Sermon: A Christian Response to Mandatory "Cookies"

The Book of Acts and the Church Turning the World Upside Down

If you would, open your Bibles to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17, for those of you who are new to your Bibles, that's in the New Testament, Acts chapter 17. Beautiful historical narrative of the beginning of the Christian church.

Jesus is raised from the dead. He is ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. He receives that inheritance promised to the Messiah. He is sitting on David's throne with all authority, and in Acts we see at the very beginning the Holy Spirit of God is poured out upon the church, and the gospel explodes across the pagan empire known as Rome.

Very hostile environments for the Christian church to start in, and God in His providence and miraculous ways begins to change the world, and you see the church in the book of Acts. Just, by the way, read it.

Read the book of Acts. This week, do it once, at least once. Read the book of Acts from the first chapter to the last chapter. Read that and ask the question, are we faithful like they were faithful? Are we willing to take risks like the early church was willing to take risks?

Are we willing to stand on truth to be beaten, to be on the run, to be hated, to have riots breaking out because of the proclamation of the truth in the public square? Read the book of Acts, because we see a world around us.

As we get to the text here, today in our world, so much of the world has been influenced by the gospel and the Christian worldview. We see a world today where we ask the question, how can you overcome this evil, this lawlessness, this tyranny, this confusion, this redefinition happening all around us?

How can you overcome it? Doesn't this mean that the church is lost in history and this is the end? I'd encourage you to look at the church filled with the same spirit of God that you are and I am, with the same message of truth.

Look at them in the book of Acts in a pagan context with much smaller numbers in that pagan context. And they turned the world upside down with the truth. And that's the key issue. It was with the truth, the proclamation of the truth.

And so we are in the book of Acts, chapter 17, just as a springboard verse today as we talk about a Christian response to mandated cookies. And as you're watching this around the world right now, I would say to that, let the reader understand.

In Acts chapter 17, we're going to start in verse 2. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. And Paul went in as was his custom. And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and arise from the dead and saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Messiah.

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out.

Of the crowd.

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down have come.

Here also.

And Jason has received them. And they are acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,.

Jesus.

Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

Let's pray.

Father, I pray for today's message. That it be a blessing to your church, to your people. We pray, Lord God, that it is your truth that transforms us, transforms the world, and that emboldens us. God, grant to us the grace and the strength, the strength to speak the truth no matter the consequence.

Pray that you would, Lord, allow me to get out of the way, that I would decrease, Christ would increase, that people would forget me in the midst of this conversation and remember.

Your truth.

In Jesus' name, amen. Do you see that? That's powerful.

What do you see?

Acts 17, just this little snippet, you see some of the methodology and the typical procedures of the early church, the kinds of things that they were engaged in on a regular basis. What do you see. Break out?

A mob, a riot breaks out.

Why?

Because of the proclamation of truth. But just in this little section here, you can see that the early Christian church was not only engaged in the spiritual conversation and the spiritual affairs of the world.

You see at the beginning there where the Apostle Paul goes to the synagogue and he begins reasoning and arguing that Jesus is the Mashiach, that he's the Messiah. So it actually is part and parcel to the Christian worldview and what we do, it is our M .O. and that's to argue for the truth.

People who know the truth and love the truth are not afraid to bring the truth into the.

Public square.

People who love truth and believe that they are in the truth are not afraid to be scrutinized.

And challenged.

Very important in the modern context, if you have the truth, why are you afraid to be critiqued? Why are you afraid to be cross-examined? And you see the early Christian church goes with the message of the truth of Jesus as Mashiach, they go into a context that, let's be honest, most evangelical seminaries today would say, Paul, probably not the right strategy.

You need to invite people to barbecues and cotton candy things and all the rest. Give out free popcorn and invite the community into your little holy huddle. But what are you doing going to the synagogue and causing problems?

You're reasoning and arguing for the cause of Christ. People have asked us over the years, why do you guys go, you know, to places where you go to a mosque and you go and try to hand out tracts and engage with them?

Why do you go disrupt things like that? Why do you go to the Mormon temple and Mesa to stand out there and to love them and preach.

The gospel?

Why do you do that? And my answer is, I'm just following the apostles' lead. They go to the places of spiritual conversation to preach the gospel, to argue for the truth, to reason in a gracious and bold and humble way.

And they do it because they love Jesus and they love the person in front of them. So they want to tell them the truth no matter the consequences. And in this case, what do you see? You see the apostles engaged in not only the things that we would call spiritual conversations.

Those are the spiritual conversations taking place at the synagogue with those who accept transcendent things. But they're also getting in trouble because their message is obvious to everybody around.

It's the kind of obvious thing that people can say, bring it before the authorities, bring them to the state because their message that we would call spiritual has implications.

For the whole world.

And they knew it. What's the accusation? I want you to see it again. The accusation is, quote, this is in verse nine, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also and Jason has received them and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another king, Jesus.

So this is not just in the realm of the spiritual behind the ears and the walls of the church. The Christian message, they preached it so faithfully that the world understood the implications. We see King Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, ruler over the kings of the earth.

I'm quoting scripture now. We see that in the modern context as, oh, that's for the church. That's our thing over here in this little huddle we have in Bible studies. We like to pretend that Jesus is king over the kings of the earth and Lord of Lords, but we don't really mean that, Mr. President.

We don't really mean that, Senator. We don't really mean that, Representative. Isn't it interesting that when this gospel goes down to the first century, this gospel of the kingdom, this gospel of salvation and forgiveness under the authority of Jesus Christ, they understood it.

What?

You're saying that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth right now and that authority is over Caesar himself? And they understood. That's a treasonous statement. You can't say that. And we've done this.

This is basically threadbare now for apology of church in the first century. They don't care what you worship. You can lay down in the street and worship a rock in Rome and they do not care. Just as long as you give a little pinch of incense, just as long as you acknowledge that your God, whatever it is, or whoever they are, has to be subservient to the authority.

Of Caesar.

Caesar is Lord. And the early Christian church was not simply engaged in a conversation about transcendent things that were out there that had nothing to do with this world right here. They were preaching a gospel that said, no, Jesus has all authority.

He won. It is finished. He's the savior and he's the one whom everyone must bow to and yield to. You see, these early apostles and Christians understood something about the Great Commission and that's that it was true.

Stop there for a second and think about it just for a moment. The Great Commission, what's it say? Matthew 28, 18 through 20. It says all authority in heaven and on earth has been, past tense, given to me.

That's what Jesus said before his ascension, before he ascended into heaven. He says that before a very small crowd in pagan Rome with Caesar, with all authority. And these early Christians understood he meant it.

Do we believe that? Do you believe it today? That Jesus has all authority today? Is it simply the pithy slogan that I'm always talking about?

Or do we actually believe it?

Because they clearly believed it to the degree that they were preaching it so faithfully and so clearly that everybody around had ears to hear and they said, ah, you're saying that he has all authority over every area of life?

Even over these guys over here with so much power? Your Jesus has something to say authoritatively to Caesar? Not allowed. That's treason. You can't say that. But they preached it so faithfully that something happened.

We love to be safe. Last generation we've been plagued with pastors who stand behind pulpits like this that are just simply cowards. They will not live their lives sacrificially for Christ or their body in such a way as to not be seen as respectable people.

They have this last generation handed to us a context of a Christian culture that wants cotton candy, popcorn, and music concerts rather than a faithful proclamation of the message of the gospel that says Jesus is the king and you must obey Jesus.

There will be a day of judgment where you will be judged. Repent and believe in a hurry. We so want to be safe and comfortable that we have now given to the world a generation of very safe and comfortable Christians that just go along with sin and tyranny because they love safety and comfort.

They are idols that we worship and they must be melted down because stupidity doesn't work. Foolishness doesn't work. And if we have yielded to all of this tyranny and lawlessness all around us, it will come knocking.

And for many of you it's knocking at your doors right now. The early Christian church had a message of the gospel that was clearly understood to the degree that Rome killed Christians. Christians know those stories.

We talk about them all the time. Rome killed Christians. They burned them at the stake. They wrapped them in pitch, lit them on fire. Nero used them as Roman candles to light his garden parties. They were slaughtering Christians.

They were tearing their bodies apart. They were flaying them, taking the skin off their body while they were still alive, feeding them to the lions. They were killing them.

Why?

Because they said that Jesus is Lord. Now Christians today say, I believe that. I believe Christian is Lord. Do you believe it like they believed it? Where they meant it? Where they actually meant it?

That Jesus' lordship meant that he was the king and the final authority over every single area of life? Not your own private spiritual experience, not just for you and your wife and your kids, but not just for you and your church community, but they believed that Jesus was Lord in such a way that it impacted every single area of life.

The proclamation of the gospel was not just about private salvation, but it was a gospel.

Of a kingdom.

It was a gospel of a rule of the king who has all authority. It was pointing to Christ as the ultimate. They preached it in such a way as the world understood. And what was the consequence? Riots, mobs, people tried to cancel them in the first century.

They tried to do it without Twitter and YouTube and all the rest. They did what they could to cancel, right? That's been part and parcel to our experience since the very beginning. But the early Christian church was engaged in the proclamation of the gospel in such a way that it was comprehensive and was all encompassing.

If you look at, of course, at Acts 4, verse 12, you know the famous story. Well, let's go to it. I want you to see it. I'm not just going to talk about it. Let's do it today as people are learning about the Christian response to mandatory cookies.

Lay some foundations. Acts 4, in verse 12, this, of course, is the famous message that Peter gives. And he says to the Jews, in verse 10, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.

So he says, you're guilty, you did this. By him, this man is standing before you well, talking about the healing that had just taken place. This Jesus is a stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

And there is salvation to no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved now. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.

Boldness?

Talking to Jews about spiritual things? Well, they accused them, you're guilty of murdering Jesus. But then Peter's quoting here something that was known in the empire. It was something that was said about Caesar, that there was no salvation except through Caesar.

Whenever a town would yield to the Pax Romana, they'd put posts up in front of that little town, talking about the salvation of Caesar, and there was salvation in no other, other than Augustus, the son of God.

And now Peter is taking their famous tagline about Caesar and his salvation, and he is taking it and applying it to Jesus. Understand that the early Christian church was seen as an enemy of the state, not because they really were, in terms of their behavior, but because what they said about Jesus was that his authority and rule was all-encompassing over everything.

And isn't it interesting that in the modern era, as we've brought the gospel now, in the last couple of hundred years, around the globe to places we have never been before, in such an amazing way. Isn't it amazing that even in the modern era, when faithful Christians proclaim the message of Jesus in truth, with boldness and humility and love, those governments and governing authorities recognize the same problem that Christians are to despots and tyrants in history.

So, for example, I've said it many times, but I need to make sure this is laid down to understand our response to mandatory cookies. When you look at North Korea today, how did it get that way? How did it get that way when the leader of Korea has grandparents, or great-grandparents, that were Christian missionaries?

How did you get from a place where North Korea was seen as the Jerusalem of the East, not very long ago, to where it is today? How did you get there? Because the despots and tyrants who took control recognized that the Christian church is enemy number one.

Why? Because they say there is a transcendent law above government. Because they say that Jesus is the authority over their nation. So what do you do? Get the Christians out of the way. Make Christianity illegal.

Why? Because a faithful understanding of this word understands this. Jesus says, all authority. And that's true in a pagan context, and that's true in a nation that has been fully converted to Jesus. Jesus has all authority.

It doesn't matter how many numbers there are. Jesus has all authority. I want you to remember this key issue. Jesus said that he had all authority in heaven and on earth with a handful of disciples in front of him.

That was in the first century, long, long ago. That's the claim of Jesus. Do you believe it? In the early Christian church, in the book of Acts, you see not only were the early Christians accused of going against the decrees of Caesar, saying there's another king above Caesar, Jesus, not only was Peter taking a famous slogan for Caesar in Rome about salvation only in Caesar Augustus and turning it into, Jesus, how very political of you, Peter.

Why don't you just preach the gospel and stay out of this political stuff? Sound familiar? The common claim is, why are you guys engaged in all this political stuff? Why are you engaging all this stuff over here?

Why don't you just preach the gospel? Tell that to Peter. Tell it to Peter, when he's taking something that the politicians were saying was law, and he's subverting it and turning it into a claim about Christ.

Tell Peter to just preach the gospel. Tell Paul just to preach the gospel. My answer is, I am preaching the gospel. You are not. You are not. And it's you are not preaching the gospel that has got all of our neighbors into all of this trouble.

We know, of course, in Acts chapter 5, verse 29, the famous statement from Peter, as they were told by civil governing authorities to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. The word from the inspired apostle was what?

We must obey God rather than men. You understand, of course, that's not allowed. That's not allowed in context where you have tyrants, or people who say that they have ultimate authority. For you to say that I must obey God rather than men is for you to display that you believe that there is a transcendent law and authority that everybody must yield and bow to.

And that's, of course, the heritage of the Christian church. That is the faithful proclamation of the gospel. And I would say this, many people today don't like a minister like myself, and I'm not overly special at all.

I have a lot of work to be done on myself as well. They don't like someone like me standing here before the people of God and coming against a cultural idol like mandatory cookies. Stay in your lane, Pastor Jeff.

That's what people would say, stay in your lane, stay out of these things. And I believe that the reason people would want ministers to stay out of this context is because they love their safety and their comfort more than they love God and their neighbor.

That is the truth. They don't like the trouble of riots breaking out. They don't like the idea of going to jail for Jesus Christ. They don't like the idea of being on the run for their lives. They don't like being watched by the FBI and CIA, which is happening to us right now.

Because we stand against these things. That's the truth. And yes, we know about it.

Gotcha.

And I don't care. Because the truth matters and if you love God and neighbor enough, you'll stand up and say something. That's the call. You see, it's important as we talk today about a Christian response to mandatory cookies, let's imagine, if you will, let those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

Let the reader understand. Let's imagine that there was a breakout of very unusual hunger pains globally. Very unusual hunger pains globally. Now, people got these hunger pains. Many people have gotten these hunger pains.

They got the hunger pains and then they got over them. And many people were really, really hurt by the hunger pains and were very concerned for them and were sorry. That's a fallen world that happens.

People have to be affected by these things in a fallen world that happens and we're not minimizing the damage. But let's say that these hunger pains can affect people and over 99 of people who get these hunger pains will actually recover from the hunger pains and then have a special thing built in by God in their body to resist that hunger pain any longer.

Let's imagine that was the case. Let's all pretend today. And let's imagine that the governing authorities produced a special healing cookie. And let's call it Joe's Cookies. And these cookies actually can be helpful in some context to take care of a particular segment of these hunger pains.

Let's imagine that's the world we're living in. And let's imagine this world, this pretend world where there's these hunger pains, this breakout of hunger pain disease and we have these special healing cookies being offered to everybody that we have to address that as Christians because the government decides that they want everybody to eat the cookie.

And the government decides that it's going to become mandatory for you to eat these cookies. These are healing cookies. You must eat the cookie. Everybody eat the cookie. Did you get your cookie? Make sure you eat your cookie.

Everybody has to have the cookie. Let's imagine for a moment now that the cookie is being given to everybody and it's not just optional. It's not a voluntary thing. But everybody says you must eat Joe's Cookies because Joe's Cookies will ultimately save the world.

We'll get out of the hunger pains disease if everybody just would eat their cookie. And let's imagine that the government goes from suggesting the cookie and saying things like we would never ever demand and make it mandatory that everybody eats the healing cookie because we don't have the authority to do that or to say that.

They go from that months ago to saying everybody must eat the cookie to the degree that we will give men the death penalty for not eating the cookie. And what do I mean by death penalty? Well, here's what I mean.

It is a modern version of the death penalty to tell somebody if they do not put the cookie into their body, they will not be able to work, earn money, feed their families, take care of their families.

What is it when you take away somebody's ability to work, to care for themselves and their loved ones? What is that? That is appointing them to death. It is saying you eat the cookie or you die. That's where we're at.

So what is the Christian response to this when a governing authority says you must eat the healing cookie? Well, we need to recognize that God's law is the standard. It goes back to this first premise.

Jesus is Lord. That's the start of this conversation. He has Lordship and authority over every single area of life. There is nothing outside of the realm of his authority. And so the first step here is to say Jesus has all authority and it is a basic Christian principle that we must obey God rather than men.

And that means that we recognize there is a transcendent law above all fallible human beings. Up the chain of command all the way to God-ordained government, there is a transcendent law outside of all of us that we must yield to and obey.

Jesus is Lord and God has a law and a standard that must be obeyed. And so when we look at this question as Christians who want to live peaceable lives, who want to love our neighbors and sacrifice for them and to give them the gospel so they would know Jesus, we must actually face this down because tyranny is lawlessness.

And Jesus in Scripture has something to say about righteousness and justice. Jesus actually tells us, his people, that when you go disciple the nations, you teach them to obey all that I've commanded you.

That's part of the Great Commission. And we have to recognize as Christians that God has something to say about his ordained limits to government. God's law is the foundation. And we need to look to it as to what is righteous and true and lovely and beautiful and just.

And we recognize in Scripture that God has ordained government. Amen? That is not to say that all governments act as God's true deacons, his true servant. God has ordained family government. When Jesus tells his response to the controversy happening in his day in Matthew 19, he says, a man shall leave his father and his mother.

He shall cling to his wife. They'll become one flesh. That's a new government. It's a new order. It's a new sphere. But it is this over here, the family. There is, of course, my own self-government. There is family government.

There is church government that God has ordained. And then there is civil government. We recognize that. We think it's a beautiful thing. We think it's wonderful. Christians are not anarchists. We recognize Romans 13, for example.

Go there. Romans 13, the most abused verse of 2020 and 2021. We recognize Romans 13. First thing you need to think about when you're reading Scripture is who wrote it? Who's he writing to? What's the context?

How does this fit into all of Scripture? But in Romans 13, this is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome. And we need to think about the context of Rome. Was Rome a Christian state? No. No. Let's remember now that it was Rome that tried to wipe the church out and kill all the apostles.

It was under Nero's reign, more than likely, that the Apostle Paul was killed and Peter and a bunch of the other apostles. They tried to wipe the church out. So when Paul is talking here about governing authorities, he says it in the context of Rome.

So he is clearly not describing Rome as it was in his day in terms of, this is what Rome is like. It's a real obedient deacon to God. Here's what he says. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those who that exist have been instituted by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is an authority?

Then do what is good and you'll receive his approval for he is God's. What's the word? Stay with him. What is it? Who is it? Who is the governing authority? It's God's authority. God's servant. God's deacon.

The word there is same word we use for our deacons. Deacons, servants of the church. The government here is supposed to be God's deacon, God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is the servant of God, the deacon of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Therefore, one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. So stop there for a moment. What's Paul doing? Is he describing Rome? How was Rome doing in the first century against Christians?

How was Rome doing in wielding the sword of justice? Not so great. So Paul is not being descriptive here of Rome and all governing authorities. Right? If you look at North Korea today, there's a government.

Is it acting as God's servant today? It's not describing North Korea or communist China. This is prescriptive. This is the role of government. And note something very important. Verse 3, for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Question, what do you think the Apostle Paul's standard is for what is good and what is bad? Rome's definition or scripture? When the Apostle Paul here is talking about prescribing the role of government and good and bad, he is thinking as a Christian in Christian categories.

He knows what the word of God says. He knows the role of government and he knows the Torah. In God's law, civil government is actually supposed to be really small. Really, really small. Civil government has a role in society to do mostly what?

Protect victims' rights. Punish evildoers. Organize for national defense. And that's about it. That's about it. Wield the sword of justice. We live in a fallen world. Sinners hurt one another. Sinners steal from one another.

Sinners kill one another. And the government is supposed to be the one instrument of God that actually here on earth justly wields the sword so that there is actually protection of victims and an upholding of victims' rights.

It's not saying what government always does. But the law of God has ordained limits to civil government. And do you know what is not prescribed in God's law? Yes, we can tell you exactly the limits. Do you know what is not prescribed in God's law?

Mandating cookies. Now look, if you want to eat a cookie, eat a cookie. We believe in bodily autonomy because we're Christians and we respect bodily autonomy. Another person's decision to do with their body, however they please, as long as you are not purposefully and with culpability hurting another image bearer of God.

If you want to eat ice cream and Cheetos for breakfast, lunch and dinner, go for it. It's not wise. We should talk a bit about that. But you know what? Go for it. If that's what you want to do to your body, if you want to rub ice cream around your earlobes and walk around town all day long, feel free.

You're going to get some weird looks. But those are your earlobes. They don't belong to me. And so when we talk about the ordained limits of government, we know that there's spheres of government with authority.

And the government, civil government, has specific rules and a context in which they're supposed to work. And one of the things they cannot do, according to God's law, is command that everybody take an experimental cookie that has very suspicious short-term data that is possibly injuring loads of people that we don't even know what it'll do in the future.

The government cannot mandate that you put this cookie into your body. That is a violation of God-ordained limits to civil government. Our country used to understand that because it came out of the Protestant Reformation.

The Word of God is the standard. If you want to know what justice is, you've got to look to this book. Do you want to hear something that is just tragic? This truly is tragic, and we need to speak the truth to win this world to Jesus Christ because this is a tragedy.

This country, the place you're sitting right now, the place that we're in right now, and the blessings that we have around us, it didn't just drop out of the sky. It came from Christians. The Puritans came over, the Covenanters, the Huguenots, they came over here, and they gave to us the blessings of all of their pain.

They were slaughtered, they were massacred, they were drowned, they were abused in a court system that was moved away from God's law, and when they started as Christians looking into the Word of God, they were saying, hey, wait a minute.

This defines what is just. This defines what is righteous. This defines how a human being should be treated when they're accused of things. The king is not obeying the law. This is the law of God. This is transcendence.

And Christians started speaking out against these things. They started saying God has defined the role of civil government and Jesus has ultimate authority, not the king. The law is king. This law, Lex Rex, that was what they were saying.

Lex Rex, the law is king. That's where our nation came from. I'm not speaking here as the red-blooded American Christian talking about republicanism. I'm here talking as a minister of the gospel. You want to know where this justice came from?

You want to know where these righteous standards came from? They came from the Word of God. Specifically, specifically, Christians understood that when they gave us this nation. When Christians came over, whether they're Huguenots, or the Covenanters, or the Puritans, or whatever, when they came over and they were establishing communities and cities, they would explicitly name Jesus Christ in their community documents.

They would explicitly point to the law Word of God as to what we will do in our community in terms of what is just and what is right. When this country was having its big upheaval, there were so many people that were saying,.

Just go along.

Let's just be safe. Let's not cause problems.

Let's just go along.

What's a little injustice from the king? And the New England pulpit, the New England pulpit, pastors and ministers preached on Sunday before pulpits and audiences like this. They preached the law Word of God.

And they preached the authority of Jesus Christ. And that's what gave us this country. That's where we came from. They understood the God-ordained limits of government. They understood that the king may be in charge and will respect and honor the king, but he's not the king of kings.

He's not the Lord of lords. And he must obey Jesus. That's where we came from. Christians understood the God-ordained limits of government. Another thing that's important to think about when you think about a mandated cookie to deal with a particular breakout of hunger pains.

You need to think about the law of God and not just in terms of God-ordained limits of civil government, but you need to think about what God's law Word says about love for neighbor. I want you to see it with your own eyes.