Politics of the Kingdom

0:28 Before we go to the Lord's table, we're going to look at, for the last time, the last few verses of chapter 2 of Ephesians. Ephesians 2 talks to us about what the nature of the church is. And we read there, Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. Built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone, in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

1:30 This is God's Word. We've been looking at the passage and we say there's a number of metaphors that Paul uses to explain what the church is and therefore what kind of lives we have in connection with Christ. We've been spending most of our time on the longer metaphor, which has to do with the idea that Christians, that the church is God's dwelling place, a holy temple. But tonight we take a look at the first of the metaphors in this sentence, in this paragraph. Consequently, you are no longer strangers, or as the translation we have here, you are no longer foreigners or aliens, But, fellow citizens with God's people.

2:17 What is that teaching us? There's a lot of profound teaching here, and this is what it is. It makes a negative, then it makes a positive statement. Negatively, it says you are no longer foreigners and aliens. Positively, fellow citizens with God's people. What does it mean? It means this. you are no longer xenoy. The first word is xenoy. It's the word we get our word xenophobia from which of course means the fear of foreigners and it really has to do with the personal aspects of being in a foreign culture. Many of you understand this. In a place like New York you really understand this. In fact, if you're not born and raised in New York and you've moved to New York you experience to some degree some of this. You know what it's like to be a xenoy.

3:11 To be a foreigner, this is referring to the fact that there's such a thing as culture shock. When you move into a new culture in which you are not accustomed and you don't really fit at first, it's tremendously exhausting. You don't know the language. And so expressing yourself and understanding what other people are saying takes a great deal of work, Far more work than the other people around you are having to expend in order to make basic transactions. You also don't maybe know many of the customs. You may not like the food. And the studies that have been made of culture shock simply say that it's a draining experience. What happens as a result of culture shock are these. Isolation. You find it very difficult to pour yourself out. You feel isolated.

4:05 Secondly, fragmentation. That means you work real hard to have a public life in which you're working in the language of the dominant culture and you're working to some degree to adapt to the customs of the dominant culture. It's a difficult thing to do. It's very draining. And your public life and your private life are different. And so you experience fragmentation. You experience disorientation and you experience exhaustion. This is what it means to be zinoy Strangers, foreigners People that don't fit in the culture Very exhausting, very difficult Then the second word, peroikoi Which is translated aliens Has to do with the legal side of being a foreigner Zinoy has more to do with the personal side This word alien means you are not a citizen It means you're legally disenfranchised If you're a citizen in a country, you can vote.

5:03 If you're a citizen in a country, you can run for office. If you're a citizen in a country, you have certain privileges and rights. And you can redress wrongs because you've got certain rights. Paul was a Roman citizen, and therefore, he had the right to a trial. And when it was discovered, you know, in Philippi that he had been imprisoned without a trial, and he was a Roman citizen, they realized what they'd done. His citizenship brought a privilege. He was enfranchised. He was empowered by his citizenship. But an alien has none of that. An alien doesn't have a legal status. An alien doesn't have all these rights to redress wrongs. So when Paul's saying you're talking about zenoi and paroikoi, when it's talking about strangers and aliens, it's talking about people who are disenfranchised legally and in cultural shock emotionally and personally.

5:57 What's he mean? Why does he talk about this? He says, you became Christians and now you are no longer strangers and aliens. No longer strangers. What is he saying? He's saying two things. First of all, and this is a very profound teaching, he is saying that until you are right with God through Christ, until you believe in Christ, until you've got that connection with Christ, You experience alienation in God's world. It's extremely important and extremely profound. And I'll tell you, it explains things. Until you understand this, you cannot understand the world around you. You can't understand your own experience. The Bible says God built us and put us into a world, and we were built to obey him. look at his law his law tells you about lying and honesty when you lie you become alienated because you are going against the fabric of the universe and your nature as it was created you experience breakdowns it's like putting milk in your car instead of unleaded gas It doesn't work.

7:18 You experience breakdowns. It's like trying to grind diamonds instead of coffee in your coffee maker. It doesn't work. There's laws of lying and dishonesty. There's laws of sex and purity. There's laws that have to do with generosity. There's laws that have to do with forgiveness versus bitterness. There's laws that have to do with service versus selfishness. And until you are submitted to him, until you're rightly related to him, until you're in a relationship of harmony with him, you're experiencing alienation. You are experiencing culture shock. You're a stranger and you're an alien. Modern literature is full of this. Hemingway and Faulkner and Sartre and Khmun, all the greats of the middle part of the 20th century, all of their literature is dominated by the plain fact.

8:15 When you read it, you just know it's true. We don't fit. We live in a world like that. The book Nausea by John Paul Sartre is all talking about, it's in the form of a diary of a man who finds the more he opts for freedom, the more isolated and fragmented he feels. But then if he pulls back and starts to give himself to people and serve people, you see, and try to make do for people and be committed to people, he feels used. If he tries to be nice to people, he's used. If he tries to be independent and selfish, he feels isolated. What the word nausea means is alienation.

8:53 I'm alienated. I'm a stranger and an alien. I don't fit in the world. Why not? Because the world was built for obedient sons and daughters of the king. And if you're not one, you don't fit. George Whitefield talks about it. He says, you know why the animals screech at you, why they bark at you, why they fly away and they growl at you when you come near? They know you have a quarrel with their master.

9:26 And that's his very picturesque and very metaphorical and not exactly accurate way of saying we don't fit in the world. We experience alienation. Look, a brilliant young French scientist named Philippe was in love with a girl named Francois. And they often talked to a pastor about Christianity, and they had rejected Christianity. They fell in love, but they discovered, they decided that to get married or even to be committed to each other didn't make sense. first of all when you get committed to one another and you try to be faithful to each other it's bound to create problems they saw it we can find when we're with each other we'll sleep together when not we can find some other place we can find other people to satisfy our sexual needs besides that marriage and commitment would be tough on our careers and so they decided not to do it but they'd experienced tremendous trouble in their hearts over it.

10:27 And at one point, Francois wrote to his pastoral friend, and he said this. He says, I don't know why it's so hard to live without a permanent commitment. My scientific understanding of human nature is that we are the result of a chance happening in the universe. That our desires are the results of genes, instincts, and hormones. So love is an illusion. I never realized how my ideas, however, have drained life of its joy. Now listen, my lover Francois and I can't live on the basis of our own views, even though we're absolutely sure they're true. It's as if we don't understand who we are.

11:14 What's he experiencing? exhaustion, fragmentation, isolation, alienation. He says, I believe that love's an illusion. I believe that this need for marriage and commitment is a silly thing. And yet I find as I reject it, I can't really live on the basis of my own views. He's experiencing alienation. Until, Paul says it, he says, until you're rightly related to God, you're a stranger and alien here. You don't fit. You're out of place. You experience the tension. You experience nausea. That's the reason why, when he says, I can't live on the basis of this view, he's saying, I'm a xenoy. I'm a stranger. I'm out. I don't fit in the universe I believe in.

12:02 I experience fragmentation. That's the reason the psalmist says, oh, Father, unite my heart to fear thy name. The fear of the Lord unites the heart where there's a fragmentation. Okay. That's the first thing. Paul is saying you will experience this isolation, this nausea. You will experience this sense of being out of place, of not having your deepest needs met. You will experience culture shock, disenfranchisement, until you become a Christian. I wish that some of you would see, yes, your problem has psychological effects. Your problem has sociological effects. But your problem has a theological cause.

13:00 That's why you feel the way you do. That's why you're experiencing the things that you do. So the first thing Paul is saying here is before you're in Christ, your natural condition is alienation. Secondly, second thing, that the essence then of becoming a Christian is a change and a shift in a legal status.

13:25 Citizenship is a wonderful metaphor. You either are a citizen or you're not. You may prepare for citizenship. You may do a great deal of work in order to get ready for citizenship. You may do a tremendous amount of legal work and language work and all sorts of other things to get ready for citizenship. But there is a moment in which you're not a citizen. And then there's the vow. And then you are. There's no in between. Aristotle said that there can be no mean between two opposites. And when it comes to this, you either are or you're not. Now, you know, every analogy breaks down. Some of you say, well, what about, you know, on through various sorts of visas and so on. But you understand what Paul is saying. You read, a legal status is something you either are or you're not. There's no middle ground between zero and the first possible numeric value.

14:23 What is in the middle between something and nothing? There can't be anything in the middle between something. It's either you're something or you're nothing, but you can't be something between something and nothing. It's impossible. What's in the middle between a vacuum and a non-vacuum? If there's one molecule of air in the vacuum, it's no longer a vacuum. So there's nothing in the middle between a vacuum and a non-vacuum. You either are or you're not. And by Paul using this metaphor, he is trying to push home a radical idea.

14:54 You are either a Christian or you're not a Christian. Becoming a Christian happens in an instant. You're either dead spiritually or alive spiritually. There may be a lot of preparation. There may be a lot of struggling. There may be a lot of learning. There may be a long process getting up to that point. But the fact of the matter is right before the moment that you become a citizen, you're still 100% not a citizen. And the minute you take the vow, you are 100% you are a citizen. And that's what Paul is trying to get across here. There's no middle ground. You're either a Christian or you're not. Because the essence of becoming a Christian is a change in legal status. Now, people don't like that. And I'll try to show you why. A lot of people tremendously resist this. They hate this idea that there's no middle ground. You ask many people this. Are you a Christian?

15:46 And what they'll say is, I hope so. I'm trying. But who can be sure? You know why that answer sounds so plausible? Not because it's logical, but because it's widespread. Are you a Christian? I hope so. I'm trying. But who can be sure? Paul dashes this whole idea. What if I asked you, are you a citizen? What if I asked you if you were married? Same thing. There's a long process coming up to the minute of being married. But until you take those vows, you're 100% not married. The minute you take your vow, you're 100% are married. That's the way it is with legal status changes. What if I said, are you married? and you said, I hope so, I'm trying, but who can be sure? What would you, if you heard somebody say that, what would you conclude?

16:42 You'd conclude A, they don't know what marriage is, and B, they're not. What if I said to you, are you a citizen of this country? And you said, I hope so, I'm trying, but who can be sure?

18:31 Now, you know, I remember once talking to a pastor who was very, very, and some of you may feel the same way. And it's perfectly understandable because of the way in which Christians have sometimes used this doctrine. I understand your problems. This man once said to me, he hated any talk about being converted. He hated this idea of conversion, this idea that a Christian is someone who goes through a conversion experience. He said, look in your average church and you will see Christianity is a way of life. And people are at all different stages of becoming Christians and being Christians. And nobody, you can't say this person is definitely a Christian, this person is not a Christian. Everybody is subject to degrees. Some people are more Christian, some people are less than Christian. Don't talk about conversion. Nobody's perfect.

19:20 Don't talk about this idea that you have to become a Christian. This person isn't, this person is. I hate that idea. Now here's why that's wrong. Paul insists that Christianity is not essentially a matter of morality and goodness. That well-meaning pastor who was so upset with any discussion and talk of conversion, did he see as understandings it sounded, as flexible and as open-minded as it sounded? Nobody. Who knows who's a Christian? Everybody's at a different point. What he was doing was assuming that Christianity was a matter of morality. And if Christianity is essentially a matter of goodness and morality, then he's absolutely right. That's a matter of degree. But here's the problem.

20:13 If that's the essence of being a Christian, one of the great problems we all have is the fact that there's lots of folks that completely reject Christianity, completely reject the teachings of Christ, completely reject, and are very good people. Self-controlled, wonderful people. And then over here you've got, you know what you've got, people that adhere to the Christian message and profess faith in Christianity and seem to be very dedicated to all the teachers of Christianity, and they lack the self-control that the anti-Christian has, and they lack the goodness and morality the anti-Christian has. And it's so perplexing. Here's why it's so perplexing. My grandfather moved here from Naples, around the year 1900, and like all people who come from another country, he experienced a lot of culture shock, and he had a lot of trouble making himself understood, and he spoke in broken English, and he had a lot of trouble participating in all of the, you might say, the institutions of the new country because he was unfamiliar with them.

21:14 And at one point, he became a citizen. He wasn't a citizen, he wasn't a citizen, and then he was. He wasn't an American. He was 100% not an American. And then he was naturalized and he was American. But he still spoke funny. And he still found the customs difficult. And he still really, in many ways, had not learned how to participate in American society. But don't you see the point? Was he an American or not? Of course he was. He didn't know how to talk American very well. and he grew his entire life. There's a legal and then there's the actual. But what made him an American was the legal. And what Paul is trying to say is, of course, to live a Christian life means you want to be good. Of course, to live a Christian life means you want to come along and you want to be more like Christ and you want to live an honest life and you want to live a selfless life and you want to live a compassionate life and so on.

22:12 But the essence of becoming a Christian is to take that vow And when you take that vow, you cross over the line, and that is what makes you a Christian. You may not act as much like a Christian as you look. That's a process. Just like my grandfather, you see, there was a process of becoming more and more American in his thinking, in his way of participating in all that, and speaking the language and so on. But there was a moment in which he crossed over from alienation to citizenship. And that's the spot. And Paul says the essence of becoming a Christian is that legal change. There is a spot where you have to decide to take the vow. There's a spot where you've got to bring it to closure. There's a spot in which you've got to say, I'm a Christian. I identify as a Christian. I put him first. I rest in him alone for my salvation. I make him my Lord.

23:05 There's a line at which you've got to come. You know the illustration we've used. You might be in Texas and you might want to go to Canada. You can travel 3,000 miles maybe, I don't know. and you get right up to two inches from the Canadian border. You are just as much not in Canada there as you were in Texas. You've come a long way. You've struggled long and hard. You've spent a lot of money on gas.

23:29 But you are completely out until you cross that line. Same thing with getting married. Getting married is, you know, getting up to the moment where you actually get the vow. Boy, there can be an awful lot of blood, sweat, tears, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. There can be wrestling and struggling. And all of that may be necessary, but the fact is, until you take that vow, you're still 100% not married. Because the essence of what makes you married is not the relationship, but the willingness to get up before all of the authority structures of church and state and family, and take that vow and bind yourself in. and frankly people say well it doesn't really matter whether you take that vow as long as you love one another and i say why don't you take that vow and they say well you know you want to keep your options open oh in other words you don't love each other enough to take that vow don't tell me that the vow is not related to the love You're not married, and the reason you're not married is because you don't want to make yourself that vulnerable to that person.

24:33 And therefore, you will not change your legal status. Don't tell me you love somebody just as much as a person who gets married loves them. Don't tell me that. If you're that afraid, that means, I love this person, but I'm not going to make myself vulnerable to them. That means you're not as committed to them. What's the application? There's a lot of you that are wrestling with Christianity, that want to come near to Christ, you want to see Christ, you want Christ to improve your life, and yet you're afraid to bring it to closure. You're afraid to cross that line. You're afraid to say, I'm committed. This is it. It means I obey Christ if it costs me a friend. It means I obey Christ if people are going to laugh at me. I cross the line. I make myself vulnerable. You've got to do that. There's no way to become the American citizen, you see, without actually cutting some bridges.

25:26 There's no way to get married without cutting yourself off from all kinds of possibilities. the essence of becoming a Christian is the change in that legal status you are, you are and it comes when you cross a line not only that the other thing Paul is showing us here and this is what's great the essence of being a Christian means not just that you make a commitment oh no but that God makes a commitment as well to you and changes your status see look my grandfather didn't make himself a citizen the United States government made him a citizen. He came and he committed himself and then the government changed his status. Said, you now can vote.

26:09 You now are enfranchised. What it means to become a Christian is not I fill my heart with so much love and commitment that now God says, ah, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into thy kingdom. No, what he says is because you have decided to rest on Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, I now impute to you his record. I accept you. I change your status. I pardon your sins. I wipe them away. When Martin Luther was studying the book of Galatians and Romans, he was absolutely astonished with the uniqueness of Christianity. What's the uniqueness of Christianity?

26:46 It's the fact that the essence of being a Christian is this change in status that happens once for all. The government, the kingdom of God, God himself, comes to you when you make that commitment and changes your status completely and legally. The way Luther put it is, a Christian, he used Latin of course, a Christian is simul justus et peccator, which means simultaneously righteous and yet sinful. he understood that that's what Paul's talking about. My grandfather, continuing to speak broken English, automatically, immediately, totally became a Christian. Totally became an American. Becomes an American, and yet he's not totally an American. And Paul, see, what Luther's saying, Paul is saying is, when you make that commitment and say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.

27:44 I stop trusting in what I have done, and I rest completely in what Jesus has done. Father, accept me because of what he has done. What happens? There's a change in status. You are made liable legally for everything Jesus has done, just as he on the cross became liable legally for everything you have done. oh lord jesus says martin luther every morning when he gets up you took upon yourself what was mine and you set upon me what was yours you became what you were not so i could become what i was not the essence of being a christian is a legal status god changes it you've got to come to that place where you close up and god comes and changes it now just briefly even though he doesn't mention it here. See what it means to be a Christian? It means you get a new status of citizenship. Think about what are the rights and privileges of a citizen. A citizen has right of appeal. If there's been an injustice, you can go to the court and you can go above that to the next court and go above that to the Supreme Court. You have the right of appeal. You know what it means to be a Christian if your status has been changed? Look at the people. When the blind men called out to Jesus, Lord, have mercy on me. And everybody came and said, stop bothering the king. What right do you have? You, trash, to bother an important thing, a man like the king. Stop bothering the king. You don't have any right to go to the king. But the king turns around and says, what do you want? Again and again, the children try to come to Jesus. Don't bother the king. The woman touches the hem of his garment. Don't bother the king. But this king, when he confers citizenship on you, says you have right of access. The Lord of the universe is concerned about your problems. Come and pray. Come and appeal. And I'll tell you what else. You've got the right of protection.

29:45 Any of you ever hear the War of Jenkins' Ear? 1739, a Spanish ship attacked a British ship, that Captain Jenkins had his ear cut off during the battle. Captain Jenkins took his ear, put it in a bottle of liquor, and sent it to Parliament with a note about what had happened to him. In Parliament, one of the MPs lifted up the ear, read the statement, and the Parliament immediately declared war on Spain. I am not using this illustration to support British foreign policy in the 18th century. I am not using this illustration to say that was a just grounds for war. I'll tell you what I'm saying. Jenkin in himself was nothing, but as a British citizen, the kingdom knew that he was part of the kingdom. And when he was attacked, the kingdom was attacked. And all of the power and the glory of that kingdom was brought to bear to protect him.

30:41 When Paul was on the road to Damascus and God leveled him, and Jesus appeared to him because, you know, Paul was persecuting the Christians. What does Jesus say? Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute who? Why dost thou persecute me? Hey, Saul, when you attack my citizens, you attack me. The Bible doesn't say that God protects you if you're a Christian by keeping you away from trouble. Oh, no, if you're part of Christ, Christ suffered quite a bit. What he says is, I will use all my glory and power to arrange your life so that no matter what bad happens to you, it will work out for your benefit. All things work together for good to those who love God. Remember, Joseph says to his brothers, God, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. All the power of the kingdom is brought to bear to protect you, to bring you home, to grow you.

31:37 You've got access. You've got right of protection. Let me end this way. Are you a citizen living like an alien? Hmm? A lot of you are. I know you are. You know why? If you're a Christian and you don't think that God could listen to you because of your problems, you don't think that God's protecting you and working out everything in your life for the good. If you feel like you're so unworthy and God couldn't love you, you know, you're a lot like my grandfather. You still sound like you're from the old country. You've got to start living as if you've got to live out actually what you are legally. You're loved. You're accepted. You're liable for the record of Jesus Christ. And you're not living that way. You're not acting as if God really loves me. God's really protecting me. God really cares about me. You're not living love.

32:29 Look at how irritable you are. Look at how defensive you are. Look at how afraid you are. It takes time to actually live as you legally are. You're citizens living like aliens. Don't be anymore. And lastly, some of you are aliens living like citizens. You know what that means? You're saying, why isn't God answering my prayers? Why isn't God working things out for me? Why hasn't these blessings fallen into my life? And yet you have not been willing to take the vow. you're not willing to marry him. You want to live with him. You want him to always be there for you. You won't be vulnerable to him. You won't bring it to closure. You won't sign up. You won't say, I take you to myself and I forsake all others till death do us part, for richer, for poorer, for better and worse.

33:33 And you want to live like a citizen when you're an alien. Are you a citizen living like an alien? Are you an alien living like a citizen? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that because of your Son, we are no longer strangers forgive us for continuing to live like strangers thank you for the fact that the alienation can be over the alienation can be gone we pray that you would help us who are citizens to live like citizens and we pray that those here tonight who see that they need to come to you will be enabled by your spirit to do that We pray in Jesus' name.