1 Peter 2:18-25 | The Worst Boss Ever

Sunday Morning | October 27, 2024 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

Pastor John's sermon on 1 Peter 2:18-25 addresses the Christian call to live faithfully in the workplace, even under difficult and unjust leadership. Drawing from Miroslav Volf's insight, he explains that following Christ’s example of submission and sacrifice has historically been more transformative in changing societal structures than rebellion or revolution. We are called to model Christ in our workplace behavior by focusing on truth, avoiding retaliation, trusting God's justice, dying to sin, and remembering that Christ has rescued us. These principles, rooted in Isaiah 53, provide a roadmap for enduring hardship with grace, reflecting Christ's redemptive work.

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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. Good morning, Valley View. It's great to be with you today while we continue in our study of First Peter. If you have a Bible, you want to turn there and get ready. We'll be reading from that shortly. And the passage today is really going to focus on how do you live out your faith, especially in a setting where maybe you have someone like a boss or a teacher or a principal, someone in authority over you in your day to day work life that maybe isn't the best. You've all had those bad bosses or bad teachers. In fact, there are some pretty typical stereotypes that we can point to. There's the demeaning boss. In fact, if you've seen It's a Wonderful Life, you can see the shot on screen. Here's Mr. Potter. He was the demeaning boss, he said to George. At one point he said, you're worth more to me dead than alive. Not what you want to hear from your boss. So there's the the demeaning boss. Then there is kind of the unappreciative boss. You know, this is the boss from the movie Christmas Vacation. Clark Griswold was certain, I'm going to get the big bonus. We're going to build a pool for my family. And instead he got the jelly of the month club. All right, that's not what you were hoping for. He. He wasn't valued and appreciated. And that led to him being kidnapped by Uncle Eddie. And that was a whole nother mess. You don't want to end up there. Make sure to appreciate your employees. Then there is just the classic Scrooge. You know, the boss who just is never happy, never, never satisfied. That's not the kind of guy you want to serve under, or gal for that matter. By the way, how could Scrooge really be upset when you have this kind of employee, right? Right. This was Muppet Christmas version of Scrooge. You can't have Kermit as your employee and be a Scrooge, but that's another stereotype. Then we have you've had this boss as well. I've had one like this. The out of touch boss. The guy who you're wondering, how did they get in this role? I like how I know more about their job than they seem to. And I love this is from the TV show The Office. I love that on his desk there is the magic eight ball. You know, like he uses that to make his decisions about work. It probably feels that way if you've had that kind of boss. How did they get here? I can't believe I'm under this person. Lastly, this is one I think that's most frustrating. For many. It's the controlling overlord, right? Quite literally the Overlord. You know, this is the guy. Everything has to be his way only. There's no other way to do it. There's never casual Fridays in the office. It's always the uniform. You got to stick to it. Exactly, precisely. There's the imminent threat of nonphysical, choking death that he uses to keep you in line. Bad situation to be in. But we could go on and on about all different kinds of stereotypes of bosses. You've had them. It's not fun. What do we as Christians do? How do you live out your faith? Not just if they're a bad boss, but also in particular if they're hostile towards your faith, if they're persecuting you because of your faith? Peter's going to talk about how we live that out. You know, we've been in a section in First Peter started in verse 11, verse 12. It's going to go all the way through chapter three and verse seven where it talks about how do you live out your faith in a hostile environment. In fact, if you look in chapter two at verse 11, he gives us two ways that sets up everything we're going to be talking about for a number of weeks, he says. First, abstain from the passions of your flesh. Remember we talked about that. Meaning, if you're going to live out your faith in this world, don't immediately react like you would have back in the past. You've got that initial inclination that you want to do. How dare you cut me off? How dare you not use your turn signal when I think you should have your immediate. It wells up. That's what I should do. No, no, no, don't do what you would have done in your flesh. The second was he says in verse 12, keep your conduct honorable. These are two ways we are called to live out our faith in this world. Keep your conduct honorable. We saw that last week in the passage about the government. How do I live as a citizen in this world when my true citizenship is in heaven? How do I do that? Part of it was keep your conduct honorable. Next week we're going to see how it plays out in family situations. For those who live with an unbelieving spouse asking how do I continue to live out my faith where maybe they're even demeaning me for it, or don't want to have anything to do with it. This week we're going to look at the workplace. How do you continue to live out your faith in the workplace? And we're going to be in first Peter chapter two, and we're going to see in here three things in particular we're going to look at. What are we called to do, why are we called to it, And then how do we live it out. Three ways. So let's start with the what. Look at verse 18. That'll give us the what what way should we live. What are we called to do as Christ followers living in a world, especially the workplace, hostile to your face? Look at faith. Look at verse 18, servants, be subject to your masters with all respect. Not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. So Peter addresses his audience as servants. It's the first word he uses to describe them, probably in half your Bibles. If you have other translations, it says slaves be subject to your masters. Oftentimes when you see that word slaves in the New Testament, it's often translated as bondservant. Slavery at this time would have been very different than how we think of slavery, where you're just owned for life with no rights based solely on your skin color. It was much different then there was that element, but oftentimes it was much more like an indentured servant, where you might enslave yourself to someone else to pay off a debt. Like if you were going to work in the kitchen to pay for your meal at a Wednesday night supper. Sometimes maybe that might happen. But the point was, being, I can't pay my debt off to you. Let me work for you for the next 2 or 3 years, whatever it takes. It was a common practice that wasn't the only type of slavery, but that was probably the predominant type. It was a common practice. Many people did it. It was part of the economy. There were rules around how you could treat people like that. It was it was very different. What's interesting here is that word is not that specific word bondservant. It's more specific than that. In fact, if you have a Christian standard Bible, it says household servants. It's like a subset of Bondservant. It's specifically talking about someone who might manage a household. Now, the reason that's significant is that kind of person, probably often was educated, would have known how to handle finances, probably would have managed some of the other servants in the household. They would have had a lot of responsibility, a lot of trust, a lot on them. I think that probably give us, gives us some reason to be able to make parallels from that into our world, because obviously none of us are enslaved, but sometimes it feels that way at work, you've heard people use the phrase that they don't even say it. I saw guys do this golden handcuffs. They're paying me so much that I can't really go do anything else. Even though I hate what I'm doing. And of course, again, that's nothing like slavery. Closest parallel probably we have, I think some of the points Peter makes here will apply to our settings in our world slaves, household servants, bond servants. What's the command, though, that he gives people in that setting? Here's one simple command. It's the same one we saw last week. Servants, be subject to your masters. Submit to those masters. Follow them. And I love the caveat both to the good and gentle, which are easy to follow, which are easy to respect. No problems there, but also to the unjust. That's the one we all struggle with. You've got to earn my respect. I'll decide if I should follow along with what you say or not. No no no, both to the good and gentle. Also to the unjust. The word there for the unjust. It's the word scolios. If someone has scoliosis, they have a crooked spine. They have a spine that won't bear up under weight. They have a spine that can't handle the stress, the pressure when it becomes heavy. It's not dependable. When you have a boss like that, when they're crooked, when they're unjust, when they're not dependable, when they're going to not hold up under weight, that's that's the person I'm supposed to still be subject to. I'm still supposed to give respect to. The reason why we can do that, though, on the face value, they don't deserve my respect. But I can give respect because I know there's something greater at play. I know that ultimately I am showing what I believe about God in the way that I approach them. Ultimately, what I believe about what Christ has done in my life. Ultimately, it's a testimony to who Christ is and my trust in him. So the call here is to be subject. Now watch how he continues to unpack this and explain this. Look at the next couple of verses, verse 19 and 20. For this is a gracious thing. And by the way, notice this. He begins this section with grace, ends it with grace. It's like a grace sandwich here, kind of wrapped in grace. This is a gracious thing, the ability to bear up under a bad boss. This is a gracious thing. When, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure. This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. He recognizes he's saying, I know this isn't easy. It's a gracious thing. In fact, it's a picture of God's grace in your life if you can bear up under the hard times. And here's the way you do this. In particular, notice what he says here to to be mindful of God one endure sorrows while suffering unjustly. Part of the way we do that is to be mindful of God. That word means to be conscious of God, to be aware of him in your life. And look, we've all had seasons where you're more aware of him in your life than you normally are. When you're more mindful of his presence in your life. I ask the staff here at the church recently to come up with and just share what is your. If you could summarize the year in one song, what would be your theme song for the year so far? What it maybe it has been or what you hope it might be? It doesn't have to be a Christian song. It could be any song. I came up with the, uh, the song White and Nerdy. I thought that might summarize our year so far. If you haven't heard it, maybe don't. Actually, it's probably okay. The title says it all, but as I thought about it, really, what should be our theme song for the year? I love the song that has the phrase, let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness. Holy spirit, you are welcome here. And the beautiful part of that verse in relation to this phrase, mindful of God. He is here. And if you know Christ, he is always with you. The problem isn't that he's not there sometimes, and we invite him in and hope he shows up. No, no, no, he's always there. The problem is our awareness, our mindfulness of him, our expectation, our listening to him. The problem is, is that I would rather block him out with mundane, trivial noise of this world because I can't handle the weight to bear the weight of his glory in my life sometimes. To walk in mindfulness of who he is. I mean, imagine if every day, at every moment you walked fully aware of his presence in your life. Imagine what life would be like if every time you're tempted to run off and chase something else, instead you turned to him and became fully aware that he was right there with you. I mean, I got to tell you, one of the things I love about being here Sunday morning is us worshiping together, Is hearing other people worshiping. Seeing other people worshiping in ways that maybe I'm not ready to at the moment, but I see them and I go, that's where I want to be. You're not going to get that online. Listen, I get it sometimes. You can't be here. Got to work, catch it online, I get it, but there's plenty of us who go, I'm just gonna stay home today. It'll be easier for me. This isn't meant to be judgment, but let me just say you're missing out on a worship experience in a room full of other believers who are worshiping in ways your heart isn't ready to and experience in the presence of God. When Andrew and I--Andrew the worship leader, we pray for the church in the morning before. Before we come in here, we pray for each other. We pray for the church and one of the things that always comes up, God may we experience your presence more than anything else. More than great music, more than great preaching, more than -- may your presence be here, because all that other stuff will get worked out. May we know your presence- it's here, may we know it. May we be mindful of God. And that's important because if you're suffering because you took a stand for your faith. Look, there are plenty of times we suffer because it's our own fault. I mean, last Sunday, a number of us suffered as we ate some of that hot chili, no one came up to me and said, John, how can I pray for you? No one came up to me with a a cool towel to damp my forehead or to wipe away the sweat. No, some came to watch, you know, hoping to watch me suffer. In fact, sometimes we delight in watching others suffer when they do something dumb. Right? You're kind of like, let's see how this goes. I can't wait. No, we've all been there. That's a silly example. We've all been there where you're suffering and you go, I brought that on me. Sometimes it's one afternoon, sometimes it's years. But it's a gracious thing when I'm mindful of God and that suffering comes because I'm honoring him. But I'm aware of his presence in my life. That's how we're called to be mindful of that boss who's not just difficult but hates you because of your faith. Now the next question. That's the what of how we’re to live. The next question is why? Why should I live that way? Really? That's how I'm supposed to approach someone who's hostile towards my faith is to be subject to them, is to still show them respect. Really? You better give me some ground for that. Because. Because, John, you don't know my boss. Well, that's what the next verse here is going to address. Why should I live that way? Look here in verse 21. Here's why. For to this you have been called. We've been called to live that way. Here's the word why. Because Christ also suffered for you. Leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. The reason why I have a chance of acting opposite of how I would act in my flesh, is because I know Christ has suffered so much for me. He went before, he became the example. That word example there is the same word that was used to describe the template a child would use to learn how to write their letters. You get that template and you trace it over and you trace it again, and you trace it and you trace it because the template is the right way, the template’s perfect. I trace that to learn to do it right. And I do it and I do it and I do it until it becomes automatic. Karate kid I wax on, wax off, I paint the fence so that that movement becomes automatic. I don't even think about it. He is our example and we follow him because that becomes our automatic response. When the stress of life comes is to act the way he acted. Now, how do we do that? How are we going to live that out? Because that's. That's not easy. It's no coincidence that at the core of our faith is a man who's suffered, who willingly brought on persecution, death, peril, and that we're called to do the same. I saw an interview with a guy recently. He's on social media. Very influential. Tough guy, strong guy. He came to a had a challenge in his life, had a crisis in his life. And as I say all the time, keep living your faith out because that friend who's distant from God is going to see that you have hope and joy. They're going to hit a crisis. They're going to come to you. Who else are they going to go to? This guy had a crisis and he realized, I need some kind of faith. I need something stronger than me to stand on. But he said this in the interview. He said, I realized I could never be a Christian because at the core of Christianity is weakness. And I've always been strong. I've always leaned on strength, so I can't go there. I can't go turn the other cheek. That's that's weakness. I'm about strength. That's his, my image. That's who I am. The problem is he misunderstands strength. You know, Jesus even said at any moment I could call down legions of angels. Any moment. Real strength knows that that's not-- It's not about knocking others down. It's about serving. Real strength is about knowing when to hold back. He misunderstood what strength is about. This calling isn't easy. So how do we do it? Yes, he's our example. What does that mean? How do we do it? We're going to see that in this last set of verses here. And there's a couple of really cool things going on in these verses before I read them. I want to point this out. You're going to see in verses 23 through-- 22 through 25, you're going to see two different things. You're going to see where it says, Jesus did not do, and you're also going to see what he did do. The first half is what he did not do. The second half is what he did do; you see both sides of that. The second thing you'll see, and if you've read your Bible much, if you've spent much time in the book of Isaiah, you will see phrases in this section that come directly from Isaiah 53. And Peter is very strategic about that. I'm going to draw out some of those reasons why we know Peter loves the Old Testament. Per capita he quotes the Old Testament more than any other New Testament writer, but he's doing something different here when he quotes the Old Testament Isaiah 53, we're going to highlight what that is and how that helps us know how to live out our faith in a hostile work environment. So look at verse 22 through 25. Here he’s speaking of Jesus. 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. So all throughout here he's quoting from Isaiah 53. Now that's significant because Isaiah 53 is one of what's called the four servant songs. In the book of Isaiah. There's a big emphasis to the servant and the different aspects of the servant. This one is about the suffering servant in the book of Isaiah, and some of the others emphasize different aspects of the servant. Isaiah chapter 40 identifies the servant because many as the prophets talked about the servant, and Isaiah wondered who is the servant? Isaiah chapter 40 identifies Israel as the servant. And of course Israel suffered many ways, some brought on by themselves. But Peter does something with Isaiah 53 that's different. In fact, if you have a Bible, do you have a Bible that is all just block text all the same? Some Bibles will take Old Testament passages and set them apart, indent them a little bit. Make them give it more space around them. Make them stand out. If you look in chapter three of First Peter, we're going to get to this in a couple of weeks. Verses ten through 12 are that way. If your Bible doesn't look that way, lean over your neighbors. See maybe theirs looks that way. You have this this normal block text and then chapter three, verses ten through 12. That's from Psalm 34. It stands out a little separate. It looks a little different. But what I just read is not that way. Normally when Peter quotes the Old Testament, he just quotes it straight. I made this point. Do you want to know why I can make that point? Go read these verses. Here they are. That was the basis of the point I made. He doesn't do that here. What he does is he takes different phrases from Isaiah 53 and he rearranges them in a different order. In fact, I've got the order on screen, if you will, put how to live out the faith in the workplace. If you put out all these passages, just put them up there all at once. You'll see they're not in the order they show up in Isaiah 53-- you have verse nine, but then you have verse seven, then you have verse six, then verse eight, then verse four, then verse five, then verse six again. He jumps around, he takes Isaiah 53 and he rearranges it. You saw it in this order. I'm going to rearrange it. And here's why he does that. First of all you're going, can you do that? Well yeah. I mean, look, anytime you teach a lesson you're picking verses from different places to make a point. Peter can do it because God had him write the Bible. That's kind of a privilege you get. But the reason he's doing that, he reordered them to match the order of the story of the Passion of Christ. And he did it to help explain what Isaiah 53 was really about. When prophets of old read Isaiah 53, when they talked about Isaiah 53, they thought they were reading about Israel. And Peter is going to explain to them, you thought it was Israel. No, no, no, this was all about Christ. Everything you've been looking for, when you looked at the suffering Servant, you thought it was about Israel. Let me show you this is what it was really about. It's really about Christ. Now, the powerful part for us with him doing that, explaining Isaiah 53, rearranging it. I think in this we're going to see five ways that we can model Christ's life and how we live out our faith in a hostile environment. This is all coming down to practicalities. How do I do what you're saying I should do? Be subject to a boss that you don't know and who's crazy, controlling, demeaning, whatever five ways that show up in these verses. So let's look at these five. First, focus on truth. Number one is focus on truth. Look back at verse 22. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. Jesus, in the midst of being persecuted, still focused on truth and we’re called. Listen, whatever workplace you're in, stay committed to truth. Don't give up on truth. Don't compromise on truth. Julie has a friend who served in a environment where two bosses were in charge, they owned the company. They had co ownership of the company. One day she was in charge of the finances. She saw that one of them was pulling some of the money away into their own account, and the other person didn't know about it. And so she thought, what am I going to do? If I if I confront the guy who's doing it he might explain it away. I might lose my job, it might end up going badly for me if I tell the guy who doesn't know about it, that could go poorly as well. What should I do? Can I just ignore it? Can I pretend it doesn't happen? But she knew I got to stay committed to truth. She prepared her resume wisely. And then, if I remember how it went, I'm pretty sure what she did was she just sent the information to both of them. Hey, I saw this account. I'm not sure what it means. Maybe you two can inform me and help me know what to do with it. I'm not going to compromise on truth. There's a lot of different ways we can handle that. Did she handle it perfectly? I don't know, she did end up working somewhere else. She wasn't going to compromise on truth. And you've been in situations where you've been called to compromise in a lot worse ways than that. Stay committed to truth. Number two, don't retaliate. Look at the example of Christ in verse 23, when he was reviled, when he was hated, when he was beaten, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten. Our response is to retaliate, is to lash back out. That's how the that's what the flesh wants to do right away. That's how I follow my heart, is to retaliate. You do something to me. I'm going to. That's what immediately I want to do is to retaliate. But here he says, no, no, no, we don't respond like the rest of the world does. Let me tell you, when a boss says they expect you to retaliate and you don't, that's going to stand out. They may not say anything, they may not acknowledge it at all, at all. But you will stand apart as different from everyone else. Wayne Grudem commented on this verse and how we take a different approach than the rest of the world. Let's put that quote on screen. I'm going to show you two different dynamics here that are at play. Here's what he says. Put the quote up where it starts with the word Peter. Peter here commands neither the supposed therapeutic value of expressing one's anger. So meaning if you're angry and you go to a therapist, they're going to tell you, don't hold that in, let that out. If you stuff that anger. In fact, there have been studies shown suppressed anger actually can lead to cancer. Don't hold that in you got you really want to live your life. Let that out. Okay. But Peter's not saying that. Don't just let your anger go. Nor is he saying merely holding in the anger and trying to suppress it. That's not good either. Don't just let it go. Don't just stuff it down. Pretend it didn't happen. I'm going to shove it down. No, neither of those are the pathway for us. Instead, put up the second half of that quote rather repeatedly and continually our call is committing the situation into God's hands. Over and over again, bringing it to him. God, I don't know what to do here. I want to explode or I want to stuff it. Would you guide me? I want to react. Would you guide me and let me make a side comment on that. By the way, that doesn't mean that you you become a doormat. Some have used this passage in particular to tell I've. I've had friends tell me my counselor said, you just you're in an abusive situation. You just got to take it because Jesus took it. No, that's not what this means. That's not what this is about. In fact, there's plenty of places. In fact, he tells us, deliver us. Pray, deliver us from evil. He casts out demons. Paul, sometimes when he is on the brink of being persecuted, flees the city. He seeks help from the Roman government to protect himself. There's plenty of places in Scripture where the call is to set healthy boundaries, and if you're in that kind of situation, do whatever you can to get safe, to protect yourself, to protect your family. But also, we know in the context of the workplace of what he's talking about here. We don't just lash out, we don't just retaliate. We don't just go with our immediate response. Instead, we bring it to Christ. In fact, the next point summarizes this; number three, trust the one who is just. Look back at verse 23. 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. Instead of reacting how he wanted to react, he entrusted himself to God the Father, which is the template for us. Keep bringing it to him, keep trusting him.

And then number four: 31:02

die to sin. Look at verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, die to sin, and live to righteousness. If you want to continue to model a Christ- like life, die to sin. By the way, that's not easy. That takes so much commitment, that takes being in God's Word. And let me tell you that take surrounding yourself with people who are committed to that as well, and who will encourage you and build you up. Phil Peercy, the chairman of the elders, shared with me that he remembers back to when our student pastor here was Kerry Jones. That was my student pastor feels a lot older than me, though, so he was old enough to hang out with Kerry as an adult and Kerry would invite him over and another guy, and they would meet at 6 a.m. in his garage, no matter how cold it was outside, and drink coffee and pray and pray for the church and pray for one another. And Phil said that was the beginning of some significant spiritual growth in my life. The fact that one guy would reach out to me, draw me in, begin to pour into me, but also I could come to him and say, I'm struggling in this area, I want to die to that sin, but I'm struggling. Would you pray? Would you help? We got to have that in our life. You got to have people around you who will come beside you and help you move towards death to sin. And the beautiful part of that, the reason we die to sin, is to live to righteousness. The two go hand in hand. Lastly, number five, remember that he rescued you. Don't forget. Remember he rescued you. Look at verse 25, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Our natural tendency is like a sheep is to stray. Man, our dumb dog will run off any chance it gets. And if you live in our neighborhood. I'm sorry. If you only have one shoe on your porch where you had two. I'm not saying it was my dog, because I'm sure she buries that shoe somewhere. Go to the finance committee to file a grievance if it is your situation. But look, the only way she's coming back. If we go find her and drag her back, she's. She don't want to come back. Like a sheep. Our natural tendency is to run as far from God as we can is to stray. I got this. I want to chase that bumper. That's where I'll find life. Even though it's death. That's our natural tendency. But he chased us down. And look, if you don't know Christ, I'm telling you, he's coming for you. He wants you. He loves you. All the things you're chasing after to find life. You... and you know they're not bringing the life you hoped for. He is the shepherd. He's the true shepherd. He doesn't drag you back to beat you and to shame you like I might with a dog he dragged. He calls you back because he loves you and he cares for you so deeply. That's who's coming after you. And by the way, that's why we live differently. Because you never know what's going on in the background. You never know. That boss that seems to have it all together. You never know what's going on.