Sermon Tone Analysis

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Soul Liberty
Sometime around 1616 Thomas Helwys died in Newgate Prison London.
Which would have been an entirely inconsequential event in world history, except that he was the first to make an appeal in the English language for Universal Freedom of Religion and was the founder of the first Baptist Church in England.
Thomas Helwys was one of a number of influential figures in the early 1600 who were part of a movement which wanted to reform the Church of England.
A number of these people went on to become the Puritans who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower and laid the foundations of the USA.
It was a dangerous time as the King and church officials saw uniformity of belief and practice as essential to stability in the Kingdom.
Their desire was to maintain power and avoid the sort of conflict that had plagued Europe and England because of different religious ideas.
Anything which was not approved was viewed as heresy and in 1607 the authorities decided to clamp down on the dissenters.
Shortly after Thomas Helwys and about 40 others fled England and settled in Amsterdam where they eventually founded the first Baptist Church under the leadership of John Smyth who later left the group.
Assuming their safety, Helwys allowed his family to remain in England; Unfortunately, his wife was soon arrested and, after refusing to take the oath in court, she was imprisoned.
Although we have no idea what happened to her it is likely that she was banished after three months in prison.
Protestant dissenters in England still faced being burnt at the stake for 'Heresy'.
On 11 April 1611 Anabaptist Edward Wightman became the last religious martyr to be burnt.
Thomas Helwys became increasingly uncomfortable with his move to escape persecution so in 1612 he lead his congregation to return to England where he founded the first Baptist congregation one year after King James had published the Authorized Bible, which became known as the King James Bible.
The King who sponsored the most famous and influential Bible translation in history was presented with a copy of Thomas Helwys book “The Mystery of Iniquity”.
In the cover of this book was a personal hand written appeal to the King that a man’s religion was a matter between him and God, it was no business of the King.
The Kings response was to lock Thomas up in prison and throw away the key.
So where did Thomas get this idea that the King had no right to interfere in a person’s religion.
Alec Gilmore a , Baptist Minister summed it up well in the Guardian paper in May 2006 when he said of Thomas Helwys beliefs.
“Where did he get it from?
Not from human reason alone, as did the Greeks, whose respect for reason and free discussion didn't stop them denying it to women, slaves and barbarians.
For Helwys it was a fundamental Christian doctrine, based on his reading of scripture, especially the New Testament, where he saw all human beings as God's creatures, epitomised in Jesus and the way he treated people.
Persuasion rather than compulsion.
The right of the one to proclaim, balanced by the right of the other to reject.
The freedom of people to choose their destiny.
The need to break down barriers to deliver people from the tyranny of a religion found in Pharisaism; to claim freedom from state control as Paul claimed freedom from the tyranny of Judaism and the law; to release people from ecclesiastical and theological slavery as from all other forms of slavery, and all because we need it not only for ourselves today, but in order for society to preserve it for humanity.
(https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/may/20/comment.religion)
In Matthew 22:21 Jesus gave a command “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s:
Matthew 22:15-22
Jesus answer here is critical not just because of what he says but also because of what is behind what he said.
This was a double trap.
The Roman poll tax was a levy of one days wage.
It could not be paid with the common currency in use throughout Israel it had to be paid with a coin known as a denarius.
A denarius was cast with an image of the Emperor on the face of the coin and an inscription “son of god”.
The law of Moses as interpreted by the Pharisees saw this as idolatry.
It was deeply resented by the common people as it signified their political subjection to Rome.
This tax was different from the Jewish temple tax, which was part of the requirements of Israel.
The Roman poll tax was one of the things that lead to a rebellion 25 years before this encounter.
The result was a massacre of the rebels and an ongoing subversive campaign by a group called the zealots.
People who were prepared to use violence and assassination to rid the land of Roman occupation.
On the one hand if Jesus had answered that the tax should be paid the zealots, who were popular among the common people , would oppose him and he would lose support among the masses.
But if he said the tax shouldn’t be paid then he would be encouraging rebellion against Rome and the Pharisees would have grounds to accuse Jesus of rebellion.
The fact they brought with them the Herodians, supporters of Herod Antipas the Jewish puppet King who ruled on behalf of Rome is a clear indication that one way or another they were going to trap Jesus.
Either he would support Rome and be seen to betray the law of Moses and the people, or he would support the law of Moses and the desires of the people and be seen by Rome to be guilty of treason.
Jesus calls them out on this trap and names them for what they are, hypocrites; people who are willing to go along with the system for their own benefit while being happy to add to the misery of the common people through this trap.
If they really were interested in upholding their understanding of the law of Moses would they have had the offensive denarius coin with them?
They were using Caesar’s money so let them also pay his taxes is Jesus’ response.
Here Jesus has distanced himself from the zealots whilst implying that due respect to a pagan government is not incompatible with loyalty to God.
Jesus doesn’t identify how this proper respect is to be worked out in practice, it is the principle that is important.
The things of God are the things of God and the things of the state, whether a democracy, kingdom or dictatorship are the things of the state.
This is the key verse for the concept of freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.
Peter & John - Preaching the Gospel is rendering to God, not Caesar
So what happens when the will of Caesar and the will of God are genuinely different?
We would all say God wins wouldn’t we?
And that is correct as we will see in the example of Peter and John in Acts 4:18-20 in a minute.
But firstly let’s ask another question, what are the reasonable limits to claiming that something is a matter of freedom of religion and must be allowed and not hindered.
This is an important question in our nation right at this moment, not just with the issue of redefining marriage and being able to publicly hold the view that a marriage is only between a man and a woman.
It is an issue in a whole range of areas, hopefully the politicians realize this and there is agreement and good legislation to properly address these issues.
Let me give you a recent example.
Sometime ago I mentioned a police officer I know who is a committed Christian and leader in his church.
A couple of street preachers were preaching in the main street of a town.
Their manner of preaching was very confrontational and they would get right into peoples faces on the footpath and were actually blocking the entry to legitimate businesses.
Their behavior was so aggressive that people were complaining, the shop owners were losing business and people were avoiding that part of the main street.
The police officer asked them to relocate just a short distance so that they were no longer blocking the footpath, they could continue to preach but please allow people to go about their business.
They refused.
After many attempts he had no choice but to arrest them.
I do not believe these men were rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.
There was no issue of restriction on their freedom of religion, just a simple request to show some good manners and common decency towards others.
Nor were they rendering to God the things that are God’s.
They were causing offence to the Gospel of Christ.
But consider the situation in Acts 4:1-4 when Peter and John were preaching to a crowd who had gathered because they had witnessed the miracle of the man born lame being healed.
Let’s pick the story up again in verse 16.
Acts 4:16-21
We know from other passages of Scripture that for the Apostles preaching the Gospel often came with great cost, even martyrdom.
But they preached it anyway, you see the Gospel does cause offence, people do not like hearing that they fall short of God’s standard.
People get angry when they perceive in the message of the Gospel the challenge to live right before God.
People also get offended when they hear that they can not be good enough or work hard enough to get to heaven.
They want to do it on their own efforts.
But you can’t that is why we need Christ.
It isn’t about self righteousness, it isn’t about being free to ignore God and do what you want.
It is about our need to bow before Christ’s Lordship with a repentant attitude and morally pure actions.
Quite simply we are all in need of God’s Grace.
But when it comes to preaching the Gospel there is a big difference between being offensive and when you get arrested claiming that your religious liberties are being denied, as the very rude individuals on the main street of that town did; and preaching the Gospel of Christ and suffering as a result.
The Apostles preached the Gospel, some chose to take offence and demanded that they stop, but the Apostles preached the Gospel because they were rendering to God the things that are God’s and they understood that in this case Caesar had no right to stop them.
But they knew there was a cost and they were willing to pay it.
Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
—Benjamin Franklin
Let’s never confuse freedom of religion with freedom to be rude and obnoxious.
Let’s also realize that while Caesar has no right whatsoever to compel people to believe or not believe any particular thing there are limits within the church of Christ.
The Limits of Freedom within the Church
1 Corinthians 10:23-24 makes this very plain.
Within the church freedom of religion, what Baptists have historically called soul liberty, has limits.
Those limits are twofold.
The first is very simply are my actions beneficial to my brothers and sisters in Christ.
John Calvin summed up the intent of 1 Corinthians 10 very well when he said.
Nothing can be plainer than this rule: that our liberty should be used if it conduces to our neighbor’s edification; but if it is not beneficial to our neighbor, it should be abridged.
JOHN CALVIN
The second limit is one of sound doctrine.
You can believe whatever you want as far Caesar is concerned, the King, the State, the Government should have no say.
Their responsibility is to good governance, to uphold the peace, as long as your beliefs are not causing real harm to others your religion is no business of the King
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