The King
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · November 26, 2023 · The God I Want series
Jeremy MacDonald looks at 1 Peter 2 and the Christmas story to ask what it means that Jesus is King while earthly authorities remain. Christians respect leaders, fear God alone, and answer cultural tension with love, welcome and invitations to hope.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The The God I Want series
Topics: Mission & Outreach, Discipleship, Christmas
Transcript
[0:49] Well, Christmas is a little bit different as an adult than when you were a kid. And the transition was more difficult for some of us than others. But I think we can all recall when it happened. For me, it came when I came back from university and I actually got a job working here as the youth pastor here at this church. Absolutely incredible. My family was in town. I got to celebrate Christmas with the people that I loved and knew well, and of course, in most families, and maybe this is your tradition as well, we would create Christmas lists. And I remember coming back and realizing that the shift had kind of started happening in university. And then when I came back as I was making my lists, I made sure that my lists were now no longer the things that I wanted, but the things that I needed.
[1:35] Yeah. And that's the change, right? But it's a hard transition. And it was a hard transition for me as a young 20-something-year-old guy, because although my lists were all of the socks and the shirts and the books, I still had this secret hope when I got to Christmas morning that somebody threw that out the window and got me like an Xbox, you know what I mean? And it was an Xbox 360. And I remember it was excellent. It was the one, and nobody had really, oh, you know what I maybe want is a different microphone. 'Cause that sounds really funny. If somebody wants to throw me one or grab me one, can I take this one? Would that be better? Excellent. Only because I would love for people to hear these things.
[2:21] Okay? So, the Christmas list thing and getting there on a Christmas morning and opening up the things. Now the truth is, and you again, remember this, is that nobody knew that was what was in my head. Nobody had any clue that I had hoped for something different. And to be honest, I really wouldn't have wanted them in the grand scheme of things to actually go outside the list and get me something that I wanted. But at least at Christmas morning, I had that hope that there was that secret present. And the thing about an Xbox, it was too expensive. It was beyond the scope of what anybody would pay for. It's outside of the realm of, you know, what was reasonable in the moment. But for some reason I kind of had this sense that, oh, like this would be so good if I could just get what I really wanted on Christmas morning. You know what I mean? You know?
[3:07] And then the transition happened. And here's the thing about being an adult. I learned this a year or two later after being only disappointed for like a moment. It wasn't like, 'cause my folks are around. And so I wasn't disappointed by what my Christmas is as a young 20-something. Let's just be clear. But I learned as an adult, if you don't get something that you want from Christmas, you can just go buy it later, right? That's a cool thing. And so I legitimately, I remember getting the Xbox, however long after the fact, and it sat in my place unopened for months and months. And then in fact, I ended up reselling it, having never really played the thing because it was honestly not something that I really actually needed or had any time for. But there's that funny thing that happens at Christmas time with our expectations, where we have things that we really want, and yet the things that we need are often the things that we should be focused on.
[3:58] And so at Christmas time, and at this particular Christmas time here at this church, we wanna take a few weeks leading up to this season and talk about that emotion, that emotion between the things that you want and the thing that you need. And in fact, on a bigger scale, not about the gifts. In fact, this conversation that we're gonna have for the next few weeks is actually not at all about the gifts you'll get this Christmas, but instead it's about the gift that we all got that first Christmas. Because if you didn't realize the whole point of the Christmas story, the whole reason that we celebrate is all anchored in this event 2000 years ago. And it's an event that was earth shattering. It was completely different than what people expected. And it was a very shock to so many folks that the God that they wanted wasn't actually the God that they got.
[4:51] But here's what we read in the Gospel of Luke, the story of Christmas. The angel of the Lord appearing to the shepherds comes with a message. And here's an aside, not a part of this message, but when the angel shows up, they're terrified. And if you look through it, Scripture, when angels show up, people are naturally terrified. And so if you've ever had an angelic vision and it wasn't something that terrified you, you probably didn't see an angel. You might have just been drinking too much eggnog. But for now, we recognize these angel. The angel shows up with a message for these shepherds. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem." And this was the gift that they all wanted, the gift that for those that were following after the God of Israel, that they knew that the Messiah was the gift that would change everything.
[5:46] But when you get a gift, when you unwrap, and when you discover a God, you should ask yourself, and we should ask ourselves a few questions about this God. And if you are exploring faith or not sure about faith, or not even confident that you believe anything that we've already said here in this room today, you're here for whatever reason has brought you to this place, you should be willing to answer or ask these same questions as the way that we all should ask them. When you discover that somebody's announcing a God who's been born as the Messiah for all the earth, we have to ask ourselves, who is this God? And that adds to the idea of like, we should get down to like, what does that actually mean? Like what are they actually about? And so we think about these kinds of questions, things like what is He actually like?
[6:35] What does this God actually like? In fact, not only just that, but what does He want and what does He want from us? And not only that, but what does He do and what is He gonna do in this world? And then ultimately, and the one question that we all wrestle with, that we all should wrestle with no matter where you're at in your journey, is when you think about this God of this Christmas story, is the question right here, is He the God that I want? Is He the God that I'm hoping for? And if there's a disconnect, then friends, we should wrestle with that and understand where that comes from. Because as we unpack that from the pages of Scripture, who this God is, we discover a really clear picture, and yet it sometimes is very different than what we had hoped for or expected.
[7:25] That emotion is encapsulated in the story that C. S. Lewis brought to the world and the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the most famous of that whole that whole series. And there's this exchange that if you've been in church before, you've probably heard this exchange. It's been preached on so many times, but it encapsulates this thought and this wrestling about expectation about who this God is that we talk about and that Christmas celebrates the birth of. And so in The Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe, there's this exchange where they're talking about the God figure in this allegory, Aslan, the lion. Is the Jesus figure in this story. And so reading from in the midst of it, "Oh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man, but Aslan's actually a lion.
[8:11] The great lion. Is he quite safe?" Is the question, is this lion quite safe? Because a lion is so much different than what you would expect and what she expected. "I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." The story goes on. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you." And this is the story. This is the story of the Christmas morning discovering that there was something spectacular happening. And one of the things that we discover about the Jesus character being born is that He was actually being born as a king.
[8:58] And we read that in Matthew's Gospel when he explains to us and explains to the readers in that first century, trying to encapsulate the story of that first Christmas. He says, "About that time, some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 'Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw His star as it rose, and we've come to worship the king.'" And so for a lot of folks, Herod especially, there's this sense that Jesus is being born as a king. The ones that were hoping for the Messiah and looking forward to God doing something miraculous in their time expected this to be a king. And so everybody's eyes on the Christmas narrative is that we would experience and see as we unwrap the present of the Christmas story, that we would discover that we actually get to have, perhaps, a king, and that for us in this day, that we would have somebody that would be able to celebrate the story of what God wanted to do in our midst as the king of all people.
[9:59] But there's a problem because even in this day today, although we can celebrate that we have a king in Jesus, we still have all these other people. If we have a king in Jesus, why do we have prime ministers? If we have a king in Jesus, why do we have presidents? If we have a king in Jesus that we can submit all of our authority to, why do we still have all these other earthly authorities that we have to deal with? And at some level they're maybe okay, and they're fine. But at other levels, they're bosses and they're frustrating. And sometimes there are people in big authority that can do all sorts of things to us. And sometimes they're, but people that seem like they're far away from us and yet have so much control over us.
[10:45] And so this message of Christmas that we have a king that is the king of all kings is a wonderful one. And we would love to have that kind of God in our lives. And yet we wrestle with the fact that maybe there's something just missing to our story. And this wrestling and the understanding of the difference between who God is and what He's invited us into and what we actually want and what we often want to experience becomes a tension point for you and for me and for Christians throughout the centuries. Because if you think we have a challenging at times in our culture, when there's authorities that you wrestle with and authorities in your own life and experience that you don't know how to deal with because they're just so frustrating and difficult and oppressive, the truth is that that's actually been a story that's been going on for thousands of years.
[11:37] In fact, in the very beginning, one of the closest followers of Jesus, Peter himself, recognized that after the resurrection, after the celebration of Jesus as the Messiah, as the king, he was left with a group of Christians gathered together wrestling with what to do with the fact that Jesus was their king. And yet there was still this Roman empire that they were subject to. There was still these authorities in the world today that had control over them in really intense kind of ways. And so they had this expectation that Jesus was their king, and yet there were still these other earthly kings that they had to deal with. And so for Peter speaking to the church, speaking to the Christians, wanted to help everybody understand what it means to expect one thing of God, to be the only authority that we have to follow, and then wrestle with the reality that on this side of eternity, we still have all of these other authorities and kings.
[12:42] And so Peter speaking to the church in a time of history that is profoundly dysfunctional, he says this about these authorities and about this experience of having a king and yet other kings, he says, "For the Lord's sake," he says, "submit to all human authority, whether the king is head of the state or the officials he has appointed." And so Peter is inviting the church into a specific way of thinking about their Christian faith. It's the kind of thing that we actually see throughout the scriptures, throughout the New Testament. In fact, the commentators explain it this way that maybe helps us understand what's going on. He says, "This passage expresses a common form of early Christian ethical instruction known as household codes.
[13:28] What happens here is that this form of an instruction addresses specific classes of people in the church and provides for them specific kinds of ethical directions." How do we live out this faith? "Such instructions are also found in one form or another in Ephesians and Colossians and Titus and in 1 Timothy." You see, and then the early church, they were wrestling with, what does it mean to be a Christian in this culture today? Because this culture doesn't allow for us to experience fully what Jesus is inviting us into. In some ways it feels like although Jesus is our king, we're still having to deal with the realities that we have these other kings kicking around. And so in light of that, Peter says, and this is the verse that we wrestle with, "For the Lord's sake, submit to all human authority, whether the king as the head of the state or the officials he has appointed."
[14:16] And Peter explains a little bit more, he goes on to help us understand what does it mean to wrestle with this as the church, as Christians, as a community of people wanting to serve the one and true king that we believe in and with these other folks. And this is what he says, "The king has sent them, these other folks, to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right to which everybody in the room listening to Peter's message would say, "Hey, have you met our king before, Peter? Like, our emperor is Nero. Like, Nero is real nasty. And we're gonna explain that in a second because it's helpful to understand the context of which Peter is explaining these things. And he's like, 'Hold on, everybody, hold on. There's a principle at play here that we need to wrestle with as Christians.' And if you're here and you're not a Christian, the great news is that you don't have to do any of these things that Peter invites us to, but if you've claimed Christ as your king, these words, are binding on us and they're instructive to us.
[15:10] And so Peter explains, he says, "It is God's will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. Your honorable lives, for you are free. Yet you are God's slaves. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do evil." And he sums it up in this way. In verse 17, "Respect everyone, love the family of believers, fear God and respect the king," which is one thing to hear and to take a hold of. And yet again, we think, "Yeah, but Peter, you don't understand my situation. Like, have you met the person that thinks they're the king of my life? Like, have you been around my office before?
[15:55] Have you experienced the politicians that I don't like? Because honestly, Peter, what we have going on today, like, people, man, people don't respect my faith. You know, our culture is antagonistic. Did you see the Christmas cup that I got that didn't say Christmas on it? Did you hear the person at the store that didn't say Merry Christmas? They told me, 'Happy holidays.' Like, you gotta understand, like, we've got it rough these days in a bad kind of way." And of course, Peter wouldn't have to go for much of a long conversation with you to help you understand that when he spoke these words, the situation that the Christians in the first century were dealing with was so extreme. In fact, we have an account in the first century of a historian that recounted what it was like for the Christians under Nero's reign.
[16:43] You see, Rome at one point burned mostly to the ground and some assume or presume that perhaps it was the Emperor Nero that did light the fires. But whether or not it was him, he saw the destruction and he pinned that whole event on the Christians. And so this first century historian records the experience of what it was like to have all of that burning of Rome, that crime assigned to a whole cohort of the early church, the Christians in Rome. And so reading from history, which again, if you've not done this before, I think this is fascinating. If you don't think it's fascinating, I apologize, but I'm in charge and I got the mics. You have to listen. Okay? So Tacitus, the Annals, Nero, Emperor Nero, like a historical figure, he fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations.
[17:34] They had so many reasons that they hated the Christians. So many different reasons, none of which would really make a lot of sense to us today. But this class of people were called Christians by the populace. We keep reading. Christus, this is Jesus Christ, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our pro, a word there. Pontius Pilate. Pilatus. Anyways, but how interesting is it? If you've ever been like, "Hey, is this Jesus thing real?" Like, if you've ever wondered about, like, what are the historical grounds that we believe in Jesus? Well, you should know that there's no reputable historian in our world today that discounts the fact that Jesus of Nazareth actually lived and walked this earth. And part of the reason is for all of the evidence we have, including a first century historian without any reason to be proclaiming the gospel, is telling the story of Jesus.
[18:27] "And a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out." This is the faith. This is our faith, again, broke out not only in Judea, but the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. And we have this book of Romans, knowing that the church spread into Rome and it was starting to seed into the whole empire. Like, the Christians end up being a part of the whole adjustment of the culture in those days. But it came at such a cost. But even the first century the historians, they understood and they knew it. We read on, "Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths." Because what happened was, for Nero pinning this, the fires of Rome onto the Christians, he would penalize them by bringing them forward and charging them with this crime. And demanding they renounce their faith in Jesus because He was their king.
[19:17] But Nero was the king, the emperor. But the Christians refused to renounce their faith in Jesus. And because of that he tortured them in unbelievable ways, "covered with the skins of beasts. They were torn by dogs and perished, nailed to crosses, or doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as nightly illumination. When daylight had expired," the sense that he would gather the Christians and actually light them on fire, on stakes, to use to light his gardens. Like, this was the emperor. This was the challenge. And in the midst of that, Peter is explaining to us, yes, in light of even that, we are the different kinds of people. We express our faith in different kinds of ways. We carry the faith that God has given to us through Jesus, and it expresses it in ways that will transform the world, but it's gonna require a lot of us.
[20:11] And later on in 1 Peter, he's gonna explain to it using a different class of people. But I think the principle is helpful for us. He explains this. Peter says, "For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in His steps." And so in light of the willingness to suffer, this is what Peter is inviting us into and explaining what we're called to as Christians. He says, "For the Lord's sake, submit to all human authority, whether the king as head of state or the officials that he has appointed." Now, to understand this fully, it requires a little bit of, like, some research. And let's wrestle this through in community. Let's just not fully align ourselves with this one verse, because we have to be cautious.
[21:01] We have to understand the context of what it is spoken in and the way that people have expressed it over history and the way that as a church and as a community, we come around and we can live these kinds of things out. I mean, our day is so different than the day of Peter. And so the commentators help kind of explain a little bit of what this looks like and how this has looked like over the years. And so I just wanna read to you a couple of these quotes. 'Cause I think it is helpful for us. He, you know, Thomas Schreiner says, Christians should never respond to the dictates of government slavishly, but they should obey to strength. And because of their freedom, there's this sense that, there's not a slave mentality towards the authorities in our world today, but that because of our freedom, that becomes a license. Sorry, those who use freedom as a license for evil reveal that they're not truly free.
[21:47] A life of wickedness is the very definition of slavery. And instead, as Christians, we submit ourselves and humble ourselves for people because that's what Christ did for us. And we show that to the world around us as a form of strength. But we don't, we don't just idly allow injustice to happen. And we've seen this throughout history where examples of Christians have stepped up and stepped forward and be willing to sacrifice things. And this is the difference. Be willing to sacrifice things for the sake of the greater good, for the sake of people's humanity and being able to step forward and on our own, be willing to give up our own rights so that others could become followers of Christ and to see the message and the hope of Jesus.
[22:35] And so it looks like one of the ways you could describe this is, actually Martin Luther, hundreds of years ago, kind of explained the principle here: A Christian is perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, because our king is Jesus. So we're not subject to anybody here on this earth that we're responsible for in one sense. And yet because of Jesus, a Christian is perfectly dutiful servant of all and subject to all. And so we put these in the right framework so that people understand and our culture needs to understand. Scot McKnight explaining it from 1 Peter, he says this, he says, Christians are to be good citizens because they are obedient to the Lord, not good Christians because they're obedient to the state. Okay? So there's a difference here, and there's even a difference in the qualification of what it means even to submit to human authorities, to those people that are in your life and over your life.
[23:26] And so when we read these Scriptures, there's a clear distinguishing that Peter makes that helps us a little bit maybe understand what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to approach these things, and why sometimes it requires us to take action that maybe wrestles with the authorities of our day. And so one of the commentators, he's explaining the two different words that Peter's using here when he talks about what it means to submit to the earthly authorities and the difference that it means to Christ. So he says, with this Greek word that consistently throughout 1 Peter means, and we've translated it as submission, hupo- tasso is what that is. So otherwise obedience is this other word. Hu is reserved for a person's relationship to Christ by virtue of accepting the Christian message.
[24:15] So the sense that obedience is what we read about throughout the Scriptures of what it means to follow Jesus. We obey Christ, we fear God, and that is rich and that is strong, but that's different. So what he says is that because obedience is a primary and radical commitment, while this other word that we translate as submission or submit represents this kind of secondary and more limited one. So we might instead think about it as like a respect or defer to, perhaps, as a better or appropriate translation for the latter than submit to or be subject to. It helps frame our minds and our culture to today what we're being called to as Christians. And so we go back to the verse for the Lord's sake, respect all human authority, whether the king or the head of state or the officials that he has appointed.
[25:05] That helps maybe explain a little bit more of what Peter is inviting us into. And then when he brings it all together, he again kind of juxtaposes these two things that we wrestle with as Christians and that we have to wrestle with in community together. And this idea of fearing God and respecting the authorities. And so we can read this, and again, trying to explain it from one of the commentaries, this injunction to fear God is placed in contrast to honoring the king. Believers, Christians are to honor the king and show him respect because of his office, but they're not to fear him. And this is what Peter left the Christians with: Respect everyone and love the family of believers. Fear God and respect the king.
[25:50] And Peter would go on, most historians would say, or kind of the collective idea, whether or not this is a hundred percent true, we're not fully sure, but kind of the tradition is that Peter was actually martyred at the hands of Nero and his empire. He lived out the suffering that he was inviting people to experience because he knew that he only was to fear one king, his one and true king, the one that would bring all order and justice into the earth in His time, his king Jesus. But he had enough respect for the king, for Nero, that would allow the Christians in those days to transform and change their entire culture through their sacrifice.
[26:40] That as fast as the first century empires could kill the Christians, more rose up and align themselves with this true king that had their best interests at heart because He had their eternal interests at heart. This is profound message and this one that requires us as Christians, I think in these kinds of seasons, to wrestle with. Because if we're not careful as Christians, we can get caught thinking that we're supposed to fight some kind of culture war on behalf of people and not realize that our king has invited us to serve and to follow Him and know that He is the king of all kings. He needs no defense. He needs no person to come to His aid.
[27:29] His plans are that He would invite us into this kingdom of life that our world would look to and be transformed by as they saw our example and our respect and our love for one another. And still our willingness to stand up for injustice, to step out, as you've heard Pastor Jim say, to make sure that on our watch, that we would create spaces where freedom could reign for people, where we could allow people to experience the hope that comes from following after Christ. And yet in the midst of all of that, that we would do it with such a profound sense of God's love in us that it would be so transformative to those around us that they would lean in and want to experience it. It's the kind of thing where, even if in our culture today, there could be people that would say, you know, I don't know if I believe everything that those Christians believe, but man, I love having them as my neighbor.
[28:22] You know what I mean? You know, I'm not a hundred percent sure what, what those Christians believe, and I don't know if I can get on board with it, but I'm sure glad that I've got one as a boss. You know, I can't fully ascribe to that whole Jesus thing. It's a, it seems like a bit much, but I'm glad that my employees do because man, they are different. You know, I don't know about this Christmas narrative and this Christmas story, but when I bump into these Christians, they're the most generous, thoughtful, respectful, loving people I've ever met. And the thing that we wrestle with, I think, as Christians, and this is, again, an in-house conversation. So if you're from the outside, you're getting a little bit of, like, from the inside, this is what we're called to when we get to this kind of season.
[29:07] We should make sure that, as much, if we ever got nervous that culture was off from what we would hope it would be, that we would recognize part of our call, because of our King, is that we would invite other people into it. And so rather than being upset at hearing somebody who doesn't understand the message of Christmas, wouldn't that instead spark and inspire you to be the one to extend an invitation to them to come to hear the message when you hear an experience that maybe somebody in our culture is experiencing or going in a different direction apart from faith? And instead of being angry or upset at them, would you be brokenhearted over that and wanna build a relationship with that person so that you could extend an invitation, so that they could experience and hear about the hope that you have in Jesus?
[29:59] It's why, around Christmas time, as the city gets ready to celebrate this season, yes, for sure, lots of people are celebrating different things other than Christmas, but everybody's ready for something. Everybody's ready to and primed to hear some type of message of hope. And Christians, we've got it. And so would we be willing to let our culture know, not that we're trying to change their culture, but that we wanna change their night on Christmas Eve, that they would come and that they would experience something here with us? You know, instead of trying to make a big shot at the whole thing, would you instead make a friend and tell that friend about the hope that you have instead of being upset about the changes or the adjustments or whatever it might be in our culture? Would you instead make that be a spark for you to reach out in love and, because of your King, respectfully wade into relationship with people?
[30:55] Because I think, friends, that is the difference, the big difference that we could make together. So let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, it's wild to think that You are our King. And that even in the midst of that, for thousands of years we've wrestled with people who claim that title in all sorts of different ways. And we recognize and we hope and we pray for change in government, and we want to experience, you know, freedom in all sorts of different areas of life. And we get that and we chase that, and we wanna champion that in appropriate ways. There's nothing wrong with that, God. We recognize that we celebrate those that have done that through history. And yet, from the very beginning, the Christians, the Christians were willing to walk through their culture with a very different lens, looking for people to invite to align with You and Jesus in this Christmas season.
[31:48] I would wonder if maybe You have positioned us to do just the same, and the cost is gonna be so much lower. None of us are gonna die on a pike burning. None of us expect to experience that level of persecution. And yet our nervousness about Your message, man, our nervousness should speak to our hearts in a profound kind of way. And I would wonder if maybe in a room like this, some of us need to know that if You are our King, that we might actually act like it this week, and Your Spirit will prompt us in a way that I can't. But Your Spirit would prompt each and every one of us as we walk out these doors to walk out with a sense that if we align ourselves with King Jesus, that's gonna mean something different than maybe where we've been lately.
[32:42] And so, God, I pray that You would reveal that to us and then give us the courage to act in that way, and we pray those things in Jesus' name. Amen.