Untitled Sermon

Righteous Actions Bring a Heart of Contentment During Unjust Sufferings

7/7/2024

This 4th of July Sunday…I’m so thankful that you are here, and if you are not here, that you are joining us online.

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn to 1 Peter 2 this morning.

We are continuing to work our way through our series on Faithfully Caring for Our Hearts even this independence day Sunday.

Most of us here grew up with learning about the American Revolution. If you remember one of the cries of those that wrote the Declaration of Independence, who fought for our Freedom, and so on… one of the key phrases… let’s see if you can parrot it back.

No Taxation….

Now, I’m not here to discuss British Colonial Policies in the 18th Century…I’m not here to discuss the benefits or shortfalls of parliamentary democracy….

Rather, by brining those things up… I want to highlight a fundamental reality that was at stake back in the early days of the Republic.

That there was a level of unjust treatment that the colonialists saw… in their minds, and again, I’m not here to debate the actuality of this, I’m just here to state what has been learned by all of us in school…

That they perceive being treated unfairly.

They were being taxes…and they did not have any say in if they were taxed and how those taxes were going to be spent.

This injustice, as well as countless other injustices, eventually lead the 13 colonies to rebel against the British and fight a long, protracted war that was eventually won, and lead to the creation of the United States.

And I’ll go on the record to say…that I think as American’s we should be proud of our history, even though at times we have deep and dark chapters that are full of shame.

The world, because of the ideals that the American Revolution embodied, even if not fully realized even to this day…marked a drastic turn in world events from Tyranny toward Justice.

I mention all of that today, because as we consider this series, what I would like for us to consider this morning is how….

Righteous Actions Bring a Heart of Contentment During Unjust Sufferings

Each and every one of us here has to deal with the problem of being treated unjustly…unfairly.

This was not something that was novel to the American Revelation, and it was certainly something that the revolution fixed…even if things did over the long arc get better.

We all must deal with unjust suffering, and what we will see in our text is…that when we act righteousness in those moment, God will give us a heart of contentment….

[Read 1 Peter 2:11-25]

The first thing that we can see from our text is…

I. Righteousness During Unjust Suffering Starts with Your Identity in Christ

We all are going to struggle with what to do when we are mistreated…but for those in Christ…they will truly be able to flourish.

If you do not know Christ as your Savior and Lord, then you will not really be able to suffer well the way we are talking about this morning.

You will have to find all kinds of ways to deal with the unjust suffering that you experience.

But for the Christian, what we will see is that if we want to act right in the midst of our suffering, that will start with our Identity in Christ…

Notice how Peter addresses the church here…

1 Peter 2:11 —“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

The use of words like sojourners…. exiles

He was highlighting to the church…this is not your home.

You are not meant for this world.

Or later, as he is calling the people to act a certain way…he would start off by saying…

1 Peter 2:13 —“Be subject for the Lord’s sake…”

He could call them to function and act in a certain way…for the Lord…because they had a saving relationship with God.

Or even at the end of our passage we see again, Peter bring the entire point to close by bringing back the gospel and brining back their identity when he writes…

1 Peter 2:24–25 —“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.”

So, the overarching idea of how we are going to be able to function and live a life when we are suffering unjustly is that we have to have the good news in our hearts.

We have to know our identity in Christ backward and forward…inside and out.

So, if you are in a moment of suffering and hardship.

Or, even if you are not… the place that you should start is by making sure that you know your identity in Christ.

Brothers and Sisters, I would hope and pray that each of you…you would have several verses that you have memorized, and if not memorized written down in a place that you can find them really quickly… so that in the moment of suffering and unjust treatment in your life…you know exactly where to run to get those precious truths.

Do not be surprised that if you don’t have these truths at the ready in your life, that you are then left constantly wondering and suffering is so much harder.

The first step to contentment during unjust suffering is remembering, cherishing, and living out that identity as sojourner…as an exile…this is not your home.

The second is that…

II. Living with Unjust Suffering Requires Intentional Effort from You

It is rather interesting to me how often I tend to think that my own natural responses are going to somehow actually be sufficient for me.

Have you even noticed that so many times when you want to get good at something, you have to do it with planning and practice?

The same is true for a life well-lived when it comes to unjust suffering.

Peter writes….

1 Peter 2:12 —“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable . . .

Meaning, he and others know…we all know…how hard it is to have good conduct around those that are well…evil.

We have all been there where they have done something, mistreated in some way, you name it…and so one, and the question is…how am I going to response.

What Peter is reminding his audience of is that, our call is to keep our conduct good…honorable.

The only way that you are going to be able to do this is by being intentional.

I’m not saying that we can plan for every time a person mistreats us, but we certainly can think of times where it is prone to happen and we can consider and plan for generic responses.

- How are you going to respond when your spouse says something unkind or unloving toward you?

- How are you going to respond when a person here at church discounts your opinion rather abruptly?

- How are you going to respond when your child does something deeply hurtful to you?

- How are you going to respond when the driver in front of you clearly should not be on the road?

o And you are thinking in your head…that guy certainly must be from Indiana!

We must be ready for unjust suffering if we want a heart of contentment…and that starts by having intentional effort in your life.

Don’t be surprised that if you fail to plan and consider how you will respond, that you will respond poorly.

But the text goes on even more to say….

1 Peter 2:15–17 —“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.”

Now, this is about as good as time as any to say, we could do an entire sermon series on the truths in this passage that we are just going to have to skip for the sake of time.

I’m sure that we will eventually come back to this passage one day and really study it in depth. There is so much meaning here that we are just going to have to leave it on the table for another time.

However, sufficient for now is that we can see that there is a call to DO GOOD. And even that particular word we could spend a lot of time unpacking since that is a very particular word for doing good…more along the line of “be a good citizen in your community.”

But the direction and focus here is that we have are called to live in an intentional and purposeful way.

And the goal of that type of living is that we are going to silence foolish and ignorant people.

Meaning, when you are intentional in how you act…and you act in a righteous manner, you are going to often have an impact on those lives of someone…

And this purposed driving living…is not about using your freedom for a covering of evil…but as servants of God.

Now is a good time then for us to consider, what does it look like to plan out these kinds and loving acts in your life.

Perhaps this week an assignment for you would be that you sit down and write down the hardest 3-5 relationships that you have in your life where you often see the most unjust suffering in your life.

- That might be some family members

- It might be co-workers

- It might even ben folks that you worship with here in this room.

And then, that you would consider…how will I treat this person when they mistreat me? When they are unkind, evil, and unjust…what will I do?

I honestly don’t think that there is anything wrong with writing that plan of attack out, and if you are looking for some extra credit…you would slap a Bible verse on there that informs your actions.

And parents… this would be a great activity to do with your kids.

Kids are constantly living in the realm of unjust suffering.

I’ll be the first to admit that my natural tendency is to brush my children aside and not attempt to shepherd their heart when they are experiencing unjust suffering…usually at the hand of another sibling…

But look at this as a teaching time…look at this as a gospel time.

Teach your children in those moments…how can they respond to unjust suffering…don’t just serve as the ultimate judge…. or even worse…don’t just lose your cool.

Spend time with them, even this week, training them on how to handle unjust suffering in their lives.

Lastly, let me say that as we are having these conversations about unjust suffering, this is not an excuse to cover up any crimes.

We can see in our text a clear call to submit to the governing authorities in our lives. So, if there is anything that is happening that remotely relates to a crime…the answer is…you report crimes to the police.

Please never interpret these verses as a cover for evil people getting away with wicked actions.

The church, and the community of believers, should be ready to quickly report to the authorities anything that is evil and requires the swift judgement of the sword.

So, if we are to plan for mistreatment, that almost means then…we should….

III. Assume You Will Be Mistreated in this Life for Righteous Living

Let’s be honest, many times when we are mistreated, we are surprised…but later in this letter, Peter will write…

1 Peter 4:12 —“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

And so, we see in our text that if we are to plan for how to act, there is built into that an assuming that we are going to be mistreated… Peter predicts it when he says things like…

1 Peter 2:12 —“ . . . so that when they speak against you as evildoers . . .”

Or later in our passage…when he says…

1 Peter 2:18–20 —“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.”

It’s a strange thing to have in our minds…but the reality is…we don’t like to be mistreated, but we really should just assume it is going to happen…especially when we are living for God.

Now, the text is really clear…look, if you are acting the fool, don’t be surprised that you are being mistreated.

It’s always been amazing to me that when you see some of those news videos of persons mouthing off to police officers and then they are all shocked that they were arrested for disorderly conduct.

I’m not saying that the police and the government should arrest its citizens because they are speaking in a disrespectful manner, but I’m also not surprised when an officer loses his cool.

Our text and the point that its being made here is…don’t be surprised when you do wrong, you get justice…but that is not really what he is concerned with here.

His concern is helping the church to interpreted and live out live in the midst of unjust suffering.

When you have done something good and righteous and are being punished for it.

We are all familiar with the phrase, “No Good Deed goes unpunished.” The problem is that it is often said in a forlorn state with sarcasm around.

As believers, we should brace ourselves, we should assume that we are going to be mistreated in this life for trying to live out a righteous life.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we can’t attempt to pursue all righteous means that are loving and legal…but it does mean…don’t be surprised if you suffer for your faith.

In this increasingly darkening society, soon there will not be a person left who will not be untouched by this type of suffering.

In your workplaces, you will be asked to do thing that are clearly against what the Bible teaches…today that looks like bowing to the woke LGBTQ agenda.

- Your boss might require you to use pronouns that don’t correspond to a person’s born sex.

- Your company might insist that you participate in certain types of activity or conversation that you cannot comply with.

You don’t need a laundry list from me to see the ever-increasing pressure that our world is placing on us ton conform to these lies from Satan.

So, the point is…just assume it is going to happen and get ready.

Let me also say that if you are somehow able to navigate the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years without having any suffering for your beliefs…then something might also be equally wrong in your life.

I’m not saying that anyone should run around looking to create problems for themselves…but you will probably have several opportunities in the coming days for your Christian witness to shine bright in almost every aspect of our society.

That means that there will be several times in your life when you are just hated because of your love of Jesus.

And so, perhaps a valuable question to ask yourself is…am I doing an adequate job of standing up for my faith?

When there are times of unjust suffering that are coming down the pike…do I ditch and run so I don’t suffer?

During my college years, about halfway through, I started living for Jesus…but there were many challenges that faced me.

One of them was the circle of friends that I had surrounded myself with. Let’s just say…our regular activities were not pleasing to God.

It was amazing how quick…when I chose to stop living sinfully, how fast those folks were out of my life.

Not because I had cut them out…but because they wanted nothing to do with me when I would not go down the path of immortality with them anymore.

While perhaps painful in the moment, I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Believer, take stock today, are you planning for suffering, are you assuming it will happen…or perhaps, when it does happen, are you running from it?

Be ready to suffer unjustly when you are doing right in this life…at work…and home… you name it.

You can….

IV. Find Great Joy in God’s Providence During Your Great Suffering

I truly believe that you can find great joy in all of this…

If you are fired…if you are demoted…if you are written up…if you are passed over…

If you lose family members, if we as a church lose members of our congregation, you name it…

If we suffer unjustly for living righteously… we can find joy because of God’s providence

Our text tells us…

1 Peter 2:15 —“For this is the will of God…

And later it says…

1 Peter 2:19–20 —“For this is a gracious thing . . . this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

Just pause for a moment and let that large pill go down your throat…

God is pleased…it is gracious to him…it finds favor…this is his plan… that you…his Christians…

- His redeemed

- His Children

- His Beloved

Whatever your favorite way of conceptualizing your relationship with God is…

He is well pleased that when you suffer for doing what is right.

Now…. I don’t know about you…but if I got to call the shots, it would go a lot differently.

If I was calling the shots, I would be looking for a few more of those incidents when the earth swallowed folks up….

Do you remember that story…when the Korahits when they rebelled against the leadership of Moses and said and did some awful things?

[don’t add to notes]

Numbers 16:29–32 —“If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lordcreates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.” And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods.”

Let me tell you…if I was God…that is how I would be handling a lot of things….

Oh…you are going to mistreat my servant Pastor Josh….well guess what… now you are being swallowed by the earth… anyone else have any other questions?

Of course… that presumes that I would not have been swallowed up a long time ago myself…but let’s not get into that 😊

But then again, that is not how God is responding… and that is because he has something even better in mind.

Instead of allowing that to happen to display how amazing God is….

And don’t we agree, that if you were there, you would think that is a pretty amazing thing?

When the Israelites saw what happened…I think they did what we all would have done…

[don’t add to notes]

Numbers 16:34 —“And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!””

They panicked, and ran around….

Now, God is doing something even more powerful than swallowing folks up with the ground…he is using you….he is using me as a powerful apologetic to who God is.

You see, when you and I respond to unjust suffering in a particular way…and that suffering is part of God’s plan… who are we showing? Who are we revealing?

We are showing them…Jesus.

They see you…they see Christ… so we are told…

V. Look to Christ as your Supreme Motivating Example to Follow

[make one click with point #5]

1 Peter 2:21–23 —“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 entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

Oh Brothers and sisters…see today that the suffering that God allows in your life…when you are suffering for doing what is right…that when you act like Christ… then you will show them Jesus.

And that is far better than them being swallowed up by the earth.

It’s far better because it shows them who God is far more than anything else.

Christian…look to the example of Jesus…as your motivation and your person to follow in the midst of unjust suffering.

The truth is…none of us is even as close to innocent like Christ was.

Even when you are the innocent part…you are not nearly as innocent as Christ…

Yet he was fully innocent, fully perfect…and he left you as the text tells us…an example.

And in that example, the text Gives us the three ways that he left for us an example….

- Mistreated, he Did no Mistreat Back

- Spoken Evilly, he did not respond the same way

- Entrusted himself to God.

Just pause and consider today, that when you suffer unjustly…at the hands of family, friends, persons you worship with, government, you name it…

Not only was that part of God’s plan…part of his plan was that you are going to show those evil persons Jesus.

And you are going to do that primarily in the ways that this text shows you….

Not paying back evil for evil.

Not speaking ill of them…

And you are going to entrust your self to God….and we are going to talk about that more in a moment.

If you are going to be able to do this…that sort of gets to our point earlier…you are going to need to plan for it…you are going to need to be ready with it.

If you somehow think that…oh, when I am mistreated, then I’ll start taking this issue seriously…I tend to think that you are going to lose that battle really well.

Parents, if you think that your kids are going to be able to make it through this world in knowing how to respond to the unjust suffering that they will experience for living for Jesus with out you helping plan for them…then you are wrong.

Teens, as you go off to college and the work place…if you think that you are going to be able to just figure it out…you are wrong.

College kids… if you think that once you get out into the real world…then you can start figuring out how to respond to unjust suffering…you will be sorely mistaken.

Let me give you two tools to do that….

First, IN order for you to do that…you will have to know Christ…know his heart…know his way of thinkings…by spending time reading of him in the Bible.

The best tool to look to and follow the example of Christ is to just read about him in the Bible.

Second, read stories of saints and martyrs who have gone before.

The world is replete with stories of those who have gone before us…and our Library has a great section on missionaries and martyrs who have suffered unjustly for the faith… consider reading their stories….and looking to them as they looked to Christ.

I’m not saying that those are the only tools, but I have often found it powerful to read various books out there about those folks…they help me follow Christ.

Lastly, from our text…if we are to follow Christ…we are told in our passage here that he was entrusting himself to his heavenly father…

For us that looks like…

VI. Ground Your Hope in the Future Return of Christ

There is no doubt that you will suffer a lot in this world…and that does not mean that things will always be made right in this life…

Our passage reminds us…that when we do what is right…those who persecute us

1 Peter 2:12 — “ . . . they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

Now, you say, “How will that work?” What are the details of all this….

Simply put, I don’t know.

What I do know is that God has promised he will one day set all things right.

That one day, just as Christ entrusted himself to his Father… and just as you entrust yourself to him…he was delivered and so you will be too.

Oh Church, see and believe that you can have great contentment in the midst of incredible suffering that is unjust. You can have peace like a river when sorrow and sea billows roll… you can say it is well with your soul…because you have grounded your hope in the future deliverance of God.

You can see that this is part of God’s place for your life and the lives of others…you can prepare and plan…and you can make God look good in the process.