Resisting Governing Authorities
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The reason why there is not a direct line from be subject to, to obedience is because not all rules, laws, or commands of governing authorities are in line with God’s rules, laws, and commands.
Turn in your bibles to Romans 13…and be prepared because we are going to turn back to Daniel chapter 6 in just a few moments…
We have been studying the Christians’ relationship to governing authroities in our life. That includes the home, the church, and the state government. LAst week we looked at what it meant to be subject to the government and we saw that being subject means to order ourselves under. To see the government that God has given, no matter which sphere, we are to see it as above us and humble oursleves to it in honor and respect becuase GOd is the one who has set it up.
We did see however that being subject to government does not directly result in obedience. One cannot draw an immediate line from being subject, or submissive to a governing authority to obedience. And this morning I want to show you why.
So lets read the text this morning insorder to set the stage.
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. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 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, 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. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
One thing we must be aware of in every institution on Earth, there is a great ability in humanity to fail to do the right thing. We by human nature follow the ways of the world. We by human nature are sinners, we are like sheep who have gone astray. Unless you have submitted to the Lord, and laid your life down to him, the state of your heart is dead. You need a new heart. You must come to God and through Christ have your heart replaced. Again, if we don’t the scriptures say we are like sheep who have gone astray. We have a dead heart. One that is of no heavenly value. One that is in love with the world, and self, and anything other than God...
Yet, each and evey one of us has the same opportunity because Jesus shed his blood for the sins of the world. We all have an opportunity to come to Jesus, and recieve a revived heart. A heart that is working and beating. A heart that is saved, and fit for heaven. We all have the saem opportunity to come to Christ, and ask for forgiveness. Which, without, we will not see God. Yet, God freely gives to those who seek him. And has mercy on those who come to him. He can revive the coldest heart, and bring life into the eyes of the most rebellious of sinners. But it is your resonsibility to recive him, habe you recived him? Have you been baptized upon a confession of faith that Christ is Lord?
I start with this this morning because anyone who has been saved undrestands that darkness and sinfulness of the unrevived human heart. This is not to say that those with a new heart don’t sin. The Apostle John tells us we would be lying if we said that.
But this is to say that Governments at any level have the ability to govern in a sinful way. Thus, we should ask the question, is there ever a time to resist the governing authroities? And the answer to that question is yes…
But before the rebel rousers get all excited, we need to understand what this means. My question is worded carefully. I ask is there ever a time to resist and the answer is yes. But there is never a time to rebel.
An evil man seeks only rebellion,
and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
1 Samuel 15:23 is a verse I have been mediating on this week… It says, 1 Samuel 15:23
1 Samuel 15:23 (ESV)
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
One might also say, and rightly so, that the text clearly says that the one who resists the governing authoritits resists God… True. But this is why the main thrust of my sermon this morning is that biblically resisting the government is to oppose the unrighteous command of the governing authority and not the authority itself.
So we need to take a moment and look at the differnce between resistence and rebellion. And there are two places we will go to this morning to see it. First, lets turn in our bibles to Daniel chapter 6…
Just to give some background as you are turning there Daniel takes place in the time when Israel and Judah are no more. They have been overthrown by foreing governments. In the Time of Daniel six Daniel has served in the the babylonian government, and at this time babylon had been overthrown too and it was now the empire of Assyria who had control over the people of Israel and much of the land in the middle east.
This is where we pick up in Daniel 6… Now as we go through Daniel 6 here is the point the scriptures are trying to make: To biblically resist governing authorities is to oppose the unrighteousness command of the governing authority but not the authroity itself. Rebellion sees the one in authoirty as evil, and that authroity should be given to you. It is to reject the one God has put in authroity over you. Which as we see in Romans 13, is sinful. Now watch this…
It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
Daniel was a hebrew. A man of Israel. He was a righteous man who feared Yahweh. God almighty… Yet he worked for who? The assyrian government. He wasn’t just on staff, he accepted the position of high authoirty. Was the assyrian government worshippers of God? No. They had many gods. But this government did not oppose those who worshipped God. They had no laws against it. So, anyone could fill the positon, and Daniel did so with excellence. Lets continue....
Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 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. 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.” Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction.
Now there is a law agianst the worship of Yahweh right? To worship the only God, the living God, whom we worship today, was seen as illegal and worthy of dead. Just for 30 days… But watch this…
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.
Where did Daniel go when this law was passed? Did he go grab his gun? No. Did he go to tik tok and complain and whine about how unfair the law is and how much the government hates them? No. He went about worshipping GOd as he had done normally. Daniel didn’t go upstair ans throw the curtains open in rebellion. He did not do it to make a statment. He was acting how he had always done.
He didn’t gather a crowd to rise up against the government. He simply prayed to God and worshipped him as was his habit. But see to it that you understand, Daniel did not go along with the command of the government. Why? Because their command was evil and unrighteous. They government at that moment was out of line. The government is not to have their hands in the regulation of the worship of Yahweh. That belongs to the people of God, the church.
The government is to act as a sword, to punishing the evil doer. And according to their law, anyone who worshipped God was to be put to death as a murder. He was to die being thrown into the lions den. And we know the rest of the story right? Daniel peacefully and respectfully went to the lions den, and the Lord God revealed himself to the corrupt government in that Daniel was still alive the next day.
Out of Daniels respectful, peaceful resistance the law was changed to honor the Lord God.
So my friends, when the Government commands something that is against the laws of God, what are we to do? We are to resist. Not rebel. Especially when it comes to worship. We do not bow to the government. The government bows to jesus. My friends, the government of the the united states of america has no place commanding how anyone is to worship. Worship belongs to Christ alone, and worship of Christ is overseen by the church.
What made the government so radically great in 1776 was the God was who they were trying to honor by saying, there is freedom of religion in our country. However, our laws will be written to the tune of the scriptures. Today, not so much. The government tried but found out it can’t tell the church, Christians, that they must bake a cake for a homosexual couple. The government tried but figured out it can’t tell the church that they can’t worship or how to worship God… but when they do, our responsibility is to resist. Because we lovingly want to say, you are wrong in the eyes of God. You are out of order…
Peter had this same response to the government in his day.
IN the book of Acts Peter and John are brought before the highest courts. They are brought in and the high priest starting Acts 5:28
saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
Now, they knew the consequenses of this. They would figure out a way to crucify them! They have seen it happen. How does peter respond?
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
Peter, aren’t you the saem guy who wrote in 1 Peter 2:13-14
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
So why are you telling the government this??? WHy are you not being subject to their ruling?
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Who is exalted above every name? Who has all power and authroity in heaven and on earth? Who creates governments, and demolishes them? Who is sovereign over the earth? Who created all things and holds all things togeher? Who bears the only name under heaven by which men may be saved? The Lord JEsus Christ.
My friends, do you realize that the early christians were seen as rebels by the state? Because To be a Christian one must confess that Christ is Lord. Meaning he has complete authroity over your life, and you see him as king, and are bowing to him! To be welcomed into the church one had to confess, Christ is Lord.
Do you realize, that to profess Christ is Lord was to say Ceasar was not? To Say Christ is Lord was to say you had a higher authority over your life than ceasar, whcih in their eyes was anarchy? The Roman government of that day, and the government of the United States of America today are not Lord, not to be respected above or obeyed above Jesus Christ.
The cry of the apostles was and the cry of the church today is, we must obey God rather than men. We will be subject to the government as long as the government is subject to God. The moment the government begins to tell us that Christ can’t be preached, that Christ can’t be worshiped, that Christ can’t be honored as the word reveals freely, we will gladly, joyfully, peacefully, go on doing what we are doing. If that means jail time, so be it. If that means losing our lives, so be it. That might also mean you need to sit on a school board, or a city council, or some other place of influence to see that unrighteous law are changed.
But the bottom line is, Christ lost his life, so that I could have one. Christ brutally gave up his life so that I could have a new heart, and give thanks to God as He deserves. I will not disrespect the Lord, or turn away from him just because you have the power to take my life.
My dear friends, do you cherish Christ above all? Is Jesus that king of your life? Will you honor him even when people are saying he doesn’t matter? When people call you old fashioned? Will you honor him above all if the government ever threatens your life because of Him? Christ is Lord, and We live to that end.
