Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 2:21-25

Introduction

In the last study, Peter told those who were slaves how they should respond to unfair suffering because they were Christians.

Slaves were supposed to adopt the religion of the master, so this opened the slaves to persecution, they were to make sure that they were suffering for Christ’s sake and not just because they were lazy or were doing wrong.

In a proper sense, what we are studying today deals directly with the topic of the submission of slaves to their masters.

This text provides the rationale why the Christian slaves should suffer if need be for the faith.

I am treating this text today as a separate study because the example that Jesus set as being the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 should be followed by all Christians.

The entire emphasis of this part of the epistle deals with submission.

First was the submission of Christians to the Roman government.

The Emperor was the head of the official cult, Even though the people could serve their other local gods, their principal loyalty was to the divine Caesar.

When Christians proclaimed that Jesus was King of kings and Lord of lords, they were challenging the authority of Caesar.

In the section of text that follows which deals with the submission of wives to their own husbands, the same holds true.

The wife was to hold to the religion of the head of the household.

So we can see how the text we are about to study applies equally to all of these relationships.

Exposition of the Text

For into this were you called — The word “for” connects what follows to that which came before.

In verse 20, Peter told the church that suffering wrongfully for the sake of Christ made for a good witness.

The Christian needs to make sure that the suffering wasn’t deserved for wrongdoing.

One could also suffer punishment wrongfully by a harsh master for other reasons than for the sake of Christ.

Many slaves were ill-treated.

There isn’t much glory in this, although even here, taking this punishment graciously could serve as a witness to the truth.

Peter reminds us that we are called to suffer for Christ’s sake.

We tend to think upon the blessings of being a Christian and not the aspect of suffering.

We prefer Calvin’s “Theology of Glory “ to Luther’s “Theology of the Cross.”

Calvin and Luther are not at odds with each other.

Peter reminds us that we are called to “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

But Peter at the beginning also reminds us that we are suffering by the will of God for our faith as a means of refining our character through these fiery trials.

So the cross is a necessary step that we might attain to the eternal glory.

So it is both, and God is glorified in our sufferings as well as in our eternal blessing we shall inherit.

Because Christ also suffered in your behalf — We need to be reminded that Jesus is not like a lot of the worldly leaders who say: “Do what I say, and not what I do.”

A lot of them were born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

They are insulated from suffering.

But the Lord Jesus knew how to suffer.

He did not have to suffer.

He freely chose to do so.

And He did this for us.

So when we suffer for Christ’s sake, we get a taste of what Jesus went through to save us.

Leaving for you an example that you might follow in His footsteps — Jesus often told His disciples that if they were to be His followers that they would have to carry their own crosses behind Him.

In the ancient Roman world, the followers of a person they convicted for treason against the state were also crucified.

If one saw the movie Spartacus, which is a reenactment of a famous slave revolt, the survivors of the massacre of them by the Roman legion were all crucified, with Spartacus being the last.

He could see the suffering and ruin of those who had followed him, and his followers in their pain would shout out curses against Spartacus for getting them into this mess.

This leads me to think that the two “thieves” who were crucified with Jesus were actually Barabbas’s followers in the “stasis” (attempted overthrow of Rome), Common thieves and robbers were usually not crucified.

This was a punishment for treason.

Barabbas should have been on the center cross.

The two who were crucified with Jesus thought so at first and were shouting out curses.

But one of the “thieves” must have heard Jesus speak or turned and saw that it was not Barabbas.

The Holy Spirit revealed to that man who Jesus was, and he was saved that day.

As interesting as that bit of information is, the main point is that Jesus was crucified first in our behalf.

We carry our crosses after Him and not before.

By Jesus’s intervention in the Garden of Gethsemane, His disciples were allowed to escape.

There were plenty of soldiers there to arrest all of them.

Jesus also intervened for Peter who had cut off Malchus’s ear by restoring it.

So the Christian is called to follow the road (way) that Jesus went.

Not all of Peter’s hearers in this epistle would die by crucifixion, although Peter himself would follow Jesus to the cross.

Many martyrs of the church suffered torturous deaths.

But at this point, there is no indication that the suffering of the churches had gone this far.

Who committed no sin, neither was any deceit found in His mouth —Peter makes the first of several citations from the “suffering servant” passage of Isaiah 53, which along with the 22nd Psalm, are two of the most elaborate prophecies in the Old Testament of the passion of the Christ.

Peter and the Apostles were taught by Jesus Himself of the importance of prophecy in what we call the “Old Testament.”

In the Gospel of John, John 5:39, says that the Scriptures (Old Testament) are to be searched as they contain the words of eternal life.

and that these Scriptures testify about Jesus.

We read in Luke 24:25-26, Jesus rebukes the Emmaus disciples for their lack of faith.

Did they not read from Scripture that it predicted Jesus should suffer and then enter into His glory.

That very night, Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem where the text says that Jesus opened their eyes so that they might understand what the Scriptures said about Him (Luke 24:45-46.

Peter had earlier in this epistle told the hearers that the prophets searched for and testified of Christ, and that many of the OT prophecies were meant for the day of Christ (1 Peter 1:10).

Seeing that Peter was addressing churches who were unjustly suffering for their testimony of Christ, Peter emphasizes the Scriptures which prophesy that Christ should suffer.

Many of the Jews of Jesus’s day were looking for a kingly and or priestly Messiah.

They knew of these prophecies.

But they could not accept the Scriptures which testified of a suffering Christ.

The churches knew these prophecies about the Messiah also.

Even if they were not all Jewish, the early church taught the Scripture to Gentiles also.

We don’t know the the background of the recipients of the epistle, whether they were mostly Jews or Gentiles.

Nevertheless, the authority of the Scripture serves as the first witness to Jesus.

This first quote from Isaiah 53 comes from Isaiah 53:9.

Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be perfectly sinless.

He did not commit any sin.

No slippery words were spoken by Him either, Guile often involves the twisting of factual truth as a means to deceive others, There have been many bible teachers who have used guile to lead people into error.

Jesus did not twist the Scripture or anything else, but spoke the plain truth.

Yet Isaiah predicts that this perfect servant would suffer.

Every other person who has lived has committed sin.

We have also been both deceivers and deceived.

Much of what we suffer has been deserved.

We have brought trouble down upon ourselves.

Peter has already said that their is no merit in this suffering.

But there is merit when we wrongfully suffer for the sake of the Gospel.

Jesus reminds us that what they did to Him would also be done unto us as well.

Who when He was insulted, did not return the insult — Isaiah 53: 7 predicted that Jesus would keep silent before His accusers, even though he was blasphemed.

He did not complain of the insult He received.

He only answered the truth when He was solemnly asked by the High Priest whether He was the Christ (Messiah) or not.

Paul tells us that Jesus could not deny Himself.

since Jesus is held by Peter to be the example of how to suffer injustice, it behooves us to act in like manner when we are reviled.

Jesus was insulted on the cross.

Yet He did not curse back.

Instead, He forgave them.

the pain of crucifixion was so great, that those who were crucified cursed back in their agony as they were able.

They were reduced to animals, which proved to the spectators that they surely deserved death..

But Jesus’ behavior on the cross was so out of the ordinary, that one of those crucified with Him was saved.

So was a Roman Centurion who saw how Jesus had kept His composure.

Surely this man and not Caesar was the Son of God! Think of how great a testimony we give of the truth of the Gospel when we act accordingly in our suffering for Him.

While He was suffering did not threaten— This phrase is similar to the one before it with the exception is that here, Jesus did not act out even though He suffered more than any man did not threaten those who put Him on the cross.

He, as God the Son, could have threatened the crucifyers with divine judgment which we all richly deserve apart from the grace of God.