Introduction
America is in a serious time of crisis. Most of us can easily see that. The crisis poses a serious question as to what we should do now. A lot of energy has been expended in recent months by both liberals and conservatives in the political process. As conservatives, we are disappointed and concerned about the future. Already forces are at work to silence the conservative voice. How long will we be able to publicly preach the Bible like we are doing this morning?
I don’t see much opposition in the days ahead to a generic message that God loves you. Arrogant sinners not only agree with that message, but they cannot imagine a God that does not love them. After all they love themselves, and what kind of a God wouldn’t love them.i Nobody gets saved with half a gospel. And the world does not mind us preaching that half of the gospel. Does God love sinners? If He didn’t none of us would be saved. If He didn’t, He would not have sent Christ to die on the cross to make a way for our salvation. John 3:16 tells us the Father sent the Son to provide redemption to anyone who will put their faith in Christ. So, an important part of our message is that God love you.
But John the Baptist would have never been beheaded if he had simply told Herod that God loves him. It was when John confronted Herod’s sin that the opposition came.ii Jesus would have never been crucified by the Jewish leaders if He had only told them that God loves them.iii In John 7:7 Jesus said the world hated Him because He told them their works were evil. After talking about God’s love for people in John 3:16-17, Jesus goes on to say in the next two verses, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”iv
That’s the part of the message that gets the messenger in trouble. It’s when you say, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” that you encounter opposition.v If you want to avoid persecution in the days ahead, don’t tell people to repent. Don’t confront their sin and rebellion against God and His commandments. Just tell them that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives.
As the pressure increases, how many preachers will shift in that direction? How many have already shifted in that direction? How many Christians will stop condemning sexual sin, murder of unborn children, and other violations of God’s commandments? Will we have the backbone to keep preaching a whole gospel? Will our message include God’s demand for repentance, or will it be a message of sloppy love and tolerance that disturbs no one?
It’s hard for me to see a future in America that does not include increased persecution of Christians. I don’t know how severe that persecution will be. It will likely involve increased social pressure to back off the true gospel of Christ. It will likely label some preaching against sin as hate speech. It will probably entail some financial pressures. Those we have already experienced, but they will likely increase in severity. How physical the persecution becomes remains to be seen? But we had better brace ourselves for whatever comes. Put your roots down deep in Christ. Tend to your inner life so that nothing disturbs your peace. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.vi
Last week, in the context of our current crisis, I shared two biblical principles that we should keep in mind as we navigate our course for the days ahead. I will not go back into those. What I want to do today is share with you two more principles that will help us stay on course. In turbulent times like these, it is very important to anchor our decisions in biblical revelation. We need the stability that comes in the solid ground of God’s word. Our first principle today is this:
I. THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL
We begin by examining the political environment in Jerusalem during the first century. We get some insight on that from a statement made by the Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel in Acts 5:34-40. This statement comes during a trial of the apostles for preaching Jesus. They are brought before the Sanhedrin for violating their command to stop preaching Christ. Verse 29 records the response of the apostles: “But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.’” Notice how confrontive the apostles’ message is: “whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.” Not very diplomatic! This is why the Sanhedrin is persecuting them. The message exposes their sin. Verse 33 tells us the Sanhedrin was furious and was planning to kill the apostles. They wanted this message silenced.
Then in verses 34-40 we have Gamaliel’s counsel. “Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them: ‘Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. 37 After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. 38 And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; 39 but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it — lest you even be found to fight against God.’ 40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”
It's tempting to just camp here and expound this text. But I want us to draw some understanding of the political environment from Gamaliel’s statement. He references two movements among the Jews against the Roman government. One movement was led by a man name Theudas. We don’t have any further information about this man or his movement. F. F. Bruce sums up his insurrection with these words: “. . . he achieved nothing but his own destruction and the dispersal of his followers.”vii Gamaliel’s point is that the man’s insurrection came to nothing.
We do know more about the second man Judas of Galilee. Josephus tells us his insurrection was against the Roman taxation, saying “this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty. . . .” That was an inflammatory message: you’re not going to enslave us; we will fight for our liberty. Josephus evaluates the result of this uprising as follows: “All sorts of misfortunes also sprang from these men, and the nation was infected with this doctrine to an incredible degree; one violent war came upon us after another, and we lost our friends, who used to alleviate our pain; there were also very great robberies and murders of our principal men. This was done in the pretense indeed for the public welfare, but in reality for the hopes of gain to themselves. . . .”viii According to Josephus the net effect of this revolt was entirely negative. Not only did they not liberate Israel from the oppressive rule of Rome, but they also made matters worse for everyone.
This movement contended “that God alone was Israel’s true King, and that it was therefore high treason against God to pay tribute to Caesar.”ix But what was Jesus’s position on paying Rome’s taxation? You can read about it in Matthew 17:24-27, but in short Jesus paid the taxes. Why? Because He did not come to lead a political revolt. He told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). Jesus was accused of being a revolutionary. But He was not a political revolutionary. He came to initiate changes that would be eternal, first in the hearts of men and eventually in a new heaven and new earth.
Compare the Jews’ situation in that day to what you and I might be feeling today in America. Some of us feel the recent election may have not been legitimate. That possibility is very disconcerting. But the government over these Jews was a foreign power—considered evil and spiritually unclean by the Jews. How would you feel if America were defeated by China, and we were being heavily taxed and mistreated by our foreign oppressors? That would be much worse than our current situation. Yet in that kind of circumstance neither Jesus nor the apostles encouraged a political revolt. The Jews had in their history the success of Maccabean revolution a couple of hundred years earlier.x They could have looked back on the success of that as justification of their revolt just as we might look back on the American Revolution for justification of a current revolt. If Jesus or the apostles wanted to launch a political insurrection, they could have had a huge following. But they did not do that. Their agenda was altogether different.
On Palm Sunday the crowds in Jerusalem celebrated Jesus. They were shouting with joy, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38). They were hailing Jesus as “the King.”xi A few days later the same crowd was crying out for Jesus’s crucifixion.xii You cannot count on people who are operating out superficial emotion. They were for Jesus one day and against Him a few days later.xiii They chose an insurrectionist, Barabbas instead of Jesus. They were looking for a political leader to throw off Roman dominance.
Even the disciples had a hard time understanding that Jesus did not come to lead a political movement. Remember what the disciples on the Road to Emmaus said after Jesus’s dearth: “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). In Matthew 16 Peter rebuked Jesus for saying He would suffer and die (Matt. 16:21-23). That did not fit the narrative in Peter’s mind.
When the authorities came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter rose up to defend Him. He cut off the right ear of the high priest’s assistant. Apparently, Peter was a better fisherman than he was swordsman. If you’re going to swing a sword in a situation like that, you want to split the guy’s head open, not just cut off his ear. But what we’re seeing is the ineffectiveness of fighting the Lord’s battles in our own strength. Jesus told Peter to put up his sword. What did Peter accomplish? He created a problem that Jesus had to fix. The next thing Jesus did was heal the man’s ear.xiv
All the gospel writers present Barabbas as a contrast to Jesus. Barabbas led a political revolt against the government. In the process he robbed and murdered people. In contrast, Jesus committed Himself to the Father and endured the persecution. He stated the nature of His kingdom during His trial. In John 18:36 He told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Nowhere in the New Testament do you see Jesus or the apostles encouraging an insurrection against the government. To the contrary, in Romans 13 Paul taught people to live in submission to governmental authority. We do have examples of the apostles defying human laws that commanded them to take action contrary to the Lord’s command. But you never see them encouraging violent resistance to governmental authority. Moses’s parents are commended in Hebrews 11:23 for defying Pharaoh’s command to kill their baby boy. But they did not act violently toward the authority. Understand this important distinction. It is one thing to steadfastly follow your own conviction whatever the cost may be. It is another to make others follow those convictions. It is one thing to refuse to compromise obedience to the Lord in your own actions. It’s another to take up arms and force others to do what you think they should do. The apostles never tried to make the Sanhedrin do anything. But they also would not allow the Sanhedrin to make them disobey the Lord’s command.
Could there ever be a point in time when violent action should be taken by a Christian. Dietrick Bonhoeffer wrestled with that issue before joining the conspiracy to kill Hitler. He knew all the scriptures we have been talking about this morning. He struggled with the moral conundrum, weighing the life of that one maniac against the millions of people Hitler was killing. Did Bonhoeffer do the right thing. I’m inclined to think he did, but I’ve never been in that situation. I’ve never had to think it through like Bonhoeffer did. But consider this: even that effort was not successful. Hitler was not eliminated, and Bonhoeffer was hanged. The prominent pattern in the New Testament is peaceful, spiritual resistance to evil rather than using carnal means to accomplish something that is primarily a spiritual problem.xv
So here is this principle we are addressing: the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We must be very careful that we don’t use carnal means to accomplish something that can only be accomplished in the Spirit.
When we study church history we find over and over people committing atrocities while thinking they were doing God a service. Paul did it prior to his conversion.xvi It happened during the Spanish Inquisition. During the Reformation Catholics persecuted protestants. But then when certain protestants got in power, they persecuted the Catholics. Carnal religious zeal during the Civil War in England filled that land with bloodshed.xvii Both the Bible and history teach us to be very, very, very reluctant to use force as a means of advancing the truths of the Bible. We advance it through the proclamation of the gospel. We overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). We win by the word of our testimony and loving not our lives unto death (Rev. 12:11).
Paul stated this principle in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” We reason with people. We speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We are not intimidated by their threats (Dan. 3:16). But we do not resort to carnal means to contend for the faith.
In Ephesians 6:10 Paul wrote, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” He is not calling for passivity. He is not calling for timidity. But he is saying our strength should be “in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Paul continues in verses 11 and 12, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We must fight the right battles, God’s ways, against the real enemies!
We are up against some spiritual wickedness in America. Those spirits will not be defeated with carnal weapons. When they are defeated in the heavenlies through prayer and proclamation, the flesh and blood adversaries will wither away. Our battle is a spiritual one, and we must not let our emotions pull us into the wrong fight.
II. OUR MANDATE FROM CHRIST IS TO MAKE DISCIPLES.
Before His ascension Jesus gave us our assignment. Matthew 28:16-20: “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
That is a big assignment.
It is particularly difficult because disciples have to be made one at a time. The person has to hear the gospel. The person has to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in repentance. That person must turn from his sin in faith to Christ. And that is just the beginning. Then Jesus said we are to baptize them which publicly confirms the commitment to Christ. Then we must teach them to observe everything Jesus commanded. It’s not enough to just tell them what Christ’s commands are. We must lead them into a lifestyle of observing those Commandments. Anyone who has children understands some of the demands of fulfilling the Great Commission.
By nature, we are always looking for shortcuts. When Jeanie and I first moved to Missouri we took a trip to Branson. We had a great time, but I decided to take a shortcut back home. A trip that should take an hour took three hours. Instead of following a straight path north to our destination, my shortcut took west, then east, slowing weaving northward. I got lost but wouldn’t admit it. Jeanie was not a happy camper. The way back could have been a straight one-hour path, but I had a better idea.
I am suggesting importance of following Jesus’s directions. Make disciples. He has mapped it out for us in Scripture. You may think you’ve found a shortcut. But it might just lead you off the path He has designed for you. Look carefully at the directions in the Bible.
Some of the worst historical blunders of the church have happened when the church thought she had found a shortcut. Mark’s record of the Great Commission begins with the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15-18). To the carnal mind that is a foolish way to accomplish the task (1 Cor. 1). So, during the Crusades the shortcut was to simply force conquered people to confess Christianity. When the Spanish later conquered people in Central and South America they took a similar approach. Terrible persecution broke out in Europe as one Christian group persecuted others to make them come around to their way of thinking. They were not following the example of Christ and the disciples. They had a quicker, easier solution.
My appeal today is that we carefully examine the way Christ and the early church advanced the kingdom of God and follow that example.xviii We must stay in the word of God to keep our thinking right. There are many voices on the internet pointing the way. And they may have enough truth in the message to be appealing. But your safety is found in Scripture. Stay anchored in the way Jesus and the apostles did it.
The idea that we can operate above the one-disciple-at-a-time approach is appealing. The idea that we can somehow bring in righteousness by simply changing the laws of a society is appealing. But that has never worked. That error is leading people astray on both the left and the right.
Liberals think they can transform our culture through a Christianity focused on social justice. They have chosen a good term because everybody is for “social justice,” even if they have their own internal definition of the term. But the social justice preached by liberals ultimately is a message of socialism. Socialism only works if you “force” people to conform. It requires more and more central control. Why? Because people are selfish to the core without a divine transformation in the heart. No matter what their superficial rhetoric is, everyone in the system wants to give less and get more. So, to make the system work you have to force people to do what you want them to do. The social justice in liberal churches promises liberty, but it ultimately brings bondage.xix Every attempt to make this work, whether by a Christian commune or nations like Russia, Venezuela, and China has not ended well.
Conservative Christians lean toward legalism. If we can just have righteous laws and force everyone to obey those laws, we can have a righteous society. The Temperance Movement in the 19th Century is a good example of this. Well-meaning Christians pressed for Prohibition and on January 16, 1919 got the 18th Amendment ratified. The result was a booming bootlegger business. Sinners will find a way to sin. Should we pursue laws reflective of God’s commands? Absolutely! We speak out against evil. We should condemn the murder of unborn children. We should seek laws that declare that sin unlawful in our society. Righteous laws are a restraint on evil. I am not saying we should passively stand by while evil leaders undermine the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There is a terrible assault on those rights going on right now. We should make our voices heard and do what we can to stand up for righteousness. Thank God for people called of God as Daniel was to be salt and light in the governmental arena. Thank God for business leaders who influence our society toward righteousness.
I am against violent revolt. But I support legal and political efforts to lead the nation, our states, and our cities in a wholesome, godly direction.
But here is my point: That is not our primary means of victory. And if we get off-balanced on this issue we can make some serious mistakes. History should have taught us that. Without a move of God—without many individuals being personally transformed by the grace of God, this nation will descend into an abyss. Political effort alone will not solve our problem. Anti-Christian leaders have the lion’s share of our government. What will they do to keep it? Here is what they will at least attempt to do and will likely succeed in much of it. They will open the borders to people who will come in and support them. They will make those people citizens as quickly as possible, not because they care about them, but because they care about their votes. They will push the electoral system in the direction that serves their purposes best. They will add liberal senators by bringing Washington D.C. and Porto Rico into statehood. They will pack the Supreme Court will justices who think like them. In partnership with the media and big tech corporations they will restrict free speech so that their narrative is the only one people are hearing. And they will continue to influence the emerging generation with their agenda in the education system.
On top of all that, the demographics in the nation are against conservatives. As the older conservatives die off and as the younger liberals become voting age, liberalism will win the political struggle. Any professional fighter knows to win a fight you must direct the fight toward your strengths and the opponent’s weaknesses. A wrestler who is in the ring with a boxer must get the fight to the ground if he has any chance of winning. In a purely political contest conservative in America have very limited chance of winning in the long run.
However, the early church faced a political environment much worse than that. They didn’t have political clout. There were not many influential people among them (1 Cor. 1:26). Yet their own enemies admitted in Acts 17:6 that they had turned the world upside down. How did they do that? It was not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.xx It happened as they preached the gospel of Christ with power.
Right before His ascension Jesus’s followers asked Him a question that had political implications. Acts 1:6: “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel [to Israel!]?” Think about Jesus’s response to that question. He did not give them a political strategy for outmaneuvering Rome. He certainly did not call them to violence and insurrection. Here is His counsel to them and to us today. Acts 1:7-8: “And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” The strategy here is empowerment and evangelism. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” That is the first, most foundational key. The second key proceed from it: “and you shall be witnesses.” You will proclaim Christ. In the power of the Spirit you will preach the gospel.
Look at how the early church responded to oppressive government in Acts 4. The Sanhedrin had threatened Peter and John and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus. When they reported the threats to the believers, they all prayed a prayer that is instructive for us today. It began with a recognition of the sovereignty of God. Here is part of their prayer (verses 29-31): “‘Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.’ 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” They did not pray that God would strike the ungodly leaders dead, although that thought may have crossed their minds. They did not launch a political movement. They simply asked God to empower them to preach Christ—to do what Jesus told them to do in the Great Commission and in Acts 1:7-8. Prayer is powerful when it is aligned with God’s perfect will. These people were actively doing what Jesus commissioned them to do, and they were not going to be stopped by the government’s threats.
For you and me today, passivity is not our answer. Political fervor is not our answer although we should exercise our rights as citizens of this country.xxi Our answer is found in the power of the Spirit and the proclamation of Christ. We should press into that with more diligence and fervor than ever before. If we encounter persecution, God will give us what to say as His witnesses. He will empower us to stand firm in our convictions. If He did it for the early church, He will do it for us.
We must do the right thing in the right way! David learned that when he tried to bring the Ark to Jerusalem on a cart.xxii Peter learned it when he cut of Malcus’s ear. Moses learned it when he killed the Egyptian. He tried to implement God’s deliverance in his own strength as a warrior. After 40 years of training in the wilderness he came back and did it God’s way. He did it by the power of the Spirit. We must do the right thing. We must pursue the right goals. But we must also make sure we’re doing it God’s way.
I am excited about the days ahead even if they include increased persecution. We may be on the verge of a mighty move of God. Our finest hour may be just ahead.
ENDNOTES:
i The cultural shift toward relativism leaves each individual being his own lawmaker. Since he makes the laws, he conveniently develops them to suit his own taste. Therefore, the acknowledgement of sin is a serious hurdle for evangelism in today’s philosophical environment. The knowledge of sin comes through the acknowledgement of GOD’S revealed law. Rom. 3:20, “. . . for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (KJV). Cf. Gal. 3:24.
ii Cf. Mark 6:17-28. Herodias was furious when John condemned her marriage to Herod.
iii Not only were the Jewish leaders already convinced that God loves them, they were quite sure that He loved them more than He loved anybody else.
iv All Scripture quotes, unless indicted otherwise, are from the New King James Version
v Cf. Matt. 3:2; 4:17.
vi Cf. Heb. 12:2.
vii F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts: The English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986) 124.
viii Josephus, Antiquities, XIII. 1.1, 1960 (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publishers, 1981) 376.
ix Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts, 125.
x Cf. 1 and 2 Maccabees.
xi They were quoting Psalm 118:26 but with the insertion of the words “the king.”
xii Luke 23:21.
xiii On Palm Sunday this crowd was led by the disciples (Luke 19:35-39). At Jesus’s trial they were led by the unbelieving priests (Mark 15:11). Easily led!
xiv Cf. Matt. 26:51-54; Mark 14:47; Luke 22:49-51; John 18:10-11.
xv Old Testament accounts are sometimes used to justify physical violence. But the context of most of those passages was nation against nation. Additionally, their covenant was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Ex. 21:24). But Jesus established a better covenant on higher principles (Matt. 5:20-48; John 18:38-39). I personally think there is a lot of difference between forcefully defending my family against a violent intruder versus initiating violent action against an individual or government. Additionally, serving in the military as part of the national defense is honorable in my view although there can be moral challenges if one’s own government is the aggressor.
xvi Cf. Acts 22:3-5; 26:9-11; Gal. 1:13-14.
xvii Cf. Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The NIV Application Commentary, Terry Muck, gen. ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 496.
xviii We have in Daniel (and Joseph) an excellent example of how to deal with oppressive government. Nebuchadnezzar was an ungodly, ruthless leader. He castrated Daniel and made him a slave. Yet Daniel did not rebel. Instead he faithfully and courageously gave witness of Jehovah and eventually won Nebuchadnezzar to the Lord. He never compromised his own obedience to the Lord, and was not afraid to speak up for God even if it meant great personal danger.
xix Cf. 2 Peter 2:19.
xx Zech. 4:6.
xxi Paul defended himself in court and asserted his rights as a citizen (Acts 25:11). In fact, he used all that as opportunity to give witness of Christ (Acts 26).
xxii Cf. 1 Chron. 13:7-12; 15:13.
