Good Morning Mission Girl Family and welcome to another edition of Church Online. We are currently in week three of a series entitled Tough Questions where we are attempting to tackle the issues our country is facing right now through the lens of scripture. And last week we began the conversation with the question of what does jesus say about politics? And so today we're going to continue that conversation, but in case you missed last week, the big idea was that when you disagree politically choose to love unconditionally and to pray for unity when you disagree, not if, but when you disagree, are you willing to love them unconditionally and to pray for unity? And that unity found in the gospel of jesus christ. Now, before we jump into today's passage, I want to share with you to opening thoughts first is where you stand, depends on where you sit. In other words, your personal experiences greatly shape where you stand politically, Where do you live? How did you grow up? Where were you educated? Are you educated? What has been your personal experience and what has been a personal experience of the people that surround you and are in the same circles as you And if we can agree to even disagree on certain topics and issues with the mutual respect for one another that creates the opportunity to compromise. Come together and find a way forward in politics. But we live in a day and age where there seems to no longer be a middle section in order to get noticed, you have to be on the extreme right or an extreme left and oftentimes there is a chasm in the middle and that's created by the fact that information is instant. It's constant, it's global and it's permanent. No, I didn't create those terms, but I want to share those again with you. That information is instant, constant, global and permanent and instant because we now hear everything immediately. 24-hour news channels, social media blogs, different people riding, sharing their opinions, calling themselves experts. And so it is immediate and it's all day. So it's constant. It's global because when something happens from across the world or in another state, we hear about it immediately and once something is posted, it's permanent and it lives on the internet forever. And so we are surrounded by all kinds of political noise. And so where do we begin? How do we decipher that? Well, the first step is just to simply acknowledge where your experience leads you and that if you can acknowledge where your experience has led you to believe and stand on a political issue, take time to listen and to learn where someone else is coming from. Do you listen to understand or do you listen to reply? So that leads me to my second opening thought, which is this, that thinking critically is not the same thing as being critical, the goal as christians is not to be critical or cynical, but rather to think critically, to walk in both Grace and truth, to walk in love and to walk in light to walk in wisdom. So there's biblical truth, there is the foundation of jesus, then there is life experience and what we think is the wisest thing to do and you combine all those things together and we end up with our political positioning and so first recognize that where you stand, depends is dependent upon where you sit and then also that thinking critically is not the same thing as being critical. What we do when we take out the supernatural in the natural world is that we carry supernatural elements and we project them onto natural ones. So for example if we are not putting God first in our life and we are not worshiping him as God, what happens is is that we place another object or belief system in as God even if itself and then what we do is we idolize what we agree with and then we demonize who disagrees with us. And so people simultaneously as pastor tim Keller has pointed out is that simultaneously they've created this paradox where truth culturally speaking is subjective, Truth is not subjective, it's objective, found in God who created us, but in a culture that treats truth as subjective and then simultaneously says, if you don't agree with my position, we will demonize you and destroy you. And so you have extreme positions where people are going at each other like war instead of fellow people created as Children of God created in his image. Now, you might be sitting there thinking john that's nice to say things like when you disagree politically love unconditionally, but you're not living in the real world. Well, I want to take a deeper dive this morning and give you an example of how jesus lives this out. And if you're taking notes, write down the big idea for today, Jesus did not come to take sides, but to take over this idea comes from pastor Tony Evans and it's stuck with me. When I first heard it again, Jesus didn't come to take sides. He came to take over. It's not that Jesus wants to be first, but that Jesus wants to be only in biblical theology, that's known as pre eminence, that when God is only in your life, way to think about that is imagine yourself standing there on your wedding day and you're saying your vows to your spouse and you say, honey, I love you. And you will get all of my first dates. I'll go on a lot of dates, but you're gonna get my best ones. Yeah, no, that's not okay. That's not okay to say on your wedding day. That's not okay to do because when you enter into a marriage, it's not about being first, it's about being only and that our allegiance is not to a political party, but to jesus. And so you might be wondering, well, how did jesus actually handle political situations? I'm glad you asked that question because in our story today, we're going to see how Jesus responded to a politically loaded question. It's found in Mark Chapter 12, starting in verse 13 and they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodian to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, why put me to the test? Bring me a Denarius And let me look at it. Now, I want to pause here and give you some context behind the historical story. The tax that they were referring to was known as the head tax. And the caesar at that time was known as Tiberius caesar, augustus. And this was a real tax with real coin. And you just saw the real coin and a statue of Tiberius Caesar, Augustus who ruled between 14 a. d. and 37 a. D. Now the reason this is a loaded political question Was that 25 years prior to the Pharisees asking, Jesus, should we pay the head tax, which really wasn't a lot compared to some of the taxes they were paying the Roman government. Is that 25 years prior there was a guy named Judas The Galilean and judas the galilean out of principle rebelled against being taxed with the head tax because the head tax was saying you are subject to to Tiberius, caesar, augustus and so diab areas caesar or the caesar at that time it was then known as a ruler and so judas rallied the jewish people and he said first we must refuse to pay this tax. Then he led an armed revolt and he went in and he cleansed the temple of people of different um forms who were selling items in the temple and things and they said in the name of God we are cleansing the temple. And then he said we will not serve you caesar that we will only serve God well what happened to judas the galilean according to Acts chapter five verse 37 when Camilla ale was actually talking about the disciples, he said well if the disciples are like this judas guy from years ago he led a revolt and that was stopped and that guy was killed and that was the end of the revolt. And so when these Pharisees now in the time of jesus say hey should we pay this tax, they're coming out of the time in Mark chapter 11 we're in Mark chapter 12 where jesus went in and he cleansed the temples and he said don't turn my church or not sure at the time that temple into a marketplace. And so he's flipping tables and so people are connecting him with the revolt that happened 25 years prior. And so now they present him with this option say jesus, should we pay the tax? And it's a pretty powerful trap. If you think about it because if jesus says don't pay the tax he will be angered or he will anger the roman authorities and he would start another revolution. But if he says go ahead and pay the tax then everyone who was following him up to that point will think that he's just blowing smoke that he really wasn't talking about a kingdom because he was preaching about the kingdom that you and I now understand as a spiritual one. But in the context of that day they thought that jesus was going to bring in a physical kingdom rule as king and take over the romans. He didn't do that though. And so if he says yes he's in trouble. If he says no he's in trouble. So what did jesus do? Let's find out. And they brought him one side note isn't it interesting that the king of kings, creator of the world didn't have a coin on him? The king didn't even have a quarter in his pocket. Okay, think about how crazy that is. Anyway and he said to them whose likeness and inscription is on this and the word for likeness inscription here is actually the greek word where we get our word icon. And so whose image is on the coin and they said to him, caesar's and jesus said to them render to caesar now that is a loaded greek phrase that actually means pay what someone deserves. So render to caesar the things that are caesar's and to God, the things that are God's. And they marveled at him, this is why this is important. He's saying here in this moment that if it belongs to caesar then yeah you can give him the money. And in fact the early monetary system was minted directly out of caesar's wealth. So literally was his money working through the kingdom. And so he said, yeah you can give him that money because his image is on that. But where is caesar's image? But on small coins, let me ask you the question, where is the image of God? And those Pharisees who were studied in the old testament or the books of the Torah Would be reminded of the passage in Genesis chapter one verse 27 that said that man was created in the image of God. And so while CAesar might receive his money, Jesus says give to God your life, jesus is nuanced. He it's a both and he doesn't simplify a complex issue. You know, sometimes political figures are asked questions and they don't really answer the question and then people are mad and upset and confused but people responded to jesus with amazement and they marveled at him because he navigated this political landscape by saying yes, live respectfully, yes, pay the tax, give him your taxes, but don't give him your allegiance because Jesus was not, was not after the people's vote. Jesus was after the people's heart in the kingdom that he would bring is so much bigger and so much greater than anything those people understood at that time, someone described this kingdom As as an upside down kingdom and we see that because check out Luke chapter six and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom in a world that pursues riches. He's saying the poor receive the kingdom. It says, blessed are you who are hungry for You shall be satisfied in a society that's consumed with the desire for materials and consumption. Jesus says it's not about that. It says Blessed are you, who weep now for you shall laugh. Those who are experiencing morning are gonna ultimately experience joy. He says, Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the son of man. In other words, blessed are those who are persecuted because of their faith where Joyce in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven for so their fathers did to the profits. Now, I want to pause here and just point out the fact that the things that the world tries to tell you are important things like power, things like success, comfort, recognition in these statements, we see that Jesus flips it upside down now. How can he do that? Why does Jesus say that? He says that? Because God's kingdom as we showed earlier is greater. God's kingdom is bigger than anything that this world has to offer. You know, the leaders as we know it of our country and the different positions throughout our government are going to be determined by the upcoming election. Elections are seen as markers of someone's leadership. And what's crazy is that the marker of jesus leadership in his reign as king is not marked by an election marked by an execution. It's the very point that Jesus lost his life that we gained his blessing. It's not on the screen, but second Corinthians 521 tells us that he who knew no sin became sin so that we could become righteous. The reason those who are mourning those who are low, those who are poor, those who are hurting the reason theirs is the kingdom is because Jesus went to the cross went to the lowest point took on the penalty of our sin. So that when he was brought low, we are lifted high when he took on our sacrifice and on our sin, we received his name and his blessing and forgiveness and grace and mercy and that transcends any election, any political party any time in our world's history and it connects us to the very heart and mercy of God. God is not looking for your vote, he's not trying to persuade you, he's looking for your heart. And when you humbly submit your life before him, you live for a greater kingdom. And so if jesus doesn't side with one political party or another, where does that leave us? Because the fact is that we do have an election or I want to encourage you to live this out, decide to live Kingdom down and not culture. For those who are regular members of our mission girl family, you've heard me use this phrase before, but I think it's relevant to right now in this moment that you can choose to try to live culture up or you can seek first the things of God and live kingdom down. If you believe in jesus christ as your Lord and savior, you don't have to wait until heaven to experience eternity. But instead heaven comes down to you and you can help other people and usher them into the Kingdom of God when you share with them the good news of jesus. So how you vote, how you live, also, how you speak on social media in conversation, it's a reflection of what you believe and who you believe is in charge. Yes, I have political views. Yes, I have stances and if you really want to have a conversation, I'm willing to have that with you. But I want to remind you that we are called ambassadors of christ. Okay. You know we have the icon or image of leaders from our country's history, but you have the image of God imprinted on your soul and that's a greater kingdom, that's a greater goal and a greater life and we receive that life when we humble ourselves, we admit that we've sinned and we can't make it to heaven on our own and that politicians don't save us and instead we bow the knee and we believe that jesus christ is Lord and savior and it's only through him that our world is gonna change and that we can experience forgiveness and eternal life when you do that, you will start to live kingdom down. You will start from a stance of love and sacrifice and service and grace and mercy. That you will value human life, that you will value what the bible says is an honoring marriage before him that you would value taking care of the poor and and helping those who have experienced injustices and that we will be good stewards of creation and that we will make wise decisions and that when we disagree politically we can love unconditionally because our love comes from not of this world but from God. And so we will not focus on temporary things like elections. Yes, jump in yes, vote yes, run for office if you so see fit, but understand that all of those things are temporary. And if this wasn't a political talk, if we were talking about health care or education or business, I would say the same thing. Your job doesn't define you. Your education status doesn't define you, really. Your belief in jesus is what should set the agenda in your heart, because jesus again, is not going for your vote. Jesus did not come to take sides. He came to take over and he did that by dying on the cross for you and for me, if we believe that, and that should impact everything that we say and do, and so we should work hard, we should give it our best because everything that we say is for God's glory and everything we do put God's name on display for our community. Don't allow the headlines of the news enter your heart. Instead allow the king, the King of Kings, the king who didn't even have a quarter to his name, who placed his image on your heart and was willing to sacrifice his life for you, allow God to shape what you believe, how you speak, what you left. If you do that. And if during this crazy election season, if we commit to unity in the church and unity through the faith message that's found in jesus and that there is liberty where we disagree and that there is hope for all and there's forgiveness when we mistreat one another and we extend grace as God has extended grace to us. When we do that church, we're not gonna be lifting up our candidate, we're gonna be lifting up the gospel and that is what's going to change our society for the better. Will you do that with me? Let's pray dear heavenly father, we thank you that jesus, even when he I was trying to be trapped into saying, should we pay this tax or not? He didn't make them look left or look right, but instead he challenged the people listening to look up. I said, yes, we have civic responsibility, but it's more than just giving caesar what CAesar is owed. It's more than just our american government system. Is that God, you don't want to vote, you want our hearts. God, I pray that right now. If there's somebody watching this, if they have never received you as Lord and savior, I pray that they would do that, that they would humble themselves not before a politician, but before the king of Kings because God, you died on a cross, you took on the pain and suffering of this world so that we could be lifted up if you are willing to go so far, it's my prayer that we'd be willing to just go across the aisle, have honest conversations with people who disagree with us, to show people light and love to connect with people who don't think like us. But instead we can show and share your love with the world around us. God, thank you for not taking sides God. It's our prayer that as you take over and it starts with us, take over our minds and our hearts in our lives today, we commit them to you and your son's name. We pray amen. I want to thank you for your time. And as every message during this series, if you want to have a deeper conversation, I'd love to talk with you. It's not meant to just be a one way monologue, but to start a dialogue talk with friends and family members, talk with other people within the church. And so if you'd like to email me at jay Kriegel at Mission Grove Church dot com, I'd be happy to talk about anything with you. And I'd love to go deeper because I believe that's what jesus would do. And so I know that you are loved God is for you and therefore I'm for you and together, even in this crazy election season, we can be for our community. We'll see you next week