First Presbyterian Church
Wichita Falls, Texas
July 3, 2011
WHAT OUR COUNTRY
NEEDS FROM US
Isaac Butterworth
1 Timothy 2:1-7 (NIV)
1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
My father died in a Philadelphia hospital in 1999. Some weeks before his death, I was able to spend a few days with him. I stayed at the home of some friends in Washington Crossing, just a few miles north of Philadelphia, and each day I would drive into the city.
The first morning that I made the trip, I was stopped at a traffic light on Arch Street, and I was there just long enough, I suppose, to begin looking around. What I saw moved me deeply.
To my left was a cemetery, and right there, just a few feet beyond the curb, was the burial place of Benjamin Franklin, one of our nation’s founding fathers. I looked to my right and a little ahead, and there were two signs. One said, ‘Betsy Ross House,’ and it told how many blocks it was to the home of the woman who crafted the very first American flag. The other sign said this. It said, ‘Site of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1789.’
There I was, in my car, waiting at an intersection in a large and busy city. But this was an intersection like no other I had ever encountered. This was the very cradle of American history. It was enough to take my breath away. I felt like a child; I could almost reach out and touch greatness.
Our nation had its birth in Philadelphia. In fact, Independence Hall was just a few blocks away from Dr. Franklin’s grave. It was on July 4, 1776 that Ben Franklin became one of the fifty-six patriots that signed the Declaration of Independence. Others in that circle were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both future presidents, and, of course, John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was the only active clergyman to sign the document.
Tomorrow, people all over the world will celebrate what will be the 235th anniversary of our nation’s birth. It is a fitting time for us to ask what our country needs from us – especially from those of us who of the household of faith.
In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he tells us what the responsibility of the church is in relation to the nation. And what do you suppose it is? Primarily, Paul says, it to foster a climate in which the gospel can be heard. The gospel.
You know what that is. The gospel is the good news that, in Jesus Christ, God saves sinners. Now, of course, that’s a simple definition, and, given enough time, we could amplify it. This simple good news has lots of implications. But, for now, let’s just stick with this: The gospel is the good news that, in Jesus Christ, God saves sinners.
Now look at verse 4. God, Paul says, ‘wants all [sinners] to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’ God want the gospel – this good news of salvation – he wants it spread around.
This is God’s great desire, and, therefore, it ought to be our great desire. This is what he wants, and, therefore, it ought to be what we want: that sinful people everywhere be saved. This is ‘job one’ for the church. We have a duty as Christians – not as Republicans or Democrats or Independents, but as Christians – to see to this. We are called upon to do all we can to preserve a climate in which the gospel can be heard.
How are we to do this? Look, if you will, at verses 1 and 2. What you’ll find is this: Paul urges us to live a certain way. And he suggests that, if we live this way, it will give the gospel credibility. And that’s what we mean – isn’t it? – when we talk about preserving a climate in which the gospel can be heard. We want to be sure that our attitudes and our behavior do nothing – absolutely nothing – to discredit God’s good news. So, we live by a certain pattern.
If we can embody this pattern of life, we will be doing exactly what it is our country needs from us in this present hour. So what is this pattern?
It will not surprise you that it begins with prayer. ‘I urge, then, first of all,’ Paul says, ‘that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority.’ You and I need to remember that Paul wrote this words in a certain historical context. The dominant power in his day was the far-flung Roman Empire. Authority was maintained pyramid-style with Caesar at the top and an assortment of vassal kings and governors, exercising whatever control they had only by permission of the emperor. Very few Christians, I suppose, had any influence whatsoever in the affairs of state. They were, for the most part, powerless and often even persecuted. Despite that, look at what Paul said to them. They were to pray, and they were to pray especially for ‘all in authority.’
Now, if that was true for God’s people in the first-century Roman Empire, how much more is it true for us in a nation like ours. Thanks to the great institution of democracy, we are not without power. We are not without influence. But that is all the more reason we should pray for our leaders. Do we always agree with them? No. Did we vote for all of them? No. Do we owe them our prayers? No. But we owe our prayers for them to God. ‘God our Savior…wants all [people] to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’ And we need to build and maintain a country where that can happen. And the first step is praying for our leaders – from the President on down. No matter what party they belong to, no matter how many faults they may have. We need to pray that they will preserve a climate in our nation in which the gospel can be heard. Because that’s what God wants and because that’s what we’re here for.
Prayer is first. Then ‘quiet and peaceful lives.’ We are to live so that the gospel has credibility. And that means living peacefully ‘in all godliness and holiness.’
Maybe political activism is your thing, and maybe it’s not. At the very least, all of us ought to vote. And our vote ought to be an informed vote. We ought to be engaged enough to know what the issues are and who stands for what.
But more important than any of that – way more important than any of that – is the quality of our character. The words Paul uses are ‘godliness and holiness.’ Godliness is a word that means that we honor God, and holiness is a word that means that we reflect God’s honor. We prioritize God in our hearts, and then our hearts are revealed in our godly priorities.
‘This is good,’ says Paul, ‘and pleases God our Savior.’ Why? Because God ‘wants all [people] to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’ The gospel is what pleases God. God loves sinners, and he wants them to know of his love and to put their faith in him. He wants them to hear the good news of the gospel. And so he calls us – we who are his people before we are anybody’s people – he calls us to live in such a way that, in our nation, the gospel has credibility.
On this July 4th weekend – as we celebrate 235 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, as we remind ourselves of the courage of those who have gone before us, and as we recommit ourselves to the freedoms we all cherish – this is what our country needs most from us: It needs us to be God’s people. It needs us to do God’s work. And it needs us to spread God’s Word. This is what it needs, and this is what God wants.
