Corruption and the Need for a King (Part 1: Religious Corruption)

Intro: Who gets to define what the church does?

I know that some of you might have a Sunday School gut response as to the right answer to this question… but I want you to think about how modern believers often answer that question PRACTICALLY.

Who gets to define what the church does?

Who gets to define what proper worship is?

Who determines how members relate to one another and how the body functions?

There are a few common answers… maybe these came to mind for you:

Some might answer “The Elders” - The elders have authority in the church… they just do whatever feels right to them.

Others might answer, “That’s too authoritarian, really the Church Members have the authority and the elders are just delegates to do what the members want.”

Many believe that the goal of the church is to keep all the members satisfied… “let them have their way and all will be ok.”

Still others might say, “No, that’s too internally focused. We need to determine our church practice by what ‘Seekers’ or ‘The Culture’ is looking for.”

And so church worship and practice becomes all about what will draw and keep the crowds.

So what’s the right answer? Who gets to define what the church does, and what proper worship is, and how members relate to one another, and how the body functions?

In this case the Sunday School answer IS the correct answer: Jesus gets to define how his church worships him.

Anything else is religious corruption.

Everyone: elders, members, seekers… ALL must submit themselves to King Jesus.

HE is the Christ… the promised Savior King...

And the church belongs to HIM.

He is the head, we are his body.

Local churches are outposts… embassies… of his Kingdom.

And HE gets to tell us how to live in these embassies through his written word.

That’s the way he has always led his people… he reveals his purposes through his word.

This week and next week we are going to look at what happens when the Lord’s people don’t recognize his Kingship exercised through his word.

The title of these last two sermons in Judges are “Corruption and the Need for a King”

And that comes from a much repeated refrain in these last five chapters that goes like this, “There was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

You see, our sinful, rebellious hearts need King Jesus to bring us into alignment with God.

We NEED his authority in our lives so that we can enjoy a right relationship with our Lord.

And if we reject him as King, the result is corruption: Utter rebellion and chaos.

Chapters 17-18 focus on the “religious corruption” during the time of the Judges while chapters 19-21 focus on moral corruption.

We are going to treat this as a part 1 and part 2… so the Big Idea for this week is...

Big Idea: Follow King Jesus away from religious corruption.

Context: Epilogue - Totally different style and feel.

Leaving the "cycles of rebellion and rescue" theme and now focusing on “what life was like in Israel during the time of the Judges” (you could say the same thing about the book of Ruth)

How did people think and behave?

We also get a sense of "The State of the Union" between the twelve tribes during the time of the Judges.

The picture these chapter’s paint is not pretty:

The twelve tribes of Israel spend more time warring against each other and against people who AREN’T part of the promised land than they do against the enemy that the Lord ACTUALLY told them to drive out.

The law of God is completely forgotten… completely forsaken.

The worship of the True God in any way that he would WANT to be worshiped is totally abandoned.

Israel denied the authority of God as their king and did what was right in their own eyes.

Let’s look at their religious corruption in chapter 17, verses 1-6

[Read/explain 17:1-6]

There was no King in Israel…

The implication is that they needed one… and not just anyone: they needed the Lord himself to be their King.

They needed HIM to save them from their own corrupt perception of right and wrong.

The LORD was the de facto King of Israel… According to Deuteronomy 17, any HUMAN King of Israel was to be selected by God himself as a representative of God himself…

The LORD had given the law… HE had established the covenant… HE was the supreme king.

But Israel lived like they had none. They did what was right in their own eyes.

That’s the cycle that we’ve seen over and over again in Judges… they rebel against the Lord… the Lord gives them over to the object of their rebellion… and then he delivers them again to show that HE is the one they need.

If we are going to break the cycles of our rebellious sin, we are going to need to follow King Jesus away from religious corruption.

We must…

1) Follow King Jesus away from Corrupt Worship (17:1-6)

Somehow the religious understanding of Israel is SO BAD that this mother thinks, “You know what… I’m going to respond to my son’s stealing by giving him silver to make idols to worship. That will make YHWH REALLY happy!”

Somehow they thought that the Lord would be pleased if they rejected his system of worship and replaced with their own ideas...

Now the backwards thinking is made even more evident when you understand where they live...

They live in the Hill Country of Ephraim… [Show map] - it’s on that red line between Mahaneh Dan and Shiloh....

This family had some of the easiest access of all Israel to go up and worship God at the Tabernacle at Shiloh… but instead they create their own system to worship YHWH.

Instead of sending Micah with the offering to the REAL tabernacle where God had said his presence would dwell in a unique way, this family thought, “We can worship at home: build our OWN tabernacle, build some false gods, call our sons priests and do our own thing here isolated from the presence of God and his people.”

That’s what we would call CORRUPT worship. Worshiping God in our OWN way rather than the way God has called us to worship him.

Apply: Do we ever do that in the church today? (I mean, sure, we don’t set up sanctuaries and build little idols…) But do we ever seek what what WE want rather than GOD wants in what we call “worship?”

The New Testament counterpart to the Tabernacle is not a building… it’s a people.

Ephesians calls the church a dwelling place for God… it says we are being built together as a temple for God.

And we have some of the easiest access to local churches in all of the WORLD… oh what believers in India and Nepal would give to be able to give to gather with 100 other believers on a Sunday morning...

Some of them walk two hours through the Himalayan mountains just to gather with a handful of other believers… if you don’t believe me, just read David Platt’s book “Something has to Change.”

Just like Micah, we have EASY ACCESS to the people in which God has said he will specially manifest his presence… but many people opt for convenience and personal preference instead.

Is that you? Do you ever seek what YOU want rather than what God wants in what you call “worship”?

It’s not uncommon to approach church with a consumer mindset rather than a worship mindset.

That’s Micah, right? Use just a PORTION of what was given to him to set up a system of worship that was right in his own eyes.

And it’s not uncommon today to look for a Sunday morning church service experience that checks all of your boxes on your preference checklist…

...as long as I can be comfortable and I am not asked to do anything I don’t want to, then I’ll keep coming back.

As long as church entertains me and doesn’t infringe on my time too much then I’ll join in.

As long as they sing the songs I prefer… (whether its old hymns or 90s choruses or the most modern song… people with ALL THREE preferences can come with a consumer mindset)...

As long as the pastor preaches in a style that I like and in a time frame I like…

When it’s focused on us and our preferences, it’s not God we are worshiping anymore. It’s us.

Some have taken that consumer mindset to a new level and opted for the convenience of “stay-at-home church”…

I mean, that’s basically what Micah was trying to do… set up his own system of worship at home: one that HE controlled… one that was convenient for him and benefited him.

And this is a real challenge in post-pandemic world.

Last year we went to online services for a season because it seemed necessary at the time… and we will keep that to some degree because it has proven to be an effective tool for serving people in SOME cases…

But those cases are getting more rare.

And if you are OK with interacting in person in other spheres of life… and as there are ways for even vulnerable people to remain safe… we must not trade the worship of God with his people for our own versions of it at home.

And we will continue live-streaming for the sake of those who might check out our church there first… or who are disabled and can’t get to church… or those who missed a Sunday for serving in kids ministry… or for those who are finally getting away on vacation and still want to stay connected.

But we must emphasize the clear instruction of Hebrews 10… the author writes:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV)

The issue there is habit. What is your habit of corporate worship?

If we don’t plan for corporate worship, we will neglect it.

And the truth is, you cannot live out biblical Christianity isolated in your home away from the body of Christ. JESUS is the head of his church and gives us a pattern for how to worship TOGETHER.

A lot of people think that Jesus never gives us a template for worshiping him.

But even a quick reading of the New Testament will reveal that the Lord CLEARLY instructed local churches in how they are to relate to one another and worship him together.

If you are a follower of Jesus, the scriptures call you to offer a sacrifice of praise: the fruit of their lips that honor his name.

They call you to address one another in Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

They call you to submit yourself to the true preaching of the word.

The Lord CALLS you to devote yourself to prayer with the church.

The scriptures call you to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.

The scriptures call you to greet one another with brotherly affection.

The scriptures call you to exhort and encourage and admonish one another along with a bunch of other “one another” commands.

These are all explicit functions of the regular gatherings of God’s people.

This is how God shows up and dwells among us… through the body of Christ, the church.

And so don’t trade the worship of God that he said he EXPLICITLY wants for something that is more convenient for you.

It’s likely that if you choose convenient worship, you are going to end up serving idols rather than the true God.

We don’t pursue these things naturally: and we need a King to show us that this is the way. This is what is RIGHT in his eyes.

Jesus exercises authority about how we worship in his church through his word…

And when that WORD is rightly taught and applied, we will follow Jesus away from corruption. The cycles of our rebellious sin are broken.

And God’s word does the work that he intended it to do.

In the New Testament, the pastors… the elders… are called primarily to explain and apply God’s word. In the Old Testament, that job fell to the Levites.

We meet one of these guys in v. 7-13.

[Read 17:7-18:1a]

The lack of a King led to a corruption in the Priesthood.

2) Follow King Jesus away from Corrupt Leadership (17:7-13)

Explain: According to the law, as soon as the Levite came to Micah’s house and saw his false sanctuary and idols, he SHOULD have pronounced judgement, stoned Micah, and devoted the idols to destruction.

His job, as a Levite, was to teach and uphold the law and apply it to situations in Israel.

But this Levite is an opportunist. He’s going to stay wherever he can find a place.

He’s the original couch surfer.

And Micah’s place… along with Micah’s offer… is too good to pass up.

Meanwhile, Micah is HAPPY to have someone with the Levite’s credentials and bloodline to lead him.

I mean, up until this point he just had his sons… and he KNEW that was a sham.

But here is a LEVITE… one of the tribe that God SAID priests should come from… who is willing to VALIDATE his false system of worship.

It doesn’t matter that he’s not in the house of Aaron…

It doesn’t matter that, even if he WERE in Aaron’s household, he not old enough by Jewish law, to be ordained as a priest.

This Levite is enough to satisfy Micah’s superstition about having the right type of leader that will give him favor with God and give him success.

And so this corrupt Levite takes the job… and he assimilates into the family… and he oversees the false sanctuary.

Interesting, Micah’s promise to him in v. 9 is to treat him as a Father… but the reality in v. 11 is that he treats him as a son.

Micah found himself a leader he could control with his resources.

This is actually a really common theme throughout Israel’s history…

They would find themselves false prophets who would rise up and say “Peace Peace” when there was no peace.

It’s recorded as a problem in Chronicles and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Micah.

Illustrate: And this happens in churches today all the time...

The agreement goes like this: The people hire a charismatic, smiley preacher… perhaps he is young like this Levite… or at least looks young… they pay him what they think is a handsome salary… and they expect him to tell them what they want to hear…

People think they can manipulate church leaders into getting their own way...

And too often, church leaders agree to it.

They take the position for personal gain.

It’s something that EVERY CHURCH… and every church leader... needs to look out for… Paul warned Timothy about it when Timothy was pastoring in Ephesus:

“Preach the word… For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:3–5, ESV)

2000 years ago, Paul said, “For the time is coming.”

Well, I can assure you, friends… the time is now here.

Our fickle hearts often prefer myths to truth.

But we must look for sober-minded suffering heralds of God’s word who are simply fulfilling the calling God gave him.

Now here is the tricky thing: we live in a culture that assumes EVERY leader is corrupt. The ONLY leaders our culture trusts are the ones who tell them exactly what they want to hear.

And so How can you tell if you are following a corruption-free leader:

They point you to God's word and seek to uphold it.

That verse in Timothy is in the context of Paul exhorting Timothy, “Preach the word.”

That’s exactly what the Levite did not do. He failed to explain and apply the law to the situation at hand.

If Jesus exercises his authority through his word, then the job of the leadership of the church is to point the church to God’s word.

Corruption-free leaders preach Christ… from his word… they do not themselves.

That leads us to the second way to tell if someone is an corruption-free leader:

They think clear, biblical thoughts which causes them to endure suffering and work hard.

The Levite was in it for the easy life.

Paul tells Timothy, on the other hand, to be sober-minded, endure suffering, and fulfill his ministry.

Corruption free leaders stay in the battle even when discouragement would tell him to go find something easier to do.

And they do that by...

They minimize themselves and maximize Jesus.

The Levite upholds this idolatrous system of worship for personal gain. He elevates himself to a status that is not given to him by God.

But Paul says, “Endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist.”

In other words, shine the light of the gospel in the darkness of this idolatrous world.

Bring everything you say and do back to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lift up Jesus.

Every true shepherd is an under-shepherd of the Chief Shepherd.

Follow the Chief Shepherd, King Jesus, and he will lead you away from corrupt leadership.

Follow corruption free leaders and they will lead you to the true King.

The Levite is a representation of how corrupt God’s spiritual leaders were during the time of the Judges...

Which demonstrates why the people themselves were so corrupt.

And the most corrupt people in Israel came from the tribe of Dan.

We are going to put up this map on the screen as we read this next portion to help us get a sense of what is going on...

Read 18:1-31 [use map]

We’ve seen how the lack of a king leads to corrupt worship… corrupt leadership… now this...

3) Follow King Jesus away from Corrupt Mission (18:1-31)

Explain: The tribe of Dan are historically trouble-makers. There is a prophecy in Gen 49:16 that actually foretells this about them.

And we’ve seen it to be true all throughout this book.

It started in chapter 1:34, where Dan is the least successful in driving out the Canaanites… in fact, the Canaanites actually overtake them.

It’s like a reverse conquest.

In Deborah’s song, we learn that the tribe of Dan never joined forces with Barak.

Samson… that self-centered pretty-boy… he was from the tribe of Dan.

And so when we read about Dan, we should be like… “Ugh.”

And in this chapter it’s even worse… Dan has their mission all wrong.

Instead of going in God’s power into the portion of Land God allotted and promised to them...

They are going to land God had not given them… to fight with a people living in security (which was against the Mosaic law in Deut. 20)...

They hire a Levite to validate their mission and steal false gods to protect their conquest.

And the result is the spread of false worship from the south to the North.

This new altar in Dan actually sets up a false worship system that plagues Israel beyond the division of the Kingdom under Jeroboam and Rehoboam.

Dan is corrupt in their understanding of God’s mission for his people during that time.

Apply: And we must be careful to follow Jesus in the mission he has given us and not replace it with some other mission.

Peter Greer, author of “Mission Drift,” writes, “Relatively minor decisions, when compounded by time, lead organizations to an entirely different purpose and identity.”

(https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-subtle-danger-of-mission-drift/)

The decision of Dan early on to not conquer the Land God promised to them… led them to rely on false gods to accomplish a mission that God DID NOT want for them… and that drift there eventually led all of the Northern Kingdom into false worship.

In a church, this type of “mission drift” could look like a minor decision to keep a big donor happy… or to keep a contingent of disgruntled members.

Or a cultural pressure to conform to some societal norm.

It can look like someone having a good idea that was not a God idea… something that would have been appropriate in another context, but was not at the heart of the church’s mission.

It can be so easy to go after other missions for the church:

We think the mission of the church is to provide a place for us to have good friendships with people who are just like us.

We think the mission of the church is to alleviate physical poverty and be an outlet for us to volunteer.

We think the mission of the church is to provide stellar Sunday worship services.

We think the mission of the church is to reform government policy or societal changes.

Too often, Christians are content to fight battles they were never intended to fight instead of fighting sin in their own heart and instead of storming the Gates of Hell with the gospel.

But the Mission of the Church, given by Christ himself, is to make of disciples through the advancement of the gospel.

At Oak Hill, we say it this way: Proclaim Jesus. Equip Servants. Send witnesses. To the Glory of God.

This is the mission given to us by our King. After dying for our sins and rising again, he said this to his apostles:

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18–20, ESV)

Our King has a mission for his church. If you are believer, that means he has a mission for YOU in the context of a local church. We don’t get to choose our own mission.

Are you on his mission?

Are you submitting to his leadership?

Are you worshiping him with his people the way he commanded?

Or are you living out of the corruption of a rebellious heart?

Who do YOU believe gets to determine the pattern for his church?

This week, follow Jesus away from religious corruption.

Let’s pray.