Stand Firm Part 4

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Recap

Hope in Jesus

Be holy

Love one another

1 Peter 2:11–17 NIV

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

From this moment until the rest of the 1 Peter, what we see is:

LIVE FOR GOD

Now, there are multiple levels to this and many practical ways Peter addresses this.

Let us remember what Peter has just brought us through.

Previously his focus was on our status as God’s people right?

So we see things like, “a holy priesthood” “chosen by Him” “drawn into a privileged fellowship” recipients of God’s grace and favour”

But why would Peter remind the early church of their status? Why would he remind us?

Of course so that we may live in the freedom and benefits of these realities

but he is also preparing us for what true discipleship looks like: lowly servanthood

Peter undoubtably got this idea from Jesus Himself.

Through Him we see no one more deserving of praise, honor, and service

And yet we also see no one more humble, kind, and servant minded

He comes to give his life as a ransom for many

And so Peter is calling us to live as Christ lived

Not as people who use our position and power to reign and rule over one another

But to use our positioning as a platform to serve

Peter reminded us of the freedom that we have in Christ

As believers we are free! The truth of the gospel has set us free and we are free indeed

But it’s a freedom that binds us to our calling

We are free in bondage to God

We are free to worship God

We are free from the bondage of sin and the destruction of what our old self led to

We are free to love

Free to fellowship with believers

Free to respect authority over us

It is our 4th extreme calling:

Be free to serve

Seems like an oxymoron right?

And it’s hard to explain and grasp

Like talking to young kids about the concept of time

How can we be free and yet under service?

In a world and culture where every individual and group demands its “rights” and views freedom only as a freedom from responsibility.

What Peter is describing is a strange kind of liberty

It’s an extreme call

Peter is proclaiming for us that our liberty is found in Christ.

Our liberty is under God

And because that is so there is an objective standard of value.

So our freedom is necessarily in servitude to God

In service to Jesus, in service to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to the world around us.

So Peter breaks this down for us

Our freedom in service to God

Peter calls us to be foreigners, exiles, aliens.

It’s a call to distance ourselves from sin and the worldly pursuit of it

It’s a call to be different.

He returns to a description he used in chapter 1 where he talked about our citizenship being in heaven and not on earth.

As Christ changes who we are, it should then change what we do

And notice the kind of language Peter uses here.

It’s not as if Peter is implying that say a prayer one time and just hope for the best and let’s see what happens.

He says “abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”

This kind of language isn’t for the faint of heart.

This is war! This is a fight! It’s not going to be easy.

It is much easier to just give in

So you can be like the majority and just do whatever you want and have no impact for the kingdom of God

Or you can stand up, fight the war for your soul, be different and have a lasting impact on the people around you.

So there is a paradox here. Because we are called to be aliens, not of the world, but we are also called to impact the world around us, to be in the world.

So you could put it this way, we live before God and for God, but we live in front of the world.

So as Peter is writing these instructions to us he does so for 2 major reasons.

#1 is for God’s glory

#2 is that the world may see your good deeds

The word good could be translated to beautiful or attractive

It echoes what we see in Matt 5:16

Matthew 5:16 NIV

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

But Peter also adds something here. Given the disdain that the world has for God. Even the good that Christians do will often be spoken ill of and sometimes punished

Now we know very little to the degree of suffering and persecution that Peter is talking here to the early church.

When he writes to live good lives even through persecution he is saying, “I know there have been many killed for what they believe and do, but continue to live good lives.”

When he says submit to every authority he is saying “Nero may persecute us and make us suffer and kill us, but it will not change the way we live nor will it change the positional authority that he has over us.”

Because Peter knew that although there was persecution and there was pain and there was suffering, there were also those who saw how the church responded and behaved in the midst of it and it was because of it that their unbelief turned to belief.

The church was growing and expanding and multiplying and yet it was heavily persecuted. How can those things happen simultaneously?

Because the church’s faith was put on display.

Light shines brightest in the darkest hour

Their were some that thought if there was ever a time to give up and quit it would be now but sense there is no quit from the saints then they must truly believe what they say they believe

And it was through the persecution that people were getting saved

Peter says through this the unbelieving world will see

Emperors will see

Governors will see

Unbelieving spouses will see

masters/bosses will see

employees will see

your children will see

How you act and respond, especially in the most difficult of times, will tell the story of your faith to the people around you

And notice, Peter isn’t very concerned with what they do or how they treat you.

Now in other places of Scripture we know this isn’t a call to become a doormat

We stand for what’s right and true

But Peter doesn’t say submit, love, be good, as long as they don’t cross a certain line.

There’s actually times in this chapter he explicitly says not only to those who are good to you but also the ones who are harsh.

And again, because this is how Christ lived

Even when they spit at him, insulted him, wrongly accused him, nailed him to a cross, pierced his side

What does he say? “forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Even in the midst of ultimate persecution He still had love and even for the people who we causing the most pain.

Be free to serve.

Submit. It means to put yourself under another

We must first submit to God before we will ever successfully submit to anyone else.

Through the remainder of 1 Peter he talks about our submission

Our service

We submit and serve God first and foremost

We submit and serve those in authority over us

Whether that is political authority

relational authority

or spiritual authority

As believers we are called to submit and serve those in authority over us because Scripture teaches that, that authority has been given by God

They may have been voted in, they may have inherited it, they may have stumbled upon it. However it may happen, make no mistake, it was given to them by God

For His glory one way or another so we are called to submit to that authority.

And there is a powerful truth that we need to be reminded of:

He is sovereign and all authority and powers are in submission to Him

So when you can’t make sense of it, have faith that He is in control. Stand firm

When you can’t see any good, have faith that He is in control. Stand firm

When your anxiety runs rampant. Have faith that He is in control. Stand firm

When you just want to throw in the towel and be done with it all, have faith that He is in control. Stand firm.

Peter ends his letter with a powerful call and a reminder

1 Peter 5:6–11 NIV

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.