What Is The Role of a Christian?

(0:00 - 5:43) Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast, with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. You will never have to fear God changing His mind on saving you, because He knew what He was doing before time ever began when He invited you to come into His Kingdom. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to Jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. We as believers regarding government, we are to be the most ardent of Christ followers. And if that's true, if we're going to follow Jesus closely, I want to just run through these first eight things up front. Number one, the Christian is to be the most biblical and God-honoring, period. The Christian is to be the best citizens of any community. The Christian is to be the wisest of voices in private and in public. The Christian is to be the conscience of the city, the state, or the nation. The Christian is to be the brightest of lights in the darkest of places. The Christian is to be the saltiest of salts where decay and death is. The Christian is to be the most loving and attractive in the culture. The Christian is to be much hated and rejected among all who disagree. When people say, I disagree that God exists, if you hold your ground Christian, you're going to be hated. We talked about this on Wednesday night. But to be a Christ follower, these five things God will do. We are to be courageous. God does that. We are to be informed. We are to be vigilant. We are to be winsome. And we are to be blameless. You are going to be accused because you know Jesus. People are going to call you and label you all kinds of evil against your life. They're going to tell you this in your family. They're going to say you're the, she's the weird aunt or he's the weird there's, that's the, that doesn't matter. They're just going to let you have it because the bottom line is Jesus. Just don't let there be any truth to it. Because if you don't heed what I'm encouraging you to embrace right now, that is you embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and you will never, I promise you, you will never win public opinion. You don't have to. By the way, public opinion cannot be won because it's jellyfish. It's Jell-O on the wall. You ever, ever been in the ocean and you grab a jellyfish? It's like grabbing snot. It's just, what is that? Exactly what is that? Everybody votes for you on Monday and they'll kill you on Tuesday. That's the way of the world. God's not like that. Follow Jesus and these things will be ours to both enjoy and to suffer. But the end is glorious. But it's a time church. It will always be a time and this time will increase for us that you and I exercise Godly obedience. We must determine, don't raise your hand, but if you're a Christian today, the time is now upon us. I have no doubt that we must choose to obey God rather than man when man creates laws that are anti-God. And just don't write me and tell me that you disagree. It's ridiculous. You'll just expose yourself. This has always been the case. By the way, how do you ever plan on becoming a persecuted believer, a martyr for Christ, which is a badge of honor, if you're going to be like the jello on the wall? No wonder why churches don't mention the word martyr or persecution. Oh, don't say that. Isn't it the 21st century? Yeah, it means in the 21st century persecution's been perfected. And many of you have suffered what I call white-collar persecution. We obey government, but when government goes rogue and it crosses the line of scripture, then we stand with God. Acts chapter 5 verse 17, then the high priest rose up and all those who were with them, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation and they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in a common prison. But at night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors. That's awesome. And brought them out and said, go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. That is the Christian life, the gospel. And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those who came and called the council together with all the elders of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. Watch this. But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported saying, indeed, we found the prison shut securely and the guards standing outside before the doors. But when we opened them, we found no one inside. Is that awesome? I mean, that's like a movie thing. (5:44 - 5:55) But this is real. Now, when the high priest, verse 24, and the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. Boy, are we in trouble. (5:56 - 7:05) So one came and told them, saying, look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? What's the name? What's the name? Jesus. And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. What city do you live in? Whatever city you live in, wouldn't it be great if this same indictment was placed upon us? If I got called in before the authorities, wouldn't it be awesome if they said, look at you, you have filled the whole city with this doctrine. Oh, wow. May that be true of Anaheim and Irvine and Pasadena, right? Wouldn't that be great? Wow. And intend to bring this man's blood on us. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Verse 40. And they agreed with them. (7:05 - 7:27) And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name and daily in the temple and in every house. They did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. (7:30 - 7:36) Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Tremendous. The preaching of the gospel, the proclamation of the gospel. (7:36 - 10:36) It cannot be outlawed. It cannot. You said, wait a minute. In some countries it is. Yes. In some countries it is a law to not preach Christ, but you can't outlaw it. So what are you saying? You can make laws against it, but no one's going to obey that. Think of it. Do you think the believers in North Korea are being silent? No. Just like the believers in Iran are not being silent. How do we know? Because the church is growing there. What about the believers in Saudi Arabia that it's illegal to preach? They're whispering to others, you know, at least. And I just had a really this last week, two times we were somewhere one. Okay. The other day I was speaking at Biola the other day. And, and someone came up and said, hi. And as a young person, and as they were leaving, they said, they just, it just rolled off their tongue. So, you know, it's normal to them. They just said, Hey, see you later. Uh, bless, uh, blessed be the Lord. I think it was this young man. See it. Jack and Lisa. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And he walked away earlier that week. Lisa and I were in a place and total strangers. There were five young men. I'm in there to be in their late teens or early twenties. And the one guy said, Hey, what are you doing here to his buddy? Hey, I didn't know you're going to be. What are you doing here? And they greeted each other. Listen, he's risen Lisa. And I went like this because this is a secular setting. We were, did you hear that? It was their greeting. It was kind of apostolic. It was like, wow. A friend of mine said, even in Vegas, they'll say the luck of the Lord be with you. And then finally, we end right here. Number two is that the government of God reveals the Lordship of God from sovereignty of God to the Lordship of God, all learned by the government of God. And we see this in verse five, his divine government over his people, Lordship. Therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. Listen, you don't have to worry about wrath. If your conscience is clear before the Lord, how do you have a clear conscience? Obey the Lord. Why should I obey the Lord? Don't you want to live? Don't you? Yes, I do. I want to live. Then listen, receive his divine government over your life. It's called him being Lord friends. And I know there's a great debate about this and not to be, but there is, can you have Jesus Christ as savior and not have them as Lord? And some will say you have to have them as Lord to have them as savior. And the argument goes back and forth. (10:36 - 10:41) Hey, listen, I don't know about that stuff. I just know this. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. (10:44 - 11:26) And the last time I checked on the most, the most, the most miniscule definition of the word Lord, it means master. Did you know that? Did you know that in the original Greek language of the new Testament, the word servant never shows up regarding our lives. It's always the word slave. I'm not going to apologize for that. The Bible says God is our master and we are his slave. Slaves can be defined by their master. And I'm happy to tell you that I have a very good master, that I love being his slave. We've all learned this to not be the slave of man. That's for sure. (11:27 - 12:32) But even if you find this message landing in the country where you're at in slavery rules, the land, the Bible addresses that the new Testament addresses it and says to the slave in a foreign land, be obedient to your master, be a witness for Jesus. You might win your master to Christ. And if you are a slave owner somewhere in the world, and you're a believer, Jesus is your Lord and you're a slave to him. And so you should turn around and treat those who are under you with respect and dignity. Because in some countries, folks, we don't know this, but in some countries, if a slave owner became a Christian and then turned his slaves loose, they would be killed. Yes. Think of that. So what do you do in such a difficult situation? I thank God that my Bible is so perfect that it even handles the most difficult and ugly of situations. What is the absolute shift in the entire equation? Becoming a believer. (12:33 - 13:54) Who is your Lord? The people would be asked. Well, it's obvious state in the obvious. This is in a public setting in a civic sense. Yes, I get it. But after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he was called Lord and Christ, and it shifted. It changed. And let's give him some credit. This whole thing changed because, yes, prior to the resurrection, people did call Jesus Lord, but they called him Lord like you would a landowner or Lord like somebody who's over you because of education or whatever it might be. After the resurrection, it all changed. And one guy who doesn't get any credit is the guy that changed. Of course, the Holy Spirit did it through him. Do you know what his name was? Who said that? How did you know that? Oh, did you? Oh, you read my notes. I was going to say, you get on up here and you teach the closing of this message. You see why you should have the notes. Thomas, Thomas, doubting Thomas. I doubt it. Everything. Jesus is risen from the dead. I doubt it. Thomas, one of the apostles. We just saw Jesus. I don't think so. It's Thomas. He says, I am not going to believe they all believed he's risen from the dead. (13:54 - 13:59) Thomas is not me. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it until I can touch him. (14:00 - 14:21) So Jesus shows up, the doors are locked, the windows are shut, and the Bible tells us Jesus suddenly appeared. And then to prove to him that he's not a ghost, he says to Thomas, Thomas, can you imagine? He's Thomas. Can you imagine? Yes, Lord. (14:23 - 14:28) Come on now. Come on. Put your fingers in the holes of my hand. (14:28 - 16:29) Can you imagine? And Thomas says, my Lord, Kyrios, my master, and my slave. Doesn't that just warm your heart, man? Are you a doubter? Jesus is saying, look at the holes in my hands, will you? That's what love says to you. Yeah, Jesus is king of kings and Lord of Lords, folks. And that truth right there will spare you from deception. Verse six tells us that the divine government of God and his Lordship is to be in your family. For because of this, you also pay taxes for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very, very thing. You say, how does that equate to family? Well, first of all, state the obvious, pay your taxes. I don't agree with the, pay your taxes. By the way, if you pay your taxes to really dumb stuff, which we will do, you will do it one way or another. If you say I'm not going to do it, you're going to do it through jail time. They will get it out of you. You don't have to worry about that. If they want you to pay taxes because your, your tax dollars are going to go fund the, the gay activity of Peruvian frogs during the rainy season. If you say I disagree with that, I'm not going to pay taxes. No, no, here's what you're going to do. You're going to pay taxes because you will not have to answer for what the authorities do with your tax money. They will. So by us paying taxes for them to do dumb things, we're heaping as it were judgment upon them by our obedience. Does that make sense? But what is it? That's the obvious civically, but you know, you have, you have a, you have civics in your home. Your family is like a little town. You have little citizens in your house. (16:29 - 16:37) You it's true. You've got various rooms. Some of them can be jails at certain times. (16:40 - 19:11) There's a King and a Queen and their subjects and this whole realm is a little civil body politic. And God establishes this because listen, dad, mom, God is teaching your children how to be citizens in a world through you and your leadership. Can I put it to you this way? Your kids should see you in a sense like the Lord Jesus Christ. Should you be loving to your kids? Absolutely. But should you condone evil? No, God would never do that. God would say that was evil. Did you see that? So right now I'm going to be the arresting officer. I'm going to bring you over here and we're going to, we're going to hold court and everybody agrees, including your sisters, that you're guilty of this crime. And so mom's going to plead your case. I'm going to listen to it. Then we're going to go into consultation. Then we're going to come back out and we're going to declare what your penalty is going to be. Did you know that family works just like this? If you realize it or not, it's the government of God. And finally, it's right here in closing verse seven, rendered therefore to all who are due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs, that's fees, to whom fees are due, and fear to whom fear, that's reverential awe, and honor to whom honor. What a beautiful place to end on this one. Honor. Do we honor our elected officials? Yes, yes we do. I mean, we get to, you know, we get to around this area because most of them go to this church. We know them. We've known them for years. The mayor of this city, I've known for decades. Awesome people. There's also people that are elected to our offices, local and county and state, that are actually anti-Christ people. They're anti. How should we treat them? With honor. With honor. Yes, it's hard. (19:12 - 19:28) It's part of being a disciple. Friends, listen, you can rejoice in this fact. Jesus Christ will never lose his Lordship because he will never act unbecoming of the Lord that he is. (19:29 - 20:01) You will never have to fear God changing his mind on saving you because he knew what he was doing before time ever began when he invited you to come into his kingdom. This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? 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