1 Peter 2:13-17 | Vote Like Free Slave

Sunday Morning | October 20, 2024 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In his sermon based on 1 Peter 2:13-17, Pastor John urges believers to "be subject" to authority for two main reasons: to honor Christ and to silence foolish people who criticize them. Emerson Eggerichs notes that valuing independence over submission can hinder personal growth and wisdom. To be subject means to embrace the mindset of a slave to righteousness, aligning oneself with God's will. When it comes to voting, Christians are encouraged to do their best without endorsing specific candidates or making politics their ultimate concern. Instead, politics should foster connection, not division, and believers should walk in joy, not fear.

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Transcript

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Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Well, good morning, Valley View. Great to have you here today. As we continue in our study of First Peter, we're going to be in First Peter chapter two. And if you have a church Bible that's on page 900 and something, that page should be on the screen. As we've been leading up to this week, I've been praying for months just for wisdom. God, would you give me just some wisdom as far as when I should talk about politics? Everybody's favorite topic. How should I talk about voting? How should the church? How should you as a Christian, think about politics and voting? And as I've been praying about that, I've been thinking I really felt a burden, that today should be the day that I talk about that. And so it was pretty cool when I turn to today's passage and go ahead and turn there. And first, Peter chapter two. As I was preparing to study and preparing for today, the first verse that I read is First Peter two verse 13, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the Emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him. The Lord's timing is perfect. He knew that at the same time, he was putting a burden on my heart to talk about politics. The passage would speak specifically to that, and this is a something important to wrestle with. How do we as Christians engage in our world at various levels? One being government? How do we engage with the government? The way we live out our engagement with the government speaks to the world about who our true king is. Last week Peter talked about this. In fact, in verse 12 he said, if you want to know how to live in this world, do you want to know how to live in a way that points people to Christ? Even in a culture that's hostile toward your faith? Here's what he said. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles or among the non-Christians. Keep it honorable. If you want to know how to live in this world, keep it honorable and a way to do that. This week, he says, be subject to the government. It's worse than that, actually. We would might even translate that word as submit. That's one of the dirtiest words you could say in this world. That's one of the words that people just go, what? Submit. That's anti-American. I mean, we're told from birth, do what you can do. Do you can be all that you can be. You don't have to follow anybody else's path. You don't have to. You have, in fact, question authority. Why don't we question questioning? I don't know, but question authority. That's all the mantras you hear. Live out your truth. Follow your dream. To say to be subject, to submit yourself to other authorities? That's hard for all of us to swallow. What do we do with that? How do we process that? How do we live that out as Christians who know we have a higher authority? What do we do with that? We're going to look at that today in first Peter chapter two. In fact, we're going to see reasons why. We're going to see two reasons why we should submit ourselves to the government, to governing authorities in our life. But then also we're going to see how we should. And then the passage is going to end with what I think is a creed we can hang on to in these coming weeks. It's a very short creed. You can put on a notecard, you can put it on your mirror, you can run to it when you feel full of fear and anxiety. And at the very end, I'll give what I think are some takeaways for us in terms of how to survive in this crazy, politically charged environment. So first Peter chapter two, why should we subject ourselves to the government? Let's look at verses 13 through 15. In there we're going to see two reasons why. Look back at verse 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the Emperor as supreme or even to governors, as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. All right, we're going to see and hear two reasons. And these two verses, why we should be subject to governing authorities. And the first thing to take note of here, though, is in the very first opening phrase, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. So that phrase, every human institution. There's a couple of interesting things about that phrase. In fact, in the original language, it would just say to every human creation, which is kind of confusing. Every single thing that's been created, I'm to submit myself to you. But the context here is clearly government in that word was often used to refer to the creation of a new society, the establishment of a new society. So to every human institution is helpful. But the more troubling word there is, the word every. And I don't know about you, but I think my approach to submission to authorities many phases of my life has been I'll decide if you're worth my submission or not. I'll decide if I think you should deserve my respect or not. If I feel like you've earned it, maybe then I might submit. But this allows no room for that. Every human institution doesn't just mean the ones that I feel good about. In fact, I heard one pastor say submission is always hard. That's why it's the word submit. If it were easy, it's not submission. Here's why that doesn't work. The whole I'll decide who I submit to or not because of the two examples he gives. First, he says, is the Emperor as supreme. Now, the emperor at this time probably would have been Nero. And he was known for two things-- one being absolutely insane. Crazy. We might even use the word senile. We're supposed to submit to that guy? He's also known for his heavy persecution of Christians. Hostile to the Christian faith. We're supposed to submit to that guy, that emperor? Every human institution. The second example he gives, he uses the word governors. Governors as sent by him, as sent by the Lord and governor is the same title given to Pilate, the one who allowed the unjust execution of Jesus. And of course, we know that was God's plan. But talk about someone that we shouldn't trust. The two examples he gives the Emperor and the governor. By all human reckoning, there is no way we should logically submit to either of those crazy leaders. What are we to do with that? On our own terms we say no way. And I think many of us, that is our natural inclination, I think, and probably in something inside of all of us that goes, I don't really want to follow anyone. I'll determine who I should follow or not. I'll determine if that teacher deserves that principal, that policeman, that speed limit. Well, well, let's don't talk about that one. That's. It's okay to ignore that. We all have our areas where we struggle to submit to authority. This is a pattern you see throughout all of Scripture. This isn't something that's just unique to us. It started in the garden. Adam and Eve. Now you say, don't touch that tree. Sorry. You say, don't eat from that tree. Yeah. We'll decide if that's true or not. We'll decide what's best for us. We'll decide our truth. And that led to them being cast out of the garden. God was over them. Now they have no ruler. Now they're left alone. Eventually, he comes back to his people after the Exodus and says, I'll. I'll govern you again. What do they say? We want a king. We don't want you to govern us. We want a king. Be careful what you ask for. He gave them kings, and the kings led them away from him again, which led to exile once again. Not being under his rule. Being under foreign rule. And here's the crazy part of that whole journey of the Jewish people, of this pattern of rejection of God's authority under a foreign authority, all throughout they’re complaining about God. Why would you allow this to happen to us? Surely you've been there at times. God, why would you allow this horrible thing to happen to me? And yet, I've been in rebellion to you this whole time. Now, bad things happen even when you're following him. I get that, but there's plenty of times where we've created the situation ourselves wondering, what are you doing? What are you doing? And they reject and they reject and they reject. And there's something inside of us that's no different. But the call here is to submit to every human institution. And I think the warning here, the thing for us to take note of is if there is something inside of me that won't submit to any other human institution that is pointing toward a greater reality, that I probably don't want to submit to Christ. And look, I get it. There are people who abuse their authority. Not every human institution is good. But if I look at all of them and go, no thanks, that's probably pointing to a deeper issue in my heart Now that's why the first reason here, that we're going to see our very first reason to subject ourselves to human institutions is right here in that first verse, be subject. There's just this one phrase for the Lord's sake. For the Lord's sake. In fact, that's the first reason why we should submit. It's to honor Christ. Ultimately, the way I submit as a follower of Christ to human institutions gives a picture to the watching world of my greater allegiance. It's just a taste. And especially in a watching world, as it said in verse 12, that speaks evil against you. There's just a taste. They see. How is this guy or girl able to follow, able to submit themselves to even people that are hostile towards them? It's because we know something greater is at stake. Ultimately, it's about honoring Christ. Ultimately, it's about pointing others to Christ. In fact, if all of my life is governed by that, I've got to be the final say. I've got to be the one completely in control. I've got to be the one who determines my truth. That's going to lead to some challenging times. There's a book by a man named Emerson Eggerich, he wrote a book called The Four Wheels of God, and he goes through some key passages that say, this is the will of the Lord, four key passages in Scripture that say, this is the will of the Lord. He talks about each of those. One of those is here in this passage. We're going to encounter that in the next verse. This is the will of the Lord. Be subject to human authorities. Here's what he says. We're going to put this quote on the screen about the challenge of living your life, where you never feel like you need to subject yourself to anyone, to submit yourself to any human authority. Go ahead and put that quote on the screen. We're going to read this. Here's what he says about that reality. When I start believing that the pinnacle of life is independence and no one telling me what to do, my guess is I will stop growing and stop gaining wisdom. There's a hint of that saying at the end of the day, I'm unteachable. I don't want anyone speaking into my life, whether that's a human institution or ultimately, God himself. That should serve as a warning. Something greater is at stake. The gospel, even a picture of the gospel is at stake. So that's the first reason why he says it here in verse 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake. Honor the Lord. Here's the second one. Look at verse 15. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. The second reason why we should subject ourselves to human authorities is to silence fools. That's something we all want. We'd love to have the foolish people around us just completely silenced. And he's saying one of the most powerful tools you have in your belt to silence fools is subjecting yourselves to human authorities. That seems. It doesn't make any sense at face value. How could that be true? How does the way I approach human authorities lead to the silencing of fools, to the silencing of those who would say, you shouldn't even be allowed to exercise your faith, or to those who would want to persecute your faith? How could that be? Well, you look back in this passage, you see a couple of things in verse 15 where he said, this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. What this is speaking to here is it's not just about my outward actions. Submission isn't just about do I do the thing that people ask me to do? Do I follow through with the thing the government has asked me to do? It's also pointing to a heart attitude because he says here, by doing good. So I'm not just making sure I check the box. I'm also seeking to do good. I'm also seeking to go beyond just -- I did what you asked. That should be enough. No, I'm adding to that. I'm seeking the good, the welfare of those around me. I think a helpful rule of thumb with this. And I've heard a couple of different people put it this way. But in general, our posture as Christians should be a willingness to submit to the authorities in our life. In fact, a delight, a joy. Unless what they're asking you to do is to contradict Scripture, to sin. If they're specifically asking you to sin, contradict Scripture. That's where you say, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to cross that line. It might still be in a respectful way, but that's where you draw the line. Otherwise-- and this is probably the large majority of the time for all of us-- we should seek to willingly, joyfully submit. Whether that's the workplace, you might think that this rule your boss has is dumb, whether it's school. In fact, I remember one of my children coming home from school once. This was when we lived in little Rock. They were going to a private Christian school there, and I'll have to say he so that narrows it down to two of them, was upset that you had to wear a tie one day a week and you couldn't wear hoodies as part of their dress code. Just like, how can I endure this? Overwhelmed with the strain of going through life this way? I thought, well, have you asked anyone why they do that? There may be a reason why they have these things in place. Well, no, I haven’t. So he goes and talks with the principal. They have a good conversation, a good exchange back and forth. The principal talks about the culture they're trying to create, some of the standards they want to create. Talked about how sometimes dress reflects behavior and attitudes. And they had a great conversation. But he still came home unconvinced. And I said, look, you have a choice now. You can go around continuing to grumble, I can't believe this. This is the worst. Can you all believe? Or you can willingly and joyfully submit? I'm going to trust that even if they're wrong, I'm going to trust that it's going to be okay and that God's in control. And I think he was able to turn that corner. And I think you can think of a situation probably in your own life right now, where you're thinking, that is the dumbest rule I've ever heard in my life. I want to have no part of it. If it's not immoral, if they're not asking you to sin unless you need to make a change. Look at your workplace. You cannot tolerate anything your boss is asking you to do. It's probably time to find another place to work. Your testimony is at stake here. But here's the powerful part of this. Your testimony, the way you willingly submit. It's some kind of testimony to your coworkers, to your fellow students, to your fellow church members. And it's a powerful way of silencing fools. So why we should submit to the rulers in our life? That's the first way. Why? Now let's look at how. Because it's great to say, yeah, I should. That didn't mean it's easy. How do I go about it? Look at verse 16. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. How do we submit? We do it with the mindset of freedom. He said, as servants of God. But he said, as people who are free. The original language here didn't have a verb in this sentence. Live as people who are free. It just said, as people who are free, which is going to draw upon the verb in verse 13, be subject, be subject as those who are free. Do you see the irony here? Be a servant as those who are free. In fact, the word isn't just servant, it's slave. Be a slave, as those who are free. And when you think of slavery, you think of the American institution of slavery, which should bring grief and sorrow. To think that we ever enslaved, physically enslaved people, owned humans. It should also bring great joy to know that that is not allowed anymore. That is not legal. We've turned away from that. We had a whole horrific war about settling that question. But it also helps you think about the reality of what slavery is. Because every person in here and every person you know is not a physical slave. They're not owned by any one else. Yet how many are enslaved in their spirit? How many are a slave to sin and anger and bitterness completely controlled by anxiety and worry and grief, overwhelmed, unable to live their life the way they want to. They were enslaved to these things, physically free, but completely enslaved. There was a man who was in prison, came to know Christ in prison, but had a long sentence, 30 year sentence, and a group of guys were able to interview him. They wanted to hear what life was like as a Christian in prison. In fact, he had witnessed to many he had been. God had used him to bring the gospel to that prison. But yet one of their questions was, listen, how hard is it for you now being in prison, knowing how different your life could be outside of prison, knowing Christ, you're a Christian and yet here you are, captured here, stuck here, shall we say, enslaved here. And you could be free living a life in Christ. And his response was this I'm more free now in here than I ever was out there. I have a freedom in here like I never had out there. I was enslaved to sin. And some of you know what I'm talking about. You've been there. You've been. You could not decide not to sin. And I'm free. That's your mindset when it comes to subjecting yourselves to authority. It's as a free person. I willingly submit out of my freedom. And having that mindset changes everything. In fact, I would just ask you, and here's something I think you might consider praying about this week. If you're someone who every time a new rule is brought before you, you're asked to do something you don't want to do. It's always dumb. You never want to do it. If that's kind of and look, we all have that at times. But I'm talking about if that's always your default response. Then examine, spend some time this week praying and examine in your heart asking God to reveal does this also reflect my attitude towards you? Am I also unwilling ultimately to submit to you? And ask him to just expose what's going on in your heart. Do I also am I also rebelling against your rule in my life? Ultimately, as those who follow Christ, the way we act towards human authorities in our lives tells others about how we view Christ. And we've all had our ups and downs in that realm. Here's where he leaves us is with a mantra. Verse 17. Four quick statements in one verse. And like I said, I think this verse can be something for us all to grasp on to over these next couple of weeks of craziness leading up to the election. Look at this real quick with me, verse 17. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God and honor the Emperor. Four short statements. Put those on a note card. Put them on your dashboard. Put them on the mirror. Put them on your app. Your news app. Your politics app. Put them right on top of it. And here's why. I'm going to point out a couple of things about this mantra. First, it starts and ends with the word honor. And these are focused on those who are outside of us. Honor the emperor. First honor everyone. Second honor the emperor. Those put bookends around this mantra. The focus here is it wraps around the outside of our lives. Those who are focused outward from the church. So the call is to honor everyone, but also honor the emperor. And what this subtly does is it puts the emperor. And we would say the president on the same level playing field as everyone else. I need to treat them the same way I'm called to treat everyone else. Whether you hate them or not, I still am called to treat them the same way I would everyone else, which is to honor everyone. To treat them with a level of honor, respect, kindness, delight as Christ calls us to. The second thing to note about that mantra that's the outside layer on the inside. At the core of how we're to respond to everyone in this season. Love the brotherhood, which means love your fellow believers. The second greatest commandment. The first is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And it says, Fear God. So at the center of how we engage in this maddening political realm, at the very core of that is to keep in mind. Ultimately, we are to fear God and to love one another in the midst of all that. Now, what does all that mean for us? How are you supposed to approach voting the election in the coming days? I got four short points to make around this that I think will help guide us. First. We do not endorse candidates or legislation here as a church. I'll never endorse a specific candidate or a specific piece of legislation ever. That's for you to decide. Now we hand out information. There's a voter guide down in the lobby. Hopefully that's just representing what the candidates say about themselves. That's just we don't say and therefore you should vote for this person or that person. No, it's just information to help guide you. That's up to you. And here's why. Now we take clear moral stance on clear biblical issues. And so we'll say please vote in a way that tries to limit and bring to an end abortion. We believe that Scripture's pretty clear about that, that we should not put to death any one. Right? So vote with your conscience according to that. But I'm not going to say, therefore, vote for this candidate or therefore vote for this piece of policy because the candidates change their mind. And the pieces of policy often have hidden layers that mean something else. There's no way I can know exactly which is best. That's for you to decide. And that's not the church's role anyway. We're here to bring the gospel to everyone. We don't want to do anything that's going to close the door to someone hearing the gospel. Now, this leads to point two, though. All right. We're not going to endorse any specific candidate, piece of legislation. But number two, do your best. Do your best. But don't make it everything. Study, research. Maybe get involved in politics. If you're passionate about a candidate, that's great. Do all that, but don't make it your entire identity. Don't make it everything in your life. No political party, no political candidate will be your savior. They won't. Don't make it Everything. Do your best. Take it seriously. It's a great privilege. I mean, how many people in the history of world have been able to vote for their political leader? Usually it's just is who it is. Because his daddy was the king. You. We've never rarely have had this privilege. Do your best. Take it seriously. Don't make it everything. Use the best wisdom you have and move on. Now, number three. And this one is critical for us as Christians. This is what's going to pave the way for us to talk about Christ. Do your best. Don't make it everything but number three. Let politics be a bridge, not a divide. Let you know the enemy wants. He wants to divide you as much as possible from others around you. He wants you to hate the other team. Whatever it is. Louisville, Kentucky. He wants you to hate them completely. If they're not on your team, he wants to divide you. Let's use the enemy's strategy against himself. Let's use the very thing he means to use to divide us. To open a door to the gospel. Here's what that might look like. Let's say your neighbor has a sign in the yard and you're convinced they're voting for Satan. You're just. You're sure they are going to vote for Satan instead of now turning into some crazy yard sign battle to see who can get the biggest yard sign and block out your neighbor. That might still be kind of fun. You can still do that if it's done in love. But instead of it becoming something that divides you, that you shun, that you avoid them. Man, use that as an opportunity for the gospel to open a door for the gospel. So come to them and ask them, hey, why are you voting for Satan? No, wait, don't ask it that way. Not that way. Just ask them. Tell me what? Tell me some of what you're passionate about. What do you hope to see happen if this person gets in office and asks sincerely, and don't ask in a way that's just an open door for you to then try to convince them to your candidate and listen. After you ask the question, just listen and just look for something that is true and genuine in their heart. One of your responses may be, you know, I can tell by what you're saying that you really care about those who are in need. I hear that in you. You don't have to agree with their policy. You don't have to agree with their politics. But you can agree with that. That is valuable. You really should care for those in need. I love hearing that. Well, yeah. You know, my my my grandma was an immigrant and she had nothing. And she meant the world to me. And she she died a year or two ago, and I just I don't know what to do with all that. Now you've got an open door. Now you're not divided. Now that's a human being. See the difference here? Let even something that's meant to divide open a door to the gospel that's countercultural. That's revolutionary. That's subversive. That's undermining the enemy's plan. Last point number four. Walk in joy, not fear. I think many of us, when we think about whatever candidate you like or don't like, if you think about the other side winning, there's fear. And you think, man, this is going to upset this part of my life. This is going to lead to chaos or decay and continue decline or whatever our call as Christians is not to walk in fear. We have one person. Divine person. We're called to fear. And it's in that mantra in verse 17, Fear God. Fear God alone. So another thing you can do this week, when you think about that other person being in office and you get afraid, you feel the fear welling up. It's coming up. It's starting to stifle you. Call out that specific fear. What is it I'm fearing specifically God. Why have I put. More emotion. More credence to that fear? Why have I not submitted that fear to you? Call it by name. Confess it. And look. It's okay to be concerned about things you're troubled with. It's okay. But we're not called to walk in fear. Walk in joy. Christ is still in control. No matter who. The Emperor Nero the governor Pilate, no matter who, he is still in control. We can still walk in joy, even in the midst of what we think is the worst decision ever, no matter what it might be. Walk in joy, not fear. Because by doing that, you'll honor Christ, and you'll silence fools. And it will open a door. Because what will happen with that neighbor? They'll come a point where they don't know where else to turn. And they saw that you really cared. And they're going to ask, how is it that you find peace when I'm full of fear? Where does that come from? And that's where we want to be. God, thank you that we can come together today and we can walk in joy. We don't have to walk in fear of man. We can willingly submit to even governments. The times that we feel like you're crazy because we fear you. Would you guide us? Would you give us wisdom and all that you need to. God would we be able to submit in this crazy world in a way that tells others there is something bigger going on in my life? There's something more important. There's a greater love. There's a greater passion. And I pray that brings peace to all around us. Thank you that we can gather here today, that we can gather openly, that I can even say these things. Would you give us all wisdom in the coming weeks? And I pray specifically that this week some of us would have political conversations that turn to the gospel, that turn to you, that turn to our hope in you. Thank you, Jesus, that we do have peace in you. We love you. Amen.