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(1) Walk Thru The Word: Romans 13: 1-7 (ESV)
God’s People Promote Good Governmental Authority
1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but too bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
(2) Message map — Rom. 11: 1 – 36
The Book of Romans: Session 21
”Advocating for God’s Authority On Earth as it is in Heaven”
- Rom 13: 1 God Institutes/Installs Governing Authorities Who Administer Either Blessings or Curses
- Rom 13: 3 God’s good servants are not terrorized by Bad government But Are Used of God To Convict It!
- Rom 13: 2 God’s Servants Fulfill God’s quest for Man’s freedom.
- Rom 13: 3-4 Christians Are Dual Citizens Who Advocate for God’s good Authority On Earth as it is in Heaven.
(3) ROMANS 13: 1-4, God Institutes/Installs Governing Authorities & God wants Them to be good!
Does God call a) governments, b) systems, c) processes d) people?
Since “good appears 3 x in Romans 13:1-4, we can conclude …
- God wants government to be good,
- God, He wants individuals to obey Him.
- individuals are to obey God even if they get government jobs/titles
- Government is always right and never falls under God’s Judgement.
- Aftermath of WW2 was Germany suffered 40 years of being split in half with 1/2 suffering communist enslavement.
Did Paul write Romans 13: 1-7 because …
- It is true — God exercises sovereignty over governing authorities
- Since the letter was going to Rome, the Emperor might read it, and Paul wanted to cause no additional problems for Christians in a city facing stiff persecution.
- Paul prophetically was looking forward to a time when Bible based governments would exists, and obeying them was consistent with obeying Scripture.
EW’s Answers: 1. is true. 2. is questionable 3) is speculative
(4) ROMANS 13: 1
God Institutes/Installs Governing Authorities & Sends His People to Convict Them To Do God’s will.
1Let every person be SUBECT (“under God’s arrangement,” i.e. submitting to the Lord and His plan for the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
be subject = to place or rank under, to subject, mid. to obey
Usage: I place under, subject to; mid, pass: I submit, put myself into subjection.
5293 hypotássō (from 5259 /hypó, “under” and 5021 /tássō, “arrange”) – properly, “under God’s arrangement,” i.e. submitting to the Lord (His plan).
Rom 13: 1 God calls His People to commend or convict those in government to encourage them to do what is right in God’s eyes.
Depending upon our obedience and government’s responses we either get …
- The Deut. 28: 1- 14 government God prefers — as Blessings for Obedience or …
- The Deut. 28: 15 – 68 government Sin deserves — as Cursing for Disobedience
(5) Hitler Helped Himself to power by abusing Rom.13: 1- 4
http://theopoet4camp.blogspot.com/2009/10/gott-mit-unsgod-with-us-hitler-and.html
Hitler, was the democratically elected ruler of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and he commanded Christian leaders to preach ‘unconditional subjugation’ to Hitler claiming the Holy Bible in Romans, 13 demanded such loyalty. When Hitler moved to disarm Germany’s citizenry, Christian leadership obediently mollified their congregations with Romans 13. When Hitler abducted dissidents in the dark of the night without due process, Romans 13 was evoked to cause the church to doubt if they should stand against this. When the burning flesh of those who had been their neighbors manufactured the air unbreathable, Romans 13 hung like a shroud over the confused surrounding communities.
Bonhoeffer’s promising academic and ecclesiastical career was dramatically altered with the Nazi ascension to power on 30 January 1933. He was a determined opponent of the party from its earliest days. Two days after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address in which he warned Germany against slipping into an idolatrous cult of the Führer (leader), who could very well turn out to be Verführer (the mis-leader, or seducer). He was cut off the air in the middle of a sentence, though it is unclear whether the newly elected Nazi regime was responsible.[11] In April 1933, Bonhoeffer was the first church voice of resistance to Hitler’s persecution of Jews, declaring that the church must not simply “bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself.”[12]
(6) GOD CALLS HIS PEOPLE TO COMMEND & CONVICT THOSE IN GOVERNMENT
If we blindly and inappropriately separate church from state which of the following happens?
- Biblical morality gets subjugated under the state.
- Christians get confused about to whom we are to be subject: Christ or the state.
- We view the Bible through the paradigm or the state’s mindset, philosophy and agenda,
- Christianity as it was a civil religion rather than a Christ-centered relationship focused on the righteousness of God in Christ and the obedience to Christ’s command for justice for all.
- The state defines social justice as “Christian justice” — even as “social justice initiatives promote and reward what the Bible calls sins.
- We can get duped by every murderous dictator who deceives us by saying, “I will take care of the poor.”
(7) God’s good servants are not terrorized by Bad government But Are Used of God To Convict It! GOD CALLS HIS PEOPLE TO CONVICT THOSE IN GOVERNMENT To Get Right With Him
We could frame today’s message around the Biblical confrontations that resulted from God calling & using His people to convict governing authority and leaders in these instances:
- God called Abraham to convict Abimelech in Gen 20 over taking Sarah, and in Gen 21 over his men seizing a well.
- God called Moses to convict Pharaoh in Exodus 5-13
- God called David to convict Saul and Goliath in 1Sam 17: 36 & 45 that he made a fatal error when he “defied the armies of the living God.” 45Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
- God called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in Dan 3: 16-18, to convict Nebachadnezar, that even if God does not deliver us from a fiery furnace “we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” 17If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 19But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
- God called Daniel to convict Nebachadnezar, in Dan 4:19-27 25that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. 26And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven 27Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”
- Daniel convicted Belshazzar, Nebachadnezar’s son, telling him in Dan 5:27 “you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
(8) God’s good servants are not terrorized by Bad government – But Are Used of God To Convict It!
We could frame today’s message around the Biblical confrontations that resulted from God calling & using His people to convict governing authority and leaders in these instances:
In their exercise of their subjection to God, He called them to …
1) God called Queen Esther to convict King Ahasuerus & Haman, per Esther 8:11 the Jews who were in each and every city [have] the right to assemble and to defend their lives.”
- God called Isaiah to convict the Judaea Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1)
- God called Jeremiah to convict the Judaea Kings Josiah, Amon, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (Jeremiah 1:1-3) that they’d go into exile if they did not repent and obey.
- God called Ezekiel to convict the exiled Jews, suffering under Nebuchadnezzar’s Chaldaeans that safety did not lay in hoping Egypt will help them shake off the yoke, but in repenting of their sins and turning to the God of their fathers.(Jeremiah 37:1-10 & Ezekiel 29-32)
- God called John the Baptist to confront and convict Herod in Luke 3:19 & Matt 14:3.
- Matthew 14:3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
- Luke 3:19 ESV But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done,
- Not On Slide:
- 7Jesus confronted and convicted the PARC Money Changer System in John 2:15, Mt. 21:12 and Mk. 11:15.
- Peter & John were arrested by the PARE and in Acts 4: 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” 21And
- Acts is a record of Christ’s disciples being used of God to convict the PARE & Secular political powers, per Acts 5:29
(9) if Romans 13: 1-4 means Christians can’t disobey government, then
- In Acts 5: 17-20 the apostles should not have left jail when the angel freed them, and told them to go into the temple and speak.
- Acts 5: 17But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20“Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
- In Acts 12: 6-11 peter should not have followed the angel who busted him out of jail.
- david should not have evaded Saul and not have dogged the spears Saul threw at him in 1 Sam 18:11 & 1 Sam 19:10.
- The magi should have ignored the dream God gave them in Matt 2:12, and returned to Herod, who wanted to kill the baby Jesus.
- jesus should have allowed the crowd to prematurely murder Him in Luke 4:30, instead of passing through their midst.
- Paul should not have allowed the disciples to take him by night, and let him down through the wall in a basket in Acts 9:25, which he also references in 2 Corinthians 11:33
(10) The Declaration of Independence (Paragraphs 1-3)
Fulfilling Man’s Quest for God’s Freedom
The Declaration of Independence is the culmination of a long history of God moving through People to Fulfill Man’s Quest for God’s Freedom.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
(11) In 1776, America’s Founding Father’s Declared & Codified GOD’s Will for government to secure the inalienable rights He gives We the People.
[bctt tweet=”That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.” username=”LibertyCF3″]In The Declaration of Independence, they stated
- GOD’s Gives Us Our Rights, and …
- No government or ruler can take them away.
- Government’s Role is to honor and COOPERATE with God to secure the Biblical Rights God gives us.
(12) Christians Have Dual Citizenship & Nationality
Do Christians are dual citizens of both heaven and earth.
Can Christians have dueling alliances & responsibilities to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.
Does this mean …
- we are torn between two loves & loyalties?
- (ans. is automated on slide) “No. We are to love God most Matt. 22: 37-29”
- it is ok to love and feel patriotic toward our earthly nation of birth and citizenship? _____________________________________________
- Exodus 15:21And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
- Judges 5:3 & 31 3“Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the LORD I will sing; I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel. 31x
- we are challenged to know when we should disobey earthly authority that is violating God’s will
- since there is “separation of church and state,” we have no responsibility in political & government affairs.
Ans is automated on slide SoCS doesn’t appear in the US Constitution, nor the Bible
- we should attend National Day of Prayer events to ask God not to separate Himself from, but to intervene in, our state/governmental affairs
(13) The Declaration of Independence! Paragraphs 4-5 … expresses the we are challenged to know when we should disobey earthly authority that is violating God’s will.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
(14) Here’s how we make things less confusing:
1 Corinthians 14:33 — For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
Confusion = instability
Usage: disturbance, upheaval, revolution, almost anarchy, first in the political, and thence in the moral sphere.
Properly, cannot stand (remain steady) in tumultuous times;
God does not want us unsettled, nor unstable in tumultuous times;
Instead, God gives us “ peace of mind.” He gives us a sense of “wholeness”, from all the essential parts of both our being (mind/soul, body and spirit are joined together/united, restored to God in salvation and submitted to walking in God’s Holy Spirit that results in The Fruit of The Spirit reflected through our emotional well-being.
Hebrews 12:2 — Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,
To fix = to look away from (something else) to see distinctly what we should focus on
To fix our eyes on Christ requires two actions: 1) looking away from the world, and 2) singularly seeing Christ
Hebrews 12:1-3
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Philippians 1:6 ESV And I am sure [KJV, NAS, NIV = certain] of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
(15) God offers US an “If – Then” option 2 Chronicles 7:14
“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Each generation Can Be A “Born Again People
(John 3:3-18)
Who Are Called By God’s Name (Christians)
& Apply The Bible To Civics” to Live Out 2 Chron. 7:14
Our focus is “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven
God’s “IF – THEN” Proposition IF we do our part,
- Humble ourselves (See self as God sees us / believe what the Bible says about us.)
- Pray (Speak with God & Let God Speak to You)
- Seek God’s face (seek a relationship with Him; love Him & His Word & not just want blessings from His hand.)
- Turn from our wicked ways, (Repent and do a 180 degree about face towards God.)
If we do our “If” part, God will do His “Then” part God Says: “Then”
- I will hear from Heaven.
- I will forgive their sin, and
- I will heal their land.
We must call appropriately for God to hear.
We must ask for forgiveness & repent!
(16) We Must Be Born Again!
John 3: 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life.
1 John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(17) Let’s Pray that God ReAwakens, ReInvigorates & ReEstablish Us in Our Calls In Christ!
Let’s Pray:
May God grant us the grace to faithfully keep our eyes on Him to fulfill our “IF’s”, so in each situation we obtain God’s “Then’s!
May God increase the number of born-again people in America who fulfill the Greatest Commandment in Matt 22
Deuteronomy 30:6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Matt 22:37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mark 12:30 30and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Luke 10: 27 27He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” [email-download-link namefield=”YES” id=”357″]
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