I Pledge Allegiance (11/2020 Sermon Series)
Most of us are familiar with faith being about belief and trust. Often when we consider our faith in Jesus, we’re understanding it in the context of our belief in who he is, our trust in what he says, and what He can do.
Familiar scriptures on faith include:
- “Without faith it’s impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)
- “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26)
- or passages about faith that can move mountains. (Matthew 17:20-21)
Hebrews chapter 11 gives a robust and profound list of men and women who made difficult decisions, took unpopular stands, endured painful hardships, witnessed supernatural miracles all “By Faith.”
By the end of Jesus’s ministry, he had set himself up as a King. His followers realized it. His enemies did too.
So when we talk about following Jesus. We’re talking about following a King- not a life coach, or Spiritual guru or even a parent but at King. Kings have kingdoms and those in their kingdoms are required to pledge loyalty or allegiance to the king.
This idea of King Jesus needs to appreciated. When his first followers placed their “faith” in Jesus they were putting their faith in King Jesus. Here’s the problem. Today, we’ve defined Faith only in ways mentioned above.
In the first century, this Greek Word “Pistis” translated as “faith” can also be understand as “allegiance.” Because in the context of a King/subject relationship “faith” would carry the meaning of enacted loyalty or allegiance.
We see this in the letters of the earliest disciples of Jesus to the churches they wrote. Join us on a journey in November 2020 as we explore what it means to put our allegiance in Jesus. We will discuss how that impacts our prayers, our possessions and our plans.