In this sermon Pastor Tim looks at how we live in light of Jesus suffering on the cross on our behalf.
So we are in a section of 1 Peter which could broadly be described as “how then shall we live?”
- I am not sure if you remember a few weeks ago when I spoke on, how all that we do, is in response to what Jesus has done for us!
- Chapter 2 starts “therefore” and we are encouraged in the light of receiving grace and peace and mercy from God…
- To respond…
- Peter says things like things like “grow up in your salvation.”
- We are also told “be holy”.
- He reminds us to “love one another deeply.”
- Peter tells us to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
- Because God… therefore…
So we are in this section now on how we live in the face of all the evil and injustice and conflict…
- Responding like Christ by serving, submitting and doing good!
- It relates to work, to marriage, to being good citizens…
- This guys and gals is a tough section! Maybe not what we want to hear…
- So what is the pattern of the life we now live as followers of Jesus?
- So let’s open our bibles and get stuck in…
1 Peter 2:18-25
18 Servants, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
So, what is going on here as we think about the shape of how we live?
- Firstly, Peter frames how we should live by framing that through the lens of Jesus
- The fulfilment of the prophecies of Isaiah 53 as the coming suffering servant.
- Secondly, as follower of Jesus, we live lives that model his pattern of service, doing good in response to injustice or wrong.
So, firstly Jesus as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53…
- Well, in the years following their time with Jesus as eyewitnesses of all that happened.
- The Apostles, like Peter, tried to make sense of all they had seen and experienced.
- Can you imagine?
- Peter had grown up a Jew and would have known the prophecies about the coming Messiah in their scriptures… like Isaiah 53…
Do you know this passage in the Old Testament? Peter quotes it here in his letter…
- As he wrestles with making sense of Jesus and how we should then live…
- It was Isaiah 53 that gave them assurance that God was in Jesus doing something remarkable.
- And it is possibly the most profound and pertinent prophecy that Jesus fulfilled as the coming messiah.
- So Isaiah 53 talks about a coming servant, sent by God who will make things right….
- And it was written by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before the coming of Jesus…
So in Isaiah this mysterious servant of Yahweh appears on the pages of redemptive history.
- If God is going to make himself known, fix the broken relationship between him and humanity, how will he do it?
- Well according to Isaiah, this servant who will come is called to lead the nations and bring justice, but as the prophecy goes on, this servant will do this through suffering a cruel death.
- In the end though this servant posthumously is vindicated and rewarded.
- And so this servant ends up becoming the messiah who would come into the world to save all people through his actions…
- And what is remarkable in these prophetic poems in Isaiah is the way Jesus embodies and fulfils all that is written…
- Some have described this passage in the OT as the 5th gospel
So Isaiah 53…
Verse 3 – He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Verse 4 – Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
Verse 5 – But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Verse 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Verse 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life
Can you see how Jesus fulfils these prophecies?
- And what Isaiah and indeed 1 Peter are describing is this theological idea of substitutionary atonement.
- The consequences of our sin and brokenness are born by Jesus on the cross
- He becomes our substitute in an act of grace. He takes our place… he is pierced for our transgressions.
- And our sins are atoned for, a price is paid by Jesus for us… he was crushed for our iniquities.
- As Peter tried to make sense of Jesus… having seen him crucified and then rise from the dead…
- He realized that he was the suffering servant of God promised by Isaiah.
Remember Peter grew up, like all Jews of his time, knowing Isaiah’s promise and hoping he would see this day…
- And then fishing one day, a man called Jesus calls him to come and follow him.
- And so he leaves his nets and spends the next 3 years as his disciple…
- In fulfilment of the prophecy he watched him live a perfect life…
- Teaching others to love one another, forgive people their sins, showing compassion to the outcast and mercy for the sick and oppressed.
- But then Peter had seen Jesus get arrested. Refusing to answer their false accusations…
- He saw him pierced on a cross…
And so he suffered but not like one who deserved to be punished… he was doing it, seemingly on our behalf.
- And so Peter says in chapter one of this letter…
- “the prophets who spoke of the grace to come to you… predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.”
How do we make sense of this?
- This idea that on the cross Jesus was doing something to bring us peace with God?
- This idea that he was our substitute…
- That he atoned for our sin and broke down the barrier between us and God, so that we may live…
- Nicky Gumbel gives a good illustration in the Alpha Course… and I want to play it to you now!
Video: Maximillian Kolbe
So that is the idea…
- Jesus who was sinless, paid the price for our sins on the cross…
- Verse 23-24 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross.
- And Christians describe this as the love of God… the self giving love of God.
- All of your sins and shame and mess and brokenness get forgiven by God.
- A price is paid on your behalf by Jesus…
- You can be free, forgiven, loved, and become a child of God.
- The hostility that exists between us and God is broken down by love… self giving, servant hearted love.
So how then shall we live… those of us who have come to put our trust and hope in this Jesus?
I’ve got to say, getting involved in Christianity is a weird thing…
- When people try and sell you something they usually try and sell the benefits…
- No sugar coke… fat free yoghurt… buy a mazda and get that Zoom Zoom feeling…
- Join a gym and experience a life transformation…
- But Jesus made it clear what following him would involve…
- In Mark 9:35 Jesus calls his followers to be “servant of all…”
- It’s on the label…
Sometimes we are so keen to get people to be Christians that we set the bar pretty low.
- And of course our message is grace and forgiveness…
- And Jesus saying that he came to bring life and life to the full
- But in addressing how we are called to live Jesus also said things like
- If you want to follow me, carry your cross…
- He said narrow is the road that leads to life and few find it.
- He said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!
And yet it has been the story that has captivated the most people for the longest time
- And when put into action has brought the most tremendous change to people’s lives and our world.
- This idea that just as Jesus was a suffering servant, he now calls us his followers to model that same life.
- That it is through redemptive suffering, through being servants that everything begins to change…
- Sell that!!!
So reflecting on this, Peter would say;
21-25 This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it…
So secondly, Peter understood our new life to be following the way of their Messiah.
Now, the example that is given is of a servant working for a master who is unjust.
18-20 You who are servants, be good servants to your masters—not just to good masters, but also to bad ones. What counts is that you put up with it for God’s sake when you’re treated badly for no good reason. There’s no particular virtue in accepting punishment that you well deserve. But if you’re treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God.
So the idea is pretty simple and could be translated easily into you your workplace or community…
- And at the heart of it is this… Christians should make the best employees because of our willingness to serve and do good, even in the face of rubbish thrown at us.
- So when faced with a crappy situation at work, a horrible boss, a miserable colleague…
- We choose to serve… to submit, to do good, so that Christ may be shown through us.
- As the Apostle Paul would say;
- “Don’t be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good…
Here is the reality, we live in a world of karma… of eye for an eye… a tooth for a tooth
- And that is being generous… often we want more than justice, we want revenge!
- You do wrong to me… I’ll do wrong to you…
- You disrespect me, I’ll disrespect you!
- We live in a world of misplaced power and control…
- I hear stories all the time of toxic workplaces, my brother who was up from Adelaide this week was telling me about a case in his bank that is in the papers and courts
- Where one of his bosses would walk through the trading floor with a baseball bat intimidating people…
So what is the Christian response… how shall we live…
- Well I said this wasn’t easy…
- And I jokingly said this wasn’t easy to sell if you’re looking for recruits
- Peter says “be good servants to your masters—not just to good masters, but also to bad ones”
- So while I could never say stay in an abusive relationship or toxic work environment
- What Christians would say is that there is a principle of active resistance that looks like kindness in the face of persecution, good in the face of evil.
- That only love, only serving others, only doing good in the face of evil can change anything!
When I think of who changes the world for the better I obviously first think of Jesus…
- But undoubtedly one of the greats in this area of suffering unjustly in order to make a change is the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
- You know the African American Reverend who led the civil rights movement in the States in the 1960’s.
- In the face of segregation and injustice and imbalanced power… he chose to bring change not through an eye for an eye, but through offering grace!
- He didn’t believe in passive resistance… just doing nothing…
- He believed in active resistance… actively responding to evil and injustice with love and good.
He famously said;
“Put us in jail, and we will go in with humble smiles on our faces, still loving you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we will still love you… But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.”
In one of his greatest sermon on loving our enemies he said this;
“Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated by those who hated him, but ultimately his cause was victorious…
- Not a little bit unlike the suffering servant of Isaiah 53
- Verse 11, after he suffered he will see the light of life and be satisfied.
- He walked the way of Jesus, suffering unjustly, but in doing so breaking the cycle of injustice and overcoming evil with good.
- Like Maximillian Kolbe he laid down his life so that others could live.
- Only grace can break the chains of evil and revenge and brokenness…
- Only love can turn an enemy into a friend.
So just to finish and to bring this back to your life and my life… and the question of how should we live?
- I give you Jesus…
- 1 Peter 2:21 “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
- We can all move the dial in our lives and worlds by being servants to all
- We look to Christ the suffering servant and commit ourselves to overcoming evil with good
- By bringing grace and mercy into our worlds.
- Amen?