Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 2:13-3:12

Introduction

Submission, just that word alone raises the hair on the back of your neck.

It something everyone hates to do, when I joined the Army the first week of basic training was called hell week, because they continually beat in to you that you must submit to every command, every order!

That goes to show you how hard it is to submit to authority, it is in the very root of our sin, of our rebellion toward God!

We do not want to submit to His sovereign rule!

I remember a time while I was deployed, I had a sergeant who was an atheist and also my squad leader.

He knew that I was a christian and because of it he was always trying to make me question what I believed, always tying to break me.

So he gave me the worst details, the worst jobs, and most of the time the worst treatment.

One time He placed me in charge of building shelving units for our living quarters for the entire platoon.

He assigned four other guys to work with me and we began to build, when we finished the very last one my sergeant inspected it and found the most minuscule flaw and command us to fix it.

So we did.

He came back, found another, told us to fix it, and we did again.

He continued to do this for hours.

Until finally, He told us the entire shelving unit wasn’t level and to tear it apart and start over.

As he left this time, he ordered us to have it fixed in 30 minutes and if it is not done we will all be punished, smoked, have a very extreme PT session!

I looked at the other guys and I knew he was doing this because of me.

I had enough, I refused to do it again, and refused to follow his orders.

So I told the guys that we wasn’t going to do it, for one - the shelf was perfect, two - we been doing this for hours already, and three - I didn’t want too.

So I told two of them to grab some scrap wood and start cutting it to sound like we were cutting new pieces for the shelf, then I told them to start hammering on the boards to sound like we were fixing the shelf.

By the time my sergeant came back he looked at the old shelf like it was a new one.

He inspected it and finally gave us the ok!

We looked at each other and smiled, because it showed what he was doing, we didn’t fix a single thing, only acted like we followed his orders and did what he said for us to do.

Let me ask you, what would you have done if you were in my situation?

Would you have done something different?

I think most of you would have agreed with what I did and maybe some of you would have just told him, “No, I am not doing it”.

If your answer is nothing less than following his command, submitting to his authority, to tear that shelf apart and start over again, then you are as wrong as I was for not doing it.

I am here to confess that I should have submitted!

It was my duty as a soldier to submit, to follow every lawful command he gave!

Not only that, but according to Peter Christians are called for that purpose to submit!

It wasn’t unlawful nor was it sinful!

My pride said I was better than this, my dignity said I was worth more than this, and my dislike of authority said my way is better!

Instead of trusting in God for justice, I trusted in my own self worth and my own authority.

Don’t we often find it hard to bow to someone’s wishes, wants, or ways.

We don’t want anyone to tell us what to do.

We want to do it our own way, with our first response is “I don’t have to do what you say”.

But Peter tells us submission is part of a christian life, that believers were called to experience their final reward through enduring suffering and submission.

At the end of Ch. 2 & the beginning of Ch. 3 Peter explains our relationships in this life.

He urges Christians in V.11 as sojourners & exiles on earth away from their home in heaven to suffer unjust persecution and slander in V.12 in a way that wins unbelievers to faith in God.

Then Peter gives us five relationships and urging us to be submissive in them.

The first is in V.13 “ Submit yourselves for the lords sake to every human institution,...” The next one is in V.18 “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect,...” for us today we could say “Employee, be submissive to your bosses with all respect,...” Then in Ch.3 V.1 Peter turns to marriage and tells us “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to you own husbands...” In V. 7 “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way,...” And finally in V. 8 Peter deals within the church saying, “To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;..”

Why does Peter urges us to be submissive?

Right in the center of these Passages, we have the purpose.

Just like a center of wheel with five spokes attached to it, without the center the spokes losses their strength and the wheel will collapse.

Peter tells us that Jesus is the ultimate example of submission, of enduring suffering, and we are to follow in His steps, to copy Him, without us submitting to Him and His example, we will fail every time.

The Priority of Submission

So there is a priority in submission and it must be first, to submit your life to Christ!

Jesus said this in Luke 14:26-28

Jesus tells US to consider the cost and sacrifice required in following Him, and He demands that He be first priority.

The message of Jesus is that you must be submissive to Him to follow Him.

In Deitrich Bonhoeffer book, The Cost of Discipleship he begins it with this two sentences: "Cheap Grace is the deadly enemy of our Church.

We are fighting today for costly-grace" It is true today as it was true then in the 1930’s.

Peter tells us if we call ourselves christians then we are called to submission.

What does cheap grace and costly grace mean?Bonhoeffer explains what he means by this in his book: “Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.”

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession,… Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has… It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him.”

“Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it call us to follow Christ.

It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.”

“Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; It is grace because Jesus says: ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’”

Have you submitted your life to Christ? because Peter tells us if we call ourselves Christians then we are called to submission!

This must be the center of our wheel so that the spokes of our wheel can withstand the trials of life.

The Example of Submission

But how do we live submissive lives?

Peter defines a submissive life by the example of Jesus.

Look at 1 Peter 2:21-23

According to Peter, submission is not retaliating for wrongs suffered.

It is not saying one thing but doing something else.

Submission is not vowing to get even or threatening to return suffering.

Jesus commited no sin on His way to the cross, when Jesus was treated badly and unfairly, He did not respond with the same, He did not demand His own way.

How do we find the power to respond like Christ?

Jesus could have came down off that cross and killed everyone, and it would have been perfect justice, but he didn’t in order to bear our sin and set us example.

So Jesus entrusted Himself and His cause to His Creator.

We must surrender justice and vengeance to God.

Romans 12:19-20 says

How does that strengths the spokes of our wheel?

Government

When we submit to every human institution, we don’t have and attitude "get them before they get you, and make sure you take care of number one."

No we submit and humble ourselves because our hope is fixed on God’s grace, we submit because of the Lordship of Christ, because we know that they were placed there by God, “for punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right”, but when they are unreasonable and sinful, For such is the will of God by doing right we may silence the ignorance of foolish men, as we bear witness to the truth, and give glory to God.

Servants (Employee)

When we submit to our masters, to our bosses, we don’t only submit and respect the ones who are good and agreeable, but also to the ones who are unreasonable, to the ones who commands you to rebuild a perfect shelf just because they want to make you suffer.

We submit because our hope is fixed on God and his grace, his favor.

We entrust ourselves to God 1 Peter 2:19-20

What if my sergeant came out and saw that we was not following his order, I would have been in the wrong, I commited the sin and if I endured it, what credit would there have been?

But what if I did what was right, what if I submitted to his order, and endured the suffering from it, it would have shown the gospel to him and the guys around, it would have glorified God, it would have found favor with God!

Wives

Wives, be submissive to your own husbands, not because of merely external reason, that reflect what your husbands desires or wants, but because your hope is fixed on God’s grace, and His desires.

Just like the holy women in former times hoped in God and adorn themselves by being submissive to their own husbands, not because they were freighted by fear, but because they knew God established marriage to be such and they hoped in what God ordained!

And if your husband is disobedient to the word, that he has no faith in the gospel or have submitted to it than, they may be won without a word by your behavior, as they observe your modest and respectful behavior.

It is the hidden persons of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God sight!

Husbands

Since God has placed you in authority over your wive, submit to the Lordship of Christ, Submit to the example He has set forth.

Live together with your wives informed by the knowledge of God’s will.

Understand that yes she is weaker in terms of strength but she has the same eternal worth as you, she is equally made in God’s image, equal access to salvation, and is equal in all aspects of the grace of life given by God, because she is a fellow heir.

Ephesians 5:25

Church

Church be submissive, be harmonious, fervently love one another, and be humble.

Consider others more important than yourself.

1 Peter 3:9,12

The purpose of Submission