Praying for our Government

Praying for our Government | Sun, May 25/25 AM | Logan Seibert | 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Introduction

1 Timothy chapter 2, we will continue through the letter. We have been learning how the church is God's household entrusted with a stewardship. Chapter 1 of 1 Timothy emphasizes a particular message, the gospel, God's word that we are entrusted with, that we must protect. Those who would speak against it or contrary to it should not have a voice in God's Church. Timothy was tasked to put them to silence and instead promote sound teaching, healthy teaching.

Entrusted With Prayer

But in chapter 2, we've been considering since last week how we're also entrusted with prayer, praying to God. Paul stresses this activity of prayer is to be done For all people. Let's read verses one and two, that will be our focus this morning. Paul writes, first of all then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, or on behalf of all people. For on behalf of kings and all who are in high positions. In order that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Pray for Kings and Authorities

So as Paul calls for the church to pray for all people, he then in verse two gets into a particular group of people. He puts the focus on kings, puts the focus on those, all those who are in high positions. meaning positions of authority. They are leaders, they are over others, and this is in the civic government alongside those kings. How is the church to relate to government, to her government? How are the citizens of Christ's kingdom to deal with the leaders of earthly kingdoms, the kingdoms of this world? Well, Paul's answer to that, one of the key answers to that is that we are to pray. We are to pray for them. We're to make supplication and prayer, intercession, and yes, even make thanksgiving, believe it or not, for your government. This is what God says here. Whether it's a government that would support the free market, or it's a government that would be fascist, whether it would be a government that would support capitalism or it would be a communist government, whatever side of the spectrum, this scripture remains true. This is the template, this is the design for God's church in every generation, in every country, This is still for us to know and apply.

The Church’s Mandate

We are to pray for our government. We're to pray on behalf of them. We are to carry this stewardship of prayer, this mandate we have to stand between God and the people, the wrath of God against the sinners of this world. It is the church's role to pray for those who are still lost. so that they would be reconciled to God before they would have to meet him, before the kings of this earth would have to kiss the sun, not in repentance, but under judgment, as Psalm 2 warns us about. The church is tasked with this great responsibility to pray for the nations, to pray for unbelievers, and kings and those in high positions are not excluded from that. Just as Jesus, according to verse six, verse five rather, he is the mediator between all people and the one true living God, and just as he gave his life as a ransom for all, as the scripture here says. We need to then give ourselves to pray for all on that basis.

Review of Last Week

This is what we really laid down last week. If you were here with us worshipping, we set that out. This is one of the church's primary tasks, to be a mediator of prayer for unbelievers to God, just as Christ gave his life to save them, and God delights in saving them.

Pray for Our Government Leaders

Paul takes a particular focus here on doing this great task on behalf of our government leaders. As part of that big truth of our task on this earth, we must be diligent to lift up our prime minister, his cabinet, the opposition party, and all the leaders doing the shadow government We must lift up our premier and all the ministers of her cabinet. We must lift up our mayor and all the city council. We must pray for them as God has commanded us.

Purpose of These Prayers

And Paul gives a number of reasons for us to do that. Again, there's that big picture of the church's mission on earth. Who else will pray for them but the church? We stand in the gap. But then Paul also gives some very specific reasons underneath this great responsibility, as part of this great responsibility. And one reason he goes to at the end of verse two is in order that, praying for these people, in order that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Understanding the Connection

So what is the connection between us praying for our government and leading this kind of life? Well, some would take this to mean something like this. This is the connection. We should pray for our civic leaders to be saved in order that they rule righteously and create the conditions so that we can lead quiet and peaceful lives, godly and dignified in every way. It would be a focus on a kind of result of us praying. We've prayed for our government, and they are getting saved according to verses 3 to 7. There's an evangelistic focus here in the chapter. And because of their now righteous rule, we have these peaceful and quiet lives to then worship and enjoy God, serve God, openness for the gospel without persecution, things like this. I don't hold that view on this passage, though I agree with everything about what I just said. I think that is something we should pray about, a salvation of our leaders and the fruit of that to then trickle down into our lives here in Canada, specifically. Yet I believe that's not what Paul's actually getting at here. I believe it's better to take the second half of verse two there, the reason for these prayers, as the purpose of our prayer. Not the results of the prayer, but the purpose of our prayer. I would be like something like this. We should pray for our civic leaders, especially for their salvation. And by regularly praying, we are leading peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way.

Difference Clarified

Did you catch the difference here? We're not just praying for a result that's dependent on who we're praying for. We're waiting for our leaders to create the conditions of a peaceful and quiet life. That's not what Paul's getting at here. He's saying, when you pray, by being devoted to pray, you are now leading a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is part of this kind of lifestyle that God wants us to have as the church. It's bound up in the activity of actually praying for our leaders. So we live this kind of life by being faithful to our task to pray for all people. That's why we pray.

Why Interpret This Way?

Now, why do I interpret it like this? And I'm not alone by that. You can pick up commentators, and this isn't a unique view. But why do I interpret it more like this? Well, as I meditated on this, and this was, by the way, during COVID, actually, years ago as I was wrestling with some passages about how do we respond to our government. One thing I was struck with was in verse 1, Paul doesn't just focus on supplications, prayers, and intercessions for our leaders. He also adds that fourth kind of prayer, and what is it? It's thanksgivings. So I'm tipped off that it's not just a focus on praying for the salvation of our leaders. There's also this pattern of giving thanks on behalf of them, seeking to be thankful in the midst of their rule and their reign. And who was ruling as emperor of Rome when Paul wrote this? Nero. Now, he didn't go wild-eyed crazy quite yet. He was on his way there. You know, there were some signs, but, I mean, he went really off the deep end later on. That's when Paul got his head chopped off. But still, I mean, you think of the stream of emperors even before him, and none of these guys were particularly evoking a reason to give thanks for them naturally. You wouldn't be quite so thankful living under them, especially if you wanted to live godly. And yet Paul talks about giving thanks here. So it's not less than praying for our leaders and their salvation, but it is more than that.

Activity of Prayer

There's something bigger going on here in this activity of prayer. And that's what starts to tip me off to think, well, it can't all just ride on whether our leaders repent and believe. Are they the ones who create the conditions for us to lead such a life? Or does God create those conditions? We know deep down the answer is God. And we have to explain what peace and quiet really means, of course. Well, we'll do that. But that's the first tip off to think, no, there's something bigger going on here. And that goes to my second point here. Well, the kind of life Paul describes, it's not ultimately dependent on our government's rule. Leading this life is much more related to the activity of prayer for people than the results of praying for people. This is what Paul's getting at. look at what it means to lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way, to show this.

Leading a Life

Why does it not depend on our leaders repenting? Why is it instead bound up in our actual activity of prayer? Well, to lead a life, that phrase, but forget the descriptions of it quite yet, but just the bare bone leading a life, that kind of phrase. It has the idea of your daily practical living. It's a good translation the ESV has here. We ask maybe somebody, what kind of life do you lead? We use that kind of language and what is somebody asking of us if they were to ask that? What kind of work do you do? What kind of lifestyle do you enjoy? What do you do for hobbies? What do you do for recreation? What kind of life do you lead? Are you a law-abiding person? Are you a criminal? You know, do you travel a lot? Are you a little bit more at home? What kind of life do you lead? That's in our vocabulary here, and that's exactly what this Greek expression is getting at. There's different words for life, and often Paul's using the word for eternal life as something much less immediate in our day-by-day living, a little bit more lofty. Here, bios, the Greek word bios, where we get the word biology, that's the word he's using here. This is included with spiritual things, of course. I'm not trying to say one's spiritual, one's not. But it does have a little bit more of that down-to-earth, nitty-gritty, doing-the-grind-of-life kind of feel to it.

Peace and Quiet Described

So what kind of lifestyle are you living? How do you pass your days? What fills up those 24 hours in a day and then all your weeks and your months and your years? What kind of life do you lead? But then Paul uses several words to describe the kind of lives Christians should lead. What should be filling up your days and your weeks and your months and so forth? Well, he uses four different words and he starts first with these two words, peaceful and quiet. In order that we would lead peaceful and quiet or a peaceful and quiet life in the singular. Now, these two words, peaceful and quiet, they're rarely used in Scripture. The only time the word peaceful comes up, the Greek word underneath the English translation here, this is the only reference in all the Bible. Quiet is used in 1 Peter 3:4. This is a particular word to our sisters, 1 Peter 3:4, where Peter calls for Christian women to adorn themselves with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit. That's the word quiet there.

Peace and Quiet Expression

And we know from other writings outside of scripture, and also looking at the words and kind of their cousins, what those words relate with, we know that these words do describe a kind of tranquility, a kind of quietness, a peace. Some people wanna try to say one's outward and one's inward, but again, they get translated and used in a variety of ways. They're kind of interchangeable. And we have an English expression to describe this, and it is peace and quiet, right? If you said, I'm gonna go out and get some peace and quiet, you're not really focused on, well, okay, this part's the peace and this part's the quiet, and I have a kinda, divided in this really, you know, cutting way. You're saying, no, no, I want a lot of peace and I want a lot of quiet. I want no disruption. I want rest. I don't want agitation. I want peace and quiet. Well, that's how this Greek phrase is being used as well.

Godliness and Dignity

The English phrase brings up maybe a scene of undisturbed tranquility. Maybe you're out at a lake and you hear a loon. Maybe you're among the forest. Maybe you're drinking coffee on your deck or something and the sunrise is coming out. You know, we think of peace and quiet like that. But Paul includes two other words that help us understand what kind of peace and quiet he's talking about here. He goes on and he says this peace and quiet, these peaceful and quiet lives and life together were to lead is to be done in all, or the ESV translation here, godly and dignified in every way. So godly and dignified are these further descriptions of this kind of life we're to lead. Literally, it is in all godliness and dignity. I think if you're using the King James, you're going to see that. And that is a more literal translation. In complete godliness, in total dignity. What the ESV is capturing here when it says, in every way, it's trying to show that that peace and quiet in your life, it's in a sphere. It's located under godliness and dignity. That's where it's living. North, south, east, west, every way, there's godliness and dignity. That colours this kind of peace and quiet.

Not Mere Relaxation

So it's not as simple as sitting out and enjoying a sunrise. Very ungodly people can do that too. That's a common grace from God for all kinds of people. But that's not quite what Paul's talking about here. There's something deeper going on, of course. We can see that by these words. We have to go to what these words mean, though. This is one of the first times Paul uses this word godly. And we might be surprised to see that he often doesn't use this word outside of his letters to Timothy and Titus. It's caught in such attraction in our language. We talk about being godly or being ungodly. But Paul doesn't use it frequently outside these pastoral epistles. It is used or it was used by pagans, by unbelievers to describe their own religious activities and the kind of moral character that came from it. Virtues that even God's law testified of the goodness of. There would be philosophers, pagan Greek teachers who would talk about virtue and good qualities of character. And though they'd always be off from the Bible's ideal, some of them got it closer to what God actually says than others. And when you would live that kind of ethical life, you have good behavior in your life, and you did it because of some religious reason, you were being godly.

Paul’s Use of Godliness

The Greeks and the Romans would have used this same word. And maybe that's why Paul doesn't use it as frequently when he writes to all the churches. Maybe when he's talking to his fellow workers, like Timothy and Titus, he uses it, but he doesn't want it misunderstood. You know, when you say something like, are you religious to somebody? Again, that could mean a lot of things. You're not necessarily asking them, are you a born-again believer, and do you follow Jesus Christ? So this kind of word, it needs some further definition to it. But of course, Paul is using this word and he's baptized it into the Christian religion. He's obviously meaning a kind of ethic, a kind of good behavior that is reflecting Christ's character. It's because of the one true living God. It conforms to his word. It's this kind of life and behavior that's worshipful to the one true God, but also beneficial to other people. So this does fit this kind of day-by-day leading a life. When you do it in a godly way, you're taking what you know about God and you're applying it in every area of your life. How you handle your money, how you handle relationships in your life, how you deal with entertainment or sports or recreation, everything. Godliness speaks to all these practical day-by-day issues. And this is what Paul wants as part of this peaceful and quiet life.

Dignified Living

But there's that final word, dignified. This life is to be led also in a dignified way. And this describes a kind of character and behavior that is worthy of respect. You think of the word dignified, worthy of respect. That's what needs to come to your mind. There's a seriousness of this character that draws respect rather than ridicule. Even if somebody were to seek to shame this person by his or her own character, that person would show that this ridicule's misplaced. There's no real evidence so that scorn and shame should be put on this person. This person handles himself, herself in a dignified way. and there should be respect. And whether that's truly given or not, you can't control that at the end of the day. But nonetheless, people sense a kind of seriousness and weight to a dignified character. It is above what is ordinary so that it carries that greater weight. In fact, in Latin, the language of Rome, they would translate this word as gravitas. And guess what word we get from that Latin word? Gravity, right? You know, being pulled down, a sense of heaviness and weight and so forth, things being drawn to others. Now, we will see both these words again, godliness and dignity. Paul's going to use them repeatedly throughout 1 Timothy. So we'll explore those words more again.

Putting It Together

But we need to go back to really answering that question. You put it all together. Okay. Well, what does it mean then to lead a peaceful and quiet life, especially as it relates to praying for all people, praying for our government included? Well, our cry is to go up to God in prayer. It is not to be against others in anger. We're to be gathering for prayer meetings and not for riots. We are to be praying in the spirit and be wielding his sword. We're not to be turning carnal weapons against others in anger. We are to be zealous but not a zealot. This is what Paul's getting at here.

Not Free from Controversy

Now Paul's not saying that this is a life that's free from controversy. This is a life where everybody likes you, there's no problems. Of course, he's not saying that. You just have to continue reading scripture to see Paul himself didn't lead a life like that. Jesus himself didn't lead a life like that. And remember chapter 1, verse 18, what does Paul tell Timothy? Wage the good warfare. He talks of the Christian life in terms of war and military. There is a fight. There is a battle. So, of course, this can't mean there's absolutely no quarrel, no disruption, no controversy.

Avoid Unnecessary Controversies

But we, as the church, must take from this a warning that we are to avoid unnecessary controversies. We're to depart from quarrels with people that are not ours to quarrel with. It's not our fight. We have the wrong focus. This is especially the appearance that we are for the destruction of our neighbours rather than for their salvation. Because notice how Paul goes on, verse 3. When after he says about praying and leading this kind of life, he says, this is good. It is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We need to communicate that to our neighbors. We are not against them. We are for them.

Titus 3 Example

Whether they like that or not, whether they understand that or not, But as the gospel is an offense enough to unbelievers, that's already offensive. We don't want to add to that offense. We don't want to be doing things that would take away from that message and instead give them real reason to point at us and to ridicule and to shame and to say, no, you're just a troublemaker and this is why. So we are to be promoting the salvation of our leaders and others. Now this is a repeated concern in the scriptures and among the apostles. There is going to be offense, there is a fight to wage, but we need to focus on that as the church. It's for the souls of other people. And we don't want to add anything to causing a stumbling block. Turn to Titus chapter 3 to see this. I want you to see a few passages to demonstrate this.

Titus 3:1-2

Titus 3, verses 1 through 2. Paul there says, remind them, that is remind the church, to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. This isn't a blind kind of obedience. as we're going to be looking at Daniel and others lead the way to show where there comes a point where we must obey God rather than man. But what Paul's warning about here is there's going to be temptations to just be a jerk. You think you're righteous, but really this isn't for God. You're just angry about something. You're personally offended. You're annoyed. You want something that you don't get. And therefore, you start to lash out in the flesh. You start to grumble. You start to complain. And rather than loving God and loving your neighbor supremely, you start to do a lot of other things. Whatever kind of coat of paint of godliness we would put on it, God sees through that. And even unbelievers can start to see through that. And so what Paul's saying here is he's saying Avoid the kinds of evil speaking, lack of submission, just brutish behavior, getting yourself into trouble where you didn't need to do that, in order that we would instead focus on the good work. Be ready for every good work.

1 Thessalonians 4 Example

Let's turn to 1 Thessalonians 4, 11 through 12. This is an example of what it means to live this peaceful and quiet life. Paul says it in other words. Let's actually go to verse 9 of 1 Thessalonians 4. I'm going to have you go through a few passages here. And I want us to be impressed by how many places in scripture we are confronted with this kind of language. Repeatedly, again and again, we're warned about submitting and being kind to others. And why is that? Well, we have a hard time doing that.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

Verse 9, now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, so to love more and more, and then verse 11, and to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders, before unbelievers, and be dependent on no one.

Evangelism by Quiet Living

So how's that for an evangelism strategy? Unbelievers, outsiders should see your walk. They should see your life. And there should be these kinds of qualities of character to it. Living quietly, minding your own affairs, working with your hands. As Paul and Silas and Timothy instructed the church, That's not as grand as standing in front of a rainbow sea of homosexuals and preaching the gospel to them. We think, wow, that's really going to be used by God to save a lot of people. Maybe God can bless that. But sometimes it's just for YouTube clicks for some people. That's what's going on out there, sadly. But what does scripture here say? And we have a lot of other passages like this. Unbelievers are going to see how you live. What is your focus in life? And in that quietness of life, there is something beautiful and glorious, actually, that a lot of unbelievers don't have. Their lives aren't quiet. Their lives are just agitated and crazy. They struggle with working with their hands, at least some of them. They're not minding their own affairs. They seem to be bogged down by the weight of the world as they're scrolling through social media and so concerned about the next person. That's life today. And what is the church instead supposed to model, actually, and then point to King Jesus and say, I have this peace because of him. I'm doing right. I'm still active and engaged. I'm doing good works. We saw that in Titus 3. And yet it's focused on him. I'm not in a hurry or a flurry. This speaks powerfully to unbelievers. And then as we pray for them as well.

1 Peter 2 Example

Turn now to 1 Peter. We'll only look at Paul. We'll see 1 Peter 2. I wanted to limit myself at three. Again, we could have done more. This will be a little bit of a longer one. Starting in verse 11. 1 Peter 2.11, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles. So this is not your home, ultimately, he's saying. To abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles, among the unbelievers, honorable. so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Meaning when Jesus comes back, they are ready for Christ's return because they've repented and they've believed in Jesus too. And what has God used to bring them to that point? Our good deeds, our good conduct, being a good witness for Jesus Christ in front of them. We've said no to the passions, the sinful desires of our flesh. That's what's really waging war against us. That's the warfare right there.

Submission for the Lord’s Sake

And instead, our conduct is kept honorable among the Gentiles. They can't speak against us as evildoers, those who truly are guilty of something evil. He goes on, as part of this, one of the key ways we're going to do this, verse 13, look where he goes. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Notice whose sake is it for? It's for the Lord's sake. It's not because you like your government, but it's because you ought to like your Lord. You ought to love your Lord.

Governance Function

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. Now notice, Peter is expecting the government will have this function. And we need to remember that in many ways we can actually give thanks for this. Governments around the world have this basic function. Some of them are doing it better than others. But you just have to learn about a society where government collapses. There's no more government.

Thanks for Order

Do you know what happens in such a country, in such a society? Lawlessness, anarchy, absolute chaos. And in terms of punishing those who do evil and praising those who do good, you're not gonna see a lot of that. If somebody came into our church building right now and punched one of us in the face, maybe started killing some of us, we were able to put that guy down, we were able to get him on the ground, call 911, the police would come. They would punish that person. Now again, would they do it as well as they could biblically? Sadly not, not under our Canadian government. But nonetheless, they would keep order. There would be a level of order maintained so that if every week we had people coming in this building trying to hurt us, we could actually appeal to the government. They would punish that evildoer. We can give thanks that we live in a society where that is still happening. There are some places they cannot do that. And often it's because government has collapsed, or it's become a million little factions that are fighting each other. We think of our brothers and sisters in Haiti right now experiencing this, where it becomes, you know, might is right. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters who don't get to experience this.

Evangelistic Witness

But what Paul, or Peter rather, goes on to say here, the church's responsibility, verse 15, For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. So you notice this. This is evangelistic. This is for the witness of the church. Rather than being guilty of joining in with evil doing and having a finger pointed at us as the church, we're putting to silence. Unbelievers have nothing to say against us, really. Because we are seeking to live as peaceful and quiet as God would allow us. And God does allow us to do that in many ways. There comes a line, there is a point. But nonetheless, we have a lot of opportunity to do this and to be a good witness to unbelievers as we do.

Live as Free Servants of God

And then he finishes with this. Live as people who are free. Not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. So using your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Well, I have free speech. I can say whatever I want. Yeah, but you'll be held accountable for what you say. You and I will have to be held accountable, give an answer for every idle word that comes out of our mouth, Jesus says in Matthew 12. So we have freedom, but how do we use that freedom? We have rights, but how do we actually hold on to those rights? How do we view that? Well, as servants of God, I mean, we are slaves of God. We don't have rights when it comes to God, but we have a perfect master who will always do us good. And that has to be our greatest identity here. And so we are free. We're ultimately not going to be accountable to answer to our prime minister. We're not living for our premier or our mayor. We're not subject to man like some might think citizens are. You and I have a sin number. They got you numbered. You're a number in a system, okay, whether you like that or not.

Freedom and Identity

Do you go off the grid? Is that how you experience freedom? Some people do that. I mean, have fun really trying. I mean, you got to be pretty on top of that to really... I looked into that years ago, survivalism. It's a lot harder than you think, especially now with all the technology they got out there. But nonetheless, is that really where freedom is? Or do you have a greater identity in the king of king's eye? Whatever these earthly leaders are going to say or number you as. Well, we have to look to our identity as the church. That's what Peter's also getting at here. And then serve him, focus on him. Don't use the freedom we have as Christians for the occasion for our flesh to be angry and to sin, to speak evil, to be unsubmissive, where really we ought to be submissive. Instead, we need to do good. We need to, as verse 17 finishes with, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor, honor our government. That's right there with those three others.

Christ’s Example

Well, think of Jesus' whole ministry. I mean, Jesus was speaking truth. He offended many. But when they sought to put him on trial, they had nothing on him. He could say to the crowds against him, who of you accuses me of sin? And they had nothing. They tried to get him in it. They hauled up a coin and they said, should we pay taxes or not? That was a serious question. Because if you didn't pay taxes to Rome, they saw that as sedition and treason, and you were going to die for it. That's how serious the CRA was back then, OK? It's not like that today. But they were very serious about getting their taxes. And so when Jesus is given that question, that's a really loaded question. Is he going to offend a bunch of the really religious-minded Jews who bristled under the Roman occupation? Or was he going to offend the Roman authorities, and now they have an accusation against him? He's not going to pay taxes. He's teaching people not to be in submission. But he finds that perfect answer, of course. Give to Caesar what is Caesar and God's what is God's. There's a way to do both. There is a way where you can fear God and honor the emperor. We are going to need wisdom in that, year by year, and in our current climate, of course. But it starts with a real heart of understanding. God will give us wisdom if we first have this heart to say, yes, I can do both these things. I must do both these things.

Wisdom Needed

I mean, brothers and sisters, I don't have all the answers about that. Some of you a few weeks ago were asking me about separatism. I don't know all the answers about that. I'm still figuring out that. I'm praying about that. But whatever, wherever each of us are leaning on those kinds of questions, We need to fear God and we need to honor our government. We need to pray for our government. There's opportunity to do good while we seek to leave that peaceful and quiet life. And Jesus is that great example of it. So they couldn't pin him with anything, really. They had to make up things. They had to twist his words about destroying the temple in order to try to get him accused of something. And then when he does boldly say, yes, I am the son of man that you're going to see on the clouds, coming down to judge the living and the dead, as Daniel 7 talks about, now they say, okay, he's a blasphemer, now we got him. But that's what he was guilty of, truly not guilty, for revealing himself as the Messiah. They couldn't get him with anything else. And that's what we need to be, quote unquote, guilty over too. They believe Jesus is the King of Kings. They believe He's the Savior of the world. If people are going to persecute us over that, amen. That's what we should be guilty over. But nothing else. Otherwise, we should have these kinds of lives.

Old Testament Background

Now, there's a background to this as well in the Old Testament. I've got a few more passages for you to look at with me here. Going to Old Testament, Jeremiah 29. I want you to turn to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, the prophet, the weeping prophet, he preached in the days where Judah, the last of God's people in the land, really, were taken away to Babylon. They were put under exile. And while in Babylon, and they were wondering, what do we do? Do we rise up? Do we have these pagan leaders over us? How should we respond to them?

Jeremiah 29:7

Well, look at verse 7 of Jeremiah 29.7. This is one of the things he tells them. Pray for the Babylonians. Pray for Nebuchadnezzar. Pray for these ungodly leaders who destroyed this city, maybe killed your brother or your sister, and yet God had a purpose in that judgment. You know, God has a purpose in the judgment we Canadians are experiencing right now in our nation. And make no mistake, we are under judgment. I mean, read Romans 1. Read that chapter about what God's judgment looks like on a people, and you will see Canada in it. But God has a purpose in it.

Daniel’s Example

And instead of bristling and being angry and fearful and focusing on all those problems, all the earthly problems, the spiritual problems, we need to repent of and encourage others to. But the welfare of the city, praying to the Lord on its behalf, this is what we also must do as exiles and sojourners, as Peter, as we just read, calls Christians. We are under pagan leaders. We are still in one sense under exile, waiting for our king to return and establish the true kingdom. Things are not what they should be, this is true. And yet here we are called to seek the welfare and pray for our leaders, for the unbelievers around us. And who took up that in a wholehearted way? The prophet Daniel. Daniel is a model for this. Pastor Bud used him as an example earlier in the service. He was able to even serve under the king while not compromising his faith in God. I mean, it's hard to imagine how you really could do that. How could you do that in a pagan kingdom? Daniel did that because he understood, this is how I can fear God, and these are the areas I can submit to my leaders over." Now, did he have words for Nebuchadnezzar to do justice and to repent? Yes, he did. But Nebuchadnezzar understood, this man's not against me, he's for me. The Persians, when they took over, they understood Daniel. He's kind of weird with his Jewishness as one God thing, and he doesn't eat the food we eat, and he's very pure, and he doesn't want a multitude of women around him all the time. He's kind of weird. But he's a good guy. They saw that in Daniel. He's a wise man, and we want to hear from him. This is what the church should be emulating as well. And so Daniel is an example. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are also examples. Because when they're called to bow down before the idol, that's the line. That's where they say, King, oh, King, live forever, but we're not doing that. Whether you kill us or not, whether God saves us from that fire or not, we can't do that.

Ezra 6 Background

Now, they didn't turn around and start a revolt. They didn't try to make a revolution in Babylon. But when push came to shove, they stood their ground, and they say, no. King, we're going to obey you in many other areas, but not here. And that's the attitude, that's the wisdom we as God's people need even today. I want you to turn to one last passage, Ezra chapter six. So you're going back now. We're going forward in time from Jeremiah, but backward in the book ordering, going in what's called the historical books. Ezra chapter 6.

Ezra 6:9-10

In Ezra's day, the Jews had returned to the land. Persia, not Babylon, was the big dog of the world. And in Persia, the king allowed the Jews to have their land back, but when they came back, the people who had been living in the land, the Arabs or the Nabataeans, the Samaritans, so the mix of Jew and Gentile, that's what Samaritans were, they didn't like that. And when the Jews tried to rebuild the temple, and then the city wall, these peoples of the land were against them. And so they wrote a letter, this is earlier in Ezra, they write a letter to the king of Persia saying, do you know about these Jews? They're troublemakers. Do you know about the history of Jerusalem? Go look back in the records. They've just caused headaches to the kings of Babylon. And you know, part of it was true. I mean, Jehoiakim, Jehoiakin, Zedekiah, those guys were nasty kings. The people were fickle under that rule. And so at first, the king says, OK, yeah, we're shutting this down. I can't trust these people making a temple again. And they're going to get too rowdy. But by God's grace, the king does relent. And he allows them to build the temple again. But notice what he says. Ezra 6, 9 through 10. So he says in verse 9, to give them whatever is needed, bulls, rams, sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil as the priests at Jerusalem require, let that be given to them day by day without fail. So they were set up for worshiping at the temple. But verse 10, what's the purpose of it? That in order that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. This is what that pagan leader expected. I need you to pray for me, oh Jews. I need you to pray for my sons. You don't have to worship my gods, but the God of heaven that you worship, make sacrifices on my behalf, pray on my behalf. And this set up a pattern for the Jews. When later Rome would conquer them, they didn't make Jews worship the emperor. Instead, they said, you need to pray to the emperor. You need to make a sacrifice on his behalf for his good. For the emperor, that's right. Pray to the emperor. Oh, rebuke me, brotherly. Pray for the emperor, on behalf of the emperor. So that was established in Jesus' day.

Sign of Rebellion

What we know later on, after Jesus rose and ascended, Book of Acts is going on, leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70. We know that the sign that the Jews were against Rome now, that they were in open rebellion, would lead to the destruction of the city. What was one of the first things the historian Josephus says that they did? They stopped praying for the emperor. They said, We're done. We're not going to pray for your good. We're not going to pray for your sons. We're not going to sacrifice for your good. We're against you now. We're not praying for you. We're going to curse you instead. They would wave black flags with curses of the emperor on their camels and whatnot. Can't even reference that flag without being profane in this house. They would curse the emperor rather than seek his good. And this was the sign, okay, rebellion has started. And it led, years later, to the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome.

Our Role Today

So we have this background behind the Bible in the Old Testament. All of this is to inform our understanding of this great task we have as the church. that we need to pray for our government. When we pray for our government, we follow the godly and dignified pattern that God has laid out for us. We keep ourselves blameless from the accusations of unbelievers. The only accusation is concern for their eternal good. This is what we must be subversive and guilty over. As they couldn't get anything on Daniel in Persia, they wanted to pin Daniel with some dirt, and all they could do was make a law that says you can't pray to your God anymore. And when Daniel disobeyed that law to pray, that's when they had something on him and threw him in the lion's den. They couldn't find anything else on him. And so this is the call for the church as well. When we pray for our leaders, nobody can point at us and say, you know, you're just trying to destroy our nation. You're just trying to cause a bunch of trouble. No. I'm seeking my leader's good. I'm seeking my neighbor's good. I'm seeking to do everything I can to lead a peaceful and quiet life like this. Yeah, but you want everybody to be a Christian. Yes. Okay, I'm guilty about that. Yes. This is what must characterize us.

Shared Testimony

Now, we must help one another in this. I want us to look at the language back in 1 Timothy 2. You're flipping everywhere. Flip back to 1 Timothy 2. Notice how Paul phrases this. This shows us how much we must help each other with this. It's in order that we make these prayers, in order that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. We may lead a peaceful and quiet life. He doesn't say lives. He doesn't say each of you may lead a peaceful and quiet life. He says we, together, would lead a peaceful and quiet life. Singular. Because we are bound together. You as a Christian, you as a Baptist, you as a member of Lighthouse Baptist Church, your conduct is going to tell other people about other Christians, other Baptists, other members of Lighthouse Baptist Church. It reflects on other people. It reflects on the brothers and sisters around you and I, even around the world. We can't isolate ourselves from one another like this. And unbelievers are sniffing. They're looking for anything they can find that will then say, ah, I knew this one Christian. I'm going to write them all off as hypocrites. Now again, they'll have to answer to God for that. That's not a righteous kind of judgment. And there's going to be some people that will do that, and they have no real basis in it. But we should not give any fuel to that kind of fire. We should not be adding to that kind of stereotype or judgment, feeding into that. So we need to help each other with this. We do share a testimony together.

Challenge to Our Priorities

This all challenges us as well on the kind of life we are to lead. Are we looking at the peaceful and quiet life the way God wants us to? Is it really godliness and dignity that we treasure above so many other things in our life? We shouldn't despise earthly temporary matters. We should seek peace in our neighborhood, for example, not to be overrun with criminality or drugs. We should seek a good economy that would still be upheld by righteousness and fairness and equity and so forth. We should seek these things. Those aren't bad things. But nonetheless, if we think our lives are dependent on the policies of our government, We're putting our lives into their hands rather than God's hand. I cannot enjoy my life unless the government does this or that. Now you've just made yourself ultimately a slave to the government. Now again, we pray for good policy, but we're not gonna be bound to what others would do. Our dignity as Paul says, godliness and dignity should characterize our lives. Our dignity is not bound up in how other people treat us. Your dignity as a Christian is going to be seen in how you treat other people. The world is going to say, don't tread on me. You have rights. Don't let other people do things to you. It's very undignified. Well, what did they do to Jesus? As he was naked on the cross, We look at this symbol now. We have a symbol there, symbol there. This is a symbol of humiliation and shame and horror. And yet some of you have it around your neck right now. Do you understand what you're communicating about that? And we're gonna be offended how other people treat us? We need to find our dignity in how we treat other people. This is what Paul's also getting at.

Martyrs’ Dignity

We think of the martyrs of the faith. as they sang as they went to the fire and to the lions, as many of them still would trust God as they go to be shot or butchered by evil people? Do they have dignity as they are like sheep going to the slaughter? Well, the world says no, but a Christian should say yes. When you can look death in the eyes and you're not afraid, there's something deeply dignified about that, and nobody can take that away from you. if you have it in Christ. And so Paul wants us to understand that this is the stuff of life. This is what we need to be focused on and encouraging one another with.

Invitation to Know Christ

Jesus is our ultimate example in this. If you don't know him as Lord, if you don't have him as Savior, you're not going to understand any of this message. Your focus will be on the earth rather than on heaven. And when people do you wrong, and they will, whether it's government or your neighbor, you're going to bristle and you're going to act out in the flesh instead of seeing it as an opportunity to love and to do good instead. You need to have that relationship with Jesus Christ, and it needs to be alive, and he needs to be giving you that freedom and that boldness so that you can walk with him through the evils of this world. So know him. Know Him more. As we see the days get harder in our land, we need this message on our hearts. We need these examples close to our hearts. And we need to embrace as the church that special role we have among the kingdoms of the earth, that we are the ones who pray. We take everything that makes us worried or scared and we pray. We give thanks when others don't give thanks. We trust God when everything seems so bleak. And we have joy from the Holy Spirit, even in affliction. God can help us with this. So let's pray that he does help us.

Closing Prayer

O Father in heaven, we need your grace to embrace such truth. O Father, we need your help. so that our eyes would be set on the hills where our help comes from. We can't look to man or the arm of flesh for salvation. Lord, we pray for our leaders. We pray that where there is unrighteousness and foolishness, you would grab hold of their hearts. They would turn to you. They would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. They would do good in the land. But Father, help us as your people to do good, to take hold of our responsibility, to pray and to lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. Oh Lord, you know where each of us struggle with this. You know where each of us are afraid or angry. And we pray that your grace would be bigger than any of those sinful emotions. And Lord, for anyone here who is still not yet submitted to the greatest authority, to the Lord Jesus Christ, may they kiss him in respect and submission and faith before they perish on the way. And we pray you would give them that joy that no one else can take from them because it's hid in you, Lord Jesus, and you have overcome the world. We thank you in your name. Amen.