"Four score and
seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on his continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty…." -Lincoln,
Gettysburg address, Nov 19, 1863
If he had spoken
these words today, they would say 11 score and 18 years. A score of years is 20.
In America, we tend
to feel that liberty is our own unique value that suddenly came on the
historical scene with our declaration of independence.
Indeed looking back
over history, it is hard to find many other examples. We did see the British Magna Carta in the
13th century, some 500 years before our Declaration, but that applied mostly to
noblemen not to common people. Prior to
that you would have to go back before Christ to find much in the way of liberty
minded societies, The Roman Republic founded roughly 500 years before Christ
and the Greek city states like Athens who experimented with liberty roughly 400
years before Christ.
Human beings have a real difficulty in living free for
very long.
Even among God's
people they did not fare much better.
When God rescued the people from slavery in Eqypt, roughly 1400 years
before Christ, it wasn't long before
they clamored that they wanted to return to that slavery rather than risk the
unknowns of life in the desert even though God had promised to take care of
them and lead to a new land where there would be great abundance. After God gave them the law through Moses and
they moved into the promised land they still had very little government. God was their King. They had judges who were selected from among
them to solve disputes. Occasionally
they gather together into a militia to fight off foreign invaders and bandits
but still no government except God as their King. The Old Testament book of Judges describes it
this way. Everyman did what was right in
his own eyes. They were free and took
responsibility for their own lives.
Many large government folks today would call that anarchy. After nearly 400 years of this kind of
freedom the people cried out to God for a King.
They rejected God as King over them and desired an earthly king and
gov't. (Approximately 1051 BC)
So Samuel spoke all the
words of the LORD to the people who had asked of him a king. He said,
"This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will
take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his
horsemen and they will run before his chariots. "He will appoint for
himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and
to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his
chariots. "He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and
bakers. "He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your
olive groves and give them to his servants. "He will take a tenth of your
seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants.
"He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your
best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. "He will take a
tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. "Then
you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for
yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day." Nevertheless,
the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No,
but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations,
that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."
(1 Samuel 8:10-20)
From the American Founders:
In 1776, we read the
glorious words in our Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths
to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
God is a God of Freedom
God gets a bad
rep. He is portrayed as the God who
prohibits everything. Despite His great
love and sacrifice of His Son for the world, he is portrayed as a hater by
many.
And yet He is the
originator of freedom. He puts the tree
in the Garden of Eden. He didn't have to
do that. He risks His whole creation and risks that we might not love Him by
putting that tree there.
Later He sends
Jesus, His beloved Son, to give His life for us. Again, He risks everything so that we might
freely choose to love Him or not.
God is a God of
choice. Without choice there can be no
freedom, no liberty. Without risk that
we might opt out of His plan we could not be free to choose Him, to Love Him. Love
demands liberty.
From Jesus:
So Jesus was saying
to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are
truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make
you free." They answered Him,
"We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone;
how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
"The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain
forever. "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
(John 8:31-36)
What
is the truth?
There are two parts
to this truth:
- Humans by nature are prone to slavery.
Slaves
to self
Slaves
to addiction
Slaves
to sin and impulses
Slaves
to fear
We live in fear
because we do not have all knowledge nor do we possess all power. We feel powerless and the world seems more
complicated and hazardous all the time.
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Fear of getting
fat
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Fear of Death
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Fear of never
being skinny
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Fear of Shame
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Fear of being
alone
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Fear of being
exposed as weak or for not being who we pretend to be
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Fear of never
being alone
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Fear of not having
enough
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Fear of vegetables
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- God loves us and wants to be our liberating King forever. God has sent His Son to free us from our slavery and our fears.
- Not WYSIWIG. What you see is not what you get. Eternity is our Destiny.
- There was little to no freedom in the first century.
- There were unfair taxes.
- There were warrantless searches of your home and person
- There was no due process and no appeals unless you were a Roman citizen and even then it was not by a jury of your peers. It was to only one man whose decision was final and potentially arbitrary, the Emperor.
And
yet Peter says of those Christians of that day and of us today.
But
you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY
NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the
excellences of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
(1
Peter 2:9)
Political liberty vs Kingdom Liberty
If our destiny
remained in this world then we could never be free.
Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium,
and summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others
tell you about Me?" Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own
nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?"
Jesus answered,
"My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then
My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews;
but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a
king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this
I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the
truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
(John 18:33-37)
Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was
even more afraid; and he entered into the Praetorium again and *said to Jesus,
"Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate *said
to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to
release You, and I have authority to crucify You?" Jesus answered, "You would have
no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the
greater sin."
(John 19:8-11)
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and
transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins.
(Colossians 1:13-14)
For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. For
indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from
heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed
while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to
be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by
life.
(2 Corinthians 5:1-4)
There are Christians
around the world living in political countries where liberties are not as
available as they are here. And yet they
are still citizens of that Holy Nation that is the Kingdom of God.
God's people since
the beginning have persecuted and imprisoned for their faith in God. All of the apostles were imprisoned and
killed for their faith.
Two Christian
authors of the 20th century spent time in prisons for their faith. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer and Watchman Nee.
They along with all
of the martyrs saw themselves as citizens of a different nation, a different
Kingdom where love and justice and freedom reign.
Our liberties here
for the moment still allow us to speak out against the loss of our liberties
and the abuses of our government and yet we are not truly citizens here as much
as we are citizens of the Holy Nation, the Kingdom of God.
This is what knowing this truth looks like.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things
into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,
*got up from supper, and *laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He
girded Himself. Then He *poured water into the basin, and began to wash the
disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
(John 13:3-5)
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-21)
It is the open
hand. Whatever I have … whatever my
talents and gifts… we hold them with an open hand to God. He poors into our hands so that we may poor
out to others. We are free from the need
to hoard. We are free from the need to grasp and hold and protect. Everything we have comes from Him and there
is so much more.
Jesus tells us that
He came that we might have life, abundantly.
But that does not come from slavery or fear. It
comes from the open hand.
Prepare
We do not fear
death. We do not fear loss. We do not
fear what this world can do to us because we know the truth and the truth has
set us free from these fears.
"This World
Is Not My Home"
This world is not my home
I'm just a-passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore.
Oh Lord, you know
I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home
Then Lord what will I do.
The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore.
There will come a
time when America will be no more. We
have all watched in grief at what our nation has become as more as more people
turn away from God. But this is not
God's nation. Nations will be rolled up
like old rugs and only God's Kingdom, God's Holy nation CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY
will remain.
God is not a God of prohibition. He is a God of liberty. Let us not to back to the land of Egypt to slavery again. Let us move forward into the land flowing with milk and honey, the promised land of eternity with the God who liberates us through great risk and great love.
Jesus promised us
that as this moment approaches persecution of His followers will
intensify. Some, even among His people
will be deceived and compromised. Those
remain faithful to Him will receive that crown of glory and dwell in eternal
houses in presence of God of liberty who loves us and risked it all that we may
choose.
