God and Government.

Opening:

It is a beautiful thing to open the Word of the Lord on the Lord’s Day.

Introduction of the Passage:

This morning we are jumping back into our study of 1 Peter. We will be in 1 Peter 2:13-17. And we must remember the context of this. Peter has written this letter to the first century church. These Christians have been disbursed throughout the Roman empire due to persecution. Now this persecution is taking place under Nero. Nero was arguably the worst Roman emperor for Christians. This emperor would be responsible for the death of Peter, Paul, and countless other Christians. His nickname was “the Beast.” At the height of the persecution he would impale Christians alive, dip them in oil and then light them on fire in order to light his gardens at night. But at the point of this letter, the church was still under what I would call “soft persecution.” They were not being marched to the gas chambers. They were however facing some arrest, financial hardship, social rejection, and cultural hatred. They were in the start of the persecution. And it was bad enough that they had to leave their homes in order to have any form of freedom. And this is the context of Peter’s writing this passage to them.

Reading of the Passage:

So with this in mind, I would ask you to stand with me if you are able for the reading of God’s Word.

1 Peter 2:13-17 13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Behold, the Word of God which is sufficient that we may be complete for all godliness. Let’s commit this time to the Lord in prayer.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing on this time in the Word this morning. May it be a fragrant offering of worship to you. May we always seek to honor and server you above all else. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.

Introduction/ Opening Illustration:

The Apostle Peter wrote this letter. And Peter was an incredibly faithful man. He loved his Lord. And while we have some rather embarrassing accounts of his failures in Scripture, I think we would all agree that he was far more bold and faithful than we are. This man loved Christ so dearly and deeply that he endured rejection, hatred, physical and verbal abuse, and even death. Peter may be flawed, but he still stands as a giant of the faith that we should all seek to emulate.

And beyond this, the Holy Spirit spoke through this Apostle and inspired these words as Sacred Scripture. This alone is an incredible testimony. This man, who penned these words of Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was one of the twelve who walked, ate, drank, and lived with our Lord. He was there at the cross. He was there at the tomb. He was there at the campfire with the resurrected Lord. He was there at the ascension. He was there at Pentecost. He was one of the men with fire upon his head when the Holy Spirit came. And he wrote these words commanding submission to human governing institutions.

These words of Scripture command obedience to human rulers. But here we encounter a problem. Peter was executed by the Roman authorities for treason, inciting sedition, sparking rebellion, and a general thumbing of the nose to the governing authorities. And the cynical among us would say something along the lines of “what happened, Peter? Did you forget your own words about obeying and submitting to human rulers?”

Need:

You see, we tend to see this as a conflict. We tend to see this command in Scripture, “obey those in authority over you” and then see the death of the Apostles and then say, “boy they must have missed this part.” But did they? Were Peter, Paul, Andrew, James, Thomas, and the others in disobedience to these commands at their deaths?

Text Idea:

By no means. In fact, they went to their deaths precisely because of texts and commands like this. We must remember one of Christ’s titles. Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. And Peter is saying that because of Christ and our slavery to Him, we ought to obey earthly kings and do what is right in order to silence ignorant mockers.

Sermon Idea:

You see, we obey earthly kings because we serve their King. We disobey earthly kings because we serve their King.

Interrogative:

What do I mean? And how do we understand submission to authority?

Transition:

Well, first we must set the stage slightly. In order to understand how to properly submit to authority, we must understand the Hierarchy of authority in God’s world.

Point 1: The Hierarchy of Authority in God’s World.

Explanation:

Not a trick question, who created the World? God did. Who created man? God did. Who rules over the universe? God does. Who governs the universe? God does? Who declared that He has all authority in heaven and on earth? Jesus!

Matthew 28:18 “18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

You see, God has divine rights over everything. He is THE Sovereign. He is Lord over all creation. Abraham Kuyper famously said, “there is not one square inch in all of creation over which Christ does not declare, ‘Mine.’” God has all authority. Period, full stop. There is no authority in heaven or earth that does not belong to Christ. He is Lord, period. But God delegates authority. We see in creation that He delegated authority over light to the sun, moon, and stars. The light came from God, it originated in Him, but He gave rule of the light to the created beings of sun, moon, and stars. But He also delegates authority to mankind. We see that Adam and Eve were given authority over all creation. They were to take dominion over it. Mankind was delegated authority over creation. Now does this mean that God no longer had control over creation? Did God abdicate His authority over the birds and trees and earth and sea? No, of course not. He still has this authority. But He created a hierarchy. He has ultimate authority, but did give real, albeit lesser, authority to man.

But God also raises up rulers not just over creation, but over peoples too. God delegates this authority. God gives authority to human rulers. God raises up kings and rulers of nations. And Scripture attests over and over again that God is the one who gives these rulers authority.

Proverbs 8:15–16“15 By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; 16 by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly.” Daniel 2:21 “21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;” Daniel 4:32 “32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”” Even Jesus said the same to Pilate at His trial. John 19:11 “11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above...””

These kings and rulers have no authority on their own, but their authority comes from God. And this means that we do not have a right to deny this authority. God gives it, and He gives it to whomever He wills. He raises up kings and governors and yes even presidents. God gives these men real authority. And we have no right to say, “they have no authority.” No, the Bible is clear. These rulers have genuine and true authority. But it is given to them by God.

And this is true of all authority. Remember, Christ has ALL authority in heaven and on earth. And He delegates this authority. Any ruler of any kind get’s that authority from God. And we will see this in the rest of Peter’s letter. In the rest of his letter, authority from God is one of his central themes. He deals with civil authority, authority of employers over their servants and slaves, husband’s authorities over their households, and even the elder’s authority over the church. These are all real authorities. This means Christians are not anti-authoritarian people. We are not advocates for the destruction of authority. That has no place in Christianity.

Christians are advocates for godly authority. Our call is for all those who govern in any form to recognize the Lordship of Christ. We recognize that God has made the world in a hierarchical structure. God has all authority, and He has given real authority to mankind in the various structures of life. Christ is King over all kings. Christ is Lord over all lords. And God has delegated real authority to His creation.

And I hope this makes clear what Peter is saying. Peter says in verse 13, “13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution,” We are not subject to these rulers for their own sake. We don’t submit to them simply because they have a big stick. We are subject to them because God has placed them in authority.

Transition:

And here is a central point. Anyone who has any authority has that authority because God has given it to them. And this means that God gets to tell them what to do. God gives commands to all men of every station. And this means, God gives commands to civil rulers.

Point 2: God’s Command to Civil Rulers.

1 Peter 2:13–14“13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.”

Explanation:

You see, because all authority is from God, we ought to obey them. Romans 13:1 “1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” But these are not arbitrary rulers. God establishes them and God gets to set bounds on their authority. God gives the authority and gives the instruction manual for that authority. And Peter even says this.

Why has God established kings and governors? They are sent by God to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. Paul the same thing in Romans 13:3–4“3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” God has ordained the civil magistrate as His servant to reward good and punish evil. And the civil magistrate is to wield the sword to punish evil. Kings and governors and all those in the civil sphere are commanded by Christ, their King, to reward good and punish evil.

Argumentation:

But this brings up a question.

Who Defines Good?

Seriously, who gets to define good? When God says that He established the civil authority of Kings to reward good, who gets to define that word good? Does this king get to sit on his throne and do whatever he wants? Does the king get to define good however he wants?

You see we live an age where we are at war over the definition of words. Our world is fighting to redefine everything. They are attempting to fundamentally change what good and evil mean. Who gets to define what these words mean? Well, I have a radical idea. I think that since God is the maker of all, He has ultimate authority to say what is good, what is evil, what is right and what is wrong. Crazy, I know. God as the divine Sovereign of all creation, has the right to define what good is.

The king has no right to define good and evil based off his own whims. No ruler has a right to disagree with God. No king, emperor, governor, president, congressman, mayor, or dog catcher has a right to disagree with God.

Let me illustrate this. God clearly established the husband as the authority in the household. So let’s say a husband says, “I know God calls me to love my wife. But I love my wife by yelling at her for two hours a day, telling her she does everything wrong. That is love.” Is that love? Why not? He is the authority in the home. So he get’s to say love is whatever he wants, right? Of course not! A man who does that is a scoundrel and a wretch! That man does not love his wife! Why not? Because the one who gave him authority in his home has the right to define love. The husband has no right to re-define what God has already defined.

So you see, the civil government has absolutely no right to look at what God calls evil and call it good. Just as a husband has no right to look at what God has called evil and call it good.

God has established all authorities, and He is the head of all authority. He is God. He is King over all kings. He is Lord over all lords. Every king must bow to Him as Lord and obey Him. Every husband must bow to Him as Lord and obey Him. Every person everywhere is called to bow down to Him as Lord and obey Him.

And this means if they ever command us in anyway contrary to what God has commanded us, we freely disobey. We disobey earthly kings because we serve their King. Our ultimate allegiance is to Christ! He is our King. Christ is King. And when a lesser king commits treason against Christ, the high King, we bind ourselves to the command of the High King, come what may. And that is what tyrants are. They are traitors and rebels against Christ. This is why John Knox said, “resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.” But resistance is never an attempt to destroy God given authority.

Transition:

You see, a Christian is not an anarchist, but a free slave.

Point 3: Not Anarchists, Free Slaves.

1 Peter 2:15–16“15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

Explanation:

Peter says that we are to do good in order to silence the foolish. Remember all of Peter’s commands up to this point about how we will be slandered because of Christ. Well, here we go. The ignorant, the foolish will slander us. They will hate us. So what do we do? We do what is good. And what is the good we are to do? Simple. Obey God. That is what doing good is. That is the consistent definition of good all through the Bible. What is good? Obedience to God. Obey God. That’s it. Obey what God has said. Obey God’s commands. And this will silence the ignorant fools.

Now this is not a promise of freedom from criticism. No, but remember 1 Peter 2:12 “12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” You see, the ignorant and the fools will speak against us. As we do good, they will slander us. They will hate us. And notice, we do not get a clue from Peter who these ignorant are. He does not tell us who the ignorant are. And that is because sometimes they are coworkers who speak against us for obeying Christ. Sometimes they are friends. Sometimes, they are family members. And sometimes, they are the civil rulers.

If we learn anything from church history it is this: often times, the ones most vehemently opposing the church are the civil rulers. Caesar hates Christians because Christians declare caesar is not a god, but is subject to the one true God. But note this, when Caesar attacks the church, our response cannot be “well you have no authority.” No, God has given caesar real authority. God has established all rulers and has given them authority. We are not anarchists. We have no right to deny rulers the authority God has given them. We call them to repentance and righteous rule, while always remembering that we are slaves to God. Listen again to verse 16. 16 “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.”

We are free! And we are to submit. So how does this work? Peter explains that we are not free to do evil. We are not set free by Christ in order to sin. No, we are free now in Christ to obey God. And we are free to obey God because we are God’s slaves. Christians find freedom in slavery. He bought us with the blood of Christ. And what do you call it when you buy a human being? Slavery. We are God’s slaves. But notice this, slavery to God is true freedom. We have a master who we owe all our allegiance. God demands our obedience. And we will obey Him, because we are His slaves. In His chains we have found freedom. His bonds are easy and light.

Argumentation:

His yoke is easy and His burden is light. But nonetheless, He is our Lord and Master. He has bought us. And this means, we willingly submit to His hierarchy of obedience.

A Hierarchy of Obedience.

Recall that I opened this message by discussing God’s hierarchy of authority. God is at the top and delegates authority to others. He gives authority to angels and men and husbands, and more. This is real authority. We are not anarchists. But we never ever forget that God sits at the top of that hierarchy. God is the ultimate authority.

Let me simplify it like this. We obey God in everything and at all times. Period, no one gets an opinion on that. There is no circumstance where we are free to disobey God. I hope that is clear. God ALWAYS gets to tell all men, everywhere what to do. And when any man disobeys God, it is always sin. No exceptions. So we always obey God. And then, we obey lesser authorities wherever we can. As long as it is not disobedience to God, we ought to obey those lesser authorities. But the moment there is a conflict between what God commands and what a lesser authority commands, we must remember we are slaves to God. We don’t get a choice in the matter. We must obey God.

In fact, to disobey God in order to obey a lesser authority is blasphemy. It is declaring with our actions that the lesser authority has more authority in our lives than God does. It is to worship the lesser authority over God. Now we may not think that is what we are doing, but that is exactly what we are doing. We are declaring with our actions, “I will obey this lesser authority over God.”

When there is any conflict between what God commands and what the civil magistrate commands, we must obey God. And we know that this conflict will arise. But whenever that conflict arises, we always bow to God, not man. And we have to recognize that this is godly. There is such a thing as the godly right of resistance.

The Godly Right of Resistance.

You see, all over Scripture we see this example. Whenever a civil authority opposes God’s commands, the righteous defy that authority. And Peter himself sums it up well in Acts 5:29 “29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” But let me give you just a brief snapshot of these godly moments of civic resistance. And please note, this is a fraction of a fraction of these examples.

First, we have the Hebrew midwives in Egypt. Exodus 1:17“17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.” Pharaoh had commanded the death of all the male Hebrew children. But the midwives refused. They lied to Pharaoh and saved the lives of those children. And God blessed them. Exodus 1:20 “20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong.” This was righteous defiance. Pharaoh said to murder babies and by their actions they said “you are not God.”

Think of Daniel’s three friends. The King commanded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to bow down to his statue. They said, “No, we will die first.” And when God saved them, the king said this, Daniel 3:28 “28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.”

What about Daniel? He lived a life of right respect for authority. He served multiple kings and had high station in all their rules. Yet he was a biblical pirate. He refused to ever compromise and disobey God. Daniel 1:8“8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.” He refused to even disobey God with the food he ate. Refusing this command was punishable by death. But Daniel said, “No, death before disobedience to God.”

Again, later in his life. Daniel 6:7–10“7 All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. 10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.”

This one landed Daniel in the lions den. He was sentenced to death for praying to God. He could have hid and prayed but he purposely left the window open. He could have just not prayed. Think about it. Daniel could have said, “I will just not pray for thirty days. I won’t pray to God or to the king.” But no! Daniel knew God commands us to pray. So He committed treason against the king and by doing so declared that the king is not a god. Daniel said “death before disobedience to God.”

And think even of the New Testament church Peter is writing this to. In just a few short years Nero will publicly command worship as a god. And Nero, in an attempt to be benevolent, made a blanket offer to accept any religion on two conditions. First, they had to put a small bust of his image in their places of worship and occasionally offer incense on it. It wasn’t even much incense. It was literally just one pinch. Second, they must verbally say “Kaiser Kurios.” This meant “Caesar is Lord.” That is it. One pinch of incense and one phrase.

And yet in mass, Christians were marched to be executed in increasingly brutal ways for refusing. They absolutely refused. They would not offer even one pinch of incense. Not even one pinch. And do you know what many of their last words were? The executioner is there standing above them, axe in hand. The lions are being released from their cages to devour them. The nails are being set to their hands and feet. And do you know what many of them said? As they were awaiting the death blow for refusing to say “Kaiser Kurios” they uttered two words. “Christos Kurios.”

CHRIST IS LORD.

And the axe fell. The nails were driven home. The lions were released. This statement was so common that it became a motto for the church. And it holds to this day. Christ is Lord. Christ is Lord, not caesar.

Transition:

And you see, this is the point.

Conclusion:

We obey earthly kings because we serve their King, but we disobey earthly kings because we serve their King.

Peter sums this all up in verse 17. “17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

That word honor means to attribute right value to. It means to give the proper weight to something. You see, we are to honor everyone. We are to be kind and generous to all. But we are to love the church. We are to care for and be kind to every single person because they are made in God’s image. But we are to have a deep and passionate love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Likewise we are to honor the emperor. We are to honor those in authority. God has put them there. He has given them authority. But we fear God. We do not fear the king. We do not fear the president. Our worship and reverence are to God alone. Oh yes, we must honor our leaders. Scripture commands that we pray for them. But we worship and fear God alone.

Visualization:

Christ is Lord.

Reiteration:

We obey earthly kings because we serve Christ, who is their King. We disobey earthly kings because we serve Christ, who is their King.

Application:

This is how we must order our lives.

Action 1: Obey God in All Things.

God is our God alone. Any command that God gives, we obey. Period. We have no option on that.

Action 2: Obey Human Authority Wherever You Can.

God has established our rulers. He has delegated them real and true authority. And we must honor that. We must give that it’s apropriate weight. But any command that goes against God’s commands, we disobey. And yes, that will make them hate us. They will call us all kinds of names. They will call us traitors, dissenters, wicked, evil, unmanageable pirates. But that’s okay. We may be seen as pirates, but we will fly the Jolly Rodger righteously.

Action 3: Fly the Jolly Rodger Righteously.

We will dissent righteously. We will not do so because we hate authority. We are not anarchists. No, when we dissent, we do so because we love authority. We do so because we love God. We love God’s commands. And our Jolly Rodger is not one of rebellion. It is not the skull and crossbones. Our banner is one of obedience. Our flag has but one emblem. A blood red cross.

Appeal:

So, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” Hoist the colors. Sing a psalm. And when anyone commands us to disobey God, we paraphrase the Apostles. “Not today, Skippy. Christ is our Captain and Master.” Christos Kurios. Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer:

Pray for our leaders and rulers.

Pray for boldness.

Pray for peace.

Thank God for His Word.

Pray for obedience.

Offering:

Offertory Prayer:

Oh Lord, we thank you for your blessing on us. We praise you and thank you for all you have given us. May this offering be used by you to further your kingdom. We ask you to use it and bless. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.

Benediction: