NewCity Orlando Sermons
Following Jesus in Politics | Mark 12:13-17
Pastor of Formation & Mission Benjamin Kandt continues our July series, Following Jesus in Politics, preaching from Mark 12:13-17.
You can read the article he mentions here
Hello everyone, this is Pastor Damien. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening. All right, good morning. Please join me in reading the Prayer of Illumination. All right, good morning. Please join me in reading the prayer of illumination. Living God, help us to hear your word with open hearts so that we may truly understand and believe and, believing that we may follow in faithfulness and obedience, through Christ, our Lord, amen.
Speaker 1:Today's scripture reading is from Mark 12, beginning in verse 13. And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it. And they brought one. And he said to them whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him Caesar's. Jesus said to them render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. This is God's word. Please be seated.
Speaker 2:I grew up hearing that two subjects you do not talk about in polite conversation are religion and politics, but then I became a preacher, so here we go. The reality is, one of the things I've been reflecting on is it's actually much easier to preach this sermon series here than I think it is in a lot of other pulpits, and the reason for that is because of who you are. Like. I know New City and New City knows me. You give me the benefit of the doubt. You know my motives. You give me grace when I'm kind of an idiot, like all the things. Kids don't use the word idiot and I'm so grateful for that. Like I'm pretty connected with pastors in various churches in various cities and states and even in our own city. And 2020, for example, the chaos that was 2020, new city fared better than any church I know. Now it's any church. I know I'm sure there's other churches out there that did just fine, but New City really handled that with a level of grace and candor and poise and maturity, because I think you really do believe the gospel. I think you really do believe that all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. I think that it's worked itself, not just into your minds, but into your hearts and your nervous systems, so you were less reactionary, and that makes preaching a sermon like today's easier than it would be otherwise, because I trust you as a people. And so what are we doing today? I want to be really clear and really practical in that following Jesus in politics could be abstract. I want to be really clear and really practical in that following Jesus in politics could be abstract. I want to make it concrete, and I want to make it concrete to a particular situation that I know I've found myself in and I'm sure you have and will continue to find yourself in, and that is conversations about politics. That's what I want to talk about today.
Speaker 2:And so for some of you, that might be at your workplace around the water cooler, which is like a proverbial thing. I don't even know if that's still a thing. Is that still a thing? We have a water cooler at the new city office, but I don't talk to people by it, but some of you it might be text messages. If you're a millennial, it might be you're texting with your boomer parents about politics. If you're a boomer, it might be texting with your millennial kids about politics. For some of you it's in-laws or neighbors or friends or family members, but at some point you're going to be pulled into a conversation where a political topic is brought up and I want you to have some ways of navigating that well. In other words, I want you to show up with a posture of Christian persuasion in the political or the public sphere. That's what I'm aimed at.
Speaker 2:So if you have a Bible or device, go ahead and get Mark 12 in front of you. I don't have any points this morning, just principles, but we're going to walk through the passage and I'm going to try to draw some things out of our text. So get it in front of you. Mark 12, starting in verse 13. It says this in verse 13 of chapter 12 in the Gospel of Mark and they sent to him that is, jesus some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians and don't miss this phrase to trap him in his talk.
Speaker 2:Anybody else? Feel like that's happening to you in political conversations, right? Some of you are like no, because I avoid them at all costs. Others of you are like, no, that doesn't happen to me because I'm the trapper. Hey, don't be that guy, please and it is a guy, by the way, the ladies don't pull that stuff but this is happening to Jesus because, like our day, jesus' day was politically divisive.
Speaker 2:You got two groups here, the Pharisees and the Herodians, that hated each other. Why, and the Herodians that hated each other? Why? Well, because they believed in two different political visions for how to be Israel under Roman occupation. And so they're coming together and the Pharisees were kind of a moral minority who stood against Roman occupation. The Herodians experienced political privilege, so they were kind of for Roman occupation, and so you can imagine that this question, a question about taxes and paying taxes to Caesar, was a powder keg for Jesus to be asked in that moment.
Speaker 2:And so the text says that this was a trap, and many of us feel that. We feel that when we get into conversations about politics, that we're being trapped in our talk, like if we just rewind four years to the last election cycle in 2020, the conversations were things like this what do you think about mask mandates? Here was the way you'd get trapped in your talk. Don't you love your neighbor? Oh, I didn't know. You didn't mind being muzzled by the government, right? Or how about this? You're not vaccinated, you got the jab, or how about this one? Will they stop the steal this year? Do you think? Oh, I didn't know, you were a conspiracy theorist, right? These are the ways these setups go, where we're trapped in our talk. Don't you know that that's racist? I didn't know, you were so woke. Or how about this one? What do you think about J6? Or DEI? Or climate change? On and on and on. Listen, it's a trap. It's a trap.
Speaker 2:That's what the text is saying, and Jesus knew what this was like to get trapped in his talk around political conversations that were touchy. Everybody, take a deep breath. I'm not going to do it anymore. Okay, you're okay. And if you think, oh, I knew he was politically leaning that direction, it's because you're the opposite, and that ruffled your feathers a little bit and you don't know where I lean. That ruffled your feathers a little bit and you don't know where I lean.
Speaker 2:But listen, the word trap in the text comes from a hunter trapping its prey, or a fisherman with a net, and so here's my first principle for following Jesus in politics Don't take the bait. Don't take the bait. If you're a fish, do the opposite of what the fisherman wants you to do. That's what I mean by that. So here's the thing.
Speaker 2:If someone asks me questions like any of the above that I just listed, I have two questions that I ask in response, because I refuse to answer questions that have what are called snuck assumptions or snuck premises in the question itself. Those are unargued for assumptions about the topic that you're being asked about. I just don't ask. I don't answer those questions. I respond to those questions with two questions. Here they are you ready? What do you mean by that? And here's the second one How'd you come to that conclusion? And listen, if you ask those two questions, what do you mean by that? How do you come to that conclusion? You just keep going back and forth on those two questions and you do it with a level of tact and genuine love for your neighbor. It slows down the conversation, it brings more clarity and it actually creates real dialogue in that moment and you might just be like the mouse who got the cheese without getting trapped. That's what I want for you.
Speaker 2:So don't take the bait when you're being quote, trapped in your talk, as they tried to do to Jesus here. And so what is the trap that they're setting for Jesus? Look with me at verse 14. It says this, and they came and said to him teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion, for you're not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. I had to ask chat GPT if there's a word for using flattery to manipulate someone there. Is you ready?
Speaker 2:They are cajoling Jesus right now. That's what's happening. They're cajoling him, they're buttering him up, they're sweet-talking him. If you will, if you're a mother or a father and you have human children, they innately know how to do this. Well, right, it looks like this. It's like you know, dad, you are just the best when it comes to managing finances. Like you got a head on crypto. Everybody knows that. You're so wise in your stewardship. Could I have some money? You're being cajoled in that moment. Beware, that's what they're doing to Jesus here.
Speaker 2:But, interestingly, what they're saying about Jesus is true. They're just not saying it truthfully. In verse 15, jesus actually calls it hypocrisy. So what's the trap? Look at verse 14. Here's the trap. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? Pretty simple, straightforward.
Speaker 2:But let's be clear this is not a conversation simply about tax policy. This is about what those taxes represented. This is a question of authority and allegiance, of cultural and religious identity. There's a lot wrapped up in this question, you see, because Israel was politically for hundreds of years under. Remember, these are God's free people that he redeemed from Israel and set them, or from Egypt and set them free. Now they're under political tyranny again. It's just Rome this time, not Pharaoh in Egypt. So this is a sore spot. This is the sore spot for the people of Israel, and either Jesus, by answering and saying you should pay the taxes, is going to be seen to favor the ruling elite, or if he says don't pay the the taxes, is going to be seen to favor the ruling elite, or if he says don't pay the taxes, he's going to be painted as an insurrectionist. That's the double bind that he's caught in.
Speaker 2:How does Jesus respond? Look with me at verse 15. But, knowing their hypocrisy, jesus said to them why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it. And they brought one and he said to them whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him Caesar's.
Speaker 2:If you ask WWJD, what would Jesus do in this context? Political trap, what does he do? He asks a question. He asks a question Two really, why do you put me to the test? And the second one is which is kind of getting at motives. The second one is he uses a little bit of a case study of sorts with this coin and then says whose inscription is on this? You see, if you study the Gospels, jesus asked 307 questions. He was asked 183 questions, to which he only answered three directly.
Speaker 2:This is a form of Christian persuasion. And so why do we ask questions? Well, john Stott says, like this bad listeners do not make good disciples. Bad listeners do not make good disciples. Why is that? Well, because listening is the first act of love. And our king told us the two great laws of the land are to love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And so we lean in to listen as the first act of love. And so here's my following Jesus in politics.
Speaker 2:Principle number two win people, not just arguments. Win people, not just arguments. Here's how John Stott says it. He said dialogue is a token. This should be up on the screen behind me too. Dialogue is a token of genuine Christian love because it indicates our steadfast resolve to rid our minds of the prejudices and caricatures that we may entertain about other people. Good thing we don't do that, though, right? Okay, great the prejudices and caricatures that we may entertain about other people, to struggle to listen through their ears and look through their eyes so as to grasp what prevents them from hearing the gospel and seeing Christ, to sympathize with them in all their doubts, fears and hang-ups. So how can we do this? How do we engage in meaningful dialogue where we're winning the people, not just the arguments? Well, if you were in our following Jesus in soul care learning community a couple years ago, we used this framework and I'm going to put it up on the screen here which is called heart to heart. It's an approach to meaningful conversation to draw people out.
Speaker 2:Proverbs I think it's 25, says that the purposes of a man's heart are like deep waters, but a man of understanding will draw them out. This is how you do this. First, ask the Holy Spirit for help. He's more interested in persuading. If your position on politics is really true, he cares more about persuading them to the truth than you do. I promise you that you ask the Spirit for help so you don't rely on the flesh, your intellect and your ability to articulate and banter and jostle verbally, and all the things you don't rely on that. You ask the Holy Spirit to show up and then you engage their whole heart, their thoughts, their feelings, their choices, the things that make up who they are.
Speaker 2:Because, listen, a lot of our political discourse has actually veiled forms of people unwilling to recognize that they are afraid. They're just scared. They're scared of what the future is going to look like, and in counseling we say that fear, anger is a secondary emotion, which means it's probably not the thing going on. In most cases, beneath anger is often fear, and so the vitriol that we feel in political conversations today is actually oftentimes a mask for fear. And so you wanna explore their whole heart, and then you ask caring and curious questions, ideally open-ended ones, like hey, what do you mean by that? How'd you come to that conclusion? And then, finally, you reflect back to them hey, so what I hear you're saying is reflect back to them in their own words, or in your own words, what you think that they said, so that they could edit it if you're wrong. You really do understand them, and then respond with your whole heart. You know what I feel that sometimes too, when I think about it like that, and then what happens is trust deepens because you're communicating hey, I see you, I'm with you, I'm for you, I care about you. And the adage is true that people don't care what you know until they know that you care right. This is a model to actually express that in political conversations.
Speaker 2:Now, I don't think let me be honest, I don't think that's what Jesus is doing right now. I don't think he's trying to like go heart to heart with these people, and the reason why is because I think that they are trying to destroy him, and I think he is trying to surface some of these things and engage them in meaningful conversations. But some of you might be tempted to think isn't this soft? I mean, we're in a culture war right now and you want us to listen. My answer is yes, because, like Jesus, I want you to win people, not just arguments. Now notice I said not just arguments. Arguing matters, meaningful debate matters. I'm not asking you to just concede everything to the people around you all the time. That's actually often a symptom of the fear of man. But I want you to win people, not just arguments, because if you're anything like me, it feels good to win an argument right, especially if you're any good at it.
Speaker 2:Like verse 17,. It says that they marveled at Jesus after this whole debacle back and forth. I think some people were marveling at how amazingly tactful he was. I think others were like flabbergasted that they just got dunked on. I think there's a variety of experiences of being marveled at.
Speaker 2:But listen, if your YouTube algorithm just kind of constantly populates videos that say things like so-and-so owns the libs, if that's you like, what is that doing? But chumming up the water for people who hold your same political perspective? And the reality is that Jesus actually owns those libs and the MAGA Republicans and the rhinos and the MAGA Republicans and the RINOs and the woke and the fill in your term to describe the political other. They belong to Jesus, they're his. This is why 2 Corinthians 4, paul tells us we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. We renounce that. That's not the way that we live out Christian persuasion in political discourse. We don't do that. And so what does it look like to follow Jesus in the way that we evaluate others.
Speaker 2:Let's look at his response a little more closely, verse 17. Jesus said to them Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. Now listen, this is an iconic saying and, as Jesus is answering this, he's really getting at a crucial question. Here's the question how do we participate in society without compromising our ultimate allegiance to God? Another way to say that is how do we engage as both saints and citizens? How are we to be the body of Christ in our body politic? What does that look like? Well, I want you to see.
Speaker 2:In both halves of these, jesus does two different things. In the first half of the statement halves of these Jesus does two different things. In the first half of the statement, when he says render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar, jesus is, he's challenging the temptation to political retreat. He's saying it's not an option. But then, simultaneously, with the phrase where he says, and to God the things that are God's, he's challenging the temptation to political compromise. So I want to look at those two together.
Speaker 2:First, when Jesus says render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, he challenges what would be called the pietistic temptation to opt out of political engagement. This is what I mean by that. Can I just, can I just work on my relationship with Jesus and you know, and share the gospel with some people, and the rest will take care of itself? No, you cannot. It doesn't work like that. Disciples of Jesus must be salt and light wherever they find themselves. That's an obligation. If you're a disciple of Jesus, we are implicated in the lives of our neighbors. That's another way to say that. And so political engagement is not optional for any citizen, especially not Christians. Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 2:William Wilberforce was elected to the parliament in England in 1780. 1780 he's elected, but on 1786, on Easter Sunday, he sensed that God was calling him to be about ending the Atlantic slave trade. He says it like this when he thought about what it meant to end slavery, he said so enormous, so dreadful, so beyond remedy, was the trade's wickedness, that I was completely decided for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would, I, from this time determined that I would never rest until I had affected its abolition. He gave himself to this wholeheartedly. The great evangelist John Wesley wrote him a letter in 1791, six days before Wesley would die, and he says this quote unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. There's something powerful about the devil had vested interest in keeping the Atlantic slave trade alive. That's what Wilberforce was going up against in his willingness to engage politically. But Wesley goes on. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are, all of them stronger than God. Oh, be not weary in well-doing. Go on in the name of God and in the power of his might, until even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it. That was Wesley's encouragement to him. Well, in 1850, or by 1850, that was Wesley's encouragement to him.
Speaker 2:Well, in 1850, or by 1850, wilberforce had introduced 20 resolutions to end slavery. Each one was defeated. He failed 20 times and he was attacked politically in so many different ways. What sustained him in that moment? His devotion to Jesus. That's what sustained him. He lived about a mile away from Parliament and he memorized Psalm 119, 176 verses, and he would recite it to himself as he walked that mile from his house to Parliament. Why? Why would he do that? Well, because he knew that meditating on the law of God was the best way to legislate laws for men Now to speak to that more kind of on the nose.
Speaker 2:Everyone legislates their morality. Every law has morality inherent in it. Your speed limit is what it is, because we value human life. That's a moral claim. Everyone legislates morality, and so Wilberforce and Christians throughout history and today. They sought to legislate morality according to God's law, not the whims of popular culture. Why does that matter? Well, because the culture likes abolition. Now we celebrate the abolition of the slave trade now, but not then. You see, it is true that evangelical Christians were complicit in slavery. It's also true that slavery doesn't end except for the conquering victory that God wrought through evangelical Christians who stood on the word of God, not the unchanging opinions of popular culture.
Speaker 2:And so by 1807, parliament finally abolished the slave trade in the British Empire, and Wilberforce famously said that God gave him two great aims. The first one was the abolition of the slave trade, and the second one was what he called the Reformation of Manners. Now, he doesn't mean by that like, don't put your elbows on the table. What he means by that is you could change laws in a land, but if you don't change your elbows on the table, what he means by that is you could change laws in a land, but if you don't change the culture from the ground up and get people to actually live in virtuous ways, it doesn't matter what you legislate, the culture is going to eat that alive. And so one of his biographers said that Wilberforce was said to have made goodness fashionable.
Speaker 2:Why do I say that to you? Why does it matter that Wilberforce made said to have made goodness fashionable? Why do I say that to you? Why does it matter that Wilberforce made being good look good? Because I don't think many of you are probably going to push parliament in England, of course, or the Senate or the legislature here. I don't think you're going to be the one to do that, probably not. But you can make being good look good your household.
Speaker 2:The household is the cellular building block of society. If your household is an oasis for the kingdom of God in the midst of your neighborhood, where goodness is made fashionable, where you raise your children in a way where they grow up in the fear and instruction of the Lord and you practice hospitality and you are cultivating virtue, you can do that. You can bring about the reformation of manners. That's a significant contribution to a flourishing society. And so back to the question Jesus is answering here how can you share in the benefits of society without feeling some sense of responsibility for that society? Another way to say that is is it even possible to benefit from being Roman or American and not serve Rome or America? The answer is no, not as a Christian. And so the way that the Catholic community worker, Dorothy Day, says it is everyone wants a revolution, but nobody wants to wash the dishes.
Speaker 2:Brothers and sisters, if we're going to be involved in political engagement, which I'm arguing, you have to be in some capacity involved. As a citizen, you have a duty, a responsibility. If that's true, there's always room at the bottom. There's always room to take up the towel, to wash the dishes and to wash the feet of those around you. That's one of the ways in which Christians change the world. So Jesus is dealing with the temptation of political retreat, first of all, but second he's dealing with another temptation.
Speaker 2:When Jesus says render unto God the things that are God's, he challenges the triumphalistic temptation of political compromise. Jesus asks the question. He says whose likeness is this on the coin that he holds up? Now, the word likeness is translated almost everywhere else in the New Testament, with the word image translated almost everywhere else in the New Testament with the word image Whose image is on this coin? A maker has the right to put their image on the things that they make, right? Okay, real quick. Turn to the person next to you. Just look at them. I'm going to ask you this question whose likeness do you see? Some of you are like my in-laws, listen, that's probably true, but the truer answer is God's. You see God's likeness in the face of your neighbor.
Speaker 2:According to Genesis 1.26, you are seeing the image and the likeness of God in the person next to you. And so this is what Jesus is doing Render unto Caesar what is Caesar, and to God what is God's. If we're made in God's image, then Jesus is saying that there's something that should be rendered back to God, but never to Caesar, namely you, your very self, all of who you are. Listen, we are coins in God's mint, and since you bear God's image, you are forbidden to render yourself to Caesar. This matters because we give to Caesar one thing and we give to God the other. We may not render everything to Caesar. It is prohibited. Another way to say this is if you are made in God's image, then our commitment to him is the only absolute commitment that can be expected of you as a human being, because you bear his image.
Speaker 2:Now, this means that part of our calling as Christians is to put politics in its proper place. That's a big deal. I was reading an article a couple weeks ago and the article was lamenting, and this is what they said. Quote Everything is politics. Politics has seeped into everything where we worship, what we drive, where we live, where we shop and what we drink, the books we read and the words that we ban. The result is that this puts more people in more settings on edge. End quote.
Speaker 2:Why does it seem like everything is politics, as the author says here? Well, because if there is no God above the state, the state becomes God. Said differently, because I think this is becoming true in America as we are secularized over time. So it's not always true, but as we are secularized over time, this is becoming true that one nation under God is becoming all gods under nation. That's a frightening situation. I think this is the reason for the religious fervor behind political conversations today. It's because it is religious. Politics are being a source of worship. Now, this isn't a new experience for Christians.
Speaker 2:The early Christians were persecuted, not because they worshipped Jesus that was fine, you can have Jesus but because they refused to worship Caesar. Expect increased persecution. If you call people to put politics in its place. There are certain things you never render to Caesar. There's certain things that only belong to the true and living God, and so governments need regular reminders from Christians that only God ultimately reigns, and so, therefore, our policies should be shaped by that.
Speaker 2:I find it helpful to get out of our current context and to think about this. There's only two ways to do this you go somewhere else in history or you go somewhere else around the globe, and so I was reading an article. It was actually a letter written by a man named Pastor Wang Yi, who's a house church pastor in China, and he's currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for striving to redefine what it means to be a quote patriot. On April 23rd 2013, way before he was arrested and incarcerated, he wrote a pastoral letter to his congregation. So just imagine this is an email that comes from Damien or myself to you all, encouraging you, challenging you as a congregation, from your pastor. That's what he wrote, and here's what it's called quote should Christians be patriots? Now think what you know about China. Okay, in China, he says, christians are forced to either come under the Chinese government's oversight or face persecution. Those are your only two options.
Speaker 2:And so his challenge to his people, as a pastor to his congregation, is you should become Christian patriots who love your country and strive for its betterment, but never become Christian nationalists who idolize their nation. Now he's using the words patriot and nationalist maybe differently than we would use them in the United States. That's okay. We're learning from another culture. That's what we're doing right now, just so everybody knows. Relax, okay, here we go. This is important, this call to love your country but not worship your country. It's something we need to learn from, because there is a challenge here for the tendency on the political left to demonize America. Christian, love your country, love that you were born and raised. American, love that you live here, that you're a citizen here. But this also challenges the political rights tendency to idolize America. Christian, it's never God and country, it's always God over country. And so we're being challenged here by a brother from another context who can see things that we can't see, even though he's writing a pastoral letter to his own congregation. He says that, just like in Daniel in Babylon.
Speaker 2:The church in China experiences three dilemmas. This is the first one. How do you resist the idolatry of putting the state above everything? Here's the second one. How do you be faithful in an unjust political environment, especially in the pain, in the midst of the pain of persecution? And third, he says how do you insist on the clarity of truth and yet face the complexity of the pain of persecution? And third, he says how do you insist on the clarity of truth and yet face the complexity of this world? I think it's so insightful. All three of those are real dilemmas for us in our own Babylon, in our own scenario.
Speaker 2:He goes on. He says Christian patriotism, which he calls patriotism with a cross, is to seek the peace for the city that you live in. Jeremiah 29.7. The desire is for the nation and the people to be subject to God and to enjoy peace and freedom and justice. This is the responsibility of the local churches to the nation in which they are located. He goes on. He says, yes, china is my daily nightmare. Look at the bold-facedness of that. America is my daily nightmare. Can at just the bold-facedness of that? America is my daily nightmare. Can you say that, like he says that he goes on. But China is also the one to which I must commit myself in the gospel, which is what it means to have this patriotism of the cross.
Speaker 2:He closes by saying something that I think is relevant to each one of us. He says the general outline of my spiritual life is this who is in charge of all of my affairs, christ or me? To believe in the Lord is to be conquered by the imperialism of Christ. So the gospel of King Jesus must shape our political engagement. So here's my third and final principle, which is following Jesus in politics.
Speaker 2:Number three we must tell the truth like the truth that we tell. In other words, the gospel has to shape how we talk about what is true, and when I say the truth, I don't just mean the gospel, I mean views on human dignity and rights and policies and things like that. I'm talking about that. When I say we speak the truth, we must have the truth shaped like the truth that we're saying. Okay, here's an example.
Speaker 2:Not only does the image of God put the state in its place, but it puts your neighbor in their place, one of dignity. This is the way Jesus' little brother James says it in chapter 3, verse 9. With our tongue we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God Using the same language. In other words, if we tell the truth, like the truth we tell, then we refuse verbal violence towards our political opponents. You don't merely quote, turn down the temperature of your rhetoric, you bless those who curse you. This matters, but how? What would cause us to act like this in a moment which has so much fuel for anger? To act like this in a moment which has so much fuel for anger? Well, only the gospel of Jesus Christ can give us what he called a patriotism of the cross.
Speaker 2:To render unto God, what is God's means that you are not your own. Here's the way 1 Corinthians 6 puts it. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. And I would add, don't add to scripture. I would add glorify God in your body and in your body politic, in the governmental system that you're in and under you. Glorify God in that space too.
Speaker 2:But what was the purchase price If you were not your own? If you have to render under God, what is God's and I'm arguing. That's you, all of you. What was the purchase price? It was the blood of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. You see, most kings are willing to spend the blood of their people to protect their kingdom. This king spends his own blood in order to give his people the kingdom. You see the difference. You see what kind of political leader Jesus is.
Speaker 2:Listen, if you're in this room and you're not yet a Christian, I'm so grateful that you're here. You're no more welcome anywhere else that I know of, right here, right now, than in this place. We're honored to have you, and I want you to hear me say this you belong to God. You belong to him because his image is on you. Here's the way the North African bishop Augustine of Hippo put it. This should be on the screen as well.
Speaker 2:We are God's money, but we are like coins that have wandered away from the treasury. What was once stamped upon us has been worn down by our wandering. The one who restamps his image upon us is the one who first formed us. He himself seeks his own coin, as Caesar sought his coin. It is in this sense that he says render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's, to Caesar, his coins, to God, your very selves. And yet, if you are in here and you are a Christian, you belong to God twice over, you see, because in creation God gave you yourself, but in your rebellion from his rightful rule you lost yourself, and then in redemption, he gave you himself in order that you might be restored to the self that you lost. You belong to God twice over, and so you render unto God what is God's.
Speaker 2:And so how do we tell the truth? Like the truth we tell. Well, we recognize that we are sinners in need of mercy. We recognize for those of us who are so certain in our political persuasions, listen, I think deeply held convictions matter. I'm not a relativist. It's popular in our culture to be in the mushy middle on everything. No, have deeply held convictions, but listen.
Speaker 2:2 Corinthians 4 says that you were blinder than moles before God came and broke through your blindness and gave you eyes to see. You don't see the truth because there's something better about you than your neighbor. You see the truth if you see the truth because God was gracious to you. Be a happy Calvinist, it helps in the political arena. God opened your blind eyes. God made your dead life live. God resurrected you. God made your broken self whole again.
Speaker 2:That's what we confess, that's what we believe. That should shape our political engagement. It should humble us and embolden us. It should embolden us because if we're going to tell the truth, like the truth we tell, then, like those words that they said about Jesus, only the gospel can set us free to be quote true and not care about anyone's opinion. We're bold. In other words, we don't live with the fear of man.
Speaker 2:How Well, the man who discipled William Wilberforce was a man named John Newton, who wrote the famous hymn Amazing Grace. He was a slave trader turned abolitionist and maybe the most important investment of his life was making disciples, namely William Wilberforce. And he said it like this in the famous hymn it was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. It's only grace that has the ability to free you up from the fear of man so that you can speak the truth in love to man. Only the gospel can free us to be, to not be quote swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. This is because the gospel teaches us to walk by faith, not by sight. The gospel teaches us to recognize that the things which are seen, including political parties and partisan politics and various policies in this cultural moment, all of those things are transient, they're passing away, but the things that are unseen are eternal, and so we give thanks to God that we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Speaker 2:And so, brothers and sisters, as you practice Christian persuasion in the public square, don't take the bait. Win people, not just arguments, and tell the truth, like the truth we tell. Let's pray, father. We can't do this on our own. We are in need of your Holy Spirit to come and fill us, enable us, humble us, give us a fresh glimpse of the cross of Jesus Christ, train us in a patriotism of the cross. I pray that you would grant repentance for our temptation to political retreat or our temptation to political compromise. We lift our eyes to you, king Jesus, the only one worthy of having our ultimate allegiance. It's in your name we pray, amen.