On Sept. 17, 1787 the leaders of our nation signed a document, which is to our freedom as
Americans what the New Testament is to our freedom in Christ. They signed the
Constitution Of The United States, and that is now the longest lasting Constitution every
drawn up by leaders of a major nation. It is not perfect, and it has been changed
considerably. Some of it is outdated and as obsolete as the musket, but it is still the solid
foundation for most all of the values we treasure as citizens of the this great land.
Abraham Lincoln said of this valued document, "Let it be taught in the schools, in the
seminaries, and in colleges, let it be written in primers, in spelling books, and in almanacs, let
it be preached from the pulpits, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of
justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation." In other words, if
you are truly an American, you will base your legal and political convictions on this
document, just as you base your theological convictions on the Bible. There is much truth to
this, but the analogy does break down, for the Constitution is manmade, and as good as it is,
it is not God's Word, and so it can be, and has been changed. Nevertheless, it is one of the
wonders of the world in its impact on man's freedom under government. Constitutions all
over the world have been developed by using it for a guide.
The Apostle Paul was fortunate to have lived at a time when he had the blessing of a form
of government that was based on law and not men. Roman law was concerned about justice
and fairness. Paul appealed to Caesar because of his reputation for justice and fairness.
Augustus Caesar, whom God used to make the decree that brought Joseph and Mary to
Bethlehem, was known for his zeal in justice. He stayed in court until nightfall, and when he
was ill he would have himself carried to court, or sometimes have the cases brought to his
sick bed in the palace. He fought hard to make and enforce laws that encouraged and
protected the family. He was strongly anti-divorce, and he was strict on limiting the obscene
in the theatre.
Tiberius Caesar followed in his footsteps and spoke often to the Senate about the sanctity
of the law and their duty to uphold it. The point is not that pagan Rome and it rulers were
perfect or ideal. The evil and folly are abundantly evident, but the point is, they had an
empire that was the most powerful and longest lasting in history because they had law and
order, and because justice was highly prized. This was a life-saver for Paul because he was
often in serious trouble with the Jews who wanted him legally eliminated. There are ten
occasions in the book of Acts where they plotted to kill Paul.
On this occasion of our texts he was under arrest because the Jews were furious over his
preaching that God loved the Gentiles equally with the Jews. When they heard this, their
hatred was so aroused that they shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He is not fit to live." The
Roman guards saved Paul's life, for they were in the process of inflicting their judgment of
capital punishment upon Paul. We see this clearly stated in 21:31 where we read, "While
they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the
whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar." These government agents saved Paul from the
religious mob, but they could not grasp what the riot was all about, and why the Jews were so
angry at Paul.
They decided to get at the truth by beating it out of Paul. Paul did not see a lot of value
in being rescued from one beating to take another, and so he said to the Roman who was
preparing him for a flogging, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who has not been
found guilty?" Paul is not doing research on the law at this point. He already knows the
answer. He is asking this to reveal his rights as a Roman citizen. His question set off an
immediate alarm. The Centurion went to his commander, and he came and talked to Paul
about his citizenship. This put a definite damper on the inquisition, and all those connected
with the incident made themselves scarce. They were hoping Paul would never recognize
them, for they had already violated his rights by putting him in chains.
Paul could have taken them to court and many heads could have rolled because of this
legal blunder. Paul did not press charges, however. After all, they just saved his life, and
they assumed that a man being beaten to death by a mob was probably a low life ruffian, and
not a citizen of the empire. Paul was just happy to be in their hands where there was an
obligation to treat him with dignity and justice. From this experience of Paul we learn two
important points about our rights as citizens. Both points can make us treasure our status
under the United States Constitution as Paul treasured his status under the Constitution of
Rome. The first point is-
I. RIGHTS WILL BE VIOLATED.
Paul was under arrest because the Jews hated his freedom of speech and freedom of
religion. They could rid themselves of this man's rights by ridding Paul of his most basis
right of all-the right to life. The Romans stopped them from beating him to death in chapter
21, but in chapter 23 we read that 40 men made a vow not to eat or drink until they had
killed Paul. Few men in history have been object of such a sinister conspiracy as was Paul.
He was saved, and again, it was by the help of the Romans. It is no wonder that Paul loved
the Gentiles, for they were God's agents in keeping him alive so that he could take his
testimony into all the world. Had he not been under the protection of the laws of Rome, he
would have been an early martyr. Paul lived in a world, just as we do, where everyone wants
freedom, but where few want everyone else to have it. People have their prejudices and hatreds,
and they want the right to deny rights to those they despise. This means the violation of rights is
inevitable in a world where you have any kind of conviction or conduct that is not acceptable to
others, and especially if the others are in authority. The Jewish leaders and the masses of Jews
all felt Paul was a pain, and that he should be eliminated like a headache. They were the majority,
and they had the power, and so they set out to get him killed. Majority rule is only good if the
minority are protected from the majority. If one cannot be a minority without being crushed
by the majority, the minority has no right to be non-conformists.
Paul was seen as having no rights by the majority, and so they were going to destroy him.
He did the same thing to the minority group of Christians when he was in power and had the
authority to do so. He rounded them up and put them in prison, and even persecuted them to
death. Life is a terror for minorities when the majority has the power to violate their rights.
Paul's chances of survival were about as slim as that of an ice cube in Death Valley. It was
because the leaders of Israel were determined to violate his rights. Paul was in the same
position the 13 Colonies were in when England was in power over them. Their very existence
was threatened because the majority power was determined to rob the minority of their
rights.
When the Colonies drew up the Declaration of Independence they were doing the same
thing Paul was doing when he asked if it was legal to flog a Roman citizen who had not been
found guilty. The Declaration says, "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the
governed." Governments exist for the sake of promoting people's rights and in preventing
the loss of those rights.
Government exists because the violation of basic human rights is inevitable in a fallen
world. Paul would have been sunk without government help to protect his rights. God used
government to save Paul on the physical level. God choose this period of history for the
spread of the Gospel because it was the best time for government protection of human
rights. United States has been one of the greatest sources of power for spreading
Christianity into all the world. And it is because it has a form of government that promotes
and protects basic human rights. It is a never-ending battle to protect these rights, for man
is ever drifting toward gaining the power to violate the rights of others.
That is why the Declaration of Independence says, "Whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to altar or abolish it, and to
institute a new government." People have a right to a government that protects their rights,
and when it doesn't, they have a right to change it. They may do so by peaceful means or by
revolution, which ever one it takes to do it. Our Constitution provides for peaceful means of
changing the government. The people do not exist for the government, but the government
exists for the people, and for the sake of preserving their rights.
One of the reasons we have such a good form of government is because it is based on the
full awareness that the violation of rights is inevitable. Our government is based on the
reality of man's sinful nature. Our Constitution assumes that the President will be a sinner
and a tyrant if he can get enough power, and so it is designed to prevent that. It assumes
that the Congress will be corrupt and rob people of their rights, and that the courts will be
likewise. So it is designed with a balance of power to prevent any branch of government
from getting so powerful that the other branches cannot control it.
The reason the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution was because our founding
fathers knew that even American leaders would eventually become corrupt and begin to
violate the rights of the people. Jefferson said in a letter to Madison, "A bill of rights is what
the people are entitled to against every government on earth..." Many great men felt this
was not necessary. Alexander Hamilton felt is was a waste of time, but Jefferson argued, "I
have a right to nothing which another has a right to take away." He knew the depravity of
man would lead to the violation of rights because times would change, and they would not all
be united as they were then.
Paul was a part of the Jewish community just a few years before this confrontation. He
was one of their leaders who was doing their dirty work in persecuting the Christians. Now
is the object of their wrath. Without government protection of his rights he would have been
a goner. His former friends were now his foes, and they were out to violate his right to even
be alive on the planet. The one lesson that history teaches clearly is that people in power will
violate your rights unless they also are under a law that restrains them from that abuse.
Even godly people will use their power to violate their rights if they are not restrained by
law. The Constitution is that law that limits all powers from such abuse, just as the court of
Rome limited what the Jews could do to Paul. Next we see-
II. RIGHTS SHOULD BE VINDICATED
The word vindicate is from the Latin and means to lay claim to and defend. It goes way
back to the Roman law where it meant to assert one's legal right. This is what we see Paul
doing. He had a right to be treated with dignity and respect until he was proven guilty of
some crime and thus subject to punishment. He was innocent until proven guilty. The mob
wanted him dead. The Romans were under pressure and considered him a public nuisance.
One man could be eliminated and everyone could get back to business as usual. But Paul
refused to satisfy the majority and give up. He had his rights as an individual, and he claimed
those rights, and by so doing gave us as example of Christian assertiveness.
Paul did not have any rights as a Christian. There were no laws that said Christians have
to be respected and treated with dignity, and to be given a fair trial if charged. John the
Baptist had no trial at all, but was killed at the whim of Herod. James and Stephen were
killed by brute force without a trial. Paul was not spared because he was a Christian. It was
because he was a Roman citizen. Had he not been, he would have been beaten by the
Romans, and then probably turned over to the Jews to finish the job. It was his citizenship
under a government of law that respected human rights that spared him. Blessed are those
Christians through history who were citizens of the kingdom of God, and also citizens of a
nation where they had a Constitution that protected their basic rights. The reason we honor the
first President of our land is because he not only led our troops to victory in the Revolutionary War,
but he led the battle to win a national Constitution for us. He was not knowledgeable about
government, but he was a national hero, and he was selected as President of the Constitutional
Convention. His partner was Madison, and he was very opposite from him. Washington was 6
feet tall when the average American was just over 5 feet tall. He was like Saul in Israel.
Madison was more like Zaccheaus. He was very scrawny and little. But he knew everything to be
known about government together they became a potent pair. One became known as the Father
of our country, and the other Father of our Constitution. And both became President of our nation.
We need to see that their dream was surrounded with nightmares. Just as we see Paul
coming to Jerusalem with high hopes of sharing the Gospel, and instead there is a riot and an
attempt to kill him. People do not always respond as we dream, and the origin of our
Constitution is not all glorious and glamorous. The delegates who met in 1787 in
Philadelphia were not the easiest group to work with. You had men like Charles Pinchny
from South Carolina who was a brash young smart aleck who irritated his elders because he
happened to be almost as smart as he thought he was. Many were so full of pride. John
Mercer of Maryland was so conceited that he only stayed a couple of days. He decided that
the rest were a bunch of doddering old fools, and so he left.
Luther Martin was such a drinker that when he took the floor to speak he rambled
endlessly and aimlessly, and he was against everything. Along with the truly marvelous there
were tragically mediocre men deciding the fate of Americans future. Only about 20 of the 55
men who met had a sense of urgency about their mission. They argued and fought all
summer, and by Sept. 17, when it was completed, only 39 delegates were there to sign it. The
rest got fed up and left. Some of those who signed it did not like it. Even after it was signed
there was an unbelievable battle to get it ratified by the states. Finally, however, this nation
became, because of all this hassle, a nation where men do not rule, but law rules.
In nations where men rule you are at the mercy of those men. If they are prejudiced
and do not like you or your way of life, or your faith, they can boot you out or kill you. When
the rights of men are in the hands of other men, those rights will be violated. But if the
rights of men are guaranteed by law, then those rights will be vindicated. Thanks to our
Constitution we can do what Paul did. We can protest the decisions of men, and even
officials of the government who make decisions that deprive us of the rights guaranteed by
our Constitution.
Is it right was the question of Paul, and by his action he said that Christians are to claim
their rights under law. They are to demand a government what the government exists to
give, and that is protection of their rights. These officers may have hated it that this trouble
making little Jew had to be treated with respect, but they had no choice. His rights were not
a matter of the subjective feelings of men, but of the objective law. These men were bound
by law to grant Paul his rights.
We have the right to criticize the leaders of our land, and they cannot persecute us, for
we are guaranteed that right. We can even take the government to court. Some Christians
have strange ideas about going to court. They take Paul's rebuke of the Corinthians because
they were going to pagan judges to solve their deputes, and they apply it to our culture
where going to court is one of our basic rights. If you want to see the issue from another
perspective, look at Paul in the last chapter of Acts. He is in court most of the time
defending his right to be a Christian, and to preach the Gospel. He applied to Caesar, which
means he went all the way to the Supreme Court to defend his rights. Paul was not
anti-court, but he was just anti-foolishness and selfishness, which made Christians look bad
before the world.
If Paul was alive today as an American, he would be in love with our system, and he
would use it to claim his rights as an American citizen. Would he use the courts? Of course
he would. In our system of government the going to court is the only way there is to destroy
unjust laws. The legislature has the power to make laws. If they are bad laws that rob people
of their constitutional rights, there is no way to get rid of it apart from taking the issue to
court. The court alone can rule that it is unconstitutional. So if nobody takes it to court, the
unjust law can be enforced against thousands and nobody can stop it.
For a Christian in our culture to say that he will never go to court is to say that he will
never fight injustice, and never fight for the rights of the Constitution. He is saying that he
will let evil reign and not lift a finger to prevent it, even though God in His providence has
given him the power to do so. He who knows to do good and does it not is sinning, said
James. Do not use Paul's anti-court experience as an excuse to neglect his pro-court
conviction, which made him one of the great freedom fighters of history. Do not hide behind
the petty perversions of the Corinthians as an excuse for passiveness in the face of rights
violations. Paul never took a Christian to court even though he had a good many reasons to
do so, but he did spend a great deal of time in court fighting for his rights and his freedom.
Christians in America have spent an enormous amount of time, energy and money
fighting for their rights in court.
The Baptists have been in the forefront of the battle, and everyday they are involved in cases
where religious freedom is at stake. Only about a third of the world has the kind of rights that
we have guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. We would not have them if Christians did not go to
court to prevent those rights from being violated. Madison wrote to Jefferson in 1788, "Wherever
there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done." The only solution he said
is a form of government not governed by men, but by laws. It is the court that determines what is
just or unjust. If you never go to court against what is unjust, you undermine the very foundation
of our freedom.
The Constitution says there are only two things you can do that make you a traitor to
your country. You have to go to war against it, or be a supporter of others who are at war
with it. This is the only crime defined by the Constitution. In England the king could
declare anything he did not like to be treason, and then have the offender hung. The
founding fathers said we will have none of that here. You have to be a real enemy of the
government before it can touch you. The result is, Americans have the greatest liberty in
criticizing their government. We are not ruled by men, but by law, and it says that men
cannot rob us of our rights even if they are powerful and hate what we do with our rights.
The leaders of our land are under the law just as much as those who are led. Jews for
Jesus recently won a case in the Supreme Court. The Los Angeles airport
refused them the right to pass out their literature and to witness to people of their faith.
They asked, "Is it legal to stop an American citizen from sharing his faith with others?" The
Constitution says that it is illegal to stop them, and so they won their case. You cannot stop
an American citizen from sharing his faith publicly. Even if all the government leaders, and
all the rich and powerful people say that they hate what you believe, they cannot stop it. It is
because we are not ruled by leaders, but by law, and the law says we have the right.
Because they misunderstand the role of government and their rights, Christians have
given up some of their rights. The laws of our land have limited the freedom of government,
but not of the people. The law says the government cannot teach and promote religion in
public schools. It is the government that cannot do it. The people can do as they please. If a
Christian student wants to study the Bible and pray, he is free to do so. The law protects that
right. He can pray without ceasing, or use study hall for prayer or Bible study. The
Christian is free to pursue any religious subject of his choice, and to share his faith with
anyone who will listen, and that includes the teachers. It is the government that is limited.
The people have full religious liberty, but they don't take advantage of it and claim their
rights.
The right of religious education is supported by our government. The government has
no right to teach it, or to make anyone take religious instruction. But all children have a
right to receive it, and so the public schools have to release children to get religious
instruction if the parents want it. The government is not free to choose. They have to
cooperate with those who want to exercise their rights. Because Christians claim this right
you have released time classes where thousands of children leave school to get religious
instruction. Unfortunately, many Christians do not claim this right. We are privileged
people, but no privilege is of much value if it is not used. One of our great privileges is the
right to go to court, and we should do so if our rights are being violated.
It can be costly to fight for your rights. It cost Jews for Jesus a quarter of a million to
win their case. Jesus paid the ultimate price for the ultimate right, which was the right to
become a child of God. As Christians we have a right to confess our sins, be forgiven, and
become children of God. As Americans we have a right to share this good news with anyone.
Thank God for rights, and thank God for the protection of those rights. We have much to
celebrate, and that is why we do celebrate what Jesus did on the cross in communion, and
that is why we should join our nation in celebration of the Constitution.
