Summary: Jesus was our suffering servant, and as Peter draws comparisons between Isaiah 53 and our lifestyles, we need to follow and focus on Jesus, keeping our hearts right with Him despite any wrongful persecution.

"Showing Honor in Spite of Persecution"

Glorious King Jesus Christian Church

Pastor: Sterling Christian Franklin

Sunday, 8/21/2011

See CrossAllegiance on YouTube for a link to the recorded webcast for this sermon

Text: 1 Peter 2:13-25

Opening Prayer

Matthew Henry: "The duty required is submission"

Jesus was our Suffering Servant.

We need to follow and focus on Jesus, and in the process, we may be persecuted and suffer wrongly for even the good we do.

Walkthrough:

13)

"For the Lord's sake"

KING

- Regal

14)

GOVERNORS

- Sent for punishment

- // Executive branch

- Punishes: Evildoers

- Rewards: Well-doers

15)

Silence ignorance of foolish men

HOW? By well-doing!

// Be kind to those who are cruel to you -- heap coals of fire on their head

Romans 12:20 - Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head."

Proverbs 25:21-22

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;

22 For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the LORD will reward you.

Heaping coals of fire - Not a means of cursing your enemy -- you aren't calling down fire and brimstone from the heavens on them. In doing kindness to your enemy, you are putting a lingering sting on their conscience about how they've treated you. God is pleased, and perhaps the enemy will repent of being your nemesis, but at the very least, they will be convicted of their standing.

// Bless and do not curse

Jesus supported Peter's idea of well-doing, even to those we deem least deserving of it...

Matthew 5:43-45

43 " You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

16)

Free

We are FREE

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM (or "Liberty")!

But we need to use our freedom in proper ways, not to give us excuse for doing wrong or disobeying.

Exception here, which is worth elaborating: We are never to forsake our true King. If we have allegiance to God's Kingdom, we are to be faithful to Him first.

Did the Disciples follow this? YES!

Peter wrote this book around 63 AD, Nero was the emperor. Peter would in a few years be hung on a cross upside down. Why? Because he was faithful to Jesus, even to death! He was persecuted, as many others were under Nero's reign, for being a Christian. The man who denied him three times on that grim night was forgiven and his life was a full success in the eyes of God.

Peter is not saying, "Obey rulers unconditionally, even if they conflict with the commands that the Lord has given you." We are ALWAYS to obey Jesus first.

But we are not to use our freedom in this world to offend others in any other way than 'being a Christian', including those in charge over you.

What Peter notes is that you CAN misuse your God-given freedom.

"Cloak of maliciousness"

Covering for evil

Or

Excuse for evil

"As servants of God"

We are children of Light and sons of the Kingdom. We need to represent Him well by living an exemplary life of holiness in the midst of corruption.

17)

HONOR: All men

Memory verse for Upward: "Show proper respect to everyone." As believers, we are to submit to one another. As citizens in the midst of persecution, we are to respect those around us, even if they are mistreating us.

LOVE: The Brotherhood (All Saints)

The bond of unity = love, and we are called as a community of believers to love one another and esteem others as more important than we are in our own eyes.

FEAR: God

Reverence of God -- a holy understanding of His importance and Sovereignty ('weightiness'/glory)

HONOR: The king

Those in rule over you.

tima,w

In both cases of honor, the root 'tima,w' refers to esteeming them as having a high value (or being 'highly valued').

In whatever state you're in, you are to live in proper subjection for the purpose of the glory of God. We see this in the next segment of Peter's discussion --

18)

Servants - be subject to your master...

...Regardless of whether the master is good or not!

Paul also supports this, though Paul also notes that it's better to be out of that situation since we are indeed free, as Peter also says.

Ephesians 6:5-8

5 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;

6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

7 with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

19)

It is better to suffer for doing good (unfairly)

Key point: The blame is off of you!

Implicit in this passage: We are to walk in BLAMELESSNESS

We are accountable to God for our actions, especially being servants of His Kingdom. Ultimately, we stand or we fall to the Lord. This often requires us to walk faithfully and to "endure grief"

20)

Peter brings up that there is no advantage to suffering for doing wrong actions. If you're breaking and entering, you're guilty! If you're beating people up, you're guilty! If you're going 80 over the speed limit, you're guilty! When you're caught, you are not being persecuted "for righteousness' sake!"

Our guiltlessness is what is pleasing to God.

Note that Peter was writing this letter in the midst of severe persecution! Under the reign of Nero, Christians were martyred heavily and scapegoated quite a bit.

Nero would often find Christians and throw them to dogs, torture them until they took blame for a crime, or even burned and crucified them.

In American culture, it's much less common for Christians to be pulled by authorities just because they're Christian. In other nations, Christians are persecuted much more heavily. If you think of our prayer list, Pastor Bashir and his church are going through severe persecution all around him. But we see that faithfulness is rewarded by God, and our blamelessness is pleasing to Him.

21)

Christ also suffered wrongfully.

Remember the lying witnesses, trying to come up with testimonies about Him? They didn't agree, but it didn't prevent the crowd from picking Barabbas to be freed instead of Jesus.

Peter mentions in Acts 2 and Acts 3 that Jesus was put to death wrongfully and at the hands of 'lawless' men.

Just as Isaiah predicted 740 years before His birth, Jesus was despised and forsaken! Yet His life was completely pure and blameless before the Father.

22)

Peter refers back to Isaiah 53 to bring up this point.

Jesus' actions are the basis of Peter's recommendations in this chapter.

In all you do, live faithfully and obediently before God.

23)

Jesus did not curse those who hit Him or put Him on the Cross. He said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!"

Jesus practiced fully what He preached!

Could Jesus have threatened those who hurt Him? YES! He has all the authority to do so! He could have called down legions of angels to help Him off of the Cross. He also could have struck everyone down. Instead, He showed His love, fulfilled the Law that we could not fully keep, and gave His life for us so we could have eternal life through faith in Him.

Jesus committed His Spirit to the One who judges righteously. His focus was in the right place.

24)

He bore our sins in His Body on the Cross

Result?

- We are dead to sin

- We are alive to righteousness

We are HEALED by His stripes.

What does this mean? Peter keeps referring back to Isaiah 53. Jesus was the Messiah provided for us, and Peter keeps reminding his audience of this truth. Through persecution, we look to One who is faithful and just to bring us through and walk with us through any storm.

25)

As sheep we have gone astray…

But He has redeemed us. Through faith in Him, as Peter states,

'You have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.'

Jesus was the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep.

He is also our Bishop or 'Overseer', watching over us and taking care of us.

Salvation is not all there is to the Christian walk. We are to walk with Jesus, to grow in knowing Him, and to cherish Him more and more as we go about life.

Conclusion

Jesus was the Suffering Servant

We need to follow Jesus, and thus, we may very well suffer

Our hearts are IMPORTANT to God! Regardless of how others perceive us, strive to have a right heart before Him!

Keep your focus on Jesus. We don't need to have our focus on the world -- that will only disappoint us.

Closing Prayer