"Restless" Jesus & Politics

Obeying authorities and politics in general can make you “Restless”
Because of that there are two main responses that people take.
1. Get real involved in politics and the issues almost to the point of being consumed.

If you are too into politics, it can become an idol
A church or a Christian should not be defined by their political party, our definition comes from Christ.

2. Insulate yourself and not care about political issues that affect the world we live in.

Some Christians don’t bother and have an attitude of complacency. Complacency paved the way for things like the Holocaust. We don’t care so we let evil men rule, then we start to care when it affects us or our wallets or us directly

What should be the Christians response? Lets look at what Solomon says.

Verse 2 As Christians we need to do right before the Lord, that means we are a good citizen and abide by the laws.

Verses 3 Respect- This for Christians is important, we can disagree with the political powers that be... in a respectful and non demeaning way.

Verses 4-7 When you are dealing with authority keep in line with what the king (law givers) want and things will be fine.

But there is a time in which a person needs to speak out and that person needs to use the wisdom from God to judge when that time is.

Even the king needs advisors and accountability. People can’t lead unless they can take leadership. Sometimes the leaders need a reality check.

Daniel is the best biblical example of that, he chose to obey God and not the King when the kings decree went against the Lord.

Daniel did not start a revolt or a campaign, he just continued to do the work of the Lord and be a testimony. And it worked, the king glorified God and the wicked men got their justice.

It is hard for us to understand this story because we are American Christians and that is a great privilege but also a challenge. We were born into a society with a sense of entitlement, my opinion matters and is very important and should be heard, we have rights.

With these things being said and understood what is the role of a Christian in politics.

A Christians politics should be…

Vrs 8 Death is the real enemy that the Christian must fight. We realize that we can’t fight the fact that it will happen but we can share with others Who has conquered death.

1. Fight Death- the way we do that is tell people how to not experience the second death
2. Do Good - Verse 8b wickedness is no way of deliverance

Being politically consumed may cause Christians

1. Ignore death…because they are trying to create a heaven on earth, a world wide Kum by Ya
Political liberalism equated with spiritual liberalism Total Truth p 276
False sense of peace on earth
Richard Niebuhr author of the book Christ and Culture “The Christ of Culture” Christianity should adapt to what ever way culture is going.

2. Fight sin… We take the salt and light concept to a level in which we think we have moral control over this world and we can change everything.
Niebuhr “Christ against culture”
Causes people to be judgmental, trying to make people live by Biblical truth when they do not trust Christ.

What we need to ask when this happens is…
Did you ever read your Bible? It will get worse before it gets better.

Look at the life of Jesus…
Matt 22:15-20 In this account if Jesus said it was right to pay taxes all the tax burdened people would not want to follow, the Jews would accuse Him of loyalty to Rome rather then God. If He said it was wrong they would have accused Him of insurrection (revolt). This question was a political trap to see where Jesus’ loyalty fell.

Here is the Master’s answer Verses 20. Don’t get caught up in politics

1. Do Good – be a good citizen
2. Fight death – serve God

He spread good news about the Kingdom and did good to people. Funny thing is He challenged the religious, the politicians the corrupt leaders.

When we “Do Good” and “fight death” we accomplish what calls “Christ the transformer of culture” this means we start to redeem the culture and community we live in.

Many times people think that we redeem culture by fighting for moral values and against sin, but look at how Jesus redeemed us…love, sacrifice, mercy, forgiveness, grace and pursuit of us. GOSPEL

The result… if we don’t follow Jesus’ example and are more involved in political causes we become frustrated and restless

Verse 9 If you are in a position of power and you hurt others, you will eventually hurt yourself. “Trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead” MWY Proverbs 28:9-11

Unfortunately many people aspire to be corrupt. “now I can get away with this”

If God puts you in a power position, accept it and do good with it and fight against death.

Verses 10-13
1. Vrs 10 We get discouraged in doing good, because are good is for a cause rather then Christ.
2. Vrs 11 We give in to the temptation of doing wrong, because corrupt people keep getting their way.
3. Vrs 12-13 We loose focus of what our purpose is as a Christian living in this society.

To Fight death and Do Good