Thankfulness for Public Servants

Outline

3 opportunities every follower of Jesus should be thankful for while living as a citizen

I. The Opportunity to Pray for Our Public Servants

1 Timothy 2:1-2a - First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority.

A. In a variety of ways

B. For all of our leaders

II. The Opportunity to Live a Peaceful and Godly Life in This Nation

1 Timothy 2:2b - …so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

A. In a manner that is submissive to God’s appointed authorities

Romans 13:1 - Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

B. In a manner that is not given to endless controversy

Philippians 2:14-16 - Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

C. In a manner that promotes godliness

III. The Opportunity to Share the Good News of Jesus Christ with All People

A. Knowing that God desires all to be saved

1 Timothy 2:3-4 - This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

B. Remembering that Jesus is the perfect Mediator

1 Timothy 2:5-7 - For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Job 9:33 - There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both.

Well over that last five months we have been able to hear a lot about the topic of gratitude from God’s word.

We spent quite a bit of time slowly marching our way through the book of Philippians where we were able to see how God produced a gratitude and generosity in the church in Philippi to care for Paul and others.

Last week Pastor Greiner taught us from 1 Thessalonians on the topic of thanksgiving for the entire family of God which helped us understand how we should be giving thanksgiving for our church family and our church leaders.

This Sunday on Memorial Day weekend we will be continuing our series on…

Growing in Gospel Gratitude

By talking about how we should be thankful for our government. 😊

Now, if you have been on the news at all in the last two or three years, you’ll find that this might be one of those topics that can be harder to be thankful for.

It’s one thing to be thankful for our spouses that we chose to marry, or our children that can often times be so cute, or our church family that so often encourages us and pushes us towards godliness.

It is another thing, however, to be thankful for our elected leaders. Just look at the news website of your choice as an example.

-When is the last time you saw a news article that read, “5 reasons to be thankful for all of our senators.”

Or “Although things are not looking good for the economy, here are 10 reasons we should be thanking all of our elected leaders.”

-No on the contrary, news articles are more likely to read something along the lines of, “5 reasons why so and so is not the right person for the job.”

Or “Here are 10 reasons why our government leaders fail on every count.”

You are much more likely to find the latter news articles in the trending section of the news online.

God commands us to stand for truth in all circumstances, so there is definitely a place for speaking truth and standing up to the government, when appropriate, but God also commands us to be thankful and to continually be praying for our government leaders.

This morning we are going to consider what it looks like to have…

Title: Thankfulness for Public Servants

Our text for this morning will be 1 Timothy 2:1-8 which is in the back section of the Bible in the chair back in front of you on page 163.

Here is a little bit of background on this letter before we dive in.

-This letter was written by Paul, just like the book of Philippians

-It was written to Timothy who was a church leader and also someone Paul mentored very closely

-So, unlike the book of Philippians, this letter was written to one person in particular

-Paul and Timothy were together but Paul has left Timothy and has commanded him to remain in Ephesus so that he may continue to equip the Christians there.

So, let’s read this passage together.

Read 1 Timothy 2:1-8

What I hope that we will see in this text are…

3 opportunities every follower of Jesus should be thankful for while living as a citizen

First, we see…

I. The opportunity to pray for our public servants

“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1-2a)

And we are to pray…

In a variety of ways

Notice here that Paul uses four different words to describe the prayer we should be praying for our government leaders.

[this can go in the PowerPoint but not in the bulletin]

Entreaties – deesis – “to be without something” – prayer that arises out of a sense of need

Prayers – proseuche – “carries with it a unique element of worship and reverence” (MacArthur, 1 Timothy, p. 62)

Petitions – enteuxis – “to fall in with someone” – advocacy, empathy, compassion, and involvement

Thanksgivings – eucharistias – “a spirit of gratitude”

-When we look at all of these words, we see that they are all positive in nature. Paul doesn’t say, “make sure you throw in a few imprecatory prayers to balance this out.”

-God commands Christians to be praying for the benefit of their government leaders. It would be easy to pray for a political leader’s removal of office or that their career would end in flames, but that is not what is commanded here.

-We can be praying for the protection of our political leaders. We are a pretty safe country compared to many in our world but a politician’s security is still taken seriously.

- We can pray that they would make good and righteous decisions. That they would receive wisdom to make decisions that are good for the people of this country and that accurately reflect the righteousness of God.

-We can also be praying for their salvation. We will see more of this subject at the end of this passage, but we should be praying that God would draw all politicians to Himself.

-And we can be simply praying a prayer of thanksgiving for our political leaders.

-There are many political leaders in our country today that we have many reasons to be thankful for.

-The person that immediately came to my mind was our Mayor right here in West Lafayette.

-While the West Lafayette City Council was trying to pass an ordinance that would fine counselors for teaching the word of God to minors in this community, John Dennis stood his ground and stood up for what was right.

-I know many people here emailed Mayor Dennis with concerns about the proposed ordinance and he replied back to many saying that he was committed to exercising all the power that his office allows to prevent this ordinance from passing.

-Now I have no idea what Mayor Dennis believes about the Bible, but we know for a fact that Mayor Dennis stood up for religious freedom and is an elected leader that we should be thanking the Lord for.

-Now the question is, what should we be praying about regarding our other political leaders. John Dennis stood against proposed ordinance 31-21 but there were others that were fighting for that ordinance.

Well the text is clear that we should be praying…

B. For all of our leaders

-We shouldn’t just be praying for the leaders we agree with or the ones that stand up for us. We should be praying in a variety of ways for all of our public servants.

-Now some will ask, but what if our leaders are really bad? Like really really bad. What if they promote all kinds of ungodliness and seem to do everything in their agenda to attack the Lord Jesus and His church?

-What is interesting is that the government in Paul’s day makes our government look like a domesticated house pet.

John MacArthur states it well in his commentary on 1 Timothy when he states,

[PowerPoint but not in the notes]

“The injunction here calls for the Ephesian assembly to pray for the emperor, who at that time was the cruel and vicious blasphemer, Nero. Although he was a vile, debauched persecutor of the faith, they were still to pray for his redemption.” (MacArthur, 1 Timothy pg. 63)

-For us today that means we are to be praying for political leaders that we disagree with. This doesn’t mean we need to be thankful for the platform they support, but we should be praying in a variety of ways, including thanksgiving, for those with whom we disagree.

Now praying in a variety of ways for all of our leaders gives us another opportunity and that is…

II. The opportunity to live a peaceful and godly life in this nation

“so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” (1 Timothy 2:2b)

-Tranquil and quiet might sound weird at first but Paul is not talking about living as an introvert or living as a pacifist.

-The idea of being tranquil and quiet is centered around the concept of living life submissively. This means Christians are not to be rebels at heart.

-Submission is not something bad like the world teaches. The world often teaches submission as something that only weak people do. Or that it is a sign of oppression. That is not how the Bible talks about this topic.

-In fact, submission in the Bible is seen as a sign of spiritual maturity rather than a sign of weakness.

-We can see this concept of submission in many areas of the Christian life.

-Children are commanded to be submissive to their parents

-Wives are commanded to be submissive to their husbands

-Employees are commanded to be submissive to their bosses

-And most of all, everyone on the face of the earth should be living submissively to God knowing that He is Lord of all and the Creator of the universe.

-In this text, Paul is teaching that Christians should be living…

A. In a manner that is submissive to God’s appointed authorities

-Christians are to be living submissively to all our appointed governing authorities. Unless the government is demanding that we sin against God, we should be…

-Obeying every law from our legislative branch

-Obeying law enforcement from our executive branch

-Obeying the decisions made by our judicial branch

Now the real question is, why should we be submissive to our appointed government authorities?

-They are not God after all, and they are definitely not perfect. I can just turn on the news and start making a list of all the reasons why I should not submit to them.

-Here is where the language we use here matters.

-From our perspective in America, we have two kinds of government leaders.

-We have leaders who are elected by the people, and we have leaders who are often appointed by those we elect.

-So, in our community here in West Lafayette, the Mayor and the City Council Members are all elected every four years.

-But positions like the police chief or the police officers are all appointed by someone hire up on the ladder.

-Now God commands us to be living in submission to all of them, why? Because from God’s perspective, no one is elected to a position of leadership in the government.

-Scripture teaches that all of our rulers and government officials are ultimately appointed by God.

-This is not the only time where this concept comes up in Scripture. We can see it also in Romans 13 where Paul writes,

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” Romans 13:1

-So, we should be living in a manner that is submissive to the government because that is ultimately submissive to God.

-And this passage teaches that submission is on us. Meaning that living a tranquil and quiet life is a choice that we make.

-By praying and giving thanks for our government leaders, we are able to submit ourselves joyfully to their authority knowing that their authority ultimately comes from God.

-Living a tranquil and quiet life means not only that our actions line up with obedience to our government but that we are also using our mouths…

B. In a manner that is not given to endless controversy

-Is it not easy to give into complaining in our culture today?

-First there are many reasons why we often believe we should be complaining.

-Have you seen the prices of houses lately? Some houses cost almost double what they did not very many years ago.

-Inflation is higher than it’s been in a long time

-Gas is at the highest it has ever been

-The stock market is not doing so hot these days

-And economically speaking, it doesn’t look like there is going to be much change any time soon.

-On top of all that, the news networks are basically cheerleaders for fueling the furnace of complaining.

-In the midst of all these things it is easy for the Christian to be tranquil and quiet in action but not tranquil and quiet in speech.

-However, this passage is commanding us to not be complaining in the midst of reasons we want to complain about our governing leaders but rather to use this as an opportunity to be thankful in all things.

-This concept always reminds me of the rules in children’s ministry. If you’ve served with the children in our church I’m sure you know where I am going with this.

-The rules in the children’s ministry are always something along the lines of..

1. Raise your hand

2. Be kind

3. Have all four chair legs on the ground

And what is always the last rule?

Obey the first time with a happy heart!

Why is that? Why the happy heart part?

It is because if we do not have a happy heart while we are seeking to obey, are we really obeying the Lord?

No, we’re not.

And we do this all the time right?

Social Media is probably the largest contributor to “I’m going to obey but I’m going to obey kicking and screaming” in our world today.

If you have a Facebook account, you have seen it.

“I cannot believe I just had to pay $4 and something at the gas pump today”

“All of this inflation is just ridiculous”

“Our government leaders need to get their act together”

We can see from this passage in 1 Timothy and others as well that this is the opposite of how we should be using our mouths.

Paul writes in Philippians…

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” (Philippians 2:14-16)

When Christians live differently than the world, that means not complaining or spreading controversy about their opinions on the government, they stand out amongst the world because the world is characterized by complaining and controversy.

In all circumstances, Christians should be speaking and acting…

C. In a manner that promotes godliness

First because is it gives God glory.

Just read here in 1 Peter..

[In PowerPoint but not in bulletin]

“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 excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9)

-When we are functioning in a godly manner, we are able to represent God more accurately. God has called us to be holy people that represents His holy character. By living in a manner that is submissive and prayerful towards the government we will more accurately display the holiness He has called us to because we are acknowledging that God is sovereign over the government and that He knows what is best for us.

When our speech is filled with grace and thankfulness towards our leaders rather than divisiveness or complaining others may see our response and choose to follow the Lord Jesus.

Our Lord says it best when He states,

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

It is counter cultural to be using our social media platforms to be speaking respectfully and thankfully towards government officials.

So, what does it look like for us to be using that as a platform for prayer and thanksgiving rather than for creating endless controversies like how the world uses it.

Our social media accounts are a great way to be spreading grace and mercy in our speech and they can be used to win people to Jesus Christ.

And that reminds us we should be thankful for…

II. The opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all people

One of the largest motivations for us to share the Gospel with all people is…

Knowing that God desires all to be saved

“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

-Now these verses are good news right! God desires all to be saved. It really can’t get any better than that.

-It is important for me to take a moment and really unpack how that plays out in the character of God but also in light of eternity because we also believe in hell.

-How does the idea that God desires all to be saved fit together with the concept that many will spend eternity with God’s wrath being poured on them?

-First, let’s begin just thinking about the character of God. There are a lot of attributes that can be used to describe God.

-God is holy

-God is loving

-God is just

-God is good

-And God is merciful

When this passage states that God desires all to be saved what it is really speaking about is God’s love and compassion He has towards all people. All people are made in the image of God and God out of His mercy has a degree of compassion for all kinds of people no matter where they are or who they are.

The mirror concept of this passage is stated in 2 Peter 3:9

“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

-You can see that this is the mirror verse in the sense that it kind of seals that gaps on any misunderstandings about what God thinks of hell.

-There is no question that God desires all people to come to a saving knowledge of Him and that He wants no one to have to go hell.

-Why do you think Paul states this right after he commands Timothy to be teaching his people to pray for all of their leaders?

-Probably because it was hard for the Ephesian Christians to see how God would desire evil and tyrannical emperors to be saved. But Paul reminds them that God’s mercy is offered to all people.

-No one is out of the saving grasp of God. God has the ability to save whomever He wills.

-It is also important to understand the nature of sin and why hell is a place of eternal punishment.

-It is not that we have done so many really bad things against God and therefore the list got so long he needed to do something about it. If we viewed God’s justice like that then it would make sense that some evil rulers in the world would be in a worse place than the average joe.

-The Bible teaches, however, that it is not how we have sinned against God but it’s about what is the object of our sin. Namely, when we sin, we sin against God.

-Let me give you an illustration of why I think the concept of God’s justice is important for this passage.

-Here in my hand, I have this nice shiny silver key. I don’t use it a lot so it’s a pretty sharp key.

-Now, say I were to take this key and go over to the local junk yard and I find an old rusted out truck sitting there. The floor of the truck is all rusted out, the doors have been taken off, and it has no engine. And what I do is I take this key and I put a giant gouge in the hood of that truck. I just scrape it all the way across.

-What do you think would happen to me?

-The guy running the junk yard would probably yell at me and tell me to leave.

-Now let’s say I take this same exact key and I go over to one of the used car lots in Lafayette. There’s a 2004 Toyota Prius there and I take my key and go right across it just like I did with the truck in the junk yard.

-What do you think would happen?

-The police would be called and I’d have to pay for the car to be repaired.

-Now instead of doing that I go over to the Mercedes Benz lot. And I scratch a car with my key there.

-Now we’re talking big money and I’m probably going to go to jail.

-Now up by Chicago there’s this dealership that sells these little cars that are from somewhere in Italy. I think they call them Ferrari. And I take my key there and I put a nice big gouge in a bright red paint job.

-Now I go to prison and I declare bankruptcy

So, what’s the point of that silly illustration?

-The act that I do matters. A key to the hood is different than a baseball bat to the hood, but at the end of the day it is what we’ve sinned against that ultimately matters.

-All people have sinned against a holy and righteous God. That is why we all deserve punishment. We all deserve hell for eternity.

-We should not look down on kings or rulers because of their sin in a prideful or self-righteous manner. We have all sinned in someway against the Creator of the universe and this is how God sees it. Just because you’ve sinned as a citizen does not mean you are inherently better than someone who sinned as a politician.

-The ground is level at the foot of the cross which is why we will have motivation to share the good news by…

B. Remembering that Jesus is the perfect Mediator

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” (1 Timothy 2:5-7)

Jesus Christ is the Son of God who took on flesh so that He could bear our punishment for us.

-We’ve all sinned against God in every imaginable way and deserve only wrath and punishment but God was rich in mercy to send Jesus to die on the cross, taking the punishment for our sin, and raising again from the dead.

-All men and women need a mediator between themselves and God.

-Job in the Old Testament recognized this when he said,

“There is no umpire between us, Who may lay his hand upon us both.” (Job 9:33)

-So, the question is do you have a mediator between yourself and God.

-The Bible says that we can know that we know that we know that we are on our way to heaven.

-The Scriptures call for us to repent of our sins and believe in the Gospel. By trusting in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus we will be saved.

-And that news is for everyone. God desires all to be saved and we are to be His mouthpiece.

-This means that all people, even those who are in authority.