The Actual Words of God

By Bobby Blakey on June 21, 2020

1 Peter 2:18-20

AUDIO

The Actual Words of God

By Bobby Blakey on June 21, 2020

1 Peter 2:18-20

This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:02] Who's ready to open the Bible with me right now?

[00:00:06] It's been too long. Everybody, it is great to see you here. Let's go to 1 Peter 2:18-20. And that's where we're at now in our study of first. Peter first. Peter to 18 to 20. Now, the question we got to ask ourselves is this moment as we're going to open up the actual words of God. Is do you just want me to tell you something nice? That feels good for your life this week? Or do you want to actually know what this book says? That's the question you got to ask yourself, because this book was written in a language of coin, a Greek two thousand years ago who here reads quoin a Greek? Anybody got their Greek Bible with them here today? Anybody? As anybody ever known, a house servant who got beaten unjustly by their master here today. That's what this passage is really about. It's about a place and a time far away from this parking lot that we've gathered in here this morning. And this is the most beautiful sight I've ever. This the best the parking lots ever looked right here. The best it's ever sounded. It's so good to see you guys. But let me read for us these words and let's try to not just think what we think they mean, but let's try to study here together. What is this actually saying? What did Peter intend? What did the Holy Spirit inspire Peter to write when he was talking to the scattered Christians here in the first century? So this is first, Peter, chapter two versus 18 to 20. And out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if everybody could stand up for our scripture reading here together. Even those at home, if you would stand up. And this is for. This is our text. This is the word of God, the eternal and living word.

[00:01:57] 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.

[00:02:10] When mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

[00:02:17] 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 side of God that ends the reading of God's word.

[00:02:33] Please go ahead and have your seat. Now, originally when we were planning first, Peter, maybe you've got a hand out there. You want to take some notes right now. Great to see some people ready to grab some notes. Maybe you've got a mat at home.

[00:02:46] But originally, if you're looking at your Bible, we were gonna go all the way through verse twenty five. But there's three different ideas here in versus 18, 19 and 20 that I don't think we really understand. If I'm talking to people who live in Southern California in the year 2020, when it says Servants' be subject to your masters and then it's saying, hey, when you have to suffer unjustly, this is a gracious thing in the side of God. This brings up some concepts that you and I may not be super familiar with. And so let's really try to understand them. Number one, if you're taking notes, is submission. What does it mean here when it says be subject? Because this is a second time now. This is come up here in Peter. Maybe you remember a few weeks ago when we looked at verse 13, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution.

[00:03:46] And then today it say in servants' be subject to your masters. If you look ahead in chapter three, verse one, it says, Likewise, wives be subject to your own husbands. If you jump all the way ahead to chapter five, verse five, it's going to get into the idea that you who are younger should be subject to the elders, to the older.

[00:04:10] So this idea of submission, who pulled Tozzo is the Greek word that you would willingly place yourself underneath someone else's authority. Or maybe they don't even have authority. You're just saying I'm going to live this person up. I'm going to make them more important than myself. I'm going to think of myself as underneath the importance, the authority of somebody else. Does that sound like something everybody in America is like? Who? Rossow mission. I love it. See, this is a bad idea in our mind. Good idea. In God's mind, which way do you think about submission? Submission here is clearly something that is being encouraged, it's being commanded like it is a good part of your life. Turn with me to a fusions. Chapter five. Good, go over to a fusions. Chapter five. Let's go straight. Diverse 22, because this is the one I probably hear quoted the most when it talks about wives submitting to their husbands. And that's something that a really people don't like that idea. It gives them the impression that are we saying that the woman is somehow less then or not equal to her husband and that he's going to somehow kind of lord it over his wife? If you talk about women submitting to men or wives submitting to husbands in America today, that's not a very positive vibe for a lot of people. That's not a happy thought. But look what it says here. Let's let's really think this through biblically. Chapter five of Ephesians verse. Twenty two wives submit to your own husbands as to the who. Who does it say there as to the who? This is so great that when I say, what does it say there? Somebody can actually answer me. This is so refreshing. Who does it say you're supposed to submit to your husbands as to the who? To be a Christian person is to say, Jesus Christ is the master of my life. He's the lord of heaven and earth. He has all authority and I am placing my life underneath Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian. Submission is your mission. And you should love to think of yourself in a submissive way, starting with Jesus Christ.

[00:06:28] And it says this. The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.

[00:06:37] Now, it's interesting that we talk about wives submitting to husbands, and I hear that. But look at verse 21. Everybody back your eyeballs up, diverse 21 and look what it says coming off this section where we're filled with the spirit. We're singing to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. We're giving thanks for everything to God, the father in the name of Jesus Christ. Then it says right here, submitting to one another out of reverence or fear for Christ. It says that actually we should be submitting to other people here in our church that this is something we would do to one another.

[00:07:16] So, yeah, there's going to be unique relationships like wives, husbands or like servants to masters like we're studying today, but submission is an idea that every single one of us should have towards God and we should have towards everybody else here. Everybody else here is more important than I am. That's how we should learn how to think. I will gladly put myself underneath everybody else around because that's what it says out of Europe. Fear out of your submission to Christ. You put yourself underneath other people.

[00:07:51] Does anybody see how this might be a radical concept in the American thinking right here? Like, yeah. I mean, even the looks on some of your faces are not like you. This is a great sermon about submission. I'm so glad we're here in the parking lot for this right now. All right.

[00:08:04] Hey, here's a verse you might want to write down its first Corinthians eleven three, and this is the big aha moment that I had that helped me realize that submission is a godly and good thing. First Corinthians 11 three says, I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ.

[00:08:21] The head of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God. Case we saw that we're supposed to all submit to Christ and we saw the wife submit to her husband. But here in First Grant's first Corinthians 11 three, Paul adds one more that Jesus submits.

[00:08:43] To the father, the son submits to the father, the head of Christ is God.

[00:08:52] So now, if Jesus is willing to submit to the father, is submission then a bad thing in any way?

[00:09:01] Let me ask you a question here, everybody. Do you believe in the Trinity? Who here believes in the Trinity?

[00:09:06] Who believes that we have a Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Three persons, but one God.

[00:09:10] Can I get any man from the congregation? We could say. We could say aloud I airai.

[00:09:16] There is Jesus Christ. God. Let me hear you say it is he God?

[00:09:22] Then is he less than or equal, not equal to the father by submitting to him? See, it's a voluntary willingness to place yourself underneath someone else. Once you realize that Jesus Christ submitted to the father, it takes any negative out of it here for the wives. Any negative anybody that you would be called to submit to. There's nothing negative about that.

[00:09:48] That's just in your thinking. That's in worldly thinking. That's not in biblical thinking. That's not the mind of Christ. Let me give you some quotes from Jesus about submitting to the father. Go to the gospel of John with me. Let's start in John Chapter four. And let's look here.

[00:10:06] Where he says in John Chapter four. This is after he's talking to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. He's offering her living water. He's telling her that he's the Messiah. Her eyes are being open. She runs into town. She brings out the whole town. There's a great harvest of souls. Very exciting here. And. And the disciples, when they come, they're like, Jesus has got to be hungry.

[00:10:31] We went to get lunch. He hasn't had lunch. Jesus, would you like some food? And Jesus says John four thirty four in response to them offering him something to eat.

[00:10:42] Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me. And to accomplish his work. The whole point, the thing that I'm living off of, the thing that keeps me going is doing the will of him who sent me that idea that I've been sent on a mission. That's what I am here to do. Go over to Chapter six. Look at chapter six, verse 38. Here, he's offering free lunch to everybody. He's done a massive miracle feeding thousands of people. He's explaining to them that he is the bread of life. He's giving this message and he says in the middle of a John 638, John, six thirty eight four. I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Now, why would if you're the perfect son of God, if you're establishing the track record of one hundred percent righteousness, it would seem like if your Jesus it's OK to do your own will. But why does Jesus over and over say he's not here to do his will? He's here to do the father's will because he is living on a mission of submission. Do you realize that the whole point of your life is less of you and more of God? Can I get a man from anybody on that? The more submissive you can live, the better your life is going to be.

[00:12:11] That's what the Bible saying.

[00:12:13] Place yourself underneath the will of the father. Go to Johnny. And here we see it the most. Well, one of the most clear passages in John A. when he's getting into it with the Pharisees here at the feast, notice what he says.

[00:12:26] And Johnny, 23, how he claims to be God. And at the end of John, 8:00, they want to throw stones at him to kill him because they think that he is saying that he is God. And they're infuriated with him. And in John A23, he says you are from below. I am from above, claiming to be from heaven. You are of this world. I am not of this world.

[00:12:49] I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Here's Jesus saying I am. This is going back to your way. I am. That I am. This is going back to Exodus three. This is going back to God saying I am. Here's Jesus saying I am. He is claiming to be God.

[00:13:15] But then look what he says here. Just a few versus down verse 28. So Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am. He says it again. Now, here's a here's a phrase you should underline. You should think about as you go home today that I do nothing on my own authority but speak just as the father taught me and he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. There's two great quotes right there. I do nothing of my own authority and I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

[00:13:54] That's one hundred percent submission. Not ever put myself in the top spot. Not ever making it about me. I do nothing. Nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit. I do everything to please God and to live a life submitted to him. So if Jesus Christ, who is one with the father, came to Earth on a mission to submit himself to the father.

[00:14:21] Let me ask everybody here today, is submission a bad thing? The answer is no.

[00:14:27] We should all embrace it as the mission of our life. You want to follow Jesus. This is where Jesus leads us. He leads us to doing nothing of his own authority, even though he has authority. He doesn't do it of his own authority. He is always look at that line right there in verse twenty nine. I always do the things that are pleasing to him. So when we read about submitting to the government, submitting to servants, to masters, submitting wives to husbands, if you're like you, I don't like submission. We've got to take a step back and realize I'm a product of my own sin. I'm a product of my own culture. That's not biblical thinking. The Bible would never give you a negative view about submitting yourself to someone else. And in the submission you have towards God, in fact, put it down like this, James, for seven, if you're taking notes, jot that verse down. James for seven. And you can see it if you're at home. You can see it right now on the screen.

[00:15:25] It says, submit yourselves, therefore, to God, willingly, place yourself under the authority of God. And then it says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

[00:15:39] Maybe the reason that it seems like the devil's messin with a lot of people is they haven't place themself under God's authority. And so they're out there in a dangerous territory where there's a domain of darkness, where there's evil spiritual forces. You've submitted yourself to God. It says that you can tell the devil no. And he will turn tuck his tail and run away from you. Does that sound good to anybody here today? OK. So if you want the devil to flee from you, put yourself under the authority and power of God in your life. Now go back to first Peter. Chapter two with me. And when we learn about the example of Jesus submitting now, let's approach this text in a fresh way. Gay servants willingly place yourself under the authority of your masters. Well, in some way, we are all servants who have willingly placed ourself under the authority. Who is our master? Who is his lord? His name is Jesus Christ. But in the context here. We are talking about how servants who are willingly putting themselves under the authority of the despots.

[00:16:50] Is the Greek word gay masters despot's.

[00:16:54] So this is a a word that specifically means like servants in the house where they had households and there was a lord or perhaps a lady of the house, and there were people who worked for them who they perhaps you couldn't even use the language they owned there in the house. We're talking about real deal slavery is what we're talking about here. You know, who's heard a sermon about a passage like this where it says Servants' be subject to your masters. And what we usually say sometimes is like, well, that's not really our context. And so we contextualize the scripture and we say, well, who has a boss? And sometimes does anybody's boss feel like a despot out there? Anybody feel like that? Who has a teacher? Do you have a teacher at school? Do they seem like that? And we apply it to situations that we understand today. And that might be a good application, but we got to just think for a second. That's not what Peter meant.

[00:17:47] He wasn't talking about students listening to teachers, and he wasn't talking about employees and employers, he's talking about actual slavery in the Greco Roman first century world.

[00:18:02] Now, I don't know if you know about this, but in the English translation that you and I are read and in all the modern English translations, they don't like to use the word slavery for words like what it says here in verse 18. They like to use the word servant. But really, there's a word that's used throughout the Greek do loss. It means slave, but they don't like to say slave because we will think of slavery in America.

[00:18:33] So I don't know if you realize that, but the guys who translated the Bible into English, they avoid the word slavery because they don't want you think that what we're talking about here is the racist kind of slavery that we had in this country, because what was going on in the first century, what Peter's talking about is different fundamentally than what happened here in America. In fact, here's a quote from one of the one of the scholars of our day, a guy named Tom Schriner. He says those who are familiar with slavery from the history of the United States must beware of imposing our historical experience on New Testament times since slavery in the Greco Roman world was not based on race. So the idea that we have of slavery in America is not even the same kind of slavery that's being talked about here. And first, Peter, to 18 to 20. So if we're really going to understand scripture, we're going to have to understand a context of slavery that we've never personally experienced. We don't even know from American history. We got to go way back to understand what he's talking about. He's talking about. I mean, think about the radical thing that he's saying. If you were a slave and you were beaten by your unjust master, you should endure. That is what he's saying. Even if you were doing what is right and your master was totally wrong to beat you, you should endure it.

[00:20:07] That's that's that sound crazy to our ears right now. That doesn't sound right at all. We're talking fundamentally about a different place and time.

[00:20:18] Now, who's who ever heard people knock? Well, the Bible the Bible says this about slavery, the Bible says that about slavery. Who's ever heard somebody say something bad about the Bible with slavery involved than anybody ever heard that before? I wonder if those people have ever actually done a Bible study on slavery. I wonder if they've actually ever looked in the book to see what it says. You guys want to actually look up some passages. Go to Exodus 21 with me. Let's go all the way back here. The fundamental thing that the Bible says about slavery. OK.

[00:20:51] Let's do a Bible study on slavery here for a moment. The fundamental thing is there was an entire group of people. They were known as the Hebrews.

[00:20:59] They were. There were so many of them. There were thousands and thousands of them. It was an entire nation of people who was in slavery to the Egyptians. And the fundamental story of the Bible is God took a whole group of slaves and he miraculously d'hiver delivered them out of their harsh taskmasters. And he brought them to a land of promise. And he made them one of the most famous nations in the entire history of planet Earth. The whole story of the book is about a bunch of slaves who get saved for the glory of God. That's the story of scripture.

[00:21:36] That's the Jewish people. That's where they come from. They come from slavery in Egypt. And the whole premise of the story is that God saves people to be his people. And they were slaves when he went and saved him, that God chose to love and value people who were looked down upon as slaves. That's the story of the Bible. The Bible offers hope to slavery like no other book in the history of humankind.

[00:22:11] And then we're maybe you're familiar with the famous Ten Commandments that God gives in a covenant with his people? Well, there's more than just 10 commands. Go to exit is 21. And look here at the beginning with me. It says now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years. And in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing.

[00:22:38] OK, so that is every seven years they have this thing called the year of Jubilee, where every seven years all debts are let go and all slaves go free. Would anybody out there right now like to trade 20, 20 for a year of Jubilee? Right now, anybody with me on that? Yeah, this is a great idea that God has in his law every seven years. You walk away free. In fact, if you read more details, we can't look at every passage on slavery in the scripture. But just like God delivered the Israelites slaves out of Egypt and the Egyptians at that point after the plagues were so excited for them to leave that they gave them gold and silver and good things like please leave. Please go. So we'll stop being judged by God. That was the idea. Like Masters, when your slave is done being a slave. Send him out and send him out generously. Bless them.

[00:23:35] So the idea here of a Hebrew being a slave to another Hebrew, it was like an economic arrangement. It's like I'm not making it.

[00:23:43] I'm not making it at my house. I'm not making it with my food. Can I become your slave? Can I work for you? Can I live off of your prosperity?

[00:23:52] That was the idea here about slavery.

[00:23:56] Now, look what it says, I don't hear people talking about this. I don't even know if, you know, this verse is here. Can you look with me at Exodus 21, verse 16. Look at this verse. Underline this. Circle this. How come people aren't saying this about slavery? Whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to what does it say there? Everybody shall be put to what?

[00:24:22] Wow.

[00:24:24] That seems like a pretty clear statement about slavery right there, does it not? You steal somebody, you kidnap somebody, you enslave them, and then you go and sell them to somebody else. Both the person who kidnaped them or stole them and the person who bought them. What is the penalty for that kind of sin in the law of God? The penalty is death.

[00:24:50] Does. Does everybody agree that that is a clear statement against the kind of slavery that happened in the United States of America?

[00:24:58] I mean, it says that everybody who is involved in taking people from another place, kidnaping them, stealing them, bringing them somewhere else and selling them. Yeah, those people should be put to death.

[00:25:12] Go to first Timothy, chapter one. Go to first Timothy, Chapter one. There is a lot in the scripture if you start studying this idea of slavery. It was happening in the time of the law. It was happening in the time of the letters here, as Paul is writing. Did you know that the book of Phi Leamon is a whole book of the Bible? It's one of those one chapter books and it's about a slave named Onassis. You should write down the Book of five Lehman and you should go read the Story of a Slave. And I don't know if he was a runaway slave or what the full context is, but on Onassis gets away from his master file. Leamon He ends up running into the apostle Paul in jail. PHY Lehman's a Christian, palls a Christian. They know each other. It's a small world, after all, only estimates. Now, talking to Paul, Paul gives on estimates. The Gospel leads him to Jesus Christ and sends Senzo. Nessim is the slave who got away from his master file. Leamon He sends him back to fire Leamon. The whole book of Fae Leming is about a slave who got saved. Named own estimates. And it's basically Paul putting pressure on own estimates that you should let him go. You should let him come and serve me. You should bless him. You should welcome him back. You should be good to this guy, because here's what Paul says in Phillipi. Sorry if I leemon 116. He's no longer a slave. He's more than a slave. He's a brother, especially to me. But how much more to you both in the flesh and in the law. Don't think of this guy as your slave anymore.

[00:26:51] See him now as your brother in Christ.

[00:26:55] That's what he says about it.

[00:26:58] So, I mean, the Bible has a lot to say about slaves getting saved and about how there is an unjust way that slaves should have never been treated. Look what it says in First Timothy, chapter one, verse nine, if you turn there. This is one of those lists of sins of lifestyle, sins that need to be saved by the gospel. And it says here, understanding this, that the laws not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. And now it's going to start saying, what are some examples of that kind of lawlessness of that kind of sin? Well, here they are, striking fathers and mothers, murderers, sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality in slave verse. Do you see that there? Another way you could translate that is man stealers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the Blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

[00:28:02] It's saying that if you're a slave runner, if you're a slave trader, if you're a man stealer or a kidnaper of persons, you need to get saved, is what the scripture says.

[00:28:13] So we got to all be clear about what the Bible says about slavery. There was a kind of slavery going on in the Greco Roman world that was actually advantageous for people economically. In fact, there are many situations where slaves were higher educated than their Roman masters and it was actually slaves teaching the kids of the Romans. Now, there was also within that slavery, clearly an opportunity for injustice. That's what our text is about. But we've got to make sure we're understanding slavery as the Bible talks about it now. Go to Galatians. Let's take it a level deeper here in Galatians Chapter four, OK? Because even though we're not practicing slavery servanthood here in Southern California, you're 20-20, even though maybe you and I would not say we've ever been somebodies slave. Look at how actually the Bible teaches us to think about ourselves in a passage here like Galatians, chapter four, verse four star with me there.

[00:29:17] But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

[00:29:28] And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying of a father.

[00:29:36] There's a great Father's Day reference for everybody right there. You are a son or a daughter of God. Can I give a man from anybody on that? Let's let the neighbors hear about it. Anybody hear a son or a daughter of God? That's us.

[00:29:50] We've been adopted in his love. But look what it says. A verse seven. So you are no longer a who. So that's how the Bible actually teaches you to think of yourself as a slave. A slave who you were once a slave to your what? To your your sin.

[00:30:09] In fact, that's why Jesus said he used the sun sets free is free indeed. Because you are a slave to lawlessness and lawlessness is.

[00:30:19] Wow.

[00:30:21] The Bible seems like it's all about emancipating people from slavery and saving them.

[00:30:27] And you're even supposed to identify as someone who was set free. You used your slave used to be to yourself, to your sin. You used to be a slave to your own evil desires. You know who you're a slave to now. The Lord Jesus Christ. Is he a better master than your sin? I mean, what a great master who would submit himself, who would humble himself, who would lay down his life and serve his own servants, even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for your soul. You now have been have been set free from being a slave to your own evil desires that will destroy you. And you are now a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ who will save you and give you his eternal life.

[00:31:14] That's how it says you're a son, not a slave. But you've got to see that you were a slave to fully appreciate the reality that you're now treated as a son. You're not a less than person. You're a part of the family, is what it's saying.

[00:31:27] Now go over to chapter three. Just a few verses back. Chapter three, verse 28. So here's how Christians now are supposed to think. This is a distinctive mindset that we would have compared to perhaps other people in the world.

[00:31:41] It says in Galatians three, verse twenty eight, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Anybody want to give me and a man on that right there?

[00:31:56] I don't label people.

[00:31:58] If I'm a Christian, I don't categorize people.

[00:32:02] There's not my nationality and other nationalities. There's not my economic status and other economic statuses. There's not my color of skin and other colors of skin. There's not my gender and other gender.

[00:32:15] There's all people who need Jesus and those people who have Jesus everybody's a soul. That's how we're supposed to see people right here.

[00:32:24] So one thing that everybody in this group right now we got we got the Crows. I knew they would come. Messengers of Satan come here, too. Can we get the crow on camera? Can we get this growth?

[00:32:38] This is what it looks like. Jesus actually use these guys because Jesus was an outdoor preacher, right? So use these guys. Maybe you've heard the parable of the soils. Right. And people are gonna hear the word, but somebody comes, Satan comes and snatches it away.

[00:32:54] That's what he looks like, right? Yeah. Get out. Be gone. Begone! Satan! You're not snatching any word away here today.

[00:33:03] Notice how he comes right at the part where we're talking about racism, isn't that interesting? You think maybe it's a coincidence? That Kroko that comes when I'm trying to tell us that we shouldn't see people based on the color of their skin. We need to all agree as a church. That the kind of racism that was adopted into slavery in America was wrong from day one. Can I get any man from anybody on that? And that right. As a group of God's people, we need to see that in heaven. It's people of every possible tribe, every possible nation, every possible color, both genders represented. I mean, it's all kinds of people who are God's people. And what matters to us is, hey, is that person saved or is that person not saved? And if they're not saved? How can I pray for them and help them to get saved? We should not be looking down on anybody. We've got to make that real clear.

[00:33:56] And see, we got it. We got to learn to think in a biblical way, not a political way.

[00:34:01] Because here's the problem, the political system in our country right now is so divisive. It's like if I'm going to come over here and say that African American people should have never been kidnaped, should have never been sold and should never be looked down on in America. People are feeling like, well, maybe we should balance that out with another political perspective. There's no other thing to balance it out. It's wrong. If any group of people is seen as a less than a people, that's wrong.

[00:34:29] We don't need to balance that out.

[00:34:31] Now, if you're like, well, what about the rioting and looting and looting? Well, let's go over here and let's have a little powwow about that. Is rioting and looting that kind of lawlessness? Is that one hundred percent wrong? Can we all say amen to that? We can all agree on that.

[00:34:47] So we can say two things are wrong at the same time. Let me tell you, that kind of lawlessness that we saw, that is not acceptable on any level. There's like a lady, a sister of ours in Christ who attends this church, who lives in Long Beach, who can't get her prescriptions fulfilled because they have looted all the pharmacies around her house.

[00:35:09] That's wrong.

[00:35:11] That's a certain kind of evil right there. We can see that we can also say that racism is terrible and a certain kind of evil. So we could say racism is wrong and we can support the police. Can we can we support our brothers in Christ? We just had one of our brothers who's in who's on duty right now. He just drove by there in the back HBP. We support all of our brothers in Christ who serve in the law enforcement. Can I get any man from anybody on that day? We're here to pray for them. We're here to lift them up. We care about them. In fact, I have heard from some of our brothers in the police department. I have heard praise reports. I've heard overwhelming encouragement by how supportive they felt from other people in the church. In fact, we got a letter, our church got a letter from the police chief of the Huntington Beach Police Department saying thank you for your support, Compass AJP, because so many people here reached out to support. But we got to say, along with saying lawlessness is wrong and a log was saying, yeah, we're going to support our our governing authorities are local enforcers of the peace.

[00:36:21] We also got to say that if you see people as a slave and not free, if you see people as a Jew or a Greek, we got to say that's wrong.

[00:36:29] We want to see people as souls. We want to regard no one according to the flesh.

[00:36:36] We got to agree on this and we got to speak out against it.

[00:36:40] And we got to say that the kind of slavery that happened in America is not what the law was talking about. And it's not what the letters were talking about. In fact, it's what they were saying should have never happened.

[00:36:53] That's what the scripture says.

[00:36:55] And we all need to to know that when we go back now, turn with me the first, Peter, to 18 to 20. So now we're seeing submission is something we're all going to be about. We should all embrace as a part of our relationship with God, a part of our relationship with other people.

[00:37:10] But this context of people who are house slaves, who have despots, lords over them, who might be beaten by unjust masters, that is a context that we cannot personally relate to here today. That context of our verse. But you need to understand, look what it says in verse 19 and verse 20, look what it says. It says, This is a gracious thing. When mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

[00:37:43] For what credit is it? If when you seen in our 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. So the three words we're trying to re learn. One was submission to was slavery. Three is suffering. That's where we're at now. Suffering.

[00:38:05] We're trying to rethink these words, not based on what we know about them, but based on what the Bible teaches us to know about them. And we've got to try to figure this out. If you are suffering, so you're doing what is right, but you're being treated wrongly. It's not just it's crooked is the idea of the word there. What's happening to you is not fair. It's not the way it should be. Here's you doing what is right here. Here's you now suffering. You're being treated wrongly when you're doing what is right. It says that when you keep doing what is right, would you endure when you bear up under that suffering?

[00:38:45] That's a good thing, is what it says.

[00:38:48] In fact, two times. Look at verse 19, it starts it out with that. This is a gracious thing. And then at the end of verse 20, it says this is a gracious thing. It wants you to see suffering not from your perspective, but from God's perspective.

[00:39:04] Do you ever feel like you're the one person in the classroom, in the workplace and maybe sometimes at your house? The one person trying to do things right. Everybody else doesn't seem to care. They're coming against you. You're actually even getting persecuted for doing something in the name of Jesus for doing something right. You need to know that when you're suffering unjustly, when God's looking at you, he sees grace on you.

[00:39:30] He sees it as a good thing you're going through. That's what the scripture just said.

[00:39:37] It said that God views unjust suffering as a thing, that you're going to receive grace in, that he's going to be with you in that he is going to bless you. Because of that, there's going to be eternal reward forever more if you're getting that bad right now. God's going to make sure he gives it to you. Good. That's what the scripture is saying.

[00:39:58] I mean, it would be encouraging mis treated slaves to endure, even wrongly beaten. I mean, that's hard for us to get our minds around that.

[00:40:08] That would be a gracious thing in the sight of God. It's saying it's wrong. It's saying it's unjust. But when you endure that kind of unjust suffering, God's got a different perspective.

[00:40:20] He is ready to give you grace and good things when you suffer injustice. That's a new mindset we need to make sure we've thought through.

[00:40:29] I'm pretty sure living in Orange County, growing up most of my life. It's like a void suffering at all costs. Anybody else with me on that? It's like, where can I be comfortable? That's what I'm looking for, whereas the recliner chair. Can I get a name in front of me on that one? Do they have cup holders? Are there free refills? These are the questions I like to ask. Right. I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine if you took suffering out of the con side of your thinking and you put it in the pro side of your thinking, that would be radical? Well, I don't know if I should go there.

[00:41:03] Because that might lead to some kind of persecution or some kind of suffering. I don't know if I should give that much. That might lead to some kind of suffering. I don't know if I should love that much. I might not be loved back. I might be mistreated. That would lead to some kind of suffering. What if that was like, well, if they're suffering, then God will be good to us.

[00:41:22] And that the threat of an injustice or suffering actually held you back from doing nothing. Because, you know, there would be grace in the face of that suffer.

[00:41:33] That's what's being said here. That's a different kind of perspective than we have today.

[00:41:41] And this is the perspective of Jesus Christ gay. The whole idea is that Jesus came to suffer. So let me just tell you, suffering, which is hard maybe for us to fully relate to, is going to be a main theme here. And first, Peter, go to chapter three, verse 17. This is going to keep coming up. So we're introducing now a main theme of this book, verse, chapter three 17.

[00:42:06] It is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will, then for doing evil. And then here's gonna be the connection over and over. You should embrace suffering for Christ also suffered once for sins. Do you see that there in verse 18? Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God.

[00:42:29] So I'm not saying we like we're like hoping it hurts. We're hoping to be treated and justly. I'm not saying go annoy people until they persecute you.

[00:42:37] That's that's not the point. But the reason when you experience in just suffering, the reason you embrace it is, you know, that's what Jesus went through for you. And what you're doing now is one of the most precious things that Christian people do is you're sharing in the sufferings of Jesus. You could write down Philippians one twenty nine where it says it has been grace to you. It has been granted to you not just to believe in Jesus, but to suffer for his namesake. One of the good things about being a Christian isn't just that you have faith and get to be saved in Jesus and experienced the new life and the power of his resurrection.

[00:43:17] But one of the good things about being a Christian is you get to suffer injustice like Jesus did, and you get to fellowship and share with him an intimate understanding that I'm going to keep doing what is right before God. No matter what other people do, to me, that's what Jesus knew.

[00:43:34] Go to chapter four, verse 13. Chapter four, verse 13. Look what it says you should do when you suffer.

[00:43:40] Rejoice in so far as you share Christ sufferings.

[00:43:46] Are you being persecuted in the name of Jesus? Are you doing what is right and other people are coming against you. Here should be your response to that.

[00:43:53] Rejoice. You should you should get on the Zoome room, you get on the group chat. Hey, everybody, I got good news.

[00:44:02] May my fellowship group of people that I love want to tell you guys something great that just happened to me. I just got suffered. I just suffered. I got persecuted.

[00:44:10] Well, you guys rejoice with me.

[00:44:12] It's a happy day because people can tell. God's done a work in me, I'm a new creation. They're coming against me. Praise the Lord.

[00:44:19] That's what it says.

[00:44:20] Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you've also. Because here's what comes after the suffering that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you're taking notes, you should write this down. Suffering is the path to glory. That's what you should get there. Suffering is the path to glory.

[00:44:38] You want the heavenly reward. You want the eternal pleasures.

[00:44:42] You want the presence. That's fullness of joy at his right hand forevermore. Suffering in this life is how you get to the glory. The reason Jesus his name is highly exalted and lifted up above every nay.

[00:44:56] Is because. He suffered and he bled and he died.

[00:45:02] If you are insulted, verse 14, if somebody makes fun of you, they mock you, they persecute you. If you are insulted for the name of Christ. You are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, whereas a thief or an evil doer or a meddler. Now you make sure that when it's getting hard for you, it's not because you're doing something wrong.

[00:45:26] Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. I would rather suffer for doing what is right. I would rather suffer in the name of Jesus than be accepted here in this world, because I'd rather be accepted by God in heaven than by the people here in this world. Can I get a man from anybody on that?

[00:45:48] What you're saying? That's what you're saying when you want to be a Christian. Look at verse 19.

[00:45:53] Therefore, let those who suffer not go somewhere else where you could be comfortable, not stop. Stop doing what is right. Not compromise, not blend in. Let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.

[00:46:09] Are you suffering for doing what is right? Keep suffering. Are you suffering in the name of Jesus? Keep suffering. God's seeing you with grace.

[00:46:18] That's the word from the Lord.

[00:46:20] Is that a little different than how you and I would naturally think right there?

[00:46:24] OK. Turn with me to loop 24. Let's see how Jesus fully embraced suffering.

[00:46:31] So you got to see that when Jesus left heaven to come to earth. He has all authority and he's emptying himself and putting himself under the father's authority. He is the Lord buddies, putting himself in the position of servant or slave to all.

[00:46:47] And he knows. He knows that, yes, there's glory at the end of it.

[00:46:51] But the whole path down there to the cross to experiencing the judgment of God. Jesus came knowing he was going to suffer. When you sign up to be a Christian, what you're signing up for is suffering. If you've decided to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus while Jesus leads down a path of suffering.

[00:47:16] Is this a real, like pep you up? Welcome back to church kind of message right here, everybody.

[00:47:22] Like, who's ready to suffer? Yeah.

[00:47:25] Look what he says in Luke 24, and he expects these disciples. This is right after he's died. This is right after he's risen. He expects them to know this. He is frustrated that they're not thinking according to the law and the prophets. Look what he says. Luke, 24, 25. He said to them, oh, foolish ones. He calls them out slow. Hard to believe all the prophets have spoken. Haven't you guys been thinking based on the scriptures? Here's what you should be thinking. Was it not necessary that the Christ, the anointed one, the chosen one, should suffer these things and enter into glory? Wasn't suffering going to be necessary? Why are you not thinking that he rebukes these disciples? Look what he says to all the disciples in verse 46. Now, the 12 over there. These are kind of his last words here in the Gospel of Luke. He says thus it is written that the Christ should suffer.

[00:48:24] And on the third day rise from the dead. Sometimes Jesus says that the Christ should die. Sometimes he says be killed. But the most common way he says it is that the cry should suffer and it includes his death. But it's a lot more than that. Here's a guy who did everything right and was treated in every way wrong.

[00:48:45] And you know what he did? He endured all of it to the very end till they killed him.

[00:48:50] That's the idea here.

[00:48:52] That the Christ came to suffer. And it's already been written. That's what we should all thinking. Wow. I'm gonna follow Jesus. That's the way of suffering, because Jesus was known as the suffering submissive servant.

[00:49:07] Jesus isn't asking us to be anybody that he hasn't already been.

[00:49:13] When he when you suffer, you're sharing with Jesus, when you serve Jesus served you, when you submit so to Jesus Christ, go with me to Isaiah 42. Let's go look up one of these prophecies that he's upset. They don't know about the suffering of the Messiah, the suffering of the servants of God. Isaiah, 42, verse one, is going to introduce us. This is the prophecy now of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 42. Everybody, let's hear the beautiful sound of Bible pages turn in. Everybody. Well, we were going go. Are you can you find Isaiah with me? Everybody. Can we do that here together? Is anybody else starting to sweat right now?

[00:49:53] Anybody else see my eyeballs? So I'm not crying. I'm just. I'm just. It's in my eye. So Isaiah 42, verse one, it says this.

[00:50:06] This is a prophecy. And you need to see Jesus in this passage. Behold. Look at this. Here he is, my servant.

[00:50:13] My slave. Here comes the one.

[00:50:18] That's coming from God, that submitting himself to the father's will. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights, I've put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations.

[00:50:31] He will not cry aloud. He will not lift up his voice. He will not make it heard in the street. He has a bruised read, but he will not break. He is a faintly burning wick. But he will not be quenched. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coasts lands wait for his law. Now, here's the father saying, I've got a servant. And can you see the father's delight? This father is looking on this suffering servant with grace and he knows what the servant is going to do. He's going to suffer injustice all the way to the end. And by suffering the worst injustice ever. He will bring justice to everyone who believes in him. They will be declared righteous for all of eternity through suffering. Injustice brings are justice with God, our righteousness with God.

[00:51:27] Can you see here that God is saying, I've put my spirit on him? I delight in him the way I see the suffering servant is different than how we see suffering. Go over to the punch line. Isaiah 52, verse 13. Isaiah 52. There's a lot more prophecies here about the servant who's going to suffer, but it really gets to it in graphic detail. And Isaiah 52 13. Behold my servant. There he is. Jesus Christ, the servant of God, the slave of God. Behold. Look at him. My servant shall act wisely and in the end, he's gonna get the glory. He shall be high and lifted up. He shall be exalted, as many were astonished at you. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. He was so beaten up by the force of the Roman soldiers.

[00:52:20] He was so unrecognizable because of the blood flowing down from the crown of thorns. Like he didn't even look like a man anymore. He didn't even look like a human being. He was suffering such terrible injustice.

[00:52:34] You can't even recognize him.

[00:52:37] But look what it says in chapter 53, verse one, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.

[00:52:45] For he grew up before him like a long young plant, like a route out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. He had no beauty, that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.

[00:53:11] And we esteemed him not.

[00:53:15] So next time you're the only person, try to do what is right. Next time you're trying to talk about Jesus in a group of people don't want to hear about it. And you could feel that coming towards you. You can feel that hate coming towards you.

[00:53:30] That injustice here, you're doing what is right and you're the one getting hit for it. You know what you can do in that moment just a little bit when when you're thinking to yourself, this isn't right. I'm not being fairly treated. This isn't the way it should be in that moment just a little bit. You're starting to get what it's like to be Jesus Christ dying on the cross for your sins.

[00:53:51] You're starting to share something with Jesus right there.

[00:53:54] You want to feel injustice? Let's talk about what Jesus Christ experienced. A man well acquainted with sorrows and grief, not only where the where the governmental religious leaders mistreating him, not only where the people mocking him and mistreating him know it was actually your sin that was being pressed upon him. The weight of your judgment was experienced by Jesus in the almighty wrath of God poured out on him so that you would have no condemnation so that you would never be. Judge Jesus was judged for all of your sin. God took his justice out for you on Jesus. So when you're suffering.

[00:54:36] Now, you know a little bit of what it's like. For The Man of Sorrows. Well acquainted with grief.

[00:54:45] Jesus, he suffered such terrible injustice that if you were there, you would have wanted to look away from looking at Jesus.

[00:54:53] But it's saying, can you see him now? Can you behold him that he's actually even though he had no form or majesty, even though he had no beauty? Can you now see the beauty?

[00:55:03] And the one who submitted to the will of the father is the one who became a slave even when he was Lord and the one who had suffered injustice for you, can you now see the beauty in that?

[00:55:15] Can you see the majesty in that?

[00:55:18] That if Jesus didn't submit. If Jesus wasn't a slave. If Jesus didn't suffer, you wouldn't be saved. Sit in here today. Anybody want to give the glory to Jesus Christ right now?

[00:55:30] Well, let's let's pray and we'll sing a song in response to worship Jesus Christ and to lift the name of the suffering servant.

[00:55:37] Hi, father in heaven. Thank you so much that we could gather here like this. God, it's so great to hear my brothers and sisters singing.

[00:55:47] To hear him say. And a man. God, we pray that we'll be able to do more of this step, that more of those who are watching online will be able to come and join us. But, guys, we want to just see what you taught us. Right now. Guy, we we want to admit that the way that we naturally think and the way that your word teaches us to think are two different realities. And got we need you to change our minds. We need maybe this is new stuff that we learned that we need to really think differently about these things from this point forward. Maybe we've already learned this in the scripture before, but today we need to get our mind renewed. We need you to speak to us via spirit to stir us up a fresh. God, that we would embrace submission.

[00:56:33] God, that we would be willing to suffer on justice in the name of Jesus, that we would even rejoice to share in the sufferings of our Lord and savior God, that we would be so grateful that you saved us out of slavery to our sin.

[00:56:47] And there is no better master than Jesus Christ that his name would be exalted in this parking lot, that his name would be exalted in on the Internet, that the man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief, who got rejection and scorn.

[00:57:02] Shame that today we would lift his name high. We would call him Jesus. And we would give him praise and honor and glory that we would say suffering is the path to eternal glory. And we would worship the name above all names, Jesus Christ. So let us all now rise. And let us sing about the man of sorrows who is worthy to be praised. The name above all names. Father, please exalt your son here. Honor as you have in heaven. We pray this in Jesus name. Hey, man.

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