Tawa Baptist

AAA

Scripture: 1st Peter 4:1-6

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Attitude
  • Abstinence
  • Accountability
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Some years ago, before the internet, each household with a landline phone was given a telephone book. This book was quite thick (thicker than it is today) and was divided into two sections, a white pages and a yellow pages.

Since the book was organized in alphabetical order, some tradesmen used to put three AAA’s in front of their name so they would be the first in the phone book. The three AAA’s did not stand for anything necessarily. The idea was that the triple AAA Plumbing company was going to get more business because it was easier for people to find their number.

The internet is not organized in the same way, so putting three AAA’s in front of your company’s name does not really work anymore.     

Today we continue our series in the New Testament letter of first Peter, focusing on chapter 4, verses 1-6. This is a kind of triple AAA passage, except these A’s do stand for something: Attitude, Abstinence and Accountability. From 1st Peter 4, verses 1-6, we read…   

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead,so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

In this reading Peter addresses the need for Christians to have the right attitude to suffering, to abstain from immoral behavior and he reminds us that everyone will be held accountable to God for the way they have behaved in this life. Let’s start with the first of Peter’s three A’s; Attitude.

Attitude:

If you are in the police force or the fire service or if you work in the emergency department of a hospital, then you know that in your line of work you are going to face some fairly confronting situations. Although you are there to help people and to do good, not everyone is going to cooperate with you or appreciate your presence. Therefore, in going to work, you prepare yourself mentally.

In the same way a police officer puts on a stab proof vest and a firefighter wears special protective clothing and a doctor or nurse puts on PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) so too they arm themselves mentally with the right kind of attitude or mindset to cope with the unpredictable nature of their work.

In verse 1 of chapter 4 Peter writes: Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.

Peter’s first century readers were (generally speaking) not understood and not liked by the wider society in which they lived. Earlier in the letter Peter had described the Christian community as aliens and strangers in this world.

With this in mind believers needed to have the right mental attitude to suffering. Like a police officer or a fire-fighter, they needed to go into the day with their eyes open, not expecting it to be easy but being prepared to suffer in some way.

It’s like when a rugby player places themselves to catch the high ball. They do so knowing they are likely to get pummeled in a running tackle. Or an opening batsman in a test match knows they have to stay sharp to avoid the bouncers and body blows coming their way from the fast bowlers fresh with the new ball.

When Peter, says whoever suffers in the body is done with sin, he does not mean that believers have attained sinless perfection. Rather he means those who commit themselves to suffer, who willingly endure scorn and mockery for their faith, show they have triumphed over sin. [1] They show that their commitment to a new way of life is greater than their commitment to their old way of life. They are not perfect yet, but they are on a completely different path.

Now in saying that Christians should be mentally prepared to suffer, we need to be careful not to misunderstand Peter’s intention. The suffering in view here is as representatives of Christ. While God does have ways of redeeming any kind of suffering, it does not automatically follow that all suffering is good. Sometimes suffering can cause us to walk in the way of righteousness and other times it actually makes us more vulnerable to sin.

For example, if you grew up with alcoholic parents and suffered as a child because of it, that suffering might motivate you to avoid the same mistakes that your parents made. But it might also make you more susceptible to following in their footsteps.

Or if you suffer from loneliness, then it could have the effect of softening your heart and making you more open, more kind, more available to those who don’t fit in easily. Then again it could drive you to drink or adultery.

Suffering, in the form of depression, can reduce your capacity to enjoy bodily pleasures (like eating and drinking and sex). But by the same token it can also rob you of hope and take away your ability to praise God. Losing all lust for life is not a good thing.

Suffering can take you down any number of paths. Suffering is not intrinsically virtuous. So we don’t want to go looking for suffering. There is enough suffering in this life without adding to it. The suffering of illness. The suffering of old age. The suffering of wars and pandemics and economic hardship. The list goes on. Better to try and enjoy life within God’s boundaries.

In any case, the kind of suffering Peter has in mind in these verses is not the random suffering anyone might experience in life. Rather it is suffering as a consequence of doing God’s will. Verse 2 of chapter 4 makes it clear that our attitude or mind set needs to be oriented towards God’s will, even if that means some discomfort for us in this life.

We won’t always get a hard time from non-Christians for being faithful to God. In fact, we may get respect. But Peter’s readers lived in a culture that earned them dishonor and disrespect for living a Christian lifestyle. Because the way of Jesus is foreign to the ways of the world, it is inevitable that Jesus’ followers will suffer through their association with Christ.    

Jesus certainly had a mindset, an attitude and an orientation of being obedient to his heavenly Father, even if that meant suffering. Jesus consciously and intentionally embraced his God given calling.

In Luke 9, we read that Jesus set his face like flint toward Jerusalem. Jesus knew it was God’s will for him to go to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die. Did he want to suffer like this? No, not really. But he set out resolutely – he steeled his mind, he armed himself with the right kind of mental attitude, to face the coming trial.

We see Jesus’ attitude to suffering for the will of God most clearly in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prepared himself for the pain of the cross. In Luke 22:44 we read: And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Jesus armed himself with the right attitude through anguished prayer.

Now, while it is true that we need to be mentally prepared to suffer for doing God’s will, wisdom requires us to maintain a healthy balance in our attitude. No one can function at high alert all the time. No one can sustain Gethsemane level intensity for very long.

When a police officer or fire-fighter or ED worker finishes their shift, they need to take time off to relax and decompress. They need to find something else to think about so the job does not swallow them whole.

While we can never really switch off from being a Christian (because it’s a 24-7 gig) we still need to make sacred time and space to enjoy life in a healthy way. We need to stop sometimes and recognize the good news. If we go into every day thinking: ‘Here we go again, another round of suffering for Jesus’, then we run the risk of developing a siege mentality and always expecting the worst.

So there is a balance to find here in our attitude, between being ready to suffer for righteousness and ready to celebrate the good things.

Okay, so having the right attitude is Peter’s first A. The second A stands for abstinence.

Abstinence:

Getting baptized and becoming a Christian means abstaining from certain behaviours that do not characterize Christ. To abstain means to not do something.

A couple of months ago there was a short series on TV3 called Match Fit. Match Fit featured a number of ex-All Blacks, who Graham Henry & Buck Shelford brought out of retirement to play in a one off game against a Barbarians side.                     

Most of these players were out of shape. The programme showed some of the things they did to get ready to play at Eden Park. A big part of the preparation was having the right mental fitness, the right attitude. They had to get their head sorted at the same time they worked on their bodies.

Getting match fit also required the players to make a radical change to their lifestyle. They had to re-establish healthy routines of eating, training and resting. This meant a certain amount of abstinence. No more eating pies and chips and lollies.

One of the things their trainer said, which stuck with me, was that when you take something bad out of your diet, replace it with something good. So don’t just abstain from eating chocolate biscuits. Don’t just go hungry. Eat a carrot or an apple instead because your body still needs fuel to function.

In verses 2-3 of chapter 4, Peter writes:      

As a result, they [meaning those who have the same attitude as Christ] do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

Peter is talking here about abstaining from self-indulgence and immoral behavior. He is saying, when you abstain from debauchery, drunkenness, orgies and idolatry, replace these things with the will of God. The will of God is healthy food for us. The will of God is like fruit and vegetables for our soul. It might not always be to our taste but it is good for us and it sustains us.

Now some of the words in Peter’s vice list are self-explanatory, like drunkenness, we all know what that looks like. But there are a couple of words there that you may not be familiar with like ‘carousing’ for instance. Carousing is another word for a loud drinking party. The sort that brings noise control out. Like ‘crate day’.  Debauchery refers to an over indulgence in bodily pleasures, particularly sexual pleasures. And idolatry is the worship of anything other than the one true God.

Eating and drinking and having sex with temple prostitutes was often part and parcel of the pagan religions of Peter’s day. The Romans and Greeks had made a religion out of debauchery and carousing. For them getting drunk and having orgies was not considered bad behavior. For them it went hand in hand with appeasing the gods and being a good citizen. 

In contrast to the paganism of the first century, a Christian lifestyle is not characterized by excess, but by moderation. Balance is important. It is usually better to avoid extremes because the pendulum of desire has a way of swinging back in the other direction.

In other words, it is okay to drink alcohol so long as you don’t get drunk. Of course, if you are not able to stop at one drink then you are best not to start drinking at all. It does not work to go out on a bender on Friday night and then sing worship songs in church on a Sunday as if Friday night did not happen.

Likewise, it is okay to celebrate with a party but the purpose of the party should not be to get intoxicated. The purpose should be to express thanksgiving and build healthy relationships with others.

And, for Christians, there is nothing wrong with enjoying sex, so long as it is within a loving marriage relationship.

Worship is good too, but only worship of the living God. We must not put anything else in the place of God Almighty.

The point is, we need to abstain from self-indulgent excesses and instead replace that behavior with doing God’s will. This is more sustaining to our soul and more consistent with the life Jesus lived.     

Jesus famously went without food in the wilderness for 40 days. The rest of the time though he was quite happy to enjoy people’s hospitality and go to parties. Jesus abstained from lots of things during his life. He abstained from bitterness and revenge. He abstained from hypocrisy and deceit. He abstained from sex and bad language. Jesus had perfect control over himself – both his mind and his body. And there is a certain peace and empowerment that comes with that.

How was Jesus able to do this? In John 4, after speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus’ disciples urged him to eat something. But the Lord said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about… My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

There is a fulfilment and meaning in doing what God wants us to do, which satisfies and sustains our soul, in a way that nothing else can.

Jesus was able to abstain from self-indulgent excess because he had the right attitude. His mind set was to obey the will of God for him, even when that meant suffering.

The other thing that helps us to do the will of God is accountability.

Accountability:

In the Match Fit TV series, the players underwent a special body scan at the beginning of their training to measure their body fat and metabolic age. Then at the end of the series, after they had trained for a couple of months, they had a second scan to see what difference the training had made. All of them improved to some degree or other. That second scan was their accountability.

They had another measure of accountability too; a fitness test known as the Bronco. With the Bronco players run shuttles of 20, 40 and then 60 meters. This set is repeated 5 times. The goal is to do this as quickly as possible.

If you are going to be on national TV, you don’t want to make a fool of yourself. When the day of accountability comes and they measure your visceral fat you want to have better stats than when you started. Same thing with the Bronco. When the day of accountability comes you want to have a faster time.

From verse 4 of chapter 4 we read:

They [that is, the pagans] think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Notice the poetry in that phrase, flood of dissipation. It creates a connection with God’s judgement through the flood of Noah’s day.  

Many of Peter’s readers used to live a pagan lifestyle, complete with orgies and wild drinking parties. But when they were baptised and became Christians they stopped all that. As a consequence, they were ridiculed and verbally abused by their ex-drinking buddies.

As I said earlier, the pagan society of the first century had made a religion out of debauchery so, in their mind, Christians were bad citizens for not appeasing the gods and going along with their rituals. In fact, the pagans used to refer to Christians as ‘atheists’ because they refused to participate in the worship of the Roman & Greek gods.

Peter is saying that those who criticize and malign Christians will have to give account to the one who judges the living and the dead. In other words, everyone who has ever lived, past, present and future will be accountable to God Almighty for the way they have conducted themselves in this life.

Some will be vindicated by God (because of their loyalty to Jesus) and others will condemn themselves by the choices they have made.         

In verse 6 of chapter 4 Peter continues the theme of accountability where he writes: For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead,so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

This is one of those bird’s nest verses, if you remember last week’s sermon. People have got themselves into all sorts of tangles trying to unpick the meaning here.

Some think this verse is talking about Jesus preaching the gospel to the dead so they can be saved. While that idea is attractive in some ways, it is not consistent with the teaching of Jesus and it is not what Peter is getting at here.

Let me explain. The pagans of Peter’s day could dismiss the Christian faith by saying that Christian believers died in the same way as unbelievers. So if everyone succumbs to the same fate (of physical death) then what is the point of suffering and abstaining from bodily pleasure as Christians do?

Good question. What is the point? The point is, this life is not all there is. Physical death is a kind of judgment but it is not the final judgment. Those Christians who are now dead might be judged by non-Christians to have wasted their lives. But actually death is not the last word for believers. Those people who are now dead, but who put their faith in Jesus while they were still alive, will one day be acquitted at the final judgement and raised to eternal life with Christ.

This might seem like old hat to us but it was welcome news for Peter’s readers. We need to remember that the death of Christians created a problem for the church in the time of the apostles. It made some people think those who died before Jesus returned had missed out on their reward. But that is not the case at all. The dead in Christ will be raised to life also. 

Peter probably had in mind the Wisdom of Solomon when he wrote verse 6. From chapter 3 of the Wisdom of Solomon we read:

“But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself…” [2]

In basic terms both Peter and the writer of the Wisdom of Solomon are saying:

The wicked wrongly think the death of the righteous is a punishment and so the righteous are no better off. What the wicked do not understand is the difficulties of the present are only temporary. Believers have a future hope of eternal life. [3]

Conclusion:

Peter’s triple AAA gospel not only offers the promise of heaven. It stands for something in this life as well: Attitude, Abstinence and Accountability.

Let me leave you with a couple of questions:

Which of the three A’s is most difficult for you?

And what do you think Jesus would suggest you do about that? 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What attitude or mind-set do you face the world with? Is this working for you? How is your attitude similar to (or different from) the attitude Peter recommends in 4:1?
  • What examples do we see in the gospels of Jesus’ attitude to suffering and obedience to God?  How might we arm ourselves with the same attitude as Christ? How might we keep a healthy balance in our mind-set?
  • Why did the pagans of the first century ‘heap abuse’ on Christians? Why do we need to abstain from the vices Peter lists in 4:3? Why is moderation helpful to aim for?
  • In what sense is God’s judgement a source of hope for Christian believers?
  • What does Peter mean in 4:6? What first century issues / questions was Peter addressing in this verse?
  • Which of the three AAA’s (Attitude, Abstinence or Accountability) is most difficult for you? Why is this do you think? What little steps of improvement can you make in this area? 

[1] Refer Thomas Schreiner’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 201.

[2] Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-6.

[3] Refer Thomas Schreiner’s commentary on First Peter, page 209. 

Tawa Baptist

Reach

Scripture: 1st Peter 3:18-22

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Righteousness & Atonement
  • Exaltation & Confidence
  • Conclusion – Humanity

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If you have ever been fishing with a rod and reel then you will know the importance of not getting your line in a tangle. If you let out the fishing line too quickly the nylon on the reel turns into a birds’ nest. When that happens you just have to slow down and let the line all the way out, until it is untangled, then wind it back up again.

Untangling fishing lines is good practice for brushing knots out of children’s hair and untangling your wife’s necklaces.

This morning we continue our series in first Peter, focusing on chapter 3, verses 18-22. This passage is a bit of birds’ nest. No disrespect to Peter but people throughout the centuries have got themselves into all sorts of knots trying to understand what Peter meant. Even the great reformer, Martin Luther, said he could not understand this passage. What may have been obvious to Peter’s first century audience is simply lost on us. So we approach this reading with humility, being honest about the limits of our knowledge.

From first Peter chapter 3, verses 18-22, we read…     

18 For Christ diedfor sins once for all,the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 through whom alsohe went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patientlyin the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were savedthrough water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good consciencetoward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand — with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Just as it is important to avoid getting your fishing line in a tangle, so too we need to keep our thoughts in order when we read Scripture. To save any intellectual birds’ nests, the big idea of today’s message is: nothing is beyond Jesus’ reach. The victory and Lordship of Jesus is comprehensive in its scope, both in this world and in the spiritual realm. So that’s the headline: ‘Nothing is beyond Jesus’ reach.’

With that in mind, there are five things in today’s text that I want to draw your attention to, and they are all about Jesus. These verses speak of the righteousness of Christ, the exaltation of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the confidence we can have in Christ and the humanity of Christ.

Righteousness, Exaltation, Atonement, Confidence and Humanity. R.E.A.C.H. It spells reach. First let’s consider the righteousness of Christ and the atonement of Christ together – because they go hand in hand in Peter’s thought here.

Righteousness & Atonement:

Righteousness has to do with right relationship – acting with justice and kindness in our relationships with others. Loving God and loving our neighbour.

Atonement also has to do with relationship. In very simple terms, the meaning of atonement can be found in the syllables: At-one-ment. If we do something unrighteous (something unjust or unkind) in our relationship with another person, then the relationship is no longer one. It is damaged. Perhaps not broken into a thousand pieces but at least fractured, no longer whole.

For us to be in right relationship with that person again we must make atonement – we must do something to put the relationship right so we are at-one with that person.     

Let me illustrate what I mean. I have here a packet of biscuits from the kids’ Sunday school. This packet is unopened. It is one. It is whole. None of the biscuits are missing. But what if I were to open the packet and eat one or two of the biscuits?

Well, if I did that (and I’m not saying that I have) but if I did, then the packet of biscuits would not be one anymore. I could not, in good conscience, give the Flock Sunday school kids a half-eaten packet of biscuits. What would I need to do to make atonement in that situation do you think?

[Wait] That’s right. I would need to replace the biscuits. Then my relationship with the kids and my relationship with myself (my conscience) would be right again. It would be at-one and whole.   

Of course, replacing a packet of biscuits is an easy thing to atone for. But some things cannot be replaced. If you break someone’s heart or betray their trust or do something that cannot be undone, then it becomes far more difficult to put the relationship right again and atonement feels out of reach. Well, it might be out of reach for us but it is not out of reach for Jesus.  

In verse 18 of chapter 3 Peter writes: For Christ diedfor sins once for all,the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

This verse is talking about the atonement Jesus made for humanity on the cross. Jesus was completely righteous in all his ways. He alone is the only human being to have lived a sinless life and so he alone is the only one who can atone for the rest of us who have sinned and cannot atone for ourselves.

In the Old Testament Jews would atone for their sins (they would replace the biscuits they had stolen) by sacrificing an animal, one without blemish, one that was whole and healthy. That was a ritual they had to keep repeating. It was like the atonement did not stick. It was only temporary. So righteousness, of a lasting kind, was always out of reach for them.

But Jesus died for sins once for all. The quality of his sacrifice was sufficient to atone for all sins through all time, so there is no need for any more animal sacrifices. Jesus does not just replace the packet of biscuits. He redeems the whole biscuit factory.

Jesus died for sins to bring us to God. You see, we have all broken trust with God. We have all done injury to God’s heart. We have all taken something that cannot be replaced. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Jesus’ death somehow makes us at-one with God again. Jesus’ death and resurrection brings right relationship, with God, within our reach.

Our salvation is not automatic though. While the atonement of Jesus is a permanent fix and while it does bring righteousness within reach, we still have to take hold of it by faith. And this is what Peter is getting at in verse 21 of chapter 3 when he talks about baptism:

…and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good consciencetoward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Baptism is the ritual of Christian initiation. It is a beginning.  It is how we demonstrate we want to be a Christian. Baptism is a way of publicly saying, ‘I want to take hold of the righteousness that is now within my reach because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.’

Notice that it’s not just Jesus’ death which saves us but his resurrection also. Jesus’ death and resurrection go together. Baptism is a symbolic re-enactment or identification with Jesus’ death and resurrection. When we go down under the water we are saying, ‘my old way of life is now dead to me’. And when we rise up out of the water we are saying, ‘I pledge to live for righteousness.’

Peter wants to make it clear that it is not the ritual of baptism itself that saves us. The water is not magic. It is Jesus’ death & resurrection that saves. Baptism is a way of asking God (on the basis of the atonement Jesus made) to cleanse our conscience and forgive our sins.

Sometimes people put off being baptised because they feel like they are not good enough yet. Baptism is not a badge that says you’ve made it. It is a confession that says you are a sinner (you’ve eaten the biscuits and you can’t replace them) but you want to live for righteousness. So you don’t you have to be perfect in order to be baptised but you do need to be prepared to make a few changes to your lifestyle. Baptism does not mean business as usual.  

Okay, so we are talking about how nothing is out of reach for Jesus and he brings righteousness and atonement within reach for us.

In this morning’s reading Peter also focuses on the exaltation of Christ and the confidence this gives to Christian believers.

Exaltation & Confidence:

We live in a relatively egalitarian society here in New Zealand. One which is quite flat in terms of its social structure. No one likes to stick out too much. In some ways this is good. We enjoy a certain degree of equality; of being on an even footing with others. But the shadow side to this is tall poppy syndrome. Tall poppy syndrome is a phrase which means cutting people down who might succeed or rise above the rest.

New Zealand is not like other countries. We are less inclined to celebrate success and more inclined to criticize those who do well. Which sounds crazy, when you say it like that, but it’s true.

A couple of weeks ago a guy called Jay came and spoke to a group of Wellington Baptist pastors. Jay is the national coordinator for 24-7 youth work in New Zealand and he is also the founder of a movement called E Tū Tāngata.

E Tū Tāngata is a Maori term.  E Tū means stand and Tāngata means people. But it translates as Stand Together. E Tū Tāngata is about people standing up together against tall poppy syndrome. That means valuing ourselves and others. Not putting ourselves or others down.

When speaking to groups of people Jay often asks the question, ‘On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate yourself?’ (10 being absolutely amazing and 1 being not great). Most people say they are a 6 or 7, because they live in New Zealand and that’s the right answer in kiwi culture. We want to be just above average but not too far above the rest because then we will get cut down. 

The problem with tall poppy syndrome is that it infects our mind-set. It puts us on a downward mental spiral. Life is hard enough without being hard on ourselves too. We need to be on our own side.       

When the Bible talks about the exaltation of Christ it means the lifting up of Jesus. The exaltation of Christ includes his resurrection from the dead, his ascension to heaven and his enthronement at the right hand of God. Peter spells this out in verse 22 where he says:   

[You are] saved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand — with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Jesus’ exaltation makes him the tallest poppy around and in New Zealand culture that also makes him (and his followers) a target.  

As kiwis we might hear those verses about Jesus’ exaltation and think: Not sure I like that image of Jesus. I liked him better when he was washing feet and being a carpenter and rubbing shoulders with ordinary people. I liked him better when he was more on my level.

The truth is Jesus has always been a 10 and that’s okay. In fact, it is good news, because Jesus being better than us (his being perfect) is what brings righteousness and atonement within reach. God wants to raise us up. He wants us to realise that, in Christ, we are 10’s also.   

You know, tall poppy syndrome makes us blind and deaf to certain things. When we read that verse in the gospels where Jesus talks about loving your neighbour as you love yourself, we might hear, ‘I must love my neighbour and whenever I fail to love my neighbour I’m no good, I’m a 1 or a 2’. Something else to feel stink about.  

But we can be slow to hear the second part of what Jesus is saying there which is love yourself. Love in this context means to seek the well-being of your neighbour and yourself. We cannot sustain love for our neighbour out of an empty well. Loving yourself means taking care of your own needs. Not being self-indulgent but having grace for yourself. Not being too hard on yourself. Not letting your inner critic dictate a mantra of negative self-talk. 

The exaltation of Jesus is something for us to celebrate because it gives us confidence. Who do you want to see exalted? Who do you want to see in charge? Do you want someone who doesn’t know what they are doing? Who makes poor decisions and cannot be trusted? Or do you want someone who is wise and kind and just? Someone who is firm but fair, strong but also compassionate. I think we all want the latter. We want Jesus to be lifted up because he can be trusted. The exaltation of Christ gives us confidence. Confidence to reach for righteousness and peace. Confidence to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.     

Verses 19 and 20 of chapter 3 are among the most knotty in the Bible. This is where the birds’ nest often comes into play. Peter writes:

Jesus was… made alive in the Spirit. 19 through whom alsohe went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patientlyin the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were savedthrough water,

Much ink has been spilt by scholars trying to understand these words. While we cannot fully comprehend exactly what Peter is saying here, the general gist seems to be that the exaltation of Christ gives Christian believers confidence.

Say whaaat? Let me explain.    

Peter says that Jesus made proclamation to the spirits in prison who disobeyed in the days of Noah. Who these spirits are and where the prison is exactly is disputed. I won’t confuse you with all the different theories but I will present you with the majority opinion among Bible experts today.

You may remember from the series on Noah, a few months ago, that the people of Noah’s day were so bad that God gave up on them and decided to start again with Noah and his family. It is thought that the spirits Peter refers to were the evil spiritual beings of Noah’s time who, according to Genesis 6, overstepped God’s boundaries by sleeping with human women.

In Jewish tradition these fallen angels were behind a lot of the bad stuff that happened in Noah’s day, so God locked them up in a prison somewhere in the spiritual realm. Jesus went to these spirits in prison to let them know he had conquered sin and death and so he is in charge. Sort of a victory speech.

The message to Peter’s readers is to be confident in their suffering for Christ because Jesus still reigns and rules. He has not surrendered believers to the power of evil forces. Jesus triumphed over all evil by his death & resurrection. By implication those who put their faith in Christ and share in his suffering will also share in his exaltation and reign with him. [1]

Suffering with and for Christ is a reason for confidence, because it is the path to exaltation.

Peter was comparing the fledgling church of the first Century to Noah and those with him in the ark. The Christians of Peter’s day were like Noah and his family; a small minority in a world that was hostile to them. But they could be confident that, like Noah, their future would be secure when the flood of God’s judgement came.

The fact that Jesus is exalted to the highest place means that nothing is out of reach for Jesus. As the psalmist says:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.    

Nothing is out of reach for Jesus.

Conclusion:

The H in our REACH acrostic stands for the humanity of Jesus. Verse 18 tells us Jesus was put to death in the body. This is a reference to Jesus’ humanity. Jesus had a physical body like us. He experienced the weakness of the flesh like we do. He understood hunger and pain and temptation. And he died as all people must. Jesus was fully human. He was not just a heavenly tourist on this earth.

The fact that Jesus is from heaven and is human means that he can bring the kingdom of heaven within reach for us. Jesus offers us his righteousness, his exaltation, his atonement, his confidence and his humanity.

May grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What is righteousness? What is atonement? How do we make (or find) atonement? Are there things in your life that you long to atone for?
  • How do we take hold of the righteousness and atonement that Christ offers?
  • On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate yourself? (10 being absolutely amazing and 1 being not great).  Why is that do you think? Would your private answer be different from your public answer? How so?
  • What is meant by the exaltation of Christ? Why is Jesus’ exaltation good news for us?
  • Why does Peter compare his readers to Noah and his family? In what ways was Noah’s situation parallel with Peter’s first century audience? In what ways is Noah’s situation parallel with ours?
  • What confidence do you take, personally, from Jesus’ exaltation and humanity?

[1] Refer Thomas Schreiner’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 198.

Tawa Baptist

Sanctuary

Scripture: 1st Peter 3:13-17

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Sanctuary
  • Transparency
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Before we start I just want to say ‘thank you’ to the mystery person who put peanut brownie cookies in my letterbox last Monday. That was a winsome thing to do. They were delicious and I appreciated the connection with the sermon.

Today we continue our series in first Peter, focusing on chapter 3, verses 13-17. Part of the purpose of Peter’s letter is to encourage Christians who were suffering for their faith in Jesus. At the time Peter was writing, the church in Asia Minor was probably not subject to full on persecution but Christians were a marginalized minority, viewed with suspicion. There was social pressure to hide one’s faith in Christ. Believers were apparently misunderstood, maligned and slandered. In a culture where reputation was everything, the church’s reputation was getting a beating.

In today’s passage, and the verses that follow, Peter talks about how the Christian community is to handle itself in that context.

From 1st Peter chapter 3, verses 13-17, we read… 

13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hopethat you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience,so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will,to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Two words which give us a handle on this passage are sanctuary and transparency. We are to find sanctuary in Christ and we are to be transparent (or open) about our hope in Jesus.   

Sanctuary:

Last Monday, while someone was putting peanut brownie biscuits in my letterbox, I was at Zealandier, also known as the Karori Bird Sanctuary. As most of you probably know Zealandier has a special fence around it to keep predators out. The idea is to provide a secure environment which is attractive to birds. One which is filled with the kinds of trees native birds like to feed off.

In some ways Zealandier is to native birds what Christ is to Christians. Just as native birds find sanctuary at Zealandier, so too we Christian believers find our sanctuary, our security, our home and our nourishment in Christ. To be a Christian is to be in Christ. We thrive in Christ, just like native birds thrive in the Karori Sanctuary and just like branches thrive when connected to the vine.   

In verse 13, of chapter 3, Peter says: Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

There is sanctuary, there is security, in doing good. If you do something bad, something which is outside of a Christian lifestyle, then you invite unnecessary risk and harm into your life. Sort of like a bird that chooses to make its nest outside Zealandier invites the threat of cats and other predators.   

In verse 14 Peter goes on to say: But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.

These words echo the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:10 where the Lord says: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It might seem contradictory to us that we are blessed if we suffer for doing what is right, because suffering for any reason does not feel good, it hurts. Being blessed is not measured by a subjective feeling though. Being blessed is an objective state of being.

If someone asks you to do something difficult it is actually a complement. It says, ‘I trust you to handle it.’ And that’s how Peter sees it.  For him it is a privilege, or a sign of God’s favour, to suffer for Christ (if that is God’s will).

Verse 16 also picks up the idea of finding sanctuary in doing good. Peter writes about, keeping a clear conscience,so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

It is never pleasant to be the subject of rumour and malicious talk. It feels unfair and something in us wants to cry out, ‘It’s not true’. But we know that the louder we protest in our own defence, the more guilty we appear. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: ‘The lady doth protest too much, me thinks’.

We heard last week that true humility means not responding to people’s insults but trusting God to vindicate us. One sanctuary, or safe place we take refuge in, when we are slandered, is a clear conscience. We can find strength and security in knowing we are not guilty of the things our adversaries accuse us of.

We also find sanctuary in the knowledge that God is just and all knowing. He will defend us in his good time. That’s what Peter means when he talks about his readers’ enemies being ashamed of their slander. It’s not that we wish our enemies to be embarrassed. Rather, we want the truth to win out in the end, because the truth is in everyone’s interests.

Following this train of thought, verse 17 reads: For it is better, if it is God’s will,to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  

Peter’s point is that his readers’ present suffering, for doing good, is not a sign of God’s punishment or displeasure but rather a sign of his blessing, his favour. If we suffer for the sake of righteousness, we stand to receive a reward.   

From the second part of verse 14 Peter says: “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

This is a reference to Isaiah 8, where the Lord (Yahweh) says to the prophet:

12 “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. 13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread. 14 and he will be a sanctuary;

In the context of Isaiah 8, the people of Judah were afraid of being invaded and overrun by their enemies. But the Lord’s message to Isaiah was, do not be afraid like the people. I, the Lord God Almighty, am in control. Fear me. Revere me. Regard me as holy and I will be a sanctuary for you. 

Peter’s first century readers may have been tempted to give in to fear of their neighbours. After all the Christian church was vulnerable; it was a marginalised minority in a potentially hostile environment. Peter’s message to them is do not be afraid of your pagan neighbours. The Lord Jesus is in control. Revere him. Notice how Peter equates Jesus with Yahweh, the Lord.  Peter is saying that Jesus is our sanctuary.  

To revere Jesus as Lord, in our heart, is to keep Jesus in the center of our lives – to orientate our whole lives around Christ and his teaching.  

There is a Baptist pastor from the South Island by the name of Andy Edwards who has worked in pastoral ministry for 30 years. Andy writes, “My biggest desire, which is my biggest challenge, is being ‘present’ to God, myself and others… and in this journey I have found slowing down and stillness to be the precondition of presence.”  

Stillness is the precondition of presence. I like that.

When I was at Zealandia last Monday, I found myself on the top of a ridge on the Lakeview Track, which overlooks the upper dam. As often happens in the bush I could hear many birds all around but I could not see any. So I sat down on a bench beside a couple of feeding stations. Just sat quietly in stillness, not really expecting anything to happen.

Within two minutes a male saddleback and a male bell bird turned up and started feeding on the sugar water. (You can tell the males because they usually have brighter feathers than the females, which is sort the opposite of the human species.) These birds were about a meter away and they stopped there to feed for a good five minutes, although I wasn’t really keeping track of the time. It was a beautiful moment; a moment of genuine sanctuary.

To revere Christ in our hearts includes being present to Jesus, present to ourselves and present to others. Stillness is the precondition of presence. Now obviously we cannot be still all the time. Much of the time life requires us to be active and on the move. But we need to stop and be still sometimes in order to revere Christ and be present to him.

Fear, anxiety, worry, conspiracy, these are the predators that rob the human soul of stillness. When we revere Jesus in our hearts, we find sanctuary from fear and a certain stillness for our soul, so that we may be nourished by the presence of God.

Transparency:

Zealandier is not like a zoo. It is not a cage where the birds are trapped inside. There is a fence to keep rats and cats and possums out but there is no roof to keep the birds in. Zealandier is transparent. It is open to the public and the birds are free to come and go as they please. The transparency of the sanctuary actually encourages native bird life in the greater Wellington area. 

Being in Christ is like being in a sanctuary that has a definite boundary fence or code of conduct, but it also has a gate to give access to the public and it has no roof, it is open to be shared.  

In verse 15, after having told his readers to revere Christ as Lord, Peter writes: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hopethat you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…

So far, throughout this series, we have heard Peter encouraging his readers to be a winsome witness and let their distinctive Christian lifestyle do the talking. Here, in verse 15, Peter says be prepared to speak words of explanation as well.

The idea is that we Christians are to be open and transparent about our hope in Jesus. We are not to push our beliefs down people’s throats. (That would not be respectful or gentle.) Nor are we to keep our faith locked away like an animal in a cage. Rather we are to be prepared to speak when invited.

Peter had to learn this the hard way. On the night when Jesus was betrayed and arrested Peter was not prepared. He was standing outside warming himself by the fire when those with him asked if he was with Jesus. Sadly, Peter denied this three times without gentleness or respect.

But Peter found redemption. Later, after Jesus’ resurrection, when Peter was brought before the same Council who condemned Jesus, Peter was prepared to speak words of reason, with gentleness and respect. 

Okay, so what might you say if someone asks you why you are a Christian? Well, I’m not going to give you a script to follow. It does not work to recite someone else’s words. That just sounds like a telemarketer trying to sell you something. What we say has to be real and genuine. You have to find your own words and your own way of getting the message across.

With these things in mind, try to remember this acrostic. L.O.V.E. Love. Love is the main point of the gospel message. Jesus came to show us God’s love.

L stands for listen. Love listens. If someone wants to have a conversation about your Christian faith, then try to listen to what they are really saying. Listening is both respectful and gentle. Listening earns us the right to be heard and it helps us to understand the other person better.

Which brings us to the O in ourL.O.V.E. acrostic. O stands for others. If someone asks you to give account for the hope you have, you need to understand it’s not about you, it’s about them. What do they need from this conversation? We learn what others need by listening and asking questions.

What you say does not need to be long but it does need to be clear. Don’t use Christian jargon or big theological words that make the other person feel small. Because that is not gentle or respectful and it does not communicate God’s love. The Christian faith is reasonable. It is logical. It makes sense. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and ask, ‘what sense are they making of what I’m saying?’.

V is for vulnerable. Make yourself vulnerable, without going overboard, and without making anyone else vulnerable. Do not speak down to the person. Do not patronize. Come alongside. Share from your heart as much as is helpful. There is a risk with sharing something deeply personal, like our hope in Jesus. We risk rejection.

But that is the way of Christ. Jesus did not coerce people. He challenged people, yes. And his words disturbed people. But he spoke from a place of vulnerability. He did it without defending himself, with his arms open and his heart exposed.

There is a certain stillness in making ourselves vulnerable for the sake of the other person. Even when people cannot understand the content of what we are saying, if we say it with vulnerability, so that the other person knows they are standing on holy ground, a feeling of stillness settles on the conversation and a door to God’s presence is opened.

E is for experience. When it comes to sharing your faith, experience is your friend. People cannot argue with your experience. I like to talk about the goodness of God and the meaning God gives to life because that is real in my experience. One of the reasons I am a Christian is because Jesus makes this world a better place. He makes ugly things (ugly situations) beautiful.

He makes pain bearable.

He comes alongside me when I am lonely and shows me his scars so that, without words, I know I am understood. I am not alone.

He does not lie to me and, for those who have been let down and lied to a lot, that is huge. That is gold.

There is a purity to Jesus that I love and am terrified of at the same time.

These are my words. You need to find your own words based on your experience of God.

When you are in a conversation think L.O.V.E. Start by listening. Remember it is not about you. It is about the other person. Be prepared to make yourself vulnerable but not too vulnerable. Share don’t scare. And speak from your own experience.  

So how might we prepare ourselves then? How might we find the words we need to articulate our hope?

We need to take time daily to soak in the Scriptures and be present to what the Holy Spirit might be saying.

We also need to think about our faith and sometimes to wrestle with the gnarly bits. When you boil it all down, what is it you actually believe to be true in simple language.

And how does that square with the Scriptures, with your own experience and the experience of other believers?

In verse 15, when Peter talks about the hopeyou have… the you is plural, not singular. So it is both your hope personally and our hope collectively. Hearing what other Christians believe and how they have made sense of the gnarly bits helps us in forming what we believe. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. But you do have to own it. It has to be real for you and that takes a process.  

Hope here refers to future salvation. Hope therefore is having faith (or trust) that, even though the present may be difficult, we have something good to look forward to in the future.

That hope may be the hope of resurrection and seeing Jesus face to face.

It may be the hope of being reunited with loved ones who have passed on.

It could be the hope of seeing justice done, of God vindicating the righteous and righting wrongs

It may the hope of seeing a friend or family member share our faith in Christ

Or it may be the hope of being set free from the limitations and burdens and pain we carry in this life.

You know the hope you carry inside you. You know the hope that carries you.

I do not pretend to be good at hope. Like Jonah I tend to think the worst. But, like Jonah, I also know God is more gracious than I am. Which is why God does not quit me and I cannot quit him. And so I find hope in God’s character, his goodness.   

We are talking about the need to be transparent about our faith; to be open about our hope in Jesus. Those of us who were at the church forum last Wednesday saw a wonderful example of transparent hope when Katie & Dan shared with us their sense of call to become youth pastors.

Dan & Katie were quite open with us about the journey they are on. This openness (this transparency) created a moment of stillness, I felt. There were a couple of things Dan said in particular, which I won’t share with you because it is Dan’s story and it is for him to share. But the gentleness and respect and vulnerability with which they shared created a stillness which opened the door to presence. I have asked Dan & Katie to share with us next Sunday morning.

Conclusion:

We started today’s message hearing about the situation of Peter’s first century readers, how they were misunderstood, maligned and socially marginalised. Our situation in 21st Century New Zealand is not identical to theirs but there is some overlap.

The church in New Zealand today is not persecuted but we are aware of a growing disconnect between what Christians believe and what the wider society, we live in, believes. I don’t think we have it as hard as some of Peter’s readers did but we also do not have it as easy as we once did. It seems Peter’s letter is becoming more and more relevant to us.

We need to maintain our sanctuary in Christ. And that means taking time to be still and wait for the presence of Jesus.

We also need to be transparent about our hope in Christ. And that means being prepared to speak with words of love.   

Let’s stand now and sing, Jesus, be the center…

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What was the situation of Peter’s first century readers? How is that similar (or different) from our situation today?
  • What practical things can we do to find and maintain sanctuary in Christ?
  • Why do we need to take time to be still? How does stillness help us to be present to God, ourselves and others? Do you have regular patterns of stillness in your weekly routine? If not, what would need to change to create space for stillness?
  • Why do we need to be transparent about our hope in Christ?
  • What would you say if someone asked you to talk about the reason for your hope?  
  • Discuss / reflect on the L.O.V.E. acrostic. Which aspects do you need to work on? (e.g. listening, others, vulnerability, experience.)
Tawa Baptist

Blessing

Scripture: 1st Peter 3:8-12

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Defined by character
  • Defined by blessing
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

What would you say defines a banana cake? [Wait]

That’s right – a banana cake is defined by bananas. It is made out of bananas and as a consequence its very character, its smell and taste, is banana-ish.

What about a custard square – what defines a custard square? [Wait]

That’s right – custard. Take the custard out of a custard square and it is no longer a custard square, it’s just a piece of pastry. Keep the custard and it does not matter what shape the pastry is, it is still a custard square.

What about a Christian – what defines a Christian? [Wait]

That’s right – Christ. A Christian is defined by Jesus. If a person stops walking in the way of Christ, they are no longer Christian. But how might we define the way of Christ?

Today we continue our series in first Peter, focusing on chapter 3, verses 8-12. In this passage Peter talks about some of the things that define the way of Jesus and therefore are characteristic of Christians. From verse 8 we read…

8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be understanding, love one another as brothers, be compassionate and humble-minded. 9 Do not repay evil with evilor insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to thisyou were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. 11 They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

In these verses we learn what defines a Christian. We are defined by our distinctive Christ-like character and we are defined by blessing. First let us consider what a Christ-like character smells and tastes like.  

Defined by character:

In my hand here I have a Griffin’s Vanilla Wine biscuit. Vanilla Wines are a plain round biscuit with a distinctive smell and taste. They remind me of my Nana. Often when we went to visit she would put some Vanilla Wine biscuits out for us to eat.

It’s not that my Nana did not do her own baking. She made amazing peanut brownie cookies but I’ve never found a peanut brownie biscuit that tastes just like hers. Fortunately, Griffins have not changed their Vanilla Wine recipe so whenever I want to remember my Nana I simply smell and taste a Vanilla Wine biscuit.  

Character refers to the mental and moral qualities distinctive to a person or community. Character therefore refers to the inner substance of a person or group. Not their physical substance but their moral substance. Character is the seed bed of speech and behavior.

In considering what Christ-like character smells and tastes like, Peter lists five character traits for Christians. In verse 8 we read: …all of you, be like-minded, be understanding, love one another as brothers, be compassionate and humble-minded.    

Notice that Peter starts by saying all of you. In contemporary Western society we tend to think of character in individual terms. But Peter is writing in a cultural context which is more collective in its way of thinking. So these five mental and moral characteristics apply to all Christian believers, both individually and collectively as a community of faith.    

The first moral quality by which Christian character is defined is like-mindedness. Like-mindedness implies working together with other Christians as part of a team or family and not acting in isolation. Like-mindedness also refers to sharing a common heritage and ethical tradition. [1]

Some translations paraphrase the word like-minded as harmony, which provides a lovely image. The church is a bit like an orchestra made up of different people playing different instruments but all playing in a like-minded or harmonious way.

The thing that makes an orchestra like-minded is playing from the same musical score and following the same conductor. In a similar way, the thing that makes the Christian community like-minded is reading the same Bible and following the same example of Jesus Christ.

Closely related to being like-minded is having understanding for one another. Understanding on both an emotional level and an intellectual level. Being happy for people when things go well for them and being supportive of them when life is tough. Understanding requires us to see things from the other person’s point of view and ask ourselves the question; if I was in their shoes what would I find most helpful?

So for example: if the person in question has a problem with alcohol then understanding requires that we don’t buy them a bottle of wine for Christmas.

Or if someone has been abused as a child then understanding might mean not imposing a hug on them because you know they don’t like to be touched.

Or if a couple are not able to have children then understanding means not complaining about your kids keeping you awake at night.

Or if you are a married woman and you have a female friend who is on their own then understanding might mean going on a girls’ night out, rather than inviting your single friend to dinner with lots of couples. You get the idea.

The third character quality that Peter mentions is brotherly love. This comes right in the center of the five virtues, which might indicate it is the most important.

Some more modern translations take out the word brotherly and say ‘love one another’. They do this to appear more gender neutral, more inclusive. But the original text uses the expression brotherly love and when we remove key words in translation we risk watering down the meaning of the text. Brotherly love does not exclude women in any way. As we heard a couple of weeks ago, with the section on instructions to wives, Peter is not writing to men only.

The point is the kind of love Christians are to have for one another is the love that one has for family, for blood relations. We tend to put up with more from family members because they are family. The bond between family members is stronger somehow than other relationships. By using the term brotherly love Peter is saying the church is a spiritual family. So the bond between Christian believers should be at least as strong as the bond between blood relations.

The Hebrew word for love is closely related to the Hebrew word to give. Therefore, in Jewish thought, to love is to give. [2]

Let me share with you a traditional folk story that illustrates brotherly love well.          

Once therewere two brothers who lived in two villages and shared the land between them. Every year they would divide the harvest.

During one abundant year the older brother, who was married and had many children, was worried about his younger brother who did not have a family. Who would support him in his old age? In the middle of the night, the older brother secretly brought some grain to his brother’s storehouse, but when he woke up in the morning he still had exactly the same amount of grain that he had the night before.

The younger brother was also worried: How will my older brother support all his children? So, the younger brother decided to secretly travel to his brother’s storehouse and place some grain of his own inside, but in the morning, he discovered that he still had exactly the same amount of grain as he had before he gave any away.

This went on for two nights until on the third night, the two brothers met as each one was on the way to the other’s storehouse carrying grain. At once, they both understood what had happened and they embraced in brotherly love.

In Jewish folklore it is said that God decided the ground where the two brothers met would be the site of His holy temple. I’m not sure if that is historically accurate but it certainly contains some beautiful truths. Those brothers were defined by like-mindedness, understanding, love and compassion.

Compassion is the fourth word Peter uses to define the Christian believer and community.  In Biblical thought compassion is a strong gut feeling which moves someone to act in kindness for someone else’s well-being. The classic story of compassion is Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan.

You know the one; where a man is beaten up by robbers and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite each, in turn, see the wounded man and pass by without stopping to help. But when a despised Samaritan sees the man in need, he has compassion on the stranger. And his compassion moves him to stop and care for the man’s wounds. Then the Samaritan puts the man on his own donkey and carries him to an inn to recover, paying the expenses himself.     

One of the finer points of Jesus’ parable of the Samaritan is that the wounded stranger had been stripped of his clothes. And in that culture the clothes a person wore identified which race and religion they belonged to. So without seeing any clothes it was impossible for the Samaritan to know who he was helping. It could have been a Jewish enemy.

The point is compassion is blind when it comes to matters of race and religion. Some of you may sponsor children through World Vision or Tear Fund. Although both of these organizations are Christian, some of the communities they support through child sponsorship are not Christian. But that does not matter. As Christian organizations, World Vision and Tear Fund are not defined by the communities they help. No, they are defined by compassion.

Now in saying that compassion is blind to race & religion, I do not mean to imply that Christian compassion is stupid or unthinking. The exercise of Christ-like compassion requires wisdom and discernment.

Being compassionate makes us a target for deceitful people. You would not believe the number of scam emails we receive in the church office. If you try and help everyone who presents some kind of need, you will quickly destroy your capacity to remain compassionate.   

With this in mind, there are three basic questions we should ask ourselves when we come across someone in need:

Firstly, what is the real need here?

Secondly, is it in my power to help this person?

And thirdly, will my helping this person put other vulnerable people at risk?

The Samaritan in Jesus’ parable could see there was a real need. There was a man bleeding out on the side of the road. It was a life and death situation.  

It was also in the Samaritan’s power to help the injured man. It probably was not convenient but he did have the resources to save the man’s life.

And thirdly, the Samaritan helped the wounded stranger in a way that did not put other vulnerable people at risk. There may have been some risk to the Samaritan himself, but there was no risk to anyone else.  

If someone drives up to you in a Lexus and asks for money for petrol, you have to ask yourself, ‘What’s the real need here?’ Because it is probably not money. It’s not likely to be a life & death situation.

Or if a complete stranger, who is sleeping rough, wants a bed for the night then you might ask yourself, do I have the resources to pay for a motel room for them? If you have a wife and children at home, then it would be unwise to let the stranger stay in your house because it would put your family at risk.

Jesus said, ‘Do not put your pearls before swine.’ In other words, do not offer things of value to those who will treat them with contempt. Be discerning about how you spend the pearls of your compassion.      

Being humble-minded is the fifth virtue defining the followers of Christ. Humility was not considered a virtue in Greco-Roman society, although it was a virtue in Jewish culture. In the first century, humility was regarded as a sign of weakness and shame, because it meant an inability to defend your own honour. Only those of degraded social status were humble. [3]     

Another finer point from Jesus’ parable, in Luke 10, is the way the Samaritan puts the wounded stranger on his own donkey to carry him. This shows that the Samaritan was humble-minded. In that culture, the person riding the donkey had greater status than the person walking beside the donkey. The Samaritan gave up his status for the man in need by carrying him on his donkey. 

We kiwis may be tempted to think we are the very picture of humility, but I’m not sure we are. In the Christian sense of the word, a truly humble person does not attempt to defend their personal honour. When insulted, a truly humble person forgives the offence and trusts in God to vindicate them.  

Jesus was humble-minded. He had the power to defend his honour but he chose not to and instead embraced the shame of the cross, trusting God to glorify himself.

Like-mindedness, understanding, brotherly love, compassion and humility. These are some of the essential character qualities that define Christians. Put those virtues together and you have a Vanilla Wine biscuit that reminds people of Jesus.

Having outlined how his readers are defined by Christ-like character (in verse 8), Peter goes on (in verses 9-12) to discuss how we are defined by blessing. 

Defined by blessing:

Our church’s mission statement summarizes our purpose: We are to glorify God and be a blessing to his world. Christians are defined by blessing. We are both the recipients of God’s blessing and the agents of God’s blessing to others.

Verse 9 reads: Do not repay evil with evilor insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to thisyou were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

These words resonate with the teaching of Jesus who instructed his disciples to love their enemies and to bless those who curse you.

The temptation when we are maligned or insulted is to exaggerate the offence in our own mind and use the hurt as fuel for getting our own back against the one who has insulted our honour. But a tit for tat response allows our enemies to set the agenda and define us. As difficult as it is, in the heat of the moment, we need to hold on to who we are. We need to remember that we are not defined by insult and grievance. We are defined by blessing.

What then does Peter mean by blessing? Well, a blessing can be in word or deed. When we speak well of others, publicly, we are blessing them. Or when we ask God to show favour to someone, we are invoking God’s blessing on them. Of course, words of blessing that are not substantiated by deeds of blessing tend to sound a bit thin.

The story is told of a Christian soldier living in a barracks with his unit. Each evening, when he read his Bible and prayed before going to bed, he was insulted and verbally abused by one of the other soldiers opposite him.

One night a pair of muddy combat boots came flying across the room at the Christian. The next morning, the hostile soldier found his boots at the foot of his bed, cleaned and polished and ready for inspection. Several soldiers in his company eventually became Christians as a result of the winsome witness of this one Christ follower who returned blessing for insult. [4]

In this situation the Christian soldier did not allow himself to be defined by his antagonist. He was defined by blessing. God had shown him grace and so he passed this grace on to his enemy. 

In verses 10-12 of chapter 3 Peter provides some Old Testament support for what he is saying by quoting from Psalm 34. Psalm 34, as a whole, focuses on suffering and the Lord’s deliverance of those who are afflicted. Peter chose Psalm 34 because it speaks to the same sorts of issues faced by Peter’s first century readers.

Psalm 34 is attributed to king David who spent some time in exile with the Philistines. David was on the run from king Saul and had to hide in a pagan society, surrounded by people who were hostile to him.

David’s situation was a fitting parallel to the situation of Peter’s readers, who also lived in a pagan society, surrounded by people who viewed them with suspicion if not outright contempt.

Just as God delivered David from his exile among the Philistines, God will deliver Christians from their afflictions caused by their faith in Jesus. [5]

Verses 10-11 of chapter 3, outline the pathway (or lifestyle) of blessing…

For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. 11 They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.

The wisdom here is that our words and deeds need to be in line. We don’t want to be bad talking someone behind their back and then nice to their face. Our words and deeds need to be positive & consistent, both in private and in public.

In the world we live in, speech and words have become a bit cheap. We often say things we don’t mean and swearing and cursing is common place. It’s like we imagine our words don’t matter. But it has been scientifically proven that the things we say to ourselves and to others have a very real effect in shaping our brain and thought patterns.   

We need to watch what we say because, if our speech is deceitful, we will end up believing a lie.

I have mentioned before that Robyn has an acrostic she uses with her class. T.H.I.N.K. – think before you speak. Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Is it kind? If the answer is yes, say it. Otherwise think a bit more.

The idea that we must seek peace and pursue it indicates that peace does not simply find us as we sit quietly in a room. Peace requires some effort, some pursuit. Specifically, the effort of acting justly. There is no peace without justice. We cannot control how other people might act but we can control our own actions.    

Jesus’ command to love our enemies does not refer to an emotional feeling. You do not necessarily have to like your enemies. Enemy love means acting justly and kindly towards our adversaries, regardless of the emotions we may feel, and that’s where the effort in pursuing peace comes in. It takes real strength of character and divine energy to go against the grain of what we are feeling and love our enemies. 

I was at the Dentist recently, sitting in the waiting room, and I saw a newspaper article warning against the use of mouth wash. Research has found that we need a diversity of bacteria in our mouth, in order to maintain good oral health. Apparently mouth wash tends to reduce the diversity of bacteria.

This made me think of a parallel with our reading of Scripture. Sometimes we apply a kind of mental mouthwash to the Bible. We can be tempted to sanitize the Scriptures, by reading selectively to remove the parts we don’t like or that sound a bit harsh or offensive or out of date.

For example, we might tend to steer away from the passages that talk about God’s judgement and anger and justice because that makes us feel uncomfortable or embarrassed or fearful. But if we remove the justice and judgment of God from our Bible reading, then we will find it very difficult to believe in the goodness of God as well. And if we lose faith in the goodness of God we won’t be able to repay insult with blessing.

Verse 12 of 1st Peter 3 concludes the quote from Psalm 34…

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

This verse alludes to the justice and judgement of God. We might be tempted to sanitize it by removing the part about the face of the Lord being against those who do evil. But actually we need to hold on to that because it tells us our doing good in response to evil is not in vain. God, who is just, will not tolerate evil indefinitely. There is a reckoning for those who insult others without just cause.

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard what defines the followers of Jesus. We are defined by our distinctive Christ-like character and we are defined by blessing.

The ideals Peter holds up here are not easy to attain. If we spent too long measuring how far we fall short, we might become discouraged and give up. Loving our enemies takes some heavy lifting, it is hard work.

Two things to bear in mind. Firstly, God is on your side. He wants to bless you. He wants to see you succeed in overcoming evil with good. If (or when) we slip up, God is gracious and willing to forgive, provided we are honest and willing to repent. 

Which brings us to the second thing. The perfection of our character is not achieved in a day. So think marathon, not sprint. Pace yourself. Break it down into manageable pieces. Take little steps in the right direction, every day, and stay the course. By God’s grace, and through the power of His Spirit, you will get there in the end.   

Let us pray…

Loving Father, we thank you for your goodness, your justice and mercy.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil we ask.

Help us to remember who we are in Christ.

Help us to be like-minded, working in harmony with other Christian believers.

Help us to be understanding, quick to see things from the other person’s point of view.

Help us to demonstrate brotherly love, for by this will all people know that we are Jesus’ disciples.

Help us to be compassionate, in a wise and discerning way, not wasting our pearls but making them count for your glory.

Help us to be humble, not quick to defend our own honour when we are insulted, but ready to embrace the shame of carrying our cross, in faith that you will vindicate us, if not in this life then at the day of judgement.

Save us from giving in to the temptation of being defined by our enemies.

Help us instead, Lord, to love our enemies and to repay evil with a blessing.

We thank you for the blessing of eternal life that is promised to those who trust and obey Jesus. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • How does Peter define the Christian community in chapter 3, verses 8-12?
  • Discuss / reflect on the five character virtues Peter lists in verse 8. How might you apply each of these in your context?
  • Which of Peter’s five character virtues do you find hardest to practice? What small steps could you take to become more Christ-like in this aspect of your character?
  • Which Christian character qualities do we see in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan? What three questions should we ask to help us spend our compassion wisely?
  • Why do you think Jesus taught his disciples to bless those who curse them? Can you think of a time (from your own experience) when someone repaid an insult with a blessing? What happened?
  • How might you be a blessing to those around you? (Whether they be friend or foe.)
  • Take some time this week to audit what you say. How much of what you say is true, helpful, inspiring, necessary and kind?

[1] Karen Jobes, 215

[2] https://www.ifcj.org/learn/holy-land-moments/daily-devotionals/brotherly-love-2/

[3] J.H. Elliot, 605.

[4] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 218.

[5] Karen Jobes, page 223.

Tawa Baptist

Beauty

Scripture: 1st Peter 3:1-7

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Wives (beautiful submission)
  • Husbands (knowledgeable respect)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Language has a strange way of evolving over time. What a word or phrase meant several centuries ago can be completely different in today’s usage.

Take the word ‘nice’, for example. In the 1300’s nice meant silly or foolish or ignorant. Then, by the 1500’s the word nice had evolved to mean meticulous, attentive or sharp. These days though the word nice just means agreeable or pleasant.  

The word ‘meat’ has also changed. In old English meat described any kind of solid food (as opposed to drink) for humans or animals. So bread was meat, as were apples or hay. These days though meat has narrowed in its meaning to refer to the flesh of animals eaten by people. A piece of steak or a kranksy is meat.   

Today we continue our series in 1st Peter, focusing on chapter 3, verses 1-7. Zooming out to look at the bigger picture, Peter is giving instructions on how Christians are to relate with those around them, in particular unbelievers.

In this morning’s passage, Peter addresses the relationship between wives and husbands, with a special shout out to those Christian wives who have non-Christian husbands.

Some of the words and phrases in this passage might make a 21st Century western audience cringe. Before we pass judgment on the political correctness of the language though, let’s remember that the nuance and meaning of words evolves over time. The way we hear this reading is quite different from way a first Century Middle Eastern audience would have heard it.

From 1st Peter, chapter 3, verses 1-7 we read…       

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbandsso that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won overwithout words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self,the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in Godused to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker vessel and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

One of the things we notice with this reading is that Peter’s instruction to wives takes up six verses, whereas his instruction to husbands only takes one verse. Why do wives get so much more attention than husbands? Well, two reasons…

Firstly, women were among the most vulnerable and powerless in first century society. Peter is saying that his Christian readers (both male and female) were like women, socially speaking: they were relatively vulnerable and powerless. The instructions he gives to wives here contain principles which apply to all Christian believers regardless of their gender or marital status. So if you are single or a man you still need to pay attention to what Peter is saying to wives because it is relevant to you as well.    

Secondly, Peter wants to affirm and empower Christian women. Peter wants his readers to understand and recognize the valuable role women have in witnessing for Christ and the gospel. Women are not just along for the ride.

If we were to sum up Peter’s instructions to wives (and by extension to all Christians) then it might be something like, practice beautiful submission.  

Wives – beautiful submission:

Another word that has changed its meaning over time is the word ‘naughty’. For us today naughty means being a bit badly behaved, without being altogether evil. If someone eats a piece of chocolate when they shouldn’t or drinks an extra glass of wine, we say that was ‘naughty’.

But originally, being naughty had nothing to do with being badly behaved. Originally, being naughty was equated with being poor. The poor had naught (they had nothing) and so they were called naughty. This was not a comment on their character or behavior. It was simply a description of their socio-economic status.  

This morning’s reading begins with Peter instructing wives to submit to their husbands. In today’s world, where such a high value is placed on personal freedom, the word submit sounds like a swear word. People generally prefer to resist or rebel or protest. The word submit is a bit like the word naughty in that it has changed significantly from its original meaning. So what Peter’s first century readers understood when they heard, ‘Wives, submit to your husbands’, was quite different from what we hear and understand.       

We might hear: sexist, discrimination, inequality, male privilege, domestic violence, oppression and injustice. But Peter’s original audience would have heard things like: winsome, beautiful, gentle, character, courage, purity, reverence, peace and order in the home. I’m not making this up. It’s actually in the text.

To submit means to accept, or yield to, the will of another person. Obedience goes hand in hand with submission. When we submit to someone we put ourselves under that person’s authority. Submission does not diminish our worth or our value as human beings. It is simply a way of saying, ‘you first’.

There are basically two ways to submit to someone: either willingly and freely, or because you are forced to. Peter has just told his readers (in chapter 2) to submit freely to the government and to their masters. ‘In the same’ way wives are to submit to their husbands; that is, freely and not under duress.

In other words, don’t submit because you are forced to. Don’t submit because society expects you to. Don’t submit because you are afraid. Wives, you be empowered. You be in control of the choice to submit.   

If my daughter asks me for a ride somewhere I submit to her request, not because I have to but because I want to. My taking her where she wants to go then becomes an act of love. It helps to reinforce the bond between us.

Likewise, if Robyn says, ‘Can you take the lid off this jar?’, I submit to her request because I want to. Obeying Robyn freely does not make me less in any way. Robyn is not oppressing me. If anything she is making me feel useful.

The submission Peter has in view here is freely given, it is not forced. It is an expression of love, which creates trust between people.

So, should wives always submit to their husbands then? Well, no. Wives should not blindly do whatever their husbands say. In verse six Peter tells wives to do what is right and not give way to fear. The kind of submission Peter is calling for requires discernment and courage. It is a righteous submission.

Our ultimate submission is to God. If your husband (or wife) wants you to do something that is clearly offensive to God, then you must give priority to what God wants. For example, if your husband wants to use you as a punching bag, then you do not have to submit to that.  

In the first century Roman empire, wives were expected to adopt the religion of their husband. But some of the people Peter was writing to had pagan husbands. Peter is not saying wives should worship the gods of their pagan husband. No. They should not submit in that way. That would undermine their faith in Jesus.

To the contrary, Peter is saying: try to win your husband for Christ by being a winsome witness. Peter writes… 

…submit yourselves to your husbandsso that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won overwithout words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

The idea here is that submission provides a winsome witness. To be winsome is to be attractive or charming or appealing in a fresh and innocent way. Winsomeness is not loud or self-promoting. It is pure and authentic.

People can argue with what you say but they cannot argue with their experience of you. An unbelieving husband is likely to be alienated by a wife who harps on about Jesus all the time. But winsomeness speaks for itself without words.

The character Jane Bennet, in Jane Austin’s novel Pride and Prejudice, is the very picture of winsomeness. Unlike her youngest sister Lydia, Jane has a far more gentle and gracious way with people. When she is given the cold shoulder by Mr Bingley she does not think the worst of him. She graciously wishes him well in her heart and does not force the issue. And as we know, the story ends happily for Jane.     

Or if you are familiar with the story of Beauty and the Beast, then we find an example of a winsome woman in the heroine of the story, Belle. Belle submits to the beast, without compromising her virtue, and her winsomeness breaks the spell so the beast is transformed back into a charming prince again.  

St Augustine describes the winsome witness of his Christian mother, Monnica, to his pagan father Patricius:

She served her husband as her master and did all she could to win him for You (Lord), speaking to him of You by her conduct, by which you made her beautiful… Finally, when her husband was at the end of his earthly span, she gained him for You. [1]    

A winsome wife supports her husband. She encourages him when he is down and guides him when he is lost. She is not high maintenance or always badgering with a list of demands. She does not scold him or complain about his faults to her friends. A winsome wife sees his faults and shows grace.      

In verse 1, when Peter talks about husbands that do not believe the word, he means those who have not accepted the gospel about Jesus. The original Greek word translated as believe is more literally obey.[2]  So the meaning is: ‘…if any of the husbands do not obey the gospel…’.

Belief and faith go hand in hand in a Christian understanding. One cannot claim to have faith in Christ without obedience to him.

It could be that some of the wives reading (or hearing) Peter’s letter had husbands who claimed to be Christian but actually did not obey the teaching of Jesus very well. They may have attended church services but then gone home and neglected the needs of their families. Maybe they spent their pay at the pub and didn’t put bread on the table for the kids.  

In that situation Peter is asking the wives to show their husbands the way of the gospel, not with words, but by the example of their lifestyle; their purity and their reverence.

Being reverent means living in the conviction that the whole world is the temple of God and all life is lived in the presence of Christ. The wife’s reverence here is to be directed toward God, not her husband. Husbands are not in the place of God.

Purity is the natural companion to reverence for God. Purity has to do with willing one thing. Not chasing after other men or women or other gods. Staying faithful and true to your husband or wife and to Jesus. If you revere God, if you put God in the number one place in your life, you will live a pure life, a holy life, a clean life, a life of moral integrity. 

The main point to get hold of here is that, for Peter and his first century readers, free submission was a beautiful thing. From verse 3 we read…

3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self,the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Peter is contrasting inward virtue with outward adornment. What really matters to God is the content of your character, not the cost of your clothes.

‘Pretty’ is another word that has changed over time. For us today pretty refers to someone or something that looks good or beautiful in a delicate kind of way. For us, prettiness is about outward appearances. We might say, for example, ‘That’s a pretty dress’.

Originally though pretty meant crafty or cunning. Being pretty, therefore, was not about the way someone looked on the outside. It had more to do with the way they thought on the inside. In the old sense of the word, a snake was pretty. You would never have said a dress was pretty because a dress was not capable of being crafty or cunning.

When Peter talks about beauty he does not mean pretty in either sense. True beauty is not an external style or look, nor is it about being cunning. The beauty Peter has in mind comes from the inside out. It is the beauty of a quiet and gentle spirit.

A person’s spirit refers to the way they relate with others. Spirit has to do with the character of relationship, or the quality of our connection with others.

Quiet does not mean silent or shy. It means calm, in control of yourself. If a quiet person does not speak much it is not because they are afraid or do not know what to say. It is because they are in control of their tongue. They think before they speak. Still waters run deep.

Likewise, gentleness does not mean being timid or weak. As we heard last Sunday, it takes great strength and self-control to be gentle. So to have a quiet and gentle spirit means to relate with others in a way that is calm and brings peace into that situation. 

When an unbelieving husband sees his Christian wife managing the home and the kids in a way that is graceful and results in a calm harmonious environment he will (if he has half a clue) see the virtue in his wife’s Christian faith and get on board with it.    

We should not think that quietness and gentleness are solely feminine qualities though. Jesus, who was a tradesman, a bloke, a carpenter, is described as having a quiet and gentle spirit. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, until he has brought justice to victory. [3]      

Now, I’m conscious there is a women’s clothes swap coming up. (The timing of this sermon is purely coincidental.) When Peter says, your beauty should not come from outward adornment he is not saying women cannot take care of themselves.

Ladies, you do not have to go around dressed in hessian sacks. You can go to the hairdresser, you can put on a bit of lippy and you can wear jewelry. (Personally, I think hairdressers do a public service. They make people feel good about themselves.)

Peter is warning against spending excessive amounts on our outward appearance and from wearing clothing that is seductive. The clothes swap saves money and no men are allowed, so there is little chance of extravagance or seduction. Besides, the main purpose of the clothes swap is to get people together socially; to build relationship. So you don’t have to feel guilty about going to the clothes swap.

In thinking of the cultural context, Karen Jobes makes the observation that Peter’s instruction against extravagant outward adornment makes sense.[4] Women in that culture did not leave the home very much.

If a Christian wife left the house to go to church, all dolled up, people in the first century would think she was off to see her fancy man; that she was having an affair. Which would obviously bring shame on her husband and on Christ. Not very winsome. But by going out in public unadorned, her purity of purpose, her reverence for God and her intent to attend worship would be more clear.        

In verse 5 Peter refers to the women of the Old Testament, holding them up as an example of what it means for wives to submit to their husbands. He says these women put their hope in God. Hope is about the future. Physical beauty has no future; it fades and so you don’t want to put your hope in that. We are to put our hope in God because he alone has the power to make our character beautiful and a beautiful character is eternal.

In verse 6 Peter pays special tribute to Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him master. The example of Sarah & Abraham is interesting. The submission in their marriage went both ways; it was mutual submission. Yes, Sarah did submit to what Abraham asked, even when it was risky for her to do so. She did after all follow Abraham into the unknown. But Abraham also submitted to Sarah’s wishes on more than one occasion.

In particular, I’m thinking of Genesis 16 when Sarah, who was unable to have children herself, asked Abraham to consider a surrogacy arrangement with Hagar. Abraham agreed even though it was probably a bit awkward for him.  

The point is: the ideal in Christian marriage is not a hierarchy with the husband at the top issuing orders and the wife underneath obeying his every command. No. The ideal is a genuine partnership where husband and wife are on the same footing, alongside each other, giving space to really listen to one another. If both partners in a marriage are believers, then they should seek God’s will together and submit to that.

Of course, Peter is addressing situations that are not ideal. In his cultural context marriage was a top down hierarchy. If the man was not a believer, the next best thing was for the wife to freely submit to her husband for the sake of Jesus’ reputation and her husband’s salvation.

Having spent some time describing what beautiful submission looks like, in marriage, Peter then instructs men in how to relate with women – that is with knowledge and respect.  

Husband – knowledgeable respect:

I remember browsing through a bookshop one holidays and coming across a paperback with the title, ‘What men know about Women’. It was quite a thick book. I had not been married long at that point and thought, this is interesting, I might learn something. So I opened it up and flicked through the pages. There wasn’t one word written in the whole book. (The message was: men don’t know anything about women. Not very winsome if you ask me.)

In verse 7 we read: Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker vessel and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

The word translated as considerate is more literally knowledgeable. So it carries the sense of Husbands, be knowledgeable (or show understanding) as you live with your wives.

I’m not sure that a man can ever fully understand a woman but he can listen and learn. The message here guys is pay attention to your wives. Think about what her needs are. Do not neglect your wife. Do not take her for granted.

If she has been at home all day looking after the kids then she is probably going to need some time with you in the evening, some adult conversation. If this is what she needs, give her a break. You put the kids to bed, you do the dishes. Then switch off the TV and give her your full attention.     

Or, if she has been at work all day and comes home exhausted, she might just want some peace and quiet. Show her some understanding. You could offer to cook the dinner while she has a soak in the bath to relax. 

But the knowledge in view here is not just the husband’s knowledge of the wife. It is also the husband’s knowledge of what God requires. We take care of our wives because we know that pleases God.

Peter tells husbands to treat their wives with respect. That word ‘respect’ is literally precious in the original Greek. It is the same word used of Jesus in chapter 2:6-7, where it talks about Christ being the precious cornerstone. So husbands are to treat their wives as precious, as highly valuable. 

One of the main ways a man respects a woman and treats her as precious is by submitting to her ‘no’. If a woman says no, then we men need to respect that. No means no. We don’t cross that line. 

Peter says men should respect their wives because they are the weaker vessel, which in our culture sounds a bit offensive. But actually it’s not.

By calling women the weaker vessel Peter means women do not have the same physical strength as men. It’s not that women are physically weaker in every respect. It takes quite a bit of strength to give birth, for example. Not only that but women tend to live longer than men and often have a higher pain threshold. But when it comes to lifting heavy objects and opening jars, men usually have the advantage.

The main point Peter is getting at here is that it is not okay for a man to use his physical strength against his wife. Hitting women is prohibited. We today are quick to agree with Peter but, in the first century, men thought it was acceptable to hit their wives. They thought it was their right in fact. Peter is standing up against his culture and saying, that’s not who we are in Christ. You cannot hit your wife and then expect God to answer your prayers. It does not work like that.  

In verse 7 Peter says that women are heirs with you [men] of the gracious gift of life.  This means women of Christian faith stand to inherit eternal life, so they have equal standing, with men, before God. The message is clear: Husbands, treat your wife with knowledgeable respect for she is your equal.

Conclusion:

Christian marriage is not a hierarchy with the husband at the top issuing orders and the wife underneath obeying his every command. No. The ideal is a genuine partnership where husband and wife are on the same footing, alongside each other, giving space to really listen to God and one another.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Why does Peter give six verses of instruction for wives and only one verse for husbands?
  • How do Peter’s instructions to wives apply to all believers, irrespective of gender or marital status?
  • How do you feel about the word submission? Is this a swear word or a beautiful word for you? How would Peter’s first century readers have felt about the word submission? 
  • What does it mean to have a quiet and gentle spirit? Can you think of examples of Jesus’ quiet and gentle spirit in the gospels?
  • Why do you think Peter warned against elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes?
  • How should Christian husbands treat their wives? Think of some practical examples.
  • Thinking of the wider canon of Scripture, what is the ideal for Christian marriage? 

[1] Quoted in Edmund Clowney’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 130.

[2] Refer Thomas Schreiner’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 149. 

[3] Matthew 12:20

[4] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 205. 

Tawa Baptist

Tuakana-teina

Scripture: 1st Peter 2:21-25

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Tuakana-teina
  • Jesus’ example: innocence, meekness, faith
  • Redemptive suffering
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Do you have a favourite sandwich? For me it would have to be a Reuben. Reuben sandwiches are fairly simple: two thick slices of wholegrain bread (toasted) with corned beef and sauerkrauts in the middle. Hard to beat a good corned beef sandwich. 

Today we continue our series in the New Testament epistle of first Peter. We are roughly in the middle of Peter’s letter now, in a section that looks a bit like a sandwich. Not a Reuben sandwich so much; more of a suffering sandwich.

The focus of this morning’s passage (chapter 2, verses 21-25) is Christ’s suffering. Jesus provides the Christian believer with a model for responding to unjust suffering. This is the meat of the sandwich.

It seems that Peter has intentionally sandwiched Jesus’ suffering between instructions to slaves (which we heard about last week) and instructions to wives (which we will look at next week). Slaves and women being two of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups at the time Peter was writing. From 1st Peter chapter 2, verses 21-25, we read…

21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example,that you should follow in his steps. 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 23 When they hurled their insults at him,he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himselfto him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sinsand live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,”but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Peter’s words in these verses draw on Isaiah 53, where the prophet talks about the suffering servant. Peter takes this prophecy from Isaiah and appropriates it to Jesus, whose suffering had a redemptive effect.

Tuakana-teina:

In traditional Maori society there is a concept, or more accurately a relationship, known as tuakana-teina. If you work in education you may be familiar with it.

Tuakana is the Maori word for an older brother, sister or cousin. And teina refers to a younger brother, sister or relation.   

The principle of Tuakana-teina is used in schools as a model for buddy systems, where an older or more expert tuakana helps and guides a younger or less experienced teina. The idea is to create a culture of care and support.

Tuakana-teina is actually part of the DNA of our church also. When we talk about our church being inter-generational, part of what we mean is that we want to be a community of faith where each of the generations is represented and the older more mature believers (the tuakana) help and guide the younger less experienced (the teina). Of course, it’s not just the younger who learn from the older. The older can also learn from the younger. It is a mutually beneficial relationship.    

Last Sunday, being Labour weekend, the BIG and Flock kids (aged 3-12 years) combined for their Sunday school programme. One of the advantages of occasionally combining age groups like this is that it provides the opportunity for tuakana-teina relationships to form. In fact, one child (a 12-year-old boy) was helping a 5-year-old boy with a craft they were doing and said to Robyn, ‘tuakana-teina’. He understood it wasn’t just about completing the craft. Yes, the craft helps one to remember the lesson but, more importantly, it is a vehicle for building relationships of care and support.  

In using an example from Sunday school I don’t mean to suggest that tuakana-teina is just for kids. It is for the whole congregation. Someone in their 20’s can be a tuakana to someone in their teens (as happens in youth group). Just as someone in their 40’s or 50’s can be a tuakana for someone in their 20’s or 30’s, and so on. 

In verse 21 Peter says: To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example,that you should follow in his steps.  

Verse 20 tells us the this to which we are called is ‘suffering for doing good and enduring it’. 

With our calling in mind, Jesus is our tuakana (our older brother) and we are his teina (his younger siblings). Ours is a tuakana-teina relationship. Jesus shows us by his example how we are to handle ourselves if or when we experience unjust suffering.  

Broadly speaking Peter highlights three things about Jesus’ example here: Jesus’ innocence. Jesus’ meekness and Jesus’ faith. When we manage to follow Jesus’ example, of innocence, meekness and faith, we point others to Christ and so glorify him. Our relationship with Jesus is meant to be mutually beneficial.  

Jesus’ example:

In verse 22 Peter alludes to Isaiah 53:9 saying of Jesus: “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

This refers to Jesus’ innocence or his righteousness. Jesus is the only human being ever to have lived to adulthood and be sinless. Jesus is the spotless, perfect Lamb of God. The fact that Jesus committed no sin and yet still suffered punishment implies that his suffering was unjust, not fair.

We note here that Jesus was sinless both in word and deed. ‘No deceit was found in his mouth’, tells us that Jesus had a clean heart as well as clean hands. The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Therefore, no deceit in the mouth implies no deceit in the heart. Jesus did not pretend. He was the same on the inside as he was on the outside.

The fact that Jesus was without sin and was always honest means he is a genuine tuakana who we can trust. His example carries weight. 

Now, it needs to be acknowledged that while Jesus was completely innocent or sinless, we are not. Sometimes (or perhaps often) we fall short. Nevertheless, we need to do our best to be innocent in all our dealings with others, so that if we are wrongly accused we can draw strength from a clear conscience. God, who knows all things and is just, will vindicate the innocent either in this life or the next.     

Jesus had perfect control over himself, which brings us to our next point; Jesus’ meekness. In the first part of verse 23 Peter writes: When they hurled their insults at him,he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.

This illustrates Jesus’ meekness. Meekness is often misunderstood these days as being a bit timid or weak. But meekness is not weakness. Quite the opposite. Meekness is great strength, great power, under control. Meekness is akin to gentleness. It takes tremendous strength to control oneself, and not retaliate, in the crucible of injustice.

In 2nd Samuel chapter 16, a man named Shimei starts cursing David and throwing stones at him and yelling insults. One of the men with David says: ‘Why should this dead dog curse my lord and king? Let me go over and cut off his head.’

And David replies, ‘…Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today.’ David responded with meekness here; great strength under control. David had the power to kill Shimei but he doesn’t. Instead he trusts himself to God.

In Matthew 26, when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of the disciples responded with the opposite of meekness. He drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest cutting off his ear. But Jesus intervened saying: Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

Jesus then healed the servant’s ear and submitted to his unjust arrest because it was God’s will for him in that situation. That is meekness, great power under control. Jesus had the power to easily smash his opponents but he kept that power in check for the well-being of others.   

Later, that night, when Jesus was brought to trial and wrongly accused of all sorts of crimes, he was silent. Then, the next day, when Jesus was hanging on the cross his enemies goaded him saying: If you are the Messiah, come down from the cross and save yourself. But Jesus did not respond with threats. He did not say, ‘My dad is going to get you for this’. No. He said: ‘Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing’. That is one example of meekness, given to us by Jesus (our tuakana).     

Now, I need to say here that meekness does not always equate to biting your tongue, staying silent and doing nothing. While it is true that Jesus never threatened anyone there were plenty of times when Jesus spoke up to expose the truth.

Jesus called a spade a spade. (There was no deceit found in his mouth.) Jesus said to the Pharisees openly, ‘You white washed tombs. You look good on the outside but inside you are filled with corruption and filth.’ Jesus was not being unkind in saying this. He was not threatening them. To the contrary, he was simply stating the facts; both for the benefit of the people (so they would not waste their lives following the wrong example) but also for the benefit of the Pharisees themselves, so they would clean up their act and return to God.

The point is, meekness does not mean avoiding the truth or keeping silent about injustice. If you are suffering physical or sexual abuse, then expose the truth. Tell someone you trust what’s happening to you. Say what is. Do not make threats to the abuser about what you are going to do. Do not retaliate or seek revenge either. Instead be meek and get help. Report the abuse to someone who can help you get free of it. Let the authorities deal with it.

There is wisdom in walking away from an abusive situation. In Luke 4 Jesus stood up to speak in the synagogue and the people there took offense at him, so much so that they decided to throw him off a nearby cliff. In that situation Jesus did not submit to their abuse because his time had not come. But nor did he call down fire from heaven to destroy them. Instead he quietly slipped through the crowd and walked away. That too was meekness.  

Just because it was God’s will for Jesus to die on the cross, it does not automatically follow that it is God’s will for you to suffer abuse too. The fact that Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Your will be done, your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven’, tells us that not everything that happens to us, in this world, is God’s will. Jesus died to bring an end to sin and death. Ultimately it is God’s will that abuse stops and people are free to love him and each other.

So meekness can find expression in a variety of ways. Sometimes by keeping silent and other times by speaking out. Sometimes by walking away and other times by making a stand or taking the fall for someone else.

The single thing that enabled Jesus to be meek was his faith or trust in God’s justice. In the second part of verse 23 Peter tells us that Jesus entrusted himselfto God who judges justly.

Jesus had faith that God would see him right. And Jesus’ faith in God was rewarded. God vindicated Jesus by raising him to new life on the third day. Jesus’ resurrection is evidence that God is just and that Jesus was innocent. It is because God is just that we can have confidence that he will right any wrongs or injustices we suffer, if not in this life then in the next. 

Jesus is our tuakana (our older brother) and the example he gives for us to follow is the way of innocence, meekness and faith.

Redemptive suffering:

Can anyone here tell me what a cooper is? [Wait]

That’s right. A cooper is a tradesperson who makes wooden barrels. A very popular trade in centuries gone by but not so much in demand now.

Two or three weeks ago one of my favourite TV shows returned: The Repair Shop. In this series people bring much loved antiques and treasures to a workshop of skilled craftspeople who set about repairing and restoring the items. I like this show because it is essentially about redemption. Redemption means saving or reclaiming something.

One of the items brought in a couple of weeks ago was a small wooden barrel. The barrel was missing some braces and was basically in pieces, so it couldn’t hold liquid.

After the master cooper had put the barrel back together again, he took a bag of salt and poured it into the barrel, followed by some hot water. He then explained how the salt makes the barrel sweet again. The salt draws all the nasties out of the wood and into itself. The salt absorbs the impurities, cleansing the barrel.

This struck me as a parable of what God did, through Jesus, in redeeming us. Jesus came to save us and reclaim us for God. 

In verse 24 of 1st Peter chapter 2 we read: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sinsand live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

If we are like a broken barrel, then God is like the master cooper and Jesus is like the salty water whose life was poured out to cleanse our souls from within.

Jesus bore our sins, in his body, a bit like salt soaks up the impurities in a wooden barrel. Jesus did not do this so we could refill the barrel of our soul with more impurity. He did it so our lives could be filled with the new wine of his Spirit and we could live for righteousness.    

“By his wounds you have been healed” is a poetic way of saying Jesus’ suffering is redemptive. It heals us in a spiritual sense. It saves us and reclaims us for God’s purpose. 

The classic Old Testament story of redemptive suffering is that of Jacob’s son Joseph. If anyone suffered unjust treatment it was Joseph. Although he had done nothing to deserve such treatment Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, who were simply jealous of him.

To his credit Joseph did not allow this injustice to make him resentful or bitter. Instead he went about meekly proving himself a good worker in the house of his master, Potiphar. Potiphar promoted Joseph putting him charge of all the other household servants.

But there was more injustice coming Joseph’s way. When Potiphar’s wife took a fancy to Joseph, and Joseph refused to sleep with her, she falsely accused him of sexual assault and Joseph was thrown into prison. The fact that Potiphar did not have Joseph killed indicates that he knew Joseph was innocent but, like Pilate before Jesus, his hands were tied.

God gave Joseph the grace to endure the hardship in prison and, as he had done with Potiphar, Joseph went about meekly proving himself a trustworthy servant to the man in charge of the prison. After 3 and half years, God then provided a way out for Joseph.

Long story short, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and Pharaoh made Joseph Prime Minister of Egypt. This put Joseph in a position to redeem many lives from starvation, including the lives of his brothers who had sold him into slavery in the first place.       

Joseph points to Jesus, in that his suffering was redemptive. God used Joseph’s unjust suffering to save many, just as he used Jesus’ suffering to save many more.

Our Scripture reading today finishes with verse 25 where Peter says:

For “you were like sheep going astray,”but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

This echoes Isaiah 53:6 which reads: We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. In other words, none of us are completely innocent. We are all sinners.

The Shepherd and Overseer of our souls refers to Jesus. Jesus is the good shepherd who goes after the lost sheep and indeed who musters the flock for their redemption.

Often, when we think of Christ as the good shepherd, we picture the image of Jesus tenderly carrying a lamb on his shoulders. And while tenderness is one layer of the meaning here, it is not the only layer.

Peter is quick to call Jesus the Overseer of our souls which indicates Jesus’ authority over our lives.  Jesus has every right to require us to respond to unjust treatment with innocence, meekness and faith because that is what he has done in redeeming our souls. 

Conclusion:

Returning to The Repair Shop for a moment. Another item brought in for redemption was an old fashioned set of scales for weighing babies. The cradle in which the babies were laid was a basket made from willow canes. This cane basket was in a bad state.  

The basket weaver who fixed the cradle explained that, before she could work with the willow canes, she had to soak them in water to soften them up and make them flexible. Otherwise the canes would be too brittle and would snap in her hands when she tried to weave them together.

It made me think, we are a bit like the willow canes in God’s hand. We need to be soaked for a while before we are flexible enough to be useful to the Lord’s purpose. But what is it we soak in? Is it the water of unjust suffering or is it the water of God’s grace?

Well, I suspect it is both, depending on what we need. Suffering, in small doses, can make us softer and more compassionate but too much suffering can dry us out, making us hard and brittle. In which case we probably need to soak in the water of God’s grace for a bit.

Just as actual water (H2O) is two parts hydrogen and one-part oxygen, I imagine the metaphorical water God uses to soften us up is two parts grace and one-part suffering.      

In a few moments we will share communion together. Communion is a time to remember the example of our tuakana, Jesus. It is a time to soak in the water of Christ’s suffering and grace for us. May God’s grace and peace attend you.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What is your favourite sandwich? In what way is today’s Scripture reading like a sandwich?
  • What is tuakana-teina? Can you think of any tuakana-teina relationships that have been mutually beneficial in your own experience? In what sense is Jesus our tuakana?
  • Discuss / reflect on the example Jesus has given us – that is Jesus’ innocence, meekness and faith. Which of these facets of Jesus’ character do you find most appealing? Which is most disturbing or challenging for you?
  • What are some of the ways that meekness can find expression? How might we know when to be quiet and when to speak up? Or when to walk away and when to stand our ground?
  • Why did Jesus bear our sins in his body?
  • How has God used suffering and grace to redemptive effect in your life?      
Tawa Baptist

Grace

Scripture: 1st Peter 2:18-21

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Christians are like slaves
  • Unjust suffering is grace
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Tomorrow is Labour Day. In a general sense Labour Day is a public holiday to celebrate workers. Labour Day has its origins in the eight-hour day movement, which advocated a balanced lifestyle of eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.

Many countries around the world celebrate Labour Day on the 1st May, but in New Zealand we take the fourth Monday off in October. The New Zealander often associated with the eight hour working day is Samuel Parnell, a Wellington carpenter.

In the 1840’s a shipping agent, named George Hunter, asked Samuel Parnell to build him a store on Lambton Quay. Parnell agreed, on the condition that he would only work eight hours per day. Hunter was initially reluctant, but Parnell argued that “we have twenty-four hours per day given us; eight of these should be for work, eight for sleeping, and the remaining eight for recreation and in which for men to do what little things they want for themselves. I am ready to start to-morrow morning at eight o’clock, but it must be on these terms or none at all.”

When Hunter pointed out how different this was from London, Parnell replied “We’re not in London.” Due to a severe shortage of skilled workers in New Zealand, Hunter was forced to accept Parnell’s terms on the spot.

Samuel Parnell greeted ships coming in to Port, and told the new migrants not to work more than eight hours a day. In a workers’ meeting in October 1840, it was agreed that people should only work eight hours a day, which must be between 8am and 5pm. Anyone accepting less favourable working conditions was to be thrown into the harbour.

On the 28 October 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. Then in 1899 the government passed legislation to make Labour Day a public holiday.

Today we continue our series in the letter of first Peter. Last week we heard how Christian believers are to submit to the government. This week we learn what Peter has to say about how Christian believers are to respond to unjust treatment. From 1st Peter chapter 2, verses 18-21 we read…  

18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is grace if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is grace before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example,that you should follow in his steps.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

On the face of it, today’s reading is about how slaves (or workers) are to relate to their master. Scratching beneath the surface though we find it is less about slavery and more about how Christian believers are to respond to unjust treatment. Two things to highlight from what Peter is saying here:

Firstly, Christians are like slaves and secondly, unjust suffering is grace.  

Christians are like slaves:

As you are heading north on State Highway 1, just past Paekakariki, there is a bill board advertising a commercial real estate firm. On this billboard is a picture of Christian Cullen (a former All Black) in a suit standing beside someone else in a suit, with the phrase: ‘From one great team to another.’ It’s clever advertising.   

Businesses tend to align themselves with successful sports teams and individuals because they want to associate themselves with the strength and success of that team. For example, Sanitarium also piggy back off the reputation of the All Blacks as a fit, healthy and strong team by showing TV ads of All Black players eating Weetbix.

By the same token, most big-businesses are keen to distance themselves from teams and athletes who have fallen into disrepute. Lance Armstrong was dropped like a stone by his sponsors (Nike and Budweiser) when he got caught for doping some years back.   

In first Peter 2, verse 18, Peter begins talking about how slaves are to relate with their masters. In the context of the first century, slaves were on the lowest rung of society. They did not have the same protection under the law and so they did not enjoy the same power or privilege as people who were free.

Slaves were like the opposite of the All Blacks in terms of their social standing. No self-respecting business would align their brand with slaves. They just would not want their name associated with people who were essentially powerless and dishonoured in society.

By giving particular attention to slaves, Peter is characterising his first century readers as people without power and privilege in society at large. Peter is saying: we Christians are like slaves. And, in the historical context, it was a fair comparison. While Peter’s readers were a mixture of slave and free, they were all pretty much despised and maligned by the wider Roman world simply because they were Christians.

From a public relations point of view, it is strange that Peter aligns the Christian community with the slave community. In marketing terms, it was not good for the Christian brand. If Peter wanted to improve the public perception of the Christian community, he would have been better to sponsor the colosseum where gladiatorial games took place. This would make the Christian brand appear powerful and strong and popular with the masses.

But Peter does not do that. Why? Because that would be a denial of Christ and Peter was not going to make that mistake again. The truth is we worship a crucified God. Jesus embraced the shame, the dishonour, the powerlessness and the injustice of the cross, in obedience to God. Jesus aligned his name, not with the All Blacks of this world, but rather with the Lance Armstrong’s of this world. Cheats and sinners like us.    

The other thing that is strange here, from our 21st Century perspective, is that Peter does not speak out against slavery. Slavery is clearly wrong, to our way of thinking at least, and yet Peter seems to condone it when he instructs slaves to submit to their masters. We, in the affluent west, want to read a Bible that condemns slavery but the New Testament does not do that.

Consequently, we may be tempted to put a distance between ourselves and Peter’s words here because Peter’s instruction, for slaves to submit to their masters, is not good for our Christian brand. It makes us appear backward and morally bankrupt in the eyes of contemporary society.  

In response to this, let me shed a bit of light on the historical context. When we hear the word slave we tend to think of the 18th and 19th Centuries when black Africans were kidnapped and transported to America in chains to work as farm hands, picking cotton or harvesting sugar. Images of violence and abuse from movies like Roots and Gone with the Wind and Armistad and 12 Years a Slave and The Cider House Rules and Uncle Tom’s Cabin come to mind.

However, slavery in the Roman empire of the first century was not exactly the same as the slavery of 18th and 19th centuries. For one thing, slaves of the first century were not just black. Slaves could be of any race or ethnicity.

What’s more some slaves in the first century were highly educated people. Yes, many slaves worked in the fields and the mines or waited on tables, but there were others who worked as doctors, teachers, and business managers.   

And while a good many slaves of the first century were abused, because there was little or no legal protection for them, others were treated well and a small minority (with the help of their masters) were able to buy their freedom. This in no way makes the slavery of the first century okay. But it was different to the picture of slavery we often get from Hollywood movies.

We live at a time and place in history where human trafficking is rightly considered evil but for the people of the 1st Century slavery was socially acceptable. It is thought that between 85%-90% of the population were slaves in New Testament times. [1] The economy depended on slavery. The pagan society of Peter’s day simply did not see anything wrong with slavery. It was not a moral issue for them. It was an economic necessity.

As I’ve said on a number of occasions, the Christian community were a marginalised minority, viewed with suspicion if not contempt. It would have been completely unrealistic for the fledging New Testament church to criticise slavery or advocate its overthrow. The young churches would be fighting the consensus of the Greco-Roman world. Any attempt at social revolution would have been doomed to failure. [2]

Peter’s focus was not on changing social structures. His main concern was to see transformation of the human heart, from the inside out. Once the human heart and mind are in tune with Jesus, the slave becomes your brother or sister. Social status is no longer important and slavery becomes a moot point – it dissolves.  

In any case, we are in no position to throw the first stone. Slavery is not just a problem consigned to history. Slavery, in various forms, is still alive and well in our world today. 

The fact that Peter does not openly condemn slavery in his letter does not mean the Bible condones it. Far from it. Slavery is a man-made institution. It was not God’s idea. Jesus came to set the captives free. Jesus came to turn the values of this world upside down. It is because of the influence of Christ that we now see slavery as evil. Jesus teaches us to uphold the dignity and value of every human life, for we are all made in the image of God. But Jesus does not bring about this change through violent political revolution. He does it incrementally, slowly, via the cross, through vulnerability and weakness.     

Okay, so that’s the first thing Peter is saying: Christians are like slaves. The second point is even more disturbing: unjust suffering is grace.

Unjust suffering is grace:

If we are shocked by Peter’s instruction for slaves to submit to their masters, we may be horrified by what comes next. Peter tells his readers to submit, not only to those masters who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh or morally crooked. From verse 19 we read…

For it is grace if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. …if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is grace before God.

Some English translations of these verses say: it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering… But the word translated as commendable is actually charis in the original Greek and charis means grace.    

While grace is commendable, at its heart the word grace means gift. Grace is a beautiful gift, a good gift, a life giving gift. Grace enables the winsomeness we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Grace is not earned by hard work, nor can it be taken by force. Grace can only be received as a gift in an attitude of trust.

For it is grace if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.

Peter’s words here seem a long way from Labour Day. They are a thousand miles from Samuel Parnell’s insistence on an eight hour working day. Parnell and his friends probably would have thrown Peter in the harbour for preaching this stuff.        

I like Peter’s realism in these verses though. He is a down to earth fisherman who more than likely worked a lot more than 8 hours a day. After all, if he did not catch fish he did not eat.  He does not entertain any illusions about the way the world is.

Peter is basically saying, this world is not always kind or fair. Injustice is still very much a part of the fabric of this world. As a Christian you should expect some unjust treatment from time to time. Not everything that happens in this world is God’s will. But nothing is beyond the reach of his grace.

If you are able to endure the pain (the mental anguish) of unjust treatment, because you are aware of God, then this is grace (not disgrace).

So in what sense is enduring unjust treatment grace? How is mistreatment by your master or employer a beautiful gift? Because, at the time, the pain of unjust treatment, of being misunderstood or maligned or falsely accused does not feel like grace. Being a lightning rod for someone else’s anger, being blamed for someone else’s mistakes, does not feel good or life giving.  It may cause us to think that God is unhappy with us or has abandoned us when, in fact, the opposite is true.   

The capacity to endure the pain of injustice, without compromising who you are, is a beautiful gift (a God given grace) in that situation. God’s grace is in the strength he gives to handle the injustice. We are to be vessels (or containers) of God’s grace making His presence real. 

I imagine some of you, perhaps most of you, have experienced God’s grace in this way. Think of a time in your life when things were tough, when circumstances were against you, through no fault of your own, but somehow (mysteriously) you handled it. That was likely God’s grace, giving you the peace and the strength you needed.

Isn’t it strange the way we can lose the plot when something little goes wrong (like when someone doesn’t replace the toilet roll when it’s finished or tramps leaves through the house when you’ve just vacuumed or some other little thing irks you). But when a far more challenging situation presents itself (like the death of a loved one or the loss of a job or level 4 lockdown) we seem to rise to the occasion and surprise ourselves by coping well.

That ‘rising to the occasion’ is something more than just adrenalin. It is God’s grace. God is the one who gives us what we need to endure the hardship. It’s like God is carrying us through that difficult experience – and that is a beautiful gift. 

In thinking of the grace to endure unjust treatment by an employer I am reminded of the story of Jacob from Genesis. When Jacob ran away from home he went to his uncle Laban. Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Jacob fell in love with Rachel and made a deal with Laban to work for seven years in exchange for marrying Rachel.

At the end of the seven years Laban switched the bride and tricked Jacob into marrying his eldest daughter, Leah. Jacob then had to work another seven years to pay the bride price for Rachel. But God gave Jacob the grace to submit to Laban, even though Laban was deceitful and crooked.

God’s grace for Jacob was altogether beautiful. God’s grace came in the form of the euphoria of romantic love which made the seven years pass quickly for Jacob. Not that Jacob had to wait 14 years to be with Rachel. He married Rachel a week after Leah. But God’s grace also came through Leah, who provided sons for Israel. 

Jacob was not Laban’s slave exactly but he was subject to Laban as a worker and Laban was not a good or easy boss. After 20 years of service to Laban, working as a shepherd far more than eight hours a day, Jacob had had enough and left under the cover of darkness with his family.

This suggests there are limits to submission and there comes a time to throw off the yoke of oppression. You do not need to submit to abuse in the workplace. There is legal protection available to workers these days that simply was not available in ancient times. Returning to Jacob & Laban. We note that in leaving, Jacob did no violence to Laban. Laban caught up with Jacob and the two of them made a solemn promise to do no harm to each other. An amicable separation. 

Okay, so the grace to endure unjust suffering is something good which comes from God to help us through a difficult time. We believers, who are God’s slaves, essentially become a vehicle of God’s grace for the undeserving. But is there another way to understand what Peter means when he says unjust suffering is grace? Well, maybe, with the benefit of hindsight.

Sometimes God’s grace comes to us in a form that is not pleasant. God’s grace does not always feel like the euphoria of falling in love. Sometimes God’s grace is an ugly duckling that we despise at first, but which later turns into a beautiful swan. We often only recognise God’s grace in the rear vision mirror.

Earlier in the service we heard a reading from Matthew 16 where Jesus predicted his suffering, death and resurrection. Peter (the same Peter who wrote this letter) took Jesus aside and rebuked Jesus saying, ‘Never, Lord. This shall never happen to you.’

Peter was well intentioned of course. He was loyal to Jesus and did not want Jesus to suffer injustice like this. But Jesus turned to Peter and said, ‘Get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’

What a devastating critique. Peter was only trying help. To Peter’s credit he did not throw his toys out of the cot and return to his fishing business. He did not get the pip with Jesus and walk off in a huff. Instead he submitted to what Jesus said, even though it probably seemed a bit harsh and unfair to him at the time. Peter stuck with Jesus.

It was only later, after he had witnessed Jesus’ suffering and death and had seen the risen Jesus, that Peter understood. The ugly duckling of unjust suffering was actually a graceful, beautiful swan in waiting. Jesus’ unjust suffering was the means of God’s grace for undeserving humanity.

Conclusion:

Verse 21 tells us that, as Christians, we are called to unjust suffering, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

The Greek word translated as example was used to refer to a pattern of letters of the alphabet over which children learning to write would trace. [3] Jesus left us the pattern of the cross over which we are to trace out our lives, in order that we might follow in his steps.

We are unlikely to be scourged and crucified as Jesus was, but we are likely to suffer injustice, in some way or another, if we openly follow Christ. This injustice will hurt but it is grace if we bear it without losing trust in God. For if we share in Christ’s suffering we will also share in his glory. That is the pattern.

After sowing in tears comes reaping with joy.

After waiting in silence comes revelation.

After alienation comes intimacy.

After unjust treatment comes vindication.  

After darkness comes the dawn.

And after death comes resurrection.    

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for your grace in all its forms. We confess that (like Peter) we do not always recognise your grace or welcome it. We find the way of Jesus hard. We don’t enjoy being misunderstood or blamed for other people’s mistakes. We don’t like turning the other cheek when we are treated unfairly and yet your grace is often revealed in these experiences of injustice. (Lord, I don’t like the way of the cross, but I like you.) Forgive us for the times when we have resisted your will. Give us grace to embrace our cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus so that the love of Christ would be real for others and the hope of glory real for us. Amen.      

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Why do you think Peter aligns the Christian community (brand) with slaves? How do you feel being aligned with people at the bottom of the social ladder?
  • Why do you think Peter (and the NT generally) does not explicitly condemn slavery? In what ways has the influence of Christ changed attitudes to slavery over the centuries?  
  • What is grace? What do you think Peter means when he says, ‘For it is grace if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.’?
  • When is it not appropriate to submit to your boss? When might one make a stand and throw off the yoke of oppression?
  • Can you think of a time in your own life when things were tough (through no fault of your own) and God gave you grace to handle it? What form did God’s grace come to you in? Share your story with someone you trust.

[1] Paul Copan, ‘Is God a Moral Monster?’, page 151.

[2] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1st Peter, page 136.

[3] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 195.

Tawa Baptist

Freedom

Scripture: 1st Peter 2:13-17

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Submission
  • Freedom
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Some things do not go well together. For example, forks and power sockets are not a good combination. Orange juice and toothpaste don’t mix very well either. (Just try drinking an OJ after brushing your teeth.) Hair driers and bath tubs should also be avoided, along with late nights and early mornings or ice-cream and sensitive teeth. These sorts of things are simply not compatible. 

By the same token there are some things that naturally work well together. For example, bread and butter, shoes and socks, darkness and sleep, soap and water, macaroni and cheese and salty chips dipped in melted chocolate. It took me over 40 years to discover that last combination. Chips and chocolate go surprisingly well together. The salt accentuates the flavour of the chocolate. It tastes great.     

Today we continue our series in 1st Peter. Last week we heard how we need to get the foundation of our inner life right so that we can be a winsome witness to the world. This morning’s passage continues the theme of the believers’ relationship to the world, with a particular focus on our relationship with the government. From 1st Peter, chapter 2, verses 13-17 to read…

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, honour the emperor.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

In this reading we find two ideas which, at first, sound incompatible: submission and freedom. Hearing these two words together we might be inclined to think orange juice and toothpaste. But actually, on closer examination, we find submission and freedom are more like salty chips and melted chocolate – an unexpected match made in heaven.

First let us consider what Peter has to say about submission.

Submission:

To submit means to accept, or yield to, the will of another person. Obedience goes hand in hand with submission. When we submit to someone we put ourselves under that person’s authority. Submission does not diminish our worth or our value as human beings. It is simply a way of saying, ‘you first’.

One of my earliest memories, as a child, is of my grandfather putting me on his shoulders and carrying me around his house. I was quite young at that stage and still learning to talk. But I found that when I turned my grandfather’s head he would go in the direction I had indicated, without a word being spoken.   

My grandfather did not need to play this game and did not need to follow my directions. Nevertheless, he freely chose to submit to me when I was on his shoulders. His submission did not make him any less of a person. To the contrary it opened a door in our relationship and was an expression of his love.

Submission is not always an expression of love. When submission is forced it feels more like violence but when submission is freely given it creates a connection, a bridge, between people.

Now in sharing this story I don’t mean to suggest parents and grandparents should always submit to their children and grandchildren. This was just a game my grandfather played with me and was the exception rather than the rule. Generally speaking, it is more helpful for small children if they feel like caring and responsible adults are in charge.

But, at the same time, a child needs to know the adults in their life trust them. And that’s what my grandfather was doing in playing a game of submitting to me – he was creating trust.    

Peter instructs his readers to Submit yourselves… to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him…

Peter is talking about the Christian believers’ relationship to the government. Generally speaking, we are to submit to the government. Now we need to remember here that the governing authority of Peter’s day was very different from the government we know. In the first century the Romans were in charge and it was essentially a pagan dictatorship, not a democracy.

The ‘emperor’ refers to Caesar and the governors were those men appointed by Caesar to manage certain geographical areas within the empire. Most likely Peter wrote his letter when Nero was emperor – sometime near the beginning of Nero’s reign. Nero was a bad egg. He was not a benevolent dictator. By the end of his reign he was openly persecuting Christians. He used Christians as a scapegoat for whatever suited his purpose.

Peter’s instruction to submit was probably given a couple of years prior to Nero’s full on persecution of the church. In any case, the Christian community was a marginalized minority and in no position to influence or leverage the political powers that be.

Given the political context of that time Peter’s instruction to submit to a pagan government may seem strange to us, like putting a fork into a power socket. The Roman authorities could be violent.

However, Peter’s advice was wise. The church at that time was perceived by society at large to be a relatively new religion and therefore a threat to the peace of the empire. The most sensible strategy in that situation was for the church to try and foster trust by submitting to the authorities and demonstrating they were not a threat.

Indeed, the Christian church posed no threat at all. Jesus made it very clear that his kingdom is not of this world and so Caesar had no reason to fear the church. Unfortunately, Nero was a bit bonkers and reason did not really feature that much in his leadership.       

Nevertheless, Peter tells his readers to submit to the government. This is in keeping with Jesus’ teaching. Earlier in the service we read a passage from Mark 12, where Jesus was asked whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar? After all, the tax money was supporting a pagan power and being spent in all sorts of ways that were disagreeable to Jewish religion.

The question was a trick, designed to trap Jesus, but the Lord saw through it and called his opponents out for their pretense. Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”

In other words, ‘Submit to the government by paying your taxes, but save your worship for God’.

In Christian thought the government is actually God’s servant, even if the government is not aware of it. God uses governments (of all varieties) to maintain law and order. This does not mean that God is micro-managing every law change and policy decision. To the contrary, governments do a fair bit that I expect God does not agree with. But, looking at the bigger picture of history, God is sovereign. He plants governments and uproots them as he determines.    

This is how Jesus saw it. The people in political power are only there because God has allowed it. When Jesus stood trial before Pilate, the Roman governor said to Jesus, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” [1]

And Jesus replied, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

In that situation Jesus knew it was God’s will for him to die on the cross. Jesus submitted to the Roman government because he understood that, as ungodly as the Romans were, they were still appointed by God. Pilate was, unwittingly, serving God’s purpose.

Interestingly, the reason Peter gives why Christians should submit to the authorities is:  for the Lord’s sake …15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

The idea here is that submission provides a winsome witness. People can argue with the words you say but they cannot argue with their experience of you. Humble submission speaks volumes. Jesus’ quiet submission certainly spoke volumes to Pilate. It helped to convince Pilate that the accusations against Jesus were false. From then on Pilate tried to set Jesus free.

While submitting to the governing authorities is a good strategy for fostering trust between the church and the government, there is no guarantee it will save us. Ultimately, we submit for the Lord’s sake. In other words, our submission to the government is really an act of loving obedience to God.

As I said earlier, submitting does not makes us less valuable in any way. If anything it demonstrates our worth.

So, should we always submit to the government then? What if the government ask us to do something that is clearly wrong? Well, no. We should not blindly do whatever the government tells us. There are exceptions to the rule. We need to exercise some discernment. The key is obedience to God. Jesus submitted to death on a cross, at the hands of the Roman government, because that was God’s will for him. But if Pilate had told Jesus to bow down to Caesar we know Jesus would have refused.

The point is, our ultimate submission is to God. If the government wants us to do something that is clearly offensive to God, then we must give priority to what God wants.

For example, in Exodus 1 when the people of Israel were being oppressed in Egypt, Pharaoh told the Jewish midwives to kill all the baby boys, as they were born, but to let the girls live. In that situation the mid wives, Shiphrah and Puah, disobeyed the government and lied to Pharaoh because they feared God.

In Daniel 6, king Darius issued an edict that anyone who prayed to any god or man during a set 30-day period, except king Darius, should be thrown into a den of lions. The prophet Daniel, who was a leading servant of the king and normally did submit to the government, disobeyed the edict. Daniel carried on praying to Yahweh, the God of Israel, three times a day as he always did.     

Likewise, in Acts 4 when the Sanhedrin told the apostles Peter & John to stop healing and preaching in the name of Jesus, Peter & John replied: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”      

We submit to the government for the sake of the Lord. Faithful obedience to God is the key to discerning when civil disobedience is called for.

The past several months have been an interesting time. Because of the COVID pandemic the government has, when necessary, put bans on large gatherings with the result that we have missed 18 Sundays of gathered worship so far this year. (12 weeks the first time and 6 weeks the second time.) We have submitted to the government’s requirements and have not overstepped the mark.

We submitted for the sake of the Lord and for the well-being of the wider community. Although we stopped gathering physically for 18 weeks, we did not stop worshipping God. We believe submitting to the government in this context is the right thing to do. It is an act of obedience to God.

Okay, so we are to submit to the government, in accordance with God’s will.

Freedom:

The other word Peter puts alongside submission, in this passage, is freedom.

In verse 16 of chapter 2, in the same breath as telling his readers to submit to the governing authorities, Peter says:  Live as free people,but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil;live as God’s slaves.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon, submission and freedom do not seem like they go together at first. But actually, like salty chips dipped in melted chocolate they are an unexpectedly good match.

Freedom empowers submission. Freedom lends dignity to submission. Freedom is to submission what electricity is to a lightbulb – freedom fulfills the purpose of submission (which is to foster trust and express love).

To understand how freedom relates to submission we need to ensure we have a right understanding of freedom. Most people in contemporary western society think of freedom as the ability to do whatever one wants, so long as it does not harm anyone else. So, in popular culture at least, freedom has to do with self-determination.

But this is not what the Bible means by freedom. In a Christian understanding, freedom is not about an escape from responsibility and service. No. Freedom is about a change of master. Without Christ, our master is sin and death. But with Christ our master is the Living God. And the Lord God Almighty is a far kinder master than any other we could have.

To help us understand this concept of freedom, think of a fish. A fish is free so long as it remains in water. But if the fish decides to go walk about on land it loses its freedom and in fact loses its life. In the same way we human beings are free so long as we remain in God’s will for us. If we reject God as our master, if we remove ourselves from the water of God’s will, then we lose our freedom and our life.

Let me tell you a story to further illustrate what Christians mean by freedom. Once there was a quiver of arrows straight and true. One day one of the arrows, we’ll call him Aaron (Aaron the arrow), decided he was sick and tired of being cooped up in the quiver with all the other arrows. Aaron wanted to be free. As chance would have it Aaron’s wish was granted and he fell out of the quiver onto the ground.

At first he thought, this is great. Out in the fresh air and sunshine. Not jammed in with the other arrows. But before long some children found Aaron and started playing with him. They used his head to draw in the dirt and his shaft in a pretend sword fight. Aaron’s feathers got seriously ruffled. He did not like this at all. After a while the children got bored playing with Aaron and dropped him in the mud.

By and by a dog came along and sniffed at Aaron. The dog picked the arrow up in her mouth and carried it for a while before burying it in the ground under a tree. Aaron disliked this even more than the children playing with him. If this was freedom, then he did not want a bar of it.

As Aaron lay in the damp earth he realized the only way he could be truly free was in his master’s hand. He was an arrow and his purpose was to fly through the air in obedience to his master’s aim. Aaron longed to return to the quiver.  

After a few days lying in his shallow grave, another dog sniffed him out and dug him up. Aaron the arrow was in luck. This was his master’s dog. The dog returned Aaron to his master who cleaned the arrow up and put Aaron in the quiver. Aaron was pleased to be back where he belonged. Now his life had meaning again. Now he was free to fulfill his purpose.

Freedom is about a change of master.

You see freedom is not about being able to do whatever we want. Like Aaron, we are only truly free when we submit to God as our master. We are only truly free in God’s hand, in his will. Christian freedom means being free to serve God.

Joel Green sees the connection between submission and freedom. Joel writes: ‘Submission is best understood as finding and occupying responsibly one’s place in society… In Biblical thought submission is an expression of freedom, not coercion.’ [2]  

The point is, we freely choose to submit to the government in accordance with God’s will for us. We are not to use our freedom as a cover up for evil. We are not to use our religion as a cloak for avoiding our civic responsibility. We are to abide by the laws of the land because in doing this we are really obeying God; swimming in the water of his will.  

Alan Stibbs observes a connection between submission to the governing authorities and freedom in Matthew 5:41. In this verse Jesus is giving an example of what it means to do good to one’s enemies. Under Roman law, a soldier could lawfully require a civilian to carry their load for one mile. But Jesus said, if an occupation soldier forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two. (Go the extra mile.)

The idea here is that when you are compelled to submit you should openly show that you are still free by engaging in more of the same service, willingly and of your own initiative. [3]     

Our submission to the government, therefore, is to be free – it is to be voluntary and willing. In this way, freedom empowers submission. Freedom lends dignity to acts of submission and fulfills the purpose of submission.  

In verse 17 of chapter 2 Peter summarises (in general terms) what it means to live as slaves (or servants) of God, when he says: Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers,fear God, honour the emperor.

That phrase translated as show proper respect is literally honour everyone, in the original Greek. It is the same word translated as honour the emperor. This implies that all human beings (whether they are a slave or Caesar himself) are valuable in God’s sight and deserving of honour and respect, for we are all made in the image of God.

Peter’s message to respect everyone, regardless of gender, race, religion or socio-economic standing, still speaks to our society today. The Me Too movement has highlighted the need to show sexual respect, just as the Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the need to show racial respect.

We are to respect everyone but we are to love the family of believers. The sort of love in view here is agape love, deeply devoted love, divine love. We are to love other Christians in the same way that God loves us in Christ.

Notice too how we are to honour the emperor but we are to fear God. Fear, in this context, does not mean terror or anxiety. Rather, fear means awe and reverence. It is only when God is given his proper place in the center of things that all other things take their proper place. [4] 

The implication here is that we do not need to fear the emperor (or the government). We need to honour our political leaders, yes, but we do not need to hold them in the same reverence and awe reserved for God. The emperor, the President, the Prime Minister, the Queen; these people are people, they are not God.

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard how submission to the governing authorities and freedom to serve God go together.

We submit to the government, partly because that fosters trust, but mostly as an expression of obedience to God.

Our submission is not forced though. Our submission is freely given and that makes all the difference.

Let us pray…

We thank you Father God for your Son Jesus who show us what it looks like to freely submit to the governing authorities out of obedience to you. Give us wisdom to use our freedom well, for your glory. Help us to know when to submit and when to resist. Give us grace, Almighty God, to respect all people, to love our fellow believers and to fear you, with reverence and awe, above all else. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Have you ever tasted salty chips dipped in melted chocolate? Did you enjoy this combination of flavours? What other unexpected flavour combinations have you tried that work well together? (A note for group leaders: you might want to bring an assortment of tasty culinary combinations for the people in your group to try. E.g. blue cheese and honey, regular cheese and Krispy biscuits, apple and peanut butter, chips and chocolate, etc.) 
  • Why does Peter instruct his readers to submit to the governing authorities?
  • What do you think Jesus meant when he said: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s”? (in Mark 12)
  • When is it not appropriate to submit to the government? Can you think of any examples from the Scriptures, or from human history, when civil disobedience was called for?
  • What does the Bible mean by freedom? How is this different from a contemporary secular understanding of freedom?
  • Discuss / reflect on the dynamic between submission and freedom, particularly with respect to the church’s relationship with the government. How might we (today) apply Jesus’ instruction to ‘go the extra mile’ in our relationship with the governing authorities?
  • In 1st Peter 2:17 we are told to ‘respect everyone, love the family of believers, fear God and honour the emperor’. Which of these four things do you find most difficult? Why is this do you think? What do you need to be able to carry out Peter’s instruction here?  

[1] John 19:10-11

[2] Refer Joel Green’s commentary on 1st Peter, pages 73 & 75.

[3] Refer Alan Stibbs’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 112.

[4] Refer William Barclay’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 248.

Tawa Baptist

Winsome

Scripture: 1st Peter 2:11-12

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Soul Wars
  • Brace your soul
  • Winsome Witness
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

You may have noticed our church carpark has some potholes. For some reason fixing church carparks did not really come up when I was studying theology. Fortunately, we have a roading expert in our congregation who is able to help us with this. Apparently the base course, underneath the tar seal, has disintegrated in places.

Base course is a kind of pebbly gravel that can be compacted down to provide a hard base, while at the same time allowing drainage. The base course is like the foundation for the car park. The tar seal sits on top of the base course. Apparently, it is not as simple as filling the potholes with more tar. We need to re-lay the base course and get the foundation right first.

The other thing I’ve learned about car parks, in this process, is that tar seal does not cope very well with water. If there is a crack or a leaky join in the tar seal and water gets underneath, you end up with another hole.

Why am I telling you this? Well, partly to make you aware of the health & safety risk. Please watch your step in the car park. But also as an illustration for the sermon. Our lives are a little bit like a car park. Just as a carpark has an inside and an outside (or an underneath and a surface), so too we have an inner life (a base course) and an outer life (the tar seal on top),

The quality of the surface (what we present to the world on the outside) depends very much on the what’s going on underneath. If our base course has eroded, if we have lost our inner foundation, then pot holes will appear in our life.

Today we continue our series in the New Testament letter of first Peter, focusing on chapter 2, verses 11-12. In today’s two verses Peter talks about taking care of our inner life (the foundation) so that we can relate to the world (out there) in a way that gives a winsome witness.

From 1st Peter chapter 2, verse 11, we read…      

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 deedsand glorify Godon the day he visits us.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Soul Wars

Peter addresses his readers as ‘Dear friends’ in verse 11. This is literally beloved. There is a tenderness from Peter here. He is not writing to tell anyone off or set anyone straight. He is writing to encourage and empower. Peter also addresses his readers as foreigners and exiles, which signals that he is going to talk about their relationship to the world.

Those who have been listening to this sermon series on-line will know how Peter has been using the Jewish exile as a metaphor for his first century readers’ situation. Just as ethnic Israel was separated from its homeland and scattered throughout the world in a hostile environment, so too the early Christian church was separated from the heavenly Jerusalem, scattered throughout the Roman empire.

As Karen Jobes observes, Peter is calling his readers to recognise they are living in an alien place that has different values and practices than those appropriate for the people of God’s holy nation. Visiting strangers and resident aliens respect, appreciate and value their host land but, at the same time, maintain their own distinct identity within it. [1]     

Peter’s instruction to his readers is to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. This is clearly about one’s inner life, the base course underneath the tar seal. If we harbour sinful desires, they cause moral erosion and potholes.

To ‘abstain’ means to distance oneself. Peter is not telling us to distance ourselves from the world, no. Rather he is saying, distance yourself from sinful desires. The real enemy is not out there. The real enemy is inside of us.   

We notice here the influence of Jesus’ teaching on Peter. Jesus taught his disciples to be salt & light in the world. And in the same sermon (in Matthew 5 & 6) he went on to warn against sinful desires. (And I paraphrase here…)

Don’t harbour anger or resentment against your brother or sister because that leads to murder.

Don’t look at anyone lustfully, because that leads to adultery.

Don’t swear an oath, because actually you cannot change a hair on your own head. Just let your yes be yes and no be no.

‘Sinful desires’ is more literally desires of the flesh. The flesh is the human nature apart from God. Desires of the flesh are not limited to sins of the physical body like drunkenness or sexual immorality. Sins of the flesh may also include social sins like slander and envy.

When you are excluded and alienated and misunderstood by your neighbours, as Peter’s readers were, temptation may come in the form of a desire to be accepted or liked by others. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be liked unless it leads us to compromise our values and morals; then it becomes sinful.

Peter says these sinful desires war against our soul. A war is something more serious and more prolonged than an isolated conflict or a random fight. A war is messy and painful and it is constant, relentless.

With modern warfare it is not clear who the enemy is. You cannot always see the enemy. Likewise, we cannot always see our sinful desires until they are on top of us. Not all our desires are sinful but some are. We might think a desire is wrong when actually it is friendly. Or we might think a desire is innocent enough, until it opens fire on our soul.

This war is against our soul. In the Bible the human soul can have more than one meaning. Your soul can refer to your life force, your true inner self, that vitality which flows through your veins like blood. But the soul can also refer to a person’s whole self – including your body, mind and personality.

The two definitions are related. Anything that harms your life force is going to harm your whole self. In verse 11 Peter is essentially urging his readers to practice self-control.

Brace your soul

Sometime in the next several months we hope to install some steel bracing on the side walls of this auditorium. We have to wait for it to come from overseas. The bracing will give the building greater support and strength in an earthquake. The human soul is little bit like a building. It needs bracing and support, to stand firm through the storms and earthquakes of life.

There are five basic things we can do to brace our soul in the war it faces against sinful desires. To help us remember these five things I’ve come up with an acrostic which spells the word brace. Boundaries. Rhythm. Awareness. Commitment. And Enjoyment.

Firstly, to strengthen our soul in the fight, we need to have good boundaries. This means putting a fence at the top of the cliff and not looking over it. Stay as far away from the cliff edge of sinful desire as you can.

The sorts of boundaries one puts in place will differ depending on the situation. If alcohol is a problem for you then you may have the boundary of not going to the pub or avoiding social occasions that could involve lots of drinking.

When it comes to relating with people of the opposite sex standard boundaries might include avoiding secret meetings, being careful not to speak in innuendo and not to make comments which might give the wrong idea. Best to keep things professional and above board.

One boundary, which is often neglected these days, is the Sabbath boundary. We seem to have lost our understanding of sacred time – a day set apart for God and rest. We get sucked in by the illusion that working harder will make us more secure, but work is a bottomless pit. You never get ahead by working on your day off. It’s called the law of diminishing returns. The longer you work the less value you get for the overtime. Not respecting the boundary of a Sabbath usually leads to the sin of resentment, among other things.       

Rhythm is the R in our brace acrostic. Rhythm and routine support the energy of your soul. Rhythm provides a sense of security and momentum. One of the detrimental effects of Covid has been the disruption to people’s natural rhythms. Many people feel more tired because Covid has derailed their rhythm.

Important daily rhythms include sleeping and eating and working at regular times. Sunday worship is an important weekly rhythm for Christians, one which (in recent years) has been disturbed by things like Sunday trading and sports. We also have rhythms in the church calendar with the celebration of communion, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and ordinary time.

Boundaries and rhythms naturally complement each other. The Sabbath boundary is also a sacred rhythm.

The A in the brace for your soul stands for awareness. Self-control requires self-awareness. Each of us is vulnerable but not in the same way. You have to understand where the chinks are in your armour and take care to guard your heart. When you know how you are wired, where you are strong and where you are weak, you are better equipped to give your soul what it needs.

If you are an introvert, then you know that being alone is what recharges your emotional batteries. So after a busy week working with people you take care of yourself by planning a quiet weekend. By the same token, too much time on your own is not good for you either. Even introverts need social interaction.

Sometimes our weaknesses hide within our strengths. People who are strong on empathy can become super sensitive to what others say when they are under stress. Likewise, people who are strong analytical thinkers can become quite rude and insensitive when they are under pressure.

It is helpful to be aware of when your soul is entering the red zone, because that is often when you are especially vulnerable to sinful desires. Just slow down. Take care of yourself. Allow time to restore the balance. 

One also needs an awareness of others and the time and place in which we live. Being a Christian is not as easy or socially acceptable as it was 30 or 40 years ago. Being a Christian can sometimes feel like picking your way through a mind field. You have to be aware of where the unexploded ordinances are. We have to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.  

Awareness is essentially about being present in the moment. Not second guessing that conversation you had with someone yesterday and not getting three steps ahead of yourself about what might happen tomorrow. But staying present to your environment, present to others and present to your own feelings.

The C in brace is for commitment. If we are to win the war which constantly wages against our soul, we need to be committed over the long haul. The war we are in is a marathon, not a sprint.

Commitment to God, protects your soul from the sin of idolatry. Commitment to your husband or wife protects your marriage and your family. Commitment to other Christian believers protects our collective identity and our sense of belonging. Commitment to our neighbour’s well-being protects the wider community and our reputation.

We cannot commit to everything. Commitment is about making a decision which is in line with our core values and staying true to that, win or lose. Commitment requires courage.

The E in our brace acrostic stands for enjoyment. Every soldier needs some R&R. You cannot function on high alert all the time.

There is an old Proverb which says: ‘Do you have honey? Eat as much as is good for you.’ Abstaining from sinful desires does not mean abstaining from all pleasure or enjoyment. Not all desires are bad. God wants us to enjoy life. If we are to abstain from sinful desires, then we need to nourish our souls with wholesome things.

Find enjoyment in simple things. Maybe your honey (your enjoyment) is found by spending time in your garden. Or maybe you get satisfaction from baking or working with wood. Maybe you enjoy walking on the beach or in the mountains or watching the sunrise. Treat yourself and your husband or wife to a nice meal out occasionally. There is nothing sinful about these sorts of things. 

Now obviously with each of the words in our brace acrostic we want to avoid extremes. Jesus always observed moral boundaries but there were times when he crossed social and cultural boundaries for the sake of others. Our rhythms and routines sometimes need to be interrupted. Too much routine puts you in a rut. Likewise, too much self-awareness can become self-absorption, just as too much enjoyment can turn life rotten. And some commitments can become harmful, if overdone, and may need to be dialled down or let go of altogether.

The point is you need to be on your own side if you want to win the war against the flesh. And you do that by bracing your soul with good boundaries, healthy rhythms, awareness of yourself and others, commitment to well-being and enjoyment of simple things. 

Winsome witness:

Having addressed his readers’ soul wars, in verse 11, Peter then encourages us to winsome witness.

In verse 12 Peter writes: Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deedsand glorify Godon the day he visits us.

If verse 11 is about our inner life, then verse 12 is about our outer life – our witness to the world.

Unbelievers in the first century, viewed Christians with suspicion and hostility because Christians were different and did not conform to their ways. Since believers did not honour the typical Roman or Greek gods, the general population saw them as evil and a threat. [2] Consequently, Christians of the first century were falsely accused of doing wrong.

Despite the prejudice Christians faced, Peter is not thinking in binary categories that characterise society as evil and the Christian community as good. [3] Real life is more dynamic than that. 

By instructing his readers to live good lives among their pagan neighbours Peter is recognising that non-Christian values overlap in some ways with the values of Christian faith. We (the church) are in agreement with the world on some things. Peter believes there is enough light in non-Christians for them to see the goodness of Christ in us.  

Therefore, Peter’s advice is not to withdraw from the world, nor to conform to the world’s expectations. Rather we are to let our good deeds do the talking. Show the world, by our example, that their prejudice is misplaced and the very people who once maligned us will glorify God on the day he visits.

The day of God’s visitation could refer to the day of judgment when Christ returns. Or, it could refer to the day of salvation when those who are not yet believers put their faith in Jesus.      

The main point here is that we are to be a winsome witness. Winsome is a word we do not hear that much these days. To be winsome is to be attractive or charming or appealing in a fresh and innocent way.

Winsomeness is not loud or self-conscious. Winsomeness is pure and authentic. Winsomeness can be easily overlooked because it is not self-promoting. It is beautiful to those who have the eyes to see it.

When Joseph’s brothers came to him for forgiveness, Joseph said: ‘Am I in the place of God. What you intended for harm God used for good.’ Joseph’s grace for his brothers was winsome.  

When Naomi left Moab to return to Bethlehem, Ruth said: ‘Wherever you go I will go there with you.’ Ruth’s loyal love for her mother-in-law was winsome.

When an angry crowd brought a woman caught in adultery before Jesus, the Lord said: ‘Whoever is without sin can throw the first stone.’ And the crowd left one by one. Jesus’ wisdom in handling that situation was winsome.

When Robyn was pregnant with one of our daughters a boy in her class lost the plot and punched her in the stomach. When I heard what had happened I was livid. But Robyn’s response was to show kindness to the boy. She had no problems with him after that. Robyn’s gentleness with that child was winsome.  

Recently we were invited to a friend’s house for lunch. I was admiring my friend’s handiwork in the garden and he showed me some small kowhai plants. He had grown those plants from seeds I had given him the Christmas before. My friend’s patience in growing the kowhai plants from seed was winsome. It encourages me to think he carries those qualities of care and nurture and winsomeness into the men’s Bible study he leads.

Last year I was lucky enough to perform a dedication ceremony for a two year old child. At the end of the dedication, when I was giving the blessing, the child spontaneously threw her arms around my neck and gave me a hug. It touched my heart. Her innocence in giving me a hug was winsome.

There is a man in our community who visits his wife in the local rest home twice a day. You often see him walking to and from the home. This man said to me once, ‘I have learned what it means to cherish my wife’. His faithfulness in visiting his wife is winsome.

I could go on but you get the point. Actions speak louder than words. We are not to be self-promoting. We are to be a winsome witness to the world. Our deeds are to be attractive, appealing, fresh and innocent. In this way we glorify God.   

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard about taking care of our inner life (the foundation of our soul) so that we can relate to the world in a way that provides a winsome witness.

This is not easy. In fact, Peter likens it to a war. Not a war against society but rather a war against our own sinful desires for the sake of society.

There may be times during this war when we lose the odd battle. There may be times when we give in to temptation, when sin (in whatever form) gets the better of us. Do not be discouraged. We have a Saviour who understands and who cares for us and who is ready to forgive. God’s grace is sufficient for you. Ultimately, those who are in Christ are on the winning side.

In relation to this life’s struggle, I like what Winston Churchill (who struggled with depression) said: “Success is never found. Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.”

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • In what ways do we recognise Jesus’ teaching in Peter’s words in verses 11-12?
  • How is the base course (the foundation) of your life at present? Are there any particular ‘desires of the flesh’ that you feel more vulnerable to? What strategies do you have for guarding your soul against these? If you don’t have any strategies is there someone you trust who could suggest some helpful strategies?  
  • What do you think Peter means by the human soul?
  • Thinking of the BRACE acrostic (Boundaries, Rhythm, Awareness, Commitment and Enjoyment), which aspects are you relatively strong in? Which aspects could do with some work?  (You might want to ask someone who knows you well to see if they agree with your self-assessment.) 
  • Can you think of an example of someone being a winsome witness, either from Scripture or your own experience?

[1] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, pages 165-166.

[2] Refer T.R. Schriener’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 122.

[3] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, pages 170-171.

Tawa Baptist

Baptism

Scriptures: Matthew 5:11-12; Romans 6:3-6; Ephesians 4:1-6

Baptism Homily:

Good morning everyone.

Earlier in the service we baptized three people and so today our message focuses on the three C’s of believers’ baptism: commitment, conversion and community.

The sort of commitment involved with believers’ baptism is significant. It is akin to the commitment made in marriage. It is a commitment of loyal love.

It is not a commitment to be taken lightly. In being baptized we are saying: ‘Jesus, I want you to be my forever friend.’

Getting baptized is sort of like signing an agreement with a builder to build you a house. Except, in the case of believers’ baptism, Jesus is the builder and the house is a spiritual house. Those who were baptized today have entrusted Jesus to build a house for them in God’s kingdom. But the Lord won’t do all the work for you. He will require a commitment of faith, hope and love from you.

It needs to be said that commitment to Jesus is not always convenient. There may be times when building your house on the foundation of Jesus’ teaching is difficult. You will not always be liked or accepted for your commitment to Christ but that is to be expected.

As Jesus said, in Matthew 5: 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you,persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad,because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Baptism signifies a commitment to Christ and therefore a commitment to conversion. Christian conversion is both an event and an on-going (life-long) process. Christian conversion can be from a different religion to Christianity or from no religion to Christianity. But conversion can also be the process of moving deeper into the Christian faith you grew up in.

Baptism is a parable of the change that Jesus brings in our life. As the apostle Paul says in Romans 6: …all of us who were baptizedinto Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the deadthrough the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with Christ in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body ruled by sinmight be done away with,that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

In other words, baptism represents a fresh start.

Christian conversion is about inner change – change from the inside out. It is a change of heart and mind which results in a change in word and deed. This means that we do not get baptized for the sake of social convention. Believers’ baptism is not something we do just because that’s what everyone else does. The motivation to be baptized needs to come from a deep heartfelt desire to be more like Christ.   

Returning to our house building analogy. Jesus is the master builder. He is in charge of constructing our house in God’s kingdom. Conversion means we don’t tell him how to design the house. We follow his plans for us – plans for our good.

The third C of baptism is community.

One of the reasons we like to hold baptismal services on a Sunday morning at 10am (during our main weekly worship service) is that baptism signifies entry into the community of God’s people. Baptism is both personal and public. When someone is baptized they become part of the community of God’s people. Not just this faith community of Tawa Baptist, but the church universal – which is all Christians everywhere through all time.  

The house you are building with Jesus is not isolated, on its own, in the middle of nowhere. The house you are building with Jesus is part of a heavenly city. You have neighbours.

One of the interesting things about Jesus’ baptism is that, soon afterwards, Jesus was led into the desert to be tested by the devil. This tells us that baptism does not give us immunity from trials and temptations.

But you are not alone. Keep on fellowshipping and building right relationship with other Christian believers. It is your spiritual house insurance. 

In Ephesians chapter 4 the apostle Paul writes about Christian community saying: I urge you to live a life worthyof the callingyou have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one anotherin love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unityof the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one bodyand one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all,who is over all and through all and in all.

Baptism is a statement of commitment, not convenience.

Baptism signifies conversion, not convention.

And, while baptism does not offer immunity, it does open the door to community.

In a few moments we will share communion together. By celebrating communion, as a community of faith, we remember Jesus’ commitment to us in going to the cross. Through Jesus’ sacrifice our relationship with God is converted, it is changed. Through faith in Jesus we become friends with God.

May God’s grace & peace attend you.