God is in Control? | Ps Rob Buckingham
August 6, 2021

Text: Matthew 20:20-28

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favour of him.
21 “What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.

23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.

24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Q. Have you ever said, “Well, at least God is in control?”

I have. And I’ve heard many people use this and other clichés in an attempt to find meaning in something awful…

“Well, at least God is in control!”
“Everything happens for a reason!”
“Well, all we can do now is pray!”

We all know what we mean when we say this. It’s an encouragement to ourselves that things will work out. But, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the world ~ our world ~ remains out of control. What should we say about God then? If God is in control then he isn’t doing a very good job! The fact is…

God doesn’t DO control

God does not usually control the laws of nature.
God certainly does not control human freedom.

That’s why wonderful things happen in this world.
That’s why awful things happen in this world.

While God doesn’t cause evil, neither does he use control to prevent us from doing wrong. God doesn’t control, but he does care. He loves and cares and wants to heal those who’ve been wronged. More on that later.

Examples: Constantine and Christ

Up to 70 CE, persecution had been sporadic & localised.

The first organised persecution happened under Nero’s reign (64) when he blamed Christians for the fires of Rome.

From then on, imperial persecutions of Christians happened every few decades. These drove Christianity underground and caused many Christians to turn away from the faith.

In the Book of Revelation (95), John described Domitian like this:
I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished” (Revelation 17:6).

Domitian was the first emperor to have himself officially titled in Rome as “God the Lord.” He insisted that other people hail his greatness with acclamations like “Lord of the earth,” “Invincible,” “Glory,” & “Holy.”

Consider Trajan, who wrote this about Christians, “They are not to be hunted out. [Although] any who are accused and convicted should be punished, with the proviso that if a man says he is not a Christian and makes it obvious by his actual conduct—namely, by worshiping our gods—then, however suspect he may have been with regard to the past, he should gain pardon from his repentance.”

And, so on it went. Christians continued to be persecuted at various times by different emperors, and ending with the Great Persecution under Diocletian who desired the total extinction of Christianity, even though his wife was a Christian.

The first of Diocletian’s edicts prohibited all Christian worship and commanded that churches and Christian books be destroyed. Clergy were to be arrested unless they sacrificed to pagan deities. Persecution was particularly vicious in Africa.

The edicts were cancelled in 311, thus ending almost a decade of intense persecution.

In 313, the Edict of Milan decreed the full legal acceptance of Christianity. The Christian faith became the State religion of the Roman Empire in 380.

In 324 Constantine became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

The following year, Constantine brought together 1,800 bishops from around the empire to work out official doctrine and provide the basis for a unified Church. The Council of Nicaea laid the foundation of orthodox theology. The resulting Nicaean Creed is still the bedrock of Christian theology and encapsulates the non-negotiable truth that Bayside Church affirms.

The acceptance of Christianity led to the free spread of the gospel around the world. But there were drawbacks too:

Drawback 1: The joining of church and state

All enemies of the Roman Empire were now enemies of Christ. All Roman wars became holy wars. Some of the early Popes actually led armies into battle.

The Holy Roman Empire was considered to be the Kingdom of God on earth, but now we call it “Christendom.” And all who believed otherwise were conquered by the sword. Entire people groups were subdued for the glory of God and “converted.” This was the unholy marriage of political power and the Church.

Drawback 2: Unbelievers started flooding churches

Drawback 3: Buildings became the church instead of the people.

Drawback 4: The priesthood became the clergy instead of every believer.

What we learn from history is that the church doesn’t handle power well, because it was never meant to…

John 18:36, Jesus said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The world’s leaders seek to control
Jesus’ followers seek to serve
God doesn’t DO control
God’s people should not seek to control either

In the cross, Jesus showed that he would rather be killed by his enemies than kill his enemies.

The first century church followed Jesus’ example. To be a Christian in the Roman Empire could mean you’d lose your life. There were no nominal Christians. All that changed once Christianity became the accepted religion, and the church’s leaders allowed power and control go to their heads. As author, Greg Boyd, says: when “we pick up the sword, we put down the cross.”

It’s time to take up the cross again, to deny ourselves, and follow him. To realise that Christ-followers are not in the world to control it but rather to love the world as Jesus does…

If God doesn’t DO control, how does he work?

Consent, not Control

Have you noticed that…

God will never force himself on you
God will not manipulate you
He is loving and gracious, not violent and angry

Even though some preachers revel in that image…

Mark Driscoll (former pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle) once said, “In Revelation, Jesus is a prize-fighter with a tattoo down his leg, a sword in his hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is the guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.”

And yet that’s exactly who Jesus is ~ the guy people beat up and nailed to a cross. God, as revealed in Jesus, is neither coercive nor controlling, but infinitely close and caring. Jesus will not force himself into your life or make you receive his love. But he does invite you to willingly respond to the offer of relationship with God. He initiates and we consent.

God is Infinitely caring

When God created the universe, he surrendered control to natural law and human freedom. But God did not abandon his creation.

Rather than abandon his creation, or control it, God entered it by being born as a human. The man Jesus experienced all of life’s highs and lows. The Word became flesh to endure the depth and breadth of the entire human condition.

In Jesus, God experienced our humanity ~ all of it.

Jesus knows your hurts and heartaches intimately and experientially, because:
• He too suffered (past)
• He dwells in you (present)

He completely identifies with your pain. Jesus is here with you now. He co-suffers with you, and wraps your suffering with his divine love and brings healing to your soul.

Here’s how the writer to the Hebrews stated this truth…

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” ~ Hebrews 4:14-16

Mercy ~ when God does not give us what we do deserve!

Grace ~ when God does give us what we don’t deserve!

Jesus participates in our human nature so we can participate in his divine nature!

God is not in control, but he is in charge!

Discussion Questions

  1. Share together some of the clichés you’ve used, or heard others say, that attempt to make sense of painful situations.
  2. The Nicaean Creed was the outcome of the outcome of The Council of Nicaea, which laid the foundation of orthodox theology. Look up this creed and read and discuss it.
  3. What are the drawbacks of a fusion between church and state? Do we see any of these reflected in Australia today?
  4. Discuss: “What we learn from history is that the church doesn’t handle power well, because it was never meant to.” Consider John 18:36 and Matthew 20:25-28.
  5. “Christ-followers are not in the world to control it but rather to love the world as Jesus does.” How do you (or could you) reflect this?
  6. Deism suggests that God created the universe and then walked away. Have you ever felt abandoned by God? How does it help you to know that Jesus felt the same when he was on the cross? (Matthew 27:46).
  7. Discuss: Jesus experiences everything you do. Not just by his past experience, but also as a present reality because he lives IN you. (Hebrews 4:14-16).