At a time in British Columbia when the government was ordering the closure of churches and issuing fines to churches that refused to close, Pastor Joshua Claycamp delivered a message to the congregation at First Baptist Church of Kamloops on a Wednesday evening, December 9th, entitled, "Worship in the Midst of a Pandemic." This sermon sought to answer the question, biblically, of who had authority over the Lord's church and whether or not it was right to halt the worship of Jesus Christ for the sake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is an excerpt from that message. In this passage, Pastor Joshua encouraged the church to see the pandemic in light of God's perspective on history and the end towards which He is guiding humanity.

To read the message in its entirety, please click here. Excerpt follows:

Obeying the Government: How Far Should the Christian Go?

The Godliest thing to do at the present time is gather together with your church to worship God in obedience and faithfulness to Him, even though it means disobeying the government. You may be wondering how we can say that? How can we say that the godliest thing to do is to gather the church for worship? You might be tempted to think that we must be unaware of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2. Yes, your Pastors and Deacons are very much aware of the passages of Scripture that command obedience to the government, and we agree that in the normal course of events there is seldom ever a reason to disobey the government. We all understand that God has established the government to restrain evil and do good for the nation, and citizens should, in general, be subject to the government and obey its laws for the greater good of society. Paul writes:

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. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed. (Rom. 13:1–2)

Similarly, Peter tells Christians, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Pet. 2:13–14). These passages teach that people in general, including Christians, have an obligation to obey the civil government.

But how far does our obedience to the Government extend? Nobody denies that the Scriptures teach, in general, that we should be obedient to our governing authorities. Everyone in leadership understands it and fully acknowledges it. But surely there is more. Surely, this exhortation to obey the governing authorities has limitations. Surely the Scriptures do not mean to tell us that we ought to do whatever the government says without question, without careful examination, without placing these matters before the Lord? Surely, there must be more to it than this? It is a great stumbling block that so many simply refer to Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 without careful exegesis of those passages, and without any regard for the whole counsel of God’s Word.

The question we are asking ourselves is this: what do we owe the government, and what do we owe to God? In one dramatic encounter, Jesus’ opponents tried to trap him with a question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matt. 22:17). To say yes to Roman taxes ran the risk of appearing to support the hated Roman government. To say no to Roman taxes would make Jesus sound like a dangerous revolutionary against Rome’s power. Taking his opponents by surprise, Jesus said, “Show me the coin for the tax,” and “they brought him a denarius” (v. 19). After that, here is how the teaching unfolded:

And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matt. 22:20–21)

This is a remarkable statement because Jesus shows that there are to be two different spheres of influence, one for the government and one for the religious life of the people of God. Some things, such as taxes, belong to the civil government (“the things that are Caesar’s”), and this implies that the church should not try to control these things. On the other hand, some things belong to people’s spiritual life (“the things that are God’s”), and this implies that the civil government should not try to control those things.

In Jesus’ statement about God and Caesar, He established the broad outlines of a new order in which “the things that are God’s” are not to be under the control of the civil government (or “Caesar”). Such a system is far different from the Old Testament theocracy. Jesus’ new teaching implies that all civil governments—even today—should give people freedom regarding the religious faith they choose to follow, and how they worship God. “Caesar” should not control such things, for they are “the things that are God’s.”

This distinction leads us to two conclusions:

1. The civil government should not attempt to regulate or govern, “the things that are God’s.” It is clear that God never gave the government the authority to regulate the spiritual life of the church, which includes its worship. All authority is derived from God, and any attempt by the governing authorities to control our church are unauthorized in God’s eyes.
2. Secondly, and most disastrously, churches all across Canada have now fallen into a very dangerous trap. Somewhere along the way, in this horrible pandemic, we have inadvertently abdicated our God-given responsibility to govern our church and to determine our own church’s times of gathering and worship.

Now listen to me, brothers and sisters. In our current situation, the greater culprit in violating Jesus’ teaching on, “giving to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar” and “giving to God the things that belong to God” is not the government. It is us! If we are waiting for permission from the government to make a decision for ourselves about our own worship services, then we are sinning against the Lord. This will never be the government’s decision to make! This is our decision!

What we owe to God is this: we must not allow the government to dictate to our church how, or when, we worship the Heavenly Father. We owe it to God to take up these decisions for ourselves. We may decide to close the worship services later tonight when we take a vote on these matters. We may decide to stay open. Whatever we decide, we must be the ones to decide. When Christ says to “give to God the things that belong to God,” He never intended for us to concede any decision regarding our worship of Him to anyone else, including the government.

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Next time, we will consider the exact tension between obeying God as opposed to obeying the government.

This is an excerpt from a sermon delivered on December 9th, 2020. To read the whole thing, click here.

Or you can watch this video in which Holly and Pastor Josh reflect on the struggle to gather for worship after enduring the pandemic for nearly two years.