Obeying God's Government 1 Peter 2:13-17

Because of this, you also pay taxes. For the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay 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. So the instruction is straightforward for Christians. It is God who set up human government, and Christians are to obey governing authorities that have been put over them.

But then March 2020 happened. March 2020 is, of course, when the COVID -19 lockdown started. At that time, almost all churches did not have in-service because we didn't know how serious the virus was.

We didn't know the truth of what we were being told. There were reports that somewhere near 5 of the world's population would die from COVID -19. But then time went by, and we realized that while COVID was serious to some, like the elderly and those with underlying conditions, most of the population would, at some point, get the virus, build natural immunity, and then be able to live life normally going forward.

It was at this point that some Christian leaders started to ask, is there something more going on here? The fact that more was indeed going on was revealed very clearly in the summer of 2020, when people were allowed to riot in the streets with no mask and no social distancing, but you couldn't go to church.

At this point, many churches started to open. At Eureka Baptist, we only missed eight Sundays because it was easy for us. The Supreme Court overruled Governor Tony Evers, and all restrictions were off.

But across the river in Minnesota, churches faced much more difficulty. Churches in California probably faced more difficulty than any other state in the Union. And this was shown in a recent movie called The Essential Church.

John MacArthur's church faced lawsuits from the state of California. At one point, there were rumors that MacArthur might be arrested. In Canada, this, in fact, happened. Several Canadian pastors were arrested where they spent about a month behind bars.

The big question that Christians had to wrestle with was, do we submit to the government, or do we practice civil disobedience? Civil disobedience is a biblical category. In Acts 529, Peter and the Apostles said, we must obey God rather than men.

Many pastors were persuaded to disobey because of what appeared to be an agenda against churches. And of course, the command to meet together was binding on their hearts. So they started to meet without the governor's approval.

Because of what our country and our world faced in 2020, pastors and Christians everywhere were forced to take a closer look at those passages in the Bible that talk about submitting to government. One of which I've already read, Romans 13, 1 through 7.

And another one is our text today in 1 Peter 2, verses 13 through 17. We are to submit to the governing authorities, yes. But we need a fuller understanding of what this means. And this morning, as we continue our sermon series through 1 Peter, we will look at how are Christians to live under governing authorities in this world.

A very relevant topic. So this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me there. If you do not have a Bible, we do have those red Bibles that you can use. This sermon is titled, Obeying God's Government.

And I'm going to begin by reading the text, 1 Peter 2, verses 13 through 17. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him, to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Here's a big idea. Every Sunday morning, every sermon is calling you to do something. And this is what this Sunday is calling you to do.

Submit to God's good design for human government. And we're going to see one reason why. Submit to God's good design for human government. And there's going to be one reason why that's going to come out at the end of this sermon.

But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were the last several Sundays. Last week, Larry Forsberg preached. The previous two Sundays in our sermon series through 1 Peter, we looked at 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 12.

And in that sermon, that two Sunday sermon, the call was to know that Jesus is the stone that demands a response. And in this text, we saw four ways how. These four ways are by receiving rejection from the world, receiving delight from the Father, welcoming people built on him as the foundation, and lastly, by displaying transformed people to the world.

Jesus, the living stone, stands before the whole world. No one can be indifferent toward him. Everyone must either receive him or reject him. And the truth about the world is that the Father receives him.

His Father loves him. His Father chose him to be the Messiah. And not only that, but every human who understands their sin, understands their need for him as the Savior, and submits to him as Lord, understands that he is wonderful.

He is a delight. But most of the world doesn't understand that. He is the stone that your life is built on. And without him, your life is sand, where you will sink and you will be destroyed. This was presented so clear to us in 1 Peter 2, 4 through 12.

Now this leads us to our text that we've already read, but now we're going to zero in on. And I'm going to begin by zeroing in on verse 13 and the first half of verse 14, where once again, Peter writes to be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him.

What Peter makes clear is that by submitting to human government, you are obeying God. Because he says in verse 13, you do it for the Lord's sake. That's the reason why. This teaching about submitting to human government is not new with Peter.

As I already read to you this morning from Matthew chapter 22, Jesus talks about this. In Matthew 22, 17, as we read, he was asked by the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

As we look at this, we need to answer this question. First off, who was Caesar historically? Caesar is a Roman term that also means emperor. And in our text, Peter mentions twice the term emperor. We just read the first time in verse 13, where he writes that we are to be subject to the emperor as supreme.

And he also closes in verse 17 by saying, honor the emperor. At the time of Jesus, according to Luke chapter 3, verse 1, Caesar Tiberius was the Roman emperor. In the first century BC, Rome moved from a republic, where the government was run by the people, a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

That's the government that we live in. They moved from a republic to an emperor, to an empire that was ruled by an emperor. And what's interesting is that these empires that rose up through history, they rise up because of the nature of man.

The nature of man is sinful. There's an old saying, absolute power corrupts absolutely. So it's no surprise that Rome moved from a republic to an empire. The Roman Republic ended in 27 BC, and this is when the empire came in.

And the region was now ruled by one man the military commander named Augustus. We better know him as Julius Caesar. And he reigned until 14 AD, when he was famously assassinated. This is when Caesar Tiberius took over, who reigned during Jesus' ministry.

Caesar, as the most powerful man in the empire, symbolized the totality of the governing authorities. So what they're asking Jesus in Matthew 22, in Matthew 22 .17, is it lawful to pay taxes to this earthly government that is over them?

This is the understanding that they had. This is the government that they lived under. They lived under this empire, with the emperor at the top. And when Jesus was questioned by the Jewish leaders, the question was almost always a test in order to trip him up.

This question about governing authorities was a difficult one presented to Jesus, because the Roman citizens, which included the people of Israel, were heavily taxed. And some Jews thought that it was right not to pay taxes because of the burden of taxation that the Romans put on the population.

So if Jesus answers that one should pay taxes, the Jewish leaders think that Jesus will lose favor with the Jewish population. And what we have seen, what we saw through Matthew, is how popular he was as he preached.

These massive crowds followed him and listened to his every word. So if he says that they should pay taxes, that's a problem. But if he says that they shouldn't pay taxes, this is also a potential problem, because then Jesus would be seen as an insurrectionist, someone who said, you don't need to follow government at all.

Just do your own thing. Follow me. So Jesus gives them the answer in Matthew 22, 19 through 21. He tells them to bring him a coin, and they bring him a denarius. A denarius was a typical day's wage labor.

And this was the coin that was used when Roman citizens paid taxes. Once Jesus has the coin in his hand, he asked the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians, whose picture is this on the coin? And they answer, Caesar Tiberius the Emperor.

On the front of the coin was his picture, and on the edge of the coin was written, Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus. Caesar Augustus was Tiberius' father, and the emperors were not just considered emperors, but a god, as this inscription said.

Divine Augustus. And by the way, this is why it was so controversial, that followers of Jesus followed him and called him Christ and worshiped him as God. Because this is exactly what the people did to the Roman emperors.

They worshiped them as God. They honored them as king. And so when Jesus comes on the scene, and all these people are following him, they see Jesus and his followers as this rival. So persecution came.

And what Jesus does here is he points to this inscription and to this picture of Caesar. What he tells them is, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. So if there's any debate about whether or not Christians should pay taxes, this is the answer.

The disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians who ask this question are astonished by his answer. They see his wisdom, because in his response, he says, some belongs to God. Some of your possessions belong to God, and some belong to the governing authorities that he has placed over you.

So think of it in this way. Some things you give to God directly, like on a Sunday morning offering. Other things you give to God indirectly, by paying your taxes. So Jesus stresses here the importance of submitting to the government.

To have civil authority keeps law and order. Without law and order, you don't have a society. And this is what Peter writes in our text in the second half of verse 14. These governing authorities are to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

Certain people are put in charge to enforce just laws, and the citizens are to obey those laws. When this happens, society functions as it should. As you and I do this, we not only honor God, but we also love our neighbors when we obey the just laws of the land.

To love your neighbor as yourself is the second greatest commandment, as Jesus says in Matthew 22, 39. To not murder is to love your neighbor. To not steal is to love your neighbor. To not falsely accuse someone is to love your neighbor.

To not physically abuse another is to love your neighbor. To fight for God-given rights, reminding government of God's good design for them is to love your neighbor. And we'll talk about that one more a little bit later.

When government functions as God intends, humans flourish. And when we as citizens are against evil and promote the good through the way we live, we too promote human flourishing. What we saw earlier in Jesus' conversation with the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians in Matthew 22 is that he instructs his followers to pay your taxes, and by doing this, you love your neighbor.

What Jesus is saying is that it is not okay to give to God, but not give the tax that belongs to government. What this means is that whatever income we bring in, some of it belongs to God, and some of it belongs to the governing authorities.

God expects you to give to both, and his plan is to use those resources for good in their given arenas, the society and the ministries of the church. It is not in God's plan for Christians to avoid paying taxes.

To not file taxes is to break the law of the land, and to not pay taxes is also to break God's law. By obeying the just laws of the land, you are obeying God. By being a law-abiding citizen, you are contributing to the order of society which blesses everyone.

What Jesus says, his apostle, the apostle Paul writes in Romans 13, seven, as I read in the introduction, pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed.

I remember when I was growing up, there was a man who was kind of loosely connected with our church. It was well known about him that he did not pay taxes. And apparently he was proud of it because just about everybody knew that he did not pay taxes.

And there was something always off about this man. He might've thought he was following God in this, but he wasn't. Now this man did not pay taxes because he thought we should not pay taxes to an evil government.

And there have been Christian theologians who have said that all government is evil and demonic. Greg Boyd is one of them, who is a problematic teacher. And he has said that he doesn't think Christians should have any involvement with government because government is evil.

Now I'm not sure if he didn't pay taxes or told other Christians not to pay taxes, but his view of government is the wrong one. It is true that government in this world is flawed and sometimes deeply flawed.

It is obvious that our country right now is deeply flawed, but the government was still put here by God for the good of humanity. And we as Christians should do what we can to make government better. This is why we vote and make our voices heard on moral issues.

We want government to perform their God-given purpose and Christians are the ones who should be telling governing authorities what God expects of them. We should get involved in politics to a certain extent.

We always want the gospel to be the focus. Okay, we don't wanna be known as those people who just push morality to have better legislation. We wanna do both, right? We wanna first and foremost preach the gospel.

We want people to be saved. We want them to be in heaven one day, but it's also important for us to do what we can to make a better country, to make a better community, to make a better state. We have that stewardship that God has given us and we love our neighbor when we do this.

Now, as we talk about paying taxes here and as Jesus addressed in Matthew 22, it is true that the tax code in America has issues and many of the taxes are not used for good things, but some of them are.

I mean, we would be blown away if we found out some of the things our taxes are used for. It certainly is a mixed bag and before God, we say, Lord, I'm not sure how this money will be used, but I want to honor you by paying my taxes in order to help society function properly.

Like for example, building better roads, you know, and so on and so forth. Earlier, I mentioned that the Roman citizens experienced heavy taxation and certainly, there was corruption in what some of these taxes went toward but even in that context, Jesus told them to pay their taxes.

Jesus would not have been opposed to having someone stand up to fix the taxation system since heavy taxation puts a burden on the people and that's not what God wants. Government was put here by God to help people, not hurt them, but governmental reform was not Jesus' mission in life.

His eyes were on Jerusalem and he was telling his people to be law-abiding citizens while they lived on this earth. Earlier, I mentioned that Jesus twice discussed the issue of how Christians should carry themselves under human government.

I already have explained to you Matthew 22. The other place is Matthew 17 and this is such an interesting text because in this text, Jesus explains that he is not bound like the people of this world are bound to paying taxes because in that text, he pays the temple tax and he says he does it not to give offense.

What's so interesting about this is that he says because I'm God's son, I don't have to do that but I choose to do that not to bring offense. Now, he is the only begotten son of God but guess what? Who else are sons of God?

We are. Where is our home? Is it on earth or is it in heaven? Our home is in heaven and in fact, in this letter in 1 Peter, Peter explains that we are exiles in this world. We are sojourners. We are foreigners.

We are people who are passing through. So in that passage in Matthew 17, 24 through 27, Jesus is explaining that you pay taxes not because this is your primary home but not to cause offense because you are sons as he is.

He is the son of God. Of course, he is the only begotten son of God but you are adopted sons of God. You are passing through. Your home is heaven but while you are here, it is important for you to be a law-abiding citizen so that when people look at you, they say, you know what?

These people help society. They don't hurt it. Even though you belong to the heavenly kingdom and this technically isn't your home like this is the home of unbelievers. People who never believe in Christ, this is their home.

They don't have a home in heaven like you do but you are to be seen as one who does not give offense. So just as Jesus paid the tax, we as his followers are to pay that tax as well. And it's not just paying taxes.

We should be model citizens in every way. We have speed limit signs. We should follow those signs. We should willingly show our ID before we vote or go through security at the airport. We should pay the fees that the state gives us as annoying as they are.

We should pay whatever taxes we are taxed as scripture says. You are to be good citizens. You are to be model citizens. You are not to make the mistake that some professing Christians make that we have little to no responsibility to the governing authorities.

As Peter writes in verse 17, sorry, verse 16. Verse 16 he writes, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil but living as servants of God. What Peter is describing is the Christian freedom that we have.

When you become a believer in Christ, your sins have been paid for. They have been paid in full but you are not to use your forgiveness as a reason to keep on sinning. The thought process goes like this.

I'm not going to get punished for my sins. So why not just live how I want and say I believe in Jesus? Because He forgives me, right? Free grace, right? That's not what the Bible teaches. Peter is saying to think like that is not Christian thinking.

As Peter once again says, live not using your freedom as a cover up for evil but living as servants of God. The instruction is clear. Do not use the forgiveness in Jesus to live how you want. Paul writes in Romans 6, 1, shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?

By no means. Living as servants of God means aiming to please Him in thought, word and deed. And this is for every area of life, including how Christians live in respect to human government. Christians are not to be involved in unnecessary rebellious behavior toward governing authorities.

On top of that, as hard as it is, we are to show respect as verse 17 says, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. This one's hard. This wasn't so hard maybe 50 years ago. In 2023, this is hard.

Even when we don't like the authorities over us, we are called to show respect. Once again, we need to remember the context that Peter's writing this. These emperors were ruthless, largely speaking. And yet he's saying, show respect to them.

We should not be those who take pot shots against the governing authorities. We can criticize, of course, but even when we criticize, there should be a level of respect. And to be honest, this is hard, right?

Our president, he's an old, frail man losing his mind. I mean, that's the honest truth. I'm not saying that as a shot at him, it's just true. But we are not to make fun of him, but we should hate his policies which are not biblical.

If we were to come in contact with the president, this would be the gone honoring way to do it. Mr. President, I pray for you. I pray for you in lots of ways. And one of the ways I pray for you is to govern according to God's law.

And in all honesty, I am disappointed in the laws you put forth that go against what is just according to the Creator. This level of respect, as Peter writes in verse 17, is not just to be made toward governing authorities, but to everyone.

We should be known as respectful people. As he writes in the beginning of verse 17, honor everyone. Right after this, he writes to love the brotherhood. This is believers. So as we show respect to the governing authorities, this should be the pattern that is already present in our lives.

We show respect to believers and we show respect to all people. We show respect to those we love and agree with and to those we are troubled by and disagree with. It's easy to show respect to those you like.

Very difficult to show respect to those you don't like. So ask yourself, how would people describe you? Are you one who shows respect to everyone, including the people you despise? That's a good question that we all need to ask.

As we live in this world, these are the kind of people you and I are to be. And as we process all of this, I want to turn to what I said in the introduction. In this crazy world we live in, it is important to understand when to submit to the governing authorities and when not to, because we don't do it 100 of the time.

Civil disobedience is a biblical category. According to Scripture, the only time we disobey human government is when government operates outside of God's design for human government. When the government operates as God intended, we should follow without making a fuss.

We should follow speeding laws because speeding laws are good. They prevent crashes and therefore injury and deaths. We should also pay our taxes because governments need taxes to build things like roads and bridges.

There is a place for taxes even though some of the taxes go for the wrong things. And this happened in Jesus' day as well, as I mentioned. But what if the government is using their power not to punish evil but to advance it?

What if government is using their power not to promote good but to punish good? Isaiah 5 .20 says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

We live in a country where good things are called bad things and bad things are called good things. And when those are the values of the government, then the government ceases to function how God designed it to function.

In Acts 5 .29, Peter and the other apostles were told you cannot preach the gospel. That's easy. We're going to disobey. Acts 5 .29, Peter says, We must obey God rather than men. Preaching the gospel and living out righteousness at home, in the church, and promoting righteousness in the public square is something that every Christian should always do, no matter what the government says.

And let me say this again. We have been raised, at least in my upbringing and I think in so many upbringings, do not get political. Have you heard that before? Do not get political. But what I submit to you is that we are not being fully obedient to Christ until we bring the Bible to bear on the public square.

Because what is politics? It's biblical morality in the public square, in the communities we live in, in the state we live in, in the country we live in. And there's this view, it's called pietism. Pietism teaches, let's just focus on the home.

Let's just focus on the four walls of the church. Let's not care about what happens out there. A guy like Adolf Hitler loved that, because he's like, okay, the church is out of the way. The moral authority in the country is out of the way.

Now we're just gonna run a rough shot over everyone. Pastors should be leading the way in this. And shame on pastors who do not. And then Christians should follow. We need to make our voices heard in the public square.

And during the height of COVID -19, we had it pretty easy here in Wisconsin, right? Because of what happened with the Supreme Court. But so many other places had it hard. I mentioned John MacArthur's church in California.

What happened there was unbelievable. And what happened in Canada was even more unbelievable, as pastors were arrested and put in jail for several days for the crime of holding church services. Could you imagine them going to jail?

What are you in for? Theft, what are you in for? Battery, what are you in for? We held a church service. A little bit different, huh? And the movie, The Essential Church, explained the connection between what happened in 2020 and what happened in the 17th century in England.

This is why it's important to understand church history. In the 17th century in England, there was a book known as the Book of Common Prayer. This was not necessarily a bad book, but the book was required to be used in every church in England.

And the king was the one who required it. So the presence of the Book of Common Prayer in all these local churches was symbolic of the king's authority over these churches. And in the movie, I don't want to spoil the movie.

I highly recommend it, go see The Essential Church. There was actually a lady who threw a chair at the pastor because he was using the Book of Common Prayer. And there's a statue to this day showing the lady grabbing the chair, about to throw it at him.

I mean, think of how tame our culture is compared to what it used to be. But you know what happened in 1662? There were 2 ,000 pastors in England who said, we are not gonna use the book. Christ is Lord of the church, not the king.

You know what happened? They were kicked out. It's called the Great Ejection, 1662. And so all these pastors and the people who followed their leadership, they went underground. And in the movie, they show pastors would preach in the center of a river because if they came after them from one side, they could just go to the other side.

They had a secret passageway where they would put the pastors under. I mean, think of how crazy that was. But this is how important it was. We will not submit to a government that wants authority over the church, that tells a church how it should function.

Have we wrestled with Romans 13? Have we wrestled with 1 Peter 2, 13 through 17? Because our culture has forced us to wrestle with what it means to submit to government. We want to be law-abiding citizens, yes.

But we also want to obey God when they call us to disobey him. Romans 10, verses 24 and 25 says, we are commanded to meet together. And here's what's amazing. Typically, we see the fruit of something when people made the right choices.

What churches are growing right now? Are they the ones that complied entirely with the government, closed down their church for a year or more, did everything the government said? Are those the churches that are growing?

Or is it the ones who said, you know what, we gave you the benefit of the doubt for a while, but then we saw what was going on here, and we say, we're not following anymore. It's amazing the growth of these churches that took a stand and how people just flocked to them.

Since COVID -19, this church has boomed. And not just this church, but so many other churches all over America. And not just America, but Canada and other places in the world as well. We stand with Christ.

He is our King. We submit to him alone. And one of the ways we submit to him is by submitting to government. We want to be law-abiding citizens. We want to be good neighbors. We want to be those who do right in the public square.

But sometimes, doing right means not submitting. And we need the wisdom to know when that is. So, most of the time, we should do what the government says, but there are times to disobey, and we need that wisdom to know when.

But as we wrap this all up, here's the big idea once again. Submit to God's good design for human government. And in this text, we have seen one reason why. And here's this reason, it's in your bulletins.

That reason is that those who honor God through respecting authorities are seen as law-abiding citizens that do good to all. Those who honor God through respecting authorities are seen as law-abiding citizens that do good to all.

And by the grace of God, may the people of Eureka Baptist be model citizens who obey God above all. Now, next Sunday, we will see another human institution. It's the most important human relationship there is between husband, I'm getting ahead of myself here, that's down the road.

Next Sunday is the institution, this is an important one too, not as important, but between employer and employee, slaves and masters, as 1 Peter 3 describes it. And I look forward to looking at that with you next Sunday.

But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Oh, Father in heaven, sometimes it's hard to apply the Bible. Sometimes we need to go through something to really understand what the text is saying. And Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, 13 through 17, it's not as black and white as we once thought.

But what is black and white is that above all, we are called to obey you. And so by your grace, Lord, help us to do that. Help us to be a blessing to our neighbors, which most of the time is submitting to the laws of the land but it's also a blessing to sometimes practice civil disobedience.

And so give us that wisdom and help us to be a blessing, Lord, to our community as we honor you in this way. In Jesus' name, amen.