How to Live (1 Peter 2:21-25) Easter 2023
Easter 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsSermon on the how the resurrection helps us to live in this present life as believers. Confidence in Suffering, Dying to Sin, following the Shepherd.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Let’s pray.
Today is the day that we as Christians celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ! HE IS RISEN!!! (He is Risen indeed)!
Last week, we saw that Jesus was hailed as Messiah and King by the Jewish People, during what is commonly known as the Triumphal Entry.
Near the end, we also saw that the very people that were worshipping Him as Messiah, were the same people who yelled out “Crucify Him” as He was headed to the Cross.
When we celebrate, we recognize that the grave couldn’t hold Him, as He won victory over sin and death.
That victory is gifted to everyone who would repent and believe in Him as Lord and Savior.
In our time in the Word today, as we celebrate this wonderful gift, we are going to look at who Christ is light of the Cross.
So if you have a copy of the Scriptures, please turn with me to 1 Peter 2:21-25. (READ)
In this passage we will see three things about the Lord Jesus Christ:
Christ is our Example (1 Peter 2:21-23).
Christ is our Substitute (1 Peter 2:24).
Christ is our Shepherd (1 Peter 2:25).
1. Christ is our Example (1 Peter 2:21-23).
1. Christ is our Example (1 Peter 2:21-23).
In verse 21, we see that as believers, we are called to a life of suffering.
In these previous verses we see that Peter pointed out where suffering could come from:
the unbelieving society in general (v.v 11, 12)
They will glorify God (v. 12b)
the governing authorities (vv. 13-17)
Doing “right” will silence ignorant and foolish men.
the employers (vv. 18-20).
Suffering well finds favor with God.
The people that Peter was writing to weren’t unaware of this type of suffering.
Peter was writing about 64 AD, which was when Caesar Nero was starting his onslaught of persecution against Christians.
He was trying to get the pressure of the society off of himself, after he “allegedly” burnt the city of Rome down to build for himself.
He blamed that and many more of society’s ills of Christians.
It was during Nero’s persecution that both the Apostle Peter and Paul were martyred.
Many of the people that Peter was writing to were Jewish believers in Jesus.
That alone brought its own kind of persecution and ostracizing, not just from society, but from family as well.
We saw last week, in John 12, that even some of the Pharisees, who would otherwise have believed in Jesus, didn’t because they didn’t want to be put out of the synagogue.
John 12:42-43 “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”
Peter says that we are “called” to this.
This is talking about what the theologians call the “effectual call” of God.
You see, every single person is called to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from sin.
That is called the general call.
The effectual call of God is the work of God in the human heart to draw them to Himself.
John 6:44 ““No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Therefore, this being talked about as the “effectual call” means that every believer, every person who is truly saved by the Lord Jesus Christ should expect this type of suffering.
Why?
Because the Lord Jesus Christ, the only sinless man to have ever graced this planet, suffered. If we claim to follow Him, how or why do we expect any different?
If we claim to be His disciples, why do we expect an easy life?
Jesus says as much:
John 15:20 ““Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”
It interesting, the connection with 1 Peter 2:21, “…since Christ also suffered for you...”
This points to the fact that Christ suffered for His people. We’ll see this later on, but He acted as a substitute sufferer. In our place, so that we wouldn’t have to.
John 16:1-4, 33.
Paul adds this in 2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
The simple thing is this: All of these verses are written like promises. Suffering, for Christ’s sake, is to be generally expected by the true believer in Him.
It could be easy to go off on the prosperity, health, & wealth, name it and claim it, word of faith garbage right now. But I think the main concern should be, why hasn’t the church in America been suffering more?
Suffering, for Christ’s sake, in the pathway of obedience, is evidence of being a true believer.
This doesn’t necessarily mean life or death persecution. Although it could be, as we have seen in around the world.
This means making the hard decision to not compromise your testimony when turning down a promotion at work, or turning down a higher paying job for choosing a job that would be closer to Church, or standing firm for the truth even when it may cost you that job, or relationship with a friend or family member.
Listen to these words from Jesus:
“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
Ladies and gentlemen, the time of this type of suffering is here. I don’t need to describe it to you, it is all around.
When we accept that suffering is an expected part of being a Christian, where do we look for how we should suffer? In our text, Peter points us to Jesus.
First, he calls Jesus our “example”.
This is the Greek word “hypogrammos”.
It has the idea of tracing letters to learn how to write. “grammos” or grammar.
Just like the pattern to trace, we follow in His steps. We seek to act in our suffering the very way that Christ acted during His.
Christ being our example, and us following in His steps lead to us being His ambassadors.
1 Peter 1:14-16.
2 Corinthians 5:20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” .
Peter explains how Christ suffered in verses 22 and 23.
In verse 22, he quotes out Isaiah 53:9. The Suffering servant. We are going to see multiple allusions to Isaiah 53 here.
This quote stresses the sinlessness of Christ Jesus, even when He was on the cross.
Even in suffering the most immense pain anyone ever could, Jesus never sinned.
In verse 23, Jesus didn’t return like for like insults or even threaten them. What did He say?
Luke 23:34. Even to the last, Jesus had compassion on the very ones who were crucifying Him.
Again, another allusion to Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”
Stephen, the first martyr. Acts 7:60.
Suffering this way can take place for a believer.
The type of “tit for tat” culture is no longer an option for a believer. We are not to return like for like blows with someone who would disagree with us.
What then do we do?
Look at what Christ did: “but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.”
Christ did not take matters into His own hands, all those He definitely could have done.
This “entrusting” word is similar “handing over”, like Judas handed Jesus over to the Sanhedrin, and the Sanhedrin to Pilate, and Pilate to be crucified.
But Jesus, handed it all over to the Father: Matthew 26:39 “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.””
Our response is similar: Romans 12:14-21.
Entrusting your life to a sovereign God, who judges righteously is a far more secure place to be than entrusting your life to your own power.
2. Christ is our Substitute (1 Peter 2:24).
2. Christ is our Substitute (1 Peter 2:24).
Here we have the heart of the Gospel. This is what defines Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. This essential reality of Christ suffering, separates the magnitude of the suffering that He faced, and the suffering that we face in our day to day lives.
That reality is: even though Christ face persecution from His own people, even though Christ was crucified by Roman Pagans, even though Christ left the glories of heaven to taken on human flesh...Christ suffered the wrath of God in our place.
That is something that our suffering in this present life could never do.
Christ Jesus was our sin bearer!
This has OT Sacrificial System significance.
Passover Lamb.
Day of Atonement.
Leviticus 16:6-10, 20-22. (scapegoat, transference of guilt/sin)
Isaiah 53:4-6.
John 1:29.
Our sin has been laid upon Christ, and He bore the wrath of God in our place.
Now, we “die” to sin. This is not the normal word for die in the Greek. This word means to cease existing, or essentially be “annihilated”.
This means that all of the ramifications of sin, both is penalty and (one day) presence and even its power, we have been utterly separated from because of the death of Christ.
Christ paid our penalty of death on the cross.
When Christ returns, when we receive our resurrection bodies like His, we will be freed from the presence of sin. What a day it will be when sin is no longer in us, when it no longer taints everything around us.
That is in part what it means that “by His wounds you were healed”.
The “now” reality of what Christ accomplished on the Cross is that we have been freed from the power of sin.
Therefore we “live” to righteousness.
Paul puts it this way: Romans 6:5-14. —>Resurrection!
Galatians 5:24-25.
Colossians 3:5-10.
A believer’s life is marked by the continual demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s work in their life as they mortify the remaining sin that is in them.
Titus 3:4-7, marks of regeneration.
3. Christ is our Shepherd (1 Peter 2:25).
3. Christ is our Shepherd (1 Peter 2:25).
This, again, is an Isaiah 53 allusion. Particularly verse 6.
However, there is a greater OT allusion than may first appear.
God set shepherds over Israel—> they led them astray.
Jeremiah 23:1-6
God promised a Greater Shepherd who would lead them well:
Ezekiel 34:23-24; 37:24.
I needn’t remind you of Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
or John 10, where Jesus calls Himself “the Good Shepherd”.
To return to the Shepherd is to come to flock that Jesus cares for and protects.
There are many false shepherds out there.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This is how we live!
Because of Christ, we can courageously face suffering,
Because of Christ we can continually put off sin,
Because of Christ we can trust our Shepherd to guard us in all of it.
Stand with me.
I know that the majority of you confess the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and I do not doubt that many of you are. As Paul put to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13:5
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
What a better way to celebrate Resurrection Sunday, than by coming to Christ by faith, or even recommitting yourself to live out the faith that you already have in Him.
Let sing Hymn #358, Because He Lives.
PRAY