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Please remain standing, dear friends, for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our
consideration and study of 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter’s first epistle.
Tonight we are again in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 18 through 25, a very
controversial and difficult portion of Scripture.
In order to give the fuller context I will begin reading at verse 13 but again
our focus will be especially on verses 18 through 25.
1 Peter chapter 2 beginning at verse 13. You’ll find that on page 1204 in your
pew Bible. Dear friends, hear the Word of God.
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. For this is the will of God that by doing good
you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who
are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as
servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the
emperor. Servants be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the
good and 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. For
to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you
an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither
was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled he did not revile in return.
When he suffered he did not threaten, but continued in trusting himself to him who
judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might
die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you
were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of
your souls. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God
endures forever. Once again please join me as we ask the Lord’s blessing upon
the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we pray that by your spirit you
would open our minds and our hearts once again to behold wondrous things from your
word. We ask Lord that we might understand this text of scripture in the
way that it was intended to be understood as you’ve revealed it to us,
Lord. We thank you for giving us your word. It is indeed a lamp unto our feet,
a light into our path, and we pray that you would lighten our way, that you would
illuminate our way as we see what the Spirit is speaking to us in this portion
of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible word. We would ask that you would set a
guard over my lips, Lord, that I, your unworthy servant, may declare your word
with clarity and faithfulness in the power of your Holy Spirit. For the
edification and building up of your saints, the salvation of the lost, and
the glory and honor of Jesus our Savior. For it is in his name that we pray and
all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated.
If you’re following along in your sermon outline, you’ll notice six key words
that you could be listening for, especially the children, if you would
find that to be helpful, the words slavery, suffering, unjust, endurance,
cross, and shepherd. Well, dear friends, on the last Lord’s Day evening we began
to consider this challenging passage of Peter’s first
letter, his first epistle. Under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration,
Peter has been seeking to encourage and fortify the faith of his first century
readers, and these readers, as you will recall,
were Christians who were facing the prospect of severe persecution for their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So they needed
encouragement, they needed strengthening, they also needed guidance
for how to live godly lives in the midst of a hostile
environment. And so up until this point in his letter,
Peter has sought to encourage these believers
by reminding them, and reminding us as well, of the wonderful blessings of
salvation that we have received in Christ, and also reminding us of our
identity in Christ as God’s people. And then in
chapter 2 verse 11, Peter begins to shift his focus to the
believers’ relationships toward those who are outside of the church, outside of
the fold, as well as focus his
attention on the believers’ responsibilities to the social order
and within social relationships. And then from chapter 2 verse 13 through
chapter 3 verse 6, Peter highlights the theme of the
believers’ submission to authority. In chapter 2 verses 13
through 17, he first of all addresses the matter of submission to
the government’s authority, and we consider that a few Lord’s Day evenings
ago. And then in our passage for this evening, Peter
deals with the submission of servants to their masters.
And then finally in chapter 3 verses 1 through 6, which we will consider
in a future sermon, Peter speaks to the matter of the wife’s submission to her
husband. Now before we began to deal with this
particular section where Peter addresses servants in
particular, last week I sought to offer some
historical background information that addresses
this controversial subject of servanthood or slavery
in the Bible. It’s really important if we’re going to correctly
interpret God’s word that we need to understand it against the background of
its historical setting and so
forth. And as we read passages like this, we
have to make sure that we don’t read in our
contemporary conceptions of what’s going on here
into this ancient text of scripture. We need to do what we can to try to
understand the background to it. So I sought to
point out on the last Lord’s Day evening how
servanthood and slavery in the ancient context of
the first century Roman empire was different from the kind of
race-based chattel slavery that was practiced
in our nation prior to the Civil War. The kind of
chattel slavery, race-based slavery that was
practiced in the United States of course before the Civil War was a type of
slavery that involved man stealing or kidnapping. And as we
saw in the last Lord’s Day evening, the Bible clearly condemns that practice in
passages like Exodus chapter 21 verse 16.
That does not mean that the institution of servanthood and
slavery in the first century Roman empire was a good
institution. I’m not defending it but I’m just again we need to
understand this from against the background
of the first century. And as I pointed out in some ways,
not in every way, but in some ways the relationship of first century Roman
slaves or servants to their masters, which is spoken of in
the New Testament, is similar to the modern relationship of
employees to their employers. And if you’d like, if you
didn’t get a chance to be here last Lord’s Day evening or if
you want to go back and review the points I made last week,
I encourage you to get onto the church website and listen to last week’s sermon
if you would find that information to be helpful to review. But friends,
in spite of the fact that the kind of servanthood,
whoops, my band’s a little bit high there.
Okay, at least I didn’t completely lose it, right?
The point I was trying to make last week is that in spite of the fact that the
kind of of servanthood that some of Peter’s
readers were apparently subject to was was milder than the kind of brutal
man-stealing slavery of our nation’s past.
Nevertheless, our passage makes it clear, beloved,
that it was an institution that was open to abuses. And
it also makes it clear in our passage that that
sometimes these servants and slaves experienced
unjust suffering at the hands of unjust masters. And so Peter is concerned
to direct them and give them guidance in how to deal with
being in a setting or a situation like that.
Last week we learned from this passage which addresses servants
the truth that we believers are to be willing to endure
unjust suffering at the hands of the wicked with patience and without
personal vengeance or retaliation, following in the footsteps of Christ our
Savior, who himself endured unjust suffering at the hands of
the wicked in order to redeem us from our sins.
And so tonight we consider from this passage our incentives
for enduring unjust suffering patiently if God
in his wise providence calls us to do so.
And we learn first of all that enduring unjust suffering with patience is
commendable in the sight of God. Patiently enduring unjust suffering is
a commendable thing in the sight of God. Look again
at verses 19 and 20. Could we have those fans turn down just a little bit?
Thank you. It’s blowing the pages of my Bible around and
everything. Look at verse 19. It says, well we covered verse 18 last week. I’ll
start there. Verse 18, servants be subject to your
masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also
to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing when
mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering
unjustly. Now Peter says, for this is a gracious thing.
Now this could literally be translated, it is
grace. It is grace. And there are different ways to interpret this
statement here, but it’s a statement that probably
means it is an act that brings God’s favor. It is an act that brings
God’s favor if when mindful of God one endures sorrows
while suffering unjustly. Now immediately that raises alarm bells.
Does it not? You know it should in our heads.
After all this cannot be understood as saying
that suffering patiently under injustice somehow
merits God’s grace. Certainly does not. That’s not
what Peter is saying and especially if you go on and read
what he says about Christ and how Christ has suffered for our sins and so forth.
Clearly Peter is not trying to say that we can earn or merit our salvation
by enduring patiently unjust suffering in our lives. That’s not what he’s saying.
But after all only the redemptive sufferings of Christ
merit God’s grace. But it probably means that God approves of
and is pleased with the believer who is willing to sacrifice his comfort
and security for the sake of obeying God’s will.
Beloved if you suffer for doing what is right,
God is pleased with this. Now again don’t misunderstand what that means.
God isn’t pleased with your sufferings as such.
God is not up there enjoying watching you suffer. That’s not what
Peter is saying. That’s not what the Holy Spirit through Peter
is saying. It’s not that he is pleased with your suffering
as such. But he is pleased with your priorities.
That you love him enough to be willing to suffer for doing
what is right. And our Lord Jesus said the same thing in his Sermon on the
Mount. Consider let’s go back to Matthew chapter
5 and and look at verses 10 through 12.
Matthew chapter 5 verses 10 through 12.
At the beginning of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount Jesus says this in the midst
of the Beatitudes. And in the Beatitudes he is speaking of
the blessedness of those who are citizens
of God’s kingdom by the grace of God. He says this
Matthew 5 beginning at verse 10. Blessed are those
who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. And then he personalizes it.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of
evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for
your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets
who were before you. And so our first incentive for
being willing by the grace of God to bear patiently
under unjust suffering is that such patience
is commendable to God. A second reason that Peter gives
is found in verse 21 and that is that we believers were called to follow Christ
impatiently enduring unjust suffering. We believers were called
to follow Christ impatiently enduring unjust suffering. As it goes on to
say in verses 20 and 21 and verse 20 he says for what credit is it
if when you sin and are beaten for it you endure.
If you do wrong and suffer for doing wrong there’s nothing commendable about
that. But on the other hand if when you do
good and suffer for it you endure. This is a gracious thing in the sight of
God. For to this you have been called
because Christ also suffered for you. There’s good news there Christ
Christ understands suffering. He under he’s been in our shoes
or our sandals as the case may be. He’s been
in our shoes. Christ suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might
follow in his steps. Now the first thing that I
want you to notice in verse 21. Peter says for to this you have been
called. First of all let’s understand what he means by this
thing that we’ve been called to. What does he mean by this call?
Well he’s probably referring to God’s effectual calling to salvation in
Christ and it’s interesting in the New Testament
there’s a close connection between the call to
be willing to suffer for Christ if God in his providence calls you to that
on the one hand and the call to salvation the effectual call. For example
let’s go to Philippians 1 and let me read Philippians 1
verses 29 and 30. Philippians chapter 1 verses 29
and 30.
Let me just get there. It says this for it has been granted to you.
In other words this is a gift that God has given to you a divinely given gift.
It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ
you should not only believe in him. Faith is a gift of God
granted by God to us sinners that you should believe in him
but also suffer for his sake engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had
and now here that I still have. You’ve been called to this.
You’ve been sovereignly effectually called to faith in Christ
and again if God’s providence requires it to suffer for his sake and
it’s viewed as something given as a gift from God.
And again so what are we called to? Is he saying that we’re called
to suffer? No we are called to follow in the steps of Christ which for Peter’s
readers meant following Christ along the road of
patiently enduring unjust suffering. It’s the the emphasis here is on
patience. The patience of the saints. Faith endurance patience
these things go together. Now I want to make an important
qualification. This does not mean that all
Christians will endure unjust suffering at least not to the extent or to the
degree that some of these first century
believers were called upon to suffer. Dr. I. Howard Marshall writes this
he says it is important to observe that in the
presence section Peter is not telling his readers
that they are called to suffering. As he has already made clear
unjust suffering is not necessarily the inevitable lot of each
individual reader. Instead he says that if they suffer they must bear it
patiently. What he said when he says that they were
called to this he means that they were called to the
patient endurance of suffering. It’s easy for us to be impatient
impatient under difficult providences and of course
only by the grace of God can we endure with patience. Brothers
and sisters we must be willing to endure unjust suffering for the
sake of Christ if God in his wise and good providence
calls us to such suffering. That doesn’t mean that if we can improve our
situation that we should not seek to improve it no
but it does mean that we can even rejoice
when we have to suffer for the cause of Christ because God
is glorified through our patient endurance of such
suffering and our suffering and when our suffering is in accordance with God’s
will and of course we need to keep in mind
God will in the end sooner or later right all wrongs
and he will bear he will bring justice to bear
in each and every situation and circumstance
and he will comfort and deliver and vindicate his people
in the end. That is the united testimony of holy
scripture and so we are to be willing to patiently endure unjust suffering if
God’s providence calls upon us to to do so. First of
all because this is praiseworthy it is commendable in the
sight of God and secondly because we have been called to such
patient endurance for the glory of God but the
final incentive that is mentioned in this passage
is the example of Christ’s endurance of unjust suffering and that’s the final
point in your sermon outline the example of Christ’s endurance
of unjust suffering as we’re told in verse 21 it says
for to this you have been called because Christ suffered for you leaving
you an example so that you might follow in his
steps and he goes on to say he committed no sin neither was deceit found in his
mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return
and so forth because Christ also suffered for you.
Now let’s remember brothers and sisters who is Paul addressing in first
Peter. Is he addressing everyone indistinctively?
Is he preaching here a universalism?
No we need to remember that Peter is addressing believers those who’ve
trusted Christ as their savior. He’s not advocating universalism in any
form here when he says Christ suffered for you. Who did Peter
write this letter to? Back in chapter 1 verse 1 he makes it
clear to those who are elect excels of the dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia and so forth
and so brothers and sisters in Christ he suffered for you
and for me he didn’t suffer for his own sins that’s the implication he didn’t
suffer for his own sins for he had no sin nor did he suffer
because he deserved to for he didn’t deserve
these unjust sufferings in the least he was the sinless
spotless lamb of God and again his the sinless
his sinlessness is attested to in verse in verse 22 he committed no sin
neither was deceit in his found in his mouth
this verse by the way in verse 22 this verse
and the verses that follow are saturated with allusions to Isaiah chapter 53
and this verse in particular is from Isaiah chapter 53
verse 9 our Lord’s sinlessness is again highlighted here in order to
stress the fact that his sufferings were indeed unjust sufferings
and then it goes on to to highlight the kind of sufferings he endured
it says in verse 23 when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he
suffered he did not threaten but continued doing what
continued entrusting himself to him who judges
justly this is our comfort brothers and sisters when we
face unjust suffering we serve a god and a savior who is just
a god and savior who will right all wrongs he will either bring
that that persecutor that is causing our sufferings to repentance
or to judgment but however god deals with that person
god will be glorified and justice will be done our lord’s sinlessness
again is is highlighted here and his
awful sufferings are highlighted as well i mean think about the sufferings of our
savior he was abandoned by his closest friends
he was rejected he was mocked and derided he was reviled he was treated
with utter cruelty and he was given over to
unimaginable physical agony we sang about the
sufferings of our lord in some of our hymns that we sang
this evening beloved since our savior was willing to
undergo such unjust suffering to redeem us should we not be willing
by his grace to suffer for his cause if obedience to his will requires it of
us and if called upon to do so and then verse 24 it’s a glorious
gospel passage it says he himself bore our sins
in his body on the tree why that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed
he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree christ sufferings were not
again we’re not for his own sins but for the sins of his people our
sins and now some have gravitated to this
language of of christ dying on the tree i believe for example i’m not an expert
on the jehovah’s witnesses but i believe they
insist that no jesus didn’t die on a cross he died he was nailed literally
nailed to a tree well is why does is
and they they appeal to a verses like this why does peter
use this language of christ dying on the tree well peter uses
the language of tree here of course the wood of the cross was was made from a
tree but peter uses this language because
in using this language he seems to be highlighting the truth
that our lord jesus christ endured the curse of god
for us in our place when he died for us on the cross you see
the old testament in passages like deuteronomy 21 verses 22 and 23
says that the one who hangs on a tree is cursed by god in fact let’s go back
there briefly deuteronomy chapter 21 look at verses
22 and 23 deuteronomy 21 verses 22
and 23 we read these words and if a man has committed a crime
punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him
on a tree his body shall not remain all night on
the tree but you shall bury him the same day
for a hanged man is cursed by god you shall not defile your land
that the lord your god is giving you for an inheritance a
curse a hanged man is cursed by god jesus hung on the tree
he himself is the blessed one yet he endured
the curse that is due to us in himself he endured that sin deserves
god’s curse if you break god’s holy law which all
of us have and all of us do
all of us have broken god’s law in the original
in our original covenant head adam and by our own free choices and actions we
have broken god’s law and if you break god’s law then you incur god’s righteous
curse that’s the bad news but then there’s the
good news and the good news is that there is hope
there is forgiveness you see only the lord jesus christ through his
atoning death on the cross can save sinners like us
from the righteous wrath and curse of god against our sin
now notice what what peter says about the purpose of christ’s death
he did this he died for our sins he bore
our sin in his body he bore the curse in his body on the tree why that we might
die to sin and live to righteousness according to
thayer as quoted in kiss demacher’s commentary
this could literally be translated as that we might be utterly
alienated from our sins christ died for us that we might be
alienated from our sins that we might die to sin and thus by his sovereign
grace in union with christ live unto righteousness
here is a passage among many passages of scripture
which stands against the heresy of antinomianism and antinomianism is
just the twin brother of the heresy of legalism by the way
the two often go hand in hand by his sacrificial death on the cross
our lord not only saves us from the guilt and the penalty of our sin
he also saves us from the dominating power
of sin and that is why peter can go on and say by his wounds
you have been healed now again some of our
charismatic friends will latch on to this language and say
see there’s healing in the blood and and certainly there is
ultimately in the new heavens and the new earth
but the kind of healing that comes to us in this present age and certainly god is
free to physically heal anyone in response to
prayer if he chooses to do so but the kind of healing that is especially
in view here is spiritual healing is the healing of
salvation that we have in christ and
salvation not only from the guilt and the penalty of sin
but also salvation from the dominating power
of sin and the miracles of christ the the healing miracles of christ pointed
forward to this and were types and pictures of this
jesus’s healing of the sick and raising of the dead all of these miracles of
healing that jesus performed were signs of god’s kingdom and what is
god’s kingdom it is his reign of grace and salvation in the hearts and lives
of those who know him as savior lord and king
and then he goes on to say in verse 25 for you were straying like sheep
that’s what sheep do right they stray that’s in their nature to stray
you were straying like sheep i was straying like a sheep you were straying
like a sheep but have now returned to the shepherd
and overseer of your souls our ultimate shepherd and
overseer is not some man pastors and elders in the
church are called under shepherds of christ
but i can’t ultimately shepherd your soul to salvation i can simply point you
to jesus but praise god brothers and sisters in
christ your ultimate shepherd is the lord jesus christ
he is the good shepherd with a capital s
and you if you have trusted him as your savior
by the grace of god you have returned to the shepherd
and overseer of your souls we are sheep and christ is the good and great
shepherd by his grace we have returned through the grace of conversion
we have returned to the shepherd and bishop or overseer of our souls
our lord jesus protects and cares for his people
in a manner similar to the way that an earthly shepherd cares for
and protects the sheep of his flock have you turned to jesus have you
returned to him as your good shepherd come to jesus
rest in him and he will shepherd your soul
for now and for eternity let us rest in him
let us pray heavenly father our sovereign and eternal god
we do thank you and praise you that you sought us out like a shepherd
a good shepherd seeks out his lost and wandering sheep
and that you took us up and that you have brought us into your fold by your
grace and we thank you lord jesus that you
bore our sins in your body on the tree and that you took the curse of the father
upon yourself in our place in our stead we thank you father that out of love for
us you sent christ to bear our sin that we might know your love both now
and forever we pray heavenly father that by your
spirit these truths would indeed find a lodging place in our souls
and would minister comfort and strength edification and sanctification unto us
and we pray heavenly father that you would abide with us and shepherd us in
the week ahead as we seek to serve you in this week ahead in our daily callings
and vocations we pray these things heavenly father in
jesus name and all of god’s people said amen
for our closing hymn i’d invite us to rise
and let’s sing together number 441 jesus sinners doth receive
441