St John the Beloved
Sermon and teaching audio from St John Church in Cincinnati Ohio.
St John the Beloved
Reflections on the Life and Assassination of Charlie Kirk
The shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10th has fundamentally altered America's spiritual and political landscape. This wasn't merely a political murder—it was Christian martyrdom on American soil, as Kirk was targeted specifically for ideas rooted in his Christian faith. Unlike elected officials with direct political power, Charlie was a thought leader who believed in the power of civil debate and persuasion rather than force or intimidation. His death represents a profound moment that should disturb every American and particularly sober every Christian.
Charlie's example offers powerful lessons for believers navigating today's polarized culture. He demonstrated how to "fight Christianly"—engaging robustly with ideas while maintaining civility, refusing personal attacks even when facing them. His approach echoes Paul's instruction to be "kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness." In a society increasingly trapped in ideological echo chambers, Charlie's commitment to public discourse across differences provides a crucial model for Christians seeking to be salt and light.
What made Charlie's approach distinctive was his "Christian constitutionalism"—neither retreating from political engagement nor pursuing theocracy, but instead valuing constitutional principles as the best framework for promoting human flourishing given our fallen nature. He understood that we cannot legislate our way to glory, yet we must "seek the welfare of the city" as Scripture commands. This third way between disengaged faith and aggressive Christian nationalism offers wisdom for believers wrestling with their role as citizens.
This tragedy has momentarily parted the veil between good and evil in ways that have unsettled both believers and non-believers alike. The senseless violence has created an unusual openness to eternal questions that Christians must be prepared to address. As we reflect on Charlie's courage, commitment to truth, and willingness to be hated for his association with Christ, may we be challenged to run our own race with endurance, speaking truth in love regardless of the cost.
But let me let me open us in prayer. Our Father, we give you thanks for our church, and we thank you for the opportunity to gather together to attempt to apply your word to painful and difficult life situations and things that our world is going through in real time. We pray, God, I pray for my words that they would be helpful, that they would be clarifying, that you would give us space together to grieve and to lament and to think. And ultimately, God, we pray that you would use this to build up our church and to further our witness in the world. And we ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So I'd I just have uh some brief remarks prepared, and I wanted to share these in hopes to be a to be a help to you and to our church and and also to our just to our witness in the world as well. Um and then I want to create some space for prayer and also create space just for the congregation. If there's specific questions that you're struggling with or things that you want to articulate, we do want to create some space for that. And then Adam has prepared a worship song for us, and that was included in your bulletin, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, that was a loose leaf. So you should have received that, and we can sing that together to conclude. But like, without further ado, here are my remarks. Um, like many of you, probably, uh, I was not a close follower of Charlie Kirk during his life. I was aware of him and I appreciated some of the things that I saw from him that would pop up now and again. Um, but I didn't know him very well and did not closely follow him. But on September 10th, when I heard that he had been shot and killed at a turning point event on uh a university in Utah, I was shocked. And the more I looked into it, the more shocked I became. It wasn't because I was such an admirer or so familiar with him. I was shocked for two reasons. Number one, I was shocked because Charlie was killed for his ideas. Uh he was not an elected official, he did not hold actual political power, he was not an office holder or a decision maker, he was a thought leader, he was a thinker and a speaker, and he brought his ideas to college campuses, speaking to young adults and young voters, and he invited those ideas to be publicly tested through debate and through discourse. That was one of his main things. And of course, he wanted his ideas to prevail in our country, in America, and that's why he brought them to young people to debate them and talk about them. And he believed the best way to accomplish that, if you want your ideals, ideas to prevail, is not through violence, not to impose them on others through force or by silencing your opponents, but through civil debate and through persuasion. Senator Bernie Sanders had these remarks in reflecting on his murder. Quote, freedom and democracy is not about political violence. It is not about assassinating public officials, it is not about trying to intimidate people who speak out on an issue. Political violence, in fact, is political cowardice. It means that you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas. You have to impose them through force. And Charlie himself said something very similar at many points in his career. He said that he was on campus because, quote, when people stop talking, that's when you get violence. He said that over and over again, and that's why he wanted to debate and to promote discourse. Charlie devoted his life to promoting ideas, not through force, but through persuasion, and he was very successful in this. He succeeded in engaging many young people in our political process. He persuaded many young people to join conservative causes, and he persuaded many people to faith in Jesus Christ because he was absolutely an evangelist on college campuses. And for this reason, he was killed. And that alone, whether or not you're a Christian, whether or not you're a political conservative, that alone should be deeply distressing and disturbing to every American. But furthermore, his ideas were Christian ideas. And I can't say that I agree with everything that Charlie said or promoted, mainly because he was so intelligent and able to speak to so many topics, many of which I don't know anything about. So for that reason, I can't say that I followed him on everything. But it's clear, just from a cursory glance at his content, it's clear that he was a sincere, orthodox, outspoken believer in Jesus, and his political positions grew directly out of his Christian faith. That's not true for everybody, but for Charlie, his political beliefs and his Christian faith are impossible to separate. And many of his ideas that he was most hated for or most accused of hatred for are really our very ordinary Christian teachings that all of us should believe and defend. Furthermore, Charlie regularly preached the gospel on campus on these events. He led many people to faith in Christ through conversations about politics. Politics was sort of a gateway to that. The killing of Charlie Kirk was not just a political assassination, but it is absolutely fair to say it was a Christian martyrdom. Charlie has joined a very short list of domestic American martyrs. And he's a martyr in the same way that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a martyr. Bonhoeffer's Christian faith led him to political activity, to be engaged in what was happening in his time and place. And he was killed, not because he preached Christ, but because he preached how Christ was antithetical to Nazism. And Charlie is a martyr in the same way. And so his killing should be sobering, not just for every American, but for every Christian around the world. I really believe that the assassination of Charlie Kirk is a kind of turning point. That we we live in a different country today than we did on September 9th. We live in a country now where it is proven that you can suffer violence and death if you are outspoken enough about your Christian faith. So as an American, you should be shocked and concerned. As a Christian, you should be humbled and sobered. And this is a moment for all of us to reflect. This speech that I'm that the remarks I'm gonna give is not about right versus left. It's a moment for all of us to reflect on our country, on our own lives, on what we should be and do as Christians moving forward. What can we learn from the assassination of Charlie Kirk? And I just want to offer a few remarks. Number one, we can learn to be better. As I go back, so because I was going to speak on this, I wanted to do my homework, do my due diligence, watch his videos, read about him, learn about him, be able to speak intelligently about him. And honestly, he's become one of my heroes. He's right up there for me with Bonhoeffer. As I went back and learned about his life and how he treated others and how he treated his employees, how he treated his opponents, what he stood for, the things that he accomplished in his 31 years of life, one of my main takeaways is it just convicts me to be a better man. I'm convinced by looking at him that I can do better. He did a good job. He certainly wasn't perfect, but but I can certainly do better. Hebrews 12 1 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Charlie has joined that great cloud of witnesses who is cheering us on to run the same race. And we might not all be called to political action in the same way that Charlie was. But make no mistake, I think for a Christian to choose that as their life pursuit, to choose political engagement, is perfectly legitimate. Charlie did nothing wrong. He was living out his faith in the public square. We may not all be called to political action in the same way that he was, but we are all called to run the same race. And that is the race of faith, running with endurance for the cause of God's kingdom on earth in whatever arena that God would call us to. So looking at his life makes me want to double down on the things God has called me to. On preaching the truth in love, on engaging with unbelievers, on homeschooling, on being a good father, being a good husband, and on playing less video games, even something as silly as that. He's become one of those examples to which we can look and be encouraged to run the race that God has given to us. If he can do it, you can do it too. That's number one. Number two, we can learn to fight Christianly. Charlie was engaged in a struggle that all of us should be engaged in. He went to war against the doctrines of demons and satanic ideas. He fought hard and aggressively, but he fought Christianly. When asked for advice on how to debate, he said this: He said, Ask questions, be civil, they won't be. Do not engage in an ad hominem attack, even if they do. Use humor and wit where possible, and rely on the truth, data, facts, and logic. And this is exactly how Paul the Apostle teaches us to fight. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul says, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. And again, in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says, But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by an open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. We do not fight in order to defeat people. That's not what Christians are called to do, but in order to defeat Satan's influence over people by openly speaking the truth of God's word and love, seeking power from the Holy Spirit to open hearts and minds. So Charlie fought aggressively, but he fought Christianly, and he gave us a good example of how that can look. Number three, we can learn the importance of civil discourse. One of the reasons that our country is so polarized, which it is, and that's a something that we should lament. I think one, I've tried I've tried to pay attention to what other pastors and churches around us have been saying about these things. And I think one of the one of the missed opportunities is that the conversation has mainly been about the division in our country and not the fact that a good man was unjustly killed. But we should lament the division in our country. And one of the reasons that our country is so polarized is that we are not talking to our neighbors, and probably that we are too much online. We live in our own ideological echo chambers where only our own opinions are reinforced and never challenged. Generally, liberal people do not have conservative friends, and vice versa. Secular people don't have Christian friends, and vice versa. And because of this, it's far too easy to demonize and make a caricature of our ideological opponents. But that can only lead to division and distrust and ultimately to violence. I mean, if you just look at some of the things that were said, some of the negative things said about the man by like civilized adult people, and these things were said online, some of the most disgusting things, it's it's that's why. It's because we don't have real relationships with people, and we're stuck in these echo chambers. Our culture must rediscover personal, public, civil discourse and a common brotherhood of man. And this begins with us. We have to do two things. We've got to build relationships with people who think differently, people who have different worldviews. And we have to speak openly and honestly about what we believe, not hiding it. We have to lovingly challenge demonic ideas and be ready to defend our own faith. First Peter 3, Peter says, But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Number four, we can learn courage. I don't think that Charlie wanted to be hated. I don't think anybody wakes up and wants to be hated, or wants vitriol hurled at them, or wants to be called names. Nobody wants that. But he was not afraid to be hated, if that meant hatred for his association with the Savior. As Christians, we should not desire to offend anyone needlessly. There's many ways to do that. We shouldn't desire to dunk on people for our own glory. Rather, we should desire that all men would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. And for that we have to have courage. We have to be willing to defend the faith and confess Jesus and speak the truth, even when we don't know how it'll turn out for us. Jesus said in John 15, If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, and I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. The world hated Charlie Kirk because of his Christian witness. But this same witness also led many people to salvation, led many people out of the world and into the kingdom of Jesus. Christian courage means that we confess Christ and stand for the truth, even when we don't know how it'll go for us. Charlie's life and death is an example par excellence of that principle. Charlie said that the interesting thing about courage is that it doesn't take any skill, it doesn't take any special talent or calling. Anyone can be courageous. It's simply a choice. A choice to courageously confess Jesus Christ publicly and in our dealings and to testify before men on earth that Jesus is Lord and he will testify concerning us before his Father in heaven. So when you're feeling timid, remember Charlie, remember his courage, and be encouraged to be brave as he was. Two more things. One, or number five, rather, we can learn about a Christian approach to politics. And I think a lot of us are very confused about that. And you probably have heard a lot about and will continue to hear a lot about Christian nationalism, which is uh seriously underdefined or ill-defined. We there it's so ill-defined that our our denomination this past summer appointed a study committee to study the issue just to figure out what it is and to tell us what we should think about it. So you're gonna hear about that. But if anyone is telling you that Charlie Kirk was a Christian nationalist, uh they are profoundly misinformed. Christian nationalism, it's probably a spectrum, but uh as I understand it and as many people see it, is the desire to see America become a Christian theocracy or whatever nation that they live in. We'll just take it from the vantage point of America. And he was accused of this on video once. A student said that he was a Christian nationalist and that he wanted a Christian theocracy in America, and Charlie responded by saying, with a smile, he said, I don't want a Christian theocracy, I want this. And he held up the U.S. Constitution. Charlie did not want a Christian theocracy because a Christian theocracy would be unconstitutional. Charlie saw the U.S. Constitution as the Western world's best attempt at framing a free society, knowing all that we know about human nature and the tendencies of fallen man to abuse power that's given to them, because the Bible not only teaches the law of God, but also teaches us our inability to obey God's law, and that we cannot legislate our way to glory or to a millennial kingdom. The best that we can do this side of heaven is recognize the limits of human government, the human propensity toward corruption, and frame a government that, with those things in mind, promotes liberty for all with the appropriate balances of power. It's far more accurate to say that he was a Christian constitutionalist. Western society today has lost touch with its biblical roots, and as a result, many sins and ills have been visited upon society. But the church has offered only really two responses to that. And the first is a wishy-washy evangelicalism that never talks about politics or social issues and really never says anything very relevant. And the second is a feisty, aggressive Christian nationalism that aims for a Christian theocracy. But Charlie was neither one of those things. He represented a third way, uh Christian constitutionalism, that the Church in America would do good to better understand. So whether or not you agree with him or with his politics, you should study the founding of your own country, you should study your own founding documents, and wrestle with the question, as he did, how should my faith intersect with the nation that I live in? We cannot afford to not know the answer to that question. Not that there's only one right answer, but we should wrestle with that. Charlie often quoted Jeremiah 29, 7, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Babylon was both a city and a country, but it is incumbent upon every Christian to seek the welfare of their neighborhood, in their city, and their nation, and this does mean a political involvement. And then finally, number six, be ready. This is the last thing that I'll say. Be alert, be paying attention to what's going on in the hearts of the people around you. This was a traumatic event for our whole world and our whole country, partly because a man in the prime of his youth was publicly gunned down in front of the whole world on the safety, what we believe would be the safety of a Utah college campus. We have all been confronted with the reality that life is fragile and that tomorrow is not guaranteed for anyone. And along with this, people who loved Charlie and people who profoundly disagreed with him have both been unnerved by this event because this is a rare moment where the conflict between good and evil that's always raging, but is so often muddied and gray and difficult to discern, now it seems much more clear. In this moment, the uh the demonic forces behind the evil in this world seem to have overplayed their hand. For this reason, there is a sudden openness among many to consider eternity, to consider the reality of good and evil, and to consider their relationship with the Lord. Paul writes in Ephesians 5, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. We are living in evil days, and there are more evil days to come, and I don't know what's in store. But it may be that God will give us more opportunities to point people to Jesus, to boldly and lovingly represent Christ to a world that is just left dumbfounded by senseless evil. So I want us to be ready to rise to that occasion with the hope of the gospel. So those are my remarks. I hope that uh you find them helpful or um or comforting. And we are gonna record this if you want to return back to them and think about them further. Here's what I'm gonna say a brief prayer, and then uh before we have a corporate time of prayer, um, I'm gonna I'll open the floor to the congregation. If there's anything that you would like to express or questions that you have, I'm not gonna be able to answer all your questions by any means, um, nor uh is it our desire for this to be a contentious conversation. We want this to be a helpful conversation, but maybe you're wrestling with things that we're not aware of, and that's okay. So let me pray for us. And if anyone has any questions, we're free to hear that, uh, hear those. Lord, we do pray that you would help us to reflect um in the seriousness of this moment on our own lives. How it is that we can be better, how it is that we can fight Christianly, how it is that we can promote conversation and discourse, how it is that we can be courageous, how it is that you would call us to be involved in the politics of our nation as salt and light, and how it is, Lord, that we should be ready uh and looking for opportunities to point confused and hurting people to Jesus. Help us, God, fill us with your spirit. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So thank you for for entertaining that. Um yeah, I'll I'll I'll uh it's okay if there are no questions, but I'll go ahead and just open the floor if there's any questions or remarks. Yeah, um well, it is true that uh the the church is always engaged in spiritual war. We live in the midst of a spiritual battle, that is the primary battle that is raging. Uh there's all kinds of conflicts in our world, political conflicts, um, personal conflicts, but behind them all, there is a deeper conflict, and it's a spiritual battle. It's between the forces of darkness and real entities, demonic entities that are evil, that are far more evil than any flesh and blood person that we know, and they exert demonic influence over people, and the scriptures teach that people have been that all of us were at one time under the dominion of Satan and taken captive by him to do his will. And primarily the way that the enemy works is through ideas, through, through lies, through demonic lies that influence us to value and love and pursue certain things. Um and it's not always easy to see. I think in instances like this, when we see uh senseless murder and we see not everybody certainly, but we see people, um, more people than we would expect, celebrating death and murder. Um and uh it's it just it just seems more clear. And I think even I've seen many accounts of unbelievers who are now open to the teachings of Jesus and and to Christianity because man, I never believed in God, but this is clearly evil, and it seems like there's something evil and demonic in this world. And if there is such evil, maybe there is something good, maybe, maybe there is a spiritual force of good. So I'm not sure what to say beyond that. I think this is an example of uh this is the kind of thing that the devil loves to do. He loves to steal, kill, and destroy, and to destroy um good things that promote the well-being of mankind and and the advance of God's kingdom. Um and I guess as Christians, we just need to recognize that that's the that's the primary issue, is it's it's it's a spiritual battle that we're engaged in. Um I don't know if that's helpful or if you have further questions on that. Yeah, we should never forget that we are engaged in a spiritual battle, not only politically and socially, but personally as well. That's the primary battle that we face is the the the owner our own temptations to sin and to be deceived by the lies of the enemy. Um remarks? Thank you, Billy, for that question. Well, what I want us to do is to pray together, and I want to invite all of us to pray. We're gonna pray as a group. You don't have to pray, and uh, but we're gonna create space for that. Uh Adam, I'm gonna ask if you would close us in prayer when it seems appropriate, and I'll open us. I'm just gonna start us, and uh let's just let's carry these things to the Lord and ask for his help. Our Father, we pray together, pray together now as a congregation and pray that you would help us. Help us to know what to be and do moving forward from here. Help us to be all that you call us to do in the Beatitudes, peacemakers, lovers of righteousness, um, willing to be persecuted, um, if that would be your will, pure in heart, um, meek, Lord, um help there it's it's so balanced, this picture that you give to us, and yet so easy to get imbalanced. So help us, God, and we do pray for our country. We do pray. I know that in the the endless stream of social media, moments like this can quickly get uh get swept away and there where there is maybe a national openness to the things of God, Lord, that's always in danger of being drowned out by the noise of our culture and the noise that the devil creates. We do pray, God, for revival in our own country, in our own city. We pray, God, that you would continue to work to create an openness to the things of God, and that you would use us in this place, in this neighborhood, to be part of that.