Mt. 28:18-20; John 13:1-8. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 2, 2016.
What is social activism? It is the tactic of creating social upheaval, and thereby pressuring the government into changing laws and policies. Ultimately it is about changing society. The idea of manipulating the people of a nation for political purposes has been around for ages. However, in the last 2 centuries the fine tuning of changing society has led to books like the anti-Semitic, propaganda text in pre-revolution Russia called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Another book would be “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky. We have reached a point where multiple, competing agencies are trying to manipulate society to their own ends. In the midst of this environment large parts of the Church have been seduced to employ this same tactic in order to achieve a “godly” purpose. Is this what Jesus wants? Is it our job to force society to adopt and live by the truth of God?
Technically this first point is made by the absence of Scripture. I must give credit to the late Dave Hunt who made this point back in the 1980’s. The absence of godly people organizing a community to cause social upheaval and the approval of God should be glaringly obvious.
We do see many cases of civil disobedience. So let’s look at some of them. In Exodus 1:15 and following we have the Pharaoh of Egypt telling two midwives to kill any Hebrew boys who are born. These midwives were Hebrew themselves and in good conscience could not kill these baby boys. Thus they lied to Pharaoh. They basically claimed that the Hebrew women had their babies too quickly for the midwives to intervene. Notice that in this case there is no organizing of a large group to create social upheaval. These women aren’t even operating to change the laws of Egypt. They simply refuse to kill the baby boys out of deference to the commands and nature of the One True God.
Several other cases are seen in the book of Daniel. The three Hebrew boys refuse to bow down to an image when commanded to do so by the king. Under threat of death they make the statement that they believed God would save them. But if not, they still wouldn’t bow down to the idol. Daniel himself faced a law that commanded the citizens to pray to no one but the king for a period of time. Daniel refused to obey this law and prayed to the God of Heaven anyway. Notice that none of them create riots and marches. They make no attempts to change the laws of the land. Rather, they obey the dictates of their conscience, regardless of what might happen to them.
Lastly, we see the same thing with the Apostles Peter and John. They had been preaching about Jesus, when the Sanhedrin commands them to stop. Of course they make the statement that if they have to choose between obeying man or God, they would choose to obey God.
All of these examples are all about individual conscience before God. The godly of every generation have not necessarily obeyed all the laws of mankind (basically the evil ones). However, they are not leading protests and social upheaval in order to change society. They are simply trying to please God over man. So what should godly people be doing in our culture today?
This leads us to our first text. In Matthew 28 we see Jesus explaining that he had been given power and authority over all nations and all heavenly principalities. With this authority he could have commanded anything. Yet, he does not give us the mission of taking over the nations of the world. This may be what Islam teaches. It may be what communism teaches, but it is not what Christ taught.
Instead he sends his disciples to all the nations in order to preach the Gospel of Jesus and disciple the individuals that respond to it. We must never forget that our main aim is to disciple those who become Christians. Our goal is not to take over the governments of this world and neither is it to build crystal cathedrals. Rather we are called to build people.
So if we get caught up in trying to change or “save” societies we can be in danger of losing the individuals that we were sent to reach in the first place. What do I mean by that? When the church focuses on society and trying to change or perfect it, then our focus looks for those tools and things that “work” to change society. When we focus upon the system instead of the people, then people will end up getting crushed. The mistake is not just in trying to perfect society. Even our churches can be guilty of trying to build little perfect societies within our church walls. Evangelism typically ceases to be about discipling a new believer to become more like Jesus, and becomes about forcing an individual to fit into our system. “Be a good cog.” This path is dehumanizing, uncaring, and anti-Christ. There are multiple generations of people who have been crushed by Churches and Christians who are more concerned about a perfect system (i.e. don’t rock the boat) then they are about following and obeying Jesus. So what would Jesus do if he were here today?
In John 13:1-8 we see Jesus the night before he is crucified. It is clear from his actions here that Jesus would not be rioting in the streets and leading a revolution against the government. It is also clear that he would not be using millions of dollars to subvert the political process.
In these verses we see that Jesus knew that society had it out for him. He knew that things were only going to get worse politically. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum and using his power to force change in society, Jesus accepted the reality on the ground and focused on what really mattered. Is it possible that we could learn to accept the reality that this world will give us difficulty if we want to follow God? And, can we accept the reality that it will not give us justice? If a nation dissolves and reforms, or is taken over by another nations, it is not the end of the world. How many nations today have taken the place of others before them? Most of the nations fit this parameter. Now weigh this against the reality that if an individual goes into eternity lost, it is the end of their world.
Thus, we are told that Jesus loved them to the very end. Can we choose to love people to the very end of our earthly life? I know that this passage is about Jesus with his closest disciples. Yet, one of them has surrendered to the devil and is about to betray him. Jesus even loved Judas to the very end. On top of this, it is impossible to see Jesus hanging on the cross and not recognize that he loved the world and paid the price for whosoever would believe. If we sacrifice caring for individuals in order to build the perfect society (whether in the church or in the nation) then we are being foolish. The Church was not established to create a perfect society. It was established to provide a family for those who would respond to the call to believe on Jesus. We are to be a family of imperfect people who have been redeemed and are being saved by Jesus.
Jesus said that the Truth will set you free. Radicals like to talk about speaking truth to power. But the truth is they are always heavy on power and light on truth. Their methods look nothing like Jesus. Jesus spoke truth into people’s lives. He combated the lies of the enemy that held them spiritually captive with the love of God’s truth. “Yes, if you remain in your sins you will die in them. But, if you turn from your sins and believe me, then you will live eternally.” Now this does not save everyone, but it is the only door to hope. The only way to do what Jesus did is by getting down in the nitty gritty of a person’s life. It takes time and investment to determine the lies a person has believed and counteract them with the truth of God’s word. It isn’t a quick, easy, perfect process.
The problem with a pragmatic approach is that it rarely asks, “Should we do this.” Yes, we could go to war against progressives and try to take our nation back for Jesus. But should we? At least should that be our focus? If there is going to be another Spiritual Awakening in America, it will first start because Christians repent of being side-tracked and actually start following Jesus. Even then, it will be because of the move of God. It is He who raises up nations and He who puts nations down. Let us start demonstrating such humility before God that even Jesus himself exercised. He humbled himself and used his authority and power to accomplish what God asked. If we will do this then we will hear from the Father the same words He says to His Son. “Come, sit at my feet until I make your enemies your footstool.” When Jesus comes back he will take up the governments of the world and hand them over to his saints. Until then we must humble ourselves and focus on sharing the Gospel, and discipling those who respond in repentance. Some tools may be powerful. But at what cost do we use them? Our country will be torn apart by these competing, social powers unless God has mercy on us.