Living As Exiles - Week 4
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
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Announcements:
Sign on the front of the building
Building out back - Mostly finished
Prayer Requests:
Braden Barlow - Injury
Becky -
Praise Reports:
Kayleigh’s little one - doing much better
So much of our church - healed from COVID in the last two weeks.
Sermon:
Good morning. I missed gathering together last week. I struggle, without THIS gathering. I worship in my own time, I pray on my own, I study the word of God on my own… but there is so much benefit to gathering together.
Today we are finally able to get back into the word together. We are continuing our study of 1 Peter, and our series I titled “Living as Exiles” that title is pulling right from the text in 1 Peter 1:1
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen
This is not an exhaustive study, we won’t cover everything that there is to cover.
Today’s message is a little bit of a difficult one - it has the potential for us to become a contentious one. Part of the problem is how deeply we are tied to other aspects of our identity - we are going to talk about that a little bit today.
Before we get into the word, Lets pray.
God help us to understand. Help us to make application.
The scripture that we are studying today is
Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority
or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.
For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.
Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves.
Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
This is a passage is one of many that includes instructions for how we are to live and behave as believers, and what it means to be a christian. First - we have to agree that this is scripture, and I know to say that seems a little silly, since we are reading out of the bible, but we should all understand what that means. As Christians, we confess, it is our testimony, that the bible and its contents are the written word of God.
To understand this passage correctly, I think it is helpful to rearrange it a little bit. First, back up a couple of verses.
Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.
Peter is talking to believers, and reminds us that we are strangers and exiles. That idea is important for this passage, because it creates an identity that requires the message to be written. Peter says - I urge you as strangers and exiles.
Over the past couple of months, refugees and exiles have moved across the world. Between natural disasters and war, people are migrating as refugees. People are ending up in countries that are not their own. They are finding themselves in this interesting conflict of who they are, in that they BELONG in one place, and yet are forced to be in another. Who is in charge of them now? Is it the government that they just left? Or the country that they are in now? Do they have what we might call diplomatic immunity? Its really a combination of all of those things, right?
And that is kind of the situation that Peter describes for us. And this isn’t the only reference to that idea in scripture.
Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
So as we establish ourselves as not from here. And that is one of the hardest things for us, because we are American’s!
In October 2016, God dealt with me on that issue. And it has been a struggle. These were some of the scriptures that He used to change my heart during that time. We were serving as youth pastors. I was excited about the election. Donald trump was running for president. And I was passionate about it. And I was corrected. As I read the bible to prepare for a sermon about God being Sovereign - I was corrected. Because yes, I am a citizen of the USA, but that comes only second to my identity in Christ. If it does not come second, then I do not have an identity in Christ.
We are exiles here - and that identity, requires this passage to be written.
I said I wanted to rearrange this passage a little bit.. so lets jump to the middle of vs 13.
Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority
The middle of that verse says “because of the Lord”
Then we see in beginning of 1 Peter 2:16 that we are Free people,
Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves.
it is from there, with our understanding that we are exiles, that we get our why - for everything else.
I am an exile! I serve only My King. Jesus. Lord, Savior, Messiah. I am free. I have Freedom.
I have more freedom than any american - I have Jesus freedom.
Peter says - Perfect, now with all that in mind… let me tell you what you have to do. And he gives us some instructions. He says that we are to submit, We are to do good, that we are to love, and we are to honor.
Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority
Submit to every human authority.
And there is another point of struggle.
Because we live in America, the government here changes pretty often. And sometimes, we don’t like it very much. We wanted the Baboon party to be president, and instead it was the giraffes this time.
And our government is capable of true evil. We have commited some of the most horrifying things. We have allowed slavery, we murdered native people, we have gone to war without just cause, in modern times we use technology to murder innocent families, we allow abortion to continue. Our government has the capacity to commit some of the most evil acts known to man.
And yet, we are called to submit to these, and every authority.
The rational person in me - would suggest, hey - I’m exempt from this, because my government is evil, and the government that is suggested here is a good one. And yet, history would tell us otherwise. Peter wrote this letter instructing us to submit to the emperor, during the reign of Nero.
Non-Christian historian Tacitus describes Nero extensively torturing and executing Christians after the fire of 64.[6] Suetonius also mentions Nero punishing Christians, though he does so because they are "given to a new and mischievous superstition" and does not connect it with the fire.[137]
Christian writer Tertullian (c. 155–230) was the first to call Nero the first persecutor of Christians. He wrote, "Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine."[138] Lactantius (c. 240–320) also said that Nero "first persecuted the servants of God".[139] as does Sulpicius Severus.
I could suggest hey, I don’t have to submit because my government is evil - which they are.. but that does not excuse me.
It seems, from my study of the word, that the only exemption that we could possibly have for submitting to authority is if it expressly instructs us to go against the word of God. Otherwise, we are called to submit.
We must love our God, we must worship Him alone.
This instruction is echoed in Romans 13:1-3
Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.
So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval.
The rest of this chapter in 1st Peter, really establishes the proper order of things in our lives.
We are slaves of Christ, free from everything else.
As slaves, Christ sends us into the world to submit, and to do good things.
Peter sets us up to be submissive to government, to be submissive in our roll in the economy - he goes as far as to to say slaves - be servants to your masters, and in the family unit. Be submissive, submit.
We are free from everything in the whole world, except and because we are servants of Christ… and His instructions to us are to go into the world, and show them who He is.
The second thing that we are instructed to do, is to do good.
Gods plan for your life includes you doing good things, and here’s the interesting implication of this scripture - some of your good, should be visible. 1 Peter 2:14
or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.
says that the government exists, in part, to praise those who do what is good, and then we are told to be those people, so that we silence the ignorant ones who call us evil.
He says not only do I want you to not look bad to the government, I want you to look good to them! They should be rewarding you for your efforts!
When I was in the army, I made a concentrated effort to not stand out during training. I didn’t want to suck and have a DS in my face, or do really well, and have a ds in my face. It was best to just hang out in the background.
It is along this line of thinking that Christians have created hospitals and orphanages and partnered with the government for soup kitchens and food pantries. There is an amount of the good that we do that the world should also consider good.
We should not be doing good for recognition, but some of the good that we do should be worthy of recognition. Doing good work is a theme throughout this book, it is mentioned often in the rest of scripture as well. It is a part of Christian living.
We are called to honor everyone, and to love one another.
Honor is to give respect and proper attention. We are specifically instructed to honor the emperor - we should be respecting our government and giving them proper honor. And we should be honoring everyone else as individuals.
Honor changes the way we think and feel about things. Honor changes the way we approach situations. I can’t call someone I honor “stupid.”
The reality is - the world is only ever going to get worse. This instruction to love the brotherhood is so critical here. We have to have one another. We have to love one another, or the other things that we are called to do will feel impossible. We have to be there for one another. We have to love one another.
Conclusion:
In doing all of those things, we are going to look and act a lot more like our Jesus, which is the goal of this lifetime. Jesus drew attention to himself for the miracles that he performed and the people that he loved. We want to be like that.
Jesus submitted to the authority of the temple when they were collecting taxes in Matthew 17:24-27
When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
“Yes,” he said. When he went into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly kings collect tariffs or taxes? From their sons or from strangers?”
“From strangers,” he said. “Then the sons are free,” Jesus told him.
“But, so we won’t offend them, go to the sea, cast in a fishhook, and take the first fish that you catch. When you open its mouth you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to them for me and you.”
And listen to what he says - so we won’t offend them.
Jesus didn’t have to pay no taxes, He is God incarnate. and instead of making a fuss, He performed a miracle.
Peter was a part of that story. He walked with Jesus after that happened. Think of the conversations that they would have had, it is out of that experience that he writes to us here.
Jesus submitted himself willingly to the authority so that he could be crucified - even though Peter, the author of this book - struggled with that. Remember Peter cut off the ear of one of the Priests servants and Jesus had to heal him. Peter struggled with it. And We are going to struggle with it.
John 18:36-37
“My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
“You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Jesus left for us an example to follow. As Christians, we should be first in line to submit to authority, as long as it does not expressly violate what God has commanded. as Christians we should be doing the most good. As Christians we should be praying for our leaders, honoring everyone, and loving each other.
And there will still be plenty of opportunity to die for your faith. The disciples were killed because they would not deny Christ, people in China and Afghanistan today are at risk of the same. It is only a matter of time before that kind of persecution happens here. But until they demand that I disobey my God, you will see your pastor submit, try to do good, honoring and loving people.