Speaker: 1988, there's an ad that showed up on television screens across the
country, and it opens with an overhead shot of the Golden Gate Bridge, and there
was fog rolling in in the background, and then it zoomed in on the bridge
to a man who was jogging, running.
And as you can see, the picture on the screen, this was not your, your typical
man that you would expect to see in a commercial, at least not for this company.
Wasn't a cutting edge athlete.
This was Walt Stack.
Walt Stack at the time was 80 years old when this ad ran for the first time, and
he was running across the bridge in a pair of eye catching red athletic shorts
that were a little too short to show on the screen for church this morning.
But the camera zoomed in here on, on Walt's face, and, and you saw the the age,
but also the determination on his face.
After that, it cut to a, a montage of Walt swimming and running and biking, all
while wearing a distinct athletic brand.
The 62nd ad then concluded with one more look into the camera
from Walt before fading to black.
And then for the first time ever, the world was greeted with the slogan.
Just do it.
Nike.
It, it's, it's ubiquitous Now.
You know the brand.
You know the slogan.
You hear the slogan, you think Nike.
Nike's goal was to motivate a nation to think that they
too could defy expectations.
To think that, that they could also take on the challenge, to do the unexpected,
to break the age barriers, to press on, to persevere, to endure, to bear up.
Under the difficult circumstances that maybe they found themselves
in, just do it this morning.
Our inspiration isn't Walt or any other human being for that matter.
Our human beings around us are not our inspiration to press on or to
defy expectations or to overcome trials or to endure opposition.
We don't keep going.
We don't set ourselves as Christians to just do it because
of a human being or slogan.
Instead, what we're gonna find in our passage this morning, according
to Peter, we should just do it.
We should press on, we should persevere.
We should bear up under difficult situations, difficult relationships.
Because we live our lives as servants of a sovereign and good God, we press on.
We endure.
We bear up because we live our lives as servants of a sovereign God.
Our passage begins in one Peter chapter two verses 18 through 20.
It's on the screen there if you don't have your Bibles, but it says this.
It says, servants be subject to your masters.
With all respect, not only to the good and the gentle, but also to the unjust
for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while
suffering unjustly for what credit is it?
If when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure, but if when you do
good and suffer for it, you endure.
This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
Alright, point number one, right outta the gates.
Not used to it coming so soon, but this morning you're gonna
see why I hope in just a second.
But first point this morning is this.
Read the Bible in context.
As we get into our text, we're gonna read Peter, address Servants,
be Subject to Your Masters.
The word for servants is the word for a household servant,
a household slave at the time.
But, uh, this is an uncomfortable subject and as we read it through our
21st Century American eyes, uh, we are prone to read this and begin to have
some questions and we're prone to read this and think probably most readily
of Civil War era antebellum slavery.
And so our minds go there, slave master, and we begin to get uncomfortable
and we begin to ask questions.
And sometimes people will even grab a, a passage like this and say, look,
the Bible condones slavery, the Bible is a white man's racist religion.
So as we come to this passage, we have to say, what do we do
with a situation like this?
Well, when we read the Bible, we have to read the Bible in context, which
means that we have to read the Bible and ask ourselves some questions.
When we read a, a phrase like this, servants, be subject to your masters.
We can't just read it and say, well, what does this mean now?
What does this mean to me?
How do I feel about this?
Right now?
We have to do the legwork to understand three things.
The first thing is we have to understand what did it mean then?
In, in the context of the original writing of this, as Peter wrote this in the
original audience, what did it mean for servants to be subject to the masters?
What was a servant?
Who was the master?
What were the dynamics of that relationship?
We have to know that because that's gonna help us understand
what it means for us today.
So we have to do the legwork.
We have to dig in and, and things that are gonna help you with, with finding
that information out when you read the Bible in context are things like a
good study Bible, the ESV study Bible, the MacArthur Study Bible, uh, the
Bible Knowledge Commentary is another good resource for you to, to kind
of get into what did it mean then?
But after we figure that out, after we understand, okay, this is what
it meant to the original context, the original audience, then we
need to do the next step, which to figure out the bridge between the
original audience and us today.
And that's gonna be this always component as we read the Bible, as
we study the Bible, we have to look for what's the unchanging truth.
And usually that's an unchanging truth about God because God is unchanging.
So we have to figure out what's the theological truth that's gonna span time?
That's gonna transcend context and cultural, cultural expectations
in other elements of of history.
What is that unchangeable truth?
And then once we understand the unchangeable truth, we're, we're
two thirds of the way through.
And then we can get to asking ourselves the question, okay, so
then what do I do with this today?
What are the implications for me in my context as I read this text today?
See, we have to begin with the then and then go to the always and then
we can get to the, now we call this.
Lovingly the tan method of studying the Bible.
Then always now, if you go through our Partners Discipleship program, which
I'd really encourage you to look into, if you haven't been through that yet.
Uh, we do talk about this.
This is an important way, and, and it helps equip us to know how do I
study the Bible in a way that's gonna be profitable so that you're not just
sitting in your living room going, okay, well, I, I need to do my Bible reading.
I don't know what to do.
Let me just start in Ezekiel 26 verse one.
In the 11th year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me.
Awesome.
You know what?
How do I apply that today?
What does that mean to me today?
Should I look for the word of the Lord to come to me today?
It helps us to know how to get as much as we can out of the Bible, and so
we have to read the Bible in context.
The error that we are prone to make most often when we just pick up
the Bible and start to read it is the error of asking ourselves and
just starting with the question, what does it mean to me right now?
What does this mean to me?
What do I think this means?
And, and we ignore those other two components, what it meant in
the original context and what the overarching transcendent theological
truth is that's being communicated here.
And we just start with the now.
So for example, if we came to this passage, servants be subject to your
masters, we might be tempted to read this through just the now eyes and
think to ourselves, well this is about.
Slavery like it was during the Antebellum era, during Civil War era, and we would
miss a lot of what Peter's driving at and we would miss what's really going on in
the context, which is gonna mean we're gonna miss how we interpret it today.
So what does this mean?
What was Peter talking about here?
Well, in this case, we have to consider a context that we refer
to as the historical context.
There's different context that we can read the Bible in.
You can think of the context of taking one verse and saying, okay, I gotta read
one verse in light of the context of the paragraph, and I gotta read the paragraph
in light of the context of the chapter and the chapter in the context of the book and
the book in the context of the whole Bible that we could call the canonical context.
Meaning that the verse that we're reading has to be interpreted ultimately in
light of the, the entirety of scripture.
That's one way that we can look at context.
The way that we're gonna look at context this morning though, is we're
gonna look at the historical context.
What was going on?
What did this look like?
What was this about?
At this time, as we come to a passage like this that begins
servants be subject to your masters.
Well, slaves in the Roman Empire, as this is the time that Peter was writing, they
became slaves through three primary means.
One was being captured in battle.
A lot of them were prisoners of war.
The second means was just through kidnapping, and then the final means
was by being born into slavery.
By the time that Peter wrote, most of the slaves were born
into slavery at this time.
In other words, slavery wasn't motivated by racial superiority or by a caste
system as much as it was a product of a powerful expansion of the Roman Empire.
If you found yourself opposing Rome, chances were you were gonna
become a servant to Rome, and that's how these slaves came to be.
Another difference that we find in slavery during Peter's era was a lot of times
these slaves were not only literate, but they were often more educated than
even some of their own masters were.
These slaves at this time could serve as doctors, as teachers,
as musicians, as artists.
And slavery was so common in the Roman Empire that some numbers put the, the
population of Rome, the city of Rome at the time of being about a third slaves.
So that would be about 400,000 people in Rome that were living
as slaves during this time.
Empire wide, the numbers vary, but people estimate that across the Roman
Empire there may have been as many as 60 million slaves in all of the different
areas to which the Roman Empire spread.
And so slavery was widespread during this day and and that's why I think
Peter's addressing it in this letter.
Because you might think, well, this seems a little bit niche.
This seems a little bit zoomed in.
This seems unique for him to all of a sudden talk about this, but it's
likely it, let's just take the one third number, potentially one third
of his audience could be living in the Roman Empire as those whose social
status was that of being a slave.
So there were differences between what we often think of slavery as and what
Peter meant in the Roman Empire, but there were still some unfortunate similarities.
Though slavery wasn't the same as it was during the 18th and 19th centuries here,
it was still not a desirable position.
There were still, as Peter's gonna talk about harsh and cruel masters.
The historian TAUs says this, he says, you may take a slave in
chains and at your pleasure, expose him to every test of endurance.
But two great violence in the striker has often dislocated a joint or left a sin.
You fastened in the very teeth that is broken.
Anger has left many a man crippled, many disabled, even when it
found its victims submissive.
So they were harsh and there were cruel masters even in this
context in Peter's day of slavery.
Beyond that, legally a slave in Rome had no rights.
I I, if a slave wanted to bring charges against a person, he had
to be represented by his master.
So you can imagine that that got really awkward if the slave wanted
to bring charges against his master, and his master became his lawyer.
Beyond that.
If a slave was to give testimony in a court, he would often be beaten and
flogged before giving testimony as a warning to say, if you say something we
don't like, worse is gonna happen to you.
So as we read this, we have to come to it with the appropriate understanding
of the background, the historical context of what Peter's writing about,
because it helps us to understand why he writes what he does, for example,
to those that say, you know what?
Why didn't the Bible condemn slavery?
Why didn't the Bible speak out against this?
A lot of times people will jump on social media and they'll throw
the reel out there and be like, look, it's, it's all about racism.
That that's a, an abuse of the text that's misunderstanding the passage.
It's not understanding what was happening at the time.
When we understand the type of slavery that Peter's addressing
here, we understand that the first century fledgling church was not in a
position to take on a centuries old, uh, standard and, and institution
in the Roman Empire at this time.
And beyond that, we also understand that as we read the Bible, nowhere does the
New Testament ever c commend slavery and say that this is a good thing.
In fact, the Apostle Paul is gonna write in Ephesians chapter six, he's going to
say of masters, Hey, masters, make sure you treat your slaves well as believers.
Rather what the New Testament writers were doing as we understand things
is the New Testament writers were writing to a group of new believers.
Remember, Christianity is is new, it's fresh at this point.
And the goal, the mission that God had given through Jesus was not
to go out and reform culture in society, but to go out and spread the
gospel, to go out and make disciples.
And so Peter's writing to a group of believers in the situation in which
they found themselves in trying to help them understand how they should
live a life that honors Christ.
So when we read the Bible, we have to read the Bible in context.
There's other verses that we could practice this on.
In fact, this week I was watching a YouTube video about the
world's fastest 18 holes of golf.
'cause that's what I like to do.
Nothing about God or Christianity.
In this YouTube video, it was just guys playing golf, having fun, right?
And then at the very end, the guy, the, the host of the video
signs off screen fades to black.
And here comes Jeremiah 29 11.
What in the world?
I just watched a guy play golf in 35 minutes, and then Jeremiah 29 11
pop pops up on the the end screen.
Nothing to do with anything.
One of the most crazy out of context, just applications of the
Bible that I've seen recently.
Jeremiah 29 11 doesn't have anything to do with playing golf fast, but Jeremiah
29 11 is a lot of times a, a verse that somebody will say is a Christian,
well, that's my, that's my life verse.
Or sometimes you'll see it hung up on a, a wall in a, a picture frame that somebody
bought a hot hobby lobby or somewhere like that and it says, Jeremiah 29 11.
And it's a great verse.
It says, I, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans
for your welfare and not for evil, and to give you a future and a hope.
I, i read that and I, I say, man, I, I, I want that verse.
I would love for that verse to be my life verse.
And then I ask myself the question, well, does God have plans for
me to give a future and a hope?
I'd say, yeah, absolutely.
The problem is contextually, that's not what this verse is about.
This verse is written to Israel, right as they're about to go into Babylonian exile.
God is through the prophet Jeremiah telling Israel, Hey, you know what?
You're gonna go to exile, but I still have plans for you.
I still have a future for you know that there's still hope for you, even while you
find yourselves in 70 years of captivity.
So Jeremiah 29 11 teaches things that are true and he even teaches
things that are true about God, that that are true for the Christian.
But the context tells us that this verse is not about your life going well
because God has good plans for you.
Does that make sense?
We read the Bible in context.
Another verse you might point out is James two 17.
James two 17 says, this faith by itself if it doesn't have works, is dead.
You could take that verse and pull it outta context and do a lot of damage to
the idea that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
But when we read that verse in the context of what James is saying,
we understand that James is simply saying that saving faith does show up.
Right works.
Don't save.
But saving faith works.
Right, so James is, is not commending a workspace salvation.
All this to say, when we read the Bible, we have to read the Bible in context.
It's so important for us to understand that context is key.
One.
Peter two, 18 through 20 reminds us that we can't approach the Bible
only through our modern day lenses.
We can't just come to the Bible and say, what does this mean to me?
Today?
We first have to look at the original context.
Then we have to uncover that always true facet about what's true about this text.
It's always gonna be true.
Then now and in the future.
And then we can ask ourselves, okay, what are the implications for me today?
What does this mean for me?
What does this look like for me to live this out today?
So read the Bible in context, but let's get into our passage servants.
Be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and
the gentle, but also to the unjust.
Here's our word again.
Be subject.
This is week two of our, our series submitted Living, talking about
as Sojourner and Exiles that we are called in Christ to live in
submission to certain institutions.
We talked about the government last week, and this word to be subject means to
submit yourself to an authority to bear up under the authority of another person.
And here Peter is saying we should submit ourselves, or servants rather,
should be subject to their masters.
To tell a, a sub, a servant to be subject to his master seems like
that's an unnecessary comment.
Seems like that's understood.
Uh, but then when we begin to, to think about the, the early church and
some of the truths that were, they were hearing that this was probably
clarifying for a lot of the, the Christians who found themselves as
slaves in this time period and, and in those that Peter was addressing.
Because Paul had written things like in one Corinthians 12, 13, for in one spirit
we were all baptized into one body.
Jews or Greeks, slaves are free and all were made to drink of one spirit.
And so therein, you might think, and, and if you're a a servant, at that time
you might think, man, this is great.
All of a sudden now I don't have to worry about being a servant
anymore because we're all one.
We're all in one body together.
We're all equal together.
And while in the context of the church that was true, Peter's
saying, in society there were still gonna be relationships where you
still had to honor the subjection.
You had to honor the authority structure that was in place there.
So I think that's one of the reasons why Peter starts and
says, be subject to the Lord.
But then he says, be subject to the Lord with all or to the the masters.
With all respect.
This is the exception clause, the word respect there in the
Greek means with all fear.
With all reverence.
And the only one that Peter tells us to fear in this letter
in other passages is God.
And so here when he says, with all respect, the respect is not for the
master per se as much as it is for God.
So this is, again, like we talked about last week, we can subject
ourselves to whatever the authority is telling us to do, so long as the
authority is not telling us to sin.
If I'm confronted again with a decision of whether I'm not, I'm gonna obey God
or obey man, in the end of the day, the decision's not very hard for me.
I have to obey God.
Outside of that, I'm free to subject.
In fact, I, I need to subject, it's a command from Peter.
Be subject to your masters with all respect, so long as you're not
being asked to sin against God.
It's not a reason for disobedience.
The character or treatment that you receive from the one in position
of authority is not a an excuse for you to say, well, because I
have a harsh master, because I have somebody who's unreasonable.
I don't need to be subject to them.
In fact, Peter clarifies that when he says, not only to the good and the
gentle, but also to the unjust, Peter says that the good and the gentle, the
ones who are who do good to you, the ones that are kind to you, those are
the ones that are easy to be subject to.
Instead, we shouldn't just subject ourselves to them, but also he
says to those that are unjust, the word unjust is the word that
is meaning crooked or curved.
The word in the Greek is scoliosis, which is where we get our English scoliosis.
If you ever did those tests back in PE when they were looking
for the curvature of your spine.
That's what this word means.
It's a crookedness, it's a curved, it's a, it's a perversion of something.
And so the, what Peter's saying is the harshness of a slave's master
was not grounds for the slave to disobey or shirk their responsibility.
The, the, the master being a, an evil or mean or wicked person was
not the, the, the excuse that the slave could have to say, well then I
don't have to obey you when you tell me to do what I'm supposed to do.
Again, Peter's goal was not the reformation of Roman culture, but the
reformation of the Romans themselves, and as Peter's writing to this group,
this large group of people that found themselves in this unique relationship.
He's telling them it's gonna have a greater impact for the kingdom for you
to remain subject to your masters, even the harsh ones than it is for you to
openly rebel the testimony of the slaves, subjecting himself to the harsh master,
would do more good for the kingdom of God than it would to rise up, revolt, rebel,
and completely abdicate their position.
Again, Peter's right into Christians wanting to encourage them to
understand how they should live in the context in which they live.
And for the servants, they could do this.
And the reason they could do this, and the reason that this wouldn't be
totally crushing is because of that one phrase that I mentioned with all
respect, because that governs it.
Such that as we submit to those that are harsh, as we submit to those that are in
authority, in our lives, that are cruel or that we struggle to respect from a human
perspective as we submit to them, we do.
So ultimately, first and foremost, submitting to God
before we submit to them.
Point number two this morning is this, submit to God as you submit to men,
submit to God as you submit to men.
As a culture, we seem to struggle with authority.
We talked about that mistrust regarding government last week, but I think
it, it carries over into a mistrust of authority anywhere it's found.
The American spirit is an independent spirit.
We don't like to be told what we can and can't do.
We don't like to be given deadlines.
We don't wanna have to live up to somebody's expectations.
As William Earnest Hensley put it in his poem, Invictus, we want to be the
masters of our fate and the captains of our souls, so it's hardwired in us.
We are an independent people, and so we don't like authority.
In fact, the other day I was driving down Frontier as I was bringing my
son back from his basketball game.
And I came up to Frontier in COT and there were police and there were
fire trucks out there, and the lights were flashing and they had the, the
intersection shut down there such that you had to turn on cot and you couldn't
keep going straight on Frontier.
And I did not like that.
I had no idea what was going on.
It could have been that they were trying to save somebody's life, and I was
just selfishly frustrated at the time 'cause it was blocking my easy way home.
So I didn't like that there was a cop in the intersection telling
me I couldn't go straight on.
Frontier.
Turns out there was a natural gas leak.
I would've risked it.
I would've driven through the natural gas leak to get home faster.
But that just shows the sinfulness of my heart, right?
I, I don't even like the authority when the authority's trying to keep me safe.
Like, but, but this is inconvenient for me.
Or have you flown recently going through TSA, uh, you have to take off
your shoes and pull your laptop out.
I'm like, really?
We're putting, I like, we're gonna put people back on the moon potentially
again, and we're still pulling our laptops out of our suitcases.
You still need to see my, my belt is off.
We, we don't like authority.
But generally speaking, I don't think authority is something for us to despise.
I think it's something for us to recognize that it points us back to
the ultimate authority, which is God.
God creates authority.
In fact, the authorities that are in your life are in your life
because God has put them there.
The good in the gentle, yes, and also the unjust, whoever they may be, and
the call that we have is to live within those authority structures, submissive
to them as an act of submission to God.
God's created these various authority structures that we know
from the very time that we're born.
You've got parent, child, teacher, student, husband, and wife, employer,
employee, citizen, and government.
And now I understand the caveat being that there's no direct parallel for
those of us in this room to the master servant relationship that Peter's directly
addressing here, but there's still some of the principles that we can pull for the
relationships that we find ourselves in to think, man, if I'm in a relationship where
I am going to be in this relationship and I have an authority over me, then what
Peter's calling me to do is submit to that authority as I submit to the Lord.
That ultimately it's about him.
It's not about that person.
And so that frees us up that when we have the, the temptation for the
exception clauses, the, the, yeah, but, but, but what if it's hard and
I'm not happy in the situation, Peter would say, submit, or what if the
expectations on me are unreasonable?
Peter would say, submit.
What if I'm not being treated fairly?
Peter would say, submit.
But what if I feel like I could do a better job?
Peter would say, submit and we submit because again, we are
servants of a sovereign and good God.
And he's put us here, he's put us in these situations.
And so if this is not a, a, a situation that you can get yourself out of
and, and like we talked about last week, there might be opportunities
for you to have a conversation with an unreasonable boss or supervisor.
You, you, you can pursue those means so long as you're not
doing so in a sinful manner.
But mean if you're gonna stay in that relationship and you've got
that authority structure over you, then the call is submit.
Even if they're unreasonable, even if they're rude, even if they're harsh.
'cause we are servants of a sovereign and good God.
And he's brought us into those situations.
Paul, in Ephesians chapter six, verses five through seven, I think is helpful.
So the passages up here on the screen, but he says this.
Speaking of bond servants, again, similar context.
He says, bond servants obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with
a sincere heart as you would Christ.
Not by way of I service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of
Christ doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a
goodwill as to the Lord and not to man.
And so again, I think what Paul is saying is what Peter said, so long as
you are not sinning, by obeying, your obedience is offered first to Christ,
and only then is it offered to your boss or your teacher, or your parents
or your husband or whoever it may be.
We submit to God before we submit to anyone else in this passage.
It's offered as we notice here in fear of the Lord.
Our obedience, again, like we've talked about with all respect,
it's offered in fear of the Lord.
It's gonna be offered in reverence of him as an act of worship to him.
It's offered with a sincere heart, and this is one of the ones
that's, I think, so hard for us.
Maybe the act of obeying or submitting is not the hard part, but are you
submitting with a sincere heart?
Are you submitting internally as much as you are submitting externally
that matters in the eyes of God.
It's not only from the heart, but it's also noticed not for the praise
of man, you, you, you're not gonna do this just to keep your boss happy.
You're not gonna do this so that your boss will think better of you and
maybe he'll promote you and you can get a better job, a different job.
That's not the reason why you're doing this.
Instead, you're doing this as bond servants of Christ or as
servants or slaves of Christ.
You're obeying the earthly master, the earthly authority, because you've
got a greater authority that is the one that has put you in that place.
In that position.
It's offered as part of the will of God, doing his will.
God's will is that you would subject yourself in those situations, and
ultimately, again, it's offered as to the Lord and not to men.
I think when we understand this, it, it helps to take the smug look, the, the
edge off, the smug look from the boss that you have or the spouse or the, the other
person in your life, or it helps to, to ease the, the pain of the belittling or
the feelings of worthlessness that maybe you have when you're having to subject
yourself to somebody who's cruel or harsh over you, or the lack of appreciation that
maybe you feel or the outright hostility that that person might have towards you.
This helps us endure and persevere because we know that ultimately we pursue
and serve him before we serve them.
Whatever that relationship looks like for you young people, maybe it's
your obedience to your parents at this stage of your life, or teachers
maybe for the rest in the room.
It's, it's submitting to a boss again, a spouse, or maybe it's just
submitting to the head of your HOA.
That struck a nerve apparently.
Listen, that obedience, whether you want to or not, is made easier.
When we realize and remember that we are first and foremost submitting
to the Lord who's brought them into our life and given them the
positions of authority that we have.
Lemme talk employer, employee relationship for a second, you'll find
some that make the direct correlation to, from, from Peter's words here
to the, the work environment.
And, and the parallels are there, as I've mentioned a few of them already.
The difference being that most of our jobs are at will employment situations.
I know not all of them are, but a lot of them are meaning that if you wanted
to leave that job and go get a new one, you have the freedom to do that.
Peter's audience didn't have the freedom to leave off being a servant, to leave off
being a slave and go find a different job.
But I do wanna say if you are in a situation where maybe you can't, you
don't have the freedom, and, and, and sometimes that's just because I
don't have the financial flexibility to leave the current job I am and
take some time to find a new job.
Uh, if, if you're gonna be there, let me just encourage
you to, to think about this.
I know sometimes your, your boss might be crude or, or crass.
Or maybe there are show little concern about your work environment, the situation
in which you find yourself unreasonable.
Expectations, deadlines are put on you that you feel like this is
impossible to meet these things.
Maybe your boss is corrupt.
You know that they're corrupt behind the scenes, they're doing things
themselves that are illegal or wrong.
Maybe your boss doesn't praise you, doesn't recognize you, doesn't give you
any thanks for the things that you do.
Maybe you haven't gotten a promotion, your pay hasn't
increased over the last five years.
Not even with cost of living adjustments in cases like that.
If you're gonna stay there, God would say, be subject to their authority.
Be subject to their authority as to the Lord.
And if that's your situation, you can be satisfied knowing that you really are
serving the Lord and not serving them.
First and foremost, you can be satisfied that you're winning with God when it
feels like you're losing at the office.
Because that worship of of submission is offered not to the man, but to God.
And again, remember though, our standard is that we submit only
so far as a biblically informed conscience will allow us.
If you're ever in that situation where they ask you to do something that's
sinful, then that is where you say, sorry, I, I cannot and I will not do that.
But until that point, we subject ourselves.
Lemme just say as well here, Peter's not commending the harsh and cruel masters.
Rather, he's acknowledging their existence.
And it's not that God is not concerned with their sinful ways.
Rather, what Peter's saying is your job is not to address their character.
It's not to reform them.
Your job is to honor the Lord in the context in which you find yourself.
We press on a servants of a sovereign and good God.
In a moment though, we're gonna get to the why that I know is
probably bubbling up within you.
We need to see though, first that one Peter two 18 shows us that God's
desires for us to submit to the authority of Christ as we submit
to the authorities in our lives.
Verse 19.
Peter says, for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one
endures sorrows while suffering unjustly for this is a gracious thing.
Uh, this shows up here in verse 19, and then also in the end of verse 20.
It's a, a bookend.
It's an inclu is what it's called.
And so this is a, a gracious thing.
The word gracious is the word that means something that is commendable.
Something that is noticeable as, as something that's being praiseworthy.
And so Peter is saying, this is a gracious thing, and then later he's gonna say,
it's a gracious thing in the sight of God.
And so this is the why we can submit this is the why it's worth it for us.
This is the motivation.
This is the carrot on the other end of the stick, if I can put it that
way, or the Christmas tree cake on the end of the stick, which is
way more appealing than a carrot.
It's just to me, apparently this is the why.
This is why it's so, so valuable.
Why it's so worth it is because when we do this, it's, it's a gracious thing.
It's commendable when we do this in God's sight.
But the how is important.
He says it's commendable when mindful of God.
That word mindful.
It means conscious of him.
When we are aware, as we live our lives, as we subject ourselves in
these relationships, and when we are aware that we are doing that as part
of an extension of our relationship with God, this is a commendable thing.
This is so essential for us in understanding what
Peter is driving out here.
We're not enduring the harsh treatment, we're not enduring all of these things
as, as those that are passionless kind of grin and bear it just to
get through it, kind of stoics.
That's not what Peter's after your endurance, your submission is not
meant to be the, the stoic freedom that is out there of, well, I've
got freedom and mastery over my emotions and so that's true freedom.
And so I'm not gonna allow this person to make me feel a certain
way that that's a philosophy.
That's not what God's calling us to you.
Epictetus was, uh, a slave and an ancient Greek philosopher, a stoic
living during the same time or around the same time that, that Peter wrote.
And as a slave, he had cruel masters who at one point yanked and twisted his leg
so hard that it broke and history records that Epictetus endured the pain that
he was suffering, merely noting to his master that he was going to break his leg.
And when it broke, simply saying to his master, I told you so.
His stoic philosophy is that which taught that true freedom is found again in,
in mastering our emotions, in, in our responses to oppression and cruelty.
So simply going through passionless, stoic, like robots just grinning and
just enduring, just getting through it so that at the end of the day we can go home
and be away from that work environment and at least we didn't get fired.
That's not the type of submission that Peter has in mind here.
That's not the type of submission that catches God's eye.
That's not the type of submission that's a gracious thing.
Rather it's the type of submission, it's the subjection that is conscious
of, of him aware that as we submit, we are ultimately submitting to God.
It's aware that our submission to this earthly boss, this earthly
master, this earthly P person in a position of authority, is really
about my relationship with the Lord.
And so it's a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows,
that word sorrow there, it implies a pain that is more than just a physical
pain, but also a mental anguish.
That can so often accompany those times that we feel like we're just
in impossible situations with an authority figure in our lives.
The consternation, the frustration, the anxiety that we feel Pierce
says it's a, a gracious thing when conscious of the Lord, mindful of God.
We endure sorrows like that while suffering unjustly.
When you suffer unjustly, but endurance it because of your faith.
It's a commendable thing.
It's a praiseworthy thing in the sight of God.
But Peter goes on to, to give a, a caveat here, he says, for what credit
is it that word credit means to?
What glory do you get?
What fame do you get?
It's a word that means glory, fame, credit here.
What do you get out of this?
If when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?
In other words, if, if you've got a harsh master, Peter Singh and your, your,
your master is just a, a, a lousy guy.
And, and you rebel because you just think, man, this guy's just, he's so mean.
He's so cruel.
He's so harsh.
He's so wicked.
And you say what he's asking you to do, which is not to sin.
It's just part of what you're supposed to do.
You say, no, I'm not gonna do that because of who you are.
And then that guy punishes you.
Peter's saying, don't sit there and pat yourself on the back like
you're suffering for the Lord.
He's saying you're not.
If you sin by not doing what you're supposed to.
If you sin by disobeying what Peter's calling you to do,
which is to be subject to them.
And you suffer because you sin.
You lose your job.
You have other things that happen to you.
Peter's saying that's not commendable in God's eyes.
You're not suffering for Jesus.
When you do that, you're bearing consequences for your sinful behavior.
But rather Peter says, if you do good and suffer for it.
And you endure.
This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
That's when it's commendable.
You bear up under the opposition.
You bear up under the sorrow.
You bear up under the suffering.
The perseverance of the Christian through submission to difficult authorities is
gonna be part of the well done good and faithful servant that you receive in the.
It is part of that which is commendable, and none of it goes unnoticed.
None of it is meaningless.
None of it is ultimately for the Plaza men.
All of it is ultimately for the praise of the father.
Our final point this morning, along those lines, is gonna be this point.
Number three, catch God's eye by staying the course.
Catch God's eye by staying the course.
And you bearing up under a, a difficult situation, be it at work, at home,
and somewhere else, it may create more questions from people than you
have answers to your family, your coworkers, the world around you.
Why, why would you stay in that?
Why would you stay there?
Why would you keep doing this?
And you know the answers because it's a commendable thing in the inside of God.
The slave was to continue to submit even under harsh treatment because
that was the expected structure.
Yes, but even more so because he was pleasing God by enduring, while trusting
himself to the father's care and concern
in the sports world, referees missed calls all the time.
All the time, and it can be immensely frustrating.
You see a guy that's out on the, the soccer field that's getting away with
murder, and you sit there and you go, why is none of this getting called?
And then the game ends and you go home and you've really got no recourse
after that other than to go, okay, time to move on to the next one.
Referees, miss calls.
God doesn't miss any calls.
So as you find yourself in a situation that's difficult, you've got a harsh boss,
you've got a harsh master, you've got a harsh, whatever it may be, whatever that
authority relationship that you're in is.
You can rest in the knowledge if you're gonna stay in that, in that situation.
If you have to stay in that situation, perhaps you can have the the comfort
to know that God sees God notices and God doesn't miss any calls.
So then in the end, you're gonna be rewarded for your faithfulness
and those that were so hostile to you, those that were against you, if
they never come to faith in Christ, those infractions against you will
ultimately be dealt with by God as well.
Justice will come.
And that can allow you to bear up under the current harsh treatment that you have.
Ephesians six, eight puts it this way, knowing that whatever good anyone does
this, he will receive back from the Lord.
Whether he is a bond servant or free.
I had a pastor who would often challenge us to think about what's
gonna matter a hundred years from now, and I think that's helpful when
we find ourselves in these difficult situations, these difficult relationships.
Your reputation with your coworkers won't matter a hundred years from now.
Uh, the assumption is we're gonna all be dead a hundred years from now.
Okay?
Let's just get that one outta the way.
'cause if you're going, I'm gonna be 140 at that point.
Your reputation with your coworkers is isn't gonna matter anymore at that point.
How comfortable you are right now in this moment isn't gonna matter
a hundred years from now to you.
How much money you make isn't gonna matter a hundred years from now.
Whether or not you were right and they were wrong isn't gonna matter
to you a hundred years from now.
Whether you were treated fairly or whether you got passed over for that promotion
won't matter a hundred years from now.
The pain that you go through right now as far as the, your perspective
of it won't matter a hundred years from now, you won't be thinking
about any of that at that point.
What will matter a hundred years from now is how you conduct
yourself as a follower of Jesus.
And Peter's saying that involves this submitted living, subjecting ourselves
not only to the governing authorities, but also to the human authorities
that God has put in our lives.
Are there times to seek change to get out of a situation like that?
Yeah, absolutely.
There are.
And I think as we think through the, the situations we've already talked
about a couple of those things.
When you're asked to sin.
That's the time you say, no, I'm not gonna do that.
Even if that leads to termination or whatever it may be the severing
of the relationship, whatever.
If you're asked a sin, that's where you say, no, I'm not gonna do that.
Another time might be if, if you or your loved ones are in danger, man, that, that,
that might be a time to look for another way out of that situation that you're in
when you've weighed the pros and cons, let's say this is work related.
When you've weighed the pros and cons and decided to change the right
move for you, you and your family, again, you're in an at will employment
relationship, then yeah, it, it's not wrong for you to get a new job.
You don't have to stay under the cruel master or the cruel authority structure.
If there's a a, an appropriate and a biblical way to get out from that,
or when you've sought counsel and input from godly believers in your
life, that might be a time to say, okay, maybe a change is in order.
So this is not just about, Hey, cry your river, build your bridge and get over it.
There are plenty of times where we can say, okay, I think a change is good and
right and necessary, but if we're going to be in a relationship with an authority
structure in our lives, and if we're gonna stay in that relationship, if we're gonna
be there, then what Peter's calling us to do is to subject ourselves to those
authorities regardless of their character.
As long as they're not asking you to sin.
God does not want his children to suffer injustice meaninglessly, and
that's not what he's saying here.
Because suffering while trusting his plan and modeling a Christ honoring
submission is not meaningless.
It's not meaningless.
No tear that's been shed, no harsh words that have been received, no deceit
that's been carried out against you.
No betrayal is gonna go unanswered again.
God doesn't miss any calls.
He sees it all.
He's gonna bring justice.
It just may not be in our timeframe.
And in the waiting he sees you.
He sees you bearing up.
Remaining faithful to what he's called you to do and that he says
is a gracious thing in his sight.
The reason it's such a gracious thing in the sight of God is gonna be developed
more in the passage that we'll look at together next week, but basically it
amounts to this when we bear up and endure and trust God through our suffering, we
are following in our savior's footsteps.
And anytime we're striving to become more like Jesus, that's gonna be a gracious
thing indeed, in the eyes of the Father.
The suffering of Jesus on the cross did indeed provide an example
for us to think about and how we respond to suffering in our lives.
Peter's gonna say that explicitly for us next week.
He left you an example that you might follow in his footsteps,
but the most significant thing that Jesus did on the cross was not
to suffer for us, as an example, but to suffer for as a payment.
And that's what we refer to as penal substitutionary atonement.
Your sins in, in my sins, required a payment to be made on our behalf, and
that's a payment that we couldn't, we couldn't offer, we couldn't pay.
Good works are insufficient.
Being a nice person is insufficient, being a good person, insufficient, we need a,
a, a payment of, of absolute perfection.
And that's something that we had already all forfeited long ago.
And so that's why Jesus was sent by the Father.
It's why he lived a full life before he went to the cross, perfectly obedient
to the father, sinless, righteous in full, so that he could go to the
cross, not guilty, and yet take our sins and die as though he were guilty
for the sins that we committed.
And so, God the Father took the son and put him on the cross for
you, and he died for your sins.
Isaiah says it was the will of the father to put him to grief, to crush
him for our sins and our iniquities,
and that's the most significant thing about the cross payment.
Made the wrath of God poured out the words of Jesus before he yielded up his spirit.
It is finished such that you and I have nothing left to fear when
it comes to the wrath of God.
If you are in Christ, the payment has been made, the payment has been
applied, and that's the greatest reality of the cross for us.
And so right now, as we're about to the, the men are gonna come down,
they're gonna pass out the elements.
Please take the juice plate, take.
Bread and hold onto it and we'll observe it together and just remember
the three Cs that I often talk about.
We need to be aware of a lack of conversion because this is something
that is for believers and believers only.
If you're not a Christian, please let these elements pass right on by you.
The lack of concentration, meaning let's not let our minds think about
the nap that's in front of us or what we're having for lunch or anything.
Let's focus on remembering what these elements represent
and what they stand for.
And then the final is a lack of confession.
As these elements are passed, and as the minutes pass by, use this time
to examine your heart and to confess your sins, and to have the confidence
to know that they're forgiven because of what these elements represent.
And so the elements will be passed again.
I'll come back up and we'll take them together in just a moment.
Jesus knew what was in front of his disciples, told them what was coming.
The world was gonna hate you because they hated me.
I'm sending you out as wolves in the midst of sheep, rather in the midst of
wolves, they're gonna deliver you over.
You're gonna be beaten, and you're gonna be flogged.
You're gonna be brought before tribunals, all for my name.
He knew that life was gonna be difficult for those that claim to be a follower
of Jesus claim to be his disciples.
The Bible teaches that anyone who desires to live a godly life
in Christ will be persecuted.
So what makes it worth it?
Is what we remember right now.
What makes it worth it is that we have a future secured by the death of Christ on
our behalf, through the cross, through the broken body, through the blood poured out.
Such yet no harsh treatment you experience here can ever separate
you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, which comes back to the cross.
The Apostle Paul said, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to
you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and
when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
I.
In the same way.
Also, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death until he returns.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the death of Jesus for us, and not just
for His death, Lord, but for the glorious reality of his resurrection, which is
why we're here on a Sunday morning, as the church has done for thousands of
years to celebrate and remember that it was on a Sunday morning that Jesus
walked outta the grave never to enter.
And that secured for us a future and a hope that we too will one
day leave the grave never to enter again, to go to be with you.
We thank you for the cross.
We thank you for salvation, Lord.
We thank you, Lord that we can bear up and endure here.
Not meaninglessly, not hopelessly, not stoically, but knowing that
we have a future waiting for us with you where we will hear.
Well done, good and faithful servant.
We pray that we would live such lives.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.