New Testament Archives - Page 134 of 208

1 Peter 3:1-7

Christ Church on February 25, 2018

This sermon is really Part 3 of a series on submission or “being subject to” someone. And, for those of you with chapter subtitles in your Bible you can see that it has to do with husbands and wives. Here in Chapter 3, we are told to look back to the example set by Christ by:

Putting ourselves under submission to authorities as this is the will of God.
Looking to Jesus as our perfect example to follow/imitate.
Entrusting ourselves completely to Our Heavenly Father, just like Jesus did.

Peter is taking these principles and the example of Jesus, pushing them into the corners of all our relationships — particularly the most thorny ones. And, the thorniest of our relationships tend to be with the people we spend the most time together. It makes sense, as we consider that surely these people should know us and know our needs…but somehow they fail too in meeting all our expectations.

Likewise

For both husbands and wives, Peter begins his exhortation with “likewise”, which means that both the wife and husband are under the same authority and are supposed to follow the same example. Husbands and wives are NOT different from this perspective. And, as this section, closes in verse 7, Peter emphasizes that the man and woman are joint heirs in Christ. The glorious inheritance that Peter has talked about earlier is the same for both. The salvation is the same for both. As Paul says in his letter to the Galatians 3:28, in Christ there is neither male nor female in this regard.

Differences

At the same time, the “likewise” is followed by two very different sets of commands. The wife is exhorted to be subject to her husband and the husband is commanded to live with understanding and honor his wife. Like Paul’s words to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5, the commands are tailored to each based on their role in the marriage.

Promises

To the wives, Peter says that if you submit to your husband you are positioning yourself to expect God to work in your husband’s heart. Similarly, husbands are exhorted that if they live with their wives with understanding, their prayers will not be hindered. God’s commands always come with promises.

Wives, be submissive to your husbands

Here Peter’s command for submission is limited by the possessive pronoun “their”. This means that the wife is only commanded to be submissive to her husband not men in general. When you married, you did so complete with public vows. And, if it was a Christian wedding, those vows would have included a promise to obey. Now for those young ladies considering marriage, this should be an admonition to choose wisely a man who you respect (better yet, one your parents also respect!). It will make obeying this command a joy.

Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

The emphasis on the heart over external adornment is strengthened as Peter continues with this verse. There is an aspect of our obedience that can be partially hidden. I say partially, because it is hardly possible to disguise ‘feelings’ of antipathy from getting onto the surface somehow. Nothing looks worse than a forced smile covering a heart full of hatred. This is where we get terms like “giving lip service” instead of heart obedience. We don’t want this in our kids, and God doesn’t want it in us.

So once the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.

The Scriptures point out several narrative interactions that we can look at. We see in these excerpts, Sarah obeying Abraham in his a simple and foolish commands. At the same time we see Sarah making her mind known to Abraham. My point here is not to draw specific commands for the wives of our generation, but to highlight what Peter exhorts — namely to consider Sarah and women like her as models to imitate. This is more of an orientation an allegiance than something that can be bottled up in a specific list of “do’s” and “don’ts”. If you are “aiming” to model Christ, and are seeking to walk as Jesus walked. The pattern to trace, to follow, is to call your husband “Lord” like Sarah. And, the heart attitude covering this pattern is joy.

Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives.

The term “considerately”, means that the husband should live with ‘understanding’ with his wife. He must learn what her needs are and then provide for those needs. Given the differences and complexity of the sexes, he will a lifetime of learning, but that doesn’t mean he has time to fritter away. He can get a lot done early by working at it. Think of the 80/20 rule. This message is not to point to every detail but to say — get after it. Many good books are out there. You’re the man. Take the initiative to pick one up and read it together with her — don’t wait to stumble over the books she leaves in your way hoping to get your attention.

Winston Churchill said, “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” As Christians, our failures need not remain chains halting our progress. If you are not doing or have not been doing what Peter exhorts in this passage, you can leave the chains of sin and guilt behind. You can go on without losing enthusiasm. Confess your failure and repent (turn) to God for grace. This act of humility is where God will meet you and lift you up.

Christ Our Example: Suffering and Salvation

Christ Church on February 18, 2018

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Freedom in Christ to Submit

Peter has labored for his readers to know their identity as the people of God––his chosen elect, his holy children, his redeemed people, his free servants. So how do you live as God’s people in a world hostile to God and to his people? But Peter says to Christian citizens, “Submit to your government” and to Christian slaves, “Submit to your masters” in order to advance Christ’s mission in the world. Peter begs us to realize that we are all engaged in a war––a war for our souls and a war for the world. And our secret weapon in the fight is godly suffering. God uses our submission to subvert the enemies of the gospel, and even to save them. And if you don’t believe this, Peter points at Jesus Christ who is our example of our suffering Savior.

The Submission on Household Servants (vs. 18)

Peter begins by admonishing “Servants, be submissive to your masters” (vs. 18). The word for “servant” is “oiketes” which means household or domestic servants. Two oiketes make a very important appearance in the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. The link between Cornelius’ vision from the angel and Peter’s vision and Peter’s Spirit-anointed sermon was the simple obedience of two household servants, Cornelius’ oiketes. Of course, the providence of God orchestrated the events and outcome, but God used and blessed their submission to their master. Their obedience to Cornelius was used to advance God’s mission in the world that Gentiles may glorify God (2:12).

To the Good and to the Harsh (vs. 18)

Peter, knowing what the Lord has done and plans to do, commands, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh” (vs. 18). To be submissive is to put yourself under the authority of another, to obey. A servant is to treat his master like he would treat God, with all fear. But this is not because of who the master is, but because of who God is.

Already anticipating some “But Peters” he says you are to submit, not only to the good and gentle masters, but also to the harsh, surly, unfair, wicked masters. Even when the master abuses his power, you submit. Even when the master is unworthy of your obedience, you “salute the uniform” and submit.

Do Good and Suffer Patiently (vs. 19-20)

God sees those servants who, even though they do good in their duties, still suffer unjustly. But just because you’re suffering, does not mean you’re innocent. “For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?” (vs. 20). If you broke into your master’s wine cellar and got whipped for it, don’t cry “Persecution.”

“But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God” (vs. 20). When you are not at fault and still suffer patiently, this pleases God. This should encourage you, especially if you question whether your diligence, faithfulness, obedience is worth it. Be like Peter and John who did good by preaching the gospel, and were arrested, beaten, thrown in jail, delivered from jail by an angel, preached the next day in the Temple, were arrested and beaten again and went away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts. 5:41).

Christ our Suffering Example (vs. 21-23)

“For to this you were called because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps.” You are called by God to do good and to suffer patiently just like Jesus Christ who did good and suffered patiently and left us an example. The word for “example” literally means “under-writing.” Hypo-grammos was a training method of copying for children to learn the alphabet. There would be a faint lettering or dashes for the child to trace over and eventually learn to write on their own. Doing good and suffering patiently are the ABCs of Christianity. Jesus has learned them and now He hands all his students a dashed outline of the cross, “Here you go, now you can practice.”

Gospel Suffering (vs. 24-25)

Jesus is not only our example in suffering, He is our Savior because of his suffering. And so His suffering is good news, our Gospel. Jesus “himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, by whose stripes we are healed” (vs. 24). Jesus Christ suffered, was crucified, and died in order to remove your sin, your foulness, your grossness, your offense to God. This is the Gospel that you are saved by Christ’s suffering. And this Gospel has an effect.

“That we having died to sins, might live for righteousness.” Because Jesus lives, you live like Jesus––for righteousness. And guess what? What does righteousness, goodness, doing right stir up? Suffering and persecution, just like it did for Jesus. And we can get into the same kind of trouble that his righteousness caused. And so submit yourself patiently, humbly, joyfully, just like Jesus. Peter says, “Look what God accomplishes through Jesus, your example!”

Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory

Christ Church on February 18, 2018

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Introduction

The point of this epistle is to encourage believers to live lives of personal holiness during a time of persecution—that is, during a time when the challenge of personal holiness is beyond inconvenient. If God had wanted His people to be extraordinarily holy, the argument might go, He would have given us more help—times of unparalleled prosperity, comfortable homes, a recliner to read our Bibles in, and Bible search software. Then we would really be holy. So . . . how’s it going?

The Text

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied . . .” (1 Peter 1:1–25).

Summary of the Text

Peter, an apostle of Jesus, is writing to “strangers” throughout Asia Minor (v. 1). He describes them as elect according to the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, and made obedient and cleansed by the blood of Jesus (v. 2). Grace and peace.

A blessing upon the Father is declared, who mercifully regenerated us into a living hope through the resurrection (v. 3), which will usher us into an everlasting inheritance (v. 4). In the meantime, prior to receiving that inheritance, we are kept by the power of God through faith (v. 5). This enables us to rejoice even though we have to slog through various trials (v. 6). This is so our faith might be refined, like gold, through fire (v. 7). The refinement of true faith enables us to love Jesus Christ, and to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory (v. 8). This culminates in the salvation of our souls (v. 9). This salvation is something that prophets and angels used to wonder about (vv. 10-12), but which is now openly preached.

So gird up your minds, then, and lean into it (v. 13). Be like obedient children, and don’t conform yourselves to the pattern of lust (v. 14). Because the Father who called you is holy, so you also are to be holy (vv. 15-16). If you call upon the Father, who does not play favorites, walk through your pilgrimage with fear (v. 17). Do this, knowing you were redeemed from the previous vanities, not with silver or gold, but rather with the blood of the spotless Christ (vv. 18-19).

Christ was foreordained to die before the foundation of the world, but was manifested “in these last times” for you (v. 20). He did this for those who believe in Him, so that they might believe in Him (v. 21). Since you have been purified, your duty is to love fervently (v. 22). This is because you were born again through an imperishable seed, which is the Word of God (v. 23). For man as he is now is like browned out meadow grass, fading away (v. 24). But the Word of the Lord—which is the gospel that was preached to us—endures forever (v. 25).

The Nature of Regeneration

Through the comparison of our lives here to grass, meadow grass in a hot August, Peter teaches us that if we are to have hope it must be from outside ourselves. Our lives are grass, but we have been made heirs of an imperishable life. There is no way for this to occur without a complete renovation of our nature. And in order for our nature to be renovated, we must be born over again. Now take careful note. If we are to be born again, with these imperishable results, it is necessary for us to be begotten with a different kind of seed, seed given by a different kind of Father.

Love Fervently

Commenting on this verse, Calvin observes how easy it is for us to shade the circumstances in our own favor. This is why Peter insists that our love for one another must be unfeigned, no fakery, no hypocrisy, no spin. “Nothing is more difficult than to love our neighbours in sincerity. For the love of ourselves rules, which is full of hypocrisy; and besides, every one measures his love, which he shews to others, by his own advantage, and not by the rule of doing good.” We love others, in other words, with one eye always on what we will get out of it. Peter adds that we are to do this fervently. Love one another with unfeigned love, love one another with a pure heart, and love one another fervently—zealously, aggressively, all in, headlong, pell mell. Stop holding back.

Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory

So let us consider for a few moments what the normal Christian life should look like. We may begin by distinguishing the usual Christian life from the normal Christian life. What usually happens does in the absence of teaching, learning, obedience. The normal Christian life is what God expects from us, as set out in His Word. You don’t discover this by looking around at all the Christians you know. You look at how the Christian life is described in the Word.

Now it looks like joy unspeakable and full of glory. It feels like joy ineffable. It weighs you down, like a ship nearly gunwales under because of the bullion it is carrying. Full of glory. Now if you, brown grass that you are in yourself, are given this charge, the last things that will happen to you will be joy or glory. It will be more like despair unspeakable, and full of black doubts.

But the Christian life is not something you concoct in order to bring the filthy rags of your own accomplishments up into the throne room of God. Did we really think that His endless patterns of celestial marble needed us to rally around with our grubby rags? What? Were we going to polish something?

No—the Christian life is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). To be full of glory is to be full of Christ. What is our joy? “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11). Christ is your unspeakable joy, and Christ is your fullness of glory.

But do not breathe a sigh of relief and say that this joy and glory are things that must be going on in Heaven somewhere. Some sort of spiritual truth? No need to worry about it until we get there? No. Recall that Peter is equipping the saints for hard times here. And the hard times here require holiness here. And the holiness here requires happiness here. And the happiness here means that Christ must be here.

The Christ at the right hand of the Father must be the same Christ who, through His Spirit, is the Christ in you, the hope of glory.

They Loved the Glory of Man More than the Glory of God

Christ Church on February 11, 2018

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The Text

“So Jesus said to them, ‘The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.’

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. ³⁷Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, ³⁸so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
³⁹Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
⁴⁰ ‘He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.’
⁴¹Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. ⁴²Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; ⁴³for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (John 12:35-43)

Sexual Sanity (State of the Church 2018 #6)

Christ Church on February 4, 2018

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Introduction

We are living in a time of sexual bedlam, sexual madness. The frenzy that has captured the Western world has many manifestations—open marriages, pornography, same sex mirage, robo-sex, trannies, and worse. My point is not to get into all these deviations in order to attack or refute them point by point. My point is to acknowledge that we are surrounded by it all, and in that context declare the only alternative to the madness, which is faithful Christian monogamy, and to highlight Scripture’s idea of what constitutes a faithful sexual testimony.

The Text

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:3–5).

Summary of the Text

I want to work through what is mentioned here, but with a particular emphasis on what the world is seeing as we obey passages such as this. The older women in the church need to be holy in their behavior (v. 3). They need to guard themselves against speaking false accusations. In addition, they should be careful to avoid “much” wine. In living this way, they should be teachers of good things—meaning that they should be in a position to teach the younger women how to behave (v. 4). They should instruct the younger women in sobriety (v. 4) and the arts of domesticity (v. 4). This is how I take the instruction on loving husbands and children. There are two words underneath that instruction, which are philandros and philoteknos. The word for love here (philo) is the word for warm affection, and in both instances it is a compound word, together with the word for man and the word for children. I would render it in a paraphrase as “teach them to be into husbands and into kids.”

The older women are also to teach the younger women to be discrete and chaste, to be busy at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, so that the Word of God not be blasphemed.

A Few Other Examples

So older wives are expressed taught to teach younger wives to subordinate themselves (hypotasso), so that the church not get a bad reputation. Young men are commanded to be sober-minded also, doing good in all things, and again for the same reason—so that the one who is opposed has no evil thing to say about you. And slaves are commanded to be diligent and obedient also (hypotasso again). Why? So that they might adorn the doctrine of God (v. 10).

Which Direction to Lean?

We are not just supposed to do what the Scripture says to do—although that is always important. We are also supposed to do it for the reasons that Scripture gives.

In other words, we must let Scripture determine how to head off what false ideas the pagans might have about us. Paul says here that the unbelievers should see the wife’s submission and obedience. That is what is to be in the foreground. Paul does not say that submission and obedience must be there somewhere in the background, but make sure what they notice is how educated or witty you are. No, Paul says that your unbelieving friends should notice what a sweetheart your husband has. Let them find out how educated you are after they become Christians.

I am not saying that Christian women should hide their light under a bushel. I am saying that God tells us what the light actually is—the light that shouldn’t be under that bushel. Being into the kids is the light that shouldn’t be under the bushel.

This is because God knows better than we do what kind of thing will be attractive to unbelievers living in the midst of sexual and marital chaos. He knows what they need, and He knows what behavior on our part will stir them up inside. He knows all that, and He has told us all about it.

And if unbelievers are not attracted to it, but rather are in rebellion against it, this kind of testimony remains potent. If you are out at the park with your small tribe, and you get cold stares from angry lesbians, you are not bringing disrepute on the gospel. God says the opposite. God is in charge of what constitutes a good testimony in an age like ours. We have our marching orders.

Modest Flappers

Take this another way. Suppose God told Christian women to be modest (which, come to think of it, He did). Suppose further that all the women outside the church, or at least all the women who were au courant, were flappers. There are two ways to approach this. One says “I obviously need to be a flapper too, and so I need to figure out a way to include modesty in there somehow. And hope nobody notices.” The other is to simply do what God instructs, and let the other pieces fall where they may.

Gospel and More Gospel

When we try to “gray out” the Christian forms of marriage that we practice, we are actually trying to “gray out” the gospel. Christ is the Bridegroom, and the Church is His Bride. Christian husbands are told to love their wives sacrificially, the way Christ loved His Bride (Eph. 5:25, 33). Christian wives are told to submit to their own husbands (Eph. 5:22, 33). Why would we try to hide this from the world? If they kick, let them kick. This is the good news of salvation.

Husbands, your task is to model for the world what the objective gospel actually looks like. And, in case you have forgotten, it looks like blood, sweat, and tears. You are the hands of Christ as He preaches His salvation to the world, and never forget that those hands are pierced. You are husbands—you are to be pierced.

Wives, your task is to model for this lost world what a subjective and personal response to the gospel looks like.

As I have noted before, we are all limited, and we cannot duplicate what Christ did. But even though we cannot duplicate it, we are commanded to imitate it, and we are to imitate it as best we can.

Husbands, the world is watching you. You are to model what the saving looks like. Wives, the world is watching you. You are to model what salvation looks like.