The Kingdom of Heaven and Earthly Kingdoms

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 6, 2026

Sermon:  “The Kingdom of Heaven and Earthly Kingdoms”   Matthew 18:1–20; Romans 13:1–10

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

It’s good to be back with all of you today. I very much enjoyed my time away, seeing the beauty of God’s creation up in Alaska. And as an added bonus, I didn’t have to listen to any political ads for almost two weeks.

It’s getting to be that time again, isn’t it? And so many of the ads are about what a bad person this or that candidate for office is. It’s enough to turn us off to the whole election process. But we dare not do that. The reading from Romans 13 today reminds us that the earthly authorities that exist are appointed by God, and He has given us a great gift in this country of being involved in choosing our leaders. We must take that as a serious responsibility given to us by God, and we must cast our votes wisely, trusting Him to bring about the results that will be the best for us according to His will.

Of course, nowadays when a Christian pastor encourages a congregation to get out and vote, those believers are likely to be labeled as “Christian nationalists.” Of course, the folks who use that term rarely explain what they mean by it. It’s mostly just a scare tactic used to silence people, much in the same way that anyone who criticizes homosexual behavior is labeled “homophobic” and anyone who expresses concerns about our nation’s immigration policy is called “racist.”

True Christian nationalism is the desire to have a nation run by religious authorities, by church leaders. That doesn’t really apply to Christian voters in America who simply want to see their morals and values reflected in the laws of their country. And the people who claim that that is Christian nationalism have no problem with promoting their own values and beliefs in their political activity, especially in wanting to remove God and religion from being mentioned in society and in promoting such things as abortion and homosexual behavior. But they will never be labeled as “anti-Christian nationalists.”

Lutherans have long promoted a more balanced view of religion and politics, of church and state. We hold to the doctrine of the two kingdoms, which says that God rules in the world through both the church and the state. God has created both the church and the state. He exercises His power through both of them. But He has created them for different purposes, and He works through them in different ways. Church and state are therefore distinct from one another – but they are not completely separated from each other since God is at work through both. It is better to say that when each does its proper work, it supports the other. The state supports the church by maintaining order and peace in society, and the church supports the state by encouraging people to be good citizens who love their neighbors as they love themselves (Romans 13:9).

Romans 13 tells us what God intends to do through the governing authorities, through the government or state. He has instituted earthly authorities to be His servants who protect those who do good and punish those who do bad. God has given His own authority to judge and to punish to these earthly authorities, and in order for them to carry out this work, He has given them to power of the sword: the power to use force, even deadly force, to protect the good and to punish the bad. Of course, we recognize that these servants of God in the government are still human beings, who can make mistakes, who can be corrupted by sin, and who can fail in their calling to fight for what God says is right and against what God says is wrong. So we continue to pray that God would give us good government, and we take seriously the privilege that we have in our nation of being able to influence who our leaders will be and what they will do.

I think we should also note that many people today want government to do many things that God did not create it to do. Many people look to government to be the solution to every problem and to supply every need, when they should be looking to God for those things instead. Some also want to use the power of government as a cover up for their own coveting and thievery. They want to “take from the rich and give to the poor.” But loving your neighbor is a call to individual action, voluntarily giving of your own possessions to help others. Using the force of government to take what others have in order to be generous with what you have taken is not the way God would have us love our neighbor, both rich and poor alike.

In times past, the church was much more directly involved with helping the neighbor. Churches established hospitals to care for the sick rather than expecting government to provide healthcare to all. Churches opened soup kitchens to feed their hungry neighbors rather than expecting government to hand out welfare checks. Churches opened schools and universities to teach the next generation about God and His world rather than expecting government to teach their children. How much better would both the church and the government be if Christian people again focused on loving their neighbors by doing these things?

According to the doctrine of the two kingdoms, God didn’t only establish the government; He also established the church. But the church has a different purpose than the government, and it uses different tools. Unlike the state, the church has no power to force people to do what is right. It has only the power of God’s Word. And God’s Word is powerful! It can change people’s hearts and minds. It can change their life and their behavior. It can move people to truly love one another as God has first loved us.

The purpose of the church is not power or force, but forgiveness of sin. As Jesus describes it, the church is about finding a lost sheep that has gone astray and bringing it back into the fold. It’s about talking to someone who has wandered off into sinful behavior, not to scold or condemn them but to lead them back to God and His forgiveness. Yes, it starts with the uncomfortable conversation of confronting someone about the wrong they have done. But the goal is not to hold their failure over their head. The goal is to bring them back to the forgiveness that Jesus won for us by His death on the cross. And Jesus gives the members of His church His own power to pronounce forgiveness: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). When we speak a word of warning against sin, Jesus is speaking through us, and when we speak forgiveness of sins, Jesus is forgiving sins through us.

Unfortunately, just as Christians are often criticized for getting involved in politics and the proper functioning of the state, Christians are also criticized for speaking out against sinful behavior. But we do so, not to hold ourselves out as somehow being better than others, but because we truly love our neighbors and we don’t want them to be harmed by their own sin. Love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Love cares enough about another person to warn them about the dangers of sin – the consequences that can happen now, and the ultimate consequence when they must answer to God at the last judgment (Ezekiel 33:7–9). And our goal always is to bring people to acknowledge their sin and to seek forgiveness from Jesus.

Jesus also encourages us to be careful ourselves and to remove the things that would lead us to sin. He makes the very strong statement:

8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matthew 18:8–9)

Of course, the cause of sin doesn’t really rest in our hand or foot or eye. It lies in our sinful heart that doesn’t always want to follow God’s ways. So even when we do our best to avoid temptation, temptation keeps coming – from the inside as well as the outside. Our only hope remains with Jesus, who paid for all our sin and established the church as the place where His forgiveness continues to be handed out – as it is once again today in the gift of His body and blood in Holy Communion.

Rejoice, then, in God’s gifts of establishing His two kingdoms, the church and the state. In spite of the annoying political ads, do what you can to encourage the state to promote what is good and to fight against what is bad. And work within the church to continue to receive Christ’s forgiveness yourself and to share that forgiveness with your fellow sinners.

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Ezekiel 33:7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Matthew 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 18:7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Matthew 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”