Text: 1 Peter 2:21-25, Title: So That, Date/Place: NRBC, 3/25/12, AM
Opening illustration: We used to do this game with students at the environmental ed center that I used to work at where we gave them antique tools and other implements and had them guess what they might have been used for. When they had an answer, we asked them how they would do that. Interesting. We might say that the same would apply to the cross. Used for: get to heaven. And while that would be right, it would be incomplete. So as we approach Easter, let’s rejoice together in the work of Christ on the cross.
Background to passage: Specifically in this passage, Peter is dealing with submission of slaves to masters, or in our case, employees to employers. But he assumes here that this relationship would bring about hardship at least at some level (explain the differences in slavery then vs. in 19th century America.) Therefore what we find in our passage is an instruction on how to suffer well. So, while the immediate application goes toward vocation, the general principles apply to any circumstance in which we are suffering unjustly. And as far as general application toward work and our attitude toward it, here is the nutshell version: 1) view your labor as a calling from God, 2) as a Christian you should be the best worker on the job, 3) you should be the best boss that one has ever worked for, 4) and your work should reflect and honor the Lord in every way.
Main thought: But this morning we are going to exult together in the atonement of Christ. He suffered so that:
We might die to sin, live to righteousness (v. 24)
For the Christian, the bondage to sin and its consequences is destroyed. We are no longer under its power nor are we liable for its judgment. Sin and its lifestyle is no longer who we are; there has been a definitive change because of the cross of Christ. We have ceased to exist with regard or respect to our sin, sinfulness, and its nature. Something has been broken within us about our relationship to the slavery to sin. All people are bound to sin, slaves to it, but the gospel is freedom. This is also why believers are free from guilt, condemnation, shame. The punishment for them has been levied on the cross! God sent His Son to expunge the record of your guilt; to receive the punishment earned by you; to die the death that you deserve; and to give you the power to live to righteousness! The Holy Spirit is the power to embrace a life of righteousness that you cannot live! Walking in step with, under the influence of, and in moment by moment obedience to is the way to do that.
Rom 6:1-23, John 8:36, Gal 5:1,
Illustration: “Becoming a Christian is to have the sovereign captain of the battleship of righteousness commandeer the slave ship of unrighteousness; put the ship-captain, sin, in irons; break the chains of the slaves; and give them such a spiritual sight of grace and glory that they freely serve the new sovereign forever as the irresistible joy and treasure of their lives” –Piper, an Alabama slave had said in 1864 when asked what he thought of the Great Emancipator whose proclamation went into effect that year. ‘I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout Abraham Lincoln,’ he replied, ‘cep they say he sot us free. And I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout that neither.’ The Japanese soldiers who didn’t get the news of the surrender, and kept fighting,
You can be, no, YOU ARE FREE. You HAVE died to it. You do not live for it. You do not have to obey it. It means that when sin comes knocking at the door, you can ask Jesus to go answer it. It means that you work to kill sin in your life because you ARE forgiven! Do you really believe this? Are all your past sins still binding you down? The fact that Christ commandeered your vessel and bound the power that enslaves you will ravish your life if you let it. All the shameful events that happened in your life have no power over you! Isn’t this good news! You don’t have to sin anymore! You will, but no longer “you must.” There is still a sense in which the battle rages, and the fight is still real. You must reckon yourselves dead to sin, present your members as instruments of righteousness. But know that you do that under the power of a new master!
We might be healed (v. 24)
Peter is quoting here from Isa 53, which he does frequently, especially in this passage. Christ’s sacrificial, substitutionary atonement healed us spiritually. All men are broken, messed up, scared, sinful, and in need of healing of the sickness of sin. The cross of Christ provided for your brokenness to be healed.
Isa 53:5-6, Matt 12:20, 11:28, Isa 42:3, Ps 147:3, Isa 61:1-3
Illustration: Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, “You prayed for my husband. He had cancer.” Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, “He died.” Campolo felt terrible. But she continued, “Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence. But the lady told Campolo, “After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing.” And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, “He wasn’t cured, but he was healed.”
We love to quote this passage at the bedside of a sick person. And I would not say that this is completely illigitimate, because this message is to champion the fact that the cross of Christ did so much more than just earn our way to heaven. But that is not the main focus of this passage. Christ’s death allows for the lack of desire for the things of God to be healed into a fresh desire for God. It allows for the spiritual apathy that you experience to be transformed into passion. Revival comes from the cross. It allows for the failures of your following to be transformed into humble, obedient victories! Bring Him your wounds, and He will apply the oil of healing! Bring Him your pain, He came to bear it for you! Bring Him your weariness, He will give you rest and peace! Believe that the cross brings your healing, claim it, and live in its light!
We might be rescued, shepherded, guarded (v. 25)
What a power-packed verse! Peter, again referring to the same text in Isaiah, again points out the HUGE biblical truth that we are like straying sheep. He says that you and I were continually being deceived (imperfect, then a present passive) by self, Satan, society, etc. BUT, he says that we were rescued. The NKJV doesn’t do this word justice; the verb for “returned” is passive. Ex: hit the car vs hit by the car. So instead of “have now returned” wherein we normally would read it as “you” implied were the one doing the returning. And we don’t realize that Someone else is doing the “returning.” God wanted the wandering, straying, deceived sheep would be brought back to the Shepherd. Then He made it happen. He pursued us, rescued us, snatched us from perishing. He then becomes the overseer or guardian of our souls. What a joy! What a comfort!
Ps 23, Matt 9:36, 18:12,
Illustration: “Sheep have no homing instincts. A dog, horse, cat, or a bird can find its way home, but when a sheep gets lost, it’s a goner unless someone rescues it.” –Philip Keller, Jesus sought me when a stranger/Wondering from the fold of God/He, to rescue me from danger/Interposed His precious blood... O to grace how great a debtor/Daily I’m constrained to be!/Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,/Bind my wandering heart to Thee/Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,/Prone to leave the God I love;/Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,/ Seal it for Thy courts above.
We didn’t think of ourselves as lost, straying away from God. But the bible teaches this. And we were/are all in need of a Shepherd—one to lead us, protect us, provide for us, bind up our wounds, feed us, and keep us from wandering out. But you do! And He is a wonderful, kind, compassionate, wise, good, loving, gracious, infinitely beautify, totally need-meeting, savior and shepherd! And is also our overseer. But not an overseer as a dominating task-master or a brutal despot. He is one who watches over the souls of men. He is one who serves to lead. Do you need a shepherd? Is God rescuing you today? If you have been born again, God has already snatched you from out of the flames, give Him glory! When someone is rescued from mortal danger, there is great rejoicing! That time we lost Steve. Are you rejoicing? God gave His only Son for you, that you might have life, that you might be healed, that you might be rescued, that you might be freed, so that you might speak the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Until we feel the ugliness of the captivity and the results of sin, you will never appreciate the cross. And the further away that we get from our salvation experience, normally, we begin to forget... We should feel outrage at forgiveness of God upon the ungodly.
All of this is by faith! We believe and trust, we cast our lot and cling to His cross.
Closing illustration: In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see, for 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me.
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, Till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged cross, And exchange it some day for a crown.
Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
