Doctrine of Non Resistance

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Good morning and greetings to each one of you in the worthy name of Christ. Maybe you can imagine it's Sunday morning. As you get up and pour yourself a cup of coffee and take time to look out the window and see the beauty of the sunrise, the frost, everything's so peaceful, quiet. [00:00:41] You think about a new day to serve, to worship the Lord. All of a sudden your eyes just happen to notice your mailbox and you inwardly groan as you see that some fool has beat up your mailbox again for the fourth time this year. It's enough to ruin your morning. Or maybe you're sitting in a Walmart parking lot, just in the car. [00:01:13] Your wife went inside to get a few items. You're just, like I like to do sometimes, just watching people. And you notice a pretty new truck comes rolling past and finds a nearby parking spot. You know it's pretty new because it still has dealer plates on it. And a gentleman gets out and, oh, you happen to recognize him. Not only do you know him, but you also happen to remember you did some work for him about six months that you haven't seen any payment for. [00:01:50] And you go, huh, new truck? Now, if you're like me, something that's born inside me starts making some suggestions. Not necessarily always the best responses And we face these type of situations, these type of scenarios in many different ways Sometimes very unjustified Sometimes downright wrong [00:02:21] And it leaves us with a question How do I as a Christian respond? This morning I'd like to look at the doctrine of nonresistance. We just studied or went through this in our instruction class and it was a fresh reminder, refreshment for me to look at this again. Unfortunately, many today preach God and country, but I find it a little difficult to substantiate that in scripture. [00:02:57] For quite, I would say, probably for most of us, since childhood, we have been taught, and it's been ingrained in our homes, that we don't fight. We do not enlist in the army. We are nonresistant. And a few questions that came to my mind, is this a tradition? Is it simply a way that we interpret the Bible? One of more ways that could be interpreted, you know, such as there are different modes of baptism. [00:03:35] One could probably find some scriptures to substantiate submersion. We prefer the pouring. Is nonresistance kind of an interpretation for us in that same manner of where there's more than one way of interpreting scripture or not? Well, to the first question, is it a tradition? It definitely has been a historical stand that the Anabaptists have stood for for nearly 500 years and very strong on nonresistance. [00:04:11] But it's also been a very unpopular stance to preserve just for the sake of the way we do things. When an individual is willing to die for a belief in nonresistance, to me it speaks of a biblical teaching here that they're very convinced upon. And as far as is it simply one way you could interpret the Bible, I recognize that not everything in the Bible is spelled out in black and white. [00:04:44] However, principles are very clear. And on some principles, the word has very clear applications, practical applications that are hard to get around, I guess I should say. You know, when we interpret scriptures, I think it's important that we look at the context and make sure we're not removing scriptures from just picking out one and not looking at the entire context. [00:05:20] We compare with other scriptures. We understand or try to understand what this scripture is really telling us or is teaching. But also a powerful confirmation of the interpretation of scripture is when the Son of God embodies a principle. And throughout his life here on earth, we can see this in the doctrine of nonresistance. Simply, not only did he teach nonresistance, but he lived it every day. [00:05:56] I'd like to turn to Matthew 5 in that sermon on the mount where he talks about nonresistance. If we look at the beginning of the chapter in Matthew 5, the context of it, we see Jesus was speaking to the multitudes. He was speaking to everyday people and he talked in a language that they could understand. But not only to them, he also was speaking to the disciples, future leaders for the church of Jesus Christ. [00:06:31] Verse 2 it says, he opened his mouth and taught. He was giving instruction. He was teaching and it was for a purpose in mind. And we can read at the beginning the Beatitudes. Later on he talks about our lives, how they should influence, being a salt of the earth. They should radiate. Further down he talks about purity in our hearts, the sacredness of marriage, and the importance of integrity of our spoken word. [00:07:12] Now, all of us can identify with these everyday type of things, can't we? These were on what I call entry level. I mean, there are things we can understand. And now we begin in verse 38 of chapter 5. Jesus says, Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil. That's where we get the non-resistance. Resist, not evil. In essence, the same thing. [00:07:47] But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at thy law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn thou not away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. [00:08:27] that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust for if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. Here, he institutes the principle of resisting not evil, nonresistance. [00:09:02] But furthermore, he gives some very practical applications, referring to physical pain, personal loss, litigation, he talks of anger, hatred. To me, that's downright specific. It's very practical. If we would continue on in this sermon, we would hear his teaching on prayer, alms, fasting, how we should invest our money matters, worrying. [00:09:44] Chapter 7, first part, talks about judging the narrow road, the broad road. and the importance of a sure foundation. And when Jesus ended his sermon, the people were astonished at his doctrine because he taught them as one having authority and authority he does have as being the son of God and also in this as it relates to nonresistance, he was the prince of peace. [00:10:21] In this portion specifically here in verse 38 through 48, the first verse recognizes the old law, the old dispensation, and clearly sets forth a new and different and better way. Now, we as a family currently are right in the middle of David's reign. And David was a man of war. I mean, you read war after war and fightings and killings. [00:10:56] And the question may be often asked, why back then and why not now? David was a man after God's own heart. And yet he was a man of war. Well, as we talked about this morning in our Sunday school class, the old dispensation was a dispensation of justice. Justice that was meted out, sometimes instantly, other times it may be just in a short time. [00:11:26] But justice happened, and God used his children to bring justice to wicked nations. Sometimes he used others to bring justice to the children of Israel. But in the New Testament, in the New Dispensation, I should say, according to John 1.17, it says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth were by Jesus Christ. [00:11:59] In the New Dispensation, we have mercy is given to us. grace and mercy. Jesus even illustrates that as he was on his way to Jerusalem. He sent his I presume some of his disciples ahead. He figured to stop at a Samaritan village for the night and they came back and they said the Samaritans have refused us. The Samaritans were hostile to any Jews that were passing by on their way to Jerusalem for any type of religion festivals and Jesus [00:12:36] Jesus was a Jew, one of them, and they refused him. James and John, the sons of thunder, asked, Lord, shall we ask fire down from heaven and consume them? But Jesus rebuked them, and he said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And I think in this incident we can realize or discover two truths. [00:13:11] Number one is that we can see Jesus' response when he was mistreated. Why would they not want to host him? Or why could he not stay overnight? Jesus had the power to wipe that whole village off the face of the earth by the spoken word. But his response was, he went into another village He didn't rebuke them, he didn't say anything He just went to another village And the second truth reminds us of his purpose on earth was to save men [00:13:48] Not destroy men And I believe that's the mission of the church of Jesus Christ today Is to save men, not destroy, not kill We could look at another situation when he was in his hometown, Nazareth, and he spoke in the synagogue and they despised him. In fact, after he spoke to them, they became so angry at what he said that it says they were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city [00:14:27] and led him into the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. Did Jesus brush up on his martial arts? Sure was a good thing he remembered to bring his handgun under his robe. No, it says, but he passing through the midst of them went on his way. Do you see any violence? Do you see any revenge, any defense? Jesus, I don't. Now I recognize you and I may not be able to do that, but with God all things are possible and I believe instances like this have happened to ordinary men and women. [00:15:10] We may never know. God may, in a similar situation, our God's not in a box. We can think of the time when that band of men came to arrest Jesus. And loyal Peter grabs his sword, strikes out, cuts off Malchus' ear. Well, what did Jesus do? Matthew 26, 52, Jesus said unto him, Put up again thy sword into its place, for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. [00:15:49] And furthermore, he healed his ear again, reinforcing both in teaching and example. Later on, standing before a confused pilot and pilot, I'd ask him why his own nation, his own people brought him. What did you do or delivered him to him? Jesus' answer was, my kingdom is not of this world. [00:16:20] If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. And again, we see Jesus' response throughout his whole trial, all the sufferings, the spittings, the mockings, the beatings, not a single act of retaliation that I could find to any man. [00:16:57] When at the same time he could have called for 10,000 angels to rescue him, he lived exactly what he taught. We could continue on in the New Testament. Paul in his letter to the Romans, chapter 12, verse 17, he says, Recompense to no man evil for evil. Later on, avenge not yourselves. themselves the apostles also taught non-resistance Peter and James added more and the thing that I [00:17:35] noticed about all the apostles is they all suffered they were in prison all of them were martyred except the one I think it was was that John do you read any physical violence on their Now my study in this, I'm reminded of two points that I'd like to focus on for the rest of the time here. I think it's clear to all of us that, according to scriptures, we're to not resist evil. [00:18:16] But as I read the different passages, I came to the conclusion that refraining from revenge is only half of the principle of nonresistance. The scriptures are so clear about nonresistance, but right along with these scriptures, you have equally clear to respond in a positive way, in an up-building way. Let's turn to Romans, the twelfth chapter, and see the teachings of Paul. [00:18:54] Romans chapter 12, beginning in verse 17. Again, I read, Recompense no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. But rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord [00:19:24] Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good I see here a two-fold part in the doctrine of nonresistance. Not only do we not fight back, but we respond in blessing, in loving, in feeding, in overcoming evil with good. [00:20:05] The power of God and his love is far stronger than the power of evil. How many of you know that story of Dirk Willems? Looks like most of you do. That story is a couple hundred years old, and I believe it will continue to live on because it's powerful. Dirk Willems was running for his life. Those who wished to kill him were behind him. And he ran over a patch of ice, a river or something, thin ice. [00:20:42] He made it across, but the magistrate didn't. And he began to drown. And Dirk Willems, knowing that it would cost his life, came back. to rescue and then be arrested. On October 2nd, 2006, in a little Amish school, the West Nickel Mines, Charles Roberts murdered those five Amish girls. [00:21:16] He wounded six others and then committed suicide. That was a very dark day for that community. But it was also a dark day for Maria Roberts and her two young children, his wife. And that following Saturday, Maria and her two girls, or two children I should say, went to the funeral. And they stood amazed as they watched Amish families coming in and standing alongside them. [00:21:55] to mourn a daddy with them in the midst of their own grief. Was that powerful? That story was reverberated around the globe. I remember just a few years ago, a personal experience of, we were working up here at the town center and museum, And one of the subcontractors was a union pipe fitters. [00:22:27] I don't think we'd ever worked with them before. But one thing that wasn't hard to detect was a little bit the arrogancy and the disdain for us, especially us as workers who are non-union. We tried to be careful. But especially one of their workers was a pretty rough and tough, tattooed, don't cross me type of guy. [00:22:58] Loud mouth, foul mouth. One day I overheard him outside. He was very angrily talking into his phone. I'll usually try to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help. to discover that he was going through a very messy divorce and I think he was also facing a lawsuit in the same thing. I'm not exactly sure on the details. I know Mary and I talked about it a little bit and we decided to think maybe we should do something for him [00:23:32] and bring some cookies or something. I came home that evening and my wife was baking cookies when I came home. I said, great. We got a dozen together And the next morning I took it to him and I said, hey, I don't know what all is going on in your life, but I know it's not very easy for you right now. And I just want you to know we care. If there's something we can do to help, let us know. That's all I said. And he hardly said a word. [00:24:09] But, the change from that day on was drastic. We hardly heard a swear word. There was a, you could converse with him. There were things that he asked that was totally different. Love and peace are powerful tools. Why? Because it's God's way. It's ordained of God to work in that way. We are asked to bless, to show love, to pray for those that do kiddies out here or that bust your mailbox. [00:24:48] You know, we may not know any other way that we can know who they are, but we can pray. And if we know we can do something kind for them, we are asked to be involved in an up-building way, and there are many different ways. God has given each one of us a creativity that we can use to meet that need. [00:25:20] And as I think about the responsibility to respond in a positive way, it's one of the reasons that I strongly believe that if I want to have a conscientious objector's status or resisting going into the army, Then I also need to in some way, shape, or form show in a positive way, bless our country in a positive way as well. [00:25:57] And I believe that can be done in many different ways. We can render voluntary service for the benefit of mankind. But I believe we're only halfway if we just say no and continue accumulating wealth throughout our life. I think it's good to respond in the community, it can be in our country, it can even be various different ways. [00:26:29] But I believe it is our responsibility to, in some way throughout our life, to render a service in a positive way. The second point, what I say, I believe needs to be evidenced in my everyday life. We could see in Jesus' example, what he taught, he lived. and you know it's kind of sad but you know there's many who say there's no way I could fight in the army [00:27:03] but they have no problem turning over bills to a collection agency so that they get their money back or I had a plain man once tell me of a situation that he wasn't receiving payment for and just mention that he decided finally after so long he decided the next time he's there he just helped himself to some of the things that he had out in his storage barn. And I wonder, you know, God sees. [00:27:41] And I believe that even more than that in this day of technology or age of technology With the easily availability of all kinds of information about you at someone's fingertips, it becomes even more important. You know, our lives are far less private than they were even 20 years ago. Something that's just hard for me to grasp is that every electronic data that you send or give or whatever is permanent. [00:28:21] And with the right person, with the right knowledge, can be obtained at any time. Sure, you can hit the delete, but according to an article that I read about privacy, given, well, let's just say that there are those who have the capacity to retrieve that. You know, I think about the draft, and I know it's been over almost 40 years since the draft has been used. [00:29:00] But, that does not say it's extinct They still have a nominated position for the selective service in Washington And our peace and safety committee along with Christian Aid Ministries has met with Cassandra Costley a few times already In working up a program called CASP of where they take young men and they go into various parks, forestries, or housing for low income [00:29:44] and they help as a means of doing service to our local country or our country here. But I guess the thing is that I have wondered and that is if the draft would be reactivated, I wonder if there wouldn't be a little bit more cross-examination than it was even in the past due to the availability of technology. [00:30:15] And I would suppose that it would be very, very easy for the government to pull up some emails or photos or whatever from even ten years ago that you posted in your youth or something like that that raises a question whether you really believe or whether you're copping out of service or military service. For instance, what if they would just check the firearms database and it would say that I have a permit to carry a handgun? [00:31:01] Do you think that could affect CO status? Why do you carry a handgun? Why do you have a pistol? What's often related with those type of things? Isn't it defense? I don't know. I'm not trying to be a doomsday prophet, but just to ask some questions that I believe is realistic for today. Would they take my explanation as having it for recreational purposes fly? I don't know. [00:31:40] Moving on just a bit, I'd like to quote from Daniel Kaufman. Nonresistance is but the outward manifestation of the peace of God within the soul. Jesus promised his followers in John 14, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. And Paul talked about it as well. He said, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. [00:32:16] And I believe that's why it's hard for society to understand a nonresistant view. When there is no peace, true peace in our hearts, how can it be evidenced or how can it have a practical application? Well, in closing here, I'd like to read 1 Peter, the second chapter, verses 19 through the end, 24. [00:32:47] Therefore, to truly follow the doctrine of nonresistance will cost. It's going to cost either financially, it's going to cost a loss of reputation, it's going to take some sacrifice, but I believe it is the doctrine of Jesus. 1 Peter 2.19 [00:33:41] He should follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Who his own self bears sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. What is our aim? Is our aim to defend myself, my rights, or is my aim to be accepted by God? [00:34:21] Let us kneel for a word of prayer.