Our Response to Government: Purposeful & Peaceful

[Jeremiah 29:4–14, 1 Timothy 2:1-2]

My final year of seminary, I was able to go on an amazing trip through Turkey and Greece with some of my classmates and led by one of my favorite professors. We had the opportunity to visit many of the cities where the Apostle Paul planted churches and travel some of the paths between those churches. It was really cool and very powerful.

One place in particular stood out to me: Ephesus. Not only is the city still very well preserved, which made it cool, but I also had a powerful moment in Ephesus. I was walking around the city, walking down one of the main roads leading up to the theater and I stopped dead in my tracks. As I walked down the road to the theater, a story from the Bible came to mind. The story of the riot in Ephesus. Paul had done such a good job of evangelism in the city that it had negatively affected the idol trade. So, the businessmen were angry and raised a commotion that led to a riot. We read, “When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel.” (Acts 19:28–29, ESV). We don’t know if they filled the theater, but it definitely sounds like it. I had just been in the theater and had been informed that they could fill that theater with over twenty-thousand people. That’s more than the population of  Beaver Dam. So, imagine the entire population of Beaver Dam wound up and angry, crammed in a theater shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” and we’re told this went on for over two hours.

Here’s what struck me in that moment as I walked down the main street toward the theater. I realized I could have been standing in the same spot Paul was standing as this whole thing went on. I imagined the chaos and the chanting and the anger. I wondered how I would respond to something like this if it was directed at me or the work I had been doing. I remembered Paul’s response: “But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him.” (Acts 19:30, ESV). Paul wanted to go in there and preach to them. The disciples had to hold him back. Actually, we’re told that others also had to hold him back. He wanted to get in there to preach the gospel. I’m not certain I would have that same level of courage.

There are many ways this story relates to this morning’s sermon. One will seem counterintuitive and the other is fairly straightforward. I’ll begin with the straight forward part. It was a government official, the city clerk, who stepped into the theater, quieted the crowd, and sent them back home. That resulted in protection for the men who had been dragged into the theater for a kangaroo court. This governmental leader did his job, which freed these men to do the job God had called them to do.

We also see this happen with Paul directly a few chapters later. He comes to Jerusalem and enters the temple. People saw him at the temple and caused a commotion: “When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him…Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.” (Acts 21:27–32, ESV). Again, we see a riot happening, people seeking to kill Paul, and the government stepping in to protect him and save him. The government is doing its job so that Paul can do his job. Actually, this time Paul gets his way. He asks if he can address the crowd that was trying to kill him, and preaches the gospel to the crowd…until they get angry and begin shouting that he should be killed and starting another riot. The government protected Paul so that he could do the job God had called him to do.

These stories help add another layer to the way we need to relate to our government as Christians. We read in 1 Timothy 2:1-2: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (1 Timothy 2:1–2, ESV). This passage lays the groundwork for this morning’s sermon and the Belgic Confession that we read earlier, basically quotes this passage directly. We’re told that we must pray for our governmental leaders and we’re told that we must pray for them with a particular purpose in mind, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

The first question is: How should we pray for our governmental leaders? What should we pray for? In many ways, that’s an easy question to answer, but I think it’s important to take some time to talk about it. The short answer to that question is: We should pray that they do their job the way God has told them to do their job. We should pray that they rule in such a way that the wicked are punished and that the good is praised and protected and that any obstacles to the advancement of God’s kingdom are removed. That’s what we should be praying for.

I think this needs to be emphasized because it’s really easy to miss this step in the process. It’s easy to get caught up in political activism. It’s easy to get caught up in promoting candidates and raising money. It’s easy to get caught up in the craziness around who to vote for in an election year. It’s easy to do all of those things—which can be good things—without praying. Prayer is one of the primary ways we can have a direct effect on the policies and procedures in our country. We can pray that our government will lead well. We can pray that they would enact policies and procedures that would lead us well. We can pray that the right candidates get into the right positions and lead us well. To be completely honest, this is the most effective thing we can be doing to influence the politics of our country and it’s something that every, single one of us can be doing on a daily, hourly basis. We must pray for our leaders.

There’s another aspect of praying for our leaders that I think is very important to emphasize this morning. It’s very hard to pray for people whom we dislike very much. It’s hard to pray for leaders who are wicked and terrible and hate God. Yet Calvin reminds us of this: “It is our duty, therefore, not only to pray for those who are already worthy, but we must pray to God that he may make bad men good.” (Calvin, 52). I think this is extremely important for us. We not only pray for those in government whom we like and appreciate, that they would win and do their work. We not only pray that the bad people in government would make good policies. We are also praying that God would work in the hearts of our leaders and make the wicked leaders good. That God would work in their hearts and open their eyes to see Jesus and put their faith and trust in Him as Savior. That’s a work only God can do, which is why we need to be praying for this repeatedly. We not only want good policies to come out of our government, we want good people running our government. The only way to accomplish that is through prayer to the God who changes hearts and lives.

Now, here’s the counter-intuitive portion of the sermon. What is the goal of our prayers? What do we want to see happen as a result of our prayers for the government? Paul says, “…that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (1 Timothy 2:1–2, ESV). We are told to pray for our leaders that they would do their job and that God would change their hearts so that we could live peaceful and quiet lives. What’s counterintuitive is that we just heard of a few stories where riots were caused in cities because of Paul’s preaching. That doesn’t sound like a quiet and peaceful life, does it? Yet, parts of those stories still point to the reality of this passage. The goal of our prayers is that the government would do their job well so that we would be free to do our job well. That we would be protected from persecution and attack. That we can go about doing what God has called us to do without worrying about being beaten and attacked. That’s the peaceful and quiet life Paul is talking about.

This leads us into the other passage we’re looking at this morning in Jeremiah. One verse in this passage is very well-known and appreciated by many people, but most people don’t know the context of that passage. God has sent his people into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness. He has removed them from the Promised Land and had them drug off into a foreign land. The question is: How are they supposed to live in that foreign land? God says, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7, ESV). There were false prophets at the time saying that Babylon would quickly be overthrown and that the Jews should continually practice some form of civil-disobedience. But God reminds them that these are false prophets, not a word from the Lord. He does not want them to be non-compliant in Babylon. Instead, he wants them to live peaceful quiet lives in Babylon. He wants them to seek the welfare of the city and pray for the welfare of the city because when things are good in the cities in which we live, then things are much better for us as well.

What does it look like to seek the welfare of the city? Here’s what God tells them: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.” (Jeremiah 29:5–6, ESV). I think it would be appropriate to say that this is a good description of a quiet and peaceful life. Build houses, get married, raise a family, work the ground, do your job.

Yet, notice the last line of that passage because I think it’s really important: “…multiply there, and do not decrease.” (Jeremiah 29:5–6, ESV). Multiply there. This helps us understand something really important about peaceful, quiet lives. They are not ineffective lives. Actually, peaceful, quiet lives are extremely powerful when they are focused on multiplying and building. They create legacies that cover decades and centuries. They don’t need to be recognized for what they’re doing, they don’t need a crowd of followers, they don’t need a social media presence, they don’t need to be in positions of power or influence. They just keep doing the work that God has called them to do, where He’s called them to do it. They build a home, they get married, they raise a family, they build generational faithfulness, they plant fields and gardens, they build businesses. These types of lives are highly effective and powerful in ultimately bringing about transformation.

As I read through this, I kept thinking about Israel in Egypt. What did they do while in Egypt? They lived quiet, peaceful lives. They built homes, got married, raised families. They multiplied. What happened? It scared Pharaoh so much that he was worried they were going to overtake his empire: “And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.” (Exodus 1:9, ESV). See how powerful quiet faithfulness is? When God’s people are in a foreign land, or they are in exile, what do they do? They keep doing what God has called them to do, living quiet, peaceful, faithful lives that multiply.

This brings us back to the counter-intuitive portion of this sermon. What happens when God’s people live these types of lives? What happens when God’s people live peaceful, quiet lives that build and multiply? It often results in things not being neither quiet, nor peaceful. What happened when God’s people quietly and peacefully built and multiplied in Egypt? They were enslaved and put to hard labor. What happened when Paul quietly and peacefully built and multiplied his work from city to city? He was so effective in his work that it eventually caused problems. It affected the economy in Ephesus, which caused a riot. It caused things like riots to break out in multiple cities. The effectiveness of a peaceful quiet life can often lead to things no longer being peaceful and quiet.

But here’s the point. We are not the ones to seek the chaos and the flash and the rioting. That’s not how we operate. Paul never intentionally did things to start a riot so that he could have a large crowd in which to present the gospel. That’s not how we operate. Instead, we desire to live lives that are characterized by quiet faithfulness, lives that people look up to and respect, lives that build and multiply, lives that constantly are focused on doing what God has called us to do wherever we are, even if we’re in exile in a foreign land.

Why do we live this way? There are many ways to answer that question—one of them being, God told us to live this way. Another being the most popular verse from this passage: “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.” (Jeremiah 29:10–12, ESV). Make sure you understand what God is saying here. He’s telling Israel to work for the good of the city, to lead quiet, peaceful lives that multiply BECAUSE he’s going to bring them out of there eventually. Catch the tension in that? God tells them to build and multiply now, to lead quiet, peaceful lives now, because he knows the plans he has for them, to bring them out of that place into something better eventually. That’s actually one of the reasons why God is telling them to build and multiply.

For some, this doesn’t make any sense. Why build and multiply when you’re going to leave? But that’s missing the point. God wants them to build and multiply like they have a future waiting for them. God wants them to build and multiply now with their eyes on something beautiful on the horizon. They don’t put their hope in the land in which they live, or the government in which they live. No. God has a plan for them. And they are to live and build and multiply NOW with that plan in mind. Knowing that God has something beautiful promised for our future shouldn’t make us lazy but should empower and encourage us to build and multiply now.

Here’s how all of this ties together. Right now, through faith in Jesus Christ, we’re looking forward to a different promised land. We're looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth. We’re building in anticipation for that day. There's a big difference. We're building in preparation for the day when Christ comes again and ushers in the fullness of the kingdom on earth. We're not just sitting back and waiting for that day to come, but we're building toward it. As we’re building toward that day, we are praying for our government that they would do the job God has given them to do, that they would punish evil, praise and protect the good, and free us up to live peaceful, quiet, and faithful lives that are building and multiplying—freeing us up to build houses, get married, raise families, plant fields and gardens, build business, create a legacy. We do all of this while not putting our hope and trust in the government, or the governmental leaders, or putting our hope in trust in the land in which we live. We know none of those things are as powerful as what God has called us to do—living quiet and peaceful and faithful lives that build and multiply. Yet, we also don’t put any hope in what we’re building. Our hope is in the God who has promised us that he has a good plan for us to give us a hope and future. That’s where our hope rests.