Follow In His Steps

Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

If you're new or visiting with us, welcome. We're glad that you're here.

And we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats, but because we're following Jesus together as one community.

And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good that they don't need God's grace and no one so bad that they can't have it.

In other words, everyone needs to hear what God has to say.

And so that's why we come week after week, every Sunday, and look at what God has to say to us in his word.

If you've been with us, you know that we're in the book of 1 Peter.

And the book of 1 Peter is a letter written by a man named Peter.

And he writes it to Christians who are living in the first century A.D. in what is now modern-day Turkey.

And he writes because these Christians are facing some struggles.

They're feeling out of place in the world because they're Christians.

And they're also facing opposition from the world because they're Christians.

Peter writes into that situation to encourage them and to instruct them.

He writes to encourage them that Jesus is worth it.

Jesus is worth living for. He's worth loving for.

Jesus is worth suffering for. He's worth dying for.

And he also writes to instruct them how they should live as Christians in the world, especially when they face opposition.

Now, last week, if you were with us, you know that we looked at Peter's instructions for how to relate to the government.

And Peter told these folks that are receiving his letter that their posture towards the government should be one of submission.

Even though they belong to God, they've been chosen by God, they are what he's called earlier a special holy nation.

Verse 9, even though they're our own separate nation, they belong to God.

They have such a radical new identity that doesn't free them to do whatever they want and ignore the government around them.

And he ends that section by telling them that they need to honor everyone.

Verse 17.

And so we're going to enter a section now that's sort of following up on that, the honoring.

And also what we saw a couple weeks ago about them being a royal priesthood.

Remember, they're priests to the nations, so they're meant to represent God to the world.

That people would understand and know what God is like because of how his people act and how they behave.

And not only are they priests, but now we know that as they're priests, as they're representing God, they're meant to honor other people.

Taking those two ideas, we have our passage before us today.

It's going to be somewhat different for us because he's going to be talking to slaves who are living in first century Rome.

And of course, we're not slaves.

We don't have slavery as an institution in the United States.

And so we're going to have to take sort of broad principles from what he tells them and apply them to us today.

But think about it in the category of honor.

He's continuing to give these people instructions about how they honor everyone and how doing that they can represent Christ well.

And we're also going to see in this passage not just represent Christ well, but follow Christ well.

And so with that, we're going to turn to our passage.

We're in 1 Peter 2, starting at verse 18.

And remember, as we come to this, God tells us that this is his word.

And he tells us that his word, unlike the grass which withers and the flowers which fall, will stand forever.

And so that's why we read now, starting at verse 18.

Verse 20.

Verse 22.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed.

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.

Father in heaven, we thank you that you're a good father.

And like a good father, you want to instruct us.

You want to talk to us.

You want to be with us.

You want to train us and you want to raise us.

We ask that you would do that this morning.

That you'd use your word to give us instruction.

And even more than that, you would use your Holy Spirit to encourage us.

That we would see Jesus as more beautiful than we'd seen him before.

And that you'd grow our faith and our trust in him.

We ask these things not because we have earned them or deserve them, but because Jesus has earned them for us.

And so we ask them in his name.

Amen.

When I was a teacher back in the day, I had kind of two TV show binge seasons every Christmas.

When I had Christmas break, that was my chance.

I think I need to decompress.

I haven't really watched shows during the semester.

I've just been trying to keep up with these students.

So Christmas was my time.

I would pick a show and I'd watch a whole season.

And then also summertime was my time.

So after each semester essentially, so the spring semester would end.

I think, okay, I'm done.

I have a summer break.

I have a few kind of odd jobs I'm doing.

But I have to have some time to decompress here.

So I'm going to watch a couple seasons of this.

And one summer, the show that I picked was Down Abbey.

So I binged through season one and season two.

This was back in probably 2013.

And I will confess near the end of season two, it got a little too soap opera-y for me.

And so I never made it to season three.

But seasons one and two were glorious.

I mention that because as we're coming to this passage, we're talking about sort of a challenging issue here.

Because Peter is writing to people that he calls slaves.

It translates it servants here in verse 18, which is helpful for us.

But he's told them earlier in some translations you'll find this translated slaves.

And it's difficult for us to understand exactly what's going on.

Because we didn't live in first century Asia Minor under the Roman Empire.

And so when we're talking about servants, if we're on a scale of American slavery on the left

and Downton Abbey downstairs people on the right,

we're not all the way to the Downton Abbey downstairs people, but we're pretty close.

So if this is the center, we're right of center moving towards Downton Abbey.

That's helpful at the beginning.

We have to understand what Peter is talking about when he's talking about servants here.

The word here is different than the word slave earlier that was used in a previous passage

talking about us being slaves of God.

And so these servants are people who would work in houses.

In fact, this is a section about how people get along in a household.

And so these are specifically house servants.

And it's just challenging for us to understand because there is no one-to-one correlation in our culture

for what he's talking about, these kinds of servants.

One definition that someone gives is that this is a semi-permanent employee without legal or economic freedom.

A semi-permanent employee without legal or economic freedom.

So not American slavery, not Downton Abbey, but somewhere close.

Passages like this are difficult because it's hard to think through how do we make sense of the fact

that someone is writing to slaves and they don't openly condemn slavery.

And they also don't encourage these people to revolt, right?

They're not saying you're under an unjust system, you need to overthrow it.

And that creates a lot of problems for us as Americans because we think about our past

and the sin of slavery in American history.

And it raises a question.

It's a natural question, right?

Why doesn't Peter condemn this right away?

And why doesn't he also give them different instructions?

Why does he ask them to operate within the system that they're in?

So I'm not going to say everything about slavery in the New Testament,

but I'm going to try to say something as we come to this passage

because it's important for us to understand what it is that we should take away from the Bible.

First of all, Peter is not endorsing slavery.

Instead, he is helping these Christians to understand how they should live within the social structure

that they already find themselves in.

Clearly, Peter doesn't think that the Roman Empire is something to be imitated.

In fact, he's called these people exiles, right?

Because they don't fit in with the Roman Empire.

This is the empire that's persecuting them.

Second, it's an empire, not a democracy.

So had they at this point decided, hey, we're going to revolt and take down slavery,

if you know anything about the Roman army and the Roman government,

you know that would have been the end of the Christians.

And so this is not necessarily telling us how we as Christians think about certain social structures

and our abilities to influence them in the United States

because we're just in a completely different system.

So don't take this passage as discouragement, right, for appropriate political activism.

Don't take it as discouragement for fighting for what's right in our government.

We're a democracy.

We have the ability to do that.

We don't live in the Roman Empire.

Peter's strategy here is not overthrow, it's subversion.

I had a seminary professor one time who said,

Christianity, it's radical, but it's not revolutionary.

It's radical, but it's not revolutionary.

We don't find New Testament writers pushing for the overthrows of government,

the overthrow of certain systems.

And part of that's because of the system that they're writing to, right?

The New Testament's written during the Roman Empire,

so that's not a plausible strategy under that governmental system.

And so it's a different strategy that Peter uses,

and that's used in the New Testament.

It's more of subverting structures rather than overthrowing them.

And so Peter does that.

He subverts, in some ways, the topic of slavery.

First of all, slaves would have been expected to worship the God of their master.

Peter subverts that.

He doesn't ask them to do that.

Second, in the similar kinds of writings in the first century,

slaves would not have been addressed directly as people.

Servants wouldn't have been addressed directly,

because they wouldn't have been considered worthy of the dignity or respect

to receive a direct address.

In other words, they would be talked about rather than talked to.

And so Peter here affirms their human dignity by addressing them directly.

He doesn't say, oh, well, you're a servant, you're in this slave-like position,

and so obviously you're also of lesser value in the church,

so I'm going to address you in that way.

I'm actually going to talk about you rather than to you.

And so there's something here.

It's radical, not revolutionary.

There's something about the New Testament that's also realistic rather than idealistic.

It's realistic rather than idealistic about how these folks who were living in the Roman Empire

operated in the social structures they found themselves in.

Another thing that's been pointed out about what Peter does here

is he acknowledges something that other people in the Roman Empire would have not acknowledged,

which is that when these slaves suffer, it's what?

Unjust.

In fact, we hear that word twice in this passage.

They're to submit, verse 18, to the unjust.

Verse 19, it's a gracious thing when they endure sorrows while suffering unjustly.

Now, I'd also be remiss if I didn't note at this point that this passage has been abused

in the history of America.

So this passage has been abused to tell American slaves that they needed to submit.

However, the logic of this whole passage is how do non-Christians interact with Christians?

If you're a Christian, how do you interact in a non-Christian setting?

In other words, the assumption is that the people who have these servants are not Christians.

They don't have faith in Christ.

And so it's an abuse of this passage for someone who is over slaves to tell it to slaves.

Because what they're saying by using that passage,

the logic only works if the person who's the slave owner is not a Christian.

Because this passage is about how Christians get along with non-Christians.

That's the whole point of this.

In fact, we're going to talk next week, in the next two weeks, about husbands and wives.

The assumption of the passages about husbands and wives is that this is a husband who's married to a woman who's not a Christian.

And it's a woman who's married to a husband who's not a Christian.

So it's not generic advice about marriage, although it has principles for marriage in it.

But it's specific advice to someone who's interacting with a non-Christian.

Same thing is true of this passage.

It's not general advice, but specific advice.

You're a servant.

You're in a non-Christian government and world.

There are certain realities to that world that you have to operate in.

The people that are over you are not Christians.

You're not going to be able to change it.

How can you subvert it and function within it?

Okay, deep breath.

That's all background to talk about what Peter has to say about servants here.

The second difficulty is because there is no category like this for us.

We don't have the kind of servanthood institution that was in the Roman Empire.

There's no one-to-one application for us.

And so we have to deal.

What I hope happens when you listen to sermons, and I hope this is true of my preaching from time to time,

you don't just learn things that are true, but you also learn how to read the Bible.

Part of what we do when we read the Bible is we look at instructions to certain people in a certain time,

and we say, how does that apply?

What's the principle in that situation that we can apply to our situation?

So, for example, when I preached the book of Nehemiah,

there was no point at which I said, you know, the book of Nehemiah,

it's about God's people rebuilding God's wall.

And so the point is this.

We're going to build a wall around the church.

It's clearly God's command, right?

God told the people in the Old Testament to build a wall.

We need to build a wall, too.

No.

We take the principle that applies to people in Nehemiah, we apply it to us today.

Same thing is true with these passages about slaves or servants.

What's the principle that's being used?

How can that principle apply to us?

How can we apply it in our situations,

which are nothing like first century Roman citizens in Asia Minor?

That being said, there's a narrow application and a broad application.

First, we, like people receiving this letter,

have to exist in structures in this world.

Some of you are in the military.

Guess what?

The military is not a Christian institution.

Sometimes you have masters or people who are over you who are just,

and sometimes they're unjust.

Some of you are students who go to schools.

You have teachers.

Some of them are not Christians who are in authority over you.

Some of them are just.

Maybe I'd say some of them are fair.

Some of them are unfair.

Now, that doesn't mean you can't have your parent intervene.

Right?

That would be appropriate.

I'm not advocating for people to be passive,

but the reality is that we live in situations where people who are not Christians

who are in authority over us,

just like these people in this passage.

And so, just like the people who are receiving this passage have people in authority over them

that are not Christians,

and their goal is to respect them and honor them as much as possible

for the name of Jesus Christ,

our goal is to honor and respect the people who are in authority over us as much as possible.

That means if we have a commander over us who we think is a terrible commander,

and God's placed him in that position of authority,

we honor him as much as possible.

If God has given us a boss,

and we think that that boss is a terrible boss,

and by terrible, I mean bad at their job, right?

We honor that person as much as possible.

And we honor them for the sake of Jesus.

We're not disorderly employees, right?

Probably the closest application I could make would be to people working at a job.

Servants, be good servants.

Employees, be good employees.

How are you going to share the gospel with your co-worker

if they know that you are a terrible employee?

Hey, I want to tell you about Jesus and everything that he's done in my life.

And they're thinking, I really wish Jesus would do a lot more in your life.

All of this is under the category of how we represent God to the world as priests

and how we honor all people.

And so the application for us is that we honor our employers as much as we can.

We support our bosses based on their position as much as we can.

And we do what we can to be respectful and speak well of them.

This goes back to the principle we talked about last week when it comes to government.

We speak well of those who have positions in government,

whether we approve of their policies or not.

It doesn't mean we can't work against their policies.

It just means we treat them with respect.

There's a subversive principle here for all Christians.

Part of our witness, part of how we share the gospel and the good news about Jesus

is by showing the people we interact with in the world the most respect we can

and submitting to the authorities that are over us as much as we can,

like we talked about last week with the caveat,

as much as we can without sinning.

And that is subversive.

Do you really want to do something radical?

Some Christians who talk about trying to live a radical life for Jesus Christ.

1 Peter shows us how to live a radical life for Jesus Christ.

You want to be a radical Christian?

Be a great employee.

You want to be a radical Christian?

Honor your teachers.

Honor those people in authority over you.

Finally, there's a persecution element to this.

There's an assumption that these slaves are going to be treated improperly

because they're Christians.

And in fact, that's sort of some of the assumption of this whole section.

And in fact, the whole book.

You're Christians, therefore you're going to receive mistreatment.

And so, there's a broader application,

not just in our workplaces,

in the places where we have people in authority over us,

but when we face suffering for the name of Jesus Christ,

we respect and honor the people who are persecuting us as much as possible.

And in fact, that's the example that Peter's going to tell us

that Jesus has given us.

So we function as much as we can in society with a good conscience,

without sinning,

honoring the people who have authority over us.

And by the way,

we have it a lot better off than the people this letter was written to.

If those who received this letter could honor the people in authority over them,

and Peter commanded them to do it,

how much more can we honor the people who are in authority over us?

How much more?

Of course, some of the logic of God's word is that he never commands us to do something

he doesn't empower or enable,

and so we don't just see instructions here.

We also see Jesus very quickly.

Verse 21,

For to this you have been called,

because Christ also suffered for you,

leaving you an example,

so that you might follow in his steps.

Now, we sometimes can be in dangerous territory,

where we talk about Jesus as our example.

In the evangelical church,

we focus heavily on Jesus as our Savior,

and that's appropriate.

He is our Redeemer.

In fact, some people become suspicious

when we start talking about Jesus as our example,

because that's often what's used to negate the fact that Jesus is our Redeemer.

So people will say things like,

Jesus was a good example.

He's a good teacher.

He didn't necessarily die or rise from the dead,

but he's a great example.

And so because of that,

sort of as a pendulum swing,

some people have pushed so far against it

that they say,

Jesus is not our example.

He's our Savior.

One of the other objections that's raised is that,

well, Jesus is our example.

That gets us into all sorts of problems, right?

Jesus is our example.

So Jesus was a carpenter.

I guess that means we all need blue-collar jobs, right?

Jesus was single.

Wow, that works out really well for me.

We have to be careful when we talk about Jesus as our example.

We don't get just to throw it around, right?

There was a movement back in the 90s

where people would wear these bracelets,

the WWJD bracelets.

What would Jesus do?

Sort of this hypothetical.

I was reading one person talking about this passage,

and they said,

the real question is not what would Jesus do,

what did Jesus do?

And in the context of this passage,

Jesus is an example in a specific way.

It's not generally an example.

We don't just get to pull anything from Jesus' life

and grab it and say,

Jesus is my example for this.

Jesus helped Peter catch a lot of fish.

My goal is to catch a lot of fish.

But we follow Jesus as an example

in the way that Peter tells us to follow him as an example.

Christ left us an example, verse 21,

so that you might follow in his steps.

What was the example, verse 22?

He committed no sin,

neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled,

he did not revile in return.

When he suffered,

he did not threaten,

but continued entrusting himself

to him who judges justly.

You feel out of place

because you're a Christian?

Guess what?

Jesus felt out of place too.

You face opposition

because you follow Jesus?

Guess what?

Jesus faced opposition too.

How did Jesus respond?

What was his example

for us when he faced that opposition?

His example

was that he didn't sin

and he didn't lie.

And when people threatened him

and spoke poorly about him,

he didn't respond in kind or in turn.

And so when we're submitting to authority

and people are speaking poorly

about Christians,

we don't get to go back

and speak poorly about them as well.

But we bear up under suffering

in the same way that Jesus did

for his sake

because he is our example.

He's gone before us.

The story's told about

a man named Avram

and Avram was the CEO

of a chemical company

in Israel.

And there was a time

during the history

of this chemical company

that there was an explosion

on the line.

And because of this explosion,

there were two different employees

who died.

And Avram,

as the CEO,

decided,

well,

we're going to need to figure out

what this problem is

and we have to fix it.

So he did the research necessary,

figured out what was wrong,

made sure the problem was fixed,

and then let everyone know,

guess what?

The problem is fixed.

The lines are now safe.

Did people rush

to get back to the lines?

No.

So workers started quitting.

And the workers who stayed

were hesitant

to get near those parts

of the lines,

even though Avram guaranteed

all of them

that it was safe,

it was the right place to be.

Nothing was going to hurt them.

And slowly,

the company started

to go into a downfall.

Now,

Avram was a smart man

and he realized

there was only one solution.

And so he quit his job

as CEO.

He took a new job

in the company

working at the part

near the line

where the explosion

had happened.

So he was the one

on the line closest

to where those two people

had died.

He came down

from his privileged position

as CEO

and he took a new job

right by the side

of the explosion.

Ten years later,

the chemical company

was one of the most

successful companies

in Israel.

brothers and sisters,

Jesus has shown us

by his example

that the way of suffering

is safe.

He is not

a distant

and divine CEO

who sends us

an email

to let us know

that it's okay

to suffer now.

But instead,

he left

his privileged position

in heaven.

He walked

the way

of suffering

before us

so that we

can follow him.

And he made

it safe

for us.

By the way,

unlike Avram

who only solved

the problem

of the explosion,

Jesus made

it safe

by taking

the full

explosion

of the penalty

of sin

on himself.

Jesus is not

just our example.

Peter goes on

to tell us

that he's also

our redeemer.

Jesus has made

suffering safe

for his people.

And so we can do

what Peter commands

us to do here.

We can bear up

under suffering

without striking back.

We can hear

people speak

poorly about us

without speaking

poorly about them

because that's

what Jesus did.

Peter is talking

about his journey

to the cross.

That's when

he was reviled,

verse 23,

and didn't revile

in turn.

That's when he

suffered and didn't

threaten,

but did what?

He continued

entrusting himself

to him who judges

justly.

Because Jesus

is not just

our example,

but also our

redeemer.

We can trust

him.

We can follow

him,

and we can

trust him.

God never

commands us

to do something

that he doesn't

give us the

power to do.

And so just as

Jesus suffered

unjustly,

if we follow

him in this

world,

we will suffer

unjustly as well.

As the

master,

so his

servants.

As the

teacher,

so his

students.

As Jesus,

so us.

verse 22,

he spoke

words that

were true.

Verse 23,

when people

speak poorly

about us

because we're

Christians,

we don't

retaliate or

threaten because

that's not

what Jesus

did.

Instead,

verse 23,

we trusted

God.

As I

mentioned

before,

Jesus took

the explosion

of sin.

We're not

just safe

from suffering

because of

Jesus,

but we're

safe from

the penalty

of sin.

And that's

how Peter

ends these

instructions.

Verse 24,

he himself bore

our sins in

his body on

the tree that

we might die

to sin and

live to

righteousness.

By his

wounds you

have been

healed.

In other

words, as I've

said before,

Jesus is not

just our

example, but

he's our

redeemer.

He didn't

just live a

life as a

good example

for us, but

he also died

a death.

And when

Jesus died a

death,

that death

took on

to him

the penalty

for the

sins of

people who

have faith

in Jesus

Christ.

That's what

it means when

it says he

bore our

sins on

the tree.

And that

death doesn't

just remove

the penalty,

but it's also

what empowers

us and

enables us

to obey

God and

live righteously

even in the

face of

opposition.

And that's

what it

means when

it says by

his wounds

you have

been healed.

God hasn't

just solved

the problem

of the

penalty of

sin,

he's also

taken away

the problem

of the

power of

sin.

These are

hard words

from Peter

for us.

It is not

easy to

submit to

bad

authorities.

And it's

not easy

to suffer

and put up

with it when

we suffer

unjustly,

but we do

it because

Jesus did

it and

we're able

to do

it because

Jesus now

gives us

the power

that comes

from his

resurrection.

And so

one of the

fears that

happens when

we talk about

Jesus as our

example is

the fear of

crushing

moralism.

People think

if we put

Jesus as our

example,

we're just

going to be

crushed.

And if

Jesus was

just our

example,

we would

be crushed.

But Jesus

is not just

our example.

He's also

our Savior

and as we're

told here,

our healer.

It's by

his wounds

that we're

healed.

And so

we don't

follow Jesus'

example afraid

that we're

going to fall

short and

face God's

judgment.

But instead

God gives us

the power to

follow Jesus'

example because

of what Jesus

has done for

us in his

death and

his resurrection.

And then

we're told

finally in

verse 25,

not only have

we been healed,

verse 24,

but,

we were

straying like

sheep but

have now

returned to

the shepherd

and overseer

of our souls.

So we're not

just walking

the example

of Jesus,

but we're

also returning

to Jesus.

And that is

something that

also empowers

us and makes

us able to

follow Jesus'

example.

Think about it

this way.

We have

Shine Meadows

Park that I've

mentioned a few

times.

It's just a

stone's throw

from here right

next to Otero

Elementary.

That's one

place you

could take a

walk in

Colorado Springs.

You could also

go to Manitou

Springs and walk

the incline,

which is

straight up

for one

mile.

Now,

which walk

would you

rather take

if you had

to choose

right now?

There's a

group from

the church

we're going

to break

into halves,

we'll just

break right

here in the

middle.

Some of us

are going

to go into

Shine Meadows,

some of us

are going

to go hike

the incline,

we're not

changing

clothes.

Clear answer,

right?

Some of you

are going

to shift

to the

Shine Meadows

team.

But what

if I told

you that

Jesus was

at the

top of

the

incline?

When we

walk the

path of

suffering

following

after Jesus'

example,

we are

also

straying

sheep who

are now

returning to

the shepherd

and overseer

of our

souls.

We're able

to walk

the path

that Jesus

walked because

it's the

path that

leads to

Jesus.

And the

path matters

far less

when we know

it's at the

end of the

destination.

And so we

follow Jesus

in his

suffering.

We do it

because Jesus

suffered.

We're able

to do it

because his

suffering was

for us.

And so

we suffer

for him.

We suffer

for the

Savior who

suffered for

us.

And so it's

with that

hope that we

come to

worship him.

With that

hope we're

going to head

into our

closing hymns.

But I ask

you before we

do that to

join me in

prayer.

and so

for them.

I'm

going to

love you.

And so

I'm going to

wait.

And so

this

is

wearing

the

severity

watergy

Thornton.