JUL 22 2018 | The Politics of Jesus S1E1 | The Politics of Jesus: Episode 1

Sea Change Church · The Politics of Jesus · "The Politics of Jesus: Episode 1" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · July 22, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning, I'm Carol Taylor, and it's so good to see all of you family, those of you who are here for the first time, that includes you too. I'm honored to read today a very powerful scripture, John 19, 1 through 12. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

And then they slapped him in the face. Once more, Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, Look, I'm bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him. When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, Here's the man. As soon as the chief priests and officials saw him, they shouted, Crucify! Crucify! But Pilate answered, You take him and crucify him.

As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him. The Jewish leaders insisted, We have a law, and according to that law, he must die because he claimed to be the son of God. When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. And he went back inside the palace. Where do you come from? He asked Jesus. But Jesus gave him no answer. Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilate said, Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?

Jesus answered, You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. The word of the Lord. Thank you, Carol. Dramatic. Love it. You could almost see the religious leaders sneering at Jesus with that.

That was so good. Well, hey, great to have you. This morning, we're moving into a two-week series called The Politics of Jesus. And I'm very excited about it. I'm enjoying these series that we're doing. The rest series was awesome. And it got a lot of play. We had about 700 downloads last week of that message outside of the church service, which is awesome to see that. So if you would, on the new website, if you go to churchatlajolla.org, you can find the different series have their own webpage.

You can just share the series. You can share it on Facebook. And if you feel that that's something that's important to you, or something that you want to share with other people, please do it. As we move into this series, I'm really excited about it, because it has this scripture that really has, especially the one we read today, that really has affected how I view my role as a pastor, as a minister, as a Christian, separately, because I'm a Christian before a follower of Christ, I guess before I'm a pastor, and my views of the political nature of the church.

And so before you get terrified of that, and what that means, and what I want to say today, I want to begin by saying that this scripture has really influenced me in particularly, especially where Jesus says, you would have no power unless I gave it to you. And you have Caesar there saying to himself, you know, hey, I can do this, and I can do that, and believing, or not Caesar, excuse me, Herod, our pilot, that, you know, he has this authority.

And Jesus coming back to the point of saying, hey, it's just a pawn on the chessboard of the kingdom of heaven. And all of this comes from me, and all power is given from me. When we look at the political nature of the church, it goes back a very, very long time. You could look at the Spanish Inquisition. You could look at the Sanhedrin in the first century with Jesus. You could go to the Age of Enlightenment, the social gospel movement of the 19th century, on and on.

There has been this question for Christians, how do we engage in a worldly governmental system in a way that brings kingdom values? And sometimes I think the church has got that really correct. And I think there's other times where they've got it incredibly wrong. In one of the most powerful movies about this, it was an Academy Award winner, I believe it was 1986 or 7, the movie The Mission, Jeremy Iron, portrays a priest who goes into the jungles of Brazil and brings the gospel to them.

But eventually, it became people wanting to harness the land and harness the people, began to push in on the inroads of the gospel that he had taken. And there you have Robert De Niro, who is playing a, I wouldn't say a conquistador, but a man of war who was part of that system, who became a Christian and he has a time of penance. And then he wants to liberate the people and fight the injustice against the people. And he believes that we should take up a sword to protect the gospel.

Jeremy Irons, on the other hand, does not believe this. And here we have the conflict of what to do when the political systems of the world come in conflict with the heart of the gospel. This is a scene from The Mission, and I hope you enjoy it. The dialogue that we have some people that we have in this place that we have to get you that they are all about. Father, I've come to ask you to bless me. Father, I've come to ask you to bless me.

Father, I've come to ask you to bless me. Father, I've come to ask you to bless me. I don't have the strength to live in a world like that, Rodrigo. I can't bless you. Rodrigo. Rodrigo. Rodrigo. clothing. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. vent. If you're here in your 20s, watch that movie and just let it rest in your soul and then open the scripture and read it alongside.

I want you to know that my calling from God, I am assured of this, is to be apolitical in the pulpit. God has not called me to lead a political religious movement. I'm sure that he has called some to do that. And it is possible that both of those men in that movie were right. But for what God has called me to is to create a safe place where people can come together, the children of God, harvest the grace of God, to hear from God as adults, as believers following Christ, and then to go out and to change the world as they hear from God.

I'm not a fan of ultimate hierarchy. I love that we are a congregational church and that we make decisions together. I'm not going to tell you how to vote, who to vote for, what to vote for, or endorse political candidates. And if you are looking for that, there are a lot of places within driving distance that do offer that, that you could go to and be a part of that. And I'm not saying one is right or one is wrong. What I am saying is that God has told me to care for the people of God and to let them be released in the world, to release the kingdom of God into the world.

So what you are not going to hear in this series is Adam's particular take on politics. What I want to do is try to stick to the scripture and give a 30,000 foot view of politics separate from focusing in on what we think is Americans. And we'll talk about that in a moment, how easy it is to make Jesus an American. And we need, if we're going to understand biblical politics, we need to be able to identify with all the different people.

The people who lived in the jungle in this movie, farm workers in Brazil in the 1950s, or perhaps a first century slave under a Christian household that Paul perhaps writes to. We see that in the scripture as well. When you can begin to put yourself in all these different categories throughout the chronological history of mankind, then you can begin to have a better understanding of what are the politics of God or of Jesus.

But we need to extricate ourselves from our own understanding because, once again, most Christians would say that the politics of Jesus reflect their own. If you were to ask most believers, what are the politics of Jesus, they would say that it mostly reflects their own. And the reason we say this is because few of us would want to be out of congruency with the politics of Jesus. I said to Jesus recently, I mean, to Jesus recently, I did speak to Jesus recently, as a matter of fact.

But I was speaking to somebody recently, and this verse, this verse will change everything for you. Because you will realize that every single leader in history has been put there by God. And the scripture is rife with this concept. You can find it throughout scripture in multiple places. This just happens to be a powerful place where Jesus says it. And so I was speaking to someone recently, and I said, what about this leader?

Would Jesus have voted for them? Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Really? And I said, but, you know, well, why not? Blah, blah, blah, blah. And they gave the whole reason. And I said, but the scripture says that God put, and Jesus is God, that God put all, gives all authority, and all leaders are in position because of God's allowing or putting them in and giving them that authority. So you're telling me that God put them there, but he wouldn't have voted for them.

And they said, yes. And I said, okay. All right. So, all right. For me, this passage has really got me to a place where I realize that every political figure, every person in leadership, no matter what the leadership is, at the head of your company or wherever, has been allowed, or you could say, I believe, allowed to be there or put there by God for a reason. And the reason is greater than perhaps we think. And so it begins to change our whole understanding because most of you disagree with some of the leaders that God has allowed to be in power.

Most of you, as a matter of fact, I would say all of us disagree with some of the leaders. Because if you have some leaders that you are glad are in power, then you are also going to be upset that other ones have been put in power that shouldn't have been. But the scripture says God puts them there for a reason. And understanding that allows us to shed the snake skin of our own understanding and to say, God, there's a bigger purpose that perhaps I don't see.

And until you understand that, then you will not be able to understand the politics of the kingdom of heaven. We ask, I would say right now that we are living, this is not in your notes, I added this this morning. We are living in a time of particularly righteous political religious fervor. Let me say that again. We are living in a time of particularly righteous, and I don't mean it's good, but perhaps self-righteous, political religious fervor.

I believe that politics is a form of religion. It has been a form of religion. It replaces God with other things. It replaces ideas of power. But I myself personally have seen politics as religion, as have other cultures in the past. Let me just name a few that have seen and have a crossover, perhaps, and could be very religious. And so if you were to take some of the religious hierarchies of the past and you put them up against secular hierarchies, you will see that they use the exact same playbook to even move into totalitarianism, where you were forcing the people to do something, once again, the Spanish Inquisition.

Or in 1950s communism, where there was Marxism and it was ruling the people, you could put the Spanish totalitarianism of the Spanish Inquisition up against 1950s Marxism and see a lot of similarities. There is a fervor to it, and I would say, personally, this is just my opinion, that it is a religious fervor. In Plato's Republic, the city-state, you have virtue spoken about. Virtue, is that a political thing? It's also a religious thing.

You have the philosopher king living beyond just laws, but in Plato, they talk about the king who's a philosopher, talking about ideals and reasons and understanding. And then he also speaks about the soul's immortality. What place does that have in politics? But according to Plato, it did. And we're beginning to blur the lines. Because just like believers have a difficulty, I believe, keeping the lines clear between what is political and what is the nature of the kingdom of heaven and how am I called to be a part of it, I believe that people that are secular have an equal challenge to not make their politics quasi-religious.

And you will see the fervor that is rising up on either side of the aisles or the other side of the aisles. And we'll move into that type of understanding. We see it back to Plato. You see it in Rome. Where in Rome, they're following these ideas, these Greco-Roman ideas, but the emperor became what? A god. Became a deity. Once again, they are completely secular, but then again, the emperor becomes a deity. There is a back and forth, an ebb and a flow in politics that we need to understand.

And this is just part of the greater understanding that we need to see as Christians when we look at the scripture. We have Marxism of the 1950s, which you can read about, and its totalitarian ideas trying to force people, class war that you see. And this is something that happened in the 1900s with the social gospel movement. They realized that before social security, before there was any programs to help the poor, the environment was being ruined through the industrial revolution, industrialization, excuse me, that when we see that happening, that Christians said, we need to step up.

And so they understood that there was an underclass of people that needed to be cared for. You saw this in Manchester, with Sunday school coming in, in the city of Manchester, England, to begin to educate people. The church said there is something wrong in society, and we need to make a difference. Marx felt the same thing, that there were landowners, and that there was others that were underneath, and the underneath classes need to rise up to there was a total social equality.

This is just basic history, hopefully you have studied. One of the greatest challenges of the church then is finding the balance between influencing kingdom-oriented change in a society, and becoming overly political. We read that again, because when I look around at the social media culture, and when I see the wars back and forth on the blogs, what I am seeing is a church that is struggling mightily not to become more of a political force than a kingdom-bringing force.

And perhaps you're not seeing that, but I feel that I am. In 1979, when we had first made a decision to follow Christ, my mom took me down to Golden Hall with my brother in San Diego, and we saw Jerry Falwell live. It was kind of cool becoming a Christian in the 70s. There was a whole different vibe happening then, and if you weren't a Christ follower back then, it's good to have that lineage and that history. Perhaps when the old hymns, that's one of the reasons we put the hymns up, just to remind us and to set that into perhaps new believers' heart, how important those hymns are, and even the history of those hymns.

But I went and heard Jerry Falwell, and there was people outside protesting and picketing, and I was just a kid, you know, with like my wavy hair and my OP shirt, you know, and my mom took us down there, and it was like moral majority in there marching around, and then there was a guy in the middle of it who stood up on his chair, and he was a homosexual, and he began yelling, and there was probably 4,000, I don't know, the place was full, and he began yelling and having this debate with Falwell on the stage, and I remember watching it and thinking, what in the heck is going on?

What is this? And I was baffled, but I was glad that I got to be a part of it because it was so influential in America, and the church's move to becoming more political than perhaps it should have. You read about Francis Schaeffer. If you've not read Francis Schaeffer, study the history of Francis Schaeffer and what happened in America. In the 1960s, in the 1970s, study Jerry Falwell and the move to have a moral majority and a right and how the church began to walk that precipice between being hyper-religious or hyper-political or both.

And the question I have is, is the kingdom being lost in the midst of it? That if you win a vote, does it mean that the kingdom of God has advanced? Just because people, you know, we have learned on people that would consider themselves church people that you cannot legislate morality. And I think the other side of the aisle is trying to learn that now. It is difficult to legislate morality because morality comes from the heart.

And the heart cannot be legislated. The heart is a place of free will where people will make their own decisions. And the question is, how are we going to reach people's hearts more than perhaps the voting bloc? We'll get to that in just a moment. Saw Jerry Falwell, Francis Schaeffer, Billy Graham even said, and let me just read this quote from Billy Graham, who regretted the amount of political activism that he had in his life.

Let me read this from a Christianity Today article, 2011. Graham replied that he wished that he had spent more time with his family, and I never forgot that. That's one thing I've learned, and I learned early when I heard him say that. I thought that I always want the church, and hopefully if you're a parent right now, if I'm going to have a church, I don't want to have a shiny church and a sullen home. I want to have a shiny home and let the church reflect what's happening in the home.

And I vowed that I would never do that again, even if it meant my platform not being as big as it could. He replied, I wish I had spent more time with my family, and then added, I would have also steered clear of politics. I'm grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places, and that's key, because Paul does that with the household of Rome and people within it. People in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and they often have no one to talk to.

But looking back now, I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn't do that now. That's Billy Graham. I stood just yesterday where Billy Graham was and made his commitment to ministry up at Forest Home. And I would say there's probably 50 mantras, quotes, scriptures, just giving a give or take, that have shaped who I want to be as a person. And that quote is one of them. It is said to me, what is the most important thing?

And when he talks about family, and his kids talk about, hey, you're saving the world, but you weren't home. That's difficult. And that's something I don't want, that I'm willing to risk losing a little platform to be with my family. I said earlier, and you'll see this in the notes, most believers feel that Jesus' political views match their own. It's true. Let me just assure you, they don't. You have no idea what God's doing.

We can know the knowledges of God. He will show us on occasion. But he is working all over the world. It's funny how we seem to think the only thing that matters is what's happening in our particular current system. But what is God doing in the politics in Southeast Asia right now? What is God doing in the politics of a small rural community up near Siberia? What is God doing in the politics all over the world? If you're going to have the same politics of God and of Jesus, then you're going to have to get a global understanding of what he's doing chronologically from the beginning of human history to the end of human history and every single element within it not just be burrowed in on what's happening at your doorstep.

Not that we abandon that and we'll talk about that next week. Also spoken about many believers underestimate, and I think this is key, that many believers underestimate the power of prayer in regard to political change. I had to ask myself a question this week, and it was this. Would I give up my right to vote if I could be assured the right to pray? Because God hears from his people in Chronicles, it says, if my people humble themselves, it says throughout Scripture in the Old Testament that, that he says he will hear and he will change and heal their land.

You know, we have fought for the right to vote. Many of you that are here today have fought. You've lost friends. You've been in that. We have fought for that right, and it is a powerful right. But would you give up your right to vote if you knew that you had the right to pray, if you could have one or the other? Thankfully, God gives us both. I want to tell you, I would give up my right to vote in a moment if I had the choice between one and the other.

Because I firmly believe that prayer is more important than a vote. more important than a vote. And if you're reading more time on Google News or Yahoo or whatever your particular taste is, and Fox News or CNN or whatever one you choose is blaring hours per week, but you're spending little time in prayer, let me just assure you that you've got it wrong if you're trying to follow Christ and implement kingdom values into the culture from a grassroots, organic, street corner level, which is where we always start.

I want to encourage you if you are not a praying person, I think it was John Stott, actually it was John Stott, who said, if you're going to read the news, read it with the Bible in the other hand. The newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other. And begin to pray. It is through prayer that we will bring kingdom change into the hearts of people. That we will change the world to have an evangelistic understanding that goes far beyond these particular moments, worries, and concerns.

You know what? I'm reading Grapes of Wrath right now. Not far from the end. Fantastic. Steinbeck, dark guy. But fantastic. If you read that, you will see that the exact same things that we worry about now, they were worrying about then. It is almost like reading today's headlines. But where is that? Where is McCarthyism? Where is all those things that people were worried about? They have moved on to the next issue. But it says that the prayers of the believer are eternal and that they will burn before God in a poultice of prayer that burns like an aroma and a fragrance before God for eternity.

That when you pray, that it will be there for eternity. And God honors prayer, I believe, more than he honors a vote. I'm not saying that we don't vote. Don't put words in my mouth. But I got to say, church, we've got to start praying. And it is prayer that changes things. Prayer causes things to change. Here's a few core understandings. Thanks, Mom. There's a few core understandings. I'm always good for two amens out of Mom.

I think that was Mom. Sounded like her. I can't forget that voice. Get in the house! Stop running around pee-pee! PBA ain't changed that much. Can we just tear it up from the five and start over again? Sorry. Okay, nonetheless. Core understandings when grappling with the political stance of Scripture. These are core. This is core. If you're going to understand and get a basic understanding of Scripture and how God uses, you know, the political figures to accomplish greater goals, then you're going to have to understand this.

because just the fact that Jesus allowed himself to be crucified by a disruptive, and I would say spiritually disruptive, secular government is amazing. I mean, he allowed this Romans, and Jesus was living in a bipolar political system, by the way. You had the Romans and you had the city-state and this whole thing going on with the Romans and the emperor, but then you also had a failed theocracy. Jews that had been told that they weren't supposed to have a king but only wanted to have a king and wanted a political hierarchy that was not a theocracy.

A theocracy is where we have judges and people live according to God and they live according to his rules, but God is ultimately on the throne. And as we'll see in a moment, the Jews said to God early on and to Samuel, we don't want you as our king. Give us a king because it feels a lot better and a lot more secure when you can see who's in the political power, you can have control over that, and you think that they're going to do what you want them to do.

That is why we get so frothed up on politics and why when we get good news, we feel really good and when the bad news comes, we feel really bad because we are counting more on our political system to make a change in the world than we are on God and we say, we don't want you as king. Give us our king. It was a failed theocracy and Jesus was being torn between both and when he stood there in front of Pilate, he was there in the midst of two political systems that were happening.

The religious political system and then you had the city-state, the Roman political system and Jesus was in charge of it all and they were vying for power and they thought they had so much power and they were claiming what they could do and what they would do but God allowed his own son to be crucified by both of these systems why? For a greater reason. And I gotta say, we have gotta get our head, our head up into, towards the heavens and asking God, what are you doing?

And even if I don't understand, can I love people? Can I make a difference and love people wherever I am? From your doorstep, politics of heaven start at your doorstep. Politics of heaven go back to your heart, to sitting before God and saying, God, where have I sinned? I am a sinner. Blessed are those, the scripture says, whose transgressions, whose sins are not counted against them. That's where you need to start. Not with a self-righteousness that comes from over-intoxicating yourself with the political news of the day where we become drunk with their opinions, with their words, with their desires, and then we make it the kingdom's desires.

It's bunk. The kingdom of heaven begins with us sitting before the God and saying, we are a wretched, sinful people, but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And with that, I will go to the other sinners of the world, no matter if they're on the left or if they're on the right, and I will show them the love of God. That is the politics of the kingdom of heaven. And we need to get back to the understanding that God is on the throne beyond anything else that we see.

And I want to say what that does for me, it pieces me out. Because when I do that, the news comes in and I'm like, hey, God's in charge, let's pray. Let's go back to it. All authority, this is the core understanding on earth, is ordained from heaven. Proverbs 21.1. Really interesting. Really interesting. A king's heart is like streams of water in the Lord's hand. He directs it whichever way he chooses. Kings, political, Cuba, dictatorships, Mao, Genghis Khan, you know, the Babylonian Empire, all these kings think they're in charge.

They're, you know, we're worried what they're going to do. The scripture says that their heart is like water in God's hands and he's just going to direct it as he wants. That gives me a lot more peace. Now sometimes he allows it to be directed in ways that I don't, but that doesn't stop my call and my calling and my commission from my doorstep to make a difference of love in the world. I love the character of Jeremy Irons there not saying that we don't have to stand up for the poor as well.

Like Rodrigo, maybe both were right. Living in the tension, extremes are easy. God is often willing, and this is really key, the second core understanding. The first is all authority is given to heaven. The second is God is often willing to give mankind the leaders that they want. Have you ever thought about that? Like it's clear in scripture over and over again, especially with the Jews. If you read Jeremiah, it's a long book, you read Isaiah, he basically says, your sin, your desire, is this what you want?

Well, I'll tell you what, I'll give you over to it. God is more than willing to give a society over to the carnal lust of their flesh and to let them feast upon it until they are ready to come back to him because of the tribulations that following death brings. He will let you have what you want, and this is why the battle for the kingdom of God on earth that will affect politics starts with each human heart, not with getting out and banging the drum for your favorite political person because votes are created by heart's decisions, and we are a people of the heart.

The politics of Jesus go back to the heart, and that's what he matters, and he will give people what they want. If you turn your notes over, maybe you don't have to turn your notes over, but in 1 Samuel 8, 6-8, and this is a tragic scripture, and societies have done this over and over again, but when they said, give us a king to lead us, this displeased Samuel, so he prayed to the Lord. I love his response, right? When you see something in politics that, like, displeases you, what do you do?

What do you do? Do you go to the Lord and begin to pray? That's what you're supposed to do according to the scripture. I don't use a lot of shoulds, but that's a should. If something displeases you, prayer changes things. So he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord told him, listen to all that the people are saying to you. Is it not, it is not you that they've rejected, but they've rejected me as their king. So God gave them the king they wanted.

And you know what he also told them? That king's going to take your daughters, he's going to take your sons, he's going to turn them into slaves, he's going to take the best of your produce. I'm going to give you what you want. That's the problem with God. He'll give you what you want. You get that? He will give, he is so good at that. How many would raise your kids that way? I don't think it's a great parental strategy.

But over and over again in scripture, you're going to see that God's politics and the politics of Jesus are often going to agree with yours. Ours might not always agree with Jesus, like I said, but his will agree with yours if that's what you want. And it's a, you know what? It's an adult book that's looking for adult, mature followers of God that say, I will deny myself, I will deny myself to follow you because I don't want to reap what comes when I sow discord.

Political change is always accomplished first in the human hearts. I've said that 2 Chronicles 7, 14. If my people who are called by thy name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then, it's always been an if then, right? Following God's conditional. Then I will hear from heaven and I'll forgive their sins and heal their land. Why am I apolitical? That. That's why I'm apolitical.

Because I know that if I can help us get that right, politics stands no chance from the invasion of the kingdom of God on earth. That's it. If I'm out here telling you who to vote for, when to vote, how to vote, whatever, I'm saying you should vote and let's register you, go do it. But it starts there. And I have anchored myself and the congregation or the family that I want to lead, I have anchored it to that kind of thinking because I want us to change our hearts.

And that's hard to do. But changed hearts bring a changed world. Interestingly, both Jesus and Paul, two greatest figures in the New Testament, were notably, notably apolitical in regard to worldly governance. One of the reasons why the disciples got frustrated, especially Judas, we understand, with Jesus, is he wouldn't be the king they wanted him to be. They kept trying to make him king. They're like, no, no, no, no.

If we get this earthly political thing right, it'll all be good. If we can just get this earthly political thing, it'll all be good. And Jesus wouldn't be the king that they wanted him to be. He was a different king that was willing, and it's a bad political move, right, to go to the cross. Like, who does that, you know? It's a bad political move. You don't go get crucified. It kind of messes up your whole political strategy for the midterms.

Jesus is very apolitical. He talks about the kingdom of God. Paul, I mean, come on. That guy had the power. He had the ability. He had the connections. He had the genesequah. He had whatever, I just want to use that word, whatever it would take to lead a political movement. A political movement. Take it to the streets. Notably, apolitical. Yet, all the Jews wanted was to overthrow Rome. If we could just overthrow Rome.

And we see that today. If we can just get the politics of Jerusalem correct, then the world would be right. And look, the scripture says the politics of Jerusalem are going to get correct. That's a prophecy. I, you know, and we want to pray into that, pray for the peace of Jerusalem and this whole thing. But I get a little concerned sometimes when the Christian, Western Christian, evangelical understanding of what it means to have world peace in regard to Zionism matches the people that Jesus rejected their understanding in the first century.

And we need to be very careful to find that balance between both of those. If we want to talk about that later, talk to me about it later. Both Jesus and Paul were notably apolitical in regard to the worldly governance. The politics of Jesus then are otherworldly. Look at what he says. Look at what he talks about. Okay, he is very political. Let's just talk about the politics of Jesus. Okay? It says, my kingdom is not of this world.

Wow. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this world. How many times are you going to say that, Jesus? It's not of this world. Maybe he meant it. The lion's share of Christ's teachings on politics deal with the kingdom not of this world that has the ability to shape this world. One of Jesus' primary messages is the kingdom of heaven is like.

The kingdom of heaven is like. Let's just look at a few of the radical, Jesus said radical stuff. We're moving in two weeks into the things Jesus said. If you have any particular favorites you want me to hit on, I haven't finished all of them yet, so give me one. Here's one. This is Jesus on the stump. Okay? Jesus is on the stump. In the, you know, over in Leicester Square or somewhere, you know, wherever, back east, you know, or down in San Diego and he's on the stump and he's preaching and he's talking about who he is and what he's going to do and he's talking about his political makeup and what's ahead and how he's going to change the nation and this is the kind of stuff Jesus said.

Kingdom of heaven is like mustard seed. Scatter it out. It'll grow. You ever seen a mustard seed grow? You know, it's funny, I think it was the Franciscans or whoever came up the coast, you know, the early people in California, they scattered mustard seeds so they could find their way back not knowing. You ever seen mustard seed? What it does? You're going to come back to a field that goes in all directions. Boom. Huge.

He says, it's like a treasure hidden in a field. Now imagine a political leader getting up and saying this today. Hey, vote for me because the politics I'm going to bring you is like a treasure hidden in a field. What are you talking about? You crazy man. It's like a dragnet cast into the ocean, he says. Because you're all fish and I want to fish for human souls and hearts. What are you talking about? He's not going to get very far with that but he came with power.

And a different power than the world wanted. Power to change human hearts. Power to change eternity. Power to heal the sick. Power to bring food and care for the lost and the oppressed. What are you caring about? This is a huge message for me. I had to rethink everything especially since I'm reading Grapes of Wrath. Read through that. That'll wake you up to migrants. From Oklahoma. Read that and see about the social political and people that are starving.

One of the things that it said that really struck me last night the man said we had fried bread for dinner last night. He says where'd you get the grain? He said we swept a boxcar for it. That's hardcore. Jesus had power to come in and make a social change. We've got to make a change. Because there's people in this world today that are having to sweep boxcars for fried bread. Jesus says the kingdom belongs to children.

Who says that? What do you mean? You're nuts. It belongs to children. What do you mean? The kingdom belongs to such as these. I've got to say if Jesus was here preaching today he'd probably be next door. Because they get it. They share their toys. They play. They have hearts that say yes that want to believe. Kids want to believe. They want to care. And when they play hide and seek as little children they want to be found.

You ever played hide and seek with a child? Ha ha ha ha ha. Here I am. We just started. Where are you? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. You're horrible at this Lucy. They want to be found. No one wants to be found anymore. They want to do the finding. And then tell who they found. What they should know. And what they should believe. I want to say Jesus says my kingdom belongs to children. The politics of Jesus then again as we come in for a landing are not meant to satisfy man but rather God.

It's funny. Rome had all this power. But politics only has so much power until the people revolt. Every political system knows that. And so you never truly have power. At some point you have to appease the people just enough. And if you say let them eat cake they're coming for your head. Marie Antoinette found that out. Matthew 14. We have Herod. He had John arrested and he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias.

The wife of the brother Philip. For John had been saying to him it is not lawful for you to have her. That's John the Baptist because he spoke truth no matter what the cost. It would cost him his head. Although Herod wanted to put him to death. He what? He feared the crowd. Feared the crowd. And I doubt there is a politician today that doesn't fear the crowd. And the ones that don't fear the crowd sometimes like William Wilberforce who was willing to come against slavery in England or perhaps Abe Lincoln or some others are the ones possibly that might be worth following.

not to crowdsource our morality. That's what we do. We take a poll and then we tell you then they come out with their position on the answer. You realize that's you all know that's what happens, right? Let's poll it out. Okay, you should believe this. You're going to get more votes. That's not the way to run it. And that's not the way Jesus ran his kingdom. Jesus speaks truth in love. A couple more little verses. Matthew 16, 19.

Jesus says God is looking for people who want to partner in releasing the values of the power of kingdom of heaven into their domain. Let me say that again. God is looking for people that's you who want to partner with him in releasing the values and the power of the kingdom of heaven into their private domain. Harnessing the power of heaven through prayer through the word of God that it says is alive and active and living and that if you share it with somebody can turn them from the door of suicide to life again that has power to start wielding power that is more than a like or a click.

Real power to change people's lives to change their eternity to come to them and say this is the God that I follow. He's looking for people that want to release that type of power and bring the kingdom of heaven into their personal domain and God has given you dominion. He has made you a leader of your domain and the area that you have whether it be your only all you have is a cubicle at work but it's your cubicle and make it reek of the value in the kingdom of God.

Turn your car into a sanctuary if you have no other place if you're a slave if you're in prison at least you have your cell you have something and if you have nothing else then you have your own heart and make it the dominion of God and let God rule there in his kingdom and then you make a difference with other people and we change lives. He's looking for people who want to partner. Do you want to partner with God? Matthew 16, 19 I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Wow. Take that verse seriously. First book I wrote it's called Give Your Kids the Keys. I don't believe that Jesus the Holy Spirit gives holy children size portions of the Holy Spirit. If a kid knows Jesus they get the whole thing. And so the whole book was about just release them. Release them. Give them the keys. I want to tell you what I'm not going to say it. Jesus said it to you. You have the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Do you even know what that looks? Do you even want them? Or have you lost your keys again? Maybe it's time to get that little app you know on your phone. Beep, beep, beep and go find it around the house. It's just as easy to lose those keys as it is to lose your normal keys. And it happens just as often. Matthew 16, 18 says truly I tell you whatever you buy oh man in that 50 verses this is there. probably like 150 but nonetheless truly I tell you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

That you have the ability as believers to bind up things like anger. To bind up things like authoritarianism. To bind up things like war. War. That your prayer perhaps do you believe that a prayer prayed by you on a Tuesday night over dinner could stop a war from happening in an African nation or somewhere in South America. Do you believe that prayer has that kind of power? The scripture shows us that individuals have that kind of power.

And that you underestimate that we underestimate that I underestimate the amount of power we have when it comes to prayer. That God just might say yes. And then what are you going to do? Matthew 16, 19 once again truly I tell you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. God as you pray let me just show you teach you how to pray. God on my children would you I want a loose blessing upon them.

I want a loose freedom upon them. I want to bind depression. I want to bind anxiety. I bind it in heaven. And I bind it here on earth. And I bind the enemy. And I release the spirit. And I release love. God release it. And you pray like that. Pray and release and bind and release and bind and move forward out. And then begin to have actions that follow that. That's being a Christian. That's being a political Christian.

That changes the world with the kingdom of God. Unlike many Christ followers today Jesus understood that it is only through the releasing of kingdom values on a street corner level that nations will be changed. Unlike many Christ followers today myself at times Jesus understood that it is only through the releasing of kingdom values on a street corner level that nations will be changed. Maybe it's time to go clean up your corner.

Next week we're going to look at do earthly politics have any place in Christ following and if so how are they supposed how are we supposed to enter into that arena. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand.

Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. mana. mana. mana.