The Fear of God and Our Government (Acts 5:17-32) | Pastor Mike Fabarez

[Music] well i may not know much about soccer but i know the objective is painfully simple right kick this ball into that net couldn't be simpler than that and the target by the way i mean it's massively big it's 24 feet long eight feet tall grandma could do it just kick the ball in the net simple right nothing to it you know the objective of the christian life is uh is painfully simple jesus left his church and he said go and make disciples really simple and the goal the goal is huge right here's the target uh for us of all nations right of all nations jerusalem judea samaria the enzo has been studying the book of acts and i mean the target is is gigantic but of course like soccer there is uh an advocate adversary that stands between us and the goal and um he's got advantages that we don't have and then there's a whole other team this is the reason grandma doesn't play much soccer because there's a strong team of opponents who want to do whatever they can with their limited power to make sure that you don't do that and the target may be big but with the opponents and adversary there's a lot of challenge in the work our goal is unchanging to make disciples and we are focused on that here at compass bible church but we recognize that uh there is an adversary and there are opponents and like a coach that sits a team down and says we've gotta take a look at the video of our opponents and make sure we know what's going on how they go about their work uh that's critical according to second corinthians chapter two that's making sure that we're not ignorant of the schemes of our enemy and he enslaves people the bible says to uh do his will in this world and even in the church so we have to be mindful of the opposition we have to be wise about his strategies and we need to be prepared we've been studying through the book of acts we've seen a lot of success the gospel goes out it's clearly boldly courageously taught and preached and shared the church is growing we've got all kinds of people thousands of people at the church of jerusalem the first mega church there it is i mean parking problems in jerusalem to make sure that they can get everyone in there on the temple mount in the courts of the temple hearing the word of god preached and dispersing every afternoon to go and make disciples two times ago we looked at chapter five when ananias and sapphira these hypocrites within the church tried to act like they fit in and god says no we've got to discipline this situation you have to know that the church has to have a high standard of holiness and so god himself steps in and miraculously takes out ananias and sapphira and in a sense as chilling as that was in our series on the fear of god we thought wow we ought to fear god god is a god who cares about his church he's going to enforce his rules of holiness and we ought to like a christian who is going to respond rightly to his heavenly father realized that he is a disciplinarian and we ought to live our lives as peter later put it in his epistle with fear during our time of stay here upon the earth then we looked at last time we were together we looked at the leadership following on the heels of that in chapter five the leadership they're doing their work god of course in that special category of laying a foundation for the church through the apostles and prophets they are authenticated in a very unique and miraculous way and yet we saw in focusing on leadership how good it was that the church was healthy it was function it was purified it was led well and you'd think we might get into the next chapter of all kinds of of growth and yet we have in verse 17 as we reach our study today we're gonna look at a big chunk of scripture i want you to turn to it get your eyeballs on this passage acts chapter five beginning in verse 17 we're gonna go all the way through verse 32. it's a big section big narrative section but i wanna understand this whole section in light of the opposition that the church is facing and even the verb that is used to describe how we've got an opponent that steps up and he's an empowered opponent he's got a lot of people with him the forward progress of the church is inhibited this time not by the hypocrisy within but by the external defense on the outside in the culture in which the church was called to thrive so the first period of this evangelistic soccer match showed this um group of sadducees within the sanhedrin this ruling court and class the senate as it's called here of the jews opposes the message we're going to find in our day the same kind of of opposition matter of fact i'm going to try to here just by way of giving a good overview i trust of the kinds of opposition the bible presents us with this break this down into five kinds or four rather four kinds of opposition and say look at how this happened in the first period of the match and now how it's still happening in the 21st period of this match and i want us to be uh leaving equipped and resolved and bolstered in our uh our strength clarity the dumb little illustration the soccer match which i i hope to show jermaine points throughout this message i i think that simple dumb illustration can really transform your perspective on what we're doing and how simple it is that we can begin to interpret everything that's happening in our world and around the world today far beyond the current health crisis that we're in so look at verse 17 we'll see the opponents arise and it's a it's a dramatic verb here it's translated rose up but the high priest and even the word high reminds us we've got a big official here this is a authoritative figure he he rose up and all who were with him so we've got an opponent here earthly opponent of course and there's an adversary behind it but they rise up and the clarification here which helps us even make some parallels to our day it says he's of the party of the sadducees and remember the pharisees uh they believed in a lot of the things that we might affirm about the old testament regarding god's supernatural intervention into time and space at particular points on the timeline of the old testament and certainly believing in a judgment that is coming after life well the sadducees did not believe any of that they did not believe in angels they did not believe in the supernatural they did not believe in life after death and so we get a little clarification the power that's going to step up here within the this court the sadducees who are leading here in the senate as it's about to be called they're filled with jealousy and you might understand that kind of got the status quo of the leadership in jerusalem and here comes this band of galileans with their accent from up north and we've got thousands of people people added to their number day by day and they're talking about god and the messiah and quoting the old testament and they get jealous so here's what they did they arrested the apostles which is a great word to help us remember not just what it means in our minds to throw someone in prison but they're trying to slow this down they're trying to stop it trying to restrict it and they arrest them physically literally the apostles this is not just peter and john that we saw in chapter four being called into the principal's office this is the whole band of the twelve we assume that are thrown into prison and luke adds this little phrase the public prison which reminds us they're not just set aside in a little waiting room and they're thrown into the common prison where all the common criminals go but god steps in during the night an angel of the lord opened the doors of the prison now a lot of ways to get them out of jail you could have a lot of creative intuitive uh i don't know smart strategic disciples go break them out of prison but i think god in his sense of humor takes the people that don't believe in angels and sends a an angel not just a human messenger but an angelic being and breaks into time and space and gets these 12 apostles out secretly and no one knows about it as we're about to learn i mean it's all guarded and sealed just like the the tomb of christ it's this miraculous jailbreak so during the night an angel of the lord verse 19 opened the doors the prison doors and brought them out and said verse 20 go and stand in the temple and speak to the people love this now all the words of this life which by the way one of the reasons you may not get much opposition in the christian life as you're trying to move the ball down the field is because what you're doing is not what the bible tells you to do and that is to give the whole message and i like the way it's put here a very unique and only once used phrase regarding the gospel all the words of this life capital l like the way that's translated that a reminder says this is a message and you got to have all of it you can't just have jesus loves you you can't just have you know uh god wants to give you purpose or you know it it'll be great if you got jesus on this walk along the beach because if you fall down it'll carry you i mean there's more to the message right you have got to understand the problem of sin of god's holiness of his justice of really what's at stake as the spirit goes out into the world jesus promised in the upper room discourse that he would convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment and if you want to give all the words of this life you know you're going to have some opposition and they didn't take well to that message as we'll see later in their response to the apostles verse 21 and when they heard this that is the apostles they said man we got a lot of trouble for that we just got put in jail for that we're not going to do that verse 21. no they said okay they entered the temple and i love this even at daybreak they couldn't wait to get back out there and do what god asked them to do now i asked them to do that in matthew 28 and luke 24 in acts chapter 1 i mean this is the whole point right make disciples go be my witnesses and here's this angelic being saying get out there and do it and by sunrise they're out there doing middle of verse 21 now when the high priest came to those who were with and those who were with him called together the council this is the sanhedrin all the senate of the people of israel the power they sent to the prison to have them brought okay we're ready we're assembling now he's got their coffee bring in the prisoners verse 22 but when the soldier or the officers rather came they did not find them in the prison so they returned and reported quote verse 23 we found the prisons securely locked and the guards standing at the door and they said okay you need it open now all right we got the papers let them out but when we opened these doors we found no one inside now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words they were greatly perplexed that's an understatement right where did they go we've arrested houdini he's gone they're gone they were greatly perplexed about them wondering now this is a phrase that starts to give us a little insight into their feelings right wondering what this would come to we can't even put these guys in prison and keep them there about a leader who was put in a grave that we couldn't keep there so what is this all going to come to verse 25 and someone came and told them i'll tell you where these guys are they're not in prison look the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people the very thing you told not to do then the captain with the officers went and brought them now this is a phrase that again helps us give a little insight into how they're feeling not by force no why not i mean that'd be a time to flex your muscles go take the security guards of the temple mount i mean you are the sanhedrin after all high priest i mean you can go and with a show of force you can just go in all your riot gear and grab these pastors and bring them back but they didn't do that why they were afraid of being stoned by the people and that's not like they were going to pass some legislation to turn them over for execution that means they're afraid there's a lot of stones out there in the temple mount a lot of building construction still going on and herod's reconstruction of the temple the refurbishment they're afraid they're going to pick up stones and throw them at them this peaceful assembly on the temple mount you're not going to take our pastors away they're listening they're interested they want to hear the word taught they're afraid verse 27. when they brought them here come the apostles now they set them before the council okay they sit in a semi-circle there and they're listening 70 of these officials and plenty of other people there and the high priest questioned them saying we strictly charged you not to teach in this name they don't even mention the name jesus maybe they were even scared of uttering that name at this point yet here you have filled jerusalem with your teaching and you here's the problem with the whole message of life you intend to bring this man's blood upon us you keep talking about how our sins put him there and that we're culpable in some way for this i can't believe that you'd impugn us in all this like we're sinners and need redemption i mean stop with all that sin and judgment talk verse 29 but peter and the apostles answered we must obey god rather than men then he starts to preach a little summary of his little mini sermon here verse 30 the god of our fathers raised jesus whom you killed you could have left that out if you wanted to make friends and influence people but there he goes you killed him this senate killed him this sanhedrin killed him hanging him on a tree god exalted him at his right hand you tried to kill him god raised him he's the source of our salvation he's at the right hand as and here's a great greek word that the the word that we get like the chief person the one in charge sometimes translated the prince it says here in the esv the leader you could have used the word curios the greek word for lord but instead we use the word that comes from rk like the the archetypal person the one we listen to we may be standing before a great authority here but we got a greater authority and our authority is the leader the king the prince and he's not only the prince man he's gracious he's the savior to give repentance to israel he wants us to come to repentance that's what we've been preaching since chapter two to israel and that's not so that he can you know conscript you to some kind of enslavement no he he wants to forgive you what a good thing that would be when you die and you face your maker to be forgiven of your sins hey we're witnesses to these things we've seen the resurrected christ and we're here testifying to it that's what it means to witness to it and so is the holy spirit sent out right into the world convict the world of sin righteousness and judgment and the spirit is trying to make this same point in the world whom god has given to those who obey him and if you're on our team the spirits on our team and the spirit's trying to get that ball into the net it's a great picture there's much more to it when they heard this verse 33 we'll get into this next time lord willing they were enraged the sermon didn't go over very well and they wanted to kill him but for now let's just look at their encounter with the leadership i've entitled this series as we work through chapters five and six of acts the fear of god we've dealt with that in terms of the fear of god and discipline fear of god as it relates to some kind of connection to our leaders i want to talk about our government in this particular passage the government is scared they show that they actually luke says that they're afraid the church is unafraid they're courageous and they're bold and when they face the leaders they say listen we've got a higher authority the prince the leader the king is the king of kings he's the lord the leader of leaders he's the governor of all the governors he's the president of all the presidents he's the one in charge and so ultimately we know where our allegiance lies and you may tell us to stop doing something but we have to continue you want to arrest us and you want to arrest the message we're not going to let that happen because that is in contra distinction of what our leader has told us the opposition that we see in the book of acts is only going to ramp up there are four types and i'm just saying this as i sit down and try and give you a way to think through the categories of opposition number one i'd like you to put this down on your notes this morning you need to expect the church to be opposed and you can yawn your way through that point because if you've read the bible at all or sat through any teaching here you know that should be our expectation but let me go a little bit further and talk about the kinds of opposition that we see in scripture going from the least consequential in terms of your daily life to the most consequential let me give you four categories here you ready there's first rejection the rejection of our message trying to kick the ball into the net and it gets kicked away don't want to hear it don't want that not interested in it don't want to become a christian may be good for you not good for me i don't want it that's rejection the rejection of our message then there's ridicule right there's the trash talk on the field right you we don't like because you are trying to give us this message that we don't like and you're trying to impugn us and call us sinners and we need a savior we don't want you that and we think you're foolish and ridiculous like the sadducees thought of the disciples who believed in a resurrected christ they don't believe in the resurrection and they're saying you're dumb you're stupid ridicule then there's what's going on in this passage it started in chapter four when they said you need to stop you need to not do this they're trying to restrict them so we've got rejection of the message we've got the ridicule of the messengers now we've got the restriction of the whole movement we want to restrict we want to stop it want to arrest it there's retaliation that's something we would generally call at least they did in former generations they say that's persecution we call all of it persecution today because we're pretty thin skinned but that they used to call real persecution of the church that's when they start hurting you that's when they start arresting you and going beyond just arresting you and giving you a slap on the wrist which they're going to get here in this chapter i mean they're going to get a beating in the in the process but what we're going to run into when stephen we get to meet one of the leaders in the church a servant leader in church he ends up getting killed stoned to death the blood starts to flow in the streets of jerusalem which is happening all around the world today and has for the last 21 periods of this match and fighting the good fight of faith lots of people have been retaliated against simply because they are christians i want to put a couple of verses to those just to remind you that jesus warned us that all of these are coming how about this luke chapter 10 verse 16. luke chapter 10 verse 16. the rejection he puts it this way when someone hears you right then they're hearing me and when they reject you in other words they reject what you say they disagree with it they're disagreeing and rejecting me and if they reject me they're rejecting the one who sent me luke chapter 10 reminds us to be encouraged to keep going even though they reject our message because it's not our message it's not our gospel we're not calling you sinners god is so we keep going trying to kick the ball into the net even though they're going to reject the message and jesus said you know that's going to happen some are going to hear you and receive it some are not going to hear you they're going to reject it they're going to ridicule you listen to these words from luke chapter 6 verse 22 luke 6 22 here are the words four words used they're going to hate you they're going to exclude you they're going to spurn your name as evil and they're going to revile you those words hate exclude revile and spurn that's what happens to followers and messengers of christ who go now and try to advance the ball down the field it's the trash talk if you will in our silly illustration and it's something that you ought to anticipate and jesus tries to encourage even in chapter six of luke by saying this well if you're feeling that don't feel so bad because every godly person in the old testament that spoke for god they experienced the same thing so they spoke of the prophets who went before you so you're blessed he says you should rejoice in that day that you're part of that that group of messengers you're on the right team you're wearing the right uniform that's a good thing restriction of course that's what we're dealing with today more on that and the rest of the message we're going to see the restriction of the message stop slow down we don't want you to speak this way acts 4 acts 5. how about retaliation just to give us a sense of what's coming in the book of acts jot this down john chapter 16 verse 2 john 16 2 says not only will they put you out of the synagogues but there's an hour coming he says when those who kill you will think he is offering service to god when they cry out in arabic their words of praise to god they believe that killing christians which by the way is an increasing reality in the world matter of fact this generation has experienced more martyrs for the sake of christ and many of them are killed as christians because they think those that kill them they're doing service to god i think it's a good thing matter of fact all you have to do is look up anti-blasphemy laws anti-conversion laws the kinds of anti-proselytizing laws that are multiplying around the world today not just in the middle east it's catching on in various places and we're seeing what happened in the first period with stephen ramping up and more blood being spilled to the martyrs today than ever before and by the way peter later looks back on all of this and says you know what when all of this happens now this is the same peter that got thrown in the public jail he looks back and he says this when it happens don't think that some strange thing is happening to you don't think that way you ought to expect it all right we've got these four categories i don't have to talk about rejection and ridicule all of you have been christians more than 10 minutes you've shared the message with anyone you've experienced that the restriction though by the way i just want to talk just a little bit about because we are in a new level of restriction regarding the gospel particularly in our culture and preaching in america and southern california in the midst of a day where of course we have a secular society but now for you to speak up about christ is getting increasingly more restricted i tell you stories that i have from this platform about people putting up bible verses in their cubicle getting in trouble for it being reprimanded or censured or even losing jobs over sharing the gospel there was a time by the way you should know 1964 for instance the eeoc in giving us a freedom in terms of being a religious person in the workplace title vii of that equal employment opportunity document it said that we have the right as religious people to even proselytize in the workplace not that anyone's looking at that 56 year old document and trying to apply it in many situations today because the prevailing mindset of our day is to try to restrict you as a christian giving your christian message there's a million examples of this even today i was reading this week about a grade school kid in mississippi that got in trouble for wearing a mask of course during the covid thing they're all wearing masks and a lot of people put you know they bedazzled them and put signs on them and all kinds of messages on them and there's plenty of messages that are fine in the elementary school in this mississippi school district but one kid came and the the mask simply read jesus loves me i don't know it doesn't sound as controversial as a lot of slogans i've seen on people's masks ejected can't wear that there was a time when that was that would just be an unthinkable restriction upon people saying jesus loves me and to wear that on your face or your t-shirt there's tons of examples of that and certainly this covet thing has brought a lot of that into sharp focus and you've noticed in preaching i have not been on the cutting edge of trying to be spilling a lot of ink on this or spending a lot of our preaching time on this or you know employing you know church funds to go to go to the courts over this i'm not i'm not interested in trying to make a name for our church or ourselves or trying to be on the front edge of any kind of fight and i'm not interested that our goal is to kick the ball into the net that's what we're trying to do but what's happened in the middle of all this certainly is highlighted the kind of restriction placed upon the church that is not placed upon other organizations in our society and you know that right i mean some are simple we've known this from day one if i want to go to home depot and buy a garden hose i can do i can spend three hours inside a home depot buying a garden nose and a ton of other things throw it in my basket i can go to costco buy my artificial tree i can buy stuff i don't need all day long stuff i need there of course but there's stuff i don't need then it gets more and more ridiculous and some of these have made it all the way to the supreme court that i can go to casinos and card clubs and i can be inside of those things and i can do it at great numbers across this country but of course the concern was restricting this because this thing that we're doing well that's not essential right see so we've seen that call come into short focus and i got so curious about this i've read it in the headlines for months but i thought i'm going to call the casino so yesterday in my study i called because just to make sure this isn't just some right-wing conspiracy or something to find out can i really come right now and take my paycheck and put it on the blackjack table or you know spin your uh whatever they call them those things slot machines can i do that you can tell i haven't spent any time in the casino but of course they spent time telling me how everything is a lot more sanitized now but sure come on down come on down it got worse with the uh kinds of things i was reading about in the headlines and i was careful not to call them but the strip clubs across the country that are now open because as one san diego judge put it just this week it is an essential expression a free protected expression of their first amendment right to dance on your lap see and then even the details of what i was reading i was careful in these searches by the way i'll just let you know that i can have i can have up to four people in my booth right and engage in this adult entertainment and i can even have the judicial system in our country go oh yeah that's that's good it's a good thing and i'm assuming these four people aren't from the same family am i right i don't know it's not a family thing you do i would assume i mean i've never been but i'm just thinking hey kids so i can meet in groups and booths and engage in things like that but things like what we're doing right now don't do that unnecessary by the way the mortality rate is holding steady it's a hundred percent 100 did you know that 100 the mortality rate the statistics on death very impressive 100 yeah but you are increasing the risk of mortality before the time you're right it is safer for you to not be here 100 right i mean i'm a logical guy i know that's right you'd be safer not to be here right you'd also be safer not to drive to costco not just to be at costco but to drive to costco did you know you have one thirtieth of a chance of dying on the traffic in the traffic on an automobile asset accident by taking the bus did you know that one thirtieth of a chance you can go and take a bus and be a lot safer but i'll bet everyone i go talk to at costco with the exception of one or two people and they're not doing it because they're trying to be safe or driving their cars to home depot of course i'm not here to preach about all of those things but i am here at least to think now wait a minute when the government says we need to restrict what you guys are doing in church i'm just saying you've lost your credibility when you're playing the game that you've played and call these things essential and important and worth the risk and what we're doing here not essential and important and worth the risk i think we should at least say as christians now wait a minute that's a kind of restriction that at least is bringing the bias into clear focus right because if you walk to costco it would be safer you wore a helmet while you walk you wear a flak jacket and a helmet while you walk you would be safer i get that and i had one lady tell me as we sat there and talked about it well if we save one life i said you know there are a million ways to save one life get rid of electricity get rid of natural gas i mean there's a lot we can do that is not how you live your life and to say that we're here assembling to equip christians to go out into the world to kick the ball into the net that's our goal to make disciples and to know that there is a risk involved in that now when they told us the risk is half of us would be dead of course like everyone else we shut down but we realize this that what has happened in the middle of all this has really distinguished the values of our culture and we recognize at some point we have to say we we we're not here to cause problems we're not here to be on the news i don't want to be on in any talk shows i'm just here to say let's just do our work we're not here to shame anyone that's got a greater anxiety than the next person as it relates to things like their health we get it we understand it but we know this that the restriction of the gospel should not be the default when you compare it to all the other things that we deem important and necessary in our society we accept the risks because of our calling to assemble and we accept the risks because there's great joy in assembling and i just don't see where that sometimes is gone as psalm 84 10 says one day in your courts not even talking about being a high priest in the holy of holies we're talking about just being with the people about one day in your courts is better than a million elsewhere and for some of us we say that's just where life is really lived the words of life talked about in the context of life in the community of life i'd rather be involved in that and have the risk and actually the reality of what you might see as a premature death i'm not trying to be controversial i did not plan to preach this message this morning i i planned this series you do remember nine months ago and we're finally getting around to doing it i'm just not that smart to have planned all this that's the restriction we see plenty of it and there's retaliation and all i would do seriously put in your browser this afternoon apostasy blasphemy and anti-conversion laws read the latest report that i just read from november 2020 on all the countries around the world that have blasphemy laws anti-conversion laws and apostasy laws of course most of them are in muslim dominated countries and start to learn a little bit about what's going on to our brothers and sisters around the world which is what peter does say at the end of his book first first epistle so you got to think about the suffering that's going on around the world and it may help us see that you know what there's going to be opposition and we have gone maybe from the rejection of our message and the ridicule for being a messenger to the restrictions that we're starting to feel greater in our culture and it may be that next we'll see the martyrs of the book of acts and our brothers and sisters around the world who knows where it will be 30 years from now if we're all still here but we're going to courageously fight on because we remember who's on our team finally back to our passage all that was based on the assumption the basis of what was happening throwing apostles in jail because the high priest and his team are rising up against them but look at verse 21 middle of the verse we see in this passage in acts chapter 5 that they are starting to get scared just glance through those verses here you see where we've been the officers come they say hey the guys are gone they're not in prison they're kind of freaking out verse 24 wondering what would come of this the last phrase of verse 24. then they come and say well we gotta arrest these guys and call them on the carpet again and they're afraid it says in verse 26 because the people aren't going to have it and i'm saying that fear that uncertainty that what's going to become of this finally gets verbalized by gamaliel as he sits there in the sanhedrin in the next passage we'll study where he talks to his colleagues and he says we got to think about what we're doing here we really want to focus on opposing these people because what if these people really are on god's team we might find ourselves opposing god as a matter of fact look at it for yourself verse 39 if you can drop down further in this passage we don't want to do that but if it is of god you will not be able to overthrow them if that's true right jesus said my church gonna build it the gates of hell won't prevail against it it you might even be found to be opposing god and so i'm not sure we want to come down too hard on these guys and we'll get into all of that and what gamalia was thinking but for today let's just see there's some fear in the government officials and i'm saying that's exactly how it ought to be that's exactly how it ought to be number two on your own if you're taking notes realize the government should fear the government should fear they should fear god that's the whole point you should have a fear for god you should say i do not want to curtail the church because if the church is true and if the message of the gospel is true we're going to let them do their thing now they're going to have opponents they're going to reject their message and in the free exchange of ideas and the marketplace of ideas we'll let them do their evangel that's real pluralism there in other words we're going to say go out there and fight it out have the argumentation that the bible says all christians will have tearing down these arguments that raise themselves up against the knowledge of god go there and debate these issues and win people to christ now i know it's more than just a logical debate i get that but that's the picture in scripture go do it go reason with them from the scriptures and that's what the church should do and at times there have been governments that have said like gamaliel is suggesting because they fear that they might be opposing god they fear what might happen if they oppose the church they fear what might happen if they restrict the evangelism of the people of god or the assembly of the people of god and they stand back and go whoa i don't want to be against god you know our country used to be in that mindset if you studied colonial america you know i mean we don't have a lot of hope about a lot of the theology that was coming out of some of those people of course we had some clearly obviously affirming evangelical gospel truths but we had others in our government in particular that were influenced by a lot of political philosophy and really would be considered more deist than they would be christians born again christians and you often when you look back at that go well they weren't really christians a lot of them particularly the influential intellectual elites of the day and so you say well you know they're not in our camp well you do know this that even the deist of the day even those that were very skeptical of the truthfulness of all of the bible they stood back and said this we don't want to be found opposing god all you have to do is go and take another trip to dc matter of fact you can look all these guides up online and just go around to all the monuments and look at the things that were inscribed on the marble walls of these places and you start to realize there were in the founding fathers of our country people that said wait a minute we're not going to curtail the church as a matter of fact you'll start to see that was the cornerstone of the philosophical political movement of america to say we're not going to inhibit the church the free exercise of their religion let them do their thing we're not going to arrest it we are not going to restrict it we're going to let them do their thing and you know what god did in that honored that country and you see it go to the go to the go to the library at congress lots of things on the wall there you'll find scripture you'll find micah 6 right what does god require of you the end line of that phrase and etched on the wall to walk humbly with your god do you think our leaders in our day have that as their motto heavens to glory declare the glory of god they have the matthew or that psalm 19 text over the science section in the library of congress go to the uh the jefferson memorial have you been there have you read the walls there i mean just even this quote god who gave us liberty right what was the liberty what were they concerned the liberty primarily to express our devotion to our god through keeping the great commission i mean that in essence as it was a practice of our calling to make disciples this god who gave us liberty can liberties of a nation be secure when we've removed a conviction that those liberties are a gift from god our liberty from tyranny from the king of england and all the things that were going on the state church all of that they said you've got to recognize here's a micah 6 reverberation the humility of saying whoa that's a gift from god and then they had to send the fact checkers out when our president at one point said at a prayer breakfast that at the top of the washington washington memorial is are the words praise to god praise be to god that and it's in latin right it's a latin phrase and they went out there well he's making up stuff well look it up at the top of the washington monument on the mall there here it is at the top think about this over a hundred and what 20 years ago this thing was built and here it is the top at the top of the beacon of government taxpayer dollars being used here is the statement at all of the tallest monument praise be to god were they all evangelical christians not saying their names are written in the lamb's book of life but i am saying they had a little bit of what nebuchadnezzar had back in daniel chapter 3. he saw the work of god he saw the blessing that came to the people of god and he stood back in chapter 4 and he said wow god is great got to give him props for that god is the king and just like jeremiah says people start to recognize in certain situations god is the king of the nations and i simply serve with derivative authority to make sure i don't get in his way and i don't want to be found opposing god shadrach meshach and abednego or more accurately hananiah mishael nazariah in chapter 3 were delivered from that fiery furnace and nebuchadnezzar is greatly impressed and so in his kingdom he thinks biblically although not converted i'm not going to argue he's converted but thinks biblically enough to say you better let those guys have what they need they need to express their jewish religion let them do it and he says some great things in the first four verses but then much like in america yeah kind of get lulled into that prosperity thing which happens all the time god's blessing on a nation on a culture then all of a sudden we start to think just like god warned israel in deuteronomy don't think that you did this well by the end of chapter 4 nebuchadnezzar the babylonian autocrat of the world starts to stand back and say look at the beautiful place that i've built with my authority for my regal glory i have built a great place everyone's got an iphone and an ipad we got twitter we got we got it going on in this nation look at our wealth look at our military look at our economy look how strong we are and you know what happens at the end of chapter four of daniel right he gets struck down god makes him go crazy for seven periods of time he goes nuts and at the end all that it says my reason returned to me in fact let's look at that together that's worth it because i think there's so many parallels to the need of what we need in our country and that is to come to our senses and i'm not here trying to preach to you like you're a senator or a governor but i am here to say that we ought to think about what's demanded of government and that is to make sure you do not restrict the church in the free exercise of what it's called to do go to go to daniel chapter four can you find that real quick drop down to the bottom couple paragraphs here you can see the drama i just spelled out in verses 28 through 33. then it says in verse 34 at the end of the of the days i nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven underscore this my reason returned to me oh that the reason of our nation would return to it and i blessed the most high and i praised and honored him who lives forever his dominion is an everlasting dominion his kingdom endures from generation to generation all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can set can stay his hand no one can hold his hand back or say to him what have you done because god is in charge and his authority lies beyond us drop down to verse 37 i nebuchadnezzar praise and esto extol and honor the king of heaven that's a humble perspective that our nation used to have and its leadership used to have at least in theory for all his works are right and his ways are just and those who walk in pride he is able to humble no one can stay his hand at least there's one little tiny thing that you might see as a silver lining in all the controversy and all the hostility and all the anger that has gone on in this covid thing is that my neighbor as he circles his front room in fear that he might die of his invisible virus and then i compare my heart saying man for me to live is christ and to die is gain bring it on when you hear i have kovid and i'm breathing my last on a ventilator you should say how fortunate my pastor is because there's nothing better than for us to have our faith be sight and to see him as he is for when we see him as he has first john three we're gonna be like him that's our reward that's what we can't wait for that's when i can say i fought the good fight i kept the faith i'm ready to see this god that i've been serving that's the best thing we can have while our non-christian counterparts are pacing and fearful and anxious oh you got a death wish listen i'm not going to toss myself from the pinnacle of the temple right i don't go and lick hand rails at costco right i understand that that's not my goal and i even put the dumb you know requirements in place when i go places i don't want to offend these people i get that and i'm not saying i'm impervious to it i may be next maybe by tuesday i've got but i am saying this the silver lining might be that some people start to recognize their mortality in a way they haven't before and maybe they realize there's got to be more to this than this life because the mortality rate is 100 and we are holding out the words of life and i hope you hold out all the words of life and you say to your neighbors and your co-workers and your non-christian family members listen you gotta put your trust in christ because this life ain't what it's about and as paul said if this is what christianity is all about this life you gotta pity us more than all men we sacrifice for a king we try to kick the ball in the opposite direction of the rest of the world because we know that it's not about this world it's about when the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our lord and of his christ and he reigns forever and ever that's the goal of christian life and when the government starts to recognize maybe we're restricting that church thing too much those are little religious people down there that's a good place it's where it ought to be a matter of fact occasionally you want to write a letter to your senators maybe ought to write it like justin martyr did in the second century he wrote the senate and in his i think it was his 68th apology they call it which isn't an apology like you think it's like he's making a defense for the christian life here he warns the pagan authorities and he says we forewarn you you shall not escape the coming judgment of god if you continue in your injustice the next time you're upset about this that or the other i'm not just talking about our church service i'm talking about whether it's the crass immorality of our culture or the killing of our unborn children whatever it might be maybe that'd be a good way to start your letter to your official if you want to write one for we forewarn you you shall not escape the coming judgment of god if you continue in your injustice you go well they're going to go we're another crazy kook now you understand that's all true right that's part of the ridicule that you and i have signed up for to follow christ here's the last line of justin martyr's letter he said we ourselves invite you to do what is pleasing to god we'd like you to do what's pleasing and it starts with letting the church understand its mission and get active and doing what it's called to do church should have a red carpet in any society do its work and when that happens that righteousness exalts a nation but sin is the disgrace to any people you know i'm not big on preaching political sermons you know that right matter of fact somebody going is this our pastor what's he talk what's he doing i'm dealing with a passage that deals with the church encountering their authorities and how they sit back and say as you look at it one last time in the last section here verses 27-32 we end up saying listen when it comes down to we know who our leader and our and our savior is we obey god rather than men and it doesn't mean they're always in conflict with one another but when they come in conflict with one another or when you say i can sit at a blackjack table or have a lap dance you understand that when it comes down to what i'm called to do and be and the mission that we have it really supersedes the authorities of this earth and at some point we say your restrictions have lost credibility we understand our calling before god acts 5 verse 27 they brought them in before the council a high priest question and we strictly charge you not to teach in this name and you say well that's not what's happening today i get that i'm not saying this is an exact parallel to what we're going through but there are principles here right yet here you fill jerusalem with your teaching that's our job to fill the lisa villeo in orange county and the kilt country and treasure valley and huntington beach and everywhere else that we're trying to go and make a difference for christ fill that place with the teaching of christ and to call people to account for the blood of christ you intend to bring this man's blood upon us absolutely and that's the only portal we have to forgiveness is to see our sin but peter and the apostles they answer we must obey god rather than men the god of our fathers raised christ whom you killed by hanging on a tree god exalted him he's at the right hand as leader as prince and savior as commander as master as chief as boss and savior and that's for good look how good it is for you it gives you repentance if you listen you get repentance and forgiveness we're witnesses you align yourself with the right team you align yourself with the holy spirit and god will give that holy spirit to you just obey him and it starts with you obeying him in repentance and faith we want to be obedient to christ our church wants to be obedient to christ number three shot it down this way for taking notes no obedience to christ is good for all it's good for everyone good for our government good for our governor good for our senators good for the congress good for the world if the church will be the church and be faithful and zealously focused on kicking the ball into the net now if someone wants to block it and say i reject that i don't want to do it i don't well great this is not a militant religion that tries to get people to convert at the end of a bayonet i understand that but we are engaging in the marketplace the free exchange of ideas to plead within that there is a creator he has revealed himself and that revelation is about christ and christ has died in your place our sin put him there and your repentance will bring his forgiveness into your life that's our message we've got to get serious about being obedient to that and not letting anyone stop us from doing that and when you do that it's good it's good for them it's good for us it's good for our community righteousness exalts a nation it exalts the community it restrains evil i can quote passages like ii thessalonians chapter two the restraint of the ch of evil in a community because a church is doing what it's called to do it's the best thing that can happen to a community they don't know they don't know what they have when it when a city has healthy churches best thing they can have not to mention we'll get godly enough to start doing it first timothy chapter 2 says we'll start interceding for our leaders and those in authority i hope you're praying for your leaders easy to hate them i get that easy to be frustrated with them easy easy to see their hypocrisy i know that but can you pray for them i'm not saying pray that they'll have a great day their teeth will be nice and white and their hair won't fall out i hope they drive a really nice car and i hope their stocks you know increase no we're praying for them to repent we're praying for them to come to repentance and to have forgiveness and to be the kinds of people that we want to be followers of jesus christ tertullian known in the third century for writing to his officials and here's what he says to the emperor this is the good side of it all not only we call out their sin we tell them that we're praying for them he says without ceasing this is tertullian of carthage he died in 230. he said without ceasing for all of our emperors we offer prayer we pray for prolonged life we pray for security for the empire we pray for protection of the imperial house we pray for brave armies we pray for a faithful senate we pray for our virtuous people we pray for the world to be at rest at peace whatever as man or caesar or an emperor would wish that's what we want what's good don't restrict the church don't persecute the church don't ridicule the church we only want what's good what's good for them what's good for our society as long as we give them the whole counsel of god we've got a task target's big we got an adversary and we've got an opposing team there's another category of people out on that soccer field at least in modern soccer you've got the referees out there they're doing their best to try and keep things you know the way they ought to be trying to force some kind of justice on the field and that's hard to do because i mean it's not professional wrestling or anything but i've seen a lot of dramatics there on the soccer field those guys for being such strong healthy athletes they're flopping around on the ground a lot trying to get a call right well they've started as you soccer fans know to have like they have in most professional sports video review so if there's some kind of disputed call they can go up and see the video to see if it happened or not especially when you see something egregious and the refs don't catch it you get so frustrated it's good though as christians to know that the referee of our game this match this contested fight that we're engaged in in the 21st period of it today is wrapped by a god that though he does not bring the consequences immediately after seeing the infractions that he misses nothing proverbs 15 says the eyes of the lord are in every place in every place keeping watch on the evil and the good and i know that in our day we see a lot of injustice and some of you news junkies and you talk show people you're listening until you're just your head's spinning around and maybe you could cut back on that a little bit and read more about evangelism and apologetics and engage in evangelistic conversations that would be my first bit of advice for you not to bury your head in the sand but maybe a little less for some of you i can see it in your eyes when i walk out onto the patio a little bit more evangelism a little less talk shows but i would say this in your frustration which we're all going to have the bible says he's going to mark the godly that old testament view of the declining nation of israel judah in particular he says i see the people that groan and those are my people if you don't groan something's wrong with the christianity but know this that the injustices will always be dealt with why because the one that we serve is the king of kings the king of the nations as as jeremiah 2 says the idea of us trusting in him is to know that one day those government officials which we hope are friendly to our christianity which they used to be and god blessed them for it you have to recognize that that king will one day become the ruling king of this world here's how it was put speaking of a christmas verse as we get near christmas isaiah 9 right child's going to be born to you wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace and here's the and the government will rest on his shoulders and the extent of his kingdom there'll be no end that day is coming and there will be retribution and vindication retribution to the opposing team that does not repent and vindication for the embattled team that we're a part of but know you're on the right side of this expect the opposition realize it's the government that should be afraid not us right we fear god as we should as faithful children but we realize that the concern of the battle is one that they should fear not us when they oppose the church and know that obedience to christ as the church is obedient it's good for everyone so fight the good fight this week do it with gentleness and respect but be undaunted be fearless be courageous and do it because it's a good thing that we do to make disciples of christ in our world let's pray god we need you to encourage us we need you to give us perspective we need things like this simple illustration to help clarify what seems so complicated as we listen to it and hear people talk about it but it's really not all that complicated we've got a task to do make disciples be witnesses and alicia viejo orange county southern california the united states in this world that's our task to be your representatives ambassadors of your message and all this opposition is all part of what you planned and we're not supposed to when the fiery fiery ordeal comes upon us to act as some strange thing were happening it's not strange at all it's what every generation and every period of this great contest has gone through and so we i pray will faithfully step up and accept that and continue to rely on you and trust in you empower us in this even this week in jesus name amen

Channel: Compass Bible Church

Views: 1,834

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: 11-22-20, compass bible church, compass church, compass aliso viejo, aliso viejo church, compass bible church aliso, expository preaching, expository preaching church, biblical christianity, evangelical christianity, compass church hill country, compass church Tustin, compass church Huntington Beach, compass church treasure valley, Mike Fabarez, Mike Fabarez sermon, Pastor Mike Fabarez

Id: vuf8rKH8MgA

Length: 54min 20sec (3260 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020