Clashing Kingdoms and Allegiance

NHOP School of Prayer - "What You Need to Know About Praying for Government and Leaders." - Session 2 of 12 NHOP.ca

Transcript

hello welcome to session two of our en hop School of prayer course on how to pray for government the title of our session today is clashing kingdoms and Allegiance and uh just as a quick recap last week in our first session we looked at the kingdom of God and just discussed a few characteristics of the Kingdom uh notably that the kingdom of God is not from this world but it is for this world it it's not cut from the same cloth as kingdoms of this world but it it's Heavenly it's spiritual but it is it is definitely for this world it is intended to influence and eventually to find full expression on the earth and so the kingdom of God is not from this world but it is for this world the second

thing we talked about was how the kingdom of God is here now but it is not yet here in fullness and the third thing we talked about how the kingdom of God is eternal it will never end and it will never be overthrown and so those three things just keep those in the back of your mind as we continue on looking at the kingdom of God a little bit more and specifically today how it how it came head to head with the the Empire of the day the Roman Empire in jesus' coming in his birth and his life his death resurrection and in the establishment of the early church um Jesus we know that Jesus never sought political influence in fact in John 6 uh a bunch of the a bunch of the Jews sought to make him

King they they saw in him this potential you know potential to be this Messiah that they've always wanted and longed for um they sought to make him their King and Jesus actually avoided it he slipped away and and and uh actually I think John 6:15 says he went off to a secluded place to pray and so we know he never sought political influence that was they wanted to make him a political leader they wanted to yeah they wanted him really to lead uh a resistance against Rome and he denied that he walked away from it it's like they said we want to make you our Premier we want to make you our prime minister and he walked away from the opportunity and so though he never waited into the world of

politics directly right there were times he was asked questions about it is it lawful to pay taxes and things like that he never went looking for political influence and yet the arrival of his kingdom the kingdom that's not of this world absolutely abolutely clashed head on with the Roman Empire and so I want to look at that a little bit today and and just before we do is to say we're we're wanting to lay this foundation of the kingdom of God being aware of it and knowing that it is our the kingdom that we are a part of it is the governmental structure that that gets our primary Allegiance and really to show the kingdom of God is Not Buddy Buddy with the kingdoms of this world there isn't a

I don't believe there's a government on Earth that speaks for or represents the kingdom of God on Earth and we need to be clear about that before we weit into how do we pray for and how do we relate to and how do we interact with government and so we want to look today at just some of the some of the ways that the kingdom of God clashed with the kingdoms of man specifically in the Roman Empire at Jesus first coming okay so first thing I want to look at if you're f in the notes uh Roman numeral 2 the politics of jesus' birth okay right from the beginning of his life there was conflict with the Roman Empire so first if you look at Matthew's account of the Nativity of jesus' birth um especially

in Chapter 2 okay Matthew specifically and and intentionally portrays Jesus as like a second Moses okay he we see it in in uh how he he mirrors The Exodus story a little bit in Jesus in in Jesus birth story and it's not that Matthew work that up it is how the birth story played out it was by Design uh but first uh thing in in uh Point A1 uh the wise men we know the story of the wise men who came from the East and they asked Herod where is the newborn king of the Jews we saw his Star as it Rose and we've come to worship him that's Matthew 2:2 and a little bit of insight there is that this would have been perceived as a direct Threat by Herod because decades

earlier he had been given the title King of the Jews by Mark Anthony and the and the Roman senate that was his title and you've got these foreigners these these wise men coming saying where is the newborn king of the Jews and the interesting thing about Herod is that he already had a history of ruthlessly defending his stake to the to the to the throne um he had already killed family members who he perceived to be a threat to himself and his Rule and so it's no surprise that he issued that order to to murder all the newborn uh Hebrew male children under the age of two in that in the region surrounding Bethlehem uh that wasn't a departure from his character

that's kind of what he was like and uh and that obviously that edict obviously mirrors Pharaoh's decree of the same variety back in Exodus when he ordered in Exodus 1:16 he ordered all the Hebrew mid whites to kill any male children that were born to the to the Hebrews so Matthew 21:16 Exodus 1:16 you have this very similar edict and what Matthew is doing is he's saying look Herod is like Pharaoh in this story Pharaoh was not a good king Pharaoh was a wicked King right he was he was the the uh in a sense the personification of of Darkness of evil in that story and we know that Moses was sent he was spared from that Slaughter from that Massacre he was spared we know that story in the same

way Jesus was spared an angel visited visited Mary and Joseph told them you need to get I think it's to Joseph actually you need to pack up Mary pack up Jesus and go to Egypt until it's safe and so they mentioned the the flight to Egypt in Matthew 2:15 uh and Matthew specifically cites Hosea 11:1 which is clearly speaking about Israel being delivered out of Egypt and Matthew applies that verse to the life of Jesus saying out of Egypt I called my son and so we see where is this newborn king of the Jews Herod perceives a threat to to his throne a threat to his power and his authority he orders all the Hebrew male children in that region under the age of two to be to be

murdered Jesus is spared from that Slaughter just like Moses was spared from that similar edict back in the days of the Exodus and uh and so we see this this threat and uh interestingly you know Herod just as a as a side note here here Herod was a Jew Herod was a Jew by Blood so he was of the people of God he was of the covenantal people of God but he was completely given over to the politics of Rome his I think it's safe to say his identity was in the power and the position that he had because of his relationship to Rome and uh later when Jesus you know later in jesus' life and Ministry you know Herod the Great the first Herod he's he's dead and and gone away but his son was was

ruling at the time and Jesus made this statement about him watch out beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod now again Herod it's his son it's not Herod the Great it's not the same one who was ruling when Jesus was was born but it's the same lineage it's the same issue it's the same family it's the same uh the same thinking he was a he was of the people of God but his primary identity was in the power and and position and everything he had gained through his relationship to the political structure of the day the Roman Empire and Jesus kind of metaphorically called it the leaven of Herod and I think even if it's just for the purpose of this course we're doing we can think

of the leaven of Herod as referencing people of God who are more identifying more with political power and structures right if we identify ourselves more by our political leanings than we do by our than our leaning into Jesus Christ the son of God the one source of Salvation if if we're more identified and defined by our political leanings we might have 11 of Herod problem is the idea we're first and foremost children of God the betrothed and beloved of Christ we are saved by grace through faith we are members of his kingdom way before or we have any kind of political leanings it's important for us to keep that clear and so Herod Herod uh being a type of pharaoh

Jesus being a type of Moses Moses presented a direct threat to Pharaoh's power and uh and position he ruled the power the the Empire and power of the day his strength was um I would say his his position was strengthened by the the way he he oppressed the the Hebrew people kept them in slavery and by Leading them by delivering them out of Egypt pH um Moses directly challenged and weakened Pharaoh in his position and in the same way Jesus is going to present a threat to the political power of Herod and later the The Wider Roman Empire so that's that's one we see in Matthew's account of Jesus birth we see this there's this clash between the kingdom of heaven and political kingdoms

of of Earth specifically as seen in the life of Herod there in his in his birth uh letter B Luke's account of the Nativity has some political connotations that that certainly would have grabbed a first century reader curiosity in a few ways um number one in Luke 2 verse one it specifies that jesus' birth occurred during the days of a sensus called by Caesar Augustus right we know that story that's why Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem but it's important for us to know that the purpose behind a Roman census was really taxation they were hurting the people um to places where they could be counted and then taxes extracted from them and so the people of

Judea were not Roman citizens with representation in Rome taxes were collected not to benefit the people but to benefit the Empire okay so this was a sort of political oppression this is one of the things that the the the the Jewish people would have hated about being in subjugation to Rome is this being being counted and taxed basically whenever Rome decided they wanted to so this census would have been a bad political memory for them uh the the second thing here point two Luke 2 verse2 also mentions quirinius the governor of Syria that's interesting because his name doesn't appear anywhere else in scripture like why would that be in there and uh history tells us

that about 10 years after the birth of Christ this same quirinius called for another census of the Jews and that census provoked an Insurrection led by a man named Judas not Judas SC scariot not one of the disciples but it provoked an an Insurrection led by this guy named Judas and it's one that is actually referenced in Acts 5:37 they remember remember the days of that revolt and this guy Judas who led him and then he he became nothing eventually but by inserting here's the point by inserting corus's name into the narrative Luke is intentionally provoking memories of political unrest it's almost as though if there was you know something being written 20 30 years

down the road uh about the church in Canada or to the church in Canada and they said in the days of the freedom Convoy and whether you were for it or against it it stirs up um anxious political memories right it's a reminder of all sorts of turmoil in our country right it wasn't obviously it it could have been worse and so on it's not to say that but that's the idea it's like Luke is intentionally it's like he's pushing a button stirring up political memories um that have some Ang to it so he's like remember those days remember Caesar Augustus and his census remember quinius in those days here's what happened and so that's that's part of how he's writing there

the third thing about Luke's account is that the Angel's pronouncement of Christ's birth specifically co-opted some of the political terminology of the day which is really interesting so the Angel's declaration to the Shepherds the angel said to them fear not for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people for unto you is Born This Day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the lord so three terms uh that we've got underlined in the notes there uh first of all this I bring you good news of great joy so good news Luke used the word evangeli which is a form of evangelon which is the word it means good news and it's the word we

get gospel from right we we constantly talk about preaching the gospel or teaching from the gospel like like it's it's the basis of our faith well that term evangelon actually represented Roman propaganda in the first century whenever Rome had a big announcement to make they called it an announcement of evangelon it was good news to the Empire it was usually an announcement about a military Victory um you know on the outskirts of the Empire it might have been announcing the coronation of a new Caesar anything that was like this great thing is happening in Rome it was called the good news and interestingly there's archaeological evidence to say that um the birth of

Caesar Augustus was hailed as good news and I think they found archaeological evidence of that announcement um being posted so to speak in something like four or five different locations throughout the Roman Empire and so the Angels use this political term right it's like it's like the press release of the government of the day was called the good news and they said no no no this is good news from another kingdom it was specifically using this political this terminology that had a political idea to it and they're attaching it to the birth of Jesus so that's something that would have got their attention uh the the use of the title savior unto you is Born This Day

in the city of David a savior we know that yeah he's the one who saves us he's our savior we think of it in those terms but savior was a term that was often applied to or sometimes applied to Roman Caesars Emperor Claudius had been called the savior of all mankind so to give that title to Jesus is implying a confrontation between him and a Caesar right it's taking a title that's it's like commander and chief no no no that's Jesus right think of some of the highest political titles that that could be thrown around in today's world it's like it's like the Angels were spe specifically taking it and saying no no no it belongs to Jesus and then the third one Christ the Lord that the Greek

word there curios translated Lord Supernatural Master over all one who owns or controls estate land and property uh the ruler Master Lord one who exercises authority over this was a title commonly applied to Caesars and the angels are applying it to Jesus and so in Luke's account we see him a stirring up political memories memories of a of anxious political times and saying Jesus came into that situation and secondly they're actually taking terms that were used in the political world and applying them to Jesus and uh that's that's pretty interesting that he would that he would take that step to do that no no no no no it's actually applied to Jesus that's that's kind of significant

there's a Clash of Kingdoms happening there okay so the first we see you know the politics of jesus' birth or maybe the The Clash of Kingdoms seen in jesus' birth uh Roman numeral 3 the politics of jesus' death and Resurrection even in there we see a clash of these these kingdoms uh in his death and Resurrection in Jesus trial you know we looked at this a bit last week the Jewish leaders put pilate in checkmate when they said if you release Jesus you are not Caesar's friend because He makes himself to be a king and any King anyone who makes himself a king is opposing Caesar so the Jews actually were right on this and pilate basically had to crucify Jesus because of that political

quandry he was put in he washed his hands of the whole deal he said no no no this guy's Innocent but he couldn't let Jesus walk after that threat and so so we saw that it's a political uh political friction there that that really was the Crux of that trial uh but also crucifixion perhaps the most cruel torturous means of execution ever invented it's brutal it's where we get the word um uh oh I just lost the word excruciating is where we get the word excruciating from and so it was and it it was an execution that was reserved only for those perceived as enemies of Rome uh I think there there have been some writings I've seen where I've said uh Roman citizens were not crucified it

was only for enemies of Rome and so Jesus crucifixion him dying by crucifixion was essentially a statement that he was a political criminal that's really what's kind of being implied there he's an enemy of Rome and that's why he's being put to death in this way um and what's cool about that is that jesus' Resurrection obviously means that he had endured and overcome the worst that Rome could throw at him okay the greater significance for the world obviously is it demonstrates his over how he's overcome sin in the grave that's the greater meaning and understanding behind it but it's important not to overlook the fact that he demonstrated his authority over Rome by Conquering the

worst Rome could throw at him okay this explains explains why in Matthew 28: 11 to5 it talks about how the Roman authorities in Jerusalem sought to discredit the apostles claims of Jesus resurrection they sought to bury the story because it looked real bad for Rome that oh wow this thing that struck fear in the hearts of all our enemies for so long someone's actually beaten it and that was that was not something that was not a storyline they wanted getting out uh the second second thing is this this act of Resurrection set Jesus apart from the Emperors there were no reports or claims of Emperors overcoming death but Jesus did and so in his death being crucified as a political criminal

essentially and then his resurrection conquering that crucifixion Conquering the authority of Rome the sword of Rome again there's a clash of Kingdom Jesus kingdom comes out greater than than romes in that in that Clash uh it's also interesting his Ascension had some political connotations to it as well because Celestial abnor abnormalities like a like a an unexpected Comet flying through the sky or something uh they were sometimes pointed to as evidence that a late Caesar had ascended into heaven and been been adopted as a Son of God um so they would yeah they would see these these you know unusual things happening in the heavens and they go oh that must be that Caesar you know and

being accepted into heaven becoming a Son of God whatever and so Jesus physically ascending into heaven before eyewitnesses right that's demonstrating himself to be the Son of God like oh maybe that star was a Caesar it's like there's no doubt that is Jesus ascending in front of us right now and so his death his resurrection even his Ascension there's there's contrast and conflict between him and the political Empire of the day he's he's demonstrating his authority and superiority over the empires of the day in that okay Roman numeral 4 moving along uh even the politics of the early church so the politics in his in his birth politics in his death and resurrection and Ascension but even in

the early church so now carrying on this idea of the crucifixion and resurrection that symbol that had struck fear into the hearts of Rome's enemies the cross has now become the rallying point for this new religious sect the way it's now their rallying point they're they are gladly identifying with the cross when before it was the thing nobody wanted anything to do with like this is turning the power of Rome on its head in that their their symbol that used to strike fear is now a symbol that the church is pointing to for Hope and life and joy and peace and all these good things and so the op the apostles openly declaring Christ crucified before both Jew and Gentile

alike and resurrecting from the dead that preaching was declaring their curios their lord to be superior to the Lord of Rome this was this is creating a lot of conflict um there's a lot because it's and again they're not seeking to do this through politics none of the apostles were running for office right none of them were seeking political power or influence it wasn't really available to them but none of them were seeking that out and yet just by nature of the question of Allegiance which we're going to get to in a sec that's where the friction comes in uh letter B here their self-descriptive terminology was was political as well so this is an interesting thing you know the term

Ecclesia gets a lot of AirPlay these days in the in in many part portions of the church what's interesting is the apostles could have referred to the Gathering of Believers using the word synagogue like there was a Greek word for synagogue which meant essentially an assembly and there's also the term Ecclesia which also meant an assembly synagogue obviously was related to Jewish synagogues which were a Assemblies of a religious nature the Ecclesia were Assemblies of a political nature so it's very interesting that the apostles the writers of of the New Testament use the word Ecclesia to describe the Assembly of Believers and not synagogue now some might argue there is a differentiating

between Judaism and Christianity that's possible I think it's more of a thing of uh of highlighting just this is the Gathering of people of another kingdom I think that's what they were getting after it's the Gathering of a people of another kingdom and uh yeah and it it makes sense we've been grafted into the Covenant people of God forming one new man with the Jews it would have made sense to just call it the synagogue right uh to use that Greek term synagogue or synagogue or whatever it was however pronounced um but they didn't they used the term Ecclesia it carried a clearly political idea to it so again I don't believe that's saying the church is supposed to be political

in nature just saying the Assembly of Believers were an assembly of Believers from another kingdom I think that's what they were getting at with the use of that term um and again just like we saw in the last Point uh the church consistently used words like curios Lord to refer to Jesus uh Paul used the term well over 200 times in his Epistles and here's the point every time you make the statement Jesus is Lord the implic the implication is clearly that Caesar is not you can't have you know really really at the end of the day you can't have two different Lords you can't have two opposing parties both being your lord right to say that Jesus is Lord is to say that Caesar is not and that's

where also the church was challenged not to say Caesar is Lord by acts of worship sprinkling incense on an altar and things like that because to say Caesar is Lord even if you meant it half-heartedly is to deny that Jesus is Lord you can't serve them both and we'll see that reference in a minute as well so we see this Clash of Kingdoms in jesus' birth uh his even in his death and resurrection and Ascension and we see it in just the nature of the early early church and and calling people to wholehearted allegiance to Jesus there is just this clash with the kingdom of of Rome with the Empire of Rome the kingdoms of man there is a clash and the whole point of this is the politics of

man political structures of man do not walk hand inand with the kingdom of God we need to be clear on that God can you know the Kingdom of Heaven can influence in the political structures of man but the political structures of man are not the primary means through which he works it's important for us to be clear on that okay Roman numeral 5 this brings us to a question of Allegiance there's a Clash of Kingdoms what do we do with Allegiance who do we give our allegiance to and if you look at the letter to the Philippians it's it's Unique and that if you look at a little bit of the history behind Philippi uh it's Unique because Philippi was a Roman Colony that means

they had special privileges um essentially as an outpost of Rome you know today if you're born in Canada you're a Canadian you're granted citizenship you're granted rights and and Privileges and freedoms and all sorts of things simply because you're born here well just because you were born within the boundaries of the Roman Empire didn't make you a Roman citizen okay citizenship we saw it in in one of Paul's uh interactions with uh with the governor um is that some could buy their citizenship for a hefty price but some privileged ones were born a citizen at Birth and colonies were places that were you know people who lived there were were citizens of Rome okay so they're

unique just in that um some rearch research has shown uh some of them given privileges of autonomous local government they could they could uh they could govern themselves unlike other places like in Judea in Samaria where they were under Roman rule um heavy-handed rule from Governors sent there by Rome not getting to rule themselves like some of these colonies uh a lot of times they were granted land a lot of people who lived there were often retired uh military people from from the Roman military um politicians bureaucrats people like that so they're they're Romans through and through they they live there but um and many times colonies were Exempted from taxes as

well Exempted from taxation again taxes were to benefit the Empire and really colonies were part of the Empire they were they were in more of an inner circle of the Empire than everyone else so the Believers who lived in Philippi had rights and privileges that other people in the Empire didn't have we could probably more closely identify with them than when some of the other towns that that Paul wrote to um but they were faced with a dilemma because as the years went went on so we get into the age of the early church we get into the 50s 60s 70s of the first century um the Imperial C cult started to grow in in influence and significance and that was basically viewing Emperors as a

deity or as one to be worshiped and much of culture and economy and all sorts of things in the Roman Empire um kind of evolved around this Imperial cult and uh for example if you if you were a Tradesman trades person if you were a um a Craftsman you you build things with your hands whatever and maybe you're a farmer you grow things you want to sell these things in the marketplace to make a living many times a Marketplace if you wanted to enter in whether to sell or to buy there was a little uh platform with a a little CES a little uh Altar and a statue or not or an idol of of Caesar and you had to sprinkle some incense on this altar burn some incense to Caesar almost like a

cost of admission to to get in there and if you refuse to you don't go in so if you don't join in participate in the worship of Caesar in this little way um you're denied access to the economy of the day to the marketplace of the city so um this was a really challenging thing for like think of Lydia like uh who Paul went to where the who basically began the Church of Philippi she sold um it said she she sold uh purple Linens and so on which would have been a highend product you definitely would sell in the marketplace well she would have faced this dilemma of do I honor Caesar with this little act of worship in order to go sell or do I remain faithful to God and have no other gods

before him uh turning from idolatry and you know those sorts of things right so this was a real a real dilemma with real implications on their ability to make a living provide for their families you know food clothing and shelter it brought that into into question and they're wrestling with this they're facing this Challenge and in his letter to them Paul said in verse 20 of chapter 3 he reminds them our citizenship is in heaven remember he's talking to people who likely had Roman citizens iens ship which was a huge privilege and everyone knew the difference between a citizen and non-citizen your citizenship is not in Rome it's in heaven and from it we await a savior

there's that word again the Lord Jesus Christ that word again who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious Body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself he's pointing them to don't forget you're a citizen of Heaven of the Kingdom that has authority to subject all things under the feet of his Lord okay so he's he's calling them to remain Keep Your Allegiance in the Kingdom of Heaven don't give your allegiance to Rome it's hard now but the Kingdom of Heaven is the Eternal one that's where you want to keep your citizenship and where it had very real implications that we don't taste today none of us are threatened with losing our ability to provide for

our families you know you might lose your job for being a Christian but you can find another one pretty easily it wasn't like that for the citizens of Philippi in that first century it would have been a massive Challenge and God's saying you know through Paul he saying keep your allegiance to the citizen or to the to the kingdom of heaven and it's not just Philippi if you go to the letters to the churches in Revelation Revelation 2 and 3 um especially the letter to pergamum I believe it is they were facing ing the exact same thing and God's encouraging them Jesus himself is speaking and encouraging them to not deny his name or his word but to hold fast and even in that letter there's a

promise of if you overcome I will give you to eat of the secret Mana which again is and you know whatever different people interpret that to be it's clearly reminding them of a time when God fed an entire nation of people for 40 years miraculously right and so it's there there have been there There Are Places today even where the church faces this same dilemma of being excluded from ostracized from society right Outcast but even more so from being denied the ability to provide for themselves and their families because of their allegiance to Jesus and they faced it in the first century already and the the encouragement was your citizenship is not here it's in heaven don't lose that

don't Let It Go Lightly okay and what this is attached to is our primary Allegiance is not necessarily it's not mostly just about obedience or mostly just about like uh just a a mental Ascent of a type of loyalty it actually reveals where our treasure lies okay um it reveals if if my primary Allegiance is to a political system and a political party that's in power if that's where my allegiance lies it tells me my primary treasure is related to living comfortably today and having things set up the way I like them having the rules in place that I like having the policies and the values and um and the economic system all these kind of things having those the way I like them right whereas

if our citizenship is in heaven it's an indication that we have any our hope is in an eternal reward an eternal treasure not an Earthly one it's not mostly about obedience Allegiance is mostly about what we love okay Matthew 6: 19 to 24 don't lay up for yourselves Treasures on Earth but lay up Treasures in Heaven where your treasure is there your heart will be also and here's that verse no one can serve two masters you will either hate the one and love the other or you'll be devoted to one and you'll despise the other okay we can't we can't claim primary citizenship in two different kingdoms right we're dual citizens but we can't be mostly Allegiant Allied to

the kingdom of heaven and Canada it's one or the other at the end of the day and that's where push always comes to shove because governments of man they will always seek to get to the point where they demand Allegiance they want your primary Allegiance eventually it's taken a while to get to that in a democracy where you have to they have to you know they have to consider all the views of people and it takes longer to get there but you get you get into a um system with one leader you know was it was more common back in the day where you have a more powerful leader a tyrannical um autocrat you can there you can see where they demand Allegiance much more forthrightly right

and the days are coming where we'll be faced with that you can't give your allegiance to both you have to settle the question today today we can walk with our foot in both camps to a degree but you have to settle the question where is my primary Allegiance when that when that divide gets too wide and I have to jump to one side or the other where are you going to jump that's a question we have to settle uh Matthew 13: 44- 46 the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up and in his Joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field he sells all that he has so he can buy that field that has that hidden treasure which

Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like that treasure right and he goes on to say you know it's like a merchant in search of fine pearls he finds one pearl of Great Value sells all that he has to buy that Pearl the Kingdom of Heaven is something that we give up everything for he calls for our total Allegiance total abandonment total obedience and here's the interesting thing Paul was making that same point in the passage leading up to Philippians 3:20 okay if you go back to verse 12 he talks about you know haven't already obtained I'm not already perfect but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ had made has made me his own I don't consider that I've made it my

own but I one thing I do forgetting what lies behind straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the upward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus he's talking about I am persistent to the end I'm not stopping I'm not coasting my allegiance is here I'm moving forward towards it okay verse 15 let those of us who are mature think this way so he's saying it's a mark of spiritual maturity to think I keep pressing on I keep reaching for the goal that he's called me towards and if in anything you think otherwise God will show you but let us hold true to what we've attained okay so he's talking about pressing on and then he

says this Brothers join in imitating me okay so imitate me in that lifestyle keep your eyes on the ones who walk according to the example you have in us so he saying imitate me and imitate people who walk like us okay imitate those who press on for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ their end is destruction their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with Minds set on Earthly things okay he's not talking about just people out there he's talking about people who have walked as Believers who've made a confession of belief but he says but now I've warned you about them before now they still even

now they're walking as enemies of the Cross of Christ why because their mind is set on Earthly things their allegiance is to this Earth so they'll gladly sprinkle a little bit of incense on that altar to Caesar because it helps them make their money provide for their family do the things that keep them comfortable today and Paul's saying with tears they're actually enemies of the Cross of Christ I'm telling you don't walk like them walk like those of us who keep pressing on towards the goal who keep pressing on to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me he's saying don't walk like the enemies of the Cross of Christ walk like us our citizenship is in heaven okay so it does

it does come to a point where we have to choose between one or the other and it's good that we settle that question now when it's a little easier to settle settle it all right the challenge is for us to be clear on which kingdom we love and identify with the most all right we cannot properly relate to our political system until we have Clarity on that question okay there's a lot of really good things about Canada I love being a Canadian but I have to be clear on which kingdom I love and identify with the most and I think there's layers of that that I haven't been able to unpack yet because they haven't been brought up by hardship and pain and suffering but to the to the

degree that I'm able to I need to choose allegiance to Jesus the kingdom of heaven and until I get that settled I won't be able to rightly relate to my political system as an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven I need to settle this question first okay so that's why we spent two you're unpacking this idea of the kingdom of God and how it how it confronts political structures of this world because we have to be clear which side of the Divide we're on which side of the conflict we're on and that and that doesn't mean we have to be in conflict with politics that's not what I'm saying saying the allegiance has to be clear so that when we do relate to our political

system we do it rightly we do it as an ambassador of the kingdom and not get sucked into the leav of Herod okay it's important we settle that question first and we'll finish with this Roman numeral 6 so how do we relate to politics we're going to give just two I'm just going to give two ideas here two concepts and you know we'll build it as we go on through the next 10 weeks but uh number one letter A it's important to know God does not fit on our political grid okay he's not right-wing he's not leftwing he is not even Center he's not on the grid the grid the political structure is a construct of man he doesn't have to fit into it okay and the great you know for

me the greatest example of this is in Joshua 5 where again Joshua is on the cusp of leading Israel into the promised land they've come across the Jordan they're camped on the plains of Jericho they're about to take Jericho following God's instructions and verse 13 of Joshua 5 Joshua was by Jericho he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold a man was standing before him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went to him and said are you for us or are you for our adversaries okay so he's saying Joshua was looking seeing there's us the people of God right the people they could say we're the people of God and we've got the Canaanites and amorites and jebusites and all the otheres in front

of us in the promised land in Canaan are you with us or are you with them and his answer was no all right if ever there was a political question put before Jesus where the person posing the question could say I'm on the side of the people of God it was Joshua in that moment and Jesus answer to him was no but I am the commander of the army of the Lord now I have come I'm here on the I'm I'm here on the scene and Joshua fell on his face to the Earth and worshiped and said to him what does my Lord say to his servant okay um yes I know he shows up as an Angel um but he calls himself the commander of the army of the Lord the way Joshua worships him all these things

in there leads me to believe this is the pre-incarnate Jesus showing up on the scene but the point is this Joshua put an ultimatum before the commander of the army of the Lord and He refused to identify by those constructs he said nope I'm not with you and I'm not with them I'm on my side the qu is basically saying I'm on my side which side are you on and Joshua had the right response he fell on his face he worshiped and he said what do you want me to do right that's the thing we need to remember here's this may be a difficult statement Canada is not a beacon of the kingdom of God to the world our parliamentary democracy was founded on Christian values and principles many

of them but that doesn't mean we were ever God's Nation there's only one nation in human history that could claim that and that was the nation that was established at Mount Si in Exodus 19 right they were established to be the demonstration to the nations of the Earth this is this is how it goes for you when you walk in obedience to God's commands okay that's the only nation that could ever claim that we can't claim that our parliamentary democracy though it's built on many Christian principles and values it is not the political structure of God's choosing our political system is still a fallen system of man he Jesus and this is an important point to make Jesus will not

rehabilitate our political system when his kingdom comes in fullness okay he will remove our political system in favor of his own the kingdom of God is not a democracy it's important to know that it's a kingdom with a king who calls the shots that's part of what we said yes to he does not rule by majority vote okay the word is clear I've got a number of references listed for you there the word is clear he is the king he will establish his government he's not going to look at one of the nations of the Earth go oh I like the way you do it I'm going to use that okay it's important to be clear on that okay and I'm not that's not me hammering Canada right again I love I love living in

Canada I love that I have a say in how my country is governed and and ruled and run but I need to be clear on this still isn't the best it's still not the best system the ultimate system is when the one worthy the one trustworthy King comes and takes his rightful place that's when we'll have the ultimate government situation until then we make do with what we have okay the one new man body of Christ Jew and Gentile together is the body through which he makes his kingdom known on Earth in the now until his return the not yet it's the church it's the kingdom of God the one new man body of Christ that is the body through which he makes his kingdom known that doesn't I don't believe that

means we take over governments of the earth I don't believe that for a minute but the the church the body the Kingdom of Heaven is in your midst we're the ones who are make to make his kingdom known in in the now so here's the point as Christians we are not primarily right-wing or leftwing or even Center okay we stay in line with him there are some right-wing elements that are in line with him there are some leftwing elements that that are in line with him there are some Center elements that are in line with him but none of them fully captures the values and principles of the kingdom of heaven we stay in allegiance to that King first and foremost every party and here's the the

other part of that we don't identify by these political um uh categories we don't identify by them but we are called to bring the kingdom the influence of the Kingdom to whatever part of that Spectrum we work in okay whether we engage with conservatives or liberals or NDP or green or even the Block in Quebec whatever party we relate to we're to bring the influence of the Kingdom there every party needs more exposure to the Lev of the Kingdom Matthew 13:33 the Kingdom of Heaven is like a little bit 11 that gets in and infects the whole lump right each party needs some of that leev okay we don't identify primarily by that party we identify by our allegiance

to the kingdom of heaven and we bring that Lev wherever we go okay the second thing I would say here in this and how we relate to government so that's the first one being clear on which side are we on I heard actually one person saying it's not we're not left or right or Center I'm I say we're it's almost like we're diagonal like like we're on a different axis we're on a different plane because we're in line with Jesus the one who doesn't fit into this human political system but here's the second one the Jewish people's Exile in Babylon is I think a helpful framework for us to understand our relationship to the governments of this world we are you know Hebrews talks about us being

sojourners right aliens in this world we're looking for a city that is to come and so we're like the Jews who are in Exile in Babylon which God had told them you're going to be here for a while you're going to be here 70 years if you think about it 70 years is a Lifetime right we have a lifetime here in Exile in a sense okay so how do we relate to the governments of this world the governments of the Nations we live in how do we relate to them as aliens as foreigners as ex Iles Jeremiah 29: 5-7 build houses and live in them plant Gardens and eat their produce take wives well take one wife you know but collectively take wives have sons and daughters multiply there and do not

decrease right multiply and fill the Earth that command is still in place verse seven seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into Exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for for in its welfare you will find your welfare that is our I think the clearest instruction to us as to how we live and move and have our being in the nation of Canada as citizens of heaven we seek the welfare of the country of the province of the region or county of the city where we live we seek its welfare where he has sent us where he's placed us us and we pray to the Lord on its behalf because as it goes for them so it will go for us if we neglect to pray for our our places of of where we

live if we neglect to seek its welfare if our region suffers we suffer too it's in our best interest to seek the welfare of where we live verse 10 he said when 70 years are completed for Babylon I will visit you I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place the land of Israel who he was talking to for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope that's the context of what he was writing that in so I would say this the way we relate to government today just put it simply and again we'll unpack this as the weeks go on we vote based on policies that we perceive will promote the welfare of the

cities and Nation we live in we perceive receive What policies of what group will promote welfare or human flourishing what are the policies what are the values that will help humans in Canada Thrive and flourish what will cause welfare you know good good health good prosperity flourishing what will cause Canadians to flourish and we vote along those lines and that's where we get into the debates right and talking about well these values are good yeah but what about these values that's where we can have those discussions but we see our interaction with the governments of this world as we're seeking the welfare of the cities and the places where we live

we're seeking their welfare um and we're praying to the Lord on its behalf he told the Jews to pray for Babylon he told them to pray for Babylon and the second part of that so we we vote based on policies we perceive will promote human flourishing and the second thing we bring the leav of the Kingdom to every party to the party you think is wrong and to the party you think is right the party you think is right still needs the leav of the Kingdom there is no political party in Canada that speaks for the kingdom of God okay the leev of the kingdom is needed everywhere we go and that's how we ought to approach how we relate to politics so that's that's where we are for we'll leave it at that

for today again the kingdom of God it's now and it's not yet it's not from this world but it is for this world and even though it clashes with the kingdoms of this world eventually you will have to choose between one or the other still we as ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven are called to bring the leav of the Kingdom of Heaven into our political structure so if you feel called into politics please don't hear me I'm not saying we shouldn't be involved in politics I think we should I think there are believers who are called to that sphere absolutely and our primary calling is not to make the conservative party great or the NDP great our primary calling is to bring

the leaven of the Kingdom of Heaven into those places okay so thanks for joining in here next week we're going to look at a few passages in scripture where we see the constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven what is you know so what are the policies of the Kingdom of Heaven what are the things that we what is the leaven that we're supposed to be sprinkling into these parties what are the values we're supposed to be bringing in because the word kind of lays it out for us so we'll look at that next week um but again continuing to talk about the kingdom the nature of the kingdom and how that informs us in our political engagement okay so thanks for joining in bless you I pray that the Lord opens

some of these things in your heart opens your eyes to him and that he would make us in a effective witness in the political system in Canada all right bless you we'll see you next week [Music]