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God's Politic

(Starting at 2:22)

David Stockton
Series: John
Chapter 1

(Starting at 2:22)

I’d like to try to give some context to our cultural moment that we have here. I’d like to begin to show us what God’s politic, or God’s agenda or vision or what God wants to see happen in America. Then I also want to try to keep us from being puppets pulled by the strings of the devil, the world and the flesh. This is always a challenge for us, but it seems to be very challenging right now as we’re all disrupted and uncomfortable and kind of grasping in some ways what we’re supposed to do. We have these powerful internet trolls or powerful marketers and we have people that really are trying to put forth deceitful schemes right now. We need to be very aware as believers. Like Jesus taught us, “Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” So I wanted to keep us doing that.

With that being said, we’ll jump into these three different sections. First of all, our cultural moment. We humans, every single one of us, no matter what ethnicity, no matter what socio-economic part of the scale we’re on, we are all closet critical theorists. Basically, critical theory is this: It’s the reflective assessment and critique of society and cultural in order to reveal and challenge power structures.

That’s the philosophical term for what a critical theorist is. And it’s true that we’re all doing that. In other words, we all have an opinion on what is wrong in society and whose fault it is.That’s basically what critical theorists do. And so we’ve all been closet critical theorists all this time. But as this disruption of COVID and the social unrest and racial unrest—all this stuff is stirring up so much in us. We’re not so much closet theorists anymore. We’re coming out and we’re shouting. We’re feeling these things and there’s emotion attached to all of them. We’re posting them and hearing other people’s posts and it’s really causing this major stirring within our soul. We know things are not right. We know things don’t feel right. And so we want to know what we can do or whose fault it is and all of that. Just be aware of that. That’s not a new reality. That’s something that we all kind of have all the time. It’s something that philosophers have been studying for a long, long time. It’s just our moment to manage this. Our moment to decide how we’re going to handle disruption, discomfort, the challenges that the world has faced all over the place for a lot of years.

Every week I’m on this call with pastors from around the Valley. Ever since COVID hit and we had to start to shut down our churches, we started getting together to really kind of encourage each other and talk with each other. It’s been a really beautiful thing to see the churches in Phoenix and some other parts rally together. It’s been very encouraging. This last week one of the guys was talking about critical theory and some of that. He was saying that what he has seen is that everyone in our churches seems to be falling into three different camps.

The first camp is the people denying that COVID is a real thing or that it’s something that shouldn’t disrupt our lives at all. It’s not real. It’s not a big deal. There are some people in that camp saying that racism isn’t something new or something we should really alter or change. It’s just going to always be there. So there’s this kind of a denial camp. A lot of people aren[t really saying it, because it’s really unpopular. Some people are definitely in that camp.

Then you have the people who are admitting there are some things that are really wrong. There are systemic realities that are wrong, both that COVID has revealed and the horrors of racism that have popped up have revealed; but also our political unrest as we’re going toward another election. All those things have stirred all those things. So we admit there is a problem. And we’ve decided to pledge our allegiance to one specific solution. Whether it be political. Whether it be some sort of human rights solution. Whether it be some sort of medical thing. Depending on how you apply it. And we feel that we’ve found something of an agenda, something of a social movement that we can jump into, we can pledge allegiance to and we can run with it. So that’s another camp of some of those people.

And then there’s another camp. And this is where I think a lot of people in the church might be finding themselves in. We admit there’s a problem and we want to do something to help. We want to figure out what to say, what to do. And yet we really don’t feel like anything we’re hearing, anything we’re seeing really does solve the problem. Whether it be how Trump wants to do it, or Biden wants to do it, or Black Lives Matter wants to do it, or some other agency wants to do it. Nothing really seems to really encapsulate what we feel is a good solution.

So we’re challenged in that regard. And I’m not saying good or bad on all of those entities. I’m sure there are a lot of people trying to do good things. But we’re just left feeling a little uncertainty. We’re left feeling a little unsure. We’re left feeling a little lacking in all of the different movements and things that we see. That’s where we’re at.

That’s what brings us to the book of John. What I love about the book of John is John was writing this book toward the end of his life. He’d been there and he’d done that. He had tried a lot of things. He’d seen a lot of things. And now, he’s probably around 90 years old as he sits to pen this gospel account of the life of Jesus. The other three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke had already been in circulation. The Church was not brand new. The Church was a few decades old at this point. It was established in Jerusalem and some other places and it was starting to get established in farther reaching places. John, who had walked with Jesus—literally in the flesh for three years—and had seen the Spirit of God come and fill the Church and begin to overcome obstacles and do miraculous things, and see people’s lives changed, and see it take root in the Roman Empire against all odds and against persecution and oppression in major ways.

John was both a Jew and a Christian, which, basically, there was nothing worse you could be in the Roman Empire during his time. And yet, John was continuing to go through his life and continuing to let the message, the gospel of Christ, filter into his life; continuing to develop and form into the image of Christ. He took seriously his own spiritual formation, even now that Jesus was gone. He took seriously the evangelism that Jesus was calling him to. And he was going around the world telling people how to love one another and sharing about the love of Christ.

And this was John. He had experienced very, very severe persecution. Church history tells us he was actually dipped in boiling oil as they tried to kill him. But he survived that. They didn’t know what else to do with him so they exiled him to Patmos, a prison island. And he survived that as well. Now he’s just old enough to where they thought he couldn’t do any damage. So he’s brought back and he’s able to sit down and pen these words to tell us what he would say Jesus’ life and message really were all about.

As he says in John 20:30 and 31:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

This is why he wrote these words. So that we would understand and see that Jesus is the answer. He’s God’s solution to anything we could ever go through. And that, if we find ourselves in him, if we follow in his way, if we receive what he has to give us, it will create life in us. The kind of life that death cannot overcome. The kind of life that doesn’t just feel like existence and going through the motions. The kind of life that gets us free from all the strings, all the puppet strings of this world that are trying to control us and tell us how we’re supposed to live, or what life really is.

So, for you kids, real quick, as we go forward. This idea of a puppet on the strings. This is the image I want you to draw and send to me. So draw a puppet and draw the strings trying to control he puppet and move the puppet.

Because that’s a reality in our world. We are controlled by something. We think we’re Americans and nobody controls us. But we have marketers telling us what to do and what life really should look like. We have the social media and all the other media telling us what’s important, what’s valuable and what’s not. We have all these things, even in our own soul, dividing us and telling us which way to go and what to do. So what we really want to do is figure out how not to be a puppet attached to those strings, but people who are living the life that God has called us to live. Because that’s really what the world needs. It needs for each one of us to figure out what he’s designed us to do and then live into that fully.

So that’s what John’s going to teach us about here as we get into this. So let’s read, John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Here’s some important words as he uses this word Word to describe Jesus. He could have used a lot of different words but this is what he says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. And then he goes on:

He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. [John the Baptist] He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John is writing this. We have seen it. We have touched it. We watched it day in and day out. The glory of God made flesh in the person of Christ.

(John [the Baptist] testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Here it is. John is writing at the end of his life, after he’s seen it all, done it all, experienced all of the world, experienced all of the life of Christ inside of him. He sits down to write. And he says, “What am I going to call Jesus? What word can I use to describe who he is or what God did in his life?”

And he uses this word logos. And it is an extremely powerful word. It has so much depth and connotation both in the Greek world, the Roman world and we have the word word for it. Which is kind of a let down in a lot of ways. Basically, in the Greek world, as John was writing this, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos ordering it and giving it form and meaning. This is basically what all of the philosophers were trying to figure out. What is behind everything? What is really what causes everything? What is the motivation for everything? What is the purpose of everything? They kept trying to peel back the layers and all the noise in society. All of the guesses. All of the thoughts. All of the assumptions. They were continuing to try to peel everything back to get to the core. The true reality of the cosmos. And that was the word that they used.

So John is grabbing this word that is so intense and powerful and provocative and only really belongs to a certain segment of philosophical society. And he grabs it out of there and he says, “Hold on. This is who Jesus is. In the beginning was God’s appeal. God’s politic. God’s agenda. God’s plan. God’s design. It was there in the very beginning and it was with God. And it was God somehow.”

Then, at some point, he says, “And then that plan, that design, that theory, that vision, whatever it might be, it became flesh and walked among us.” And John is saying, “And I got to see what it looked like and felt like and sounded like as I walked with Jesus.”

God has an agenda. God has a politic. God has a plan. God is very, very intricately involved in every single thing that happens in our world. There is nothing he does not allow. There is nothing he does not control. And it’s very hard for us to process this. That’s why in the prophets it says, “Your thoughts are not my thoughts.” They’re too high for me. They’re too confusing for me. I don’t understand your purposes and intentions all the time.

But what Jesus is, and why we’re going to spend this year maybe, or at least the next few months, in the book of John is because I want us to get a really clear picture of what God’s agenda is, what God’s message is. And there’s no better place to look than Jesus Christ. He is the whole thing. He’s God’s plan. He is God in the flesh. He is the glory of God, which is really what we long for. All of the discomfort we have, we’re longing for the reign of Christ ultimately. Because his reign is truly good. It’s truly glorious.

Everything that we do ends up being human. It ends up being temporal. It ends up being good for some and bad for others. That’s all we can come up with. And yet God has come in the flesh. God has dwelt among us. God has now left his Spirit to be among us so we can know the plan of God. That’s what he says at the end there:

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

We can know God’s plan, God’s politic. And it’s found in the logos. It’s found in Jesus Christ.

We’ll skip down to this next part. What do we do? How can we keep from being this puppet on the strings of society or the gravity in this world that’s pulling us into superficial and artificial busyness to where we think we’re helping, but we’re not really helping. We think we’re doing something but the next thing we know we’re wanting to run over here. And then that person says “This is better.” And we’re kind of in between all these things. And we all know with the internet you can get any kind of substantial media or substantial video or information to support whatever side you might be on in any spectrum of any discussion. And you watch something one day and it really compels you to go this way. Then you watch something the next day and it compels you to go this way. It’s exhausting and frustrating.

So how can we be people that are not puppets on a string? That’s where I want to talk about John the Baptist. We’re going to talk a lot about Jesus and how he reveals to us God’s plan and what he did. It’s going to be fun. But John the Baptist is the next person that John the Apostle introduces here. I think there are some key things coming from the way John introduces us to him that will help us know how to move forward. Or how to apply or how to get involved in the agenda of God in our world.

The first thing is that we need to realize that you nor no other human is the answer to the world’s problems. Now this is made clear in John 1:19, where it talks about John. It says:

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

Here’s the deal. Here’s what we have to begin with. We have to start at this place where we realize humanity cannot accomplish the work of God in and of themselves. And I know this feels a little funny, because sometimes it’s confusing. And the second point I’ll make will make sense a bit.

But I want you think of the tower of Babel. The tower of Babel. The flood had come and wiped out people. People were freaked out. They were unsure of what to do. They were nervous. Over time they began to have this idea that we could really come together and we could build this tower and maybe it would help us to ascend to know what God knows. Or maybe it would help us to have this thing that was high enough that, if the flood waters come then we’ll be above it and God can’t even wipe us out. In some ways there is something in humanity that, basically, we think we know better than God.

And really, it comes from a place where we’ve been let down by God because of pain in our life, or struggle. And eventually we begin to say, “Okay, God. Forget you. I’m going to figure this thing out on my own.”

And we become self-reliant. And it’s a subtle way that it comes in. Even in the Garden of Eden, that’s where it began. The serpent came and said to Eve, “Do you really need God? Does God really know what’s best for you? Maybe you should decide for yourself what’s best.”

We’ve got to find a way to humble ourselves as a nation, as a city, as a people. To humble ourselves before God and say, “All right God. We’re not going to say another thing. We’re not going to make another move until you speak and you lead us.”

This is the way that John the Baptist did it. John the Baptist went outside of society. John the Baptist was eating locusts and honey. John the Baptist was trying to find out what God wanted him to do. And then he was compelled by God to do the things that he did. And then when they asked him “It seems like you’re doing something good here, John. You’re drawing people back.”

He said, “Look, Im not the answer. I’m just here to help people connect with God. Because God is the answer.”

And I think that’s really important for us as we go forward.

Secular Humanism. Any humanistic effort is going to fail. It’s going to fail. It only is the work of God that’s going to produce the kind of goodness and beauty we want to see in our world.

So, first of all, realize it’s not us.

The second thing that we need to do is realize that God loves to share his glory with the world. He loves to share his glory with the world. He wants everyone to know him and his plan. And he loves to do it through you and me. So this is where it flips a little.

First, realize that it’s not you. It’s not in you. It’s not something you can come up with to solve the world’s problems. But God, who has a solution, who can actually solve the world’s problems has decided that his favorite tool is you. The favorite way that he wants to move in the world and express his glory and help people know his plan and actually experience the goodness of his plan is through. It’s through the Church.

The scripture that supports that comes from John 1:33. It says:

‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down [this was John saying this] and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’

John is saying, I could baptize you in some water and it could be this sign of you saying no to what society has you doing and kind of you getting freed of the puppet strings, so to speak. And it’s you now being governed by God. It’s you submitting to God. I can do that for you. But it’s not really going to empower you in any way. But he’s saying there’s one coming, the one who you see the Spirit come down on. He will baptize you with the power, with the Holy Spirit, with the presence of God that will help you actually overcome your own sinful nature. That will help you overcome the sinful nature of those around you. The sinful nature of your parents or those who have hurt you. He’s going to give you the power.

So that’s the second thing. We need to realize that, first of all, the power is not in us. It’s not something that we can achieve if we just work hard enough. It’s something that we have to find God’s power to do. So first of all, it’s not in us. And like John, we need to realize that Jesus has given us the power. And if we come to Jesus, he has the power. And he loves to use us. To fill us with his Spirit so we can go forward and speak the word of God that actually brings healing. And do the things of God that actually help people and lift people up, instead of just create by-products of other oppressions in some way. It’s so important for us to realize. And John was a master of this.

And the third thing that we have to remember is that the Word became flesh. I think this is so amazing. That our God, the God who made us, the God who knows everything about us, the God who was rejected by us, the God who has been betrayed by us—he came. And he became one of us. He became flesh. He didn’t just say what we should do. He didn’t just tell us from afar. But he came and entered into our pain and struggle—entered into our own sin. He took all of humanity’s sin upon him on that cross. He became flesh. He associated himself with us in order to really set us free and to show us how much God loves us. And God has a plan for us.

So, for us, we need to do just like what John the Baptist did. John 1:35-37:

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

I love this about John. First of all, John the Baptist is like, “Look, this is not in me. I don’t have the answers. I’m not the answer. Don’t look to me. We need to look for the one who has the power. The Holy Spirit.” And so he would say, “This is what we need to do.”

But he knew that the Spirit was able to empower him to do some good. And so he did baptize. He did disciple people. He did speak the word of God. He did speak out against oppressive and abusive leaders. Absolutely he did those things. He let the word of God become fresh. And he didn’t try to bring people to himself. But here he says to his disciples, “That’s the one that you should follow.”

And so they left him. They were following him and then they left him and followed Jesus. And this is Andrew and a guy named Peter. John was not holding on tightly to everything. He was doing the work of God. Speaking words out and meeting people where they were at and helping them find God. But he didn’t try and hold all that in together. But he continued to just point people to Jesus. Point people to Jesus. Point people to Jesus.

This is such an important factor. Some of the experience I’ve had—and this is one of the things we felt like God told us to do when we went to live in Belize. We needed to go and stir up the pot and try to help people find Jesus, and help disciple people. But then we needed to leave as well. Part of that strategy we felt the Lord was saying was we needed to make sure people connect with God and not with us.

It’s been so encouraging to see these guys like Orelle and Kenny and then the people they’re hanging out with—the work that they’re doing. It’s completely disconnected to us. Because they have now connected with God the Father. They don’t need what I can help them with. They need Jesus himself. They need his power in their life.

It’s so important that we connect people to God, we connect people to his strength and his life. And we need to make sure we’re not connecting them to us.

So this is a little funny when you have a church. But we want to be a sending church at Living Streams. We’ve said this before. Living Streams, you have never needed us. You’ve never needed me. Not one day of your life have you needed me. You’ve got to connect your life to God. You’ve got to find a way to be in relationship with Jesus, follow him, hear his voice. Then walk in the power that he gives you in the direction that he leads you. This is so important.

In some ways, God has kind of shut down the Church world in some ways in our city and in our nation. And I think this is one of the things he is wanting to teach all of us. That it is our time. Individually. In our own spheres and circles. We need to connect to God and we need to walk in his power. The priesthood of believers that we’ve been talking about. You have been sent, we’ve been talking about. That God really does want to share his glory with the world. And the way he wants to do it is through you. In your own families. In your relationships. In your friendships. In your workplaces. In missionary endeavors. Whatever it might be.

It’s funny because, at the beginning of the service I was thinking about saying, “Hey, we’ve postponed a couple of weeks. We’re looking at July 12. But if you’re really in a place where you want to be with God’s people and you really need that, I know Church for the Nations down the street is open, Bethany Bible is open, I know New City shut down for a couple of weeks. North Phoenix is postponing just like us. But go to places. We’re all in this together. No one needs to be connected to one individual or one church. We need to be connected to Jesus and go where he is sending us.

For me, Living Streams is where God has called me to be and to care for people. I hope he’s called you to be that way too. But, ultimately, we need Jesus. We need to be led by him. And right now the world is shouting a thousand different things that we should do. We need to find a way to quiet ourselves, and get with Jesus, and make that connection stronger than any other connection. And there’s only one person that can do that for you. And that’s you.

As a little bit of response time for you, whether you’re alone or you’re in a group, we’re going to put a little slide up and we’re going to pray these things. Take a moment to still our heart and then pray through these and write some of those things down and then share them with the group that you’re in, or maybe text somebody if you’re alone.

But take some time and really allow God’s word to kind of wash over you, and then God’s Spirit to speak from within you and give you some guidance for this week. So in the quietness of your own space, take minute and pray through these things.

Take a moment and ask Jesus to quiet your mind and help your soul be still.

Then take a couple of minutes to ask Jesus these questions:

Where have I been prideful and relying on my strength or wisdom instead of God’s?

What things have I pledged time or allegiance to that may be limiting what God wants to do through me?

Now ask Jesus to tell you what action he wants you to focus on this week.

(Listen for his still, small voice, and don’t be suprised if it is something simple)

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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