could be an explanation of what has been happening over the last two chapters.

• 11:18-19 — People malign Jesus as a glutton, drunkard, and friend of sinners.
• 11:20-24 — The cities where Jesus did most of his mighty works did not repent.
• 11:25-29 — The Father has hidden Truth from the wise of this age and revealed it to children.
• 12:1-8 — The Pharisees condemned Jesus’ disciples though they were guiltless.
• 12:9-14 — Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and the Pharisees want to kill him.
• 12:22-32 — The Pharisees accused Jesus of using Satanic power to cast out demons.
• 12:38-42 — Jesus is greater than Solomon and Jonah to whom people listened without any signs; yet this generation ignores his preaching and demand signs.
• 12:43-45 — After Jesus walks away, this generation will be infested with demons and wickedness worse than they were before they encountered Jesus.

Crowds gather around Jesus at the beach, Jesus sits down on in a boat, and he tells them a parable. A sower threw seed. Some seed landed on a path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns, some on good soil. And it appears Jesus just kept telling more and more parables like this one without any explanation to the crowds. The disciples became confused — what happened to that sermon you preached on the mountain? Why are you speaking to the crowds in parables? Jesus’ replies in vs. 11-17 — notice the distinction he draws between his disciples and the crowds.

Parables: Revealing and Concealing (13:10-17)

Jesus plainly says he speaks in parables to the crowds because…

The Disciples

The Crowds

Given to know the secrets of the kingdom

Not been given

They have, more will be given — abundance

Don’t have, what they do have will be taken away

You see/hear what many have longed to see/hear

They do not really see or hear; won’t be healed

I used to think parables were Jesus’ way of waking the crowds up from sleepiness — “It’s a great illustration.” However much this parable may help Jesus’ disciples understand, Mark makes it clear that it is the opposite for the crowds: everything is in parables “so that they may indeed see but not perceive and may indeed hear but not understand.” Jesus says he tells parables because the crowds don’t hear or see and he tells parables to ensure that continues.

This may be troubling. We want fairness. But Jesus makes it clear in verse 12 that’s not what his kingdom is about: to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Pharaoh is a good illustration of this. Did Pharaoh harden God’s heart, or did God? Exodus says both. Pharaoh was hard of heart and God did not respond by asking him out to lunch to talk things over. God is God, and we are not, and he decided to press the point further with plagues.

The reason it has come to this, Jesus says, is because the crowds are like the people in Isaiah’s day. Isaiah saw the Lord in his real heavenly temple, he let them ask for a sign, he walked around naked for three years, and he preached eloquent sermons, but they said, “No, not interested, your sermons are too hard to understand anyway.” Side note: we’re not in good company if we aren’t willing to do the work understand Isaiah or some other portion of the Bible.

The same is true of Jesus. He has been teaching, casting out demons, doing good works, and while some are loving it, others resist him at every turn — why should he give to dogs what is holy? why should he throw pearls before pigs who will trample them and attack him? So, he tells parables.

There’s an important note for us here: Jesus didn’t mind saying hard things that confused people and left them on the outside. I hear preachers sometimes say that we need to preach to the common man like Jesus. If we mean we should use words people can understand, I agree. If we mean that we should help eager people who are willing to do the work to understand and apply the word, I agree. But if we mean that people should be able to always understand what’s being said on the first go, if we mean that the Bible, classes, and sermons should cater to people whose intellect and ability to pay attention has been destroyed by screens, or if we mean that we should cater to those who are distracted by cares and concerns or deceived by various things, that’s not Jesus’ approach. We should come to God’s word expecting it to be something we will only understand with difficulty. God longs for all to understand and repent, but that does not mean all will. The secrets of the kingdom are not for everyone, and Jesus left some people on the outside — while urging them to listen more carefully.

But see the positive of what Jesus says: many prophets and righteous people longed to see and hear what we have the opportunity to see and hear, but they didn’t. We are a blessed people.

But why do different people react differently to God’s word? You’ll notice it even here. Many are very attentive, some aren’t. Some reorient their schedules to hear God’s word, others allow anything to get in the way. Some bear fruit, others don’t. Jesus’ parable explains why. As we read, let’s ask ourselves: we are all dirt, but which kind of dirt are you? And to be clear, I don’t think we are simply always one dirt — I believe by God’s grace and power we can repent and change.

The Interpretation of the Parable (18-23)

The Path: hardened by Satan and sin (19). When I tried to read classic literature as a teenager, all I saw were words on a page. It was complete nonsense. I didn’t understand it and it made no impact on my life. Has this ever been you with the good news? You read or hear and it doesn’t register.

Here, the path is hard — there is no soil for it to germinate in. Satan — the bird — snatches it away.  We may read that and think, “But that’s not fair for Satan to take it.” But Paul also says in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 that the gospel “is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan blinds people and takes the gospel from people. He is a real spiritual power who can destroy you. You are porous. You are not impermeable. You have little spaces and holes in you by which Satan can get in. Sin is not just law-breaking — it is obedience to a Satanic master who is trying to find a place into us to put a chain on us. And when he does, something happens. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that our understanding becomes darkened, our hearts become hard, and we become calloused, unfeeling.

We all have difficult days, but if we repeatedly open God’s word or come here and find little to no nourishment from anything that is said or done — things rarely find a place in our heart or life — Satan has found a way in. He has become lord and he doesn’t want us to know. Where did he get in? How has he hardened you? Whoever you are, if somehow you woke up to hear this point, hear!

The Rocky Ground: No root, little endurance (20-21). In Palestine there are places where there is a limestone layer underneath the soil. When it is a rainy season, the soil is moist and things can grow. But, I have read that the when the sun or a hot wind comes, you can literally watch a flower in that soil wither before your eyes. What’s the problem?  Should we blame the sun? No, the sun is important for growth. The problem is there is no space for roots to grow and find more moisture.

Similarly, the rocky ground is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.  Who wouldn’t want forgiveness, life change, meaningful purpose, eternal life, a spiritual family and spiritual power, to know the God who made us? Moisture is a good thing and receiving the gospel with joy is a very good thing, but neither are the only thing. Roots are necessary to take in moisture and nutrition and to keep one stable and receiving nourishment through difficulties.

As with the sun, so also suffering helps us grow. We cannot and should not try to avoid difficulties nor persecution on account of the word. The sun doesn’t kill plants and trials do not destroy Christians. A lack of roots kills both.

The gospel needs to develop deep roots in our lives. The sun is coming and it will regularly be paired with very hot winds. Don’t just pray here and there, pray without ceasing, and do what we read Daniel doing: have habits, rituals, times of prayer. Don’t just constantly stuff your face with food as if man can live by bread alone, take time to fast and teach yourself regularly from experience where your strength comes from. Don’t just come here and walk out, stay and talk awhile, get in the lives, tables, and homes of others here and let them in your life and home, stir one another up to love and good works. And don’t just read and or heart God’s word and let it slip away, study it, memorize it, ask questions about it, write about it, pray about it, put it on your walls, and let it find a deep place in your heart and bones and life.

Blessed and merry is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked… but rather in Yahweh’s instruction is his delight, and on his instruction he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water bearing his fruit in its season, and his leaf does not wither and whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked, but rather they are like the chaff that the Spirit-wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment… Do not live as if the sun and hot winds aren’t coming. We need to be planted with deep roots going into streams of water.

The Thorny Ground: Choked by Cares and Riches (22). Note: the plant does not die, it is simply proved unfruitful. Churches can be full of thorny ground — Christians in name but not in action. Christians who come but never do.  What are the thorns that can make us unfruitful? The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. Luke adds: pleasures of life. Is it wrong to care about something? To enjoy pleasure? To have money? No. But we must not stop there.

Riches easily deceive us. We look at the future and wonder, “I might lose my job. The economy might turn down. I might get sick. She might get sick. This might break. I shouldn’t be a fool: we need to hold it, we need to work harder, we need more money. Cut all costs. Scarcity mindset. Store it up.” But it is a lie. Satan is deceiving us — robbing us of the ability to do something that actually matters with your life. Do we really think a solid bank account is the sign of anything that matters much before God?

Enjoyment of pleasure can consume us — especially today: we have the time and money to spoil ourselves on pleasure, “treat yourself” to death. We can afford to eat every delightful thing, watch funny videos, call friends, wear the nice things, have the perfect hair. We need never fast, never miss a show or salon or nail appointment. We need never stop consuming. But do. Stop all the buying, watching, consumption that weeds up your life — is there anything left? Any fruit? Can we even bear the silence while we try to find something fruitful to do?

What alarms me here is “cares of the world.” Cares. Concerns. Loves. Hobbies. Pursuits. We say it ourselves when we do not keep up our disciplines, come here, encourage others, serve others, befriend the downtrodden, reach the lost, give to the needy: I have been busy. I am worried about this or that. Notice how Jesus doesn’t say, “I am so sorry. I didn’t realize you were genuinely concerned about a-b-c and troubled by x-y-z and that’s why you aren’t — nope. That’s choking us.

I love Hebrews 12: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. He doesn’t just say lay aside sin, he also says lay aside every weight. A lot of “not-inherently-sinful” things weigh us down, choke out the word. Weeds will come and obligations, cares, concerns, pleasures will come. But they don’t have to stay. We have to regularly rip weeds from our gardens, and we have to regularly rip weeds our lives so we can be fruitful.

The Good Soil: Understanding Leads to Fruitfulness (23). What is the difference here? There’s no rocks preventing the gospel from taking deep root in every part of a person’s life. There’s no weeds choking out fruitfulness. And Satan is kept away. The soil is good. And, whenever the word is sown here, they hear the word and understand it. Understanding the word leads to the word becoming fruitful. Many in the evangelical world are growing concerned over a trend over the past 150 years or so since the great awakenings: Christianity is spreading wide and far with little concern for solid understanding of truth. Anti-intellectualism is a top concern. It is common to hear people criticize “head knowledge” or “information” or “Biblical scholarship” because all that really matters is whether we are transformed to be like Jesus.

“I won’t have to pass a Bible test when I get to heaven.” Yes, but try becoming like Jesus without understanding the word which Jesus gave us. Try lasting through the withering heat without being planted by the law which is described as streams of water. Try examining yourself well and try to not repeat the past without knowing and understanding Bible stories. Try seeing the world aright as God sees it without understanding Revelation. Try to love become the heavenly city and to love the heavenly without the prophets that tell us all about it. Try to be fruitful — growing to become full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, knowledge, virtue, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection — without the word of God. But let’s not complain when we wake up in a few decades to find we are doing whatever is right in our own eyes and living in the damned generations of the Judges thinking God will bless us because we have a Levite as a priest because we didn’t read or listen carefully. Our anti-intellectualism is not from Jesus, it’s a carryover from the great awakenings which impact us more than we know. Now, could we waste our time with fruitless knowledge? What’s the shortest verse in the Bible? Who is the oldest man? Of course. Could we make study of the Bible a purely academic thing? Parsing out the original languages to no end? Of course. But that’s not what we’re talking about.

To bear fruit we must hear the word and understand the word. And notice, some will bear a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Hopefully we all aim for 100, but we’ll all bear different amounts of fruit at different times, and that’s okay. And Luke adds that they bear fruit with patience. Fruit is not born overnight. It needs water, sunshine, ripping out weeds, and time. Work.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

A lot of people in Uvalde, Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere are reasonably wondering what God is up to right now. Whether it's now or later, big or small, personal, communal, or global, we all encounter times where we wonder what God is up to, why Jesus is delayed in coming, what is really true, and if waiting through this delay and uncertainty will be worth it.

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt, but God sent Moses to lead them out through the Red Sea and the wilderness to himself at Mount Sinai. While Israel was at the foot of the mountain, God came down in fire and smoke and he spoke to the people with his thundering voice. But they were afraid and told Moses to speak to God on the mountain for them. While Moses was on the mountain, God explained plans to build the tabernacle. Adam and Eve had been exiled from God’s garden sanctuary in Eden thousands of years before, but now God was telling Moses how to build a copy of his heavenly throne so he could dwell with his people again. Other ancient peoples desperately used their own imaginations to recreate garden-mountain-temples for their idols, but God was giving Israel plans to copy the real thing.

But this took forty days and forty nights. So, while Moses was delayed because he was receiving these spectacular plans, the people were growing impatient over this seemingly meaningless wait.

“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” (Exodus 32:1 ESV)

From here Aaron asks the people for gold, forms a golden calf, the people declare the golden calf to be the elohim — the gods — who led them out of Israel, and then they party in honor of “Yahweh” who they may believe is represented by this golden calf.

Why did they do this? Exodus says that they (1) “saw that Moses delayed” and (2) did “not know what” had become of Moses. Do you see what’s funny about their logic? They say they don’t know, and yet they do something massive as if they knew. They filled in the gap.

I think on our best days we recognize a delay is a delay and a lack of knowledge is a lack of knowledge. But Israel shows us precisely what this uncertainty looks like on our worst days. When Israel said “Moses is delayed” and “We do not know what has become of him” they didn’t really mean it, not really; they meant “we choose to not live with uncertainty, Moses isn’t coming back.” “We don’t know” really means “We know.” Their pride broke them — insisting that they must know what God is up to.

Haven’t we all been haunted by that unbelieving demon? Uncertainty about God’s activity? It can lead to “certainty” that he is inactive. “He has not answered” can become “He will never answer.” “How could he let that happen?” can become, “He didn’t let it happen because he isn’t around anymore.” And like the Israelites, we won’t bring serious evidence or data to the table to engage wise people in a discussion. No: on our worst day we’ll follow what we feel in our guts is the grown-up conclusion.

Gaps in our knowledge about God, truth, the past, current happenings, and the future are reality. But Satan wants us to fill the uncertain gap with the certain proposal that Jehovah is a dubious God to trust: you’re standing on make believe ground. We all say “I don’t know,” but next time we say it faithlessly, let’s ask ourselves: do we mean it — that we don’t know? Or are we saying we can’t bear to not know? is this an excuse to make ourselves god? to do what is right in our own eyes? I have heard a saying somewhere that many in government see crisis as the excuse they were waiting for to seize extra power. “You need us to take control.” We may all be like governments. Crises can be opportunities for growth, but they can also be opportunities to declare that we need more concrete answers and power around here.

But it’s the age old journey of faith to keep going not knowing.

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8 ESV)

Abraham went out not even knowing where he was going. And once he arrived, it turned out the land was populated by other powerful nations and giants, so he set up a tent because he didn’t know when he would have the land. One night Abraham asked — likely exasperated — “God, how can I know I will possess the land?” But at some point, if I understand Hebrews 11, it appears that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came to see that they weren’t really looking for a city that would arise from man or from the earth, but a city built by God that would come down from heaven. And don’t we often forget about those two factors? God — the one who made everything from nothing. Heaven — the enchanted realm of God and of all manner of spiritual beings with spiritual powers that that even Disney can’t match. Do we forget to account for God and for the magical place from which all blessings flow?

Side note: this is why our world has Disney. It’s because we cannot bear our modern loss of enchantment — our loss of this sense of the “magic” of God’s presence and of heaven’s nearness. We are haunted by the cold spiritual emptiness of our world. We tell magical stories of enchanted worlds with heavenly music and stunning beauty so that — even if just for a few moments — we can make believe that the world is enchanted. It feels infantile to believe in God and heaven, it feels grown up to move on; but Disney’s success is evidence of how depressed our world is without heaven. Our amazement with the vast Marvel Multiverse and the expansive Star Wars Galaxy is evidence of how we also feel very suffocated — our ancestors used to look up and see the heavens as full of spiritual life, mystery, wonder, and possibilities; but we’ve probed them with our drones and found that: no, we’ve seen all that is and we’re alone spinning through cold, dark, lifeless space. And so, it ultimately feels more grown up to just rely on what we can rationally see, weigh, measure, prove, and to move on from God and heaven.

That was Israel’s “grown up” move. They constructed a god they could see and touch: a grass-eating ox. Moses was delayed because God was preparing a place where he and Israel could dwell together. But God responded to Israel’s idolatry by ending the tabernacle project and withdrawing his presence from them until Moses begged and God relented. They nearly sealed their fate to live without God and heaven because their doubt became a demand that God and Moses show up now.

Until the final day we are an expectant, waiting, hoping people dealing with the delay and uncertainty of how and when God and heaven will intervene. Hope is waiting on a miracle we don’t yet see. Noah waited, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph waited. And as Moses ascended up the mountain and delayed to come back down with the tabernacle plans, our Lord has ascended into heaven and it feels like he has delayed to come back down with the holy place he has prepared for us. Peter warned us, didn’t he, that people would start mocking, “Where is the promise of his coming?”

How Can We Deal with Delay and Uncertainty?

In July we’ll delve into habits and rituals that can keep us grounded and committed. But until then, How can we intellectually, mentally bear with this uncertainty about God, his plans, truth, reality?

1. See that we are the church in the wilderness. One of the most significant perspectives offered by Hebrews is a vision of who, where, and when we are. He tells us to “hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope” (3:6) and then he compares us to Israel who failed to do that in the wilderness. And by the end of the book this picture becomes clear: we are Israel in a different wilderness living at the foot of the heavenly Jerusalem (not Mt. Sinai) waiting for the coming of the heavenly promised land.

Paul does this in 1 Corinthians 10 too. Israel’s experiences are a type of our experiences. As we are baptized, they were baptized in the Red Sea. Augustine makes an helpful observation about this. “Notice this point, brothers and sisters. After crossing the Red Sea the Israelites are not given their homeland immediately, nor are they allowed carefree triumph as though all their foes had disappeared. They still have to face the loneliness of the desert, and enemies still lurk along the way… So too after baptism Christian life must still confront temptations. In that wilderness the Israelites sighed after their homeland; and what else do Christians sigh for, once washed clean in baptism? … Let all the faithful listen and mark this; let them realize where they are. They are in the desert, sighing for their homeland.” (Cited in Smith, On the Road with Saint Augustine, p. 17)

Just this perspective can help us breath a sigh of relief. Baptism in the Red Sea or in the Lord is not supposed to feel like the end — its supposed to feel like that beginning of a long, difficult sojourn home. We’re not home yet. We are on the greatest sojourn ever, but Hebrews needs to repeatedly warn us because we’re in the desert: keep boasting in your hope, don’t grow dull of hearing, don’t become sluggish, don’t cave to unbelief like Israel or else you will trade away God’s rest.

2. Recognize unbelief as an exchange for something worthless. 2nd Peter 3 warns that when people mock about God’s delay, they are really using this as an opportunity to follow their own sinful desires. They are exchanging hope in God for tempting desires. Reflecting on the tragedy of what happened at Mt. Sinai for Israel, Psalm 106 mourns: “They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt…” (Psalm 106:19-21) If we let the ever-mounting pressures of what we do not and cannot know crush us, we will  always fill the gap with some stupid thing that seems brilliant in our frantic state. But it is an exchange of the glory of the God who has done great things for an image of an ox that eats grass.

What may we give up God for? Our marriage vows for independence? our marriage bed for someone forbidden? faith-filled prayers in fasting for the bloated discomfort of cake or a hangover? Or will we exchange the adventure of following God not knowing where we’re going for a boring-safe-comfortable spot on the couch? The approval of God for the approval of people? sleep that comes from trusting God for more money, more problems? We may exchange the peace of the gospel for a quick press of the button to just nuke ‘em; matrimony with Christ for life with a “partner” who only wants what’s now; eternal clothing with bodies we won’t be ashamed of for temporary comfort in a transitioned clothes and bodies of our own choosing. It is tough. Really. We don’t know how or when our marriage or fasting or prayer or the church or the kingdom of God will really pan out, so lesser things truly seem appealing.

But it all boils down to the same question: will we choose God’s promised dwelling with us in the unseen, uncertain future… or the “solid” image of an ox now? Esau traded his unseen birthright in the uncertain future for a bowl of lentil stew he could have now. We can sell out for the lamest things! As C.S. Lewis wrote, we’re like children making mud pies in the slums not understanding the offer of a vacation at the beach. Let’s take care that uncertainty doesn’t lead us to settle for too little. As Dee Bowman often said: “If you miss heaven, you just missed everything there is.”

3. Know the cross provides shelter in the uncertain wilderness (Rom. 8:32, 35). We must remember the cross and the empty tomb in uncertainty. This is what Paul is arguing in Romans 8. There is a lot we do not know. We may not know what our marriage will look like in a year, how things will turn out with our kids, or what our streets and schools will look like. Governments may not do justice and healthcare may fail. We may uncover truths that cause us to question everything we know. We may question whether the church is what it should be. We may wait 10,000 years before Jesus comes. Or, as in Romans 8, people may mock, exclude, and kill us for proclaiming Jesus is Lord, King. But when we look to the cross we should ask ourselves this: if he did not spare his own Son, how will he not also with him give us all things? I do not know when, I do not know how, I may not know what is up or what is down until then, but it is a historical fact that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and that God raised him from the dead. And because of that, I am sure “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is a shelter in the wilderness. In fact, the cross also provides for us a table in the wilderness to nourish us with Jesus and the cross until our sojourn is over — like the spiritual food and spiritual drink that sustained Israel.

4. Know he left to prepare a place beyond all imagination where we will live together (cf. Rev. 21). As Moses delayed to come back down the mountain because he was receiving plans to build God’s house, Jesus gone up into heaven. But he told us why he left. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1–3 ESV) The “Father’s house” is temple language. Only Jesus is not speaking of the temple in Jerusalem, but of the real temple in the heavens. As with Israel, he’s preparing a place for us to dwell together. Revelation depicts it as a new heavens and new earth — everything made new. It depicts it as a massive, beautiful city coming down out of heaven adorned like a bride — decked with gold, pearls, precious stones. There’s no night, no tears, no death, no weapons (swords and spears will be beaten into farming equipment) — all the former things have passed away. And there we will look upon the face of the Father and of the Son. What wonders await us!

Conclusion

At Moses’ pleading God pardoned Israel’s sin and renewed his tabernacle plan. We too have exchanged God’s glory for lesser things, but thank God for Jesus, he has pardoned us and renewed his tabernacle plan to dwell with us. God will be faithful. Nevertheless, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Our knowledge is only partial now. Have faith through the wilderness till the Son of Man comes — then, all will be made new and clear.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

On January 22nd, 1973 the Roe v. Wade decision struck down a Texas statute which banned abortions. In 1857 the Supreme Court decided that blacks are humans but not persons or citizens with unalienable rights. Though this was later overturned, the Roe v. Wade decision used this same logic — declaring that unborn babies are humans, but not persons with the right to live. This decision legalized abortion across the entire United States. Now, nearly fifty years later, it is possible Supreme Court is setting up to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.

Now, we shouldn’t be naive. If the Supreme Court does even strike down the Roe v. Wade decision, this will not automatically make it illegal everywhere in the U.S. The expectation is that roughly half the states will restrict abortion in some way or completely. Before the Roe v. Wade decision, hundreds of thousands of abortions still took place — women drove to states where it was legal or sought black market abortions. We can expect that while the number of abortions will be reduced, these things will continue to happen.

Now, that may lead many of us to wonder if anything has been gained here. If the murdering  of unborn babies doesn’t completely stop, if people’s hearts aren’t changed, what good is it to limit something people most people don’t want limited? While I will conclude with exhortations to us from Scripture, I want to spend most of our time simply asking this question — why does it matter that governments make just, moral decisions? Why are Christians worked up about this? Shouldn’t the government just let the free market give the people what they want?

1. A government’s mandate comes from God — not the people — and God expects leaders to make just decisions whether people like it or not. This is a challenging worldview shift in the modern West. In the past people so closely linked kings and rulers with god and the gods that they very often took it too far and kings saw themselves as uniquely god’s image or even a god himself. He is king because god chose him, and in fact he is a god. But we often think of people have governing or even religious authority because we chose them — so they should do what we want: Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony or some other divine mandate. But what if it isn’t the job of governments to do whatever people vote them in to do?

Read Romans 13:1-2 in a new light with me — as if you were a governing authority. Rom. 13:1–2 ESV, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” Paul goes on to refer to governing authorities as God’s servants three times. Certainly someone in authority might be humbled that people selected him for a position, but they need to get over that rather quickly: their mandate, their authority, their appointment comes ultimately from God. They are servants of God before they are servants of the people.

The challenge here is that people have always wanted to choose for themselves a king to enact their own vision of right and wrong on the world. And in the U.S., our ceremonies and celebrations can often deeply ingrain in us that we should be willing to kill and be killed for that ability to choose. In America we are all pro-choice in the general sense of it — and others have simply taken the logic a step further. Freedom is not about the ability to choose what is most virtuous anymore, freedom is now an end to happiness — especially today through our sexuality.

I get it: rulers have often been tyrants throughout history. Nobody wants that. But, in the matter of abortion, we have been living under the tyranny of the majority.

But God expects rulers to do justice whether people like it or not. This is one important example we see from godly rulers in the book of kings. What do the good kings do? They often times have the courage to do what the people don’t want: they pull down idols, destroy idolatrous altars, abolish cult prostitution. And the book of Kings always takes time to note when kings don’t destroy these idolatrous systems.

The reality is simply this: if a governing official allows abortion to run rampant under his or her watch, they are allowing injustice to win the day. And Isaiah 10:1-4 offers a chilling rebuke against rulers who would turn aside the needy from justice. “Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.”

Now, some may argue that legislating righteous decisions doesn’t do any good because it doesn’t change people’s hearts. But this is overly simplistic because:

2. Just laws may not be the transforming power of the Spirit, but they do affect our hearts and actions. Someone may raise this objection on the basis of Romans 3 and argue that law only shows us where we are wrong, it doesn’t make us right with God. But this is reductionistic. This is “perfecting” a concept to an inappropriate extreme. Paul never argues that the Law did no good. Paul actually argues that the Law is good, it teaches us good and evil, and that we should uphold it. Paul argues that the Law doesn’t make us right with God — not that it has no value whatsoever.

The reality is that both laws and rulers do cause us to pause and consider our ways. The Book of Judges is a perfect example of this. Judges 21:25 concludes the book with a perfect summary: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The book is full of absolute moral chaos. But every once in a while a righteous judge rises up — and many people actually do turn back to God. Once he’s gone, it all goes back to moral chaos. There is certainly a larger theological point to be made here: we need the perfect and eternal king Jesus. But there is a practical point here too: we need rulers, we need laws.

Laws really are helpful because they put up roadblocks to wickedness. It makes something wicked seem less possible, less plausible. This can all serve to direct us towards a righteous standard and help that seem more possible. Let me illustrate a little further. It was Friday morning two weeks ago and I was determined to finish my sermon. I had my rough draft, but not the final version. The house had been a little crazy and even though everyone was gone I knew I had to get out of the house if I was going to finish this sermon. The sermon simply was not going to get written if I had to stay in the house any longer. I needed to go work at Summer Moon with a deliciously creamy sweet latte in hand — then the sermon would get written. I packed up my stuff and went to grab my keys. And then I remembered I had lent my car out to a friend. At that moment I suddenly realized I was going to write that sermon at home. And I did.

I use this story to illustrate a simple point: it is good that some things are illegal because it makes evil things seem less possible and plausible. When Summer Moon is possible, I will believe it is impossible for my sermon to be written without it. When abortions are easy, affordable, and legal, people believe it is impossible to survive or have any happiness without it. Credit cards, contraceptives, sex changes and other things work the same way — they frequently make unwise impossible things seem possible and plausible. But if abortions are illegal — that appropriately stigmatizes it, adds shame to it, and maybe, just maybe you realize there is another way.

3. The Gospel and gospel-living is not only about changing the interior lives of individuals, it’s about turning the world upside down and calling all rulers to kiss the Son of God. We very rightly capture the power of Jesus’ sacrifice to take away our sins, but because we live in a society that is individualistic and obsessed with psychological navel-gazing, we tend to pervert the gospel into mere psychological comfort that my sins are forgiven. This ultimately makes the Bible and the gospel about you and me and our feelings of inferiority and it makes Jesus into the great psychologist. And while the gospel does indeed speak to that and the Spirit really does powerfully transform us from the inside out, the gospel isn’t primarily about you or me. It is the proclamation that Jesus is bringing God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven through his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. By his death and resurrection Jesus is enthroned as priest and king.

But because we living in the midst of the great American experiment where we try to bifurcate and completely separate body and soul, church and state, politics and religion, we tend to hear the word “gospel” as a purely religious term about our private interior lives. But here’s a mind-blowing fact: in the first century, the word Jesus used to describe what he was doing and proclaiming was “gospel” — and this was not a religious term, it was a political term.

Here is an inscription of the gospel of Caesar Augustus from 6 BC. Note carefully how there is no distinction here between politics and religion, god and king: “The most divine Caesar . . . we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things . . . for when everything was falling (into disorder) and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave the whole world a new aura;  Caesar . . . the common good Fortune of all . . . The beginning of life and vitality . . . All the cities unanimously adopt the birthday of the divine Caesar as the new beginning of the year . . . Whereas the Providence which has regulated our whole existence . . . has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving to us (the emperor) Augustus . . .who being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order;  and (whereas,) having become (god) manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times.”

There is no distinction between politics and religion here. And Jesus didn’t make a distinction between politics and religion either. The gospel certainly brings good news King Jesus has sent his Spirit and you can be transformed from the inside out, but that’s not all: it’s about the societies being turned upside down and rulers being called to serve Yahweh with fear. That’s why Jesus prayed, “Our Father in heaven, let your name be treated as holy, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Consider also Psalm 2.

Why do nations conspire and peoples murmur a vain thing?

Arrayed are earth’s kings and rulers take counsel together

Against Yahweh and against his anointed

Saying let us break their chains

And throw off of us their ropes.

The one enthroned in the heavens laughs.

My master scoffs at them.

Then he speaks to them in his wrath

And in his burning anger he terrifies them.

Saying I myself have installed my king

On Zion my holy hill

I will declare the statute

Yahweh said to me:

“My Son you are,

I myself today have begotten you.

Ask of me and I will make nations your inheritance,

Your possession the ends of the earth.”

Now therefore O kings be wise,

Be warned ye judges of earth:

Serve Yahweh with fear,

And exult with trembling.

Kiss the Son lest he be angry

And you perish in the way.

For his wrath is kindled up in a moment;

Blessed and merry are all those who take refuge in him. (Translation from Theopolis Institute)

Notice that the problem isn’t that the rulers aren’t doing the will of the people, it’s that they aren’t doing the will of God. And notice that the response of God isn’t to establish a democratic republic to the ends of the earth so people can be free; his response is to establish his king in Zion and to give to that king the nations to him. And what should happen because of that? Individuals should get private religion and go to church on Sunday? No — everyone including kings and rulers should get wise, serve Yahweh with fear, and kiss the Son or else they will perish. But then the Psalm ends with a promise: blessed — happy, merry — are those who will turn to take refuge in Jesus the Son of God. This isn’t only private religion, this is public transformation.

This is why we shouldn’t over-spiritualize the prophets. They speak poetically and with rich imagery, yes; but it is in service of talking about actual reality. The governing of the actual world has been put on the shoulders of Jesus to the end that God’s will be done on earth. This is why when the gospel went out people didn’t shrug and say, “That’s just religion, do what you want.” That’s why the mob in Thessalonica in Acts 17 didn’t say, “These men are going everywhere telling people to accept Jesus into their hearts and be baptized so their sins can be forgiven and they can feel better about themselves and live their best lives now.” No, they said, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also… and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

There’s a reason why some Caesars eventually wanted Christian leaders dead — it wasn’t because their private religious beliefs about forgiveness and the afterlife made them feel uncomfortable. They have no interest stoning followers of a purely spiritual king who does not promise to come again with an army of angels. It is because the gospel is that Jesus is enthroned in heaven as king. That doesn’t mean Caesar isn’t king at all; it means that his claim to be Lord, Son of God and the one who will set everything right is a sham. It does mean that he needs to worship and obey and govern as under the authority of King Jesus who actually is Lord and Son of God. In the past God overlooked the ignorance of men, but now he calls people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day by which he will judge the world — you, me, kings, judges, legislators, doctors, moms and dads included.

Conclusion

It matters that governing authorities do justice…

Because their mandate arises from God;

Because their governance really can have a good impact on peoples hearts and lives;

Because the gospel calls them to serve Yahweh and his Son.

The world has been living as if Jesus is not king — from rulers to each one of us. And the weakest among us — unborn babies — have suffered under the tyranny of our obsession with freedom. But true freedom is service to our Creator and his Son. And as we go out with the news that Jesus is king, the beautiful thing is that we have been authorized as his priests to offer terms of peace and forgiveness. Our God took on the shame and humiliation of all manner of our sins — including the shame of abortion and of legislating it — for those who choose to put their faith and allegiance in him. This is a place where we will strive for God’s uncompromising standard of holiness, and where we will show compassion to the repentant. May simultaneously call the world to account and offer them terms of peace.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore