Four Myths Americans Believe About Politics, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. My kingdom's not of this world. I'm not building the kingdom here. The United States is not my kingdom and it shouldn't be yours.

And I'll tell you that after I embraced that a huge change came over me. Notice that I'm not giving up on America. I'm not down on America.

But I do not look at America as my ultimate home and I do not look at the United States of America as the world's primary home. Thanks for joining us today for Summit Life with pastor, author, and apologist J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host Molly Vidovitch. Today we're finishing up a short teaching series on, you guessed it, politics. It's a topic that many in the church shy away from because of its divisive nature. But we are called to participate in a way that honors Christ.

So here we go. After all, Jesus's kingdom is not of this world, but still there are myths we believe inside and outside the church that can make a season of political turmoil feel even darker. And today pastor J.D. continues to look at some of those myths and how when we look at the words of Jesus as he stood before Pilate, we will be able to replace feelings of anxiety and despair with hope and urgency about sharing the gospel.

Ready for a shot in the arm? Let's rejoin pastor J.D. in the book of John. Let me address four myths that Americans believe about politics. These are myths I will tell you that are believed as much inside the church as they are outside the church. And they're myths that make seasons like the one that we're in and are about to go through. They make them feel very dark and very hopeless.

For most of us, what we're feeling going into this season is anxiety, cynicism, despair. Am I right? I'm going to tell you it's because we believe these four myths. Myth number one that I'm going to give to you. Myth number one is that politics are of first importance. Politics are important, but they are not issues of first importance. And that is because the solutions that we need, the human race needed, were not primarily political solutions.

They were heart solutions. Thus Jesus did not come first offering politics. He came first preaching heart change.

I hope you realize that that approach was unique among all the religious leaders that had come before him or the ones that came after him. We talked about the difference last weekend of the church, difference between the church's organization and the church's organism. As an organism, that's what most of you are a part of the church. As the organism, you infiltrate every dimension of society. And whatever dimension of society you go into, you take God's wisdom and his shalom into that dimension. That's politics. As an organization, however, the church, as organization, limits its platform, focusing on proclaiming the gospel and making disciples.

The two roles are complementary, but they are not identical. Like I've told you, there are some things we got to be clear about. I want to make sure I'm saying that.

The wrongness of discrimination, the wickedness of injustice, the wickedness of abortion. But I've told you, I might be wrong in some of my dotted line opinions about the example I used last week was the war in Iraq. I might be wrong in my perspective on global warming. I might be wrong in my opinion on nationalized health care. But friend, I am not wrong about the gospel.

And I do not want to let my opinions on any of those former things keep people from hearing me on the ladder. So the first myth is that politics are of first importance. Friend, not only has our nation as a whole bought into this myth, the church has bought into it too. And that's shown by the fact that functionally, we care more about how our neighbor votes than where they spend eternity. Listen, most of us can't be close to somebody who doesn't share our political views.

I know that because I saw a study that showed that almost 70% of Americans say they don't have any close friends, no close friends who vote differently from them. And that is because for us, politics are of first importance. That's the first myth, right?

So here's the second myth. Politics are of no importance. In reaction to the first myth, some Christians just avoid politics altogether, but that's not right either because like I said, good politics is a way of loving our neighbor. The gospel has political implications. God has called his people to be salt and light in all spheres of society and to bring his shalom, that word means peace, into every dimension. The earth is the Lord's and all the fullness thereof.

The sea is his for he made it and his hands form the dry land. There is not one square inch of the entire cosmos over which Jesus does not emphatically declare mine. Christians as members of the church's organism, that means they seek to apply the Christian worldview into all the spheres of society. That applies, by the way, to more than just advocating for the sanctity of life and marriage, as important as those things are. In fact, I think you can make a pretty compelling argument that the greatest social benefits the Christian worldview has bestowed on the world are its teaching for the respect for individual liberty, freedom of conscience, the dignity and equality of all people, the importance of the rule of law, the insistence that all people ought to be equal before the law, teaching the inherently corrupting power of authority and thus the need for checks and balances.

Those things were largely unheard of before Christians and non-Christians and in some cases Jews introduced them. There's a fascinating book called The Poverty of Nations. It's co-written by a Christian economist and a Christian theologian that demonstrates that certain kinds of governments create poverty because they come from a flawed view of man. To understand how economies thrive, they demonstrate with good evidence and facts, you've got to understand how God made people. And they show that the governments that operate according to a biblical view of man end up seeing the greatest economic flourishing.

So we realize that these things always have implications and that's what you do. The freedoms that we have today came from Christians who got involved in politics. So we cannot sit idly by and say politics just don't matter. They do.

We need to urge people, you, to apply God's wisdom to all of creation, business, economics, care for the poor, education. So our second myth is that politics are of no importance. They are. So myth number one is that politics are first importance. Myth number two is a picture of no importance. Myth number three is I see everything clearly.

Okay. In the garden, Jesus said to Peter, those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The sword has a role in society.

The Bible says so, Romans 13. But the point is its use is limited and it will fail you eventually. Sword here would not just be limited to military power. Sword here, if you understand what Jesus is saying, is going to mean any earthly weaponry. The sword of our intellect, the sword of rhetoric, the sword of our political perspective is limited and so ultimately it will fail us.

Those who prosper by it will die by it. I am humbled when I realize where some of the greatest Christians have gotten politics wrong. Several great British pastors that I quote were wrong on the justice and healthfulness of British imperialism throughout the world. Billy Graham, right? Dear Billy Graham, went on record late in the Vietnam War endorsing both the Vietnam War and the trustworthiness of Richard Nixon. A southern Baptist leader whose name you may not know, his name was W.A. Criswell, who was kind of a godfather of what they call the conservative resurgence, coming back to good theology in the southern Baptist convention. He failed not only to support the cause of civil rights in the 1960s, he opposed it.

He said it was all Marxist in origin. He would later, by the way, go on record saying, I have never been so wrong in my entire life. I've told you, policy always looks so clear to us in the moment and it's okay. It's okay if we get stuff wrong. Sometimes we're human.

But the point is, we have no business tying the credibility of the church to things that we are neither called nor competent to adjudicate. Last week, I told you how a committee that I was a part of representing a bunch of churches was how we got the the helpfulness of the Iraq War wrong. Now here's another one. It's even more, some of you actually remember this one. You remember the situation with the kid from Covington High School, the kid who was in the middle of the region with the kid from Covington High School back around January 2019? Washington Post puts up a picture, a little video that circulated of this really smug looking kid in a MAGA hat staring down this Native American, looked like he was grieving and it seemed like the perfect illustration of kind of white condescension. So a lot of Christian leaders, including me, took to the airwaves. This is not acceptable, right?

It's an example of hate and bigotry that we need to advocate in our country. The only problem is it wasn't true. Truth turned out to be the opposite. The kid was minding his own business and had been provoked by the man. He and his family ended up with several million dollars in a settlement from the Washington Post and the news outlets.

It was one of the largest defamation cases on record. Again, I want to tell you it's okay that we get things wrong. We see through a glass darkly.

We're limited. The sword of our intellect, our perspective is gonna get stuff wrong, but the point is as a pastor or as a church, I should not tie the church's reputation or the integrity of our message to an opinion. I am neither called nor competent from my vantage point to a minister. My calling is to preach the gospel.

Yes, I preach justice. My calling is not to get overly encumbered in the political dimensions of earthly kingdoms. I might be wrong on one of those, but friend, I keep telling you I'm not wrong about the gospel. I'm not wrong about the Bible, and I don't want to let anything as important as those things are, I don't want to let it get in the way of this. Now for you, since most of you don't work for the church, you can be freer in expressing your perspectives.

I get that. I encourage you that way, but you should. But as you do, please don't let the smug and historically naive assumption that you see everything clearly make you look down on other believers who see things differently. By the way, even when you're positive that they're wrong, even when there's no doubt about it, realize that it's still not a first order issue, usually. Now listen, if Simon the zealot and Matthew the tax collector could get along, the Democrats and Republicans can get along here.

These things should not cause division. Myth number four, my party is the party of God. This time you get to say the myth, I got to correct you, okay? You say it, say the myth. God's a myth. You shouldn't believe that. If Jesus's kingdom is not an earthly kingdom, it follows that no earthly party is going to be his party either.

I'll say that again. If Jesus's kingdom is not an earthly kingdom, it follows that no earthly party is going to be his party either. The left and right are both earthly parties, and that means they're both going to get things wrong. By the way, I'm not saying that both parties are equally right or equally wrong, or there's never a wiser or more righteous choice. I'm just saying that earthly institutions are always shaped and always corrupted by sin. Both left and right have political idols they trend toward, and we as the people of God should be, in one sense, we ought to be above both sides, above both parties.

That means willing to affirm them where they get things right and critique them where they get things wrong and giving our soul to neither of them. I spend a good amount of time on my phone. After all, where can I get the latest info, argue with people I don't know, and mindlessly scroll, right?

Well, we'd love to suggest a much more uplifting use of that little device. Did you know that you can follow Pastor JD on social media? Why not get some biblical insight as you scroll? Just search for Pastor JD Greer on Facebook, at Pastor JD Greer on Instagram, and at JD Greer on X. And don't forget he's also on YouTube where you can subscribe to his channel at j.d.greer. We're adding teaching there every week as well as our Ask the Pastor podcast. Follow along on all your favorite social media platforms and stay up to date with this ministry while filling up your timeline with encouragement from God's Word.

Now let's get back to today's teaching here on Summit Life. Once again, here's Pastor JD. The wrong question to ask is, whose side is God on? What we ought to be asking is, what does God say about this issue? Tony Evans says, we're like Joshua when he encounters the angel of the Lord's presence and he says to this angel, are you for us or for our enemies? And the angel with his sword drawn says, neither. But as commander of the army of the Lord, I come. Jesus did not come to take sides, Jesus came to take over.

Right? Salvation does not come right in on the back of a donkey or an elephant, he walks on his own two feet. Now listen, I feel like a huge part of my job in this season is simply to undermine, to undermine your confidence in both parties. Both of them are earthly.

Both of them are going to get stuff wrong. I want to undermine your confidence in both of them and if I can be totally honest, I feel like I'm called to undermine your confidence in America in general. America is an earthly kingdom. It is fallible and it is tainted with sin. Listen, just so we're clear, I'm a huge America fan.

Okay? I grew up and remain very patriotic. I do not take the unique achievements of our constitution for granted for one single second. But for me, that love and that appreciation turned into idolatry.

And as a young man, I started to invest all my hope in it. And so politics became a first order issue to me. And that meant that I couldn't stomach other people who saw things differently from me.

When politics are a first order issue, then you can't tolerate people who see things differently because you have to be agreed with your close friends on first order issues. Otherwise, you can't have fellowship. And Jesus said to me, put up your sword. My kingdom's not of this world. I'm not building the kingdom here. The United States is not my kingdom and it shouldn't be yours.

And I'll tell you that after I embraced that, a huge change came over me. Notice that I have not given up on America. I'm not down on America, but I do not look at America as my ultimate home and I do not look at the United States of America as the world's primary hope. And because of that, I can be unflinchingly honest about America's faults, both her past faults and her present faults. Yes, America has many great virtues.

Again, it's why we're being transparent here. I get teary-eyed even reading some of the old stories or reading about great battles. I love patriotic songs. It's kind of awkward and weird around our house on July 4th.

I love that holiday. But I also know that she has grievous sins, past and present, because she was built by fallible, sinful people. Our founding fathers were so screwed up that Jesus had to die to redeem their wretched souls.

And that means that yes, they can make great contributions, but it's an earthly kingdom. The hope of this world is not found in the stars and stripes of our flag. The hope of this world is in the scars and stripes on our Savior. Redemption does not come from our Constitution. Redemption comes from his resurrection. And so now I'm seeking a kingdom, and I hope you will too, that is not headquartered in Washington, D.C.

I'm seeking one whose foundations cannot be shaken, whose builder and architect is God. And here was the great thing. After ceasing to worship America, I was able to start loving her again only differently. She let me down. She let me down big. Some of you are in the same spot. And let me down.

How did we get these two candidates? What happened? She let me down, right? But now I can see things differently. I can see things Christ-centeredly. I can love her as my city, even though she's not my ultimate home.

It's just where I'm exiled for a while. No party's God's party. Both are earthly parties.

That means both are going to get things wrong. And by the way, different ones of us are going to think different positions should be prioritized. Some of you are going to say, well, because candidate one gets issues A, D, and E right, then I should vote for him.

And others of you are going to say, well, because candidate two gets B, C, F, and G right, I should vote for him. You might agree with other Christians on every single issue, but you might rearrange the priority. And you might have strong opinions about why your priority is the right one. And you might be right. But see, that's where we ought to give each other space.

We can agree on what the Bible says about issues, even if our political calculus looks different in how we translate that into who we vote for. And you should talk about it, by the way. You don't have to be mums, not the word on this. You ought to go out to lunch. You ought to sit down over coffee and talk about why you see things the way you do, because your approach might be wiser than somebody else's, or theirs might be wiser than yours, but it shouldn't be a source of division. It shouldn't have been in the first century.

It shouldn't be in our century. So you ought to return to where we first started. What emotions are you feeling going into this election? Anxiety? Cynicism? Despair? If you're not feeling that, just flip on MSNBC, Fox News, or CNN.

Ten minutes is all it'll take, I promise you. You'll be filled with those three emotions. But I'm telling you, if you understand what Jesus said here to Pilate, and you disabuse yourself of these myths, those emotions will be replaced by two different ones, two much better ones, hope and urgency. Hope, friend, listen, at the end, at the end, Jesus wins. When Jesus went into this trial, there was only one vote that mattered, and God cast it when he raised Jesus from the dead. When your candidate gets resurrected from the dead, you win. Our kingdom wins, and that is not contingent on what happens or does not happen in November. That's not to say it's not going to be rough and rocky.

It's not to say it's not going to hurt sometimes. We're going to get knocked down. It's going to get discouraging. Our country's going to make wrong turns.

We're going to choose bad leaders. But friend, Jesus still wins. A few years ago, I went to watch a movie with a couple of our black pastors. It was the movie Creed. Remember where Rocky Balboa trains up Apollo Creed's son, who's played by Michael B. Jordan, to Box? At the showing that I went to, literally everybody in the theater was African-American, except for me and Curtis Androsko.

And I'm going to tell you, it was the single greatest movie-watching experience of my entire life. You would have thought that we were in an actual live fight. People were cheering and groaning like it was happening in real time. I remember one time when Creed, in like the last scenes there, where he gets knocked down, right, and it's kind of slow-mo, and he, you know, kind of slow-mo, and it's quiet, it's silent, he hits the mat, and you can hear his body kind of bounce off the mat, and it was totally quiet in the theater. And the woman behind me yells, Lord Jesus, help him, help him. She stands up.

She's like, help him, Lord, help, baby, get up. It was so much fun. It was so much fun. Here's the thing. Everybody in that theater, we all knew who was going to win.

There was one guy whose name was on the title of the movie. Yet we could still enter into the pain and disappointment of the moment, because we knew who was going to win at the end. And because we knew who was going to win at the end, we could sit through the disappointment of the whole movie, because we knew at the end it was going to be hope. That's how we should feel with politics. Yeah, we might get punched from time to time.

We might get knocked down. What I'm telling you is that we can look ahead already and see Jesus standing victorious. At the end, his kingdom is not dependent on that. He already overcame it. He got elected one time when God said, you come out of the grave.

He cast one ballot and it was over. Instead of cynicism, we can have hope. Instead of despair, we should have urgency. Because see, people need Jesus. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if they're Democrats or Republicans or they're independent or green or constitutional or libertarian.

It only matters if they know Jesus. Y'all, I don't know where everything is headed in our world. I really don't. I don't know where things are going to look like in the first week of November.

I'm not going to look at it there in January. I don't know where our culture or society is going. But see, I know where Jesus is going. So sure, let's talk about politics.

Let's talk about it. But here's our main talking point. Both Democrats and Republicans need Jesus. And the ultimate salvation that we are looking for is not found in an office in Washington.

The salvation we're looking for was hung on a cross outside of Jerusalem. So yeah, let's talk about the economy. But our main message is that both the rich and the poor need Jesus. And yeah, let's talk about race. But our main message is that people of every race need Jesus. And Jesus came to make one equal unified family of brothers and sisters out of all of us. And yeah, let's even talk about COVID.

But let's make clear that whether we ever get a vaccine or not, we're all going to die eventually. And we all need Jesus. These subjects matter. But Jesus matters most of all. Jehovah Nissi, he's my flag. He is my victory.

Is he yours? Is he yours because that's the kingdom you should give your life to. That's the flag you should be flying from the castle of your heart. In the end, Jesus wins.

That's the best possible news for all of us. No matter which way you vote, our ultimate hope doesn't rest in these leaders, but in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We hope you've enjoyed this short series called Flags Living as Citizens of a Better Kingdom.

As the election draws near, we want to encourage you to exercise your right to vote. But as you do, we hope this teaching has helped you gain a deeper understanding of the hope we have in King Jesus. Be sure to share it with a friend who might have similar questions and encourage them with what God has to say on the topic. We finished this brief teaching series today, but before that, we spent several weeks studying the life of David. And right now you can get a hold of a special premium resource called Exalting Jesus in First and Second Samuel, co-authored by Pastor JD. Did you know that we can find Jesus and the gospel in every book of the Bible, even when his name is never used?

This commentary is designed to help you see him specifically in these two Old Testament books. Each chapter is presented like a sermon, which makes it perfect for preparing a message or for leading a Bible study. And it includes a section called Reflect and Discuss, which helps in small group or personal devotion setting. We'd love to send you a copy today with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

You can give by calling us at 866-335-5220, or you can give online at jdgrier.com. Now, before we close, let me remind you that if you aren't yet signed up for our email list, you'll want to go online and do that today. It's the best way to stay up to date with Pastor JD's latest blog posts. And we'll also make sure that you never miss a new resource or series. It's quick and easy to sign up at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Bidevich, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend spending time with your church family. Next week, we'll stay in the book of John as we begin a new teaching series called Rushing Wind. We'll see you soon right here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.