Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 2:

I. Christ Suffered Without Sinning.

He committed no sin,

This is hard for us to comprehend.

As redeemed sinners who battle the flesh daily, hour by hour, minute by minute we cannot imagine committing no sin.

Not that we want to commit sin, but we know the reality of the natural man and women that lives within us.

It is also hard to understand remaining sinless when suffering comes.

What is the old saying “adversity doesn’t build character it reveals it.”

We see it happen all the time in others and in ourselves.

Trouble comes and we respond in one of two ways, sinfully or biblically.

We respond with anger or a Christlike attitude .

We respond with hate or with humility.

We respond with mercy or with malice.

We respond with loathing or with love.

You get the picture.

But when Christ suffered,

He committed no sin,

It was by His sinlessness that Jesus qualified Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

However, our salvation requires two aspects of redemption.

It was not only necessary for Jesus to be our substitute and receive the punishment due for our sins; He also had to fulfill the law of God perfectly to secure the merit necessary for us to receive the blessings of God’s covenant.

Jesus not only died as the perfect for the imperfect, the sinless for the sinful, but He lived the life of perfect obedience required for our salvation.

Jesus Christ was born without sin.

This is why his virgin birth is so important.

He could not be born through Adam, because he would have inherited the same sin nature we inherited.

Jesus lived a sinless life for 33 years on this earth.

He committed no sin as a child, but instead taught the Scriptures with authority.

Jesus suffered a unjust, cruel, sacrificial death and committed no sin.

Consider all that happened leading up to the cross.

The Jewish leaders plotted against Jesus

Matthew

2. Judas betrayed Jesus

3. Judges unjustly accused and tried Jesus

Matthew 26:

4. Jesus Cruel and Unjust punishment by the Roman Soldiers.

Matthew 27

Yes through all of this, Jesus committed no sin,

John

When Christ suffered we He committed, not one evil thought, not one unrighteous action or attitude, not one vengeful response.

Jesus suffered perfectly as our substitute.

Dan Doriani explain it this way,

Peter lived with Jesus all day for three years.

If Jesus had grabbed tasty morsels of fish for himself or exploded in frustration at his thickheaded disciples, Peter would have known.

But Peter never saw Jesus stray in deed or word.

He never got upset unjustly, never made a bad decision, never got a laugh at another person’s expense.

His proper self-interest was never tainted by selfishness.

Why is this so important?

For to this you have been called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you and example to follow in His steps.

Notice not only did Christ suffer without sin,

II.

Christ Suffered Without Lying.

Peter continues to explain the perfection of Christ’s suffering.

It may just be me, but there is imagery here of someone opening Christ’s mouth and inspecting it, looking for lies, looking for anything they can find to accuse and convict Christ.

But Peters says there was none to be found.

No matter how hard you look, no matter how thorough you examine you will never find any deceit in Christ mouth our coming out of the mouth of Jesus.

Even in the midst of suffering Jesus Christ maintained holy talk, pure communication, He spoke without sinning.

He spoke with truth and grace.

He speech was seasoned with salt and provided light to all who would listen.

But one thing He could never be condemned of was a lying tongue and untruthful talk.

Peter not only witnessed Christ truthful speech for three years.

He is also pointing us back to Christ fulfillment of

Isaiah

Christ not only suffered without sin he suffered while maintaining perfectly honest speech.

How hard is this for us to grasp?

Suffering can cause us to say things that are rude, mean, hateful, dishonest, and full of hypocrisy.

We struggle with maintaining perfectly honest speech.

If you look in our mouth hard enough you will find it.

That is why I am never excited about going to Dr. Crowe’s office.

Every time he examines my mouth he finds all of my issues.

He says,

You used to use tobacco didn’t you.

You have a big chip in your front tooth.

You have receding gums.

You have a cavity in number 28.

You have a shadow starting in 18.

I am like come on man quit looking....

But Peter says, when Christ suffered there was no deceit found in His mouth no spiritual decay, no remnant of sin, nothing but the pure, divine Word of God every came out of the mouth of Christ!

Why is seeing Christ suffering without deceit in his mouth so important?

:2

Are you starting to see the theme?

David cries out,

Psalm

Peter has shown us so far that Christ;

Suffered without sinning

Suffered without lying

Next Peter explains,

III.

Christ Suffered Without Reviling.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten,

Peter wants us to see here that Christ did not respond in the same way in which he suffered.

Christ suffering was physical, mental, verbal, and spiritual.

He experienced suffering the redeemed will never know.

We will never be forsaken by the Father the way Christ temporarily was, we will never truly cry out Father why have you forsaken me.

Praise God for that.

But we may experience the verbal abuse, the reviling that Christ received.

This word revile means,

to speak in a highly insulting manner—‘to slander, to insult strongly, slander, insult.’

Dr. Edmond Heibert notes,

This verb, which denotes the hurling of insulting and abusive language at an opponent,

Dr. Heibert goes on to give NT examples of some of the insult people slung at Him during is life and ministry.

They said “he was possessed with a devil.

They called him a Samaritan, a glutton, a wine-bibber, a blasphemer, a demoniac, one in league with Beelzebub, a perverter of the nation, and a deceiver of the people.”