October 23, 2024 • 27 mins
Jesus spoke of many things, but what many people forget is when he spoke on how we are to conduct ourselves as Christians when dealing with the political landscape. Pastor Tim Lindeman speaks on this subject and more in his sermon today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What Jesus was telling them was that, first of all,
don't put me to the test.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
But second of all, he was sharing.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
With them a very interesting point, a truth about what
it looks like to live on this earth as children
of God's Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good morning, and welcome to peace to you from Peace
Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. The earth is the Lord's
and fullness thereof. This is a basic truth to which
Christian believers cling. Even the government has been established by God.
As God's people, we follow God, and part of following
(00:48):
God is living as good Christians in this world. How
do we, as Christians live as Christians in God's kingdom
and as citizens of this country? Today Pastor Tim Lindo
and explores this question. Now here's Pastor Tim.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So the gospel reading the pastor guy just read just
a little bit ago. It puts Us in the city
of Jerusalem and it's Holy Week. Just a couple of
days earlier. Jesus had marched into town on the back
of a donkey, and the people were praising him as
the son of David King Jesus. It was a couple
(01:28):
of days before the passover, and so the city was
filled with people. They were all there to celebrate that
great festival to pass Over, and it was a perfect
time to entangle Jesus. We have a couple of guys,
a couple of parties here that are involved. One was
(01:48):
the Pharisees. These were people who were teachers of the
law and religious leaders. They were also part of the government,
and they didn't much like Jesus. For years now, Jesus
had been confronting them and had been putting them in
their place, and they didn't like Jesus, and so they
practiced what they thought. Okay, now we've got this perfect opportunity.
(02:10):
The crowds are gathered, and they'd been plotting to figure
out some sort of gotcha journalism, you know what I
mean by that, some evidence against Jesus that would discredit
him in front of the crowds. Now, there's an old
saying that says politics makes for strange bedfellows, And what
(02:34):
that means is that sometimes people that are on opposite
ends of the idol, that are always at each other's throat,
when they have a unified cause, they come together, all right,
and they That's exactly what happened with Jesus. We have
the on the one hand, the Pharisees. The Pharisees are
(02:57):
people that were like most Jews of the day, that
were nationalists. They were the people of God. They were
to be slaves to no one, and they detested the
Roman government who had come and taken over their country,
and they wanted the Romans out of here. On the
other side we had the Herodians, and the Herodians were
(03:18):
the ones who were willing to collaborate. If they were
going to have any semblance of power authority, was better
to cooperate and get along with the Roman government.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And so they were on opposite ends of the aisle.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
But on this occasion they come together, the disciples of
the Pharisees, and then the Herodians were there too, and
they wanted to entangle Jesus in his own words, to
ask him a question that would put Jesus at odds,
because if he answered it one way, then the crowds
(03:55):
would run away from him because they would believe he
was against their nation. If he answered it the other way,
then the Herodians would go to the Roman officials and
then perhaps even get him accused of being an insurrectionist
or a rebel, and he would have to leave either way.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
They thought they had him.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
So they came to Jesus, and they started out with
a little bit of flattery, all right. They wanted to
butter them up a little bit. They said something like this.
They said, we know that you are true and that
you speak God's word truthfully. We know that you don't
care about public opinion, and you aren't swayed by appearances.
(04:39):
You know what the difference is, or what soap and
flattery have in common.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
They're both slippery and they both are thirty percent of lie.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
But the irony of it all is is that everything
they spoke was absolutely true. Right, Jesus is true, and
he did and does speak God's word truthfully. Jesus doesn't
care about public opinion. He cares about the truth, and
he is not swayed by appearances. He didn't care that
(05:14):
they were phariseeas and that they were prestigious in that society.
What he cared about was God's word, God's truth, and
that it was truthfully shared. What was false about all
of this is that while they said all those things
with their tongues, their hearts were someplace else. And it
(05:35):
was time to pop the question. So tell Us what
you think, Jesus? Is it lawful us for us, the
US Jews, who should be enslaved to no one? Is
it okay for us to pay taxes to Caesar, this
foreign governor, this foreign ruler who even says he's divine,
(06:00):
he's God, a god?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Is it okay? Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Jesus looks at him and says, oh, you hypocrites, Why
do you try to entangle me with words? Why do
you put me to the test? And then he says,
does anybody here have one of those coins? I'd like
to show you one of those coins. A facsimile of
it should be in there. He says, whose likeness is
(06:38):
on here? Whose inscription is on this coin? No, it
seems like a harmless question, right, It's obvious.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And so they answered Caesar.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And then Jesus looks at them and he says, therefore
give unto Caesar?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What is Caesar's? And under God? What is God's? Now?
Who could say? Gotcha? What Jesus was.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Telling them was that, first of all, don't put me
to the test. But second of all, he was sharing
with them a very interesting point, a truth about what
it looks like to live on this earth as children
of God's Kingdom. He was telling them that we together
(07:30):
as God's people, live in two kingdoms at the same time,
that we have a form of dual citizenship. Now, Martin
Luther and his cohort Philip Melanchton described it this way.
They call it the theology of the two Kingdoms.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That we as.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
God's people, live first and foremost in what he called
they call the right hand Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And I don't know if you have ever known, but.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
We have these flags here in our church. This one
on the right hand side, the right hand Kingdom is
the eternal Kingdom, the spiritual kingdom that we belong to.
Because Jesus suffered and died upon the cross for us
and gave us his grace and the grace of God,
(08:20):
the forgiveness of sins. We are to live in that kingdom.
We are blessed to live in that kingdom. It's a
gift of God that we live in that kingdom. And
through His resurrection we have new life.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We have the.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Promise of Heaven. Our home is Heaven. We are citizens
of Heaven. That's being citizens of the Right Hand Kingdom.
At the same time we live on this earth, and
we have governments and other authorities that preside over us
the left hand kingdom, and this left hand Kingdom is
(08:54):
also a gift from God. It's a kingdom in which
we follow our authorities and our rulers. This kingdom rules
with the law the sword. This kingdom rules with the gospel,
the good news of forgiveness, and the grace of our God.
They are both gifts from God. And you and I,
(09:16):
as people of God, live simultaneously under both kingdoms, within
both kingdoms. So what does it mean to live in
this dual citizenship? Because sometimes there's a tension, right, Sometimes
they don't always function together the same way. Today, what
(09:40):
I'd like to do is just give you a little
bit of a beginning of what it might look like
for us to live under this dual citizenship. And I'd
like to share with you with three words, pay, pray,
and speakek out. Say it with me, Pay, pray, and
(10:05):
speak out. I don't know if you notice, but those
very words were shared in our readings for today. Suzanne
read a passage from Romans chapter thirteen, and Paul reminds
us what it looks like to render under Caesar. What
is Caesar's and to render onto God? What is God's,
(10:29):
he writes, 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. What is reminding
us of is the fact that this government that we
live in, all those authorities that preside over us, whether
(10:51):
it's our federal, our state, our communities, whether it's our
homes where parents are an authority, or whether it beat
those principles and teachers at our schools or our bosses
at work, our employers. Those authorities are put into place
by God.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
They are a gift from God, and.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
We should pay, he says, And he writes, pay what
is due to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed,
revenue to whom revenue is owed.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Respect to whom respect is.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Owed, honor to whom honor is owed. He says, begin
with paying.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You and I sometimes complain when we pay taxes, right,
I mean, there's taxes on our income, taxes on our property,
taxes on our whatever we buy, the sales tax.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Sometimes it feels.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Like they're taxing our taxes, right, and we complain, But
think about the blessings that we have. We have paved streets,
we have parks and open spaces and national forests that
we can enjoy. We have a clean water that comes
right into our homes. We have the bad stuff going
(12:13):
out in the good sewer lines in a safe and
sanitary fashion. We've got military and police officers and firefighters
and paramedics all there to keep us safe. You and I,
because of this right left hand kingdom, because of this
civil kingdom, enjoy all of those wonderful gifts. And it
(12:35):
takes money to offer all of those things to us.
And so it's a blessing that we can pay our
taxes and receive all of those benefits. And then he
goes on and he says, not only pay taxes that
are owed and revenues that are owed, but respect to
whom respect is owed.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
And honor to whom honor is owed.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Folks, sometimes we make fun of our politicians, don't we.
We laugh at them, we make jokes about them, we
complain about them, we kind of generalize and say that
they're all dishonest and.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Speak with a forked tongue.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
But the fact of the matter is those people have
been put in a place by whom, by God, this
authority has been given to us.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
By God.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
It is a gift from God, and our job is
not to make fun of them, but to pay them
the respect and.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
The honor that they're due.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not so naive to
believe that all of them are honest all the time.
I'm not so naive to think that there isn't corruption
and injustice and favoritism in our government present at times.
We'll talk about that a little bit later, But the
(14:00):
fact of the matter is that we should be respecting
and honoring those that are in office, not by virtue
of who they are as human beings, but.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
By virtue of the office that they hold.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Because, to be honest with you, folks, there is never
going to be a perfect president. There's never going to
be the perfect boss, there's never going to be a
perfect parent. And there I say, there's not ever going
to be a perfect pastor.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I'm sorry, guy.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So we pay revenue where revenue is due, respect where
respect is due.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Second of all, we pray. We pray.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Paul goes on in another letter in One Timothy chapter two,
and he says, I urge that supplication, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgiving be made for all people, and then he goes
on and he says for kings and for all who
are on high positions. He wants us to pray for
these people. He wants us to pray. And there's I
(15:06):
believe two reasons why. Number one, to acknowledge that all
of this, the government, the teachers, the bosses, the parents,
the pastors, everyone who has some sort of authority over us,
belongs to God. We've been going through the ABC's of
(15:27):
the Christian faith right And what's number one, it's all his.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
He's in charge.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
He's over those leaders, and so we lift up those
leaders and our government and all that happens to him.
He's in charge, and he chooses to work through imperfect people.
The second purpose is this, Paul goes on, that we
may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
In every way.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
This is good and it is pleasing in the sight
of God, our savior, who desires all people to be
saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. What
Paul is helping us to understand is this that when
this left hand kingdom does its work well, when it
uses the laws of the land and the sword that
(16:22):
we place into its hand, and they do that well,
you and I are able to live peacefully, we're able
to live together in some sort of unity. And then
we as people who are also kingdom of our citizens
of the right hand Kingdom, are able to do the
(16:43):
things that Jesus wanted us to do, to go and
make disciples of all nations, to live out our faith,
to share the love of God with the other people,
and do what we do as church, and that is
to offer the forgiveness of sins. That our God is
one for us.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
And so we pay, we pray, and we speak out.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Folks, we are so blessed to live in this country.
We are so richly blessed. The first three words of
our constitution are we the people. That's foundational, that is
laying the foundation of a truth that our government is
for the people. But it's not only for the people.
(17:32):
There's a responsibility that comes with that. It's also by
the people. And it's important for us to speak out
and our government, our form of government, gives us that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I have heard some alarming.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Statistics not over the last couple of weeks. The numbers
vary from fifteen million to thirty million, to even ninety
million Christians who are choosing not to vote this election season.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
That bothers me. Because of citizens of this.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right hand kingdom, as children of God, we are also
given the responsibility to be a part of the left
hand Kingdom and to live our life as citizens of that.
And so if you've not registered for to vote, let
me make it easy for you.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Scan that it works. I tried it.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
You can register to vote, and if you are registered
to vote, cast your ballots.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Be an informed voter. Don't listen to the ads that
you hear on the television. They're not true if they're
not unbiased.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Let me put it that way. Do your research. Be informed.
Be informed of two things. First of all, be informed
of what's God's will is and how he wants us
to conduct our life.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And what the source of life is.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Who's the author of life, who's the ruler of this world,
who's the savior? Whose will it is that we follow.
Be informed of what God's word says. That's number one.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Number two.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Be informed of how these people vote, what their record is,
what they stand for, and vote according to your conscience
based upon God's word. And second of all, you could
speak out these people that are elected in the office
are elected.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
To be your representatives, yours and mind.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
How can they represent us if they don't know what
the will of the people is? How can they represent
you if they don't know what you think. We have
the opportunities to go to town hall meetians, to forums
to speak out. We could write letters and emails and
texts to our leaders.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
They have all of that stuff on the internet.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You can find it, you can write to them. And
and I'm not talking about name calling. I'm not talking
about being rude. I'm talking about doing this with respect,
outlining your desires and why you have those desires as
God's people.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And so.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
In the words of the scripture readings that we've read today,
there are three ways that we can start living out
our responsibility in this dual citizenship.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
As children of God living in the kingdom of this world?
What are they pay? Pray and speak out?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And I think that's what Jesus was talking about when
he says render under Caesar? What is renders or what
is Caesar's render unto God? What is his amen?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Good morning, pastor Tim, good morning, Thank you for that message.
And you know this time of year is so important,
especially with the election coming up. But you spoke right
from the very beginning about the left and right hand kingdom.
Can you just just briefly explain that again for our folks.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
This was Martin Luther's way of describing the dual citizenship
that we have as Christians, first of all, by faith
in Jesus Christ, as children of God. We live as
God's people in his kingdom. And that kingdom is eternal,
our heaven. Heaven is our home. So that's that's our
(22:04):
right hand kingdom. The left hand kingdom, according to Martin Luther.
His terminology was, is the kingdom that we live on
the as we live under the governments that we that
we live under, whether that's our community or our state,
or our nation, that that government or any other kind
of authority, under our parents, under our bosses and employers,
(22:28):
under our teachers, or principles at the school. You know,
we live simultaneously as God's people in his kingdom and
God's people in the kingdoms of this world.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Oh very good, very well, I think the point that
brings that home. It did for me anyway.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
As your illustration of the coin, and Jesus said, you
know whose image is on that coin, and he makes
it very clear that you know, give under Caesar what
is Caesar's given to God? What is God's And it
really displays that, I think that left and right hand kingdom,
because yeah, we want to honor that portion of our government,
(23:05):
and we want to pay our taxes, and we want
to do those things that we're supposed to do. Give
unto Caesar, but then again give under God what is.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
God's right exactly, And that's the point that Jesus is
pointing out that we it's not either or, it's a
both and.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Very good.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
And then the three things that you said that we
must do because the authority is led by the sword,
but we must pay and pray and speak out and
pay our taxes, respect our leaders, pray, remember that it
really is all his and we've talked about that quite
a bit in the last weeks. And then speak out
(23:46):
because we have a form of government that we can
do that, we can speak out, we can give our
opinion of what's going on, and we're not going to
be held responsible to that right.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
We are doing God's work. When we pay our taxes,
we are supporting the government that he established. When we
pay respect to our leaders, we're acknowledging that those leaders
have been placed in their office by God, and so
by honoring our government and honoring our leaders, we're honoring God.
(24:19):
So we pay the respect that's due, We pay the
taxes and revenue that's due. Praying, We pray acknowledging that
they all belong to God, that is all his. He
is the master designer of this world, and he's just
the one who established our government. And we want them
to do their job well because when they do their
job well, then we're able to do our right hand
(24:41):
kingdom work of sharing Jesus with others. We can do
that well in peace. And then finally we want to
speak out. We speak out by voting and being informed
voters first of all, and being informed of what God's
will is in his word, and then voting accordingly. And
then we have that opportunity in this to speak out
to our leaders, have to share them the will of
(25:03):
the people. That's good citizenship.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
And what we're saying overall is vote be a part
of this. You have this ability, we're blessed to have
that in this country.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Vote.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Get out there, don't hold back, get out there, study,
study the candidates, vote, vote, It's so important.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
It's all a gift from God.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Very good well, thank you Pastor Tim in God's blessings
on your.
Speaker 6 (25:26):
Week you too, Thank you, thank you for joining us
for Peace to you from Peast Church in our bat To, Colorado.
If you have no church home, we would be delighted
for you to join us on any Sunday. Our addrints
is five six seventy five Field Street in our Battle, Colorado.
(25:50):
Our services are at eight and ten thirty am. Bible
classes for all ages are at nine to fifteen am.
You can easily access our sermons online at www dot p,
s Lucret dot M, or at Pasarbata at YouTube dot com.
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(26:12):
If you would like to sponsor a broadcast in the future,
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(26:33):
time by going to our YouTube channel peaceharbatatube dot com.
Now from the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupmchurch and Arbada,
I am Reuben Holiday and may the peace of our
Lord be with you today and always
What Jesus was telling them was that, first of all,
don't put me to the test.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
But second of all, he was sharing.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
With them a very interesting point, a truth about what
it looks like to live on this earth as children
of God's Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good morning, and welcome to peace to you from Peace
Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. The earth is the Lord's
and fullness thereof. This is a basic truth to which
Christian believers cling. Even the government has been established by God.
As God's people, we follow God, and part of following
(00:48):
God is living as good Christians in this world. How
do we, as Christians live as Christians in God's kingdom
and as citizens of this country? Today Pastor Tim Lindo
and explores this question. Now here's Pastor Tim.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So the gospel reading the pastor guy just read just
a little bit ago. It puts Us in the city
of Jerusalem and it's Holy Week. Just a couple of
days earlier. Jesus had marched into town on the back
of a donkey, and the people were praising him as
the son of David King Jesus. It was a couple
(01:28):
of days before the passover, and so the city was
filled with people. They were all there to celebrate that
great festival to pass Over, and it was a perfect
time to entangle Jesus. We have a couple of guys,
a couple of parties here that are involved. One was
(01:48):
the Pharisees. These were people who were teachers of the
law and religious leaders. They were also part of the government,
and they didn't much like Jesus. For years now, Jesus
had been confronting them and had been putting them in
their place, and they didn't like Jesus, and so they
practiced what they thought. Okay, now we've got this perfect opportunity.
(02:10):
The crowds are gathered, and they'd been plotting to figure
out some sort of gotcha journalism, you know what I
mean by that, some evidence against Jesus that would discredit
him in front of the crowds. Now, there's an old
saying that says politics makes for strange bedfellows, And what
(02:34):
that means is that sometimes people that are on opposite
ends of the idol, that are always at each other's throat,
when they have a unified cause, they come together, all right,
and they That's exactly what happened with Jesus. We have
the on the one hand, the Pharisees. The Pharisees are
(02:57):
people that were like most Jews of the day, that
were nationalists. They were the people of God. They were
to be slaves to no one, and they detested the
Roman government who had come and taken over their country,
and they wanted the Romans out of here. On the
other side we had the Herodians, and the Herodians were
(03:18):
the ones who were willing to collaborate. If they were
going to have any semblance of power authority, was better
to cooperate and get along with the Roman government.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And so they were on opposite ends of the aisle.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
But on this occasion they come together, the disciples of
the Pharisees, and then the Herodians were there too, and
they wanted to entangle Jesus in his own words, to
ask him a question that would put Jesus at odds,
because if he answered it one way, then the crowds
(03:55):
would run away from him because they would believe he
was against their nation. If he answered it the other way,
then the Herodians would go to the Roman officials and
then perhaps even get him accused of being an insurrectionist
or a rebel, and he would have to leave either way.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
They thought they had him.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
So they came to Jesus, and they started out with
a little bit of flattery, all right. They wanted to
butter them up a little bit. They said something like this.
They said, we know that you are true and that
you speak God's word truthfully. We know that you don't
care about public opinion, and you aren't swayed by appearances.
(04:39):
You know what the difference is, or what soap and
flattery have in common.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
They're both slippery and they both are thirty percent of lie.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
But the irony of it all is is that everything
they spoke was absolutely true. Right, Jesus is true, and
he did and does speak God's word truthfully. Jesus doesn't
care about public opinion. He cares about the truth, and
he is not swayed by appearances. He didn't care that
(05:14):
they were phariseeas and that they were prestigious in that society.
What he cared about was God's word, God's truth, and
that it was truthfully shared. What was false about all
of this is that while they said all those things
with their tongues, their hearts were someplace else. And it
(05:35):
was time to pop the question. So tell Us what
you think, Jesus? Is it lawful us for us, the
US Jews, who should be enslaved to no one? Is
it okay for us to pay taxes to Caesar, this
foreign governor, this foreign ruler who even says he's divine,
(06:00):
he's God, a god?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Is it okay? Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Jesus looks at him and says, oh, you hypocrites, Why
do you try to entangle me with words? Why do
you put me to the test? And then he says,
does anybody here have one of those coins? I'd like
to show you one of those coins. A facsimile of
it should be in there. He says, whose likeness is
(06:38):
on here? Whose inscription is on this coin? No, it
seems like a harmless question, right, It's obvious.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And so they answered Caesar.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And then Jesus looks at them and he says, therefore
give unto Caesar?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What is Caesar's? And under God? What is God's? Now?
Who could say? Gotcha? What Jesus was.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Telling them was that, first of all, don't put me
to the test. But second of all, he was sharing
with them a very interesting point, a truth about what
it looks like to live on this earth as children
of God's Kingdom. He was telling them that we together
(07:30):
as God's people, live in two kingdoms at the same time,
that we have a form of dual citizenship. Now, Martin
Luther and his cohort Philip Melanchton described it this way.
They call it the theology of the two Kingdoms.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That we as.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
God's people, live first and foremost in what he called
they call the right hand Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And I don't know if you have ever known, but.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
We have these flags here in our church. This one
on the right hand side, the right hand Kingdom is
the eternal Kingdom, the spiritual kingdom that we belong to.
Because Jesus suffered and died upon the cross for us
and gave us his grace and the grace of God,
(08:20):
the forgiveness of sins. We are to live in that kingdom.
We are blessed to live in that kingdom. It's a
gift of God that we live in that kingdom. And
through His resurrection we have new life.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We have the.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Promise of Heaven. Our home is Heaven. We are citizens
of Heaven. That's being citizens of the Right Hand Kingdom.
At the same time we live on this earth, and
we have governments and other authorities that preside over us
the left hand kingdom, and this left hand Kingdom is
(08:54):
also a gift from God. It's a kingdom in which
we follow our authorities and our rulers. This kingdom rules
with the law the sword. This kingdom rules with the gospel,
the good news of forgiveness, and the grace of our God.
They are both gifts from God. And you and I,
(09:16):
as people of God, live simultaneously under both kingdoms, within
both kingdoms. So what does it mean to live in
this dual citizenship? Because sometimes there's a tension, right, Sometimes
they don't always function together the same way. Today, what
(09:40):
I'd like to do is just give you a little
bit of a beginning of what it might look like
for us to live under this dual citizenship. And I'd
like to share with you with three words, pay, pray,
and speakek out. Say it with me, Pay, pray, and
(10:05):
speak out. I don't know if you notice, but those
very words were shared in our readings for today. Suzanne
read a passage from Romans chapter thirteen, and Paul reminds
us what it looks like to render under Caesar. What
is Caesar's and to render onto God? What is God's,
(10:29):
he writes, 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. What is reminding
us of is the fact that this government that we
live in, all those authorities that preside over us, whether
(10:51):
it's our federal, our state, our communities, whether it's our
homes where parents are an authority, or whether it beat
those principles and teachers at our schools or our bosses
at work, our employers. Those authorities are put into place
by God.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
They are a gift from God, and.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
We should pay, he says, And he writes, pay what
is due to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed,
revenue to whom revenue is owed.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Respect to whom respect is.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Owed, honor to whom honor is owed. He says, begin
with paying.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You and I sometimes complain when we pay taxes, right,
I mean, there's taxes on our income, taxes on our property,
taxes on our whatever we buy, the sales tax.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Sometimes it feels.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Like they're taxing our taxes, right, and we complain, But
think about the blessings that we have. We have paved streets,
we have parks and open spaces and national forests that
we can enjoy. We have a clean water that comes
right into our homes. We have the bad stuff going
(12:13):
out in the good sewer lines in a safe and
sanitary fashion. We've got military and police officers and firefighters
and paramedics all there to keep us safe. You and I,
because of this right left hand kingdom, because of this
civil kingdom, enjoy all of those wonderful gifts. And it
(12:35):
takes money to offer all of those things to us.
And so it's a blessing that we can pay our
taxes and receive all of those benefits. And then he
goes on and he says, not only pay taxes that
are owed and revenues that are owed, but respect to
whom respect is owed.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
And honor to whom honor is owed.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Folks, sometimes we make fun of our politicians, don't we.
We laugh at them, we make jokes about them, we
complain about them, we kind of generalize and say that
they're all dishonest and.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Speak with a forked tongue.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
But the fact of the matter is those people have
been put in a place by whom, by God, this
authority has been given to us.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
By God.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
It is a gift from God, and our job is
not to make fun of them, but to pay them
the respect and.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
The honor that they're due.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not so naive to
believe that all of them are honest all the time.
I'm not so naive to think that there isn't corruption
and injustice and favoritism in our government present at times.
We'll talk about that a little bit later, But the
(14:00):
fact of the matter is that we should be respecting
and honoring those that are in office, not by virtue
of who they are as human beings, but.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
By virtue of the office that they hold.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Because, to be honest with you, folks, there is never
going to be a perfect president. There's never going to
be the perfect boss, there's never going to be a
perfect parent. And there I say, there's not ever going
to be a perfect pastor.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I'm sorry, guy.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So we pay revenue where revenue is due, respect where
respect is due.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Second of all, we pray. We pray.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Paul goes on in another letter in One Timothy chapter two,
and he says, I urge that supplication, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgiving be made for all people, and then he goes
on and he says for kings and for all who
are on high positions. He wants us to pray for
these people. He wants us to pray. And there's I
(15:06):
believe two reasons why. Number one, to acknowledge that all
of this, the government, the teachers, the bosses, the parents,
the pastors, everyone who has some sort of authority over us,
belongs to God. We've been going through the ABC's of
(15:27):
the Christian faith right And what's number one, it's all his.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
He's in charge.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
He's over those leaders, and so we lift up those
leaders and our government and all that happens to him.
He's in charge, and he chooses to work through imperfect people.
The second purpose is this, Paul goes on, that we
may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
In every way.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
This is good and it is pleasing in the sight
of God, our savior, who desires all people to be
saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. What
Paul is helping us to understand is this that when
this left hand kingdom does its work well, when it
uses the laws of the land and the sword that
(16:22):
we place into its hand, and they do that well,
you and I are able to live peacefully, we're able
to live together in some sort of unity. And then
we as people who are also kingdom of our citizens
of the right hand Kingdom, are able to do the
(16:43):
things that Jesus wanted us to do, to go and
make disciples of all nations, to live out our faith,
to share the love of God with the other people,
and do what we do as church, and that is
to offer the forgiveness of sins. That our God is
one for us.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
And so we pay, we pray, and we speak out.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Folks, we are so blessed to live in this country.
We are so richly blessed. The first three words of
our constitution are we the people. That's foundational, that is
laying the foundation of a truth that our government is
for the people. But it's not only for the people.
(17:32):
There's a responsibility that comes with that. It's also by
the people. And it's important for us to speak out
and our government, our form of government, gives us that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I have heard some alarming.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Statistics not over the last couple of weeks. The numbers
vary from fifteen million to thirty million, to even ninety
million Christians who are choosing not to vote this election season.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
That bothers me. Because of citizens of this.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right hand kingdom, as children of God, we are also
given the responsibility to be a part of the left
hand Kingdom and to live our life as citizens of that.
And so if you've not registered for to vote, let
me make it easy for you.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Scan that it works. I tried it.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
You can register to vote, and if you are registered
to vote, cast your ballots.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Be an informed voter. Don't listen to the ads that
you hear on the television. They're not true if they're
not unbiased.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Let me put it that way. Do your research. Be informed.
Be informed of two things. First of all, be informed
of what's God's will is and how he wants us
to conduct our life.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And what the source of life is.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Who's the author of life, who's the ruler of this world,
who's the savior? Whose will it is that we follow.
Be informed of what God's word says. That's number one.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Number two.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Be informed of how these people vote, what their record is,
what they stand for, and vote according to your conscience
based upon God's word. And second of all, you could
speak out these people that are elected in the office
are elected.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
To be your representatives, yours and mind.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
How can they represent us if they don't know what
the will of the people is? How can they represent
you if they don't know what you think. We have
the opportunities to go to town hall meetians, to forums
to speak out. We could write letters and emails and
texts to our leaders.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
They have all of that stuff on the internet.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You can find it, you can write to them. And
and I'm not talking about name calling. I'm not talking
about being rude. I'm talking about doing this with respect,
outlining your desires and why you have those desires as
God's people.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And so.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
In the words of the scripture readings that we've read today,
there are three ways that we can start living out
our responsibility in this dual citizenship.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
As children of God living in the kingdom of this world?
What are they pay? Pray and speak out?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And I think that's what Jesus was talking about when
he says render under Caesar? What is renders or what
is Caesar's render unto God? What is his amen?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Good morning, pastor Tim, good morning, Thank you for that message.
And you know this time of year is so important,
especially with the election coming up. But you spoke right
from the very beginning about the left and right hand kingdom.
Can you just just briefly explain that again for our folks.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
This was Martin Luther's way of describing the dual citizenship
that we have as Christians, first of all, by faith
in Jesus Christ, as children of God. We live as
God's people in his kingdom. And that kingdom is eternal,
our heaven. Heaven is our home. So that's that's our
(22:04):
right hand kingdom. The left hand kingdom, according to Martin Luther.
His terminology was, is the kingdom that we live on
the as we live under the governments that we that
we live under, whether that's our community or our state,
or our nation, that that government or any other kind
of authority, under our parents, under our bosses and employers,
(22:28):
under our teachers, or principles at the school. You know,
we live simultaneously as God's people in his kingdom and
God's people in the kingdoms of this world.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Oh very good, very well, I think the point that
brings that home. It did for me anyway.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
As your illustration of the coin, and Jesus said, you
know whose image is on that coin, and he makes
it very clear that you know, give under Caesar what
is Caesar's given to God? What is God's And it
really displays that, I think that left and right hand kingdom,
because yeah, we want to honor that portion of our government,
(23:05):
and we want to pay our taxes, and we want
to do those things that we're supposed to do. Give
unto Caesar, but then again give under God what is.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
God's right exactly, And that's the point that Jesus is
pointing out that we it's not either or, it's a
both and.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Very good.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
And then the three things that you said that we
must do because the authority is led by the sword,
but we must pay and pray and speak out and
pay our taxes, respect our leaders, pray, remember that it
really is all his and we've talked about that quite
a bit in the last weeks. And then speak out
(23:46):
because we have a form of government that we can
do that, we can speak out, we can give our
opinion of what's going on, and we're not going to
be held responsible to that right.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
We are doing God's work. When we pay our taxes,
we are supporting the government that he established. When we
pay respect to our leaders, we're acknowledging that those leaders
have been placed in their office by God, and so
by honoring our government and honoring our leaders, we're honoring God.
(24:19):
So we pay the respect that's due, We pay the
taxes and revenue that's due. Praying, We pray acknowledging that
they all belong to God, that is all his. He
is the master designer of this world, and he's just
the one who established our government. And we want them
to do their job well because when they do their
job well, then we're able to do our right hand
(24:41):
kingdom work of sharing Jesus with others. We can do
that well in peace. And then finally we want to
speak out. We speak out by voting and being informed
voters first of all, and being informed of what God's
will is in his word, and then voting accordingly. And
then we have that opportunity in this to speak out
to our leaders, have to share them the will of
(25:03):
the people. That's good citizenship.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
And what we're saying overall is vote be a part
of this. You have this ability, we're blessed to have
that in this country.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Vote.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Get out there, don't hold back, get out there, study,
study the candidates, vote, vote, It's so important.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
It's all a gift from God.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Very good well, thank you Pastor Tim in God's blessings
on your.
Speaker 6 (25:26):
Week you too, Thank you, thank you for joining us
for Peace to you from Peast Church in our bat To, Colorado.
If you have no church home, we would be delighted
for you to join us on any Sunday. Our addrints
is five six seventy five Field Street in our Battle, Colorado.
(25:50):
Our services are at eight and ten thirty am. Bible
classes for all ages are at nine to fifteen am.
You can easily access our sermons online at www dot p,
s Lucret dot M, or at Pasarbata at YouTube dot com.
Peace to You in Part is a listener supported broadcast.
(26:12):
If you would like to sponsor a broadcast in the future,
call us at three O three four two four four
four five four. If you would like a copy of
today's broadcast and no charge to you, contact us at
the same number three oh three four two four four
four five four. You can access our sermons at any
(26:33):
time by going to our YouTube channel peaceharbatatube dot com.
Now from the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupmchurch and Arbada,
I am Reuben Holiday and may the peace of our
Lord be with you today and always
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