Sermon Tone Analysis

We now begin a new chapter and this chapter has a lot of differing thoughts and the reason for that is because we all have Blinders on and those Blinders are determined by the culture we are born in comma the culture we are raised in comma and the culture that we perceive around us.

And we will get into all of that and get down to the nitty gritty of it all.

As you can tell based on the text that we have just read we will be talking about government stuff .

Politicians and how Christians should handle or deal with them.

And the timing really could not be better.

We are not only watching debates take place but we are getting ready for another presidential election.

the issue I take with politics is that politics is very narrow visioned.

I don't care what party you represent I don't care how old you are I don't care what generation you belong to, politics is very narrow visioned.

And what I mean by that is that our vision in our memories only go back so far when it comes to politics and politicians that not only are we narrow visioned it creates a narrow mindness when it comes to politics.

And so to use a current example there are a lot of things that the Obama administration did that most left wing people were not upset about that the trump administration is currently doing that just about every left wing person is suddenly upset about.

The reason why this is, is because politics are very narrow visioned.

Conservatives do the same thing, nobody is immune to this.

Myself, well most of you know I enjoy history an part of enjoying history is you have to look at the historical politics of everything.

And anyone who does this on a healthy and continual basis knows that anyone who does not know history is doomed to repeat it.

And so those who do not know history , pretend to know history and make accusations and claims they should not be making.

So because people do not know history anybody they do not like automatically becomes Hitler.

And it was not that long ago I shared with you all a very bizarre piece of history that took place in the 1500s.

How could it be that in the same country history would repeat itself in the form of Hitler.

We discussed the religious cult in Munster Germany, it was essentially the same thing that Hitler did.

He was a man who came in with powerful speech, with real charisma and he was fascinated with the occult.

He was building a new world religion.

The swastika was meant to replace the cross.

Very similar.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

He was also known as a fascist but it was communist thinking that got him to the rise of power.

He gathered up the Jewish people and made them live in ghettos.

And after he robbed them of their dignity he came in and stole all their possessions and was going to distribute them among the people.

Meanwhile the Jewish people would go off into camps.

That was essentially what happened in Munster Germany with the story I shared with you all just a few weeks back.

And so this is what we see on television, we see history repeating itself period we see people conveniently forgetting what they used to support or perhaps what they did at one time support but no longer supports anymore.

And all of this narrow vision stirs up division within us.

we grow to detest the party we oppose.

Therefore there is absolute rebellion against the party we oppose.

But I tell you, there is one thing in the realm of politics that makes my skin crawl.

It makes me shudder.

And it may be perhaps something some of you have said in this room.

And if you have, I don't intend this to be offensive.

But it is one thing that just drives me bonkers.

Donald Trump when's the presidency and some people say, I think God allowed him to be president.

That statement coming out of the mouths of Christians makes my skin crawl.

Oh you Think?

I know.

And I remember , years ago, sitting in a Mens Bible study and somebody asked the question why did God Put Obama in office?

And the response to that question was somewhere along the line of, God was not the one who put him in office he was clearly not answering our prayers for whatever reason.

Now if you are wondering why this makes my skin crawl it is because the last people who should question God's sovereignty is God's people.

And yet God's people question it more then the unbelievers.

Something is wrong with that, something is wrong there.

How do I know question mark because the text that we just read informs us of this.

not only the text that we just read but the text that we have been covering since chapter 8.

We will not cover all of the verses that we read, we read the first 7 verses so we can have context.

But we do not have the time to cover everything.

And the reason is because we are taking on a subject that is pretty big and we have our cultural Blinders on at all times.

and for that reason there are a lot of questions period what are we to do as Christians in this situation?

What are we to do as Christians with this person in office?

And we need to take the time to answer those questions.

So today's sermon will be , in a sense, an introduction to this topic and then we will go into the breakdown of the verses.

Now the first 7 verses of this chapter is the relationship Christians have with the civil authorities.

That means the government.

Some people feel that verses one through 7 don't fit in with the flow of what Paul is saying.

That Paul had a specific flow at the end of chapter 12 and it seems that in chapter 13 verse 8 the flow continues.

But in verses one through 7 that flow is interrupted.

And so there are some people who honestly believe that verses one through 7 is not a legitimate tax for Christians to read.

They believe some scribe wrote it on his own without any authority and it just got added into our English translation.

That is a view I fully reject, I think the people who hold to that view do not want to submit to these verses, they do not want to submit to the commands of God so they will act like God never made such commands.

Some people believe that verses one through 7 are not talking about political powers but angelic powers.

It's an argument that holds no water, it's one that really cannot be made.

Some people believe that it is a divinely inspired writing from Paul But somebody put it in the wrong location and that is the reason why there is this disrupt a flow.

I also disagree with that period I do not believe there is a disrupt in flow.

I think talking about the government comma the civil magistrates is very appropriate given what was discussed at the end of chapter 12 which was do not take revenge, leave room For God to have his vengeance , do not repay evil with evil and do not allow evil to overcome but fight evil with good.

In light of that , when we are wrong that is why God instituted governments was for our protection.

This is the reason why we emphasize that justice is the appropriate response given whatever circumstance we may be in and that justice goes through the government.

Now what I want you to do is toss out everything you're thinking about and how the government has failed in justice, how the government has failed to protect Christians, how the government has just failed to do a lot of things.

We're talking about what the government is made for not how we see it today.

Another thing to keep in mind as we are moving through these verses is that we are looking at a different culture and we're trying to apply what was said in an ancient culture to our own culture.

Democracy did not exist in Paul's day.

so For these reasons a lot of questions pop up and I will try to cover them all.

so I will ask that you be patient with me these next few weeks And I ask that you take this ride with me for the next few weeks.

But while we are speaking about the culture, you have to understand that Paul is addressing Jewish believers and this is something that we have seen Throughout this epistle.

The church in Rome was made up of both Jew and gentile and Paul addresses things that appeal to the Jewish mind then appeal to the gentile mind and then tries to bring them both together.

And this is something we have already seen him do.

So the Jewish people thought that their Messiah would be this earthly political Liberator and instead of turning to the real Messiah they wound up executing him.

But the ones who did believe still had this mindset that they are to serve no other King who is not Jewish.

And so you typically had Jewish people causing a lot Of problems.

And now you have these Jewish people who have converted to Christianity and some people are considering them as anarchist.

This was the reason why the Jews we're so heavily attacked and persecuted, because they were always going against the powers that be.

This is why Paul has to instruct people how they should act towards those in civil authority.

And this brings me to the one last thing we have to introduce before we can dive in. the reason why God instituted government was for order.

God is a god of order and when we begin to see chaos we know that it's a sign of Satan.

because Satan is the author of chaos and God is the author of order.

And we see this throughout the scriptures.

This is why church has a specific kind of government period the Bible tells us how a church is supposed to be functioned how a church is supposed to be governed.

And the reason why God designed church government the way he designed it was for the sake of order.

He didn't just do it with church he did it within the family period he created order in the family and we read about this in the New Testament period husbands are to love their wives like Christ loves the church and wiser to submit to their husbands like the church submits to Christ.

That is proper order and when somebody in that party tries to do things differently chaos happens.

Keep in mind that what we're reading in this chapter an when I bring up order in the family unit, that's meant to be followed biblically, when someone tries to take it and act on it sinfully it's not proper.

So if there is a husband involved that is demanding that his wife submit and never shows his wife any love, there is chaos that takes place.

and men are the type of people who say the phrase you give respect in order to get respect.

But the scriptures say that the man is to love the wife 1st like Christ love the church and that is a sacrificial love.

And if a man cannot be like that yet demands that his spouse follow the next line , he is exercising this in a sinful way not a biblical way.

Therefore it is not the proper way an we have chaos and what you have is a marriage inspired more by Satan than the scriptures.