Serving God, Not Human Authority
A Sermon preached on Sunday, July 29, 2007
by Pastor Terry Davis
First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT
Click here to Read the scripture for this sermon
As I said this was now the second time that the Apostles were arrested. Jeremiah, however, had been persecuted, attacked, beaten, and taken into custody numerous times; once they had thrown him in an almost dry cistern, this time he was put in the stocks, and like the Apostles he was persecuted and imprisoned for his preaching. In Jeremiah’s case we might think that the message that he was preaching was a political message, and in a certain sense it was. The burden of his message at this point in his life was that the city and the temple, actually the whole nation of Judea were going to be utterly destroyed. Jeremiah however would never have thought about the distinction that we make between a political message and a spiritual message. As a prophet he had only one duty, to speak what God told him to speak, and at this time God had told him to preach a message of destruction. Since the message came from God it was a spiritual message. We like to make these distinctions and say if the preacher tells you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved that is a spiritual message, but if we were to say the present war in Iraq is immoral and must be ended immediately by any means necessary then we are preaching a political message. I think that Jeremiah’s point of view is the correct one, that every message that comes from God is a spiritual message.
Our Southern Presbyterian kinsmen were largely responsible for today’s distinction because they were proponents of the doctrine of the spirituality of the Church, which the Church and its preachers were not to meddle with civic affairs. The church could talk about and adopt positions on evangelism prayer, salvation and predestination, but not about slavery, voting rights, or any civil rights, school segregation, the war, what ever war was going on at the time, and so forth.
At first examination it may seem that the Apostles were being persecuted for their spiritual, their evangelistic message, but if we look more closely we discover that the motivation of the high priests was not purely spiritual, it was not all about the purity of Judaism. Yes, they perceived that this Jesus movement was a Jewish sect centered on Jesus as messiah, and on Jesus dead and resurrected. This new version of the faith was wildly popular; the high priest said that they had filled Jerusalem with their teaching. But there was another more political aspect to their preaching, they said to the Apostles you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” They felt very threatened by the charge that they were responsible for the death of Jesus. This was a political act; they had brought a man to Pilate asking that he execute him on charges of sedition, of fomenting rebellion, of making himself a king instead of acknowledging Caesar as King.
As long as we preserve the distinction between spiritual and civil or political matters we can believe that no one is persecuted for practicing their faith in this country. We know it goes no other places in the world that Christians have been persecuted in communist countries, and in many Islamic nations today the Christian Church and Christian preachers are under attack for their faith. Of course many Muslims would argue with our assumption that no one is persecuted for their faith in this country since many of them have personally experienced persecution both from individuals and by local, state and especially federal officials.
We also know that many Christians through out history have been persecuted for their political and moral views. Martin Luther King may be the person that we think about first. We know he was repeatedly arrested, his house was firebombed, he was pelted with rocks and garbage, and ultimately he was put to death for preaching what he believed. Most of us are aware that hundreds probably thousands of other involved in the civil rights movement because of their religious convictions were both persecuted and arrested, and others lost their lives. Those who have been involved on moral and religious grounds in anti war actions, draft refusal, tax refusal, un-permitted protests have also been persecuted for their faith, or at least for putting their faith into words and actions.
If you agree with my analysis of what it means to be persecuted for your faith and reject the doctrine of the spirituality of the Church then with this wider understanding we can see that persecution for the sake of our faith is much more widespread and thus we should be interested in why Jeremiah and the Apostles would not be silenced.
Jeremiah said he did try to resist prophesying this message of doom and gloom. It was personally depressing and it was depressing to everyone around him. It resulted in his rejection by the people who he considered his congregation; mistreated by the priests and rulers, beaten, arrested; it is little wonder he tried to close his mouth and not speak his message anymore. But he said that when he tried to silence himself the word of God that was within God enticed and overpowered him. He said:
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
Many of us discover when we, like Jeremiah, try to be quiet about those thoughts and doctrines and views which we know are unpopular that what we believe and what we feel compelled to speak becomes like a burning fire shut up in our bones, and we also grow weary with holding it in. I find in the context of the present conflict within the Presbyterian about the full inclusion of Gays and Lesbians that I have friends who advise me not to make too much noise and not to take certain actions because they want peace in the Church, that reconciliation has, for some Presbyterians become more important than truth, more important than striving for change. In some cases I have shut my mouth and bit my tongue, particularly in Presbytery meetings, but there is this burning in my bones.
Peter put it another way, when they commanded them, again, to cease this preaching in the name of Jesus, he said “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”
Some of you know that one of our session members resigned from the session and will not be attending services for some period of time because of what I preached two weeks ago. I dared to speak in a sermon about what has been a growing conviction on my part that the death and resurrection of Jesus has secured the eternal salvation for everyone, believers and unbelievers alike. It would have been easier to be quiet about this conviction. I know it is heretical, and I said so. As early as 394 the church declared it heretical and orthodox Christianity has condemned it ever since, but I know what Jeremiah means about a fire that you cannot keep in forever. I am very sad that even one person left because of what I said, and I knew everyone was not going to agree with me. I once thrived on controversy, I don’t have much of an appetite for conflict any more, and I am in favor of peace and reconciliation and including everyone’s views. I am not saying that anyone else has to believe what I believe; I am not a priest or bishop, archbishop of pope. I am Terry and I preach to share what I believe and what I believe God has called me to preach.
But that is all personal – the question I want to raise in your minds this morning is whether our Presbyterian hesitancy to speak to our neighbors and family and friends about our faith and our Church has anything to do with our fear of rejection or even ridicule. If so has something been said this morning that is relevant to you?
Jeremiah 20:7 - 9 7 O LORD, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long. 9
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
The following reading is the trial following the second time that the apostles are arrested. In both cases they were detained for the night, but this time the Lord sprang them out of the prison and before the council had convened for their trial and they were already back preaching in the temple. When the council had convened for the trial they sent for the prisoners but the guards who went to get them found that they were not in the jail. The gates of the prison were locked, the guards were on duty, but the prison was empty. Someone told the council where they were and the reading begins as the guards come to arrest them again.
Acts 5:26 - 32 26Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. 27When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 28saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” 29But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”