Jesus Confronts Empires, Including Ours | FROM RESIDENTS TO CITIZENS AND NEIGHBOURS | PASTOR PRESTON | OCTOBER 13

Lake Ridge Community Church Podcast

This fall at Lake Ridge is less of a kick-off, than a root-down. We’re reconnecting with God, with new rhythms of life, and with each other.

[00:00:03.090] - Speaker 1

Hi there. My name is Preston Pouteaux. Welcome to the Lake Ridge Community Church Podcast. This is where we share some of our messages from Sunday mornings. So we're glad you're here to listen. We'd love for you to join us in person. We meet on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m at Our Lady of Week Wisdom School here in Chestermere. At our core, we're a community of people, so we gather on Sundays, but we also do a lot in the week together. We are people learning to follow Jesus and love our city. So to learn more, visit lakeridgecommunity.com. Hope to check in and visit with you soon. Take care. Thanks for listening.

[00:00:46.030] - Speaker 2

Let me pray before we step into this message today. Although you are good to us, thank you for this morning and my friends, we pray for your peace. We pray that this morning as we listen to your Word, as we pay attention that our hearts would pay attention to the crowns that we have been carrying, may we find a deeper peace in knowing that you are the one who can carry those for us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. The story of God's people dances around throughout Scripture around this theme of empire, empires, right? These are these really huge, strong entities that have found a way to not only thrive, but dominate throughout the world. In fact, the entire scripture is compacted between the land that God promises to his people is called the land between. But I want to say that the story of God is squeezed between all of these nations and every one of them wanted a piece of the pie. Empires like Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome and other smaller superpowers were always squishing in on God's people. And the story now, over and over, God was always saying to his people, hey, keep your eyes on me.

[00:02:11.530] - Speaker 2

Don't be nervous about these empires. I got you. And almost every time, the grand story of God is people going, that's great, but they're right outside the door, right? We cannot thrive when these empires are right outside the door. So we're going to come up with our own tricks and tools to try to push back the empire or maybe collaborate with the empire or in some cases join them or in some cases leave with them and get out of Dodge. And so this is a grand story. The Book of Exodus finds us meeting one of these very first empires. We had gone through the Book of Genesis and we ended where they all went, we thought really by God's provision. In a lot of ways they went because they had famine. God's people, the children of Abraham, they worked their way over to Egypt and God provided for them through Joseph and so on. And so here they find themselves. But they find themselves for 400 years or so under the crushing rule of this empire that once had them as people who were residents in their community, and now they found that these Hebrew people make for really good slaves, right?

[00:03:22.900] - Speaker 2

And so they got themselves a brand new gig being slaves. And so the Book of Exodus begins, kind of painting a pretty bleak picture for the life of these people under this very first, and actually one of humanity's very first true empires. And this is what it says. So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They pointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pytham and Ramses as supply centers for the king. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. So the Israelites so the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and to do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands. Then Pharaoh, king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, a Shifra and Pua. He said, when you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch them deliver the baby's. A boy, kill them. If it's a girl, let her live. Welcome to life in the new empire of Egypt.

[00:04:41.800] - Speaker 2

It was brutal. They had to work endlessly. There was no stop for it. There was no real tending to human life. Children were killed the second that they were born. And it was all about getting more and more stuff, not for the community of people who hope to have a life there, but for the person on top, for Pharaoh, for his royal court. Pharaoh thinks life is possible. Walter Brugamin he says that empires eventually become like this. We've seen enough of them that we kind of know how this cycle goes, right? They take their authority, power and sovereignty, and they use it for this all kind of selfproductivity rather than human flourishing and creativity. There's a difference there. There's a difference there. And he says that this is what happens over and over and again. Here's what I mean. God made people to cocreate with God. We were actually meant to wear a crown from the start. Right out of the gate in the garden, we're saying, hey, Will, here's a crown. You have the image of God. Now you're going to go and do God things to make a flourishing in this place. Get on it, right?

[00:05:55.390] - Speaker 2

And you're supposed to go out and you're supposed to help make something lively and flourishing, cocreating with God. But what happens when Will I've never seen Will actually pull this stunt off? But what happens if Will start to say, listen, I'm really enjoying all this authority and power that I got. I'm going to start using this to gather some stuff up, crush some other people down, build a system that really works in my favor and not to the others. Well, anyway, God made people to cocreate with God, to work and rest, to love and relate, to make and grow in God's good world. They were made to relate to their neighbors next door in a certain way, and to reflect God's heart of compassion and mercy. But empires like Egypt, they changed this narrative. Only a few flourish at the top, where the rest are enslaved. They did not make neighborhoods the way we would hope to make neighborhoods, but they made palaces and slums. There was productivity, accumulation, convenience. It was centralized and it was defended with fear and violence. The very first armies grew up in this time. Retribution is the name of the game.

[00:07:00.940] - Speaker 2

So the loving your neighbor, you look at them as how you can take them over. He said the land of Israel was taken over, over and over by the Egyptians. You see, empire does not instill meaning. It doesn't really give meaningful purpose to life. It's by trying to market to a consumer and make a stratified world. Empires, they create residents. And these residents ultimately have slaves and masters. This is the empire of the Bible. Even in Egypt, there was this really toxic religion that was used to prop up the empire. Egypt had dozens of gods, dozens and dozens and dozens. And each of these gods was in charge of punishing people in a unique way. There was individual gods to punish. The stealing of bread, robbery, murder, lying, killing, a sacred bull, being unduly active. Don't know what that means. There was a God to punish you if you were eavesdropping, if you were impatient, if you were waiting in water. There was a, there was even a God to punish you for being too loudvoiced. Each one had you face down. A God who had it out for you not to know you, but to squish you down.

[00:08:23.090] - Speaker 2

The empire thrive by crushing the lowest in all ways. And it uses this distorted fakery of gods to do it. So at all levels, economic, relational, time, religion, empires, or this first empire for sure, of the Egyptians. Well, the people of God groaned under them for hundreds of years. They groaned under the weight. And the Bible recounts that they were calling out to God. Some of them probably didn't even, probably wondered if the God that they're calling out to is just like the other ones that has it out for them. So the story goes that God rescued his people, he faced off against the Pharaoh, blood was shared, firstborns died, plagues happened. And it's like God has pushed back this empire in a pretty bold way. But by doing it, God's people were freed and then they were taken out into this wilderness place. And there Moses, not a new king, but a leader for them, a prophet of a kind, carried them out. And God gave them commandments. And these commandments were meant to write, order and push back. This empire and write order where God's where God asked his people to put their loyalty.

[00:09:35.150] - Speaker 2

And so the Ten Commandments kind of go like this. The first little section of the Ten Commandments are, you know, there's only one God. You put him first, right? There's only one. There's not lots. There aren't all out for you. So be done with all the gods that you give your loyalty to. You're free. There's no idols. You aren't bowing your knees to any fake gods. There's one, and he's real, and he knows you and he sees you, and there's no faking it with this God. Don't pretend. Put on errors. You're coming directly to him. Also, rest. Take a Sabbath. You're not meant to work all the time. Work a really good week and then take a break now. Treat others like you're made to honor your parents. Don't kill people. That's not God's way. No sleeping with people who you're not married to. That rex. Relationships don't take stuff that's not yours because God owns it all. Tell the truth. Don't lie about your neighbors and don't even want their stuff. There you have it. God's first reordering of loyalties. And it covers some really important pieces. God, time, relationships, stuff. All these places where God's people had mixed loyalties, where they weren't sure the Empire owned all those pieces.

[00:10:54.640] - Speaker 2

And now God's saying, no, no, no. Under me, it looks like this empire does not rule you. You are in a relationship with me and the world around you. Skip forward. A few empires. A few of them came and went. They tend to come and they tend to go, but they do a lot of damage. There's something called PAX romana. The peace of Rome. That's what they call it. But was there really peace? It's a very difficult time. I wonder if we think today if we have PAX Westerniana. I don't even know if that's a thing. Right? PAX Canadiana. PAX Americana. Right? All is well. Did you know, since this is how well I think things are going since 1945, there's been 26 days of global peace. From September 22 to September 29, 1945. A little bit right after World War Two. We took almost a month, and then we got back at it. Right? Imagine that. Not even a month of global peace. I read this. Scientists have been following over 50 animal species in the last 50 years. I almost started crying when I read this. Last 50 years, there's been a decline of 69% of wild animals in the world.

[00:12:16.400] - Speaker 2

69%. Five years ago, that was 60%. So another 10% of wild animals are gone in the world in the last five years. Did you know 80% of the world's population and over 95% of Americans cannot see the stars anymore. They can't see the Milky Way. They're under something called night glow. The world is covered in light pollution. 23 million Americans live in a food desert. That means that they cannot find healthy food. I think I was in Chicago and I was like, I want to go and get a carrot and a banana and an apple. I couldn't find it anywhere. I went into place, I could get doritos, but I couldn't find anything. And guess what? 2022 is shaping up to be the highest rate of police killed in action for decades. And I don't know if you've been watching the news, but there's a threat of nuclear war floating on the air too. PAX, PAX. What peace has the great empires of today brought us? Peace, I wonder? Well, there was no peace on earth under Herod either. Jesus came onto the scene and he encounters Herod, who is representing the Roman rule of the day.

[00:13:38.530] - Speaker 2

And there was no peace. Herod was still getting his way by killing babies, going in. He was trying to kill off people, anybody that was in his way. Herod built these palaces. I visited some of them, they're splendid. Well, Jesus reenacted something underneath this Herod's nose. Herod had well, I wonder if I could find well, no, let's think here. Jesus over and over encountered people who were trying to wrestle with whether they are under this empire or under God's empire. One day somebody came to Jesus and they brought and they said, should we pay taxes to Caesar right? Here s a good I got you question. There's some people in the room where we're like, if this guy is a true ruler, he's going to take Caesar down a notch and fight for us. Anti tax man. There's other people in the room who thought, hey, Jesus, if he starts taking on the empire here, it is going to be over for us. He better quell the hot flames. So Jesus did what I think I love Jesus'way of doing things. He pulls out a coin, he says, whose image and inscription is on this?

[00:14:50.770] - Speaker 2

What's he saying? Whose image? They're supposed to have graven images and yet all of these good Jewish people have them in their pocket to buy stuff to prop up the empire. And what inscription is on it? On most of these coins it says something about how Caesar was the true king, or even God. You say, whose image and inscription is on this coin? They're kind of wondering about Caesars. Give to Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is God's, right? Anybody leaning back would have been like, wow, this guy's smart, right? Because guess what all belongs to God. He is reordering what is under the empire and it is all gods, all war and peace. It is under God. All these 5000 animal species that are dying, there are gods and he made them. He loves them. The stars in the sky, he loves them. Food for people, he loves this. And he loves those who are getting shot down God's kingdom. Ethic is trying to turn this right again. And guess what? Do you think we can follow these Ten Commandments and not kill and destroy people? We are bad at it. The goal of the Ten Commandments wasn't that we would really get actually good at following these was to point out and say this is the right order of things now we're going to make it right.

[00:16:12.730] - Speaker 2

We do not follow them. Well, Paul says as much. So it was around. Jesus brings his people, his followers around a table maybe a little bit bigger than this with more food on it. But the table feast that Jesus called his people to him that every Jewish family did, was called the Passover feast. And what did they reenact? They were reenacting a story of God's people under an empire, being freed by God from out under that and turning the story around, turning the upside crown right side up again. And so Jesus reenacts the story with freeing of slaves. He rehumanizes people by actually touching them, not killing them and healing them, mending them. He gives free food to the hungry by multiplying it. And he feeds 50. He doesn't just park the water, but he walks on the water. He faces down a Roman soldier, not to destroy him, but to actually heal his child. He says Sabbath rest is for people, not the other way around. He says religion of the day is fake. It does not make people free. He says right. He makes right relationships between foes. He forgives the adulterer at the well and the murderer on the cross.

[00:17:27.340] - Speaker 2

He fulfills the Ten Commandments and he does what no one else could do. People call him the good Israelite. He is able to live under God. And then he gathers his friends around a table as he makes everything right in these small beautiful ways. And people say, is it possible that we have a king who is making a different kingdom even under this empire? He gathers his friends around the table and he retells them the story of an empire. And then he leans in and I think he says to his friends, this is how I save you from your empire. The empire over you and the empire within you. I give you a new commandment, love God and love your neighbor. That's how you overturn. Hey, and then I'm going to do this. And Jesus gets on his knees and he washes his disciples feet. He says, this is what happens in my kingdom. Serve each other, give your life for each other. Then he takes a cup, that's a cup during this meal and he holds it and he says, I want you to remember me. You see, this is going to be a really big weekend.

[00:18:53.380] - Speaker 2

We're having this meal. It's passover, but I don't know if you knew this, but I'm about to get arrested. It's going to get bad, it's going to get bloody. You're all going to flee. I'm going to be spit on. I'm going to be dragged through the streets. I'm going to take my own cross and I'm going to hang. I'm going to hang. Remember this moment. It will make sense soon. And so he was arrested by the empire and he was killed. The empire wins. Or does it nt right explains. He says crucifixion is a powerful symbol throughout the Roman world. It was not just a means of liquidating the undesirables, it did it with the maximum degradation and humiliation. It said loud and clear, we are in charge here, you are our property. We can do what we like with you. It insisted coldly and brutally on the absolute sovereignty of Rome, of Caesar. It told an implicit story of the uselessness of rebel recalcitrance and the ruthlessness of imperial power. It said in particularly, this is what happens to somebody else who wants to be king. Look at the cross. Look. We win, you lose.

[00:20:23.750] - Speaker 2

Jesus, he could have just followed the Ten Commandments, he could have just been a really good guy and died. But this is the whole hope of the gospel of Jesus is that Jesus takes a full brunt of the empire, even to death. The crush of the empire needs to be complete and it is. The full extent of what the empire can accomplish comes to its utter end and it can't go any further. Killing somebody, that's the limits of the empire. But Jesus can go further, can't he? Right. Philippians lays it out and this is why. It's the song of the first Christians. Though he was God, he did not think equality with God is something to cling to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took a humble position of a slave. He was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself to obedience to God and died a criminals death on a cross. He just went to the limit. I love their second half of the story. These people would have known what it is to be under the crush of Rome. Some of them might have even been there the day that Jesus died.

[00:21:38.100] - Speaker 2

But their hope isn't ending there. Therefore it says therefore, because of his humility and death, therefore God elevated him to the place of the highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, above Rome, above Caesar, above any kingdom that the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Amen. This is something beautiful that the early Christians, even though the empire crushed them from every sense of it all, they now had one their God, their king, who made it through the other side and says, I'm preparing a place for you. Dallas Willard says the greatest issue facing the world today with all of its heartbreaking needs. And I just listed off a few that are close to my heart with all of its heartbreaking needs, is that whether those who by profession or by culture identify as Christians will become disciples, that's what he says. The greatest issue facing today with all of its needs is whether Christians will be disciples, apprentices, students, practitioners of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the kingdom under heaven, that the kingdom of heaven would find its way into every corner of our human existence.

[00:23:06.000] - Speaker 2

This is what we are doing. We are seeking to be apprentices of Jesus who went beyond the veil to live in the crush of empire, to say a different way from residents to citizens of the kingdom of God and neighbors to each other, not to use abuse, take down, gobble up, but to live as those following Jesus. This is what the world needs. And so Jesus is one of his best friends, john, he was very old and he had this revelation. I don't know, I don't know if he didn't need enough food or something or he ate a weird mushroom. I don't know what was happening other than I think God met him. And he met him in this vision that is so profound and so rich. And in the Book of Revelations, he has this vision that I have read over and over and I find it very meaningful. Picture one of Jesus's friends picturing this in his mind, says this the 24 elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever. And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, you are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and they exist because you created what you pleased.

[00:24:41.150] - Speaker 2

They laid their crowns down. I think this is the start of what it is to be a follower of Jesus. Jesus got his knee and washed his disciples'feet and he said, this is the way. Remember me, because what I'm about to do on the cross, you can lay your crown here. I know what to do with them. Friends, we each have a crown, a set of loyalties that we have. I'm so proud of Taylor. Thank you, Taylor, for listing some of her loyalties. What are yours today? Maybe you can even think of just one. She thought of eight. I was like, that is pretty impressive. I think we protect them so much, the things we are loyal to, the things that we hold on to, the things that give us our purpose and meaning. Loyalties, what I think are even more than that. They are something that keep us sovereign. They are something that keep us in power, that keep the authority in our hands. And I think John's vision was one of people who even had crowns. These elders that he's talking about, and they are laying theirs down. So we are kings of our own kingdoms.

[00:25:52.350] - Speaker 2

We are citizens of our own kingdoms. Or are we loyal to an empire? Are we loyal to an empire around us? Or do we come today and lay down our crown too? I know it's just a sticker, so it's a small thing, but I hope that it helps us participate a little bit in a moment of prayer that we're going to participate in. So we're going to open up this table here and we're going to take a moment to come. You can just come on up. I'll break up the bread. You can grab a piece of bread. Or maybe I'll hand out the piece of bread. We have juice here. We actually have wine. Again, that's part of some people's tradition, and it's a good reminder of maybe where you have come from too. So let me read some of these words here. God's people, they've been coming around this table for a long time. I think it's been meaningful for them. The night that he was betrayed betrayed and passed over to the empire, right? Our Lord Jesus, he took bread and gave thanks for it. When he broke it in pieces, he says, this is my body which was given for you.

[00:27:05.090] - Speaker 2

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you do. Drink it. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you're announcing the Lord's death until he comes again.