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Christian Citizenship 1 Timothy 2:1-4 |
August 22, 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum |
Many of you know that last week was a momentous week in the Marcum household as we left our daughter in Southern California to begin her collegiate career at Vanguard University. While I will miss my daughter greatly, I will not miss the frenetic pace of the days leading up to her departure as we raced around trying to accomplish all of the tasks essential to a smooth transition.
One of the most nerve-racking of those tasks was the selection of a new cell phone plan best suited to our families' new dynamic. After several hours of careful analysis I finally made my decision. The salesman totaled up the price and as I was reaching for my credit card to pay for our new phone package I suddenly remembered the old adage, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," so I asked him if that was truly the very best deal he could offer. I wondered if there might not be some special discount available if he really put his mind to it.
He thought for a few moments and then asked me, "What kind of work do you do?" I said, "I'm the pastor of a church here in town." He said, "No, that's no good." Then he asked, "What about your wife?" I said, "She works for the school district." His face instantly lit up with a big smile and he said, "Awesome. I can give you a 25% discount since your wife's a teacher."
I said, "Wow, that's great." Then I said, "You know, it's interesting that you couldn't offer me the same deal as a pastor since my wife and I both work for non-profit agencies." Suddenly he got very serious and he said, "Well, we have to very careful about that whole separation of church and state thing."
Now, instantaneously I had about a dozen great responses run through my head. Fortunately, before using any of them I remembered another old adage-"No one ever got in trouble for something they didn't say." So, I bit my tongue and accepted my teacher's discount in silence. But in the back of my mind I was thinking, "There sure is an awful lot of confusion out there about the concept of the separation of church and state."
I freely confess that I'm no expert on the matter, but I'm fairly certain that it doesn't apply to cell phones. Even so, I was not completely surprised by the salesman's comment, because experience has taught me that the waters tend to get very murky the moment we start talking about our Christian faith and our citizenship in the same discussion.
On the one hand, there are those who think that our Christian faith and our role as good citizens should be viewed as parallel tracks that never cross for any reason. For these folk, their faith and their citizenship exist as completely unrelated, independent entities.
On the other hand, there are those whose faith and citizenship are so thoroughly intertwined that it is hard to distinguish the two.
And, my sense is that the majority of Christians would probably fall somewhere in between those extremes. I suppose the key question is, which view is correct and why?
Well, with our national election now less than 3 months away I've been thinking that it might be wise for us to take a brief break from our Romans series to consider our mandate as Christian citizens. So, this week and the next we're going to take a look at that place where our responsibilities as Christians intersects with our responsibilities as citizens.
And I will tell you up front that my personal conviction is that the Christian community not only has the right but also has the responsibility to be fully engaged in all aspects of good citizenship. Our society is mightily and regularly influenced by a wide variety of forces representing every conceivable special interest. I believe that it is both appropriate and imperative for Christians to fulfill Jesus mandate to be "salt and light" in society by representing God's interests.
Now, obviously we need to approach this challenge with great wisdom. And the best way to stay on the path of wisdom is to make sure that our actions are always grounded in God's word. And one of the things that God's word tells us to do as good Christian citizens is to pray specifically for people who are in positions of authority.
In 1 Timothy 2:1-4 we read the following:
"I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
OUR MANDATE: PRAY FOR THOSE IN AUTHORITY
Folks, could the mandate be any clearer? Did you sense any ambiguity in the action that Paul is encouraging? Did you catch the intensity of Paul's instruction? "I URGE you…FIRST…to PRAY for those in authority."
--Are you concerned about what's happening in your nation? PRAY for those in authority.
--Are you distressed by what you see happening to your culture? PRAY for those in authority.
Should Christians be involved in the political process? Absolutely! And the first and most important act of involvement is to pray for those in positions of authority. Pray specifically. Pray regularly. And pray inclusively. Notice that we are urged to pray not only for the king but also for ALL that are in authority.
Folks, the single most important action that we can take to exert our Christian influence and invite God's blessing on our nation is to PRAY. In fact, I would go so far as to say that our influence on our culture will rise or fall on the quality and consistency of our prayers.
To grasp the full weight of this prayer mandate it's important for us to understand something of the context in which it was written. Paul is writing this letter sometime after being released from his first period of imprisonment for his faith. And the emperor at this time is a fellow named, Nero. An emperor who was in no danger whatsoever of being considered a friend of the Christian faith. In fact, Nero would ultimately administer Paul's execution.
And yet Paul's word to us is to pray for those in authority. Which must surely mean that one of the lessons to learn here is that our prayer mandate does not depend on the character of our leaders. Why?
Well, to begin with, it's just possible that by praying for your leaders…no matter how hostile they may be to your faith…they may have a change of heart and as Paul says here in verse 4, "come to a knowledge of the truth." In other words, they may get saved.
But, folks, there's another very important reason to pray for our leaders even if we're not particularly happy with them. And that is that our God is a sovereign God with a well-documented track record of using rulers to accomplish His purposes even when those rulers had not a clue that God was using them in that way. The Old Testament is filled with such examples.
Proverbs 21:1 says, "The kings heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases."
Proverbs 19:21 says, "Many are the plans in a man's heart…(and that includes the heart of the king)…but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
So, the point is that we are called to pray for our leaders...whether we're happy with them or not.
THE OBJECT OF OUR PRAYERS
Next, I want you to notice that Paul does more than simply call us to prayer. He also defines for us the object of our prayer. He's not encouraging a generic, "Lord, bless our leaders" kind of prayer. He gives us a very clear goal towards which we should be praying. Beginning in verse 2 he urges us to pray to this end for all those in authority, "…that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
Let me call your attention to 2 elements within these verses that are key to understanding the focus of our prayer mandate.
FIRST he says, pray that we may live "peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." The key to understanding Paul's point here is that each of these terms describes behaviors and attitudes that can be observed by others. Paul is describing an orderly, Christian life that reflects the character and values of God. It's a God-centered life that shows itself to the non-believing world in such a way that it is both believable and attractive.
And the second emphasis in our prayer mandate tells us why this peaceful, quiet life of godliness and holiness is so important-and that is that it gives a good witness to non-believers and God wants everyone to be saved.
Now, folks, when you put all of those elements together the result is a very specific and a very simple prayer mandate and it is this: We are to pray that our leaders will govern in such a way that we will be free to do two things:
First, that we will be free to live the godly and holy lives to which God has called us; and
Second, that we will be free to share the message of salvation with the people to whom God has sent us.
That is our prayer mandate. Notice that we're NOT praying that Christianity will become the official religion of our nation. And notice that we're NOT praying that Christianity will be accorded special privileges not available to people of other faith traditions. We're NOT praying that our government to get involved in our faith. We're simply praying that our leaders to govern in such a way that we will be allowed to freely practice our faith. That we can worship our God and live our faith free of needless government intrusion.
We've enjoyed religious freedom so long in our country that it may be hard for some to imagine that this could ever be an issue for us. In fact, it was this very issue that was at the core of the incredible struggle we had about 4 years ago when we sought permission from the city of Petaluma to build the pre-school building that now stands just beyond those windows. After submitting the necessary documents to the city we were told by the Planning Commission that they would allow us to build the new pre-school building on the following condition-that we would agree to completely vacate the entire church campus by 7:00 p.m. each night except Friday, when we could stay until 9:00 p.m.
Somewhat dismayed by their proposal, we told the Planning Commission that we had existing ministries that extend beyond 7:00 p.m. virtually every night of the week. We also told them that if we rescheduled those ministries to conclude by 7:00 p.m. it would be impossible for most people to attend, since most people work. When the Planning Commission refused to lift their proposed condition we told them that we thought the restriction they were seeking to impose upon us represented an inappropriate intrusion of city government into the free exercise of our religion.
Now, understand that we weren't asking them to exempt us from the rules and regulations that apply to everyone else in our community. We weren't asking for any kind of special treatment or favored status. Our concern was about the needless intrusion of our city government in the form of a restriction that they were seeking to apply to us that was not being applied to anyone else in the city.
And that's where we focused our prayers. We didn't ask God to smite the commissioners. We didn't ask God too inflict them with painful boils or terrible rashes. (Although the thought may have flitted through my mind in a moment of weakness.) In fact, we were very specific in asking God to move our leaders to remove the needless restrictions that would have greatly impeded our ability to minister. And God gave us an incredible victory. A victory that has left a profound and positive impression on our community.
The story of our months long battle with the city was covered by a variety of media organizations all over the country and I was interviewed several times and repeatedly asked to identify the key to our victory. While I believe there were a number of significant factors that contributed to our victory I am convinced that the primary factor was prayer. God does amazing things when His people pray. And there was a whole bunch of praying going on throughout that process.
Shortly after winning our victory with the city, I attended a seminar in Florida that offered workshops on a wide variety of ways for Christians to get involved as people of influence in their communities. One afternoon, during a break between workshops, I stood up to relieve the stress in my back and the woman next to me introduced herself. I told her who I was and suddenly a look of shock ran across her face and she said, "Oh! You're him! Can I give you a hug?" I said, "Uh, sure." And suddenly she locks me in a bear hug. As I don't usually have this effect on women I'm frantically trying to figure out what's going on when she says, "We saw a press release about your struggles with your city and my prayer group prayed for you through the whole process. We were so excited to hear of the victory that God finally gave you. It's such an honor to meet you."
Folks, I flew 3000 miles to meet a woman whose prayer group had been lifting our concerns to our Heavenly Father. Was that an accident? I don't think so. I think that was God reminding me that this wasn't my victory…it was His. God does amazing things when His people pray.
In Matthew 18 Jesus says, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
James 4 says, "You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…"
James 5 says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
1 Timothy 2 says, "Pray for all those in authority."
2 Chronicles 7 says, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then Will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
We are blessed to live in a great country. Perfect, no. But undeniably great. And undeniably blessed by God.
In less than 3 months we will be electing new officials to govern us. New officials who will exert great influence over our country through the power of their leadership.
As Christians it is our responsibility to be good stewards of the blessing that God has given us in our nation. It's important for us to remember that our stewardship begins with prayer.
© Copyright 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum