Citizens of the Kingdom 9/25/16 Sermon Transcription Last week, we started this two week series called Jesus For President and we said that every four years in America, billions of dollars are spent trying to convince you and me that we are either a donkey or an elephant. They want us to fall in line and say, Yep that is who I am. I am a donkey! Or, I am an elephant. But the most important decision we are faced with during election season has nothing to do with who you are going to vote for, and has everything to do with your decision of who you truly are, and what God wants you to do here on earth. It s a question of your identity. If you are a follower of Jesus, your allegiance is first and foremost to him. Being a disciple of Jesus is an all-encompassing identity all by itself. We are not donkey/elephant people, but we are Lion/Lamb people. I read recently that four years ago, about 5,000 people actually wrote "Jesus for President" on their ballot in the last presidential election. But, last I checked, Jesus wasn t running then and he isn t running now. As a matter of fact, he would never run for president because that would be a serious step down from his rightful position of king of the universe. And in a monarchy, we don t vote for a king -- we bow before a king. Psalm 22:28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. In Revelation (1:5) Jesus is the ruler of kings on earth. and (19:16) King of kings and Lord of lords. It s tattooed on His thigh. And the thing about a king is a king must have a kingdom. When Jesus began his three year public ministry, you might call it his inauguration, he delivered his state of the union address in Mark 1:15 by calling people to: Repent for the kingdom of God is near. And when we become followers of Jesus, we become citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Last week, we talked about what the Apostle Paul says (Colossians 3:20), Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom that Jesus brings is completely counter-culture from the kingdoms of this world. So it should be no surprise to any of us that when the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms
of the world collide, it is going to cause tension for you and me as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Today, we are going to talk about a couple of these tension areas. For instance, have you noticed that this coming election isn t about policies? It isn t about foreign policy or bills. It s about fear. Most of the political conversations keep coming down to what are you afraid of? And to prove this, I am going to show you two of the campaign ads from our leading candidates. 3 AM in the White House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yr7odfuarg Hillary leaves you Defenseless https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=wxqx5cjfrge The people who make these ads are the same marketing geniuses who create commercials for Coke, smartphones, and vehicles. They know how to get their audiences to feel the emotions they want them to feel, and what they want you to feel is fear. They want you to feel that THIS is the election that matters. If we don t get this one right it s game over. Fear motivates a lot of decisions. Fear gains a lot of votes. Fear causes lots of protests and riots. Fear leads to a lot of Us vs. Them mentality. Fear leads to hostility, discrimination and hatred towards others. Fear is a strategy of donkeys and elephants. It s their obsession. But here s the good news -- we aren t donkeys and elephants. We are lions and lambs. We are citizens of the kingdom of Heaven. And we know the most powerful thing in the universe isn t fear, but love. We know this because God has shown us His perfect love through His Son Jesus. Fear and love have nothing to do with one another. You might say it this way: When love comes to the party, fear has to leave. So here s one thing that makes Lion/Lamb people different. Citizens of the Kingdom aren t mobilized by fear but by love. 1 John 4:18 says, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear I hear a lot of Christians today who use fear language when talking about our country and our World, and the tension they feel as citizens of the kingdom of heaven living in America. They talk about how culture is against us, how we are discriminated against, and even use the word persecution. But we aren t being fed to lions. We aren t being dipped in tar and lit on fire and used for ambient lighting in the gardens of the emperor like the first century
Christians. We aren t forced to gather in secret like many Christians who live around the world today. Last week, I talked a little about the first century church. Today I m going to tell you about what happened in the 2nd Century, a time when the church was still under severe persecution -- how they were not mobilized by fear but by love. In the 2nd Century, the worst pandemic that ever struck the Roman Empire happened. It was called the Plague of Galen. It swept through the corners of the Roman Empire for 15 years. Hundreds of thousands of people died. They didn t know what to do with such devastation. And when one person would contract the disease, families and townspeople fled from them in fear even the doctors. But it was the Christ-followers who stayed because Lion/Lamb people do not fear death. When everyone else ran away, the Christians rushed in to care for the suffering, without any regard to their own safety, and without any regard to whether the sick were Christian or not, wealthy or not, citizen or not. Citizens of the world know where the boundaries are. Citizens of the kingdom know there are no boundaries. Historian Diana Butler Bass writes that this was the number one reason the church grew in the first three centuries. It was this sense of radical generosity and service to others. This just became the reputation that this is what Christians do when disasters happen. A century later, a group of Christians built the very first building devoted to caring for the sick and helping the dying. They called it a hospital because it was a place that guaranteed hospitality. Donkeys and Elephants are known for their fear. But not Lion/Lamb people. As a matter of fact, the Bible says the #1 way the world will know that we are followers of Jesus is by what? Not by how high we wave our patriotism. Not by what party we vote for. Not even by our symbols of Christianity an icthus (fish), cross, Christian t-shirts, Christian music. It s by our love -- citizens of the kingdom are identified by their radical and indiscriminate love for God and love others. Throughout the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus often taught about the kingdom of Heaven. He would start off by saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is like And in Matthew 13, Jesus uses two very unlikely things to describe his kingdom because they were detestable to the Jews. The Jews were not fans of yeast and mustard seeds and Jesus said (Matthew 13): 31He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches. 33He told them still another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough. Many in the audience that Jesus was teaching were farmers who knew how destructive mustard was to their crops. If mustard got in their gardens, it was extremely difficult to get out. Mustard was invasive and spread rapidly, and would take over a garden in no time -- exactly
the way yeast works its way through dough. For others of us who don t live on a farm, you might think of the weeds that grow in the cracks of your driveway or the weeds that take over an abandoned house, or a house that has been foreclosed on, in your subdivision. Jesus says his kingdom spreads like that. It is like a virus. It can start in the most subtle and most unnoticeable ways one ordinary life, one small act of compassion, one widow s act of generosity, one man sharing with his friend how God has changed his life. And the kingdom spreads. Isn't it interesting that Saul of Tarsus (before he became a follower of Jesus and took on the name of Paul), when he was trying to eradicate the world of Christianity, he was basically going house to house trying to pull up all of the weeds. But what Saul found out, and what has been true throughout the last 2,000 years of history since Jesus came to install his kingdom is whenever there is time of severe persecution against followers of Jesus, and others try to destroy the kingdom of heaven, the faster it spreads. And that s where Jesus metaphor of the mustard seed really becomes clear. You see, when the mustard seed is crushed, its power is released. And sometimes I pray that God would allow us to taste what persecution really is because like the mustard seed, when we are being crushed, the power of the gospel is unleashed. Rodney Stark is a sociology professor and a professor of comparative religions at the University of Washington. Stark was not a Christian but he became fascinated with the first 300 years of Christianity because those followers of Jesus changed the world in its 300 years of existence. Professor Stark wanted to know why. He wanted to know, How in the world did this small little Jesus movement under the severe oppression of the massive Roman Empire change the world completely? Understand this, in those days, Christians didn t have a vote, they didn t have a bill of rights, and they couldn t hold a political office. It was impossible for a Christian to hold a position of anything in politics. Yet they completely changed the world and the culture of the Roman Empire. So he began to research it and here is what he found. He found that in the first century, females of all ages were not valued at all. Many female babies were just killed. They were taken out into the wilderness and they were left for wild beasts to devour. Women were considered just a notch above livestock. They didn t have a vote and they couldn t speak in public. Here is the thing. The church decided to step up. They said this not right. They began to rescue some of these female infants off doorsteps and out of the wilderness. These abandoned and orphaned girls found homes in Christian families. Many of these women grew up in the church, and they felt loved and valued by God and others. Did you know that the very first women s movement started out of the church? Paul said to the Ephesians, Men, love your wives sacrificially as Christ loved the church. All of that was not happening until this early band of Christians began to promote a different kind of value system. They radically cared for the poor. You read in Acts 2 that they began to sell all of their possessions and give to those who had need. After a while, Rome sat up and took notice of
this, and they said what in the world is happening here? Here is the deal Rome was not overthrown, Rome was overcome. They changed the culture without any of them holding a political office. Politics tries to change things from the outside in but Citizens of the Kingdom know that God changes things from the INSIDE OUT. The real change came from the Church being the church, and they said we are going to shine the light of Jesus Christ -- not be believers in name only. We are going to actually put our money where our mouth is and we are going to apply this to the world in which we live. I just wonder today what if the church would be the church in 21st Century? If we did a better job of being the church and caring for the sick, would there even be a need for healthcare reform? I wonder if the church stepped up and did a better job of being the church in honoring marriage, I wonder if we could demonstrate what committed, sacrificial, and intimate marriage is all about. I wonder if the church would step up and be the church and did a better job of caring for orphans and foster children and single moms, what would happen to the abortion rate and thousands of children stuck in the foster care system? What would happen to the fear for us as believers whose hopes rise and fall with every new election and every law that is passed or denied? Throughout history, the kingdom of God marches relentlessly through, and over, the kingdoms of this world. The Roman Empire, Byzantine, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, China, and it will be true of this one. Isn t it interesting that throughout history, whenever Christianity rose to political power, the Church stopped being the church? It didn t lose its power because God didn t go anywhere. But they neglected His power and took matters in their own hands. Do not forget who you are! We are the Church! We are part of a global kingdom that transcends our patriotism of the location we happen to be born in. The fact that we are citizens of the kingdom makes us better for the community we live in, and for our country, and the world, because of how we are supposed to care for the poor, the lost and the least. Do not forget who you are in this world. You are a son. You are a daughter of the king which makes you citizens of the kingdom of heaven. And while I live in America, I only have room to be a citizen of one nation. It is not under God but it is IN God, FOR God, and THROUGH God. I am a Christian first, foremost and only. Jesus doesn t want to be #1 in your life, he wants to be the ONLY ONE in your life. He wants your allegiance to his kingdom of love. John 14:1, "Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me." I think that phrasing is really powerful... Do not LET your heart be troubled. Because we have a choice. Right? Because in this world, we will face troubles. In this world, there will be rulers we don't like that go against the kingdom of heaven, and all kinds of troubles, but do not let your heart be troubled, and do not be afraid. Why not? Because Jesus says he gives us his Spirit, who is our constant guide, to help remind us of who we are and what God has placed us on this earth to do. And fear has nothing to do with the platform of Christ.
Oh, but what if we don't get so and so elected? Oh, but what if the economy doesn't get fixed? Oh, but what if things don't go back to how they used to be? Listen, elections matter. Policies matter. Leadership matters. But faith matters more. And faith is simply a knowing confidence that God's plans cannot be thwarted -- that the plans of the Creator cannot be thwarted by His creation. No matter what happens, God's kingdom and His people will still be standing.